The automobile laconically runs down pedestrians. It gnaws into the side of a barn or else, grinning, it flies down a slope. It can't be blamed for anything. Its conscience is... clear... It only fulfillls its destiny. It is destined to wipe out the world. from Russian writer Ilya Ehrenburg's , The Life of the Automobile , published in 1929. Worldwide three quarters of a million people are killed every year on the roads. More people between five and 44 die in car crashes in the Third World than are killed by any single disease. 3,508 people were killed in road accidents in 2003 in the UK, and 33,707 were seriously injured. 171 of those killed were children. Since 1899 motor vehicles have killed over 2.5 million Americans, and permanently injured 43 million. The Humane Society estimates that more than one million animals are killed every day on US roads. It has been estimated that motor vehicles kill more animals than the fur trade and animal experimentation industry combined, ...
Comments
Good thing they were not playing any Johann-Joseph Fux!
I remember years ago seeing an advertising brochure for the Vancouver Symphony of their upcoming season. Writing about the Beethoven Ninth, they said :
"Beethoven wrote 9 Symphonies, 111 Piano Sonatas and 136 String Quartets"!
WOW! So much repertoire that I missed!
Cheers
David Cavlovic
One of my many eagle-eyed readers has just emailed me to point out I made the classic faux pas of awarding William Howard Schuman a second 'n' in my birthday post.