Christmas in Ipanema

Planted in the middle of the lagoon behind Ipanema, in Rio de Janeiro, this 82-metre high Christmas extravaganza arouses both delight and frustration each year. Traffic jams are inevitable as people stop to admire this tree of trees...


Photo courtesy of marginalrevolution.com 2006

Banksy goes to Bethlehem

The city of Bethlehem in the West Bank has commissioned Banksy, the elusive British graffiti artist, to paint over a dozen images on the 8m-high (26ft) concrete wall that surrounds the town.
The city's economy is highly dependent on tourists, especially during the Christmas season, but few visitors are now willing to take the time to cross the Israeli checkpoint at the security barrier.
Read about it in the Timesonline by clickinghere
photo courtesy of the Timesonline

What have politicians done for the Paris suburbs since 2005?

That's the title of an in-depth article provided by Rue89, a newish and very dynamic Parisian blog created by a group of Libération old timers among others. Clickhere for the article in French.
La Courneuve in all its glory, photo courtesy of Rue89

a picture from Delhi that speaks louder than words

London-Paris in 135 minutes

Beginning tomorrow the Eurostar should glide out of the magnificently restored St Pancras railway station in London and arrive in Paris 2 hours and 15 minutes later. Brussels can now be reached in 1 hour and 51 minutes. Too bad the SNCF has decided it has other fish to fry and is going on strike tomorrow...

Leave Tuvalu for London? Me?

This post is to point out a blog that is just the thing for procrastinators on deadline. Owen Powell, a writer, performer and director, and Alex Horne, writer and comedian, set out to prove that London is the most cosmopolitan city in the world. They began in October 2006 and finished one year later, having interviewed and recorded comments from people from 189 countries living and working in London. According to the United Nations there are 192 countries in the world so they're only missing people from these three countries: Tuvalu, Palau and the Marshall Islands.
To access the blog click here

Norwegian Rats

Norwegians will be happy to know that the basic urban rat, known as the Rattus Norvegicus, is not, actually from Norway. It is said that the rats, originally from northern China, were stowaways on Norwegian ships and emigrated to Europe in the 18th century. They also used other methods of transportation to migrate such as trains and automobiles and have even resorted to swimming; in one particular case a large contingency swam across the Volga river to Russia.
In the past week I've seen two rats. A few days ago one hurried past me as I was coming out of Marks & Spencers. Today my cat was chasing (unsuccessfully) a rat outside. For all city dwellers, encountering a rat is a normal occurrence. Who hasn't seen rats scuttling down the tracks in the New York city subway? When you take out the garbage in Rome at night there are rats lurking around the bins like derelict teenagers. In Paris a friend had strapping rats scaling the wisteria plant that grew up the wall of her building. And some of us will never, ever, forget the story of Pete, the rat and the glue trap in New York. He may write about it someday.
Norwegian rats are apparently perfectly suited to city living as a result of their "opportunistic and omnivorous behavior".
Furthermore, "to know the rat is to know its habitat, and to know the habitat of the rat is to know the city" says Robert Sullivan in his 2004 book on New York City rats, Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants.
Do you know your rat's habitat?