With stocks in Milan in freefall, it is good to be reminded that some values in Italy are shooting up. The price of white truffles has doubled to 3,000 euros (NT$124,000) per kilogram in just a week.
Truffle hunters say the increase is due to low average rainfall in areas where truffle is found, as well as higher demand — particularly from buyers in Asia where truffle tastes have taken off, Italian news agency ANSA reported.
The price is now at around 3,000 euros (NT$124,000) for large truffles and some 2,500 euros (NT$103,000) per kilogram for smaller tubers — far higher than last year.
Photo: AFP
照片：法新社
Italian stock markets are sharply down this year, and last Tuesday they dropped by more than seven percent amid fears over Europe’s debt crisis.
The news came as the town of San Miniato in Tuscany gears up later this month for its white truffle fair — the main marketplace for the delicacy.
The town is famous for being near the spot where the biggest white truffle ever found — weighing in at 2.520kg — was dug up in 1954. The truffle hunter donated it to US President Dwight Eisenhower.
At a charity auction in Italy last year, South Korean wine critic Jeannie Cho Lee bought a giant white truffle weighing 900g for 105,000 euros (NT$4.34 million).
“It’s all for charity so it isn’t logical prices,” she said then.(AFP)
正當米蘭的股市跌跌不休之際，知道在義大利還有一些還在揚升的事，應是多多益善。白松露的價格，在一週內已翻漲兩倍，來到每公斤三千歐元（新台幣十二萬四千元）。
義大利新聞社ANSA報導，採集松露的人表示，價格上漲歸因於松露產地平均降雨量偏低，以及松露需求量上升─特別是松露品嚐風氣正蓄勢待發的亞洲，該地買主需求量大增。
大松露價格目前大約是每公克三千歐元（新台幣十二萬四千元），而小的約兩千五百歐元（新台幣十萬三千元）─較去年貴上許多。
義大利股市今年跌幅甚鉅，上週二就因為歐債危機而跌了超過百分之七。
該新聞發布時，正逢托斯卡尼聖米尼亞托鎮正為即將於本月下旬舉辦的一場白松露展做好準備，此展覽是松露這項美味佳餚的主要市集。
該鎮因鄰近松露採集地而聞名，當地一九五四年挖出史上最大重達二點五二○公斤的白松露。採獲該松露者將此松露，捐贈給當時的美國總統杜懷特‧艾森豪。
南韓酒評家李志延去年在義大利的一場慈善義賣，以十萬五千歐元（新台幣四百三十四萬元）買下一個重達九百公克的巨大白松露。
她就說：「這是慈善義賣，才有這般不合邏輯的價格。」（法新社／翻譯：林亞蒂）
In an effort to fight phone scams, British mobile phone company O2 has introduced Daisy, an AI designed to engage phone con artists in time-wasting conversations. Daisy is portrayed as a kindly British granny, exploiting scammers’ tendency to target the elderly. Her voice, based on a real grandmother’s for authenticity, adds to her credibility in the role. “O2” has distributed several dedicated phone numbers online to direct scammers to Daisy instead of actual customers. When Daisy receives a call, she translates the scammers’ spoken words into text and then responds to them accordingly through a text-to-speech system. Remarkably, Daisy
Bilingual Story is a fictionalized account. 雙語故事部分內容純屬虛構。 Emma had reviewed 41 resumes that morning. While the ATS screened out 288 unqualified, she screened for AI slop. She could spot it a mile away. She muttered AI buzzwords like curses under her breath. “Team player.” “Results-driven.” “Stakeholder alignment.” “Leveraging core competencies.” Each resume reeked of AI modeling: a cemetery of cliches, tombstones of personality. AI wasn’t just changing hiring. It was draining the humanity from it. Then she found it: a plain PDF cover letter. No template. No design flourishes. The first line read: “I once tried to automate my
Every May 1, Hawaii comes alive with Lei Day, a festival celebrating the rich culture and spirit of the islands. Initiated in 1927 by the poet Don Blanding, Lei Day began as a tribute to the Hawaiian custom of making and wearing leis. The idea was quickly adopted and officially recognized as a holiday in 1929, and leis have since become a symbol of local pride and cultural preservation. In Hawaiian culture, leis are more than decorative garlands made from flowers, shells or feathers. For Hawaiians, giving a lei is as natural as saying “aloha.” It shows love and
1. 他走出門，左右看一下，就過了馬路。 ˇ He walked outside, looked left and right, and crossed the road. χ He walked outside and looked left and right, crossed the road. 註︰並列連接詞 and 在這句中連接三個述語。一般的結構是 x, y, and z。x and y and z 是加強語氣的結構，x and y, z 則不可以。 2. 他們知道自己的弱點以及如何趕上其他競爭者。 ˇ They saw where their weak points lay and how they could catch up with the other competitors. χ They saw where their weak points lay and how to catch up with the other competitors. 註：and 一般連接同等成分，結構相等的單詞、片語或子句。誤句中 and 的前面是子句，後面是不定詞片語，不能用 and 連接，必須把不定詞片語改為子句，and 前後的結構才相等。 3. 她坐上計程車，直接到機場。 ˇ She took a cab, which took her straight to the airport. ˇ She took a cab and it took her straight
RSS