Compact archive October 31, 2007

Prague astronomical clock, built 1410 by the clockmaker Mikulas of Kadan, is going to have its statues undergo a general repair the whole November 2007. Its 17th Century statues are going to be protectively coated against hard weather conditions.

Otakar Zamecnik, the ‘orlojnik’, said: “to lift down these takes about three hours, while the Astronomical Clock will be still working. We have to do everything in the morning, so we won’t be disturbed by tourists too much.”

Conservators are going to lift down first four statues today, and the next four in two weeks. Vanity, Miser/Jew, Turk and Death, the statues placed at the lower position by the astronomic clock-face, go to workrooms as first. The second wawe takes the lower statues by the Claendar- Chronicler, Angel, Astronomer and Philosopher.

Czech Railways cancel the system of zones, starting 9th November 2007. The price of a ticket is going to be dependent on the actual kilometers traveled.

What’s more, the 60 CZK (2 €) surcharges for EuroCity or InterCity trains are to be canceled too. This is a trend of the European Union. Covering of the losts is going to be paid by the Ministry of Transportation. Though, the state should pay approx. 600 millions CZK (20 mil. €)

The changes reflect to a customer’s life positively, if he/she uses mentioned EuroCity or InterCity trains. For example, to go from Prague to Ostrava costs 484 CZK (16 €) now, after the changes it is supposed to be 40 CZK (1,3 €) less. Traveling with a discount card will be a little more expensive, as well as a purchase of a ‘Kilometricka banka’ (1600 CZK/53 € for 2000 km)

And finally – train smoking rooms are to be abandoned and train smoking will be banned completely.

Skoda cake advertisement won top British Television Advertising Craft Award of 30 October 2007. The TV ad shows pastry-cooks baking a Skoda Fabia cake in life size. They have swapped rivets for raisins, metal for marzipan and spark plugs for sugar. The video was filmed at West London’s Shepperton Studios, and Skoda even includes a recipe for the cake. The ad was placed by British representation of Skoda. It lasts approximately a minute and cost about 1 million £.

The agency who made the ad actually wanted to give the huge cake to charity, but at the end they gave it up because of possible health risks, coming from long stay of Skoda Fabia cake in the heat of studio reflectors.

For a Skoda Fabia cake you need these ingredients:
10kg white chocolate chunks
20kg raisins
3kg orange peel strips
25kg dried apricot
12.5kg raspberry jam
5kg cocoa powder
100kg wheat flour
180 fresh eggs
100kg caster sugar
90kg brown sugar paste
50kg icing sugar
40kg black sugar paste
20kg glacier cherries
50kg white sugar paste
30kg brown almonds
42kg chocolate fudge

Did you know Skoda starts production of its first SUV?

A dog restaurant? Do you mean for dogs or offering dogs? The answer is b. The restaurant offers German shepherd steak with dumplings and cream sauce, Sausage dog on cranberries, or grilled Labrador on garlic. It opens soon in the Czech Republic second largest city Brno. Wonder what the prices are? From 259 CZK (8,6 €) for Chivava starter, to 999 CZK (33 €) for fifty grams of Yorkshire delicacy.

Do you feel sick already? Do you even feel like suing? You don’t have to. This time it is just an Internet project of an imaginary restaurant, that should demonstrate it is not possible to prioritize some animals on account of others. According to its author (one of them) Ales Leznar:

“We buy tidy packages with anonymous carcasses in supermarkets, but if it was saying ‘neighbor’s Max’, hardly anybody would buy it. If humanity wants a really fair world, they should reduce or abandon meat consumption”

It is really a project that should provoke discussions. However on the web www.DogHeaven.cz it wouldn’t seem so – it is even decorated with advertisements like ‘Invite your Asian business partner to lunch’ or ‘Visit dog meat festival’. But soon the manifesto appears – this is an appeal on human hypocrisy, which looks down upon maltreatment of pets, but tolerates mass meat-works.

Based on jih,miš, Lidove Noviny

The singer of the legendary band Cranberries goes on her European tour with an accompanying band (while her band Cranberries probably rests in Ireland at the moment). O’Riordan’s first solo album “Are You Listening?”, released on 2007, will be possible to hear there, but probably most songs will be the good old songs of The Cranberries.

Dolores O’Riordan performs in Prague on Monday 26th November 2007 in Prague Lucerna.

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