On Sleeping

Sleeping together in one bed is considered one of the most beautiful things in life. Nobody wants to sleep alone really. Most babies protest and cry when bedtime but do not object if one parent lay down with them; teenagers invite their friends to stay over for the night, and couples (married or not) cherish their king-size bed where they crawl into together at the end of the day. In terms of caring and daring, making and shaking realtionship, sharing beds is priceless.

But what about the quality of the sleep? The magazine Der Spiegel | Wissen (No 4/2009) points out that research on sleep has proved that due to different sleep pattern as well as genetically determined sleep mechanisms, individuals would be required to sleep alone in order to have the restorative sleep that is needed. And yet, despite scientific proof, couples claim to sleep better with their partners. It seems as if sharing beds was an expression of closeness and feeling of security, amongst westerners at least. Notwithstanding fights for the duvet, snoring, being kicked or pushed away, nobody is thinking of having separate beds, especially not women, who wake easier and more often, according to research. Sharing beds seems vital for overall well-being and quality of relationships. The quality of sleep and even sex come second and third.....

Oscar Wilde & Life

In The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), he writes: "One should sympathize with the color, the beauty, the joy of life. The less said about life's sores the better."

Ice Sculptures in Moscow

Ufo

Temperatures in Moscow during winter allow that the Ice Festival can take place every year. This year it is dedicated to the Russian history and achievements in aerospace technology. Thus all the sculptures, ranging from free interpretations related to cosmos e.g. UFO-Unknown Flighing Object, to mini copies of real space rockets, such as Soyus, can be admired at the exhibition.

Soyus

Photos: Fotos: Siegmund/.rufo

Obama's First Year

The BBC published a photo series online touching upon President Obama's First Year in office. This is my favourite of them all.

Declaration of Love

Quote from "Menschenkind (Beloved)" by Toni Morrison
"Suddenly he (Paul D) remembers Sixo trying to describe what he felt about the Thirty-Mile Woman. 'She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It's good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind.' " (Book III)

"Ploetzlich faellt ihm (Paul D) ein, wie Sixo einmal versucht hat zu beschreiben, was er fuer die Dreissig-Meilen-Frau empfand.

'Sie ist meiner Seele gut. Sie sammelt sie zusammen, Mann. Die Stuecke, aus denen ich bestehe, die sammelt sie zusammen und gibt sie mir in der richtigen Reihenfolge zurueck. So was ist gut, weisst du, wenn du eine Frau hast, die deiner Seele gut ist.' " (Photo: Amazon)

Girls & Boys?

Teenage girls seem to be very active nowadays in finding boyfriends for themselves. An exclusive source (let me call her Lina) described how she had been admiring and eye-flirting with that cute boy one year above her in highschool. Her girlfriend encouraged her, saying that she had caught him watching Lina at a distance, concluding that he must be interested in Lina. Two days later, Lina summoned her courage and asked the boy if she could have his number. She said that she was scared of being rejected, but could not avoid asking him in the end. She got his number. Thank God. Have times changed so much that girls take the initiative in an instant and with no time to wait? Or are things just more open now, where girls and boys alike act on their interest? Gone seem to be the times when girls had to wait patiently for a pursuer. Perhaps not quite. Having a closer look, let me realize that, actually,  it has been always been the female who actively looked for her mate, yet she has done it in a more subtle and patient way, or not?

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Movie Stories vs Real Life

Patel had to abandon his car, on his way home from work somewhere in the English countryside. It is January and heavy snowfall caused a traffic chaos. So he left his car behind in the snow, helped others to move theirs before he had no choice but turn to the village church, looking for shelter. He spent the night at an old couple's house in Surrey. The next day, in the early afternoon, he made it back home, but still had to get his car back. Now, reality or fiction?

Hometown Snow Wonder

New Year's Eve 2009 was a blast, for various reasons. People were excited about the chance to ignite their fireworks AND freshly fallen and settled powder snow coated nature and the city...just like in the story book...source of the photo: local newspaper "Maerksiche Allgemeine".