84 authors, 24 hours

Starting at midnight, Berlin time (otherwise known as Central European Time, which is UK time +1), a total of eighty-four authors from around the world will participate in a 24-hour on-line reading event. The aim is to support the UN-designated International Day of Peace. The event has been organised under the auspices of the Berlin Literature Festival, and, if all goes to plan, it will set a new world record. The readers mainly begin in the Far East, moving slowly westward and ending up on the PacificWest Coast. I'm on at 11.45am UK time, assuming Leo doesn't smash my computer before then.

Details of the event, the schedule, participating writers etc. can be found here:

http://www.authorsforpeace.com/index.html

You can view the event live either via the Cisco Systems site; or via the Berlin Literature Festival site. The Cisco url  is below. This offers an interactive viewing possibility. Viewers will need to log in to watch, and give a user name (it can be made up) and a genuine email address (Cisco will not use this for any other purpose). As Cisco indicates on the page, the log-in password is always PEACE:

https://seemea.webex.com/seemea/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=703224311

On the festival website, viewers should be able to watch on this page:

http://www.literaturfestival.com/service/das_festival/sonderprojekte/authors-for-peace

Too many people in world, including powerful people, are tempted to believe that war is not their worst possible option. In reality, they are almost always wrong. We can't be reminded of that too often.