Malmaison interior.2- sketch

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How Nasruddin became a Mulla

Nasruddin’s teacher taught his pupils to go with the flow. ‘Let sleeping dogs lie.’ But dogs were out to create a terrible row. One pupil was all for throwing stones at every one of them. ‘Oh now we shall have a bad consciousness of injuring them needlessly’.
‘Isn’t how we restore order?’ another pupil.
‘What use is to apply our rules to dogs,’ The teacher asked,’ without knowing the reason for their restlessness?’
I shall settle the matter,’ said Nasruddin.
He brought a sack full of bones from the shed and threw them onto the spot where dogs were causing a din.
The dogs immediately fell silent. Nasruddin explained, “Like cures like.” The teacher was perplexed. Nasruddin, “This sack has been lying idle for long. So let it cure dogs..’
Teacher scolded him, ‘How dare you say like cures like? A sack of bones is not same as sleeping dogs, ‘Your reasoning is preposterous.’
Nasruddin said, ‘We know these are not same. But the dogs do not.’
There was total silence and the boy added, ‘The dogs became altogether quiet. Judge my reasoning from the result.’
‘Boy what did you say your name was?’
Nasruddin, master.’
Teacher said,’ You should go to a religious school. You will do well there.’
benny

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A Still from Rules Of The Game-1939

The above still shows Renoir’s style to give spatial depth by which the interaction of characters add to the drama. Free grouping in space ( simultaeneously foreground and background groups or single character in relaton to the others). Such staging allows interaction between foreground and actions on the background. In this scene where Octave brings airmen Jurieu for the weekend at La Coliniere there is a painful silence. The guests are aware of the gossip linking the dashing airman to the Marquise who bravely tries to explain her part in making Jurieu a national hero. In the backdrop we see the nervous Marquis Robert who knows the truth and is apprehensive if his wife would be able to pull it off.
Camera by continuously tracking, panning, re-framing allows Renoir to compose the shots in terms of time and movement. Renoir and Bunuel are two directors that I can think of who prefers mid-shots to close-ups. Closeups and point-of-view shots are rare.
benny

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Palazzo Ducale,Mantua,Italy -sketch

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On Progress, Missing Mass and Pure Research

The dream of flight was fueled by man’s observation of the birds, and is illustrated in myths across the world (e.g. Daedalus and Icarus in Greek mythology, or the Pushpaka Vimana of the Ramayana). The first attempts to fly also often drew on the idea of imitating birds, as in Daedalus’ building his wings out of feathers and wax. Leonardo da Vinci’s design was limited since it relied on pedal power. Attempts to build wings of various materials and jump off high towers continued well until the seventeenth century. ( aviation history-ack:wikipedia). In the wake of Industrial revolution it was inevitable the application of machines became as important as man’s imagination.
The dynamics of this alliance between man and machine would change. The fanciful world of alchemists would give way to hard-nosed scientists,- and science and not humanities became the hi-octane fuel driving progress. It also forged a link with Technology as the benchmark for human progress. The effect of art and humanities on human mind I guess was not so much visible as of technology for the world to go some direction. This partnership between Science and technology if logically taken to its conclusion robotic age on one hand must happen. On the other man would think of conquering outer space, provided man is able to master the right technology. How can this ever happen without that elusive quantity in the equation- man? By this I mean every facet of his mind, his imaginative faculties and practicality included.
To sum man cannot do away with any of his experience. His imagination like the wax wings of Icarus may fail since his grounding in science was not sound. Man’s fancies may be under no discipline to conform to certain discipline but there shall always be a point where art has to take a degree in a manner of speaking. It may lead to pure research.
Since technology has shrunk the world into a global village we may hear some grumbling at the pure research. But without it or art, technology shall only be a creation of some Frankenstein. The versatility of new-generation Mobile phones is a spin off of exploration of the space.
ii
Progress of man is a co-operative effort.
Man in trying to express himself does so after his fashion: from nature- a pushpak vimana; or a composite type- wings made of wax in imitation of birds’ wings. He adds something of his own invention to what is already existing. No wonder, inventive mind of man shall not rest with a single success. If he would learn to be airborne he would put it to refine to such degree that shall keep with his ever changing requirements. Hot air balloons shall be replaced with gliding, biplanes and so on.

In course of time we find airplanes are not merely for flying but for military purposes. Planes that could destroy towns, cities thoroughly are natural extensions of man’s striving for excellence. In short man who raises himself ever a notch higher into higher realms finds a drag that makes his angel, a monster. Science bears the stamp of man’s excellence, his curiosity while Technology recognizes only economics. Can there be evil in the very perfection that we strive for?
Devil is in the details, sir. In the very essence of Good resides resident Evil like the serpent in the Garden of Eden. This is inevitable: since every progress of man is necessarily a cooperative effort. How experience of each draws from the Collective experience shall connect, we may expect Dr. Faustus who only thinks acquiring knowledge shall connect with Mephisto who would want his soul in return.
Fancy free and footloose man sets out but before long tollbooths would overtake him and may even stop him for toll.
Ack:Aussie student finds the Missing Mass-AFP May 27 I am giving an excerpt:
Monash astrophysicist Dr Kevin Pimbblet explained that scientists had previously detected matter that was present in the early history of the universe but that could not now be located.
“There is missing mass, ordinary mass not dark mass … It’s missing to the present day,” Pimbblet told AFP.
“We don’t know where it went. Now we do know where it went because that’s what Amelia found.”

Pimbblet said astrophysicists had known about the “missing” mass for the past two decades, but the technology needed to pinpoint its location had only become available in recent years.
He said the discovery could drive the construction of new telescopes designed to specifically study the mass.
Pimbblet admitted the discovery was primarily academic, but he said previous physics research had led to the development of diverse other technologies.
“Whenever I speak to people who have influence, politicians and so on, they sometimes ask me ‘Why should I invest in physics pure research?’. And I sometimes say to them: ‘Do you use a mobile phone? Some of that technology came about by black hole research’.
“The pure research has knock-on effects to the whole society which are sometimes difficult to anticipate.”
benny

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The Rubaiyat -illustrated

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Unrest in the Middle East

Since last December we see the young generation taking out their protest to the streets. Their unscripted demonstrations in Tunisia proved successful. It made the Mubarak regime rue that their hold on power rested on unclaimed grounds and they were not legitimate to lead the country after all.
Such unpredictability of human affairs is written in the sky. Take moon for instance. How did the earth get its moon? The most convincing hypothesis would point to a cosmic impact. We stake our place in the sun but moon has her own plans. Col. Gaddafi may have had plans for a perpetual dynasty but Libya is not a madman’s dream but is reality; and it is determined by people who have been for long browbeaten to silence by foreign mercenaries.
Moon affects the oceans and it makes quite a lot of splash, I can tell you. The earth’s moon creates tides.
ii

Tides hold a force as a disgruntled mob as seen by revolt in the Middle East, and can spread from Tunisia to Egypt. Such protests build up power. Just as it has power to inflict great damage to the existing governments this tidal force is magnified by many other causes than what is apparent: the side of earth facing the moon is more than say by the earth’s far side. The gravitational tide stretches the earth’s oceans into an ellipse with the earth in the center. Consequently we have two bulges— one nearest the moon and one farthest from it. Since these two bulges rotate around the earth once a day as it spins on its axis, ocean water is continuously rushing towards the ever-moving bulges. The effects of the two bulges and the massive ocean currents chasing them are magnified by an interplay of other effects.
Most of the tidal effects seen on the earth are caused by the moon’s gravitational pull, with the sun making only a small contribution. Tidal effects result in an increase of the mean earth-moon distance of about 3.8 m per century, or 3.8 cm per year. Here the inversion principle comes into play.
Since the distance between the moon and the earth is very slightly increasing over time, moon’s effect on the bulges will weaken. But then, how can we say something else would not come into play to make all the difference to our calculations?
Is it God who is in control? Your guess is as good as mine.
(ack:wikipedia)
benny

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Mulla Nasruddin -comic book.2

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News on the March-rapture

‘Harold Camping is still at it. He insists that the Rapture is coming. He wasted little time in telling his followers Monday that while he’s falsely claimed the world will end twice, this time it will really happen.
The 89-year-old now says the real Day of Judgment will occur on Oct. 21 and that his claims that the Apocalypse was last Saturday were a misunderstanding.
“We’ve always said May 21 was the day, but we didn’t understand altogether the spiritual meaning,” the one-time civil engineer said at the Oakland headquarters of his Family Radio network.
Camping, who stated unequivocally for months that May 21 would be the end of the world, now claims it was just the day when God decided humanity’s fate. But it won’t be until Oct. 21 that we are sentenced.
“God again brought Judgment on the world,” the prognosticating pulpiter said during a 90-minute speech aired on his radio stations and online.
As a result, humanity now has five months before “the whole world will be destroyed.”
Tailpiece: the Bible is quite clear that it is not for us to determine the time that God has willed. But then if there are gullible who swallow any prophesy dreamed up by crackpots deserve only our pity.
benny

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‘Ties that bind US’-cartoon

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