New 7 Wonders announced

I know I'm a bit late in posting about the winners of the New 7 Wonders competition. Getting online in the US isn't very easy when you don't have your own computer.

The New 7 Wonders were announced in Lisbon on 7/7/07. The winners are:

The Great Wall of China
Petra, Jordan
Christ the Redeemer Statue, Brazil
Machu Picchu, Peru
Chichen Itza, Mexico
The Colosseum, Italy
The Taj Mahal, India

Overall I'm somewhat pleased with the results. Karen and I are both disappointed that one of our favorites, Easter Island, didn't make the cut. I think that's because only a very small number of people have seen them in person. Angkor Wat not being a winner is also disappointing. The biggest disappointment is that Christ the Redeemer won. This was due to a last-minute massive campaign in Brazil, led from the front by the president of Brazil. The fact is that if the US really wanted to put the Statue of Liberty in the top 7, they could have easily done so with an organized campaign. The fact that Christ the Redeemer was able to win through a vote shows that Homer Simpson was right: When will people learn? Democracy doesn't work!

You can check out the results at http://www.new7wonders.com/. At the same site, they have now launched a new competition to find the 7 natural wonders of the world. You can go directly to that website at http://www.natural7wonders.com/. They are now taking nominations through 8/8/08 when the nominations will be whittled down to the 21 finalists. Top of our list? The Galapagos.