World’s  Longest  Overland  Tunnel

Thru’  Alps  Mountain  in  Europe:  35 km or 21 mile long.

“We have moved a mountain,”  declared Swiss Transport Minister, Moritz Leuenberger, inaugurating World’s Longest Overland Tunnel.

The Loetschberg tunnel took eight years to build at a cost of 3.5 dollars and crosses from Germany to Italy in just under two hours.  Earlier it was a four hour journey.
 

The train runs on rubber-cushioned rails at 250 kmph,  swishing a smooth and quiet ride.
Even when the train was at high speed and at points where it was 2,000 meters below the mountain, cell phone reception was strong throughout the journey.

Switzerland has an even more ambitious project going, at the moment,  to be opened in 2017.
The 57 kilometer long Gotthard Tunnel.  This would be the longest tunnel in the world, when it is opened for traffic in ten years.  

At present,  the undersea Seikan Tunnel of Japan is the longest,  at 53.9 km.   Next comes the Channel Tunnel connecting England and France at a length of 50.4 kilometer.  

The urgent need of this expensive tunnel is to ease mostly  road freight  traffic. Switzerland is at the center of a north-south European axis.  Traffic has increased more than tenfold since 1980.

The huge rigs and the enormous number of vacationers filling the narrow valleys of Switzerland have created almost perpetual traffic jams. 

The idea to shift traffic from road to rail has remained overwhelmingly popular even though the cost has run billions of dollars over the estimated budget.

“We did not want to become part of the road corridor for 40-ton trucks streaming north and south, and so decided to opt for rail tunnels,” explained  Leuenberger, the Transport Minister.

Passenger trains will commence operations,  at an amazing frequency, from December 2007.  One hundred and fifteen trains a day will cross the Alps mountain through this tunnel.  

Passengers will be carried by trains running at the rate of one train every half hour . . . smoothly and silently.

The Loetschberg tunnel was originally designed as a twin tunnel.  Train traffic was to flow through separate tubes in both directions.

Due to high cost of construction only one tube is completed and opened now for traffic.  The trains will alternate travelling through in opposite directions.

It is estimated,  more than 4,000 heavy lorries cross the Swiss Alps, by road every day. This heavy traffic invariably leads to traffic jams, air pollution and accidents.

Now 90 percent of this traffic would be no more on roads.   The heavy taxes on road transportation too would contribute no less towards this happy end.

Less congestion on roads mean clearer and fresher air without petrol and diesel fumes.
Switzerland is a landlocked nation.  It is surrounded by Germany in the North,  Austria in the East, Italy in the South and France in the West.

It is majestically mountainous with scenic beauty unparalleled in every direction of the compass.

It is a neutral country.  It had always kept itself uninvolved in any of the multitude of Europeans wars of the past centuries.  The last two World Wars too were no exceptions. 

Its strict neutrality of over 400 years made it one of the most wealthiest country in the world.  The key Industry of Switzerland is Banking.  

It was so strict in its policy of ‘neutrality’, it avoided joining the United Nations till five years back, 2002.
 

Compiled from BBC Newsletters by benzaloy                    Read here too if you are curious like me

                                                                                                   Monday, 04 June 2007

Paul  Newman :  the Actor,  the Author,   the Motor  Racer, the Family Man and the Philanthropist 

“Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good”. 

So wrote, Paul Newman, the Hollywood actor,  in his book. A man whose donations to charities far exceeded half a billion US dollars.     

Paul Newman, won many awards both in acting, as well as directing and producing films. 

In addition he is also a Motor Racer, Author and Philanthropist.   

He retired from work, at the ripe age of 82 years, reported BBC late  last month.  

Now in his early eighties, Newman announced on May 25, 2007 that he will retire from acting entirely.   

He said:  “I don’t feel I can continue acting on the level that I want to.  You start to lose your memory, you start to lose your confidence, you start to lose your invention.  So I think that’s pretty much a closed book for me.” 

Paul Newman is the founder of Newman’s Own, a food company.   

All its profits and royalties are donated to charity.   He also co-sponsors the PEN/Newman’s Own First Amendment Award.  A $25,000 reward for those who protect the first amendment as it applies to the written word. Paul Newman, in his film career of half a century has won: Academy Award, Golden Globe, Cannes Award, and Emmy Award. 

Birth and Acting Career 

Paul Leonard Newman  was born on the 26th of January, 1925 in an affluent suburb of
Cleveland.    His father, Arthur, was a Jewish owner of a profitable sports goods store. His mother, Theresa was Catholic. 

Young Paul was bright and good at sports. His mother encouraged his early interest in acting.   He made his acting debut at 7, as the court jester in a school production of Robin Hood. 

Newman attended Ohio University in
Athens, Ohio.  There he was initiated into the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity.   

He studied acting at Yale University and under Lee Strasberg at the Actors’ Studio in New York City. 

Colour blind 

We film buffs were saved by providence.  We nearly lost our Paul Newman to aviation.   

He  served as a tail gunner in the Navy during World War II in the Pacific theatre. He flew out of aircraft carriers.  He had hoped to be accepted for pilot training.   

But luckily for us he did not qualify.  He is colour blind. 

Philanthropist 

He founded ‘Newman’s Own’.  A food products establishment.     It started with salad dressing, and expanded into serving pasta sauce, salsa, popcorn and lemonade and other popular items.   

The total net profits,  after taxes,  are donated to charity.   

The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp is another institution that benefits from his generous heart.  It is a  residential summer camp for  handicapped children. 

It has many branches within US
America.  And also has braches in  Ireland,   France  and 
Israel.  It  serves 13,000 children every year.  

Outspoken 

His first movie:  ‘The Silver Chalice’ was made in 1954.  Newman himself described it as the  ” worst movie of the entire 1950s decade,”  

But he came up with very popular films like:  Somebody Up There Likes Me,   Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.  In this film he was with  Elizabeth Taylor.  A film acclaimed by most people in the English speaking world.  

Film history  

Paul  Newman has acted in many classics.  Some of them are:  Towering Inferno,  Cool Hand Luke,  The Verdict,  The Hustler,  Exodus and Slap Shot.     

He and his wife, Joanne Woodward, appeared in many feature films such as, Rally Round the Flag Boys,  The Long Hot Summer  and Mrs. Bridge, as late as 1990.    

Recently he appeared in Road to Perdition with Tom Hanks.   

Also  he has voiced for Disney/Pixar’s Cars as the character Doc Hudson.  We can view it in Sony’s ‘X-BoX 360’ Games.  

Awards 

Newman was nominated for Academy Award nine times as an actor.  And once as Producer for Rachel, Rachel.  

He won an honorary Oscar for his “many and memorable and compelling screen performances.” 

In 1969, he won the Golden Globe award for Best Director, for Rachel, Rachel.    

He won the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award in 1984. 

In 1968, Newman was named “Man of the Year” byHarvard
University’s performance  group, the Hasty Pudding Theatricals. 

In 1994, the Academy awarded him the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for his charity work.  In all, he has three Oscar statuettes.  Life outside the cinema 

Detached from Hollywood, Newman makes his home in
Westport, Connecticut with his wife Joanne Woodward. 

His first marriage was to Jackie Witte, and lasted nine years and three children.  Their son Scott died in 1978 from an accidental drug overdose.   

Newman married Joanne Woodward in 1958 and they have three daughters.  

Newman has been married to Woodward now for almost 50 years. 

Once the Empire magazine audaciously asked him why he never committed adultery, he famously replied “Why go out for a hamburger when you have steak at home?”  

Motor Racing 

Paul Newman started Motor Racing in 1972.   Once he took part in the 24 hours of Le Mans and finished second in a Porsche 935.  At the end of the race he said the credit goes to my co-driver and his driving skills, the German team mate Rolf Stommelen. 

Newman was mostly  attached to Nissan of  Japan.  They  named a model  after him,  the “Newman”.   

At the age of 70, he became the oldest driver to be part of a winning team.  In the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1995.  

Newman Day 

This is a silent facet of the man . . .  not so well known.   This day is named after Paul Newman . . . but it is not known whether he has concurred in the idea.  

An annual tradition where beers are consumed for 24 hours.  This tradition is found in Princeton University, Bates  College,  and  Kenyon College to name the prestigious ones.  

The plausible explanation for this tradition is found inBates
College: Paul Newman once said “24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case.  Coincidence? I think not.”  . . .  loosely based upon his character in the film Cool Hand  Luke. 

This statement has never been confirmed as coming from Newman. He has stated that he is opposed to this traditional celebration. 

At  Princeton, the day is celebrated on every April 24 with the slogan: “24 in 24 on the 24th”.  Once  Newman’s lawyer sent a letter  to Princeton University and Bates College indicting this tradition should end.  

But the celebration continues. 

Here is the Wikipedia .org entry for this ‘newman’s day’: 

At  Princeton University tradition involving drinking 24 beers within a 24 hour period. Held every April 24th by students at Princeton.   

It is also held at other colleges in the United States.

The event is not officially sanctioned by any university.  

A great man indeed . . . it is said of Paul Newman: If each nation has one paul newman, the entire world would be a far better place !                                                                                                  

… thought I knew …

“Popies for Peace”  cries  Common Sense  … “No !” screams powerful Governments
 

[Gleaned and compiled from articles by Jorrit Kamminga and Peter van Ham of Washington Quarterly; and John Simpson, World Affairs Editor of BBC]
 

Drug Problem: Why it Persists?   How it Survives?   Governments to be Blamed !
 

The fear of drugs is in every home.   On the road an addict may drive into you.   At place of work an addict may harass you.   In the house an addict may break-in to rob you.     And in the home your teenager could turn into one of them.

Governments enact laws to prevent use of drugs.   Innumerable laws are there in place.  Yet innocents are jailed along with criminals.

This injustice, the governments say,  and say it without compunction, ‘injustice cannot be helped and must be endured,   for ignorance is no excuse,   and we are fighting a war’. 

For want of better legislations,  the drug cartels thrive and flourish with money in abundance to enjoy the very best in life.  

US of America is spending billions of dollars to eradicate drugs in Colombia and  Peru in Soth America  and Afghanistan in Asia.  These are only three main sources mentioned here.   The United Nations too is involved along with many other organizations.  

The general view of independent observers are entirely different from those of the many governments.  

These governments are spending billions of dollars of ‘public money’ in these lost ‘drug’ wars in vain.

Here is what the BBC’World Affairs Editor’, John Simpson, said of this problem:  

The drugs business offers one of the best returns on investment of any commodity on earth.    It operates according to the pure, undistorted laws of the market.

And its greatest, though unconscious, supporters have been the governments of the European Union and the United States.

In Washington Quarterly, in a well written article, Jorrit Kamminga and Peter van Ham write :

Afghanistan must turn the tables on opium crisis.  

Establish a project to produce medicines like Morphine and Codeine. 

Tackling drug economy is central to  easing Afghanistan’s ills, and the only alternative is the ‘poppies for peace proposal’. 

Burning and destroying the basic plant only antagonises the farmer and throws him into the out spread welcoming arms of the drug dealers.

And the ‘great pretenders’ of freedom fighters in many 3rd world countries.  They use drugs for guns.   Why cannot our governments use drugs for medicine and peace?

United States of America is the leader in adopting a hard-line policy.   It spends billions of dollars  to eradicate cocoa and poppy plants.  They offer alternative crops to farmers for cultivation.  

The  farmers vehemently oppose the idea of alternative crops because drug plants bring in much more and steady income.

We all know alcohol to be one of the drugs that create problems in a society.  Home violence, road accidents, sexual offences and every disgusting crime under the sun. 

What most of us do not know is that Alcohol is the deadliest of all drugs known to man.   Medical, Forensic and Crime studies support this statement.   We did not pluck this out of the sky to support our presentation here.

 Yet alcohol is openly sold under license. Why cannot the drugs too be dispensed to users and addicts?   If there are valid reasons for such a closed-minded attitude by all the governments why will not they openly and emphatically explain their reasons?   Why hide?

Prohibition of Alcohol was enforced in the USA by a group of puritan politicians in the 1920s.  

This started an illicit trade in alcohol and fostered gangsters like Al Capone, Jessie James,  Pistol Ma,   Baby-faced Nelson and 100s of others.  Most of the were gunned down and a few were sent to prison. 

The biggest and notoriously famous Al Capone was sent to prison for not paying Income Tax.   Not for any of his criminal activities.   But for spending so much lavishly.   He could not account for the money he spent. 

The prohibition was withdrawn years later and billions of dollars in the pockets of high politicians and officials.   The ‘kennedy millions’ began in illicit alcohol deals. 

Bootlegging they called it.   

The American bureaucracy fought like rabid dogs to retain the prohibition. 
 

It brought in unearned income  more than three, four times their legitimate salaries. 

But saner thoughts prevailed and prohibition was  withdrawn and alcohol was once again distributed under license.

It is the very same situation with these hard drugs from marijuana, cocaine, heroin to variety of others.

Why does America persists in hard-line approach to drugs?

Why does America applies heavy pressure on Drug Authorities of the United Nations?   Not to go for ‘poppies for peace’ proposal?

Why will not America relent in its Hard-line Policy?

Even after its own lessons learnt in the Prohibition Law of early 1920s?

Isnt this ridiculous?  

A nation that is endowed with great thinkers  …  great leaders of men  …   behaves like the self-appointed  policeman of the world  …   refuses to take lessons from its own  past mistakes!

The answer is that same old …  “unearned income of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats”  …   in high places.  

Why?

The answer is the same old one:  the inexorable   “corrupt officials and politicians”  holding on to their avenues of  unearned income.

“Curiosity killed the cat” . . .
 

the words of my ‘acca’ for any of my not so infrequent questions.  I knew, or thought I knew, there must be a story behind this … no amount of prying questions prised loose that nugget of story out of her … now I wonder, after many decades of time, if she knew a story at all?

Off and on, when I met an erudite person, if this haunting Qn poped up in mind, amidst other debris, never hesitated to pose the problem … and never got a satisfactory answer till today:

Cat, a curious animal, like small children, could get hurt in exploring things … “Go English dot com” gave this to me.

Likewise, there must be many little boys and girls with crowded minds, crowded with unanwered questions … always saying: Oh, my gosh! I thought I knew that … and many an adult shuting them up with: Aw, come on …

A curious child is a wonder … Qn, probe, think, jabber, Qn again and so on throughout waking hours … non-stop. 

An adult was categorically, precisely, concisely and emphtically instructed not to ’shut up’ the questioning child …she did not mind the advice … the healthy curious mind developed an aversion to read … and developed no further … the mother of the child is entirely to be blamed.

Let no child or adult be in this sorry situation ever . . .  thank you.