"If the enemy is in range, so are you." — Infantry Journal
"It is generally inadvisable to eject directly over the area you just bombed." — US Air Force Manual
"Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword, obviously never encountered automatic weapons." — General MacArthur
"You, you, and you ... Panic. The rest of you, come with me." — U.S. Marine Corp Gunnery Sgt.
"Tracers work both ways." — U.S. Army Ordnance Manual
"Five second fuses only last three seconds." — Infantry Journal
The three most useless things in aviation are: Fuel in the bowser; Runway behind you; and Air above you. — Basic Flight Training Manual
"Any ship can be a minesweeper. Once." — Maritime Ops Manual
"Never tell the Platoon Sergeant you have nothing to do." — Unknown Marine Recruit
"If you see a bomb technician running, try to keep up with him." — USAF Ammo Troop
"You've never been lost until you"ve been lost at Mach 3." — Paul F. Crickmore (SR71 test pilot)
"The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire." —Unknown Author
"If the wings are traveling faster than the fuselage it has to be a helicopter — and therefore, unsafe." — Fixed Wing Pilot
"When one engine fails on a twin-engine airplane, you always have enough power left to get you to the scene of the crash." — Multi-Engine Training Manual
"Without ammunition, the USAF is just an expensive flying club." — Unknown Author
"If you hear me yell; 'Eject, Eject, Eject!,' the last two will be echos. If you stop to ask 'Why?' you"ll be talking to yourself, because you're the pilot." — Pre-flight Briefing from a 104 Pilot
"What is the similarity between air traffic controllers and pilots? If a pilot screws up, the pilot dies; but If ATC screws up, .... the pilot dies." — Sign over Control Tower Door
"Never trade luck for skill." — Author Unknown
"Airspeed, altitude and brains. Two are always needed to successfully complete the flight." — Basic Flight Training Manual
"Mankind has a perfect record in aviation — we have never left one up there!" — Unknown Author
"Flying the airplane is more important than radioing your plight to a person on the ground incapable of understanding or doing anything about it." — Emergency Checklist
"The Piper Cub is the safest airplane in the world; it can just barely kill you." — Attributed to Max Stanley (Northrop test pilot)
"There is no reason to fly through a thunderstorm in peacetime." — Sign over Squadron Ops Desk at Davis-Montham AFB, AZ
"If something hasn't broken on your helicopter, it's about to." — Sign over Carrier Group Operations Desk
"You know that your landing gear is up and locked when it takes full power to taxi to the terminal." — Lead-in Fighter Training Manual
As the test pilot climbs out of the experimental aircraft, having torn off the wings and tail in the crash landing, the crash truck arrives. The rescuer sees a bloodied pilot and asks, "What happened?" The pilot"s reply: "I don't know, I just got here."
Just a place to hang out since we can't all go to Carney Park or the Teen Club or the Outdoor Theater or AFSouth Beach or the Cove or the Galleria Umberto or the Pizzacatta or Edenlandia or....
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
FSHSQUICKIEGRAM 27 April 2010
Ciao, Wildcatti!
A "quickie"-GRAM to give a final heads-up for two May reunions.
27th ANNUAL FSHS PIG ROAST
Live music and a suckling (sucking?) pig!! Now, that's entertainment!
8 May, at Ray Lee's house, 3827 Deer Path Road, Suffolk, VA
Open to all classes, Ray says: "We will have a record-breaking attendance this year!"
Contact Ray at: Charlie.r.lee@navy.mil
FSHS WILDCATS OLD FARTS REUNION
14-16 May, at Fort Story (near Virginia Beach), Virginia.
Classes of 1952-1958. If you're that old and interested, please contact:
Phil "Filippo" Pasqualino, FSHS 55
ppasqualino@cox.net
757-481-2647
WHERE'S WALDA? LOOKING FOR A WAYWARD WILDCAT
Debbie Dunn (Debbiedunn@aol.com / FSHS 68) is looking to link up with Walda Monje, also class of 1968. Anyone with info, please let Debbie know. Grazie.
That's it...told you it was a "quickie"! But, slave to tradition, I've got a Napoli News installment, below.
Saluti!
Scott T FSHS 68
Napoli News
Italian Mafia raid bowling arena in Naples caught on CCTV
23 April, 2010 | 13:42
Shocking images of a raid by the men of an Italian Mafia boss at a bowling alley and arcade at the Italian city of Naples. Men armed with AK47 machine guns, sawn-off shot guns and pistols raided a bowling alley split arcade last month in Naples Italy wrecking havoc while customers were still inside.
It is thought that the men belonged to Italian God Father, Giuseppe Palumbo who believes the owner of the bowling alley is hiding his runaway wife.
The bowling alleys CCTV captured the whole incident in which six men, all believed to be in the medium hierarchy of the Camorra clan, forced employees to the ground and pointed guns to their heads.
One member of the armed fiends even set the bowling alley alight with petrol while a family of four including two teenage girls were watching on the side alley.
The father who saw the alley being set alight took his wife and teenage girls and fled the scene.
The masked men shot at slot machines right beside frightened customers and knocked them over. It has also been reported they shot a man outside the parking lot of the alley while he saw what was going on and tried to flee the area.
The bullet which entered the man's thigh just missed a main artery. It is said that the man is now recovering at home but is very traumatised by the incident.
The mobsters then left the scene and attacked a casino just 18 minutes later, though the reason for that attack is unknown.
The footages emerged after Italian paramilitary police, raided the houses of gang members thought to have been involved in the attack which took place on 14 March.
An Italian police spokesman said “The attacks are due to a personal dispute between boss Giuseppe Palumbo, Don Gennaro the bowling alley owner and his niece who is also the wife of the Mafia boss, the mafia bossbelieved that the owner of the bowling alley was hiding Palumbo's wife after she separated from him.”
Two of the armed fiends are still on the run but four members of the gangs will be charged with attempted murder, kidnapping, robbery, arson, causing financial damage and possession of military weapons.
Napoli 0-0 Cagliari: Neapolitans' Champions League Dreams Wither In Naples
Even a Europa League spot might be difficult now for Napoli.
By Subhankar Mondal
Apr 25, 2010 10:53:00 AM
Napoli's hopes of qualifying for the Champions League next season were dealt another blow when they were held to a 0-0 draw by Cagliari at the Stadio San Paolo in Naples on Sunday afternoon. Palermo's win against Milan on Saturday night and Juventus' victory over Bari on Sunday imply that the Neapolitans may have to struggle for even a Europa League spot.
Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri started in a 3-4-2-1 formation with German Denis as the lone striker upfront with Marek Hamsik and Ezequiel Lavezzi playing just behind him. Visitors Cagliari commenced in a 4-4-2 formation with Alessandro Matri and Joaquin Larrivey as the two men in attack.
The first real chance of the game fell to Napoli as early as the fourth minute when Michele Pazienza put in a good ball for Denis, whose attempt was deflected off for a corner by Cagliari goalkeeper Federico Marchetti.
Seven minutes later the home side again got into the action; this time Hamsik tried to beat Marchetti from the right edge of the Cagliari penalty area but the ball was again deflected for a corner. It was Walter Gargano who gave the pass to the Slovakian international midfielder.
On 15 minutes Denis took a shot on the Cagliari goal from outside the penalty box but it was saved by Marchetti. A minute later Pazienza put Hamsik through but the 22-year-old's left-footed shot from outside the area missed the target.
Cagliari were finding it tough to take the game to Napoli but the Sardinians did come close on 19 minutes. Alessandro Agostini crafted in a cross that Matri tried to turn in from the centre of the Napoli penalty box with his left foot but his attempt went wide to the left.
The Neapolitans were dealt a blow on 26 minutes when forward Lavezzi had to be substituted by Mariano Bogliacino.
Cagliari had a half-chance of their own three minutes after the half hour mark when Matri headed the ball towards Andrea Lazzari, but his right-footed shot from a close range went high.
Ten minutes before half time the Azzurri again crafted a chance. Pazienza put in a diagonal ball to Denis, who then took a shot at the Cagliari goal but was again thwarted by Marchetti.
A minute later the Cagliari goalkeeper pulled off another great save when he saved a fantastic Denis header from a corner. Two minutes later on 38 minutes the 27-year-old again stopped Napoli from breaking the deadlock when he made a good save from a Walter Gargano attempt. It finished 0-0 at the break.
The second half started on a slow tempo with neither side able to take the initiative in the opening exchanges.
Then on 56 minutes Napoli created the first chance of the second session when Juan Zuniga put Bogliacino through on goal but the first-half substitute's shot from outside the Cagliari penalty box was saved.
Two minutes after the hour mark Hamsik put in a great central ball for Denis but the Napoli targetman couldn't get to it, or else it could have been a goal for Mazzarri's side.
Marchetti was again called into action in the 65th minute when he made a double-save, first from Hamsik and then from Bogliacino.
Cagliari's first real attempt on goal came on 70 minutes when Andrea Lazzari put in a cross into the Napoli penalty area. But Nene's header from the centre of the box was blocked.
Things became difficult for Cagliari when Andrea Cossu was shown a direct red card on 79 minutes. He had come on for Andrea Lazzari in the 73rd minute and was given the marching orders for violent conduct.
It could have turned worse for Cagliari in the 81st minute when Napoli created a good chance. Zuniga found himself with the ball on the right side of the Cagliari penalty area but he couldn't eventually do anything with the chance.
The final minutes trickled down with no real chance being created by the Neapolitans. It finished 0-0 between Napoli and Cagliari in Naples.
Fitness Program Finds a Following
By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class (SW/AW) Felicito Rustique, Naval Public Affairs Support Element East Detachment Europe
Apr 24, 2010 - 9:37:27 AM
NAPLES, Italy - Naval Support Activity Naples Fitness Forum's Spouse Fit for Life program is assisting family members with getting into shape and staying healthy.
The 10-week program began in March and boasts a membership of nearly 70 individuals, something program facilitators said is beyond their expectations.
"I am thrilled with the enrollment," said Fitness Forum's Fitness Coordinator, Carrie Ann Hodge. "This is the first program of its kind here in Naples and we're learning as we go. But we had no idea that the program would be this successful."
Spouse Fit member Christine Smith said the program is well-deserved.
"I am happy that the base decided to recognize that spouses need programs too," said Smith. "We have limited choices and seem to find everything geared to the service member so having a program geared to the special needs of a spouse takes away a great deal of the stresses involved with living overseas."
The Spouse Fit program was initiated when family members of hospital corpsmen from U.S. Naval Hospital Naples began attending their spouse's physical training routines, according to Hodge.
"A couple of ladies said to themselves that these workouts would be great in rooms with just spouses and no Sailors, so the environment would be less intimidating," she said. "The spouses came to us at the Fitness Forum. We then formed some focus groups, asked spouses what they wanted, and in a couple weeks came up with a curriculum that became 'Spouse Fit for Life.'"
The program is free and members meet every Thursday morning for two hours. The sessions are divided into group discussions with experts and guest speakers, and physical training.
Topics covered include the psychology of weight management and healthy nutrition, yoga and pilates, and childcare is available at the gym.
"What we're trying to do is develop a progressive program, so at the end of ten weeks, spouses will be healthier, more fit, and more knowledgeable," Hodge said. "The overall goal is for members to adopt a lifestyle of fitness."
The Spouse Fit program is open to spouses at least 18 years old and no longer in high school. Members receive free T-shirts and binders with educational handouts after enrolling, and the program now hosts a Facebook page, searchable under Spouse Fit through which members have begun organizing group activities and field trips outside the program.
"We want Spouse Fit to be a program that brings in everyone, regardless of rank, where spouses can meet each other and form lasting friendships," said Hodge. "Some common bonds are that spouses are overseas, they've gained weight, and they don't know anyone. But what they do know is that they want to adopt a healthy lifestyle for themselves and their family."
Smith truly appreciates the camaraderie she's found in Spouse Fit and recommends the program to others.
"The information is invaluable," she said. "The instructors are amazing and the other spouses make it a blast. We have bonded through pain. I have made goals for myself, but the fact I can go to any class in the morning and know half of the people is wonderful. I am grateful to all of them."
Hodge encourages all spouses to improve their health and fitness.
"NSA Naples has all the resources right here," she said. "I tell everyone at some point you just have to stop making excuses. Nike got it right a long time ago - 'Just Do It!'"
Naples Girls Take Florence Down
Stars and Stripes
European edition, Sunday, April 25, 2010
Naples 7, Florence 3: Saturday at Naples, Italy
Demi Holbrook pulled off the hat trick as the Lady Wildcats evened their overall and regional records at 2-2-0. Naples, which also got two goals from Haylea Witz and single scores from Sofia Cianciaruse and Abby Walker, led 7-0 at the half.
Resisting revisionism
Issue: 126
Posted: 26 April 10
Matthew Cookson
Tom Behan, The Italian Resistance: Fascists, Guerrillas and the Allies (Pluto Press, 2009), £18.99
The Italian people played a central role in liberating themselves from fascist dominance and Nazi occupation in 1943-5. Hundreds of thousands of people, mainly from the working class and with women playing a central role, took up arms, aided the partisan fighters and resisted fascism. This legacy remains powerful in Italy today, where every town and city has streets and squares named in honour of the liberation. But it is a contested legacy. A revisionist discourse, on the left and the right, has appeared in recent decades arguing that those who fought on both sides, during what was in part a civil war, should be remembered and respected equally.
Tom Behan's fine new book takes these reactionary arguments apart. It sides unashamedly with the people who bravely resisted Benito Mussolini's fascist dictatorship and, when that fell apart in 1943 after Italy's failures in the Second World War, the German invasion and occupation. Behan uses first-hand interviews and the written accounts by partisans to
illuminate the history.
The most fascinating chapters are those that document the scale, methods and courage of the resistance. As American and British forces invaded Italy and slowly made their way up the peninsula, the crucial thing for the left within the movement was that Italians were the instruments of their own liberation. This would bring a reckoning with the fascists who had ruled their country for over 20 years and ensure that the Allies could not simply dictate how any post-war society could be run. Naples was the first to rise up against German control, with four days of street battles forcing the occupiers out as the Allies arrived on the mainland in September 1943.
Italy was cut in half, with Mussolini only able to remain in power in the north as a puppet of the Germans. A national movement of partisans was born to overthrow this regime, with the left, especially the Communist Party, heavily influential in it. Thousands took to the mountains to launch armed resistance. They created a new kind of army, with a military commander and political commissar, who were both subject to election and recall. The political education of partisans was crucial, helping them understand and come to their own conclusions about the fight for a different world. In a number of areas, partisans even created their own republics where, despite the threat from the Germans, more democratic and progressive policies were introduced.
The urban resistance was also crucial, with the working class at the centre. Even under Mussolini, the number of strikes increased as discontent with the war grew. Hundreds of thousands of workers took part in a general strike in January 1944, one of the biggest such actions in occupied Europe. Insurrections in Florence in August 1944, and in the industrial triangle of Turin, Milan and Genoa in April 1945 liberated these cities.
But the post-war reality of Italy disappointed many who had taken up arms to liberate Italy and create a different kind of society. Managers who collaborated with fascism remained in place, conservative politicians dominated the country and there was no systematic purge of fascists from their posts in the state apparatus. There were also legal cases against many partisans for their Resistance activities. The Communist Party leaders, following the diktats of Joseph Stalin after his agreement with the West, played a crucial role in this. They ensured that this state of affairs was reached by subordinating the struggle to the wishes of the Allies and the more right wing elements in the Resistance. As Tom chronicles, this betrayal provoked protests and dismay, which culminated in an uprising after the attempted assassination of Palmiro Togliatti, the Communist Party leader.
The Italian Resistance is a good place to start for those who have no knowledge of the politics of the period, and it also has many new insights for readers familiar with them too. This story of an often hidden part of the Second World War is an indispensable read.
Italy court seeks ruling on Berlusconi's immunity
MILAN, April 19 (Reuters) - Italian judges hearing a case involving tax fraud and embezzlement charges against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi have asked the Supreme Court to rule whether a law giving him temporary immunity is constitutional.
The legislation approved by Berlusconi's government in March gave the premier and his ministers immunity from trial for 18 months because their official duties constitute a "legitimate impediment" to attending hearings.
However, judges in Milan hearing a case concerning the acquisition of TV rights by Berlusconi's Mediaset (MS.MI) group believe the law may violate constitutional rules concerning changes to Italy's 1947 charter, judicial sources said.
Last year, the Supreme Court struck down an immunity law passed shortly after Berlusconi won power in 2008, arguing that such changes to the framework of state institutions required an amendment to the constitution.
The "legitimate impediment" law was designed as a stop-gap to shield Berlusconi from two ongoing legal cases while his centre-right coalition aims to approve constitutional changes giving top officials permanent immunity.
Prosecutors have brought charges against Berlusconi and his son Pier Silvio, as well as the chairman of family broadcasting company Mediaset, Fedele Confalonieri, and nine others.
They allege that Mediaset bought TV rights at inflated prices from two offshore companies controlled by Berlusconi, resulting in embezzlement of 35 million euros and tax fraud amounting to 8 million euros.
Berlusconi's lawyer Niccolo Ghedini, a senator in his People of Freedom party, has said biased judges are intent on bringing down the premier at all costs. He says Berlusconi could not have committed the crimes because he was not involved in Mediaset's management at the time.
In a second ongoing case against him, Berlusconi is accused of bribing British lawyer David Mills to give false testimony. It suffered a setback in February when judges ruled the charges against Mills had expired under statute of limitations.
The 73-year-old media tycoon says courts have subjected him to 109 trials costing him 200 million euros in legal fees since he first entered politics 15 years ago. He has never been definitively convicted of any charge.
Gender-bending rooster assumes new identity as an egg-laying hen
BY Rosemary Black
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Thursday, April 22nd 2010, 12:49 PM
A gender-bending chicken from Italy has plenty to crow about: Overnight, he went from being the lone cockerel in the barnyard to a fully functioning hen, laying eggs and attempting to hatch them, according to the Daily Mail.
Gianni, as he's known, was the sole survivor of a fox raid that killed off all the hens on the farm in Tuscany. Faster than you can say sex change, the cockerel adapted to the grim situation. He began to lay eggs.
Scientists at the UN's Farm and Agriculture Organization are puzzled, and plan to study the chicken's DNA to see what might have caused the change.
One scientist told the Daily Mail: "It may be a primitive species survival gene. With all the females gone, he could only ensure the future of his line by becoming female."
Donato Matassino, the professor who plans to lead the tests on Gianni, said the rooster-hen would undergo behavioral and genetic tests. "This will allow us to decipher this bizarre DNA mixup that appear to have literally given what looks like two chickens in one," Matassino said.
The tests will take place in Naples. No word on when Gianni will be returning to his/her Tuscan nest.
Explosive art: my top five volcano paintings
Artists have long striven to translate these fiery forces of nature into powerful works of art.
Volcanoes may have their inconveniences, but they have fascinated artists down the centuries, just as they have puzzled and seduced scientists. What are the five best paintings of these fiery giants?
We might almost say the best paintings of Mount Vesuvius, the classically cone-shaped mountain that rises above the Bay of Naples in southern Italy. No other volcano has been painted so often. In the 18th century, Naples was the destination of the Grand Tour, the epic artistic itinerary of Europe considered essential for a complete cultural education. Artists made this journey to keep up with aristocratic tastes, and Vesuvius was the perfect spectacle to portray to them, well-known to the public as well as painters. With his unerring eye for genre, Andy Warhol painted his own, rather good, Mount Vesuvius images in homage to this artistic cliche.
At the other end of the time scale, an ancient Roman fresco found in a house in Pompeii portrays the mountain whose AD79 eruption was to bury this provincial city. In the painting, the lower slopes are covered with trees, and the wine god Bacchus bears witness to the excellent grapes grown in its geologically enriched soil. Disturbingly, this lethal volcano appears more harmless than it does today.
Calm before the storm ... Bacchus on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, part of a Roman fresco discovered in Pompeii. Photograph: Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples
To judge from this painting, Pompeiians saw Vesuvius as a gentle giant. But 18th-century travellers, schooled by the Enlightenment idea of the sublime to find wonder and power in sights that shock the soul, fed on the horror of the volcanic eruption. A 1760 daylight scene by Pietro Fabris seems, from its topographical clarity, to be an accurate record of a stream of lava sizzling down the mountain. By contrast, Joseph Wright's nocturnal visions of the mountain spewing fire are unfettered essays in the imaginative sublime.
Wright is probably my favourite volcano painter. But let's round out the five with a painting that gets away from Vesuvius. In 1862, the American painter Frederic Edwin Church created an eerie and imposing vision of an erupting Cotopaxi in Ecuador; it's a wondrous picture, which resembles a science-fiction vista from some distant planet. Church and Wright must battle it out as art's greatest volcano lovers.
A "quickie"-GRAM to give a final heads-up for two May reunions.
27th ANNUAL FSHS PIG ROAST
Live music and a suckling (sucking?) pig!! Now, that's entertainment!
8 May, at Ray Lee's house, 3827 Deer Path Road, Suffolk, VA
Open to all classes, Ray says: "We will have a record-breaking attendance this year!"
Contact Ray at: Charlie.r.lee@navy.mil
FSHS WILDCATS OLD FARTS REUNION
14-16 May, at Fort Story (near Virginia Beach), Virginia.
Classes of 1952-1958. If you're that old and interested, please contact:
Phil "Filippo" Pasqualino, FSHS 55
ppasqualino@cox.net
757-481-2647
WHERE'S WALDA? LOOKING FOR A WAYWARD WILDCAT
Debbie Dunn (Debbiedunn@aol.com / FSHS 68) is looking to link up with Walda Monje, also class of 1968. Anyone with info, please let Debbie know. Grazie.
That's it...told you it was a "quickie"! But, slave to tradition, I've got a Napoli News installment, below.
Saluti!
Scott T FSHS 68
Napoli News
Italian Mafia raid bowling arena in Naples caught on CCTV
23 April, 2010 | 13:42
Shocking images of a raid by the men of an Italian Mafia boss at a bowling alley and arcade at the Italian city of Naples. Men armed with AK47 machine guns, sawn-off shot guns and pistols raided a bowling alley split arcade last month in Naples Italy wrecking havoc while customers were still inside.
It is thought that the men belonged to Italian God Father, Giuseppe Palumbo who believes the owner of the bowling alley is hiding his runaway wife.
The bowling alleys CCTV captured the whole incident in which six men, all believed to be in the medium hierarchy of the Camorra clan, forced employees to the ground and pointed guns to their heads.
One member of the armed fiends even set the bowling alley alight with petrol while a family of four including two teenage girls were watching on the side alley.
The father who saw the alley being set alight took his wife and teenage girls and fled the scene.
The masked men shot at slot machines right beside frightened customers and knocked them over. It has also been reported they shot a man outside the parking lot of the alley while he saw what was going on and tried to flee the area.
The bullet which entered the man's thigh just missed a main artery. It is said that the man is now recovering at home but is very traumatised by the incident.
The mobsters then left the scene and attacked a casino just 18 minutes later, though the reason for that attack is unknown.
The footages emerged after Italian paramilitary police, raided the houses of gang members thought to have been involved in the attack which took place on 14 March.
An Italian police spokesman said “The attacks are due to a personal dispute between boss Giuseppe Palumbo, Don Gennaro the bowling alley owner and his niece who is also the wife of the Mafia boss, the mafia bossbelieved that the owner of the bowling alley was hiding Palumbo's wife after she separated from him.”
Two of the armed fiends are still on the run but four members of the gangs will be charged with attempted murder, kidnapping, robbery, arson, causing financial damage and possession of military weapons.
Napoli 0-0 Cagliari: Neapolitans' Champions League Dreams Wither In Naples
Even a Europa League spot might be difficult now for Napoli.
By Subhankar Mondal
Apr 25, 2010 10:53:00 AM
Napoli's hopes of qualifying for the Champions League next season were dealt another blow when they were held to a 0-0 draw by Cagliari at the Stadio San Paolo in Naples on Sunday afternoon. Palermo's win against Milan on Saturday night and Juventus' victory over Bari on Sunday imply that the Neapolitans may have to struggle for even a Europa League spot.
Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri started in a 3-4-2-1 formation with German Denis as the lone striker upfront with Marek Hamsik and Ezequiel Lavezzi playing just behind him. Visitors Cagliari commenced in a 4-4-2 formation with Alessandro Matri and Joaquin Larrivey as the two men in attack.
The first real chance of the game fell to Napoli as early as the fourth minute when Michele Pazienza put in a good ball for Denis, whose attempt was deflected off for a corner by Cagliari goalkeeper Federico Marchetti.
Seven minutes later the home side again got into the action; this time Hamsik tried to beat Marchetti from the right edge of the Cagliari penalty area but the ball was again deflected for a corner. It was Walter Gargano who gave the pass to the Slovakian international midfielder.
On 15 minutes Denis took a shot on the Cagliari goal from outside the penalty box but it was saved by Marchetti. A minute later Pazienza put Hamsik through but the 22-year-old's left-footed shot from outside the area missed the target.
Cagliari were finding it tough to take the game to Napoli but the Sardinians did come close on 19 minutes. Alessandro Agostini crafted in a cross that Matri tried to turn in from the centre of the Napoli penalty box with his left foot but his attempt went wide to the left.
The Neapolitans were dealt a blow on 26 minutes when forward Lavezzi had to be substituted by Mariano Bogliacino.
Cagliari had a half-chance of their own three minutes after the half hour mark when Matri headed the ball towards Andrea Lazzari, but his right-footed shot from a close range went high.
Ten minutes before half time the Azzurri again crafted a chance. Pazienza put in a diagonal ball to Denis, who then took a shot at the Cagliari goal but was again thwarted by Marchetti.
A minute later the Cagliari goalkeeper pulled off another great save when he saved a fantastic Denis header from a corner. Two minutes later on 38 minutes the 27-year-old again stopped Napoli from breaking the deadlock when he made a good save from a Walter Gargano attempt. It finished 0-0 at the break.
The second half started on a slow tempo with neither side able to take the initiative in the opening exchanges.
Then on 56 minutes Napoli created the first chance of the second session when Juan Zuniga put Bogliacino through on goal but the first-half substitute's shot from outside the Cagliari penalty box was saved.
Two minutes after the hour mark Hamsik put in a great central ball for Denis but the Napoli targetman couldn't get to it, or else it could have been a goal for Mazzarri's side.
Marchetti was again called into action in the 65th minute when he made a double-save, first from Hamsik and then from Bogliacino.
Cagliari's first real attempt on goal came on 70 minutes when Andrea Lazzari put in a cross into the Napoli penalty area. But Nene's header from the centre of the box was blocked.
Things became difficult for Cagliari when Andrea Cossu was shown a direct red card on 79 minutes. He had come on for Andrea Lazzari in the 73rd minute and was given the marching orders for violent conduct.
It could have turned worse for Cagliari in the 81st minute when Napoli created a good chance. Zuniga found himself with the ball on the right side of the Cagliari penalty area but he couldn't eventually do anything with the chance.
The final minutes trickled down with no real chance being created by the Neapolitans. It finished 0-0 between Napoli and Cagliari in Naples.
Fitness Program Finds a Following
By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class (SW/AW) Felicito Rustique, Naval Public Affairs Support Element East Detachment Europe
Apr 24, 2010 - 9:37:27 AM
NAPLES, Italy - Naval Support Activity Naples Fitness Forum's Spouse Fit for Life program is assisting family members with getting into shape and staying healthy.
The 10-week program began in March and boasts a membership of nearly 70 individuals, something program facilitators said is beyond their expectations.
"I am thrilled with the enrollment," said Fitness Forum's Fitness Coordinator, Carrie Ann Hodge. "This is the first program of its kind here in Naples and we're learning as we go. But we had no idea that the program would be this successful."
Spouse Fit member Christine Smith said the program is well-deserved.
"I am happy that the base decided to recognize that spouses need programs too," said Smith. "We have limited choices and seem to find everything geared to the service member so having a program geared to the special needs of a spouse takes away a great deal of the stresses involved with living overseas."
The Spouse Fit program was initiated when family members of hospital corpsmen from U.S. Naval Hospital Naples began attending their spouse's physical training routines, according to Hodge.
"A couple of ladies said to themselves that these workouts would be great in rooms with just spouses and no Sailors, so the environment would be less intimidating," she said. "The spouses came to us at the Fitness Forum. We then formed some focus groups, asked spouses what they wanted, and in a couple weeks came up with a curriculum that became 'Spouse Fit for Life.'"
The program is free and members meet every Thursday morning for two hours. The sessions are divided into group discussions with experts and guest speakers, and physical training.
Topics covered include the psychology of weight management and healthy nutrition, yoga and pilates, and childcare is available at the gym.
"What we're trying to do is develop a progressive program, so at the end of ten weeks, spouses will be healthier, more fit, and more knowledgeable," Hodge said. "The overall goal is for members to adopt a lifestyle of fitness."
The Spouse Fit program is open to spouses at least 18 years old and no longer in high school. Members receive free T-shirts and binders with educational handouts after enrolling, and the program now hosts a Facebook page, searchable under Spouse Fit through which members have begun organizing group activities and field trips outside the program.
"We want Spouse Fit to be a program that brings in everyone, regardless of rank, where spouses can meet each other and form lasting friendships," said Hodge. "Some common bonds are that spouses are overseas, they've gained weight, and they don't know anyone. But what they do know is that they want to adopt a healthy lifestyle for themselves and their family."
Smith truly appreciates the camaraderie she's found in Spouse Fit and recommends the program to others.
"The information is invaluable," she said. "The instructors are amazing and the other spouses make it a blast. We have bonded through pain. I have made goals for myself, but the fact I can go to any class in the morning and know half of the people is wonderful. I am grateful to all of them."
Hodge encourages all spouses to improve their health and fitness.
"NSA Naples has all the resources right here," she said. "I tell everyone at some point you just have to stop making excuses. Nike got it right a long time ago - 'Just Do It!'"
Naples Girls Take Florence Down
Stars and Stripes
European edition, Sunday, April 25, 2010
Naples 7, Florence 3: Saturday at Naples, Italy
Demi Holbrook pulled off the hat trick as the Lady Wildcats evened their overall and regional records at 2-2-0. Naples, which also got two goals from Haylea Witz and single scores from Sofia Cianciaruse and Abby Walker, led 7-0 at the half.
Resisting revisionism
Issue: 126
Posted: 26 April 10
Matthew Cookson
Tom Behan, The Italian Resistance: Fascists, Guerrillas and the Allies (Pluto Press, 2009), £18.99
The Italian people played a central role in liberating themselves from fascist dominance and Nazi occupation in 1943-5. Hundreds of thousands of people, mainly from the working class and with women playing a central role, took up arms, aided the partisan fighters and resisted fascism. This legacy remains powerful in Italy today, where every town and city has streets and squares named in honour of the liberation. But it is a contested legacy. A revisionist discourse, on the left and the right, has appeared in recent decades arguing that those who fought on both sides, during what was in part a civil war, should be remembered and respected equally.
Tom Behan's fine new book takes these reactionary arguments apart. It sides unashamedly with the people who bravely resisted Benito Mussolini's fascist dictatorship and, when that fell apart in 1943 after Italy's failures in the Second World War, the German invasion and occupation. Behan uses first-hand interviews and the written accounts by partisans to
illuminate the history.
The most fascinating chapters are those that document the scale, methods and courage of the resistance. As American and British forces invaded Italy and slowly made their way up the peninsula, the crucial thing for the left within the movement was that Italians were the instruments of their own liberation. This would bring a reckoning with the fascists who had ruled their country for over 20 years and ensure that the Allies could not simply dictate how any post-war society could be run. Naples was the first to rise up against German control, with four days of street battles forcing the occupiers out as the Allies arrived on the mainland in September 1943.
Italy was cut in half, with Mussolini only able to remain in power in the north as a puppet of the Germans. A national movement of partisans was born to overthrow this regime, with the left, especially the Communist Party, heavily influential in it. Thousands took to the mountains to launch armed resistance. They created a new kind of army, with a military commander and political commissar, who were both subject to election and recall. The political education of partisans was crucial, helping them understand and come to their own conclusions about the fight for a different world. In a number of areas, partisans even created their own republics where, despite the threat from the Germans, more democratic and progressive policies were introduced.
The urban resistance was also crucial, with the working class at the centre. Even under Mussolini, the number of strikes increased as discontent with the war grew. Hundreds of thousands of workers took part in a general strike in January 1944, one of the biggest such actions in occupied Europe. Insurrections in Florence in August 1944, and in the industrial triangle of Turin, Milan and Genoa in April 1945 liberated these cities.
But the post-war reality of Italy disappointed many who had taken up arms to liberate Italy and create a different kind of society. Managers who collaborated with fascism remained in place, conservative politicians dominated the country and there was no systematic purge of fascists from their posts in the state apparatus. There were also legal cases against many partisans for their Resistance activities. The Communist Party leaders, following the diktats of Joseph Stalin after his agreement with the West, played a crucial role in this. They ensured that this state of affairs was reached by subordinating the struggle to the wishes of the Allies and the more right wing elements in the Resistance. As Tom chronicles, this betrayal provoked protests and dismay, which culminated in an uprising after the attempted assassination of Palmiro Togliatti, the Communist Party leader.
The Italian Resistance is a good place to start for those who have no knowledge of the politics of the period, and it also has many new insights for readers familiar with them too. This story of an often hidden part of the Second World War is an indispensable read.
Italy court seeks ruling on Berlusconi's immunity
MILAN, April 19 (Reuters) - Italian judges hearing a case involving tax fraud and embezzlement charges against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi have asked the Supreme Court to rule whether a law giving him temporary immunity is constitutional.
The legislation approved by Berlusconi's government in March gave the premier and his ministers immunity from trial for 18 months because their official duties constitute a "legitimate impediment" to attending hearings.
However, judges in Milan hearing a case concerning the acquisition of TV rights by Berlusconi's Mediaset (MS.MI) group believe the law may violate constitutional rules concerning changes to Italy's 1947 charter, judicial sources said.
Last year, the Supreme Court struck down an immunity law passed shortly after Berlusconi won power in 2008, arguing that such changes to the framework of state institutions required an amendment to the constitution.
The "legitimate impediment" law was designed as a stop-gap to shield Berlusconi from two ongoing legal cases while his centre-right coalition aims to approve constitutional changes giving top officials permanent immunity.
Prosecutors have brought charges against Berlusconi and his son Pier Silvio, as well as the chairman of family broadcasting company Mediaset, Fedele Confalonieri, and nine others.
They allege that Mediaset bought TV rights at inflated prices from two offshore companies controlled by Berlusconi, resulting in embezzlement of 35 million euros and tax fraud amounting to 8 million euros.
Berlusconi's lawyer Niccolo Ghedini, a senator in his People of Freedom party, has said biased judges are intent on bringing down the premier at all costs. He says Berlusconi could not have committed the crimes because he was not involved in Mediaset's management at the time.
In a second ongoing case against him, Berlusconi is accused of bribing British lawyer David Mills to give false testimony. It suffered a setback in February when judges ruled the charges against Mills had expired under statute of limitations.
The 73-year-old media tycoon says courts have subjected him to 109 trials costing him 200 million euros in legal fees since he first entered politics 15 years ago. He has never been definitively convicted of any charge.
Gender-bending rooster assumes new identity as an egg-laying hen
BY Rosemary Black
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Thursday, April 22nd 2010, 12:49 PM
A gender-bending chicken from Italy has plenty to crow about: Overnight, he went from being the lone cockerel in the barnyard to a fully functioning hen, laying eggs and attempting to hatch them, according to the Daily Mail.
Gianni, as he's known, was the sole survivor of a fox raid that killed off all the hens on the farm in Tuscany. Faster than you can say sex change, the cockerel adapted to the grim situation. He began to lay eggs.
Scientists at the UN's Farm and Agriculture Organization are puzzled, and plan to study the chicken's DNA to see what might have caused the change.
One scientist told the Daily Mail: "It may be a primitive species survival gene. With all the females gone, he could only ensure the future of his line by becoming female."
Donato Matassino, the professor who plans to lead the tests on Gianni, said the rooster-hen would undergo behavioral and genetic tests. "This will allow us to decipher this bizarre DNA mixup that appear to have literally given what looks like two chickens in one," Matassino said.
The tests will take place in Naples. No word on when Gianni will be returning to his/her Tuscan nest.
Explosive art: my top five volcano paintings
Artists have long striven to translate these fiery forces of nature into powerful works of art.
Volcanoes may have their inconveniences, but they have fascinated artists down the centuries, just as they have puzzled and seduced scientists. What are the five best paintings of these fiery giants?
We might almost say the best paintings of Mount Vesuvius, the classically cone-shaped mountain that rises above the Bay of Naples in southern Italy. No other volcano has been painted so often. In the 18th century, Naples was the destination of the Grand Tour, the epic artistic itinerary of Europe considered essential for a complete cultural education. Artists made this journey to keep up with aristocratic tastes, and Vesuvius was the perfect spectacle to portray to them, well-known to the public as well as painters. With his unerring eye for genre, Andy Warhol painted his own, rather good, Mount Vesuvius images in homage to this artistic cliche.
At the other end of the time scale, an ancient Roman fresco found in a house in Pompeii portrays the mountain whose AD79 eruption was to bury this provincial city. In the painting, the lower slopes are covered with trees, and the wine god Bacchus bears witness to the excellent grapes grown in its geologically enriched soil. Disturbingly, this lethal volcano appears more harmless than it does today.
Calm before the storm ... Bacchus on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, part of a Roman fresco discovered in Pompeii. Photograph: Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples
To judge from this painting, Pompeiians saw Vesuvius as a gentle giant. But 18th-century travellers, schooled by the Enlightenment idea of the sublime to find wonder and power in sights that shock the soul, fed on the horror of the volcanic eruption. A 1760 daylight scene by Pietro Fabris seems, from its topographical clarity, to be an accurate record of a stream of lava sizzling down the mountain. By contrast, Joseph Wright's nocturnal visions of the mountain spewing fire are unfettered essays in the imaginative sublime.
Wright is probably my favourite volcano painter. But let's round out the five with a painting that gets away from Vesuvius. In 1862, the American painter Frederic Edwin Church created an eerie and imposing vision of an erupting Cotopaxi in Ecuador; it's a wondrous picture, which resembles a science-fiction vista from some distant planet. Church and Wright must battle it out as art's greatest volcano lovers.
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