Archive for September, 2006
“The devil came here yesterday… and it still smells like sulfur”
It sounds almost too theatrical to be true, but those words were really said in the United Nations by Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela.
The now-famous speech and impassioned rhetoric on the “imperialistic” Bush rule gained the Venezuelan President an ovation as well as giggles from the international delagation.
It was reminiscent of his mentor, Fidel Castro‘s speech to the General Assembly in 1960. Aside from his firey declarations of the Bush administration’s militarism, he accused them of abetting “international terrorism” referring to so-called evanlgelical Reverend Pat Robertson’s call for his assasination.
“The only place where a person can ask for another head of state to be assassinated is the United States, which is what happened recently with the Reverend Pat Robertson, a very close friend of the White House. He publicly asked for my assassination and he’s still walking the streets.” said Chavez.
Later, he made more speeches in Harlem, which equally stirred up crowds to rousing applause.
“Every day I ask God, and the sooner the better, for the American people to elect a president who you can talk with, who you can work with, who you can talk with face-to-face as a brother and see each other as equals….Not this gentleman who walks like John Wayne,” Chavez said, puffing out his chest and swinging his elbows back and forth.
In Manhattan, a giant sculpture called the “Sky Mirror” was unveiled in Rockefeller Center. Weighing in at a hefty 23 tons and spreading 33 feet in diameter, the sculpture faces the famous Manhattan center at a 60 degree angle, placing it in the perfect position to “interact” (with the street life below) said the award-winning artist, Anish Kapoor.
Kapoor, who was born in Bombay, India has won numerous prestigous awards in the UK, most notably the Turner Prize in 1991 and was made CBE in 2003.
Known for his huge modern sculptures of this scale, Kapoor has created other similar amazing pieces, such as Marsyas, a crimson-coloured steel and PVC sculpture at the Tate Modern, as well as other sky mirrors, the first of which was on display in Nottingham, England. This particular one in manhattan has also been shown in various venues around the UK.
He has also the creator of “Cloud Gate” a steel sculpture in Chicago’s Millenium Park and has now been comissioned to create a memorial for September 11 victims in the memorial garden of Hanover Square near ground zero.? The piece will be called “Unity” and true to Kapoor’s style, it will measure 19.5 feet and be the centerpiece of the garden.
Now your car can be cleverer than you. Nissan is hoping to commercialize their groundbreaking “Intelligent Transportation System” in 2010 and are starting by a 30- month experimental stage in Tokyo involving 10,000 drivers on October 1st.
The new system sends wireless messages by antenna to passing cars with voice messages from other cars and roadside optical beacons. These messages are aloong the lines of: “School ahead- Watch your speed!” or “Car approaching from left”.
Although the system seems to be a highly workable one in Japan, where over 50% cars are already equipped with navigational gadgets, the questions remains whether such a high-tech system could work in Europe or the US where a mere 10% of cars are equipped in this capacity – let alone developing countries, where old jalopies are more the norm.
The system though has a lot of very useful and perhaps life-saving functions, such as a warning that tells you if there is a speeding car ahead at a blind intersections, and a quick route finder which tells you the quickest way to your destination through probe data collected from mobile phones.
Its no secret that the Brits have a drinking problem. In fact, their Prime Minister Tony Blair proclaimed it himself two years ago, calling binge drinking the “New British Disease”.
Well, in an effort to hopefully stop the youth from following the slurring path of their elders, the British goverment has called for tighter laws with the under-25 drink-drive limit and smoking.
Heres what the government’s advisory committee on the misuse of drugs (ACMD) had to say in their publication “Pathway to Problems”:
“Among the 6.8 million 16-24 year old’s in the UK, there were 2.1 Million daily smokers, 1.9 Million who drink more than twice the recommended amount at least once each week, and 1 Million who have used an illegal drug in the past month.”
The new laws being considered will include educating the youth on the consequences of heavy alcohol and nicotine use, the increase of the legal tobacco age from 16 to 18, and simply making alcohol more expensive among others.
The old fashioned joy of buying interesting stamps at the post office and indeed of recieving letters in the post, have been lost in the age of email. When I was young, collecting stamps – precious books housing the tiny peices of art – was a popular hobby. These days, I dont think my children have even looked at stamps properly, since all we receive in the post these days are either bills or magazines.
So I was pleasantly surprised when the Royal Mail announced that a new range of Beatles stamps would be launched in January 2007. The stamps will be featuring some of the legendary band’s most famous covers, including: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Let It Be, Revolver and Abbey Road.
A bit of trivia: Until last year, there was a UK law stating that only living people allowed to be featured in British stamps were members of the Royal family. When the rule was broken in 1999 because of a stamp commemorating rock legend Queen (Freddy Mercury), in which drummer Roger Taylor could be clearly identified in the background.
Despite that stirring up philatelists and Royalists, the law luckily doesnt seem to be in effect any longer with these eagerly awaited Beatles stamps.
