culture

Friendship of nations through notable statues

This heavily edited image found its way into my Facebook stream (sorry, don’t know who’s the author of the image):

These are, of course, three iconic statues photoshopped together (left to right): The Motherland Calls, Christ the Redeemer, and the Statue of Liberty. Each one has interesting stories and unique value to the nation of its people.

My interest was more in the relative sizes of one to another. On the edited images, all three appear somewhat the same. But is it true in real life? Wikipedia (links above) shows that they are not.

The Motherland Calls was the tallest statue at the time of construction, in 1967. It measures 87 meters from the tip of the sword to the base of the platform on which it stands.
The Statue of Liberty was constructed in 1886 and measures 46 meters. It does appear much higher, because of the pedestal on which it stands. With the one it goes as high as 93 meters.
Christ the Redeemer was built in 1931 and is only 30 meters tall. Together with the pedestal it’s 38 meters high.

There is another metric that escaped the generalization – The Motherland Calls’ sword is 33 meters long. Look at the numbers above. It’s actually longer than the whole statue of Christ the Redeemer (without the pedestal). Wow! That’s a lot of scaling for the image of friendship.

While reading up on these statues, I found another image, which actually puts them together on a scale.

Oops! So much for the friendship of nations. There’s a the Spring Temple Buddha, built in 2002, rising up 128 meters. I guess nobody wants to be friends with him. Or any of those smaller statues to the right of Jesus the Redeemer.

So, if you hear someone sneezing behind the wall o…

So, if you hear someone sneezing behind the wall or on another floor, do you still shout “bless you”?

Paris syndrome

BBC reports:

A dozen or so Japanese tourists a year have to be repatriated from the French capital, after falling prey to what’s become known as “Paris syndrome”.

That is what some polite Japanese tourists suffer when they discover that Parisians can be rude or the city does not meet their expectations.

Oh, really? These people should steer clear of Russian then. If they need psychiatric help after Paris, they will probably just drop dead on the streets of Chelyabinsk…

The Serious Eats Guide to Sandwiches

Here is an excellent tour of all sorts of sandwiches, from the classics like BLT and Club to Greek Doner Kebab and Dutch Crunch. The descriptions are based on the sandwiches as cooked in different parts of the US, but, I think, that would be pretty accurate for other parts of the world as well.

Warning: some seriously yummy pictures ahead!

Via kottke.org.

Cypriots still heaviest smokers in EU

CYPRIOTS are the heaviest smokers in the EU puffing 20.5 cigarettes daily, according to a survey conducted as part of the European Commission’s campaign ‘Ex-smokers are unstoppable.’

According to the survey – conducted by iCoach, a digital health platform aimed at helping smokers kick the habit – only one in ten Cypriot smokers have given up smoking, since 2011, and those who still smoked, consumed the highest number of cigarettes in the EU at 20.5 cigarettes daily.

However, most smokers in Europe – 46 per cent – consume 11-20 cigarettes daily, with the EU average amounting to 14.2 cigarettes daily.

Cyprus was also ranked eighth among European countries, with 30 per cent of its population currently smoking. Ranking first was Greece at 40 per cent and last was Sweden at 13 per cent.