Memento Vivere

aiasmus.com

2012-11-05T23:24:00.002+02:00

A site about Music - Movies - History and much more...

How to draw

2012-10-22T19:37:00.000+03:00

Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, various kinds of erasers, markers, styluses, and various metals (such as silverpoint). An artist who practices or works in drawing may be called a draftsman or draughtsman. A small amount of material is released onto the two dimensional medium, leaving a visible mark. The most common support for drawing is paper, although other materials, such as cardboard, plastic, leather, canvas, and board, may be used. Temporary drawings may be made on a blackboard or whiteboard or indeed almost anything. The medium has been a popular and fundamental means of public expression throughout human history. It is one of the simplest and most efficient means of communicating visual ideas. The relatively easy availability of basic drawing instruments makes drawing more universal than most other media.

Drawing is a form of visual expression and is one of the major forms within the visual arts. There are several categories of drawing, including cartooning. Certain drawing methods or approaches, such as "doodling," other informal kinds of drawing, and the surrealist method of "entopic graphomania", in which dots are made at the sites of impurities in a blank sheet of paper, and lines are then made between the dots, may or may not be considered part of "drawing" as a "fine art". Likewise, tracing—drawing on a thin piece of paper, sometimes designed for that purpose (tracing paper), around the outline of preexisting shapes that show through the paper—is also not considered fine art, although it may be part of the draftsman's preparation. The word drawing is both (1) a noun and (2) the present-participle and gerund forms of the verb draw.

To draw is to produce a drawing. A quick, unrefined drawing may be called a sketch. Drawing is generally concerned with the marking of lines and areas of tone onto paper. Traditional drawings were monochrome, or at least had little colour, while modern colored-pencil drawings may approach or cross a boundary between drawing and painting. In Western terminology, however, drawing is distinct from painting, even though similar media often are employed in both tasks. Dry media, normally associated with drawing, such as chalk, may be used in pastel paintings. Drawing may be done with a liquid medium, applied with brushes or pens. Similar supports likewise can serve both: painting generally involves the application of liquid paint onto prepared canvas or panels, but sometimes an underdrawing is drawn first on that same support. Drawing is often exploratory, with considerable emphasis on observation, problem-solving, and composition. Drawing is also regularly used in preparation for a painting, further obfuscating their distinction. In fields outside art, technical drawings or plans of buildings, machinery, circuitry and other things are often called "drawings" even when they have been transferred to another medium by printing. wikipedia.org

You can start with the basics here

Thievery Corporation

2012-10-21T17:11:00.001+03:00

Thievery Corporation is a Washington, D.C. based recording artist and DJ duo consisting of Rob Garza, Eric Hilton, and their supporting artists, Frank 'Booty Lock' Mitchell, Jeff Franca and Ashish Vyas. Their music style mixes elements of dub, acid jazz, reggae, Indian classical, Middle Eastern, and Brazilian (such as bossa nova).

Thievery Corporation was formed in the summer of 1995 at Washington D.C.'s Eighteenth Street Lounge. Rob Garza and Lounge co-owner Eric Hilton were drawn together over their mutual love of club life, as well as dub, bossa nova and jazz records. They decided to see what would come of mixing all these in a recording studio, and from this, the duo started their Eighteenth Street Lounge Music record label. The duo drew attention with their first two 12" offerings, "Shaolin Satellite" and "2001: a Spliff Odyssey" and with their 1997 debut LP, Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi. In 2002 they released The Richest Man in Babylon on their ESL label. This fifteen track album is similar in sound and timbre to their earlier 2000 release, The Mirror Conspiracy, and features performances by vocalists Emilíana Torrini, Pam Bricker, and Loulou. In 2005 they released The Cosmic Game, which has a darker, more psychedelic sound than The Richest Man in Babylon. The album also featured more high-profile guest singers on it, including Perry Farrell, David Byrne, and Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips. In 2006 the group released Versions, a selection of remixes done by Thievery Corporation for other artists. They toured around the United States, playing at Lollapalooza. The tour was photographed by Rob Myers, Thievery Corporation's sitar and guitar player, in the Blurb photo book Thievery Corporation 2006.

In 2006, the band also recorded "Sol Tapado" for the AIDS benefit album Silencio=Muerte: Red Hot + Latin Redux produced by the Red Hot Organization. The group released their fifth studio album, Radio Retaliation, on September 23, 2008. It was nominated for the Grammy for best recording package. Thievery Corporation's tour started out with 5 consecutive sold out shows at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC. The language of the group's lyrics throughout their career include English, Spanish, French, Persian, Portuguese, Romanian and Hindi. This reflects the group's world music influences. They were the opening act on August 1, 2009 for Sir Paul McCartney at FedExField in Landover, Maryland. On July 27, 2010, Babylon Central, the cinematic directorial debut of founding member Eric Hilton, was released. Set (and shot) in Washington, D.C., the film follows tripwire events in the interconnected lives of its characters, each influencing power brokers' schemes to manipulate international currencies. In June 2011, Thievery Corporation released their sixth album, Culture of Fear. In January 2012, Thievery Corporation launched a remixes contest in conjunction with Dubspot. en.wikipedia.org

Taken 2 - 2012

2012-10-21T13:02:00.004+03:00

Taken 2 is a 2012 English-language French action film directed by Olivier Megaton which stars a wide international cast including Irish actor Liam Neeson, actress Maggie Grace, actress Famke Janssen and Rade Šerbedžija. It is the sequel to the 2008 film Taken, and was released on 3 October 2012.

Plot

After the events in Paris in Taken, relatives of the men whom Bryan Mills (Neeson) killed while searching for his daughter, Kim (Grace), return to their hometown, Tropojë, Albania, for the dead men's funeral. During the ceremony, Murad (Šerbedžija), the employer of the men and father of Marko, a victim whom Bryan killed by electrocution, states that they will find Bryan to avenge the deaths of their loved ones. When arriving at Kim's home to take her on a driving lesson, Bryan learns from her mother Lenore (Janssen), who is currently having relationship problems with her husband, that Kim is not there and that she has a new boyfriend. After Lenore's husband cancels their holiday to China, Bryan suggests that Kim and Lenore join him in Istanbul after he has finished a work assignment there.

After being led to believe that they have not taken him up on the offer, Bryan is surprised to find that Kim and Lenore have indeed flown out to join him. Later, after lunching in the marketplace, Kim stays behind at the hotel in an attempt to help her parents rekindle their relationship. While Bryan and Lenore are out, they are pursued by Murad's men, and, despite Bryan's efforts, Lenore is captured, forcing Bryan to surrender. Before he does so, he calls Kim to explain the situation and tells her to hide. With advice from Bryan, she is able to evade the kidnappers. Bryan wakes up with his hands tied to a pole in a dark room. Using a communications device that he has hidden in his sock, Bryan calls Kim, instructing her to go to the US Embassy and tell them what happened, but she begs for a chance to help him and Lenore, which he decides to give her. Under Bryan's guidance, she opens up his weaponry suitcase and throws a live grenade out of the window. Bryan uses the time it takes for the sound of the explosion to to reach him in order to deduce his location. He then has her take a gun and two more grenades and travel towards his location via the rooftops, while he frees himself from his restraints. Bryan then sends steam up a chimney to pinpoint his location, and Kim drops the gun down the chimney, allowing Bryan to use it to kill the guards and escape the building, leaving Lenore behind while he rescues Kim, who is being chased.

wikipedia.org

Pulp Fiction - 1994

2012-10-21T09:44:00.004+03:00

Pulp Fiction is a 1994 American crime film directed by Quentin Tarantino, who co-wrote its screenplay with Roger Avary. The film is known for its rich, eclectic dialogue, ironic mix of humor and violence, nonlinear storyline, and host of cinematic allusions and pop culture references. The film was nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture; Tarantino and Avary won for Best Original Screenplay. It was also awarded the Palme d'Or at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. A major critical and commercial success, it revitalized the career of its leading man, John Travolta, who received an Academy Award nomination, as did costars Samuel L. Jackson and Uma Thurman.

Directed in a highly stylized manner, Pulp Fiction connects the intersecting storylines of Los Angeles mobsters, fringe players, small-time criminals, and a mysterious briefcase. Considerable screen time is devoted to conversations and monologues that reveal the characters' senses of humor and perspectives on life. The film's title refers to the pulp magazines and hardboiled crime novels popular during the mid-20th century, known for their graphic violence and punchy dialogue. Pulp Fiction is self-referential from its opening moments, beginning with a title card that gives two dictionary definitions of "pulp". The plot, as in many of Tarantino's other works, is presented out of chronological sequence.

wikipedia.org

Big Tex

2012-10-20T20:12:00.000+03:00

Big Tex was a 52-foot (16 m) tall statue and marketing icon of the annual State Fair of Texas held at Fair Park in Dallas, Texas. The figure has become a cultural icon of Dallas and Texas. Since 1952 Big Tex has served as a cultural ambassador to visitors, and the prime location in the fairgrounds serves as a traditional meeting point. On October 19, 2012, the last weekend of the 2012 State Fair of Texas, Big Tex was destroyed by fire.
Big Tex made his debut at the 1952 fair, dressed in denim jeans and a plaid shirt donated by the H. D. Lee Company of Shawnee Mission, Kansas.[6] Mr. Artist Bridges used a photograph of his own face, a photograph of rancher Doc Simmons and a photograph of Will Rogers to create the new look. After the fair, his appearance was slightly altered to straighten his nose and correct an odd wink. It was in 1953 that Big Tex also began speaking. Using a custom-built recipromotor and a 75-watt speaker system housed in the figure's head, Jack Bridges devised a way to create the illusion of natural speech with a swinging jaw. He also attended a convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota that year. In 1955 Big Tex received his first new change of clothes, again fabricated by the H. D. Lee Company.

After that year's fair, he traveled to West Texas to participate in Abilene Christian College's 50th annual homecoming celebration. A 12-foot-tall, 19-foot long plastic model of a Hereford steer (called "The Champ") accompanied Big Tex for the 1956 fair, but Big Tex was primarily displayed alone. During the 1950s Big Tex underwent further re-design, replacing the papier mache "skin" with fiberglass. The original head was put into storage and later sold at auction in 1993 to a Dallas collector. Big Tex, 2006 The State Fair of Texas announced the construction of a permanent, year-round statue of Big Tex in 1961, but the figure remained a seasonal feature appearing only during the fair. Instead, the Big Tex Circle display area was redesigned in 1966 with a larger mound. Big Tex traveled to his hometown of Kerens, Texas in 1981 to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of the city. The figure continued to travel to various promotional events until the mid 1980s. In 1997, Big Tex was given a skeletal makeover consisting of 4,200 feet of steel rods weighing 6,000 pounds. The new skeleton adjusted the posture and allowed for a new hand that waved to passersby, but kept the original head. Three years later his neck was animated, allowing it to turn; his mechanical mouth was also upgraded with a new system. Big Tex celebrated his 50th birthday in 2002, receiving a giant birthday cake and an AARP card. Shades of gray were added to the hair and wrinkles were added the figure's hands and face as Big Tex continued to "age." In 2012 the State Fair of Texas celebrated Big Tex's 60th birthday.

This day in History - September 7

2011-09-08T18:57:00.000+03:00

1191 – Third Crusade: Battle of Arsuf – Richard I of England defeats Saladin at Arsuf.
1228 – Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II landed in Acre, Palestine and started the Sixth Crusade, which resulted in a peaceful restitution of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
1652 – Around 15,000 Han farmers and militia rebel against Dutch rule on Taiwan.
1776 – According to American colonial reports, Ezra Lee makes the world's first submarine attack in the Turtle, attempting to attach a time bomb to the hull of HMS Eagle in New York Harbor (no British records of this attack exist).
1812 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Borodino – Napoleon wins a Pyrrhic victory over the Russian army of Alexander I near the village of Borodino.
1818 – Carl III of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Norway, in Trondheim.
1822 – Dom Pedro I declares Brazil independent from Portugal on the shores of the Ipiranga Brook in São Paulo.
1864 – American Civil War: Atlanta, Georgia, is evacuated on orders of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman.
1876 – In Northfield, Minnesota, Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang attempt to rob the town's bank but are driven off by armed citizens.
1893 – The Genoa Cricket & Athletic Club, to become one of the oldest Italian football clubs, is established by British expats.
1895 – The first game of what would become known as rugby league football is played, in England, starting the 1895–96 Northern Rugby Football Union season.
1901 – The Boxer Rebellion in China officially ends with the signing of the Boxer Protocol.

1906 – Alberto Santos-Dumont flies his 14-bis aircraft at Bagatelle, France for the first time successfully. 1907 – Cunard Line's RMS Lusitania sets sail on her maiden voyage from Liverpool, England to New York City.
1909 – Eugene Lefebvre crashes a new French-built Wright biplane during a test flight at Juvisy, south of Paris, becoming the first 'pilot' in the world to lose his life in a powered heavier-than-air craft.
1911 – French poet Guillaume Apollinaire is arrested and put in jail on suspicion of stealing the Mona Lisa from the Louvre museum.
1916 – Federal employees win the right to Workers' compensation by Federal Employers Liability Act (39 Stat. 742; 5 U.S.C. 751)
1920 – Two newly purchased Savoia flying boats crash in the Swiss Alps en-route to Finland where they would serve with the Suomen Ilmavoimat, killing both crews.
1921 – In Atlantic City, New Jersey, the first Miss America Pageant, a two-day event, is held.
1921 – Legion of Mary is founded in Dublin, Ireland.
1922 – In Aydin, Turkey, independence of Aydin, from Greek occupation.
1927 – The first fully electronic television system is achieved by Philo Taylor Farnsworth.
1929 – Steamer Kuru capsizes and sinks on Lake Näsijärvi near Tampere in Finland. 136 lives are lost. 1936 – The last surviving member of the thylacine species, Benjamin, dies alone in her cage at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania.

1940 – World War II: The Blitz – Nazi Germany begins to rain bombs on London. This will be the first of 57 consecutive nights of bombing.
1940 – Treaty of Craiova: Romania loses Southern Dobrudja to Bulgaria.
1942 – Holocaust: 8,700 Jews of Kolomyia (western Ukraine) sent by German Gestapo to death camp in Belzec.
1942 – First flight of the Consolidated B-32 Dominator.
1943 – A fire at the Gulf Hotel in Houston, Texas, kills 55 people.
1943 – World War II: The German 17th Army begins its evacuation of the Kuban River bridgehead (Taman Peninsula) in southern Russia and moves across the Strait of Kerch to the Crimea.
1945 – Japanese forces on Wake Island, which they had held since December of 1941, surrender to U.S. Marines.
1953 – Nikita Khrushchev is elected first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1963 – The Pro Football Hall of Fame opens in Canton, Ohio with 17 charter members.
1965 – China announces that it will reinforce its troops on the Indian border.
1965 – Vietnam War: In a follow-up to August's Operation Starlight, United States Marines and South Vietnamese forces initiate Operation Piranha on the Batangan Peninsula.
1970 – Fighting between Arab guerrillas and government forces in Amman, Jordan.
1970 – Bill Shoemaker sets record for most lifetime wins as a jockey (passing Johnny Longden).
1977 – The Torrijos-Carter Treaties between Panama and the United States on the status of the Panama Canal are signed. The United States agrees to transfer control of the canal to Panama at the end of the 20th century.
1978 – While walking across Waterloo Bridge in London, Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov is assassinated by Bulgarian secret police agent Francesco Giullino by means of a ricin pellet fired from a specially-designed umbrella.

1979 – The Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, better known as ESPN, makes its debut. 1979 – The Chrysler Corporation asks the United States government for USD $1.5 billion to avoid bankruptcy.
1986 – Desmond Tutu becomes the first black man to lead the Anglican Church in South Africa.
1986 – Gen. Augusto Pinochet, president of Chile, escapes attempted assassination.
1988 – Abdul Ahad Mohmand, the first Afghan in space, returns aboard the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz TM-5 after 9 days on the Mir space station.
1996 – American Hip-Hop star Tupac Shakur is fatally shot four times on the Las Vegas strip after leaving the Tyson-Seldon boxing match.
1999 – A 5.9 magnitude earthquake rocks Athens, rupturing a previously unknown fault, killing 143, injuring more than 500, and leaving 50,000 people homeless.
2004 – Hurricane Ivan, a Category 5 hurricane hits Grenada, killing 39 and damaging 90% of its buildings. 2005 – Egypt holds its first-ever multi-party presidential election.
2008 – The US Government takes control of the two largest mortgage financing companies in the US, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
2011 – 43 members of the Lokomotive franchise of the Kontinental Hockey League died in a place crash in Russia. Among dead from the crash included former National Hockey League players Pavol Demitra, Brad McCrimmon, and Josef Vasicek. Wikipedia

Timelapse - The City Limits

2011-09-07T20:25:00.003+03:00

Video info: I shot this timelapse montage from late 2010 through early 2011. One year in the making. My goal was to show the duality between city and nature. Locations include : - Montreal, Quebec, Canada - Quebec city, Quebec, Canada - Toronto, Ontario, Canada - Manhattan, New York, USA - Chicago, Illinois, USA.

The Celebration (1998)

2011-09-07T16:18:00.000+03:00

The Celebration is a 1998 Danish film, produced by Nimbus Film and directed by Thomas Vinterberg, the first to be created under Dogme 95 rules. He was inspired to write it with Mogens Rukov, based on a hoax broadcast by a Danish radio station. Its original Danish title is Festen, and it was released under this title in the UK. The film tells the story of a family gathering to celebrate their father's 60th birthday. At the dinner, the eldest son publicly accuses his father of sexually abusing both him and his twin sister (who had recently committed suicide).

Respected family patriarch and businessman Helge (Henning Moritzen) is celebrating his 60th birthday at the family-run hotel. Gathered together are his wife Else (Birthe Neumann), his daughter Helene (Paprika Steen), his sons Michael (Thomas Bo Larsen) and Christian (Ulrich Thomsen), and other guests. Christian's twin sister, Linda, recently committed suicide at the hotel.

Before the celebration dinner, Helene finds Linda's suicide note, but hides it after becoming upset by the contents. Later, during dinner, Christian makes a speech to the family in which he accuses his father Helge of sexually abusing him and his late sister Linda. Helge's family and friends initially dismiss the accusations as absurd, a joke, or a figment of Christian's imagination. In a one-on-one conversation, the seemingly baffled Helge asks Christian about his motivations and Christian recants his accusation—until being spurred to action by hotel chef Kim (Bjarne Henriksen) a childhood friend who knows about the abuse. During a toast, Else makes a series of back-handed compliments towards her children, accusing Christian of having an overactive imagination as a child, and asking him to apologize. Christian responds by accusing her of interrupting Helge during one of the rapes, yet not interfering with the incident. An enraged Michael ejects Christian from the hotel. Wikipedia

Clare and the Reasons

2011-09-07T02:33:00.002+03:00

Clare and the Reasons are a Brooklyn based band, fronted by collaborators Clare Manchon and Olivier Manchon. Their debut LP, The Movie, which included contributions from Van Dyke Parks and Sufjan Stevens, was released to much acclaim. They released their second album, Arrow, on Frog Stand Records. Arrow features a special guest appearance from Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond. Clare and the Reasons spent two years touring around the world in support of the The Movie LP. Live, they have a steady list of contributors, with many of instruments– cellos, violas, kazoos, baby kotos, saws, recorders, and a bass drum that says “Kaboom” on it. Arrow was recorded in a recording tent built in the Ditmas Park apartment of Clare and the Reasons’ neighbor, friend and engineer, Alex Venguer.

In the midst of nothing but glowing reviews of both “Arrow” and live shows, Clare and the Reasons toured the US and Canada three times for “Arrow” with Van Dyke Parks, Vic Chesnutt and Nouvelle Vague. They did an extensive euro tour in March 2010. The Reasons had many European festivals in the summer of 2010 (including Primavera Sound Festival and Meltdown Festival in London) and another USA tour with Van Dyke Parks in the fall of 2010. Claire and the Reasons' music has appeared on the critically applauded show ”Arrested Development”.Clare has 2 songs in French films, “Jusqu'à toi”, and “Les Nuits de Sister Welsh

Workers build a footpath - Shifou Mountain in China

2011-09-07T02:07:00.000+03:00

Thousands of metres up the vertiginous slopes of Shifou Mountain in Hunan Province, China, a team of workers, operating with hardly any safety measures, are building a footpath.

The workers are building a plank road on the side of the mountain that, once it is finished, will stretch for 3km (9843 ft) and be China's longest sightseeing footpath

Building a plank road on Shifou Mountain is difficult because the cliff stands vertical at 90 degrees, without any slope or alcoves

This day in History - September 6

2011-09-07T01:58:00.003+03:00

Funeral of Diana

1492 – Christopher Columbus sails from La Gomera in the Canary Islands, his final port of call before crossing the Atlantic for the first time.
1522 – The Victoria, the only surviving ship of Ferdinand Magellan's expedition, returns to Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Spain, becoming the first ship to circumnavigate the world.
1620 – The Pilgrims sail from Plymouth, England, on the Mayflower to settle in North America. (Old Style date; September 16 per New Style date.)
1628 – Puritans settle Salem, which will later become part of Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1634 – Thirty Years' War: In the Battle of Nördlingen the Catholic Imperial army defeats Protestant armies of Sweden and Germany.
1781 – The Battle of Groton Heights takes place, resulting a British victory.
1847 – Henry David Thoreau leaves Walden Pond and moves in with Ralph Waldo Emerson and his family in Concord, Massachusetts.
1861 – American Civil War: Forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant bloodlessly capture Paducah, Kentucky, which gives the Union control of the mouth of the Tennessee River.
1863 – American Civil War: Confederates evacuate Battery Wagner and Morris Island in South Carolina. 1870 – Louisa Ann Swain of Laramie, Wyoming becomes the first woman in the United States to cast a vote legally after 1807.
1885 – Eastern Rumelia declares its union with Bulgaria. The Unification of Bulgaria is accomplished.
1888 – Charles Turner becomes the first bowler to take 250 wickets in an English season – a feat since accomplished only by Tom Richardson (twice), J.T. Hearne, Wilfred Rhodes (twice) and Tich Freeman (six times).
1901 – Anarchist Leon Czolgosz shoots and fatally wounds US President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.

1930 – Democratically elected Argentine president Hipólito Yrigoyen is deposed in a military coup.
1937 – Spanish Civil War: The start of the Battle of El Mazuco.
1939 – World War II: The Battle of Barking Creek.
1939 – World War II: South Africa declares war on Germany.
1940 – King Carol II of Romania abdicates and is succeeded by his son Michael.
1943 – The Monterrey Institute of Technology, one of the largest and most influential private universities in Latin America, is founded in Monterrey, Mexico.
1944 – World War II: The city of Ypres, Belgium is liberated by allied forces.
1948 – Juliana becomes Queen of the Netherlands.
1949 – Allied military authorities relinquish control of former Nazi Germany assets back to German control. 1949 – A former sharpshooter in World War II, Howard Unruh kills 13 neighbors in Camden, New Jersey, with a souvenir Luger to become the first U.S. single-episode mass murderer.
1952 – Canada's first television station, CBFT-TV, opens in Montreal.
1955 – Istanbul Pogrom: Istanbul's Greek and Armenian minority are the target of a government-sponsored pogrom. 1963 – The Centre for International Industrial Property Studies (CEIPI) is founded.
1965 – War of 1965: India retaliates following Pakistan's Operation Grand Slam which resulted in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 that ends in a stalemate and follows the signing of the Tashkent Declaration.
1966 – In Cape Town, South Africa, the architect of Apartheid, Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, is stabbed to death during a parliamentary meeting.
1968 – Swaziland becomes independent.
1970 – Two passenger jets bound from Europe to New York are simultaneously hijacked by Palestinian terrorist members of PFLP and taken to Dawson's Field in Jordan.
1972 – Munich Massacre: 9 Israel athletes taken hostage at the Munich Olympic Games by the Palestinian "Black September" terrorist group died (as did a German policeman) at the hands of the kidnappers during a failed rescue attempt. 2 other Israeli athletes are slain in the initial attack the previous day.

1976 – Cold War: Soviet air force pilot Lt. Viktor Belenko lands a MiG-25 jet fighter at Hakodate on the island of Hokkaidō in Japan and requests political asylum in the United States.
1983 – The Soviet Union admits to shooting down Korean Air Flight KAL-007, stating that the pilots did not know it was a civilian aircraft when it violated Soviet airspace.
1985 – Midwest Express Airlines Flight 105, a Douglas DC-9 crashes just after takeoff from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, killing 31.
1986 – In Istanbul, two terrorists from Abu Nidal's organization kill 22 and wound six inside the Neve Shalom synagogue during Shabbat services.
1991 – The Soviet Union recognizes the independence of the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. 1991 – The name Saint Petersburg is restored to Russia's second largest city, which had been renamed Leningrad in 1924.
1992 – Hunters discover the emaciated body of Christopher Johnson McCandless at his camp 20 miles (32 km) west of the town of Healy, Alaska.

1995 – Cal Ripken Jr of the Baltimore Orioles plays in his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking a record that stood for 56 years.
1997 – Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales takes place in London. Over a million people lined the streets and 2.5 billion watched around the world on television.
2008 – Turkish President Abdullah Gül attends an association football match in Armenia after an invitation by Armenian President Serzh Sarkisyan; he is the first Turkish head of state to visit the country. Wikipedia

Why Pandas are Black and White

2011-09-06T21:57:00.001+03:00

A black and white forest is colored in vibrant hues under our eyes except for one sad little panda, which sets off the compassion of an imaginative little boy.

Wooden Shjips

2011-09-06T20:54:00.003+03:00

Wooden Shjips (pronounced shyips) is a space rock/psychedelic rock band from San Francisco, USA. Their sound has been described as experimental, minimalist, drone rock, and "spacey psychedelic rock". They have been compared to Suicide, The Velvet Underground, The Doors, Soft Machine and Guru Guru. They are currently signed to Holy Mountain records, whose artist roster also includes Six Organs of Admittance, Om, Mammatus and Daniel Higgs. Wooden Shjips guitarist Ripley Johnson also plays in a side project, Moon Duo, formed in 2009 with Sanae Yamada.

They have so far released one EP (Killing Time, 2009, on Sacred Bones) and two albums (Escape, 2010, on Woodsist; Mazes, 2011, on Sacred Bones). The group played the ATP New York 2010 music festival in Monticello, New York in September 2010 at the request of film director Jim Jarmusch. The group is currently working on their third LP, entitled West. It is scheduled to be released September 13 on Thrill Jockey.

Albums
(2007) Wooden Shjips (Holy Mountain)
(2008) Vol. 1 (compilation of hard-to-find singles) (Holy Mountain)
(2009) Dos (Holy Mountain)
(2010) Vol. 2 (compilation of hard-to-find singles) (Holy Mountain)
(2011) West (Thrill Jockey)

Wikipedia

The Jolly Boys

2011-09-06T19:05:00.001+03:00

The Jolly Boys is a mento band from Port Antonio, Jamaica. It was formed in 1955 and had great commercial success in the late 1980s and 1990s among reggae and world music fans. They released a new album in 2010 (Great Expectation) and are currently the house band at GeeJam, a hotel in Port Antonio.

The Jolly Boys grew out of a group called the Navy Island Swamp Boys that formed in the late 1940s or early 1950s and often played at Errol Flynn’s parties. This group included Moses Deans on banjo and guitar, Noel Lynch on Guitar and “Papa” Brown on rumba box. After this group split in 1955, Deans and Brown formed The Jolly Boys (a name Errol Flynn is said to have coined) with Derrick “Johnny” Henry on maracas and drum, Martell Brown on guitar, and David “Sonny” Martin on guitar. One of the group’s regular substitutes in this period was percussionist Allan Swymmer, who joined the group as a full member in the 1960s. This group was very popular throughout Port Antonio and earned the reputation of being the finest mento band in the parish.

In the early 1960s, the Jolly Boys's reputation grew substantially. It performed at hotels and for private parties, often alongside a floorshow/dance troupe. (One of the troupes they typically performed with was led by Albert Minott, at that time an occasional Jolly Boys member and now its current lead singer.) In 1962, the group competed and was a finalist in a national mento band competition held at the Ward Theater in Kingston. The national renown that followed probably also led to international attention. For example, the group auditioned for Jean Farduli, the proprietor of the Blue Angel Supper Club in Chicago (a venue famous for showcasing West Indian music) in 1964. Although it is unclear whether the Jolly Boys passed Farduli's audition, they did travel to New Hampshire in 1966 for what was the first of several six month engagements.

The Dark Knight (2008)

2011-09-06T14:25:00.001+03:00

The Dark Knight is a 2008 superhero film directed, produced and co-written by Christopher Nolan. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, the film is part of Nolan's Batman film series and a sequel to 2005's Batman Begins. Christian Bale reprises the lead role of Bruce Wayne/Batman, with Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman returning as Alfred Pennyworth, James Gordon and Lucius Fox, respectively. The film introduces the character of Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), Gotham's newly elected District Attorney and the cohort of Bruce Wayne's childhood friend Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who joins Batman and the police in combating the new rising threat of a criminal calling himself the "Joker" (Heath Ledger). Nolan's inspiration for the film was the Joker's comic book debut in 1940, and the 1996 series The Long Halloween, which retold Two-Face's origin. The Dark Knight was filmed primarily in Chicago, as well as in several other locations in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Hong Kong. Nolan used an IMAX camera to film some sequences, including the Joker's first appearance in the film.

In Gotham City, the Joker and his accomplices rob a bank used by the local mob as a front for money laundering. Batman and Lieutenant James Gordon decide to include new district attorney Harvey Dent, who is dating Bruce Wayne's childhood sweetheart Rachel Dawes, in their plan to eradicate the mob. Bruce later meets Dent and offers him a fundraiser after realizing his sincerity. Mob bosses Sal Maroni, Gambol, and the Chechen meet to discuss the new pressure on their crime operations. Lau, a Chinese mafia accountant, informs them that he has hidden their money and fled to Hong Kong in an attempt to preempt Gordon's plan to seize their funds and hide from Dent's jurisdiction. The Joker barges into the meeting, warning that Batman will come after Lau, and instead offers to kill Batman for half of the funds. They flatly refuse, and Gambol places a bounty on the Joker's head. Not long after, the Joker kills Gambol and takes control of his gang.

A history of conflicts

2011-09-06T13:36:00.000+03:00

Browse the timeline of war and conflict across the globe. Visit conflicthistory.com

CSF World's Largest Water Balloon Fight 2011

2011-09-06T13:21:00.001+03:00

Christian Student Fellowship set the record out of everyone's reach! 175,141 Water Balloons. 8,957 People. 1 World Record. August 26th, 2011. Johnson Center Field. University of Kentucky. K-Week.

Jetman Flight at Grand Canyon West

2011-09-06T10:45:00.000+03:00

In May 2011, Jetman achieved a beautiful and memorable flight in the Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA... and here's the official souvenir video! Many thanks to all who were involved in that adventure!

This day in History - September 5

2011-09-06T00:56:00.003+03:00

Hanns Martin Schleyer

1590 – Alexander Farnese's army forces Henry IV of France to raise the siege of Paris.
1661 – Fall of Nicolas Fouquet: Louis XIV Superintendent of Finances is arrested in Nantes by D'Artagnan, captain of the king's musketeers.
1666 – Great Fire of London ends: 10,000 buildings including St. Paul's Cathedral are destroyed, but only 6 people are known to have died.
1698 – In an effort to Westernize his nobility, Tsar Peter I of Russia imposes a tax on beards for all men except the clergy and peasantry.
1725 – Wedding of Louis XV and Maria Leszczyńska.
1774 – First Continental Congress assembles in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1781 – Battle of the Chesapeake in the American Revolutionary War.
1793 – French Revolution the French National Convention initiates the Reign of Terror.
1798 – Conscription is made mandatory in France by the Jourdan law.
1800 – Napoleon surrenders Malta to Great Britain.
1812– War of 1812: The Siege of Fort Wayne begins when Chief Winamac's forces attack two soldiers returning from the fort's outhouses.
1816 – Louis XVIII has to dissolve the Chambre introuvable ("Unobtainable Chamber").
1836 – Sam Houston is elected as the first president of the Republic of Texas.
1839 – United Kingdom declared First Opium War on the Qing Dynasty of China.
1840 – Premiere of Giuseppe Verdi's Un giorno di regno at La Scala of Milan.
1862 – American Civil War: the Potomac River is crossed at White's Ford in the Maryland Campaign.
1862 – James Glaisher, pioneering meteorologist and Henry Tracey Coxwell break world record for altitude whilst collecting data in their balloon.

1864 – Achille François Bazaine becomes Marshall of France.
1877 – Indian Wars: Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse is bayoneted by a United States soldier after resisting confinement in a guardhouse at Fort Robinson in Nebraska.
1882 – The first United States Labor Day parade is held in New York City.
1887 – Fire at Theatre Royal in Exeter, England killed 186
1905 – Russo-Japanese War: In New Hampshire, USA, the Treaty of Portsmouth, mediated by US President Theodore Roosevelt, ends the war.
1906 – The first legal forward pass in American football is thrown by Bradbury Robinson of St. Louis University to teammate Jack Schneider in a 22–0 victory over Carroll College (Wisconsin).
1914 – World War I: First Battle of the Marne begins. Northeast of Paris, the French attack and defeat German forces who are advancing on the capital.
1915 – The pacifist Zimmerwald Conference begins.
1918 – Decree "On Red Terror" is published in Russia
1927 – The first Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon, Trolley Troubles, produced by Walt Disney, is released by Universal Pictures.
1932 – The French Upper Volta is broken apart between Ivory Coast, French Sudan, and Niger.
1937 – Spanish Civil War: Llanes falls.
1938 – Chile: A group of youths affiliated with the fascist National Socialist Movement of Chile are assassinated in the Seguro Obrero massacre.
1941 – Whole territory of Estonia is occupied by Nazi Germany.
1942 – World War II: Japanese high command orders withdrawal at Milne Bay, first Japanese defeat in the Pacific War.
1943 – World War II: The 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment lands and occupies Nazdab, near Lae in the Salamaua-Lae campaign.

1944 – Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg constitute Benelux.
1945 – Cold War: Igor Gouzenko, a Soviet Union embassy clerk, defects to Canada, exposing Soviet espionage in North America, signalling the beginning of the Cold War.
1945 – Iva Toguri D'Aquino, a Japanese-American suspected of being wartime radio propagandist Tokyo Rose, is arrested in Yokohama.
1948 – In France, Robert Schuman becomes President of the Council while being Foreign minister, As such, he is the negotiator of the major treaties of the end of World War II.
1957 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista bombs the revolt in Cienfuegos.
1960 – The poet Léopold Sédar Senghor is elected as the first President of Senegal.
1960 – The boxer Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay) is awarded the gold medal for his first place in the light heavyweight boxing competition at the Olympic Games in Rome.
1961 – The first conference of the Non Aligned Countries is held in Belgrade.
1969 – My Lai Massacre: U.S. Army Lt. William Calley is charged with six specifications of premeditated murder for the death of 109 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai.
1970 – Vietnam War: Operation Jefferson Glenn begins: the United States 101st Airborne Division and the South Vietnamese 1st Infantry Division initiate a new operation in Thừa Thiên-Huế Province.
1972 – Munich Massacre: A Palestinian terrorist group called "Black September" attack and take hostage 11 Israel athletes at the Munich Olympic Games. 2 die in the attack and 9 die the following day.

1975 – Sacramento, California: Lynette Fromme attempts to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford.
1977 – Hanns Martin Schleyer, is kidnapped in Cologne, West Germany by the Red Army Faction and is later murdered.
1977 – Voyager program: Voyager 1 is launched after a brief delay.
1978 – Camp David Accords: Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat begin peace process at Camp David, Maryland.
1980 – The St. Gotthard Tunnel opens in Switzerland as the world's longest highway tunnel at 10.14 miles (16.224 km) stretching from Goschenen to Airolo.
1984 – STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery lands after its maiden voyage.
1984 – Western Australia becomes the last Australian state to abolish capital punishment.
1986 – Pan Am Flight 73 with 358 people on board is hijacked at Karachi International Airport.
1991 – The current international treaty defending indigenous peoples, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989, came into force.
2000 – Tuvalu joins the United Nations.
2005 – Mandala Airlines Flight 091 crashes into a heavily populated residential of Sumatra, Indonesia, killing 104 people on board and at least 39 persons on ground. Wikipedia

Talk to her (2002)

2011-09-06T00:31:00.004+03:00

Talk to Her (Spanish: Hable con ella) is a 2002 Spanish comedy-drama film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, starring Javier Cámara, Darío Grandinetti, Leonor Watling, Geraldine Chaplin, and Rosario Flores. The film won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and the 2003 Golden Globe Award for

Best Foreign-Language Film. The film's themes include the difficulty of communication between the sexes, loneliness and intimacy, and the persistence of love beyond loss. In 2005, Time magazine film critics Richard Corliss and Richard Schickel included Talk to Her in their list of the All-TIME 100 Greatest Movies. Paul Schrader placed the film at 46 on his film canon of the 60 greatest films.

Benigno ("benign" or "harmless" in Spanish) and Marco cross paths when they attend the same concert dance, only eventually meeting again at a private clinic where Benigno works. There, he is the personal nurse and caregiver for Alicia, a beautiful dance student who lies in a coma and with whom Benigno has become obsessed. Marco, a journalist and travel writer, is at the clinic to visit his girlfriend Lydia, a famous matador who is also comatose after being gored by a bull. As the men stand vigil over these women, the story unfolds in flashbacks, giving details of the two relationships. Marco leaves Lydia when her previous lover informs him that they had reunited a month before Lydia's accident. He travels to Jordan to write a tourist guide; while there he reads in a newspaper that Lydia has died in her coma. Meanwhile, Alicia is discovered to be pregnant. Benigno, who believes his relationship with the comatose Alicia is a mutual love affair, is accused of raping her and is sent to prison in Segovia. Marco returns to Spain and begins trying to help Benigno; however, Benigno ingests a large quantity of pills to try to "escape" and reunite with Alicia. Wikipedia

Waterspout

2011-09-05T18:32:00.001+03:00

A waterspout is an intense columnar vortex (usually appearing as a funnel-shaped cloud) that occurs over a body of water and is connected to a cumuliform cloud. In the common form, it is a non-supercell tornado over water. While it is often weaker than most of its land counterparts, stronger versions spawned by mesocyclones do occur. Waterspouts do not suck up water; the water seen in the main funnel cloud is actually water droplets formed by condensation. While many waterspouts form in the tropics, locations at higher latitude within temperate zones also report waterspouts, such as Europe and the Great Lakes. Although rare, waterspouts have been observed in connection with lake-effect snow precipitation bands. Waterspouts have a five-part life cycle: formation of a dark spot on the water surface, spiral pattern on the water surface, formation of a spray ring, development of the visible condensation funnel, and ultimately decay.

Waterspouts exist on a microscale, where their environment is less than two kilometers in width. The cloud from which they develop can be as innocuous as a moderate cumulus, or as great as a supercell. While some waterspouts are strong and tornadic in nature, most are much weaker and caused by different atmospheric dynamics. They normally develop in moisture-laden environments as their parent clouds are in the process of development, and it is theorized that they spin up as they move up the surface boundary from the horizontal shear near the surface, and then stretch upwards to the cloud once the low level shear vortex aligns with a developing cumulus cloud or thunderstorm. Weak tornadoes, known as landspouts, have been shown to develop in a similar manner. Wikipedia

Flashdance (1983)

2011-09-05T14:29:00.003+03:00

Flashdance is a 1983 American romantic musical film that was the first collaboration of producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer and its presentation of some sequences in the style of music videos was an influence on other 1980s films including Top Gun (1986), Simpson and Bruckheimer's most famous production. Flashdance opened to bad reviews by professional critics but was a surprise box office success, becoming the third highest grossing film of 1983 in the USA. It had a worldwide box-office gross of more than $100 million. Its soundtrack spawned several hit songs, among them "Maniac" performed by Michael Sembello and the Academy Award-winning "Flashdance... What a Feeling", performed by Irene Cara, which was written for the film.

Eighteen-year-old Alexandra (Alex) Owens (Jennifer Beals) works as a welder at a steel mill in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during the day, and as a dancer at Mawby's bar in the evenings. She lives alone in a converted warehouse with her pet dog, Grunt. Despite a lack of formal dance training, she aspires to be accepted by a prestigious dance school, the fictional Pittsburgh Conservatory of Dance and Repertory. During one of her performances at Mawby's, she attracts the interest of Nick Hurley (Michael Nouri), her boss at the steel mill, and he learns that Alex is one of his employees. Wikipedia

Dark Matter, an Illusion?

2011-09-05T13:47:00.003+03:00

The mysterious substance known as dark matter may actually be an illusion created by gravitational interactions between short-lived particles of matter and antimatter, a new study says.

Dark matter is thought to be an invisible substance that makes up almost a quarter of the mass in the universe. The concept was first proposed in 1933 to explain why the outer galaxies in galaxy clusters orbit faster than they should, based on the galaxies' visible mass.
At the observed speeds, the outer galaxies should be flung out into space, since the clusters don't appear to have enough mass to keep the galaxies at their edges gravitationally bound.
So physicists proposed that the galaxies are surrounded by halos of invisible matter. This dark matter provides the extra mass, which in turn creates gravitational fields strong enough to hold the clusters together.

In the new study, physicist Dragan Hajdukovic at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland proposes an alternative explanation, based on something he calls the "gravitational polarization of the quantum vacuum."

The quantum vacuum is the name physicists give to what we see as empty space.

National Geographic

Grails

2011-09-05T12:45:00.001+03:00

Grails is an American instrumental rock band from Portland, Oregon. Initially going by the name "Laurel Canyon", guitarist Alex Hall, drummer Emil Amos (also of 'Holy Sons') and second guitarist Paul Spitz garnered positive reactions following their first show, played on a whim. Portland musicians Timothy Horner (violin) and Bill Slater (piano/bass) later joined the group to record their first EP. The band then released two self-financed EPs in 2000 and 2001. Paul Spitz left the US to travel in Turkey and Zak Riles joined as guitarist, often playing more of an acoustic role. In 2002 Hall sent a promotion CD to Neurot Recordings who were convinced of the band's potential. In 2003,just before the release of their first full-length album, the band changed its name to Grails. They adopted a louder, more aggressive style, often switching instruments with each member writing songs that saw them branching out to increasingly disparate styles. By the time the Black Tar Prophecies series was released Timothy Horner left and the band carried on with only 4 players. The group often picks up an extra musician for tours, allowing Amos to switch between guitar and drums and expanding the live instrumentation. Recently, Randall Dunn and Dave Abramson have joined the group live.

In their early years, Grails only toured Europe but have switched to focusing on the East Coast of the United States in the last few years. Despite living in Portland, the band rarely plays live shows in their hometown. The various members stay busy with several different projects. Hall has played guitar with Steve Von Till of Neurosis in Von Till's project Harvestman , Amos has played drums with Jandek, produced for Yellow Swans and releases solo records under the name 'Holy Sons', and Riles has toured as 2nd guitarist for M. Ward. Wikipedia