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Evelyn de Morgan belongs to the rare breed of female classical painters. Her Pre-Raphaelite style is as powerful and enchanting as that of her male colleagues.

The Most Beautiful Goat in Saudi Arabia

That’s what happens when you religion represses women and sexuality – you find alternative objects of adoration. Although looking at birds, planes and trains ain’t not that much better.

Click image to learn about the full horror of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

I heard many times that our oceans are badly polluted – but this THING really is as impressive as it is a HUGE shame for us humans.

Compared to garbage on land it’s much harder to get rid off. But most of all: nobody feels responsible, because every small piece of land belongs to a country. But the Oceans belong to everybody and nobody – so we give a shit about it’s decline and pollution …

Who do so many designs look the same these days?! Because most designers use the same tools and are too lazy to develop their own styles.

The easiest example to illustrate my point is the Photoshop colour palette. So many lazy designers simply use the first twelve colours in that thing – and don’t bother developing their own colour palette.

That is why we see so many designs using these primary and vibrant colours. It’s any easy choice and mistake to make – and equally boring …

I adore Mister Cohen for his talent to spot societies awkward taboos and hitting them hard. His Borat was already brilliant and I think Brüno will just as painful to watch.

Have you seen the trailer yes?

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I usually hate advertising – but this Volkswagen campaign is smart, modest and perfectly plays with the memories many people have in relation to this car.

They almost got it right in 1992.

Wimbledon – the Ladies take the court. But they grunt – a lot! This is more like a soft porn instead of a civilized tennis match.

Although the BBC says the grunting is getting less …

So the days are already getting shorter – on the 21st June is the longest day of 2009. I wouldn’t know it since our weather is so shitty and skies are almost constantly grey. Instead of summer we have constant autumn. Everybody has their finest sweaters on …

With that kind of weather I won’t dance naked around the block like a proper Hippie to celebrate the old rite of passage.

Illya Repin is a revelation for me. His panoramic paintings are strong and full of harsh realism. They are more like an ancient newsreel showing the human condition without false romanticism – although he has painted some "nice" art as well.

The Madness of Ivan the Terrible is a perfect subject for an artist with such rare talents. Ivan is one of the darkest human characters you can imagine. His life was nothing short of hell on earth – for himself and thousands of his underlings.

I am actually surprised that Hollywood has discovered his story yet – he would make a great movie of blood and tears. Russian cinema obviously has made some movies about him – the great Sergei Eisenstein made a two part saga of Ivan the Terrible.

You can watch part I here and part II here.

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Nature adapts slowly to change – it is not working on the same speed level as human technology races ahead and changes the environment.

Whole ecosystems are killed by small natural and unnatural changes. That is why fast climate change or the intrusion of foreign species (by human infrastructure and colonization) are so deadly.

And we human often think complex enough to see what consequences our "better lifestyles" have for nature.

We certainly can’t live without nature and a healthy ecosystem – in the long run we can only loose. Nature will recover, even when it takes millions of years.

Nature works in long time spans, we don’t.

The current protests in Iran have been triggered by the presidential election, but the underlying cause has nothing to do with politics. It’s all about age and change.

Iran’s last revolution was powered by the protesting against the "evil" status quo and the dirty regime of the Shah. It was less about establishing religious rule by the Mullahs, but about freedom.

The old revolutionaries are now old men sitting on their laurels and thanks to their self inflicted isolation clueless what’s going on in the world.

60% or Iran’s populations is under 30. Young people who didn’t participate in the great revolution and the great wars (against the American Devil and Saddam). They are more interested in an international lifestyle, the internet and plastic surgery.

As much as the old guard clings onto power they also defend their old ideas who society should be shaped. But Iran’s power structure is badly constructed (like all fundamentalist systems) and offers no ways of renewal and reform … apart from another revolution or pressure from the streets.

Younger Iranians simply want a "normal liberal lifestyle" without all the suppression from the old and their agents of power (the religious police and revolutionary guards).

Revolutions have the habit of eating their own children – in this case grey haired old men unable to face the future.

A recent strike in London forced many people to commute the old fashioned way: by foot or by bike. Substitute buses picked up the moving masses and many people remembered the fabulous idea of car sharing.

It gave us a glimpse into the future of mass transport: we eventually have to use our own bodies again or "share" more.

While oil prices going up again using a car will be unaffordable for many and even public transport will become more expensive as well.

Unless we change from a oil based transport system to a renewable energy transportation will become very expensive. But also urban planning has to be improved in the US and Europe to many cities have sprawled to far apart, making daily live more like a long commute / drive from home to work and back.

Cities and communities used to be more integrated: living, shopping, learning, entertainment and work much closer together.

It is a sign of decadence of the fashion world to make a disorder adorable. Fat ladies in the audience might wish to loose and be young again – but idolizing an unhealthy body type is sick …

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The interior of the Opera Garnier opened 1875 shows was real splendour and richness means.

Buildings like these – mostly created in the final days of "old Europe" – show all the might, culture and richness of these old imperial nations.

In these days the splendour of the nation was no longer just a privilege of Royals and the ruling elite. Opera houses and museums were opened to the public – which meant mostly the emerging bourgeois middle class.