Anish Kapoor’s Design Chosen As London 2012 Olympics Monument.

(Watch the artist interview and read post at BBC)

The 115m tall piece, named the ArcelorMittal Orbit, will be placed in the Olympic Park and will be 22m higher than New York’s Statue of Liberty. The £19.1m design incorporates the five Olympic rings and will offer visitors panoramic views of London.

And that’s how names and monuments get into the history books. Because long after the games are over, a monument named ArcelorMittal, bought for a paltry £16m, will tower over London for decades to come. And it will carry the name of Lakshmi Mittal, 2010 Forbes’ 5th richest man in the world.

Bihar’s Arsenic Poisoned Groundwater – Another Bhopal Happening?

When the ground water is poisoned, and our children are born blind because of it, and we have known this for decades….

The first signs that arsenic-contaminated water might be a major health issue emerged in the 1980s, with the documentation of poisoned communities in Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, which neighbours Bihar. (full post at BBC)

15,897 India-Pakistan Connections In The Past 24 Hours.

We first posted about these connections toward world peace in October 2009 when the number was 6,809 India-Pakistan connections.

Check it out now at peace.facebook.com

Ricky Martin Comes Out.

Good. We’re waiting for that day, hopefully in the near future, when this ceases to be front page news.

Ricky Martin is a phenomenal singer and performer whose 60 million albums sold around the world, and the work he does in the fight against human trafficking should be the only measure of the artist and the man.

The Swami Quits. The Pope Should Too.

Both scandals involve sex. Swami Nityananda announced he’s quitting to lead a life of spiritual seclusion after being caught on tape in his ungodly acts.

The Pope is embroiled in his own scandal, of a global scale and more heinous charges. Stepping away from authority and seeking a life of spiritual seclusion might help him too.