Loca Lingo Multicultural

Apollo 11, that’s when I love the USA (despite the political symbol in a cold war context ; the USA had to fight back after Laika and Gargarine ’s trip in the space).
But Kennedy here presented such achievement as a symbol of individuality : sending someone on the moon, and getting him back. Safe. Each of us care. You are unique. You are the center of my attention. I care.

How crazy should have been Armstrong 50 years ago…
- “We would like to send a human being on the moon (and (maybe) getting him back of course) for the first time. Interested ?”
- “Stepping on the moon ? IMPOSSIBLE, no-one has ever managed to do that…” would be the most common answer I believe.
Just imagine someone requesting this from you.
- “I’ll do it for the mankind”

Why is it so difficult to spend time in the progress of humanity in our period of time ? Why don’t we have more Apollo 11 on the news ? Well, we do of course, but does not make you dream as much - it becomes even “has been”. What are the next limits to be pushed ?

If we have enough time to make wars, it is because we don’t have enough challenging goals.

Apollo 11 - The Moon Shot - Click here for funny video clips

Armstrong, the Bougainville of our last century… to continue…

just about feelings around the world - I really enjoyed going through this flash presentation even if it is part of a branding action (for the BBC) snapshots of the world - if I had the budget… this makes you dream

BBC, British Broadcast Corporation, where journalists are more independent than maybe the rest of the crowd (proper network of correspondents)… No advertising, and no (direct at least) influence from political parties (even if its sole source of financing is from the U.K. - I know this freedom of speech sounds strange, maybe it is part of the English culture - even though there are channels I wouldn’t trust for a penny) - slightly left wing to some extent (that’s fine with me).
A bit of free advertising for a good television that worths it… for a world tour, don’t hesitate to read these following online newspapers - I am not sure how independent they are, but at least, you’ll be collecting different point of views… don’t hesitate to add your favorite ones, or to comment…

Enjoy.

MMMh, it has been quite a long time since I posted something.
Sorry for this - too much to do right now from a professional point of view (too many travels). Hereunder is a video hint of where I have been to (a quite good cliché - but well, I enjoyed it - the Mustang is a piece of junk btw, nice shape, 190 hp, but just too heavy, a useless CO² machine that will certainly get prohibited in a few years). Pretty different driving style from Europe, speed limit being lower, but there is this pretty strange feeling that cars go faster there. Local transportation being pretty well organized, I got happy to give back this Starsky & Hutch fantasy to the renting car company (tourists love that car, they are maybe the only ones renting this).

It was a great Sunday, just coming back from a “promenade” out of Muir woods, a day in between conferences and work in San Jose. I took indeed 2 weeks off from my regular-pay-the-bill-job in order to check out the Silicon valley… My feelings are pretty ok, people work hard there, 18 hours (counting stopover) flight from home, and frustratingly, it looks like home (which is pretty strange), hearing French in the streets, the San Francisco bay area, 5 000 000 people, all nationalities being certainly represented, where Googles, Yahoos, Oracles got born and became worldwide… interesting.

This trip made me understand one thing : work, but do what you like. Why should you bother yourself with what you don’t ? You would be considered as “dumb” there.
I was :-), but I have plans now.

An historical bridge between East and West, West and East, a constant exchange throughout History. “A concept that illustrates the way that commodities, empires, religions, and even music, have traveled throughout Eurasia for thousands of years”.

This time map (pop-ups to be allowed) shows how many ways / routes existed when going from one side to the other ; an evolution from the Roman Empire, Alexander the Great, Marco Polo, Sir Aurel Stein (?), Ruy Gonzales de Clavijo, Anthony Jenkinson, Benedict Goës,… Only European explorers were mentioned - what about Asians ? There must have certainly been some (Genghis Khan ?).. Arabs used as well to extensively travel the world. (A pity the only information taught in (Belgian) school is mainly about “national progress for humanity”, forgetting the foreign ones. When history is about politics…)

From a cultural point of view, the same organization (ECAI Berkeley) made up a similar map concerning music instruments… very interesting

When you give a closer look to the map, you can notice the importance of Persia (currently Iran) in this global transportation network : a compulsory gate controlling two seas,… I can just imagine the cultural heritage 2500 years+ of caravans must have left to this country.

from Borodur (Yogyakarta - Indonesia), Emin minaret (Turpan - China), City walls and Bell Tower (Xian - China), Wat Dhoi Suthep (Chiang Mai - Thailand), Imperial City (Hue - Viet Nam) to Psar Thmei (Pnomh Penh - Cambodia)… the ones who think Asia as just a standardized “Chinatown” continent, without any diversity (a bit like the Asian restaurants in Europe / America, where all serve a standardized mix of Chinese / Vietnamese and Thai food) should definitely spend some time on this Asian map ; a snapshot of historical architectures where you would realize that comparing a Mongol yurt to a Malaysian one is like comparing a Finish sauna to a Spaniard one…

Would you be able to recognize the architecture style down here ? Any idea about where these buildings are located (as their purposes) ?

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