Palla a 21 (or palla eh!)

Must see

Palla a 21 (or palla eh!) is an ancient hand ball game. It is currently played in six tiny hamlets in Southern Tuscany, between Siena and Grosseto, in Ciciano, Piloni, Scalvaia, Tirli, Torniella, and Vetulonia.

Pibinko.org is developing the activities promoted by Attivarti.org between 2011 and 2018, and started by a more informal version of the pibinko.org network in 2007-2008 with the extremely creative palla a 21 in Chicago project, and the subsequent photo exhibitions in Ribolla and San Francisco, including a photo contest.

In addition to the promotion of the game during the Summer tournaments (July-August), pibinko.org has been managing some specific initiatives about the game. All of these have been conducted together with the communities where the game is played.

For more information about the game you may also check the related wikipedia page, but we encourage you to review our list of blog posts on the palla topic (and reload the page to see the items in a different order):

On Feb. 23 the Farma Valley Winter Fest goes to Florence in a “bonsai” version

Announcements

Between Dec. 14 and 16, 2018, the third Farma Valley Winter Fest was held in Southern Tuscany, in four hamlets halfway between Siena and Grosseto (Piloni, Torniella, Scalvaia, and Tatti).

The Farma creek “canaloni” during the Winter

The motto for the initiative was “three days of pici, love, and music”, recalling the Woodstock festival and a typical pasta from Southern Tuscany. The festival was launched in 2016 as an original way to animate a scarcely populated area (some 400 residents in 120 square kilometres) which in the Winter months is essentially seen as a wild boar hunting ground (which is ok, but may be integrated by other ideas). The festival is raising increasing interest, and in 2018 it saw the addition of a new location out of the valley: the village of Tatti, which in fact is related to it as it is just by the Farma creek springs.

On Saturday, Feb. 23, at Hotel Lombardi in Florence, via Fiume 8, the organizers of the Winter Fest, collaborating with some subjects from the Florence area, will propose an adaptation of the mid-December event, tailoring it to the size of a budget hotel close to the Santa Maria Novella railway station, and fitting to an eight-hour schedule the program which in the Farma Valley was proposed in three days.

Attendance is free, but to you need to register in advance by sending an e-mail to info@pibinko.org  or calling +393317539228 by Feb. 20, 2019.

During the event it will be possible to review the pibinko.org network activities held in 2018, and to brainstorm on new projects being developed for 2019, especially in relation to the Metalliferous Hills Jug Band and PORGEP 2019. We can do this in Italian (if you speak it or would like to improve it), English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish (for a start).

vintage moustache for vintage guitars.

Coming to the Florence event will enable you to (1) help compose the free/open source community maps of the Farma Valley and Tatti, (2) play “panforte”, (3) see the rendering of prehistoric Sardinian monuments, (4) dance some twist, (5) try to rock-made nutcrackers, (6) learn more about prehistoric quarries, medieval iron works, protected and non-protected species; (7) get acquainted with night sky promotion and protection initiatives where rural bartenders are co-authors with senior researchers in international publications; (8) use ancient carpenter tools, (9) listen to some badass riff played with a vintage Eko guitas (or play it directly, if willing and able). But, most of all(10) try to play with the ball of an ancient game, forbidden by Florentine laws in the 13th century, but still routinely played in our home locations.

…this is just to mention the main attractions which will be presented. If you then browse the News section for pibinko.org, you may review what happened at the last Winter Fest and get an idea of what may occur in Florence in a few days. For this we are redirecting you to the Italian version of the pibinko.org site, since things were spinning so fast that we could not handle the real-time translation of our material: http://www.pibinko.org/tag/fdi-vdf/ and you can then switch to the English version again.

Photographic evidence of the fact that ugliness and beauty can co-exist in the same space (just kidding, Vincenzo!)

How will all this fit in a 25-square metre breakfast hall and one single room? This is our part of the business. You can start by saving the date: “Florence, via Fiume 8” for Feb. 23. We are working on the hours of the event in the meantime. The core happening will be between 6 and 8PM. You should expect to find an exhibition and some information material starting early PM. Next Monday we expect to issue a more detailed schedule.

The Farma Valley Winter Fest in Florence is an idea by pibinko.org in collaboration with Hotel Lombardi, and various partners…a full list will be provided at the end of the event since it is in a very lively state during the preparations.

The Feb. 23 event also reconnects to a preview of the festival given in the same location on Nov 15, 2018 (article in Italian, with photos).

If all this is enticing you and you want to learn why/how this is happening, feel free to browse the pibinko.org org site, send an email to info@pibinko.org or call +393317539228.Informazioni e contatti stampa: Andrea Giacomelli – info@pibinko.org – 3317539228

Feb. 16, 2019: pibinko.org @ “Non ci resta che leggere!”

Announcements

Non ci resta che leggere is a periodic event promoted by the Massa Marittima, Southern Tuscany, public library to propose reading recommendations. There is a keynote presenter, and then anybody (who has made a proposal in advance) is allowed three minutes to present a book of his/her preference. pibinko.org will be proposing a book which I am systematically proposing to people since 2014.

Publication of EU GPP criteria for road lighting and traffic signals

Compositions

In the context of the European collaborations that we manage via the BuioMetria Partecipativa project, in 2017 we started to follow a working group concerning the update of the Green Public Procurement guidelines for road lighting and traffic signals.

This group is coordinated by the Joint Research Centre (from its Sevilla, Spain, facility), and in the past 18 months is saw the active presence of several of the light pollution experts we know, together with experts from other domains.

Two days ago through the working group’s mailing list we had news that the results of the activity are available. Please see below the announcement. For more information: bmp@pibinko.org

We are delighted to announce that the EU Green Public Procurement (GPP) criteria for road lighting and traffic signals have been published.

Although lighting systems in general are great examples of potential win-win scenarios for the environment and public budgets, the setting of appropriately ambitious criteria for energy efficiency and durability has been a particular challenge due to the rapidly evolving nature of LED technology. Thanks to detailed input from some of you, including an in-depth analysis of the LightingFacts database using data from the last 6-7 years, it has been possible to present a tiered approach to minimum luminaire efficacy requirements in EU GPP criteria for the next 6 years.

A novel and ambitious approach towards tackling the issue of light pollution has been taken, with requirements on both upward light output ratios and blue light emission being set. The emission of blue light is a particular concern with some LED lighting products and we are pleased to be able to promote a specially tailored metric for blue light (the G-index) which is much more precise and reliable than the commonly used CCT metric. We must say that this was only possible thanks to the previous work of a dedicated group of stakeholders on this particular matter, so a special thanks to those of you involved in the light pollution criteria.

We also have tried to emphasise the importance of durability aspects with LED lighting and to try to shed light (pun intended) on the general misconception that all LED lighting products have excellent durability. There are different quality specifications for different LED chips and durability depends a lot on the quality of the electrical components and appropriate luminaire design, not just on the lamp itself. In line with circular economy principles we are promoting more durable and recyclable products that are correctly labelled to aid in their future replacement, upgrading or disposal.

An excerpt from the presentation of the new criteria, highlighting the combined benefits of LED dimming.

For more information

Photography

Services

Photos published on this site, in random order each time you reload this page (Note: in many blog posts you will find more photos).

Please note that we are in the process of aligning the translations of titles of old photos we recently migrated from Flickr, so if you go on the Italian version of this page, you will get a chance to see a lot more shots.

Videos

Services

please note: Videos for the Metalliferous Hills Jug Band (Jug Band Colline Metallifere) are proposed in a dedicate page on the JBCM web site: http://www.pibinko.org/jugbandcollinemetallifere/videos/

Shorts, in reverse date order.

Nine videos are co-productions (with: Lucio Monocrom, Orsola Sinisi, Francesco Giubbilini, Manuel Schianchi).

Some videos are, intentionally, “lo-fi”, instant productions. Others follow a detailed production plan and are created with high quality standards. If you like the overall mood of these works and would like to have a similar video made (you choose the quality), please contact us and we will be glad to discuss the details.

Medium-length (directed by Lucio Monocrom)

Translations

Services

Since 1993 I have been working in parallel in Italian and English.

I routinely handle translations from English (and occasionally from French) into Italian.

I had three years of my primary school in the UK, thus acquiring a quasi-mother tongue level of English. Since 1993 I have always been working in international settings, and in particular between 2002 and 2010 I have worked for an American company. In these contexts I have developed a command of the language and a knowledge of English and American culture which provide an added value in the translations I deliver.

Please write to info@pibinko.org for more information and quotes.

Training and tutoring

Services

Since 1995 I have been providing training/tutoring in terms of:

  • tutoring for environmental engineering students in preparation of their MS dissertation
  • trainer in courses and worskhops on Geographic Information Systems (in Italian, English, and French)
  • tutor for junior employees