World's Most Posted Forum Thread. 10.3+ posts!

Poooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

 

why are you only doing it to me for

 

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i

 

am

 

going

 

to

 

spam

 

I

 

Think

 

That

 

is

 

The

 

idea

 

I first learned about The Endless Story from Phyllis Malandra, a fine person I was married to for a number of years; she learned it from her mother. Over years of performance, it developed into a participatory show closer.
Boys and girls, I only have a few seconds left, and I am going to take these few seconds and teach you.... the longest story in the Universe!
You may think this show is all fun and games, but you are in school! And this is an educational program! And there will be a test! And you will be graded on that test! And that grade will go on your permanent record! And your permanent record will follow you around for the rest of your life!!! So, you better pay attention.
It goes like this:
(pause)
It was a dark and stormy night.
All the robbers were sitting around in the cave
And the Chief of all the robbers, turned to his second in command, and said
"Jake, tell us a story."
And Jake said
"All right, boss, I will. And it goes like this:
(pause)
It was a dark and stormy (etc.)" "
[I vary it by giving the Chief something like a Brooklyn accent, and Jake gets one to match. "It goes like dis!" Then the next time, Jake sounds a little like Ray Hicks. "Hit was a dark an stormy night." Then the next time, a comic Dracula: "Yake!" "It voss a daaaark undt storrrmy nigggghhhht" Beyond that, there's no laughs for me, so I conclude, after the pause]
"You all know how it goes, now, right? Here comes the test-- we're gonna do it together: It was a dark and stooormy night...."
[Then we do it together to the pause, and I say]
" That's not the end of the story, obviously. The story never ends-- that's why it's the longest story in the universe. But storytelling HAS to end SOMEtime-- ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, that IS the end of this storytelling." (big bow.)

 

I first learned about The Endless Story from Phyllis Malandra, a fine person I was married to for a number of years; she learned it from her mother. Over years of performance, it developed into a participatory show closer.
Boys and girls, I only have a few seconds left, and I am going to take these few seconds and teach you.... the longest story in the Universe!
You may think this show is all fun and games, but you are in school! And this is an educational program! And there will be a test! And you will be graded on that test! And that grade will go on your permanent record! And your permanent record will follow you around for the rest of your life!!! So, you better pay attention.
It goes like this:
(pause)
It was a dark and stormy night.
All the robbers were sitting around in the cave
And the Chief of all the robbers, turned to his second in command, and said
"Jake, tell us a story."
And Jake said
"All right, boss, I will. And it goes like this:
(pause)
It was a dark and stormy (etc.)" "
[I vary it by giving the Chief something like a Brooklyn accent, and Jake gets one to match. "It goes like dis!" Then the next time, Jake sounds a little like Ray Hicks. "Hit was a dark an stormy night." Then the next time, a comic Dracula: "Yake!" "It voss a daaaark undt storrrmy nigggghhhht" Beyond that, there's no laughs for me, so I conclude, after the pause]
"You all know how it goes, now, right? Here comes the test-- we're gonna do it together: It was a dark and stooormy night...."
[Then we do it together to the pause, and I say]
" That's not the end of the story, obviously. The story never ends-- that's why it's the longest story in the universe. But storytelling HAS to end SOMEtime-- ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, that IS the end of this storytelling." (big bow.)

 

During discussion about Sea Stories on the mailing list Storytell, somebody contributed their version of the above tale. The "robbers" were "pirates." A bunch of us chimed in, including a Chinese student, living in Manhattan. His contribution was as follows:
There is an unending story from China is very familiar with it. I would like to share you all.
"Once upon a time, there was a mountain. There was a temple on the mountain. There was an old monk and a little monk in the temple. One day, the old monk told the little monk a story :'Once upon a time, there was a mountain. There was a temple on the mountain. There was an old monk and a little monk in the temple. One day, the old monk told the little monk a story...' "
I heard of the beautiful story when I was a little girl. My little friends and I often told the story each other for fun. When I tell the story now, it reminds my wonderful childhood ...
Have a good day! Lai, Xiaohong.

 

IT WAS born out of the indignation at the attitude of newspapers to Edinburgh’s under-fire establishment. Now the origins of The Scotsman, dubbed the “Tenpenny Thunderclap” for its radical content, have been immortalised in tapestry.

The newspaper is to star in what will be billed as the world’s longest tapestry.
William Ritchie and Charles MacLaren, who founded The Scotsman, famously deployed a thistle emblem to prick the pomposity of the middle classes in the early 19th-century capital.
The two men, the date of the newspaper’s launch in 1817, its early nickname and its original address, 347 High Street, Edinburgh, all feature in The Great Tapestry of Scotland, which will be unveiled at the Scottish Parliament later this year. The panel features a quote from philosopher David Hume, written in shorthand by The Scotsman’s editor, Ian Stewart, which states: “It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once.”
Instigated by best-selling author Alexander McCall Smith, the £200,000 project will feature about 160 historical panels, 50 more than originally planned.
A team of more than 1,000 “stitchers” from across the country have been working for two years on various sections of the tapestry, which is being made with woollen yarn that would stretch more than 300 miles.
Billed as one of the most ambitious community arts projects in the world, it has been co-ordinated by artist Andrew Crummy and historian Alistair Moffat, a former director of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
The tapestry charts the story of Scotland, from prehistoric times to the 21st century, including such key episodes as the Battle of Bannockburn, the Glencoe Massacre, the Act of Union, the foundation of the Bank of Scotland and the first Edinburgh International Festival.
Mr Crummy said: “The panel on newspapers has been stitched by Jan Young, who actually used to work at The Scotsman.
“Although it mentions others, the centrepiece is very much the launch of The Scotsman in 1817.
“When The Scotsman started, it was so anti-establishment and rebellious. It was a time of high corruption in Edinburgh, the city was not at its best and the founders wanted to do something about it.”
The tapestry also features a panel on Glenrothes, which is represented at Holyrood by Presiding Officer Tricia Marwick, who yesterday added a few stitches of her own. The tapestry is being put together at an artists’ studio in Dalkeith, Midlothian, before its unveiling by the author.
Mr McCall Smith said: “The creation of this wonderful tapestry has been an experience of sheer joy.”
The tapestry will be put on display at the Scottish Parliament from 3-21 September, before going on a nationwide tour.

 

The Longest Story in the World Part 7


Dates
21/06/2013
Time
7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Category

• Rhodes Theatre

Event Description
Stories for everyone about children from around the world!
Now in its 7th year in the UK, 75 Bishops Stortford children join another 4500 children from around the world to celebrate their creativity and storytelling in a magical performance which has been created in just 5 days!!!
International artists from around the world under the leadership of Andy Graham will put together a performance inspired by the children’s ideas using dance, drama, animation and some exciting physical theatre..
Tickets: £9.50/£7.50 concs
Please book tickets via the Box Office on 01279 651746

 

Coal extraction remains a higher priority than putting out China's huge underground coal fires

China's coal fires consume 20 million tons of coal annually and render ten times that amount inaccessible (Image by Greenpeace)

They are monstrous, centuries-old infernos that issue thick billows of ash and smoke, and generate sinkholes that consume roads and homes without warning. Yet in spite of the dangers they pose, underground coal fires are some of the least known environmental disasters. China, the world’s largest miner and consumer of coal, has consistently downplayed the fires in its coalfields, considered the most severe on earth.
In some ways an underground coal fire works the same as a barbeque pit: coal is highly flammable, and stays ignited as long as there is oxygen and coal to burn. If a coalfield has an oxygen source, anything from a cigarette butt to a lightning strike can trigger a fire. Coalfields that have caught flame burn hundreds of feet underground at temperatures exceeding 1000°F for tens, hundreds, even thousands of years, rendering the surrounding area a toxic, eroded wasteland.
The ash and fumes that coal fires spew contain toxins and poisonous gases, including mercury, lead, arsenic carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide, contaminating the air, water, and soil and causing diseases in the area’s residents. Coal fires also pump out carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.
Coal fires can self-ignite, but mining operations, which expose underground coal to oxygen and produce coal dust, create a much greater risk and are responsible for an estimated 75% of coal fires.

“Every country that is coal-producing has coal fires,” says Anupma Prakash, a geologist at the University of Alaska who has conducted extensive research on coal fires. So it comes as no surprise that China, which accounted for 49.5% of last year’s global coal production, also has the world’s worst coal fires. Hundreds of fires proliferate the nearly 3,000-mile coal belt running across north China.
In China, though, the main concern regarding coal fires is not environmental, but economic. “China’s coal fires destroy millions of tons of coal every year,” says Carsten Drebenstedt, a surface mining professor from Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg in Germany who has studied the fires. In fact, the country’s coal fires consume 20 million tons of coal annually and render ten times that amount inaccessible.
According to Prakash, “China’s coal is the best-quality coal in the world. It’s pure anthracite. So when it burns it is greater economic loss.” She estimates that the total economic loss due to coal fires and the deposits they render inaccessible is over 1.25 billion dollars.
Whether motivated by a sense of environmental conscience or economic interest, there are clear incentives to extinguish coal fires; however, the problem for firefighters is that coal fires fire can’t be seen or easily reached. “The problem is so complex and the area is so chaotic. It’s simply very, very hard to put out the fires,” explains Claudia Kuenzer, a scientist from the German Aerospace Centre.
Firefighting crews endure scalding heat and toxic fumes to put out the superficial flames, but the true enemy lies deep beneath the surface, sustained by oxygen-rich fissures in the earth. Underground fires cause the earth above them to cave in as the burning coal turns to ash, simultaneously fueling the oxygen supply and causing massive sinkholes that destroy roads and buildings. A fire consuming a coal bed moves up to two meters a month, and can easily spread to neighboring coal deposits, making it difficult to determine the flame’s source.
Extinguishing operations in China are not sophisticated—crews use bulldozers and sand or gravel to cover exposed areas and pump water and slurry underground—but the undertaking is a herculean one, requiring months or years of constant toil to completely put out a fire. It also costs millions of dollars.
Still, there is evidence that China has taken steps to address its coal fires. In the last twenty years, China has participated in two international consortiums with researchers from the Netherlands and Germany focusing on coal fire prevention, detection, and treatment. Regional governments, which previously reported coal fires as spontaneous occurrences, now extol lofty multi-million dollar plans to extinguish them.
The crisis of coal fires is nothing new in Xinjiang Province in northwest China. The region is home to Asia’s largest coal reserve and 40% of the country’s coal, as well as hundreds of underground coal fires. An official report from 2006 cited losses of over 157 million dollars each year due to the area’s coal fires. The region has been attempting to manage the fires for over fifty years, but the task poses extreme challenges for firefighters.
A government-backed project to quench the 130-year-old fire burning up the Liuhuanggou colliery in Xinjiang began in 2001. After shutting down all mining operations and spending US $16 million over the course of four years, authorities finally proclaimed the fire extinguished and erected a monument to commemorate the efforts of the firefighters.
A year later, the celebration was shown to be premature, as smoke was spotted issuing from a new fire in Liuhuanggou. The culprit? Illegal mining operations that had left the seam exposed.
Xinhua News triumphantly announced the following year that another coal fire in the area had been extinguished, writing that “Xinjiang has so far put out 34 coalfield fires and plans to extinguish another 28 by 2015.” Yet when contacted, Xinjiang coal authorities evaded interview attempts or vehemently refused to comment on the project.
Although China may not be entirely turning a blind eye to the fires, it appears its preference may be for the rest of the world to do so. Up-to-date information on the country’s coal fires is exceedingly sparse. China requires researchers to consent to confidentiality agreements that forbid them from publishing coal fire locations or plotting them on maps in detail, and refuses to release the data it collects monitoring fires outside of the country. Chinese scientists investigating the fires requested not to be named in association with their research, and one non-Chinese researcher voiced concern about not being allowed back in the country to continue to work if identified.
In 2009, Inner Mongolia launched a three-year, 25 million dollar campaign to extinguish the eighteen fires in the Wuda coalfields, historically considered the worst of the worst. Authorities cracked down on small-scale, largely illegal mining operations and ramped up efforts to put out the fires. Last year the regional government’s Disaster Management Department posted a statement online acknowledging the severity of the problem and declaring the success of ongoing firefighting operations. “After more than two years of effort, Inner Mongolia coalfield fire extinguishing projects have achieved substantial results. At present, all open flames have been extinguished.”
But researchers studying the Wuda coal fires say that not only are the fires still raging, mining operations continue alongside extinguishing efforts, causing the fires to spread deeper into the earth and triggering flare-ups of extinguished fires. “The coal fire problem in the Wuda area remains a pressing one,” they report in an article published earlier this year. “Despite large funds spent on fire extinguishing, only a few fires remain permanently extinct, while other fire areas increase in size.”