Sunday, July 13, 2008

View-Master

This post has been inspired by a Lone Grey Squirrel and a Grumpy Old Ken.


A favourite childhood diversion that occupied my imagination for many hours was my View Master and its ever present reel of the Seven Wonders of the World. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were my favourite. Interestingly, the most mysterious of the seven wonders. I was crushed to learn they were no longer standing. I also had a book of stories about the ancient cities and monuments of Greece, Persia, and Egypt. Archaeology featured large in my imagination. I travelled to these wondrous sites many times and made great discoveries while in my sick bed.

When a new Seven Wonders listing was proposed, I followed along. It was to be decided by popular vote (as opposed to one man glorifying his country's achievements). Of course, this would be no less subjective. Sites were nominated, the voting extended by a year due to demand, with great excitement for the shortlisted cities. Visits were made and each city had a chance to promote their man made wonder - think of the IOC visiting Olympic bid cities.

A
New7Wonders of the World list was announced on 07/07/07. Hundreds of sites from around the world were nominated and voted on globally through the internet. The current project is the New7Wonders of Nature. Already there are almost 300 natural sites nominated. The top 77 sites will be whittled down to the top 21 in January 2009, and eventually the final 7 by December 2010.

Anyone can vote for their favourite 7 in the nomination stage (until Dec 31, 2008) and again for their favourite 7 of the shortlisted stage.

Lone Grey Squirrel has already posted his top 7 choices which you can see
here.

I need a little more time for mine! There are so many places I have never heard of. So many beautiful natural spots in the world. So, I'm going through the lists by continent and will post one favourite vote a day. Starting Monday.

Play along if you wish.

If you are not going on holidays this year, you can dream of where you want to go next year.

If you are wondering how Grumpy Old Ken fits into this, you can check out his post on
sterioscopic images and his trip down memory lane. A world apart, for sure.

7 comments:

  1. selfish may i sound from india, i love taj mahal and will vote for it.

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  2. Sandy: The Taj Mahal did win as one of the man made Wonders. This campaign is for the natural Wonders. So far, the Ganges and the Valley of Flowers are the Indian nominations.

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  3. Great post! I've already taken a look at some of the nominee's. The one I know I will vote for is The Great Barrier Reef.

    Thanks for telling us about this.

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  4. You have brought memories crashing back. I loved my View Master. But haven't thought about it in years. Now, suddenly, I want the satisfaction of pulling down that little lever and watching the pictures change.

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  5. Em: That is exactly how I felt while searching for these pictures! I found these ones on ebay and was so tempted....
    I have no idea what happened to my original one.

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  6. OMG, a viewmaster... I had one of those. It took very little to amuse us back then, eh?

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  7. I'll have a look. I soent some time yesterday compiling a list of possible places to go next.

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