“It was built in 170 AD.”

Deutsche Welle: Largest Roman city gate north of the Alps finally dated. “Archaeologists have determined the exact date of construction of the Porta Nigra in Trier — it was built 1,848 years ago. It’s the oldest monument of its kind in Germany.”

Deutsche Welle: Trierer Porta Nigra ist exakt 1848 Jahre alt. “Nicht nur der Schmutz der Jahrhunderte hat das Stadttor Porta Nigra in Trier tiefschwarz werden lassen. Jetzt wurde anhand von Holzfunden das wahre Alter des von den Römern errichteten Monuments festgestellt.”

GroKo

Deutsche Welle:

Merkel’s conservatives, Social Democrats agree on blueprint for formal coalition talks. “Chancellor Angela Merkel says exploratory talks in Berlin between her conservatives and rival Social Democrats are to go on to formal coalition negotiations. The SPD’s Martin Schulz says he’ll ask his party to proceed.”

German coalition talks reach breakthrough: A look at what comes next. “Angela Merkel’s CDU and the SPD have agreed on a blueprint for formal grand coalition negotiations. The left wing of the Social Democrats appears to have been forced into the most concessions.”

Critics weigh in on Germany’s coalition talks ‘breakthrough’. “Germany’s prospective deal for Chancellor Angela Merkel to head another grand coalition has been slammed by industry leaders as “expensive.” Asylum advocates say it hands hard-liners a “triumph” over human rights.”

Another Angela Merkel-led grand coalition in Germany: What you need to know. “After a mammoth last round of meetings, it seems the leaders of the conservatives and Social Democrats have achieved a breakthrough to enter into coalition talks. So what happens next?”

Home improvement

We recently got a new coatrack for our vestibule, and since it is the first thing you see when you enter the house I thought it could use a colorful table runner. I finally used some of my prized stack of Barcelona by Zen Chic aka Brigitte Heitland that I’ve been saving for years. Not the fat quarters I talked about last year when I met the designer herself at a fair, but a charm pack.

Th project was inspired by the easy charm pack baby quilt.

“The horrors of surviving nearly three years in a concentration camp left him with a lifetime of fear and paranoia”

BBC: The Tattooist of Auschwitz – and his secret love.

“For more than 50 years, Lale Sokolov lived with a secret – one born in the horrors of wartime Europe, in a place that witnessed some of the worst of man’s inhumanity to man.

It would not be shared until he was in his 80s, thousands of miles from that place.

Lale had been the Tattooist of Auschwitz.”

Link via MetaFilter.

“If you’re not great at math, here’s a primer: Prime numbers can only be divided by 1 and themselves. “

NPR: A Tenn. Man Recently Discovered The Largest Prime Number Known To Humankind. “This past week, a FedEx employee from Germantown, Tenn., made a massive discovery — and it wasn’t in any packages. John Pace found the largest prime number known to humankind. And that number goes on to more than 23 million digits.”