When historians look back on 2012, one Briton will define the year’s momentous and joyous events more than any other. The Queen not only celebrated her Diamond Jubilee, giving us all a reason to remind ourselves what is best about Britain, but also played a starring role in the opening ceremony of London 2012.
Who will ever forget the delicious moment when Her Majesty greeted James Bond at Buckingham Palace, before appearing to parachute out of a helicopter into the Olympic Park? Our Olympians and Paralympians may have given us a month’s worth of unashamed patriotism, but the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee was the culmination of a lifetime of service to the country.
At the centre of the celebrations were four remarkable days in June, during which the Queen defied age and the elements to attend the Thames Pageant, the splendidly over-the-top Jubilee Concert outside Buckingham Palace and a Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s, followed by a Carriage Procession and Balcony appearance. She had already taken on a daunting schedule of travel at the beginning of the year, as she set out to visit every corner of the United Kingdom, determined that as many of us as possible should see her in her landmark year; and she ended 2012 in the same spirit, shaking off a cold to lead her family to church on Christmas Day. Her Majesty has not only defined a year, but has helped shape an entire era, and for that she is our Greatest Briton.
The architect of Britain’s finest sporting year, Coe was the magician who made our summer. After an undistinguished second career in politics, he proved he was as world class a sports administrator as he had been a middle-distance runner. London’s Olympics was everything he promised and more: uplifting, exhilarating, inspiring; a unifying experience around which the entire nation could gather in patriotic delight. Coe did it by the simple leadership technique of delegation and trust, ceding responsibility to those he knew would produce. He did it so well that if, in mid August, there had been a popular vote for prime minister, he would have stormed to Number 10.
Loud, defiant, above all gloriously, tumultuously, spine-tinglingly British, Boyle’s Olympic opening ceremony was 90 minutes of dazzling theatre, dance, film and music, a mash-up of our nation’s cultural history delivered at breakneck speed. Warm, witty and full of surprises, it spun the head, brought a tear to the eye and made everyone lucky enough to witness it smile hard and long. Never mind that many of the cultural references went way over the heads of those watching in Milwaukee (who is this Michael Fish guy?), Boyle’s was precisely the vision of Britain we wanted projected to the world.
What a year it has been for the Mayor of London. His second-term victory over Ken Livingstone in the spring proved he is the Conservative best able to reach parts closed to other Tories. In doing so, he scared the life out of David Cameron, who regards Boris as his greatest rival in the party — and a steady stream of robust views emanating from City Hall on Europe, infrastructure planning and the economy did nothing to shake that perception. Most of all, Boris was the international face of London throughout one of the city’s most memorable years. His contribution to the capital’s annus mirabilis has guaranteed his place in the pantheon of the capital’s great figures, the Dick Whittington of his day.
Not content with giving birth to her fourth child and dressing every A-lister with a red carpet-worthy body, Stella McCartney designed the kit for the whole of Team GB. Well, almost all the team. The equestrians stuck to their traditional jackets and jodhpurs, although McCartney, a keen horsewoman, was permitted to tinker with their horses’ rugs. After the Olympics, she snagged two gongs for herself at the British Fashion Awards in November, including the biggie, Designer of the Year. “When I resigned from Chloé more than a decade ago, the boss told me that no woman had ever built a successful British fashion brand. That only made me more determined,“ she said, in the best girl-power acceptance speech of the year.
The defining genius behind Britain’s rise to the top of the cycling world, Brailsford is the master of micro-management. Nothing was left to chance as he co-ordinated a double assault on the roads of France and the Olympic velodrome. His brilliant stewardship seeks out advantage in the smallest detail: when his riders hit the start line they know they are better prepared, better trained, better equipped than any of their rivals. Then they know it is up to them to deliver. And deliver they did – to the point where Wiggins, Hoy, Pendleton and Trott have become household names. But all of them acknowledge the chief reason behind their success.
The woman who based television’s most hapless heroine on herself – in her sitcom Miranda – has had an amazing 2012. She was one of the most-loved stars of Call the Midwife, the BBC’s most successful new drama in a decade, playing upper-class fish-out-of-water “Chummy” Browne in London’s deprived East End in the Fifties. She wrote a bestseller, Is It Just Me?, which offered her thoughts on subjects as diverse as how to sit elegantly on a bar stool and mothers who call their children names like Bruschetta, Vinaigrette and Focaccia. And on Boxing Day, her sitcom, which has reminded millions of viewers just how much they prefer slapstick and silliness to cruel comedy, began its third series on BBC One. For Miranda Hart, this has unarguably been a – what I call – great year.
Just occasionally, critics get it disastrously wrong. And the best example this year was David Hockney’s exhibition at the Royal Academy, in which he returned to his native county of Yorkshire to work in that most old-fashioned of genres, landscape. Art critic Brian Sewell threw up his hands in horror at Hockney’s colourful, joyful paintings and deplored their “ghastly gaudiness”. But the public adored them and flocked there in droves – with 650,000 visitors, it looks likely to have been the RA’s best attended show of the year. Later there was an outcry when one of the trees featured in the paintings was vandalised. Hockney has always defiantly gone his own way (not least in his defence of smoking). This year he showed, at the age of 75, that he still has the power to confound expectations.
“Why build a massive project around an ugly Tudor politician, condemned by posterity as a corrupt torturer?” This was the rhetorical question Hilary Mantel posed as she looked back over her immersion in the life of Thomas Cromwell. Having partly answered the question with Wolf Hall, which won the Booker Prize in 2009, she closed the discussion with the sequel Bring Up the Bodies, which won this year’s Booker, making her the first Briton – and the first woman – to win the prize twice. The great news for her devoted readers was that since the second book covered the events of only nine months, there must be a third, dealing with Cromwell’s demise. Bring on The Mirror and the Light.
Seven months ago, Martha Payne was an ordinary nine-year-old from a tiny Scottish village – Lochgilphead in Argyll and Bute – who started a blog about her unhealthy school meals. When the local council banned Martha from taking photographs in her canteen, she made headlines across the world and gained millions of fans, including Jamie Oliver, who campaigned to get her blog back online. To date, it has been read nine million times, raising ￡125,500 for the charity Mary’s Meals. In October, Martha visited the school kitchen in Blantyre, Malawi, which was built with money donated by her fans. “Bad things can sometimes turn into good things,” she says. “I am glad I didn’t give up.”
2012年12月27日星期四
2012年5月2日星期三
Long Line of Cars? Not Anymore
In the aftermath of last summer’s Las Conchas wildfire—the largest in New Mexico history—a wall of black, muddy, log-choked water came roaring down Bandelier National Monument’s Frijoles Canyon. The National Park Service had prepared for the Aug. 21 flood, wrapping the historic visitor center in heavy plastic and erecting concrete barriers to deflect the waters.
But when the flood was over, the area where some of the park’s 230,000 yearly visitors park their cars was filled with debris, and the access bridge was gone. Already facing parking shortages, NPS managers had a big problem on their hands—and Albuquerque’s annual Balloon Fiesta, which brings a surge of visitors to Bandelier, was just around the corner.
To their relief, Los Alamos County stepped in, providing buses to shuttle people into the park for the remainder of the season. Around 9,000 people rode the county shuttle, and for the rest of the year, Frijoles Canyon was car-free.
This was the fire’s unlikely upside: allowing NPS managers to achieve the elusive and long-sought goal of limiting park traffic to a public shuttle.
For the past decade, NPS had advocated a shuttle tthat would eliminate noise, fumes and overcrowding from Bandelier’s historic headquarters area. Until the fire, that idea had never moved.
But last summer, out of necessity, it finally became a reality. Los Alamos County built a new parking area outside Bandelier, in White Rock, where visitors could meet a NPS ranger and hop on the shuttle for the 10-mile ride to the park.
“Los Alamos County has turned out to be a model partner for us,” Bandelier Superintendent Jason Lott says, adding that he hopes the shuttle will be “the most economically efficient shuttle system in the national park system” since NPS is working with a local government partner rather than a commercial contractor.
“This shuttle will only cost the Park Service around $150,000 per year,” Lott explains. “No other NPS shuttle system comes close to this cost.“
The National Park Service currently runs shuttle systems to alleviate congestion at Zion and Grand Canyon National Parks.
Another advantage of the Bandelier shuttle, Los Alamos County Public Relations Administrator Julie Habiger says, is its potential to increase tourism and diversify the local economy. Habiger says the shuttle will cost the county around $600,000 per year, with most of the funding coming from federal grants and some help from NPS visitor fees.
But not everyone agrees that a carless Bandelier is a good thing. Todd Nichols, who owns the lease on the Bandelier Trading Co., which runs the gift shop and food service at Bandelier, says his business has dropped dramatically since the shuttle came.
“People will see the shuttle coming and throw $60 worth of food away and run to the bus, even though it comes every half hour,” Nichols says. “Also, my local customers have stopped coming when the shuttle is running. We may have to restructure our business because of this.”
While Nichols praises NPS’ handling of the fire and flooding, he worries that the shuttle may diminish some visitors’ experiences.
But Lott argues just the opposite, maintaining that fewer cars in the canyon will mean less noise, fumes and traffic jams. “People are attached to their cars, so it may take some retraining for some visitors,” he admits.
On a recent Saturday, as spring visitors arrived at Bandelier, a ranger warned them of a 20-minute wait for parking. In Frijoles Canyon, a line of cars parked on the road, with drivers waiting while Bandelier staff busily managing the overfull parking lot. With a fraction of summer visitation already frustrating visitors, Bandelier rangers are looking to the June shuttle for relief.
But when the flood was over, the area where some of the park’s 230,000 yearly visitors park their cars was filled with debris, and the access bridge was gone. Already facing parking shortages, NPS managers had a big problem on their hands—and Albuquerque’s annual Balloon Fiesta, which brings a surge of visitors to Bandelier, was just around the corner.
To their relief, Los Alamos County stepped in, providing buses to shuttle people into the park for the remainder of the season. Around 9,000 people rode the county shuttle, and for the rest of the year, Frijoles Canyon was car-free.
This was the fire’s unlikely upside: allowing NPS managers to achieve the elusive and long-sought goal of limiting park traffic to a public shuttle.
For the past decade, NPS had advocated a shuttle tthat would eliminate noise, fumes and overcrowding from Bandelier’s historic headquarters area. Until the fire, that idea had never moved.
But last summer, out of necessity, it finally became a reality. Los Alamos County built a new parking area outside Bandelier, in White Rock, where visitors could meet a NPS ranger and hop on the shuttle for the 10-mile ride to the park.
“Los Alamos County has turned out to be a model partner for us,” Bandelier Superintendent Jason Lott says, adding that he hopes the shuttle will be “the most economically efficient shuttle system in the national park system” since NPS is working with a local government partner rather than a commercial contractor.
“This shuttle will only cost the Park Service around $150,000 per year,” Lott explains. “No other NPS shuttle system comes close to this cost.“
The National Park Service currently runs shuttle systems to alleviate congestion at Zion and Grand Canyon National Parks.
Another advantage of the Bandelier shuttle, Los Alamos County Public Relations Administrator Julie Habiger says, is its potential to increase tourism and diversify the local economy. Habiger says the shuttle will cost the county around $600,000 per year, with most of the funding coming from federal grants and some help from NPS visitor fees.
But not everyone agrees that a carless Bandelier is a good thing. Todd Nichols, who owns the lease on the Bandelier Trading Co., which runs the gift shop and food service at Bandelier, says his business has dropped dramatically since the shuttle came.
“People will see the shuttle coming and throw $60 worth of food away and run to the bus, even though it comes every half hour,” Nichols says. “Also, my local customers have stopped coming when the shuttle is running. We may have to restructure our business because of this.”
While Nichols praises NPS’ handling of the fire and flooding, he worries that the shuttle may diminish some visitors’ experiences.
But Lott argues just the opposite, maintaining that fewer cars in the canyon will mean less noise, fumes and traffic jams. “People are attached to their cars, so it may take some retraining for some visitors,” he admits.
On a recent Saturday, as spring visitors arrived at Bandelier, a ranger warned them of a 20-minute wait for parking. In Frijoles Canyon, a line of cars parked on the road, with drivers waiting while Bandelier staff busily managing the overfull parking lot. With a fraction of summer visitation already frustrating visitors, Bandelier rangers are looking to the June shuttle for relief.
2012年3月12日星期一
Hill and Tatum's unlikely comedic pairing
At first, Jonah Hill balked when he was offered the assignment of co-writing an R-rated comedy based on the show, 21 Jump Street.
He just couldn't see his way into a modern take on the TV police procedural that showcased Johnny Depp in his 1980s breakout role.
"I was like, 'Forget it, I pass,'" recalled Hill in Chicago recently to promote the movie with Channing Tatum.
After some persuasion by the studio, and creative sessions with writer Michael Bacall, Hill started to appreciate how a revamped adaptation might function.
"The goal was making it like a Bad Boys meets a John Hughes movie," said Hill. "And now I feel confident that we have some kind of cool version of that."
Opening March 16, 21 Jump Street is co-directed by Chris Miller and Phil Lord, and features Hill and Tatum as rookie cops assigned to go undercover by posing as high-school students in order to bring down a synthetic-drug ring. Co-starring are Ice Cube as the harried police captain and Rob Riggle as the overzealous coach.
The film, and the laughs, are mostly driven by the unlikely team of Hill and Tatum. Hill, 28, earned a recent Oscar nod for his co-starring role in Moneyball, but is mostly known for his foul-mouthed sidekick in Superbad, and as one of the rude friends in Knocked Up. Tatum, 31, is the handsome hunk type, and divides his screen time between action (Haywire) and romance (The Vow).
A raucous buddy flick is new territory for Tatum, but that's exactly why Hill thought the unlikely combination would work.
"I really wanted the pairing to feel unexpected," Hill said. "And I really wanted the movie poster to be like, 'Wow, I've never seen these two guys together.'"
For his part, Tatum was a little anxious about his role. Improvising in a flat-out laugh-fest is far from his comfort zone.
"You've got to give yourself over to it, in a way," he said of the improv approach that Hill favours. "And you have to have faith in Jonah, and the people that chose you, and go with it."
Along the way, Tatum said he felt he was "schooled in the art, because I can't imagine making a movie in this genre without the actors helping each other."
As it stands, Hill gives Tatum an A for effort in ad libbing. In fact, both actors agreed it was Riggle, as the out-of-control coach, who came up with some of the best lines.
"Rob Riggle is psychotically funny," admitted Hill. "It's like a medical issue."
Tatum said in one sequence involving the three of them that "all Jonah and I did was try to figure out a way not to laugh."
Riggle, memorable as the Tasering cop in The Hangover, said the 21 Jump Street environment "was freeing to the point of craziness," which encouraged him to go full throttle. "When you know the best line wins no matter what, it only makes things better, and funnier," he said.
Besides the Riggle bits, another of Hill's favourite scenes is the opening, when the actor goofs on his teen life in high school as a wannabe Eminem during the rapper's Slim Shady phase.
"I had that idea while we were shooting," said Hill, whose character struts into his school to Eminem's Slim Shady tune. "I had a lot of resistance from people on that, but I was like, 'Just trust me.'"
The moment sets the tone for the rest of the action-comedy ride, which includes a high-profile cameo.
"I wanted the movie to feel like an hour-and-a-half party," Hill said. "I wanted to have fun doing it, and the audience to have fun watching it, and I feel we deliver on that."
He also said he thinks the film connects on a level that the teenager in all of us can appreciate.
"I like our film's back-to-the-future element of reliving a really important period of your life," said Hill. "You know, that's when you think you have all the answers in high school, but then you find out all the answers are completely false."
So, when the undercover cops return to high school, "they revert to the insecurities they had when they were 17, because of their surroundings."
At the conclusion, there's even a hint that the buddy cops might be heading to college for a sequel. Hill and Tatum said they are willing, if movie fans show their support.
Meanwhile, Tatum said he has a proposition for Hill that might be a change of pace for him. In a few weeks, Tatum is doing a few re-shoots on his film, Magic Mike, set for a summer release. It recalls Tatum's brief stint as a male stripper.
He just couldn't see his way into a modern take on the TV police procedural that showcased Johnny Depp in his 1980s breakout role.
"I was like, 'Forget it, I pass,'" recalled Hill in Chicago recently to promote the movie with Channing Tatum.
After some persuasion by the studio, and creative sessions with writer Michael Bacall, Hill started to appreciate how a revamped adaptation might function.
"The goal was making it like a Bad Boys meets a John Hughes movie," said Hill. "And now I feel confident that we have some kind of cool version of that."
Opening March 16, 21 Jump Street is co-directed by Chris Miller and Phil Lord, and features Hill and Tatum as rookie cops assigned to go undercover by posing as high-school students in order to bring down a synthetic-drug ring. Co-starring are Ice Cube as the harried police captain and Rob Riggle as the overzealous coach.
The film, and the laughs, are mostly driven by the unlikely team of Hill and Tatum. Hill, 28, earned a recent Oscar nod for his co-starring role in Moneyball, but is mostly known for his foul-mouthed sidekick in Superbad, and as one of the rude friends in Knocked Up. Tatum, 31, is the handsome hunk type, and divides his screen time between action (Haywire) and romance (The Vow).
A raucous buddy flick is new territory for Tatum, but that's exactly why Hill thought the unlikely combination would work.
"I really wanted the pairing to feel unexpected," Hill said. "And I really wanted the movie poster to be like, 'Wow, I've never seen these two guys together.'"
For his part, Tatum was a little anxious about his role. Improvising in a flat-out laugh-fest is far from his comfort zone.
"You've got to give yourself over to it, in a way," he said of the improv approach that Hill favours. "And you have to have faith in Jonah, and the people that chose you, and go with it."
Along the way, Tatum said he felt he was "schooled in the art, because I can't imagine making a movie in this genre without the actors helping each other."
As it stands, Hill gives Tatum an A for effort in ad libbing. In fact, both actors agreed it was Riggle, as the out-of-control coach, who came up with some of the best lines.
"Rob Riggle is psychotically funny," admitted Hill. "It's like a medical issue."
Tatum said in one sequence involving the three of them that "all Jonah and I did was try to figure out a way not to laugh."
Riggle, memorable as the Tasering cop in The Hangover, said the 21 Jump Street environment "was freeing to the point of craziness," which encouraged him to go full throttle. "When you know the best line wins no matter what, it only makes things better, and funnier," he said.
Besides the Riggle bits, another of Hill's favourite scenes is the opening, when the actor goofs on his teen life in high school as a wannabe Eminem during the rapper's Slim Shady phase.
"I had that idea while we were shooting," said Hill, whose character struts into his school to Eminem's Slim Shady tune. "I had a lot of resistance from people on that, but I was like, 'Just trust me.'"
The moment sets the tone for the rest of the action-comedy ride, which includes a high-profile cameo.
"I wanted the movie to feel like an hour-and-a-half party," Hill said. "I wanted to have fun doing it, and the audience to have fun watching it, and I feel we deliver on that."
He also said he thinks the film connects on a level that the teenager in all of us can appreciate.
"I like our film's back-to-the-future element of reliving a really important period of your life," said Hill. "You know, that's when you think you have all the answers in high school, but then you find out all the answers are completely false."
So, when the undercover cops return to high school, "they revert to the insecurities they had when they were 17, because of their surroundings."
At the conclusion, there's even a hint that the buddy cops might be heading to college for a sequel. Hill and Tatum said they are willing, if movie fans show their support.
Meanwhile, Tatum said he has a proposition for Hill that might be a change of pace for him. In a few weeks, Tatum is doing a few re-shoots on his film, Magic Mike, set for a summer release. It recalls Tatum's brief stint as a male stripper.
2011年7月14日星期四
Working Long Hours: Is It Worth It?
In this age, when the 40-hour work week is increasingly viewed as part-time, many of us are pulling long hours at the office. But at some point, all that time spent in the cube reaches a point of diminishing returns and it's worthwhile just to call it a day and head home.
Determining that point, however, is tough, as Laura Vanderkam writes in a recent piece for Fortune.com. Vanderkam, the author of the helpful time-management book "168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think," examines the academic research on hours worked and actual productivity to try to come up with an answer.
Researchers at Harvard Business School, the London School of Economics and other institutions have launched a CEO Time Use Project to determine how a chief executive's time corresponds with a company's performance, defined as revenue per employee and the profitability of the firm. (The project uses time logs kept by CEOs' personal assistants, among other data.)
The study, which so far only has data from a group of Italian CEOs, found a strong correlation between the hours worked and the productivity of the firm; every one percentage point rise in hours worked meant firm productivity rose by 2.14 percentage points, Vanderkam writes.
However, the research doesn't necessarily mean we should all simply put in longer hours to be more productive. The researchers found that how the executives spent their time was key to their productivity. For instance, meeting with employees correlated with increased productivity, but meeting with other outsiders did not. What's more, the Italian CEOs in the study were working what, for many Americans, is considered a short workweek: 48 hours on average.
Vanderkam, not surprisingly, doesn't come up with a magic number for the optimal number of hours to work, but readers, I'm curious if there's a magic number of hours you can work in a day or week before you hit a wall or start to achieve diminishing returns? Or a number of hours worked for you to achieve maximum productivity? For you, do more hours equal greater productivity? Or are you more efficient with a shorter window of hours to work?
Determining that point, however, is tough, as Laura Vanderkam writes in a recent piece for Fortune.com. Vanderkam, the author of the helpful time-management book "168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think," examines the academic research on hours worked and actual productivity to try to come up with an answer.
Researchers at Harvard Business School, the London School of Economics and other institutions have launched a CEO Time Use Project to determine how a chief executive's time corresponds with a company's performance, defined as revenue per employee and the profitability of the firm. (The project uses time logs kept by CEOs' personal assistants, among other data.)
The study, which so far only has data from a group of Italian CEOs, found a strong correlation between the hours worked and the productivity of the firm; every one percentage point rise in hours worked meant firm productivity rose by 2.14 percentage points, Vanderkam writes.
However, the research doesn't necessarily mean we should all simply put in longer hours to be more productive. The researchers found that how the executives spent their time was key to their productivity. For instance, meeting with employees correlated with increased productivity, but meeting with other outsiders did not. What's more, the Italian CEOs in the study were working what, for many Americans, is considered a short workweek: 48 hours on average.
Vanderkam, not surprisingly, doesn't come up with a magic number for the optimal number of hours to work, but readers, I'm curious if there's a magic number of hours you can work in a day or week before you hit a wall or start to achieve diminishing returns? Or a number of hours worked for you to achieve maximum productivity? For you, do more hours equal greater productivity? Or are you more efficient with a shorter window of hours to work?
2011年5月2日星期一
Cubitek's Magic Cube revolutionises modular design
Gallery: Cubitek's latest case is a unique take on modular case design. It's three cases in one very interesting design...
It may be considered a truism that if you've seen one PC case, you've pretty seen them all. With few exceptions - ThermalTake's original Level10 comes to mind - case design is largely set in place.
Well, with Cubitek's new Magic Cube chassis, you can add another exception to this very short list.
The Magic Cube takes a leaf out of the Level10's playbook by thermally isolating HDDS, ODDS and motherboard & attendant parts. But rather than keep those thermal pockets attached to the one chassis, Cubitek's effectively built three small cases for each component. And we love it!
We've yet to do a full review, but on paper we love the idea. All the cases - a small one with room for two optical drives or one ODD and a floppy, a middle-sized one with room for eight hard drives, and two fans to cool them all, and a larger case for the mobo, with three fans - are not only well designed and made from sturdy aluminium, but also modular themselves. Most of the chassis construction is secured by screws, so it'll be easy to take each case apart for further modding.
We'll be doing a full review in an upcoming issue of the mag, but for now, check out our gallery of shots to learn about this unique new case.
It may be considered a truism that if you've seen one PC case, you've pretty seen them all. With few exceptions - ThermalTake's original Level10 comes to mind - case design is largely set in place.
Well, with Cubitek's new Magic Cube chassis, you can add another exception to this very short list.
The Magic Cube takes a leaf out of the Level10's playbook by thermally isolating HDDS, ODDS and motherboard & attendant parts. But rather than keep those thermal pockets attached to the one chassis, Cubitek's effectively built three small cases for each component. And we love it!
We've yet to do a full review, but on paper we love the idea. All the cases - a small one with room for two optical drives or one ODD and a floppy, a middle-sized one with room for eight hard drives, and two fans to cool them all, and a larger case for the mobo, with three fans - are not only well designed and made from sturdy aluminium, but also modular themselves. Most of the chassis construction is secured by screws, so it'll be easy to take each case apart for further modding.
We'll be doing a full review in an upcoming issue of the mag, but for now, check out our gallery of shots to learn about this unique new case.
订阅：
博文 (Atom)