PRI's The World » David Leveille

Remembering Zhuang Zedong, Hero of Ping Pong Diplomacy

David Leveille — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 13:30:56 +0000

A city in Japan figures in our Geo Quiz on Monday. So does ping pong.

First, the Japanese city. This city of 3 million looks out on the Pacific Ocean.

It’s located on central Honshu island and its a major industrial port that competes with Tokyo, Osaka, and Kobe.

This capital of Aichi Prefecture was once the center of Japan’s aircraft industry. US bombers attacked it during WWII devastating much of the city.

Monday’s city is home to Japan’s automotive industry: Toyota’s Lexus brand, and Mitsubishi are headquartered there.

But this Japanese city also played an instrumental role in shaping US-China relations.

Something happened there in 1971 which was the catalyst for “ping-pong diplomacy.”

Remember that? It was what led to Richard Nixon’s historic trip to China a year later.

Chinese ping-pong player Zhuang Zedong has died at the age of 73. Zhuang was the Chinese player who started the famous “ping-pong diplomacy” episode in the 1970s.

It’s what led to Richard Nixon’s famous opening to China, and his historic trip there.

US table tennis historian Tim Boggan remembers the era well. In 1971, Boggan traveled with the American team to the World Table Tennis Championships in Nagoya, Japan. Zhuang Zedong was there with the Chinese team.

Boggan says ping pong diplomacy started after a top American player missed the team bus one day.

So Nagoya, Japan is where ping pong diplomacy was born. Which makes Nagoya the answer to our Geo Quiz.

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Lost and Found at India’s Kumbh Mela

David Leveille — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 14:30:54 +0000

The mass Hindu pilgrimage called the Kumbh Mela is underway. It’s the largest religious gathering anywhere.

The BBC’s Mukesh Sharma says the holiest place where pilgrims gather is right near the confluence of India’s sacred rivers.

“Three rivers, the Ganges, Yamuna and Saraswati rivers converge at this place,” he says. “People generally go to the riverbank, perform rituals with flowers and incense sticks, then they go into the water take a few dips and offer water to the sun, that’s how they pray.

Consider this: During the 55-day festival, the entire Kumbh Mela area is designated as a district. The makeshift tent city is constructed and deconstructed within weeks.

The Kumbh mela has its own police and fire station, post office, and railway depot. This year’s Kumbh mela is expected to attract as many as 100 million people.

Kumbh Mela tent city (Photo: Kumbh Mela 2013)

So you can imagine its easy to get lost … actually, it happens a lot.

On the biggest day of the festival, it’s estimated that as many as 20,000 people will get lost or separated from their families and friends and will seek out assistance at the lost and found desk.

Stranded at the lost and found desk (Photo: Mukesh Sharma)

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US Post Office’s Southernmost Branch at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station

David Leveille — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 13:08:55 +0000

Through sleet and snow, rain and ice, we deliver the Geo Quiz.

The US Postal Service has announced it plans to stop delivering mail on Saturdays. The financially struggling agency says the move could help it save as much as $2 billion a year.

But it could delay letters a bit. Of course that delay might not matter all that much if you’re sending a letter to one of the country’s most remote neighborhoods: for instance, the South Pole.

Yes, there is a US Post office at the South Pole. It’s located at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.

Letters sent there go by way of New Zealand where they’re loaded onto US military cargo planes bound for Antarctica.

And believe it or not, the place has its own zip code.

For Wednesday’s Geo Quiz, what’s the zip code for the South Pole?

The zip code we’re looking for is not 90210.

That of course is reserved for ritzy Beverly Hills.

Nor is it 12345 which belongs to General Electric, in Schenectady, New York.

Then there’s ours here at The World newsroom in Boston, 02135.

Nope, the one we’re looking for is at 90-degrees latitude South, at the southernmost post office in the world.

The zip code for the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station is an undistinguished 96598.

Duffel bags of letters to 96598 travel to the South Pole via New Zealand on US military cargo planes usually stuffed in between scientific gear and vital supplies.

Of course deliveries can be unpredictable. Depending on the weather and logistics, packages can take up to six weeks. We haven’t heard yet on whether the ending of Saturday deliveries will be enforced at the South Pole.

One more thing.

Do not use foam peanuts. Styrofoam is banned on the frozen continent.

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Surfer Garrett McNamara Catches Monster Portuguese Wave

David Leveille — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 13:30:27 +0000

Big-wave surfer Garrett McNamara drops in on a large wave at Praia do Norte in Portugal. (Photo: REUTERS/Rafael Marchante)

For our Geo Quiz — we’ll be short and sweet because you’ve all probably seen the Internet videos and photos of American Garrett McNamara riding a monster wave.

The daredevil surfer caught a wave the size of small mountain somewhere along the Europe’s Atlantic coast.

The wave was close to 100 feet high and may set a world surfing record.

Can you name the town or the country where the big wave came roaring in?

So you might have figured out by now that this mega wave rolled in along the Atlantic coast of Portugal.

American Garrett McNamara caught the 100 foot massive wave just off the coast of Nazaré in Portugal.

Rui Enes has surfed waves around the world, and he runs The Surfer’s Camp in the village of Esmoriz in Northern Portugal.

Enes says he’s been surfing at Nazaré ever since he was kid but never on a wave so spectacular as the one that American Garrett McNamara just rode.

Below’s a video of McNamara surfing a 90-foot break in 2011 at Nazaré, Portugal:

And here’s a glimpse at the January, 29 2013 record breaking ride:

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Exploring Cuba on a Motorcycle

David Leveille — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 13:20:00 +0000

For our Geo Quiz we’re going to check in with a motorcyclist in Cuba.

This guy’s leading a group of bikers on a ride across the island from Havana to Guantanamo.

Tuesday, they stopped to fill up their tanks in a city on Cuba’s southern coast…and that’s the place we want you to name.

The city is about 150 miles from Havana. It’s one of Cuba’s important seaports — where sugar, coffee, and tobacco are shipped out. There’s an 18th century fortress still standing near the entrance to the bay that was once used to fend off Caribbean pirates.

And here’s a linguistic clue: the city’s name is Spanish for “a hundred fires.”

Got it?

The motorcycle route around Cuba (Photo: Motodiscovery)

Christopher Baker is leading the first-ever all-Cuba exploration by a US motorcycle group, MotoDiscovery, which the US Treasury Department granted a license to legally run Cuba trips.

The World caught up with the bikers when they stopped for gas in Cienfuegos, the answer to the Geo Quiz.

In addition to touring Cuba, Baker says one of the aims of the people-to-people exchange is to meet up with Havana’s harlistas, Cuba’s fanatical Harley-Davidson owners.

Check out a few snapshots taken by motorcyclist Don Toothman in Cuba:

Cuba by motorcycle (Photo: Don Toothman)

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Expedition Across Frozen Siberian Frontier

David Leveille — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 13:30:06 +0000

Monday’s Geo Quiz is cold, cold, cold.

We’re looking for the name of a cold Siberian city. It’s the capital of the Russian republic of Sakha.

It has on average the coldest winter temperatures for any city in the world.

This capital city is also the starting point of a venture nicknamed “Expedition Extreme Cold.”

In the weeks ahead, a small team of explorers, reindeer herders, and a filmmaker will trek several hundred miles across a Siberian forest where temperatures get down to minus 75 F.

So what’s the temperature outside there today?

“Well its actually a heat wave passing through here so I think its no more than 38 or 40 below zero,” says Swedish explorer Mikael Strandberg.

A sense of humor comes in handy when it gets that cold.

Can you name the city?

Snapshots of traveling by reindeer (Photos: Mikael Strandberg)

The answer to Monday’s Geo Quiz is Yakutsk, the capital of the Russian republic of Sakha. It’s the starting point for an expedition led by Swedish explorer Mikael Strandberg who’s trekking across Siberia to document the traditional way of life of the reindeer people of Siberia.

In the coming weeks, he’ll travel several hundred miles across an extremely cold and remote region of Siberia.

Here’s a partial list of the equipment he’s packing for the trek (see the complete list at his blog):

We are 8 people, 16 sleds (8 sleds for people, 8 sleds for equipment) and it is based on 40 days of food
Flour 25 kg
Tea 3 kg
Suger 25 kg
Pasta 25 kg
Rice 25 kg
Cooking oil 10 liters
Milk sweet 20 cans
Spam 40 cans
Biffar 10 kg
Salt 5 kg
Buck wheat 25 kg
Cookies 5 kg
Candy
Fresh Fish 25 kg
Fresh Cow meat 25 kg
Coffee 5 burkar
Butter
Loaves of bread 40
Fast boiling macaroni 100 bags
Petrol 80 liters
Petrol generator Honda
Emergency medicine
Cigarettes for reindeer herders 200 packets
Tent 2
Wood stoves 2
1 axe
Eating utensils, teapots, cooking ware for the group
Rope
Skins to sit on whilst travelling
Skins to cover the kit
2 spades
1 chain saw
Thin lead cable for reparations
5 jerry cans to carry 120 liters of petrol
3 thermos flasks

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Brazil’s Favelas Becoming ‘Cool’ Tourist Destinations

David Leveille — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 13:30:36 +0000

Electricity system in a favaela. (Photo: Favela Tour)

The South American city we’re looking for in this Geo Quiz belongs to an elite class. It’s one of the “top four” largest cities on the South American continent by population.

Sao Paulo, Brazil leads at up around 11 million. Bogota and Lima come in second and third.

So which city ranks next in population?

The number four city’s nicknamed is the Cidade Maravilhosa (“Marvelous City”). Marvelous it may be, but maybe not for those living in its poorest neighborhoods, known as favelas.

They have a reputation for being crowded and notoriously dangerous places that tourists avoid.

But that may be changing says favela tour guide Marcello Armstong.

“Favelas in one way are becoming cool places, trendy, now it’s not uncommon to hear about middle class people organizing rooftop parties in favelas where you can see amazing views because you are atop the mountains,” Armstong says.

Architecture in Vila Canoas favela. (Photo: Favela Tour)

Can you name this Brazilian city?

All eyes are on Brazil as it gears up to host the soccer World Cup next year.

One of the host cities — and the answer to our Geo Quiz — is Rio de Janeiro.

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Crocodiles On The Loose in South African River

David Leveille — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:10:19 +0000

For our Geo Quiz, try to name not the longest, but the second longest African river that empties into the Indian Ocean.

The Zambezi is the longest. The one-thousand mile river we’re looking for zig zags through parts of South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe.

And it’s seriously flooded which has forced evacuations and caused all sorts of problems.

The answer is the Limpopo River. It borders Kruger National Park in South Africa, and is formed by the confluence of the Marico River and the Crocodile River.

Flooding on the Limpopo River has inundated many low lying farms in the northern Limpopo Province including the Rakwena Crocodile Farm.

The rising floodwaters threatened to crush the crocodiles in their pens so the owners were “forced” to release them. An estimated 15-18 thousand crocodiles escaped into the Limpopo River. The owners are now attempting to recapture the crocs but it’s no easy chore. One croc reportedly turned up on a local rugby pitch 75 miles away. Some others were spotted circling a family that had fled to the roof of their flooded house while awaiting rescue.

The Sound of Birds, Whales, Elephants, Frogs, Published Online

David Leveille — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 13:30:09 +0000

There’s a short sound recording that we’d like you to hear for our Geo Quiz.

It’s not a human sound so it’s not someone knocking at your door, or hammering up on the roof. It’s a wildlife recording, one of the hundreds of thousands like it, at Cornell’s Macaulay Library in Ithaca, New York.

The collection is one of the largest scientific archives anywhere of biodiversity audio, and it just been digitized and put online.

Here is the sample we want you to identify if possible:

So is this a mammal or a bird? Is it on land or underwater?

Could it be part of mating ritual, or an attack on prey.

Try to narrow it down and identify the species and imagine where you’d hear it.

The world’s largest natural sound archives includes a vast array of recordings ranging from hoot owls to elephants, song sparrows to ostrich chicks still in the egg. More than 9,000 species are represented in Cornell’s Macaulay Library archive that has now been put online.

Audio curator Greg Budney introduces us to this collection with one of his favorites: A sound recording of lemurs recorded in Madagascar.

By the way: Have you heard the sound of a walrus underwater? It’s an amazing sound. The one listed below was recorded near Arctic Canada in the Arctic Ocean.

Here are a few recordings to enjoy:

1929 recording by Cornell Lab founder Arthur Allen of a song sparrow.
An ostrich chick still inside its egg.
Dawn chorus in tropical Queensland, Australia, bursting with warbles, squeals, whistles, booms and hoots.
Sound of a lemur with a voice that is part moan, part jazz clarinet.
Haunting voice of a common loon on an Adirondacks lake.
UFO-like call of a bird-of-paradise called the curl-crested manucode in New Guinea.
Staccato hammering sounds of a walrus under water in Arctic Ocean the answer to the Geo Quiz.

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Stargazers Discovering the UK’s ‘Dark Sky’ Locations

David Leveille — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 13:10:08 +0000

If you’re a city dweller then you’re probably familiar with light pollution. The brilliant lights of urban life can block out the light from distant stars.

So stargazers in the UK have recently come up with a work-around. They’re compiling a list of “dark sky” locations around England, Scotland, and Wales where anyone can go to enjoy a good view of the night sky.

Dan Hillier, a project leader with Dark Sky Discovery, spoke to us from the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh, Scotland just before a night sky viewing event was getting underway.

He says dark sky discovery sites are “areas identified by the public as safe, accessible viewing spots where it is dark enough to view stars in the night sky,” and places where people can enjoy first-hand experiences of astronomy in the company of friends, family and others from their local communities.

Read the Transcript
The text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

Jeb Sharp: We’re going to talk about another kind of pollution – light pollution. The brilliant lights of urban life can block out the light from distance stars. So stargazers in the UK have recently come up with a work-around. It’s a list of “dark sky” locations where anyone can go to enjoy a good view of the night sky. Dan Hillier is with Dark Sky Discovery. We reached him at the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Dan Hillier: Scotland actually has some very remote rural communities up in the Highlands and Islands and we got a program together which we call that program “Dark Sky Scotland.” It’s really taken off and the whole idea of Dark Sky seems to captivate people.

Sharp: Why do you think that is? Why do people respond?

Hillier: Well, the phrase ‘dark skies’ I think gives an impression of an immediate connection with the night sky that’s not as complicated and may be tricky or difficult as using telescopes and binoculars. So, whilst astronomy is and can be very high tech, the idea of experiencing a dark sky is much more a media experience of the night sky.

Sharp: Do you find people are less familiar than they used to be with the night sky?

Hillier: Without a doubt. I think most people do live in relatively light-polluted areas and we rarely get a chance to see the whole sky in its entirety. So light pollution coupled with, sort of, tall buildings and other structures means that we’re just not familiar with stuff that’s up there every night of the year really and we’ve lost that connection.

Sharp: You have people coming to the Observatory tonight. What’s up there tonight? What will they see?

Hillier: The audience will be having a look at our telescope. We’ve got a dome structure that can rotate. You might even hear a rumbling in the background in a moment. I think the main object people will recognize (and this is true for people anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, essentially) will be the bright object in the southeastern sky. A bright star-like object will be Jupiter; it’s actually a planet – the largest in the solar system. It’s fantastic just to see it and recognize it with the naked eye. If you get the chance to look at it through a small telescope or even a pair of binoculars, you may be able to just make out some three or four small dots lined up either side of the planet. Those are the planet’s moons and those are the moons that Galileo saw when he was the first person to look at Jupiter with a telescope and made some fantastic first sketches of those moons. If you are lucky enough to look at that Jupiter over a series of two or three nights, what you will see is that they change positions because these moons are orbiting Jupiter and the speed at which they do that means that, from night to night, they are in different positions. It is quite fantastic to see another system out there in space.

Sharp: Do you remember the first time you saw Jupiter and the moons?

Hillier: Yes, I do. I was up in the Highlands; it was a residential event. Someone had brought a telescope along for that event. There is something curious that when you see something that is another world and another system such as Jupiter and its moons it makes you feel connected with the Universe, but also it gives you a new perception of Earth and your own place on Earth. So, it’s sort of looking outwards but looking inwards at the same time.

Sharp: Dan Hillier is project leader of the group called Dark Sky Discovery. It’s organizing a list of good places to go for the best view of the night sky. Thank you; have a lovely evening with your folks.

Hillier: Okay. Thanks very much.

Copyright ©2012 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

Swiss Town Hopes To Keep Lamp Burning

David Leveille — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 13:30:40 +0000

A controversial court ruling in eastern Switzerland inspires our Geo Quiz.

The ruling is about an “eternal flame” that’s been burning for more than 600 years.

It’s inside a church in a town nestled in the Swiss Alps. The church’s spire looks out over the Linth River in the Swiss canton of Glarus.

The church has proudly kept that flame burning since 1357, though it seems many local residents don’t remember why.

It has to do with a murder case. A 14th century murder case involving neighbors.

One more thing: the killer was a local farmer with lots of walnut trees on his property.

Sorry that’s it for clues.

The eternal flame (Photo: St. Hilarius Parish Church of Näfels)

Now here’s the rest of the story: A recent Swiss court ruling has released a farmer from an obligation, dating back 655 years, to finance an “eternal lamp” in the local church in Näfels (the answer to our Geo Quiz!).

The debt arose from a 14th century murder case in which one man was accused of killing a neighbor. To atone for his crime, and to avoid vengeance from the family of his victim, the killer offered to pay for a lamp in the church “for eternity”. But the ruling wiped the slate clean and nullified any ongoing obligation dating back to the medieval era case. So what’s the fate of the “eternal flame”?

Andrea Looser, a journalist with Südostschweiz (south east Switzerland) newspaper says Näfels residents have already stepped forward to keep the lamp burning.

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The Travelodge 2012 Lost and Found List

David Leveille — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 13:10:56 +0000

Your Geo Quiz clues are:

Harry Potter’s magic wand, a bucket of live crabs, a valuable collection of stamps, and more than 75,000 teddy bears.

All those items have something in common — and we’ll get to that in a moment.

First the stamp collection. It was found in a town in Wales.

The town’s famous, in Wales at least, for its rugby team, its local brewery and for tinplate production. There’s so much tin plating done there that the town is nicknamed Tinopolis.

So can you name this town on the southern Welsh coast in the county of Carmarthenshire that looks out on the Atlantic?

The answer comes courtesy of James Pieslak. He’s with Travelodge which has more than 500 hotels in the UK. They’ve compiled a list of things left behind by the 10+ million customers who’ve stayed at one of their 500 hotels in the past year. The “lost and found” list includes everything from a magic wand to breast implants, from a diamond encrusted iPhone to a bucket of live crabs. As for the valuable stamps, an American traveller attending an antiquarian show in the Welsh town of Llanelli (roughly pronounced “Clanethli”) accidentally left them behind in his hotel room.

A few other ususual things show up on the 2012 Travelodge “Lost and Found” List:

A winning EuroMillions ticket
Keys to a Bugatti racecar
A stamp album worth a quarter of a million dollars
A set of London Olympic tickets
A trunk of chocolate bars
A diamond encrusted wedding ring
A Persian Chinchilla kitten named Porsha
A suitcase full of vinyl records
A set of false teeth with diamonds
A Rolex watch
A tiffany engagement ring
A pilot’s training manual
Joseph’s Dream Coat
Pantomime Horse
7,000 copies of Fifty Shades of Grey
76,500 teddy bears
A bucket of live crabs

The 3 books most often left behind in Travelodge hotels during 2012:

Fifty Shades of Grey E.L. James
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Stieg Larsson
The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest Stieg Larsson

Is there anything YOU regret leaving in a hotel room?

Or did you go to extraordinary lengths to get something back?

Better yet: is there anything you wish you’d left behind in that hotel room?

Share your story below in the comments!

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Fiscal Cliff Bill’s Hidden Subsidy For Caribbean Rum

David Leveille — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 13:30:36 +0000

Our Geo Quiz is inspired by that fiscal cliff legislation you’ve heard so much about. At over 150 pages, the bill passed by Congress to avoid the fiscal cliff is not a quick read. But one section stands out:

It’s about rum.

The bill extends a tax on all rum imported into the United States. But most tax revenue collected on rums from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands doesn’t go to pay the deficit. It subsidizes rum production in those United States territories.

Most other Caribbean region rum producers think that’s unfair.

Our question for you is:

Where in the Caribbean region would you find the “oldest continuously producing rum distillery”?

Name the country where rum’s been made in wooden stills along the banks of the Demerara River since the 17th century.

For almost a century, Uncle Sam has collected excise taxes on Caribbean rum.

No surprise there.

But did you know that almost all of the tax placed on rum from Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands specifically goes right back to those territories, which then reinvest the money in rum promotion and production?

That has rum exporting nations elsewhere in the Caribbean fuming. Edward Hamilton writes and blogs about rum.

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The Reindeer Peoples of the World

David Leveille — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 13:30:44 +0000

Our compass points to the north for our Geo Quiz.

The place we’re looking for is the northernmost region of Atlantic Canada.

A Portuguese explorer, Joao Fernandes Lavrador, first mapped out these shores back in the 15th century.

It’s just north of Québec. And across the Strait of Belle Isle.

There are several indigenous peoples including the Inuit and the Innu who live here.

To survive in this sometimes bitterly cold region up near the Arctic Circle, the Innu live off the land. They depend on caribou, or reindeer as they’re called in other parts of the world — for food, shelter and warmth.

It’s an ancient tradition but one that’s changing as industrial development in the Arctic regions threatens the caribou herds.

Can you name this northernmost region of Canada?

The answer to our Geo Quiz is Labrador, Canada.

Jonathan Mazower, advocacy director for Survival International talks about the important role that reindeer play in many Arctic cultures.

Some indigenous tribes including the Innu of Labrador and Québec are struggling to maintain caribou herds in the face of development and climate change.

Flashback: The Caribou of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Populations of reindeer, or caribou, are scattered across the top of the world, from Canada to Scandinavia to Russia to Alaska. In 1997 The World‘s environment editor Peter Thomson traveled to far northern Alaska to report for the public radio program Living on Earth on the caribou that migrate through the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and the native communities there that depend on the animals for their survival.

Peter’s award-winning documentary came amid a heated debate over whether to allow oil drilling in part of the refuge, widely known as ANWR–a debate that continues to flare up today. With special thanks to our PRI sister program Living on Earth, we’ve posted the documentary below, along with Peter’s companion report on oil, Eskimos, and changing ways of life along the Arctic shore farther west in Alaska. With its early hints of changing weather and migratory patterns in the Arctic due to climate change, the documentary is an eerie premonition of things to come at the top of the world.

Read environment editor Peter Thomson’s blog post on his recollections–and lessons–from his 1997 reporting trip to northern Alaska.

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End of the World Celebrants Gather at Mayan Pyramid

David Leveille — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 13:40:02 +0000

Friday is the Winter Solstice in the northern hemisphere.

It’s also a day that’s generated a lot of buzz among historians and new age spiritualists. They say an ancient Mayan calendar predicts the end of an era or possibly even an apocalypse.

So for our Geo Quiz we’re looking for the name of a historic Mayan site on Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula.

It’s where people have gathered around ceremonial fires near an ancient Mayan step pyramid, blowing conch shells and generally bearing witness to what they believe is a prophetic moment.

The dawn of a new age or end of the world in Chechin Itsa, Mexico (Photo: Franc Contreras)

The World checks in with journalist Franc Contreras who’s at the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza in the Mexican state of Yucatan.

He says the doomsday watch is partly a serious affair and partly a celebration.

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