The Poignant Frog

Fear: Are you being followed by a moon shadow?sappiamo tutto capiamo poco

noreply@blogger.com (Marguerita) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 09:49:00 +0000

drawing collage by marguerita

Scientists generally define fear as a negative emotional state triggered by the presence of a stimulus (the snake) that has the potential to cause harm, and anxiety as a negative emotional state in which the threat is not present but anticipated. We sometimes confuse the two: When someone says he is afraid he will fail an exam or get caught stealing or cheating, he should, by the definitions above, be saying he is anxious instead.
But the truth is, the line between fear and anxiety can get pretty thin and fuzzy.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/anatomy-of-fear/?ref=global-home

Of Tempus,Temporis......

noreply@blogger.com (Marguerita) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 23:01:00 +0000

presentum	barcala	appropinquatio
De nihilo nihil	undique	decumana

drawing by marguerita

So time has passed?
You are getting older?
It just means that a certain number of homogenous moments (seconds, minutes, hours, and so on) have succeeded one another in a linear fashion: tick, tack, tick, tack…
Now look in the mirror!
At least since the introduction of the pocket watch in the 16th century brought exact time measurement into everyday life, modern agents have found themselves increasingly encased in a calculable and measurable temporal environment.
We measure and organize time as never before, and we worry about not “losing” or “wasting” time, as though time was a finite substance or a container into which we should try to stuff as many good experiences as possible.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/on-modern-time/

)f Soul,Brains, Neuroscience,Consciousness....You (are your brain).

noreply@blogger.com (Marguerita) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 23:01:00 +0000

drawing /collage by marguerita

The idea that a person is a functioning assembly of brain cells and associated molecules is not something neuroscience has discovered. It is, rather, something it takes for granted.
You are your brain.
Francis Crick once called this “the astonishing hypothesis,”
because, as he claimed, it is so remote from the way most people alive today think about themselves.
But what is really astonishing about this
supposedly astonishing hypothesis is how astonishing it is not!
The idea that there is a thing inside us that thinks and feels.
What we do know is that a healthy brain is necessary for normal mental life, and indeed, for any life at all. But of course much else is necessary for mental life.
We need roughly normal bodies and a roughly normal environment.
We also need the presence and availability of other people
if we are to have anything like the sorts of lives that we know and value. So we really ought to say that it is the normally embodied, environmentally- and socially-situated human animal that thinks, feels, decides and is conscious.
But once we say this, it would be simpler, and more accurate, to allow that it is people, not their brains, who think and feel and decide.
It is people, not their brains, that make and enjoy art. You are not your brain, you are a living human being.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/art-and-the-limits-of-neuroscience/

Of Sonnets, E.B.Browning Sonnets from the Portuguese

noreply@blogger.com (Marguerita) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 04:16:00 +0000

photo by marguerita

From a little book of sonnets by E.B.Browning.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

This book belonged to my mother.She got it in Paris,in 1948.

I thought once how Theocritus had sung
Of the sweet years, the dear and wished-for years,
Who each one in a gracious hand appears
To bear a gift for mortals, old or young:
And, as I mused it in his antique tongue,
I saw, in gradual vision through my tears,
The sweet, sad years, the melancholy years,
Those of my own life, who by turns had flung
A shadow across me. Straightway I was 'ware,
So weeping, how a mystic Shape did move
Behind me, and drew me backward by the hair;
And a voice said in mastery, while I strove, ---
'Guess now who holds thee?' --- 'Death,' I said. But, there,
The silver answer rang, --- 'Not Death, but Love.'

Federico Garcia Lorca: El Lagarto Viejo

noreply@blogger.com (Marguerita) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 00:40:00 +0000

En la agostada senda
he visto al buen lagarto
(gota de cocodrilo)
meditando.
Con su verde levita
de abate del diablo,
su talante correcto
y su cuello planchado,
tiene un aire muy triste
de viejo catedrático.
¡Esos ojos marchitos
de artista fracasado,
cómo miran la tarde
desmayada!

¿Es éste su paseo
crepuscular, amigo?
Usad bastón, ya estáis
muy viejo. Don Lagarto,

drawing by marguerita

copyrights by marguerita 20xxxxx

y los niños del pueblo
pueden daros un susto.
¿Qué buscáis en la senda,
filósofo cegato,
si el fantasma indeciso
de la tarde agosteña
ha roto el horizonte?

¿Buscáis el azul limosna
del cielo moribundo?
¿Un céntimo de estrella?
¿O acaso
estudiasteis un libro
de Lamartine, y os gustan
los trinos platerescos
de los pájaros?

(Miras al sol poniente,
y tus ojos relucen,
¡oh dragón de las ranas!
con un fulgor humano.
Las góndolas sin remos
de las ideas, cruzan
el agua tenebrosa
de tus iris quemados.)

¿Venís quizá en la busca
de la bella lagarta,
verde como los trigos
de mayo,
como las cabelleras
de las fuentes dormidas,
que os despreciaba, y luego
se fue de vuestro campo?
¡Oh dulce idilio roto
sobre la fresca juncia!
¡Pero vivir!, ¡qué diantre!
me habéis sido simpático.
El lema de "me opongo
a la serpiente" triunfa
en esa gran papada
de arzobispo cristiano.

Ya se ha disuelto el sol
en la copa del monte,
y enturbian el camino
los rebaños.
Es hora de marcharse,
dejad la angosta senda
y no continuéis
meditando.
Que lugar tendréis luego
de mirar las estrellas
cuando os coman sin prisa
los gusanos.

¡Volved a vuestra casa
bajo el pueblo de grillos!
¡Buenas noches, amigo
Don Lagarto!

Ya está el campo sin gente,
los montes apagados
y el camino desierto;
sólo de cuando en cuando
canta un cuco en la umbría
de los álamos.

The Old Lizard

by Federico García Lorca

translated by Lysander Kemp

In the parched path
I have seen the good lizard
(one drop of crocodile)
meditating.
With his green frock-coat
of an abbot of the devil,
his correct bearing
and his stiff collar,
he has the sad air
of an old professor.
Those faded eyes
of a broken artist,
how they watch the afternoon
in dismay!

Is this, my friend,
your twilight constitutional?
Please use your cane,
you are very old, Mr. Lizard,
and the children of the village
may startle you.
What are you seeking in the path,
my near-sighted philosopher,
if the wavering phantasm
of the parched afternoon
has broken the horizon?

Are you seeking the blue alms
of the moribund heaven?
A penny of a star?
Or perhaps
you've been reading a volume
of Lamartine, and you relish
the plateresque trills
of the birds?

(You watch the setting sun,
and your eyes shine,
oh, dragon of the frogs,
with a human radiance.
Ideas, gondolas without oars,
cross the shadowy
waters of your
burnt-out eyes.)

Have you come looking
for that lovely lady lizard,
green as the wheatfields
of May,
as the long locks
of sleeping pools,
who scorned you, and then
left you in your field?
Oh, sweet idyll, broken
among the sweet sedges!
But, live! What the devil!
I like you.
The motto "I oppose
the serpent" triumphs
in that grand double chin
of a Christian archbishop.

Now the sun has dissolved
in the cup of the mountains,
and the flocks
cloud the roadway.
It is the hour to depart:
leave the dry path
and your meditations.
You will have time
to look at the stars
when the worms are eating you
at their leisure.

Go home to your house
by the village, of the crickets!
Good night, my friend
Mr. Lizard!

Now the field is empty,
the mountains dim,
the roadway deserted.
Only, now and again,
a cuckoo sings in the darkness
of the poplar trees.

Federico García Lorca

Federico García Lorca is possibly the most important Spanish poet and dramatist of the twentieth century. García Lorca was born June 5, 1898, in Fuente Vaqueros, a small town a few miles from Granada. His father owned a farm in the fertile vega surrounding Granada and a comfortable mansion in the heart of the city. His mother, whom Lorca idolized, was a gifted pianist. After graduating from secondary school García Lorca attended Sacred Heart University where he took up law along with regular coursework. His first book, Impresiones y Viajes (1919) was inspired by a trip to Castile with his art class in 1917.

In 1919, García Lorca traveled to Madrid, where he remained for the next fifteen years. Giving up university, he devoted himself entirely to his art. He organized theatrical performances, read his poems in public, and collected old folksongs. During this period García Lorca wrote El Maleficio de la mariposa (1920), a play which caused a great scandal when it was produced. He also wrote Libro de poemas (1921), a compilation of poems based on Spanish folklore. Much of García Lorca's work was infused with popular themes such as Flamenco and Gypsy culture. In 1922, García Lorca organized the first "Cante Jondo" festival in which Spain's most famous "deep song" singers and guitarists participated. The deep song form permeated his poems of the early 1920s. During this period, García Lorca became part of a group of artists known as Generación del 27, which included Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel, who exposed the young poet to surrealism. In 1928, his book of verse, Romancero Gitano ("The Gypsy Ballads"), brought García Lorca far-reaching fame; it was reprinted seven times during his lifetime.

In 1929, García Lorca came to New York. The poet's favorite neighborhood was Harlem; he loved African-American spirituals, which reminded him of Spain's "deep songs." In 1930, García Lorca returned to Spain after the proclamation of the Spanish republic and participated in the Second Ordinary Congress of the Federal Union of Hispanic Students in November of 1931. The congress decided to build a "Barraca" in central Madrid in which to produce important plays for the public. "La Barraca," the traveling theater company that resulted, toured many Spanish towns, villages, and cities performing Spanish classics on public squares. Some of García Lorca's own plays, including his three great tragedies Bodas de sangre (1933), Yerma (1934), and La Casa de Bernarda Alba (1936), were also produced by the company.

In 1936, García Lorca was staying at Callejones de García, his country home, at the outbreak of the Civil War. He was arrested by Franquist soldiers, and on the 17th or 18th of August, after a few days in jail, soldiers took García Lorca to "visit" his brother-in-law, Manuel Fernandez Montesinos, the Socialist ex-mayor of Granada whom the soldiers had murdered and dragged through the streets. When they arrived at the cemetery, the soldiers forced García Lorca from the car. They struck him with the butts of their rifles and riddled his body with bullets. His books were burned in Granada's Plaza del Carmen and were soon banned from Franco's Spain. To this day, no one knows where the body of Federico García Lorca rests.

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/163

Christopher Buckley ,The US and the Laws of Gravity

noreply@blogger.com (Marguerita) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 11:14:00 +0000

photo by marguerita

A insensatez
Que você fez
coração mais sem cuidado
Fez chorar de dor
o seu amor um amor
tão delicado
Ah porque você
foi fraco assim
assim tão desalmado
Ah, meu coração
quem nunca amou
não merece ser amado
Vai meu coração
ouve a razão
usa só sinceridade
Quem semeia vento,
diz a razão,
colhe sempre tempestade
Vai meu coração
pede perdão
perdão apaixonado
Vai porque quem não
pede perdão
não é nunca perdoado

Christopher Buckley No idea what it says, but I hope it means a start to understanding the laws that are being made on our behalf supposedly for our benefit in Washington.

http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/history/newtongrav.html

lyrics by Tom Jobim

Rupert Murdoch,Freud,I Did it My Way and The Jimmy&Roops WE KNEWS

noreply@blogger.com (Marguerita) — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 11:11:00 +0000

drawing by marguerita

In a voluntary outburst on Tuesday, Rupert told the parliamentary committee
that he "was brought up by a father who was not rich, but who was a great journalist"
and who left him a small newspaper
"saying that he was giving me
the chance to do good".

Little Red Riding Hood

by brothers Grimm

Once upon a time there was a dear little girl who was loved by everyone who looked at her, but most of all by her grandmother, and there was nothing that she would not have given to the child. Once she gave her a little riding hood of red velvet, which suited her so well that she would never wear anything else; so she was always called 'Little Red Riding Hood.'

One day her mother said to her: 'Come, Little Red Riding Hood, here is a piece of cake and a bottle of wine; take them to your grandmother, she is ill and weak, and they will do her good. Set out before it gets hot, and when you are going, walk nicely and quietly and do not run off the path, or you may fall and break the bottle, and then your grandmother will get nothing; and when you go into her room, don't forget to say, "Good morning", and don't peep into every corner before you do it.'

'I will take great care,' said Little Red Riding Hood to her mother, and gave her hand on it.

The grandmother lived out in the wood, half a league from the village, and just as Little Red Riding Hood entered the wood, a wolf met her. Red Riding Hood did not know what a wicked creature he was, and was not at all afraid of him.

'Good day, Little Red Riding Hood,' said he.

'Thank you kindly, wolf.'

'Whither away so early, Little Red Riding Hood?'

'To my grandmother's.'

'What have you got in your apron?'

'Cake and wine; yesterday was baking-day, so poor sick grandmother is to have something good, to make her stronger.'

'Where does your grandmother live, Little Red Riding Hood?'

'A good quarter of a league farther on in the wood; her house stands under the three large oak-trees, the nut-trees are just below; you surely must know it,' replied Little Red Riding Hood.

The wolf thought to himself: 'What a tender young creature! what a nice plump mouthful - she will be better to eat than the old woman. I must act craftily, so as to catch both.'

And a parallel:

Lucian Freud

He was interested in presence, and not only human presence: a lightbulb's glare, a dog's leg, a horse's arse, a frayed bit of carpet. The language with which he described people and things, animals and lovers, atmosphere and futility, was a frightening construction. I believe he shared more with his psychoanalyst grandfather than he liked to admit.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/jul/22/lucian-freud-adrian-searle

In the Pursuit of Incongruity or in Praise of the Absurd

noreply@blogger.com (Marguerita) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 20:59:00 +0000

photos by marguerita

The incongruity theory is the reigning theory of humor, since it seems to account for most cases of perceived funniness, which is partly because “incongruity” is something of an umbrella term. Most developments of the incongruity theory only try to list a necessary condition for humor—the perception of an incongruity—and they stop short of offering the sufficient conditions.

In the Rhetoric (III, 2), Aristotle presents the earliest glimmer of an incongruity theory of humor, finding that the best way to get an audience to laugh is to setup an expectation and deliver something “that gives a twist.”

After discussing the power of metaphors to produce a surprise in the hearer, Aristotle says that “[t]he effect is produced even by jokes depending upon changes of the letters of a word; this too is a surprise. You find this in verse as well as in prose. The word which comes is not what the hearer imagined.”

These remarks sound like a surprise theory of humor, similar to that later offered by René Descartes, but Aristotle continues to explain how the surprise must somehow “fit the facts,” or as we might put it today, the incongruity must be capable of a resolution.

In the Critique of Judgment, Immanuel Kant gives a clearer statement of the role of incongruity in humor:

“In everything that is to excite a lively laugh there must be something absurd (in which the understanding, therefore, can find no satisfaction).

Laughter is an affection arising from the sudden transformation of a strained expectation into nothing” (I, I, 54).

Arthur Schopenhauer offers a more specific version of the incongruity theory, arguing that humor arising from a failure of a concept to account for an object of thought. When the particular outstrips the general, we are faced with an incongruity. Schopenhauer also emphasizes the element of surprise, saying that “the greater and more unexpected [. . .] this incongruity is, the more violent will be his laughter” (1818, I, Sec. 13).

As stated by Kant and Schopenhauer, the incongruity theory of humor specifies a necessary condition of the object of humor.
Focusing on the humorous object, leaves something out of the analysis of humor, since there are many kinds of things that are incongruous which do not produce amusement.
A more robust statement of the incongruity theory would need to include the pleasurable response one has to humorous objects.

HEY Mr.Gagosian: The NIPPLE by Marguerita, created ,hand painted, mreal by the artist versus Murakami mass produced Erected Penis

noreply@blogger.com (Marguerita) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 15:40:00 +0000

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http://www.observer.com/2011/07/takashi-murakami-says-his-art-is-too-expensive/

Of PASSION and an Imaginary Dialogue avec Hamlet

noreply@blogger.com (Marguerita) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 17:05:00 +0000

drawing by marguerita

Hui Tzu said to Chuang Tzu,'Can a man really become passionless? Chuang Tzu said, ,' He can.' Hui Tzu said,' A man without passions cannot be called a man."
Chuang Tzu said,'Tao gave him substance,Heaven gave him form", how is it possible not to call him a man?'
Hui Tzu said,'I would rather say,Granted that he is still a man, how is it possible for him to be passionless?'
Chuang Tzu said,'You do not understand what I mean when I say " passionless".
When I say " passionless" I mean that a man does not let love or hate do damage within, that he falls in with the way in which things happen of themselves, and does not exploit life'.
Hui Tzu said,' If he does not exploit life, what is the use of his having a body?

And Hamlet says:

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied over with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pitch and moment,

With this regard their currents turn awry

And lose the name of action.

Thought and action seem to pull against each other, the former annulling the possibility of the latter.

Excerpt from Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China by Arthur Wiley

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/09/let-be-an-answer-to-hamlets-question/?hp

FORMIGA POWER: A tale of a rebellious Brazilian Ant by Miriam Portela and Marguerita Bornstein

noreply@blogger.com (Marguerita) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 18:33:00 +0000

In Proverbs, King Solomon had some advice for those rushing into print with ill-informed opinions: "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise."

drawings by marguerita
all rights reserved 2011.

For many years I am fascinated by insects.I like to draw,create sculptures and jewels.
The Ants in particular become of great interest to me, so through time,I got books, The Journey to the Ants- a story of scientific exploration- and The Insect Societies by Edward O.Wilson,among other books on the subject.
Recently,by coincidence,Miriam Portela, a Brazilian children's book writer,proposed me to illustrate her story about a rebellious ant,who craves for fun and joy and wants to take part of stopping the reigning ongoing chaos on Earth.
The Rebellious Ant, in spirit turns out to be a dreamer,as all rebels seem to be,she loses herself in reveries,wonders in her thoughts and of course does not fit like in like the everyday ant.
Somehow,she sounds quite like some humans.
The interesting side here is,borrowing from The Importance of Social Insects,are the parallels to be drawn and why we study these insects?
Because, together with man,hummingbirds, and the bristlecone pine,they are among the great
achievements of organic evolution.
Their social organization- far less than man's because of the feeble intellect and absence of culture,of course,but far greater in respect to cohesion,caste specialization and individual altruism- is non pareil.
The biologist is invited to consider insect societies because they best exemplify the full sweep of ascending levels of organization, from molecule to society.
Among the tens of thousands of species of wasps,ants,bees and termites, we witness the employment of social design to solve ecological problems ordinarily dealt with by simple organisms.
The insect colony is often called SUPERORGANISM, because it displays so many social phenomena that are analogous to the physiological properties of organs and tissues.
A second reason for singling out social insects, is their ecological dominance on the land.
In most parts of the Earth ants in particular are among the principal predators of other invertebrates.
Their colonies,rooted and perennial like woody plants,send out foragers which comb the terrain day and night.
Their biomass and energy consumption exceed those of invertebrates in most terrestrial habitats.
Social insects are specially prominent in the tropics.
In the seventeenth century,Portuguese settlers called ants the "king of Brazil" and later travelers referred to them with such phrases as " the actual owners of the Amazon Valley" and "the real conquerors of Brazil."
So, Viva! Formiga Power!

Edward O.Wilson is Frank B.Baird Jr. Professor of Science and Curator in Entomology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology,Harvard University.He is the author of Sociobiology: The New Synthesis,Biophilia,On Human Nature, which won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction, and The Diversity of Life. He is coauthor with Bert Holldobler of The Ants, which won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction. His many awards include the National Medal of Science in 1977 and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement in 1984.

Oscar Wilde,Clematis and I

noreply@blogger.com (Marguerita) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 19:54:00 +0000

photo by marguerita

To drift with every passion till my soul
Is a stringed lute on which all winds can play,
Is it for this that I have given away
Mine ancient wisdom, and austere control?
Methinks my life is a twice-written scroll
Scrawled over on some boyish holiday
With idle songs for pipe and virelay,
Which do but mar the secret of the whole.
Surely there was a time I might have trod
The sunlit heights, and from life's dissonance
Struck one clear chord to reach the ears of God:
Is that time dead? lo! with a little rod
I did but touch the honey of romance —
And must I lose a soul's inheritance?

Note: Apropos clematis

Though there are some types of clematis that have a bushy habit, most of them are born to climb.

Like other climbing plants, the growing end of a clematis vine is searching for something to grab onto, and if it can’t find anything, it will stop growing. Make sure you provide it with something to climb on from day one.

A clematis vine does not climb by twining around something, as a pole bean or a morning glory does.

It climbs by wrapping its leaf stems around something. Because these leaf stems are not very long, anything that’s more than about 1/2 inch in diameter is too wide for the leaf stem to twist around. The easiest things for a clematis to grab onto, are twine, fishing line, wire, thin branches, wooden dowels or steel rods. The more grabbing opportunities you offer, the better, so even if you have a nice trellis, consider adding some twine “helper” lines, or covering your trellis with a grid of trellis netting.

Depending on the vigor of the plant and the type of trellis you have, you’ll probably need to do some “trussing” during the season to help support the vines and keep them attached to the trellis. Both fishing line and twine work well for this job.

Sebastiano Mondadori and the Dragonfly

noreply@blogger.com (Marguerita) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 13:43:00 +0000

drawing by marguerita

«La curva dei tuoi occhi intorno al cuore» di Paul Eluard

By Sebastiano Mondadori · Wednesday, June 8, 2011

La curva dei tuoi occhi intorno al cuore

ruota un moto di danza e di dolcezza,

aureola di tempo,arca notturna e sicura

e se non so più quello che ho vissuto

è perchè non sempre i tuoi occhi mi hanno visto.

Foglie di luce e spuma di rugiada

canne del vento,risa profumate,

ali che coprono il mondo di luce,

navi cariche di cielo e di mare,

caccia di suoni e f...

View Full Note · More from Sebastiano

The eyes of the dragonfly are one of the most amazing and awe inspiring sights. Given almost 80% of the insect’s brain power is dedicated to its sight and the fact that it can see in all 360 degrees around it, it symbolizes the uninhibited vision of the mind and the ability to see beyond the limitations of the human self. It also in a manner of speaking symbolizes a man/woman’s rising from materialism to be able to see beyond the mundane into the vastness that is really our Universe, and our own minds.
http://archivio.grazia.it/people/autori/sebastiano-mondadori-mi-piace-parlare-alle-donne-e-pazienza-se-poi-si-arrabbiano

Et Tu Cucumber?

noreply@blogger.com (Marguerita) — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 19:02:00 +0000

drawing by marguerita One can't be absolutely certain about anything....
One of the problems with growing crops is that they grow.
You can't switch them off like you could a baked bean factory: they just keep coming.
There has already been a considerable drop in demand in Germany, where authorities are advising consumers not to eat salads because they still have not pinpointed the cause of the outbreak. This is affecting the area around Hamburg in particular; the rest of Europe appears to be OK. But the knock-on effect is that orders for cucumbers from Spain and Holland have been cancelled altogether, or at best reduced. For cucumbers from Holland, the obvious place to look is in the UK – we already take large volumes of cucumbers at this time of the year. Extra cucumbers will be "dumped" here rather than marketed, and this will drop the price paid to the grower. These price reductions, if they occur, are unlikely to affect the price in the shops but they do have a massive effect on the price paid to growers in the UK.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/01/cucumbers-e-coli-germany?intcmp=239

IMF,DSK and I Like to Come in America avec Tocqueville

noreply@blogger.com (Marguerita) — Tue, 17 May 2011 04:33:00 +0000

drawing by marguerita I don't know anyone who takes a shower with his clothes on, do you? Where it goes from there is dicey, and the details get murky.

I like to be in america
ok by me in america
everything free in america
for a small fee in america
i like the city of san juan
i know a boat you can get
on hundreds of flowers
in full bloom hundreds
of people in each room
automobile in america
chromium steel in america
wire spoke wheel in america
very big deal in america
i'll drive a buick in san juan
- if there's a road
you can drive on
i'll give my cousins a
free ride
- how you fit all
of them inside
immigrant goes to america
many helloes in america
nobody knows in america
puerto rico's in america
when i will go back
to san juan
- when will you shut up
and get gone
i'll give them
new washing machine
- what have they got there
to keep clean
i like the shores of america
comfort is yours in america
knobs on the doors in america
wall to wall floors in america
i'll bring a tv to san juan
- if there's a current to turn on
everyone there will give big cheer
- everyone there
will have moved here

lyrics by Trini Lopez

Tocqueville's impressions of American religion and its relationship to the broader national culture are likewise notable: "Moreover, almost all the sects of the United States are comprised within the great unity of Christianity, and Christian morality is everywhere the same
. In the United States the sovereign authority is religious, and consequently hypocrisy must be common; but there is no country in the whole world in which the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America, and there can be no greater proof of its utility, and of its conformity to human nature, than that its influence is most powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation of the earth.
Pour le journal britannique de centre gauche The Guardian, cette nouvelle affaire de mœurs soulève "la question gênante dans les médias français et la politique de deux monde parallèles : ce qui est imprimé, et ce qu'il y a derrière ; les commérages, et ce qui doit rester officiellement les non-dits."

Hume argued that “reason alone can never be a motive to any action of the will.” Desire, for example, “arises not from reason.”

noreply@blogger.com (Marguerita) — Tue, 10 May 2011 18:34:00 +0000

photo by marguerita

Hume was most concerned with the nature of knowledge, morality, causality .

The Nature of Ideas

In this part, first David Hume divides all perception into ideas and impressions. He then argues that the simple impressions cause simple ideas, and from simple ideas form complex ideas, either restricted to the same order of the corresponding complex impressions (which are memories) or re-arranged in a new form (which is imagination). Descartes claimed that the only cause to the idea of God must be God himself, but according to Hume, God is a complex idea formed from simple ideas caused by simple impressions. Therefore, the idea of God neither requires God nor proves his existence.

Then Hume argues that general ideas are nothing but particular ideas attached to a certain word that gives it a wider application and makes it recall other individuals that are similar to it, for example we first see a particular man, then have an idea of this particular man, attach a word to this idea and then recall it when we see something similar (another man). Hume defends this view by 3 arguments - one of them is that the mind cannot think of a certain quality without the degree of that quality, such as a line without a length attached to it. Hence all ideas must have their particular degrees of qualities that therefore must be particular.

According to Hume it is through thinking of the resemblance of something with something else different in other aspects, for example we can consider the color of something only by thinking of the resemblance it has with something else of a different shape. Hume gives the example of a white marble globe and a black marble globe, one can think of the distinct shape by thinking of the resemblance between these two marble globes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Treatise_of_Human_Nature#The_Nature_of_Ideas

About :

This book is a treatment of human cognition. It includes important statements of Skepticism and Hume's experimental method. Part 1 deals with the nature of ideas. Part 2 deals with the ideas of space and time. Part 3 deals with knowledge and probability. Part 4 deals with skeptical and other systems of philosophy, including a discussion of the soul and personal identity.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/07/opinion/07zaretsky.html?_r=2&scp=2&sq=hume&st=Search

Obama: It's Complicated ,High Noon versus Habeas Corpus

noreply@blogger.com (Marguerita) — Wed, 04 May 2011 00:18:00 +0000

drawing by marguerita

By the time Pakistani soldiers lifted the cordon around Osama bin Laden's house in the garrison town of Abbottabad, triggering a media stampede, the most obvious traces of its infamous resident had been effaced.

The American soldiers who had swept in aboard four helicopters on Sunday night had scoured the three-storey building, taking away computer hard disks and a trove of documents – as well as Bin Laden's bloodied body, which was later buried at sea.

The following day, Pakistani intelligence – angered at not having been informed of the raid, and embarrassed that it took place under their noses – made a second sweep. Tractors carted away furniture and other belongings. But it was impossible to erase every trace of the drama that ended the manhunt.http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/03/osama-bin-laden-death-raid

Baudelaire et Moi: Paysage - Les Fleurs du Mal

noreply@blogger.com (Marguerita) — Sun, 01 May 2011 22:11:00 +0000

drawing by marguerita
Je veux, pour composer chastement mes églogues,
Coucher auprès du ciel, comme les astrologues,
Et, voisin des clochers écouter en rêvant
Leurs hymnes solennels emportés par le vent.
Les deux mains au menton, du haut de ma mansarde,
Je verrai l'atelier qui chante et qui bavarde;
Les tuyaux, les clochers, ces mâts de la cité,
Et les grands ciels qui font rêver d'éternité.
II est doux, à travers les brumes, de voir naître
L'étoile dans l'azur, la lampe à la fenêtre
Les fleuves de charbon monter au firmament
Et la lune verser son pâle enchantement.
Je verrai les printemps, les étés, les automnes;
Et quand viendra l'hiver aux neiges monotones,
Je fermerai partout portières et volets
Pour bâtir dans la nuit mes féeriques palais.
Alors je rêverai des horizons bleuâtres,
Des jardins, des jets d'eau pleurant dans les albâtres,
Des baisers, des oiseaux chantant soir et matin,
Et tout ce que l'Idylle a de plus enfantin.
L'Emeute, tempêtant vainement à ma vitre,
Ne fera pas lever mon front de mon pupitre;
Car je serai plongé dans cette volupté
D'évoquer le Printemps avec ma volonté,
De tirer un soleil de mon coeur, et de faire
De mes pensers brûlants une tiède atmosphère.

Descartes and Moi:Les passions de l'âme,body,mind,emotions and spirit

noreply@blogger.com (Marguerita) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 21:03:00 +0000

drawing by marguerita

In the treatise Passions of the Soul (Les passions de l'âme), the last of Descartes' published work, completed in 1649 and dedicated to Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia, the author contributes to a long tradition of theorizing "the passions." The passions were experiences often equated with or labeled as precursors to what are commonly called "emotions" in the Modern period. However, significant differences exist between what a passion putatively was and what an emotion allegedly is. For example, the passions, as suggested by the etymology of the word, were passive in nature; that is to say the experience of a passion was always caused by an object external to the subject. An emotion, as it is commonly rendered in both contemporary psychological discourse as well as popular culture, is usually explained as an event internal to, or taking place within, a subject. Therefore, an emotion is produced by the subject while a passion is suffered by the subject.

In the Passions of the Soul, Descartes defines these phenomena as follows: "perceptions or sensations or excitations of the soul which are referred to it in particular and which are caused, maintained, and strengthened by some movement of the spirits." The "spirits" mentioned here are the "animal spirits" central to Descartes's account of physiology. They function similarly to how the medical establishment now understands the nervous system. Descartes explains that the animal spirits are produced by the blood and are responsible for stimulating the body's movement.

By affecting the muscles, for example, the animal spirits "move the body in all the different ways in which it can be moved." from Wikipedia

P.S En passant, I remember watching an interview with Artur Rubinstein by Jim Lehrer on Channel 13,many years ago,when Jim asks the pianist,how much he practices and his thoughts about contemporary musicians: " I hardly practice,when I play make many mistakes, but I play avec l'âme" was his response.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/aboutus/bio_lehrer.html

On a clear day, thoughts and dreams:"La arte es el faro salvador de muchas de mis tormentas".

noreply@blogger.com (Marguerita) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 15:02:00 +0000

drawing by marguerita

Daohugou Spider Found,while checking out birth certificates,tsunamis and etc

noreply@blogger.com (Marguerita) — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 19:48:00 +0000

drawing by marguerita

Nephila are large, conspicuous weavers of orb webs composed of golden silk, in tropical and subtropical regions. Nephilids have a sparse fossil record, the oldest described hitherto being Cretaraneus vilaltae from the Cretaceous of Spain. Five species from Neogene Dominican amber and one from the Eocene of Florissant, CO, USA, have been referred to the extant genus Nephila.
Here, we report the largest known fossil spider, Nephila jurassica sp. nov., from Middle Jurassic (approx. 165 Ma) strata of Daohugou, Inner Mongolia, China. The new species extends the fossil record of the family by approximately 35 Ma and of the genus Nephila by approximately 130 Ma, making it the longest ranging spider genus known.
Nephilidae originated somewhere on Pangaea, possibly the North China block, followed by dispersal almost worldwide before the break-up of the supercontinent later in the Mesozoic. The find suggests that the palaeoclimate was warm and humid at this time. This giant fossil orb-weaver provides evidence of predation on medium to large insects, well known from the Daohugou beds, and would have played an important role in the evolution of these insects.http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2011/04/16/rsbl.2011.0228

The Daohugou Beds are a series of fossil-bearing rock deposits located in northeastern China, with the type locality around Daohugou village of Ningcheng County south of Chifeng, Inner mongolia, but extending into southwest Liaoning. The rocks are grey, finely bedded, lacustrine, sandy mudstones mixed with tuffaceous mudstones formed from the intermittent ashfall of volcanic events. The beds probably date from between the late middle Jurassic (168 million years ago) and early Late Jurassic^[1] Period (164-152 million years ago).http://daohugou-beds.co.tv/

• Geology
• Scientific studies
• Fauna of the Daohugou Beds
◦ Amphibians
◦ Arthropods
◦ Dinosaurs
◦ Lepidosaurs
◦ Pterosaurs
◦ Synapsids
• References
• See also
Geology
The geology of the Daohugou Beds is confusing because it is complex and does not conform; meaning that elements and layers of rock of different ages are mixed up together by folding and erosion and by volcanic activity. Liu et al. (2006) concluded that the rocks that bear the Daohugou Biota also include the Tiaojishan and Lanqi Formations. They demonstrated that the Jiulongshan Formation is older (middle Jurassic), and that the Tuchengzi Formation is younger (Late Jurassic).
Fieldwork published in 2006 has also found that the beds are consistent over a large area; from western Liaoning into Ningcheng county of Inner mongolia (Nei Mongol).[2] The age of the Daohugou Beds has been debated, and a number of studies, using different methodologies, have reached conflicting conclusions. Various papers have placed the fossils here as being anywhere from the middle Jurassic period (169 million years ago) to the Early Cretaceous period (122 ma).[3]

Scientific studies
A 2004 study by He et al. on the age of the Daohugou Beds found them to be Early Cretaceous, probably only a few million years older than the overlying Jehol beds of the Yixian Formation.[4] The 2004 study primarily used radiometric dating of a tuff within the Daohugou Beds to determine its age. However, a subsequent study by Gao & Ren took issue with the He et al. study. Gao and Ren criticize He et al. for not including enough specifics and detail in their paper, and also take issue with their radiometric dating of the Daohugou tuff. The tuff, Gao and Ren argue, contains crystals with a variety of diverse radiometric ages, some up to a billion years old, so using dates from only a few of these crystals cannot determine the overall age of the deposits. Gao and Ren go on to defend a Middle Jurassic age for the beds based on biostratigraphy (the use of index fossils) and the bed's relationship to a layer that is known to mark the Middle Jurassic-Late Jurassic boundary.[5]
Another study, published in 2006 by Wang et al., found that the Tiaojishan Formation (159-164 million years old, Middle-early Late Jurassic in age) underlies, rather than overlies, the Daohugou Beds. Unlike the earlier study by Gao and Ren, Wang et al. found an overall similarity between the fossil animals found in the Daohugou Beds and those from the Yixian Formation. The authors stated that
"vertebrate fossils such as Liaoxitriton, Jeholopterus and feathered maniraptorans show much resemblance to those of the Yixian Formation. In other words, despite the absence of Lycoptera, a typical fish of the Jehol Biota, the Daohugou vertebrate assemblage is closer to that of the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota than to any other biota."
Wang et al. concluded that the Daohugou probably represents the earliest evolutionary stages of the Jehol Biota, and that it "belongs to the same cycle of volcanism and sedimentation as the Yixian Formation of the Jehol Group."[2] However, a later study by Ji et al. argued that the key indicator of the Jehol biota are the index fossils peipiaosteus and Lycoptera. Under this definition, the earliest evolutionary stage of the Jehol Biota is represented by the Huajiying Formation, and the Daohugou Formation is excluded due to the absence of Lycoptera fossils.[6] Later in 2006, Liu et al. published their own study of the age of the Daohugou beds, this time using Zircon U-Pb dating on the volcanic rocks overlying and underlying salamander-bearing layers (salamanders are often used as index fossils). Liu et al. found that the beds formed between 164-158 million years ago, in the Middle to Late Jurassic.[1]

Fauna of the Daohugou Beds
Beautifully preserved fossils of dinosaurs, pterosaurs, salamanders, insects, other invertebrates, conifers, ginkgoes, cycads, horsetails, and ferns, and even the earliest known gliding mammal (Volaticotherium) and an aquatic protomammal (Castorocauda) have been discovered in these rocks. These organisms were part of the Daohugou Biota, which was the ecosystem of that Jurassic time. The tuffaceous composition of some rock layers show that this was a volcanic area, occasionally experiencing heavy ashfalls from eruptions. The landscape then was dominated by mountain streams and deep lakes surrounded by forests of gymnosperm trees.[7] Some authors have concluded that the Daohugou Biota is an early stage of the Jehol Biota, while recent work has demonstrated that the two are distinct.
The forests of the Daohugou biota grew in a humid, warm - temperate climate and were dominated by gymnosperm trees. There were ginkgopsids like Ginkoites, Ginkgo, Baiera, Czekanowskia, and Phoenicopsis. There were also conifers like Pityophyllum, Rhipidiocladus, Elatocladus, Schizolepis, and Podozamites. Also, Lycopsids like Lycopodites and Sellaginellities, horsetails (sphenopsida) like Equisetum, cycads like Anomozamites, and ferns (Filicopsida) like Todites and Coniopteris.[8]

Amphibians

Amphibians of the Daohugou Beds
Genus
Species
State
Abundance
Notes
Jeholotriton
J. paradoxus

Wang, 2000''
Chunerpeton
C. tianyiensis

Gao & Shubin, 2003
Liaoxitriton
L. daohugouensis

Wang, 2004
pangerpeton
P. sinensis

Wang & Evans, 2006

Arthropods
The following orders are represented in the formation; Ephemeroptera, odonata, plecoptera, Blattodea, orthoptera, Heteroptera, Homoptera, Neuroptera, Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, and Diptera.

Insects of the Daohugou Beds
Genus
Species
State
Abundance
Notes
Ahirmoneura
A. neimengguensis[9]
Inner mongolia

A tangle-veined fly
Archirhagio
A. striatus[10]

Archisargid flies
A. zhangi[11]
Inner Mongolia

Archisargus
A. spurivenius[10]

Archisargid flies
A. strigatus[10]

Calosargus
C. (Calosargus) antiquus[10]

Archisargid flies
C. (C.) bellus[10]

C. (C.) daohugouensis[10]

C. (C.) hani[10]

C. (C.) tenuicellulatus[10]

C. (C.) validus[10]

C. (Pterosargus) sinicus[10]
Inner Mongolia

Daohugocorixa
D. vulcanica[10]

A water boatman
Fuyous
F. gregarious[10]

A mayfly
Eoplectreurys
E. gertschi[12]

1 Specimen
A plectreurid spider
Jurassinemestrinus
J. orientalis[10]
Inner Mongolia

A Nemestrinoid fly
meoslova
M. daohugouensis[10]

An archisargid fly
mostovskisargus
M. portentosus[10]
Inner Mongolia

Archisargid flies
M. signatus[10]
Inner Mongolia

shantous
S. lacustris[10]

A mayfly

Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs (including birds) of the Daohugou Beds
Genus
Species
State
Abundance
Notes
Images
Epidendrosaurus
E. ninchengensis
Inner mongolia
One specimen
A scansoriopterygid probably synonymous with Scansoriopteryx heilmanni

Epidexipteryx
E. hui
Inner Mongolia
One specimen
A scansoriopterygid
''pedopenna
P. daohugouensis
Inner Mongolia
One specimen
A primitive paravian
scansoriopteryx
S. heilmanni

One or two specimens
A scansoriopterygid. Exact provenance of type specimen unknown, most likely from the Daohugou Beds[2]

Lepidosaurs

Lepidosaurs (lizards and relatives) of the Daohugou Beds
Genus
Species
State
Abundance
Notes
Images
Unnamed lizard[13]

Inner Mongolia
One specimen
A new lizard with relatively short forelimbs
Unnamed lizard[13]

Inner Mongolia
One specimen
A new lizard with long hind limbs and a narrow body

Pterosaurs

pterosaurs of the Daohugou Beds
Genus
Species
State
Abundance
Notes
Images
Jeholopterus
J. ninchengensis
Inner mongolia
Several specimens[14][15]
An anurognathid

pterorhynchus
P. wellnhoferi
Inner Mongolia
One specimen[14]
A rhamphorhynchid
Wukongopterus
W. lii
Liaoning
One specimen[16]
A rhamphorhycnhoid

Synapsids

synapsids of the Daohugou Beds
Genus
Species
State
Abundance
Notes
Images
Castorocauda
C. lutrasimilis
Inner mongolia
One specimen[17]
Aquatic docodont

Volaticotherium
V. antiquum
Inner Mongolia
One specimen
A gliding mammal

References

See also
• Yixian Formation
• Jehol Biota
• List of fossil sites (with link directory)

Sweet &Funky series : Life is a Splendorous Thing

noreply@blogger.com (Marguerita) — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 14:36:00 +0000

drawing/collage by marguerita
currently at the http://www.kentlergallery.org/pages/11Benefit/2011benefitArt.html

By ratnaveera

Cithaerias Phantoma

http://tolweb.org/Cithaerias/70731

Owl Butterfly

Blue Morpho

Amazon rainforests are the home for more than 25 millions of different species of insects. Warm climate with heavy rainfalls result into abundant vegetation in most part of the region make favorable conditions for the growth and reproduction of millions of species of insects. It is estimated that one acre of Amazon rainforest contains more than 70,000 species of insects. Even a single tree of the forest may contain about 50 number of different species of insects. The 100 million year old rainforest is the reason for being most biodiverse on the earth.http://hubpages.com/hub/SOME-IMPORTANT-SPECIES-OF-INSECTS-IN-AMAZON-RAINFORESTS
http://www.learnaboutbutterflies.com/Amazon%20-%20Cithaerias%20phantoma.htm

Color me Blue

noreply@blogger.com (Marguerita) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 21:42:00 +0000

watercolor by marguerita
photo by marguerita

Penso che sogno così non ritorni mai più, mi dipingevo le mani e la faccia di blu, poi d'improvviso venivo dal vento rapito, e incominciavo a volare nel cielo infinito. Volare ho ho cantare ho ho hoho, nel blu dipinto di blu, felice di stare lassù, e volavo volavo felice più in alto del sole ed ancora più sù, mentre il mondo pian piano spariva laggiù, una musica dolce suonava soltanto per me. Volare ho ho cantare ho ho hoho nel blu dipinto di blu felice di stare lassù. Ma tutti i sogni nell'alba svaniscon perchè, quando tramonta la luna li porta con se, ma io continuo a sognare negl'occhi tuoi belli, che sono blu come il un cielo trapunto di stelle. Volare ho ho cantare ho ho hoho, nel blu degl'occhi tuoi blu, felice di stare qua giù, e continuo a volare felice più in alto del sole ed ancora più su, mentre il mondo pian piano scompare negl'occhi tuoi blu, la tua voce è una musica dolce che suona per me. Volare ho ho cantare ho ho hoho nel blu degl'occhi tuoi blu, felice di stare qua giù, nel blu degl'occhi tuoi blu, felice di stare qua giù con te..

Penso che sogno così
non ritorni mai più,
mi dipingevo le mani
e la faccia di blu,
poi d'improvviso venivo
dal vento rapito,
e incominciavo a volare
nel cielo infinito.

Volare ho ho
cantare ho ho hoho,
nel blu dipinto di blu,
felice di stare lassù,
e volavo volavo
felice più in alto del sole
ed ancora più sù,
mentre il mondo
pian piano spariva laggiù,
una musica dolce suonava
soltanto per me.

Volare ho ho
cantare ho ho hoho
nel blu dipinto di blu
felice di stare lassù.

Ma tutti i sogni
nell'alba svaniscon perchè,
quando tramonta la luna
li porta con se,
ma io continuo a sognare
negl'occhi tuoi belli,
che sono blu come il un cielo
trapunto di stelle.

Volare ho ho
cantare ho ho hoho,
nel blu degl'occhi tuoi blu,
felice di stare qua giù,
e continuo a volare felice
più in alto del sole
ed ancora più su,
mentre il mondo
pian piano scompare
negl'occhi tuoi blu,
la tua voce è una musica
dolce che suona per me.

Volare ho ho
cantare ho ho hoho
nel blu degl'occhi tuoi blu,
felice di stare qua giù,
nel blu degl'occhi tuoi blu,
felice di stare qua giù
con te..

Oil in the Name of Love: War!

noreply@blogger.com (Marguerita) — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 16:44:00 +0000

drawing by marguerita
Hillary Rodham Clinton found herself juggling the inconsistencies of American foreign policy in a turbulent Middle East.
She criticized the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates for sending troops to quash protests in Bahrain even as she pressed him to send planes to intervene in Libya.

http://www.infowars.com/europeans-and-oil-sheiks-prepare-mass-murder-in-libya/

The Libyan Rebellion

Interactive map of the major clashes in Libya, day by day.

Multimedia

Interactive Feature
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/world/africa/19policy.html?_r=1&hp

The Mind: Where are You?

noreply@blogger.com (Marguerita) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 17:56:00 +0000

drawing by marguerita Nondeliberate emotion, perception and intuition are much more important in shaping our lives than reason and will.....?

The main idea is that there are two levels of the mind,
one unconscious and the other conscious,
and that the first is much more important than the second in determining what we do.
It must be said immediately that Brooks has a terminological problem here. He describes the contents of the unconscious mind as “emotions, intuitions, biases, longings, genetic predispositions, character traits and social norms,” and later he includes “sensations, perceptions, drives and needs.”http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/books/review/book-review-the-social-animal-by-david-brooks.html