Roy Ayers Ubiquity - Virgo Red (1973)

The 60's Straight Ahead Jazz is definitely cool, and I can listen to it all day, but let me quote the ever so insightful words of Gwen Stefani when I say "This my Shit!" (Sorry, I won't do that again). One of the biggest contributers to Hip Hop, Roy Ayers is one of the greatest musicians that the world has ever seen. This is one of those covers that you look at and say to yourself, "Man, I know this is heat" (maybe not in those exact words) Anything with "Roy Ayers" and "197-" is some of the illest shit ever, heres just one joint. Don't trip, I'll post more later!

Get Roy Ayers Ubiquity Virgo Red Here

Electric Lady Studios, New York
Polydor

Found Here: http://djhaylow.blogspot.com/

Jean Michel Basquiat Tenor 1985

Tenor

1985
Acrylic, oil stick and Xerox collage on canvas
254 x 289,6 cm
Private collection (courtesy Bruno Bischofberger, Zürich)
© The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat

The canvas is completely covered with colour Xeroxes. The following four Xerox images appear twice. The block of text at top left above the bird's head is repeated at bottom left under the right wing of the lowest bird; the brown box left of the second text can be found again above right of the bird's head we started at; the hollow yellow shape directly above the same bird's head re-appears under the middle bird down on the left side. Finally the image in the top right corner is repeated under the right fist of the figure at bottom right. The figure's mouth is open and might therefore be the tenor singer of the title, although tenor saxophone more naturally springs to mind. Tenor might alternatively refer to the general tone of the painting that is set by the black animal figures. The word RATON that is repeated three times at centre is Spanish for "mouse".

Jan Matejko-Astronomer Copernicus-Conversation with God

English: Astronomer Copernicus: Conversation with God

Author: Jan Matejko

Image:Jan Matejko-Astronomer Copernicus-Conversation with God.jpg and Image:Rzeczpospolita voivodships.png .

In 1860 Matejko issued an illustrated album, Ubiory w Polsce (Clothing in Poland), a project reflecting his intense interest in historical records of all kinds and his desire to promote such interest among the Polish people in an effort to intensify their patriotic feelings. In 1861 he had an exhibition Otrucie królowej Bony (Poisoning of Queen Bona) in Warsaw's Zachęta. The national defeats forced him to abandon the religious painting which, he believed, was his vocation and to devote himself almost exclusively to historical painting. In fact he created a vision of Polish history from which we can not liberate ourselves despite of perennial criticism of the scientists. Matejko often placed on his paintings people who were not present at this location (f.ex. Hugo Kołłątaj, and General Józef Wodzicki, on The Battle of Racławice). He was not interested in presenting factual events but in representation of a historical-philosophical synthesis. Matejko's work has to be viewed not only in artistic terms, but also in terms of the social function it performed and continues to perform today. He considered history as a function of the present and the future. His paintings are not historical illustrations, rather they are powerful expressions of the artist's psyche and his attitude to the world.

• Born: 19 February 1473
• Birthplace: Torun, Poland
• Died: 24 May 1543
• Best Known As: Astronomer known for figuring out that the sun is the center of our solar system

Name at birth: Niclas Kopernik

Nicolas Copernicus was born into a well-to-do family, and after his father died in 1483 he was put under the guardianship of his uncle, a bishop of Warmia (Poland). He went to university in Krakow and spent a decade in Italy, studying law and mathematics. A canon of the cathedral at Frombork, Copernicus carried out administrative duties and, from his house, observed the stars and planets. For years he worked on his theory that the planets in our solar system revolved around the sun (Ptolemy of ancient Greece had explained that the universe was a closed system revolving around the earth, and the Catholic church concurred). Hesitant to publish his work for fear of being charged with heresy, Copernicus summarized it in 1530 and circulated it among Europe's scholars, where it was greeted with enthusiasm. His work, titled De revolutionibus orbium coelestium was finally published in 1543, apparently just a few weeks before he died.

Because Copernicus' heliocentric theory of the planets defied 1,500 years of tradition, some historians mark the publication date of De revolutionibus as the beginning of the "scientific revolution."... It wasn't until 1835 that his work was taken off the list of books banned by the Vatican... Another scientist who got in trouble for believing that the earth moved around the sun: Galileo Galilei.

Found Here: http://www.answers.com/topic/nicolas-copernicus

"Starry Night" Hubble Photograph

"Starry Night," Vincent van Gogh's famous painting, is renowned for its bold whorls of light sweeping across a raging night sky. Although this image of the heavens came only from the artist's restless imagination, a new picture from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope bears remarkable similarities to the van Gogh work, complete with never-before-seen spirals of dust swirling across trillions of miles of interstellar space.

This image, obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on February 8, 2004, is Hubble's latest view of an expanding halo of light around a distant star, named V838 Monocerotis (V838 Mon). The illumination of interstellar dust comes from the red supergiant star at the middle of the image, which gave off a flashbulb-like pulse of light two years ago. V838 Mon is located about 20,000 light-years away from Earth in the direction of the constellation Monoceros, placing the star at the outer edge of our Milky Way galaxy.

Called a light echo, the expanding illumination of a dusty cloud around the star has been revealing remarkable structures ever since the star suddenly brightened for several weeks in early 2002. Though Hubble has followed the light echo in several snapshots, this new image shows swirls or eddies in the dusty cloud for the first time. These eddies are probably caused by turbulence in the dust and gas around the star as they slowly expand away. The dust and gas were likely ejected from the star in a previous explosion, similar to the 2002 event, which occurred some tens of thousands of years ago. The surrounding dust remained invisible and unsuspected until suddenly illuminated by the brilliant explosion of the central star two years ago.

The Hubble telescope has imaged V838 Mon and its light echo several times since the star's outburst in January 2002, in order to follow the constantly changing appearance of the dust as the pulse of illumination continues to expand away from the star at the speed of light. During the outburst event, the normally faint star suddenly brightened, becoming 600,000 times more luminous than our Sun. It was thus one of the brightest stars in the entire Milky Way, until it faded away again in April 2002. The star has some similarities to a class of objects called "novae," which suddenly increase in brightness due to thermonuclear explosions at their surfaces; however, the detailed behavior of V838 Mon, in particular its extremely red color, has been completely different from any previously known nova.

Nature's own piece of performance art, this structure will continue to change its appearance in coming years as the light from the stellar outburst continues to propagate outward and bounce off more distant black clouds of dust. Astronomers expect the echoes to remain visible for at least the rest of the current decade.

Object Name: V838 Monocerotis

Image Type: Astronomical

Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI)

Found Here: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2004/10/image/a

The Sombrero Galaxy (also known as M104 or NGC 4594)

The Sombrero Galaxy (also known as M104 or NGC 4594) is an unbarred spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo. It has a bright nucleus, an unusually large central bulge, and a prominent dust lane in its inclined disk. The dark dust lane and the bulge give this galaxy the appearance of a sombrero. The galaxy has an apparent magnitude of 9.0, making it a galaxy that can easily be seen with amateur telescopes. The large bulge, the central supermassive black hole, and the dust lane all attract the attention of professional astronomers.

[edit] Dust ring

As noted above, this galaxy's most striking feature is the dust lane that crosses in front of the bulge of the galaxy. This dust lane is actually a symmetric ring that encloses the bulge of the galaxy.^[5] Most of the cold atomic hydrogen gas^[6] and the dust^[5] lies within this ring. The ring might also contain most of the Sombrero Galaxy's cold molecular gas,^[5] although this is an inference based on observations with low resolution and weak detections.^[7][8] Additional observations are needed to confirm that the Sombrero galaxy's molecular gas is constrained to the ring. Based on infrared spectroscopy, the dust ring is the primary site of star formation within this galaxy.^[5]

[edit] Nucleus

The nucleus of the Sombrero galaxy is classified as a low ionization nuclear emission region (LINER).^[9] These are nuclear regions where ionized gas is present, but the ions are only weakly ionized (i.e. the atoms are missing relatively few electrons). The source of energy for ionizing the gas in LINERs has been debated extensively. Some LINER nuclei may be powered by hot, young stars found in star formation regions, whereas other LINER nuclei may be powered by active galactic nuclei (highly energetic regions that contain supermassive black holes). Infraredspectroscopy observations have demonstrated that the nucleus of the Sombrero Galaxy is probably devoid of any significant star formation activity. However, a supermassive black hole has been identified in the nucleus (as discussed in the subsection below), so this active galactic nucleus is probably the energy source that weakly ionizes the gas in the Sombrero Galaxy.^[5]

[edit] Central supermassive black hole

In the 1990s, a research group led by John Kormendy demonstrated that a supermassive black hole is present within the Sombrero Galaxy.^[10] Using spectroscopy data from both the CFHTHubble Space Telescope, the group showed that the speed of rotation of the stars within the center of the galaxy could not be maintained unless a mass 1 billion times the mass of the Sun, or 10⁹M_☉, is present in the center.^[10] This is among the most massive black holes measured in any nearby galaxies. and the

[edit] Synchrotron emission

At radio and X-ray wavelengths, the nucleus is a strong source of synchrotron emission.^{[11][12][13][14][15][16][17]} Synchrotron emission is produced when high velocity electrons oscillate as they pass through regions with strong magnetic fields. This emission is actually quite common for active galactic nuclei. Although radio synchrotron emission may vary over time for some active galactic nuclei, the luminosity of the radio emission from the Sombrero Galaxy only varies 10-20%.^[11]

[edit] Unidentified submillimeter emission

In 2006, two groups published measurements of the submillimeter radiation from the nucleus of the Sombrero Galaxy at a wavelength of 850 micrometres.^[17][5] This submillimeter emission was found not to originate from the thermal emission from dust (which is commonly seen at infrared and submillimeter wavelengths), synchrotron emission (which is commonly seen at radio wavelengths), bremsstrahlung emission from hot gas (which is uncommonly seen at millimeter wavelengths), or molecular gas (which commonly produces submillimeter spectral lines).^[5] The source of the submillimeter emission remains unidentified.

Found Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sombrero_Galaxy

Gerard Terborch, Curiosity c. 1660

Curiosity, ca. 1660
Gerard ter Borch (Dutch, 1617–1681)
Oil on canvas; 30 x 24 1/2 in. (76.2 x 62.2 cm)
The Jules Bache Collection, 1949 (49.7.38)

Although ter Borch worked in Deventer, well to the east of Holland's main artistic centers, he painted some of the most sophisticated genre scenes of his time. In this canvas of about 1660, the costumes and interior decoration represent the height of patrician taste. The anecdotal title dates from the eighteenth century. Lady at Her Toilet in the Detroit Institute of Arts was possibly painted as a pendant to the present picture.

Found Here: http://www.metmuseum.org/

Curiosity

c. 1660
Oil on canvas, 76 x 62 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

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Terborch painted a significant number of letter readers and writers. Depictions of this sort enjoyed immense popularity during this period. Since letter writing was primarily (though not exclusively) a leisure activity among the well-to-do it is not surprising that paintings of this theme were so prevalent during the decades in which the Dutch economy expanded greatly.

The Curiosity, completed around 1660, features three young women in an ornate interior. One sporting an ermine-trimmed jacket attentively writes a letter as another woman, identifiable as a maid because of her comparatively simple attire, peers inquisitively over her shoulder. To their right stands a young lady of extraordinary beauty and bearing. Her station and propriety are connoted not only by her luxurious garments but also by her long handkerchief. This accouterment functioned chiefly as a fashionable status symbol for upper-class women in the Dutch Republic.

Found Here: http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/t/terborch/2/curiosit.html

Basquiat’s “Untitled (Boxer)” sells for $13.5M at NYC auction

Painted in 1982 when he was only 22, Basquiat’s “Untitled (Boxer)” epitomizes an idea that held great sway over the artist: that a champion could triumph over social and racial prejudices and establish himself as a hero. Seeing himself — a Brooklyn native of Haitian and Puerto Rican heritage — as an outsider to the mainstream art world, Basquiat was inspired by Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Leonard, and the other pugilists who literally fought their way to success. Additionally, as a dedicated student of their lives and the barriers each had to overcome, the young artist frequently incorporated his heroes’ victorious — yet still complex and vulnerable — message into his paintings. Currently in the collection of Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, this particular acrylic and oil paintstick on linen lot was acquired by the rocker (and Basquiat fan) in 1999 in Vienna and will be auctioned off at Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art auction Nov. 12 - 13.

(Photo: Christie’s)

Found Here: http://magazine.wsj.com/

Basquiat painting sells for $13.5M at NYC auction

Thursday, November 13, 2008 8:34 AM EST
The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat has been sold for $13.5 million at an auction in New York City.

The 1982 painting, "Untitled (Boxer)," was consigned to Christie's auction house by Lars Ulrich, drummer for Metallica. Christie's didn't identify the buyer.

The painting shows a black heavyweight fighter with his arms thrust in the air against a white graffiti-filled background. It surpassed its pre-auction estimate of more than $12 million.

The current auction record for a Basquiat is $14.6 million for "Untitled," which sold at Sotheby's last year.

Francis Bacon's "Study for Self-Portrait" didn't sell. Christie's says it had been estimated to sell for about $40 million.

(This version CORRECTS that Basquiat was consigned by Ulrich for sale NOT purchased by him; corrects price to $13.5 million from $14M; corrects overlines.)

Found Here: http://home.myhughesnet.com/news/

Twin Towers in US money

I just did this a couple of minutes ago and scan them to my computer...But starting out with the one its the twin towers just standing...but the higher the money the more damage to the towers are...Then the 100 dollar its just smoke left..just thought it was neat

Found Here: http://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/view/569802/


Result: The Pentagon ablaze

Found Here: http://www.foldmoney.com/

Inverse building demolition in London via Neatorama

[Above: Inverse building demolition in London via Neatorama]

Nothing last forever and that includes the most grandiose skyscrapers, luxurious hotels and beloved sports stadiums. It seems amazing at times that so much money, energy and material is invested in structures that ultimately get torn down so quickly. Some of these demolitions are simply damned impressive while other implosions are downright frightening.

The Gateway of the Sun - TIAUANACO SUN GATE

The 10 ton Gateway of the Sun is monolithic, carved from a single block of Andesite granite, and is broken right down the center. Its upper portion is deeply carved with beautiful and intricate designs, including a human figure, condors, toxodons, elephants and some symbols. Directly in the center of the gate is the so-called "Sun-god," Viracocha, with rays shooting from his face in all directions.

He is holding a stylized staff in each hand which may represent thunder and lightning. He is sometimes referred to as the "weeping god" because tears are on his cheeks. The figures flanking the centerpiece are themselves unfinished, leading investigators to wonder what could have interrupted the craftsmen working on the gate that it was left unfinished. This monolith, when first discovered, was broken in half, and was lying askew deep in silt until restored to its proper position in 1908. The Sun Gate now stands in the northwest corner of the Kalasasaya temple.

The famous carved figure on the decorated archway in the ancient (pre-Incan) city of Tiahuanaco, known as the "Gateway of the Sun," most likely represents Viracocha, flanked by 48 winged effigies, 32 with human faces and 16 with condor's heads. This huge monument is hewn from a single block of stone, and some believe that the strange symbols might represent a calendar, the oldest in the world. A huge monolithic figure, facing east in the direction of sunrise, stands as silent witness to an unknown civilization established around 2200 years ago.

There is a pre-Incan legend that speaks of Viracocha who is depicted in many forms. There is a duality about this deity, which is not unlike gods in other civilizations - the good god and the warrior side to his personality. We see him as he enlightened god in the white robes who brings knowledge and the warrior god with staves in his hands and a sun symbol around his head, not unlike the sun god Ra in ancient Egypt. As we third dimension is a duality - all things have good and evil charactistics - including the gods of all myths. Viracocha - as duality is depicted as the sun god of creation [wearing a sun crown] and the moon god.

Viracocha, as the feathered serpent god, is one of the great mysteries of ancient American cultures. He was called Kukulkan by the Mayas, Quetzalcoatl by the Aztecs, Viracocha by the Incas, Gucumatz in central America, Votan in Palenque and Zamna in Izamal.

Found Here: http://www.crystalinks.com/tiahuanaco.html

Violent Polar Cyclones on Saturn Imaged in Unprecedented Detail by Cassini

The Cassini mission has released some of the most detailed images of Saturn's poles yet, revealing vast cyclones churning up the gas giant's atmosphere in the north and south. These observations show very similar storms to the south pole observations imaged by the NASA spacecraft in 2006, only in far better detail. It is believed the north and south cyclones are generated by violent thunderstorms deep inside Saturn's atmosphere; water condensing inside these storms output heat, fuelling the vortex extending 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometres) in diameter. The smallest features resolved are 120 kilometre (75 mile)-wide cumulus clouds rotating at velocities in excess of 325 mph (530 kph), more than twice the wind speed possible on Earth…

…and the mystery north pole hexagon is still there.

Cassini has wowed scientists with these brand new views of Saturn's north pole. With detail at 10-times higher resolution than previously attained, Cassini has shown that both poles have vast swirling cyclones that highlight regions of planet-wide storm activity.

"These are truly massive cyclones, hundreds of times stronger than the most giant hurricanes on Earth," said Kevin Baines, Cassini scientist on the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "Dozens of puffy, convectively formed cumulus clouds swirl around both poles, betraying the presence of giant thunderstorms lurking beneath. Thunderstorms are the likely engine for these giant weather systems."

Interestingly, the northern storm observation still shows the mysterious hexagonal shape (as originally verified in 2006, after a sighting by Voyager 1 in 1980), only in far greater detail. Scientists are still uncertain why the northern cyclone should take such a stable form; the clouds within the hexagonal shape spin at high speeds without interfering with its six-sided shape.

Previous observations appeared to show an outer ring of high clouds surrounding a region thought to be clear air with a few puffy clouds circulating around the pole. These brand new images reveal a far more complex picture. The circulating clouds are actually smaller convective storms forming other, more distinct rings.

Found Here: http://www.universetoday.com/

Angel of the North by Antony Gormley

Angel of the North is a modern sculpture designed by Antony Gormley, which is located in Gateshead, England.

As the name suggests, it is a steel sculpture of an angel, standing 66 feet (20 metres) tall, with wings measuring 178 feet (54 metres) across — making it wider than the Statue of Liberty's height. The wings themselves are not planar, but are angled 3.5 degrees forward, which Gormley has said aims to create "a sense of embrace".^[1] It stands on a hill, on the southern edge of Low Fell overlooking the A1 road and the A167 road into Tyneside and the East Coast Main Line rail route.

The original maquette, a life-size model from which the sculpture was created, was sold at auction for £2m in July 2008.^[2]

Work began on the project in 1994, the total cost coming to £1m. Most of the project funding was provided by the National Lottery.

Due to its exposed location, the sculpture has to withstand winds of over 100 mph (160 km/h). Thus, 600 metric tonnes (661 tons) of concrete were used to create foundations which anchor the sculpture to rock 20 metres (66 ft) below.

The sculpture itself was created offsite, using Corten weather resistant steel, at Hartlepool Steel Fabrications Ltd in three parts – with the body weighing 100 metric tonnes (110 tons), and two wings weighing 50 metric tonnes (55 tons) each – then brought to its site by road. It took seven hours for the body to be transported from its construction site in Hartlepool, up the A19 to the site.

Construction work on the Angel was finished in 16 February 1998. At first, Angel of the North aroused some controversy locally — one local councillor, Martin Callanan, was especially strong in his opposition — and in the UK newspapers. It has now come to be considered by some as a landmark for the North East of England ^[3][4]and is one of the 12 official 'Icons of England' - albeit not of the United Kingdom.

Found Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_of_the_North

The Los Lunas Decalogue Stone

Is this the world's oldest surviving inscription of the Ten Commandments?

There is a fascinating old site some few miles west of a little town called Los Lunas in New Mexico. The site has been known as "Mystery Mountain" by the locals for many years. At the foot of this hill there is an ancient rock inscription. Many scholars now believe that it contains the Ten Commandments, including 3 instances of the Tetragrammaton, inscribed in old Hebrew letters.

However, conventional history teaches that the Americas were discovered by the Europeans either in 1492 by Columbus, or maybe a few hundred years earlier by the Vikings. There still seems to be an aversion among the establishment historians to even consider the idea that ancient Mediterranean peoples from the Middle East might have traveled to the Americas in the centuries before Christ. Only so-called diffusionists (14) would have accepted a different view. And yet, there it is, this inscription in New Mexico, an undeniable witness from an ancient past telling its history ...

Found Here: http://www.mhccorp.com/archaeology/decalogue-introduction.html

Pic Found Here: http://www.coasttocoastam.com/gen/page1260.html?theme=light

Marc Chagall

Marc Chagall (Yiddish: מאַרק שאַגאַל‎; Belarusian: Мойша Захаравіч Шагалаў Mojša Zaharavič Šagałaŭ; Russian: Марк Захарович Шага́л Mark Zakharovich Shagal) (7 July 1887 – 28 March1985) was a Belarusian-French painterJewish origin. He is associated with several different Modernist art movements of the 20th century.

Marc Chagall was born in Liozno, near Vitebsk, now in Belarus, the eldest of nine children in the close-knit Jewishherringmerchant, and his mother, Feige-Ite. This period of his life, described as happy though impoverished, appears in references throughout Chagall's work. Currently the Chagall's house on Pokrovskaya Street in Vitebsk is restored as part of the Marc Chagall's Museum.^[1] family led by his father Khatskl (Zakhar) Shagal, a

After he began studying painting in 1906 under famed local artist Yehuda Pen, Chagall moved to St. Petersburg some months later, in 1907. There he joined the school of the "Society of Art Supporters" and studied under Nikolai Roerich, encountering artists of every school and style. From 1908-1910 Chagall studied under Leon Bakst at the Zvantseva School of Drawing and Painting.

Voutch ! Nouvelle année, nouveau site !

Voutch. This Is as Bad as It Gets.This Is as Bad as It Gets should get the ball rolling for the French humorist. Voutch discovered his knack for cartooning relatively late in life; lucky for us, he didn’t miss his window altogether. This amusing and witty American debut flaunts 150 beautiful, full-color gouache painting cartoons. In a world populated by long, thin characters with tall faces and prominently exaggerated noses, Voutch’s humor is both cynical and sardonic—nothing is lost in translation. The irony of contemporary civilization shines through via tactless doctors, human clone relationship issues, and other dysfunctional personalities. Despite the sarcastic nature of Voutch’s humor, his illustrations are filled with vibrant, life-affirming colors. He is constantly aware of color scheme and has a wonderful sense of space, especially when it comes to vast skies and soaring, expansive walls. Strongly recalling mid-century stylings, Voutch’s single frame cartoons are pure works of art. It’s refreshing to see such a strong debut from a relative unknown. While the collection is not essential, it certainly could be a worthwhile experience for most readers—not bad for a one-time boomerang throwing cochampion of the world.—David Garza, AWBERC Lib., U.S. EPA, Cincinnati Andrews McMeel. Oct. 2007. 125p. ISBN 978-0-7407-4672-7. pap. $16.95. F Just who is this Voutch fellow? While I wouldn’t vouch for Voutch’s celebrity, at least not in the United States,

Found Here: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6486076.html


and Here: http://www.voutch.com/

GOEFF KERN

final fantasy

California based artist Geoff Kern prefers cabin fever and loud heavy metal music to the limitations of art school. The self-called "mountain-man" has become indispensable by creating stunning paintings and collages of mystical scenes depicting archetypal imagery. He incorporates complex pencil drawings, old periodicals and watercolors into conceptual mandalas and cosmic, psychedelic landscapes. "I think there are good ways of describing medieval fantasy in basic iconic form. Not necessarily Barbarians hammering it out, but in the idea of "the quest". I'm refering to the broad genre referencing imaginary worlds based on pre-medieval and medieval Europe." His series of four images is loosely based on the idea of the quest-traveling through different landscapes and describing that epic moment when this strong, archetypal event occurs. "When the night rainbow leads into the cave at the top of the mountain, or when the secret portal is opened in the midst of an empty wasteland as in "Gateway To Valhalla" (which is typically a place only entered into by dying in battle), this is like some secret doorway into the afterlife. "Forest Encounter" involves the meeting with a forest goddess, ruling over the waters of the night, holding a sword with a crescent moon. "Viking Sunset", which represents travelling to the end of the earth, out of the setting sun, coming from the past." Besides taking inspiration for his Viking imagery and arctic landscapes from the Icelandic Eddas, his work is apparently influenced by one of the most emulated fantasy and science fiction artists in the world, Frank Frazetta (whose "The Sea Witch" painting was recently used by Wolfmother as the cover for their self-titled debut), Geoff indulged himself in the dakini tarot-design of his idol. "He is, in my opinion, straight-forward, well-done fantasy art from that period. The Dakini for example has these tripper collages involving stellar photography and ancient Dakini symbolism. It's what got me into that collage style. The borders I used for my posters are similar to those of 70's and 80's medieval fantasy covers." The border frames it, gives it a type of window to look through that presents the idea of a quest, a journey, a window into this other world. Kern´s "Cosmic Landscapes" painting references this other-wordly quality, and notes the astrological vibe associated with this dimension of the supernatural. Also, the writer Joseph Campbell has solidified the idea of archetypes and the quest, in particular "The Hero with a Thousand Faces". Geoff´s past works have included ancient ceremonial jewelry prints that were featured on a limited run of LA's Cerre t-shirts. Most of the images are graphit drawings, but he also designed a wall mural as well as some skateboard art. Finally, Geoff will be featuring his recent works at his premier solo exhibition "Talisman" at BBlessing, NY.

www.geoffkern.com
www.bblessing.com

words: christoph rambow

Found Here: http://www.lodownmagazine.com/index.php?page=13&modaction=showItem&id=683

Hand-made cardboard model by Dan McPharlin

Hand-made cardboard model by Dan McPharlin.
These miniature cardboard models of vintage audio equipment are the brainchild of visual artist and sound designer Dan McPharlin according to Dan they are “an interesting experiment to render hi tech objects in a low tech medium such as paper or cardboard.” Each one is painstakingly made by hand in limited production or as a commissioned work. With prices starting at $60 this is the kind of art that‘s well within reach. Check out more pics of Dan’s work in his Flickr photoset and email him (purpleowl [at] primus [dot] com [dot] au) for inquiries.

Found Here: http://www.coolhunting.com/

Barnaby Ward pixel art

barnaby ward

Following on from Dan McPharlin here’s two samples from another contemporary Illustrator Barnaby Ward, Dick Hogg’s put me on to these examples so I’ll add his notes here:

“This is one of those illustrators who pops up on ffffound every now and then. Not strictly a science fiction illustrator all of the time but the stuff that I like are the ones that have strange robot-like things going on in them. And, erm, girls. Always girls. This bloke has got a one track mind! I love the girls in his drawing. as someone who constantly draws quasi-porn in my sketchbook it makes me sick to find someone who is better at it than me. Ah well, good luck to him. Apparently he lives on an island. Perhaps he is somewhere with a low female population like Alaska!”

See more of Barnaby Ward here: http://www.somefield.com/

and Dick’s work here: http://h099.com/

Found Here: http://www.sci-fi-o-rama.com/

Winsor McCay

Winsor McCaySeptember 26, 1867(?) – July 26, 1934) was an American cartoonist and animator. (

A prolific artist, McCay's pioneering early animated films far outshone the work of his contemporaries, and set a standard followed by Walt Disney and others in later decades. His two best-known creations are the newspaper comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland, which ran from 1905 to 1914, and the animated cartoon Gertie the Dinosaur, which he created in 1914.

His comic strip work has influenced generations of artists, including creators such as Moebius, Chris Ware, William Joyce, and Maurice Sendak.

Biography

McCay was the son of Robert McKay (later changed to McCay) and Janet Murray McKay; Robert at various times worked as a teamster, a grocer, and a real estate agent. Winsor's exact place and year of birth are uncertain — he claimed to have been born in Spring Lake, Michigan in 1871, but his gravestone says 1869, and census reports state that he was born in Canada in 1867. He was originally named Zenas Winsor McKay, in honor of his father's employer, Zenas G. Winsor. He later dropped the name Zenas.

In 1886, McCay's parents sent him to Cleary's Business College in Ypsilanti, Michigan to learn to be a businessman. While in Ypsilanti, he also received his only formal art training, from John Goodison of Michigan State Normal College (now known as Eastern Michigan University). Goodison taught him the strict application of the fundamentals of perspective, which he put to significant use later in his career. Goodison, formerly a glass stainer, also influenced McCay's bold use of color.

In 1889, McCay moved to Chicago, intending to study at the Art Institute of Chicago, but due to lack of money had to find employment instead. He worked for the National Printing and Engraving Company, producing woodcuts for circus and theatrical posters. Two years later, he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio and went to work as an artist for Kohl and Middleton's Vine Street Dime Museum. While in Cincinnati he married Maude Leonore Dufour.

Found Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winsor_McCay

circos - visualizing the genome, among other things

Circos is designed for visualizing genomic data such as alignments, conservation, and generalized 2D data, such as line, scatter, heatmap and histogram plots. Circos is very flexible — you can use it to visualize any kind of data, not just genomics. Circos has been used to visualize customer flow in the auto industry, volume of courier shipments, database schemas, and presidential debates.

The creation of Circos was motivated by a need to visualize intra- and inter-chromosomal relationships within one or more genomes, or between any two or more sets of objects with a corresponding distance scale. Circos is similar to chromowheel and, to a lesser extent, genopix.

Found Here: http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/circos/?

European Parliament

The European Parliament (Europarl or EP) is the only directly elected parliamentaryEuropean Union (EU). Together with the Council of the European Union (the Council), it forms the bicameral legislative branch of the Union's institutions and has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world.^[1] The Parliament and Council form the highest legislative body within the Union. However their powers as such are limited to the competencies conferred upon the European Community by member states. Hence the institution has little control over policy areas held by the states and within the other two of the three pillars of the European Union. The Parliament is composed of 785 MEPs (Member of the European Parliament), who serve the second largest democratic electorate in the world (after India) and the largest trans-national democratic electorate in the world (342 million eligible voters in 2004).^[2][3][4] institution of the

It has been directly elected every five years by universal suffrage since 1979. Although the European Parliament has legislative power that such bodies as those above do not possess, it does not have legislative initiative, as most national EU parliaments do,^[5] but it does in a de facto capacity (see Powers and functions] below)^[6]. While it is the "first institution" of the European Union (mentioned first in the treaties, having ceremonial precedence over all authority at European level^[7]), the Council has greater powers over legislation than the Parliament where codecision procedure (equal rights of amendment and rejection) does not apply. It has, however, had control over the EU budget since the 1970s and has a veto over the appointment of the European Commission.^[5]

The European Parliament has two meeting places, namely the Louise Weiss building in Strasbourg, France, which serves for twelve four-day plenary sessions per year and is the official seat, and the Espace Léopold complex in Brussels, Belgium, the larger of the two, which serves for committee meetings, political groups and complementary plenary sessions. The cost of having all MEPs and their staff moving several times a year from one place to another is of concern to some. The Secretariat of the European Parliament, the Parliament's administrative body, is based in Luxembourg.^[8][9]

The President of the European Parliament (its speaker) is currently Hans-Gert Pöttering (EPP), elected in January 2007. He presides over a multi-party chamber, the two largest groups being the European People's Party-European Democrats (EPP-ED) and the Party of European Socialists (PES). The last Union-wide elections were the 2004 Parliamentary Elections, however Romania and Bulgaria joined in 2007 and elected their members in that year (see European Parliament election, 2007); the next union-wide parliamentary elections are in 2009 (see European Parliament election, 2009).

Found Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Parliament

European Parliment Propaganda Poster

The European parliament building in Strasbourg, France, is “an enormous replica of the unfinished tower of Babel,” called the “The Tower of Eurobabel” by the European press, Dr. David R. Reagan, wrote in the Dallas-based Lamplighter Magazine.

An EU poster shows the people of Europe rebuilding the Tower of Babel. The text on the poster says, “Europe: Many Tongues – One Voice.” The stars on the poster are inverted into pentagrams, a recognized occult sign.

Found Here: http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?read=35729