The log cabin and hard cider candidate:

Tip and Ty
What's the cause of this commotion, motion, motion,
Our country through?
It is the ball a-rolling on

For Tippecanoe and Tyler too.
For Tippecanoe and Tyler too.
And with them we'll beat little Van, Van, Van,
Van is a used up man.
And with them we'll beat little Van.

Whirling Dervish

Yrast (Swedish pronunciation: [y:ɾɐst], English: [ˈɪrast]) is a technical term in nuclear physics that refers to a state of a nucleus with a minimum of energy (when it is least excited) for a given angular momentum. Yr is a Swedish adjective derived from the Old Norse hvirfla, the same root as the English whirl. Yrast is the superlative of yr and can be translated whirlingest, although it literally means "dizziest" or "most bewildered".



My second favorite hymn:
'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gain'd,
To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come round right.

Twins

The Fort Crawford Medical Museum, Prairie du Chien, WI, chronicles the digestive experiments of our hero, Dr. Beaumont, but the real stars are the Transparent Twins, two clear plastic female mannequins. Organs glow, arteries pulse, nerves shimmer in cool blue. They rotate to display their transparent backsides.

The twin on the right does all the talking -- probably because her sister has no face. (Note: the Twins model in the promo photo, left, is arranged with the talking sister on the left.)

"How do you do? We are the transparent twins. Imagine if your skin suddenly became transparent -- then you would look much like me."

Mysterious pelvic organs blink on. "My eggs, when fertilized by sperm from my husband, will turn into a child." Two higher bulbs brighten. "My breasts provide milk for the newborn..."

Queen Anne's Lace

When Anne of Denmark became engaged to James of Scotland the fourteen year old princess embroidered shirts for her fiancé while three hundred tailors worked on her wedding dress. The flower was named after the lace that she made, and the black spot is believed to a drop of blood from where she pricked herself.

The English spy Thomas Fowler reported of the engagement between Denmark and Scotland, that Anne of Denmark was "so far in love with the King's Majesty as it were death to her to have it broken off and hath made good proof divers ways of her affection which his Majestie is apt in no way to requite". The Scottish King James wrote, "God is my witness, I could have abstained longer than the weal of my country could have permitted, [had not] my long delay bred in the breasts of many a great jealousy of my inability, as if I were a barren stock".



After they were married it was quickly brought home to the seventeen-year-old queen that she was to have no say in the care of her son. James appointed as head of the nursery his former nurse Helen Little, who installed Henry in James's own old oak cradle. Most distressingly for Anne, James insisted on placing Prince Henry in the custody of John Erskine, earl of Mar, at Stirling Castle, in keeping with Scottish royal tradition. Nervous of the lengths to which Anne might go to regain her son, James formally charged Mar in writing never to surrender Henry to anyone except on orders from his own mouth, "because in the surety of my son consists my surety", nor to yield Henry to the queen even in the event of his own death.
After public scenes in which James reduced her to rage and tears over the issue, Anne became so bitterly upset that in July 1595 she suffered a miscarriage. Anne saw a belated opportunity to gain custody of Henry in 1603 when James left for London, taking the earl of Mar with him, to assume the English throne following the death of Queen Elizabeth. Pregnant at the time, Anne descended on Stirling with a force of "well supported" nobles, intent on removing the nine-year-old Henry, whom she had hardly seen for five years; but Mar's mother and brother would allow her to bring no more than two attendants with her into the castle. The obduracy of Henry's keepers sent Anne into such a fury that she suffered another miscarriage: according to David Calderwood, she "went to bed in anger and parted with child the tenth of May".
After narrowly surviving the birth and death of her last baby, Sophia, in 1607, Anne’s made a decision to have no more children.

Although Anne's flower was named for her marital hopes, it is an interesting circumstance that women have used the seeds from Queen Anne's Lace, for centuries as a contraceptive. The earliest written reference dates back to the late 5th or 4th century B.C. appearing in a work written by Hippocrates, and John Riddle writes in Eve's Herbs, that queen anne's lace seeds are one of the more potent antifertility agents available. Research on small animals has shown that extracts of the seeds disrupt the implantation process, or if a fertilized egg has implanted for only a short period, will cause it to be released.

Asiatic Peafowl

In my dreams I hear the peacock that used to live across the street. That was when I was in Mississippi and Ma Bell had a bird orphanage and I had a baby pet flying squirrel for a day. The bird sounded like a woman who didn't have anything at hand to throw.

Basalawarmi

Basalawarmi (died January 6, 1382), commonly known as the Prince of Liang, was a descendant of Kublai Khan and a Yuan Dynasty loyalist who fought against the ascendant Ming Dynasty. In The Deer and the Cauldron, a novel written by Jinyong, the main character retells a humorous mythical account of Basalawarmi's defeat. In this legend, Basalawarmi is said to have hundreds of war elephants, obtained from what is now modern-day Myanmar, in his army. The Ming general Ma Hua defeats Basalawarmi by unleashing ten thousand mice which drive Basalawarmi's war elephants to terror, alluding to the widespread myth that elephants are afraid of mice. Basalawarmi himself is not presented favorably; he is described as a drunken, fat, and cowardly old man.

Copernicus stamps

Someone else says:
More stamps have been issued honoring Copernicus than for any other mathematician. In 1973, the five hundredth anniversary of Copernicus' birth, almost every country issued stamps, usually in a series, in his honor. It is ironic that the Vatican City did so. It is surprising that the United States did so, for we have rarely honored persons of mathematical achievement. To my knowledge the only US stamps of this nature honor Benjamin Banneker, Copernicus, Albert Einstein, and President Garfield.

Hacienda

People who talk about revolution and class struggle without referring explicitly to everyday life, without understanding what is subversive about love and what is positive in the refusal of constraints, such people have a corpse in their mouth.

&

We are bored in the city, there is no longer any temple to the sun. You'll never see the hacienda. It doesn't exist. The hacienda must be built. In the new city every man will live in his own cathedral.

Isidore Isou

"The God's Diaries" is above.

I was reading about Situationist Art when I saw these. Lettrism is a French avant-garde movement, established in Paris in the mid-1940s by Romanian immigrant Isidore Isou. In French, the movement is called Lettrisme, from the French word for letter, arising from the fact that many of their early works centred around letters and other visual or spoken symbols.

Thoughts other people have about Judas

If Jesus only suffered while dying on the cross, and then ascended into Heaven, while Judas must suffer for eternity in Hell, then Judas has suffered much more for the sins of humanity than Jesus, and his role in the Atonement is that much more significant.

Does Jesus' plea, "Father forgive them, they know not what they do," (Luke 23:34) not apply to Judas? Is his atonement insufficient for Judas' sins?

The Roman Catholic Church has never officially stated that it believes Judas is in Hell. According to one Catholic writer, if he had not committed suicide but repented of his actions it would still have been possible for him to become a great saint, just like Saint Peter who denied Christ three times.

"I will not reveal your mysteries to your enemies, neither like Judas will I betray you with a kiss, but like the thief on the cross I will confess you."

Judas is the subject of one of the oldest surviving English ballads, dating from the 13th century, Judas, in which the blame for the betrayal of Christ is placed on his sister.

The Owl and The Nightingale

This poem was probably written by a nun: The Owl and the Nightingale offers no resolution, thus forcing the reader to interpret the highly ambiguous text for themselves. The debate itself covers a very diverse range, including religion, marriage, toilet manners, and song. This diverse range has led to scholars interpreting the text in very different ways. These interpretations have varied from a medieval answer to the portrayal of the owl in the Book of Isaiah, to the poem being used as a teaching method for teaching students the art of debate as part of the trivium. Various historical satires have also been proposed as possible interpretations; including a parody of the relationship between King Henry II and Thomas Becket.

http://www.soton.ac.uk/~wpwt/trans/owl/owltrans.htm

Jane Goodall says:
"I know a parrot in New York called N'kisi (a Congo African Gray parrot) who knows 971 words. He isn't counted as having a new word until he's used it at least five times in a proper context. In other words, if he just repeats a word, that doesn't count. Before I met N'kisi, his owner, Aimee, was showing him pictures of me and chimps. When I walked into the room, he asked, 'Got a chimp?' Aimee broke a necklace, and he said, 'What a pity. You broke your new, nice necklace.' He uses grammar and initiates conversation (all skills once reserved for people). This bird even has a Web site [sheldrake.org/nkisi]. I don't think he's an exceptionally brilliant parrot; I do think we're only starting to understand how smart they are."

I want to learn the latin names of North American songbirds.
Resource: http://www.hbw.com/ibc/
Videos of songbirds from everywhere.

Jenny Haniver

I want to grow a minimum number of plants very well, maybe two or three, and I want to go birdwatching and fishing. I want to ride my bike a lot and attend public lectures and events. I am writing poetry again, something I haven't done in years.

Feet upon feet
Senseless distance traversed becomes a palm in prayer
We are waiting, skin says
In our wake is the code of weight and heft,
We have not stayed, only slept.
&
When I ride my arms feel the latent heat of the land,
I pass over bridges and hairs adumbrate a distant air that tastes like river.

So there's that. Also: I am going to miss Milwaukee and the senseless free things: afternoon tea on the house from Anopa, winning trivia at Stonefly multiple night for free beer, free toast brunch at Nomad, free bacon at Comet, free movies from the Oriental, free tea from Rishi, free vegetables from Outpost Coop, free books from the library, public days at the Art Museum and Science Museum, free dinners at Nessun Dorma, countless free drinks from Nessun Dorma and Circa and County Clare, free clothes from Annie's, free records also from Annie's. My town's a cornucopia. I relinquish my plenty, but only in hope that someone else will recognize the possibilities here and act.

from "The Grand Eccentrics"

The central preoccupation is plain: the dangerous and dominating Fatal Woman. More than half the oeuvre portrays triumphant and savage Circe, Salome, Helen, Delilah, Herodiade, etc. Even in work consecrated to the hero or the tragic poet, these central males stand confronted crushingly by womankind or her unconquerable surrogate imagery: Oedipus stands before the Sphinx, Orpheus is beleaguered and St. John decapitated, repeatedly. Indeed, perhaps only literature, and a process of careful personal anthologization, could have provided a so consistantly sinister collection of females.

Max Klinger: a glove

The Joys and Enigmas of a Strange Hour

Incorrupt

Clare loved music and well-composed sermons. According to those who knew her, she was humble, merciful, charming, optimistic, and chivalrous. She would get up late at night to tuck in her sisters who'd kicked off their covers. She daily meditated on the Passion. When she learned of the Franciscan martyrs in Morocco in 1221, she tried to go there to become a martyr herself, but was restrained. Once when her convent was about to be attacked, she displayed the Sacrament in a monstrance at the convent gates, and prayed before it; the attackers left. Toward the end of her life, when the was too ill to attend Mass, an image of the service would be displayed on the wall of her cell; thus she is called the patroness of television. She was ever the close friend and spiritual student of Francis, who apparently led her soul into the light.

Her body remains incorrupt.


On 11 February 1858, around the time of her first Communion, Bernadette was gathering firewood with her sisters when a beautiful lady appeared to her in a cave. She appeared a total of 18 times. Before the last apparition the Lady said to her " I am the Immaculate Conception" ,she asked her to pray for sinners and to have a Chapel built near the grotto. After the last apparition a spring of miraculous waters sprang from the ground.

Bernadette became a nun and died at the age of thirty six, her body remains incorrupt.


Imelda was a girl who died at the age of 11 in 1333. She loved Our Lord in the Eucharist but could not receive Him because of her age. One morning after Mass a consecrated Host miraculously appeared to her and after receiving it, she went into ecstasy and died. Her First Communion was her last!

Her body remains incorrupt.


St. Margaret Mary Alacoque: Her heart and brain are still incorrupt.


Anna Maria Gesualda Antonia Taigi .
She is one of the saints with incorruptible bodies. Daughter of a bankrupt druggist. Mother of seven. Prophet. Clairvoyant. Counsellor to cardinals.

Blessing of the Fleet

Edith Schiele

Death to the living, long life to the killers, Success to sailors' wives & greasy luck to whalers.

Borges: On Exactitude in Science

On Exactitude in Science . . . In that Empire, the Art of Cartography attained such Perfection that the map of a single Province occupied the entirety of a City, and the map of the Empire, the entirety of a Province. In time, those Unconscionable Maps no longer satisfied, and the Cartographers Guilds struck a Map of the Empire whose size was that of the Empire, and which coincided point for point with it. The following Generations, who were not so fond of the Study of Cartography as their Forebears had been, saw that that vast Map was Useless, and not without some Pitilessness was it, that they delivered it up to the Inclemencies of Sun and Winters. In the Deserts of the West, still today, there are Tattered Ruins of that Map, inhabited by Animals and Beggars; in all the Land there is no other Relic of the Disciplines of Geography.

Jim Trainor

One of the best short films I have seen in recent memory was by Jim Trainor, magic marker animator extraordinaire. He renders the lives of animals in big bold lines: the choices they make seem fated by instinct, yet the brutal course of their lives is mediated by gentle self perception and sometimes god.

A tiny piece of one short may be found here: http://www.vdb.org/smackn.acgi$artistdetail?TRAINORJ

Another absolutely amazing film maker is Jim Jennings who offers us "crystalline moments of observation and the most kaleidoscopic and revealing of abstractions" and "discovers boxes within boxes, frames within frames, new dimensions, new perspectives and wonder after wonder.”

Time Travel

This is what a road trip tastes like: