Vangelis

FASCINATING PEOPLE, Part 17.

Religious thinker, philosopher and reformer, Jan Hus was burned at the steak in 1415, in the German city of Konstanzi. The Catholic church pronounced Hus a heretic, and excommunicated him in 1411. After five centuries, Pope John Paul II voiced “a deep regret for his cruel death”, and proposed an investigation to see if Hus can be freed from the charge of being a heretic.
Hus played a key role in the Protestant movement, and his teachings strongly effected European countries, and especially Martin Luther. He is responsible for many written works of Czech literature. He implemented diacritic symbols into the Czech language, according to which one symbol is added to one letter in the aim of easier reading. Despite the secular trend in the Czech republic, Jan Hus is considered to be a national hero today.

The Entrepreneurial Spirit

*A Japanese clothing manufacturer, Kochou-fuku, announced a line of air-conditioned shirts, with two tiny battery-operated fans inside to evaporate perspiration ($95). (One drawback: The shirt billows out, suggesting that the wearer is overweight.)
*New product - a $60,000 mattress from the Swedish manufacturer Hastens, introduced to the US for people who "might believe that they're so special that they're entitled to a luxuriously rejuvenating night's sleep"
*Wayne Enterprises of Linden, Calif., is selling Holy Drinking Water in half-liter bottles, which supposedly obtained blessings from Catholic and Anglican priests for the ordinary purified water.