Australia: Voices from the grave: songs from dying languages
Fewer than a dozen people in the world speak the language in which Thomas Kungiung belts out the mournful lyrics to “Truwu”.
Kungiung, who passed away in the early 1990s, was a songman from Wadeye in the Daly region to the southwest of Darwin.
His voice and his song - “The waves are crashing on them Truwu! My dear country! Walakandha!” - reach through the decades in a recording made in 1988 at the genesis of a project to save the traditional Aboriginal performance, wangga, from extinction. ... (Read and listen more)
The Sydney Morning Herald
Scotland, UK: Model Olga Roh to turn Inchdrewer castel into home
A Russian princess and former supermodel has pledged to turn a ruined Scottish castle she bought on the strength of a few photographs into an idyllic escape from the “madness of Fashion Week”.
Ex-Versace model Olga Roh became a baroness last year when she and her husband bought ruined Inchdrewer Castle in Aberdeenshire for a reported £400,000. ... (Read more)
The Scotsman
Germany: Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow
For 30 years, Cornelius Grätz has been collecting snowmen. His passion earned him an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records. ... (Watch more)
DW
Russia: Whiz Kid Invents ‘Talking’ Walking Stick for the Blind (Video)
A first-year student at Moscow Bauman State University creates something of a furor by inventing a walking cane with a GPS system for the visually impaired.
A passion for invention came to Pavel Kurbatsky early, when he was a boy of seven or eight.
While his classmates spent their free time playing football and other games, he made mechanical toys and did not leave his soldering iron for a moment. ... (Read more)
The Moscow Times
South Africa: Stolen phone’s selfie trail
Durban - Every week, Joe Knott logs onto his computer to check the latest happy snaps apparently taken by the man who robbed him.
Having allegedly burgled the holiday cottage on the KZN South Coast where Knott was staying on 30 December 2013, the man has taken 38 photos to date on a stolen BlackBerry - including pictures apparently of himself, of a happy bride and bridesmaid preparing for a wedding, of the stolen loot, and also of a child parading with Knott’s sunglasses on his face. ... (Read more)
News 24
Iceland: Icelander Selling NYC’s Most Expensive Coffee
Icelander Rut Hermannsdóttir is one of three owners of the new boutique and coffee bar Búðin in Brooklyn, New York City.
Búðin sells Nordic design as well as the most expensive coffee in New York. A cup of lakkrís (licorice) latte from Danish producer Johan Bülow costs USD 7 (ISK 800, EUR 5) but has been so popular that it has sold out. ... (Read more)
Iceland Review
Sweden: Five best Scandinavian designs for children
If Swedish society cherishes every child and the right to education and healthcare, the country’s designers aren’t far behind in caring for the needs of kids, and their parents, argues design writer Angeline Eriksson. ... (Read more)
The Local
