Israeli gymnast Linoy Ashram won an historic bronze medal in the all-around final at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships final, September 1, 2017..(photo credit:OLYMPIC COMMITTEE OF ISRAEL)

Israels Linoy Ashram capped her remarkable summer with an historic medal at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Pesaro, Italy, on Friday, taking a bronze in the all-around final.

The 18-year-old became the first Israeli to scale the podium in the all-around competition at the Worlds after joining Neta Rivkin as the only Israelis to win a medal in an apparatus final a day earlier.

Ashram won a bronze in the ribbon final on Thursday, finishing with a score of 16.650. Rivkin, who retired following the Rio Olympics last summer, took a bronze in the hoop final at the Worlds in 2011.

Ashrams third-place finish in the all-around final, though, is far more significant, as Olympic medals are only handed out in the all-around competition.

Ashram finished behind identical Russian twins Dina and Arina Averina in Pesaro, registering an overall score of 70.025. The Israeli recorded 18.375 in the hoop, 17.400 in the ball, 17.150 in the clubs and 17.100 in the ribbon.

Dina Averina scored 74.700 overall and her sister Arina finished with 73.450.

Im really happy that I managed to prove to everyone how hard I work, said Ashram. It is far from a given that I managed to win a medal at the World Championships, especially my first World Championships. Im really excited and this hasnt really sunk in yet.

Ashrams success came on the back of a breakthrough summer.

The gymnast won two medals at the recent World Games, taking a silver in the clubs and a bronze in the hoop. She dominated the Maccabiahs rhythmic gymnastics competitions, sweeping all five gold medals.

Ashram also took two medals at the European Championships in Budapest, Hungary, in May, finishing third in the hoop and clubs finals.

Ashram will be rewarded with a NIS 60,000 bonus from the Olympic Committee of Israel and the Ministry of Culture and Sport and will also begin receiving a monthly stipend of NIS 8,500 from the OCI.

This is so much fun and I want to thank everyone who has helped me, added Ashram. It is really fun to know that there are so many people supporting me and that only gives me more motivation to continue and work hard.

With the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships being an annual event, Ashram will have two more chances to add to her medal tally before the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. However, all her hard work is ultimately focused on achieving success in Tokyo and making more history by winning an Olympic medal.

This is amazing, crazy, said Israel Gymnastics Association chairman Razi Peled. This is a huge achievement by a wonderful gymnast who manages to scale new heights time and again.

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Israeli gymnist wins bronze in Worlds all-around final - The Jerusalem Post

Bhubaneswar:Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh's Dera Sacha Sauda ashram in Puri is found to have encroached about 12 decimal of government land in Puri-Konark marine drive area, official sources said on Wednesday.

A five-member team of revenue department officials headed by the local tehsildar measured the ashram land and found the irregularities on Wednesday.

File image of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. Getty images

The land measurement exercise was undertaken following an order of revenue minister Maheswar Mohanty based on the complaint of local people about the encroachment of government land by the ashram.

"A notice for eviction will is issued to the ashram by the local telsildar. We will get back the encroched land soon," Puri sub-collector Madhu Sudan Das told reporters.

Sources said Dera Sacha Sauda had purchased four acres from a woman in 2004 and constructed ashram over it.

Puri Sachetana Nagarika Mancha had on Friday staged an agitation before the ashram and raised slogans against the violence by the Dera supporters in Haryana following Gurmeet Singh's conviction.

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Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh's Dera Sacha Sauda ashram in Puri found to have encroached govt land - Firstpost

Ahmedabad: After serving as director of Sabarmati Ashram for five years and a month, Tridip Suhrud has submitted his resignation. This comes ahead of the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe to the Ashram which is scheduled in mid-September.

The trustees of Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial Trust (SAPMT) are yet to officially announce the acceptance of Suhrud's resignation.

"We are meeting Tridip on Wednesday morning before issuing a public statement," said a senior trustee of SAPMT. Suhrud has been handling dual responsibilities of the Ashram as director and chief editor of the archives department. During Suhrud's tenure, the Ashram has seen significant developments, including launch of the Sabarmati Fellowship.

Following the setting up of the new archives department, significant additions to digital content were made to the Gandhi heritage portal, apart from extensive documentation pertaining to Gandhi heritage sites. In fact, the existing Gandhi archives also expanded.

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Tridip Suhrud quits as Sabarmati Ashram director - Times of India

DEHRADUN:The tourism department plans to set up a museum at the The Beatles ashram to commemorate 50 years of the iconic English rock band arrival in Rishikesh for spiritual initiation.

The dilapidated caves and other structures located in middle of thick forest cover is also set to get a major face lift.

As per the plan, the department will first focus on 15 acre land of the Chaurasi Kutia Ashram developed by Mahesh Yogi where the Beatles stayed for nearly two and half months to learn transcendental meditation in 1968. The plot is with the forest department.

The proposed Beatles Museum at the Chaurasi Kutia ashram will house their memoires, especially photographs about the activities taken up by them during two months spiritual initiation from February to April in 1968. Sources in the department said efforts will be made to collect other memoirs of Beatles from their hometown Liverpool in England and other parts of the world. The English band arrived in Rishikesh when its musical activities were at its peak in 1960s.

Efforts are on to create a Beatles museum at the Chaurasi Kutia, but that land has to be taken from the forest department. If that happens, we can attract more foreign tourists to Rishikesh, which is also known as a yoga centre, tourism secretary Meenakshi Sundaram said.

As per the plan, renovation will be carried out at 130 double storey meditation centre buildings and 84 other lodging facilities located inside the ashram. A meeting of tourism and forest officials is scheduled on September 6 to discuss the method of leasing out the ashram land for renovation of existing structures and setting up the museum there.

Chaurasi Kutia is one of the most popular spots for foreign tourists even today, mainly for its history linked with the Beatles. Its an appropriate occasion to commission a museum and revive the site to attract more foreign tourists by commemorating 50 years of spiritual initiation of the Beatles group, tourism minister Satpal Maharaj said.

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Beatles Ashram to have museum - Hindustan Times

KOLKATA: Almost six months ago, a plan for constructing an ashram and a residential unit at Bokshi Jhor was revalidated by the Darjeeling Municipality .If the construction work is completed, this would be the first Dera ashram of Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in Bengal. However, after he was sentenced to 20 years in jail on Monday for the rape of two women followers, his Darjeeling property has come under scanner. A company had bought four acres at Bokshi Jhor, which is 3 km from Darjeeling town, in September 2011. According to locals, this property has close ties with Singh. They claim that Dera Sacha Sauda followers had arrived in Darjeeling and started constructing a two-storied structure that was to serve as an ashram. When TOI got in touch with a representative of the firm, he said, "I used to have a cosmetics manufacturing unit there. I used to be in Darjeeling during 2012. But the property has been sold off and we have no connection with Dera people." However, Prashant Rai, an engineer with the Darjeeling Municipality , said only six months ago the plan to construct the ashram was revalidated. "The plan was sanctioned earlier. Since the construction couldn't be completed within the stipulated time of three ye ars, the plan had lapsed. Approximately six months ago, the company sent a signatory across to my office. The plan was revalidated and they got an extension of two years. Const ruction work is on and I know some Dera people are in the location now," Rai said. On being asked if this plan was for a cosmetics manufacturing unit, Rai replied in the negative. "It is a plan for a sort of an ashram and a residential unit. But now, we might revisit the permission. If problem arises, the matter will be taken up by the Board of Councillors," Rai added. Darjeeling MLA Amar Singh Rai is also aware of the construction. "In 2012, Singh used to visit Darjeeling. I was then the chairman of the Darjeeling Municipality . He had bought this whole hillock and barricaded it. The impression we had got was that he wanted to construct an ashram where he would do his social service. We never had an inkling of what his real intentions were," he said. Initially, Singh had created a good impression' of himself. In 2012, there was a fire in Darjeeling. A few hundred volunteers of Shah Satnam Ji Green `S' Welfare Force Wing were camping in Darjeeling. "Some of them had risked their lives to rescue the locals," he said.

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Ram Rahim's Darjeeling ashram under scanner - Times of India

You desire to LIVE "according to Nature"? Oh, you noble Stoics, what fraud of words! Imagine to yourselves a being like Nature, boundlessly extravagant, boundlessly indifferent, without purpose or consideration, without pity or justice, at once fruitful and barren and uncertain: imagine to yourselves INDIFFERENCE as a powerhow COULD you live in accordance with such indifference? To liveis not that just endeavouring to be otherwise than this Nature? Is not living valuing, preferring, being unjust, being limited, endeavouring to be different? And granted that your imperative, "living according to Nature," means actually the same as "living according to life"how could you do DIFFERENTLY? Why should you make a principle out of what you yourselves are, and must be? In reality, however, it is quite otherwise with you: while you pretend to read with rapture the canon of your law in Nature, you want something quite the contrary, you extraordinary stage-players and self-deluders! In your pride you wish to dictate your morals and ideals to Nature, to Nature herself, and to incorporate them therein; you insist that it shall be Nature "according to the Stoa," and would like everything to be made after your own image, as a vast, eternal glorification and generalism of Stoicism! With all your love for truth, you have forced yourselves so long, so persistently, and with such hypnotic rigidity to see Nature FALSELY, that is to say, Stoically, that you are no longer able to see it otherwiseand to crown all, some unfathomable superciliousness gives you the Bedlamite hope that BECAUSE you are able to tyrannize over yourselvesStoicism is self-tyrannyNature will also allow herself to be tyrannized over: is not the Stoic a PART of Nature?... But this is an old and everlasting story: what happened in old times with the Stoics still happens today, as soon as ever a philosophy begins to believe in itself. It always creates the world in its own image; it cannot do otherwise; philosophy is this tyrannical impulse itself, the most spiritual Will to Power, the will to "creation of the world," the will to the causa prima. Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

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Quotes About Nietzsche (198 quotes) - Goodreads

Installation view of the loosely reconstructed Philosophy Chamber, with large portraits by John Singleton Copley and bird specimens prepared by Charles Willson Peale. The red wallpaper is inspired by a fragment of the original wallpaper donated to the chamber by John Hancock, c. 1772. On view in the The Philosophy Chamber: Art and Science in Harvards Teaching Cabinet, 17661820 at the Harvard Art Museums (photo by Katya Kallsen, President and Fellows of Harvard College)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. A vast and encompassing view of the world contained in a room so small that it wasreferred to as a chamber such was the hope and hubris of the 18th-century Enlightenment figures in America.

The tiny room was called the Philosophy Chamber, and it attracted some of the most inventive minds in the United States, when our country was in its formative years, feeling out its independence and still searching for its own narrative. George Washington visited, Benjamin Franklin helped secure its contents, John Hancock donated the flocked wallpaper, and John Singleton Copley painted august portraits for its walls. At once a laboratory, art gallery, and lecture hall, its main purpose was to serve the students of Harvard College.

This wee chamber thrived from 1766 to 1820 and then all but disappeared, until recent years. Ethan Lasser, a curator at the Harvard Art Museums, kept encountering references to a teaching cabinet at the school while researching something else entirely, the whereabouts of a lost portrait.

What he discovered instead was evidence of a lost museum, a place that was the heart of intellectual life in New England for more than half a century.

Now, for the first time since the Philosophy Chamber was disbanded and its formal portraits, scientific instruments, natural specimens, and indigenous objects scattered to Harvards collections and other Boston-area institutions, the room has been effectively recreated. An exhibition reunites many of its original objects and replicates some of its attributes, such as the deep magenta wallpaper.

The Philosophy Chamber: Art and Science in Harvards Teaching Cabinet 17661820, now on view at the Harvard Art Museums, recovers a unique chapter in American intellectual history. It also confronts us with questions resonant to our time about the very nature of knowledge: How is knowledge produced and shared? How is it wielded to liberate or oppress? How much of the world, in all of its richness, can we truly apprehend?

The Philosophy Chamber was set up to reconcile the moral, political, and religious underpinnings of Harvards curriculum with the still nascent sciences in a holistic way. It existed at a time when books and objects were on par with each other pedagogically, and when art and science were seen as inherent to one another.

Harvard students back then would have looked to ancient Western civilizations, memorizing and reciting Greek and Roman texts, while also utilizing art and scientific instruments for their studies in the chamber. In the years before specialization divided academia into disciplines, all students at Harvard were novice philosophers and scientists. The world was freshly open in other ways, too. The first American ship to circumnavigate the globe, the Columbia, returned to Boston during this time with treasures and tales that found their way into the teaching cabinet.

The ideas that surfaced in this rich and tactile atmosphere, from a 21st-century vantage point, at least, were audacious and at times deeply problematic.

Consider, for instance, the six ink and pencil drawings of skulls by Harvard professor and naturalist William Dandridge Peck. Five of them show human skulls and one an apes, each with a label such as Georgian, Negro (Guinea), or Groenlander. The early-19th-century drawings themselves and Pecks lecture notes refer to the facial angles of the skulls, terminology used, in addition to skin color, to create a disturbing hierarchy of races. The compositions are troubling. The African and ape skulls are likened visually, the only two shown in full profile, while the other four are drawn in three-quarter pose. In other words, the African man was shown as less than human or closer to nature. Peck presumably presented arguments about a hierarchy of races to his students using these drawings.

That this kind of blatant racist agenda existed at Harvard at the time is not surprising, though its worth asking why it took more than two centuries for the drawings to be exhumed and presented in this context. Debates about the morality of slavery persisted on campus, despite significant support for abolition in Massachusetts. Slavery became illegal in the state in 1783, but some of Harvards benefactors were products of slave-based economies in the South and abroad.

And what of the four small paintings by Italian-born artist Agostino Brunias? What could be amiss in his idyllic and erotic island scenes of women conversing and bathing amid palm trees, pink clouds, and overflowing baskets of fruit? Well, Brunias was idealizing slave societies, the sugar colonies of the Caribbean. Some of his primary patrons were British and American plantation owners, which makes the white male peeping Tom, who ogles the women from behind a tree in one of the paintings, even more disturbing. Small labels pasted to the backs of Bruniass paintings describing the women as French Mulatresses or Mulatress and Negro Woman are stark evidence of what scholars now call the scientific racism of the era.

The Philosophy Chambers collection was hardly the product of careful, systematic acquisition, as would be typical in museums and libraries today. Instead, an urgent call went out after a fire burned Harvards original library to the ground in 1764, destroying the vast majority of its holdings. Wealthy alumni, amateur naturalists, entrepreneurial merchants, and others dispatched books, instruments, and objects to Cambridge from across the globe. Collectively, these gifts represented a network of mostly white men who acquired or traded for such items based on their fascination with, and often exploitation of, people unlike themselves.

Of the 1,000 or so original objects in the chamber, about 200 have been located by Lasser, head of the division of European and American art at the Harvard Art Museums, and his team. Some 70 of those are part of the exhibition, while items collected in a similar fashion have been chosen as stand-ins for others that were lost or too fragile for display.

In a profound act of cultural erasure, many of these objects were stripped of the particulars of their making and history once they entered the global trade of rare curiosities, as the exhibit calls it. Basic information about the creators, materials, and cultures was disregarded in favor of the tales of adventure that brought them to America. In the current exhibit, some of the indigenous objects are intentionally presented without fully correcting the record, with only scant information, as would have been the case in the chamber. This seems strange, even problematic, at first. Yet its meaningful to experience these items at they would have been viewed in the cabinet, without the kind of context weve come to expect. We are left to wonder about the impossibly petite Qing dynasty shoes made of silk and wood for Cantonese ladies bound feet; a native Hawaiian crested helmet fashioned from bright orange feathers; a stone Cherokee pipe bowl; and a native Tubuaian headdress made of wood, coconut fiber, parrot feathers, shells, and human hair.

Unknown artist, Cherokee, Pipe Bowl (19th century), stone, Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University, Gift of the Heirs of David Kimball, 99-12-10/53119 (photo courtesy Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, PM# 99-12-10/53119 [digital file 60740101]; President and Fellows of Harvard College)Indeed, one of the great contributions of this exhibition is the reproachful realities it brings to light, the academic roots of racism. The curators do not shy away from what theyve uncovered in the primary didactics for the show or its scholarly catalogue. The exhibit may, in fact, feed the reckoning now occurring at Harvard over its legacy of discrimination and racism, as well as the larger reckoning playing out across the country.

At Harvard, where I was a fellow with the Nieman Foundation for Journalism during the last academic year, this reckoning has involved a call from Harvard President Drew Faust, a historian of the Civil War and the first woman to lead the university, to confront the schools rarely acknowledged links to slavery. It involved the unveiling of a plaque that honors slaves who worked on campus for Harvard presidents and the exhibit Bound by History: Harvard, Slavery, and Archives, which earlier this year presented ongoing research about links between slavery and universities around the world. Students have also demanded greater transparency and discourse around issues of race and social justice in recent years, especially with the rise of Black Lives Matter. That this reckoning feels fresh and urgent on campus is telling. That the Philosophy Chamber exhibition, with its unromantic approach, contributes new discoveries only emphasizes how much work has yet to be done.

Though the worst tendencies of the late 18th and early 19th centuries are on full display in the current show, so are some of the finest. A revelation for me was seeing how essential art and science once were to one another, given how distinct those worlds can be today. Simply put, art was at the heart of learning.

Before widespread mechanization, scientific instruments demanded the exquisite craftsmanship of artisans, sometimes several hands with multiple specializations. One remarkable machine with a mahogany wheel, brass parts, and glass orb was used for creating static electricity. Slides painted in jewel-like colors were paired with a magic lantern, a proto film projector, to project astronomical phenomena onto the chambers wall. Simple, graphic representations of the sun and moon swirl the Earth kinetically in a large, circular projection one moment, while an eclipse unfolds cinematically the next. No special glasses needed.

Perhaps the grandest scientific instrument in the show is a large, round orrery made especially for the Philosophy Chamber by Boston clockmaker Joseph Pope. Its a mechanical, clockwork model of the solar system, exceptionally cutting edge for its time. Pope spent a dozen years constructing the piece of brass, bronze, mahogany, painted glass, and ivory, largely during the Revolutionary War. Paul Revere may have lent a hand, though scholars cant be sure. A crank was used to turn the miniature planets in their orbits around the sun and, likewise, their moons around them. Flanking the orrery are the likenesses of Benjamin Franklin, Isaac Newton, and other notable thinkers. This complex 18th-century contraption has made me want to gaze at the night sky every bit as much as the images of the moons dance with the sun that spilled from my social feeds during the recent eclipse, maybe more. It leaves me to wonder: How do we learn best? What really opens us up to new knowledge?

At some point, the world of what is known became too expansive for the tiny Philosophy Chamber. Books edged out objects and became the dominant form of archiving and sharing information in academic settings; the notion that a multitude of disciplines could be contained and studied in depth by all college students became largely a thing of the past. And so, the Philosophy Chambers collection of wondrous things was carved up and scattered. Still, all of these generations later, it has much to teach us.

The Philosophy Chamber: Art and Science in Harvards Teaching Cabinet, 17661820 continues at the Harvard Art Museums (32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA) through December 31.

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Recovering the Philosophy Chamber, Harvard's Enlightenment-Era Teaching Cabinet - Hyperallergic

Enlightenment at Dalton

Young cat fascinated by the snowfall last Sunday. Photo courtesy Ann Darbyshire

Variety Bash visited Gunning last week much to the delight of Gunning Public School children and other residents. Photo courtesy Michael Cullis

MC Rob Lee Tet welcomes all to the Enlightenment Ceremony last Saturday. Photo Ann Darbyshire

The Age of Enlightenment finished in 1815, so how come Dalton was only catching on 200 years later?

However, this view does a disservice to the Enlightenment Ceremony at Dalton Public Hall closed for 20 years. The lights were switched on in the first stage of an ambitious refurbishment.

There was music, recitations, recollections and even stand-up comedy from Dalton Public School students, bush poet Rob Gorman and Mad Kelpies Playdate.

Les Martin shared some entertaining memories of growing up in Dalton including about the Boorowa Hill tyre race that ended with one whacking into a Holden car parked outside the pub! Also mentioned was Old Bill, the gold miner.

The enthusiastic crowd included Pru Goward MP, Upper Lachlan Mayor Brian McCormack OAM, Mrs McCormack and ULSC Cr John Searl.

Congratulations to the good burghers of Dalton.

Our little town often gets amazing visitors and last week was no exception. The Variety Club visited Gunning Public School as part of their bash from Melbourne to Fraser Island in Queensland.

It was early and new residents of Nelanglo Street adjacent to the school, Lisa and Michael Cullis were awoken from a late morning sleep-in. What could all the fuss be about?

Much to their surprise, Barbie, Elvis and others characters were found visiting the school as part of the Variety Club Bash and handling out goodies to the school students with many other kids in attendance. It was an event that couldnt go without photos.

They were not the only ones to catch the amazing event, with Kerry and Jay Gribbin being forewarned through a relative who was part of the run that Gunning was on the itinerary.

It all goes to show, you never quite know what to expect on the streets of Gunning, in the best possible way.

The Garden Club and Gunning Community Care (GCC) drew raffles recently and I was lucky in both!

GCC had a very successful Garage sale with their Spring Country Produce fundraiser this Saturday. All funds raised go towards enhancing facilities and equipment at GCC.

Fundraising kicked off five years ago by Guy Southwell and Leigh Hickey lead to the skate park. Now the Variety bash may help with a new community fundraising focus - a swing for kids with disabilities.

Social media, email etc check out how to master these at Gunning Library workshops.

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Enlightenment at Dalton - Goulburn Post

T.R. Kerth, Contributor Published 12:38 p.m. ET Aug. 28, 2017

Livingston Daily photographer Gillis Benedict, away from the hordes who ventured to see the total eclipse, witnessed the magical approach of darkness at Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area near Cadiz, KY in timelapse. Gillis Benedict/Livingston Daily

T.R. Kerth(Photo: Submitted)

OK, people, the eclipse is over. Time to come back down to earth, wipe the awestruck tears from your eyes, and stop OMGing the wonders of the natural world as you ponder your place in the universe. Lets put the spiritual tizzy behind us, shall we? Its all fun and games until somebody becomes a druid.

Not that I didnt think it was cool.

It was.

For the record, I wasnt at any of the ground zeroes of totality that arched across the nation like a celestial skid mark. I have friends who went, but not me. I stayed home and was out on the sidewalk in front of the house, where it was about 89 percent of perfect totality, which was plenty for me. I dont think Ive ever been closer than 89 percent of perfection in any other thing Ive ever done.

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Still, you knew it was a special moment when several neighbors on my block set out their lawn chairs on the sidewalk just after noon on a Monday. We usually wait until after dinner to do that.

But there were signs that this gathering was special and unique, like the fact that none of us had a beer in our hand. Eclipses can make you do strange things.

I didnt have those special eclipse glasses that were all the rage, but one of my neighbors had a big X-ray sheet his doctor had given him years ago, and he let me look through it to see the eclipse. I was amazed how much an eclipse looks like a broken wrist bone. Or maybe I was looking at the wrong thing.

When the sun was finally 89 percent covered, the day grew dim, although I wouldnt say it was 89 percent dimmer than a normal day proof that an awful lot of daylight just goes wasted. We could probably get by with just 50 percent of the suns power most days and not even notice. Thats good to know, since the sun is scheduled to burn out in about 5 billion years, so were probably good to go for at least another 3 billion years or so as it fades away. Its nice to be able to make plans.

But the eclipse is over now. The sun and the moon have gone back to their daily humdrum routes, and were all left with our own deep thoughts about the experience and the lasting lessons we will come away with.

For one thing, consider how far we have come from the days when an eclipse was seen as an evil omen or a harbinger of troubles to come, like the death of kings or the failure of crops. We now know that those disasters are caused by gluten.

For my part, I was amazed at how accurately weve learned to predict an eclipse, not only to the hour, minute and second, but also to the mile, yard and inch of where it will pass, allowing us to manufacture and stockpile all the glasses, T-shirts, coffee mugs, ball caps and Parking $20 signs we would need well before the event. Primitive man was always taken by surprise by an eclipse, which is why those poor saps were always broke. But today, because we knew exactly when and where the eclipse would happen, hotels, motels and entrepreneurs all along the path of totality saw an infusion of wealth that was nothing short ofwell, astronomical. MoonPies enjoyed record sales.

But when youre talking about the perfect yin-yang union of light and dark that is a total eclipse, for every bit of bright, cheery yang there has to be some dark, gloomy yin to keep the universe in perfect balance.

For example, as eclipse entrepreneurs raked in their dark-dealt dough, how many workers in other jobs can say it was business as usual as the eclipse slid past outside the window? According to the analysis of one accounting firm leading up to the eclipse, American employers will see at least $694 million in missing output for the roughly 20 minutes that workers will take out of their workday to stretch their legs, head outside the office and gaze at the nearly two-and-a-half minute eclipse.

Its not clear yet if those capital losses will wipe out the gains, but as with all things, it probably comes down to location, location, location. Thanks to bustling crowds, businesses sitting under the moon-shadow ended up doing the cash register cha-ching dance. Everybody else left out in the light spent an extra 20 minutes on hold, cursing and listening to the voice say, Please stay on the line, because your call is important to us. Thats the way it is with yin and yang.

And if that isnt enough yin and yang for you, consider this:

Many observers of the eclipse noted that animals were completely fooled by the sudden darkness and lay down to sleep as if it were night.

But the universe stayed in balance, because the eclipse made me miss my nap.

- - -

The author splits his time between Southwest Florida and Chicago. Not every day, though. Contact him at trkerth@yahoo.com. Why wait a whole week for your next visit to Planet Kerth? Get T.R.'s book, 'Revenge of the Sardines,' available now at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other fine online book distributors. His column appears every Saturday.

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The View From Planet Kerth: The enlightenment that comes with endarkenment - Naples Daily News

On June 24, 1717, the day that is considered the beginning of organized Freemasonry, four English Masonic lodges assembled in London to form a grand lodge. Twenty years later, the first Masonic lodge was founded in Hamburg. Over 500 are estimated to exist today, with over 15,000 members.

Much of the history and the inner system of what is today an international organization remains a secret. On the occasion of a central Freemason anniversary on September 1, Deutsche Welle talked to Matthias Phlmann, an expert on ideologies and religions.

DW: What was Freemasonry founded on?

Phlmann: Freemasons have always valued the principles of freedom, equality, fraternity, humanity, and tolerance. They participate in charity efforts, but those are carried out rather silently. Basically, Freemasonry represents the ideals of the Enlightenment.

Freemasonry also promotes personal development, but reducing the whole idea to some kind of self-help training would upset many Freemasons.

Masonic temple in Brussels

The members are organized in "lodges." What are these?

In Freemasonry, a "lodge" has a literal meaning: It's a local club or community, a gathering place for men interested in personal development. It is an ethical brotherhood - a "workers' union," if you will - modeled on fraternities of medieval stonemasons and their symbolsand rituals.

In contrast to city guilds of that time, stonemasons had special privileges, such as freedom of travel. To preserve professional secrecy and prevent betrayal, passwords and secret handshakes were established that today's Freemasons still use.

Is that where the central symbols of Freemasonry - the square and compass, which form the typical Masonic logo - also come from?

Exactly. The compass represents the circle of fraternity, while the square stands for the proper conduct of each member.

Besides, there are symbols such as the water level, which stands for the idea that everybody is equal. At the center of every Masonic temple there are three pillars representing beauty, strength and wisdom. Freemasons call these the foundation of the temple of humanity, and each lodge is a place to practice and work on one's personal development.

You mentioned freedom, equality, fraternity, humanity, and tolerance as the core values of Freemasonry. Why dothey categorically exclude women, then?

In its classic form, Freemasonry is a male society, but there are women's lodges now too. At a women's grand lodge in Germany, women gather and performritual work. The reason for gender separation is that both sexes working together in a temple would change the inner life of a lodge.

A Grand Master's chair in the German Freemason Museum in Bayreuth

Rituals play a major role in Freemasonry. What is a Masonic meeting like?

They are basically solemn and festiveoccasions. Their form is established in discussion by certain lodge functionaries, usually the Grand Master and his wardens.

Read more:A leading figure in a shadowy organization of Italian Freemasons has passed away

Traditionally, the ritual system comprises three levels: apprentice, journeyman and master. Induction into a lodge, for instance, is called "initiation." Its idea is that "a blind man shall become seeing, which is how Freemasons distinguish their brothers from non-initiates. Belonging to a lodge means lifetime membership in a society, although it is possible to leave it at any time.

How can one become a Freemason?

The system of recruitment has changed in recent decades. Once it was only possible to join through a sponsor - a Freemason who approached a candidate, campaigned for him and vouched for his integrity.

Today, it's entirely different. At "guest receptions," interested people are invited to open seminars. In Switzerland, such evenings are sometimes even advertised in newspapers. In Germany, one can solicit for admission at such events. The application voted on.

A requirement is that one should be a free man - "free from addictions and dependencies," as Freemasons say - with a good reputation and a solid financial situation.

Dr. Matthias Phlmann

Does a secret society such as the Freemasons need publicity in the digital age?

I think Freemasons have always been surrounded and torn by both mystery and fame. After all, it is a discreet place, and certain secrets should not be leaked. As Freemasons say, the true secret lies in the experience of the rituals - and that is the ultimate secret that can not be betrayed.

Nevertheless, I have the feeling that more transparency is now allowed.

You're right. In recent years I've observed that people are much better informed. I think this a significant development. Some lodges participate in the "Day of Open Monuments" and open their doors during the "Long Night of Museums" in Berlin. And people are very interested and want to learn more.

I believe this interest comes from the fact that Freemasonry is an integral part of pop culture, which sees it, unfortunately, as a central place of crude conspiracy theories. So it's a welcome gesture for Freemasons to want to clear their image.

Freemasons do not see themselves as either a church or religion. I often ask myself whether there is something religious in their ideology. Such discussion, I think, must be conducted from within the Masonic community, and I'm eager to see the result.

Dr. Matthias Phlmann is a church councilor and commissioner for sect and ideology issues at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bavaria in Munich. He published a study "Freemasonry in Germany" in 2011.

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Between secrecy and fame: 300 years of Freemasons - Deutsche Welle