Paintings by Christina Troufa

Via a write-up at Illusion, I bring you a link to the acrylic and mixed-media paintings of Portuguese painter Christina Troufa, whose work consists of lovely realistic and painterly images of women cutting into zones of her unfinished linen background. She describes them as telling the "wisdom of sayings, the conversations I heard as a child among women, the folklore, stories of my life and my family."

Given the technique, which I like, I wonder if she primes the linen at all before painting? Not priming is a technique that has a sort of modern vogue; it was really perfected by Helen Frankenthaler who painted in oils thinned with lots of turpentine so they would soak into the  canvas. the result, in layers, produced luminous, watercolor like colors. (She called it, unsurprisingly, "soak stain.")  Troufa paints mostly in acrylics, and actually her work looks similar to pastel. So I am left wondering about technique ...

Lucille and Mitt

Lucille Bluth is the matriarch of the Bluth family on Arrested Development, a television comedy that ran from 2003 to 2006 and, given its huge cult following, is being resurrected next year.  Mitt Romney is the Republican candidate for President of the United States. Put their wacky rich person hi-jinks together and you've got comedy gold!

Animated Banksy

These cinemagraphs are all from the tumblr Made by ABVH, who has done animated Banksy's six so far:

1. Spray painting the Wall.
2. Girl on a swing (above).
3. Kissing bobbies
4. Rat and painters
5. Walking the dog
6. The rat race (perhaps the best one)

There are a lot of other cool/comic animated GIFs on the ABVH tumblr. And I have no recollection where I first saw this.

Holy Madonna(s)

Via The Daily What (whose composite picture I have shamelessly borrowed, left), plaster madonna statuettes that have been transformed into beautiful works of art and kitsch. Funny, witty, and wonderfully crafted. After the jump, some of my favorites (her site's gallery design makes it a hard to see what you'll be looking at -- the icons are all detail shots).

The Seattle Windshield Pitting Epidemic

In 1954 in Washington State it was discovered in Bellingham, which is a suburb north of Seattle, that a number of windshields were oddly pitted. It was thought to be the work of vandals but the pitting continued spreading like a disease heading steadily south towards Seattle itself. It was too widespread and too rapid to have been the work of vandals and numerous, other causes were considered and dismissed. Old cars were particularly vulnerable. There was a sort of hysteria about it. in the end, as described in a fairly short, fun, and detailed article Neatorama reprinted from Uncle John's Slightly Irregular Bathroom Reader:

George W. Bush is Back!

In breaking news from The Onion, long missing former U.S. President George W. Bush was actually in Tibet on a spiritual journey. This comes as a relief to we who would not succumb to the cynical view the Republicans -- and Mitt Romney in particular -- had hid him away so that the stupidity of his Presidency in general and creation of the economic crisis we're in specifically would not be in the public eye.

As the Onion explains (and I mangle), quoting Bush in part:

By his own account, Bush trekked across the Tibetan countryside for several months before deciding to devote his life to the study and teaching of transcendental meditation, later spending a year in seclusion during which he scaled Himalayan peaks while “guided only by the loudly whispering wind and harsh, merciless snow.” Sources reported the famed Republican is missing three toes from frostbite he suffered during his travels before mastering the ability to raise and lower his body temperature at will.

“I am but a gently falling leaf, buoyed by mountain winds,” the 66-year-old former Texas governor continued. “To see the way forward is to be connected to your own reality and be one with your consciousness—complete and pure, unburdened and without want."

We are all thankful for his return and eager for him to continue to share his wisdom with us.

The "Deepest" View of the Universe to Date

High res web optimized image -- click to enlarge

NASA's Hubble site has released a new super high resolution photograph going back 13.2 billion years into the past (the Universe is 13.7 billion years old). As described by the Hubble site:

Called the eXtreme Deep Field, or XDF, the photo was assembled by combining 10 years of NASA Hubble Space Telescope photographs taken of a patch of sky at the center of the original Hubble Ultra Deep Field. The XDF is a small fraction of the angular diameter of the full Moon.

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field is an image of a small area of space in the constellation Fornax, created using Hubble Space Telescope data from 2003 and 2004. By collecting faint light over many hours of observation, it revealed thousands of galaxies, both nearby and very distant, making it the deepest image of the universe ever taken at that time.

NASA's and Hubble's photos are free to the public since they're created with public funds. Very high resolution versions of the photo above right can be downladed from the Hubble site through this link. The original Hubble Deep Field photograph (called by some the most important photograph ever taken) can be found here.  This was followed by the Ultra Deep Field, photos found here. And here is a really cool (and educational on basic stuff) video of the Ultra Deep Field in 3D. Via MetaFilter.

The Problem with Geriatric Prisoners

An article in Mother Jones -- an unabashedly liberal magazine -- discusses the extraordinary expense and lack of compassion in keeping very elderly criminals in prison. The  elderly can have extraordinarily high medical and maintenance costs and the risk that they will be future offenders is slight.

Nonetheless, releasing the elderly early contravenes the punitive purpose of prison and the idea that criminals who are sentenced to "life" will, indeed, spend their lives in prison. It is difficult for liberals to advocate early release when they also oppose the death penalty dangling "life in prison" as an alternative.

The punitive/retributive purposes of imprisonment (and I have a hard time separately those concepts once imprisonment has begun) are the only purposes left for imprisoning the elderly -- imprisonment's rehabilitative and warehousing goals have become pointless. Given the extraordinary costs the incipient question is how much are punitive/retributive goals worth to us, because at this stage they cost a ton.

There's a point where we're punishing ourselves more than the criminals. Via boing boing.

How to Write With Style (and other insights into writing and reading)

In 1982 or so the International Paper Company published essays about the arts of reading and writing and written by luminaries in the area or popular figures like Kurt Vonnegut, George Plimpton, John Irving, James Dickey, Jane Bryant Quinn, Steve Allen, James Michener, Tony Randall, Malcomb Forbes, and Bill Cosby. Trust me: these were all luminaries or popular figures in 1982 or so.

Always Moving, Never Getting Anything Done

"Cinemagraph GIFs" are animated GIFs that work as a type of animated photograph -- a few of the elements in the photograph move while the rest appears stationary. Cinemagraph GIFs fall, for me at least, into a vague space between photos and movies yet can be quite beautiful.  they appeal to a sensibility (not one I wholly subscribe to) that Life is so much just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. At BuzzFeed a collection of some of the best Cinemagraphs.

Here in the U.S. the New Football Season has Started

Deep Thoughts ... or Something

At Reddit there's a quickly growing thread (started September 10) of people stating the "most mind-blowing thing" they can think of. Some top entries:

• We are the universe experiencing itself. [There are a lot along this line -- I've included just a few.]
• No one is going to remember your memories.
• You are to yourself what your thoughts are, you are to others what your actions are.
• When a photon is emitted from its source, it instantly arrives at its destination from its frame of reference, even if it took it 13 billion years to do so from ours.

The "Pharaoh's Serpent"

Burning mercury thiocyanate (Hg(SCN)₂)is known as the "Pharaoh's Serpent" due to the snake-like product generated when it is burned. It's also really poisonous -- I don't know what these kids are doing.

Santana: Samba Pa Ti (Live, 1998)

"Sky" -- Luminous Photos by Eric Cahan

These are superficially what one might from a series of photos named the "Sky Series" but they're, of course, a lot more: "symphonies of color" I want to write, but I can't write that because it's too pretentious sounding, so pretend I didn't write that even though it's what I meant. In lieu of sounding pretentious as such, I will defer to your assured apperception of their spiritual vision redolent of Rothko's Multiforms during his oevre's late period. Also, they're pretty.

Visiting Eric Cahan's site, as I am sure you will, note the links to the horizontal and the diptych/triptych sets, the sculptue, the what-have- you. Via Illusion.

The Worst Things For Sale

The Worst Things For Sale is a blog by Drew, the author/artist of Toothpaste for Dinner and, with Natalie Dee, Married to the Sea. Their blogs are, well, really damn funny. See also the tumblrs (random here and random there for each blog).

But The Worst Things For Sale is the funniest. Go for the absurd consumerism; stay for the comments.

Likes Obama/Hates Obama

From Buzzfeed. Obama's yo mama.

"Mighty Optical Illussions"

At the right are four concentric circles.

Might Optical Illusions is a blog that  posts an optical illusion everyday, as well as discussing some of the neuroscience and "tricks" behind them. See also Archimedes Laboratory, which has a great set of optical illusions and an illusion of the month (but appears targeted at a younger audience).

Life Among the Stars!

It is now widely believed by astronomers that life -- intelligent life -- life capable of extra-planetary communication, say -- is likely somewhere in the Universe. The reason is that the Universe is so extraordinarily vast that even if the circumstances leading to such "intelligent" life are extraordinarily rare (and they may not be) there is still is ample opportunity for such life to arise. (Here's a fun and interactive Drake equation so you can do your own calculations.)

Nice Photo of a Coronal Mass Ejection

The Sun is heading towards solar maximum likely in February 2013. Related to this, a massive solar prominence erupted from the Sun at the end of August 2012. (NB: the Sun's "prominences" and "filaments" are the same thing: a cool loop of gas held in place by the sun's magnetic field. viewed straight-on, with the Sun as the background, they look black since the body of the sun is much hotter; viewed from the side, on the edge of the sun with space on the background, they glow yellow orange. The eruption of a solar prominence/filament is one major type of coronal mass ejection, the other being a solar flare, a typically hot ejection arising from a solar storm.)  Here, just because it is cool, is a short video of another solar filament erupting in December 2010.  And, no, these do not spell doom for the Earth.

While I'm Quoting Chesterton ...

The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected.

• G. K. Chesterton, Illustrated London News (1924) (via Wikiquote)

The simplification of anything is always sensational.

• ..., Varied Types (1903) (via Wikiquote)

Cool Dynamic Periodic Table

There are a lot of interactive periodic tables on the internet, but this is my favorite -- clear, full of layers of information, and is easy to use.

Popular Movies as Russian Lubeki

These are a little dated but every bit as awesome today as the day they were made. Russian artist Andrey Kuznetsov (in Cyrillic Кузнецов Андрей) created an absolutely inspired set of fake traditional Russian  woodblock prints to "tell the story" of famous popular movies. Traditionally such Russian folk prints are known as lubok (plural, usually in meaning including the story, "lubeki"). Although many websites have referred to the lubeki as telling fairy tales, that was only one of the many stories and writings they related. Their primary purpose was, actually, decoration -- even the Tsar decorated with them. After the break I display several of Kuznetsov's series (the easier ones to interpret -- to get them all go to his site).

Les Miserables Trailer

And This is Still True

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.

• G. K. Chesterton (1908) (via Lapham's Quarterly)

Photos of the Fall Harvest from Around the World

I'm not sure why I find these compelling -- I do -- but here on the first day of Fall (first moment, actually) are a great set of pictures of the Fall harvest from The Big Picture at the Boston Globe. 

Incredible Tattoos by Csaba Kolozsvari

I have to admit I don't really get the whole tattoo thing. The thing is, they're permanent. Which is maybe the cool thing about the tattoo thing for people who have a thing about  risque things.

That said, the tattoos by Csaba Kolozsvari are perhaps the best tattoos I've ever seen -- and I've seen a lot. The best source to see a sample  is probably to Illusion where I first saw Kolozsvari's work. There's also a short video.

The [English] Beat: Save It For Later

I'm surprised in a way I should not be that they made such a cheesy video, yet this was (and is) a great song. The volume's a little soft. You'll want to turn it up.

The 75th Birthday of "The Hobbit"

There's been a lot of posting around here and all over the intertubz lately about The Hobbit and one may wonder why.  Well. the why is that today is the 75th anniversary of the publication of The Hobbit. tomorrow is "Hobbit Day" when the birthdays of Bilbo Baggins and his nephew, Frodo Baggins, are traditionally celebrated.  The whole dang week is "Tolkien Week." (NB: the more well read may recognize that their birthdays may have been on September 12 or 14, but the Shire calendar and Gregorian calendars are not quite aligned.)

The Panic of 1907: Why the US Federal Reserve Exists

There are plenty of kooks in the United States who believe the U.S. federal reserve is evil. There are some more mainstream thinkers who oppose the existence or function of the federal reserve, notably proponents of little or no regulation -- followers of Ayn Rand's philosophical/economic ideas for one.

The history of the federal reserve is interesting; this article at Smithsonian discusses its genesis in the Panic of 1907. The Panic arose from the attempt of colorful cooper baron Augustus Heinze, his brother Otto, and financier Charles Morse to do a short squeeze on the holders of short positions on the stock of Heinze's cooper company. The squeeze backfired -- the Heinzes and Morse had far underestimated the amount of stock -- the cooper company's stock price plummeted, and a run on banks and trusts began, sending the Dow plummeting, risking the financial solvency of New York, and severely damaging the national economy. It's an interesting story. Article link via Neatorama.