Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on fire.

[Dakota Tebaldi]

12th-Century Electrical System

derp

 

[Clara D.]

Damn ceramic urn galvanic batteries.

 

[Casey Pelous]

derp

You didn't fall for that whole Ampere/Faraday thing did you? WAKE UP AND SMELL THE OZONE, BUDDY! DON'T BE ONE OF THE SHEEPLE!

 

[Cristiano]

Massive Notre Dame Cathedral donations draw high-profile backlash

A common position among critics: The mega-donations prove social problems could be quickly addressed if the wealthy were motivated to do so.

www.usatoday.com

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Massive Notre Dame Cathedral donations draw high-profile backlash

A common position among critics: The mega-donations prove social problems could be quickly addressed if the wealthy were motivated to do so.

www.usatoday.com

Fear not!

Catholic Church assures billionaires that none of their Notre Dame donations will go to poor - The Beaverton

Speaking in his chambers before presiding over Easter Sunday Mass, the pontiff assured his donors that not a dime of their money would ever go to feed, clothe, or house the less fortunate. “Rest assured, as the wealthiest church on the face of the planet, we here at the Vatican appreciate your donations. We especially understand your concerns over your hard-inherited money being used to help the destitute.”

 

[Sid]

The Beaverton.
There was a time when satire used to be funny.
Nuff said.

 

[Tigar]

On visiting the Gold Pavilion Temple in Kyoto, Douglas Adams was impressed at how well the 14th-century structure had weathered the passage of time. His Japanese guide told him that it hadn’t weathered well at all; in fact it had burned to the ground twice in the 20th century.

Terry Pratchett explains it pretty well:

This, milord, is my family's axe. We have owned it for almost nine hundred years, see. Of course, sometimes it needed a new blade. And sometimes it has required a new handle, new designs on the metalwork, a little refreshing of the ornamentation . . . but is this not the nine hundred-year-old axe of my family? And because it has changed gently over time, it is still a pretty good axe, y'know. Pretty good.

 

[Plurabelle Laszlo]

I wanted to buy something from the Notre-Dame gift shop for a friend whose birthday is coming up (Panier d'achat) but, well, it's in French, obviously, with no English link, and I'm not even sure if they'll ship to the U.S. Does anyone know of another source for it (so the money goes to the right place, not that it really means anything but still...), or would some kind French soul be willing to purchase and ship it for me with payment up front?

First hand knowledge would be appreciated ... by now the scammers and other low-lifes have probably flooded the Internet by now.

Thank you, in advance.

In case nobody has replied in private: They ship to the US, but for a hefty postal fee of about EUR 40, and you can pay per paypal or credit card. I am not in France, so ordering from here and then shipping to the US wouldn't be cheap either. But maybe the information helps

 

[Veritable Quandry]

Notre Dame Gift Shop (US)

 

[Soen Eber]

I meant Notre-Dame Cathedral

And their gift shop Boutique Notre Dame de Paris | Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris doesn't ship to the US. There is just no option. You can ship to Chad, you can ship to every country in the world including the "quazi states" in South Africa, you can ship to Montserrat in the Caribbean which is now half-buried under volcanic ash (wait, no...I just checked, but still...) but you can't ship to the United States, either by intention or accident.

[writing etiquette question: is a period required at the end of a sentence when it is terminated by an emoticon?]

 

[RealVioletWitch]

Soen, the US is in their dropdown list? I just tried and its there. It's in french though, under Etats-Unis.

 

[Soen Eber]

Oh, that makes sense now. I forgot that Romance languages put the nouns last when they are modified.

I was looking in the A's and U's. I was desperate enough, I even tried "Vereinigte Staaten" (hey, it was close to the U's).

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Oh, that makes sense now. I forgot that French, even though the name would have been Latin based (United States) puts the nouns last when they are modified.

I was looking in the A's and U's. I was desperate enough, I even tried "Vereinigte Staaten" (hey, it was close to the U's).

!Estados Unidos, amigo!

 

[Sid]

It's a beautiful country only their English is so French.

 

[Free]

Bad news.

Notre Dame rector says fragile cathedral might not be saved

The rector of Notre Dame Cathedral says the Paris landmark is still so fragile that there's a “50 percent chance” the structure might not be saved, because scaffolding installed before this year's fire is threatening the vaults of the Gothic monument.

www.pbs.org

 

[Kara Spengler]

1) see this topic on 'whats new'
2) think 'again?'
3) open thread, see there is a post on the last page

Too bad about the bad news. Truly a historic piece of architecture.

 

[Free]

Notre Dame Cathedral’s organ getting 4-year-long cleaning

PARIS — Pipe by precious pipe, the organ that once thundered through Notre Dame Cathedral is being taken apart after last year’s devastating fire. The mammoth task of dismantling, cleaning and re-a…

nypost.com

The mammoth task of dismantling, cleaning and re-assembling France’s largest musical instrument started Monday and is expected to last nearly four years.

Once restored, it will take six months just to tune the organ, according to the state agency overseeing Notre Dame’s restoration. Its music isn’t expected to resound again through the medieval Paris monument until 2024, to the dismay of the cathedral’s dedicated organists.

 

[Kara Spengler]

Fear not!

Catholic Church assures billionaires that none of their Notre Dame donations will go to poor - The Beaverton

Please say that was from the onion.

 

[Kara Spengler]

1) see this topic on 'whats new'
2) think 'again?'
3) open thread, see there is a post on the last page

Too bad about the bad news. Truly a historic piece of architecture.

Rinse and repeat.

 

[Khamon]

What Free Quoted

Four years is a reasonable estimate and that's assuming they don't discover any serious construction issues that have to be resolved. The eighteenth century replacement, of the fifteenth century original, took eight years. Comprehensive cleaning cycles have traditionally taken twoish years to complete depending on whether or not ranks were being added or consoles were being rebuilt.

It's a wonder they haven't decided to install an electronic model with a pipe facade and, perhaps, a few physical horns and bells and such attached. Pipe organs are being surplused regularly because they cost loads of money to constantly maintain to be used as little as they are these days. Playing one, that's in fairly good shape, is still like manually load balancing a large VMS cluster and requires realtime creativity as odd ciphers sound and leaks develop and tracker wires snap and little animals decide to retune their new homes.

edit to edit to clarify a bit