Abendsonnenschein

Tzoumerka view from the Monastery of Tsouka, January 2014 / © Kostas Giotis

Die Luft ist kühl und es dunkelt,
und ruhig fließt der Arachthos;
der Gipfel des Berges funkelt,
im Abendsonnenschein.

Heinrich Heine [Lorelei, 1822]

Arachthos River as seen from the Monastery of Tsouka, Epirus

masks

Isn't it time to throw off the masks?

(sidewalk in Oslo, Norway)

Αστρονόμοι

Τοιχογραφία 12ου αιώνα από υπόσκαφο ναό της Καππαδοκίας

Ως αστρονόμοι, ιδόντες τον του Χριστού αστέρα, ότι ουκ εποίει πορείαν ως οι λοιποί αστέρες από ανατολών προς δύσιν, αλλ’ από άρκτου προς μεσημβρίαν, έγνωσαν ότι γέννησιν μεγάλου βασιλέως δηλοί, και πεσόντες προσεκύνησαν αυτώ και προσήνεγκαν αυτώ δώρα, χρυσόν και λίβανον και σμύρναν και ούτω τη προστάξει του Αγγέλου υπέστρεψαν εις την χώραν αυτών.

Καλά Χριστούγεννα!

Controlled human flight

The original 1903 Wright flyer at the National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC (USA)

110 years ago, on 17 December 1903, the brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright, inventors and aviation pioneers made the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight near Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina (USA).

Boston Tea Party

1846 lithograph by Nathaniel Currier: "The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor"

240 years Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party (initially referred to by John Adams as "the Destruction of the Tea in Boston") was a nonviolent political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, on 16 December 1773. Disguised as American Indians, the demonstrators destroyed the entire supply of tea sent by the East India Company in defiance of the American boycott of tea carrying a tax the Americans had not authorized. They boarded the ships and threw the chests of tea into Boston Harbor, ruining the tea. The British government responded harshly and the episode escalated into the American Revolution. The Tea Party became an iconic event of American history, and other political protests often refer to it.
From Wikipedia