AndyRob posted a video:
Eurostar Breaks to Paris
I posted to flickr.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aroberts/5815514576/
AndyRob posted a video:
Eurostar Breaks to Paris
June 9 2011, 10:35am | Comments »
I posted to flickr.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aroberts/5814940305/
AndyRob posted a video:
Eurostar Breaks to Paris
June 9 2011, 10:32am | Comments »
I posted to flickr.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aroberts/5815494320/
AndyRob
Eurostar Breaks to Paris
June 9 2011, 10:27am | Comments »
I posted to flickr.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aroberts/5815491772/
AndyRob
Eurostar Breaks to Paris
June 9 2011, 10:26am | Comments »
I posted to flickr.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aroberts/5814897735/
AndyRob
Paris Breaks in the Marais Quarter
June 9 2011, 10:16am | Comments »
I posted to flickr.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aroberts/5815462690/
AndyRob
Paris Breaks in the Marais Quarter
June 9 2011, 10:15am | Comments »
I posted to flickr.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aroberts/5804944844/
AndyRob posted a video:
Batobus Paris Breaks
June 6 2011, 10:58am | Comments »
I posted to flickr.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aroberts/5804355773/
AndyRob
Batobus Paris Breaks
June 6 2011, 10:48am | Comments »
I posted to flickr.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aroberts/5804909526/
AndyRob
Batobus Paris Breaks
June 6 2011, 10:47am | Comments »
I posted to distributedresearch.net
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/05/13/cannes-film-festival-review-midnight-in-paris
Cannes Film Festival opens with a Woody Allen love letter to Paris, the French capital, a shallow examination of nostalgia with endearing performances from Owen Wilson and Marion Cotillard
This article titled “Cannes film festival review: Midnight in Paris” was written by Peter Bradshaw, for guardian.co.uk on Wednesday 11th May 2011 12.45 UTC From this movie’s opening postcard-view montage of Paris — familiar in a number of ways — it’s clear the French capital is to be added to the list of cities that Woody Allen adores, and idolises all out of proportion. His new movie was an amiable amuse-bouche to begin the Cannes festival feast: sporadically entertaining, light, shallow, self-plagiarising. It’s a romantic fantasy adventure to be compared with the vastly superior ideas of his comparative youth, such as the 1985 movie The Purple Rose Of Cairo, in which it was possible to step through the silver screen, or his 1977 short story The Kugelmass Episode, in which it was possible to enter the world of Madame Bovary. And it’s notable for a cameo from Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, playing a deadpan, tolerant museum guide: though it’s a measure of how muted Woody Allen movies are now that she is not obviously outclassed by everyone else. The camera adds 10 pounds, they say, but this rule does not apply to the fashionably thin Carla Bruni. I wonder how Carla’s sister Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi would have played the part. Once again, Allen finds himself in a luxury-tourist European destination, whose interiors he somehow manages to bathe in a soft golden-yellowy glow, like that which might suffuse the lobby of a five-star hotel. As so often, the film features a lead character who should really be played by the director as a younger man, though perhaps Allen intends his movie’s main theme — the fallacy of nostalgia — to be targeted at those critics who worry that his films aren’t any good any more. Owen Wilson is Gil, a wealthy Hollywood scriptwriting hack who still yearns to write a great literary novel; a visit to Paris with his testy fiancée Inez (Rachel McAdams) and her grouchy parents triggers a mid-career crisis. Irritated by the banality of contemporary culture, and electrified by his own idealised view of bygone bohemian Paris, Gil takes a midnight stroll, and gets picked up by mysterious revellers in a vintage automobile. He finds himself whisked back in time, hanging out with F Scott Fitzgerald (a nice performance from Britain’s Tom Hiddleston) not to mention Dalí, Hemingway, Picasso, Buñuel, TS Eliot and many, many more. These great figures from the past — Gil doesn’t meet any non-legends in his time-travel — cause him to fluster and squeak with excitement, though Wilson, fundamentally laid-back as ever, doesn’t give it the comedy-astonishment that Woody himself would undoubtedly have delivered. Gil’s ingenuous enthusiasm entrances Picasso’s beautiful mistress Adriana, played with conviction and finesse by Marion Cotillard: they fall in love, but it appears that Adriana is just as discontented with her time period as Gil is with his. It could be that Allen is satirising not just necrophiliac pining for the past but a kind of “history tourism” and “culture tourism” to go with the literal tourism described in the movie. Or it could just be that Allen is hopelessly in thrall to precisely this glib tourist view of Europe. Well, he’s brought back a negligible, pleasant piece of work from his city break. The view of Owen Wilson strolling, incidentally, shows a distinctive loping gait: like Robert Mitchum or John Wayne, he might have one of the most notable walks in Hollywood.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogCannes film festival review: Midnight in Paris
Related posts:Arts venues band together to fund new festival of finest radical theatre South of Pigalle Paris Breaks Competition Why is Samaritaine in Paris still closed?
May 13 2011, 3:35am | Comments »
I posted to andyroberts.me
http://andyroberts.me/podcast/podcast-42
i’ve made this podcast episode 42 out of the remaining recordings from the Sunday afternoon session with more rehearsals of old songs as a trial for April 12th. Here’s the download and play link etc: Subscribe to the podcast RSS or get it from iTunes Download MP3 to save – 42.6. Mb in size, playtime 29 minutes 31 seconds :- 42 Andy Roberts Podcast Episode 42.mp3 Andy Roberts Podcast #42 Shownotes Show Notes for Podcast 42
Gernika – Andy Roberts Streets of Paris – Andy Roberts Clean Living Blues – Andy Robert /Linda Hartley Never Was to Be – Andy Roberts / Daryl P Hall Winter in Andalucia – Andy Roberts
May 7 2011, 4:18pm | Comments »
I posted to distributedresearch.net
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/05/03/best-in-dough-french-bakers-best-baguette-paris
Paris bakers competition. With a punishing criteria and several entries stakes are high at a Parisian contest seeking to identify best stick of bread
This article titled “Best in dough! French bakers battle to bag best baguette bounty” was written by Agnes Poirier in Paris, for The Guardian on Tuesday 3rd May 2011 21.00 UTC They are hot, golden and crispy. Their makers hold them like saints’ relics and the judges in charge of inspecting them wear white gloves. These are the prized entries competing to be named Paris’s best baguette. At the head office of the bakers and pâtissiers’ union in the heart of Paris, young and old bakers queue up to enter the competition, first held in 1994. Pascal Guenard, a baker and pâtissier for more than 20 years is entering a baguette in the contest for the first time. He wears his white uniform and has flour in his hair; his pair of baguettes smell divine. “It’s the first time I’ve competed for best baguette but I came fourth once in the best croissant competition,” he said. “This award is very important for us and for our clients. I want them to be proud and be able to say that their baker makes the best baguette in Paris. It’s also a way for us artisans to fight the big supermarkets which sell crap baguettes for 50 cents. At €1.10, our baguette had better be good.” On the second floor, white-gloved ladies give a number to each pair of baguettes, register every baker’s name and address, and wish them “bonne chance”. Each baguette is then measured and weighed. This is the guillotine moment. Baguettes must measure between 55 and 70cm and weigh between 240g and 310g, criteria that were established 20 years ago. “We had to set up rules,” said Jacques Mabille, president of the bakers union. “During the war, baguette’s crumb was grey. The French grew to hate it. “So after the war, the whiter the crumb, the happier the people were. However, to get a very white crumb, you must compromise on the overall quality of the bread and on its taste. So we chose to return to a more balanced baguette and set up a few rules. … Today, a good baguette has a creamy-looking crumb, a crispy crust, a distinctive flavour and a delicious smell of wheat. And it shouldn’t have more than 18g of salt.” Each year, a third of baguettes are disqualified, usually because they are too heavy and too long. At the end of the queue stands Lahoussaine Damer, 26, a baker and pâtissier since the age of 18. “It’s the third time I’ve competed but I’ve never got into the top 10. This time, I have tried to perfect the cooking. Also, I was careful with the measurement and weight. They are ruthless. My baguette was disqualified last year for one centimetre.” Which French baker does he admire most? “Djibril Bodian.” Bodian, a member of the jury this year, was the winner of last year’s competition. He came to France from Senegal at the age of six, and fell in love with bread through his father, who set up a boulangerie in the Paris suburb of Pantin. After he won, Bodian became the French president’s personal baker, delivering his baguettes every day to the Elysée Palace. “We were never complimented by the Elysée Palace but were told that if nothing was said then it was a good sign, that they liked it” he says. “We have today a whole new generation of bakers in Paris, of African origin, from the Maghreb but also many Japanese and Cambodians,” said Mabille. “Baguettes have universal appeal. Besides, bakers are usually trained in French schools with traditional recipes and savoir faire.” A total of 174 baguettes were entered for the prize, with 38 disqualified. Among the 15 judges was a fromager, a teacher at the boulangerie school of Paris, and a food critic, as well as six Parisians chosen randomly after they entered a lottery. They touched, stroked, chewed, smelled, and even listened to the baguettes, inspecting their backs and bellies. Their colour and holes were closely inspected and intensely debated. Some judges spat out their samples . Three hours later, the verdict was given: after competing for the eighth time, Pascal Barillon, from Montmartre has won the best baguette accolade. As of Wednesday, he will be Carla Bruni-Sarkozy’s official supplier.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogBest in dough! French bakers battle to bag best baguette bounty
Related posts:What is French for a vegan? French high-speed rail on track but progress too slow on commuter lines Wisconsin is making the battle lines clear in America’s hidden class war
May 3 2011, 5:06pm | Comments »
I posted to distributedresearch.net
Chinese city Chongqing’s ambitious party boss Bo Xilai has got the population singing red songs such as Road to Revitalisation and Love of the Red Flag
This article titled “Red songs ring out in Chinese city’s new cultural revolution” was written by Tania Branigan in Beijing, for The Guardian on Friday 22nd April 2011 15.46 UTC Road to Revitalisation may not sound like the most catchy name for a tune, but authorities in Chongqing are urging residents to sing along to it – and 35 more carefully selected “red songs”. The south-western Chinese city has launched the musical campaign to mark this year’s 90th anniversary of the Communist party’s birth. Television and radio stations are broadcasting the tunes, newspapers are carrying the scores and officials are arranging public performances of Love of the Red Flag and Good Men Should Become Soldiers. Officials are also urging artists to help train people “to raise a fever of singing red [revolutionary] songs,” according to the People’s Daily website. The initiative is the latest phase in the “red culture movement” launched by the city’s ambitious party boss Bo Xilai. “Red songs won public support because they depicted China’s path in a simple, sincere and vivid way,” Bo said last year. “There’s no need to be artsy-fartsy … only dilettantes prefer enigmatic works.” Chongqing television was recently ordered to drop popular soap operas and sitcoms. Instead, it airs improving material such as classic dramas and red song shows, reportedly leading to a sharp drop in ratings and advertising revenue. Other initiatives include ordering students to work in the countryside and getting cadres to don Red Army uniforms and follow the path of their forebears “to deepen their understanding and experience of hardships”.
While most expect Bo to be included in the top political body, the politburo standing committee, it is not clear what position he might take. His other striking initiatives have included a mass drive to urbanise the population and a campaign against organised crime, which won him plaudits but raised concerns about the manner of the crackdown. “He is a maverick. He has the confidence of his family background,” Bo’s father was a Communist “immortal”, rehabilitated after the Cultural Revolution, in which Bo’s mother died. “Bo’s approach appears to be gaining some traction among some very high-level leaders,” said Beijing-based political analyst Russell Leigh Moses. Several senior figures have visited Chongqing recently, notably Xi Jinping, the vice president expected to take the top job next year, who praised Bo’s cultural drive. Moses said: “Bo’s campaign is multidimensional, but its primary objective seems to be trying to redefine local affairs as mass politics. [It] is not about policy as much as it is about a new communist theology that is nostalgic and not like anyone else’s.” Brady said propaganda had changed so much in content as well as method that comparisons to Maoism were lazy. When Bo invokes Mao Zedong in text messages to residents, instead of references to class struggle he chooses feelgood quotations such as: “The world is ours, we should unite for achievements.” “Some appear to have misunderstood the message in our campaign,” Xu Chao, the official leading the red song drive, told the Global Times. “‘Red’ doesn’t only represent revolution, communism or socialism. It also includes elements that represent happiness, harmony, being positive and healthy. The term is actually quite inclusive.” There are no Mao-era songs on the 36-strong list and many are recent popular hits about loving one’s family or one’s nation. Go China! praises Olympicdiver Guo Jingjing, baseball star Yao Ming and film director Zhang Yimou rather than Communist cadres. “It’s definitely not on-message in terms of what was traditionally regarded as ‘red’,” said Brady. “I think a Cultural Revolution-era propagandist would be appalled.”
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogRed songs ring out in Chinese city’s new cultural revolution
Related posts:Chinese New Year February 14th 2010 Chinese Lute The YouView revolution will not be televised just yet
April 24 2011, 4:21am | Comments »
I posted to distributedresearch.net
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/04/11/world-development-report-why-no-mention-of-paris
The World Bank report offers some welcome suggestions on reforming institutions to address conflict, but it is strange that it fails to mention the Paris agenda on aid effectiveness.
This article titled “World Development Report: Why no mention of Paris?” was written by Jonathan Glennie, for guardian.co.uk on Monday 11th April 2011 09.10 UTC The World Bank has published its annual World Development Report and, as usual, it is a good read. This year its focus is on insecurity, conflict and fragility. It aims to build the evidence linking development, the bank’s primary area of expertise, and insecurity, one of the biggest constraints on progress. The first things you can expect from a report like this are some new era-defining stats. So we get this: “One-and-a-half billion people live in areas affected by fragility, conflict or large-scale, organised criminal violence, and no low-income fragile or conflict-affected country has yet to achieve a single UN millennium development goal.” The first part of the report shares a lot of helpful evidence for something that should be obvious – conflict is one of the biggest enemies of development. Anyone Ivorian would be able to thoroughly back that assessment at the moment as they watch the development gains of recent years being put at risk by the present violence. To pick from one of the many statistics: “Mozambique more than tripled its primary [school] completion rate in just eight years, from 14% in 1999 [seven years after the fighting ended] to 46% in 2007.” So far, so obvious. What does the World Bank think should be done? It has one clear and compelling answer: Make institutions more legitimate. Legitimate institutions are what the report cleverly describes as a country’s “immune system” against conflict. The report turns out to be one more example of how “institutions” have finally made it to the very top of the development hierarchy, trumping “good policy” as the latest key to development progress. The report is impressive in scope, seeking to reassess an international order built in the wake of two world wars and finding it wanting for the new reality of conflict today, with its complex, repeated and inter-related forms of violence. Commendably, it mentions the big issues, like the drugs trade and international channels of corruption, that development experts often prefer to leave to others. It emphasises the importance of improved data collection to track stolen money. But on drugs it is weaker, mustering only the following recommendation: “Exploring the costs and benefits of different combinations of demand and supply-side measures would be a first step to underpinning more decisive demand-side actions.” Hmmm. Being the World Bank, there is not the slightest hint that western powers could be at fault for any of the violence and conflict in the world. It might have been nice to acknowledge that violence is not a developing world phenomenon, by adding a few examples of western problems. The style of the report is humble, which is all the rage in development nowadays. It is an attitude taking some time to filter down to country managers, though, where anecdotal tales of arrogant westerners insisting on rapid change along Washington Consensus lines are still all too common. But at least there is change at the top. One thing I particularly liked was the emphasis on job creation because it is unemployment that is the major driver behind young people joining rebel groups or criminal gangs (according to the surveys quoted). Again, it’s common sense, but it’s always useful to have it written down. Jobless growth is not good enough. First prize for most glaring omission is shared between Colombo and Paris. The major story in internal armed conflict recently, the crushing of the Tamil uprising in Sri Lanka, gets not one mention in the whole report. I expect there are complicated politics behind this silence. But there is no such excuse for the failure to mention the Paris agenda on aid effectiveness. Fundamental to the legitimacy of institutions is where their money comes from. So the report is right to focus on the donor-recipient relationship, which muddies the supposed accountability links between citizen and government. It is good that this link (a particular beef of mine) is being recognised in such an important report. But to engage in a long list of (very welcome) suggestions for how international agencies should reform without mentioning the major international initiative seeking to achieve such reform is strange. While calling for donors to work better together, the World Bank is in danger of looking like it prefers to go it alone, setting up a new group of “WDR principles”. What about the future? The WDR recognises that climate change and increased competition for natural resources are likely to heighten the risk of conflict in the years to come. And there are some very useful pointers as to what makes for a potentially more peaceful future. One that particularly hit me was this: “Some states have tried to maintain stability through coercion and patronage networks, but those with high levels of corruption and human rights abuses increase their risks of violence breaking out in the future.” Or in layman’s terms, you need to deal with the causes of the problem. The causes are usually linked to poverty and injustice, as a later graphic makes clear. That is also one of the conclusions (obviously) of a separate initiative that is worth looking at. The Global Peace Index ranks countries according to how peaceful they are, and while the methodology behind it can be criticised (as any index can) it adds important evidence to the debate about which policies really do contribute to peace.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogWorld Development Report: Why no mention of Paris?
Related posts:Joomla 1.5 and the limits of open source development Why is Samaritaine in Paris still closed? South of Pigalle Paris Breaks Competition
April 11 2011, 4:18am | Comments »
I posted to distributedresearch.net
New Marks and Spencers shop to open in Paris France 10 years after controversial retreat. Items on offer will include food – by popular demand.
This article titled “Marks & Spencer makes Paris comeback with Champs Elysées store” was written by Kim Willsher in Paris, Dan Milmo and Marie Winckler, for The Guardian on Friday 1st April 2011 17.54 UTC Shortbread and Earl Grey tea are heading back to the Champs Elysées later this year as Marks & Spencer returns to France, a decade after its retreat across the Channel prompted street protests in Paris. The retailer replanted a British flag in the heart of the Gallic retail industry by announcing, 10 years after it quit the capital amid stern criticism from trade unions, politicians and ardent muffin fans, that it would open a shop on Paris’s most famous boulevard before Christmas. The retailer is opening a three-storey outlet on the Champs Elysées, towards the end of this year. What is more, following a clamour by British organisations in France and threats of a boycott, it will be selling not only women’s clothing and lingerie – as first thought – but also food. Thoughts of ready meals and cheddar cheese may still appal a nation that gave the world haute cuisine. But French foodies have a grudging respect for the venerable British retailer, and Parisians were excited about the “grand retour”. Comments on French newspaper websites were overwhelmingly positive. Audrey Guttman, 23-year-old Parisienne arts consultant, said: “Special occasions in my childhood were peppered with Marks and Spencer delights such as Bugs Bunny-shaped fried chicken and Percy Pigs soft candy. I was devastated when they left, and the same items coming in from London just didn’t quite taste the same afterwards.” However, like many she was doubtful about the uncool choice of location: “Really, Marks and Spencer, the Champs-Elysées?! It’s not 1999 anymore!” French blogger Wendy Nourry Breguet, 25, added: “As a Frenchie, Marks & Spencer has always been an Ali Baba’s cave of food, fresh products, spices, foreign foods, which are absent from most French shops.” Pierre Cornette, a 28-year-old gallery owner was less convinced: “M&S plays on its super image in France for quality and tradition, but I can’t really see how it’s going to sell its English products to a Paris clientele, above all in this age of organic produce.” As well as the 1,000 sq metre Champs Elysées shop, there will also be five Simply Food stores at “transport hubs” such as railway stations in Paris and a “handful” of larger shops in and around the French capital. A website, trading in euros, will be launched and will be the group’s first to permit international purchases and deliveries across France. The original idea was for the new store to sell only clothing and home goods, in accordance with the lease on the prestigious Parisian floorspace. But a campaign persuaded executives to change their minds. British-born Pamela Lake, a Parisienne since 1963, who spearheaded the “no food, no go” campaign, said she and her British and French friends were delighted by the company’s apparent change of heart. “It would have been commercial suicide to do otherwise,” she said. “I shall be there for my double cream, bacon, sausages and Indian food.” She added: “I phoned my friends this morning and said ‘we’ve won’. Everyone was so pleased. When M&S closed here it was practically a day of national mourning for us in Paris. Now the company has admitted it was the biggest blunder they ever made.” She said French friends who joined the campaign would be looking forward to getting their Christmas crackers, mince pies and Christmas puddings. “They’ve also missed the Stilton cheese,” she said. All M&S stores in continental Europe were closed as the company battled to turn around its British business. Last year the former boss Sir Stuart Rose said the decision to pull out of Europe was a mistake, calling it “tragic”. The company’s chief executive, Marc Bolland, said the company was “very excited” about its return: “Over the past 10 years the number of demands … from people for us to come back has been enormous.” He added: “Our company has changed in a positive way and France has moved on as well. We want to come back in an extremely positive way.” Bolland has declared he wants to speed up the group’s international expansion and said there was scope for faster growth, particularly in Asian markets. M&S has 358 stores in 42 overseas territories.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogMarks & Spencer makes Paris comeback with Champs Elysées store
Related posts:Parisian store to close for safety refit Gare du Nord in Paris South of Pigalle Paris Breaks Competition
April 1 2011, 4:36pm | Comments »
I posted to andyroberts.me
http://andyroberts.me/podcast/podcast-38-clean-living-blues
Andy Roberts Podcast Episode #38 comes out a day late, sorry about that. Here’s the download and play link etc:
Subscribe to the podcast RSS or get it from iTunes
Download MP3 to save – 40.00 Mb in size, playtime 30 minutes 0 seconds :- 38 Andy Roberts Podcast Episode 38.mp3
Andy Roberts Podcast #38 Shownotes
Show Notes for Podcast 38
The Streets of Paris – Andy Roberts Clean Living Blues – by Linda Hartley and Andy Roberts Winter in Andalusia – Andy Roberts (abridged version) Now that I’m Living Here – Andy Roberts Cajun Cooking Song – Andy Roberts Just Like A Woman – Bob Dylan Song
March 24 2011, 3:59am | Comments »
I posted to distributedresearch.net
The Forth bridge, St Helena and Lake District have been put forward for consideration as worthy sites alongside Stonehenge for Unesco world heritage status. The decision will be made in June not in Bahrain, as originally planned but in Paris.
This article titled “UK nominates 11 sites for Unesco world heritage status” was written by Maev Kennedy, for The Guardian on Tuesday 22nd March 2011 01.00 UTC
The Forth bridge, the remote island of St Helena in the South Atlantic where Napoleon died in 1821, and the Lake District are among 11 places the government will nominate today as worthy of becoming world heritage sites to be ranked alongside the Pyramids and Stonehenge. The government will also make a third attempt to have the corner of Kent where Charles Darwin wrote the book that changed the history of science recognised as a world treasure. John Penrose, the tourism and heritage minister, said: “Few places in the world can match the wealth of wonderful heritage we have available in the UK. The 11 places that make up the new ‘UK tentative list’ are fantastic examples of our cultural and natural heritage, and I believe they have every chance of joining famous names like the Sydney Opera House and the Canadian Rockies to become world heritage sites.” Places that failed to make the ‘tentative’ list include Blackpool, the former RAF airfield at Upper Heyford in Oxfordshire, the Rows shops and half-timbered houses in Chester, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Great Western Railway. The government has been consulting on the type of sites which Britain should put forward after concern from Unesco, which has maintained the list since 1972, that it was increasingly dominated by castles and cathedrals in western Europe. There has been a conscious determination to broaden the geographical spread of the list and the types of sites nominated, leading to the inclusion of penal sites for transported convicts in Australia, four hydraulic boat lifts on a Belgian canal and the wonderfully named Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump prehistoric butchery site in Canada. Britain is nominating a judicious mixture of natural, built and industrial sites, including the slate industry of north Wales with its spectacular shale heaps still bearing witness to the days when Welsh slate roofed half the world, the Jodrell Bank observatory in Cheshire, Scotland’s beautiful Flow Country, the endlessly repainted Forth railway bridge which had the longest single cantilever span in the world when built in 1890, Gorham’s cave complex in Gibraltar, and Cresswell Crags, the limestone gorge honeycombed with caves which has some of the earliest evidence of human habitation in Britain and the country’s only known Ice Age rock art. The list is completed by two leftover scraps of the British Empire: St Helena and the Turks and Caicos. The government has still not given up on Darwin’s home, now in the care of English Heritage, where he wrote On The Origin of Species. Once the scientist found Down House in 1842 he left as rarely as possible for the rest of his life. He wrote the Origin and all his later work there and conscripted his children as assistants in taking observations on the fauna and flora in his own garden and the surrounding fields, which are remarkably unchanged. The government first nominated it in 2007 but withdrew on being warned the Unesco advisers were not convinced of its genuine scientific importance. It was resubmitted, with the ingeniously coined description “landscape laboratory” in 2009 to mark the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth, but still failed to make the cut. The government, undaunted, will again add it to the list of proposed sites. The list of sites judged among the world’s most precious now runs to 911 in 151 countries: 704 cultural, 180 natural and 27 mixed. The new nominations were due to be considered by the world heritage committee in June in Bahrain but, due to the turbulent state of politics across the Arab world, the meeting has been switched to the Unesco headquarters in Paris.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogUK nominates 11 sites for Unesco world heritage status
Related posts:The world wide web is shrinking Nuclear power stations and reactors operational around the world: listed and mapped How to Save the World
March 22 2011, 10:31am | Comments »
1 2