Venice – it looks so old, so preserved, so of another time. And it is. But it has been a battle – between those who believe it should always look the way it looked and those who wanted the city to evolve. So Venice now sits a prisoner of the past – but not really. Like all theme parks, Venice must be maintained and restored to keep the illusions alive. “In 1966 a great flood deluged Venice, and when it was repaired it looked exactly as it had done. After decades of restoration it looks as well as it ever has. Its international audience luxuriates in Venice. But the numbers of tourists rise uncontrollably and the city is flooded with monotonous regularity.”
Tag: 03.01.03
Alexandria Library Wants To Offer All Books In The World – Online
The ancient library at Alexandria claimed to own copies of all the books in the world. Now “the directors of the new Alexandria Library, which christened a steel and glass structure with 250,000 books in October, have joined forces with an American artist and software engineers in an ambitious effort to make virtually all of the world’s books available at a mouse click. Much as the ancient library nurtured Archimedes and Euclid, the new Web venture also hopes to connect scholars and students around the world.”
Britain’s Historic Buildings Are Being Looted
“The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings warns that churches and historic houses have never been at so much risk as crooks target decorative fixtures and fittings to feed the home renovation boom. Such thefts have reached ‘epidemic’ proportions, according to the society, Britain’s oldest heritage conservation group. Last year there were 3,600 thefts from churches alone, with statues, fonts and even whole altars vanishing.”
World-Wide Reading Against The War With Iraq
Monday, the Lysiustrata Project will perform readings of Aristophanes’ anti-war play. “In the United States, as many as 1,000 separate productions are planned – in all 50 American states – 33 in Massachusetts and 18 in Chicago alone. In Canada, the play will be recited in seven provinces, at more than two dozen venues and, of course, in two languages. On the same day, there will be readings in London, Paris, Berlin, Athens, Beirut – indeed, almost every major world capital. Two readings are planned in Reykjavik, one in Damascus and nine in Aristophanes’s homeland, Greece.”
Releasing Books Into The Wild
Register a book, leave it someplace, and tell where it is on the internet. Someone else will pick it up, read it and pass it on in the same way. It’s called bookcrossing. “There are close to 100,000 people who have signed up as bookcrossers on the Web site, with nearly 270,000 books registered and more than 20 million hits a month. Once you have registered a title on the site, you print out a BookCrossing label, paste it into the book along with your identity number and release it into the wild. Anybody picking up the book is supposed to register the find on the Web site, post a journal entry commenting on the book and describing the release date and location. All of that information is available on-line for anybody curious enough to browse the site. There are more than 13,000 books sprinkled around Canada waiting to be claimed, read and recycled.”