America has gone Mega Millions crazy, with panic buying of lottery tickets and the attention of the world’s media. But the USA is not the only place to have massive jackpots or generous lotteries. El Gordo and El Niño If a Spanish friend asks whether you will be taking part in the ‘fat one’ or the ‘child’, they are hopefully referring to the Spanish state lottery. […]
Monthly Archives: March 2012
Which is the best city in the world to be a student? It is an almost impossible question to answer – are you looking for the best party city or the most rarefied academic cluster? Miami or Boston, Newcastle or Oxford? And should you consider the most perennial of student concerns – money? How far would a student loan go in New York, London or Paris? […]
Best place for the best time of your life
Chapter eight of the book of Hosea sets out the following stark warning: “For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.” This biblical admonishment is usually interpreted in a metaphorical sense as a warning for those who do evil. In its […]
Black Sunday and the winds that destroyed the west
Stephen Irvine, 27 March 2012 A woman whose beauty was matched only by her mystery, she took my hand in hers and it felt like a true awakening as the warmth of her spirit flooded into me – just feeling her touch I knew that this was an angel who could breathe life into lone dead stars, light years away, just by being present in the […]
The Broken Window Fallacy
MAD is a perfect acronym to describe one of the most terrifying concepts mankind has yet devised. It stands for Mutually Assured Destruction, and described the stark realisation of looming anhilation and the tense balance of power that kept (and keeps) any nuclear power deploying their apocolyptic arsenal against enemies. Although the nuclear arsenals amassed by the USA and USSR during the Cold War were sufficient […]
MADness
Yesterday’s Vaguely Interesting article looked at the numismatic phenomenon that is the US 50 State Quarters programme. Whilst it was an unrivalled seigniorage success story, the programme was not without its mishaps, mistakes or unintended consequences. Once a state’s chosen image was minted, it was there for posterity in hundreds of millions, if not billions, of copies. New Hampshire New Hampshire depicted the Old Man of the […]
Striking the wrong note
In 1999 the United States Mint issued the first of its 50 State Quarters. Over the next 10 years, each state in the Union would be showcased on its own shiny quarter dollar coin. The law passsed on 1 December 1997 as United States Commemorative Coin Program Act was controversial, with some officials claiming it marked the ‘Disneyfication’ of US currency. From Delaware to Hawaii, the […]
Coining it in
Bread is pretty important. Everyday, Christians around the world pray to be given their daily bread. Celebrating Eucharist sees the breaking of bread, which, according to the doctrine of transubstantiation (or real presence), is the “bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ”. The word ‘bread’ is used over 350 times in the King James Bible, beginning with references in Genesis: “In the sweat of thy face shalt […]
Devil’s fart bread
The terrifying spectacle of mass bombings of cities is one of the defining features of the Second World War. From the devastation of British towns in the Blitzkrieg to the levelling of German urban areas in the relentless day and night bombings of the final years of the war, terror from the skies ensured war directly affected civilians like never before. The air war reached its […]
Death from the sky
Stephen Irvine, 20 March 2012 With Mother’s Day following suspiciously quickly in Valentine’s tawdry wake, I grudgingly decided it was high time for me to venture into my local branch of Clinton Cards this weekend – their ‘Because it Matters’ slogan a particular draw, even for the hardest of hearts. Having eventually plumped for a card with a picture of some roses up top and ‘Happy […]
Your card has been marked
In the third of a three-part special (part one and part two here) on the fate of famous people’s bodies after death, today’s post looks five bodies that have been preserved for posterity. Enjoy all the waxy goodness. Or badness. Either way – its a quintet of shiny corpses. Vladimir Lenin With his distinct bald head, moustache and goatee, Lenin is perhaps the most famous corpse […]
Death becomes them
The flag of Corsica is one of the most identifiable and unusual in Europe. Against a pure white background a black face is depicted in a side profile – the dark outline makes a arresting contrast against the white. The image is even more striking as the black face is either blindfolded with a white ribbon wrapped around its eyes or features a white bandana on […]
Blindfolded moors – the flags of Corsica and Sardinia
When did the Second World War end in Europe? And when did the Nazi German government surrender? You’d be forgiven for saying ‘on the same day’, and most people would suggest Victory in Europe Day (8 May 1945 in most countries, but celebrated on 9 May 1945 in the Soviet Union) as the most obvious day. Alternatively, it could be 7 May 1945 – the day […]
How did Nazi Germany survive until 5 June 1945?
Few military operations can have been given a more appropriate code name than Operation Unthinkable. As Allied armies laboriously clawed through a shattered Europe, circling and invading Nazi Germany, British military planners were considering a possible next chapter for the European theatre of conflict. Remarkably, the plan envisaged an attack on the Soviet Union – Britain’s wartime partner and, by various measures, the strongest of the […]
Thinking the (Operation) Unthinkable
Stephen Irvine, 14 March 2012 As the last notes of Wishful Thinking by China Crisis drift through the morning air and the ensuing silence announces the end of Now That’s What I Call Music II’s third side, it suddenly dawns on me that I might be a little behind the times. With popular culture in the country of my birth unrecognisable since the salad days of […]
Modern love (or semantic sexuality)
Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary is one of the most haunting, spectacular and interesting places I have ever visited. The sprawling complex served as one of Pennsylvania’s primary high security prisons for over 140 years before being closed in 1971. The Penitentiary was built in 1829 in a cherry orchard amidst open fields to the north of the city. By the time the prison closed, the burgeoning […]
Penitence through patience
We drove east out of Philadelphia on Interstate 76, heading towards Lancaster County in search of the Amish. I’ve been fascinated by this religious group ever since watching the documentary ‘Devil’s Playground’, a film that follows a group of Amish teenagers during their ‘rumspringa’. Rumspringa or Rumschpringa stems from the Pennsylvanian German ‘rumspringen’ – to run around. It refers to the period of adolescence when Amish […]
Amish paradise
It is a pretty simple culinary invention, but one that carries a whole heap of history and divides a city’s loyalties as completely as any sporting rivalry. It is the cheesesteak and, if you are a Philadelphian, you’ll instinctively know the answer to the question ‘Pat’s or Geno’s?’. There are certain things everyone can agree on with respect to the Philadelphia cheesesteak. It is a sandwich. […]