This week’s selection comes from Jonathan Summers, Curator of Classical Music Recordings. Scottish composer Sir John Blackwood McEwen (1868-1948) had a distinguished career producing a large amount of music, little of which is heard today. He was Principal of the Royal Academy of Music from 1924-1936 and was knighted in… read more
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Participants of a running race pose for photos in the newly renovated walkways on the roof of the National Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest, in Beijing on Saturday, February 11, 2017. [Photo: people.cn] |
A walkway extending 1,000-meter-long on top of National Stadium, known as the Bird’s Nest, opened to the public for the first time following an amateur winter sports program hosted on Feb. 11.
Nearly 100 contenders joining in skiing and Kirnu competitions in the stadium as the first group of visitors to the rooftop causeway were treated to a bird’s eye view 60 meters above the ground.
According to Beijing Youth Daily, the new walkway was built on the 230-meter-long original corridor, where the route now is connected with 600-meter and 100-meter causeways on the top and medium parts of the stadium.
According to staff working in the stadium, two observation towers soaring 69 meters into the air have been opened to visitors.
Platforms at the north, south and west wings are established for visitors to take breaks, and a deck on an east to west axis surrounded with 2-meter-high glass screens is designed to protect visitors from falling while presenting them with scenery through the transparent wall.
The walkway costs 80 yuan (US$11.62) per visit.
read moreIt is fascinating to see the traditional media wrestling with other ways of looking at the world. They dont seem to like competitive opinions. It is high time some of their own alternative facts were exposed to criticism.
The media regularly tells us that the Conservatives in government cut public spending. If you look at the figures you find that it climbed in real terms from £249bn to £292 bn under Mr heath, from £326 bn to £437 bn under Mrs Thatcher and Sir John Major, and has risen again under Mr Cameron. (2011-12 constant price basis). The OBR forecasts further real growth this Parliament. The media instead usually takes a figure about the proportion of National Income, so that if the private sector grows faster than the state sector they can call this a cut! They never use the cash figures because these have surged.
The media also regularly tells us Sir John Major’s government fell because the party was split on Europe. If you look at the polls you see the Conservative ratings plunged when the economic damage of the European Exchange Mechanism became clear when we were forced to abandon that crazy policy and never picked up. All the rows over Maastricht and the Euro made no difference to the poll ratings.
The media often present Treasury and Other consensus economic forecasts as if they were reality. They rarely ask why these bodies failed to forecast the Exchange Rate Mechanism recession, the Banking Crash recession or the Euro crisis. Now they should ask why these bodies did forecast a 2016-17 recession for the UK which visibly is not happening.
The media love running Big business threatens to pull out stories about their presence in the UK if we resist features of the EU. They ran these stories when we decided to stay out of the Euro and were wrong then. Now they run them about leaving the EU, and were wrong about the short term impact and will doubtless be wrong about the long term as well.
read moreDrones get ready to take off for a performance in Guangzhou, capital city of south China’s Guangdong Province, on Saturday, Feb. 11, 2017. [Photo: ycwb.com] A record number of 1,000 Chinese drones performed stunning formations in Guangzhou of sou… read more
