Thursday, January 28, 2010

Louisiana

Dynamo
Generator

Function

Arch

St. Louis

Prov. 12:9
"He that is despised, and hath a servant, is better tha
n he that honoureth himself, and lacketh bread."

Misty forest
Light from the Shadow
Covered Bridge
Dr. Knisley covered bridge
Chess: "Dynamo" "Generator" "Function" "Arch" "St. Louis"

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

El Verbo

Energy
Fuel 
E=mc2
 
Activos

Australia
 
Prov. 12:6 

"The words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood: but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them." 
Heb. 11:7 
"By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith."
Matt. 15:11 
"Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.



a BERLIN 251 
Sony Center, Berlin, Germany 
Chess: "Energy" "Fuel" "Feu" "E=mc2" "Activos"

Monday, January 25, 2010

Amelia Vega

Wheat
Cetus

Jalisco 
Amelia Vega
 
Prov. 12:4
"A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband: but she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones."






The Flow


Amelia Vega




  Catedral, Guadalajara Jalisco Mexico by raulmacias on Flickr


 Las Alamandas, Jalisco Mexico

Chess: "wheat" "Cetus" "Jalisco" "Amelia Vega"

Wheat (Triticum aestivum)


History

Wheat has been cultivated domestically at least since 9,000 B.C. and probably earlier. Domesticated Einkorn wheat at Nevali Cori 40 miles northwest of Gobekli Tepe in Turkey has been dated to 9,000 B.C.
However evidence for the exploitation of wild barley has been dated to 23,000 B.C. and some say this is also true of pre-domesticated wheat.

Cetus

Cetus is a constellation in the northern sky. Its name refers to Cetus, a sea monster in Greek mythology, although it is often called 'the whale' today. Cetus is located in the region of the sky known as the Water, along with other watery constellations such as Aquarius, Pisces, and Eridanus.

Mythology

This constellation has been recognized since antiquity. In Mesopotamia, it was identified with the primordial cosmic female principle, the sea-monster Tiamat.[citation needed]
In Ancient Greece, it was identified with the sea monster Cetus, and together with the constellations above it, (Andromeda, Cepheus, Perseus, Cassiopeia, and possibly Pegasus), it may be the source of the myth of the Boast of Cassiopeia, with which it is usually identified.

In certain earlier Greek legends, Cetus also represented the gates (and gateposts) of the underworld (considered to be the area under the ecliptic). As such, together with other features in the Zodiac sign of Pisces (including Pisces itself, as well as prominent stars behind Cetus), it may have formed the basis of the myth of the capture of Cerberus in The Twelve Labours of Heracles.

According to Arab astronomers, one of the hands of the Pleiades (Al-Thurayya) extended into part of the constellation of Cetus. The Arabs also saw two pearl necklaces among the stars of Cetus: one pearl necklace was fully tied together and undamaged, but the other pearl necklace was broken and its pearls were scattered. Another generation of Arabs, like the ancient Hebrews and Greeks, portrayed an enormous Leviathan-like sea creature among the stars of Cetus.



T: Wheatstone bridge

Tea
Honolulu
Sweepstakes

Steaks
Wheatstone bridge


Prov. 12:1
" Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof is brutish."



“Instead of  eating monkeys / They are eating Christians” ~~~ T.S. Eliot


“morality..may be instilled into their minds”~~~Jefferson



Elegant Eagle


T-Bone Steaks


Lone Gorilla
Deep Thought






 
Tea Party Silhouette Children Fairies Tea Cup Spoon Fairy Digital Image Download


Chess: "Honolulu" "Sweepstakes" "Stakes" "Steaks" "Wheatstone bridge"

Wheatstone bridge
A Wheatstone bridge is a measuring instrument invented by Samuel Hunter Christie in 1833 and improved and popularized by Sir Charles Wheatstone in 1843. It is used to measure an unknown electrical resistance by balancing two legs of a bridge circuit, one leg of which includes the unknown component. Its operation is similar to the original potentiometer.

Significance

The Wheatstone bridge illustrates the concept of a difference measurement, which can be extremely accurate. Variations on the Wheatstone bridge can be used to measure capacitance, inductance, impedance and other quantities, such as the amount of combustible gases in a sample, with an explosimeter. The Kelvin double bridge was specially adapted from the Wheatstone bridge for measuring very low resistances. In many cases, the significance of measuring the unknown resistance is related to measuring the impact of some physical phenomenon - such as force, temperature, pressure, etc - which thereby allows the use of Wheatstone bridge in measuring those elements indirectly.
The concept was extended to alternating current measurements by James Clerk Maxwell in 1865 and further improved by Alan Blumlein in about 1926.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Ride Like The Wind

Christopher Cross
K.K. (C.C.)

Noah

Faith & Works

Heb. 11:7
"By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith."

Kheops and Khefren Pyramids, Egypt
Chess: "Noah" "Christopher Cross" "Faith & Works"



Felipe

Camelia
Kinetic
Philip
Prov. 31:14
"She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar."An amazing morning, breathtaking beautiful!

Chess:
"Camelia" "Kinetic" "Philip"

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Concord

"El Hierberito"
"Wrigley's Spearmint Gum"
"Mercury"

"Tapioca"

"Concordia"
Pro 26:23

"Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd covered with silver dross."
Matt. 23:23

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone."
Luke 11:42

"But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone."pigeon dreams


Lyons Arboretum
Lyons Arboretum


Joshua Tree National Park
Joshua Tree National Park

Chess: "Wrigley's Spearmint Gum" "Mercury" "Miércoles" "Choose Life!" "Wednesday" "Tapioca" "vault" "New in Town"

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Urbino

Urbino
Old Parr

Black Label.
Eccles.10:12-15

The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself.
The beginning of the words of his mouth
is foolishness: and the end of his talk is mischievous madness.
A fool also is full of words: a man cannot tell what shall be; and what shall be after him, who can tell him?
The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city.



Musk Lorikeet




Federico III da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino. Portrait by Piero della Francesca, 1492.

Chess: "Urbino" "Old Parr" "Black Label"


Urbino is a walled city in the Marche region in Italy, south-west of Pesaro, a World Heritage Site notable for a remarkable historical legacy of independent Renaissance culture, especially under the patronage of Federico da Montefeltro, duke of Urbino from 1444 to 1482. The town, nestled on a high sloping hillside, retains much of its picturesque medieval aspect, only slightly marred by the large car parks below the town. It hosts the University of Urbino, founded in 1506, and is the seat of the Archbishop of Urbino (see below). Its best-known architectural piece is the Palazzo Ducale, rebuilt by Luciano Laurana.

The modest Roman town of Urvinum Mataurense ("the little city on the river Mataurus") became an important strategic stronghold in the Gothic Wars of the 6th century, captured in 538 from the Ostrogoths by the Roman general Belisarius, and frequently mentioned by the historian Procopius.

Though Pippin presented Urbino to the Papacy, independent traditions were expressed in its commune, until, around 1200, it came into the possession of the House of Montefeltro. Although these noblemen had no direct authority over the commune, they could pressure it to elect them to the position of podestà, a title that Bonconte di Montefeltro managed to obtain in 1213, with the result that Urbino's population rebelled and formed an alliance with the independent commune of Rimini (1228), finally regaining control of the town in 1234. Eventually, though, the Montefeltro noblemen took control once more, and held it until 1508. In the struggles between the Guelphs and Ghibellines where factions supported either the Papacy or the Holy Roman Empire, the 13th and 14th century Montefeltro lords of Urbino were leaders of the Ghibellines of the Marche and in the Romagna region.

The most famous member of the Montefeltro was Federico III (or II), Duke of Urbino from 1444 to 1482, a very successful condottiere, a skillful diplomat and an enthusiastic patron of art and literature. At his court, Piero della Francesca wrote on the science of perspective, Francesco di Giorgio Martini wrote his Trattato di architettura ("Treatise on Architecture") and Raphael's father, Giovanni Santi, wrote his poetical account of the chief artists of his time. Federico's brilliant court, according to the descriptions in Baldassare Castiglione's Il Cortegiano ("The Book of the Courtier"), set standards of what was to characterize a modern European "gentleman" for centuries to come.

In 1502, Cesare Borgia, with the connivance of his Papal father, Alexander VI, dispossessed Duke Guidobaldo and Elisabetta Gonzaga. They returned in 1503, after Alexander had died. After the Medici pope Leo X's brief attempt to establish a young Medici as duke, thwarted by the early death of Lorenzo II de' Medici in 1519, Urbino was ruled by the dynasty of Della Rovere dukes (see also War of Urbino).

In 1626, Pope Urban VIII definitively incorporated the Duchy into the papal dominions, the gift of the last Della Rovere duke, in retirement after the assassination of his heir, to be governed by the archbishop. Its great library was removed to Rome and added to the Vatican Library in 1657. The later history of Urbino is part of the history of the Papal States and, after 1861, of the Kingdom (later Republic) of Italy.
(from Wikipedia)

Monday, January 18, 2010

Israel

Rich Coast of Israel
Costa Rica
Gen 32:32
"Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shran
k, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank."
Josh. 18:5
"And they shall divide it into seven parts: Judah shall abide in their coast on the south, and the house of Joseph shall abide in their coasts on the north."


watching planes land at sunset beach bar st maarten
Airliner Landing Near Maho Beach, St. Maarten

Chess: "Costa Rica" "Israel"

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Haitian children

Let's hear!


DSCN8719
Thousands are struggling for life in Haiti after the earthquake.

Children of God

Colosse

Corcovado
Osa

Col 1:2 :

"To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ".
Col 1:19

"For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;"


Yaquina Head, Oregon Coast

Reaching Out


Chess: "Península de Osa" "Corcovado" "OSA"
OSA Logo Optical Society of America.

Diamonds are a Laser's Best Friend

First efficient diamond Raman laser paves the way to new defense technologies and improved laser surgery

WASHINGTON, Sept. 18—Tomorrow’s lasers may come with a bit of bling, thanks to a new technology that uses man-made diamonds to enhance the power and capabilities of lasers. Researchers in Australia have now demonstrated the first laser built with diamonds that has comparable efficiency to lasers built with other materials.

This “Raman” laser has applications that range from defense technologies and trace gas detectors to medical devices and satellite mapping of greenhouse gases. The special properties of diamonds offer a stepping stone to more powerful lasers that can be optimized to produce laser light colors currently unavailable to existing technologies.

Richard Mildren of Macqaurie University in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and Alexander Sabella of the Defence Science and Technology Organisation in Edinburgh, South Australia developed the device, described in the current issue of the Optical Society (OSA) journal Optics Letters.

“Diamond is quite a bizarre material with unique and extreme properties,” says Mildren. “Single crystal diamond is very new on the scene as an optical and laser material.”

Existing Raman lasers typically use crystals of silicon, barium nitrate or metal tungstate to amplify light created by a pump laser. Compared to these materials, diamond has a higher optical gain (ability to amplify) as well as a greater thermal conductivity (ability to conduct heat), making it ideal for high-power applications. Diamond crystals also can be made to generate a wider variety of wavelengths of light, each of which have its own applications—from ultraviolet light at 225 nanometers to far-infrared light at 100 microns.

In 2008, Mildren built the first diamond Raman laser, reported in Optics Express, OSA's open-access journal. This proof-of-principle device was only 20 percent as efficient as the best barium nitrate lasers.

In the past year, the industrial process used to grow these artificial diamonds–chemical vapor deposition–has greatly improved, allowing the synthesis of crystals with a lower birefringence (less likely to split apart an incoming beam of light).

“The material is now good enough to start moving into applications that are of real practical interest,” says Mildren.

Now Mildren's current laser, which uses a 6.7 mm long diamond, achieves an efficiency of 63.5 percent, which is competitive with the 65 percent efficiency achieved by existing Raman lasers. The device is currently optimized to produce yellow laser light useful for medical applications such as eye surgery, and other applications should be possible with different optimization schemes.

Paper: “Highly efficient diamond Raman laser,” R.P. Mildren et al., Optics Letters, Vol. 34, Issue 18, pp. 2811-2813.


About OSA
Uniting more than 106,000 professionals from 134 countries, the Optical Society (OSA) brings together the global optics community through its programs and initiatives. Since 1916 OSA has worked to advance the common interests of the field, providing educational resources to the scientists, engineers and business leaders who work in the field by promoting the science of light and the advanced technologies made possible by optics and photonics. OSA publications, events, technical groups and programs foster optics knowledge and scientific collaboration among all those with an interest in optics and photonics. For more information, visit www.osa.org.

###

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Bellerophon

Wall
Pegasus

Guaria
Orchid

 
Eccles. 10:19

"A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things."

 
Star trail shot in 1hr exposure

 

Chess: "Orchid" "Pegasus" "Wall" "Guaria" "Música" "Thalia"
 
Pegasus (from the Greek Pégasos: Πήγασος), the famed winged horse of Greek myth was, according to lore, created at the death of Medusa. How exactly Pegasus was created varies, as does the idea that Poseidon; the Greek god of the sea, and of horses, is his father. In some myths Pegasus springs from Medusa’s neck after her head has been severed by the hero Perseus. In others Pegasus is created by the merging of Medusa’s blood with sea foam, it seems unclear however whether this would make Poseidon or Oceanus his father. In yet other tales Pegasus is created when Medusa’s blood mixes with the earth – this version of the myth goes against the idea of Oceanus or Poseidon's paternity. The account given in Hesiod's Theogony is that Pegasus sprang from Medusa's neck along with Chrysaor, and that he was so named because he was born beside the waters of Oceanus - the river which encircled the world.

Pegasus was, for a while, the steed of the Greek hero Bellerophon, aiding him in killing the Chimera and defeating the Solymians and the Amazons. However, Bellerophon grew arrogant and attempted to ride Pegasus to Mount Olympus. For his impiety, Zeus sent a gadfly to bite Pegasus, causing him to rear and throw Bellerophon off. In some myths, after this incident, Pegasus became the carrier of Zeus’ thunderbolts.

Pegasus is often associated with the nine Greek muses, sources of inspiration for the Greek world. He created the spring Hippocrene, on Mt Helicon – home of the muses - by striking the rock with his hooves to command the mountain to return to its normal size on the orders of Poseidon, after Mt Helicon swelled with pleasure during the singing contest between the muses and the Pierides.

The presence of the ‘sus/sos’ in his name suggests a pre-Greek origin, allowing Pegasus to be dated back to around the middle of the Bronze Age.

Since then, 'Pegasus' has come to mean for many people, any winged horse, sometimes referred to as pegasi (plural), pegasuses (pl.), or pegas (single, family, or herd). However, some people dispute these names and argue that 'Pegasus' refers specifically to the winged horse of Greek mythology, and that the racial name is 'pterippi'.

As with most legendary characters from Greek mythology, Pegasus eventually became a constellation, this constellation makes up one of our 88 modern constellations
, belonging to the northern hemisphere and visible in Autumn. It is often viewed in an upside down position, giving it the appearance of emerging from the ocean.

Today Pegasi are more closely associated with the fantasy genre and are one of the more popular and widely known mythical creatures. They can often be found in both fantasy fiction and art. Dungeons & Dragons (http://www.wizards.com/dnd) defines the creature as a magical (woodland) beast.

References:
Hesiod, 1988. Theogony and Works and Days. New York: Oxford University Press
Pierre Grimal, Dictionary of Clasical Mythology
Robert Graves, The Greek Myths I & II
M. Makins et al, Collins English Dictionary
Dungeons & Dragons, http://www.wizards.com/dnd/

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Charleston

Chesterfield
Chesterton
WonderBra
The City: The Cut (Paris?)
Eccles. 10:15
The labor of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city.

Eccles.10:16
"Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning!"

Grand Canal

Chess: "Chesterfield" "Chesterton" "WonderBra" "Charleston"

"Be cautiously upon your guard against the infinite number of fine-dressed and fine-spoken chevaliers d'industrie and aventuriers, which swarm at Paris." CHESTERFIELD: Letters to his son (26 Apr. 1750)

The Earl of Chesterfield

Letters to his Son

SPECIAL INTRODUCTION

The proud Lord Chesterfield would have turned in his grave had he known that he was to go down to posterity as a teacher and preacher of the gospel of not grace, but—“the graces, the graces, the graces.” Natural gifts, social status, open opportunities, and his ambition, all conspired to destine him for high statesmanship. If anything was lacking in his qualifications, he had the pluck and good sense to work hard and persistently until the deficiency was made up. Something remained lacking, and not all his consummate mastery of arts could conceal that conspicuous want,—the want of heart.

Teacher and preacher he assuredly is, and long will be, yet no thanks are his due from a posterity of the common people whom he so sublimely despised. His pious mission was not to raise the level of the multitude, but to lift a single individual upon a pedestal so high that his lowly origin should not betray itself. That individual was his, Lord Chesterfield’s, illegitimate son, whose inferior blood should be given the true blue hue by concentrating upon him all the externals of aristocratic education.

Never had pupil so devoted, persistent, lavish, and brilliant a guide, philosopher, and friend, for the parental relation was shrewdly merged in these. Never were devotion and uphill struggle against doubts of success more bitterly repaid. Philip Stanhope was born in 1732, when his father was thirty-eight. He absorbed readily enough the solids of the ideal education supplied him, but, by perversity of fate, he cared not a fig for “the graces, the graces, the graces,” which his father so wisely deemed by far the superior qualities to be cultivated by the budding courtier and statesman. A few years of minor services to his country were rendered, though Chesterfield was breaking his substitute for a heart because his son could not or would not play the superfine gentleman—on the paternal model, and then came the news of his death, when only thirty-six. What was a still greater shock to the lordly father, now deaf, gouty, fretful, and at outs with the world, his informant reported that she had been secretly married for several years to Young Hopeful, and was left penniless with two boys. Lord Chesterfield was above all things a practical philosopher, as hard and as exquisitely rounded and polished as a granite column. He accepted the vanishing of his lifelong dream with the admirable stolidity of a fatalist, and in those last days of his radically artificial life he disclosed a welcome tenderness, a touch of the divine, none the less so for being common duty, shown in the few brief letters to his son’s widow and to “our boys.” This, and his enviable gift of being able to view the downs as well as the ups of life in the consoling humorous light, must modify the sterner judgment so easily passed upon his characteristic inculcation, if not practice, of heartlessness.

The thirteenth-century mother church in the town from which Lord Chesterfield’s title came has a peculiar steeple, graceful in its lines, but it points askew, from whatever quarter it is seen. The writer of these Letters, which he never dreamed would be published, is the best self-portrayed Gentleman in literature. In everything he was naturally a stylist, perfected by assiduous art, yet the graceful steeple is somehow warped out of the beauty of the perpendicular. His ideal Gentleman is the frigid product of a rigid mechanical drill, with the mien of a posture master, the skin-deep graciousness of a French Marechal, the calculating adventurer who cuts unpretentious worthies to toady to society magnates, who affects the supercilious air of a shallow dandy and cherishes the heart of a frog. True, he repeatedly insists on the obligation of truthfulness in all things, and of, honor in dealing with the world. His Gentleman may; nay, he must, sail with the stream, gamble in moderation if it is the fashion, must stoop to wear ridiculous clothes and ornaments if they are the mode, though despising his weakness all to himself, and no true Gentleman could afford to keep out of the little gallantries which so effectively advertised him as a man of spirit sad charm. Those repeated injunctions of honor are to be the rule, subject to these exceptions, which transcend the common proprieties when the subject is the rising young gentleman of the period and his goal social success. If an undercurrent of shady morality is traceable in this Chesterfieldian philosophy it must, of course, be explained away by the less perfect moral standard of his period as compared with that of our day. Whether this holds strictly true of men may be open to discussion, but his lordship’s worldly instructions as to the utility of women as stepping-stones to favor in high places are equally at variance with the principles he so impressively inculcates and with modern conceptions of social honor. The externals of good breeding cannot be over-estimated, if honestly come by, nor is it necessary to examine too deeply into the prime motives of those who urge them upon a generation in whose eyes matter is more important than manner. Superficial refinement is better than none, but the Chesterfield pulpit cannot afford to shirk the duty of proclaiming loud and far that the only courtesy worthy of respect is that politesse de coeur, the politeness of the heart, which finds expression in consideration for others as the ruling principle of conduct. This militates to some extent against the assumption of fine airs without the backing of fine behavior, and if it tends to discourage the effort to use others for selfish ends, it nevertheless pays better in the long run.

Chesterfield’s frankness in so many confessions of sharp practice almost merits his canonization as a minor saint of society. Dr. Johnson has indeed placed him on a Simeon Stylites pillar, an immortality of penance from which no good member of the writer’ guild is likely to pray his deliverance. He commends the fine art and high science of dissimulation with the gusto of an apostle and the authority of an expert. Dissimulate, but do not simulate, disguise your real sentiments, but do not falsify them. Go through the world with your eyes and ears open and mouth mostly shut. When new or stale gossip is brought to you, never let on that you know it already, nor that it really interests you. The reading of these Letters is better than hearing the average comedy, in which the wit of a single sentence of Chesterfield suffices to carry an act. His man-of-the-world philosophy is as old as the Proverbs of Solomon, but will always be fresh and true, and enjoyable at any age, thanks to his pithy expression, his unfailing common sense, his sparkling wit and charming humor. This latter gift shows in the seeming lapses from his rigid rule requiring absolute elegance of expression at all times, when an unexpected coarseness, in some provincial colloquialism, crops out with picturesque force. The beau ideal of superfineness occasionally enjoys the bliss of harking back to mother English.

Above all the defects that can be charged against the Letters, there rises the substantial merit of an honest effort to exalt the gentle in woman and man—above the merely genteel. “He that is gentil doeth gentil deeds,” runs the mediaeval saying which marks the distinction between the genuine and the sham in behavior. A later age had it thus: “Handsome is as handsome does,” and in this larger sense we have agreed to accept the motto of William of Wykeham, which declares that “Manners maketh Man.”

OLIVER H. G. LEIGH

The City: The Cut (Paris?)
Eccles. 10:15
The labor of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city.