Voting Open for Seven Wonders of Modern World]

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Voting Open for Seven Wonders of Modern World
Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2006 00:20:29 -0800
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Reply-To: dewayne () warpspeed com
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
References: <1140369030.5623.24.camel () linux site>

[Note:  This item comes from reader Randall.  DLH]

> From: Randall <rvh40 () insightbb com>
> Date: February 19, 2006 9:10:30 AM PST
> To: Dave <dave () farber net>, Dewayne Hendricks  
> <dewayne () warpspeed com>, JMG <johnmacsgroup () yahoogroups com>
> Subject: Voting Open for Seven Wonders of Modern World
>
> <http://htdaw.blogsource.com/post.mhtml?post_id=252002>
>
> Voting Open For Seven Wonders of Modern World
> Sunday, February 19, 2006 at 12:08 PM EST
>  "New Seven" wonders list narrowed; now it's up to the world to choose
>
> By James Janega
>
> Chicago Tribune
>
> CHICAGO — In a way, the structures were just waiting for this. They
> passed centuries in glorious esteem, sheltering kings from time to  
> time,
> inspiring postcard photographers. Think of the vaguely disquieting
> statues at Easter Island, the luminous marble of the Taj Mahal, the
> stately Athenian Acropolis and the vast Great Wall of China.
>
> They're beyond landmarks. Many are official World Heritage Sites,
> recognized as lovely and significant by the United Nations. Still,
> there's something missing, a sense of incomplete acknowledgment.
>
> It's this, Swiss-born adventurer/filmmaker/entrepreneur Bernard Weber
> said: Despite the United Nations' stamp of approval on so many, no one
> has formally recognized them with the exclusive superlatives he thinks
> they deserve.
>
> In 2000 he started a foundation to do that and is a year from  
> realizing
> his dream.
>
> In the intervening six years, the project grew beyond a single
> globetrotting European entrepreneur starting a Web site. It has  
> become a
> pro-monument movement involving engineers, academics, architects and
> former government functionaries, as well as 19 million others with  
> three
> things in common: telephones, a yearning to vote on something obscure
> and an interest in some particular place on Earth.
>
> In the past few years, voters nominated a number of manmade sites, and
> the 77 top vote-getters advanced. They were narrowed to 21 in  
> January by
> a panel of world-famous architects (seven of them). Results will be
> announced Jan. 1, 2007, and if you've begun to spot the numerical
> symbolism, you've got the idea.
>
> Since Philon of Byzantium named the original Seven Wonders of the  
> World
> in 200 B.C., the Western world has relegated them to an awed mental
> pedestal — and then promptly forgot what was on the list. (Name  
> them now
> without skipping down. Try it.)
>
> In those centuries, six vanished.
>
> Still with us are the Pyramids at Giza. And, Weber believes, a  
> powerful
> need to name a New Seven.
>
> The only remaining U.S. site in the top 21 is the Statue of Liberty,
> though at least the Golden Gate Bridge, Empire State Building and  
> Mount
> Rushmore made the list of 77 finalists.
>
> Even so, it's an interesting glimpse at which of humankind's
> architectural accomplishments still have the power to inspire.  
> Besides,
> the last list of Seven Wonders was decidedly Mediterranean-centric.  
> And,
> at 2,200 years old, is getting a little dated.
>
> Fates unkind to originals
>
> Earthquakes leveled the Lighthouse of Alexandria. The Hanging  
> Gardens of
> Babylon may never have existed. Crusading Maltese knights purloined
> blocks from the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus to build a fortress.
>
> Other Wonders met more elaborate fates. The Colossus of Rhodes was
> felled by earthquake, left prone by oracle's decree and hauled off on
> mules by invading Arab merchants. A disaffected Ephesian burned the
> Temple of Artemis, after which it was razed by Goths.
>
> Caligula tried to appropriate The Statue of Zeus, and broke it. A  
> Roman
> successor closed its temple, which later suffered earthquakes,
> landslides and fire.
>
> So no wonder nobody can name all seven. Perhaps, reasons Weber and his
> panel of eminent architectural judges, it's time to start again.
>
> "Let's face it," he said. "There's so much destruction and negative
> things in the world, and I think all of these buildings are  
> testimony of
> what human beings can achieve by being creative and constructive."
>
> Other "wonders" lists
>
> Weber's starting place was the United Nations Educational, Scientific
> and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Center in Paris, to
> see if his plan had been tried.
>
> Through various means, UNESCO has a $15 million annual budget to  
> catalog
> and help preserve 184 fantastic natural and architectural sites.  
> After a
> brief consultation, in which he was told nobody had, Weber formed his
> own group, filmmaker and UNESCO spokeswoman Gina Doubleday said.
>
> It's not the first time something of the kind has been attempted.  
> There
> have been lists of Forgotten Wonders, Modern Wonders, Natural Wonders,
> Travel Wonders, even a Pennsylvania gift shop called Wonders of the
> World.
>
> But since the United Nations' efforts, Weber's push is one of the more
> formal efforts to name and publicize a new list of seven, and  
> carries a
> modicum of financial backing.
>
> Will anyone remember the new seven in another seven years? Who knows,
> organizers say. But the attention can hardly hurt them, and any money
> raised by the growing promotional effort could possibly fund the
> monuments' upkeep.
>
> Weber said half the income from the project will be earmarked to  
> protect
> the final picks and other remarkable edifices — a key point,  
> considering
> what happened to the previous seven.
>
> [Vote here: http://www.n7w.com/ ]
>
> <http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/ 
> 2002815154_seven17.html>

Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>


-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org
To manage your subscription, go to
  http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/