JADRANKA'S CHIMERA...NULLA DIES SINE LINEA!

Illusion

2007-08-22T05:14:00.000-07:00

Click on the picture to enlarge your illusion.
link

Day and Night Seen at the SAME Time

2007-08-21T12:51:00.001-07:00

The photograph was taken by the crew on board the space shuttle Columbia during its last mission in 2003, on a cloudless day. The picture is of Europe and Africa when the sun is setting. Half of the picture is in night. The bright dots you see are the cities' lights. The top part of Africa is the Sahara Desert. Note that the lights are already on in Holland, Paris, and Barcelona, and that's it's still daylight in Dublin, London, Lisbon, and Madrid.

The sun is still shining on the Strait of Gibraltar. The Mediterranean Sea is already in darkness. In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean you can see the Azores Islands; below them to the right are the Madeira Islands; a bit below are the Canary Islands; and further South, close to the farthest western point of Africa, are the Cape Verde Islands. Note that the Sahara is huge and can be seen clearly both during day time and night time. To the left, on top, is Greenland, totally frozen.

Illuminated Niagara Falls at Night

2007-08-21T12:43:00.000-07:00

The most expensive ham in the world

2007-08-21T12:40:00.000-07:00

The 2006 Alba Quercus Reserve, produced by 44-year-old Spaniard Manuel Maldonado, costing about $2,100 per leg, or a cruel $160 per pound, is believed to be the most expensive ham in the world. The salt-cured ham won't be available until late 2008 and customers must buy the whole ham or nothing at all. Wanna know why these hams are so expensive, make sure to read the full AP report World's Costliest Ham Triggers Pork Envy

Strapya Message Fan Proves That Your Personal Message Blows

2007-08-14T12:19:00.000-07:00

It's the dog days of summer, folks, so we're going to need to do whatever we can to stay cool. This Strapya Message Fan makes sure you can get blown whenever you want, and lets you express yourself, too. Enter your favorite message into the fan, and there it is, showing up like magic through the miracle of LEDs.

You can get this fan in blue or white, and it's cheap, too, just $8.79 if you can afford the shipping all the way from Japan. It doesn't indicate how you're going to get your message into this fan, but we're betting it's going to take considerable patience to enter text using those ~~two~~ three buttons. Probably involves a lot of counting.

[Strapya World]

Shrink - Get Wet With Me by Paul Sandip

2007-08-14T11:37:00.000-07:00

Inspired by nature bathroom slippers that allow water to flow below them… and so you don’t slip on wet tiles! Ridges both on top and bottom surface… for your feet and floor!

Designer: Paul Sandip

Yanko Design

Oscar the Cat Predicts Patients' Deaths

2007-07-26T09:48:00.001-07:00

Oscar, a hospice cat at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, R.I., walks past an activity room at the facility Monday, July 23, 2007. Oscar the cat seems to have an uncanny knack for predicting when nursing home patients are going to die, by curling up next to them during their final hours. (AP Photo/Stew Milne). Full story

10.000 years old baby mammoth

2007-07-21T12:40:00.000-07:00

The perfectly mummified woolly mammoth, a female who died at the age of six months, was named "Lyuba" after the wife of reindeer breeder and hunter Yuri Khudi who found her in Russia's Arctic Yamalo-Nenetsk region.

Weighing 50 kg (110 lb), and measuring 85 centimeters high and 130 centimeters from trunk to tail, Lyuba who died at least 10,000 years ago during the last Ice Age, is roughly the same size as a large dog.

Lyuba will be shipped to School of Medicine, Jikei University in Japan to undergo three-dimensional computer mapping of her body. The mammoth will then return to St Petersburg for an autopsy before being put on display in Salekhard.

The discovery of the baby mammoth preserved in the Russian permafrost gives researchers their best chance yet to build a genetic map of a species extinct since the Ice Age.

Sources: Dailymail & Reuters

Overloaded?

2007-07-19T12:25:00.000-07:00

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1500$ Re Vive Peau Magnifique (Magnificent Skin)

2007-07-15T15:04:00.000-07:00

Renew and restore your skin with this amazing new formula.

Immediate results
• Increased glow with a more robust appearance.
• Smooth and even skin tone.
• Reduced redness and inflammation.

Long-Term Results
• Stimulated generation of new skin cells.
• Firmer skin with a 45% reduction in wrinkles.
• Increased long-term skin clarity.

Important Ingredients
• Telomerase: Activates and differentiates dormant adult stem cells; the only product that recruits adult stem cells into brand new stem cells without surgical intervention; repairs DNA fragmentation.
• EGF (Epidermal Growth Factor): Stimulates cell turnover.
• FGF (Fibroblast Growth Factor): Stimulates collagen synthesis.
• Hyaluronic Acid: Natural moisture binder, retains 93% of your own facial moisture.

How to Use
• Suitable for all skin types.
• One vial a week for four weeks.
• Cleanse and tone before application.
• Use one pre-measured pump every evening.
• Apply to entire face except the upper eyelid.
• Use no other products in the evening, as the Telomerase Molecule is susceptible to damage.
• Follow the RéVive regimen in the morning.
• To maintain results after four weeks, use the Inténsite Volumizing Serum.

Peau Magnifique
price: 1500$

Neiman Marcus Re Vive skin products

The most expensive coffee (Kopi Luwak)

2007-07-14T14:56:00.000-07:00

Indonesia kopi luwak is a rare kind of coffee that apparently goes for $30/cup in some fancy Hong Kong hotels. The secret to its reportedly fine flavor is that the beans are collected, swallowed, and crapped back out by wild civets, small, arboreal mammals that are currently endangered.

“Kopi” the Indonesian word for coffee along with “luwak” is local name of this animal which eats the raw red coffee beans. The civet digests the soft outer part of the coffee cherry, but does not digest the inner beans and excretes them.

Apparently the internal digestion ends up adds a unique flavor to the beans, removing the bitter flavor, and then beans are then picked up by locals and sold. The most expensive coffee beans can cost up to $600 a pound, and up to $50 per cup, if you can get over the fact that you are drinking such a strange brew.

Los Angeles Times tells the story of the $600/pound coffee. The article quotes Canadian food scientist Massimo Marcone, author of a new book that sounds fascinating: In Bad Taste?: The Science and Adventures Behind Food Delicacies. From the Los Angeles Times:

In the animals' stomachs, enzymes in the gastric juices massage the beans, smoothing off the harsh edges that make coffee bitter and produce caffeine jitters. Humans then separate the greenish-brown beans from the rest of the dung, and once a thin outer layer is removed, they are ready for roasting....

Days before the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami struck, Marcone was in Indonesia's Sumatran rain forest, where he collected about 10 pounds of civet droppings laced with coffee beans. He now uses it as "the gold standard" to rate other kopi luwaks in his lab at the University of Guelph in Ontario.

Like a forensic scientist reading a bullet's markings, Marcone stares at kopi luwak under an electron microscope, searching for striations that tell him that a civet excreted it. His studies found that kopi luwak drinkers need to be careful to avoid being duped.

"About 42% of all the kopi luwaks that are presently on sale are either adulterated or complete fakes, unfortunately," he said.

Real kopi luwak has a top note of rich, dark chocolate, with secondary notes that are musty and earthy, the scientist said. An Indonesian coffee lover described the scent as the smell of moist earth after a rainfall, with hints of vanilla, that teases the palate for hours after the cup is empty.

Giant Squid Washed Up in Australian Beach

2007-07-14T14:48:00.000-07:00

A giant two-meter squid recently washed up on the shores of Tasmania's Ocean Beach. The picture shows the curator from Tasmanian Museum was then holding the squid carcass. Link

In college at 11, Mikaela Irene Fudolig is UP summa cum laude at 16

2007-07-11T13:23:00.000-07:00

Mikaela Irene D. Fudolig, BS Physics with a GWA of 1.099, led the top honors. She also delivered the valedictory address on behalf of the graduating class.

Only 16 years old, Fudolig is the youngest student to be graduated by the University in the recent years and one of only two admitted to UPD without a high school diploma and without taking the UP College Admission Test.

She was only 11 years old and a sophomore at the Quezon City Science High School when she was granted permission to enroll at UPD as a non-degree student, having volunteered for a prototype Early College Placement Program the UPD College of Education was spearheading. After earning remarkable grades for an academic year, the Department of Education (DepEd) endorsed her admission to UPD, which was approved by the UP Board of Regents on May 30, 2003.

More about Mikaela on INQUIRER.net

Berry benefits ( Goji Berry)

2007-07-10T15:40:00.000-07:00

Naturally sweet and intoxicatingly delicious, berries also pack a punch with a myriad of health benefits. The enticing red, purple, and blue skins of berries contain bioflavonoids such as anthocyanins.

These compounds are beneficial because they are antioxidants, which reduce free radical damage. The antioxidant content of berries is more potent than vitamins C and E. The anthocyanin in berries also helps to reduce inflammation - more effectively even than aspirin!

The blueberry wins extra points for being the berry with one of the highest level of antioxidants. Blueberries have neuroprotective properties that shield brain cells from damage caused by trauma, chemicals, and plaque; in other words, blueberries help slow down the age-related onset of memory loss, Alzheimer's, and senility.

In fact, research has found that rats bred to develop Alzheimer's do not develop the symptoms of the disease if blueberries are incorporated into their diet.

Cherries also contain these beneficial anthocyanin compounds, which stimulate your pancreas to produce insulin; for hundreds of years Chinese researchers have observed that cherries help keep diabetics healthy.

These compounds also protect you against cancer, arthritis, and heart disease because they lower cholesterol. So I recommend that you eat lots of cherries and other dark-colored fruits to maintain balanced blood sugar and enjoy a healthy long life!

Go for Goji Berries, "the Superfruit"
While we are on the subject of berries, let's talk about a well-known member of the traditional Chinese herbalist's arsenal of herbs for thousands of years: goji berries. Also known as lycium berry and wolfberry, this fruit native to China has long been known for its tonic effects, especially on vision, hormonal system and the brain.

Goji berry contains polysaccharides, which stimulate the immune system and signal the pituitary to secrete human growth hormone. Goji also has the highest concentration of carotenoids, especially beta-carotene, of any plant in the world, making it a powerful antioxidant.

The berry is traditionally used together with other Chinese tonic herbs to increase sexual potency and fertility. Rich in linoleic acid (precursor to GLA), riboflavin, selenium, calcium, vitamins B and C, zinc, and other trace minerals, these berries are safe to use and have been used for thousands of years in Asia.

Ape altruism

2007-07-06T16:02:00.000-07:00

A new study supports the theory that chipms can be altruistic just like people. Children as young as 18 months-old also seem to help adults, even strangers, without any immediate benefit to themselves. According to psychologist Felix Warneken of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, altruism goes back as far as 6 million years ago when to the common ancestor we share with chimps. IN a paper published in the journal Public Library of Science Biology, the Warneken and his colleagues posit that humans and chimps are predisposed to be Good Samaritans. From Science News:

His team conducted three experiments with adult chimps living on an island sanctuary in Uganda and two experiments with 18-month-old German children. In the chimp version of the first experiment, 36 animals watched one at a time from a barred enclosure as an experimenter in an adjacent room—who had had virtually no prior contacts with the animals—reached through the bars for a stick on the other side. The stick was within reach of only the observing chimp.

Most chimps snatched the stick and gave it to the experimenter, whether or not the experimenter offered a piece of banana as a reward. No assistance came if the experimenter didn't first reach in vain for the stick.

A similar trial with 36 youngsters yielded comparable altruistic behavior, regardless of whether the experimenter offered toys as a reward.

Link to Science News, Link to PLoS Biology

Almas Caviar

2007-07-05T13:54:00.001-07:00

Caviars are no doubt costly, but ALMAS, the Russian for diamond, costs $23,308.

This caviar is extracted from the Beluga fish. The reason for the caviar being costly is the rarity of Beluga. This fish, which is also the largest sturgeon and the only predator in the family, is highly prized because granules or coarse texture and its tender skin. The beluga caviars are costly because of large, compact grains, fine color, and flavor.

It takes many efforts to make the ALMAS caviar. The caviar is extracted from a manual processing. The fish is placed on a coarse mesh place across wooden tub. The roe bags or sacs containing beluga’s eggs are removed. The roes are passed thought the mesh, to grade the eggs and to separate the eggs from the binding tissue. Care is taken while rubbing the roes across the mesh as there are chances of the fish to die during the process leading to a bitter and low-grade caviar.he there are chances of the fish to die hand for optimum control. The process also separates the eggs from binding tissue

If you believe on the saying “old is gold”, then this 100 years old fish is going to fetch 24k gold tin, in which it is packed. Hey, you can get back half the price you paid for the caviar by selling the gold tin. Anyways, this white caviar with an exotic flavor and a buttery texture is captured from Caspian Sea.

The language of caviar

Japanese Square shaped watermelon

2007-07-05T13:07:00.000-07:00

An employee of an agricultural cooperative prepares square-shaped watermelons for shipment in Zentsuji, western Japan June 25, 2007. The cooperative will ship about 800 of the watermelons through mid-July with each priced from 17,000 yen ($137) to 25,000 yen ($202), local media reported.

In contrast, the square-shaped watermelons from Brazil sold in UK, is quite cheap with a price tag of only £5.

Olympics Mascots Emblazoned Watermelons

2007-06-26T06:15:00.000-07:00

The cube-shaped watermelon, with the five 2008 Beijing Olympics mascots Fuwa emblazoned on its five sides is sold at a supermarket in Xuchang, central China's Henan province. The eye-catching watermelons have been produced using steel molds. The price tag of 398 yuan (US$52) each is definitely too expensive to most Chinese citizens. Source: Tjdaily Two more pictures from Gznet.

World's First $1 Million Ice Cream Cone Made of Gold and Diamonds

2007-06-26T05:49:00.000-07:00

America's premium ice cream retailer Bruster's sold this world's most expensive ice cream for the charity.

Bruster's waffle cone masterpiece was created by renowned diamond manufacturer, Lazare Kaplan International Inc., and consists of nearly 20 troy ounces of 18k white and yellow gold, 548 round Lazare Diamonds, 87 Lazare square emerald cut diamonds, and one breathtaking 5.63 carat Fancy Intense Yellow radiant cut diamond. The 152.16 carat total weight one-of-a-kind piece has a retail value of $1 million and is for sale!

Link via SN

Gourd-shaped Tortoise

2007-06-26T05:47:00.000-07:00

This gourd-shaped tortoise appears at Qugou Township Ornamental Fish Market in Huaibei, east China's Anhui Province, June 24, 2007. Although businessmen there contributed a gene mutation to the aberrance, I rather think it as an abused animal by being banded an iron wire or something alike during its growout. Link to Anhuinews

Colored Potatoes

2007-06-25T07:47:00.001-07:00

Those weird potatoes were grown at 3,950-meter-above-sea-level Andes by farmers in Huancavelica, southern Peru. They also have weird names like "best black woman," "best red woman," "makes the daughter-in-law cry," "like a deer's white tongue," "red shadow" and "like an old bone". Ou, I didn't anticipate that the potato can have so many varieties. Link

Georgia Brown, a genious toddler

2007-06-25T07:18:00.000-07:00

Georgia Brown, a 2-year-old toddler from Aldershot, Hampshire in UK, scored 152 points on the IQ test, which put her in the same intellectual league, proportionate to her age, as physicist Stephen Hawking (in the top 0.2 per cent of the population).

She has been invited to join Mensa, the High IQ society whose members have IQs in the top 2 per cent of the population. Georgia now is one of only 30 Mensa members under the age of ten.

Check out the full fabulous story about this gifted girl on Dailymail. (via SN)

Ashera, 22 000$ cat

2007-06-16T14:00:00.000-07:00

The pricey pet is said to have been produced by cross-breeding an African Serval and an Asian Leopard Cat with a domestic feline. While Lifestyle Pets admits this type hybrid breeding has been done before, "the Ashera is unique in that genetic monitoring is used to standardize breeding and ensure that the defining features and size of the [animal] remain exceptionally consistent." And like most other super-luxury items, the company says it will sell only 100 Asheras per year worldwide, with only 50 being sold to U.S. customers
And after dropping 22 large, potential buyers should also be prepared to budget for a big supply of Fancy Feast, as the company says the Ashera can grow up to weigh 30 pounds.

It's no great shock that cat lovers can get little excessive when it comes to their feline friends. But one company, banking on the fact there are more than a few prospective pet owners willing to part with some serious money for a kitten, is selling a designer breed of cat that costs $22,000.

The Ashera, bred by Los Angeles-based Lifestyle Pets, "is a new ultra-exotic breed of domestic cat that already has wealthy animal devotees paying to get on the waiting list," the company press release claims.
The pricey pet is said to have been produced by cross-breeding an African Serval and an Asian Leopard Cat with a domestic feline. While Lifestyle Pets admits this type hybrid breeding has been done before, "the Ashera is unique in that genetic monitoring is used to standardize breeding and ensure that the defining features and size of the [animal] remain exceptionally consistent." And like most other super-luxury items, the company says it will sell only 100 Asheras per year worldwide, with only 50 being sold to U.S. customers

Ashera possess tiger stripes and leopard like spots. You can see the gallery of this Ashera cat on the Lifestyle Pets site

The photos alone make one wonder about the agility of the cat unlike other domesticated cats. According to Lifestyle pets, the Ashera grows up to 30 pounds. They claim it gets along with other pets and children and takes well to being walked on a leash.

The Ashera however will not be mass produced will be available in limited quantities, 100 per year. The Lifestyle Pets boasts it already has two clients, one, a family in Beverly Hills and another, a Russian client in Moscow.

Another California company, San Diego based, said last year that they created a hypoallergenic kitten for people who sneeze and wheeze in the presence of cats. The Allerca cat cost $3,950.

If you want one of the Asheras, you have to put a deposit of $6,000 to get premium placement and also hasten delivery within 4 to 6 months.

Bush's Watch Stolen?

2007-06-14T09:02:00.000-07:00

Watch this video very carefully; it's President Bush working the crowds in Albania. At 0.50 minutes into the clip, Bush has a watch. At 1.04 minutes into the clip, he had a watch.

The U.S. is denying that his watch was stolen:

Photographs showed Bush, surrounded by five bodyguards, putting his hands behind his back so one of the bodyguards could remove his watch.

I simply don't see that in the video. Bush's arm is out in front of him during the entire nine seconds between those stills.

Another denial:

An Albanian bodyguard who accompanied Bush in the town told The Associated Press he had seen one of his U.S. colleagues close to Bush bend down and pick up the watch.

That's certainly possible; it may have fallen off.

But possibly the pickpocket of the century. (Although would anyone actually be stupid enough to try? There must be a zillion easier-to-steal watches in that crowd, many of them nicer than Bush's.)

SCHEINER ON SECURITY BLOG

Culinology and Molecular Gastronomy

2007-06-11T10:49:00.000-07:00

With changes in how we cook and eat the fields of culinary arts and culinary science appear now to be merging into one. Many famous restaurant now have cooking and food laboratories on their premises, while universities and colleges around the country are beginning to offer degrees in culinology ( a degree program that blends food science and technology with culinary art).

Interest in food science has grown in recent years because of the increasing awareness of the vital role of food in the health, well-being, and economic status of individuals and nations and people's curiosity and desire to try new and innovative food dishes. Food science is the study of the chemical composition of food and food ingredients; their physical, biological and biochemical properties and and the interaction of food constituents with each other and their environment.

What is Molecular Gastronomy?

Molecular Gastronomy is the application of scientific principles to the understanding and improvement of small scale food preparation. The term was invented by the Hungarian physicist Nicholas Kurti in a 1969 presentation to the Royal Institution called "The Physicist in the kitchen", and popularized by his collaborator the French scientist Hervé This.

Heston Blumenthal, 38, is presently at the forefront of this radical style of cooking (molecular gastronomy). His triple Michelin starred restaurant The Fat Duck serves dishes like sardine-flavored sorbet, pasta made out of Jello, snail porridge, or a puree of mango and Douglas fir. At El Bulli, the restaurant of Ferran Adria in Spain another molecular gastronomist dishes consist of monkfish liver with tomato seeds and citrus or barnacles with tea foam, or a parmesan cheese ice cream. During the six months his restaurant is closed, Adrià works on new recipes in a laboratory near the Barcelona market.

At restaurant Arzak in San Sebastian, Juan Mari Arzak and his daughter Elena experiment with their chefs on a daily basis. Upstairs from the restaurant you will find a small food laboratory with pH meters, sonicators and liquid nitrogen.

EGG AND TRUFFLE FLOWER IN GOOSE FAT WITH CHISTORRA (chorizo sausage) OF DATES

From restaurante Arzak

"Everyday we experiment and investigate with the flavours, textures and elaboration's processes."

Besides the investigation's kitchen there is a "Flavour Bank", that contains more than 1000 products and ingredients we use to their investigations and for the new creations -- -- Juan Mari Arzak

Pino Maffeo of Boston's Restaurant L uses liquid nitrogen, emulsifiers and an arsenal of equipment typically found in scientific laboratories, Maffeo creates what he calls "one-bite wonders." "If science can make my cuisine better, then I'll use it," he said, while putting ravioli made from mango and dry cured ham on skewers alongside aloe vera and muscato grape juice gelatin cubes.

To create unusual and original recipes -- such as pairing fried calamari with watermelon and cantaloupe -- Maffeo analyzes the molecular make-up of the ingredients with an infrared spectrometer nuclear magnetic resonance machine, equipment usually used by synthetic chemists and physicists. He believes foods with similar composition pair well together. He meets weekly to discuss projects with Angela Buffone, a visiting professor of organic chemistry at Suffolk University and partner in Maffeo's culinary experiments. For his signature dish, seared foie gras with a 24 carat golden egg, MDDWO uses liquid nitrogen to flash freeze an airy meringue that has been dipped in lightly whipped cream to create a texture resembling an egg shell. Then using a syringe he injects mango sauce into shell. See full text article by Mark Wilson

Experimental Chefs and restaurants

The Fat Duck (Heston Blumenthal) - UK
Pierre Gagnaire (Pierre Gagnaire) - France
El Bulli (Ferran Adria) - Spain
Saint Pierre (Emmanuel Stroobant) - Singapore
Juan Mari Arzak, San Sebastian - Spain
Chef Thomas Keller, whose French Laundry (California)
Pino Maffeo of Boston's Restaurant L

Why Paint Cats?

2007-06-10T12:23:00.000-07:00

Why Paint Cats

Painted Cats
Dyed Cats

Daniel Tammet - Brain Man (Savant)

2007-06-07T13:55:00.000-07:00

Part 1

Part2

Part3

Part4

Part5

A genius explains

Daniel Tammet is an autistic savant. He can perform mind-boggling mathematical calculations at breakneck speeds. But unlike other savants, who can perform similar feats, Tammet can describe how he does it. He speaks seven languages and is even devising his own language. Now scientists are asking whether his exceptional abilities are the key to unlock the secrets of autism.

Interview by Richard Johnson

Optimnem Blog: The Blog of Daniel Tammet

Amazingly simple home remedies

2007-06-05T10:41:00.000-07:00

1. When choking on an ice cube, simply pour a cup of boiling water down your throat. Presto! The blockage will instantly remove itself.

2 Avoid cutting yourself slicing vegetables by getting someone else to hold while you chop.

3. Avoid arguments with the Mrs. about lifting the toilet seat by using the sink.

4. To treat high blood pressure: simply cut yourself and bleed for a few minutes, thus reducing the pressure in your veins. Remember to use a timer.

5. A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button.

6. If you have a bad cough, take a large dose of laxatives, then you will be afraid to cough.

7. You only need two tools in life: WD-40 and Duct Tape. If it doesn't move and should, use the WD-40. If it shouldn't move and does, use the duct tape.

8. When confused, remember- everyone seems normal until you get to know them.

Quotes (Can't live with them, can't live without them)

2007-06-05T10:26:00.000-07:00

'I recently read that love is entirely a matter of chemistry.That must be why my wife treats me like toxic waste.'David Bissonette

'After marriage, husband and wife become two sides of a coin; they just can't face each other, but still they stay together.'Hemant Joshi

'By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.'Socrates

'Woman inspires us to great things, and prevents us from achieving them.'Dumas

'I had some words with my wife, and she had some paragraphs with me.'Anonymous

'Some people ask the secret of our long marriage. We take time to go to a restaurant two times a week. A little candlelight, dinner, soft music and dancing. She goes Tuesdays, I go Fridays.'Henny Youngman

'I don't worry about terrorism. I was married for two years.'Sam Kinison

'There's a way of transferring funds that is even faster than electronic banking. It's called marriage.'James Holt McGavran

'I've had bad luck with both my wives. The first one left me, and the second one didn't.'Patrick Murray

'Two secrets to keep your marriage brimming:1. Whenever you're wrong, admit it, 2. Whenever you're right, shut up.'Nash

'A good wife always forgives her husband when she's wrong.'Milton Berle

Our Eyes

2007-06-05T03:52:00.000-07:00

Seeing things (vision) is one of the most amazing things you can do. You may well think that you see with your eyes, and that’s true - you do. But that’s not the whole story, because you also see with your brain. Without your brain, you wouldn’t be able to see at all.

To see, you also need light. Light is reflected off objects and enters your eyes. The eyes then focus the light (a bit like a magnifying glass does) and turn it into a message that they send to the brain. So it is inside the brain that we actually see things.

The way we see things depends on where the reflected light is coming from. If it’s coming from exactly where you’re looking, you see things sharply and in detail; this is called our "central vision". If it’s coming from somewhere off-centre, it falls within our side vision, or "peripheral vision".

Both central vision and side vision are important. Without central vision, we couldn’t read, recognise faces or look at things directly. Without side vision, it would be very difficult to move around without bumping into things!

If you only have one eye, it can be hard to judge distances, or depth. With two eyes, what you see appears in three dimensions (3D) and you can tell roughly how far away things are. To test this, try catching a ball with one eye closed. You can probably still do it, but it’s quite a bit trickier!

The Eye

The eye is one of the most incredible parts of your body. When your eyes are working well, they can see the hairs on a spider’s legs or galaxies that are billions of miles away.

The eye is about the size of a squash ball, but with a bulge at the front. Look at a friend’s eyes - the bit you can see is where the bulge is. You’ll also see a black spot in the middle, called the pupil. This is where light gets inside the eye. Around the pupil is a coloured ring, called the iris. This might be brown or green or blue, or even a funny browny-greeny-grey! Everyone’s iris is different, which means that no-one has eyes just like yours - you’re unique! The iris is actually lots of tiny muscles. As these muscles contract or relax - become tighter or looser - your pupil gets bigger or smaller, to let in more or less light.

To understand how this works, imagine a group of friends arranged in a circle, all pulling (gently!) with one finger on a rubber band. As they all pull, the hole in the middle of the rubber band gets bigger. In the eye, the hole in the rubber band is the pupil and your friends’ fingers are the tiny muscles in the iris.

The pupil gets bigger when it needs to let more light into the eye, for example when it’s dark. It gets smaller when your eye needs less light, for example in bright sunshine. To see this work, get a friend to cover their eyes for 30 seconds, then open them and look directly at you. When they do, you’ll see their pupils get smaller as they adjust to let in less light. It doesn’t take long though, so you’ll have to be quick!

Once light has gone through the pupil, it is focused to give a sharper picture, first by the cornea, then more precisely by the lens. It then reaches the part of the eye at the back called the retina. The retina then changes this light into a message that it sends down the optic nerve to the brain.

Color

Have you ever wondered how we see in colour? Most of you take colour for granted, but none of the Pups, a lot of other animals and even some humans, can't see in colour the way most of you can.

Our ability to see colours depends on the retina - the part at the back of the eye which is a bit like a curved cinema screen. Images that are focused by the cornea and lens land on the retina. The retina has lots of cells in it that are sensitive to light. Some of these are called rods and the others are called cones.

The rods are arranged around the edge of the retina and are sensitive to dim light. Next time you’re outside at night (and it’s not cloudy!), notice how some stars seem to disappear when you look directly at them, but reappear when you look slightly to one side. This is because their dim light can only be picked up by the rods in your eye, which aren’t right in the centre of your retina.

The cones are sensitive to bright light and, importantly, colour, and are positioned right in the centre of your retina. That’s why when you want to see what colour something is, you look directly at it. It’s much more difficult to tell what colour something is if you can only just see it out of the corner of your eye.

You have a lot more rods in your eye than cones. There are about 120 million rods and 6-7 million cones (so you can imagine how tiny they all are!). So you don’t get them mixed up, remember, c is for cones and colour!

Some people’s cones don’t work properly, and some of these people are totally colour-blind, which means they can’t see colour at all. Fortunately, that’s quite rare, but much more common is a form of colour-blindness where greens and reds get mixed up. About seven men in every hundred and four women in every 10,000 have this kind of colour-blindness, but it doesn’t usually cause them any major problems.

Imagine the world with no colour. Traffic lights might be confusing and rainbows wouldn’t be nearly so impressive! This test show how colour-blindness can effect your vision. Individuals with normal colour vision will see a 5 revealed in the dot pattern. An individual with Red/Green (the most common) colour-blindness will see a 2 revealed in the dots.

Optical Illusion

What we see doesn’t just depend on our eyes. It also depends on how our brains interpret the images our eyes pick up. What we see is actually our brain’s translation of what it thinks is most likely to be there. This is why we sometimes think we’re seeing one thing when the reality can be quite different - our brains have been tricked.

Optical illusions are one way of tricking the brain, and they show - often in quite startling ways - how what we think we see may not actually be the same as what’s really there at all!

You'll never believe your eyes!

Try bending your brain by ogling one of these optical illusions



Herman grid



Impossible trident



Fraser spiral



Does size matter?

Cafe wall



An apparition



Colour contrast



Stroop effect



Necker cube

Kanza effect

Optical illusions and explanations kindly supplied by atBristol. To find out more, visit http://www.youramazingbrain.org.uk.

Laser Eye Surgery (LASIK)

2007-06-05T03:15:00.000-07:00

LASIK and Presbyopia

Laser Eye Surgery and in particular LASIK surgery, is a safe effective and predictable method of correcting nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism. These common vision problems occur because the refractive power of your eyes is not accurate so as to allow light to focus at a precise point on your retina. Another type of common vision problem that is due to a deficiency in the actual focusing mechanism within your eyes is called presbyopia.

Presbyopia, which literally means "old eyes", is a normal and expected consequence of the aging process. The crystalline lens within your eyes is composed of proteins. These proteins are soft and flexible when you are younger. Beginning as you approach your 40's presbyopia occurs as the protein composition of the crystalline lens changes, making it harder and less flexible. When the crystalline lens loses its ability to flex, it is no longer able to change its shape and effectively bend light rays as sharply, and the ability to focus on near objects is diminished. As mentioned above, the clinical symptoms of presbyopia typically commence between age forty and fifty and progressively worsen through age sixty-five. When presbyopia begins, people who already wear glasses may need bifocals or trifocals, and those who have never worn glasses may require reading glasses.

If you are 40 and considering LASIK, presbyopia is an important concept to understand. LASIK has no absolutely no effect on your eye's focusing muscles or on the crystalline lens, so it does not correct ordinary presbyopia. So, if you only need eyeglasses for reading, LASIK is not a good vision correction option for you. However, if you need to have your distance vision corrected because you are nearsighted, farsighted or have astigmatism and need some help with close vision because your are beginning to experience presbyopia, LASIK may be an option if performed as a specialized monovision LASIK.

Another important consideration applies if you are mildly nearsighted and in your forties. Patients who are mildly nearsighted, perhaps less than -3.00 D of nearsighted correction, may notice that while it is not possible to read clearly or comfortably with your glasses or contact lenses on, you can read quite well by removing them. This is actually a unique advantage of mild myopia - you can be presbyopic and still be able to read by removing your eyeglasses or contact lenses. Depending on your lifestyle and daily activities, this may make you a poor candidate for LASIK. If you are mildly nearsighted, over 40 and have LASIK, in all likelihood you will achieve excellent distance vision after having LASIK, as you will become "normal sighted." This will result in your losing the ability to read since you will no longer be nearsighted. Again, depending on your individual lifestyle and vision requirements for daily living, monovision LASIK may be an option that you wish to discuss with your LASIK surgeon.

Frida Kahlo paintings & Lila Downs music

2007-05-31T12:31:00.000-07:00

Frida Kahlo is a Mexican painter, born on July 6, 1907 and dead on July 13, 1954.

Frida claimed to be born on 1910, the year of the outbreak of the Mexican revolution, because she wanted her life began together with the modern Mexico.

This detail well introduces us to a singular personality, characterized since her childhood by a deep sense of independence and rebellion against social and moral ordinary habits, moved by passion and sensuality, proud of her "Mexicanidad" and cultural tradition set against the reigning Americanization: everything mixed with a peculiar sense of humour.

Her life was marked by physical suffering, started with the polio contracted at the age of five and worsen by her life-dominating event occurred in 1925. A bus accident caused severe injuries to her body owing to a pole that pierced her from the stomach to the pelvis. The medicine of her time tortured her body with surgical operations (32 throughout her life), corsets of different kinds and mechanical "stretching" systems.

Lots of her works were painted laying in the bed. Because of these physical conditions Frida was never able to have any children and this was a great sorrow for her.

She had a great love, Diego Rivera (she married twice with this man and dedicated to him a passionate diary) but also a lot of lovers, men and women, such as Leon Trotsky and André Breton's wife....

More Lila Downs music...

More music...Hefiorels Eclectic Music

Frida Kahlo

Helio Ocean

2007-05-31T12:09:00.000-07:00

Hands-on Review: Helio Ocean

Since I first laid eyes on it at CTIA in March, the Helio Ocean has stood out as the clear pretender to the messaging-phone throne—which, to my mind, has been owned by the Sidekick (both II and 3) for a few years now. Despite its aging features, the Sidekick 3 has had a couple of aces up its sleeve: a killer, easy-to-use interface, its swiveling screen and that roomy QWERTY keypad. But with its two-way sliding design—one way for numeric keys, the other for a full keyboard—plus its state-of-the-art data, messaging and multimedia features, the Ocean represents the Sidekick's strongest challenger to date.

Look and feel: There's no question that the Ocean's a big phone: at 4.3 by 2.2 by 0.9 inches and about 5.6 ounces, the Ocean is nearly as big and heavy as my Treo (although its noticeable smaller than the bulky Sidekick). But while it makes for a tight fit in a jeans pocket, the Ocean's nice curves and rubberized shell felt good in my hands. As for its twin keypads, I'm a bigger fan of the full-QWERTY keypad than of the numeric one. Don't get me wrong—I love the two-way slider concept, which keeps you from having to guess which QWERTY keys are for dialing and which aren't—but the thin, curved rows of numeric keys were tricky to press. The roomy QWERTY keypad was a pleasure, however, and I especially appreciated the dedicated "@" key for composing e-mail messages.

In the box: The Ocean comes with a solid set of accessories, including a wired stereo headset, a USB cable, and an adapter for earphones with standard 3.5mm minijacks—a nice change from the carriers who ship their phones with no accessories at all. There's no included microSD card for memory expansion, but the Ocean's generous 200MB of internal memory (good for a few dozen songs) will tide you over until you get one.

Interface: I've been a fan of Helio's user interfaces in the past, and I'm pleased to report that the Ocean's menu system looks even better now; previously tough-to-use features (like conference calling) are much easier to use now, and I never lost my way through the myriad options. I just wish the whole experience was a bit more unified; there's nothing like the Sidekick's "Jump" button that takes you back to the main menu. Also, a jog dial or trackball would be a welcome addition (my thumb kept reaching for a trackball that wasn't there).

Messaging: Outstanding—I especially liked the Ocean's unified messaging screen, which shows you at a glance the status of your e-mail and instant messaging accounts. You get out-of-the-box support for Yahoo! Mail, AOL Mail, Windows Live Mail and Gmail, along with all their respective IM services (save Google's), and Helio is promising Exchange ActiveSync support for corporate servers later this year. A couple of things are missing, though: the Ocean won't automatically fetch your POP/IMAP messages (you have to collect them manually), and HTML-formatted e-mail messages are stripped of their formatting—then again, my pricey Treo 700p (and the Sidekick 3, for that matter) has the same problem.

Web browsing: The Ocean's mobile Web browser earns high marks, but it falls just shy of the bar set by Nokia. Web surfing was quite speedy, faster even than on my 3G Treo, and the cool zoom feature instantly zooms text and images up to 200 percent (or down to 50 percent). The browser borrows Nokia's mini-map so you can see your position relative to the rest of the page, which is a nice touch. The Ocean's browser puts HTML pages through Google's mobile optimizer by default; you can scroll to the bottom of a page and click a link to see the full HTML version, but you can't turn the option off altogether, which was a bit annoying. Also, the browser struggled to render full HTML pages correctly; it couldn't display the Yahoo! front page at all, and the IMDB front page looked jumbled (Nokia's Web browser breezed through those tests). Still, I'll take the Ocean's browser over almost any other mobile browser out there, including the Sidekick's.

Music and video: Helio at last has an online storefront where you can buy music, making its service more than competitive with the music and video stores on Sprint and Verizon Wireless. You can also sync your PC-based music and videos using the included USB cable and software, and subscription-based services like Yahoo! Music are supported. The Ocean's music player boasts shuffle and repeat modes, as well as an equalizer with four presets. Music controls along the left spine of the phone let you pause and skip tracks or tweak the volume, even when the Ocean is closed, and you can listen over a stereo Bluetooth headset or your own earbuds thanks to the unobtrusive 3.5mm minijack adapter. Nicely done.

GPS and pictures: The Ocean comes with Helio's cool Buddy Beacon feature, which lets you see the location all your fellow Buddy Beacon pals (you can, of course, disable the GPS locator if you want to travel covertly). The Ocean is also one of the few phones that integrates Google Maps with GPS, making it much easier to find nearby restaurants, ATMs, gas stations and so on. In my tests in Manhattan, the GPS-aided Google Maps pinpointed my location within a couple of doors—not bad at all. Even better, you can send pictures to your buddies embedded with your present GPS coordinates, or upload your photos directly to MySpace with the new HelioUp app. The Ocean's two-megapixel camera represents a major improvement over the carrier's previous camera phones—images looked relatively vivid and sharp, if not up to the standards or a dedicated camera.

The last word: The Ocean is clearly Helio's strongest phone to date—it's a quantum leap over last year's Hero and Kickflip, and I'd have to say it easily leapfrogs all the other consumer-oriented messaging phones out there, including the Sidekick 3, LG's enV, and Samsung's dual-flip SCH-u740. At $300 with service, the Ocean isn't cheap, but you're getting a truckload of features for the cash. If you're a messaging addict who wants plenty of multimedia on the road, then this is your phone.

Ben Patterson THE GADGET'S HOUND

OXYGENATION

2007-05-21T04:03:00.001-07:00

Instant relaxation media. Carefully composed macro photography of streams, shot in the beautiful location of Table Mountain National Park South Africa , Accompanied by Real and Digitally enhanced Sound FX and soothing Reiki music (or Deep Relaxation Music). This blend of media creates the possibility for the viewer to enter into a relaxed state of mind. It is a quick fix for a busy lifestyle and a relaxing escape

Historia est testis temporum, lux veritatis, vita memoria, magistra vitae, nuntia vetustatis.

2007-05-19T08:45:00.000-07:00

History is the witness of the times, the light of truth, the life of memory, the teacher of life, and the messenger of antiquity.

Historia est testis temporum, lux veritatis, vita memoria, magistra vitae, nuntia vetustatis.
(M. Tullius Cicero, De Oratore 2.36)

LIFE IN THE 1500'S

The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be.

Here are some interesting facts about the 1500s:

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odour.
Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children, last of
all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it.
Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath.
It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and off the roof.
Hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed
a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess
up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung
over the top afforded some protection.
That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt.
Hence the saying "dirt poor."
The wealthy had slate floors that wouldget slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway.
Hence the saying a "thresh hold."

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while.
Hence the rhyme, "Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old. "

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could "bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and "chew the fat."

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or "upper crust."

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait to see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a "wake."

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a "bone-house" and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the
inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the "graveyard shift") to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be "saved by the bell" or was considered a "dead ringer."

And that's the truth..
Now, whoever said that History was boring !
Historia Magistra Vitae Est
Educate someone...
Share these facts with a friend

Spot's Cat Profile/Cat Curriculum Vitae

2007-05-18T07:59:00.000-07:00

PLACE of BIRTH: Belgrade
DATE of BIRTH: 21/03/2001
TIME of BIRTH: 17:30h
SIGN: Aries
AGE: 6 years
BREED: Persian cat
SEX: male
NAME: Spot
MOTHER'S name: Cica
FATHER'S name: Tommy
OWNER: Stela
COLOR: ginger
EYE COLOR: amber
WEIGHT: 4,5 kg
USED to live in: Serbia, Greece
NOW living at: Voorschoten, NL
FAVORITE FOOD: fresh fish
FAVORITE DRINK: milk
FAVORITE SPORT: romancing the pussies
FAVORITE HOBBY: sleeping
FAVORITE sleeping place: Stela's working table
BEST FRIEND: rottweiler Xing

Turtle vs Cat

2007-05-15T10:33:00.000-07:00

Incredible combination! Who is going to win? Cat or turtle? Real Ninja Turtle! Cat reminds me a bit of Spot, our Persian ginger tom-cat. I wonder how would he react in such a situation? For the time being, he is too busy...romancing the cats in our Voorschoten neighborhood :)

New mail...

2007-05-14T15:11:00.000-07:00

Hi my dear densely question marked Hugo,

have you noticed how inspiring and influential our mail stream is? :)
I've used our last mail (your reaction on my blog and my answer to you) to link almost all postings.
Thank you for inspiring me :)
I am never taking anything too seriously...although sometimes it would be recommendable, so I am always open for learning about everything.

So, according to the quantity of "wonders" and question marks,when visiting the Cyberspace, you do feel a bit like Alice in the Wonderland, but see no fun at all...

Blog is the place when you can openly expose and share your interests, ideas, ask questions,get the answers and reactions, be artistic, write, compose, write your diary...Same as in the material world, but just using the different media.

By rejecting to understand the Cyber world, you can not deny it's existence.

Real persons are behind the computer screens, leaving the portions of their energy for other persons capable of understanding them. Aren't we exchanging our mails daily? I am very real person and you know it.
But, I have fun in the Real World as well as in the Cyber Space and also in Outer Space, on several Planets I am falling from occasionally, and I have fun in the number of Parallel Worlds I do exist simultaneously...all this reached just by following my hectic mind labyrinth, no magic mushrooms needed or the White Rabbit to be followed :)
You just have to accept the existence of the real world and cyberspace. Ask Sander about his opinion about blogging as a trend :)

I am going to give my humble tribute to Huizinga, and play Chicken Invaders!
Save the solar system from invading chickens! Just when you thought it was safe to eat chicken again, the chickens have returned with an organized invasion to take over the entire solar system! Journey to each planet and fight your way through to save the world (again)! Advance through waves of invading chickens, avoiding falling eggs and collecting power-ups to boost your spaceship's firepower.
I have to save the world (again)!

smiling kiss and breath taking embrace
Jade

ha cyber-touched jade,

quite some reactions...! again asking for many interesting questions/ questions marks, as always arising from confrontation with ' what seems to be nowadays normal life'..

yes, the mailstream is inspiring but for me also regularly confusing.

- I notice that the 'nature' of my lines sometimes is not clear (enough) ...is not easy to express the right nuances as in normal contact. for instance, I hardly can express the important differences between joking, teasing, playing, elaborating and meaning something... and therefore some (slight) misunderstanding is often influencing, resp. too many times/ too much of my expressions seem to be critical remarks..(point 1 in which cyberspace is and will never be real enough in contact).

- cyberspace is most certainly not a ' wonderland'...it offers no magic, no deeper questions, no surprises, no wondering...therefore it is more like a desert with some boring dusty villages (point 2 why cyberspace is never challenging enough in contact).

- blogs & personal websites are nothing else than ego-presentations that always and only offer the - mostly exaggerated-' nice' aspects of people and therefore it is not more than a dreary human-surface spectacle that has not much to do with the reality of the real persons ' hiding' behind it.

also in our mail that was the question at the beginning: only after ' real' contact you and I could become more real....(and even then point 1 still interfering regularly), so ' real persons behind the pc' does not say anything at all...

'some form' of contact is posible and that is nice - certainly between persons that are familiar with eachother- but for the rest... they can never be as real as in reality and that's (also?!) why they are behind the pc?!. that's clearly shown in the wildgrow fiction of second life for instance! + persons that ' openly expose' are mostly quite doubtfull beings in a doubtfull existence, showing that in a very shadowy way.. I can't see how that could enrich me in any way..

I do know all functions of the web, but also youngsters (like sander & friends) had own websites and blogs etc. but hooked off from the ' weirdoe overflow' as they call it' + the number of such ego-sites is becoming that big that nobody is reacting anymore?....nowadays only using friends-chat and - like me- finding reliable data or download/buy something. (point 3 why cyberspace is never real enough for finding the real-good contacts or get engaged in the much more important real suble-covert sides of real persons).

so, all together: I do not ' reject' the web at all! but do not see any ' fun' in it that is reaching or enriching me - the same with about 90% of daily dutch/amsterdam world 'functions' around me, so only use it for simple and relevant uses and ignore the rest as good as possible.....

and...you still have not made clear what & where the ' fun' is...sorry, but for instance that chicken game (the chicken-form is delusively nice, but the core is allways about fighting priming and always with that hell-horrible music!) is giving me shivers in my neckhairs...no fun at all for me.

another angle: so, the scepticism about cyberspace just corresponds with my scepticism about western society/massculture... that's why I do not feel completely at ease here...too much of such horrors in daily life which is regarded as ' normal'... basicly mirrored in the realisation that I often/ for bigger part feel more at home in odessa than in amsterdam...?! (although the western horror is also entering/ distorting life overthere of course)..

not knowing what is meant with ' fun'..? ha....resp. never been tricked in wanting a ' fun' life..??...that surface? of life has not much/ nothing to offer me..?

but then what about that I really do enjoy life and (small) elements of the world in which I live...

while trying to stay away from capitalistic-massculture addiction/ exploitation...? ha, always the rebell with a cause for ever.

this time a quickly-typed though real meant reaction as it is an interesting subject, with -when explicit formulated with then slight ironic smile.

the garden is waiting for a cut again and I have to start thinking how to react to milica and have to remember sander's birthday tomorrow and give a mail info to rita in moldavia....

relaxed but now pressured embrace and rebellious kiss, hugo

Spot, very special Persian cat...

2007-05-14T13:04:00.000-07:00

Spot is back!
His spring love madness made us mad! He has obviously to make up for not being active in February (we were still in the flat in Leiden, no garden), or is it influence of the global warming on Spot's love life?
Anyhow, he was missing for 24h for the first time in his 6 years long life, so it was pretty alarming, specially because he was a new face in his Voorschoten habitat and not familiar nor with the area nor with the local cats...
In the beginning of his freedom he was very moderate in his excursions, exploring just in the vicinity of our garden. He gained our confidence and was allowed to stroll around, got to know Krpko, old experienced cat with some teeth missing, had a fight with him several times...He was gaining his position in the new neighborhood, but he was gaining scratches and wounds too. He was loosing his hairs and weight (the second was desirable, the first was not flattering his usually neat and handsome impressive Persian ginger tom-cat appearance). He was more dandy city cat but he was resolute in his attempts to become a really tough outdoor Ninja cat.
He would stay outside longer and longer, driving Stella crazy (she can not sleep if he is not safely at home) and he even managed to fell in the water and appear completely wet and muddy, coughing and sneezing with style. Quite frightening and dramatic. He was stranded for some time, but the nature is nature, so we decided to open cat-door and to grant him all the freedom!
Some three days ago he has suddenly entered in Casanova role "wearing" terrible "love perfume" and appearing at home just to nibble something and disappear again!

The climax of his newly found freedom (and our anxiety) was when he was missing for more than 24h! We alarmed our first neighbors and received the information that Spot was spotted not far away from our house, chasing pussies, of course! We also tried to spot Spot (it was very late in the night), but spotted just his hairy unique tail just long enough to conclude that it was 100% his tail, because he disappeared in somebody’s garden not reacting at all on our calls…For Spot love was really deafening and blinding! We even tried to use his best friend rottweiler Xing as a bate (a bit later), but without any results. We gave up and decided to let him do whatever he wanted (as if we had any other choice!).

He has appeared the next day, completely exhausted, dirty, smelly, hungry but satisfied!!!

After eating, Spot has fallen in narcoleptic sleep which lasted hours and hours…

He has accomplished his love mission and now we expect to see some ginger long haired kittens in the near future running around in our neighborhood.

CAT WRITERS' ASSOCIATION Inc
THE PSYCHOKITTY SPEAKS OUT
CATS INTERNATIONAL

Hugo's reaction to JADRANKA'S CHIMERA :)

2007-05-13T06:43:00.000-07:00

On 5/13/07, Hugo (e-mail known to me) wrote:

hi blogging jade,

1st reaction: not knowing what to do with yourself..... what a shame/ pity/ waste, etc. to find yourself in that position?! what do you miss/ need...!?

2nd: why that tibet animal?? is sponsoring or so??

3rd: why is the labyrinth so central?? where are you?? where is 'you' ?

so far no 8 visiting your blog....

anyway: I will never understand the need/necessity to put oneself so in the cyberspace... what is the extra it (hopefully) provides?

walking plants: I would feel some relief and emptiness... and then the neighbours would complain and bring them back.

cutting: civilisation has not only at the basis some need for cutting, but also needs regularly repetition as human wants are growing too wildly...??

reading priorities: no question at all/ ever: reading and drinking coffee are the utmost necessities in life.... even above a woman? (oei) and garden etc is just a fancy extra

(western luxury hobby) and never necessity;

as long as I can take a walk outdoors, go on holiday and enjoy some green/flowering scenery and otherways I have the city parks etc.. sorry for this blasphemy.

enjoying the embrace...with smiling return, hugo

my reply:

Ha, my dear too serious Hugo,

aren't you taking all the things a bit too seriously? :)
Try to enter in Homo Ludens role more frequently...it's fun;)
The Homo Ludens Andiniensis is already existing in you...:)...and it's fun :)
My blogging is also fun :)
I am constant Homo Ludens (as well as a gardener) :)

I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself
is a famous song by Burt Bacharach and Hal David...and has a long history (1962), first recorded by R&B singer Tommy Hunt...and later on by Dusty Springfield (1964), Dionne Warwick (1966), Elvis Costello and The Attractions (1978), Demis Roussos (1978), The Photos, featuring Wendy Wu (1980) Linda Ronstadt (1994) and and Steve Tyrell (2003)
A 2002 release of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles... Also in 2002, the soundtrack to My Best Friend's Wedding included a version by Nicky Holland. In the film, Cameron Diaz sings the song in a karaoke scene. In 2003, it was released as a single by The White Stripes The video for the White Stripes version is a black and white video featuring Kate Moss pole dancing erotically and was directed by Sofia Coppola.
In 2006, the song was performed and included in the soundtrack for Shout! The Mod Musical.

Tibetan animal...
appeared accidentally in my "mind labyrinth" in the connection with the beautiful shawl I have found on the ground a few rainy days ago...The shawl is definitely not shahtoosh (directly related with the "Tibetan animal" named chiru ( Pantholops hodgsonii), an extremely endangered animal.
I included them in my blog because I want more people to know the truth about Tibetan Antelope, and I will eventually succeed if I have the traffic (can happen sometimes with the new blogs on the Internet, depending on a lot of things...but it is "all Greek to you"). The campaign for the protection of the chiru is not sponsoring my blog.
Hopefully, I can earn some money through the Google Ads (if the people visiting my blog click on the Google ads placed on my blog, I get paid small amount of money)

Labyrinth
accidentally it popped up in my mind, because it reminded me of surfing on the Internet: you can get lost easily or you can find your way if you know how and where to go...and having a nice graphic sign and also being connected with a garden maze, for me, the constant gardener, it was very attractive :)
Being in the Cyberspace for me is fun :), and also creating my habitat there is fun too :)
And...there are some blogs making some serious money:

Dave and Thomas Present: Daily Time Killers and Links!
Personal Development for Smart People

walking plants...
why would the neighbours complain about your run-away plants? They will adopt them, care about them, love them, talk to them and water them regularly and the plants will be content and grateful and would resolutely reject to come back to you :)..and you will drink your priority coffee and read your priority newspapers in your empty, deserted garden! Ha!

cutting...
as a social psychologist, you are sort of the social gardener! Your task is to cut dry social branches and get rid of the social weed and support positive flowering trands...regularly. The same pattern you have to apply to your own garden :) and experience Epicurean Gardening Bliss.

"And the most exquisite delights of sense are pursued, in the contrivance and plantation of gardens; which, with fruits, flowers, shades, fountains, and the music of birds that frequent such happy places, seem to furnish all the pleasures of the several senses, and with the greatest, or at least the most natural perfections" by Sir William Temple (Upon the Gardens of Epicurus)

I am loosing myself in the labyrinth of my hectic female mind!!! Have to come back to the reality and go outside and try to find and persuade Spot (rode Persianische langharage kater) to come back home...he is desperately in love and was out all night long for the first time in his cat's life.

"The first cut is the deepest" :) (Cat Stevens) but also Rod Stewart or Sheryl Crow.

Epicurean embrace&kiss
Jade

Golden Opulence Sundae

2007-05-12T17:00:00.000-07:00

The Golden Opulence Sundae, the "World's most expensive sundae" for "only" 1000$ was created to celebrate Serendipity's (New York) 50th Anniversay last year.
Made with "5 scoops of the richest Tahitian vanilla bean ice cream infused with Madagascar vanilla and covered in 23K edible gold leaf, the sundae is drizzled with the world's most expensive chocolate, Amedei Porceleana, and covered with chunks of rare Chuao chocolate, which is from cocoa beans harvested by the Caribbean Sea on Venezuela's coast. The masterpiece is suffused with exotic candied fruits from Paris, gold dragets, truffles and Marzipan Cherries. It is topped with a tiny glass bowl of Grand Passion Caviar, an exclusive dessert caviar, made of salt-free American Golden caviar, known for its sparkling golden color. It's sweetened and infused with fresh passion fruit, orange and Armagnac. The sundae is served in a baccarat Harcourt crystal goblet with an 18K gold spoon to partake in the indulgenceserved with a petite mother of pearl spoon and topped with a gilded sugar flower by Ron Ben-Israel."

Shahtoosh

2007-05-12T09:49:00.000-07:00

In Persian, ‘Shahtoosh’ means ‘King of Wools’
a perfect description for an ultra fine wool that’s softer than either Angora, Pashmina and Cashmere.
Shahtoosh shawls are so incredibly lightweight that they can be passed through an average sized finger ring, hence their common name, ‘Ring Shawls’. The reason they’re so light is because each hair of the Tibetan Antelope is around 6 times thinner than the average human hair. That’s a very fine hair!
Each shahtoosh shawl requires about 350 grams of wool. Being as each Tibetan Antelope yields no more than 125 - 150 grams, it takes the wool of three animals to make just one shawl.

TIBETAN ANTELOPE FACTS SHEET

SHAHTOOSH

DO YOU KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT SHAHTOOSH ?

I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself

2007-05-12T09:40:00.000-07:00

I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself
Philip Glass (Violin Concerto No. II) (music)
Kate Moss (pole dancing)
The video for the White Stripes version is a black and white featuring Kate Moss pole dancing erotically and was directed by Sofia Coppola.

Kokology

2007-05-12T08:11:00.000-07:00

Kokology: The Game of Self-Discovery - a window into your soul, was written by Japanese psychologist Isamu Saito a psychology professor at Rissho University and the head of the Kokology Project Team Tadahito Nagao. The book is a type of personality test. Kokology tries to get to your inner being by asking a series of innocent questions. Answers to these questions, put through the Kokology system, will reveal your attitudes to all sorts of things. Things like love, self-esteem and the always-fun views on sex.
"Kokology,"a popular term for the interpretation of the hidden meanings of human behavior and situational responses, is derived from the Japanese word "kokoro," which may be translated as "mind," "spirit," or "feelings."

Ashes and Snow

2007-05-11T15:38:00.000-07:00

“...blood to bone, bone to marrow, marrow to feather, feather to fire, fire to ashes, ashes to snow...”

Gregory Colbert

2007-05-10T12:05:00.000-07:00

See the movie, visit the exhibition The Nomadic Museum, experience something new, timeless, mesmerizing...Learn more about man and animal relation, find your place in nature, let Gregory Colbert take you to the new dimension...

Video

Labyrinth

2007-05-09T07:45:00.001-07:00

In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (Gk. λαβύρινθος labyrinthos) was an elaborate structure constructed for King Minos of Crete and designed by the legendary artificer Daedalus to hold the Minotaur, a creature that was half man and half bull and which was eventually killed by the Athenian hero Theseus. Daedalus had made the Labyrinth so cunningly that he himself could barely escape it after he built it.^[1] Theseus was aided by Ariadne, who provided him with a fateful thread to wind his way back again.

The term labyrinth is often used interchangeably with maze, but modern scholars of the subject use a stricter definition. For them, a maze is a tour puzzle in the form of a complex branching passage with choices of path and direction; while a single-path ("unicursal") labyrinth has only a single Eulerian path to the center. A labyrinth has an unambiguous through-route to the center and back and is not designed to be difficult to navigate.

This unicursal design was wide-spread in artistic depictions of the Minotaur's Labyrinth even though both logic and literary descriptions of it make it clear that the Minotaur was trapped in a multicursal maze.^[2]

A labyrinth can be represented both symbolically and/or physically. Symbolically it is represented in art or designs on pottery, as body art, etched on walls of caves, etc. Physical representations are common throughout the world, and are generally constructed on the ground so they may be walked along from entry point to center and back again. They have historically been used in both group ritual and for private meditation

LION'S LOVE

2007-05-09T07:37:00.000-07:00

Love knows no boundaries!