Our Kind of Christmas Tree :)

To keep the body in good health is a duty, otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear. -Buddha

Consider yourself an expert on paint? You may know less than you think. Even experts are surprised at these little-known — often odd — facts about paint and paint colour. How many of them come as a surprise to you?

 1. The color purple became associated with royalty because at one time only aristocrats could afford the expensive pigment. During Roman times, it took 4 million crushed mollusk shells to create one pound of purple pigment.

 2. The White House is white because of the original lime-based whitewash that was used to protect its porous stone surface. It gets painted every year.

 3. The Greek philosopher Plato is credited with the discovery that you can mix two different paint colors together to produce a third color.

 4. The first interior painting was done roughly 40,000 years ago in what is now France by prehistoric cave dwellers, who employed stencils in some of the work and even “spray-painted” by blowing paint through hollow bird bones.

 5.Various paint colors can help the body heal itself. For example, red can often help depressed people regain vigor, while green has been shown to relieve stress.

 6. In the Middle Ages, manuscripts were “illuminated” with paint made from ground semi-precious stones and egg yolks.

 7. In a reversal of gender roles, it’s male Wodaabe charm dancers in Niger who apply facial paint color to attract the opposite sex.

 8. Among the Aztecs, red pigmented paint was regarded as more valuable than gold.

 9. The Golden Gate Bridge has always been painted the same color since it was completed in 1937. The name of the color is International Orange.

 10. Many Native American tribes used black paint to signify life and yellow paint to signify death.

 11. It took Michelangelo only four years to paint the famous ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the 1500s, but it took 20 years to restore it in the late 1900s.

 12.The “color wheel” is older than the United States. It was developed by Sir Issac Newton in 1706.

(from an article by by Debbie Zimmer on March 19, 2011 )

Chromatic Typewriter. 

What an invention! Must get my hands on one of these.

From left to right: Galileo Galilei, Marie Curie, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Isaac Newton, Louis Pasteur, Stephen Hawking, Albert Einstein, Carl Sagan, Thomas Edison, Aristoteles, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Richard Dawkins and Charles Darwin.

ECLIPSE

[noun]

1. a) the partial or complete obscuring, relative to a designated observer, of one celestial body by another. b) the period of time during which such an obscuration occurs.

2. a temporary or permanent dimming or cutting off of light.

3. a) a fall into obscurity or disuse; a decline. b) disgraceful or humiliating end; a downfall

[verb]

4. a) to cause an eclipse of. b) to obscure; darken.

5. to obscure or diminish in importance, fame, or reputation. b) to surpass; outshine.

“Evil is the violation of, or intent to violate, some moral code. Evil is usually seen as the dualistic opposite of good. Definitions of evil vary along with analysis of its root motive causes, however general actions commonly considered evil include: conscious and deliberate wrongdoing, discrimination designed to harm others, humiliation of people designed to diminish their psychological needs and dignity, destructiveness, and acts of unnecessary and/or indiscriminate violence that are not legitimate acts of self-defense but aggressive and designed to cause ill-being to others.”

Evil is the exercise of Power.

Philip Zimbardo is a psychologist who always causes my neurons to spark more than usual, owing to his iconic Prison Simulation which led him to the topic of the TED Talk, The Lucifer Effect, which is centralized on the systematic, dispositional or situational characteristics in humans that make the common man, evil. 

He brings up 7 processes to the slope of Evil, namely;

1. Mindlessly taking the first small step.
2. Dehumanization of others.
3. De-individuation of self.
4. Diffusion of Personal Responsibility.
5. Blind obedience to Authority.
6. Uncritical conformity to group norms.
7. Passive tolerance of Evil through inaction or indifference.

In relation to his study, Stanley Migram also carried out the psychological study on his ‘Germans are different hypothesis (GADH)’ to find reasoning for the mass conformity to the Nazi regime during Adolf Hitler’s time, that led to the large-scale and absolutely brutal and dehumanizing genocide of over 6 million innocent people based of sexuality, ethnicity and disability. To his shock, in the pilot study undertaken in USA itself, as well as others carried out in later years in France and other countries, common man all around the world conformed to authority, unquestionably. 

Piliavan’s study on Good Samaritans was a result of the murder of Kitty Genovese in a public area with onlookers who reacted in no way whatsoever. Thus, these three studies, in network with Zimbardo’s outlook, suggests and urges that heroism is the cure to this outrageous misuse of power.

Be a Hero-in-Waiting.

To a Nation, on its 40th Birthday.

The falcon is a symbol of liberty, freedom, and victory. Therefore, it also symbolizes hope to all those who are in bondage whether moral, emotional, or spiritual.

In Christianity, wild falcons represents the unconverted Gentile, as well as sinful thoughts and deeds. The tamed bird symbolizes the Christian convert with his lofty thoughts, hopes, and aspirations. In early Egyptian hieroglyphs the falcon represented the word for “god”. It was associated with sky deities, who may have had falcons’ heads. In early dynasties, the king’s ascension was known as the “Flight of the Falcon”. A human-headed falcon was a symbol of the human soul. The falcon helped cure the soul and escorted the soul back to the world of souls.

The sport of hunting with falcons was associated with nobility in Europe, Japan, and China, where falcons symbolized keen vision, boldness, and swiftness.. It also has a penis like the eagle.

In the 40 year old country of the United Arab Emirates, this glorious bird represents this well bound nation as its National Bird, often seen on currencies, as well as as simple as tourist petting them during the Dubai International Film Festival.

The Golden Rock

The Golden Rock at Kyaiktiyo, Myanmar, is a holy and important site which Buddhists frequent in large numbers. A gold leaf covered boulder precariously balances on the edge of a cliff, and pilgrims come to worship this astonishing defiance of gravity. It is said that a single Buddha hair exists under the rock.

Abstract Art Fluid Painting by Mark Chadwick

Curiousity killed the cat.. and Satisfaction brought her back.

These 9 drawings were done by an artist under the influence of LSD - part of a test conducted by the US government during it’s dalliance with psychotomimetic drugs in the late 1950’s. The artist was given a dose of LSD 25 and free access to an activity box full of crayons and pencils. His subject is the medic that jabbed him.

1. 85 minutes after first dose and 20 minutes after a second dose has been administered (50ug + 50ug) The patient seems euphoric. ‘I can see you clearly, so clearly. This… you… it’s all… I’m having a little trouble controlling this pencil. It seems to want to keep going.’
2. 2 hours 30 minutes after first dose. Patient appears very focus on the business of drawing. ‘Outlines seem normal, but very vivid - everything is changing colour. My hand must follow the bold sweep of the lines. I feel as if my consciousness is situated in the part of my body that’s now active - my hand, my elbow… my tongue’.
3. 2 hours 32 minutes after first dose. Patient seems gripped by his pad of paper. 
   ‘I’m trying another drawing. The outlines of the model are normal, but now those of my drawing are not. The outline of my hand is going weird too. It’s not a very good drawing is it? I give up - I’ll try again…’
4. 2 hours 35 minutes after first dose. Patient follows quickly with another drawing. ‘I’ll do a drawing in one flourish… without stopping… one line, no break!’
   Upon completing the drawing the patient starts laughing, then becomes startled by something on the floor.
5. 2 hours 45 minutes after first dose. Patient tries to climb into activity box, and is generally agitated - responds slowly to the suggestion he might like to draw some more. He has become largely non verbal. ’I am… everything is… changed… they’re calling… your face… interwoven… who is…’ Patient mumbles inaudibly to a tune (sounds like ‘Thanks for the memory’). He changes medium to Tempera.
6. 4 hours 25 minutes after first dose. Patient retreated to the bunk, spending approximately 2 hours lying, waving his hands in the air. His return to the activity box is sudden and deliberate, changing media to pen and water colour.) 
7. ‘This will be the best drawing, like the first one, only better. If I’m not careful I’ll lose control of my movements, but I won’t, because I know. I know’ - (this saying is then repeated many times) 
   Patient makes the last half-a-dozen strokes of the drawing while running back and forth across the room.
8. 5 hours 45 minutes after first dose.
   Patient continues to move about the room, intersecting the space in complex variations. It’s an hour and a half before he settles down to draw again - he appears over the effects of the drug.
   ‘I can feel my knees again, I think it’s starting to wear off. This is a pretty good drawing - this pencil is mighty hard to hold’ - (he is holding a crayon).
9. 8 hours after first dose.
   Patient sits on bunk bed. He reports the intoxication has worn off except for the occasional distorting of our faces. We ask for a final drawing which he performs with little enthusiasm.
   ‘I have nothing to say about this last drawing, it is bad and uninteresting, I want to go home now.’

The RGB Colour Model.

RGB essentially stands for the three primary colours, Red, Green and Blue. In its true essence, the concept of RGB originates from the Young-Helmholtz theory of trichromatic colour vision. 

Contemporary artists and illusionists use the RGB technique to present basically three images in one, by using the additive colours by the technique of overlapping. 

Personally, I find this modern technique absolutely fascinating. The ingenious use of the primary colours creates a mystical oneiric world when the colours bounce off the cone cells in the retina. There is a certain depth that is found in the images, with an almost surreal effect. I am intrigued to find out if LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) creates similar effects in the brain, sparking unusual and ethereal emotions.

Utterly mind boggling. I’m lost for words.

Knowledge grows with time.