‘A ‘sacred stone’ from Venezuela that has been taken to Berlin, Germany and turned into sculpture has strained Germany – Venezuela relations as Germany is in a fix whether to return the stone to Venezuela or not.
Wolfgang von Schwarzenfeld’s sculptures in a Berlin park were meant to promote world peace, but the 79-year-old German now finds himself at war with a Venezuelan tribe which accuses him of stealing a sacred pink stone known to them as “Grandmother”.
With Caracas calling it robbery, and the sculptor arguing that the stone was a legal gift, the monolith is emitting more negative energy than its esoteric fans in Berlin are used to.
The Venezuelan tribe has accused that stone’s removal is bringing misfortune on the tribe, like drought and the disappearance of the ants they eat in spicy sauce.
English: Isaac Newton Dansk: Sir Isaac Newton Français : Newton (1642-1727) Bahasa Indonesia: Issac Newton saat berusia 46 tahun pada lukisan karya Godfrey Kneller tahun 1689 Lietuvių: Seras Izaokas Niutonas 1689-aisiais Македонски: Сер Исак Њутн на возраст од 46 години (1689) Nederlands: Newton geboren 4 januari 1643 Türkçe: Sir Isaac Newton. (ö. 20 Mart 1727) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When young and fresh minds, not conditioned by set patterns of thought apply themselves to any thing out of innate curiosity, anything is possible.
Shouryya Ray worked out how to calculate exactly the path of a projectile under gravity and subject to air resistance, The (London) Sunday Times reported.
The Indian-born teen said he solved the problem that had stumped mathematicians for centuries while working on a school project.
Ray won a research award for his efforts and has been labeled a genius by the German media, but he put it down to “curiosity and schoolboy naivety.”
“When it was explained to us that the problems had no solutions, I thought to myself, ‘well, there’s no harm in trying,’” he said.
Ray’s family moved to Germany when he was 12 after his engineer father got a job at a technical college. He said his father instilled in him a “hunger for mathematics” and taught him calculus at the age of six.
Ray’s father, Subhashis, said his son’s mathematical prowess quickly outstripped his own considerable knowledge.
“He never discussed his project with me before it was finished and the mathematics he used are far beyond my reach,” he said.
Despite not speaking a word of German when he arrived, Ray will this week sit Germany’s high school leaving exams, two years ahead of his peers.
Newton posed the problem, relating to the movement of projectiles through the air, in the 17th century. Mathematicians had only been able to offer partial solutions until now.
If that wasn’t enough of an achievement, Ray has also solved a second problem, dealing with the collision of a body with a wall, that was posed in the 19th century.
“The Berlin Biennale may have disappointed in recent years, but now it’s back with a bang, thanks to Polish curator Artur Zmijewski. He wants to put politics back into art — and he’s succeeding. The exhibition, which opens Thursday, includes an encampment by the Occupy movement, Palestinian stamps and transplanted trees from Auschwitz.
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Some might ask whether the 320 concentration camp trees were really necessary, the young birch trees that were dug up in the surroundings of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and are supposed to put down roots in Berlin.
Auschwitz, ashes, earth and now this delicate green. Perhaps it’s too pretty, and the chain of associations too simple, to really do justice to the horror.
On the other hand, 320 new Holocaust memorials have been planted in Berlin. Although it wasn’t done in secret, it happened — unlike Berlin’s most prominent Holocaust memorial — without any debate or votes in the German parliament, the Bundestag. The birch trees simply appeared — in parks, schoolyards and even on the grounds of the building that houses the representation of Lower Saxony state in the capital. That in itself is a coup.
Artur Zmijewski likes it when art changes reality, and when it becomes reality. He isn’t as fond of other types of art. The trees are a project of the 7th Berlin Biennaleart exhibition. And Zmijewski, the enemy of art, is its curator.
Sense of Melancholy
The Biennale is one of the most important contemporary art events in Germany. It has helped Berlin be taken seriously as a center for contemporary art. The federal government’s cultural foundation is supporting it to the tune of €2.5 million ($3.3 million).
Like almost no other biennial art festival, the Berlin exhibition depends on the city and its atmosphere, and on the various locations and neighborhoods where art is being exhibited. The Biennale centers around the Kunst-Werke (KW) exhibition space on Auguststrasse in the city’s central Mitte district. The neighborhood was once a run-down part of East Berlin, imbued with a sense of melancholy that seemed very authentic, especially to foreign visitors. Despite the fact that Mitte has now been completely gentrified, it has retained some of its former atmosphere.
Artists that were unknown at the time and later became famous, like German painter Jonathan Meese and the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, participated in the first Berlin Biennale in 1998. If they achieved anything, it was to draw attention to themselves. Every two years after that, at each new Biennale, artists would attempt to interpret society and the zeitgeist. Only the last Biennale, in 2010, which was curated by Vienna artist Kathrin Rhomberg, was forgotten soon after it opened. It didn’t seem “Berlin” enough, and it tried too hard not to be noticed and to get everything right with conceptual art. The event was such a failure that the organizers didn’t even reveal the attendance statistics afterwards.
But the upcoming 7th Biennale will likely be one of the most noted art shows of 2012, despite the fact that the famous Kassel exhibition Documenta, which only takes place every five years, is also happening this year. It officially starts on Thursday, but it’s actually been underway for some time. Zmijewski has been the talk of the Berlin art scene since his appointment as the festival curator in 2010. He has exceeded expectations, and then some.
Destroying Books
That’s because Zmijewski began by producing some rather strange pieces of news. He publicly called upon artists to submit applications to take part in the exhibition, requesting that they indicate their political views as part of the application. A full-scale book-destroying event was announced, which reminded many of the book burnings of the Nazi era. And Zmijewski appointed what he called “associated curators” from Russia who were members of the infamous Voina artists’ collective. International arrest warrants have been issued for two members of the group, who are accused of hooliganism and the use of violence. And then there is the logo of this year’s show, which vaguely resembles a rune — something that is controversial in Germany because of the Nazis‘ use of Germanic symbols. Zmijewski is clearly a man who is not afraid of the bold gesture.
Zmijewski, an even-keeled man who sports a beard and has a large ego, is also an artist. He has participated in the Venice Biennale and the Documenta.Newsweek considers the Warsaw native to be one of the 10 most important contemporary artists. In one of his films, happy, naked people hop around in the gas chamber and cellar of a former concentration camp. The work, titled “Berek”, was recently banned from a Berlin exhibition after visitors had complained, prompting critics to accuse the organizers of censorship. Now Zmijewski plans to simply show the short film at the Biennale, as a symbol of a conflict over art.
Whatever be the source of Knowledge or Whence it comes from, it is worth noting .
Mein Kampf
Hitler, no doubt, was , a Megalomaniac, a butcher who sent people to Gas Chambers to create Lebensraum (Living Space for Aryans),suppressed dissent with an iron fist and a Dictator of the worst Order.
But that does not mean what ever he had to say is non-sense.
” It was Nationalist,but unfortunately it paid too little heed to social problems” (Mein Kampf p.113)
True, Nationalism without addressing Social Problems is worthless.
On Doctrines without Spiritual Base.
“”all attempts to exterminate a Doctrine,without a Spiritual basis of attack against it,and to wipe out all the organizations it has created ,have led in many cases to the very opposite being achieved”( Mein Kampf-p. 152)
Right.Any Doctrine/Party without Spiritual basis is harmful to the Society,
On Prostitution.
“Prostitution is a disgrace to Humanity and can not be removed simply by Academic or Charitable methods.Its restriction and final extermination presupposes the removal of a whole series of contributory circumstances. The first remedy must always be to establish such conditions as will make early marriages possible,especially for young men-for women are,only passive subjects in this matter”
On Spurious Literature and Adults Only.
“In almost all the various fields of of German Art and Culture those morbid phenomena may be observed.Here every thing seems to have crossed the culminating point of excellence and to have entered the curve of hasty decline…….
A sad symptom of decline was manifested by the fact that in the case of many ‘Art Centres’ the sign was posted on the entrance doors:
For Adults Only”
I have quoted some which are of relevance but this is not to approve of what he did.
Most of Hitler’s ideas were good.
It is unfortunate that he did not have a Mentor like Alexander had-Aristotle!
It is good that the Mein Kampf is being republished in Germany and Bavaria.
Mein Kampf must be made available with the necessary annotations as to what is to be not followed with explanations thereof.
Story:
One of the most controversial books in history is about to come back into print in its homeland — something that hasn’t been true in nearly 70 years. On Monday, the German state of Bavaria announced plans to publish an annotated version of Adolf Hitler’s infamous “Mein Kampf,” according to Der Spiegel.
“Mein Kampf” is currently banned in Austria and Russia, the Daily Mail writes. But contrary to popular belief, the notorious book is not banned in Germany — Bavaria has simply prevented its printing in an effort to control production, the AP notes.
In January, a German magazine ignited controversy when it tried to publish excerpts from the book alongside critical commentary, the New York Times reports. German authorities took the matter to court, which ruled that any publication of the book violated Bavaria’s copyright.
But now, with the copyright expiration drawing near, Bavaria is publishing its own version of the book and calling it damage control. Der Spiegel reports that the book will include commentaries that condemn Hitler’s arguments.
A British publisher plans to sell excerpts from Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” in Germany, claiming he wants to demystify the infamous book. But the controversial move could provoke a legal dispute with the Bavarian government, which owns the copyright and refuses reprint permission.
Is it permissible to sit in a cafe and read Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf?” British publisher Peter McGee, 51, has no doubt. “Of course it is. It’s long overdue that a broad public should get the opportunity to deal with the original text.”
And because McGee is so sure he’s right, he plans to serialize extracts of the book in three small 15-page brochures with an initial print run of 100,000 copies each. The front cover features a photo of Hitler with a black bar obscuring his eyes and a headline that translates to “The unreadable book.”
The plans could trigger opposition from Bavarian civil servants, though. Contrary to common belief, “Mein Kampf” is not banned in Germany. But the state of Bavaria, which seized Hitler’s assets after his death, owns the copyright to his infamous treatise and has so far consistently prohibited efforts to reprint it.
McGee likes a fight and is no stranger to scandal. In 2009, he published reprints of vintage Nazi newspapers like Der Angriff and Völkischer Beobachter with print runs of up to 300,000, delivered alongside comments from historians.
Confiscated By Police
The move caused a minor uproar in Germany, with the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung warning of an “embellishment of horror” and the Central Council of Jews in Germany labelling the reprints potential “blueprints for budding Nazis.”
The row escalated and the Bavarian government, which also owns the copyright to the two newspapers, dispatched police throughout the nation to seize the republished copies.
There have long been periodic calls from historians for “Mein Kampf,” Adolf Hitler’s seminal work of hate and prejudice, to be republished in German. If an annotated, academic version of the polemic comes out, so goes the argument, it could take the wind out of neo-Nazi sails once the book is no longer protected by copyright.
Now, a new version is in the works. According to a Wednesday report on German radio, the Munich Institute of Contemporary History is working on an annotated edition complete with notes on where the ideas Hitler expounds on in his book originated.
But the state of Bavaria, which holds the “Mein Kampf” (“My Struggle”) copyright, says that it doesn’t plan on allowing the new version to hit the shelves before the book enters the public domain.
“The state government is not planning on changing course,” the Bavarian government said in a statement to the Bayerischer Rundfunk public radio station. “No permission has been granted to the Institute of Contemporary History.”
70 Years after Hitler’s Death
Nevertheless, institute head Horst Möller says that work on the new edition, undertaken by historians Edith Raim and Othmar Plöckinger, will go ahead. “If we complete the text prior to the end of the copyright, we can approach the authorities once again,” he told Bayerischer Rundfunk.'( source : er Spiegel)
’86-year-old gymnast Johanna Quaas kicks serious ass on the gymnastics floor. Not only is the German woman in fantastic enough shape to rock a leotard, but her physical moves in a floor routine and parallel bars — parallel bars! — should both inspire us and put us all to shame’.
Quaas was a big scene stealer at the 2012 Cottbus World Cup in Cottbus, Germany this month, with a non-competition floor routine that included a handstand forward roll, cartwheel, backward roll and headstand, Examiner.com reports.
She also showed some serious, and seriously impressive skills on the parallel bars, and, in a German interview translated into English at Gymnastike.org, Quaas says she has been performing gymnastics since she was a twentysomething, and that she was also a member of the East German handball champion team.
Watch Quaas in action with her floor routine and amazing parallel bars performance below, then, you know, get up, walk away from your computer and do something:
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