The Most Expensive Event In History

Shanghai gets set to welcome the world.

On May 1 will you be visiting my favorite metropolis? Shanghai, China’s most populous city, welcomes you to the opening of the World Expo 2010, the “biggest outdoor entertainment event in history.” Beginning Saturday and continuing until Oct. 31, you and some 70 million others–the number of expected visitors–will be able to see 253 pavilions from 192 countries. The world’s first developing country to host a world fair is ending up creating the largest one ever.

The Expo will be just like the Olympics, only much bigger and far more exorbitant. Initially, Beijing promised the Shanghai event would be a modest affair. Chinese leaders, however, could not help themselves. Officially, they say they will spend the equivalent of $4.2 billion to host the event. Yet add in all the amounts poured into infrastructure and other preparations, and the cost balloons to more than $58 billion. Call it the most expensive event in history.

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Can Archive.org achieve world peace or just be a vehicle for sadistic maniacs -itsReal

Yesterday’s Digital Life…whilst cheering our Game producers in Singapore, managed to shock APLINK with its FEATURE story “Screening the Screen”… DL with its massive distribution in SG provided a full page AD/Editorial for Archive.org with all its blood thirsty archives of violence…placed under the label of History….

I guess with this post I too am spreading the word of this historical video collection, yet I think I am SANE in most respects – however the graphic description by the author, Annalee Newitz, contributing editor at Wired Magazine, sent alarm bells on high volumne in my head…

“… what if you were just a little insane and seeing these videos was all you needed to tip you over the edge…”

Archive.org appears to be alot more than violence but i wonder how many might think it just another youtube, if not for the relatively uncensored content it offers for the curious.

The Internet Archive is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public. http://www.arhive.org