“A peasant-labour force of 1.3m has worked on 7,000-odd giant construction sites that have killed, in a hushed-up way, between 2,000 and 3,000 migrant workers a year. As for the city’s residents, Beijing’s average life expectancy is now well below the national average, thanks to smog and urban stress. So much for the promised clean, green ‘People’s Olympics’.”
Tag: 07.31.08
It’s About Time – Wales Gets A National Theatre
“The establishment of a national theatre in Wales has been a long and arduous process marked by a good deal of infighting and factionalism, in which the two chief sticking points have been: where should it be based? And which language would it be in?”
Minnesota Orchestra Saves Concert After Corporate Gift
“Buoyed by a gift from Target, the Minnesota Orchestra announced Thursday that it will go ahead with its concert Sept. 14 at Lake Harriet Band Shell in Minneapolis. Last week, the Orchestra canceled the annual event, anticipating budget problems in the next fiscal year. Target representatives soon called with a sponsorship offer.”
Prominent Congressman Protests Net Neutrality Ruling
“At least one lawmaker is already crying foul over Friday’s expected Federal Communications Commission’s censure of Comcast for faking internet traffic to limit its customers’ peer-to-peer file sharing. Republican minority leader Rep. John Boehner said the FCC would be ‘essentially regulating the internet.'”
Remembering The Great Art Mishaps Of Yesteryear
The sculpture that was smashed in a British museum this week is only the latest in a long line of art-related disasters over the years. Who could forget the Cambridge man who tripped down a staircase, taking two priceless Chinese vases with him? Or Steve Wynn putting his arm through a Picasso he’d just agreed to sell?
Booker Judge Feels Your Pain
One of the novelists who’s serving as a judge for this year’s Man Booker prize says that, while she believes the long list of finalists is a strong one, she understands the frustration that always seems to follow the announcement. “The longer the list, the greater the implied insult. Don’t those judges realise how hard you have worked?”
Song Lyrics Getting Scarce In The Age Of Downloading
“In the old days it was easy: you bought your album, put it on your hi-fi and listened to it while reading the lyrics on the record sleeve… But a survey released yesterday shows that we are finding it harder to find accurate song lyrics – and we don’t like it.”
Obama Forced To Disavow Rap Song
Presidential contender Barack Obama has strongly condemned a song by rap star Ludacris which refers to President Bush as “mentally handicapped” and also takes shots at John McCain and Hillary Clinton. Obama has met with Ludacris in the past, and praised him in a Rolling Stone interview earlier this year.
Paparazzi Crackdown Coming In Tinseltown?
Officials in celebrity-intensive areas of Los Angeles are looking at ways that they can legally control the activities of paparazzi, who have been blamed for invading the privacy of and even causing physical harm to celebs. One city councilman called the talks “a response to their lack of responsible behavior.”
X-Rays Reveal Lost Van Gogh
“A new X-ray technique has revealed a previously unknown portrait of a woman by Vincent van Gogh, which was painted over by the artist… The powerful X-ray bombardment caused atoms in the picture’s layers of paint to emit “fluorescent” X-rays of their own, which indicated the chemicals they originated from. That enabled a colour map of the hidden picture to be produced.”