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| Places |
| The United Buddy Bears from UNESCO visit Warsaw: Photo Gallery |
| Joanna Gabler |
July 5, 2008 |
| When I visited my native city Warsaw, earlier this summer, there was a nice surprise waiting for me in one of my favorite places, the Castle Square (Plac Zamkowy). Crowds of Warsowians and tourists were towered by rows of the tall (6.56' each) and colorful bears shining in the afternoon sun.
The centrally placed information table explained it all. United Buddy Bears visited Warsaw on their tour around the world. Project conceived in 2002 by two Berlin artists, gained life of its own. The bears visited many cities on four continents, including Berlin, Hong-Kong, Istanbul, Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney, Vienna and Cairo.To Warsaw, they came from Jerusalem, now, they are enlivening Stuttgart before going to Paris. What travelers the bears are!
On the Castle Square, there were 138 bears, each representing one country recognized by the United Nations and each one painted by an artist native to the country. Situated in a long wavy lines in alphabetical order, the bears formed all sorts of unexpected alliances and togetherness, unlikely to be seen on the political scene. The message the bears are sending is about tolerance, peace and peaceful coexistence. Their motto:
"We have to get to know each other better ...
... it makes us understand one another better,
trust each other more, and live together more peacefully."
I hope you will enjoy the bears in the beautiful settings of Warsaw's Old Town architecture, as much as I did. The bears teach us how to be human. 
For more information about United Buddy Bear mission and travels you can check following websites:
http://www.buddy-baer.com/
http://www.berlin-message.com/en/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Buddy_Bears
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| Impressions of New Orleans at New Year |
| Joanna Gabler |
February 5, 2008 |
| The Pink Project, music and bonfires! |
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| Edinburgh Walks - Part I of a Series |
| Michael Miller |
December 1, 2007 |
| One of the most astonishing passages in Homer is the simile in Book XV of the Iliad, which describes the rapidity of Hera’s flight to Olympus (Il. XV, 79ff.):
but went back to tall Olympos from the mountains of Ida
As the thought flashes in the mind of a man who, traversing
much territory, thinks of things in the mind’s awareness,
‘I wish I were this place, or this’, and imagines many things;
so rapidly in her eagerness winged Hera, a goddess.
—trans. Richmond Lattimore
βῆ δ' ἐξ Ἰδαίων ὀρέων ἐς μακρὸν Ὄλυμπον.
ὡς ὅτ' ἂν ἀί̈ξῃ νόος ἀνέρος, ὅς τ' ἐπὶ πολλὴν
γαῖαν ἐληλουθὼς φρεσὶ πευκαλίμῃσι νοήσῃ
ἔνθ' εἴην ἢ ἔνθα, μενοινήσειέ τε πολλά,
ὣς κραιπνῶς μεμαυῖα διέπτατο πότνια Ἥρη.
The poet compares the travel of the determined goddess, not to the flight of a bird or the rush of a leopard, or to any other physical movement, but to the movement of the human mind, as it recalls past experience, ponders, and projects its will into the imagination through the optative mood of the verb, all in a split second...
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| Dougie Mathieson's Walks around Edinburgh and into the Pentland Hills. |
| Michael Miller |
November 30, 2007 |
| Click here for an absolutely delightful record of walks around Edinburgh by an amateur photographer with a very keen eye. |
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| The Hairshirt Compulsion: Singlespeed Mountain Bike Racing |
| Alan Miller |
October 2, 2007 |
| Singlespeed racing is a subculture within a subculture (mountain biking) within a subculture (bike racing) within another subculture (endurance sports). Given the suffering involved, it is surprisingly popular throughout the world. Though the singlespeed world championships are held in a different country each year, the “prize” is always the same, a compulsory tattoo (“if you don’t want the tattoo, don’t win”). |
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| Letter from Sydney: Post-APEC Ruminations |
| Alan Miller |
September 24, 2007 |
| As you may or may not have heard, last week was a strange one here in Sydney. The arrival of twenty world leaders and George Bush’s mountain bike warranted the erection of a five kilometre fence around certain grade A, mostly waterfront, parts of the central business district. There was debate and consternation, protest and, unexpectedly, pro-Bush counterprotest. While Bush rode his bike on my local trails, the leaders of countries like Chile and South Korea were unable to travel to the suburbs to meet their countrymen and women living in Australia. Then a group of comedians, one dressed as Osama Bin Laden, breached the exclusion zone in a fake Canadian motorcade. Which was funnier, the stunt itself or the pundits who insisted it wasn’t funny. |
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