Keys Corner

The Pope has blasted Europeans for being selfish and not having enough children, in a sermon at the 850-year-old Austrian pilgrimage site of Mariazell… ...The pontiff had denounced abortion upon arriving in Austria on Friday as the “very opposite” of human rights…

Isn’t over 6.6 billion people on this planet enough? In 1950 the world population was 2.5 billion. Reducing, or at least managing the world population would be one of the most effective ways to reduce the rate of climate change in the longer term.

A bomber with 6 cruise missiles having atomic warheads under the wings flies across the USA from North Dakota to Louisiana:

The plane took the cruise missiles from Minot Air Force Base to Barksdale Air Force Base for decommissioning Thursday, the Air Force said.

“This is a major gaffe, and it’s going to cause some heads to roll down the line,” said Don Shepperd, a retired Air Force major general and military analyst for CNN.

The warheads should have been removed from the missiles before they were attached to the B-52 bomber, according to military officials.

Good job they didn’t drop off – imagine the chaos a perceived atomic attack would have set off, when you think what a bag of flour or a flashing circuit board can do…

We visited the Documenta 12 in Kassel yesterday – with high expectations. The show is only held every 5 years, and when we last went, we spent two days there and could have spent longer. This time, I have to say that we agree with the arts correspondent of the Daily Telegraph: The worst art show ever.

I admit we didn’t visit everything. After just over three hours, having visited two of the main exhibition areas, we came home. The two pictures here are a couple of things we did like. The one above is by Lukas Duwenhögger and is called The Celestial Teapot – a large decorative tea pot with arms for the handle and spout, on top of a tower which is reminiscent of the supports for a long-gone British seaside pier. It is a memorial for Nazism’s homosexual victims.

The other exhibit was of 1001 antique Qing dynasty (1644-1911) chairs, which were scattered around the whole exhibition, for visitors to rest on. The whimsical chairs don’t look as if they would be very comfortable, but many of them were – especially if you are Ruth’s size, as I presume the majority of Chinese are!