Click images for a more stunning Venus.
Once of the most iconic images of European art - and one of the greatest goddesses of all times. If you look around you we are surrounded by fit young and blonde Sisters of Venus these days.
Her breasts are a bit too small compared to the current beauty ideal and her facial expression is also a bit too innocent. We like our woman a bit more slutty these days.
If you are poor and stuck in some backwater place your choices are limited. To have a choice is a luxury - not many people enjoy that privilege.
But to develop different perspectives on life you need to have the luxury of self observation and time to reflect. And some brains and some education help too.
Many of our fellow humans are still simply trying to survive and lead a decent life - without a break to think about themselves, learn more about culture and spirituality - or having the resources to start a ‘new’ or ‘different’ life.
If you can afford all these things and you can think - than use these gifts. Otherwise you are wasting yourself and the chance to improve society. Self improvement is not a one way street - as part of a bigger community all bonuses and deficits are added or subtracted from the ‘big picture’.
Computed Tomography has been around since the early 70’s, but has made incredible advanced in recent years - thanks to amazing computer powers and new sensors.
This helps to avoid unnecessary surgery and reduced guesswork.
Compared to the good old X-Ray this is stoneage cave paintings versus Star Trek holograms.
Click any image to get an impressive view on Saturn.
I already envy future generations, who can jump into their spaceships and take a weekend trip around our solar system. Boy, I would love to fly by Saturn or Jupiter. That must be most amazing.
Just spent seven hours updating the blog with a new WP version - and tagging several hundred old postings. Oh boy!
Instead of blogging something - I finally made the update to WordPress 2.3.1 - which included the usual screaming and shouting when something doesn’t work out of the box. It’s certainly not WP’s fault - it’s just the complexity and fuckups created by plugins and custom made code … after several hours of tweaking and bitching (I hope) everything is working again.
New Tags
Every postings gets now tagged with keywords. I try to keep my usage of keywords consistent. But I haven’t finished crawling through 800+ postings and tagging each one of them. The categories for Classic & Asian Art are done - and I think it’s worth the extra effort, because it allows my readers to browse the blog in new ways.
Under each posting (on the single pages) you find a list of all tags related to that entry. You can click these tags and find related posts.
New Related Posts
In addition to the tags you find also related posts under each entry (on their individual pages). I already implemented that function some time ago - but it didn’t work without proper tagging - but we are slowly getting there …
New Tag Cloud
On the right sidebar you find a nice & trendy tag cloud, which shows you the most used tags. If a keyword is used a lot the tag appears bigger.
My Questions to you
I am just wondering if anyone is missing a search function to dig up certain topics, keywords or entries? I removed it a long time ago - but I am happy to implement it again - IF anyone is using it. So please leave a comment if you want it …
Any other functions you are missing? I always happy to improve my blog! Thanks for your input.
PS: If you like or dislike an entry please do me the honors and rate it by clicking the little star under each postings. I am a slut for feedback! 
Update: Found an even better tag cloud plugin with more control. Did some more tagging - which is very time consuming.
Click image for a larger drama.
Gustave Dore is a giant. He created amazing illustrations and paintings. Too bad that modern publishers hardly illustrate their books anymore.
What’s the correct formula to calculate max. sexual pressure per square breast?
“Your friend is your needs answered. He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving. And he is your board and your fireside. For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.” - Kahlil Gibran
“A friend is the person who knows all about you and still loves you.” - Elbert Hubbert
“A true friend stabs you in the front.” - Oscar Wilde
After many years if waiting and technical development video is finally sweeping the Internets. It’s not just download little bits here and there, but massive streaming, downloading complete movies and ‘blogcasting’. We are used to get small video clips in our emails or watch important as well as ‘funny’ stuff via Websites like Crooks & Liars as well as YouTube.
The BlogCasting is a sort of Clip-O-Mania which has also grabbed the mainstream media’s attention: news shows include Internet clips as well as those many funny video shows. Videos of people torturing each other were cell phone videos, a lot of ‘funny’ stuff is from cheap camcorders. The video revolution is in full swing.
Since the medium is still part of the message those short clips will only ‘deepen’ the short attention deficit disorder of modern people. Since the introduction of mass media in form of TV and radio the speed and visual presentation of ‘content’ has increased. If you watch a newscast or report from the 1960’s you be surprised how slow and static it is. Today’s presentation hardly leaves any space for thinking. Everything is presented in ever faster image sequences, booming voices and action music. This is no longer just the stupid idea of edutainment, but actiontainment.
The faster, the more impressive and the shorter - the better.
A new generation of clones taking over the world!
Similar to the inability of many modern students to understand or write complex texts this will Clip-O-Mania will contribute to the ignorance of complexity. Contrary to popular believe I say that modern youngsters are NOT stupid, but they simply lack the training and challenges to train their brains to ’solve’ complex mental tasks as well to train patience.
As much as I like gaming myself almost ALL digital adventures only train a very limited set of challenges, which only get harder with every level but not more diversified or complex. The effects of hours of videogaming are very similar to brainwashing, because the same mental paths / messages are hammered deeper and deeper into the brain. Playing is meant to explore different approaches and experiment with different combinations. Videogames lack the variety - they present a very limited set of elements and solutions - under a huge pressure to proceed and win. Similar to the speedculture of actiontainment and videoclubs there is little time and mental space left to develop your own ideas and grow at your own pace.
Slowness has it’s own merits as well as patience and complexity.
I am a big fan of Frontline and it many great documentation - not only because you can watch so many great reports online. This one is important, because it shows what really happened at Abi Graib and HOW it happened. I still can’t belief that Rumsfeld is still in Office and this Gonzales guy got even a bigger job.
I hope that one day they will be brought to justice, like Osama or any other terrorist - because what Rumsfeld ‘allowed’ was political terrorism - nothing else.
Whoever Gubin is he made of Jade - whoever she is - some pretty sensual shots. Although pmates.com is a pretty sleazy site, but sometimes some great and artistic shots can be found. A good way to get my heart started in the morning …
Zee Voild is foll of nasions fidh peeplz!
Call me old fashioned - but I still believe that any adult in a rich country should have some knowledge about this planet. The word ‘Allgemeinbildung‘ reflects this perfectly in German.
This video certainly pokes fun at Americans - but I think it reflects the interest and level of education in many countries. Knowledge and good education are no longer considered important and ‘cool’?! Too bad that cool stupidity and ignorance seems the new mantra of western kids - most new role models have apart from beauty and fame nothing to offer?
This only increases my Weltschmerz!
Still one of the greatest strategy games ever. It had a true 3d environment way before any competitor, it’s AI was aggressive and made single players battles interesting. The unit management and micro management excel still today. It offers true sea and air units. There are hundreds of new units and maps out there - plus a huge active community still developing additional goodies. Highly recommended if you like RTS - and you still get it in some shops for a couple of euros/dollars.
I liked the Mac cube concept. Overall our desktop machines are way too big. But I also think that laptops are not always the best ‘form factor’ either. I like to have my keyboard and monitor separate from the computer itself.
The iMac ‘lamp’ design and ‘PC-within-the-monitor’ designs are pretty practical as well - but your are stuck with fixed setup: you simply can’t replace the monitor or computer if it fails. You have the same problem with laptops.
But since monitors will be the biggest feature of all PCs in the future all designs will end up being built around this component anyway. And laptops and notebooks are outselling good old desktops now for several years. So the one in one machine is the future.
We will run out of oil - sooner or later. But how will be continue then? Will me make a transition back to a new steam age, horses and fuel cells? I am sure we gonna see a huge diversity of old and new energy sources. Even sails for ships could make a comeback. Maybe we will even (finally) see atomic cars.
The good thing about phone sex is that is has nothing to do with reality - so your biggest sex organ isn’t limited by reality.
So your fantasy is potent you can create excitement beyond belief. Only drawback - there is nobody there to cuddle with you once the brainy excitement wears off.
Maybe one should combine the physical and the imagination into one big bang?
Pink has become a terrible lifestyle and attitude the recent years: just be happy, just be fluffy, just be nice. LOL LOL LOL …
Your life as a Kitsch object. Terrible!
Life isn’t a pink pony to ride. Life is a bit more colorful, exciting and terrible. Enjoy all the colors and attitudes. Thinking Pink is fucking boring.
BBC News: China in Africa: Developing ties
An excellent BBC article about China’s efforts in Africa. Highly recommended when you want to know why the US and Europe are loosing ground to the Chinese long term strategy.
This was the last big Adventure movie made with Stop-Motion puppets. If you watch it today it’s cheesy and childish compared to all these computer generated action flicks. Even a decent episode of Xena or Hercules is better.
The list of actors is rather impressive: Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith and Ursula Andress. But even their greatness can’t help the bad script and usual Hollywood distortion of an old Greek myth (a norse Kraken has nothing to do with the Greek Titans).
I am still waiting for some TV show or movie series that tries to portrait Greek mythology in a good and serious manner! There are so many great stories waiting to be retold. But movies like ‘Troy’ or the above mentioned crappy Xena and Hercules certainly DON’T do these great tales ANY justice.
More? Wikipedia entry and watch the whole movie online.
And another great USB gimmick. This one actually keep you fit - or at least helps you to walk a bit more …
The Pedometer tracks how many steps you have made. Via USB you connect the device with your computer and feed the data into a statistic and fitness website. Nice!
Motivation not included.
Sometimes I am really stumped by some Wikipedia entries - like this one about Supercouples. I think I’ll vote for Stallone and Nielsen as the best 80’s Supercouple. It hardly gets any trashier …
Can’t wait to finish my projects until the end of the year to start some new jobs that keep me busy all week.
Click image for more vibrant colors.
Ah, I love these contrasts. Matisse was never afraid to REALLY use color. That’s what I love about him!
