Monthly Archives: March 2005

No TV? Baby boom in Italian town

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www.zoomata.com staff No television means more bambini. The equation seems that simple, at least in a tiny Italian hill town with poor television reception.

The 250 inhabitants of Torri, about 9 kilometers (5.7 miles) inland from Ventimiglia in the Liguria region, appear to have turned to procreation as recreation: the percentage of children in the total population, 32%, is more than twice that of the Italian national average.
Torri, or towers in Italian, takes its name from a fortified structure built there in 1173. The sheltered mountain position that once made for protection against outsiders now shields the town from TV reception. State broadcaster RAI’s signal doesn’t come through at all while only one channel from commercial broadcaster Mediaset gets through for a few hours if the weather is right.

Perhaps politicians and church officials, who have been trying to convince Italians to raise one of the world’s lowest birth rates, should take note. Towns throughout Italy now offer ‘social subsidies’ that grow with the family as incentives. A typical program offers cash for the first five years of a child’s life, doubling for every sibling added to the family.Some of the more whimsical initiatives honoring precious newborns include towns like Moretta, where the main square lights up for each new citizen or Monza, where each family is sent a personalized poem marking the event.

Torri’s baby boom may not last forever, though, some local residents have successfully petitioned to have a new antenna tower installed.? text 1999-2005 zoomata.com
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Computer help desk prank makes Italian overnight star

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by Nicole Martinelli Retired factory worker Salvatore Zedda, 58, makes for an unlikely pop star. However unlikely, his “song,” a sampling of calls he made to the help desk of an Internet provider made without his consent, has become an underground hit in Italy.
It all started a few weeks ago when Zedda phoned Tiscali’s help desk for problems with his email account. Gruff, with a slight stutter and a strong regional accent, the customer made help desk gurus titter with his mangled English.
Zedda, who hails from the small town of Ortacesus on the isle of Sardinia, demanded the “passa-worrrld” (password) to his i-mayyl (email) account, threatening to change providers if they didn’t help him.

It never pays to be rude to the help desk: they recorded the calls including his full name and town and the file spread like wildfire, finding its way to P2P networks. From there it was a short leap to the dogshift techno remix, where samples of “passa-worrrld-passa-worrrld” run over a thumping club beat.

For a while, it seemed that Zedda was enjoying his 15 minutes of fame, even appearing on a local TV show. But when Italians from around the world (Canada, South America) started phoning up at all hours asking him whether he’d received his “passa-worrrld” he was less amused and subsequently hired a lawyer.

Tiscali has made formal apologies to Zedda and told newspapers that the help desk workers in question have been suspended.? text 1999-2005 zoomata.com
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Woman cheats with woman: twice as guilty, Italian court says

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zoomata.com staff

For Italian judges, if both spouses cheat the one who has an affair with a member of the same sex is the guilty one. In a case brought before the country’s Cassation court, because of her relationship with another woman a wife in Sicily was faulted with the breakup of her marriage.

Judges deemed her affair with a daughter’s former schoolmate as a deciding factor in the breakup of the home and harmful to her daughters. Husband Settimo, called only by his first name to protect privacy, will keep the family home and care for the daughters. His former wife of 21 years, Anna, was also ordered to pay 3,100 euro in court costs.

The recent sentence was brought an end to a dramatic eight-year-long case. Anna requested a divorce in 1997 on the grounds that her husband was known to all of Palermo as a very busy Latin lover.
She requested custody, the family home and 2,000 euro a month in alimony. Settimo found out about Anna’s gay relationship and had his daughters and a relative of Anna’s testify in court about it. His wife, however, was not able to provide such convincing evidence of his numerous affairs. Judges, faced with proof of only her infidelity, sided with the husband.

“I completely sympathize with her,” law professor and activist Francesco Bilotta told newspapers. “Not so much for having been unfaithful to an unfaithful husband but for having the courage to take it to the highest courts. If more people were so brave, gay and lesbian rights would gain considerable ground.” ? text 1999-2005 zoomata.com
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Wine? Italians say spread it on

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zoomata.com staff How about laying some Brunello di Montalcino on your toast, or slathering Chianti on some cheese?
The brainchild of Italian agronomist Giordano Cal?, “spreadable wine” comes in 20 flavors of the country’s best-loved vino, including Marsala, Morellino di Scansano, Zibibbo and Nero d?Avola.The creams, which have the consistency of jam, are at their best with roast meats, cheeses or on fruit for dessert. Calo’s favorite combination? Goat cheese tempered with a rich spread of Aglianico.

Cal?, whose company motto is “little for few,” makes 10,000 jars of wine cream a year. He estimates about 20% of the sold outside the Bel Paese. Connoisseurs outside Italy have to settle for an ‘unleaded’ alcohol-free version, it seems it was the only way to keep it preserved and get it through customs.

Spreadable wine is an idea whose time has come: Italians are drinking less wine than ever, less than half of what they imbibed in the 1970s. Numerous initiatives are trying to get Italians back in the habit of drinking the gift of the grape in moderation — including one aimed at the youth market sponsored by the National Enoteca called ‘By Bacchus, Kids!”? text 1999-2005 zoomata.com
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Whales pump up the volume due to noise pollution off Italian coast

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zoomata.com staff It will be an especially loud mating season off Northern Italy’s Ligurian coast where whales have hit a new frequency to make themselves heard over noise pollution, an Italian government research group reported.

For three years researchers with ICRAM, a research group of the Italian Ministry of the Environment and Cornell University, registered the songs of fin whales, finding that because of noise pollution in these Mediterranean waters mammals have been forced to take it up a notch.

“These are some of the noisiest waters in the world,” said Fabrizio Bersani, head researcher at ICRAM. “Thanks to heavy traffic from merchant ships, the decibel levels have more than doubled since the 1980s.”

The result? New, louder sounds capable of being heard above the din. Whales normally make two kinds of infra sounds, noises lower than humans can hear, one researchers called the classic note and one lower note. A new third note, the highest ever recorded, was discovered recently.

Researchers used underwater recording devices placed from 600 to 2,000 meters under water to record some 20,000 hours of songs. Only the male of the species sing to define their territory and to attract females during mating season, from February to March.

Borsani hopes that the sheaves of data collected during the years of the study will prove that noise pollution is real and has lasting effects on marine life. “We can now provide hard scientific evidence, instead of just estimates, on the level of noise pollution,” he said.? text 1999-2005 zoomata.com
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