Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, December 30, 2011
Ufo's: 50 Years of Denial
It's no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction.
Fiction has to make sense...Mark Twain.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Nymphs and Satyr
Nymphs and Satyr
William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1873
Nymphs and Satyr (Nymphes et Satires) is a painting, oil on canvas, created by artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau in 1873.
Nymphs and Satyr was exhibited in Paris in 1873, a year before the Impressionists mounted their first exhibition, in a style radically different from that of Bouguereau.
Sterling Clark discovered the painting near the end of the 19th century, displayed in the bar of the Hoffman House Hotel, New York City. Clark rediscovered the piece in storage at the Hoffman during the 1930s, acquiring the piece in 1943. The piece is currently on display at the Clark Art Institute located in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
Set in a secluded pond, the painting depicts a cluster of bathing nymphs who have captured a lascivious satyr spying on them; four are tugging him toward a dunking, and one of them is using only one hand, the other beckoning other nymphs, in the background, to join the fun.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Romans 12
19 Revenge not yourselves, my dearly beloved; but give place unto wrath, for it is written: Revenge is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.
20 But if thy enemy be hungry, give him to eat; if he thirst, give him to drink. For, doing this, thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head.
21 Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Friday, December 23, 2011
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
The Best Congress Money Can Buy
This is getting scary: whatever happened to representative government by the people? If corporations are people (thanks supreme court) how can we even hope to compete with their goals and aims, and money?
It is looking more and more like democracy is a failed system, taken over by gross profits and advertising.
I for one am glad I won't be on this planet much longer -- at least in this form . . .
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Dharma Flix & Dharma Punx
Dharma Flix
Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth. What is the truth? There is no spoon.
DharmaFlix is a collaborative effort to list, review, rate, and provide clips of films with Buddhist Dharma content for the benefit of all.
DharmaFlix.com Main Page - DharmaflixWiki
What is Dharma? - DharmaflixWiki
Your world and everything in it, including you, is a simulacrum, illusory like a dream, a video game, or the Matrix. It arises from that which is called by many many names, but "your awakened mind" will work as well as any.
When your awakened mind illumines itself in the full glare of its own light, and penetrates the purported solidity of the material world, there is enlightenment, and the path is walked. Speaking Dharma, hearing Dharma, does not make it clear for you, so it is said that the Dharma cannot be spoken. Also, upon realization of Dharma, all statements are immediately seen to be part of the illusory world. Can there be a true statement in a dream?
Films seem real because we suspend our disbelief in them. Likewise, we live out our lives with our disbelief suspended in the 3-D illusory world we call "Reality". This is called "ignorance". Dharmaflix has films which may, if we remain aware, help us to regain our suspicion of Reality. When this suspicion of Reality, through meditation, becomes experience of the illusoriness of Reality, there is Dharma.
Dharma Punx
This is the story of a young man and a generation of angry youths who rebelled against their parents and the unfulfilled promise of the sixties.
As with many self-destructive kids, Noah Levine's search for meaning led him first to punk rock, drugs, drinking, and dissatisfaction. But the search didn't end there. Having clearly seen the uselessness of drugs and violence, Noah looked for positive ways to channel his rebellion against what he saw as the lies of society...
dharmapunx.com
picasso's minotaur
Minotaur caressing a sleeping woman (June 1933)
"Art is a lie
that makes us realize the truth."
Pablo Picasso
Monday, December 19, 2011
Sunday, December 18, 2011
history mystery
WHERE did humankind come from?
If you’re going to ask Zecharia Sitchin, be ready for a “Planet of the Apes” scenario: spaceships and hieroglyphics, genetic mutations and mutinous space aliens in gold mines.
It sounds like science fiction, but Mr. Sitchin is sure this is how it all went down hundreds of thousands of years ago in Mesopotamia. Humans were genetically engineered by extraterrestrials, he said, pointing to ancient texts to prove it.
In Mr. Sitchin’s Upper West Side kitchen, evolution and creationism collide. He is an apparently sane, sharp, University of London-educated 89-year-old who has spent his life arguing that people evolved with a little genetic intervention from ancient astronauts who came to Earth.
Born in Russia and raised in Israel, Mr. Sitchin studied economics in London and worked as a journalist and editor in Israel before moving to New York in 1952. Here, he was an executive at a shipping company and, with his wife of 66 years (she died in 2007), raised two daughters. He spent his free time studying, leading archaeological tours to ancient sites and spreading his unusual gospel.
Starting in childhood, he has studied ancient Hebrew, Akkadian and Sumerian, the language of the ancient Mesopotamians, who brought you geometry, astronomy, the chariot and the lunar calendar. And in the etchings of Sumerian pre-cuneiform script — the oldest example of writing — are stories of creation and the cosmos that most consider myth and allegory, but that Mr. Sitchin takes literally. (nytimes.com) (sitchin.com)
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Happy Holidays!
Live every year as if it was the last one.
Dear Christopher Hitchens, we will all get there as you just did.
The Universe will go on, with or without us!
Friday, December 16, 2011
Almost Gone | Bradley Manning
Almost Gone by Graham Nash and James Raymond
A companion video for "Almost Gone" -- a new song by legendary singer-songwriter Graham Nash and musician James Raymond (son of David Crosby) -- is being released today in support of accused U.S. Army whistleblower Bradley Manning. The free download is available on Nash's website (www.grahamnash.com) and the Bradley Manning Support Network site www.bradleymanning.org...
see also > what next: Bradley Manning | Wikileaks
stratosphere
Stratolaunch Systems is a space transportation venture specializing in air launch to orbit, with its corporate headquarters located in Huntsville, Alabama. It was founded in 2011 by Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen and Scaled Composites founder Burt Rutan, who had previously collaborated on the creation of SpaceShipOne. The newly envisioned launch system will use similar components to that of Virgin Galactic though it will be made for orbital launch instead of sub-orbital. The start up will build a mobile launch system with three primary components; a carrier aircraft to be built by Scaled Composites, a multi-stage launch vehicle built by Space Exploration Technologies, and a mating and integration system to be built by Dynetics.
Allen and Rutan stated that the carrier aircraft would have a wingspan of 385 feet (117 m), making it the largest wingspan of a aircraft ever to fly, and will weigh in at over 1,200,000 pounds (540,000 kg). The aircraft will be powered by 6 × 46,000-66,500lb thrust range Turbine Engines planned to be sourced from a Boeing 747 engines and other components from the 400-series.
A Falcon-derivative two-stage liquid-fueled air-launched launch vehicle will be developed by SpaceX. The launch vehicle will have a launch mass of approximately 220,000 kilograms (490,000 lb) and will have the goal of inserting a 6,100 kilograms (13,000 lb) payload into low Earth orbit. (read more) (video clip) (stratolaunch)
