Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s largest city, prepared for the 2016 Olympics with a heroic feat of urban removal, evicting hundreds of families from the town’s poor neighborhoods, the favelas. Rio certainly didn’t win the gold medal for human rights.
More:
“2016 Olympics: what Rio doesn’t want the world to see,” Johnny Harris, Vox
“How evictions have laid bare Rio’s real Olympic legacy,” Niko Kommenda, The Guardian
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Noah’s Ark may have landed on Mount Ararat, but you can see it in Kentucky off Interstate 75, on State Route 36 in Williamstown. Answers In Genesis, the outfit behind the Creation(ism) Museum, has built a 510-foot-long biblical boat as a tourist attraction, Ark Encounter ($40 admission, $10 parking). The wooden hull is stocked with pairs of animals said to be on the Ark, including dinosaurs (from the Book of Flintstones?). There’s also a zoo, but don’t expect any dinosaurs there.
The rationale for granting this public largesse for religious evangelism is that the big boat will stimulate the tourist economy and create jobs. Want to apply for those jobs? You’ll have to sign a statement of faith in Genesis and Jesus Christ, disavowing homosexuality, same-sex marriage and premarital sex. Somehow, Federal Judge Greg Van Tatenhove (alumnus of Christian Asbury University) has ruled that this is all constitutional and isn’t state sponsorship of religion. It seems Ark Encounter is a secular outfit when it gets public funding and tax breaks, but a religious organization when it hires employees. Glory be, it’s a miracle!
Mount Fuji, Fujisan, is one of Japan’s “Three Holy Mountains,” a place of ancient shrines, a designated national Historic Site and Special Place of Scenic Beauty. UNESCO added Mt. Fuji to the World Heritage List, noting it had “inspired artists and poets and been the object of pilgrimage for centuries.” The tallest peak in Japan, a volcano, the distinctive mountain has long been a place to contemplate the wonders of nature.
All Mt. Fuji needed was decent digital connectivity. That’s why NTT Docomo collaborated with Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures to offer free Wi-Fi hotspots on Fujisan from July 10th to September 10th. We mark the occasion in haiku:
Climbed the rocky slope
Clutching my iPad tightly
Opened your email
More:
“Climbers to get free Wi-Fi on Mount Fuji,” Kohei Watanabe, Asahi Shimbun
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Image (“WiFi on Mount Fuji, after Utagawa Toyoshige”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Flying saucers zoomed through the skies of the 1950s and 1960s. Why the lack of recent UFO sightings? Some observers say it’s due to the end of the Cold War, but South Carolina’s Jody Pendarvis blames it on the shocking lack of travel amenities for space aliens. That’s why he built a UFO Welcome Center next to his house trailer.
Cherry blossoms along the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC. It’s that time again — or is it? March temperatures have been colder than expected, so the National Park Service has pushed its peak bloom forecast from next week to April 3rd through 6th. Keep track of bloom progress with the National Park Service Cherry Blossom Webcam.
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Short Link: http://wp.me/p6sb6-ghu
Image (“Cherry Blossom Webcam, after After Hiroshige”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length
In 623 BC Siddhartha Gautama, the Lord Buddha, was born in Lumbini, southern Nepal. A holy site, it has long been a place of pilgrimage, and Emperor Ashoka built a commemorative pillar there in 249 BC. In 2013 AD, an international consortium has plans to make Lumbini an amusement park, Buddhaland.
Sarah Palin is spending her summer vacation just like you, on a simple family trip funded by hundreds of thousands of dollars in political donations. Mrs. Palin, along with her parents, sullen pre-teen daughter Piper, and husband Todd (Alaska’s former First Thug), is motoring between historic East Coast sites in a chartered luxury coach with her name painted on it.
Is the trip a vacation or presidental campaign tour? Mrs. Palin won’t say, to the consternation of the media. The bus is being tailed by reporters and news crews as it meanders along its secret itinerary. Far from keeping the trip private, the “magical mystery tour” aspect merely spurs the media frenzy. Where will she be next?
Glen Beck and his pals are observing the 47th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech next Saturday (August 28, 2010) by gathering at the Lincoln Memorial with the National Rifle Association. Very fitting, since President Lincoln and Rev. King were assassinated by gunshot.
Beck’s buddies are boldly standing up for something-or-other but, unlike 20 million other tourists each year, they’re scared stiff of Washington DC. Beck blogs warn them to avoid the Green and Yellow Metro lines where they might encounter rampaging hordes of junior high students and other urban horrors.
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