Saturday, November 28, 2009

Minor C. Keith

"Quantum Mechanics"
"Montenegro"
"Everest Á"
 

"Cheops"
Mark 11:23  

"For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith."

Let's get closer!!!

Mountain Reflections, Alaska  

by Daniel Leffel

Chess: "Quantum Mechanics" "Northern Railway Co." "Minor C. Keith" "Montenegro" "Cheops"

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Cornucopia

Cornucopia
Happy Thanksgiving from the Webshots family to yours!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Gold Medal

Gold
Hope
Prov. 18:2
"A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself."

The weather project: Tate Modern




Salon d'Ete, Hotel Ritz Paris

For the past twelve years my research team has been using all the brain research tools at its disposal, from functional MRI to electro- and magneto-encephalography and even electrodes inserted deep in the human brain, to shed light on the brain mechanisms of consciousness.

I am now happy to report that we have acquired a good working hypothesis. In experiment after experiment, we have seen the same signatures of consciousness: physiological markers that all, simultaneously, show a massive change when a person reports becoming aware of a piece of information (say a word, a digit or a sound).

Chess: "Hope" "Gold" "Gold Medal"

Sir Francis Bacon

Temple
Christmas Eve
Dawn

Alborada


Prov. 18:1
 

"Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom."


"Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim."~~~Aristotle


lucenarium - service of light


Voando


Congratulations to the latest Creative Challenge winner, anario106, for their entry for the Jump! challenge!
Chess: "Christmas Eve" "Dawn" "Temple" "Araya" "Alfred Hitchcock"


Film

50 Years of Dizzy, Courtesy of Hitchcock



Published: May 11, 2008
“I LOOK up, I look down,” says Detective John (Scottie) Ferguson of the San Francisco police, standing nervously on a stepladder in an early scene of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo.”
Scottie (James Stewart) is trying to cure himself of the title affliction, recently discovered during a rooftop chase in which his fear of heights resulted in the death of a fellow officer. So, impatient with his recovery, he gingerly mounts the three steps of the ladder, looks up, looks down, looks up and looks down again, then collapses into the arms of his college friend Midge (Barbara Bel Geddes), who always seems ready to catch him when he falls.
Fifty years and two days ago, at a preview in San Francisco, moviegoers looked up at the screen and saw “Vertigo” for the first time, and maybe some of them looked down too in confusion or dismay, wondering, as in a dream, where they were and how they had gotten there and how they would make it back to safer ground.
With “Vertigo” you never know. It’s a movie that — even if you know that it will always end the same way, tragically — never takes you to that inevitable conclusion by the same route. You feel as if you are wandering, which is the word Scottie and the object of his desire, Madeleine Elster (Kim Novak), use to describe their days.
Neither, actually, is quite as purposeless as that sounds. Madeleine is chasing the ghost of her great-grandmother, Carlotta Valdes, and Scottie is tailing Madeleine, a private-eye job he’s doing as a favor for another old college chum, Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore), who is her husband. But it’s a desultory sort of surveillance, which turns gradually and with a mysterious inexorability into something else: a love story in which Scottie and Madeleine wander together, pursuing the past and running, with all deliberate speed, from themselves.
You can’t help wondering what those first Bay Area viewers 50 years ago must have thought as they watched this strange, drifty, hallucinatory romance unfold on the big screen, with the strains of Bernard Herrmann’s lush score — brazenly echoing the “Liebestod” from Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde” — swelling on the soundtrack. It wasn’t what they had come to expect from Hitchcock, the beloved portly “master of suspense,” who had been making impishly macabre thrillers for 30-some years and had since 1955 also been the host and impresario of a very popular mystery-story anthology series on television.
“Vertigo” — based on a novel by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, the authors of “Diabolique” — features one murder and two other deaths, but it isn’t built like an ordinary suspense film. Its only action sequence is the first scene, that rooftop chase. The detective never really investigates the movie’s lone murder because he doesn’t know until just before the end that one has been committed; the killer is not brought to justice.
And Hitchcock doesn’t content himself simply with violating genre conventions. He seems determined to unsettle every reasonable expectation — anything that could give us a footing in the shifty, unstable world he’s creating before our eyes.
A couple of years later he notoriously killed off his lead actress in the first 40 minutes of “Psycho,” but that is only marginally more perverse than what he does with Kim Novak in “Vertigo”: in the first third of the picture, when Scottie is following her, she has precisely one close-up and not a single line of dialogue. And in the movie’s final third, every supporting character drops off the screen, leaving Mr. Stewart and Ms. Novak to work out their characters’ awful fate alone. Along the way Hitchcock also throws in a bizarre, partly animated dream sequence and a startling scene in which, as the lovers kiss, the camera pans 360 degrees around them and the background changes from a small hotel room to the stables of an old Spanish mission, where they had kissed once before. You never do know quite where you are in “Vertigo.”
The film wasn’t a hit in its initial release, and it wasn’t enthusiastically reviewed either. But its stature has increased exponentially in its five decades of screen life, especially in the 12 years since its brilliant restoration by Robert A. Harris and James C. Katz; it now routinely places in the Top 10 in critics’ and viewers’ polls of the greatest movies ever made.
For a movie so revered, “Vertigo” hasn’t been terribly influential. The films that try hardest to recapture its twisted, doomy romanticism, like Brian De Palma’s 1976 “Obsession” (with a score by Mr. Herrmann) and Mike Figgis’s 1991 “Liebestraum” (in which Ms. Novak plays a supporting role), always wind up proving that Hitchcock’s dark vision is too wayward, too eccentric to be imitated: there’s never enough wandering in them.
And in a way the wandering is all that matters when you’re watching “Vertigo,” for the first time or the 10th or — like the fictional correspondent of Chris Marker’s beautiful essay-film “Sans Soleil” (1982) — the 19th. This movie isn’t constructed, as most thrillers are, to get us from point A to point B as swiftly and as efficiently as possible. “Vertigo” instead circles compulsively around a set of visual and verbal (and musical) motifs — spirals, towers, bouquets, the words “too late” — which keep bringing us back to the same places, turning us in relentlessly on ourselves. There’s a wonderful scene in which Scottie follows Madeleine through the dizzying streets of San Francisco to his own home. He looks puzzled, utterly disoriented, and the viewer knows exactly how he feels.
Seeing “Vertigo” on DVD is maybe a shade less overwhelming, less deranging, than seeing it as its first audience did, but it has the compensating quality of seeming a more solitary and more intimate experience, and this is, always has been, a movie that makes you want to be alone with it. It’s like Scottie’s surveillance of Madeleine: he watches from a distance, then there’s no distance at all, just him and her, no one else around. Jean-Luc Godard once described the difference between cinema and television as the difference between raising your eyes to the movie screen and lowering them to the TV screen. Whether you look up at “Vertigo” or look down, the effect is the same: You fall and hope that somebody’s there to catch you.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Time

Positively so!
Lobo
Cornwall 
Miner
Russellian Semantics
John 14:6 

"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."


More Russell Lupins.
Russell Lupines
Indian corn


 Cornwall
 Bedruthan Steps

 Cornwall

Taken about 30 mins before sunset, with a brisk westerly pushing the rollers in.
A feat of engineering to build these. The lower engine house was built in 1835 to contain a beam engine to pump out and drain the mine.
The other house had a winding engine to work the inclined Diagonal Shaft which ran out under the sea to a depth of 1360 feet.
It is said, on stormy days, the miners could hear the large boulders being rolled about on the sea floor above their heads.
One hell of a place to work!


Chess: "Time" "Russellian" "Cornwall" "Lobo" "Miner"

Logical Atomism
by Bertrand Russell

The philosophy which I advocate is generally regarded as a species of realism, and accused of inconsistency because of the elements in it which seem contrary to that doctrine. For my part, I do not regard the issue between realists and their opponents as a fundamental one; I could alter my view on this issue without changing my mind as to any of the doctrines upon which I wish to lay stress. I hold that logic is what is fundamental in philosophy, and that schools should be characterized rather by their logic than by their metaphysics. My own logic is atomic, and it is this aspect upon which I should wish to lay stress. Therefore I prefer to describe my philosoophy as "logical atomism," rather than as "realism," whether with or without some prefixed adjective.
A few words as to historical development may be useful by way of preface. I came to philosophy through mathematics, or rather through the wish to find some reason to believe in the truth of mathematics. From early youth, I had an ardent desire to believe that there can be such a thing as knowledge, combined with great difficulty in accepting much that passes as knowledge. It seemed clear that the best chance of finding indubitable truth would be in pure mathematics, yet some of Euclid's axioms were obviously doubtful, and the infinitesimal calculus, as I was taught it, was a mass of sophisms, which I could not bring myself to regard as anything else. I saw no reason to doubt the truth of arithmetic, but I did not then know that arithmetic can be made to embrace all traditional pure mathematics. At the age of eighteen I read Mill's
Logic, but was profoundly dissatisfied with his reasons for accepting arithmetic and geometry. I had not read Hume, but it seemed to me that pure empiricism (which I was disposed to accept) must lead to scepticism rather than to Mill's support of received scientific doctrines. At Cambridge I read Kant and Hegel, as well as Mr. Bradley's Logic, which influenced me profoundly. For some years I was a disciple of Mr. Bradley, but about 1898 I changed my views, largely as a result of arguments with G.E. Moore. I could no longer believe that knowing can make any difference to what it is known. Also I found myself driven to pluralism. Analysis of mathematical propositions persuaded me that they could not be explained as even partial truths unless one admitted pluralism and and the reality of relations.An accident led me at this time to study Leibniz, and I came to the conclusion (subsequently confirmed by Couturat's masterly researches) that many of his most characteristic opinions were due to the purely logical doctrine that every proposition has a subject and a predicate. This doctrine is one which Leibniz shares with Spinoza, Hegel, and Mr. Bradley; it seemed to me that , if it is rejected, the whole foundation for the metaphysics of all these philosophers is shattered. I therefore returned to the problem which had originally led me to philosophy, namely, the foundations of mathematics, applying to it a new logic derived largely from Peano and Frege, which proved (at least, so I believe) far more fruitful than that of traditional philosophy.
In the first place, I found that many of the stock philosophical arguments about mathematics (derived in the main from Kant) had been rendered invalid by the progress of mathematics in the meanwhile. Non-Euclidean geometry had undermined the argument of the transcendental aesthetic. Weierstrass had shown that the differential and integral calculus do not require the conception of the infinitesimal, and that therefore, all that had been said by philosophers on such subjects as the continuity of space and time and motion must be regarded as sheer error. Cantor freed the conception of infinite number from contradiction, and thus disposed of Kant's antinomies as well as many of Hegel's. Finally Frege showed in detail how arithmetic can be deduced from pure logic, without the need from any fresh ideas or axioms, thus disproving Kant's assertion that "7+5=12" is synthetic--at least in the obvious interpretation of that dictum. As all these results were obtained, not by any heroic method, but by patient detailed reasoning, I began to think it probable that philosophy had erred in adopting heroic remedies for intellectual difficulties, and that solutions were to be found merely by greater care and accuracy. This view I have come to hold more and more strongly as time went on, and it has led me to doubt whether philosophy, as a study distinct from science and possesed of a method of its own, is more than an unfortunate legacy from theology.
Frege's work was not final, in the first place because it applied only to arithmetic, not to other branches of mathematics; in the second place because his premises did not exclude certain contradictions to which all systems of formal logic turned out to be liable. Dr. Whitehead and I in collaboration tried to remedy these two defects, in Principia Mathematica, which, however, still falls short of of finality in some fundamental points (notably the axiom of reducibility). But in spite of its shortcomings I think that no one who reads this book will dispute its main contention, namely, that from certain ideas and axioms of formal logic, by the help of the logic of relations, all pure mathematics can be deduced, without any new undefined idea or unproved propositions.. The technical methods of mathematical logic, as developed in this book, seem to me very powerful, and capable of providing a new instrument for the discussion of many problems that have hitherto remained subject to philosophic vagueness. Dr. Whitehead'sConcept of Nature and Principles of natural Knowledge may serve as an illustration of what I mean.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Steppenwolf

Sólo
Solo
Steppenwolf
Prov. 18:5
"It is not good to accept the person of the wicked, to overthrow the righteous in judgment."

Chess: "salir a la Gramática española""sólo" "solo" "Steppenwolf"

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Colour And Light Modifications.

English Country HousesEstancierosGoldsmith Prov. 18:20"A man's belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth; and with the increase of his lips shall he be filled."


Colour And Light Modifications.
Chess: "English country houses" "estancieros" "Goldsmith"

Prologue to `Zobeide


IN these bold times, when Learning's sons explore
The distant climate and the savage shore;
When wise Astronomers to India steer,
And quit for Venus, many a brighter here;
While Botanists, all cold to smiles and dimpling,                5
Forsake the fair, and patiently ....go simpling;
When every bosom swells with wond'rous scenes,
Priests, cannibals, and hoity-toity queens:
Our bard into the general spirit enters,
And fits his little frigate for adventures:                      10
With Scythian stores, and trinkets deeply laden,
He this way steers his course, in hopes of trading --
Yet ere he lands he 'as ordered me before,
To make an observation on the shore.
Where are we driven?  our reck'ning sure is lost!                15
This seems a barren and a dangerous coast.
____ what a sultry climate am I under!
Yon ill foreboding cloud seems big with thunder.
                 ('Upper Gallery'.)
There Mangroves spread, and larger than I've seen 'em --
                 ('Pit'.)
Here trees of stately size -- and turtles in 'em --
                 ('Balconies'.)                               20
Here ill-condition'd oranges abound --
                 ('Stage'.)
And apples ('takes up one and tastes it'),
     bitter apples strew the ground.
The place is uninhabited, I fear!
I heard a hissing -- there are serpents here!
O there the natives are -- a dreadful race!                      25
The men have tails, the women paint the face!
No doubt they're all barbarians. -- Yes, 'tis so,
I'll try to make palaver with them though;
                  ('Making signs'.)
'Tis best, however, keeping at a distance.
Good Savages, our Captain craves assistance;                     30
Our ship's well stor'd; -- in yonder creek we've laid her;
His honour is no mercenary trader;
This is his first adventure; lend him aid,
Or you may chance to spoil a thriving trade.
His goods, he hopes are prime, and brought from far,             35
Equally fit for gallantry and war.
What!  no reply to promises so ample?
I'd best step back -- and order up a sample.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Brooklyn

Brooke Madelyn
Bridge
Ring
Marina del Rey (Cortés)
Prov. 18:22

"Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD."




Chess: "Marina del Rey" "Bridge" "Ring" "Brooklyn"

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Bread

Rio de Janeiro
Pan

Read Bee (Bread)

Prov. 18:15
"The heart of the prudent getteth knowledge; and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge."


Rondout Creek in Autumn Color

Chess: "Rio de Janeiro" "Pan" "Bread"

Oval Office

Oval Office
President
South Dakota

Prov. 18:16
"A man's gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men."
 
Mt. Rushmore at night

 
 Chess : "Oval Office" "President" "South Dakota"

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Masonry

"Golden Scorpions"
"Masonry"

Phil. 4:8
"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are
lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Prov. 18:8

"The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly."


Cheers to member camera_man, the winner of our Creative Challenge: In My Kitchen!
Chess: "Scorpions" "bartizan" "Masonry" "albañil" "StonewallJackson" "Berlin Wall"

Masonry

Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar; the term masonry can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are brick, stone such as marble, granite, travertine, limestone; concrete block, glass block, and tile. Masonry is generally a highly durable form of construction. However, the materials used, the quality of the mortar and workmanship, and the pattern in which the units are assembled can strongly affect the durability of the overall masonry construction. Masonry units, such as brick, tile, stone, glass brick or concrete block generally conform to the requirements specified in the 2006 International Building Code (IBC) Section 2103.
La persona que ejecuta directamente obras de albañilería se conoce con el nombre de albañil. (Blanco y Azul; why?)

The Scorpion and the Frog

One day, a scorpion looked around at the mountain where he lived and decided that he wanted a change. So he set out on a journey through the forests and hills. He climbed over rocks and under vines and kept going until he reached a river.

The river was wide and swift, and the scorpion stopped to reconsider the situation. He couldn't see any way across. So he ran upriver and then checked downriver, all the while thinking that he might have to turn back.

Suddenly, he saw a frog sitting in the rushes by the bank of the stream on the other side of the river. He decided to ask the frog for help getting across the stream.

"Hellooo Mr. Frog!" called the scorpion across the water, "Would you be so kind as to give me a ride on your back across the river?"

"Well now, Mr. Scorpion! How do I know that if I try to help you, you wont try to kill me?" asked the frog hesitantly.

"Because," the scorpion replied, "If I try to kill you, then I would die too, for you see I cannot swim!"

Now this seemed to make sense to the frog. But he asked. "What about when I get close to the bank? You could still try to kill me and get back to the shore!"

"This is true," agreed the scorpion, "But then I wouldn't be able to get to the other side of the river!"

"Alright then...how do I know you wont just wait till we get to the other side and THEN kill me?" said the frog.

"Ahh...," crooned the scorpion, "Because you see, once you've taken me to the other side of this river, I will be so grateful for your help, that it would hardly be fair to reward you with death, now would it?!"

So the frog agreed to take the scorpion across the river. He swam over to the bank and settled himself near the mud to pick up his passenger. The scorpion crawled onto the frog's back, his sharp claws prickling into the frog's soft hide, and the frog slid into the river. The muddy water swirled around them, but the frog stayed near the surface so the scorpion would not drown. He kicked strongly through the first half of the stream, his flippers paddling wildly against the current.

Halfway across the river, the frog suddenly felt a sharp sting in his back and, out of the corner of his eye, saw the scorpion remove his stinger from the frog's back. A deadening numbness began to creep into his limbs.

"You fool!" croaked the frog, "Now we shall both die! Why on earth did you do that?"

The scorpion shrugged, and did a little jig on the drownings frog's back.

"I could not help myself. It is my nature."

Then they both sank into the muddy waters of the swiftly flowing river.

Self destruction - "Its my Nature", said the Scorpion...

Sure

Clorophyll
Leaves
Sirloin
Sure
Prov. 18:18
"The lot causeth contentions to cease, and parteth between the mighty."

Beatiful tree in full fall color
Bernheim Forest in Autumn, Kentucky
Chess: "clorophyll" "leaves" "sirloin"

"The Emperor Karl of gentle France
Hither hath come for our dire mischance."


Part I Section I The Song of Roland The Treason Of Ganelon. Saragossa. The Council of King Marsil Translation by John O'Hagan

Chlorophyll

Chlorophyll is a green pigment found in most plants, algae, and cyanobacteria. Its name is derived from the Greek χλωρός (chloros "green") and φύλλον (phyllon "leaf"). Chlorophyll absorbs light most strongly in the blue and red but poorly in the green portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, hence the green colour of chlorophyll-containing tissues such as plant leaves.
Chlorophyll is vital for photosynthesis, which allows plants to obtain energy from light.
Chlorophyll molecules are specifically arranged in and around pigment protein complexes called photosystems which are embedded in the thylakoid membranes of chloroplasts. In these complexes, chlorophyll serves two primary functions. The function of the vast majority of chlorophyll (up to several hundred molecules per photosystem) is to absorb light and transfer that light energy by resonance energy transfer to a specific chlorophyll pair in the reaction center of the photosystems. Because of chlorophyll’s selectivity regarding the wavelength of light it absorbs, areas of a leaf containing the molecule will appear green.

Monday, November 9, 2009

water table

Río Oro
Table
Breakfast

Psalm 63:1
[[A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.]] O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;



WYANDOT FALLS
Wyandot Falls in Autumn
Chess: "Río Oro" "Table" "Breakfast" "Artesian Well" "water table"

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Imperial


Knight
Empire
Psalm 63:3

"Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee."




Chess: "knight" "Empire"

Friday, November 6, 2009

Minnesota

Salt and Pepper
Iguazú Falls
Zipaquirá
Gen 7:11"In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened."
Heb. 13:17 "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
Fall colors in MN
North Oaks, Minnesota


"
Chess: "salt and pepper" "Iguazú Falls" "Zipaquirá"

Thursday, November 5, 2009

(deconstructing)

ArgentSan Diego
Mount Hood

Cardinal
Brid
Bard
Prov. 23:5
"Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven."


Ancient Bridge
Ancient Bridge
Chess: "Mount Hood" "San Diego" "Argent" "Cardinal" "Brid" "Bard"

this is a shoring up post prompted by recent events , ver también videos de Argent : Hold Your Head Up

Mount Hood

Mount Hood, called Wy'east by the Multnomah tribe, is a stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc of northern Oregon. It was formed by a subduction zone and rests in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located about 50 miles (80 km) east-southeast of Portland, on the border between.
The Multnomah name for Mount Hood is Wy'east. In one version of the legend the two sons of the Great Spirit Sahale fell in love with the beautiful maiden Loowit who could not decide which to choose. The two braves, Wy'east and Klickitat, burned forests and villages in their battle over her. Sahale became enraged and smote the three lovers. Seeing what he had done he erected three mountain peaks to mark where each fell. He made beautiful Mount St. Helens for Loowit, proud and erect Mount Hood for Wy'east, and the somber Mount Adams for the mourning Klickitat. [36]
There are other versions of the legend. In another telling Wy'east (Hood) battles Pahto (Adams) for the fair La-wa-la-clough (St. Helens). Or again Wy'east, the chief of the Multnomah tribe, competed with the chief of the Klickitat tribe. Their great anger led to their transformation into volcanoes. Their battle is said to have destroyed the Bridge of the Gods and thus created the great Cascades Rapids of the Columbia River.[37]
The mountain was given its present name on October 29, 1792 by Lt. William Broughton, a member of Captain George Vancouver's discovery expedition. Lt. Broughton observed its peak while at Belle Vue Point of what is now called Sauvie Island during his travels up the Columbia River, writing "A very high, snowy mountain now appeared rising beautifully conspicuous in the midst of an extensive tract of low or moderately elevated land (location of today's Vancouver, Washington) lying S 67 E., and seemed to announce a termination to the river." Lt. Broughton named the mountain after a British admiral, Samuel Hood.[9]
Lewis and Clark were the first Americans to see the mountain, on October 18, 1805. A few days later at what would become The Dalles, Clark wrote "The pinnacle of the round topped mountain, which we saw a short distance below the banks of the river, is South 43-degrees West of us and about 37 miles (60 km). It is at this time topped with snow. We called this the Falls Mountain, or Timm Mountain." Timm was the native name for Celilo Falls. Clark later noted that it was also Vancouver's Mount Hood.[38][39]
Two French explorers from Hudson's Bay Company may have traveled into the Dog River area east of Mount Hood in 1818. They reported climbing to a glacier on "Montagne de Neige" (Mountain of Snow), probably Eliot Glacier.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Rosso Fiorentino

Fontainebleau
Shark

Sickle

Prov. 6:4

"Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids."


Eagle's Pride

Garden view of Fontainebleau showing some of André Le Nôtre's work.

Chess: "Fontainebleau" "shark" "sickle"

Palace of Fontainebleau



Fontainebleau at Seine-et-Marne, France is 50km south of Paris.

Named after a fresh water spring that gave rise to the town. The royal castle existed as early as the twelfth century as a hunting lodge. Eight hundred years of architectural history can be read at Fontainebleau.

The chateau of Fontainebleau was Francois I's (1515-1547) preferred residence. Located not to far from the capital at the heart of a vast forest, it was the perfect place for the King to carry on his lifestyle of hunting and tournaments, interspersed with festivals, and formal balls.

After campaigning in Italy, Francois I brought home the Renaissance style he saw there which he combined with French Gothic to create a new style. Francois I reconstructed the chateau. He invited Italian artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Benvenuto Cellini to improve his palace. A bronze foundry was created in which sculptures ordered from the Florentine artist Benvenuto Cellini were cast, in particular of the statues of Diane, Venus and the Jupiter effigy. Italian painters Rosso Fiorentino and Primatice (1504-1570) came to France to direct the works and to decorate the rooms of the castle. The walls around the monumental staircase were decorated with mythological figures. The gallery of the Castle, Gallery of Francois I, decorated with frescos by Rosso Fiorentino portray the gods of Olympus with the features of the sovereign. The stuccos in low-relief and sculptures executed by Primatice and Rosso Fiorentino constitute true masterpieces. Hangings and tapestries and carpet designed by Primatice were also commissioned and installed in Fontainebleau. The artists gave birth to the School of Fontainebleau, that deeply influenced French painting in the following centuries. A kind of international mannerism was developed, which tried to synthesize the Italian, French and Nordic traditions.

Stucco in Galerie François I at Fontainebleau, created 1534-36 by Rosso Fiorentino.
Stucco in Galerie François I at Fontainebleau, created 1534-36 by Rosso Fiorentino.


Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Santo Grial

"Prague Spring"
Dubcek

URSS
"Our Celia"
"Santo Grial"
Prov. 6:35

"He will not regard any ransom; neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts."


Prague's Astronomical Clock - Prague Orloj
Chess: " Dubcek" "URSS "Our Celia" "Santo Grial" "Prague Spring"

The Prague Spring (Czech: Pražské jaro, Slovak: Pražská jar) was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union afterWorld War II. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Slovak Alexander Dubček came to power, and continued until 21 August when the Soviet Union and members of its Warsaw Pact allies invaded the country to halt the reforms.

The Prague Spring reforms were an attempt by Dubček to grant additional rights to the citizens in an act of partial decentralization of the economy and democratization. The freedoms granted included a loosening of restrictions on the media, speech and travel. Dubček also federalized the country into two separate republics; this was the only change that survived the end of the Prague Spring.

The reforms were not received well by the Soviets who, after failed negotiations, sent thousands of Warsaw Pact troops and tanks to occupy the country. A large wave of emigration swept the nation. While there were many non-violent protests in the country, including the protest-suicide of a student, there was no military resistance. Czechoslovakia remained occupied until 1990.

After the invasion, Czechoslovakia entered a period of normalization: subsequent leaders attempted to restore the political and economic values that had prevailed before Dubček gained control of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ). Gustáv Husák, who replaced Dubček and also became president, reversed almost all of Dubček's reforms. The Prague Spring has become immortalized in music and literature such as the work of Karel Kryl and Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being.



Royal

Heritage
Juan Carlos
Three Kings
The Great Wall
Matt. 2:1
"Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem," Portland Head Sunrise
Chess: "Heritage" "Seamanship" "Survival" "Navy" "Juan Carlos" "Three Kings" "The Great Wall"

The "Three Kings" must needs be the Royal House of Egypt (The Abrahamic Covenant) .....lo dice "ARod": "yo no sé de el hilo, María es la que cose"

Biblical Magi

In Christian tradition the Magi (pronounced /ˈmeɪdʒaɪ/; Greek: μάγοι, magoi), also referred to as the (Three) Wise Men, (Three) Kings, or Kings from the East, are said to have visited Jesus after his birth, bearing gifts. They are mentioned only in the Gospel of Matthew [2], which says that they came "from the east" to worship the Christ, "born King of the Jews". Because three gifts were recorded, there are traditionally said to have been three Magi, though Matthew does not specify their number.[1] They are regular figures in accounts of the nativity and in celebrations of Christmas.

The New International Version of Matthew 2:1-12 describes the visit of the Magi:

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him. When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. In Bethlehem in Judea, they replied, for this is what the prophet has written: 'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.' Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him. After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

They are mentioned twice shortly thereafter, in reference to their avoidance of Herod after seeing Jesus, and what Herod had learned from their earlier meeting.

The Magi are popularly referred to as wise men and kings. The word Magi is a Latinization of the plural of the Greek word magos (μαγος pl. μαγοι), itself from Old Persian maguŝ from the Avestan moγu. The term refers to the priestly caste of Zoroastrianism.[2] As part of their religion, these priests paid particular attention to the stars, and gained an international reputation for astrology, which was at that time highly regarded as a science. Their religious practices and use of astrology caused derivatives of the term Magi to be applied to the occult in general and led to the English term magic. Translated in the King James Version as wise men, the same word is given as sorcerer and sorcery when describing "Elymas the sorcerer" in Acts 13:6-11, and Simon Magus, considered a heretic by the early Church, in Acts 8:9-13

Traditions identify a variety of different names for the Magi. In the Western Christian church they have been commonly known since the 8th century as Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar. These derive from an early 6th century Greek manuscript in Alexandria.[3] The Latin text Collectanea et Flores[4] continues the tradition of three kings and their names and gives additional details. This text is said to be from the 8th century, of Irish origin.

Caspar is also sometimes given as Gaspar or Jaspar.[5] One candidate for the origin of the name Caspar appears in the Acts of Thomas as Gondophares (AD 21 – c.AD 47), i.e., Gudapharasa (from which 'Caspar' might derive as corruption of 'Gaspar'). This Gondophares declared independence from the Arsacids to become the first Indo-Parthian king and who was allegedly visited by Thomas the Apostle. Christian legend may have chosen Gondofarr simply because he was an eastern king living in the right time period.

In contrast, the Syrian Christians name the Magi Larvandad, Gushnasaph, and Hormisdas. These names have a far greater likelihood of being originally Persian, though that does not, of course, guarantee their authenticity.

In the Eastern churches, Ethiopian Christianity, for instance, has Hor, Karsudan, and Basanater, while the Armenians have Kagpha, Badadakharida and Badadilma.[6][7] Many Chinese Christians believe that one of the magi came from China.[8] This final idea is used by Christopher Moore in his novel Lamb.

Origin and journey


The Journey of the Magi by James Tissot. A group of Western painters have imagined the magi as having Arab clothing instead of Persian attire which is more probable.

The phrase from the east is the only information Matthew provides about the region from which they came. Traditionally the view developed that they were Persian or from Yemen as the Makrebs or kings of Yemen then were Jews, a view held for example by John Chrysostom, and Byzantine art generally depicted them in Persian dress. The main support for this is that the first Magi were from Persia and that land still had the largest number of them. Some believe they were from Babylon, which was the centre of Zurvanism, and hence astrology, at the time. Raymond Brown comments that the author of Matthew probably did not have a specific location in mind and the phrase from the east is for literary effect and added exoticism.

According to the Gospel of Matthew, the Magi found Jesus by following a star, which thus traditionally became known as the Star of Bethlehem. Various theories have been presented as to the nature of this star.

On finding him, they gave him three symbolic gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh. Warned in a dream that Judean king Herod intended to kill the child, they decided to return home by a different route. This prompted Herod to resort to killing all the young children in Bethlehem, an act called the Massacre of the Innocents, in an attempt to eliminate a rival heir to his throne. Jesus and his family had, however, escaped to Egypt beforehand. After these events they passed into obscurity.[9] The story of the nativity in Matthew glorifies Jesus, likens him to Moses, and shows his life as fulfilling prophecy. Some critics consider this nativity story to be an invention of the author of Matthew.[10]

After the visit the Magi leave the narrative by returning another way so as to avoid Herod, and do not reappear. Gregory the Great waxed lyrical on this theme, commenting that having come to know Jesus we are forbidden to return by the way we came. There are many traditional stories about what happened to the Magi after this, with one having them baptised by St. Thomas on his way to India. Another has their remains found by Saint Helena and brought to Constantinople, and eventually making their way to Germany and the Shrine of the Three Kings at Cologne Cathedral.

The Magi are described as "falling down", "kneeling" or "bowing" in the worship of Jesus. This gesture, together with the use of kneeling in Luke's birth narrative, had an important effect on Christian religious practices. Previously both Jewish and Roman traditions had viewed kneeling and prostration as undignified, reserved in Jewish tradition for epiphanies. However for Persians, they were indicative of great respect, and typically used when venerating a king. Inspired by these verses, kneeling and prostration were adopted in the early Church. While prostration is now rarely practiced in the West, it is still relatively common in the Eastern Churches, especially during Lent. Kneeling has remained an important element of Christian worship to this day.

Three gifts are explicitly identified in Matthew: gold, frankincense, and myrrh which is found only in Yemen. Many different theories of the meaning and symbolism of the gifts have been brought forward. While gold is fairly obviously explained, frankincense, and particularly myrrh, are much more obscure.

The theories generally break down into two groups:

  1. All three gifts are ordinary offerings and gifts given to a king. Myrrh being commonly used as an anointing oil, frankincense as a perfume, and gold as a valuable.
  2. The three gifts had a spiritual meaning : gold as a symbol of kingship on earth, frankincense (an incense) as a symbol of priestship, and myrrh (an embalming oil) as a symbol of death.
  • Sometimes this is described more generally as gold symbolizing virtue, frankincense symbolizing prayer, and myrrh symbolizing suffering.

Myrrh was used as an embalming ointment and as a penitential incense in funerals and cremations until the 15th century. The "holy oil" traditionally used by the Eastern Orthodox Church for performing the sacraments of chrismation and unction is traditionally scented with myrrh, and receiving either of these sacraments is commonly referred to as "receiving the Myrrh".

It has been suggested by scholars that the "gifts" were medicinal rather than precious material for tribute.[11][12][13])

This episode can be linked to Isaiah 60 and to Psalm 72 which report gifts being given by kings, and this has played a central role in the perception of the Magi as kings, rather than as astronomer-priests. In a hymn of the late 4th-century hispanic poet Prudentius, the three gifts have already gained their medieval interpretation as prophetic emblems of Jesus' identity, familiar in the carol "We Three Kings" by John Henry Hopkins, Jr., 1857.

John Chrysostom suggested that the gifts were fit to be given not just to a king but to God, and contrasted them with the Jews' traditional offerings of sheep and calves, and accordingly Chrysostom asserts that the Magi worshiped Jesus as God.

What subsequently happened to these gifts is never mentioned in the scripture, but several traditions have developed.[14] One story has the gold being stolen by the two thieves who were later crucified alongside Jesus. Another tale has it being entrusted to and then misappropriated by Judas.

In the Monastery of St. Paul of Mount Athos there is a 15th century golden case containing purportedly the Gift of the Magi. It was donated to the monastery in the 15th century by Mara Branković, daughter of the King of Serbia Đurađ Branković, wife to the Ottoman Sultan Murat II and godmother to Mehmet II the Conqueror (of Constantinople). Apparently they were part of the relics of the Holy Palace of Constantinople and it is claimed they were displayed there since the 4th century AD. After the Athens earthquake of September 9, 1999 they were temporarily displayed in Athens in order to strengthen faith and raise money for earthquake victims.

Religious significance

According to most forms of Christianity, the Magi were the first religious figures to worship Christ, and for this reason[citation needed] the story of the Magi is particularly respected and popular among many Christians. The visit of the Magi is commemorated in most Western Christian churches (but not the Eastern Orthodox) on the observance of Epiphany, 6 January. The Eastern Orthodox celebrate it on 25 December. This visit is frequently treated in Christian art and literature as The Adoration of the Magi.

The identification of the Magi as kings is linked to Old Testament prophesies that have the Messiah being worshipped by kings in Isaiah 60:3, Psalm 72:10, and Psalm 68:29. Early readers reinterpreted Matthew in light of these prophecies and elevated the Magi to kings. Mark Allan Powell rejects this view. He argues that the idea of the Magi as kings arose considerably later in the time after Constantine and the change was made to endorse the role of Christian monarchs. By AD 500 all commentators adopted the prevalent tradition of the three were kings, and this continued until the Protestant Reformation.[citation needed]

Though the Qur'an omits Matthew's episode of the Magi, it was well known in Arabia. The Muslim encyclopaedist al-Tabari, writing in the 9th century, gives the familiar symbolism of the gifts of the Magi. Al-Tabari gave his source for the information to be the later 7th century writer Wahb ibn Munabbih.[17]

Some religious traditions take a critical view of the Magi. Jehovah's Witnesses[18] do not see the arrival of the Magi as something to be celebrated, but instead stress the Biblical condemnation of sorcery and astrology in such texts as Deuteronomy 18:10–11, Leviticus 19:26, and Isaiah 47:13–14. They also point to the fact that the star seen by the Magi led them first to a hostile enemy of Jesus, and only then to the child's location — the argument being that if this was an event from God, it makes no sense for them to be led to a ruler with intentions to kill the child before taking them to Jesus.[citation needed]