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This Park Bench has an Address
November 18: Park Bench, Portland Square, Bristol. No, this is no cute address given by some children to their favourite bench. Rather, in the latest demonstration of just how finicky the British can be to minor details, a humble park bench in the town of Bristol, is soon going to have an address. And given its own postcode to boot. This means that if someone sends a letter to the above address, it will reach the Park Bench....
The Empire Strikes Back
October 28: The roots of the present-day education system in India lie in British attempts, more than one and a half century ago, to raise a breed of English-speaking Indians who were ‘babus’ or clerks and could manage the affairs of the British rulers. That is why the study of English has always been stressed in India, even if it is at the expense of the country’s languages. And why English is India’s first language today....
Still Going Strong!
Still Going Strong! [Illustration by Anup Singh] December 27: Something momentous happened at London’s West End theatre a few days ago on December 16. A play by famous mystery writer Agatha Christie, The Mousetrap, was staged to a standing ovation yet again. Nothing unusual in that except for one thing. It was the 20,000th stage performance of The Mousetrap. And this makes the play the longest running in the world, having premiered in the year 1952....
Medical Research : Location, Mt. Everest
Where: London, United Kingdom January 10, 2009 : An interesting story by BBC News tells how a team of London doctors, including five anesthetists, two general practitioners and a vascular surgeon climbed Mt. Everest. They then treated themselves as guinea pigs to measure oxygen levels present in their blood at the summit. The readings confirmed that high-altitude climbers have extremely low levels of oxygen in their blood. At sea-level these would only be seen in patients who were close to death....
The Case of the Stonemasons
December 27: Last year, 10 stonemasons had been taken from Udaipur to London to build a temple. Overjoyed with this opportunity to earn more money, they went along willingly. But what did they get there? Just a dirty shack to live in and only 20 pence an hour. The stonemasons did not know that they were being exploited. However, they did know that they were being treated badly. The moment they reached London, their passports were taken away from them....
Climate Change: Some Chilling Facts
Where London: United Kingdom February 5, 2009 : All of Europe and much of North America experienced very chilly weather and battled snow and ice through most of January. Snowfall of unexpected proportions hit Madrid, Spain, and severe storms blew across France, U.K., Germany, and Northern Italy. Since February 2, 2009 the U.K. has seen unusual amounts of snowfall. By midday on February 2 alone, about a foot of snow had fallen over London, the heaviest snowfall over the city in 18 years....
Heads of Government to Seek Solutions to World Economic Crisis at G20 Summit
Where: London, United Kingdom March 30, 2009 : The heads of the world’s 20 largest economic powers, the Group of 20 or G20, will assemble in London on April 2, 2009. The London summit will focus on finding solutions to the present global economic crisis. The G20 is a forum that includes G-7, the world’s seven leading industrialized nations — the U.S., Japan, Germany, France, the UK, Italy and Canada — and the world’s largest developing world economies: Brazil, Russia, India and China (often referred to as BRIC)....