Off the Kuff: Around the world Archives

Now that's a prank

I'd never heard of this before, but it's very cool.

t was probably the most ingenious student prank of all time.

In June 1958, Cambridge awoke to see a car perched at the apex of an inaccessible rooftop, looking as if it were driving across the skyline.

The spectacle made headlines around the world and left police, firefighters and civil defence units battling for nearly a week to hoist the vehicle back down before giving in and taking it to pieces with blowtorches.

The shadowy group of engineering students who executed the stunt were never identified and the mystery of how they did it has baffled successive undergraduates and provided fodder for countless tourist guides.

Now, 50 years on, the group have reunited to disclose their identities and reveal how they winched an Austin Seven to the top of the university's 70ft-high Senate House.

The photo of the car on the roof is so bizarre, it's like a Magritte painting. The schematic of how the pranksters got it up there are truly impressive. Check it out, and ask yourself why you never did anything that cool in college. Thanks to Dwight on Twitter for the link.

07/05/08 | permalink | comments [1]

Good times in Ireland are bad times for the pubs

Behold the dark side of prosperity.

As recently as the 1980s, young people had to leave Ireland to find work and millionaires were as rare as hen's teeth, as the Irish say. But by 2005, according to the Bank of Ireland, the country of 4 million people had 30,000 residents worth more than a million euros, or about $1.5 million. A year later, the number of millionaires had jumped another 10 percent.

Ireland's per-capita income is now among the highest in the world, surpassing those in the United States, Sweden and Japan, according to the World Bank.

Wealth has given the Irish more options and less time -- a bad combination for the local pub. More people are spending sunny weekends in Spain rather than evenings of "craic," as good times and conversation are known, down at the pub.

Fewer people are farming the valuable rolling green hills around Carney's, about 50 miles south of Galway, and more are commuting long distances to better-paying jobs. And all over the country, when the weary commuters return home, many now prefer to stay in their comfortable homes with a glass of chardonnay in front of their flat-screen TVs.

The Vintners' Federation of Ireland, which represents rural pubs, said the number of pubs outside Dublin has dropped from 6,000 to 5,000 in the past three years. Some estimates suggest the number may soon dwindle to 3,500.

That's just wrong. I suppose if I ever want to experience a real Irish pub, I'd better get a move on before it's too late.

05/02/08 | permalink | comments [1]

RIP, Dith Pran

Dith Pran, the Cambodian journalist on whose life the movie "The Killing Fields" was based, has died of cancer at the age of 65.

Dith was working as an interpreter and assistant for [New York Times reporter Sydney] Schanberg in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, when the Vietnam War reached its chaotic end in April 1975 and both countries were taken over by Communist forces.

Schanberg helped Dith's family get out but was forced to leave his friend behind after the capital fell; they were not reunited until Dith escaped four and a half years later. Eventually, Dith resettled in the United States and went to work as a photographer for the Times.

It was Dith himself who coined the term "killing fields" for the horrifying clusters of corpses and skeletal remains of victims he encountered on his desperate journey to freedom.

The regime of Pol Pot, bent on turning Cambodia back into a strictly agrarian society, and his Communist zealots were blamed for the deaths of nearly 2 million of Cambodia's 7 million people.

"That was the phrase he used from the very first day, during our wondrous reunion in the refugee camp," Schanberg said later.

With thousands being executed simply for manifesting signs of intellect or Western influence -- even wearing glasses or wristwatches -- Dith survived by masquerading as an uneducated peasant, toiling in the fields and subsisting on as little as a mouthful of rice a day, and whatever small animals he could catch.

After Dith moved to the U.S., he became a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and founded the Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project, dedicated to educating people on the history of the Khmer Rouge regime.

He was "the most patriotic American photographer I've ever met, always talking about how he loves America," said Associated Press photographer Paul Sakuma, who knew Dith through their work with the Asian American Journalists Association.

Schanberg described Dith's ordeal and salvation in a 1980 magazine article titled "The Death and Life of Dith Pran." Schanberg's reporting from Phnom Penh had earned him a Pulitzer Prize in 1976.

Later a book, the magazine article became the basis for "The Killing Fields," the highly successful 1984 British film starring Sam Waterston as the Times correspondent and Haing S. Ngor, another Cambodian escapee from the Khmer Rouge, as Dith Pran.

The film won three Oscars, including the best supporting actor award to Ngor.

"Pran was a true reporter, a fighter for the truth and for his people," Schanberg said. "When cancer struck, he fought for his life again. And he did it with the same Buddhist calm and courage and positive spirit that made my brother so special."

I saw "The Killing Fields" in the theaters with some buddies when I was in college. It was one of the most emotionally wrenching movies I've ever seen, and I cannot begin to fathom what it must have been like for Dith Pran and those like him who survived it. My sincere condolences to his family. Rest in peace, Dith Pran.

04/01/08 | permalink | comments [2]

The "doomsday seed vault"

Is it just me, or does anyone else get a wee bit edgy when sci-fi plotlines become news?

A doomsday seed vault on a remote Norwegian island in the Arctic Ocean opened Tuesday, creating a bank of more than 100 million seeds representing every major food crop on Earth.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is meant to be a Noah's Ark for plant genetics. At 4 degrees below 0 F, it will preserve the thousands of regional and local crop varieties farmers worldwide have bred for thousands of years.

Were war, disease, plague or global warming to wipe out any one species, it could be replenished from the seeds stored deep in the permafrost of the mountain vault.

"Norway is proud to be playing a central role in creating a facility capable of protecting what are not just seeds but the fundamental building blocks of human civilization," Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said in comments relayed by a spokesman.

Numerous seed repositories exist worldwide, but the Svalbard vault is the most comprehensive.

I guess that's a good thing to have, as long as someone remembers it's there in the event it's needed. But I'd prefer to live in a world where this sort of contingency is not seen as needed. Oh, well.

03/03/08 | permalink | comments [1]

The Irish bag tax

We've talked about recycling and voluntary reduction as a way of dealing with the plastic bag problem. Here's another approach, taken by Ireland, which has been very successful.

There is something missing from this otherwise typical bustling cityscape. There are taxis and buses. There are hip bars and pollution. But there are no plastic shopping bags, the ubiquitous symbol of urban life.

In 2002, Ireland passed a tax on plastic bags; customers who want them for their purchases must now pay 22 cents per bag at the register.

Within weeks, plastic bag use dropped 94 percent. Within a year, nearly everyone had bought reusable cloth bags, keeping them in offices and in the backs of cars. Plastic bags were not outlawed, but carrying them became socially unacceptable -- on a par with wearing a fur coat or not cleaning up after one's dog.

[...]

Efforts to tax plastic bags have failed in many places because of heated opposition from manufacturers. In Britain, Los Angeles and San Francisco, proposed taxes failed to gain political approval, though San Francisco passed a ban last year.

Today, Ireland's retailers are great promoters of taxing the bags. "I spent many months arguing against this tax with the minister; I thought customers wouldn't accept it," said Sen. Feargal Quinn, founder of Ireland's largest homegrown chain of supermarkets. "But I have become a big, big enthusiast."

Hard to argue with that kind of result. I think as the use of plastic bags becomes increasingly frowned upon, it's inevitable that the same kind of tax will be passed here somewhere, and then once that happens, it'll spread the same way anti-smoking laws have done.

02/04/08 | permalink | comments [0]

No thank you for not smoking

Now that's what I call a backlash.

The owner of a small German computer company has fired three non-smoking workers because they were threatening to disturb the peace after they requested a smoke-free environment.

The manager of the 10-person IT company in Buesum, named Thomas J., told the Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper he had fired the trio because their non-smoking was causing disruptions.

Germany introduced non-smoking rules in pubs and restaurants on January 1, but Germans working in small offices are still allowed to smoke.

"I can't be bothered with trouble-makers," Thomas was quoted saying. "We're on the phone all the time and it's just easier to work while smoking. Everyone picks on smokers these days. It's time for revenge. I'm only going to hire smokers from now on."

Apparently, the revolution has begun. You have been warned.

01/14/08 | permalink | comments [0]

The bridge protest

As you may know, I'm a tournament bridge player, though not as frequent a player as I once was, thanks to other obligations. I can honestly say that in nearly 20 years of playing at tournaments, I have very little idea how most of the folks I've played with and against vote. It just doesn't come up in the conversation. So I guess I'm as surprised as anyone to hear about this.

In the genteel world of bridge, disputes are usually handled quietly and rarely involve issues of national policy. But in a fight reminiscent of the brouhaha over an anti-Bush statement by Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks in 2003, a team of women who represented the United States at the world bridge championships in Shanghai last month is facing sanctions, including a yearlong ban from competition, for a spur-of-the-moment protest.

At issue is a crudely lettered sign, scribbled on the back of a menu, that was held up at an awards dinner and read, "We did not vote for Bush."

By e-mail, angry bridge players have accused the women of "treason" and "sedition."

"This isn't a free-speech issue," said Jan Martel, president of the United States Bridge Federation, the nonprofit group that selects teams for international tournaments. "There isn't any question that private organizations can control the speech of people who represent them."

Not so, said Danny Kleinman, a professional bridge player, teacher and columnist. "If the U.S.B.F. wants to impose conditions of membership that involve curtailment of free speech, then it cannot claim to represent our country in international competition," he said by e-mail.

I look at it this way: If you think these women are representing all US bridge players, then I'd agree they were out of line. If this had occurred in 2002, with someone holding up a sign that said "9/11: Have You Forgotten?" superimposed over a map of Iraq, I'd have been mighty pissed if I felt they were somehow speaking on my behalf. If that's your view, that the USBF team represents all of us, then sanctioning them is appropriate.

This view isn't crazy. You hear Olympians talk all the time about "representing their country" and how proud they are to do so. But it seems to me that if you are representing your country, then as Ronald Reagan used to joke about, one of the ideals you're also representing is the right to criticize its leaders openly and publicly. That doesn't immunize you from criticism of your actions, of course, but it is something that the sponsoring organization, in this case the USBF, should respect and leave alone.

So put me down as someone who thinks these women should not be made to issue any perfunctory apology, or to be suspended from international play. It's the USBF, and not the individual team captained by Gail Greenberg, that represents me in some sense, and as such I'd prefer they butt out and let the ideal of free speech speak for itself. Link via Jon Swift and The American Street, who has an amusing alteration of the sign.

11/15/07 | permalink | comments [2]

Prosecute or not?

The Humane Society is applying pressure to the Justice Department in an effort to get them to prosecute Dan Duncan.

Duncan testified before a grand jury in Houston last week about the hunting trip in which he killed a moose and a sheep while flying with a Russian guide. He said he wasn't aware hunting from the air was illegal in Russia, as it is in the U.S.

"The Humane Society of the United States urges prosecution to the full extent of the law and we thank the Department of Justice for giving this case the attention it deserves," the group said in a statement today.

Duncan's attorney, Rusty Hardin, said he "respects everyone's right to have an opinion" but would not comment further on the group's statement.

Hardin said last week that the government might prosecute Duncan under the Lacey Act, a law designed to prevent the interstate and international trafficking of rare plants and animals, although the animals he shot were not endangered.

As distasteful as I find Duncan's actions to be, I don't want this decision to be made in the media. I support there being an investigation to determine if any laws were broken, and if so, then I support a vigorous prosecution. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

07/24/07 | permalink | comments [0]

Call it something else, please

I'm not a hunter. Compared to me, even Mitt Romney looks like Daniel Boone. I have nothing against hunting, it's just not my idea of a good time. But I can at least understand the allure, on some level, of matching wits with your prey on even terms, on their turf.

This, however, I don't understand at all.

Dan Duncan may not have known it was against the law to hunt from a helicopter in Russia, but some say the Houston billionaire should have.

Duncan, 74, appeared before a grand jury in Houston this week to answer questions about a 2002 hunting trip he took in Russia where he shot a moose and a sheep from a helicopter.

Duncan told the Chronicle he believed he was within the law because his Russian guide instructed him to take the shots.

It wasn't until he was recently contacted by U.S. investigators that he learned the practice was illegal in Russia and that by bringing the trophy heads back to the U.S., he violated a law here known as the Lacey Act.

But some believe the executive with pipeline giant Enterprise Products Partners shouldn't have used the assistance of the aircraft when making the shot anyhow.

"Hunting from aircraft has long been prohibited in the U.S. So I'd think any experienced hunter from the U.S. would know it's illegal elsewhere," said Michael Bean, an attorney and chairman of the wildlife program for Environmental Defense in Washington, D.C.

I'm sorry, but taking a potshot at a moose from a helicopter, I don't know what you call it, but I don't call it hunting. It's not a fair fight. I feel the same way about the "canned" hunts on private ranches, where the game is basically trapped in an enclosed area, and every two-bit Kit Carson who pays for the privilege is guaranteed to kill something. To me, this has more in common with Michael Vick than it does with anything that can reasonably be called a sport. I have no opinion on whether or not the feds should pursue a case against this guy - maybe he really didn't know it was illegal, and for sure they have better things to be doing - and to some extent, I don't really care. I'll settle for him feeling shame for taking part in this. If he's not ashamed of himself, he should be.

07/21/07 | permalink | comments [2]

Le Wi-Fi, oui oui

Add the city of Paris to the municipal Wi-Fi revolution.

If Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe has his way, free wireless Internet soon will be in public places throughout the city - including the cafe haunts on the Left Bank where the master of the chiseled phrase used to write longhand in small black notebooks.

While it might be a little hard to imagine Hemingway writing A Farewell to Arms on a laptop, Delanoe is betting that le Wi-Fi (pronounced wee-fee here) is one of many changes in Paris that will attract creative spirits as well as legions of young people who might otherwise flee the tradition-bound city for places closer to the cutting edge.

Delanoe, 56, a socialist with strong views about how to make Paris competitive in the 21st century, has been reshaping the city's image since he was elected the French capital's first openly gay mayor in 2001. He wants to make Paris greener, more high- tech, less uptight.

"Paris is extremely strong when it is most welcoming," Delanoe told a news magazine shortly after his election. Previous mayors and the national government, he said, had "museumified" the city.

His goal is both to attract young people, some of whom have chosen to move to London for employment, and to attract new business, which increasingly looks to Eastern Europe or the Far East.

"We can't leave Asian cities like Seoul or Tokyo, or American cities like San Francisco or Philadelphia, to make the running (to dominate) in digital matters," Delanoe said earlier this year when he announced plans to create 400 free wireless hotspots.

I forget what the technical term is for what Mayor Delanoe has in mind here - ideopolis, I think - but I'll leave that to folks like Tory to comment on. Y'all know that I love seeing more Wi-Fi access in more places, so I'm just happy to note this for the record.

12/17/06 | permalink | comments [2]

Question of the day

09/23/06 | permalink | comments [2]

RIP, Steve Irwin

09/04/06 | permalink | comments [2]

Iraq Internet cafe

05/09/06 | permalink | comments [0]

Daylight savings trouble

04/01/06 | permalink | comments [3]

The Monsoon Chronicles

08/01/05 | permalink | comments [1]

London Terrorist Attack