FLIGHT PLAN

FLIGHT PLAN

Apr 19, 2025 | MUSIC, MUSIC

Flight plan, a title but also a promise.

Flight plan, a gift.

I’ve already told you about these special birthday presents,  I’ve already told you about these concerts with my brother and sister-in-law, with all the heart. 

This time the “flight plan” was to return to Novara, at Teatro Coccia.

Piano di volo

The “pilot”, as always more precise than a Swiss watch, started singing at nine p.m. sharp going on until after midnight, without drinking, without pause, without tiredness.

The Ten Fingers we know, games of light and so much to tell.

Piano di volo

Flight is lightness, and immediately “the little wings that learn to fly” are all those who listen and become glider hearts.

Flight is freedom, the ability to laugh at oneself and consequently also at one’s audience. Blessed irony.

But most of all I want to tell you about the opportunity to be so close that you can unmistakably see the face of a happy artist.

You can’t fake smiles like that: the first to have fun was him, with all his years of music and jewel-like lyrics, amused among the people and fully satisfied with singing, nothing else.

Do you ever feel that way?

George Bernard Show wrote happy is the man who can make a living by his hobby.

Difficult?
Very difficult. But not impossible.

These are the words of a slightly lesser-known song:

Never ever be afraid
Of being afraid
This journey is an adventure
The illusion of a mirage
But you swear you have courage
And that you will always care
Of your slightly wild heart
Now and while this blue rain lasts
Blue rain
Blue rain

What’s your flight plan?

HUMMINGBIRD HAWK-MOTH

HUMMINGBIRD HAWK-MOTH

Jul 15, 2023 | WHO CARES

The Galio Sphinx or Hummingbird Hawk-Moth, that is technically Macroglossum Stellatarum is a rather peculiar insect.

We happened to see it at my in-laws’ house who always have very beautiful flowers.

This insect immediately caught our attention just because of the way it flies, and even before we found out what it was, our first thought was: it looks like a Hummingbird! 

Actually more than an insect, the Hummingbird Hawk-Moth is a diurnal moth.

It belongs to the Sphingidae family, so called because of the characteristic position the larvae take.

The scientific name: Macroglussum defines the Hummingbird Hawk-Moth by the spiritromba i.e. the organ that allows them to suck nectar, which resembles a kind of proboscis, in the photo my husband took you can see it well.

The definitions Stellatarum or Galio, on the other hand, come from the species of plants that are the main food of the larvae: Galium, Rubia and Stellaria three species belonging to the category Rubiaceae.

And you know what else belongs to the Rubiaceae family right?

Coffee!

The Hummingbird Hawk-Moth, however, prefers nectar 🙂 preferring bell flowers because with its spiritrombra it can suck where other insects cannot reach.

Another peculiarity of the Macroglossum is the end of the abdomen that looks like a real bird’s tail.

But the greatest similarity between the Galian Sphinx and the Hummingbird is hovering or the way of flying while remaining stationary in the air: fixed-point flight.

Charming, isn’t it?

What if I told you that our hummingbird moth is also nicknamed the Bird of Good Luck? 

This moth is considered the bearer of good news.

What news would you like to receive?

THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

May 9, 2020 | BOOKS, ITALY, MEDIA, MOVIES, SCIENCE, WORLD

“It is sometimes said that the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in one part of the world can cause a hurricane on the other side of the globe.”
This quote comes from the 2004 film The Butterfly Effect and is inspired by a theory taken up and debated in numerous areas.
Once again, as happened for the War of the Worlds: the inspiration comes from a science fiction novel, it is in fact Ray Bradbury who in his Sound of thunder attributes to the proper death of a butterfly during a journey through time, a variation of future events:

Eckels felt himself fall into a chair. He fumbled crazily at the thick slime on his boots. He held up a clod of dirt, trembling,
“No, it can’t be. Not a little thing like that. No!”
Embedded in the mud, glistening green and gold and black, was a butterfly, very beautiful and very dead.

Another coincidence, also in this case the story was broadcast by the BBC in 2011: here if you want to find the podcast (butterfly from about 35 minutes but I would advise you to listen to it all if you have time).
The butterfly symbol was taken up by Edward Lorenz, mathematician and meteorologist professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in his 1963 paper for the New York Academy of Science and later in a 1979 lecture that went down in history.
In general, the butterfly effect belongs to quantum physics and more precisely to the basis of chaos theory.
Chaos is the most congenial aspect to me, but actually I didn’t want to talk about this … not this time, at least.
Antonietta Gatti is perhaps known to most as “the wife of” despite her respectable curriculum. Her skills add up over time, and I would list, almost a bit to summarize, this recognition: she has been awarded the title of Fellow of the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering for her contribution to the progress of science. The various national societies of biomaterials and bioengineering have tens of thousands of members worldwide and the union of the various companies has elected Dr. Gatti to be part of the elite of scientists that consists of 32 members, and she was part of a parliamentary commission of inquiry as a responsible consultant. I know, difficult to read, but I found her report very interesting, perhaps because I live in a highly polluted area: here the mortality rate from tumors is terrible:
She deals with nanopathology or pathologies induced by micro and nano-sized particulate exposures, i.e. powders with dimensions less than 100nm (0.1 microns) but her research has become difficult due to the reduced availability of a suitable microscope.
Her flapping wings has not changed the world yet, but she has been able to reach the hearts of people who have made it possible to buy a new electron microscope with their donations.
Let us not stop at the fact that individually we cannot make a difference, let us not stop flying lightly on the difficulties, each of us can be the butterfly of change, let’s believe it, and do not let ourselves be crushed in the mud.

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