MIAMI, FLO.- The new Frost Art Museum at Florida International University opens Saturday, Nov. 29, when Miami will have a chance to view this spectacular architectural backdrop, and its main attraction -- six new exhibitions including "Modern Masters from the Smithsonian American Art Museum". The opening also kicks off more than a week of events celebrating the debut of Miami's first new art museum in a decade and the only major Miami museum that charges no admission. Opening events will culminate with the Frost's Art Basel sponsored event, the sixth annual Breakfast in the Park, featuring sculptor Joel Shapiro.

"Nov. 29th will be an important day in the life of this community," said Carol Damian, director and chief curator of the Frost. "We now have a world class museum in this city that offers important exhibitions and art education free to the public. We're saying to our community, `this is your museum'."

http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=27521

Wales celebrated their first southern hemisphere scalp in 12 games as the Grand Slam winners beat Australia in a thriller at the Millennium Stadium.

World player of the year Shane Williams capped a fine week to finish a free-flowing Wales move in the third minute.

A breakaway Mark Chisholm try helped to put Australia ahead but a fine Lee Byrne score and 11 points from Stephen Jones saw Wales open a 21-13 lead.

Digby Ioane scored but Wales clinched the win Warren Gatland had demanded.

Wales survived a brutal Australian fightback in the final minutes to claim their third success over a Tri-Nations opposition since rugby turned professional in 1995.

The hosts, facing an Australian side seeking a clean sweep of victories on their autumn tour, rose to the occasion to produce the scintillating rugby that earned them plaudits during their second Six Nations clean-sweep in four seasons.

How strange. How frightening.

I stumbled across the Hanseatic League a while ago, and I must say it rang a few bells with me...

In historical research, the Hansa had a long shadowy existence, for when interest concentrated on princes, powerful realms and heroic battles, a loose community of towns mainly inspired by mercantile considerations attracted little attention.

Georg Friedrich Sartorius, in his Geschichte des hanseatischen Bundes in 1802 called it a half-forgotten antiquity. In the meantime there have been intensive studies. But on the one hand they nearly exclusively treated the first half of its history, the time of rise and success in the Middle Ages rather neglecting its later fate. And on the other hand the Hansa experienced a lot of political and nationalistic misinterpretations in former historiography.

Its definition was a problem already under discussion in its time. After having deteriorated since the middle of the 15th century, English relations with the Hansa reached their lowest point when in the summer of 1468 English ships were seized in the sound by Danish vessels. The Hansa was suspected to have at least shared responsibility for that. King Edward IV straight away imprisoned the Hanseatic merchants in London and confiscated their goods in order to compensate the English merchants.

The Hansa, he explained, was a society, cooperative or corporation, originating from a joint agreement and alliance of several towns and villages, being able to form contracts and being liable as joint debtors for the offences of single members.

In the Hanseatic reply the Lübeck syndic stated that the Hansa was neither a society nor a corporation, it owned no joint property, no joint till, no executive officials of their own; it was a tight alliance of many towns and communities to pursue their respective own trading interests securely and profitably.

The Hansa was not ruled by merchants, every town having its own ruler. It also had no seal of its own, as sealing was done by the respective issuing town. The Hansa had no common council, but discussions were held by representatives of each town. There even was no obligation to take part in the Hansa meetings and there were no means of coercion to carry through their decisions. So, according to the Lübeck syndic, the Hansa could not be defined by Roman law and was not liable as a body.

This was in fact correct and deliberately ambiguous; the Hansa was frequently urged to give a self-definition as well as the exact number of its members and deliberately left all this unclear, thus leaving questions for historians as well.

Examining the ambiguous term Hansa does not help us very much; it means a crowd or community as well as their membership dues or common law. Besides, the sources give numerous names to characterize the Hansa. But these are mentioned more or less casually and don't explain the subject.

Ve have ze Hansa I think.....

Modern conservatives engage in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy: the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.Galbraith

Get that camera in operation :-)

Sounds good:

Waterfront city. Central Bremen has renewed its links with the River Weser in a way that has revitalised the city's distinctive waterfront. The waterway, which transformed the Hanseatic city into a proud metropolitan centre, still echoes nautical rhythms and is a magnet for the entire city. Just minutes from the city centre, Schlachte with its wealth of trendy bars, friendly cafes, international restaurants and outdoor seating for some 2,000 people gives almost two million visitors each year plenty to watch over.

Though I don't imagine too many sit outside this time of year.

Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner - that I moved to Nice. Blog - Nice Experience

What about Cuxhafen?

I saw wind power plants for the first time two decades ago, near Cuxhafen. It was on the same journey that I got to Bremen the one and only time -- and then only passing through on the highway... (The railway station is quite spectacular.) But I was for longer in Bremerhafen. There, you should visit the ship museum if you haven't already (I'd hope they still have their original U-Boot, which I remember most). Also, somewhere near, most probably Georgstraße, maybe you can still find the Fish-n-chips restaurant of the crazy Ostfriese where we ate and laughed (the owner/chef seemed to have an anspiration to outdo Otto Walkees).

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

keep us posted!

"I freed thousands of slaves. I could have freed thousands more, if they had known they were slaves." -Harriet Tubman .

Warmest best wishes, ceebs!

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind

Birthday present:  Neville Brothers in Stuttgart (great camera)


Skennah Kowa

Have a good one, redstar!

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind

Thanks for the wishes!

Let's Go Red Wings!