The Steeple Times asks artist Anna-Louise Felstead: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”
The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom”. What’s your guiding force?
My old headmaster Peter Pyemont once said in a Friday assembly: “The more you put into life, the more you get out of it”. I have lived by those words ever since.
“Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours?
Nietzsche, the German philosopher famously said: “That which does not kill us makes us stronger”.
The Steeple Times asks fashion entrepreneur Noelle Reno: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”
The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom”. What’s your guiding force?
The weather… Or Tolstoy.
“Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours?
Eleanor Roosevelt: “Women are like tea bags. You never know how strong they are until you put them in hot water”.
The sale of a $100 million Californian estate with a catch
If you were to spend $100,000,000 on a house, you’d expect something impressive. I imagine you’d want acreage, vast amounts of space and something luxurious. Stunning views and a prime location would be a must but at the bottom of your list, no doubt, would be something that someone purchasing a place for even a $1 would expect – that being that you’d be able to actually move in.
An Australian tycoon announces a bizarre plan to launch a replica of the doomed passenger liner RMS Titanic
This week, a “brash” 58-year old Australian mining tycoon named Clive Palmer announced that he will launch a full-scale replica of the RMS Titanic in 2016.
On hearing of this, I wondered if April Fool’s Day had come early, but it turns out that this billionaire is quite serious in his ambitions. Palmer, who is funding the estimated £133 million project personally, has just begun a world tour to share his plans. The businessman, in a bow to history, has even appointed Terry Ismay, a descendant of the Titanic’s owner, Joseph Bruce Ismay (1862 – 1937), whom many still refer to as “The Coward of the Titanic”, to the advisory board of the Blue Star Line, the company formed to manage the boat. Mr Ismay will be one of the guests of honour at a dinner at London’s Natural History Museum to celebrate the project tomorrow, Saturday 2nd March. The same 11-course menu first class passengers on the Titanic consumed on the fateful night of 14th April 1912 will be served.
Preliminary plans reveal the Titanic II will be some 55,800 gross tonnes in weight, 883 foot long and propelled by three azimuth thrusters. It will have a maximum speed of 24 knots, the same as the first Titanic. The ocean liner will have a capacity of 2,345 passengers and a crew of 900. Unlike the RMS Titanic, which had just 16 lifeboats for 1,178 people, the Titanic II will have 18 covered motorised lifeboats capable of carrying 2,700 and life rafts with an additional capacity of 800.
Though the replica vessel will be virtually the same size as the original and will feature the same class divisions of first, second and third class, there will be differences. The “shopping areas” found on many modern day cruise boats will be present and sensibly, there will be extra bathroom facilities and air conditioning. A decision as to whether Wi-Fi and televisions will be provided is yet to be made.
In a press release, Professor Palmer, who is described on Wikipedia as “an eccentric billionaire with a reputation for bizarre publicity stunts”, romantically stated:
“Why build the Titanic? Why go to the moon? Why do the Yankees play the Red Sox? Why did Christopher Columbus discover the Americas? Because they could, and they can, and we can build the Titanic”.
“By learning from the lessons of the past, the spirit of Rose and Jack, Romeo and Juliet, lives in all of us. The spirit of life, the spirit of love, to dream the impossible dream, all of us live in time, this is our moment, this is our turn to board Titanic II and set sail on a new sea, of our own making”.
“The Titanic was a ship of dreams, Titanic II is the ship where dreams will come true”.
Unlike the original RMS Titanic, which was built in the Harland and Wolff yard in Belfast, it is intended that Titanic II will be constructed in the Chinese state-owned shipyard, CSC Jinling. This is a curious choice as the company have no experience in constructing passenger vessels and as of date, according to Zheng Yi of the Global Times, no contract for completion of Titanic II has been signed, no date for start of construction has been fixed and no price has been finalised.
Equally, the first of a series of launch events for the project on a pier in New York this week (which began with a “rather cheesy guitar rendition of Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On”) was met with derision by many, amongst them Vanity Fair’s Juli Weiner. In her article, Weiner refers to the “morally reprehensible and dehumanizing economic divisions” that “one weird rich dude’s” boat will feature and goes on to describe it as “the second worst cruise we’ve ever heard of”.
Robert Colville of the Australian title The Age, however, took a contrary view and though skeptical about this “bizarre” and “crazily ambitious scheme” shared his admiration for Palmer:
“Palmer risks becoming a latter-day Ozymandias, his monument a 50,000-tonne liner rather than a crumbling statue. Yet at least he has the courage to dream his impossible dream, and help make the world a slightly weirder, and slightly more wonderful place”.
Larger than life, Queensland based Palmer is known for causing controversy. In 2012, he suggested Greenpeace were funded by the CIA and were attempting to bring down the Australian coal mining sector with the help of Barrack Obama and the Rockefeller Foundation:
“You only have to go back and read the Church Report in the 1970s and to read the reports to the US Congress which sets up the Rockefeller Foundation as a conduit of CIA funding, you only have to look at their secret budget which was passed by Congress last year, bigger than our whole national economy, which the CIA’s got to ensure that. You only have to read the reports to US Congress when the CIA reported to the president that their role was to ensure the US competitive advantage and economic advantages. That’s how you know it’s funded by the CIA”.
No doubt, there are cranks out there who’d suggest the sinking of the RMS Titanic in April 1912 with the loss of 1,502 lives, was also a conspiracy. Given also Palmer’s odd view of the world, we’d most definitely avoid embarking on this tasteless pastiche of the tragically doomed ship, if, indeed, it is ever completed and if indeed it ever sets sail.
We leave the last word with the family of the RMS Titanic’s captain, Edward Smith R.D. R.N.R. (1850 – 1912), who have simply commented that the Titanic II is just a vessel that is being built “in bad taste”.
For more information about Titanic II, go to: http://bluestarline.com.au
A former supporter of Julian Assange denounces his behavior
Jemima Khan has shown great courage in turning on Julian Assange. In a feature in the New Statesman, she described him as being “more like an Australian L. Ron Hubbard” than the crusader he has portrayed himself. Suggesting Assange thinks himself like a real life Jason Bourne, she commented:
“It may well be that the serious allegations of sexual assault and rape are not substantiated in court, but I have come to the conclusion that these are all matters for Swedish due process and that Assange is undermining both himself and his own transparency agenda – as well as doing the US department of justice a favour – by making his refusal to answer questions in Sweden into a human rights issue.”
‘There have been three rounds in the UK courts and the UK courts have upheld the European Arrest Warrant in his name three times.”
“The women in question have human rights, too, and need resolution. Assange’s noble cause and his wish to avoid a US court does not trump their right to be heard in a Swedish court.”
“I don’t regret putting up bail money for Assange but I did it so that he would be released while awaiting trial, not so that he could avoid answering to the allegations.”
In a firm but fair article, Khan stated: “I remain convinced that if Assange is prosecuted for espionage the future of investigative journalism everywhere would be in jeopardy” but added “[Julian Assange] has been guilty of the same obfuscation and misinformation as those it sought to expose, while its supporters are expected to follow, unquestioningly, in blinkered, cultish devotion.”
Jemima Khan talks sense. Some of what Assange did was in the public interest but his behaviour now is ridiculous and his attitude to justice perverse. Julian Assange should walk out into Hans Crescent and hand himself in.
Read Jemima Khan’s New Statesman article at: http://www.newstatesman.com/2013/02/jemima-khan-julian-assange-how-wikileaks-founder-alienated-his-allies
She’s come to prominence as Homeland’s Jessica Brody but this Brazilian born actress has also appeared in Stargate, The O.C. and The Mentalist. Married to the director Austin Chick, when asked of her career wishes, Baccarin confidently responded: “I would love to be a Bond girl. That is on my bucket list, definitely”.
This talented analyst and writer specialises in “Latin America, terrorism, oil, US foreign policy, global security, transnational criminal organisations, the Middle East and asymmetric warfare.” The British press nicknamed Neumann the “Cracker from Caracas” when news of a relationship with Mick Jagger surfaced and the epithet has stuck. Combining intellectual might with glamour, this jetsetter is as likely to be found on Mustique or in 5 Hertford Street as she is in her post as senior fellow at Philadelphia’s Foreign Policy Research Institute.
An abstract artist, former model and animal rights campaigner. Born near Chicago, Black rejected his Jehovah’s Witness upbringing at the age of 17. His 2012 “Leather Bound in Black or Red” collection about his family’s transition away from the religion attracted great interest and collectors of his works number the American footballer Jay Cutler and Kari Kennell Whitman, former Playboy Playmate turned interior designer.
The Sunday Times describe him as a “secretive US financier” but Hersman, who is a sometime resident of London’s Bulgari Hotel is also said to have brokered the $1.6 billion buyout of Formula One over lunch on the French Riviera in the spring of 2005. Hersman was a contributor to the McCain-Palin campaign in 2008 and his company, Churchill Capital, is based in Mayfair.
Cycling’s former golden boy being exposed as a cheat shocked the world. He summed himself perfectly in a comment to Oprah Winfrey in January 2013: “I look at this clip [of himself] and say ‘Look at this arrogant prick.’“ Many call for him to retire into obscurity but sadly that seems unlikely. Instead, the former boyfriend of Sheryl Crow seems to think he can build a media career. Most of us would rather he’d just cycle off.