love it

http://antonyandthejohnsons.com/

Wind in the Willows

“For this is the last best gift that the kindly demigod is careful to bestow on those to whom he has revealed himself in their helping: the gift of forgetfulness. Lest the awful remembrance should remain and grow, and overshadow mirth and pleasure, and the great haunting memory be happy and light-hearted as before.”

Perfection

The word "perfection" derives from the Latin "perfectio", and "perfect" — from "perfectus." These expressions in turn come from "perficio" — "to finish", "to bring to an end." "Perfectio(n)" thus literally means "a finishing", and "perfect(us)" — "finished", much as in grammatical parlance ("perfect tense").^[2]

More Jean Cocteau

I CAN'T GET ENOUGH

Jean Cocteau was born in Maisons-Lafitte into a wealthy Parisian family, which also was politically prominent. His father was a lawyer and amateur painter, who committed suicide when Cocteau was nine. However, he had a lasting influence on his son. It is said that this tragic event also created Cocteau's awareness of human weakness, which he compensated by putting himself in the service of the performing arts and the mysterious forces in the universe. Poetry was for Cocteau the basis of all art, a "religion without hope".
In 1915 Cocteau met Picasso and fell under his spell. "I admired his intelligence, and clung to everything he said, for he spoke little; I kept still so as not to miss a word. There were long silences and Varèse could not understand why we stared wordlessly at each other. In talking, Picasso used a visual syntax, and you could immediately see what he was saying. He liked formulas and summoned himself up in his statements as he summoned himself up and sculptured himself in objects that he immediately made tangible." (from Pablo Picasso by Pierre Cabanne, 1977)

Divine States

Buddhism's four brahmavihara ("Divine States") can be more properly regarded as virtues in the European sense. They are:

1. Metta/Maitri: loving-kindness towards all; the hope that a person will be well; loving kindness is "the wish that all sentient beings, without any exception, be happy."^[6]
2. Karuna: compassion; the hope that a person's sufferings will diminish; compassion is the "wish for all sentient beings to be free from suffering."^[6]
3. Mudita: altruistic joy in the accomplishments of a person, oneself or other; sympathetic joy, "is the wholesome attitude of rejoicing in the happiness and virtues of all sentient beings."^[6]
4. Upekkha/Upeksha: equanimity, or learning to accept both loss and gain, praise and blame, success and failure with detachment, equally, for oneself and for others; equanimity means "not to distinguish between friend, enemy or stranger, but regard every sentient being as equal. It is a clear-minded tranquil state of mind - not being overpowered by delusions, mental dullness or agitation."

Source: Wikipedia

Impersonator!

Indian man as Lenin.

Panic

Architects and city planners try to accommodate the symptoms of panic, such as herd behavior, during design and planning, often using simulations to determine the best way to lead people to a safe exit and prevent congestion (stampedes). The most effective methods are often nonintuitive. A tall column, approximately 1 ft (300 mm) in diameter, placed in front of the door exit at a precisely calculated distance, may speed up the evacuation of a large room by up to 30%, as the obstacle divides the congestion well ahead of the choke point.

Source: Wikipedia

Snake Rug

A handknotted snake shaped rug, hides a cable that heats up, warming a cold floor. Buttons on the side make it possible to fix the snake in different positions.

Sylvia Plath

Holyshit this is what I was ranting about for days. Not that I rant out loud

• I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart. I am. I am. I am.

• Let me live, love and say it well in good sentences.

• Can a selfish egocentric jealous and unimaginative female write a damn thing worthwhile?

• Dying is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well. I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say I've a call.

• I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in life. And I am horribly limited.

• Is there no way out of the mind?

• Remember, remember, this is now, and now, and now. Live it, feel it, cling to it. I want to become acutely aware of all I've taken for granted.

• It is a feeling that no matter what the ideas or conduct of others, there is a unique rightness and beauty to life which can be shared in openness, in wind and sunlight, with a fellow human being who believes in the same basic principles.

• For me, poetry is an evasion of the real job of writing prose.

• I wanted change and excitement and to shoot off in all directions myself, like the colored arrows from a Fourth of July rocket.

• I am inhabited by a cry.
Nightly it flaps out
Looking, with its hooks, for something to love.
I am terrified by this dark thing
That sleeps in me;
All day I feel its soft, feathery turnings, its malignity.

• If I rest, if I think inward, I go mad.

• Life has been some combination of fairy-tale coincidence and joie de vivre and shocks of beauty together with some hurtful self-questioning.

• I have the choice of being constantly active and happy or introspectively passive and sad. Or I can go mad by ricocheting in between.

• If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I'm neurotic as hell. I'll be flying back and forth between one mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days.

• Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything it is because we are dangerously near wanting nothing.

• You don't believe in God, or life-after-death, so you can't hope for sugar plums when your non-existent soul rises.

• I talk to God but the sky is empty.

• I love him to hell and back and heaven and back, and have and do and will.

• There must be quite a few things a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them.

Pier Paulo Pasolini

Io sono una forza del Passato.
Solo nella tradizione è il mio amore.
Vengo dai ruderi, dalle chiese,
dalle pale d’altare, dai borghi
abbandonati sugli Appennini o le Prealpi,
dove sono vissuti i fratelli.
Giro per la Tuscolana come un pazzo,
per l’Appia come un cane senza padrone.
O guardo i crepuscoli, le mattine
su Roma, sulla Ciociaria, sul mondo,
come i primi atti della Dopostoria,
cui io assisto, per privilegio d’anagrafe,
dall’orlo estremo di qualche età
sepolta. Mostruoso è chi è nato
dalle viscere di una donna morta.
E io, feto adulto, mi aggiro
più moderno di ogni moderno
a cercare fratelli che non sono più.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfFvzGOvZFo

mise-en-scène

Stemming from the theater, the French term mise en scène literally means "putting on stage." When applied to the cinema, mise-en-scène refers to everything that appears before the camera and its arrangement—sets, props, actors, costumes, and lighting.^[2] Mise-en-scène also includes the positioning and movement of actors on the set, which is called blocking. These are all the areas overseen by the director, and thus, in French film credits, the director's title is metteur en scène, "putter on scene."

This narrow definition of mise-en-scène is not shared by all critics. For some, it refers to all elements of visual style—that is, both elements on the set and aspects of the camera. For others, such as U.S. film critic Andrew Sarris, it takes on mystical meanings related to the emotional tone of a film.

Recently, the term has come to represent a style of conveying the information of a scene primarily through a single shot—often accompanied by camera movement. It is to be contrasted with montage-style filmmaking—multiple angles pieced together through editing. Overall, mise-en-scène is used when the director wishes to give an impression of the characters or situation without vocally articulating it through the framework of spoken dialogue, and typically does not represent a realistic setting. The common example is that of a cluttered, disorganized apartment being used to reflect the disorganization in a character's life in general, or a spartanly decorated apartment to convey a character with an "empty soul", in both cases specifically and intentionally ignoring any practicality in the setting.

Source: Wikipedia

Bjork

we live on a mountain
right at the top
there's a beautiful view
from the top of the mountain
every morning i walk towards the edge
and throw little things off
like:
car-parts, bottles and cutlery
or whatever i find lying around

it's become a habit
a way
to start the day

i go through this
before you wake up
so i can feel happier
to be safe up here with you

it's real early morning
no-one is awake
i'm back at my cliff
still throwing things off
i listen to the sounds they make
on their way down
i follow with my eyes 'til they crash
imagine what my body would sound like
slamming against those rocks

and when it lands
will my eyes
be closed or open?

i'll go through all this
before you wake up
so i can feel happier
to be safe up here with you

Microscope, telescope, when all I really needed was glasses. HAHAHA

Flesh eating bacteria!

Fantastic! : D

It was late last year that it all happened. It shocked and scared us all at the time, but now there's a beautiful and fish-ridden ending to one of the Tinny's most tragic yarns.

On his first trip back to the scene of the crime, a year after 'the incident', Tom Maher has caught fish. And returned home without injury! Listen to the audio to hear how it all went.

Here's how it all unfolded from the beginning:

Hi, my name is Tom Maher.

I am writing this from a bed in Royal Darwin Hospital.

On Saturday 10 November my wife Lorna and I headed out from the Buffalo Creek boat ramp for a pleasant days fishing in some of our favourite low tide holes in Shoal Bay near "The Rock" in our treasured 4.8m Quintrex Freedom Sport.

On the way over we had a bit of a trawl past the mouth of King Creek just before the turn of the high tide in the hope of hooking one of the elusive metre barra known to frequent the area.

After a couple of runs past the mouth without any joy we reeled in and headed over to the holes between spots five and 15 and settled in with a cuppa and some snacks to wait for the tide to go out.

About 10am the tide was low enough for me to wander off across the sand flats to chase a few mullet so Lorna could be set up with some livvies out the back of the boat while I moseyed around some of the other holes flicking lures in likely looking spots.

As a back up I took a handline with me to set up with a live mullet while casting lures amongst the snags in the holes. After about 15 minutes without any success in the first hole I decided to check out another nearby hole.

I left the handline at the first hole as figured that if I hooked anything with it the fish couldn't go far.

The second hole looked pretty good but there was still an hour or so to go to the bottom of the tide when the barra would be really on the bite so I thought I would go back and pick up the handline and head back to the boat and have a bit of lunch with Lorna.

When I got to the hand line it was apparent that something had taken the bait and headed into the snags. As it was only three or four metres out to where the line was snagged I decided to wade out and desnag it.

The water was just above knee deep and when I got out to the line I felt some sort of marine animal swim between my legs and inflicted a three inch long and half inch deep bite or sting on my right calf.

Bleeding profusely and in a lot a pain I stumbled the 300 odd metres back to the boat. Lorna helped me back in, bandaged my leg to stem the bleeding and settled me in as best a possible on the floor of the boat.

It was still a couple of hours before the turn of the tide and recognising that I was in need of relatively urgent medical attention Lorna tried with little success to get through to the ambulance on the emergency 000 number.

Mobile phone reception was poor so she turned her attention to the marine radio. Neither of us had any idea how to use the radio effectively but Lorna managed to get through to Coast Radio Darwin on Channel 10 who arranged for an ambulance to meet us at the Shoal Bay Boat Ramp once we could get underway with the incoming tide.

The pain from the bite was enormous.

There was very little Lorna could do to alleviate it for me. All I could do was writhe about and scream in agony on the floor of the boat waiting for the tide to come in enough for us to head over to boat ramp.

We initially thought that would be around 2pm but we didn't get underway until about 4:30pm, some five hours after the incident occurred.

On a scale of 0 to 10 with the 10 being the worst imaginable pain, I put my pain at 10 for the entire period. It was great when we finally got to the ambulance at Shoal Bay and they were able to administer pain relief.

Lorna still had to get the boat back to Buffalo Creek and on to the trailer and then back home. Thankfully some other fishos helped her take the boat back to Buff Creek and our neighbour, Owen, helped her back the boat up our steep driveway.

Once I got to hospital I thought I would stay there overnight to allow the doctors enough time to clean wound and put a few stitches in to put me back together.

However a flesh eating bacteria found in the tropical waters this time of year had got into the open wound and resulted in a rapid deterioration in the condition of the wound which resulted in a fist size hole in the calf of my leg within a few days.

After nearly 3 weeks of treatment with massive doses of antibiotics and super doses of oxygen in the hospital's hypobaric chamber (used for treating scuba divers with the benz) the battle with the bacteria seems to have been won. I am now just waiting on a skin graft to start covering up the open wound.

There has been a lot speculation of what actually bit or stung me. Could have been a stingray, a small shark, a baby croc or some other fish. I will probably never know.... but I will probably (maybe) take some regard of Lorna's new rule for future trips to Shoal Bay, that is 'stay in the boat!'

And now Tom has just completed his first trip back to the scene of the crime, a year after the incident. And he caught fish. Listen to the audio to hear how it all went.

And by way of warning the NT Department of Health says the bacteria is known as Vibrio bacteria.

They are a family of bacteria that live in warm sea water and are found throughout the world but are particularly common in large gulfs in tropical areas such as the Bay of Bengal, the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf of Carpentaria.

People with poor immunity, particularly those with chronic liver disease, can get the infection through the skin, when cuts or abrasions are exposed to sea water, or through ingesting contaminated food or water.

The infection can start as a wound infection and can quickly spread to cause overwhelming and life threatening bloodstream infection.

Spiderblog

I just found a really neat blog. Excerpt:

Thought Experiments: From today, I will be putting down some thought experiments. These are mostly experiments that I would like to do but can't because 1. it's out of my scope or 2. may be un-doable.
Here's the first one. There is a genus called Phonognatha which is called a leaf curling spider, because it places a leaf in the centre of the web and uses the leaf as a retreat. The leaf is usually twisted into a cylindrical shape, hence the name. It would be cool to place an individual in a glass cage and give it only one artificial material, say like a ribbon or something and see if it uses the material anyway. Bit of an art project really, bio-art.

Pachygnatha zappa: "Etymology. Zappa is a noun in apposition. This species epithet is given in honor of the twentieth century composer Frank Zappa (1941-1993), well known for both his serious and commercial music. The dark grey mark on the ventral side of the abdomen of the female of this species strikingly resembles the artist's legendary moustache"

They have a new location

Priapism

Priapism (Ancient Greek: πριαπισμός) is a potentially harmful and painful medical condition in which the erect clitoris^[1] or penis does not return to its flaccid state, despite the absence of both physical and psychological stimulation, within four hours. Priapism is considered a medical emergency, which should receive proper treatment by a qualified medical practitioner.

The name comes from the Greek god Priapus, referring to the myth that he was punished by the other gods for attempting to rape a goddess, by being given a massive, but useless, set of wooden genitals.

Epitaph of W.B. Yeats

CAST A COLD EYE ON LIFE, ON DEATH

HORSEMEN, PASS BY!

Magician

Learning my tarot cards...

Basic Card Symbols

Red & White coloring, the lemniscate (infinity symbol), a small wand, a table displaying a chalice, a pentacle, a staff (wand) and a sword.

Basic Tarot Story

Traveling on his way, the Fool first encounters a Magician. Skillful, self-confident, a powerful magus with the infinite as a halo floating above his head, the Magician mesmerizes the Fool. When asked, the Fool gives over his bundled pack and stick to the Magician. Raising his wand to heaven, pointing his finger to Earth, the Magician calls on all powers; magically, the cloth of the pack unfolds upon the table, revealing its contents. And to the Fool's eyes it is as if the Magician has created the future with a word. All the possibilities are laid out, all the directions he can take. The cool, airy Sword of intellect and communication, the fiery Wand of spirituality and ambition, the overflowing Chalice of Love and emotions, the solid Pentacle of work, possessions and body. With these tools, the Fool can create anything, make anything of his life. But here's the question, did the Magician create the tools, or were they already in the pack? Only the Magician knows - and on this mystery, our eloquent mage refuses to say a word.

Basic Tarot Meaning

At #1, the Magician is the male power of creation, creation by willpower and desire. In that ancient sense, it is the ability to make things just-so by speaking them aloud ("And God said 'Let there be Light!' and there was Light"). Reflecting this is the fact that the Magician is represented by Mercury. He represents the gift of tongues, a smooth talker, a salesman. Also clever with the sleight of hand (Mercury *was* the god of thieves!) and a medicine man - either a real doctor or someone trying to sell you snake oil. The 4 suits laid out before him remind us of the 4 aces, which in the Tarot symbolize the raw, undeveloped, undirected power of each suit. When the Magician appears, he reveals these to you. The reader might well interpret this card as telling the querent that they will be given a vision, an idea, a magical, mental image of whatever it is they most want: the solution to a problem, an ambitious career, a love life, a job.

Thirteen's Observations

If any card in the Tarot is the Tarot, it is the Magician. He's one of the most recognizable cards, always a favorite. He's also the only card in the major arcana that refers to the minors with the "trumps" displayed upon his table. If the reader believes the Magician stands for the Querent, then the Querent either is, or is currently finding himself eloquent and charismatic at this time. Both verbally and in writing, he is clever, witty, inventive and persuasive. People listen and agree with him. He also has an interest in science. He might be, in fact, a doctor or scientist or inventor.

Standing for someone other than the querent, the Magician could be a skillful doctor, scientist, inventor lecturer, salesman, or con-man. It's important to remember that the Magician can as easily be clever as skilful, a trickster as well as a magician. This is someone with a magnetic personality, someone who can convince people of almost anything. For better or worse, his words are magic.

Most importantly, the Magician card stands for the "reveal" - as in a magic trick. The handkerchief is draped over an empty box, the Magician waves his wand, *presto!*--now there is a dove in the box. The Magician card does the same for the Querent--only what it reveals is not birds or rabbits but NEW ideas. Emphasis on NEW. When the Magician card appears, the Querent is likely to say: "Now there's an idea! Why didn't I think of that before?" Truth is, the Querent had that idea in his head all along. The Magician merely revealed it to him. But what will the Querent do with this idea? That's a question for the next card....

Plates

I found a great site with the most interesting plates : )

Ray Bradbury

He attributes his lifelong habit of writing every day to an incident in 1932 when a carnival entertainer, Mr. Electrico, touched him with an electrified sword, made his hair stand on end, and shouted, "Live forever!"

painting by Georges Seurat (I saw this one at Orsay : )

More Serge Lutens perfumes

(Just because I love tobacco)
Fumerie Turque evocatively weaves references to the honeyed tobaccos smoked in the seraglios of the Ottoman empire and the exotic cigarettes flaunted by the Garçonnes in the gender-bending 1920s. It can’t be too much of a stretch to envision Fumerie Turque as Serge Lutens’ tribute to Caron’s trailblazing Tabac Blond – albeit with his trademark Oriental twist.

Smokey wisps of honeyed, fruity tobacco rise from a smooth, vanilla-flavored blend of tonka bean, styrax and Peru balsam, conjuring lazy winter afternoons smoking a hookah and nibbling rose-scented Turkish delights in a leather-paneled room. The rich, floral, faintly animal odor of beeswax rises from floors strewn with ornate rugs and polished daybeds. The scent of late-blooming jasmine wafts up from the palace gardens. Through the intricate wooden lace of a musharabieh, the Bosphorus glints in the sunset. Intoxicating and comforting, Fumerie Turque is the ultimate Orientalist reverie in a bottle. Succumb.
Fumerie Turque Notes
Corinthian raisins, white honey, candied Turkish rose, Egyptian jasmine, smoked leather, beeswax, Balkan tobacco, Peru Balsam, patchouli, tonka bean, styrax, juniper tar oil.
Source

And I love the description of A La Nuit:
If you’ve ever walked down an ordinary street in the dark and unexpectedly encountered the otherworldly scent of night-blooming jasmine, you know how enchanting and disorienting it can be. The shadows seem deeper, the stars seem closer and the air becomes loaded with possibilities. It may be difficult to remember why you were walking down this particular street to begin with, but you want to stay there forever. A La Nuit is a ravishing, ruthlessly true jasmine fragrance. It captures the bloom’s dizzying, head-spinning quality of being euphorically light and darkly sensual all at the same time. At first sniff, it feels like the world has been completely overrun by the glowing white flower, but it quickly settles into just the right amount - fresh and lovely and airy. No matter how light and silky it becomes, it never entirely loses its slink and growl, because it’s jasmine, y’all. It’s always sexy. If you hate jasmine, this will not change your mind, but if you are a jasmine lover, this may well turn you into a jasmine addict. Absolutely stunning.

Actually, what I had come for was the Rose-themed perfume, Sa Majeste La Rose. I first noticed it in Paris by Yves Saint Laurent, and then in I passed by some roses...

All of me - Billie Holiday playing...

Science will keep your world in motion

I'm very excited to find a book called The Essence of Style: How the French Invented High Fashion, Fine Food, Chic Cafes, Style, Sophistication, and Glamour, by Joan DeJean.

(Glamour is very interesting. I'm not interested in it personally, but what is Glamour, really?)

I think it will help me reorganize post-Paris, in a scientific way

When I visited Versailles, I realized how crazy Louis XIV was.
His "War Room" was lined with full-length mirrors. This is the first time it was possible for a man to look at himself in all his entirety.
That says alot... about fashion... and the unconscious "viewing" of self at all times

During the summer of 1676, Louis XIV came up with what some saw as one of the more eccentric of his many plans for the beautification of Paris. He imported hundreds of wildly expensive white swans to add a touch of elegance to the Seine. He ordered a colony established on a small island directly opposite the capital's favorite promenade, the Cours-la-Reine; Parisians and visitors could thus take a stroll, display their latest finery, and observe the exotic birds, all at the same time. The birds were also perfectly positioned so that anyone traveling from Paris to Versailles would have a view of them along the way. Critics pointed out that the noble birds were not cut out for the polluted and congested waters of a river that then bustled with the transport of merchandise to and from the French capital. The King would have none of it. It was style he was after, and style he was determined to get. It is hardly surprising that -- despite the numerous laws that were passed to protect their nests -- many of the King's exotic birds died. What is amazing is that so many of them survived that, more than half a century later, the head of the Parisian police was still personally looking out for their well-being.
Ours in an age in which everything from supermarkets to drugstores to cafes can increasingly be found open, as we now say, 24/7. The frontier between day and night is constantly being eroded because we refuse to wait for what we want. As long as the asparagus are tasty and the blooms beautiful, we don't care where they were grown. Critics may rail against out desire to dominate nature, but it was become a fact of life. And it means that Louis XIV is someone our instant-gratification society can understand. Like us, he wanted what he wanted when he wanted it: baby peas, bright lights, more diamonds than anyone had ever seen. When nature was against him, he had the technology invented that would make it bow to his desires. His life and his person were an advertisement for the passion for aesthetic perfection. The first customers for the fabulous new French fashions and cuisine and design also wanted a piece of the Sun King's very own style.

I'm going to end up typing up the whole book...

Comme il faut

To be "comme il faut" was extraordinarily time-consuming simply because of the number and variety of activities that demanded changes in costume, creating unprecedented opportunities for the fashion artist as well as the dressmaker. In 1866, a French observer enumerated the sartorial requisites: "A society of woman who wants to be well dressed for all occations at all times needs at least seven or eight toilettes per day: a morning dressing gown, a riding outfit, an elegant simple gown for lunch, a day dress if walking, an afternoon dress for visiting by carriage, a smart outfit to drive through the Bois de Boulogne, a gown for dinner, and a galadress for evening or the theater." (Henri Despaigne, Le Code de la Mode, Paris, 1866)
Fashion plates, in addition to depicting the latest styles, were also conversation pieces reflecting an idealized version of the atmosphere in which society moved. Ladies were portrayed in setting evocative of a world where it was always fair, the temperature moderate, with never more than a gentle breeze, where beautifully behaved children never rumpled their clothes or spilled their cocoa. Dressed in their finery, with no more expression on their serene faces than an occasional half-smile, these ladies turn an untroubled gaze onto nothing in particular wherever the artist decides to place them. Not a flicker of emotion shows on their faces whether they find themselves in the country, at the shore, shopping in town, paying calls, or receiving visitors at home in impeccably furnished interiors.
From Full-Color Victorian Fashions, with an Introduction by JoAnne Olian

I love the descriptions for the illustrations:
Dressy toilette for a young person starts with a coiffure adorned with a chaperon and cornflowers. Dress in tarlatan or white mousseline, with lavaliere bows of taffeta ribbon.

The Marie Antoinette

Rarely has so much been written about a timepiece as for Breguet’s Marie-Antoinette watch. Let us travel back in time to eighteenth-century Versailles and the court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. The queen, known for her love of jewellery, would often seek refuge in her private domain, the Petit Trianon, as well as in the arms of her different lovers. One of them, a Swedish officer of the queen’s guard named by historians as Count Axel de Fersen, is said to have commissioned a watch from Breguet as a gift for his queen.

Carte blanche

The Neuchâtel watchmaker was no stranger to Louis XVI’s court. Fascinated by objects of value, Marie-Antoinette already owned one of Breguet’s perpétuelles, a watch with a self-winding rotor mechanism, invented by Breguet himself. Clearly enamoured, the queen’s suitor contacted the watchmaker in 1783 with an unexpected proposal: to make the most spectacular watch ever seen.

With no limitation of time or expense, Breguet had free rein to create a watch that must leave Marie-Antoinette speechless with admiration. The queen knew nothing of this extraordinary gift. Nor did she live to admire it. When she mounted the scaffold in 1793, the watch was still at Breguet’s Parisian workshop. It was not finished until 1827.

A work of art

It took a full forty-four years to complete the watch, proof indeed that it is a work of art. This stunning piece features the greatest watchmaking complications known at that time. One of Breguet’s perpétuelles, the Marie-Antoinette watch includes a minute-repeater, a full perpetual calendar, an equation of time (that is, the difference each day between solar time and mean time indicated by clocks and watches), a power-reserve indicator, a bimetallic thermometer, a large independent seconds hand and a small centre seconds hand, a lever escapement, a gold balance spring and a parachute anti-shock device. This profusion of technological wonders were housed inside a gold case with a rock crystal dial through which the movement could be admired.

From HH Magazine

Enigma of the mind

Robert Campbell, Enigma of the Mind

Anton Boisen, who emerged from schizophrenia to become a hospital chaplain, wrote in a memoir: "It seemed that a lot of new worlds were forming. There was music everywhere and rhythm and beauty. I heard what seemed to be a choir of angels. The next night I was visited, not by angels, but by a lot of witches. From the ventilator shaft I picked up paper black cats and broom-sticks and poke bonnets. I dinally not only worked out a way of checking the invation of the black cats, but I found some sort of process of regeneration which could be used to save other people." Eventually, wrote Boisen, "I found that by lying flat on the floor near the ventilator shaft, I could hear the most beautiful voice I had ever heard. It was the celebration of the Last Supper.

When Donald, an autistic boy, was asked to subtract four from ten, he replied, "I'll draw a hexagon"

A crucial aspect of this crippling amily atmosphere is what anthropologist Gregory Bateson called the double-bind phenomenon [...] Bateson wrote of a mother's visit to her schizophrenic son in the hospital: "He was glad to see her and impulsively put his arm around her shoulders, whereupon she stiffened. He withdrew his arm and she asked, 'Don't you love me anymore?' He then blushed, and she said, 'Dear, you must not be so easily embarrassed and afraid of your feelings.'

Waiting for Godot

Vladimir: Do you remember the Gospels?
Estragon: I remember the Holy Land. Coloured they were. Very pretty. The Dead Sea was pale blue. The very look of it made me thirsty. That's where we'll go, I used to say, that's where we'll go for our honeymoon. We'll swim. We'll be happy.
Vladimir: You should have been a poet.

Estragon: What is it?
Vladimir: I don't know. A willow.
Estragon: Where are the leaves?
Vladimir: It must be dead.
EStragon: No more weeping.

Homeostatis

IwatchedstartrekandSPOCKwasSOHOT

Stress

Sociologists and psychologists may refer to stress homeostasis, the tendency of a population or an individual to stay at a certain level of stress, often generating artificial stresses if the "natural" level of stress is not enough.

Source: Wikipedia

Ishikawa Goemon

Ishikawa Goemon (石川 五衛門 or 石川 五右衛門^?, 1558-1594) was a legendary bandit hero who stole gold and valuables and gave them to the poor. He is notable for being boiled alive after a failed assassination attempt on Toyotomi Hideyoshi. A large iron kettle-shaped bathtub is now called a Goemon-buro ("Goemon bath").

In one version of the story, Goemon tried to assassinate Hideyoshi to avenge the death of his wife and capture of his son, Gobei. He entered Hideyoshi's room but knocked a bell off a table. The noise awoke the samurai guards and Goemon was captured. He was sentenced to death by being boiled alive in an iron cauldron along with his young son, but was able to save his son by holding him above the oil.

In another version, Goemon wanted to kill Hideyoshi because he was a despot. When he entered Hideyoshi's room, he was detected by a mystical incense burner. He was executed on August 24 along with his whole family by being boiled in oil.^[1]

In yet a third version, Goemon stole a prized songbird of Hideyoshi's, but the bird sang.^[2] His whole family was executed, but Gobei was saved by Goemon.

I like eating merangues. They have the consistency of my heart

Toothpaste for dinner, yay!