How many Chinese cities can you name?
Be honest....>
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Rank your top 5 favorite South African cities
Ok, I want to know what everyone's top 5 south african cities are. And please try to go in an order but if you can't decide that's ok too.
For me, I would say
1. Cape Town
2. Durban
3. Port Elizabeth
4. East London
5. Johannesburg>
For me, I would say
1. Cape Town
2. Durban
3. Port Elizabeth
4. East London
5. Johannesburg>
GLOBAL TOP 1000 Manufacturing companies
GLOBAL TOP 1000 Manufacturing companies -
world's largest publicly held manufacturing firms -- based on 2004 revenues
HQ located countries and the listed companies' number
1.USA 313
2.Japan 227
3.UK 52
4.Germany 45
5.France 42
6.Canada/South Korea 35
8.Netherland 20
9.Italy ,Switzerland 18
11.Sweden,Finland,Australia 15
14.Taiwan 13
15.Mexico,India 10
17.Brazil,South Africa 8
20.Belgium 7
21.Spain 6
22.Austria,PRC,HK,Norway,Denmark 4
27.Bermuda,Israel,Singapore,Thailand,Greece 3
32.Russia,Turkey,NewZeland 2
35.Argentina,Chile,Czech republic,Cayman Island,Hungary,Malaysia,Philipine,Poland,Saudi Arabia 1
world's largest publicly held manufacturing firms -- based on 2004 revenues
HQ located countries and the listed companies' number
1.USA 313
2.Japan 227
3.UK 52
4.Germany 45
5.France 42
6.Canada/South Korea 35
8.Netherland 20
9.Italy ,Switzerland 18
11.Sweden,Finland,Australia 15
14.Taiwan 13
15.Mexico,India 10
17.Brazil,South Africa 8
20.Belgium 7
21.Spain 6
22.Austria,PRC,HK,Norway,Denmark 4
27.Bermuda,Israel,Singapore,Thailand,Greece 3
32.Russia,Turkey,NewZeland 2
35.Argentina,Chile,Czech republic,Cayman Island,Hungary,Malaysia,Philipine,Poland,Saudi Arabia 1
Quote:>
>http://www.industryweek.com/section.aspx?sectionid=40
http://www.industryweek.com/research.../IW05Enter.asp
http://www.industryweek.com/research...000names05.asp>
| Since its launch nine years ago, the IW 1000 has reflected the fundamental reality of a world economy, that manufacturers' toughest competitors are not next door or down the street, but in Europe, Asia and South America, in addition to the United States. The only ranking that matters is how companies stack up on the global playing field. Opportunities are not confined to a single country or region either. The world's largest manufacturers leverage supranational networks of production and distribution as well as business alliances and joint ventures to market and deliver products and services to customers wherever they might be located around the globe. Tracking expenses, sales, and the flow of cash through the various business units of a single organization can be a tortuous task, just ask the accountants for any of these multi-billion-dollar companies. Especially the people at Royal Dutch/Shell (No. 2), Lennox International (No. 674) Goodyear Tire & Rubber (No. 175), and Flowserve (No. 843), where accounting problems delayed filing financial reports on schedule. On an international basis, what qualifies as revenues isn't so straightforward. The confusion starts even before different reporting standards are taken into consideration. What is reported as "sales" or "revenues" by U.S.-based companies, may be described as "turnover," "total income," "total results" or "total performance" in the financial reports filed in other countries. But whatever it's labeled, for a manufacturer this figure will typically include income that can be attributed to the delivery of goods and services to customers. In compiling the IW1000 rankings, we did not include any gains that go directly to retained earnings, income effects of accounting changes, extraordinary income, or any income relating to discontinued operations. Sorting all of this out for the 1,000-plus companies from the 46 countries that we considered would have been an impossible task without the assistance and resources of Mergent Inc. Located in New York and Charlotte, N.C., Mergent acquired the Financial Information Services division of Moody's Investors Service in 1998. The organization has been collecting and delivering financial information for over 100 years. Mergent's global databases were used to identify all publicly held manufacturing firms meeting IndustryWeek's industry selection criteria. The actual cutoff for inclusion on the 2004 IW 1000 list was just over $1.79 billion in revenues. Under the direction of John Pedernales and lead by Ricardo Angel, with the assistance of Jason Horvat, Melissa Magann, Jennifer Weidlich and Jeff Zazzaro, Mergent obtained the latest financial information on these manufacturing companies. Public relations and editorial consultant Glenn Hasek supplemented this process with substantial additional research. Erik L. Fine, a Charlotte, N.C.-based information consultant, managed the overall data collection effort. The IW1000 includes: Manufacturing companies with a majority of their business in a manufacturing industry. Companies that generated less than 50% of revenues from manufacturing, but more revenue from manufacturing than the lowest-revenue-producing companies on this year's list. Computer software companies whose primary business is the manufacture of software programs. Oil and gas companies that derive at least 50% of their revenues from the refining of oil and gas products. Companies that derive at least 50% of their revenues from the manufacture of mined materials. Because all publicly traded manufacturing companies are eligible, a number of subsidiaries and associate companies that are publicly traded separately from their parent company made the list along with the parent. Mergent collected the financial data elements directly from reports distributed by the corporations in their native currencies as reported in their headquarter countries according to national accounting standards. To accurately reflect the companies' core businesses, only revenue numbers from continuing operations were used. Currency valuations in U.S. dollars were made using exchange rates as of Dec. 26, 2003. Where 2003 data are not available, 2002 data are provided. An asterisk next to the company name on the IW 1000 list indicates that 2002 data were used. Where 2002 figures are given, revenue growth is for 2002-2003. An "NA" appears where data were not available. For companies that have recently changed their fiscal-year end, the most recent 12-month figures have been used. A final word of caution: In addition to using different terms to describe total revenues, accounting standards and terminology vary from country to country. Direct comparison of figures, even when terms appear to be the same, may be misleading. |
http://www.industryweek.com/research.../IW05Enter.asp
http://www.industryweek.com/research...000names05.asp>
Cities with one structure that stands out
Every city has a certain structure or building that stands, out and represents more than anything else in that city. But certain cities have structures that really stand out.
Which structure do you think is the most recognized FOR its city?>
Which structure do you think is the most recognized FOR its city?>
Why are cities and countries centered near the Equator and in Warm climates poorer?
I've always wondered this...if you look at almost all the countries in the world that are situated in hot climated and/or near the Equator, they are poor and undeveloped as cities/countries in cold climates. The whole continent of Africa is a lost cause basically, the Middle East, well, it's the Middle East, Southeast Asia is poor and underdeveloped, the Latin America's are poor, etc. Why is this? Does it say something about humans being exposed to hot weather? Less determined? Less sophisticated? The history?>
Best Night Life
Don't know how to create the poll selection, but I wonder what people would choose amongst world cities as having the best nightlife & restaurants.
From the cities I've been to it would have to be in order of:
Nighlife
1 - NYC
2 - London
3 - Tokyo
4 - Paris
5 - HK
Restaurants
1 - London
2 - Paris
3 - NYC
4 - HK
5 - Tokyo>
From the cities I've been to it would have to be in order of:
Nighlife
1 - NYC
2 - London
3 - Tokyo
4 - Paris
5 - HK
Restaurants
1 - London
2 - Paris
3 - NYC
4 - HK
5 - Tokyo>
what are your Country's biggest contribution to the human civilization
China's 4 greatest inventions
Paper
typography
powder
compass
>
Paper
typography
powder
compass
>
Beijing Update
For me, Beijing is the capital no matter where I am going to.
I have been there serveral times and it is such an amazing city, big and very north to me, the weather and the people, the architecture and the hutong...etc.
Since I went there mostly for vacation or business,
the impression is made up of a continuous clips.
1. The people
People in Beijing is very self-centered and very expressive.
They like to talk about politics from what we say higher standard or just common people, like taxi driver, they like to analyse the political situation but remember don't let them full you around if it is a trip take you only half an hour but after the time you get to your destination, you found it is about one hour, that means you need to pay more.
Well, if you don't speak mandarin,
they may take you a detour sometimes, but you can always telephone the number that display on the texi tag or inside.
And the customer service offers English service. (I think especially the olympic games is approching)
Beijing is the capital of China,
with a total population of about 15 million, except for the local residence with Beijing "Hukou" - Beijing Resident ID.
Beijing gathers the most talented people from the country, there are so many big research centers and famous unversities in Beijing, among them Beijing (Peking) University and Tsinghua University is the most prestigious.
They are shaping the city's history, presence and future, their thoughts and decision making is crucial to the city as to the nation.
There are so many artists in Beijing and Beijing Opera is the National Opera.
Today with more and more foreign business open their offices in Beijing, it is one of the city that with the biggest numbers of foreigners. There are more than 200 nations with diplomatic relations with China, they all have their embassies in the Chinese capital. Every year, there is a huge number of foreign exchange scholars and students come to Beijing to do research and study. More than 10 million tourists from home and aroad visit Beijing for its wonderful and glorious history and culture relics.
There are millions of temporally workers that are migrating from the countryside to the city, Most of them live by the edge of the city in what we call - Cheng Zhong Cun - Villages in the city, where you can find some lowest standard of living in Beijing, but they are the labors who are building the concrete mordern Capital of China.
2. The city
Beijing is so big,
I cannot get around if I don't take car, you can rent bicycles easily but it is mostly for fun or exercises. It is true that there are still a lot of common people take bicycles as the daily transportation tools, it is mostly for a not too far commuting distances.
These years, the number of citizens who own the private cars are increasing rapidly, it is about 1 out of 10 people own the private cars make the city's car up to 2 million more, so get ready to the traffic jams when you come to Beijing, it is normal for a one or two hours traffic congestion during the rush hours.
Beijing's metro system is expanding in a outstanding speed, and you can find there are more than thousands of bus routes are running through the city as we can find from 1 to 900 some bus numbers.
.....more are coming once I have enough time to keep it updates,
you are welcome to put your ideas and impressions on Beijing even if you haven't been to Beijing yet, but remember, I am starting a thread with good purpose of exchange instead of bashing each other.
Let's be objective and again, let's communicate in the right way.
Thanks.>
I have been there serveral times and it is such an amazing city, big and very north to me, the weather and the people, the architecture and the hutong...etc.
Since I went there mostly for vacation or business,
the impression is made up of a continuous clips.
1. The people
People in Beijing is very self-centered and very expressive.
They like to talk about politics from what we say higher standard or just common people, like taxi driver, they like to analyse the political situation but remember don't let them full you around if it is a trip take you only half an hour but after the time you get to your destination, you found it is about one hour, that means you need to pay more.
Well, if you don't speak mandarin,
they may take you a detour sometimes, but you can always telephone the number that display on the texi tag or inside.
And the customer service offers English service. (I think especially the olympic games is approching)
Beijing is the capital of China,
with a total population of about 15 million, except for the local residence with Beijing "Hukou" - Beijing Resident ID.
Beijing gathers the most talented people from the country, there are so many big research centers and famous unversities in Beijing, among them Beijing (Peking) University and Tsinghua University is the most prestigious.
They are shaping the city's history, presence and future, their thoughts and decision making is crucial to the city as to the nation.
There are so many artists in Beijing and Beijing Opera is the National Opera.
Today with more and more foreign business open their offices in Beijing, it is one of the city that with the biggest numbers of foreigners. There are more than 200 nations with diplomatic relations with China, they all have their embassies in the Chinese capital. Every year, there is a huge number of foreign exchange scholars and students come to Beijing to do research and study. More than 10 million tourists from home and aroad visit Beijing for its wonderful and glorious history and culture relics.
There are millions of temporally workers that are migrating from the countryside to the city, Most of them live by the edge of the city in what we call - Cheng Zhong Cun - Villages in the city, where you can find some lowest standard of living in Beijing, but they are the labors who are building the concrete mordern Capital of China.
2. The city
Beijing is so big,
I cannot get around if I don't take car, you can rent bicycles easily but it is mostly for fun or exercises. It is true that there are still a lot of common people take bicycles as the daily transportation tools, it is mostly for a not too far commuting distances.
These years, the number of citizens who own the private cars are increasing rapidly, it is about 1 out of 10 people own the private cars make the city's car up to 2 million more, so get ready to the traffic jams when you come to Beijing, it is normal for a one or two hours traffic congestion during the rush hours.
Beijing's metro system is expanding in a outstanding speed, and you can find there are more than thousands of bus routes are running through the city as we can find from 1 to 900 some bus numbers.
.....more are coming once I have enough time to keep it updates,
you are welcome to put your ideas and impressions on Beijing even if you haven't been to Beijing yet, but remember, I am starting a thread with good purpose of exchange instead of bashing each other.
Let's be objective and again, let's communicate in the right way.
Thanks.
>
GDP Growth of each US state
Very intesresting. Some states like Michigan and Nebraska resemble Germany, while states like Nevada, Arizona, FL, DC, and Hawaii, resemble developing nations in Asia. The West is really booming, and the North East is doing much better than what I imagined.>
London's smallest studio flat - just 7ft by 3ft!
http://www.thisislondon.com/money/ar...ing%20Standard
Bizarrely enough I took a look around this flat earlier this year and nearly decided to go for it. (Drat! I could have been famous!)
I've actually got some videoclips from inside the flat and I can email them to anyone whose interested.
Just email me on johnmason@postmaster.co.uk>
Star Island,miami vs. Palm, dubai
ok so which on of these luxurious exclusive islands do you prefer more.....by the star islands i mean all the islands which make part of the millionaires bay in miami.....and by the palm in dubai i mean the palm jebel ali,which i believe is the smallest of the palms...
star island,miami
palm jebel ali,dubai
>
star island,miami
palm jebel ali,dubai
>
Major blackouts in Europe, Americas
CHRONOLOGY-Major blackouts in Europe, Americas
LONDON, May 25 (Reuters) - Electricity was suddenly cut off to swathes of Russia's capital on Wednesday bringing large sections of the public transport system, including underground train services, to a halt.
Following is a brief chronology of some major outages to strike Europe and the North American power grid.
Nov 9-10, 1965 - "The Great Blackout": power failure knocks out electricity in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New England and parts of Ontario, Canada, leaving estimated 30 million people in dark for up to 13 hours. Cause is traced to failure of high voltage line at Niagara, New York power station.
Aug 13-14, 1977 - Major transmission line fails on hot summer night, plunging New York City into darkness and triggering widespread looting in several neighbourhoods that causes millions of dollars in damage.
Aug 10, 1996 - Major U.S. high voltage line fails on one of year's hottest days, knocking out electricity to about 15 million people in seven states across western U.S. power grid.
Jan 1998 - Slow-moving ice storm pelts Ontario and Quebec, upstate New York state and New England, snapping transmission lines and toppling 1,000 high-voltage towers. About three million people lose electricity, many for up to a month.
2001 - Series of rolling blackouts hit California at height of state's energy crisis, ordered by grid operators to avoid system collapse when supplies ran dangerously low.
2003:
Aug 14 - Power goes out across much of northeastern United States and parts of Canada, hitting major cities such as New York, Detroit, Boston, Cleveland and Ottawa. Utilities scramble to restore service and find cause of outage, which U.S. power officials call worst ever to strike grid.
Aug 28 - Huge blackout knocks out a fifth of London's power for a half hour during evening rush hour in what British grid calls its worst failure in more than 10 years. Electricity network operator blames undersized fuse.
Sept 23 - Broad power blackout strikes southern Sweden and eastern Denmark, crippling industry, airports, trains and bridges. Outage may have hit up to five million consumers, including one to two million in Sweden and between two and three million in Denmark, officials estimate.
Sept 28 - Power cut cripples most of Italy in one of its worst blackouts. Only island of Sardinia and small pockets of mainland escape outage, which authorities blame on breakdown of electricity lines from France and Switzerland hit by storms.
Oct 29 - A blackout strikes the popular Brazilian tourist destination of Florianopolis which lasts two days and which led authorities to declare a state of emergency.
Nov 7 - Most of Chile loses power in a major blackout, snarling rush hour traffic in the capital. The country's central grid goes down.
2004:
July 12 - A power blackout strikes Athens in the worst outage for a decade, leaving the Greek capital and large parts of southern Greece without electricity for hours during a mini heatwave. Trains, buses and the metro were brought to a standstill and hundreds of people were stranded in lifts.
2005:
Jan 23 - A swathe of downtown Toronto loses power for about 11 hours after a flooded water main forced the shutdown of an electrical station. Several major hospitals and hotels were relying on emergency power generators.
May 25 - Following an explosion at a electricity substation, power is suddenly cut off to parts of Moscow bringing large sections of the public transport system, including underground train services, to a halt.>
LONDON, May 25 (Reuters) - Electricity was suddenly cut off to swathes of Russia's capital on Wednesday bringing large sections of the public transport system, including underground train services, to a halt.
Following is a brief chronology of some major outages to strike Europe and the North American power grid.
Nov 9-10, 1965 - "The Great Blackout": power failure knocks out electricity in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New England and parts of Ontario, Canada, leaving estimated 30 million people in dark for up to 13 hours. Cause is traced to failure of high voltage line at Niagara, New York power station.
Aug 13-14, 1977 - Major transmission line fails on hot summer night, plunging New York City into darkness and triggering widespread looting in several neighbourhoods that causes millions of dollars in damage.
Aug 10, 1996 - Major U.S. high voltage line fails on one of year's hottest days, knocking out electricity to about 15 million people in seven states across western U.S. power grid.
Jan 1998 - Slow-moving ice storm pelts Ontario and Quebec, upstate New York state and New England, snapping transmission lines and toppling 1,000 high-voltage towers. About three million people lose electricity, many for up to a month.
2001 - Series of rolling blackouts hit California at height of state's energy crisis, ordered by grid operators to avoid system collapse when supplies ran dangerously low.
2003:
Aug 14 - Power goes out across much of northeastern United States and parts of Canada, hitting major cities such as New York, Detroit, Boston, Cleveland and Ottawa. Utilities scramble to restore service and find cause of outage, which U.S. power officials call worst ever to strike grid.
Aug 28 - Huge blackout knocks out a fifth of London's power for a half hour during evening rush hour in what British grid calls its worst failure in more than 10 years. Electricity network operator blames undersized fuse.
Sept 23 - Broad power blackout strikes southern Sweden and eastern Denmark, crippling industry, airports, trains and bridges. Outage may have hit up to five million consumers, including one to two million in Sweden and between two and three million in Denmark, officials estimate.
Sept 28 - Power cut cripples most of Italy in one of its worst blackouts. Only island of Sardinia and small pockets of mainland escape outage, which authorities blame on breakdown of electricity lines from France and Switzerland hit by storms.
Oct 29 - A blackout strikes the popular Brazilian tourist destination of Florianopolis which lasts two days and which led authorities to declare a state of emergency.
Nov 7 - Most of Chile loses power in a major blackout, snarling rush hour traffic in the capital. The country's central grid goes down.
2004:
July 12 - A power blackout strikes Athens in the worst outage for a decade, leaving the Greek capital and large parts of southern Greece without electricity for hours during a mini heatwave. Trains, buses and the metro were brought to a standstill and hundreds of people were stranded in lifts.
2005:
Jan 23 - A swathe of downtown Toronto loses power for about 11 hours after a flooded water main forced the shutdown of an electrical station. Several major hospitals and hotels were relying on emergency power generators.
May 25 - Following an explosion at a electricity substation, power is suddenly cut off to parts of Moscow bringing large sections of the public transport system, including underground train services, to a halt.>
Cities of North America
I am a city fan, a skyscrapers fan and it's my first topic.
However, i try to learn english because i'am a french people. I live in Montreal.
1) What is the 10 biggest city in north américa? ( City prosper and surburban aera)
2) What is the most cultural city in north america?
3) what is the city who have a better seaport, airport, a industrial center? (Canada and USA)>
However, i try to learn english because i'am a french people. I live in Montreal.
1) What is the 10 biggest city in north américa? ( City prosper and surburban aera)
2) What is the most cultural city in north america?
3) what is the city who have a better seaport, airport, a industrial center? (Canada and USA)>
Which city can be compared the best with your city?
Which city can be compared the best with your city?
I think for Amsterdam it is Stockholm.
They both have about the same population, both have canals/water, both have great architecture and both seem cosy to me.
Other cities that come close: Hamburg or Copenhagen.>
I think for Amsterdam it is Stockholm.
They both have about the same population, both have canals/water, both have great architecture and both seem cosy to me.
Other cities that come close: Hamburg or Copenhagen.>
San Francisco's Next Big Quake?
Next Big Quake? Maybe East of Bay Area
By SCOTT LINDLAW, Associated Press Writer
Sat Mar 25, 6:32 PM ET
New cracks appear in Elke DeMuynck's ceiling every few weeks, zigzagging across her living room, creeping toward the fireplace, veering down the wall. Month after month, year after year, she patches, paints and waits.
"It definitely lets you know your house is constantly shifting," DeMuynck said. So do the gate outside that swings uselessly 2 1/2 inches from its latch, the strange bulges in the street and the geology students who make pilgrimages to her cul-de-sac.
DeMuynck could throw her paint brush from her front stoop and hit the Hayward Fault, which geologists consider the most dangerous in the San Francisco Bay Area, if not the nation. Like others who live here, she gets by on a blend of denial, hope and humor.
It's the geologists, emergency planners and historians who seem to do most of the worrying, even in this year of heightened earthquake awareness for the 100th anniversary of San Francisco's Great Quake of April 18, 1906.
Several faults lurk beneath this region, including the San Andreas Fault on the west side of the Bay area, but geologists say the parallel Hayward on the Bay's east side is the most likely to snap next.
"It is locked and loaded and ready to fire at any time," said U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Tom Brocher.
The Hayward Fault runs through one of the country's most densely populated areas; experts say 2 million people live close enough to be strongly shaken by a big quake.
It slices the earth's crust along a 50-mile swath of suburbia east of San Francisco, from exclusive hilltop manors overlooking the bay to Hayward's humble flatlands. It snakes beneath highway bridges, strip malls, nursing facilities and retirement centers, and it splits the uprights of the football stadium at the University of California, Berkeley.
"A lot of these structures are going to come down," said David P. Schwartz, chief of the USGS's Bay Area Earthquake Hazards Project. He spoke with one foot on either side of the fault, marked by a crack that snaked through a parking lot in Hayward's business district.
Before San Francisco's Great Quake of 1906, on the San Andreas fault, there was the Great Quake of 1868 on the Hayward, a magnitude 6.9 rumbler that killed five people. Severe quakes have happened on the Hayward Fault every 151 years, give or take 23 years, meaning it is now into the danger zone.
Experts forecast the next big one will be in the potentially lethal 6.7 to 7.0 range. The Association of Bay Area Governments estimates it would wipe out some 155,000 housing units, 37,000 in San Francisco alone.
The ground on each side of the fault could shift 3 feet, meaning two objects on opposite sides could be abruptly carried a total of 6 feet apart, Schwartz said.
The Hayward Fault runs directly beneath Eden Jewelry and Loan, but the men working in the pawn shop shrugged when asked if they fear a quake.
"Honestly, it's a non-issue," said Saul Gevertz, 64.
The building was renovated about five years ago and now is essentially an enormous steel cage, designed to flex in an earthquake without breaking, said one of the building's co-owners, Darrell Davidson.
"I'm not worried-worried. I've thought about it," said Davidson, 47. "I think we're in good shape. I hope to God we are."
Nickey Avila acknowledged some alarm when informed that the fractures in the pavement outside his house were caused by the fault.
"I'm thinking one day it's going to move, but if I survive it, I'll be able to say I survived one of the biggest quakes of all time," said Avila, 23.
The quake could come at any moment.
"If it moved while we were walking, it wouldn't surprise me," Schwartz said during a tour of Hayward's misaligned street curbs, warped concrete gutters and abandoned buildings. They include the former Hayward City Hall, deemed too dangerous to occupy because it's right on the fault.
The City Hall was built in 1930, during an unusually quake-free period after the Great Quake of 1906 released stress on all faults in the region.
A "virtual tour" developed by the USGS shows the Hayward Fault slashing through identifiable structures, like DeMuynck's house, but she is resolved not to worry.
"There's dangers all around us, all the time, so if we thought about those dangers all the time, we wouldn't have anything else to think about," said DeMuynck, 62. "We just come home and say, 'The house is still here.' We're OK for another day."
___
On the Net:
USGS Bay Area Earthquake Hazards Project: http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/cencal/
Northern California Quake Hazards: http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/
Great Quake Centennial: http://www.1906centennial.org
Shaking Hazard Maps: http://www.abag.ca.gov/bayarea/eqmaps/pickcity.html>
By SCOTT LINDLAW, Associated Press Writer
Sat Mar 25, 6:32 PM ET
New cracks appear in Elke DeMuynck's ceiling every few weeks, zigzagging across her living room, creeping toward the fireplace, veering down the wall. Month after month, year after year, she patches, paints and waits.
"It definitely lets you know your house is constantly shifting," DeMuynck said. So do the gate outside that swings uselessly 2 1/2 inches from its latch, the strange bulges in the street and the geology students who make pilgrimages to her cul-de-sac.
DeMuynck could throw her paint brush from her front stoop and hit the Hayward Fault, which geologists consider the most dangerous in the San Francisco Bay Area, if not the nation. Like others who live here, she gets by on a blend of denial, hope and humor.
It's the geologists, emergency planners and historians who seem to do most of the worrying, even in this year of heightened earthquake awareness for the 100th anniversary of San Francisco's Great Quake of April 18, 1906.
Several faults lurk beneath this region, including the San Andreas Fault on the west side of the Bay area, but geologists say the parallel Hayward on the Bay's east side is the most likely to snap next.
"It is locked and loaded and ready to fire at any time," said U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Tom Brocher.
The Hayward Fault runs through one of the country's most densely populated areas; experts say 2 million people live close enough to be strongly shaken by a big quake.
It slices the earth's crust along a 50-mile swath of suburbia east of San Francisco, from exclusive hilltop manors overlooking the bay to Hayward's humble flatlands. It snakes beneath highway bridges, strip malls, nursing facilities and retirement centers, and it splits the uprights of the football stadium at the University of California, Berkeley.
"A lot of these structures are going to come down," said David P. Schwartz, chief of the USGS's Bay Area Earthquake Hazards Project. He spoke with one foot on either side of the fault, marked by a crack that snaked through a parking lot in Hayward's business district.
Before San Francisco's Great Quake of 1906, on the San Andreas fault, there was the Great Quake of 1868 on the Hayward, a magnitude 6.9 rumbler that killed five people. Severe quakes have happened on the Hayward Fault every 151 years, give or take 23 years, meaning it is now into the danger zone.
Experts forecast the next big one will be in the potentially lethal 6.7 to 7.0 range. The Association of Bay Area Governments estimates it would wipe out some 155,000 housing units, 37,000 in San Francisco alone.
The ground on each side of the fault could shift 3 feet, meaning two objects on opposite sides could be abruptly carried a total of 6 feet apart, Schwartz said.
The Hayward Fault runs directly beneath Eden Jewelry and Loan, but the men working in the pawn shop shrugged when asked if they fear a quake.
"Honestly, it's a non-issue," said Saul Gevertz, 64.
The building was renovated about five years ago and now is essentially an enormous steel cage, designed to flex in an earthquake without breaking, said one of the building's co-owners, Darrell Davidson.
"I'm not worried-worried. I've thought about it," said Davidson, 47. "I think we're in good shape. I hope to God we are."
Nickey Avila acknowledged some alarm when informed that the fractures in the pavement outside his house were caused by the fault.
"I'm thinking one day it's going to move, but if I survive it, I'll be able to say I survived one of the biggest quakes of all time," said Avila, 23.
The quake could come at any moment.
"If it moved while we were walking, it wouldn't surprise me," Schwartz said during a tour of Hayward's misaligned street curbs, warped concrete gutters and abandoned buildings. They include the former Hayward City Hall, deemed too dangerous to occupy because it's right on the fault.
The City Hall was built in 1930, during an unusually quake-free period after the Great Quake of 1906 released stress on all faults in the region.
A "virtual tour" developed by the USGS shows the Hayward Fault slashing through identifiable structures, like DeMuynck's house, but she is resolved not to worry.
"There's dangers all around us, all the time, so if we thought about those dangers all the time, we wouldn't have anything else to think about," said DeMuynck, 62. "We just come home and say, 'The house is still here.' We're OK for another day."
___
On the Net:
USGS Bay Area Earthquake Hazards Project: http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/cencal/
Northern California Quake Hazards: http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/
Great Quake Centennial: http://www.1906centennial.org
Shaking Hazard Maps: http://www.abag.ca.gov/bayarea/eqmaps/pickcity.html>
World Competitiveness Scoreboard 2005
World Competitiveness Scoreboard 2005
The World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) is the worldÂ's most renowned and comprehensive annual report on the competitiveness of nations, ranking and analyzing how a nationÂ's environment creates and sustains the competitiveness of enterprises.
- Features 60 national and regional economies
- Overall ranking; rankings by population size; rankings by peer group and regional rankings
- Includes 314 different criteria, grouped into four Competitiveness Factors
- Hard data are taken from international and regional organizations and private institutes
- Survey data are drawn from the Executive Opinion Survey (4,000 respondents)
- Aggregates data over a 5-year period
- Ensures accuracy through collaboration with 57 Partner Institutes worldwide
- Published without interruption since 1989
TAXES AND COMPETITIVENESS – IS THERE ANY LINK?
(All quotes can be attributed to Professor Stéphane Garelli, IMD)
Â"Many business and political leaders intuitively feel that lower taxes sustain competitiveness by boosting investment and personal spending. It may be true. However, the findings of the World Competitiveness Yearbook 2005 indicate a subtler link. The competitiveness of Luxembourg, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Belgium was good in 2004 – the highest economic growth rates in continental Europe – despite a significant overall tax pressure (above 40% of GDP). At the same time, the US, Australia, Estonia, Ireland and the Slovak Republic had remarkable growth rates while relying on much lower taxes (between 25% and 34% of GDP). Finally, Japan and Switzerland have both shown very weak economic growth over the past ten years in spite of low total tax pressure (27% and 30% respectively)! Clearly any link between taxation levels and competitiveness performance is far from evident at first glance.
The first observation is that competitiveness reacts differently to the various types of taxes that are levied. A direct impact is more easily established between corporate taxation and competitiveness than with personal, social or indirect taxes. As a consequence, Northern European nations heavily tax personal income and consumption but spare corporate profits.
The second observation is that taxes are perceived in general as fuelling excessive government spending. Here again, a direct correlation with competitiveness is hard to establish. Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland or the UK display high levels of government spending, in excess of 20% of the GDP, and high competitiveness performance. At the other end of the spectrum, only 11% of the GDP of Singapore and Hong Kong goes towards government spending and they also have a top competitiveness performance. It would appear that the efficiency and quality of government expenditure matter more than the size.
So what? Tax policy is no substitute for competitiveness. The level and type of taxation can enhance or hinder competitiveness, but cannot create it. The real Â"enginesÂ" of competitiveness are science, technology, entrepreneurship, finance, logistics and education. Tax still matters in as much as it is part of the overall cost of doing business- one of the major reasons why companies relocate abroad. Thus, the real impact of taxes is on job creation or destruction. A higher cost of business can be somewhat offset by improving the ease of doing business. Thus, it would appear that as far as competitiveness is concerned, the simplicity of the tax system is just as important as the level of taxation per se. In this regard, a simpler flat tax system may be more valuable in the long run than a complex low tax regime.Â"
Ranking
1. United States
2. Hong Kong
3. Singapore
4. Iceland
5. Canada
6. Finland
7. Denmark
8. Switzerland
9. Australia
10. Luxembourg
11. Taiwan
12. Ireland
13. Netherlands
14. Sweden
15. Norway
16. New Zealand
17. Austria
18. Bavaria
19. Chile
20. Zhejiang
21. Japan
22. UK
23. Germany
24. Belgium
25. Israel
Full Ranking : http://www.imd.ch/documents/wcc/cont...erallgraph.pdf
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE WORLD COMPETITIVENESS LANDSCAPE IN 2005
The World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) is the worldÂ's most renowned and comprehensive annual report on the competitiveness of nations, ranking and analyzing how a nationÂ's environment creates and sustains the competitiveness of enterprises.
- Features 60 national and regional economies
- Overall ranking; rankings by population size; rankings by peer group and regional rankings
- Includes 314 different criteria, grouped into four Competitiveness Factors
- Hard data are taken from international and regional organizations and private institutes
- Survey data are drawn from the Executive Opinion Survey (4,000 respondents)
- Aggregates data over a 5-year period
- Ensures accuracy through collaboration with 57 Partner Institutes worldwide
- Published without interruption since 1989
TAXES AND COMPETITIVENESS – IS THERE ANY LINK?
(All quotes can be attributed to Professor Stéphane Garelli, IMD)
Â"Many business and political leaders intuitively feel that lower taxes sustain competitiveness by boosting investment and personal spending. It may be true. However, the findings of the World Competitiveness Yearbook 2005 indicate a subtler link. The competitiveness of Luxembourg, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Belgium was good in 2004 – the highest economic growth rates in continental Europe – despite a significant overall tax pressure (above 40% of GDP). At the same time, the US, Australia, Estonia, Ireland and the Slovak Republic had remarkable growth rates while relying on much lower taxes (between 25% and 34% of GDP). Finally, Japan and Switzerland have both shown very weak economic growth over the past ten years in spite of low total tax pressure (27% and 30% respectively)! Clearly any link between taxation levels and competitiveness performance is far from evident at first glance.
The first observation is that competitiveness reacts differently to the various types of taxes that are levied. A direct impact is more easily established between corporate taxation and competitiveness than with personal, social or indirect taxes. As a consequence, Northern European nations heavily tax personal income and consumption but spare corporate profits.
The second observation is that taxes are perceived in general as fuelling excessive government spending. Here again, a direct correlation with competitiveness is hard to establish. Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland or the UK display high levels of government spending, in excess of 20% of the GDP, and high competitiveness performance. At the other end of the spectrum, only 11% of the GDP of Singapore and Hong Kong goes towards government spending and they also have a top competitiveness performance. It would appear that the efficiency and quality of government expenditure matter more than the size.
So what? Tax policy is no substitute for competitiveness. The level and type of taxation can enhance or hinder competitiveness, but cannot create it. The real Â"enginesÂ" of competitiveness are science, technology, entrepreneurship, finance, logistics and education. Tax still matters in as much as it is part of the overall cost of doing business- one of the major reasons why companies relocate abroad. Thus, the real impact of taxes is on job creation or destruction. A higher cost of business can be somewhat offset by improving the ease of doing business. Thus, it would appear that as far as competitiveness is concerned, the simplicity of the tax system is just as important as the level of taxation per se. In this regard, a simpler flat tax system may be more valuable in the long run than a complex low tax regime.Â"
Ranking
1. United States
2. Hong Kong
3. Singapore
4. Iceland
5. Canada
6. Finland
7. Denmark
8. Switzerland
9. Australia
10. Luxembourg
11. Taiwan
12. Ireland
13. Netherlands
14. Sweden
15. Norway
16. New Zealand
17. Austria
18. Bavaria
19. Chile
20. Zhejiang
21. Japan
22. UK
23. Germany
24. Belgium
25. Israel
Full Ranking : http://www.imd.ch/documents/wcc/cont...erallgraph.pdf
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE WORLD COMPETITIVENESS LANDSCAPE IN 2005
- 1. The uneven growth rates between Asia, the US, Latin America and Europe, (but also inside regions such as between Eastern and Western Europe) continue to create economic and political tensions.
- 2. Persistent deficits in the US maintain a weak dollar and exacerbate the instability of currencies now divided into three main monetary zones: Dollar, Euro and Yen.
- 3. AsiaÂ's strong appetite for raw materials and the US need for capital increase the prices for commodities and money.
- 4. A rise in interest rates, especially in the US, can in turn jeopardize economic growth and hamper the borrowing capacity of many emerging nations.
- 5. As a consequence, inflation that had completely disappeared because of the intensity of global competition resurfaces as a source of concern.
- 6. A growing gap is also developing between the performance of the global economy, which is good, and the domestic sector, which is less buoyant, especially in Europe.
- 7. A similar disparity occurs between Anglo-Saxon economies, which thrive on consumption, and sometimes debt, and other nations mainly in Continental Europe and Asia, which prefer to thrive on investment and saving.
- 8. A significant disparity in labor costs among industrialized and emerging nations continues to be the main factor for the relocation of activities worldwide.
Which country is the KING of pop culture in each continent?
For North America it's USA no doubt about it.
For Asia, i think it's South Korea, it's movie stars and singers are conquering Asia, a Korean actor become so popular in Japan that many Japanese would visit Korea to see that actor.
For Europe, maybe UK? it sure has some great bands. But not many countries in europe have english as their first language, but that shouldn't be a big problem i guess.
Latin America: mexico? but famous mexico celebrities are all in Hollywood, that's a minus. What about Brazil? and Central American countries?
and what about Africa?>
For Asia, i think it's South Korea, it's movie stars and singers are conquering Asia, a Korean actor become so popular in Japan that many Japanese would visit Korea to see that actor.
For Europe, maybe UK? it sure has some great bands. But not many countries in europe have english as their first language, but that shouldn't be a big problem i guess.
Latin America: mexico? but famous mexico celebrities are all in Hollywood, that's a minus. What about Brazil? and Central American countries?
and what about Africa?>
Top 10 Towers Proposed/Built In Your City
What are the top 10 towers proposed and built in your city.
Birmingham - Approved-Proposed-U/C-Built
1. Arena Central 187m
2. BT Tower 152m
3. Broad Street Tower 125m
4. HCT 122m
5. Alpha Tower 100m
6. Joseph Chamberlain Clock Tower 100m
7. Sentinel Tower 1 90m
8. Sentinel Tower 2 90m
9. Orion Tower 90m
10. Park Central Tower 90m>
Birmingham - Approved-Proposed-U/C-Built
1. Arena Central 187m
2. BT Tower 152m
3. Broad Street Tower 125m
4. HCT 122m
5. Alpha Tower 100m
6. Joseph Chamberlain Clock Tower 100m
7. Sentinel Tower 1 90m
8. Sentinel Tower 2 90m
9. Orion Tower 90m
10. Park Central Tower 90m>
Satellite Cities / New Towns
Every major urban area have satellite cities or new town in them. Satellite cities are defined as smaller municipalities that are near a major city and are part of large urban areas. The difference between them and suburbs is that they have their own municipal governments.
New Towns on the other hand are newly developed communities which are outside the city.
HK has several new towns. One of them is Tung Chung which is in Lantau Island near the airport. This new town was developed during the late 90s along with the construction of Chek Lap Kok. Today, it has several private flats, government housing estates and two shopping malls. The town is connected with the highway and the MTR. Most of the people living in Tung Chung work in the airport or are flight attendents.
Tung Chung, Hong Kong
Any new towns / satellite cities around your city?>
New Towns on the other hand are newly developed communities which are outside the city.
HK has several new towns. One of them is Tung Chung which is in Lantau Island near the airport. This new town was developed during the late 90s along with the construction of Chek Lap Kok. Today, it has several private flats, government housing estates and two shopping malls. The town is connected with the highway and the MTR. Most of the people living in Tung Chung work in the airport or are flight attendents.
Tung Chung, Hong Kong
Any new towns / satellite cities around your city?>
WHICH REGION HAS THE BEST COLLECTIVE SKYLINE?
Which global region has the best collective skyline?
ANGLO-AMERICA - (USA/Canada) Major Cities: Chicago, New York City, Toronto, Vancouver, etc.
ASIA - Major Cities: Bangkok, Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo, etc.
EUROPE - Major Cities: Benidorm, Frankfurt, London, Paris, etc.
LATIN AMERICA - Major Cities: Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Panama City, Sao Paulo, etc.
OCEANIA - (Australia/New Zealand) - Major Cities: Auckland, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, etc.
I excluded Africa and the Caribbean. If you feel that either of those regions offer a more formidable collective skyline than the top 5, check the "other" box on the bottom of the poll.>
ANGLO-AMERICA - (USA/Canada) Major Cities: Chicago, New York City, Toronto, Vancouver, etc.
ASIA - Major Cities: Bangkok, Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo, etc.
EUROPE - Major Cities: Benidorm, Frankfurt, London, Paris, etc.
LATIN AMERICA - Major Cities: Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Panama City, Sao Paulo, etc.
OCEANIA - (Australia/New Zealand) - Major Cities: Auckland, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, etc.
I excluded Africa and the Caribbean. If you feel that either of those regions offer a more formidable collective skyline than the top 5, check the "other" box on the bottom of the poll.>
New York Leads Politeness Trend? Get Outta Here!
New York Leads Politeness Trend? Get Outta Here!
Resting your feet on a subway seat is subject to a $50 fine in New York, just one of several measures
that aim to make the city a more civil place.
By WINNIE HU
Published: April 16, 2006
New Yorkers are known to throw things onto the field at Yankee Stadium when the Red Sox are in town. At times they boo their own mayor at parades. Some refuse to surrender their seats to pregnant women on the subway, while others cut in line and never apologize.
But somehow a city whose residents have long been scorned for their churlish behavior is now being praised for adopting rules and laws that govern personal conduct, making New York an unlikely model for legislating courtesy and decorum.
From tighter restrictions on sports fans and car alarms to a new $50 fine on subway riders who rest their feet on a seat, New York's efforts to curb everyday annoyances and foster more civility among its residents have increasingly been studied and debated far from home.
When Chicago's aldermen wanted to keep rowdy fans from descending upon Wrigley Field, they looked to New York, Which has arrested 11 people at Yankee and Shea Stadiums under a 2004 law that makes it illegal to interfere with professional sports events.
When Boston and San Francisco lawmakers considered silencing cellphones in their movie theaters and playhouses, they, too, looked to New York, which imposed a $50 fine in 2003 on callers who brazenly dial up during movies, concerts and Broadway shows. And when community groups from Toronto to Washington looked for new ways to fight graffiti, they turned to New York, which passed a law in January that makes building owners responsible, for the first time, for cleaning up after the vandals.
With its precipitous drops in crime, New York has increasingly been able to turn its attention to policing offensive behavior, from the mere faux pas to outright misconduct that puts others at risk. And that has put it on the front line of a national crackdown on incivility.
"There's no excuse for that kind of thing," said Alderman Edward M. Burke, a leader of the Chicago City Council, who has introduced a sports fan law based on New York's. "I think it's a good idea to remind the general public of what is expected of them."
Letitia Baldrige, the White House social secretary during the Kennedy years, could not agree more. Ms. Baldrige, a former New Yorker, has heard more than her share of bellyaching over other people's rudeness.
"Most people just seem to ignore common sense and common courtesy so it does have to be legislated," she said. "To have this happen in New York is going to inspire a lot of other people. I cannot applaud it enough. My hands are tired from clapping."
The city has made sputtering attempts in the past to coax civility out of its residents. During the 2004 Republican convention, it gave protesters buttons saying "peaceful political activists." But nearly 1,800 were arrested that week. The famed Gray's Papaya hot dog chain tries a similar tack, selling "Polite New Yorker" buttons for $1. About 60 are sold a week, but most go to tourists who think they are a joke, says the owner, Nicholas Gray.
"I try to do my part," said Mr. Gray, who requires his employees to wear the button on their uniform even though he does not. "I'm not always that polite. I'm just another New Yorker."
And throughout New York's history, its political leaders have sought to restore order to the chaotic streetscape and fine-tune urban life. Fiorello H. La Guardia once banned street performances involving monkeys. Decades later, Rudolph W. Giuliani's campaign against squeegee men came to embody his philosophy that fighting crime began with the smaller, quality-of-life offenses.
But sometimes, the city's attempts to enforce the laws illuminated its hard-nosed nature: Mayor Edward I. Koch's favorite parking sign warned motorists: "Don't Even THINK of Parking Here."
Under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the city has increasingly focused on social policies that were once thought to be beyond the realm of government. Mr. Bloomberg was largely responsible for the city's smoking ban, overcoming opposition from the tobacco companies and their lobbyists to clear bars, restaurants and nightclubs of a potential health hazard as well as inconsiderate smokers.
The mayor also overhauled the city's noise code for the first time in three decades, taking aim at loud nightclubs, barking dogs and even that staple of summer, the Mister Softee jingle, all in the interests of keeping the neighborhood peace.
Given the successes, some New York officials are moving to take things even further. Councilman Peter F. Vallone Jr., of Queens, got the Council to expand his sports fan law last fall to include penalties for those who throw things onto the field or spit at the players. The 11 people who have been arrested under the original law, all during Yankees and Mets games, include one man who was sentenced to nine weekends in jail, fined $2,000, and ordered to stay out of Shea Stadium for three years.
This month, Mr. Vallone, the chairman of the Council's Public Safety Committee, introduced another measure that he calls a lesson in Parenting 101: Children under the age of 10 would not be allowed in movie theaters after 10 p.m., to safeguard both the welfare of the children and the enjoyment of the other moviegoers.
It is not the first time that the city has tried to teach children — and their parents — how to behave in public. Under a code of conduct mandated by the Council since 2003, parents can be ejected from Little League games for unsportsmanlike behavior and allowed to return only after taking an anger-management class.
"There's nothing that makes you want to crawl under the bleachers faster than some parent screaming at a kid — even their own kid — in an abusive manner," said Councilman Lewis A. Fidler, of Brooklyn, who sponsored that law.
The crackdowns have left others wondering if the metropolis once known as Fun City is fun no more.
"It sounds like your City Council is getting really uptight," said Aaron Peskin, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, who, along with his colleagues, has nevertheless looked to New York's laws for guidance. "It all seems a little overwrought."
Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, has not yet raised objections to these laws. But she cautioned that lawmakers could interfere with privacy rights or impose censorship when they, say, imposed a movie curfew on young children. "Legislation to set bedtime for Bonzo, or to interfere with how late parents can keep their child out at night, is a violation of privacy," she said.
Still, many New Yorkers say that the city is becoming a more civil place. The sports fan law, for one, is praised by Paul Lo Duca and other Mets players during a pregame video shown at Shea Stadium.
In the past, rowdy fans were simply escorted out of the stadium and released, which was "akin to a traffic summons," but now that they are faced with jail time, they think twice about misbehaving, said Robert J. Kasdon, the Mets' vice president of security. "It's the most effective law of its kind," he said. "Baseball is a family event, and this law helps us maintain that atmosphere."
Not all the city's laws have been as effective. For example, the ban on cellphones in movie theaters does not appear to ever have been enforced by the police. Some Council members and movie theater managers, though, contend that just having the law is enough in most cases to persuade moviegoers to turn off their phones.
But Peter Post, the director of the Emily Post Institute, which instructs schools, businesses and government organizations on etiquette, said that law or no law, good behavior could not simply be forced on unwilling people. Instead, he suggested that New York invest in a public relations campaign that reflected the sentiments of its residents.
"I think we've reached a tipping point with rudeness," he said. "Instead of people quietly putting up with rude behavior, they're finally saying, 'I don't have to put up with that anymore.' "
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company>
Resting your feet on a subway seat is subject to a $50 fine in New York, just one of several measures
that aim to make the city a more civil place.
By WINNIE HU
Published: April 16, 2006
New Yorkers are known to throw things onto the field at Yankee Stadium when the Red Sox are in town. At times they boo their own mayor at parades. Some refuse to surrender their seats to pregnant women on the subway, while others cut in line and never apologize.
But somehow a city whose residents have long been scorned for their churlish behavior is now being praised for adopting rules and laws that govern personal conduct, making New York an unlikely model for legislating courtesy and decorum.
From tighter restrictions on sports fans and car alarms to a new $50 fine on subway riders who rest their feet on a seat, New York's efforts to curb everyday annoyances and foster more civility among its residents have increasingly been studied and debated far from home.
When Chicago's aldermen wanted to keep rowdy fans from descending upon Wrigley Field, they looked to New York, Which has arrested 11 people at Yankee and Shea Stadiums under a 2004 law that makes it illegal to interfere with professional sports events.
When Boston and San Francisco lawmakers considered silencing cellphones in their movie theaters and playhouses, they, too, looked to New York, which imposed a $50 fine in 2003 on callers who brazenly dial up during movies, concerts and Broadway shows. And when community groups from Toronto to Washington looked for new ways to fight graffiti, they turned to New York, which passed a law in January that makes building owners responsible, for the first time, for cleaning up after the vandals.
With its precipitous drops in crime, New York has increasingly been able to turn its attention to policing offensive behavior, from the mere faux pas to outright misconduct that puts others at risk. And that has put it on the front line of a national crackdown on incivility.
"There's no excuse for that kind of thing," said Alderman Edward M. Burke, a leader of the Chicago City Council, who has introduced a sports fan law based on New York's. "I think it's a good idea to remind the general public of what is expected of them."
Letitia Baldrige, the White House social secretary during the Kennedy years, could not agree more. Ms. Baldrige, a former New Yorker, has heard more than her share of bellyaching over other people's rudeness.
"Most people just seem to ignore common sense and common courtesy so it does have to be legislated," she said. "To have this happen in New York is going to inspire a lot of other people. I cannot applaud it enough. My hands are tired from clapping."
The city has made sputtering attempts in the past to coax civility out of its residents. During the 2004 Republican convention, it gave protesters buttons saying "peaceful political activists." But nearly 1,800 were arrested that week. The famed Gray's Papaya hot dog chain tries a similar tack, selling "Polite New Yorker" buttons for $1. About 60 are sold a week, but most go to tourists who think they are a joke, says the owner, Nicholas Gray.
"I try to do my part," said Mr. Gray, who requires his employees to wear the button on their uniform even though he does not. "I'm not always that polite. I'm just another New Yorker."
And throughout New York's history, its political leaders have sought to restore order to the chaotic streetscape and fine-tune urban life. Fiorello H. La Guardia once banned street performances involving monkeys. Decades later, Rudolph W. Giuliani's campaign against squeegee men came to embody his philosophy that fighting crime began with the smaller, quality-of-life offenses.
But sometimes, the city's attempts to enforce the laws illuminated its hard-nosed nature: Mayor Edward I. Koch's favorite parking sign warned motorists: "Don't Even THINK of Parking Here."
Under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the city has increasingly focused on social policies that were once thought to be beyond the realm of government. Mr. Bloomberg was largely responsible for the city's smoking ban, overcoming opposition from the tobacco companies and their lobbyists to clear bars, restaurants and nightclubs of a potential health hazard as well as inconsiderate smokers.
The mayor also overhauled the city's noise code for the first time in three decades, taking aim at loud nightclubs, barking dogs and even that staple of summer, the Mister Softee jingle, all in the interests of keeping the neighborhood peace.
Given the successes, some New York officials are moving to take things even further. Councilman Peter F. Vallone Jr., of Queens, got the Council to expand his sports fan law last fall to include penalties for those who throw things onto the field or spit at the players. The 11 people who have been arrested under the original law, all during Yankees and Mets games, include one man who was sentenced to nine weekends in jail, fined $2,000, and ordered to stay out of Shea Stadium for three years.
This month, Mr. Vallone, the chairman of the Council's Public Safety Committee, introduced another measure that he calls a lesson in Parenting 101: Children under the age of 10 would not be allowed in movie theaters after 10 p.m., to safeguard both the welfare of the children and the enjoyment of the other moviegoers.
It is not the first time that the city has tried to teach children — and their parents — how to behave in public. Under a code of conduct mandated by the Council since 2003, parents can be ejected from Little League games for unsportsmanlike behavior and allowed to return only after taking an anger-management class.
"There's nothing that makes you want to crawl under the bleachers faster than some parent screaming at a kid — even their own kid — in an abusive manner," said Councilman Lewis A. Fidler, of Brooklyn, who sponsored that law.
The crackdowns have left others wondering if the metropolis once known as Fun City is fun no more.
"It sounds like your City Council is getting really uptight," said Aaron Peskin, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, who, along with his colleagues, has nevertheless looked to New York's laws for guidance. "It all seems a little overwrought."
Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, has not yet raised objections to these laws. But she cautioned that lawmakers could interfere with privacy rights or impose censorship when they, say, imposed a movie curfew on young children. "Legislation to set bedtime for Bonzo, or to interfere with how late parents can keep their child out at night, is a violation of privacy," she said.
Still, many New Yorkers say that the city is becoming a more civil place. The sports fan law, for one, is praised by Paul Lo Duca and other Mets players during a pregame video shown at Shea Stadium.
In the past, rowdy fans were simply escorted out of the stadium and released, which was "akin to a traffic summons," but now that they are faced with jail time, they think twice about misbehaving, said Robert J. Kasdon, the Mets' vice president of security. "It's the most effective law of its kind," he said. "Baseball is a family event, and this law helps us maintain that atmosphere."
Not all the city's laws have been as effective. For example, the ban on cellphones in movie theaters does not appear to ever have been enforced by the police. Some Council members and movie theater managers, though, contend that just having the law is enough in most cases to persuade moviegoers to turn off their phones.
But Peter Post, the director of the Emily Post Institute, which instructs schools, businesses and government organizations on etiquette, said that law or no law, good behavior could not simply be forced on unwilling people. Instead, he suggested that New York invest in a public relations campaign that reflected the sentiments of its residents.
"I think we've reached a tipping point with rudeness," he said. "Instead of people quietly putting up with rude behavior, they're finally saying, 'I don't have to put up with that anymore.' "
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company>
What DON'T You Like About Your City's Skyline
Is there anything you don't like about your city's skyline, whether it be a particular building, the dominance of a certain architectural style, lack of height, etc.?>
Favorite terrain for cities
If you had to chose a city on or around a coast, mountains, inland waterways, deserts and plains, what would you chose? I will say the coast, as long as it hasn't already had apartments been built there (which really puts me off Miami and the Gold Coast in Australia).>
Your Country's/City Residential Landmark
just wandering what is ur city/country most stylish,exclusive,highest,landmark,icon aprtment/condominium?
Such as:
Singapore - The Sail @ Marina Bay (world tallest 10 apartment in the world)
- River Gate (Singapore first residential landmark)
Australia/Melbourne - Eureka (world tallest apartment)
Indonesia/Jakarta - The Peak (world tallest twin apartment)
Malaysia/Kuala Lumpur - The Troika
please post the website and renderings or pics
thanks!>
Such as:
Singapore - The Sail @ Marina Bay (world tallest 10 apartment in the world)
- River Gate (Singapore first residential landmark)
Australia/Melbourne - Eureka (world tallest apartment)
Indonesia/Jakarta - The Peak (world tallest twin apartment)
Malaysia/Kuala Lumpur - The Troika
please post the website and renderings or pics
thanks!>
Which City Do You Hate The Most????????????????????
Which City Do You Hate The Most????????????????????
and why????
is there a reason???>
and why????
is there a reason???>
critical mass in budapest
twice a year in budapest theres a cycling demonstration for reduce pollution and
using alternative transportation. the event called critical mass. i know many cities in the world has the same on 22nd of april every year. here are some photos of the budapest one.
http://index.hu/gal?dir=0604/kult/bringa/
http://criticalmass.hu>
using alternative transportation. the event called critical mass. i know many cities in the world has the same on 22nd of april every year. here are some photos of the budapest one.
http://index.hu/gal?dir=0604/kult/bringa/
http://criticalmass.hu>
Which city is the slum capital of the world?
Which city is the slum capital of the world?
I think it is Karachi ,but unsure
>
I think it is Karachi ,but unsure
>
is berlin a Megacity?
what u think ? is Berlin for YOU a megacity yes or no ? a pair of facts about BERLIN : Berlin is the capital of germany
- Berlin is the politic "powerhouse" of germany
-berlin have around 6000 restaurants and a few hundered cafes and bars
-it has a small but skyline :the potsdamer platz since 1999
-berlin in his city limits have around 900 km 2
berlin in his city limits have 3,4 milion inhabitans ,the urban core have 4,2 millions (citypopulation . de)
-berlin havse regional trains m,suburban trains and underground trains
-b. have Buses, metro buses, metro trams ,trams and ferries on the river havel
-b. have rich (Zehlendorf ,dahlem,Wilmersdorf,froghnau,hermsdorf,kladow,karlshorst...) and poor (Hohenschönhausen,lichteberg north ,Hellersdorf , marzahn ,Kreuzber,Neukölln north , Moabit ,Wedding ,Schöneberg norh ...) districts
-in the Southwest of Berlin lies Potsdam the beautiful capital of the state brandenburg 120000 inh. ) it is practically the biggest "suburb" of berlin , but in reality one of the most beautiful cities in eastern germany (castles like charlottenhof , sanscouci, babelsberg and lakes like Heiliger see)
soo what you think ist berlin for you a megacity ? , please poll and write your statement here ..... :-) >
- Berlin is the politic "powerhouse" of germany
-berlin have around 6000 restaurants
and a few hundered cafes and bars -it has a small but
skyline :the potsdamer platz since 1999-berlin in his city limits have around 900 km 2
berlin in his city limits have 3,4 milion inhabitans ,the urban core have 4,2 millions (citypopulation . de)
-berlin havse regional trains m,suburban trains and underground trains
-b. have Buses, metro buses, metro trams ,trams and ferries on the river havel
-b. have rich (Zehlendorf ,dahlem,Wilmersdorf,froghnau,hermsdorf,kladow,karlshorst...) and poor (Hohenschönhausen,lichteberg north ,Hellersdorf , marzahn ,Kreuzber,Neukölln north , Moabit ,Wedding ,Schöneberg norh ...) districts
-in the Southwest of Berlin lies Potsdam the beautiful capital of the state brandenburg 120000 inh. ) it is practically the biggest "suburb" of berlin , but in reality one of the most beautiful cities in eastern germany (castles like charlottenhof , sanscouci, babelsberg and lakes like Heiliger see)
soo what you think ist berlin for you a megacity ? , please poll and write your statement here ..... :-)
>
What makes a city one of the world's greatest?
SSC forumers what do you feel makes a city, one of the world's best or spectacular cities?>
Skywalk In Charlotte, NC
I was Just Curious if anyone knows about any Skywalk or Underground tunnel system in Charlottes downtown area. I can't seem to find much with a google search. If there is any... a map would be helpful. thanks.>
NYC, Chicago, LA, San Fran, and...
New Orleans.
I have long maintained that there five particular U.S cities that, totally annihilated by natural or human-induced tragedy, would send the greatest of all shock waves throughout this country and the world that would forever change us all forever.
If not for the peripheral impact (oil devastation in the Gulf in the case of Katrina, for instance) that a loss would cause; but also for the uniqueness and "irreplaceability" of these five singularly unique cities which matter greatly to large contengencies from all walks of life all across the world. All cities are important, but only a select few are revered, relevant, and as beloved as these.
Unfortunately, we are on the precipace of learning New Orleans' nationwide as well as worldwide importance should it be completely destroyed. It might not be a financial and economic hub on the order of the other four, but it more than makes up for that in spades as an unparalleled historical, cultural, entertainment mecca WITH VIBE today as well as yesterday. There is a spirit down there that affects not only the Deep South which it resides, but also the entire globe.
Lazzeiez le bon temps rouler! Dear God please save the 'Nolia. Let us all pray for the souls of those Orleanians whose forebears erected such a grande dame. Yeah you right.
>
I have long maintained that there five particular U.S cities that, totally annihilated by natural or human-induced tragedy, would send the greatest of all shock waves throughout this country and the world that would forever change us all forever.
If not for the peripheral impact (oil devastation in the Gulf in the case of Katrina, for instance) that a loss would cause; but also for the uniqueness and "irreplaceability" of these five singularly unique cities which matter greatly to large contengencies from all walks of life all across the world. All cities are important, but only a select few are revered, relevant, and as beloved as these.
Unfortunately, we are on the precipace of learning New Orleans' nationwide as well as worldwide importance should it be completely destroyed. It might not be a financial and economic hub on the order of the other four, but it more than makes up for that in spades as an unparalleled historical, cultural, entertainment mecca WITH VIBE today as well as yesterday. There is a spirit down there that affects not only the Deep South which it resides, but also the entire globe.
Lazzeiez le bon temps rouler! Dear God please save the 'Nolia. Let us all pray for the souls of those Orleanians whose forebears erected such a grande dame. Yeah you right.
>
NYC: Your pizza will be made by a Tibetian, and your sushi made by a Mexican
The ultimate in mix-and-match!
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/31/ny...pagewanted=all
NY Times
July 31, 2005
The Pizza's Still Old World, Only Now the Old World's Tibet
By JOSEPH BERGER
What do you say to the sushi chef who has just served you the most sublime yellowtail?
Often these days, it is "Gracias." New tides of immigration have so transformed New York City that classic ethnic foods and drinks are increasingly being prepared by people whose ethnicity does not necessarily match the menu's.
Exhibit A: the egg cream. For New Yorkers of a certain age, this was the nectar of a Jewish neighborhood, and Gem Spa was the drink's sacred temple, certified as such by magazines and travel writers. Gem Spa is still there, still turning out egg creams at its narrow patch of a soda fountain in the East Village. But the person who owns the store and taught the staff to make this curious concoction of seltzer, milk and chocolate syrup is Ray Patel, a 62-year-old immigrant from Gujarat state in India.
He learned the recipe, including the secret stirring motions that create a frothy head resembling beaten egg whites, from the previous owner (Italian), who learned it from the old owner (Jewish).
"People try to learn new things in a land of opportunity," is Mr. Patel's elegant explanation for how an Indian came to make a drink that is considered exotic west of the Hudson River, let alone in Gujarat.
The changing of the food guard has been so gradual that New Yorkers often don't notice that the falafel at their favorite stand has been whipped up by someone from Latin America.
But some of the changes have been striking.
The pastry chef at Brasserie La Côte Basque on West 55th Street is Ecuadorean. The pizza maker at Totonno's on Second Avenue and 80th Street is Tibetan. And one of the sushi chefs at Hatsuhana on East 48th Street, among the pioneers in initiating the city into the delights of raw fish, is Mexican.
The main reason for this phenomenon - one observed across a nation being reshaped by newcomers - is that the old immigrant pipeline is drying up. The Italians, Irish, Jews and French who once made their fortunes standing over steaming pots of spaghetti or slicing endless slivers of paper-thin Nova Scotia smoked salmon sent their children to graduate schools to become lawyers and doctors. Keita Sato, the president of Hatsuhana, who grew up on Long Island and was trained in the delicate art of sushi by his father, said that his Japanese-American friends preferred to become stockbrokers.
"The younger generation, it's not their No. 1 priority to be a sushi chef," said Mr. Sato.
But somebody has to layer the moussaka and coddle the crepes and, increasingly, those willing to put in the long sweaty hours are newcomers from Latin America and Asia. A study by Dr. Andrew A. Beveridge, a professor of sociology at Queens College, showed that the number of New York food service workers from South and Central America and the West Indies jumped to 54,105 in 2000 from 31,214 in 1990, and the number of Asian workers increased to 34,393 from 25,358, according to his analysis of census figures. By contrast, the proportion of native-born workers in food service dropped to 36.2 percent in 2000 from 55.3 percent in 1980. "When the supply of your fellow ethnics isn't available to staff the place, you turn to the newest group on the block," said Joel Denker, author of "The World on a Plate: A Tour Through the History of America's Ethnic Cuisine" (Westview Press, 2003).
Right now, according to Ed Levine, a food writer in New York, "The work force in the food world is comprised primarily of Latinos." That explains why one of the best-selling books at Kitchen Arts & Letters at Lexington Avenue and 93d Street is "Kitchen Spanish" by Michael A. Friend and T. J. Loughran.
While the new immigrant workers may start out behind the scenes as busboys and dishwashers, many rise to positions as chefs or counter people who master not just the art of preparing other cultures' foods but also the whole accompanying cultural repertoire. Kenny Sze, an immigrant from Hong Kong who started out in the 1970's as a teenager at Zabar's and trained to fillet herrings under the legendary Sam Cohen, owns Sable's Smoked Fish on Second Avenue and 78th Street. It claims it carries "the world's best smoked salmon, sturgeon and caviar." His shop provided 35 pounds of caviar for the recent wedding of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's daughter Emma.
He has learned not only how to pick out a slab of nova before dawn at the right smokehouse, but also how to speak the smattering of Yiddish needed to kibitz with customers like former Mayor Edward I. Koch, for whom the patter is as important as the platter. In an interview, Mr. Koch exulted in the way Mr. Sze sometimes wraps lobster salad in a slice of sturgeon, and admitted that although "it may not be Jewish, it's haute cuisine." Over all, he said, he appreciates the diversity in the city's ethnic kitchens.
"It adds an exoticism to it and increases my appetite," he said.
Some ethnicities appropriate the food of other cultures that history had forced them to become familiar with. Albanians run many Italian restaurants, and Bangladeshis operate many of the Indian restaurants in the strip along East 6th Street. Some immigrants seize on an unfilled niche - as the Greeks did decades ago when they recast the American diner or the Cambodians who run numerous doughnut shops in Southern California.
Armando Martinez came to the United States in 1994 from the Mexican city of Puebla. One of his first jobs was as an all-purpose kitchen worker at a Japanese restaurant near Columbia University. He enjoyed the precision of boning fish and rolling rice so much that he moved up two years later to Hatsuhana, where the fish is flown in from Japan and where the care taken with sushi is on a far more demanding level. (It tries to observe the Japanese tradition that sushi preparation requires four years of priestlike training.)
Mr. Martinez, who lives in Astoria, Queens, with his wife and 19-month-old twins, worked his way up a year and a half ago to the sushi counter, where he and the other eight chefs pare off wedges of salmon and yellowtail and press them on beds of warm rice. A slender, genial man who was wearing a Yankees cap during a break, Mr. Martinez spoke of his love for the craft. "I like to see a satisfied customer," he said. "To do that, it takes a lot of work."
Mr. Sato is happy to have Mr. Martinez, since he says it is not easy to find skilled Japanese chefs. "In the kitchen when we are right beside each other preparing the fish and rice, he puts me to shame," he said. "He's better than most Japanese chefs."
Totonno's, which was established in 1924 in Coney Island and claims to be the "oldest continuously operating pizzeria in the U.S. run by the same family," has four locations but it despaired of filling them with Italian pizziolas, or pizza makers, and was not about to take just anybody.
"You have to have a feel for the dough," said Louise Ciminieri, granddaughter of the founder.
Phuntsok Tashi came along just in time. Mr. Tashi, who is of Tibetan ancestry, immigrated five years ago from Dalhousie, India, in the western Himalayas, which has a large Tibetan community. A sister worked in a restaurant on Second Avenue and told him Totonno's, a few doors down, needed a busboy. Soon Brooklyn-bred Risa Pleger, a part-owner, asked him if he wanted to learn the art of molding and baking a pizza. He mastered the trick of flattening the dough and spreading patches of mozzarella, tomato sauce and Romano over it.
"You have to press it very nicely and evenly and then press it from the back," he said as he moved the pizza with a paddle inside a brick oven heated to 1,100 degrees to prevent charring.
Rosa Vergara, 42, immigrated from Cuenca, Ecuador, 12 years ago and landed a job making jewelry for a garment district business. When the business failed five years ago, a Peruvian friend who worked at La Côte told her that the kitchen needed help. Jean-Jacques Rachou, the owner of the longtime institution of haute cuisine that has had two name changes and a makeover in recent years, said Mrs. Vergara worked under his pastry chefs and one day told him, " 'Give me the chance and I can show you I can do it.' "
"And she does it," he said.
The decorative skills she had learned in the jewelry trade came in handy. As she spoke with a visitor, she squeezed chocolate and vanilla sauce from plastic bottles into neat zigzags to adorn a plate holding a raspberry mousse she made earlier in the day, then dappled the mousse with blueberries.
Mr. Rachou also taught the art of fashioning French delicacies to her 25-year-old sister, Mayra. He had to.
"French cooks don't come to America anymore," he said. "They make more money in France."
At Totonno's on Second Avenue in Manhattan, the pizza maker, Phuntsok Tashi, is Tibetan, and immigrated five years ago from India.
Mayra Molina, left and Rosa Vergara in the kitchen of Brasserie La Côte Basque.>
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/31/ny...pagewanted=all
NY Times
July 31, 2005
The Pizza's Still Old World, Only Now the Old World's Tibet
By JOSEPH BERGER
What do you say to the sushi chef who has just served you the most sublime yellowtail?
Often these days, it is "Gracias." New tides of immigration have so transformed New York City that classic ethnic foods and drinks are increasingly being prepared by people whose ethnicity does not necessarily match the menu's.
Exhibit A: the egg cream. For New Yorkers of a certain age, this was the nectar of a Jewish neighborhood, and Gem Spa was the drink's sacred temple, certified as such by magazines and travel writers. Gem Spa is still there, still turning out egg creams at its narrow patch of a soda fountain in the East Village. But the person who owns the store and taught the staff to make this curious concoction of seltzer, milk and chocolate syrup is Ray Patel, a 62-year-old immigrant from Gujarat state in India.
He learned the recipe, including the secret stirring motions that create a frothy head resembling beaten egg whites, from the previous owner (Italian), who learned it from the old owner (Jewish).
"People try to learn new things in a land of opportunity," is Mr. Patel's elegant explanation for how an Indian came to make a drink that is considered exotic west of the Hudson River, let alone in Gujarat.
The changing of the food guard has been so gradual that New Yorkers often don't notice that the falafel at their favorite stand has been whipped up by someone from Latin America.
But some of the changes have been striking.
The pastry chef at Brasserie La Côte Basque on West 55th Street is Ecuadorean. The pizza maker at Totonno's on Second Avenue and 80th Street is Tibetan. And one of the sushi chefs at Hatsuhana on East 48th Street, among the pioneers in initiating the city into the delights of raw fish, is Mexican.
The main reason for this phenomenon - one observed across a nation being reshaped by newcomers - is that the old immigrant pipeline is drying up. The Italians, Irish, Jews and French who once made their fortunes standing over steaming pots of spaghetti or slicing endless slivers of paper-thin Nova Scotia smoked salmon sent their children to graduate schools to become lawyers and doctors. Keita Sato, the president of Hatsuhana, who grew up on Long Island and was trained in the delicate art of sushi by his father, said that his Japanese-American friends preferred to become stockbrokers.
"The younger generation, it's not their No. 1 priority to be a sushi chef," said Mr. Sato.
But somebody has to layer the moussaka and coddle the crepes and, increasingly, those willing to put in the long sweaty hours are newcomers from Latin America and Asia. A study by Dr. Andrew A. Beveridge, a professor of sociology at Queens College, showed that the number of New York food service workers from South and Central America and the West Indies jumped to 54,105 in 2000 from 31,214 in 1990, and the number of Asian workers increased to 34,393 from 25,358, according to his analysis of census figures. By contrast, the proportion of native-born workers in food service dropped to 36.2 percent in 2000 from 55.3 percent in 1980. "When the supply of your fellow ethnics isn't available to staff the place, you turn to the newest group on the block," said Joel Denker, author of "The World on a Plate: A Tour Through the History of America's Ethnic Cuisine" (Westview Press, 2003).
Right now, according to Ed Levine, a food writer in New York, "The work force in the food world is comprised primarily of Latinos." That explains why one of the best-selling books at Kitchen Arts & Letters at Lexington Avenue and 93d Street is "Kitchen Spanish" by Michael A. Friend and T. J. Loughran.
While the new immigrant workers may start out behind the scenes as busboys and dishwashers, many rise to positions as chefs or counter people who master not just the art of preparing other cultures' foods but also the whole accompanying cultural repertoire. Kenny Sze, an immigrant from Hong Kong who started out in the 1970's as a teenager at Zabar's and trained to fillet herrings under the legendary Sam Cohen, owns Sable's Smoked Fish on Second Avenue and 78th Street. It claims it carries "the world's best smoked salmon, sturgeon and caviar." His shop provided 35 pounds of caviar for the recent wedding of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's daughter Emma.
He has learned not only how to pick out a slab of nova before dawn at the right smokehouse, but also how to speak the smattering of Yiddish needed to kibitz with customers like former Mayor Edward I. Koch, for whom the patter is as important as the platter. In an interview, Mr. Koch exulted in the way Mr. Sze sometimes wraps lobster salad in a slice of sturgeon, and admitted that although "it may not be Jewish, it's haute cuisine." Over all, he said, he appreciates the diversity in the city's ethnic kitchens.
"It adds an exoticism to it and increases my appetite," he said.
Some ethnicities appropriate the food of other cultures that history had forced them to become familiar with. Albanians run many Italian restaurants, and Bangladeshis operate many of the Indian restaurants in the strip along East 6th Street. Some immigrants seize on an unfilled niche - as the Greeks did decades ago when they recast the American diner or the Cambodians who run numerous doughnut shops in Southern California.
Armando Martinez came to the United States in 1994 from the Mexican city of Puebla. One of his first jobs was as an all-purpose kitchen worker at a Japanese restaurant near Columbia University. He enjoyed the precision of boning fish and rolling rice so much that he moved up two years later to Hatsuhana, where the fish is flown in from Japan and where the care taken with sushi is on a far more demanding level. (It tries to observe the Japanese tradition that sushi preparation requires four years of priestlike training.)
Mr. Martinez, who lives in Astoria, Queens, with his wife and 19-month-old twins, worked his way up a year and a half ago to the sushi counter, where he and the other eight chefs pare off wedges of salmon and yellowtail and press them on beds of warm rice. A slender, genial man who was wearing a Yankees cap during a break, Mr. Martinez spoke of his love for the craft. "I like to see a satisfied customer," he said. "To do that, it takes a lot of work."
Mr. Sato is happy to have Mr. Martinez, since he says it is not easy to find skilled Japanese chefs. "In the kitchen when we are right beside each other preparing the fish and rice, he puts me to shame," he said. "He's better than most Japanese chefs."
Totonno's, which was established in 1924 in Coney Island and claims to be the "oldest continuously operating pizzeria in the U.S. run by the same family," has four locations but it despaired of filling them with Italian pizziolas, or pizza makers, and was not about to take just anybody.
"You have to have a feel for the dough," said Louise Ciminieri, granddaughter of the founder.
Phuntsok Tashi came along just in time. Mr. Tashi, who is of Tibetan ancestry, immigrated five years ago from Dalhousie, India, in the western Himalayas, which has a large Tibetan community. A sister worked in a restaurant on Second Avenue and told him Totonno's, a few doors down, needed a busboy. Soon Brooklyn-bred Risa Pleger, a part-owner, asked him if he wanted to learn the art of molding and baking a pizza. He mastered the trick of flattening the dough and spreading patches of mozzarella, tomato sauce and Romano over it.
"You have to press it very nicely and evenly and then press it from the back," he said as he moved the pizza with a paddle inside a brick oven heated to 1,100 degrees to prevent charring.
Rosa Vergara, 42, immigrated from Cuenca, Ecuador, 12 years ago and landed a job making jewelry for a garment district business. When the business failed five years ago, a Peruvian friend who worked at La Côte told her that the kitchen needed help. Jean-Jacques Rachou, the owner of the longtime institution of haute cuisine that has had two name changes and a makeover in recent years, said Mrs. Vergara worked under his pastry chefs and one day told him, " 'Give me the chance and I can show you I can do it.' "
"And she does it," he said.
The decorative skills she had learned in the jewelry trade came in handy. As she spoke with a visitor, she squeezed chocolate and vanilla sauce from plastic bottles into neat zigzags to adorn a plate holding a raspberry mousse she made earlier in the day, then dappled the mousse with blueberries.
Mr. Rachou also taught the art of fashioning French delicacies to her 25-year-old sister, Mayra. He had to.
"French cooks don't come to America anymore," he said. "They make more money in France."
At Totonno's on Second Avenue in Manhattan, the pizza maker, Phuntsok Tashi, is Tibetan, and immigrated five years ago from India.
Mayra Molina, left and Rosa Vergara in the kitchen of Brasserie La Côte Basque.>
Expo 2015 in Toronto?
If Toronto builds Expo, will they come?
Toronto debates whether to bid on 2015 world's fair Some see event as irrelevant in age
Apr. 18, 2006. 05:30 AM
JOSEPH HALL
Toronto Star
Dragon-shaped balloons float above the opening ceremonies of Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan, above. The fair, expected to draw 15 million visitors, ended up attracting almost 22 million. Toronto could reverse that trend if it decides to bid for Expo 2015. Possible competitors include Moscow, Rio de Janeiro and Izmir, Turkey.
Is Toronto about to fish in a bygone era for the future of its waterfront?
With the city set to decide late next month whether to back a bid for the Expo 2015 world's fair, Toronto could soon be searching, yet again, for an international extravaganza to kick-start its port lands development.
But some experts say these international exhibitions, which date back to the middle of the 19th century, are anachronisms in this age of mass tourism and the Internet.
"Certainly there are lots of people who regard these events as anachronistic, as cultural dinosaurs ... as things that have outlived their usefulness," says Montana State University historian Robert Rydell, who has made a study of the 155-year-old world's fair movement.
The Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions will make a decision on the 2015 fair location in February 2008. To date, other cities expressing interest include Moscow, Rio de Janeiro and Izmir, Turkey. Toronto's bid would require some $2 billion backing from Ottawa, Queen's Park and the city.
Over the past 16 years, Toronto has unsuccessfully bid on two Summer Olympics — the 1996 and 2008 Games — and the Expo 2000 fair, as well as some more minor cultural and sporting events. The 2000 fair, which was awarded to the German city of Hanover, was widely considered an attendance and entertainment failure.
Expo expert Bruno Giberti has called the global exhibition passé in an age of instant information access and global travel.
"You have to ask yourself, who really needs a world's fair when you can look up the world on the Internet?" Giberti, an architectural historian at the California Polytechnic State University, told the Toronto Star in 2004.
"I do still see these fairs as passé," he said recently, "unless Toronto has somehow reimagined the event in some unanticipated way."
Giberti says international spectacles of all kinds have lost their appeal to many, especially in the United States, which would be relied on to provide millions of visitors to a Toronto fair.
"I think the declining interest, in the U.S. at least, in the Olympics is evidence of the way in which these kinds of international events have become obviated," he says.
The main thrust of Expos past has been to bring international technologies and cultures to people who, in all likelihood, would have had no other way of seeing them, Giberti says.
Rydell agrees that a daunting array of entertainment and information options has emerged to challenge the world's fair raison d'être.
On the other hand, he says, there's still a lot of life left in the concept.
One proof of life, he says, rests in the simple fact that some recent Expos have been enormously popular.
A small world's fair in Aichi, Japan last year, for example, was expected to draw 15 million visitors and ended up attracting almost 22 million.
"People were lined up for eight to 10 hours trying to get into the Expo grounds," says Rydell, who visited the fair. "And this in a high-wired, high-tech society if ever there was one."
He points out that the 1992 Expo in Seville, Spain drew 42 million people, while attendance projections for Expo 2010 in Shanghai are around the 75 million mark.
Expos, he says, have prospered almost everywhere but North America, where, after Montreal's iconic Expo '67, they have often been forgettable cultural and financial failures.
Lacklustre events in San Antonio, Spokane, Knoxville and New Orleans between 1968 and 1984 largely erased the world's fair allure established here by Montreal, which is often regarded as the century's best Expo.
Even Vancouver's popular Expo '86 — which drew more than 22 million visitors — failed to reignite interest on this continent, which has not held one in the ensuing two decades.
In other regions of the world, however, they've thrived, Rydell says.
A large part of this overseas success can be attributed to an innate desire to be part of the spectacle that events like a world's fair can provide.
"You can ask why anyone would (line up) in the 21st century when you can easily point and click," he says.
"But why do people go to baseball games? Why do people go to football games when they can turn on their television sets?"
The sights, smells and organized chaos of a fair still hold an allure for people, he says.
"There's still a kind of being-there-ness (attraction) of all of this that in some ways suggests we aren't as far removed from the 20th and even 19th century as we like to think we are," Rydell says.
As well, he says, an important goal of world's fairs since the 1880s has been the creation of new urban infrastructure — cultural, economic and physical — within the host cities.
That, he says, is still a legitimate and achievable purpose.
"Since the 1880s at least, world's fairs have been about building urban infrastructure, they've been about building museums," he says.
"And that's been pretty well-maintained through the 20th century as well."
Montreal's splendid subway system, a number of its major hotels and its international reputation can be traced back to the centennial year Expo.
Vancouver's Expo helped that city reclaim large tracts of its waterfront and left it with its popular Science World dome.
But Giberti says the goal of urban renewal — especially on derelict lands — should more legitimately be tied to ongoing city planning, rather than a one-shot Expo extravaganza.
"If urban renewal is the ambition, I can hardly believe that it's not more effective just to engage in that project than it is to use a world's fair as a lever."
Rydell also argues that fairs have often been showcases for new and innovative architecture, with Expo pavilions having represented some of the most striking design concepts of the 20th century.
But actual fair pavilions should not be counted on as a potential legacy, Rydell cautions.
Overwhelmingly meant to be temporary installations, the pavilions are almost invariably dismantled soon after the exhibition runs are completed, he says.
"The structures are intended to be ephemeral because of (upkeep) costs," he says.
In Montreal, for example, only the former French pavilion, now a casino, and the shell of the American pavilion, Buckminster Fuller's famed geodesic dome, remain on the actual Expo site.
Giberti, however, says the use of Expos to promote innovative architecture has been overtaken by a new push to build permanent, individual masterpieces into the fabric of urban centres.
This concept, first realized with architect Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, has been copied in cities around the world.
Toronto is currently undergoing an architectural renascence of its own, with major renovations of the Royal Ontario Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario (which Gehry designed) and other major cultural centres now under construction.
Giberti says the vast majority of Expos cost more than they bring in. But calculating the economic benefits cannot be limited solely to volume at the turnstile, Rydell says.
"Very few world's fairs over the years have been profitable in the sense that the people who have invested in them have made a significant return off the revenue intake," he says.
"But overwhelmingly, people who invest in these things make money from secondary (and) tertiary investments in transportation infrastructure, hotels, tourism and those types of things."
Surprisingly, Toronto has already benefited from long ago world's fair aspirations, says Keith Walden, a history professor at Peterborough's Trent University.
He says the city's old Industrial Exhibition, first held in 1879, had aspirations to become a world's fair and spawned a marked modernization of Toronto.
"It didn't hold a candle to the Parisian fairs, and certainly not to the 1893 Chicago fair," says Walden, whose book, Becoming Modern in Toronto, documents the changes brought here by the precursor to the Canadian National Exhibition.
"But Toronto had aspirations for greater things. As the 1893 Toronto program put it, `Not a world's fair, but nearly so.'">
Toronto debates whether to bid on 2015 world's fair Some see event as irrelevant in age
Apr. 18, 2006. 05:30 AM
JOSEPH HALL
Toronto Star
Dragon-shaped balloons float above the opening ceremonies of Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan, above. The fair, expected to draw 15 million visitors, ended up attracting almost 22 million. Toronto could reverse that trend if it decides to bid for Expo 2015. Possible competitors include Moscow, Rio de Janeiro and Izmir, Turkey.
Is Toronto about to fish in a bygone era for the future of its waterfront?
With the city set to decide late next month whether to back a bid for the Expo 2015 world's fair, Toronto could soon be searching, yet again, for an international extravaganza to kick-start its port lands development.
But some experts say these international exhibitions, which date back to the middle of the 19th century, are anachronisms in this age of mass tourism and the Internet.
"Certainly there are lots of people who regard these events as anachronistic, as cultural dinosaurs ... as things that have outlived their usefulness," says Montana State University historian Robert Rydell, who has made a study of the 155-year-old world's fair movement.
The Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions will make a decision on the 2015 fair location in February 2008. To date, other cities expressing interest include Moscow, Rio de Janeiro and Izmir, Turkey. Toronto's bid would require some $2 billion backing from Ottawa, Queen's Park and the city.
Over the past 16 years, Toronto has unsuccessfully bid on two Summer Olympics — the 1996 and 2008 Games — and the Expo 2000 fair, as well as some more minor cultural and sporting events. The 2000 fair, which was awarded to the German city of Hanover, was widely considered an attendance and entertainment failure.
Expo expert Bruno Giberti has called the global exhibition passé in an age of instant information access and global travel.
"You have to ask yourself, who really needs a world's fair when you can look up the world on the Internet?" Giberti, an architectural historian at the California Polytechnic State University, told the Toronto Star in 2004.
"I do still see these fairs as passé," he said recently, "unless Toronto has somehow reimagined the event in some unanticipated way."
Giberti says international spectacles of all kinds have lost their appeal to many, especially in the United States, which would be relied on to provide millions of visitors to a Toronto fair.
"I think the declining interest, in the U.S. at least, in the Olympics is evidence of the way in which these kinds of international events have become obviated," he says.
The main thrust of Expos past has been to bring international technologies and cultures to people who, in all likelihood, would have had no other way of seeing them, Giberti says.
Rydell agrees that a daunting array of entertainment and information options has emerged to challenge the world's fair raison d'être.
On the other hand, he says, there's still a lot of life left in the concept.
One proof of life, he says, rests in the simple fact that some recent Expos have been enormously popular.
A small world's fair in Aichi, Japan last year, for example, was expected to draw 15 million visitors and ended up attracting almost 22 million.
"People were lined up for eight to 10 hours trying to get into the Expo grounds," says Rydell, who visited the fair. "And this in a high-wired, high-tech society if ever there was one."
He points out that the 1992 Expo in Seville, Spain drew 42 million people, while attendance projections for Expo 2010 in Shanghai are around the 75 million mark.
Expos, he says, have prospered almost everywhere but North America, where, after Montreal's iconic Expo '67, they have often been forgettable cultural and financial failures.
Lacklustre events in San Antonio, Spokane, Knoxville and New Orleans between 1968 and 1984 largely erased the world's fair allure established here by Montreal, which is often regarded as the century's best Expo.
Even Vancouver's popular Expo '86 — which drew more than 22 million visitors — failed to reignite interest on this continent, which has not held one in the ensuing two decades.
In other regions of the world, however, they've thrived, Rydell says.
A large part of this overseas success can be attributed to an innate desire to be part of the spectacle that events like a world's fair can provide.
"You can ask why anyone would (line up) in the 21st century when you can easily point and click," he says.
"But why do people go to baseball games? Why do people go to football games when they can turn on their television sets?"
The sights, smells and organized chaos of a fair still hold an allure for people, he says.
"There's still a kind of being-there-ness (attraction) of all of this that in some ways suggests we aren't as far removed from the 20th and even 19th century as we like to think we are," Rydell says.
As well, he says, an important goal of world's fairs since the 1880s has been the creation of new urban infrastructure — cultural, economic and physical — within the host cities.
That, he says, is still a legitimate and achievable purpose.
"Since the 1880s at least, world's fairs have been about building urban infrastructure, they've been about building museums," he says.
"And that's been pretty well-maintained through the 20th century as well."
Montreal's splendid subway system, a number of its major hotels and its international reputation can be traced back to the centennial year Expo.
Vancouver's Expo helped that city reclaim large tracts of its waterfront and left it with its popular Science World dome.
But Giberti says the goal of urban renewal — especially on derelict lands — should more legitimately be tied to ongoing city planning, rather than a one-shot Expo extravaganza.
"If urban renewal is the ambition, I can hardly believe that it's not more effective just to engage in that project than it is to use a world's fair as a lever."
Rydell also argues that fairs have often been showcases for new and innovative architecture, with Expo pavilions having represented some of the most striking design concepts of the 20th century.
But actual fair pavilions should not be counted on as a potential legacy, Rydell cautions.
Overwhelmingly meant to be temporary installations, the pavilions are almost invariably dismantled soon after the exhibition runs are completed, he says.
"The structures are intended to be ephemeral because of (upkeep) costs," he says.
In Montreal, for example, only the former French pavilion, now a casino, and the shell of the American pavilion, Buckminster Fuller's famed geodesic dome, remain on the actual Expo site.
Giberti, however, says the use of Expos to promote innovative architecture has been overtaken by a new push to build permanent, individual masterpieces into the fabric of urban centres.
This concept, first realized with architect Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, has been copied in cities around the world.
Toronto is currently undergoing an architectural renascence of its own, with major renovations of the Royal Ontario Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario (which Gehry designed) and other major cultural centres now under construction.
Giberti says the vast majority of Expos cost more than they bring in. But calculating the economic benefits cannot be limited solely to volume at the turnstile, Rydell says.
"Very few world's fairs over the years have been profitable in the sense that the people who have invested in them have made a significant return off the revenue intake," he says.
"But overwhelmingly, people who invest in these things make money from secondary (and) tertiary investments in transportation infrastructure, hotels, tourism and those types of things."
Surprisingly, Toronto has already benefited from long ago world's fair aspirations, says Keith Walden, a history professor at Peterborough's Trent University.
He says the city's old Industrial Exhibition, first held in 1879, had aspirations to become a world's fair and spawned a marked modernization of Toronto.
"It didn't hold a candle to the Parisian fairs, and certainly not to the 1893 Chicago fair," says Walden, whose book, Becoming Modern in Toronto, documents the changes brought here by the precursor to the Canadian National Exhibition.
"But Toronto had aspirations for greater things. As the 1893 Toronto program put it, `Not a world's fair, but nearly so.'">
Foreign Born Population in your city
A good guide to how racially and ethnically diverse a city is, is to see the percentage of foreign born population within the city. It's pretty impressive for NY. Note, these numbers are not for overall ethnic populations, just those born in those countries who now are NYC residents:
NEW YOK CITY FOREIGN BORN POPULATION (2000)
(Not including those born in Puerto Rico, U.S. Island Areas, and born abroad to American parents)
Total: 2,871,032 35.85% of all New York residents
A. The Top Fifteen by Country of Origin
1. Dominican Republic 369,186 4.61%
2. China, excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan 207,914 2.60%
3. Jamaica 178,922 2.23%
4. Guyana 130,647 1.63%
5. Mexico 122,550 1.53%
6. Ecuador 114,944 1.44%
7. Haiti 95,580 1.19%
8. Colombia 84,404 1.05%
9. Russia 81,408 1.02%
10. Italy 72,481 0.91%
11. Korea 70,990 0.89%
12. Ukraine 69,727 0.87%
13. India 68,263 0.85%
14. Poland 65,999 0.82%
15. Philippines 49,644 0.62%
B. By Region
1. Caribbean 856,229 10.65%
Dominican Republic 369,186 4.61%
Jamaica 178,922 2.23%
Trinidad and Tobago and other Caribbean 159,446 1.99%
Haiti 95,580 1.19%
Barbados 27,065 0.34%
Cuba 26,030 0.33%
2. East Asia 439,463 5.49%
China, including Hong Kong and Taiwan 261,551 3.27%
China 207,914 2.60%
Hong Kong 31,895 0.40%
Taiwan 21,742 0.27%
Southeast Asia 86,706 1.08%
Philippines 49,644 0.62%
Vietnam 14,707 0.18%
Malaysia 7618 0.10%
Thailand 4148 0.05%
Cambodia 2219 0.03%
Indonesia 2727 0.03%
Laos 418 0.01%
Other South Eastern Asia 5225 0.07%
Korea 70,990 0.89%
Japan 19,415 0.24%
Other Eastern Asia 801 0.01%
3. South America 410,048 5.12%
Guyana 130,647 1.63%
Ecuador 114,944 1.44%
Colombia 84,404 1.05%
Peru 27,278 0.34%
Brazil 14,241 0.18%
Argentina 11,677 0.15%
Venezuela 8181 0.10%
Chile 6780 0.08%
Bolivia 3875 0.05%
Other South America 8021 0.10%
4. Eastern Europe 329,721 4.12%
Russia 81,408 1.02%
Ukraine 69,727 0.87%
Poland 65,999 0.82%
Yugoslavia 19,535 0.24%
Romania 19,280 0.24%
Belarus 11,187 0.14%
Hungary 11,144 0.14%
Czechoslovakia (includes Czech Republic and Slovakia) 8628 0.11%
Bosnia and Herzegovina 2020 0.03%
Other Eastern Europe 40793 0.51%
5. Mexico and Central America 245,142 3.06%
Mexico 122,550 1.53%
Other Central America: 122,592 1.53%
Honduras 32,358 0.40%
El Salvador 26,802 0.33%
Panama 23,118 0.29%
Guatemala 17,936 0.22%
Nicaragua 8284 0.10%
Costa Rica 5819 0.07%
Misc. Other Central America 8275 0.10%
6. Western Europe 227,504 2.83%
Mediterranean 114,469 1.43%
Italy 72,481 0.91%
Greece 29,805 0.37%
Spain 7836 0.10%
Portugal 2718 0.03%
Other Southern Europe 1629 0.02%
Northern Europe 112,586 1.40%
United Kingdom 28,996 0.36%
Germany 27,708 0.35%
Ireland 22,604 0.28%
France 12,386 0.15%
Austria 6700 0.08%
Scandinavia 6128 0.08%
Netherlands 2455 0.03%
Other Northern Europe 5609 0.07%
7. Indian Subcontinent 150,293 1.88%
India 68,263 0.85%
Bangladesh 42,865 0.54%
Pakistan 39,165 0.49%
8. Mideast and Central Asia 118,082 1.48%
Israel 21,288 0.27%
Egypt 15,231 0.19%
Other Northern Africa 8605 0.11%
Turkey 9026 0.11%
Iran 7112 0.09%
Lebanon 5154 0.06%
Syria 5191 0.06%
Afghanistan 4833 0.06%
Armenia 1507 0.02%
Jordan 1407 0.02%
Iraq 1272 0.02%
Other Western and South Central Asia 37,456 0.47%
9. Sub-Saharan Africa 59,421 0.75%
Nigeria 15,689 0.20%
Ghana 14,915 0.19%
Sierra Leone 1599 0.02%
Other Western Africa 15,682 0.20%
Ethiopia 1792 0.02%
Other Eastern Africa 3373 0.04%
Middle Africa 1659 0.02%
Southern Africa: 2498 0.03%
South Africa 2214 0.03%
10. North America 18,105 0.23%
Canada 17,318 0.22%
Other Northern America 748 0.01%
Born at sea 39 0.00%
11. Australia and Oceania 4982 0.06%
Australia 3860 0.05%
Other Australian and New Zealand Subregion 804 0.01%
Melanesia 124 0.00%
Micronesia 36 0.00%
Polynesia 146 0.00%
Oceania, n.e.c. 12 0.00%>
NEW YOK CITY FOREIGN BORN POPULATION (2000)
(Not including those born in Puerto Rico, U.S. Island Areas, and born abroad to American parents)
Total: 2,871,032 35.85% of all New York residents
A. The Top Fifteen by Country of Origin
1. Dominican Republic 369,186 4.61%
2. China, excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan 207,914 2.60%
3. Jamaica 178,922 2.23%
4. Guyana 130,647 1.63%
5. Mexico 122,550 1.53%
6. Ecuador 114,944 1.44%
7. Haiti 95,580 1.19%
8. Colombia 84,404 1.05%
9. Russia 81,408 1.02%
10. Italy 72,481 0.91%
11. Korea 70,990 0.89%
12. Ukraine 69,727 0.87%
13. India 68,263 0.85%
14. Poland 65,999 0.82%
15. Philippines 49,644 0.62%
B. By Region
1. Caribbean 856,229 10.65%
Dominican Republic 369,186 4.61%
Jamaica 178,922 2.23%
Trinidad and Tobago and other Caribbean 159,446 1.99%
Haiti 95,580 1.19%
Barbados 27,065 0.34%
Cuba 26,030 0.33%
2. East Asia 439,463 5.49%
China, including Hong Kong and Taiwan 261,551 3.27%
China 207,914 2.60%
Hong Kong 31,895 0.40%
Taiwan 21,742 0.27%
Southeast Asia 86,706 1.08%
Philippines 49,644 0.62%
Vietnam 14,707 0.18%
Malaysia 7618 0.10%
Thailand 4148 0.05%
Cambodia 2219 0.03%
Indonesia 2727 0.03%
Laos 418 0.01%
Other South Eastern Asia 5225 0.07%
Korea 70,990 0.89%
Japan 19,415 0.24%
Other Eastern Asia 801 0.01%
3. South America 410,048 5.12%
Guyana 130,647 1.63%
Ecuador 114,944 1.44%
Colombia 84,404 1.05%
Peru 27,278 0.34%
Brazil 14,241 0.18%
Argentina 11,677 0.15%
Venezuela 8181 0.10%
Chile 6780 0.08%
Bolivia 3875 0.05%
Other South America 8021 0.10%
4. Eastern Europe 329,721 4.12%
Russia 81,408 1.02%
Ukraine 69,727 0.87%
Poland 65,999 0.82%
Yugoslavia 19,535 0.24%
Romania 19,280 0.24%
Belarus 11,187 0.14%
Hungary 11,144 0.14%
Czechoslovakia (includes Czech Republic and Slovakia) 8628 0.11%
Bosnia and Herzegovina 2020 0.03%
Other Eastern Europe 40793 0.51%
5. Mexico and Central America 245,142 3.06%
Mexico 122,550 1.53%
Other Central America: 122,592 1.53%
Honduras 32,358 0.40%
El Salvador 26,802 0.33%
Panama 23,118 0.29%
Guatemala 17,936 0.22%
Nicaragua 8284 0.10%
Costa Rica 5819 0.07%
Misc. Other Central America 8275 0.10%
6. Western Europe 227,504 2.83%
Mediterranean 114,469 1.43%
Italy 72,481 0.91%
Greece 29,805 0.37%
Spain 7836 0.10%
Portugal 2718 0.03%
Other Southern Europe 1629 0.02%
Northern Europe 112,586 1.40%
United Kingdom 28,996 0.36%
Germany 27,708 0.35%
Ireland 22,604 0.28%
France 12,386 0.15%
Austria 6700 0.08%
Scandinavia 6128 0.08%
Netherlands 2455 0.03%
Other Northern Europe 5609 0.07%
7. Indian Subcontinent 150,293 1.88%
India 68,263 0.85%
Bangladesh 42,865 0.54%
Pakistan 39,165 0.49%
8. Mideast and Central Asia 118,082 1.48%
Israel 21,288 0.27%
Egypt 15,231 0.19%
Other Northern Africa 8605 0.11%
Turkey 9026 0.11%
Iran 7112 0.09%
Lebanon 5154 0.06%
Syria 5191 0.06%
Afghanistan 4833 0.06%
Armenia 1507 0.02%
Jordan 1407 0.02%
Iraq 1272 0.02%
Other Western and South Central Asia 37,456 0.47%
9. Sub-Saharan Africa 59,421 0.75%
Nigeria 15,689 0.20%
Ghana 14,915 0.19%
Sierra Leone 1599 0.02%
Other Western Africa 15,682 0.20%
Ethiopia 1792 0.02%
Other Eastern Africa 3373 0.04%
Middle Africa 1659 0.02%
Southern Africa: 2498 0.03%
South Africa 2214 0.03%
10. North America 18,105 0.23%
Canada 17,318 0.22%
Other Northern America 748 0.01%
Born at sea 39 0.00%
11. Australia and Oceania 4982 0.06%
Australia 3860 0.05%
Other Australian and New Zealand Subregion 804 0.01%
Melanesia 124 0.00%
Micronesia 36 0.00%
Polynesia 146 0.00%
Oceania, n.e.c. 12 0.00%>
How will cities enchant you when height and density become ho hum?
Hey, folks:
One of these days it is going to happen. We're all going to wake up and find that every major and semi-major and want-to-be-major city on this planet will be densely packed and shot up to the stratestrophic heights on steroids.
What then? What happens when what Manhattan alone had globally is so well spread that it fails to stir our emotions?
WHAT WILL BE THE VISUAL DRAW, THE URBAN LANDSCAPE, THE THINGS THAT MAKE A CITY REALLY SPECIAL THAT WILL BY NECESSITY NOT BE ABLE TO RELY ON HEIGHT AND DENSITY TO GET US EXCITED?>
One of these days it is going to happen. We're all going to wake up and find that every major and semi-major and want-to-be-major city on this planet will be densely packed and shot up to the stratestrophic heights on steroids.
What then? What happens when what Manhattan alone had globally is so well spread that it fails to stir our emotions?
WHAT WILL BE THE VISUAL DRAW, THE URBAN LANDSCAPE, THE THINGS THAT MAKE A CITY REALLY SPECIAL THAT WILL BY NECESSITY NOT BE ABLE TO RELY ON HEIGHT AND DENSITY TO GET US EXCITED?>
10 Most OVERRATED cities
10: Kathmandu
9: Tokyo
8: Sunderland
7: Atlanta
6: Montreal
5: Shanghai
4: San Francisco
3: Los Angeles
2: Manchester
1: New York City
------source collected from internet----->
9: Tokyo
8: Sunderland
7: Atlanta
6: Montreal
5: Shanghai
4: San Francisco
3: Los Angeles
2: Manchester
1: New York City
------source collected from internet----->
Peru releases Machu Picchu master plan
Peru releases Machu Picchu master plan
2 June 2005
LIMA, Peru (AP) - Peru's National Institute of Culture released a 10-year master plan Thursday aimed at conserving the ruins of Machu Picchu, where heavy tourism and uncontrolled nearby development have endangered the "Lost City of the Incas."
Last year, UNESCO threatened to place Machu Picchu, Peru's prime tourist destination, on its list of endangered cultural heritage sites.
Among other measures, the plan calls for increasing the entry fee for foreigners from US$20 to US$30 (euro16 to 24), limiting the daily maximum number of tourists to 2,500 and launching conservation measures to protect other ruins, wildlife and fauna along the Inca Trail.
UNESCO added Machu Picchu, located atop a craggy peak amid jungle in Peru's southern Andes some 500 kilometers (310 miles) southeast of Lima, to its World Heritage List in 1983.
In 1992, 9,000 tourists visited the ruins. In 2002, the figure rose to 150,000, according to the document's executive summary.
"It is estimated that in a few short years, demand could increase to 4,000 or 5,000 tourists daily," the document stated.
UNESCO criticized Peru for the absence of urban planning in nearby Aguas Calientes, a chaotic, ramshackle town and tourist trap where trains unload visitors onto buses to ascend the mountain to Machu Picchu.
The town's precarious location -- much of it within the protected sanctuary -- has proven dangerous. Last year, a mudslide triggered by heavy rains wiped out several buildings, killing a dozen townspeople.
The master plan calls for incentive programs "to relocate people who have occupied the protected area."
It also mentioned promoting other Inca ruins and trails in the area, offering "activities for visitors based on Andean rituals related to the cycles of the sun," which was worshipped by the Inca culture.
Even before its release, the plan has faced stiff resistance from local residents who oppose the creation of any new government controls to oversee national heritage sites.
Last month, some 1,000 visitors were forced to cancel or postpone trips to the citadel because train service from Cuzco was suspended due to a protest in the area.>
2 June 2005
LIMA, Peru (AP) - Peru's National Institute of Culture released a 10-year master plan Thursday aimed at conserving the ruins of Machu Picchu, where heavy tourism and uncontrolled nearby development have endangered the "Lost City of the Incas."
Last year, UNESCO threatened to place Machu Picchu, Peru's prime tourist destination, on its list of endangered cultural heritage sites.
Among other measures, the plan calls for increasing the entry fee for foreigners from US$20 to US$30 (euro16 to 24), limiting the daily maximum number of tourists to 2,500 and launching conservation measures to protect other ruins, wildlife and fauna along the Inca Trail.
UNESCO added Machu Picchu, located atop a craggy peak amid jungle in Peru's southern Andes some 500 kilometers (310 miles) southeast of Lima, to its World Heritage List in 1983.
In 1992, 9,000 tourists visited the ruins. In 2002, the figure rose to 150,000, according to the document's executive summary.
"It is estimated that in a few short years, demand could increase to 4,000 or 5,000 tourists daily," the document stated.
UNESCO criticized Peru for the absence of urban planning in nearby Aguas Calientes, a chaotic, ramshackle town and tourist trap where trains unload visitors onto buses to ascend the mountain to Machu Picchu.
The town's precarious location -- much of it within the protected sanctuary -- has proven dangerous. Last year, a mudslide triggered by heavy rains wiped out several buildings, killing a dozen townspeople.
The master plan calls for incentive programs "to relocate people who have occupied the protected area."
It also mentioned promoting other Inca ruins and trails in the area, offering "activities for visitors based on Andean rituals related to the cycles of the sun," which was worshipped by the Inca culture.
Even before its release, the plan has faced stiff resistance from local residents who oppose the creation of any new government controls to oversee national heritage sites.
Last month, some 1,000 visitors were forced to cancel or postpone trips to the citadel because train service from Cuzco was suspended due to a protest in the area.>
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)