Rants & Raves

   Quebec City is set to put on its dancing shoes to celebrate its 400th birthday and everyone’s invited.

The events kick off on New Year’s Eve with fireworks and multimedia performances at the Place d’Youville. Art lovers will enjoy an exhibit of treasures from the Louvre June 5-Oct 26, sports fans can attend the Snowboard World Cup in March or IIHF World Hockey Championship May 1-18, and Cirque du Soleil plans a grand finale Oct 19. In all, the Canadian government will spend $110 million on the 10-month party because, as Heritage Minister Bev Oda says, “the founding of Quebec City in 1608 helped establish us as a country.”

The excitement was palpable when I attended Quebec City’s Summer Festival in July, from airport expansion to cleaning up the Charles River. Each hotel, restaurant, and historic site was putting on its best face for the expected flood of visitors and international media. Even France wants to join the party and has earmarked at least $12 million for a Centre de la Francophonie des Ameriques (Museum of Francophony of the Americas).

Quebec City is designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it’s hard to imagine a more spectacular venue for opera, art, music, and theater on a grand scale. A sure winner are fireworks displays over the majestic St. Lawrence River. Americans who have yet to discover this fortified city might consider that it has the oldest inn, newspaper, hospital, and business district in North America. As the seat of New France, it is truly a taste of Paris without the Gallic hauteur. And these days, it’s much cheaper than a flight to the City of Lights.

Though 95 percent of Quebec City’s 638,000 residents speak French, everyone I spoke with immediately switched to English when they realized I was American. In fact, my mediocre French was complimented as if residents genuinely appreciated my effort to speak their native tongue. Twenty years ago, “French only” was the separatists’ cry; today Quebec City’s international red carpet is glowing.

Why does Quebec City feel like Old World Europe? Because its historic center is carefully preserved, and its spacious urban plan allows for expansive parks and public buildings. Yet the “new” Quebec City boasts ultramodern hotels, convention centers, and shopping malls. Secondly, it is a city made for walking or biking—like European cities—and for leisurely meals. Quebec City’s award-winning chefs are trained in the world’s most competitive, upscale restaurants. Dining options range from Daniel Véniza’s gourmet menu at Laurie Raphaël to crepes at a sidewalk café.

For information on the celebrations for Quebec City’s 400th Birthday see: http://www.monquebec2008.com/MonQuebec2008/?lang=en-ca

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 Traveler information collected by the US gov't is more extensive than previously imagined. Be careful what you carry...

COLLECTING OF DETAILS ON TRAVELERS DOCUMENTED, By Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 22, 2007

The U.S. government is collecting electronic records on the travel habits of millions of Americans who fly, drive or take cruises abroad, retaining data on the persons with whom they travel or plan to stay, the personal items they carry during their journeys, and even the books that travelers have carried, according to documents obtained by a group of civil liberties advocates and statements by government officials.

The personal travel records are meant to be stored for as long as 15 years, as part of the Department of Homeland Security's effort to assess the security threat posed by all travelers entering the country. Officials say the records, which are analyzed by the department's Automated Targeting System, help border officials distinguish potential terrorists from innocent people entering the country.

But new details about the information being retained suggest that the government is monitoring the personal habits of travelers more closely than it has previously acknowledged. The details were learned when a group of activists requested copies of official records on their own travel. Those records included a description of a book on marijuana that one of them carried and small flashlights bearing the symbol of a marijuana leaf.

Read more at:
  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092102347_pf.html

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We anticipate that this message from the melting slopes of Everest will become a long thread in months to come as we document more evidence of the planetary effects of global warming.

SONS OF HILLARY AND TENZING SPEAK OUT ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE: "BELIEVE US, IT'S A REALITY."
By Cahal Milmo and Sam Relph, July 6, 2007 (THE INDEPENDENT, UK)
Fifty-four years after Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first men to climb Everest, their sons have said the mountain is now so ravaged by climate change that they would no longer recognise it.
Peter Hillary and Jamling Tenzing yesterday issued a timely warning that global warming is rapidly changing the face of the world's highest mountain and threatening the survival of billions of people who rely on its glaciers for drinking water.

The base camp where Sir Edmund and Norgay began their ascent is 40 metres lower than it was in 1953. The glacier on which it stands, and those around it, are melting at such a rate that scientists believe the mountain, whose Nepalese name, Qomolangma, means Mother of the World, could be barren rock by 2050.
Up to 40,000 Sherpas who live at the base of the Himalayas face devastation if vast new lakes formed by the melted ice burst and send a torrent of millions of tons of water down the slopes.

Mr Hillary, who has himself twice reached Everest's summit, said: "Climate change is happening. This is a fact. Base camp used to sit at 5,320 metres. This year it was at 5,280 metres because the ice is melting from the top and side. Base camp is sinking each year. For Sherpas living on Mount Everest this is something they can see every day but they can't do anything about it on their own."  Read more at: 

  http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article2739751.ece

BRITISH TOURISTS IN ARCTIC RESCUED AFTER ICE FROM MELTING GLACIER HITS THEIR BOAT
By Jonathan Brown, August 10, 2007 (The independent, UK)
Seventeen British tourists were injured when ice from a melting glacier smashed on to the deck of their luxury Arctic sightseeing boat.

Three holidaymakers were airlifted to hospital with injuries including broken arms, legs and fractured ribs after the accident which happened on Wednesday off the Svalbard islands 300 miles north of Norway. Two of the Britons, who were taken to the Norwegian mainland, had injuries that were described as serious but not life threatening. One is understood to have suffered a head injury after the boat was tossed in the ice fall.

Read more at: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2851429.ece 

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Eurostar Sets Paris-London Record BBC News, Sept. 4, 2007.
Eurostar has set a record on its inaugural journey from Paris to London via a new high-speed line in Britain.
The train, carrying journalists and VIPs, arrived at St Pancras, instead of Waterloo, for the first time. It took two hours, three minutes, 39 seconds. The 68-mile line is expected to help cut times on the entire route by 20 minutes to two hours, 15 minutes when it opens to the public on 14 November.

The BBC's Nick Higham, on board the train, said a GPS device had recorded a speed of 202mph (325km/h) in France and 195mph in Britain.  

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