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October 03, 2007
Update: Anne Frank's Chestnut Tree
The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam is a moving experience. We've posted before on news of the prognosis for the 150 year old chestnut tree outside the house that she could see every day through an attic window and wrote about in her famous diary. For some, the troubled tree is a symbol of freedom and others even a reminder that children need to go outside and play. Here is an update (AP): "Anne Frank’s Chestnut Tree is Granted a Reprieve". You can see the tree as it
looks today at www.annefrank.org and NYT. Frank died at age 15 died at the Bergen-Belsen camp in 1945. If she had lived, she would have turned 78 on June 12, 2007.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
UK judge lets Brit schools show Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth"
For a moment, forget about your politics, views on the environment or how enlightened, hip or correct you think you are. WAC? "likes" Al Gore. But you gotta like this feisty Brit. Stewart Dimmock, a lorry driver, father of two children (ages 11 and 14), and part-time school official in Dover, Kent, England, claimed that Gore's 2006 Oscar-winning film on climate change was scientifically inaccurate, biased and "sentimental
mush"--and shouldn't be shown in English schools. He said he wanted his children educated in an environment "free from bias and political spin". So Dimmock went to court--and just lost his challenge to the showing of the former U.S. vice-president's documentary in English secondary schools. But Dimmock still got his point across. Yesterday High Court Judge Michael Burton agreed that "An Inconvenient Truth" advanced "partisan political views", but didn't elaborate. Burton said the movie could be shown if the written guidance for teachers accompanying the program was changed so as not to endorse the film's (and Gore's) views. The UK government will re-write the guidance.
See AP, BBC, and the always-entertaining Daily Mail.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 08:43 PM | Comments (0)
Lisboa, Portugal: Alfama District
Welshonce Watch: Like New York, DC, Paris and Prague, Lisbon is a walking city. The medieval Alfama district is Lisbon's oldest, covering the slope between the Castelo de São Jorge and the Tejo River.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 03:59 AM | Comments (0)