World AIDS Day Happenings

by Jamie Rhein on

World AIDS Day happenings have started already. The Global Vigil sponsored by World Vision began yesterday morning in Toronto and traveled around the world until ending in New York City this morning. The purpose of this vigil was to name off the names of 6000 children who have lost a parent to AIDS. The World Vision Web site also lists several events that are happening in the United States tomorrow.

If you want to shoot some basketballs to raise money for an AIDS project in Zambia, participate in Hoops for Hope, another World Vision sponsored event that is a shoot-a-thon. Here’s a link to to the places where people will be raising money in the U.S. with their free throws. Internationally, the International School of Rotterdam, The International School of Luxembourg, Eijkhagen College, The Netherlands, and Integreat in Luxembourg are listed.

If you are in Great Britain, there are a myriad of World AIDS Day events to chose from. Whether you’re into walking, listening to music, or looking at art, there’s something for you.

Often World AIDS events are tied into other community happenings. If you can’t find one, put on a red ribbon and create your own.

Here’s a recent AIDS fact sheet compiled from UNAIDS statistics.

One for the Road: London – A Life in Maps

by Kelly Amabile on

Let’s close out the month with one final map book selection. London: A Life in Maps, similar to yesterday’s book, is the result of a collaboration between an independent scholar and a major research library. In this case, Peter Whitfield teamed up with the British Library to produce this history of the city through the plans and maps that have represented and shaped it — over 200 maps spanning the last 500 years. The book was released earlier this year, in conjunction with an exhibit at the British Library.

A recent New York Times article highlighted this book, as well as additional cartographic titles that have been published lately. As the author notes in his piece: “Unlike calendars and telephone books, maps combine form, function and fantasy, a potent blend that might explain a recent surge in books on cartography and the continuing effort to humanize the contours of the earth.” We’ve mentioned several of these map books already — a plethora of grids and lines that have directed (or misdirected) explorers, city dwellers and nomads through the years.

Londoner fired for telling it like it is

by Jerry Guo on

There’s been a surprising amount of press over the news that woman who recorded the announcements you hear on the London Underground has been fired for posting spoof messages on her website. The voice-over artist, 36-year-old Emma Clarke, has all of a sudden gained worldwide notoriety, with her website brought down by the sheer amount of traffic from people wanting to download the hilarious spoofs.

You can still find some recordings here. Here are some excerpts:

  • “We would like to remind our American tourist friends that you are almost certainly talking too loudly.”
  • “Would the passenger in the red shirt pretending to read the paper but who is actually staring at that woman’s chest please stop. You are not fooling anyone, you filthy pervert.”
  • “Would passengers filling in answers on their Sudokus please accept that they are just crosswords for the unimaginative and are not in any way more impressive just because they contain numbers.

As if to reaffirm her funny take on London stereotypes, the transport administration was too staid to keep her on. Well, ok their statement was surprisingly amusing: “London Underground is sorry to have to announce that further contracts for Miss Clarke are experiencing severe delays,” a spokesman said.

Go pigeon go!!! Pigeon racing may become an “official” sport

by Jamie Rhein on

The Amazing Race is one kind of race to test a person’s mettle. If you want to know just what a pigeon can do, race it. People in Great Britain called “pigeon fanciers” have sports clubs where they see whose pigeon is the fastest. This has been going on for a hundred years. That sounds sports-like to me, but pigeon racing, however popular, isn’t officially named a sport in Great Britain. This means that pigeon sports clubs will soon have to pay taxes because the buildings the pigeons are kept in will be taxed. If the sports clubs are official, they don’t pay so many taxes or something. The British tax system sounds as complicated as the American one.

One of the arguments for making the pigeon racers official is because their relatives worked so hard during WWII carrying messages to help the troops. That does seem like a good reason to give them a tax break.

Maybe the queen will intervene. She’s the patron of pigeons. There’s a Royal Pigeon Racing Association that is under the monarch umbrella. Who knew? If you go to the site, you’ll see a calendar of events and pigeon news.[via Associated Press]

Who visits the U.S, and why

by Catherine Bodry on

Which country sent the most visitors to the U.S. in 2006? Here’s a hint: it’s one of our closest neighbors, and it’s really no surprise. If you guessed Canada, you’re correct — Canada sent 15,992,242. And if you guessed Mexico, you’re almost correct — our neighbors to the south came in second with 13,317,000 visitors. Next on down is the United Kingdom followed by Japan, Germany, France, and the Republic of Korea.

So, what are all these tourists checking out? It’s not all Las Vegas and Disneyland: Spanish tourists are “interested in rugged western outdoor tourism, and [there’s a] growing interest in Native American culture and traditions.” Japanese want to find scenes from their favorite movies. And with their strengthening dollar, many Canadians are coming to the U.S. to shop.

Forbes has a slideshow of the top U.S.-visiting countries, and you can read the full report on the U.S.’s foreign tourists on Forbes’ website.