Project Triangle: New Emblem for Paris?

For over thirty years Paris has laid low in the building stakes with a ban on buildings over 37 m in height brought in under Jacques Chirac’s rule when he was Mayor of Paris in 1977. But yesterday the first tower to be built in the French capital’s inner city, following the lifting of the ban in July, was revealed. Officials in Paris voted to lift a ban on high rise buildings in the French capital in a bid to combat the city’s housing shortage and invigorate the city’s economic status. This decision has left the path clear for 20 high-rise designs, first flaunted by the current Mayor Bertrand Delanoe in November last year, to be approved. The first of these designs to be approved is Herzog & de Meuron’s “Le Projet Triangle ” which will stand at Porte de Versailles in Southern Paris. The design was showcased by Deputy Mayor, Anne Hidalgo yesterday who said in her blog: “Paris is indeed now part of the first world capitals in tourism business, trade fairs and exhibitions. Since 2001, the City of Paris has always radiated at the heart of its priorities economic development, employment and innovation. In a context of European and global competition increased, this ambition must now be translated in concrete by reinforcing its economic attractiveness.” The design features a pyramidal block structure which will rise to 200 m and Hidalgo hopes that this design will “provide the city of Paris a true symbol commensurate with its economic vitality”. Others may be less excited about the prospect of a tower in the heart of the city however with 62% of the Parisian population opposed to high rises in the city. While Paris holds three regions for tall buildings on the outskirts, including La Defense to the West, the Triangle will be the third tallest structure in the inner city after the Eiffel Tower and Tour Montparnasse in the Montparnasse region. Due to be completed in 2012 the tower will contain offices a conference centre and a 400 bedroom hotel. (Source: World Architecture News)

Paul McCartney conquers Israeli fans

Paul McCartney gave his first concert in Israel on Thursday before tens of thousands of cheering fans, 43 years after the Beatles were barred from singing there because of fears they could corrupt youngsters. McCartney opened the Tel Aviv gig with Beatles song “Hello Goodbye,” and addressed the 40,000 fans in Hebrew and Arabic as well as English throughout the evening. “Shalom Tel Aviv!” he said, using the Hebrew word for “peace” and “hello.” The ex-Beatle also wished the crowd a happy new year in Hebrew ahead of Jewish celebrations next week and wished Muslims a good Ramadan, the month of fasting, in Arabic.

McCartney, who wore a dark suit over a pink shirt, dedicated Wings track “My Love” to Linda, his wife who died of cancer in 1998, and also paid tribute to late Beatles John Lennon and George Harrison. Teenaged girls were reduced to tears and the crowd waved its arms in the air as the star performed some of his biggest hits during two hours of almost non-stop music. Among the favorites were “Give Peace a Chance” and “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” the closing number. McCartney’s visit to Israel prompted a fresh wave of Beatlemania, with radio stations playing the band’s tunes almost non-stop in the past few days. “All we need is peace in the region and a two-state solution,” McCartney told reporters and tourists outside the Bethlehem shrine revered as the site of Jesus’s birth. “I am bringing a message of peace and I think that’s what the region needs. It’s my own small way I can bring my message.”

(Source: Reuters)

Oldest rock on earth: 4.3 billion years old

The geological world is buzzing with news that the oldest rocks on Earth are sitting on a windswept, barren shore in northern Quebec. An international team is reporting the rocks date back almost 4.3 billion years to when the infant Earth was being pummeled by meteors, comets and asteroids. There are also intriguing signs the rocks may carry the “biosignature” of the earliest life to emerge from the primordial seas. “It really puts Canadian geology back on the map,” says geoscientist Boswell Wing, at McGill University, who suspects rusty rock at the site may prove to be evidence of ancient microbial life. But for now it is the rocks’ antiquity that is making headlines. Researchers at McGill, the Universite du Quebec and the Carnegie Institution in Washington report Friday in the journal Science that rock found on the remote eastern shore of Hudson Bay is 4.28 billion years old. “This would make them the oldest rocks ever found on the surface of the Earth,” says McGill’s Jonathan O’Neil, lead author of the report. He has spent the last five summers exploring the Hudson Bay outcropping and hauling chunks of the ancient bedrock back to his Montreal lab.

Rocks from Earth’s early days are extremely rare, and the Quebec find is expected to see plenty of researchers swarm north for a look. “Anything from the first three-quarters of a billion years (of Earth’s history) attracts geologists like flies to dead fish,” says Roger Buick, at the University of Washington in Seattle, who specializes in the planet’s early evolution. He says he would love to get a closer look at the Hudson Bay rocks. The  Earth  is said to have formed from a cloud of cosmic dust and debris about 4.567 billion years ago. Until now weathered granite in the Northwest Territories, dating back about four billion years, has held the title of the world’s oldest rock. The Hudson Bay rocks appear to be about 300 million years older and scientists say they should provide  clues about not just early geological processes, but also Earth’s early atmosphere, and perhaps even the microbes that are thought to have interacted with  iron in the early oceans to create rusty sediments. Mike Carroll, general manager for the Pituvik Landholding Corporation that oversees use of the land for the Inuit, says the scientists gave the community the heads-up about the discovery when they passed through Inukjuak this summer. The corporation’s board of directors is now mulling over how best to manage the site. Everything from a “possible moratorium” on visitors to prevent abuse of the geological treasure, to incorporating a visit to the ancient rocks as part of a tourism package are up for discussion, says Carroll. (Source: Canwest News Service)