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The new adult education center program
…”of course” also contains in Pfaffenhofen a few, how should I say, scientifically and by common sense not really kosher topics.
For instance, there are four Feng Shui courses – before we’ll have a closer look at these, here’s a quick quiz (please don’t cheat by looking at the course links below):
Which categories are these Feng Shui courses offered in?
- Science and technology (50%, 1 Votes)
- Medical topics - natural healing (50%, 1 Votes)
- Psychology (0%, 0 Votes)
- Ecology (0%, 0 Votes)
- Hobby & co. (0%, 0 Votes)
- Health forum (0%, 0 Votes)
Votes total: 2
Update: Not too many voters… well, they use the category ecology! (Probably because the first Fen Shui course they ever offered had been for the garden.)
The offered classes (everything in my translation):
- Classic Feng Shui (30€, 8×40 minutes)
- Dreamlike sleeping with Feng Shui (5€, 1 hour)
- Garden design according to Feng Shui (5€, 1 hour)
- Feng Shui – Room design and color (5€, 1 hour)
These fees are quite low – since the adult education center (VHS) offers this mystic-laden hodgepodge – with scientifically untenable “cosmic energies” and other stuff – the two “counselors” who lead the classes (one the first, another the other three) will reach potential new customers this way who quite probably are willing to pay more money later on – for instance, two-digit square meter proces for the rooms to be examined. Lacking experience, I can’t say anything about the prices and respectability of these two providers, of course.
In the sleep course you learn, among other things (my translation):
From the feng shui point of view, [bad sleep] can be caused, among other things, by bad placement of the bed, sharp edges, skewness, wrong material, electric smog, too screaming colors, water veins or other geopathic disturbance zones.
Hey, if I lie on sharp edges or a skewed stone bed, I need no feng shui to know it’s uncomfortable and bad for sleeping! Of course they also include that balderdash about disturbing water veins and “geopathic disturbance zones” (great words – just let some dowser, energy-with-hand-senser or I-see-all-energetic-problems-jabberer walk through your house, he’ll always find (or rather make up) something that he can sell a solution for or at least “justify” his counselling fees).
I just don’t get how the “ancient masters” (mentioned in the 1st yourse) could have included electric smog in their teachings…
Of course there’s more:
Introduction to Applied Kinesiology (25€, 1 day):
Kinesiology perceives the person holistically. Using the muscle test (biofeedback to the body and subconcious), you can see what weakens your body (=drains enery) or strengthens it.
And here it applies, too: Once the patients are hooked on it, they are likely to pay more – maybe even enormous amounts for a placebo effect, some minor movement exercises and for a “muscle test” that’s unsuitable for any pretended diagnostic purposes. (» SkepDic).
Seeing all these, shamanistic round dances and meditation drumming (offered too, of course) are quite harmless and entertaining, even fun…
Photos: Luopan compass musicvisionary2000 / flickr, woman with sign (original) cooljinny / sxc, Chinese characters from Wikipedia
Links and Video of the Week (2008/37)
- Bad Science Writing Gene found in people (via Bad Astronomy)
- Cartoon: Conventional logic vs. religious logic (via Evil under the Sun)
And the Simpsons intro built with Lego (via Wil Wheaton):
Links of the Week (2008/34)
- Legolympics: Olympics in Lego (hundreds of images) from the Hong Kong Lego Users Group (via Horchnet)
- 360° photos from the Olympics: in the stadium and from the 10 meter platform (via mlogger)
- German: Religion korreliert mit Esoterik: Wer an Gott glaubt, glaubt an alles Mögliche
- German: Die sogenannte Mondlandung war nichts anderes als ein Mitarbeiterwechsel auf dem Todesstern.
- A map of Springfield: interactive and in one piece (via ChaosZone)
Oh holy Nepomuk!
So they completed the construction of a small bridge (German article in Donaukurier) after nearly one year, and what do we get at the opening ceremony last week, in addition to a speech of your new mayor? “Of course” a joint Catholic–Protestant benediction of the bridge including a statue of the “bridge saint” John of Nepomuk (my translation of above newspaper link):
[…] together blessed the construction and the people who will use it, and put the bridge under the protection of Saint Nepomuk. The two clerics expressed their hope that the bridge will bring people together and that there will be no accidents.
The old bridge, then, can’t have been under the Nepomucene’s protection – or he failed at it –, since it had to be torn down due to deterioration, and since it had been rather low, it had been a problem during high-water situations.
Claus Hipp, boss of the renowned local baby food company which financed the statue crafted by Adolf Mühlbauer,1 also had his say:
Pfaffenhofen’s honorary citizen said he is thus hoping for protection by Saint Nepomuk from further floodings and also that it would still be possible in the future to “freely state one’s opinion” – for that’s what Saint Nepomuk also stands for, said the entrepreneur.
The fact that the new bridge was built noticibly higher than the old one will certainly be much more helpful against floodings than erecting an artfully sculpted block of stone. And regarding that thing about freedom of expression, the fellow must have gotten something wrong, or he’s using a very lose interpretation of confessional secret, because according to German Wikipedia, this saint is “only” concerned with:
- Bohemia and Bavaria
- confessors, priests, skippers, raftsmen, and millers
- confessional secret
- discreetness
- against dangers from water
- bridges
By the way, may millers whose mills are not driven by water power also feel protected by Nepomuk…?
- so at least no taxpayers’ money… [↩]