The Ryugyong Hotel: A Monumental Symbol of Ambition and Waste in North Korea's History

The Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea, stands out as one of the most prominent examples of what is considered the biggest waste of money in human history. This colossal structure, envisioned as a 105-story pyramid-shaped skyscraper, was intended to be a symbol of North Korea's power, modernity, and architectural prowess.

Construction on the Ryugyong Hotel commenced in 1987, with ambitious plans for a luxurious and imposing building that would dominate the skyline of Pyongyang. However, the project faced a series of challenges that ultimately led to its abandonment and earned it the infamous moniker "Hotel of Doom."

One of the significant setbacks was the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The Soviet Union had been a key supporter of North Korea, providing financial assistance for various projects. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, this crucial financial backing vanished, dealing a severe blow to the ambitious hotel project. Construction came to an abrupt halt in 1992, leaving the building incomplete and unoccupied.

The economic woes facing North Korea during the 1990s further exacerbated the situation. The country experienced a devastating economic crisis known as the Arduous March, characterized by widespread famine and economic hardship. The resources needed to complete the Ryugyong Hotel were redirected elsewhere, leaving the monumental structure in a state of abandonment.

The Ryugyong Hotel's imposing silhouette on the Pyongyang skyline earned it the derisive nickname "Hotel of Doom." For over two decades, the incomplete and vacant building served as a stark reminder of economic mismanagement and the challenges facing North Korea.

In the early 21st century, there were attempts to revive the project. Orascom, an Egyptian company, took on the task of completing the exterior of the building, giving it a somewhat finished appearance. Despite these efforts, the interior of the hotel remained largely incomplete and non-functional, raising questions about the wisdom of investing vast resources in a project that seemed more symbolic than practical.

The Ryugyong Hotel, with its tumultuous history and unfinished state, has become a symbol not only of architectural ambition but also of economic challenges, geopolitical shifts, and the questionable allocation of resources. As debates continue about the significance of such grand projects in the face of pressing societal needs, the Ryugyong Hotel remains a testament to the complexities of large-scale construction endeavors in a changing global landscape.

Read More

Hall of Famer Bobby Hull, the Golden Jet, dies at age 84

Former New York Rangers player Bobby Hull, dubbed the "Golden Jet" for his blond hair and incredible speed on the ice, has passed away at the age of 84.

He was an NHL All-Star for 12 consecutive seasons and a member of the 1961 Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks. There are two Hart Trophies to his name. Hull spent 15 years with the Blackhawks and is still their career goals leader.

His slap shot, recorded at 118 miles per hour, and curved blade made him famous. Hull won the scoring title three times and the MVP award twice in his career. When he signed a $1 million contract to play for the Winnipeg Jets of the World Hockey Association, he set a new standard for athletes in the industry.

Hull helped the Jets to two Avco Cup victories, and he finished his career with over 600 goals and 500 assists, two MVP awards, and two retirements. Gary Bettman, commissioner of the National Hockey League, calls him a "true superstar" and points out that he entered the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983.

Both the Blackhawks and the Jets have retired his number nine in honor of him, and his son Brett is following in his footsteps by becoming a Hall of Famer as well. Hull's off-ice life was just as turbulent as his on-ice career, with allegations of domestic abuse and controversy over his remarks about race and Hitler overshadowing his hockey prowess.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Read More

Bill & Ted Face the Music Feels As Unstuck in Time As Its Characters

 Bill S. Preston, Esq. (Alex Winter) and Theodore Logan (Keanu Reeves) are not stoners, but they do seem like they could and maybe even should be, which is why Reeves felt compelled to clarify the point in a recent interview. Pot feels like such a handy explanation for the characters’ indomitable state of dazed good-naturedness, even when confronted with time-travel and the afterlife, that the association has lingered even though the pair never actually smoke any of it. Bill and Ted are the most wholesome of a run of late-’80s-early-’90s dirtbag duos like Beavis and Butthead and Wayne and Garth, but they’re also relics of a stretch of time in which California stereotypes alone could amount to half of a premise for a film or a TV show. The joke at the center of the Bill & Ted franchise is that two genial doofuses from the San Gabriel Valley turn out to be the most important people in all of humanity, and because of that, the high points of history and metaphysics get filtered through the cultural colorlessness of a sunny SoCal suburb.

It’s a joke that’s held up unconscionably well over the years. The pleasures of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey have endured, a few tossed-off homophobic slurs aside, because of how unapologetically silly the movies are. They’re about saving the world, but there’s so little urgency to them that the way Bill & Ted Face the Music has stumbled into existence nearly three decades later comes across as entirely fitting. The new movie, from director Dean Parisot and returning screenwriters Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon, picks up with Bill and Ted still in San Dimas, where they’ve grown into fathers and husbands who live next door to one another on a serene cul-de-sac. They’ve traded young concerns about passing history class and winning a Battle of the Bands for middle-aged ones like shaky marriages and fears about being failures. But Bill & Ted Face the Music doesn’t use the years as an excuse to swerve into grittier territory. Instead, it underscores the sweetness at the core of its main relationship. Bill and Ted are two guys who love hard rock, the word “dude,” and each other’s company, something that hasn’t changed just because the times have.

What’s also remained a constant is their questionable talent. The movie opens at the most recent wedding for Missy (Amy Stock-Poynton), who was first Bill’s and then Ted’s young stepmother, where the two men play a song that isn’t remotely appropriate for the first dance, but that does involve enthusiastic theremin and throat singing. Most people set aside their longings for rock stardom after a few years of struggle, but Bill and Ted have been assured that their band, Wyld Stallyns, is destined to usher in a global utopia with their music. 29 years and an explanatory montage later, they’re still floundering, while time and space have started falling apart in the absence of a universe-unifying bop. When Kristen Schaal beams in from the future as Kelly — daughter of Rufus, the character played by the late George Carlin in the first two films — Bill and Ted soon find themselves back in the phone booth, sending themselves forward in hopes of getting a copy of the killer song they were supposed to come up with from their older selves, who they assume have written it already.

The pair’s former medieval princess wives, now played by Erinn Hayes and Jayma Mays, start bouncing around on some mostly offscreen temporal adventures of their own. And then their daughters, Wilhelmina “Billie” Logan (Brigette Lundy-Paine) and Theodora “Thea” Preston (Samara Weaving), embark on a quest that turns out to be more essential to the developing crisis. Billie and Thea, cheery 20-something fail children whose friendship rivals that of their dads, aren’t clearly drawn as characters beyond the obvious parallels, though Lundy-Paine manages the incredible trick of coming across more like Reeves in the original films than present-day Reeves does. It’s the two men who remain the heart of this winningly haphazard endeavor, and they’re at their best playing off themselves, meeting different Bills and Teds across the years and, as would probably be true for all of us, not always getting along with them.

Bill & Ted Face the Music serves up some celebrity cameos and some familiar faces — William Sadler as a parody of The Seventh Seal’s Death remains an absurd and wonderful creation. Nostalgia is an unavoidable part of the movie’s appeal, though it mostly manages to avoid wince-worthy pandering. The most successful quality of the film is how close it keeps in spirit and haphazard style to the first two installments, and how it feels proudly unstuck in time. Then again, so are its characters, whose type and slang and taste in music feel long past. Maybe that context wasn’t all that important, anyway. How much context do you need to understand the fantasy of being told that your wistful pipe dreams actually matter, not just to you, but to the world? Excellent.

source: https://www.vulture.com/

Read More

‘Black Panther’ Star Chadwick Boseman Dies of Cancer at 43

 The actor also played groundbreaking figures like James Brown, Jackie Robinson, and Thurgood Marshall.

Chadwick Boseman, the actor who found fame as the star of the groundbreaking film “Black Panther” and who also portrayed pioneering Black figures such as Jackie Robinson, James Brown, and Thurgood Marshall, died on Friday. He was 43.

A statement posted on Mr. Boseman’s Instagram account said the actor learned in 2016 that he had Stage 3 colon cancer, which had progressed to Stage 4. It said he died in his home, with his wife and family by his side.

“A true fighter, Chadwick persevered through it all, and brought you many of the films you have come to love so much,” the statement said. “From ‘Marshall’ to ‘Da 5 Bloods,’ August Wilson’s ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ and several more, all were filmed during and between countless surgeries and chemotherapy.”

News of Mr. Boseman’s death elicited shock and grief among many prominent figures in the arts and civic life. Martin Luther King III, a human-rights activist and the eldest son of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., said that the actor had “brought history to life on the silver screen” in his portrayals of Black leaders.

Oprah Winfrey wrote on Twitter that Mr. Boseman was “a gentle gifted SOUL.”

“Showing us all that Greatness in between surgeries and chemo,” she wrote. “The courage, the strength, the power it takes to do that. This is what Dignity looks like.”

Mr. Boseman portrayed the first Black player in Major League Baseball, Jackie Robinson, in “42,” in 2013; the sizzling soul singer James Brown in “Get On Up,” in 2014; and the first Black Supreme Court justice, Thurgood Marshall, in “Marshall,” in 2017.

The film was a cultural touchstone — the first major superhero movie with an African protagonist; the first to star a majority Black cast; and in Ryan Coogler, the first to employ a Black writer and director.

The film represented a moment of hope, pride, and empowerment for African-American moviegoers, many of whom planned special outings to see it and came dressed in African-inspired clothing and accessories.

Wakanda was powered by a mystery metal, vibranium, and had evaded the historical traumas endured by much of the rest of Africa, freeing it from the ravages of colonialism and postcolonialism. The phrase “Wakanda forever” became a hashtag and rallying cry.

The statement on Mr. Boseman’s Instagram account said it was “the honor of his career to bring King T’Challa to life in ‘Black Panther.’”

Brian Helgeland, the writer, and director of “42,” which gave Mr. Boseman his breakout role, said that Mr. Boseman reminded him of sturdy, self-assured icons of 1970s virility, like Gene Hackman and Clint Eastwood.

“It’s the way he carries himself, his stillness — you just have that feeling that you’re around a strong person,” Mr. Helgeland said. “There’s a scene in the movie where Robinson’s teammate, Pee Wee Reese, puts his arm around him as a kind of show of solidarity. But Chad flips it on its head. He plays it like, ‘I’m doing fine, I’m tough as nails, but go ahead and put your arm around me if it makes you feel better.’ I think that’s who Chad is as a person.”

Mr. Boseman was born and raised in Anderson, S.C., the youngest of three boys. His mother, Carolyn, was a nurse and his father, Leroy, worked for an agricultural conglomerate and had a side business as an upholsterer.

“I saw him work a lot of third shifts, a lot of night shifts,” Mr. Boseman told The New York Times last year. “Whenever I work a particularly hard week, I think of him.”

His closest role models were his two brothers: Derrick, the eldest, a preacher in Tennessee; and Kevin, a dancer who has performed with the Martha Graham and Alvin Ailey troupes and toured with the stage adaptation of “The Lion King.”

In high school, Mr. Boseman was a serious basketball player but turned to storytelling after a friend and teammate were shot and killed. Mr. Boseman processed his emotions by writing what he eventually realized was a play. When it was time to consider colleges, he chose an arts program at Howard University, with a dream of becoming a director.

At Howard, he took an acting class with the Tony Award-winning actress and director Phylicia Rashad, who helped him get into an elite theater program at the University of Oxford, an adventure he later learned had been financed by a friend of hers: Denzel Washington.

To earn money, Mr. Boseman taught acting to students at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem.

Article Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/28/movies/chadwick-boseman-dead.html

Read More

Contraceptive pill cuts risk of uterine cancer, new research shows

Women should feel reassured of the pill's safety, experts say.
Taking contraceptive pills for between 10 and 15 years is likely to halve your risk of developing a deadly uterine cancer, groundbreaking research has found.

The international team of experts says widespread use of the pill in developed countries is likely to have saved hundreds of thousands of lives since the 1960s, and women should feel confident that the benefits of the drug outweigh its risks when it comes to cancer.

The study of more than 27,000 women found that for every five years a woman was on the pill, her risk of cancer of the endometrium, which lines the uterus, decreased by about 25 per cent.
The benefits increase the longer a woman is on the pill, and occur independently of a range of cancer risk factors including weight, use of menopause hormone therapy, smoking and whether or not she has had children.

Associate professor Karen Canfell, the director of cancer research at Cancer Council NSW and a member of the international collaborative group that produced the research, said it was particularly reassuring because it showed the benefits lasted even after a woman stopped taking the pill.
"That means women who are taking the pill in their 20s and 30s are protected right through to the age when they are at greatest risk of developing endometrium cancer, which is 55 or older," she said. "It's a really important result, and it's a really reassuring result."

There are approximately 315 new cases of uterine cancer in New Zealand every year, according to New Zealand Gynaecological Cancer Foundation.
Research into the effect hormonal contraceptives had on cancer had been mixed, and it appeared that women on the pill still had an increased risk of breast cancer and cervical cancer while they were taking it, Canfell said.

"But the good news is, it is a relatively modest and transient risk, so it goes back to normal within 10 years," she said. "I think if you look at a woman's overall lifetime risk of developing any cancer, the benefit in terms of ovarian and endometrium cancer outweighs the transient risk in terms of breast and cervical cancer."

She said it was not known why oral contraceptive use would lower the risk of some cancers but raise the risk of others.

Read More

Robertson’s prayer request for Monroe girl goes viral

Sadie Robertson posted a prayer request for a Monroe girl diagnosed with an inoperable tumor. The post now has 157,000 likes and more than 9,000 comments.

Instagram | @legitsadierob

this is Katie Joyce - Her family found out she has a brain tumor and its on her brain stem which inoperable. the doctors say we need a miracle. The only thing that can fix this is if we storm the gates of heaven. Write comments of encouragement & if you know someone who needs prayer feel free to write it in a comment & I will pray for all of you as well.💗 7.29.15

Robertson, of “Duck Dynasty” and “Dancing With the Stars,” shared the plight of Katie Joyce, who The News-Star first reported on in 2012.

Joyce was diagnosed with a brain tumor, called an ependymoma, on Aug. 27, 2010, when she was 2. Joyce underwent brain surgery at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, followed by 33 rounds of radiation at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. She had to learn to walk again, had to receive physical therapy and had to undergo countless tests and procedures before beating that round of cancer.

Recently though, the family learned Joyce has another brain tumor — this is one inoperable and on the brain stem.

“The only thing that can fix this is if we storm the gates of heaven,” Roberston wrote, and the post has brought in comments and prayers from fans near and far.

The Robertson family is known for openly sharing their Christian faith.

Follow Bonnie Bolden on Twitter @Bonnie_Bolden_

Read More

‘The Daily Show’ set donated to Newseum

WASHINGTON — The set of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” will be donated to the Newseum after Stewart’s final episode.

Newseum spokesman Jonathan Thompson said in a news release that the museum of journalism will acquire the set, including the desk, globe and props, after Stewart hosts his final episode Thursday night.

The set will become part of the Newseum’s collection for future display.

Cathy Trost, senior vice president of exhibits and programs at the Newseum, says Stewart was a voice for a strong and free press.

Stewart has hosted the program on Comedy Central since 1999.

Read More

‘The Flash’ Finds its Wally West in ‘Insurgent’ Star Keiynan Lonsdale

“The Flash” has cast Australian actor Keiynan Lonsdale as Wally West, the iconic speedster from the DC Comics universe who made his debut as Kid Flash. He’ll appear as a series regular in season two.

In comics canon, Wally is the nephew of Iris West (played in The CW series by Candice Patton) — the love interest and eventual wife of Barry Allen (Grant Gustin). While Wally initially served as his uncle’s sidekick and a founding member of the Teen Titans, he later inherited Barry’s mantle as The Flash.

Since Iris doesn’t seem to have any siblings on the show (that we know of), it’s possible that Wally’s origin story will be tweaked for his live-action “Flash” debut. His connection to the West family has yet to be confirmed.

Executive producer Andrew Kreisberg said of Lonsdale’s casting, “Just like when we met Grant for the first time, we instantly knew Keiynan embodied all the heart and courage of a hero. We are so excited to be bringing this much-beloved character onto the show.”

Wally’s involvement in season two of the superhero series was announced at Comic-Con, along with the casting of two more DC Comics characters: another iteration of The Flash, Jay Garrick (Teddy Sears), and Patty Spivot (Shantel VanSanten), who will partner with Det. Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) when the show returns this fall. “The Flash’s” Comic-Con panel also revealed that season two’s major antagonist would be Zoom.

Lonsdale’s role follows two recent additions to cast of “The Flash” and “Arrow” spinoff series “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.” Casper Crump has been confirmed as immortal villain Vandal Savage, while Falk Hentschel will play Carter Hall/Hawkman. Both actors will make their debut in crossover episodes of “The Flash” and “Arrow” to serve as a set-up for the spinoff before “Legends” debuts at midseason.

Lonsdale is represented by Silver Lining Entertainment, ICM, Schreck Rose Dapello & Adams, and Persona PR.

Read More

Did Rio's caipirinha lay IOC boss low?

RIO DE JANEIRO - Was it Brazil's caipirinha cocktail or did the head of the International Olympic Committee skip a major news conference in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday because of jet lag?

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach plays with a football at Barra da Tijuca Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on August 4, 2015, one year before the start of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games

IOC President Thomas Bach failed to appear at the chief media event marking the one-year countdown to the 2016 Rio Olympics -- and initially officials gave no explanation.

Only well into the event led by Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes did the spokesman for the city's Olympic organizing committee address Bach's absence.

Bach was "very, very tired" after flying from Kuala Lumpur and was in his hotel, the spokesman told more than 200 journalists assembled at a nearly completed arena in the Olympic Park.

On arrival, Bach had appeared in good form, relishing two of Brazil's most beloved pastimes -- a kickabout with a football on the beach and a glass of the national cocktail.

"I had a caipirinha with him yesterday," Rio Olympic committee president Carlos Arthur Nuzman said.

"Thirty hours of flying and then one Brazilian caipirinha makes people tired," Paes quipped. "It was just one caipirinha," he quickly added.

Nuzman said Bach made "a huge sacrifice" by flying to Rio after his busy trip in Malaysia to be at the one-year celebration, also due to be attended by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff later.

Read More

Several homes burned in Flathead County wildfire

Firefighters are on the scene of a wildland fire in Evergreen. 

Flathead County Undersheriff Dave Lieb said at least five structures have burned in the area. 

At least five homes have been evacuated but we don't know yet if anyone has been injured.

Fire crews responding include the the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC), as well as fire departments from Whitefish, Columbia Falls and Evergreen.

The homeowner told our reporter that he believes his cigarette sparked the fire. He said he thought he put it out, but when he came back outside he saw the fire.

A helicopter is reportedly dropping water on the fire. 

Read More

Check Out The Hottest Celeb Pics This Week

The lighting of a room sets the ambiance, and Michael McHale Designs are flooding The Ribbon’s atmosphere with industrial glamorous aesthetic. The recently opened restaurant boasts over a dozen of his lighting fixtures, including a number of ostentatious Tribeca Collection Banqueting Chandeliers descending over the bar and extraordinary custom sconces brandishing the women’s bathroom.

Forgoing his original lifestyle choice of “adjunct creativity” as an entertainment lawyer, Michael McHale had a “late bloom” of creativity, and started Michael McHale Designs in his 40’s after 15 years in the law. His artistic purpose is to demonstrate what if capable of beauty when considered properly, and he is doing so with the ready-made, affordable Tribeca Collection, the waterproof Outdoor Collection, and the eco-friendly, bio-based, cutting-edge-technology-based 3D Printed Light Collection.

Even more, the upcoming, genre-changing, shape-shifting Matrix Collection will further facilitate his lighting revolution.   Michael McHale Designs’ abstract, innovative chandeliers have been illuminating the world since its inception in 2007. They’ve been featured in (very recently) The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Dwell, Interior Design Magazine, New York Magazine, and so many more.

His creations have adorned the ceilings of the American Express VIP Room at New York Fashion Week, fashionable Moscow coffee shops, nightclubs, as well as the homes of tastemakers, senators, and movers-and-shakers all over the world. There’s even a Harley-Davidson showroom.

Read More

Jay Chou Forced to Sleep While Sitting Up Due to Spinal Disease

Though fans of Taiwanese singer-songwriter Jay Chou (周杰倫) may know that he suffers from a spinal inflammation disease, few know how serious his ailment can be. One of Jay’s close friends, Taiwanese singer Will Liu (劉畊宏), recently revealed that the pain sometimes gets so severe that Jay is forced to sleep while sitting up.

While recording for a television program, Will shared a few previously unknown details about Jay’s sickness. “He is often unable to lie down like ordinary people, so he needs to be in a sitting position when he sleeps,” said Will. “Sometimes, when I knock on the door, it takes him almost ten minutes to walk from his bed to the door. It’s not because his house is very big, but because he walks very slowly.”

Will also talked about how Jay’s spinal inflammation can have negative repercussions on his pop star career. “When his disease flares up, he is unable to perform like he usually does,” he stated. “He needs pain-killers in order to get through the whole performance.”

Because Will is a big fan of exercising, he has devised a few scientifically backed workout regimes to help Jay exercise. Thanks to help of his friend, Jay has been able to develop quite a bit of muscle.

Upon learning about the severity of Jay’s ailment, many netizens expressed their regrets and said they felt sorry for the singer. However, others felt that it was inappropriate of Will to reveal such personal details about his friend on such a public platform.

Source: QQ.com

Read More