My recent post about Improv Everywhere‘s prank at Grand Central has been off the charts: it just broke the 1 million hits mark and gathered 1,200 forwards and 60-odd comments in just three weeks.
So backed by popular demand, I bring you part two of the performance-art group’s “frozen in time” prank. This time, it’s London and because a lot more people showed up, it looks every more impressive.
Protesting US support of Kosovo’s recent declaration of sovereignty, today Serbian rioters set fire to the facade of the US Embassy in Belgrade, Serbia. Some protestors also broke into the building, which is apparently unoccupied today, except for some Marines and security personnel. The protests were eventually broken up by riot police, who sprayed tear gas into the crowd.
According to an MSNBC News story, “Doors were ripped off, set on fire and wedged in the embassy windows. Black smoke billowed from the building. Papers and chairs were thrown out of the windows. One protester climbed up to the first floor, ripped the U.S. flag off its pole and briefly put up a Serbian flag in its place.”
Welcome to statehood, Kosovo. More here.
When in Wales, be careful about calling Welsh people English– or you might land yourself a prison sentence. Just ask Mick Forsythe (pictured right).
During a dispute over a traffic accident, Forsythe, an Irishman living in Wales, insulted a Welsh woman, calling her an “English bitch.” According to the Daily Mail, the 55-year-old Forsythe “was found guilty of racially aggravated disorderly behaviour, and received a ten-week prison sentence suspended for 12 months.”
I imagine the conversation as going something like this:
“Hey, you just scratched my car!”
“Oh, pipe down, you old English bitch.”
“Excuse me?! I am NOT English!”
Forsythe expressed his thoughts about the whole affair thusly: “The joke is that the woman I had the row with isn’t even English. She’s Welsh. I am absolutely gobsmacked, to be frank.”
I too am gobsmacked.
More here.
I recently wrote about how we have damaged 96% of our oceans and raised the question of how on an individual level we could make a difference to help save the environment; the same question applies for the global warming: “I’m just one person, what can I do?”
The question has obviously been looming across continents, hence the birth of the WWF’s Earth Hour movement. Last year in Sydney, 2.2 million residents (over half of Sydney’s population) and 2100 businesses switched off all lights and electrical appliances simultaneously for one hour. This reduced overall electricity consumption by 10.2% — the effect was equivalent of taking 48,000 cars off the road for one hour. For safety reasons, essential city lights were kept on.
Simple, effortless and effective.
This year on March 29, the event is progressing to become a global one with 24 cities already signed-up to do the same, they include: Atlanta, San Francisco, Bangkok, Ottawa, Dublin, Tel-Aviv, Copenhagen, Manila and most major cities in Australia.
Counting all the participating cities, 30-million people are expected to be involved in this movement. Over and above that, 42,170 people have signed-up so far on an individual level along with 2,226 businesses across the world.
You can sign-up here, know how to organize an Earth Hour in your town here, and know how to make a difference on a personal and daily basis here.
Has this stirred your emotions about humankind bonding to solve a global issue? Well, what are you waiting for?
For the Gadling series “World Heritage Site new “Tentative List”: Places to Love” we are covering the 14 sites that have been submitted for possible inclusion as an official World Heritage Site in the United States. The sites will not be posted in order of importance or in the order they appear on the list.
Number 14
Name of Site: White Sands National Monument
Location: 52 miles east of Las Cruces, New Mexico, just north of El Paso, Texas
Reason for importance in a nutshell: White Sands, NM is one of the only places in the world you can see, you guessed it, white sand dunes. Normally, fine gypsum in this form is washed out to sea, but the Tularosa Basin has no such drainage, so the white sand piles up.
Grant’s Take: Anywhere that you can go to play in white sand is automatically pretty sweet in my book. While many of us have been to white sand beaches, they just don’t have the same effect of an entire basin full of sand dunes. It’s a pretty surreal experience, and well worth the visit if you’re in the El Paso area.
Check out some video of the monument here.
