“(…) Nicholas White, who was trapped in an elevator in New York City’s McGraw-Hill building for forty-one hours. Here is a condensed look at White’s ordeal, as captured by the building’s security cameras.” (video)
“The longest smoke break of Nicholas White’s life began at around eleven o’clock on a Friday night in October, 1999. White, a thirty-four-year-old production manager at Business Week, working late on a special supplement, had just watched the Braves beat the Mets on a television in the office pantry. Now he wanted a cigarette. He told a colleague he’d be right back and, leaving behind his jacket, headed downstairs.
The magazine’s offices were on the forty-third floor of the McGraw-Hill Building, an unadorned tower added to Rockefeller Center in 1972. When White finished his cigarette, he returned to the lobby and, waved along by a janitor buffing the terrazzo floors, got into Car No. 30 and pressed the button marked 43. The car accelerated. It was an express elevator, with no stops below the thirty-ninth floor, and the building was deserted. But after a moment White felt a jolt. The lights went out and immediately flashed on again. And then the elevator stopped.”
‘Davos, Palace Hotel, im Krieg: Gräfin Margit von Batthyány, ihr Ehemann Ivan und Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza’ (FAZ)
“When I was researching my book about his family, Baron “Heini” Thyssen-Bornemisza, self-styled “Swiss” industrialist and legendary art collector, always insisted that Margit, his vivacious older sister, was in fact shy and retiring, while his family’s castle at Rechnitz had been entirely destroyed by the Russians during the war.
I first suspected he may have been lying when Josi Groh, his Hungarian lawyer, told me that far from being shy and retiring Margit had a “voracious sexual appetite” and that she had remained in residence at the Thyssens’ castle throughout the war, enjoying the attention of the SS officers sent there for rest and recreation. But it was his insistence that the castle, or what remained of it, hid a terrible secret that encouraged me to visit Rechnitz.
In this quiet castle town in the foothills of the Alps, I learnt that in the last days of the Second World War, Margit hosted a party for SS officers, Gestapo leaders and local collaborators during which 200 Jews were slaughtered, as entertainment. Ever since, the Thyssens have not accepted involvement and have played down their Nazi past. ‘”
Waarschijnlijk zijn deze 14 uur aan oorspronkelijke beelden en verhalen over de impact van de Tweede Wereldoorlog op 4 Amerikaanse steden en hun bevolking alleen op een Nederlands televisietoestel te zien als je de documentaire downloadt via bittorrent. Wat is aanbevolen.
“In a preview of his next book, Steven Pinker takes on violence. We live in violent times, an era of heightened warfare, genocide and senseless crime. Or so we’ve come to believe. Pinker charts a history of violence from Biblical times through the present, and says modern society has a little less to feel guilty about.”
Sgt. US Marine Corps Eddie Ryan, 22 – Alive Day 13 April 2005.
Documentaire Alive Day van James Gandolfini (Sopranos) is tot 16 september 2007 op HBO.com te zien. (via)
“In a war that has left more than 25,000 wounded, ALIVE DAY MEMORIES: HOME FROM IRAQ looks at a new generation of veterans. Executive Producer James Gandolfini interviews ten Soldiers and Marines who reveal their feelings on their future, their severe disabilities and their devotion to America. The documentary surveys the physical and emotional cost of war through memories of their “alive day,” the day they narrowly escaped death in Iraq.”
“There is an unquestionable need for clear thinking about suicide bombing. But thinking is muddied by the powerful emotions of horror and repulsion it properly stirs. Suicide bombing, as anthropologist Talal Asad notes, is not the most deadly weapon even in conflicts where it is endemic. Rather, the suicide attack is among the most effective ways of attaining another goal: the production of terror though the prospect of uncontrolled and indiscriminate violence. Reckoning with suicide bombing, therefore, means not just taking account of the tactic itself, but also the reactions it purposefully provokes.”
Scotsman.com: “He was the last German soldier firing, and may have accounted for about 3,000 American casualties, almost three-quarters of all the US losses at Omaha.”
“Met haar uitzonderlijke moed en persoonlijkheid en haar netwerk van kunstenaars en dichters, waaronder A. Roland Holst en Max Beckmann, kon ze de voorwaarden scheppen voor het materiële welzijn van haar onderduikers. Haar inspirerende invloed op de artistieke ontwikkeling van de jeugdige onderduikers droeg ertoe bij dat de jongeren de oorlog geestelijk ongeschonden doorstonden.”
The New Yorker: “Since September 11th, depictions of torture have become much more common on American television. Before the attacks, fewer than four acts of torture appeared on prime-time television each year, according to Human Rights First, a nonprofit organization. Now there are more than a hundred, and, as David Danzig, a project director at Human Rights First, noted, “the torturers have changed. It used to be almost exclusively the villains who tortured. Today, torture is often perpetrated by the heroes.””
Live Science: “Designs for a doomsday vault for seeds of the world, to be carved deep into frozen rock on an island not far from the North Pole, were revealed today by the government of Norway.”
The Guardian: “From the Holocaust to 9/11, from Berlin to New York, the world is now studded with memorials to human suffering. But does this really mean we care more than we used to? And does our obsession with terrible events make it any less likely that we will repeat them?”
LiveScience: “There is nothing kind or gentle about a hanging. It is a process scientifically designed to break the neck and choke a person to death as efficiently as possible.”
Reuters: The keepers of the “Doomsday Clock” plan to move its hands forward next Wednesday to reflect what they call worsening nuclear and climate threats to the world.” (Wikipedia.)
Planet Multimedia: “Terroristen moeten de energievoorziening van Amsterdam uitschakelen en de dieseltoevoer naar vier locaties daar, als ze internet internationaal willen treffen.”
“The exact location of the house will only be revealed to serious, pre-screened, and financially pre-qualified prospective buyers at an appropriate time.”
“After being called to emergency reserve duty two weeks ago and much indecision on the part of the officers of how we would be utilized in the raging conflict, my unit was assigned a complicated mission.”
Het eindigt als volgt:
“I was released from the hospital a few hours ago after being treated for severe dehydration and exhaustion. I just wanted to let everybody know that I am fine. Sorry if I made you guys worry too much.”
