Gaiola Island is one of the minor islands of Naples, Italy; it is offshore of Posillipo. Naples’s population has considered Gaiola a “cursed island”, which with its beauty hides a “restless fate”. The reputation came about because of the frequent premature death of its owners. For example, in the 1920s, it belonged to the Swiss Hans Braun, who was found dead and wrapped in a rug; a little later, his wife drowned in the sea.

The next owner was the German Otto Grunback, who died of a heart attack while staying in the villa. A similar fate befell the pharmaceutical industrialist Maurice-Yves Sandoz, who committed suicide in a mental hospital in Switzerland; its subsequent owner, a German steel industrialist, Baron Karl Paul Langheim, was dragged to economic ruin by wild living. The island has also belonged to Gianni Agnelli, who suffered the deaths of many relatives, and to Paul Getty, who endured the kidnapping of a grandson. The last private owner of the island was Gianpasquale Grappone, who was jailed. Newspapers talked again about the “Gaiola Malediction” in 2009, after the murder of Franco Ambrosio and his wife Giovanna Sacco, who owned a villa opposite the island.

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HEAD FOR THE HILLS.

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Zookeepers at 12 zoos across the country are experimenting with how orangutans use iPads and the results are really amazing.

Twelve zoos across the country have joined the “Apps For Apes” program, experimenting with how apes interact with iPads.

According to the Smithsonian’s video above, each ape has different preferences as to which apps they like to use. Which is amazing and awesome.

At the Toronto Zoo, zookeepers have had similar experiences, giving their apes a selection of memory and painting games. They also play YouTube videos for orangutans.

Aside from entertaining the apes, The Toronto Zoo is also experimenting with using apps to help the apes better communicate.

Because iPads are obviously very fragile and apes are obviously not very careful, app use is strictly under the guidance of a zookeeper as of right now.

But many zoos involved with the program are looking toward building sturdier, more ape-friendly iPad casings.

Interestingly enough, apes using apps isn’t particularly new. The Smithsonian National Zoo’s orangutans have used some form of touch-screen monitor since 1994 to test their cognitive abilities.

Let’s just hope they don’t get too good with iPads…

…because we all know how that ends.

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