Monday, June 11, 2012

Amalric Walter (1870 – 1959), glass, pâtes de verre

The glass art of Almaric Walter

Amalric Walter (1870 – 1959)

Walter was a renowned French artist who was one of the last surviving members of the École de Nancy and the Art Nouveau movement. At the beginning of the 20th century he was one of the leading developers of a self-colouring polychrome sculptural technique called ‘pâtes de verre’, literally pastes of glass, which took great advantage of the qualities of glass. Pâtes de verre is a process of placing crushed glass pastes into a mould in a creative process that marries traditional translucency of glass-art technique to the chemistry and opacity of ceramic glazing.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Sunday, fossils, Kali Gandaki and ballet

Funny take on the Diamond Jubilee

DJ Ear Worm's Summer 2012 dancetune mashup of pop songs via Metafilter:

Fly (Capital FM Summertime Ball Mashup)

Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe
Cheryl Cole – Call My Name
Coldplay – Charlie Brown
Coldplay – Paradise
Conor Maynard – Can’t Say No
Cover Drive – Sparks
Cover Drive – Twilight
DJ Fresh feat. Dizzee Rascal – The Power
Ed Sheeran – The A-Team
Example – Stay Awake
Flo Rida feat. Sia – Wild Ones
Flo Rida – Whistle
Jessie J – Domino
Jessie J – Laserlight
Justin Bieber – Boyfriend
Katy Perry – Part of Me
Katy Perry – The One That Got Away
Kelly Clarkson – Dark Side
Lawson – When She Was Mine
Pitbull Feat. Chris Brown – International Love
Rita Ora – R.I.P.
DJ Fresh feat. Rita Ora – Hot Right Now
Usher – Scream
The Wanted – Chasing the Sun

Fly

I prefer his last year's mashup of pop songs: World Go Boom

Sounds like an interesting book

Places to know about. The Kali Gandaki River in Nepal

View Larger Map

High way .... a suspension footbridge above the Kali Gandaki river. Photo: AFP

Photo credit

View of the Kali Gandaki River at Kagbeni
Author: Arne Hückelheim (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported)

Kali Gandaki 2002 Pilgrimage diary and panoramic views

What I ate in Nepal.

Once upon a time, when the subcontinent of India broke away from what is now the continent of Africa, it crashed, 10 million years ago, into what is now China and the Himalayan mountains were created. What was once under the sea, full of coral and sea creatures, was thrust up.

From this site about plate tectonics

As a result there are fossils of sea creatures way up in the Himalayan mountains.

There are Ammonites and other sea fossils found in the Himalayas that are worshiped by the locals as symbols of the god of life, Vishnu. There are a few names these fossils are given by locals, one name is Shaligram, another name is sila.

Here are some examples of ancient fossils from the sea, now found high up in the Himalayan Mountains, in the river bed and around the beautiful Kali Gandaki River. There are various websites that sell these stones, such as this one or this.

The fossils are typically of black volcanic lava around the ammonite

Here are the typical sea creatures that became fossils near the Kali Gandaki river

When these fossils are kept as holy objects by the locals in Nepal, they are usually adorned with leaves or a sprig of the plant associated with Vishnu, called holy basil, tulsi.

this is a tulsi plant

Finding fossils in the Kali Gandaki River

One of my favorite old time, sad Bollywood songs, Mehn Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki (my tulsi plant in your garden. Classic Bollywood story.)

The feet of a ballet dancer

Ballet

Ballet: A Beautiful Strength

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Saturday, June 9th 2012

Kitty likes the feel of the bounce

The science of [romantic] love

By the brilliant and witty Wendy MacNaughton

Love these images by artist, Marian Bantjes

Is this cool or what? A self stirring pot.

To be on the market soon.

fire wrapping paper by Marian Bantjes

dorado beach by Manian Bantjes, I love her combination of sensual, alluring artistry and conceptual stimulation. Very exciting.
Chinese Garbage Truck

A monkey orchid

Photo credit: robyncole
"Super Mario World" for Piano and Tap Dance

A sweet Bollywood classic. One of my favorites. The chorus says "my heart is Indian".

The lyrics to the song:

"Mera Joota hai Japani" (Hindi: मेरा जूता है जापानी, Urdu: میرا جُوتا ہے جاپانى, translation: My Shoes are Japanese) is a Hindi song composed by Shankar Jaikishan and sung byMukesh. The lyrics of the song are by Shailendra. Due to its patriotic themes, the song was widely embraced in its time as a representation of the newly sovereign nation of India^[1]. The songs first and most famous appearance was in the movie Shree 420 where it was picturised on the popular Bollywood star Raj Kapoor. The opening lines are:

Mera Joota hai Japani

Yeh Patloon Inglistani

Sar pe lal topi Rusi

Phir bhi dil hai Hindustani

which translates to

My shoes are Japanese

These trousers are English

The red hat on my head is Russian

But even so, my heart is Indian

Voices of the cartoon characters

Started out ok...

50 Great Guitar Riffs from the Early 90s by Jocelyn Pelichet

Oh no, a bad earthquake in North Eastern Italy. In Emilia. May 20th 2012. It killed 5 people.
Aftermath of strong M6.0 Earthquake--historic buildings collapse in Bologna Italy--May 20,2012

Did there used to be so many earthquakes in Italy?

Italy's earthquake is disastrous for parmesan production

As if there is not enough to worry about in Europe with the euro, the earthquake in northern Italy has made an enormous impact on the most famous Italian cheese Parmigiano Reggiano and its equally popular cousin, Grana Padano, with production losses of up to 10%.

Parmesan cheese

* Discovery paves way for improved noscapine production

* Drug used as cough suppressant, may also fight cancer

It's Not Just You: 'Old Person Smell' Is Real Remember when you used to go to your grandparents' house and whenever you walked in, your nose detected a change in the air? You're not imagining it -- there really is such a thing as "old person smell," and your ability to detect it may have evolutionary roots.

In a study published today in PLoS One, researchers report that young people aged 20-30 are able to accurately guess when a scent comes from an elderly individual aged 75-95. While study participants were also able to determine when a smell was associated with someone in middle age or in their youth, they were much better at smelling old people than young people.