Long Night of Science

On Saturday we had a cool event called 'Long Night of Science' with stations in Vienna, Graz, Klagenfurt, Salzburg and Wiener Neustadt.

I visited the stations at the FH Wiener Neustadt.

It started at 16:27 - local sundown - pretty cool idea!

At 5 p.m. there was the lecture 'The Invention of Time' by Univ.Prof. Rudolf Taschner. It was great!
He explained how time was meassured and calculated in old Egypt and Babylon. People back then were really smart. It's fascinating how exact they could tell for example the length of a month and on which observations their calenders were based. Egypts used the sun and Babylonians the moon.
He also told us about several procedures to correct the differencies resulting from light inaccuracies. Like inserting an additional month or the last correction by Pope Gregory XIII who took out 10 days of October in 1582 when 4. October was followed by 15. October. While catholic countries went along the new calender very fast it took more then a century until the protestant regions accepted it. In eastern Christendom the Gregorian Calendar was not accepted for several hundred years, and then only as the civil calendar. The Gregorian Calendar was instituted in Russia by the Bolsheviks in 1917, and the last Eastern Orthodox country to accept the calendar was Greece in 1923.
Then Prof. Taschner told us about some guys saying that time is just an illusion. They had some really cool arguments to confuse people and their own belief.
Next he referred to an artist who draws 'the time'. No it's not the picture with the clocks by Salvador Dali. It's Roman Opalka, who paints one number after another. In 1965 he started with white numbers on black ground; in 1972 he started to ad 1% white to the base coating so his 'pictures' get lighter piece by piece.
Best thing about the lecture was that Univ.Prof. Taschner didnb't just give dry facts he explained it with a lot humor and so it was fun listening to him.

After this lecture I went through the different stations. Really cool was the station about 3d-meassuring. There you could get a 3d-picture of your face. Really funny and interesting!
At other stations you could see self driving 'mini-cars'. On of them was also patoling on the floor to guide visitors through the corridors. It was led by a line on the ground and carried a flag that said 'follow me'. :-)
There were also stations about automation and medical stuff.

I think it's a fantastic idea to bring science closer to interested people.
I really hope that there will be a sequel next year!

Websites: Lange Nacht der Forschung (Long Night of Science), FH

exhibition about Vikings in Leoben

Yesterday we went to Leoben to visit the exhibition about the Vikings.

Great exhibition with a lot of fascinating and breathtaking artefacts. Weapons, armor, jewelry, dishes, etc.

They even had a lifesize repluca of wreck of a small ship.

The guided tour was very good. We heard a lot about the Vikings' life and beliefs. They hadn't been as bad as often pictured. The robberies of christian churches didn't have religious reasons; in fact it was just easier to rob an unprotected church then a castle with thick walls and a lot of soldiers. The just took the way of lowest resistance.

Women were very importent and powerful in the Viking society. They kept the keys to the houses and do to that their owned the houses. If a pair got divorced she kept the house and he had to leave.

In the last section there were some parts where you could see some writings in runes.

Another misbelief that was eliminated during the exhibition is, that their helmets never had horns atteched. In fact horns would have made the helmet nearly obsolet. Swords would have been caught by the horns and so a hit on the head wouldn't have slipped off but caused serious injuries.

The reason why they were and still are pictured like that is to make them look more dangerous and because the picture is branded into people's minds so marketing without horns just wouldn't work.

The exhibition is really worth a visit!

Next years exhibition will be 'The Steppe's Gold' with sensational findings from tombs of Scythian and Sarmatian counts. I'm really looking forward to seeing it in 2009.

Website: Leoben

Schallaburg Castle & exhibition about Indians

Yesterday we visited the Schallaburg Castle for the second time.

Last year there was an exhibition about the crusaders and this year it's about the Indians.
(I write Indians because it's about several indigenous peoples not only native Americans and so on.)

For info about the castle itself just take a look at my report from our last year's visit or visit the websites at the end of this post.

This year we were very lucky with the weather. Sun was shining and just a few light clouds were moving across the blue sky. So we were able to visit the castle's tournament garden this time.
(Last year it kept raining all day so we just visited the exhibition.)

The patio looked even better with sun shining then it already does on rainy days. It's rally a beautiful castle!



As usual photographing and filming were not allowed inside the exhibition.
It was really fascinating how the ancient peoples lived and what happend when the white people discovered the 'new world'.
I can tell you, when you heard all that you eventually don't want to be white anymore. After all the trading they just couldn't get enough and so the trading got poisoned with cheating and stealing and even worse things.
Of course there were mistakes made on both sides but I would say that most of the happenings caused by the Indians were partly just some kind of 'aggressive defense'.
For example the fight between general Custer and chief Sitting Bull at Little Big Horn maybe would have ended in a less horrible way if Custer hadn't underestimated the Indians' power.
The massacre at Wounded Knee was just a slaughter, not just a fight. Innocent people were killed without having harmed anybody in the first place.
It's clear that court yards still have to deal with things like that and the big problems with the relocation of several tribes and broken contracts.
On the other side I can understand that for example the U.S. government can't just say 'Okay, we're sorry!'. If they would do that they would confess the mistakes and cruelties and would have to pay immediately. And that amount of money would simply kill the whole nation - so court yards will be dealing with this issues for a very long time.

The exhibition, wasn't only about the problems between red and white. It also showed that the picture many people have of Indians is not completely right. It always depends on the tribe you think about. Of course Karl May provided a very detailed picture but he never said that it is complete or completely right. He was an author and not an historian.

It was also about the peoples in Greenland and parts of Russia of course.

In the last room they showed a bit about Indians nowadays. Fascinating!
During the early 20th century people were placing bets on the 'extinction' of the Indian popilation, but today you can see that more and more people with Indian roots accept that and are proud of it. So the population keeps rising very fast because of all the people remembering and accepting where they come from.
I was very glad to hear that! It would be a huge tragedy if all that was forgotten!

After the tour and another round to take a closer look at everything we went to the restaurant which had again special meals according to the exhibition.
Julia had an Indian appetizers (jalapenos and quesadillas with dip sauce), I had the chilli con carne in a small loaf of bread and we both had Zuni (pita bread made of corn). It was very delicious!



After that we had a little look at the small arcade court and the old fortress but the fortress was closed for restauration. An overwhelming building anyway!



Finally we visited the tournament garden.
It is beautiful!
Next to the castle they planted a lot of apple trees and in the other half there are colorful flowers. The garden is framed with a great wall and a lot of different trees and bushes.



Again it was a wonderful and very intersting day at this great castle!

When you get the chance you really should visit it!

Next year's exhibition will be about Napoleon. - We will be there!

Websites: www.schallaburg.at & www.schallaburg.com

Museum of Natural History

Today we visited the Museum of Natural History in Vienna.
It was my third or fourth visit already but the last one was some years (I guess about 12) ago.

The historic building itself is very impressive and has a wonderfull architecture.


We started at the geological section. The museum has a huge collection of minerals. I am not much into ‘stones’ but it’s fascinating how colorful they come. In the first halls you can see minerals, in hall IV beautiful gems and in hall V there you can see metoerites.

In hall V there is also a model of our planet resized to a diameter of two meters where different information is depicted. (for example: Earth by day and at night, sommer and winter, ozone concentration, sea temperatures,...)

Next we went to the anthropological section. Here you can see tools, potteries and jewelry from the beginning of mankind. It is interesting to see how people lived in early times.


In the following halls was the palaeontological department. I guess it’s one of the most interesting parts for the children who come to the museum. It’s just impressing how huge the dinosaurs were and what creatures roamed our planet. The Museum has a lot of skeletons and fossils.


After that we had a little lunch at the museum’s restaurant. Well, t’s a bit high priced but as the earnings are used for the preservation of the museum I would say it’s okay.

Then we went on to the zooligical section – the biggest part of the museum. Starting under the sea you see a lot of animals as you walk through the halls. First you see corals and deep sea animals,...


...then you come tho the insects and spiders followed by fish.


Afterwards come the amphibians and reptiles, birds,...


...and finally mammals and primates.


At the end we had a look at the new vivarium next to the entrance hall. A lot of living exotic animals like lionfish and colorful poisonous frogs and many other fascinating creatures can be seen there.


It was a wonderfull day!

When you go to vienna the ‘Museum of Natural History’ is really worth a visit! But you should plan a long stay inside to have enough time to see everything!

The museum also offers guided tours.

Website: Museum of Natural History

Schallaburg Castle & exhibition about the crusaders

Today we visited the Schallaburg Castle for the first time.

The Schallaburg, located about 5 kilometers from Melk, ranks among the finest Renaissance castles north of the Alps.



Inside the castle there is a wonderfull garden and each year they have a special themed exhibition. This year it's about the crusaders. We knew that there could be bad weather, but we wanted to try our luck anyway. It kept raining the whole time. Sometimes a bit more then again it just dribbled a bit. So we had to remit the tour through the castle and the tournament garden and just visited the exhibition about the crusaders.

You can see a lot of fascinating models of castles of the crusaders and weapons and suits of armor and of course many luxury goods the crusaders brought from their forays.
First we took the guided tour. Very informative and well done. After the tour we walked through the exhibition again on our own so we could see everything in detail.
I tell you everyone interested in the middle ages and crusades should at all events visit the Schallaburg Castle and the crusaders exhibition.

Next year's exhibition will be about the 'Native Americans'.

After the exhibition we took a little snack in the castle's restaurant. They serve Austrian cuisine and specialties themed according to the running exhibitions.

You can also have special events like marriages, knight's meals,

We have to come back soon when the weather is better so we can visit the garden and have a look at the rest of the castle.

Websites: www.schallaburg.at & www.schallaburg.com