Nefertiti is back at its Home in Berlin after 70 years

The World's most admired statue of Nefertiti, the Queen of Egypt,  is finally back in its Neues Museum, Berlin, its original home in Germany after 70 years. The statue is 3500 years old and already has a missing eye, despite it is admired all over the world for its elegance and exact symmetry of her face and long swan-like neck.

Nefertiti was discovered in 1912 in Egypt and was brought to Neues Museum in Berlin. Due to bombings during World War II, it was moved to safety in Harz Mountains of Central Germany. After the World War, Americans seized the Bust and moved it to Frankfurt and finally ending up a Central Warehouse of Weisbaden State Museum. In 1956, it was moved back to Berlin, but not to its original home Neues Museum as it was destroyed a lot during the war. It was placed in Dahlem Museum, Berlin. In 1967, it was moved to Egytian Museum at Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin. It was also moved to Berlin's ultramodern Postdamer Platz and then to Altes Musuem of Berlin before it reached back to its renovated Neues Museum.

Neues Museum is open for public and hopefully we dont want to miss the chance of marvelling the beauty of Nefertiti once we visit Berlin again.
http://www.neues-museum.de/

Image Courtesy: www.spiegel.de

Frankfurt Book Fair 2009 - Printed Words or Virtual Worlds

The Frankfurt Book Fair has already started (14th October) and shall last till 18th October, 2009 in Frankfurt. You may be wondering what`s so special about Frankfurt Book Fair though Book Fairs are organized in many countries. Yet the Frankfurt Book Fair is very unique and the biggest and well very special as Germany, which we may all know or may not be everyone, is where the first printing machines were invented by Gutenberg. (http://www.frankfurt-book-fair.com/en/fbf/general/)

 

This year 6900 exhibitors from around 100 countries have gathered in Frankfurt, yet these figures are smaller compared to the last year, well for the obvious resons of  "the great economic crisis". Well, there is one more reason, the virtual world. Nowadays more and more shift is towards the digital media. Ebooks and Kindle have been dominating the traditional paper books, yes why not, when we do spend most of the time on the PCs and our smartphones which are capable of rendering the ebooks, and obviously we may feel more comfortable using these gadgets than to carrying the bulky paper books. And also Amazon Kindle has been getting much popularity.

Despite all these, yet I feel comfortable reading those bulky paper books, probably I am used to them. May be things change sooner or later. Well, how about you, what are you comfortable of?

I am hereby posting an opinion poll, please post your opinion in the comments :-)

How do you prefer to read your favorite Book or Books? Printed Paper Book Ebook on Ebook Readers (Kindle etc) Ebook on PC/Notebook Ebook on Smartphone View Others Choice!

Please donot forget to leave your comments with your opinion.

Floods in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka - Flood Relief - Help - Donate

The worst floods in 100 years has devasted most of South Andhra Pradesh and North Karnataka. The floods have created a massive havoc leading to the death of more than 250 people in Andhra Pradesh and around 200 people in Karnataka and rendered more than 3 million people homeless. There was death and destruction in those regions.

The governments of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have appealed for help from individuals and NGOs to rebuild the devasted areas and provide a new hope for the people affected.

I am hereby posting some of the links whereby you can contribute in aiding those affected towards flood relief.

For those living in India:

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Relief Fund:

http://cmo.ap.gov.in/cmrf/registration.do;jsessionid=9FAC30D6F1B37F1CD411940FF25FCAE8

Karnataka NGOs:

Sochara:

http://sochara.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=286&Itemid=38

            1. Community Health Cell (CHC - SOCHARA), 
              85/2, Ist Main, Maruthi Nagara,
              Madiwala, Bengaluru – 560068 
              (Contact: Pushpa, 9449870223);
              Email : solidarity@sochara.org 
           2. Janarogya Andolana Karnataka (JAAK),
                Bangalore.
                (Contact: Obalesh, 9740524128); 
                Email: jaaksecretariat@gmail.com
           3. Association for India’s Development (AID), 
                Bangalore
                Contact: Prasanna Saligram 9916937280, 
                             Guru : 9845294184),
                Email: prasanna_aid@yahoo.com           

Headstreams:

http://www.headstreams.org/

       1. Headstreams, 
         2200, HAL II Stage, 5 E Cross, 
         17 A Main, Bangalore – 560 008
         (Contact: Naveen Thomas, 9342858056, 080-25200318), 
         Email: naveen@headstreams.org
    

For those living in India and Overseas:

Give India:
http://www.giveindia.org/t-india-flood-relief.aspx

Aid India:
http://www.eurekachild.org/andhra-karnataka-flood/ 

Aid India Collection Points in India:
     * Hyderabed
          o Srihari D - +91-9390002143 - sriharidu@gmail.com
            Kiran V - +91-9701705743 - kiranvissa@gmail.com
            Suresh D - +91-9703654585
     * Bengaluru
          o Sathish Sundaram - +91-9900505975

            sathish.sundaram@gmail.com
     * Secunderabad: 

           134A East Marredpally,
           Secunderabad - 500026
           Contact: Vidya J @ 9394006036

Sewa USA:

http://www.sewausa.org/apka_flood09

Please do help as much as you can. I shall appreciate your inputs in further updating this list.

I am Farmer on Farmville-Facebook, Are you?

Despite being a keen fan of social networking, I was never much busy on facebook as I am now. Well, for obvious reasons of the World, I am farming. Yes, I am a farmer on Farmville, a popular online game on Facebook. Well, I guess it is not just the case with me for all the hype Farmvilla has generated among Facebook followers across the globe. I never thought Farmville, thou in its Beta version would have such a big impact on my day-to-day activities. Initially, as a novice to it, I was little lacklustre, but once I got a niche over it and the very enthusiasm to surpass my friends (your competitor Farmers), I got glued to it.

I do make sure, I spend some hours ploughing, seeding, harvesting and investing the money i earn to extend and decorate my farm. Since every harvest needs some specific time duration depending upon the type of crop you grow, I arrange my daily activities. If I fail to harvest in time, my crops may rot. So I do adjust my daily activities accordingly to the harvest schedules and I do schedule the harvests depending on my availability. Well, it sounds like I am freaked about Farmville.

I know this has been a rage with many. Today, I read one article on Farmville which highlights how much it has engrossed the lives of young Indians, just read it here to know its impact and also read it if you dont know what Farmville is all about :-)

http://www.mid-day.com/lifestyle/2009/oct/051009-fyi-work-farmville-facebook.htm

http://www.farmville.com/

Why dont you share your experiences? By the way i reached level 24 in Farmville :-). Which level are you?

Third October - Germany Reunification Day - Re-enacting Reunification using Puppets

3rd October is celebrated as "Tag Der Deutschen Einheit", German Reunification Day. On 3rd October 1990 East Germany has been reunited with West Germany and marked the fall of famous Berlin Wall (Berliner Mauer) which separated East and West Germany.

18 years now yet there are vast differences in East and Western parts of Federal Republic of Germany. The East complaints about the indifferences showed by West and West complaints about too much favoritism showed towards East. Western Germans shell about 5.5 % of Solidarity surcharge towards taxes on their income to support the development of East Germany. Offlate there has been quite a lot of frustration both in East and West for their own differences (economic crisis could also be a factor). Well, still it is an open question, were the East and the West prepared for re-unification? Definitely it does take time for both the parts to be perfectly re-united given that they give-up their differences and change their attitudes towards each other.

This year, to mark the re-unification celebrations, a spectacular Puppet parade re-enacting the reunification has been led thru the streets of Berlin. One puppet, 5.5mts height and 800 kgs has been efficintly controlled and made not only to walk but ride scooter and a boat. One other puppet, 9.5mts height and 2.5 tons has been depicted as a deep-sea diver.

The two puppets depict the following tale: Terrible events have torn a city in two and caused one part of the city to be walled in. The big puppet is stuck in the west of the city, and the smaller one in the east. The big puppet drags a dormant geyser along the riverbed and places it under a wall. Then it ignites the geyser to let it break down the city's barrier and allow the puppets to reunite.

The puppets are made so realistic and very efficiently enacted with emotions too. Watch the vidoes:
Video 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnP-CyfUuxo

Video 2:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1jQcVfwnyg

Image Courtesy and Excerpts from: www.spiegel.de

Earthquake in Indonesia-RedCross Help lines

My hubby usually gets up earlier than me and gets ready to leave for work. Like everyday he switches on radio (probably to wake me up :-)). I try my best to avoid listening to German radio and continue sleeping. But somehow I overheard Tsunami on the radio which took my sleep away. I tried to concentrate on the News and I woke up hearing about Tsunami in Samoa Islands triggered by an earthquake. I still have that scare of 2004 Tsunami in my mind which has killed 230,000 people. I quickly browsed thru the News online to check out its impact. Thank God it was not devastating as it was in 2004, yet again many lives are lost. I was really wondering where all these Tsunami Warning Technologies have gone which were developed investing huge amounts of money after 2004. God knows if there are any! My deep condolences to all those lives lost in Samoa Islands.

Well, that is not the end for today, when I was browsing online before going to bed in the night, then the earthquake news in Indonesia has shocked me a lot. A powerful earthquake has rocked Padang of Sumatra Islands, Indonesia. Thousands of people are feared dead and thouands more are still trapped in the wreck.


I am hereby posting some compiled links of the Help Lines for the powerful Earthquake which rocked Indonesia on 30th Sept 2009 has killed more than 1000 people and thousands more are trapped.

Indonesian Red Cross Society:

http://www.ifrc.org/address/id.asp

Palang Merah Indonesia:

http://www.pmi.or.id/ina/

PMI Padang Earthquake Disaster Response:

Ria Thahir, Kepala Sub Divisi Humas Markas Pusat PMI, Hp. 0816 131 0911, Tlp. 021-799 2325, ext. 201.

Surf Aid International:
http://www.surfaidinternational.org/site/pp.asp?c=ekLPK4MOIsG&b=275154

Relief Web:
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/dbc.nsf/doc100?OpenForm

If you have updated links post in the comments and please forward it to those who are in need.

Angie Wins Elections in Germany

Well, well much awaited and much anticipated German Elections 2009 results have come and Angela Merkel has managed to stay again as a Chancellor with a different Deputy this time. Merkel belonging to CDU (Christian Democratic Union) has preferred a different coalition with FDP (Free Democratic Party) which is headed by Guido Westerwelle dumping her older partner Steinmeir from SPD (Social Democratic Party).

This Black (CDU) and Yellow (FDP) coalition has tougher challenges ahead with the economy yet to be reeled out of recession, German Army's presence in Afghanistan against the will of many Germans etc. We just have to wait and watch. Yet Angie being the most powerful woman of the World (chosen by Forbes) may atleast live upto the Faith and Trust entrusted in her.

Overturned and Dumped Steinmeir:

Joyous Angie and Westerwelle:

Image Coutesy: www.spiegel.de