奇聞趣事

Train of Thought:Underground Gets Philosophical

From AFP

Drivers on London Underground trains have started reading out quotes from thinkers like Jean-Paul Sartre(讓—保羅·薩特，法國當代著名作家和哲學家，存在主義的代表人物) and Mahatma Gandhi(圣雄甘地) in a bid to cheer up passengers， officials said recently.

The quotes include “Everyone should be respected， but no-one idolised” (Albert Einstein)， “An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory” (Friedrich Engels) and “Nothing is worth more than this day” (Johann von Goethe). They come from a book of quotations compiled by artist Jeremy Deller which has been given to drivers as part of an initiative(首創) to promote art on the London Underground.

Transport for London， which runs the Tube(地鐵)， said in a statement it hoped the move(措施) would “lift the moods of those travelling on the Piccadilly Line(皮卡迪里地鐵線，倫敦最繁忙的地鐵線之一).”

Deller， though， highlighted the importance of drivers using appropriate quotes at appropriate times. For example， if a train was stuck(阻塞) in a tunnel， “there’s one that probably isn’t good， it’s by Jean-Paul Sartre， which is ‘Hell is other people’，” Deller told the BBC. “But I suspect one by Gandhi would be great， which is ‘There’s more to life than increasing its speed’， which I think might calm people down slightly.”

Polish Radio Station Protests... with Bird-song

From AFP

A public radio station in Poland aired(廣播) non-stop bird-song for 24 hours in a bizarre protest against plummeting(驟降) license fee(執照費) revenues.

“Our existence is threatened by a dramatic decline in revenue from the audiovisual(視聽的) license fee，” announcers repeated on Dwojka radio once every 10 minutes to interrupt the otherwise constant warbling.

Every Polish household owning a radio or television is required to pay a public broadcasting licence fee， but a draft(草案) media reform law proposing it be removed by January 2010 has encouraged many to stop making payments already.

Specialising in classical music and cultural programming， Poland’s Dwojka two programme(廣播節目) is commercial-free and entirely financed by the public license fee.

“Don’t condemn us to silence... pay your license fee，” read a statement on the Dwojka website. “Keeping the license fee is the only way to maintain our cultural， literary and musical programming at its current level.”

The proposed reform has been criticised by the conservative opposition and must still gain parliamentary and presidential approval before coming into effect.