February 10th, peaceful Friday night 2012

Love this one. A Cockatoo feeding a husky strands of spaghetti one at a time. Marvelous expressions and I love the way the bird seems to be exploring the texture of the steel bowl as well as its relationship with the dog. 
Eerie squeaks and groaning of the frozen Odessa Sea


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And in another corner of this extraordinary planet:
The people of Kangiqsujuaq in Canada go to great lengths to add variety to their diet of seal meat, venturing under the sea ice during the extreme low tides of the spring equinox to gather mussels.


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Cute hamster butt. A hamster going down a hole in a Japanese doll's house.

Silly modern chair sitting

Aww. It must be so hard for these sisters and their family, in Pune, India.

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Three sisters with a rare condition, named Werewolf Syndrome





A street artist from Chile, who does Bob Ross kind of kitsch paintings by hand on glass with his fingers, completing each image in 40 seconds to less than 3 minutes.
Fabian Gaete Maureira, street artist. His website.

Interesting to see shoes being made by hand


Some awesome ideas (suggest turning the sound off). Furniture Of The Future

What a gentleman! Horse opens the door for his companion.

Another unlikely bird and dog combo. 

This one is a pelican, not known for being especially friendly to other creatures, nuzzling up to a sleeping dog. It's not trying to eat the dog as the video title says and the dog seems quite content with the pelican love.

quiet Tuesday night Feb 7th 2012

Smile inducing. Twins rockin to Johnny Cash

The Dinky Bird illustrated by Maxfield Parrish

The Dinky Bird

By Eugene Field

Tis the land of Wonder-Wander,
Whither children love to go;
It's their playing, romping, swinging,
That give great joy to me
While the Dinkey-Bird goes singing
In the amfalula tree!
There the gum-drops grow like cherries,
And taffy's thick as peas -
Caramels you pick like berries
When, and where, and how you please;
Big red sugar-plums are clinging
To the cliffs beside that sea
Where the Dinkey-Bird is singing
In the amfalula tree.

So when children shout and scamper
And make merry all the day,
When there's naught to put a damper
To the ardor of their play;
When I hear their laughter ringing,
Then I'm sure as sure can be
That the Dinkey-Bird is singing
In the amfalula tree.

For the Dinkey-Bird's bravuras
And staccatos are so sweet
His roulades, appoggiaturas,
And robustos so complete,
That the youth of every nation 
Be they near or far away -
Have especial delectation
In that gladsome roundelay.

Their eyes grow bright and brighter,
Their lungs begin to crow,
Their hearts get light and lighter,
And their cheeks are all aglow;
For an echo cometh bringing
The news to all and me,
That the Dinkey-Bird is singing
In the amfalula tree.

I'm sure you like to go there
To see your feathered friend -
And so many goodies grow there
You would like to comprehend!
Speed, little dreams, your winging
To that land across the sea
Where the Dinkey-Bird is singing
In the amfalula tree!

Delightfully mesmerizing. Fungal Fantastical: 
The Spirit of Good


Chinese New Year in Chengdu



The following art and collages by Matthew Cusick

Thank you Nikolai Bezroukov for your marvelous gem of a website

Occasionally one comes across a blog with a whole bunch of unexpected combinations of things. SoftPanorama is one of those. It is a vast, practical and, in many cases, if one needs that information, a life saving resource. It's not especially beautiful to look at, has some quirky Russian-English grammar/misspellings but is seriously worth exploring, bookmarking and sharing with friends.

It was created by Nikolai Bezroukov. Among the many things I love about his website is that it is not just academic information, it's based on his practical experience. It's not just full of wisdom, science, knowledge, links, it has plenty of humor as well as some really entertaining video links too.

First there is the excellent and very useful

Classification of Corporate Psychopaths

News	Books	Recommended Links	The psychopath in the corner office	Micromanagers	Workplace bullies	Narcissists
Paranoid Managers:	Authoritarians	Mayberry Machiavellians in Office	Model of Corporate Psychopath Behavior	The Fiefdom Syndrome	Obsessive compulsive personality	Drowning in Paperwork
Surviving a Bad Performance Review	Steps for Decreasing Toxic Worry	Preventing Burnout	Learned helplessness	Anger trap	Office Stockholm Syndrom
Understanding Micromanagers	Surviving Micromanagers	Incompetent Managers	Rules of Communication	Workagolism and work overload	Large organizations	Fraud Caused by Social Pressures
Groupthink	Conformism	Lysenkoism	Cargo Cult Science	Pseudoscience and Scientific Press	Humor	Etc

Then there is this page with ideas about coping with lousy bosses

Coping with the toxic stress in IT environment

News	Books	Recommended Links	Recommended Papers	Work Overload
Documenting Micromanager Behavior	Enemy at the Gate: Rules of communication with micromanager	The psychopath in the corner office	Abusive, Authority Based Relationships	Learned helplessness
The Fiefdom Syndrome	Understanding micromanagers	Micromanagement induced burnout	Humor	Etc

There is this brilliant and very useful page

Communication with Corporate Psychopaths

News	Books	Recommended Links	Recommended Papers	Negative politeness
Diplomatic communication	Socratic Questions	Five Points Verbal Response Test	Rules of Verbal Self Defense	Copying with anger
Communication with Micromanagers	The psychopath in the corner office	Coping with the micromanagement induced stress	Humor	Etc

Surviving a Bad Performance Review

News	Books	Recommended Links	The psychopath in the corner office	Steps for Decreasing Toxic Worry	Burnout	Learned helplessness
Authoritarians	Understanding Borderline Rage	Anger trap	Understanding Micromanagers and control freaks	Bully Managers	Authoritarians	Narcissistic Managers
Office Stockholm Syndrome	Rules of Communication	Rules of Verbal Self Defense	Five Points Verbal Response Test	Diplomatic Communication	Humor	Etc

Authoritarians

News	Toxic managers	Books	Recommended Links	Workplace mobbing	Double High Authoritarians	Reference
Main traits	Typical behavior	Authoritarian  followers	RWA scale		Characteristics of Emotionally Abused People	Danger to democracy
Paranoid Managers:	Narcissistic Managers	Micromanagers	Empty Suits (Pathologically Incompetent Managers)	Female bullies	Groupthink	The psychopath in the corner office
Surviving a Bad Performance Review	Anger trap	Communication	Work overload	History of authoritarian personality research	Humor	Etc

Learned Helplessness and Trained Incapacity

Information Overload

How Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Needed Downtime

Then there is a fascinating essay exploring the political manipulation of science under the malignant narcissism of a political 'leader' such as Stalin. The author calls this a technocult, Nikolai Bezroukov's Short Introduction to Lysenkoism. The term "Lysenkoism" denote a very dangerous phenomenon: an effort to suppress and/or outlaw a field of research or opinions when they conflict with a dominant political agenda.


It's included in a group of links called

Science, PseudoScience and Society

News	Recommended books	Recommended Links	Secular Humanism	Skeptical view on Programmers Health	Groupthink	Conformism
Lysenkoism and politization of science	Anti-intellectualism	Cargo Cult Science	Cargo cult programming	IT offshoringSkeptic	Obscurantism	Deception
Scientific Fraud	Financial_skeptic	Casino Capitalism	Casino Capitalism Dictionary	IT Skeptic	Pseudoscience and Scientific Press	Understanding Mayberry Machiavellians (Rovism)
Political skeptic	Media-Military-Industrial Complex	New Lysenkoists: Chicago School	Quotes	Financial Humor	Humor	Etc

Then there is a great resource, all connected with Information Technology and computers

Softpanorama Switchboard

About	Bulletin	Recommended Books	Recommended Links	e-books	Papers	Bookshelf
Algorithms	Unix system administration	Access control	Authentication	Copyright	Certification	Commercial Linuxes
Commercial Unixes	Databases	Editors	Education	History	Links	Languages
Logs	Mail	Malware	Micromanagement  in IT	Muiltimedia	Networking	Office
Orthodox File Managers	Open Source Software Problems	OS design	Performance tuning	Scripting	Security	SE
Skepticism	Social	Solaris	Tivoli	Tools	Utilities	Virtualization
Windows	WWW	Xwindows	Hardware	Virtualization	Humor	Etc

Then there is a strange and delightful collection of Russian Oldies, wonderful to explore.

Were you curious what the Russians were up to during The Cold War? Well, here's some of what they were listening to before the monster, post-Soviet business oligarchs took over, the Berlin wall came crumbling down and the USSR broke into many pieces. Warning: Amusing Soviet kitsch ahead as well as some amazing singing.

Russian Music Oldies on YouTube

News	Pop Music	Recommended Links	Selected Songs	Selected female singers	Selected male singers	Waltz	Choirs	Russian interpretation of foreign hits
Romances	Songs of the wartime	Duets	Old Russian Rock Groups	Bards	Russian Basso Profondo	Classic Ukrainian songs	Songs from Famous Russian Cartoons	Balalaika Hits
Russian Tango	Female Vocal Groups	Songs from Popular Russian Films	Russian Shanson	Emigration songs			Eugene Onegin	Queen of Spades
Sinyavskaya	Netrebko	Anna German	Rotaru	Pugacheva	Tolkunova	Shulzhenko	Edita Pyeha	Elena Kamburova
Gerello	Hvorostovsky	Yury Gulayev	Nicolai Gedda	Baskov	Antonov	Alexander Vertinski	Muslim Magomaev	Letshenko
My Star	Those Were the Days	Foggy Morning	The last word	Dark Eyes	Moscow Nights	Figure skating	Russian musical humor	Tetris music

These are a few examples of Russian Oldies:

ВИА Верасы "Люблю тебя" Песня года - 1979

My Address is the Soviet Union

VIA "Flame" Song of Friendship

VIA "Verasy" I live with my grandmother

На сопках Манчжурии / The Hills of Manchuria
(With English subtitles)


Then there is the basso profundo collection. Wow. I never heard any human voice that low! (Except for the Gyuto Monks Tantric Choir)
check this one out. Knocked my socks off.
Vladimir Pasjukov - Do not reject me in my old age

Basso Profondo LOW G CAGE MATCH!

Whoa! This is lowwww!
lowest note Vladimir Pasuik & Viktor Wichniakov

Another bass singer: Bass Eugene Orlov sings Rachmaninov Cavatina Aleko

The Largest bass voices

Russian Red Army Choir - Song of the Volga Boatmen (1965)

Evening bells - Вечерний звон - Abendglocken

Charming to think of a flea as having a song. Aww.
Mark Reizen sings Song of the Flea

Drug Dealers vs. Software Developers

Drug dealers	Software developers
Refer to their clients as "users"	Refer to their clients as "users"
"The first one's free!"	"Download a free trial version..."
Have important South-East Asian connections (to help move the stuff)	Have important South-East Asian connections (to help debug the code)
Strange jargon:  "Stick," "Rock,", Joint," "Dime bag," "E"	Strange jargon:"SCSI," "RTFM,", "Java," "NAS"
Realize that there's tons of cash in the  14- to 25-year-old  market	Realize that there's tons of cash in the  14- to 25-year-old  market
Job is assisted by industry's producing  newer, more potent mixes	Job is assisted by industry's producing  newer, faster machines
Often seen in the company  of of pimps and hustlers	Often seen in the company of marketing people and venture capitalists
Their product causes  unhealthy addictions	DOOM. Quake. SimCity. Duke Nukem 'Nuff said.
Do your job well, and you can sleep with movie stars who depend on you	Damn! Damn! DAMN!!!

Twenty-five Signs of a Completely Americanized Russian Programmer

Then there is a whole page of economic crisis humor

Cruise to Frugality Island for 401K Lemmings

which includes these gems: 

Bird and Fortune - Subprime Crisis

and

Greek Debt Song

Ok, saved the charmingly likable for last. His lovely page of

Songs from Famous Russian Cartoons on Youtube

News	Russian Oldies	Recommended Links	Russian Romances	Selected Russian Songs	Russian Waltzs	Musical Humor	Musical Humor	Romances
Pust' begut neukluzhe	Goluboy Vagon	Smile	Chunga-Changa	Lvenok i cherepaha	V trave sidel kuznechic	Ya vodnaynoy	Antoshka	My bandito
Bremen musicians	Spokoynoy nochi malishi	Dva Veseliy Gusya	Ostrozhno obezyanki	Pesni Kota Leopolda	Moydodyr	Propala sopaka	Penya pro Druzej
Vinni-Puh								Etc

Here are a few I love:

Львенок и черепаха мульт (the lion and turtle song)

Винни-Пух (Winnie the Pooh)

The Soviet animations link was dead but led me to this link with fragments of Soviet animations,

Юбилей (1983) 2/4

And that led me to this beauty, The Humpbacked Horse, vol 1, but I guess I'll have to explore the amazing world of Russian animation on another day

wandering around the Columbia University art history database, Feb 6th 2012

China, Han Dynasty. Kneeling Female Burial Figure, from Xian, Shenxi Province; Earthenware; ht. 34 cm; Shenxi Museum. 

China, Ming Dynasty. Poem (detail) by Dong Qichang; 1555-1636; hanging scroll; ink on silk; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Amida Raigo Triptych; Central Section; det: face of central figure; Japanese; Late Heian Per.; late 11c; Mt. Koya: Kongobuji; color/silk; h: 83 in.; [CU: AH_0203_186_2]

China, Six Dynasties. Yungang, Cave 20, from Yungang, Shanxi; N. Wei, ca. 460 CE; sandstone.

 
Maurice Denis, Eternal Spring: the Bath (detail), 1908  

Bruegel, Hunters in the Snow, detail of right side showing ice-skaters, signed and dated 1565, (oil on panel, full size 117 x 162 cm [46 x 63 3/4 in]), Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna

Koryo Dynasty. Celadon Wine Pot with Lid; late 12 c.; glazed porcelain with inlaid slip design; ht: 8 1/2 in. x base 3 in.; Seoul, Toksu Palace Museum of Fine Arts.

View of London before fire of 1666 

Henri Matisse, The Red Room or The Dessert -- Harmony in Red, 1908

Félix Vallotton, Portrait of Gertrude Stein, 1907

Japan, Edo Period. 33 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Katsushika Hokusai; 19th c.; polychrome woodblock print.  

Japan, Edo Period. Sudden Shower Over Shinohashi Bridge and Atake by Ando Hiroshige; 19th c.; polychrome woodblock print; Brooklyn, Brooklyn Museum of Art. 

Korea, Choson Dynasty. Scenic Spots of Songdo, by Kang Se-hwang; 18th c.; album leaf; ink and color on paper. 

Korea, Three Kingdoms Period. Stoneware Vessel in Form of Mounted Warrior from Silla; from Kyongju, N. Kyongsang Province; ht. 23.5 cm, length 29.4 cm 

China , Han Dynasty. Galloping horse, from Leitai tomb, Wuwei, Gansu Province; 2nd c. CE, bronze; ht. 34.5 cm, length 45 cm; Beijing, Palace Museum. 

Amida Raigo Triptych; Right Section; det: face of biwa player; Japanese; Late Heian Per.; late 11c; Mt. Koya: Kongobuji; color/silk; h: 83 in.; [CU: AH_0203_186_13]