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a rare meteorological phenomenon called a skypunch  by maria landry sabatini

 This is a rare meteorological phenomenon called a skypunch. When people see these, they think it's the end of the world. Ice crystals form above the high-altitude cirro-cumulo-stratus clouds, then fall downward, punching a hole in the cloud cover.

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LA MARE AUX TÉTARDS from La Station Animation on Vimeo.

+ Maxfield Parrish

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“When we walk like (we are rushing), we print anxiety and sorrow on the earth. We have to walk in a way that we only print peace and serenity on the earth... Be aware of the contact between your feet and the earth. Walk as if you are kissing the earth with your feet.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh

+ We Are The Junction

The body is the herb,
the mind is the honey.
The heart, the heart is
the undifferentiated.
The mind touches the body
and is the sun.
The mind touches the heart
and is music.
When body touches heart
they together are the moon
in the silently falling snow
over there.  Which is truth
exceeding, is the residence,
the sanctified, is the secret
closet and passes into glory.

—Jack Gilbert, from The Dance Most of All

+ + Carlo Van Se Roer and the Portrait Machine Project

http://www.theportraitmachine.comom

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If I had a flower for every time I thought of you…I could walk through my garden forever.

Alfred Tennyson

+ Yang Yongliang - Sleepless Wonderland

http://www.yangyongliang.com/

excerpt from Inside the Design Mind IV....

By Andrew Caruso

 Monday, February 11, 2013 8:00 am

AC: You intricately weave worlds of reality and constructed absurdity (fantasy). Visual clues and representational objects suggest the uneasy way these two worlds collide in your work, with viewers searching them as if reading a map. Why have you chosen to engage the viewer in this way?

YY: Because I am very complicated. My character can be divided in two parts, like Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata [sic]. This piece of music has both a passionate and a peaceful side. I think I’m very similar. I like fantasy and passionate things as well as very peaceful and logical things. You can see that all of my works also have two sides: peace and danger, tradition and modernity, all combined.

I think my works are trying to express a great deal of information to the audience, but I don’t want everyone to understand my work in the same way I understand it. I want the viewer to interpret it in his or her own way. I think good artists should be inspiring and sensitive, rather than imposing their own concepts on an audience.

+ Ecospheres

Closed ecological systems are ecosystems that do not rely on matter exchange with any part outside the system. Although the Earth itself fits this definition, the term is most often used to describe much smaller manmade ecosystems. Such systems are scientifically interesting and can potentially serve as a life support system during space flights, in space stations or space habitats. In a closed ecological system, any waste products produced by one species must be used by at least one other species.
http://www.eco-sphere.com

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“Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the Earth are never alone or weary of life.” -Rachel Carson

+ saturns return

This Cassini Spacecraft image shows Saturn's north polar hexagon in the Sun's light now that spring has come to the northern hemisphere. Many smaller storms dot the north polar region and Saturn's signature rings, which appear to disappear on account of Saturn's shadow, put in an appearance in the background. Picture: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute/AFP

+ penabranca +

"Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence."  -Alan Watts

http://penabranca.tumblr.com/

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"Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder" E. B. White

+ inspired

its so easy to spend hours online looking through cooking blogs, fashion, style, art, and that for me is tenfold times more rewarding than anything on television.  i am grateful for the positive creativity that is communicated online and know that while my realtime community is the real deal and most important, i get so many ideas and inspiration from creative creatures around the world that put their dreams and designs out there.  as a young girl who loves thrifting, costumes, burning man, and DIY fashion i decided to start cataloging outfits and clothing pieces that ive put together, altered, created ad a way to contribute, and be a part of that online community that i usually just look at rather than participate.  here are a couple photos for now.

+ thomas jorion

takes photographs of abandon spaces.  it is so fascinating and beautifully haunting to explore his site and the lost rooms and buildings that whisper stories of forgotten moments.

http://www.thomasjorion.com

+ A Hero Emerges on The Eve of The Apocalypse

 by Ron Zakrin

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+ quote of the day

"Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory" Dr. Seuss

+ Keith Haring

- Untitled, 1982, sumi ink on paper

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Street Art by NemOs in Milano, Italy

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Christopher Lee Donovan

+ Martin Luther King Jr.

wood block print by Annie Bisset
 
Where are our generations heroes? Do we smother them? shoot them? are they in outpatient care? Sedated and depressed with the state of the world? Who can pick up where MLK left off, John Lennon, Kennedy.  Or is that our failure, we are all waiting for someone, so no one is stepping up. Are we uninspirable? I dont think so.  It could be more important than ever to depend on yourself as your hero, your guide. We all need to motivate and inspire ourselves, impress and surprise ourselves.  As children of this beautiful and magical world, we all have amazingness inside of us. We dont need one hero to do all the work, we all need to do our own part to improve the nations consciousness and make it a better place for all the children to come. Its our duty as humans to rise above the discrimination and injustice and hate, to stamp it out with a sheer mass of happy people with strong heart and active minds, outnumbering may be our only hope. so wake up your self, and wake up your neighbor. Statues of past heroes can only inspire, they cannot make solutions.

+ Lair O' the bear in January

This tuesday we went on a cold, adventurous walk at Lair O' the Bear near Morrison, Colorado.  We had the place all to ourselves and discovered the frozen trails, waters and plants with delight.

+ music from Denver's Hunter Dragon

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+ words of the day for your enjoyment

cantilever is a beam anchored at only one end. The beam carries the load to the support where it is forced against by moment and shear stress.^[1] Cantilever construction allows for overhanging structures without external bracing. Cantilevers can also be constructed with trusses or slabs.

caddywhompus is defined by such adjectives as “uneven,” “crooked” and “out of whack”

+ The Peacock Room

http://www.flickr.com/photos/romanywg/6946774488/in/photostream/

+ Urodid Moth Canoon

According to entomologist and Amazon explorer Phil Torres, “It has a really beautiful woven lattice structure that hangs about a foot below a leaf on a thin silk string. This is an unusual structure because the pupa, resting inside the cocoon, seems fairly exposed to the elements. The hanging likely helps to prevent predation from ants, and the bright orange color may serve as an aposematic signal to predators to prevent it from getting eaten. The tube part at the bottom is the ‘escape hatch’ from which it eventually will exit as an adult moth. There is not a lot of research that has been done on the evolutionary origin structure - this is one of the many mysteries of the Amazon you can come across.”

Photo credit: Jeff Cremer

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A welder at a boat-and-sub-building yard adjusts her goggles before resuming work, October, 1943. By 1945, women comprised well over a third of the civilian labor force (in 1940, it was closer to a quarter) and millions of those jobs were filled in factories: building bombers, manufacturing munitions, welding, drilling and riveting for the war effort.
life.tumblr.com

+ Aberration Sylvestre

by chachah on Deviant Art

+ a snowshoeing adventure to St. Marys Glacier, Colorado

My friends Amy and Andy took us on a wonderful adventure this sunday to a small glacier on the eastern edge of the rocky mountains. The beauty and magic that exists in these frozen rocky mountains will forever impress, fascinate, and comfort me. the crisp air and the strong sun does wonders for the soul.

+ Alexis Arnold

 San Francisco Magazine, magazine, Borax crystals, 11'' x 6.5'' x 5'', 2011

 

The Catcher in the Rye, book, Borax crystals, 7'' x 5'' x 3'', 2011

Crime and Punishment, book, Borax crystals, 8'' x 9'' x 5'', 2011 http://www.alexisarnold.com/index.html

+ Burning man 2013

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
        — Arthur C. Clarke

Who is John Frum? He is known to us by many names, this Visitor from Elsewhere, dispenser of endless abundance and wielder of mysterious technologies: John Frum, Quetzalcoatl, Osiris, "Bob." His cargo is splendid, his generosity boundless, his motives beyond our understanding. But across the ages and around the world, the stories all agree: one day he will return, bearing great gifts. Our theme this year asks three related questions; who is John Frum, where is he really from, and where, on spaceship Earth, are we all going?

"'E look like you an' me. 'E tall man. 'E live long."
        — Melanesian informant

Our story begins in Melanesia during World War II. Thousands of American GIs suddenly descended on this South Sea island chain, bearing with them unimaginable riches: magical foodstuffs that never spoiled, inconceivable power sources. Just as abruptly the troops departed, leaving only broken, rusted Jeeps, crumpled beer cans, and the memory of Spam. To the astonished eyes of the natives, this was a miraculous occurrence, and they yearned for the return of abundance. Accordingly, they built totemic sky-craft in an attempt to summon back these Visitors and their legendary leader, the man the Melanesians called John Frum. They had formed a Cargo Cult.
This Myth of Return is no less relevant today. To put this in a modern context, what if your electricity went dead and stayed that way -- would you know how to make the current flow again? Can you fix your car if it breaks down, or build yourself a new one? Like the islanders, most of us are many steps removed from the Cargo that entirely shapes our lives. We don't know how it's made, where it's made, or how it works; all we can do is look beyond the sky and pray for magic that will keep consumption flowing.

Pavilion design by Lewis Zaumeyer, illustration by Andrew Johnstone

Burning Man 2013 will court the return of our benevolent Visitors from Elsewhere by constructing an enormous replica of their sky-craft, hewn from the primitive materials of our backwater planet. Burning Man will stand atop this streamlined structure, majestically revolving like an interstellar beacon. Within this three-decked vessel participants will encounter the Temple of the Navigator, a shrine that features six hand-operated zoetropes that will function as prayer wheels. These will rehearse what little we know, or believe we know, of John Frum's story. A sweeping observation ring surrounding this central chamber will afford panoramic views of both the playa and our city.
We feel sure our theme will attract many alien Visitors, and hope this will stimulate our planet's faltering economy. To that end, we invite artists to create altars that may be placed in the vicinity of Burning Man's pavilion. These installations should be portable and easily removable from our burn circle. Participants are encouraged to contribute propitiatory offerings to these Space Age shrines. Artists are also invited to propose homemade interactive technology that may be installed on our saucer's upper Flight Deck (consult our online Art Guidelines for details).

"Your spaceship is cramped, and it's beginning to smell like fast food."
      — Reverend Al Ridenour

Burning Man is of course what one makes of it. So we must recognize that a few participants question the literal existence of John Frum¹. They believe that cargo culture is unsustainable; no deus ex machina descending from the sky can possibly provide consumers with relief. The only spaceship worth considering is planet Earth. Each and every one of us, it is held, must find our Inner Frum: the first step toward salvation is to give our gifts to fellow human beings.
As always, any work of art by anyone, regardless of our theme, is welcome at the Burning Man event. If you are planning to do fire art or wish to install a work of art on the open playa, please see our Art Guidelines for more information. To apply for a grant to fund the creation of artwork for Burning Man 2013, please see our art grant guidelines.

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¹It is speculated that when greeting Melanesians, American soldiers would state, "Hi, I'm John from Tallahassee" or "I am Johnny from Detroit." John, being a common name, was remembered, but the various place names were soon forgotten. The only other constant being "from", this word soon morphed into a surname, hence John Frum. However Orthodox Frumites within our community repudiate this interpretation. Note: the Burning Man organization takes no position on religious beliefs.

entire article taken from www.burningman.com