IN CASE OF NUCLEAR ATTACK

On my first day as a post-doc at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, in the lab I saw an instructional sign, with point 3 slightly modified from the one below.  Since LANL is one of the US nuclear weapons laboratories, I read it seriously, and point by point, it pretty much made sense all the way through.  Presumably you will agree!!

 

 

 



TAIZÉ

Regarding a Taizé service, a colleague said "I don't think that it matters whether or not one is a believer, if you enjoy communal singing and a time of meditation, you will be moved by Taizé."  And I agree.  I have been to several Taizé services, from Malibu to Hong Kong to Heidelberg, and although each has been slightly different, they all have the same sense of communal inward reflection.  The Taizé service at Peterskirche was typical of a larger service, with hundreds of participants and songs accompanied by a seven piece chamber group and a lead singer.  A previous service in Heidelberg was at the Jesuitenkirche Krypta and was much smaller, more intimate, and accompanied by only a single keyboard.  The service in Hong Kong was amazing - the new leader of the Taizé community, Brother Alois, was present, and thus the gathering was large and the singing and accompanyment ethereal.

Jesuitenkirche Krypta

 As usual, the language changed from song to song.  Below is a favorite in German.



Behüte mich, Gott, ich vertraue dir, du zeigst mir den Weg zur Leben. Bei dir ist Freude, Freude in Fülle.

Keep me, O Lord, for I trust in you. You show me the path of life. With you, there is fullness of joy.

Garde-moi,mon Dieu, j'ai confiance en toi. Tu m'entraînes sur le chemin de Vie. Auprès de toi, plénitude de joie.



WALKING ON WATER

"Walking On Water"

Matt Cardle

Don’t say it’s over

Don’t breathe a word

How was I so oblivious?

I didn’t see how we got so deep down

When we were walking on water for so long

I didn’t notice the waves crashing over

I thought we were sailing somewhere

When did we start going under?

Now I see your colours

And now I hear your truths

I need something to pull us outta here

If we could get back up to the surface

Tell me could it be

Like we were walking on water for so long

I didn’t notice the waves crashing over

I thought we were sailing somewhere

When did we start going under, under?

'Cause you made me wanna fight

'Cause I found something to believe in

You made me who I am

And it’s so hard to see how

We’re so deep down

When we were walking on water for so long

I didn’t notice the waves crashing over

I thought we were sailing somewhere

When did we start going under?

WEIHNACHTSMARKT HEIDELBERG



FIBONACCI SPIRALS



The Fibonacci Sequence

 

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, ...

 

Draw Squares for Each Number and Fit a Spiral to the Sum Corners

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VOLKSTRAUERTAG



Today is Volkstrauertag in Germany, and a special service was held at Peterskirche, the University of Heidelberg church, to commemorate all of the professors who were forced out of their positionsby the Third Reich and suffered great hardships including being sent to concentration camps.  A rough translation from various websites is this, with a more detailed description here, in Deutsch.

This Memorial Day is a state memorial in Germany and is one of the "silent days". Since 1952 it is celebrated two Sundays before the first day of Advent, and commemorates the war dead and victims of the tyranny of all nations.

The primary memorial ceremony is held each Memorial Day at the German Bundestag. Generally there is a speech by the President in the presence of the Chancellor, the Cabinet and the diplomatic corps, with musical performances including playing the national anthem and the song I Had A Comrade.

After the service which included reading the biographies of several of the professors, the university leadership led a recession outside to the courtyard shown above where two wreathes were placed in remembrance of both the professors who were purged as well as students who were also expelled.

In Silence, Remember