Rome police arrest Colosseum 'gladiator' gang

AFP 

Italian police have arrested 20 gladiator impersonators in an undercover sting aimed at ending a violent racket operating around Rome's most famous tourist sites, Italian press reported on Thursday.

Police disguised as gladiators, dustbin men and members of the public raided the gang made up of seven families working with five tourist agencies.

The modern gladiators are accused of attacking and intimidating competitors for a lucrative business in which gladiators collect up to 10 euros ($14) for having their picture taken alongside tourists in front of attractions.

The police officers disguised as gladiators were beaten up by the alleged criminal gladiators before other undercover officers swooped in.

"Gladiators" are a feature of the Roman landscape for tourists, with men decked out in bright red capes, helmets with plumes of red feathers and sandals while carrying swords and round shields.

They can be found outside the Colosseum, Castel Sant'Angelo, Piazza Venezia and even in front of St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, preying on the millions of tourists who pass through Rome every year.

Criminal gangs had divided up these tourist sights and were defending their territory with violence, the police said.

Five competitors who had been chased away alerted police to the gang's activities, leading to the sting operation.

Colosseum sofa

Colosseum sofa

Cory Doctorow at 8:24 AM Friday, Jan 21, 2011 

Italian furniture maker Tappezzeria Rocchetti has attained a new zenith in tatty representations of glorious antiquities with this sofa based on the Roman Colosseum:

This sofa is the perfect example of an exceptionally manufactured sofa that offers both the comfort of a sofa and the unique feeling of visiting a historical monument like the Colosseum in Italy, Rome. The manufacturer, Tappezzeria Rocchetti is actually famous for its craftwork upholstery that already has over sixty years of tradition. This sofa is a mix of antique history and also modern features - comfort and modern materials, being perfect for the little hostels in the city of Rome , offering the tourists a taste of the ancient Rome while still inside or in front of the TV set.

Colosseum Sofa from Tappezzeria Rocchetti

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Sports Becomes Increasingly Boring As Death No Longer Punishment For Losing

Sports Becomes Increasingly Boring As Death No Longer Punishment For Losing

 ISSUE 45•51

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According to prominent sports historians, the modern-day practice of allowing a losing team or athlete to live has significantly lessened the intensity of sports as a whole in the centuries since the execution of defeated competitors has fallen out of vogue.

"A shared awareness that the loser would be put to death raised the stakes and increased crowd involvement, to say nothing of its effect on the entertainment value of the match itself," said Joachim Albrechtssen, professor of competitive outcome studies at Louisiana State University. "Sports today just can't compete with that. If a Roman Colosseum audience saw Kobe Bryant miss a last-second shot, they would be unable to comprehend why he would not be stabbed to death, drawn and quartered, or burned alive, not to mention torn to shreds by the winning teams' womenfolk."

Through careful study of the behavior of sporting audiences from 3500 B.C. to the present, sports archaeologists have noted a distinct drop-off in crowd enthusiasm around the time of the last jousting matches, a lull that has been interrupted only by brief localized spikes during the heydays of public duels, bareknuckle boxing, bullfighting, and air shows.

Such studies suggest that reintroducing the mandatory execution of losing athletes could add a new level of fervor to tie games, and could especially increase crowd interest during lopsided victories, which currently see crowds leaving early and television audiences changing the channel because they no longer have the opportunity to witness the mass slaughter of the losing side.

"Even today's championship games have very little at stake," Albrechtssen said. "Imagine the increased excitement and level of play we would have seen in Game 6 of the last World Series if the Phillies went in knowing that they faced televised beheadings in the event of a loss, or if Tom Brady had been sacrificed to Apollo after the Patriots' Super Bowl upset at the hands of the Giants. As it was, those games were extremely boring."

Like many sports historians from the 19th century to the present, Albrechtssen and his colleagues argue that drastic changes should be made to the dominant competition structures. In order to restore sports to the level of pageantry and importance it enjoyed in previous eras, they advocate the immediate death of team captains after a regular-season loss in any sport; the public execution of any individual athlete who loses a championship game or race; the implementation of wheel spikes and fender-mounted blades in NASCAR; and the immediate guillotining of every member of the PGA Tour except for Tiger Woods.