Extropes,
If you are working in a field related to the publishing industry or
you work in education, then you have one more day to visit the
Frankfurt (International) Book Fair. Today was the last day for the
general public to attend. This show the largest book trade show in the
world.
http://www.frankfurt-book-fair.com/
The extra security at the show is to search everyone's
purses/backpacks/briefcases before entering the halls.
The "Guest of Honour" this year is "Greece"
which is the main reason that I went.
In the hall built for this Greek occassion, ~400 publishing companies
present works on Greece. You can browse through a large collection of
books on Greece or by Greek authors (languages: about 40% German, 40%
Greek, 20% English) The Hall also has about a dozen extremely nice
exhibits presenting every kind communication- Greek style. For
example: theatre/drama (real costumes and masks from theatre
performances in the amphitheatres last century, music, publishing-
here, the major centers of Greek printing through history are
portrayed (Venice, Forence, Rome, Paris, Geneva, Constantinople,
etc.), popular Greek ads of the 20th century, modern Greek media-art
(?), tablet scripts from the 4th and 5th century BC (on loan from the
Epigraphic Museum of Athens.. fantastic).
I thought the best Greek exhibit was "The Technology of the Ancient
Greeks (Hellenistic Period), where you saw: Euclid's elements from
'Elements of Geometry', a pipe organ (Ktesibios), piston pumps
(Vitruvius, Philon), Archimedes-screw water pump, demonstration of
Erastothenes' calculation for the Earth's diameter, Ctesibios' pump
worked by a windmill, Heron's Aeolipile (like a steam engine), Heron's
geometrical concepts, Archimedes odometer, Ptolemy's astronomical
concepts, Ptolemy's maps and astrolabe, and small models of the
trireme ships that sailed in the Mediterranean for more than a
thousand years.
The rest of the trade show (which I didn't get to) featured
about 6700 exhibitors.
Attached is a news item from the opening day.
Amara
<begin quote>
The 53rd Frankfurt Book Fair opened on Tuesday in the presence of
Greek President Constantinos Stephanopoulos and the German Minister
of Culture, Julian Nida R|melin.
With close on 6,700 exhibitors from 105 countries, the Frankfurt Book
Fair is not just the world's biggest get-together for the
international book community, but has traditionally served as a venue
for the free exchange of ideas and the meeting of cultures.
This year, all the opening speeches were preoccupied with the effects
of the terror attacks of 11 September in the USA. Nida R|melin,
standing in for Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schrvder who is in the
USA, said that the struggle against international terrorism was not a
clash between cultures, but a conflict between "those who respect
human rights and those who wipe out the lives of innocent bystanders
for the sake of political aims."
Book Fair Director Lorenzo A. Rudolf announced that the fair would go
on more or less as planned despite the terror acts in the USA. But
the atmosphere would "not be one of bustle and routine", he said.
Security arrangements at the Book Fair have been tightened up.
Despite these difficult circumstances, there have been only a few
cancellations. All in all, 54 exhibitors decided at short notice not
to come to Frankfurt, among them 31 of the original 792 US American
publishing companies.
It was only in the evening, at the opening of Greece's exhibition as
this year's Guest of Honour at the Book Fair, that the tension of the
day relaxed into a more festively emotional atmosphere, not least
thanks to a moving performance by the famous Greek singer Maria
Farantouri.
The 53rd Frankfurt Book Fair is open to trade visitors and
professionals from Wednesday to Friday, to the general public at the
weekend and then again for trade visitors on Monday morning.
<end quote>
--************************************************************************ Amara Graps, PhD | Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik Heidelberg Cosmic Dust Group | Saupfercheckweg 1 +49-6221-516-543 | 69117 Heidelberg, GERMANY Amara.Graps@mpi-hd.mpg.de * http://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/dustgroup/~graps ************************************************************************ "Never fight an inanimate object." - P. J. O'Rourke
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