Venice’s Guidelines For New Flood Barrier Will Sacrifice St. Mark’s For Sake Of Container Port

There was huge relief and even some jubilation lat month when, for the first time, Venice’s long-delayed, wildly over-budget contraption for keeping flood tides out of the Venice Lagoon was successfully deployed and the city stayed dry. But new rules say the barrier should be used only when the water level is 103 cm, at which point two-thirds of the old city will be wet. (St. Mark’s gets flooded at 80-85 cm.) Why did the authorities decide this? Read on … – The Art Newspaper

Researchers Have Some Good News About Indoor Concerts And COVID

“Analysis of an indoor concert staged by scientists in August suggests that the impact of such events on the spread of the coronavirus is ‘low to very low’ as long as organizers ensure adequate ventilation, strict hygiene protocols and limited capacity, according to the German researchers who conducted the study.” Be aware, though, that the paper has not yet been peer-reviewed. – The New York Times