Agrigento - Pagan temples (Templos pagãos)

On the outskirts of Agrigento there is a valley with ruins of the following temples: Demeter, Hephaistos, Dioscuri, Jupiter, Aesculapius, Hercules, Concord, and Juno.


Nos arredores de Agrigento existe um vale com ruínas destes templos: Demeter, Hefaístos, Dioscuros, Jupiter, Esculápio, Hércules, Concórdia, Juno.

Franz Kaisermann (1765-1833)-'the ruins of the temple of Concorde. Agrigento'

Edward Lear (1812-1888)-'temple. Agrigento'

Luigi Mayer (1755-1803)-'temple of Esculapius. Agrigento' London-Sir John Soane Museum

George Howard (1843-1911)-'temple of Juno Lacina. Agrigento'-oil on panel Private collection

Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes (1750-1819)-'Agrigento'-1787 Paris-Musée du Louvre

What is Love? { Featuring Tiny Prints }

.

So Juju, you know Valentine's Day is coming up, right?

Yeah.

What is Valentine's Day all about?

Love. { duh, Mom }

What is Love?

A girl likes a boy.

Like Mommy & Daddy?

Yeah.

But you're not a Mommy or Daddy, don't you Love anything or anyone?

Yeah. I Love Bunny.

Ok, so Love is not just about a boy & a girl.

No, you can Love other things too.

How does Love make you feel?

I don't know Mom.


Think about it - try to explain.



*getting frustrated* I don't know Mom.

He might not be able to explain it, but he sure knows what Love is!

Let Tiny Prints help you tell your Valentine what Love is.

Tiny Prints provides simple, modern and unique stationery from Valentines Day cards to personalized greeting cards to thank you cards, business cards, and even custom wedding invitations. Offering exclusive designs from the nation’s top designers, easy card personalization, a powerful preview engine and top-notch customer service and paper quality, their designs have been lauded by numerous television networks, publications and celebrities. With Tiny Prints by your side commemorating every holiday and momentous occasion is a cinch! They offer perfect party invitations for every occasion and memorable personalized photo-gifts like notebooks, photo books and calendars

Have a Happy Valentine's Day!

* This is a compensated opportunity - these views are my own

Tracking the Origins of Speedy Space Particles

NASA's Time History of Events and Macroscale Interaction during Substorms (THEMIS) spacecraft combined with computer models have helped track the origin of the energetic particles in Earth's magnetic atmosphere that appear during a kind of space weather called a substorm. Understanding the source of such particles and how they are shuttled through Earth's atmosphere is crucial to better understanding the Sun's complex space weather system and thus protect satellites or even humans in space.

The results show that these speedy electrons gain extra energy from changing magnetic fields far from the origin of the substorm that causes them. THEMIS, which consists of five orbiting satellites, helped provide these insights when three of the spacecraft traveled through a large substorm on February 15, 2008. This allowed scientists to track changes in particle energy over a large distance. The observations were consistent with numerical models showing an increase in energy due to changing magnetic fields, a process known as betatron acceleration.

"The origin of fast electrons in substorms has been a puzzle," says Maha Ashour-Abdalla, the lead author of a Nature Physics paper that appeared online on January 30, 2011 on the subject and a physicist at the University of California, Los Angeles. "It hasn't been clear until now if they got their burst of speed in the middle of the storm, or from some place further away."

Substorms originate opposite the sun on Earth's "night side," at a point about a third of the distance to the moon. At this point in space, energy and particles from the solar wind store up over time. This is also a point where the more orderly field lines near Earth -- where they look like two giant ears on either side of the globe, a shape known as a dipole since the lines bow down to touch Earth at the two poles – can distort into long lines and sometimes pull apart and "reconnect." During reconnection, the stored energy is released in explosions that send particles out in all directions. But reconnection is a magnetic phenomenon and scientists don't know the exact mechanism that creates speeding particles from that phenomenon.

"For thirty years, one of the questions about the magnetic environment around Earth has been, 'how do magnetic fields give rise to moving, energetic particles?'" says NASA scientist Melvyn Goldstein, chief of the Geospace Physics Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and another author on the paper. "We need to know such things to help plan the next generation of reconnection research instruments such as the Magnetospheric MultiScale mission (MMS) due to launch in 2014. MMS needs to look in the right place and for the correct signatures of particle energization."

In the early 1980s, scientists hypothesized that the quick, high-energy particles might get their speed from rapidly changing magnetic fields. Changing magnetic fields can cause electrons to zoom along a corkscrew path by the betatron effect.

Indeed, electrons moving toward Earth from a substorm will naturally cross a host of changing magnetic fields as those long, stretched field lines far away from Earth relax back to the more familiar dipole field lines closer to Earth, a process called dipolarization. Betatron acceleration causes the particles to gain energy and speed much farther away from the initial reconnection site. But in the absence of observations that could simultaneously measure data near the reconnection site and closer to Earth, the hypothesis was hard to prove or contradict.

THEMIS, however, was specifically designed to study the formation of substorms. It launched with five spacecraft, which can be spread out over some 44,000 miles – a perfect tool for examining different areas of Earth's magnetic environment at the same time. Near midnight, on February 15, 2008, three of the satellites moving through Earth's magnetic tail, about 36,000 miles from Earth, traveled through a large substorm.

"I looked at the THEMIS data for that substorm," says Ashour-Abdalla, "and saw there was a direct correlation of the increased particle energy at the origin with the region of dipolarization nearer to Earth."

To examine the data, Ashour-Abdalla and a team of researchers from UCLA, Nanchang University in China, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore, used their expertise with computer modeling to simulate the complex dynamics that occur in space. The team began with spacecraft data from an ESA mission called Cluster that was in the solar wind at the time of the substorm. Using these observations of the solar environment, they modeled large scale electric and magnetic fields in space around Earth. Then they modeled the future fate of the various particles observed.

When the team looked at their models they saw that electrons near the reconnection sites didn't gain much energy. But as they looked closer to Earth, where the THEMIS satellites were located, their model showed particles that had some ten times as much energy – just as THEMIS had in fact observed.

This is consistent with the betatron acceleration model. The electrons gain a small amount of energy from the reconnection and then travel toward Earth, crossing many changing magnetic field lines. These fields produce betatronic acceleration just as Kivelson predicted in the early 1980s, speeding the electrons up substantially.

"This research shows the great science that can be accomplished when modelers, theorists and observationalists join forces," says astrophysicist Larry Kepko, who is a deputy project scientist for the THEMIS mission at Goddard. "THEMIS continues to yield critical insights into the dynamic processes that produce the space weather that affects Earth."

Launched in 2007, THEMIS was NASA's first five-satellite mission launched aboard a single rocket. The unique constellation of satellites provided scientists with data to help resolve the mystery of how Earth's magnetosphere stores and releases energy from the sun by triggering geomagnetic substorms. Two of the satellites have been renamed ARTEMIS and are in the process of moving to a new orbit around the moon. They are due to reach their final lunar orbit in July 2011. The three remaining THEMIS satellites continue to study substorms.

THEMIS is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center for the agency's Science Mission Directorate. The Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, is responsible for project management, space and ground-based instruments, mission integration, mission operations and science. ATK (formerly Swales Aerospace), Beltsville, Md., built the THEMIS probes. THEMIS is an international project conducted in partnership with Germany, France, Austria, and Canada.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/themis/news/speedy-particles.html

Clueless (dir. Amy Heckerling, 1995)

I've mentioned a couple of times, I think, that for some years when I was a teenager, I thought Spartacus' name was Sparatacus, thanks to this movie. This being a rather egregious mistake that continued far longer than it should have done, I thought perhaps it was worth a blog post to itself (also, Clueless is awesome).

For those unfamiliar with the film, Clueless is a mid-ninties teen flick based loosely on Jane Austen's Emma. Me being a teen in the mid-nineties, you can imagine how much I love this movie, though there's more to Clueless than just teen fun. Taking it's central plot from Austen, I actually prefer this movie to the original novel - I find Austen's Emma too overbearing and irritating, whereas Alicia Silverstone somehow manages to make Cher a sympathetic and endearing character. Even more importantly, Cher's initial objection to her friend Thai's crush is not to do with money, but rather the fact that he's high all day every day, which comes across as a lot more reasonable (and he's cleaned up by the end of the film). The film is also hilarious ('My plastic surgeon doesn't want me doing any activity where balls fly at my nose'; 'There goes your social life').

This is a tightly structured film and Cher's mistake concerning the title of Spartacus is not just there for a cheap laugh. Cher is pursuing the new guy at school, Christian, but is unfortuantely completely oblivious to certain facts that mean this will never happen. Christian's declaration that he has a 'thing' for Tony Curtis doesn't clue her in, and nor does his choice of movies for a videofest - Some Like It Hot (about half of which Curtis spends in drag) and Spartacus. We join them during the early part of Spartacus, watching the scene in which Laurence Olivier's Crassus interrogates Curtis' Antoninus, whom he has recently purchased.

Crassus and Antoninus were the participants in another scene that takes place shortly after this one, which was cut from the film's original release but restored in 1991. The scene features Crassus trying to seduce Antoninus while discussing how sexuality is a matter of taste rather than morality via some appropriately sexy metaphors involving shellfish. Just as this scene is coming up, Cher tries to seduce Christian by playing footsie, but he brushes her off saying he wants to watch 'this part - this is good'. To be fair, as a 13-year-old watching the movie, I probably wouldn't have worked out the problem for myself if my best friend hadn't pointed it out to me, but poor Cher really is being very clueless here (especially given Christian's fondness for designer shoes). Her mistake with the name is really a symbol of her total lack of comprehension of the situation in which she's found herself, while the Roman-set film is representative of sexuality, and of Christian's sexuality in particular, which is particularly appropriate given ancient Rome's reputation for orgies and pornography.

It's also worth noting that much of Cher's determination to completely 'make-over' Thai in every respect from clothes to hair to accent to leisure activities has a very Pygmalion-like feel to it. Cher does not fall for Thai and the dialogue compares her efforts to Dr Frankenstein rather than either Pygmalion or his well-known modern counterpart, Professor Higgins, but her obsession with completely re-modelling the girl echoes the Pygmalion story more than the horror - something that's unlikely to be entirely conincidental in a film so full of classical allusions of the non-Greco-Roman variety (including Cher's observation that a book she read noted that 'it is a far, far better thing doing things for other people' and her pretty good knowledge of Hamlet, gained via the Mel Gibson-starring movie version). The clip from Spartacus that we see even refers to Curtis' character teaching children 'the classics'.

Being as clueless a teen as Cher, if not more so, this represented my entire impression of ancient Rome in popular culture for some years, until UK Gold started to repeat I, Claudius! I know better now, but I will forever love this movie for inducing a lifelong fondess for Paul Rudd, introducing the world to a very young (braces-wearing) Turk from Scrubs and for reminding me of a time when taking photos to help yourself choose a dress or phoning someone in the same building on a mobile seemed like such ridiculous things to do that only the super-rich would even contemplate anything of the sort.

Fountain of Youth (Fonte da juventude)

The fountain of immortality or eternal youth evokes notions of purification and regeneration. It is related to the fascination of human beings with water and with the benefits for those who would drink it. One of its origins would be the lost Garden of Eden. It is part of imaginary paradises like the philosopher's stone, the elixir of a long life, the universal panacea. Juan Ponce de Leon (1474-1521), governor of Puerto Rico, is said to have left Florida on an expedition for the purpose of finding the fountain of immortality.


A fonte da imortalidade ou da eterna juventude evoca noções de purificação e regeneração. Encontra-se ligada à fascinação dos seres humanos pela água e benefícios para quem a bebesse. Uma das suas origens seria o perdido Jardim do Éden. Pertence aos paraísos imaginários como a pedra filosofal, o elixir da longa vida, a panaceia universal. Juan Ponce de Léon (1474-1521), governador de Porto Rico, teria partido da Florida numa expedição com a finalidade de a encontrar.

Manner of the Epeleios painter-'youth washing himself at the fountain'-attic-kylix-(red-figures)-Vulci-(510-500 BC) Città del Vaticano-Musei

Eduard Veith (1856-1925)-'mythical fountain of youth'

Lucas Cranach the elder (1472-1553)-'fountain of youth'-oil on wood-1546 Berlin-Gemäldegalerie

Giovanni Segantini (1858-1894)-'Amor at the life well. The fountain of youth'-oil on canvas-1896

Hans Sebald Beham (1500-1550)-'fountain of youth'-woodcut-(1530-1545) Washington-National Gallery of Art

NASA's New Lander Prototype Skates Through Integration and Testing

NASA engineers successfully integrated and completed system testing on a new robotic lander recently at Teledyne Brown Engineering’s facility in Huntsville in support of the Robotic Lunar Lander Project at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

The lander prototype was placed on modified skateboards and a customized track system as a low-cost solution to control movement during final testing of the prototype’s sensors, onboard computer, and thrusters. The functional test focused on ensuring that all system components work seamlessly to sense, communicate, and command the lander's movements.

The prototype will be transported to the United States Army Redstone Arsenal Test Center in Huntsville this week to begin strap-down testing, which will lead to free-flying tests later this year.

The lander prototype will aid NASA’s development of a new generation of small, smart, versatile landers for airless bodies such as the moon and asteroids. The lander's design is based on cutting-edge technology, which allows precision landing in high-risk, but high-priority areas, enabling NASA to achieve scientific and exploration goals in previously unexplored locations.

Development of the lander prototype is a cooperative endeavor led by the Robotic Lunar Lander Development Project at the Marshall Center, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory of Laurel, Md., and the Von Braun Center for Science and Innovation, which includes the Science Applications International Corporation, Dynetics Corp., Teledyne Brown Engineering Inc., and Millennium Engineering and Integration Company, all of Huntsville.

For More information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/lunarquest/robotic/11-013.html

Copenhagen Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek-Egyptian Etruscan Mesopotamian

This collection of antiques from various sources reveals the good taste of those who chose the pieces among several from the same places and epochs.


Esta recolha de peças antigas de diversas origens revela o bom gosto de quem as escolheu entre várias dos mesmos locais e épocas.

Unknown-'Ré'-egyptian bas relief

Unknown-'Ramses II and Ptah Tatenen´-egyptian statue

Unknown-'symposium scene'-fresco-etruscan tomb

Unknown-'bull'-relief-Ishtar gate (Babylon)

Unknown-'Gudea of Lagash'-sumerian statue

Christian Cathedrals (Catedrais Cristãs)

In addition to being local daily worship centres, cathedrals were the centre of a lot of pilgrimages during medieval times. The most important pilgrimages to these places had specific routes with local overnight stay.


Além de locais de culto diário eram centros de numerosas peregrinações na época medieval. As peregrinações mais importantes a esses lugares possuíam itinerários específicos com locais de pernoita.

Axel Hermann Haig -'St. Fine Barre's cathedral, Cork'-oil on canvas 1862 Private collection

Boris Mikhaylovich Kustodiev (1878-1927) -'cathedral of Kazan'-oil on canvas

Fyodor Alexeyev (1753-1824)-'the Cathedral Square in Moscow Kremlin'-oil on canvas

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875)-'Chartres cathedral'-oil on canvas-1830 Paris-Musée du Louvre

Claude Oscar Monet (1840-1926)-'Rouen cathedral, full sunlight'-oil on canvas-1894 Paris-Musée du Louvre

Emerald Tungsten Rings As Wedding Or Engagement Bands For Men

Generally, tungsten rings are durable enough to withstand multiple knocks and blows to last for years. Therefore, if you are thinking about buying a wedding band for any man, such a band might be the perfect choice. Normally, the color of this band is grayish white. Gemstones such as sapphires, rubies or emeralds would go well with such a color. Normally, the color of emeralds varies from yellowish-green to dark green. The main color of an emerald stone is green. The color of combination of green and grayish white would be striking.

For those whose birthday falls on the fifth, fourteenth or twenty-third of any month, emerald happens to their lucky stone, which can bring better fame, fortune or luck. So, if you are looking for men's rings, consider this. A person who is born on any of those dates might get great benefit of wearing his lucky stone. Apart from being a lucky stone, emerald has a lovely green hue. Green is generally considered a soothing color. So, many people who stare out at green trees or green garden shrubs feel more relaxed or calm. Wearing a band with an emerald stone can give a similar benefit to the wearer.

When it comes to precious gemstone jewelry, they are usually classified according to the four aspects like color, cut, clarity and carat. Color plays a prominent role for pricing of mens wedding bands. You can also choose titanium rings if you wish to have a brighter color compared to bands made out of tungsten. These bands are more whitish in color, looking similar to platinum or silver. Nevertheless, they are more durable than a band made out of silver or platinum.


Immaterial of whether you choose to wear titanium or mothers rings, they go well with the color of emeralds. If a person's birthday falls on the fifth, fourteenth or twenty-third of any month, an emerald is considered as his lucky stone. Wearing a wedding band with such a stone may bring him better luck, fame or fortune throughout his marriage life.

Tersano ~ Lotus Home Cleaning System ~ GIVEAWAY!!! ~ Ends 2/11

100% Chemical Free Cleaning

The Lotus System has two main functions:

◦to clean and sanitize surfaces with the spray a bottle

◦to remove pesticides and kill germs on food and small objects with a bowl


Benefits:
◦Streak free with zero residues

◦Destroys odors without masking- fragrance-free

◦Kills bacteria that cause food to decay, increasing shelf life up to 400%

◦Destroys pesticides

◦Improves the taste of foods or other edible product


How it Works:

◦The lotus® system's Oxyshield® technology infuses tap water with ozone — a natural sanitizer that is safe and harmless to healthy cells.

◦Ozone-activated water is widely accepted as a safe and effective way to decontaminate all kinds of foods- meats, poultry, seafood, fruits and vegetables.


◦Washing produce in ozonated water significantly reduces pesticide residues on the surface of produce. With the lotus system, expensive "organic" isn't the only way to enjoy food with less pesticides!

◦Ozonated lotus water quickly kills germs all kinds of surfaces — cutting boards, kitchen counters, stovetops, knives, sinks, toilets, garbage cans or diaper pails.

◦Excellent for neutralizing pet odors in carpets, dog beds, upholstery or car interiors.

◦Sanitize everyday items like sponges, dish cloths, small toys, pacifiers, nipples, can openers, kitchen gadgets and utensils — in cool tap water.

I LOVE it!  I use it to clean the whole house and it feels cleaner than ever. The system is super easy to use - just fill the bottle or bowl with tap water in two to four minutes, you've got  liquefied ozone that is ready to be used for up to 15 minutes for optimal sanitizing and 45 minutes for a powerful cleaning solution. I love being able to make up the solution whenever I need it.
.
I am so pleased with the Lotus System - everything feels so clean and I feel good knowing I'm doing it without nasty chemicals. Lotus is good for my family & the environment. The clean feels really clean. It also saves you tons of money on cleansers.

I even water my plants with the water. I am planning on buying the Lotus water treatment system for our drinking water.

So if you're frugal, green, love a really good clean, I would highly recommend the Lotus System.

BUY IT:

You can purchase Lotus Home products online @ http://www.tersano.com/

WIN IT!!!

One lucky winner will receive the Tersano Lotus Home Cleaning System !

MAIN ENTRY:

Visit Lotus Home and tell me something you learned & become a friend @ Wishing Penny. Both parts mandatory to win. Thanks :)

EXTRAS:

*Like/Fan Lotus® @ Facebook ( 3 bonus entries )

*Like/Fan Me @ Facebook ( 3 bonus entries )

*Follow @MyTersano at Twitter

*Follow me @jamaise at Twitter & Tweet this :  RT @jamaise #GIVEAWAY #WIN -Tersano ~ Lotus Home Cleaning System ~ 100% chemical free cleaning~ http://bit.ly/hESY7g ends 2/11  tweet each day for one entry each !

*Subscribe to Wishing Penny via email ( 2 bonus entries )

*Blog about this giveaway & leave me the link ( 5 bonus entries)

*Grab my button & tell me where to find it ( 2 bonus entries )

*Follow my blog via Google Friend Connect ( 3 bonus entries )

*Enter any other giveaway here for one entry each


That's 8 entry methods with tons of bonus & a chance for unlimited entries with daily tweets!


Giveaway will end on February 11th at 12 pm EST. Winner will be selected using Random .org. I will email the winner & you will have 48 hours to reply back before I draw a new winner . Please remember to leave me your email address if it is not visible on your profile so that I can contact you if you win. Good luck to everyone :)


Disclaimer: Tersano provided me with all information and product to review. I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.

Friend Pack ~ 4 DVD Set ~ Angelina Balerina, Barney, Fifi & The Flowertots ~ GIVEAWAY!!! ~ Ends 2/10

It's been snowing all evening. We're snowed in by choice. It's a comfy cozy feeling :))) It was a movie night - I kinda wish my nieces Haylie & Allie were here - they would have loved this selection. The ultimate girl's night.

I love Angelina Ballerina - so does Ju, Barney drives me nuts but I see the value - Juju likes him, neither one of us had ever seen Fifi and the Flowertots - such a cute show :))

This 4 disc set is actually the debut of Fifi & her flowery friends. From Keith Chapman, the creator of the award-winning Bob the Builder series, comes the newest sensation, Fifi and the Flowertots. The series follows Fifi, a Forget-Me-Not and her lovable group of Flowertot friends as they go about their lives in Flowertot Garden. There are always things to make, games to play, problems to solve, and many adventures to be had! Fifi and the Flowertots bloom in more than 160 territories worldwide, including PBS KIDS SproutSM in the US and Treehouse in Canada.

Welcome Fifi!
 
 This set includes the episodes:
 
Angelina Ballerina: Love to Dance: Put on your dancing shoes and get ready to take center stage with Angelina Ballerina! On Angelina's first day at Camembert Academy she discovers new forms of music and dance, like jazz, tap and hip-hop. Get ready to step, leap and groove as you discover your own love of dance in these fun-filled episodes!

Bonus Features: "Angelina Says" Game • "Get Up and Dance" Music Video • "I Will Be a Star" Karaoke Video
Barney: Let's Play School: The children enjoy a fun-filled day at "Baby Bop™'s School" where every lesson includes unexpected surprises. Join Ashley, Hannah, Robert and Jeff as they sing an alphabet song, eat macaroni and cheese and bounce into gym class. When the day is just about done, settle in with Baby Bop and her "blankey" for an afternoon nap. It's an unforgettable day of learning and laughter!

Bonus Features: "Barney - Let's Play School!" Sing-Along • "Barney's ABC Animals" Read-Along • "It's a Great Day for Learning" Song Sampler • "Behind the Scenes" Special Features (Meet the Dinos and Cast)

Barney: Everyone is Special: Join Barney and his friends on a dino-mite day in the park as they celebrate all the things that make them special! From special talents and skills to their very own color, the kids find the fun in being unique. Young or old, short or tall, big or small – Barney knows that from head to toe, everyone is special!

Bonus Features: "The World's Greatest Toy" Interactive Game • "A Healthy Snack" • "Picture Yourself" • "Barney's Jukebox" • DVD-ROM Activities

Fifi and the Flowertots: Fifi's Talent Show: In a magical garden full of excitement and adventure, watch Fifi and her bunch of flowery friends put on their very own talent show. Fifi is so busy helping her friends that she forgets to rehearse, but don't worry – Fifi's friends come to the rescue! Join Fifi and the budding starlets as they sing, dance, laugh and learn in these stories filled with flower petal fun!


Bonus Feature: "Fiddly Flower Petals" Sing-Along

This 4-pack will be released February 1st.

WIN IT!!!

One lucky winner will receive this set for themselves :))

MAIN ENTRY:

Leave me a comment telling me you'd like to be entered & become a friend @ Wishing Penny via Google Friend Connect. Both parts mandatory to win - thanks.

EXTRAS:


*Subscribe to Wishing Penny via email ( 3 bonus entries )
*Like/Fan Me @ Facebook ( 3 bonus entries )

*Follow me @jamaise at Twitter & Tweet this :  RT @jamaise #GIVEAWAY #WIN -Friend Pack ~ 4 DVD Set ~ Angelina Ballerina, Barney, Fifi & The Flowertots http://bit.ly/f6ukFX ends 2/10 tweet each day for one entry each !

*Blog about this giveaway & leave me the link ( 5 bonus entries)

*Grab my button & tell me where to find it ( 2 bonus entries )

*Follow my blog via Google Friend Connect ( 3 bonus entries )

*Enter any other giveaway here for one entry each


That's 8 entry methods with tons of bonus & a chance for unlimited entries with daily tweets!


Giveaway will end on February 8th at 12 pm EST. Winner will be selected using Random .org. I will email the winner & you will have 48 hours to reply back before I draw a new winner . Please remember to leave me your email address if it is not visible on your profile so that I can contact you if you win. Good luck to everyone :)


Disclaimer: Lionsgate provided me with all information and product to review. I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.

Star Trek: Who Mourns for Adonais?

A few links of interest before I begin: Penelope Goodman has a new post about Clash of the Titans here, in which she links to a paper by Gideon Nisbet on gaming and Clash here, which I found very interesting, since I know almost nothing about video games. Meanwhile, this episode of Star Trek is mentioned briefly by Caroline Lawrence in a post on Adonis, which I recommend, especially since I don't discuss him at all here!

In a way, this episode embodies several of the most common features of classic Star Trek. You remember it for a somewhat silly but visually impressive feature of the episode, a lot of it is unintentionally hilarious but it takes a more serious turn towards the end, and it's not actually about what you thought it was about. In this case, having seen the episode a long time ago and not really remembering it, I thought it was going to be another run of gods vs science, in the way modern Trek occasionally decides to approach the issue. In fact, it isn't really about gods or religion at all, except peripherally - what it is really about is men and women in the workplace. As to how well it tackles that issue - well, a full summary is probably the best place to start there.

We open with some delightfully patronising ogling of this week's Guest Female Crewmember and a complaint from Bones about how every female crewmember will eventually find a man and leave the service. Luckily the most memorable part of this episode then makes an early appearance - it's a Giant Green Hand in Space! A 'field of energy', it seems, which quite literally grabs the ship, currently flying through a region with a curious lack of intelligent life (that's what Guest Female Crewmember was trying to tell Kirk, Scotty and Bones while they were admiring the way she filled her tiny dress).

Post credits, the Giant Green Hand reorganises itself into a humanoid man's head, with curly black hair and a gold laurel wreath (well, some leaves, in gold, I presume it's meant to be a laurel wreath). The head (the Big Giant Head, even) intones some portentous-sounding statements about how their journey has ended and they're all going to have a lovely time on his planet. This includes the most extraordinary mix-up of religious bits and pieces. At one point, he says, 'there shall be the music of the pipes' which, as will soon be made clear, is entirely appropriate, but this follows hard on the heels of 'we shall drink the sacramental wine', which very much isn't. I suspect if one tried really hard, one could defend this line - something along the lines of how the word sacrament relates to the Greek mysterion and the Greek mystery religions featured secret rituals that may or may not have involved wine (not that the god in question was the subject of a mystery religion). Greeks certainly poured libations - liquid offerings - frequently and many libations were composed of wine. But really, to any modern Western viewer, 'sacramental wine' quite clearly refers to the Roman Catholic communion wine, and hearing it in this context is just plain off. (And yes, Greek libations may be one of several ultimate sources of the communion ritual - but I don't think that's why the line was included).

The Big Giant Head, amusingly, still seems convinced they're in a sailing vessel. Agamemnon, Hector and Odysseus are referred to as 'history', but given that this episode features an actual Greek god as a space alien I can probably let that one go. He's certainly powerful - he makes Uhura squeal! (Uhura squealing is the first sign something is seriously wrong, the second being a redshirt dying. In the newer series, which are marginally more enlightened gender-wise, the inertial dampners going offline are the first sign, followed by the death of an expendable ensign). The god turns out to be quite the racist, disliking Spock because he looks like Pan, who 'always bored me.' Interesting opinion, given how muc they have in common - perhaps he didn't like having a rival. Anyway, Spock must stay in his room while a landing party goes down to play on the planet.

Bones quickly justifies the presence of this week's Guest Female Crewmember, who is apparently an expert in archaeology and anthropology. I've discussed the portrayal of archaeologists in the media several times, but this one is probably alone in using its archaeologist character chiefly as The Girl (River Song is a bit more complex than that).

The still unnamed Greek god is slightly smaller now, lounging around in pseudo-Greek architecture with his lyre. He finally identifies himself as Apollo - hence the lyre and pipe music, as he is a god of music, among other things (Chekov, new to the show and looking like he fell off the set of The Monkees, immediately responds 'And I'm the Tsar of all the Russias!). Apollo eyes up Guest Female Crewmember - well, that's about par for the course for a Greek god, so for once it's justified! He declares that they will all stay and worship him, and proves how powerful he is by growing to giant size (which looks pretty funny in that tiny gold skirt he's wearing. It's tiny skirts all around in this episode).

A bit of a fuzzy image, but you can see Apollo's tiny skirt, and the back of Carolyn (Guest Woman)'s revealing dress

Kirk quite sensibly maintains that the dude, whatever he is, is not a god of any kind, though he does work out that the guy might actually be Apollo, as in, he may have come to Earth and hung around calling himself Apollo (I wonder if this is the first instance of this now-common plot?). Guest Woman explains, in Vaseline-O-Vision, who Apollo is, including 'he was the god of light and purity, skilled in the bow and the lyre.' It's all more or less accurate, though 'light and purity' is a rather too Christianizing way of putting 'god of the sun' - purity didn't come into it that much (as will become clear).

Guest Woman reminds Apollo of Aphrodite or Athena - both of them? They're not exactly similar! He fancies her, of course, because that is the purpose of the Guest Female Crewmember of the week (see also 'Space Seed'). 'You are beautiful,' he tells her - well yes, she's in Vaseline-O-Vision. Scotty attempts to fight for his woman, all manly-like, and gets a sore hand and broken phaser for his trouble. Apollo puts Guest Woman into a ridiculously revealing sparkly pink outfit - though it's long this time - which is the other purpose of the Guest Female Crewmember of the week, to get put into totally silly clothing (see also 'The Squire of Gothos').

Kirk further explains his Apollo-is-actually-Apollo theory to Bones while Uhura actually does something on the ship, something quite technical sounding. Kirk also defends Guest Woman's attempt to do her job, albeit via the medium of flirting.

Apollo explains to Guest Woman that the other gods floated off into the cosmos due to lack of worship - so, like Discworld gods, these fade without adoration. I can't help feeling that the episode veers into fantasy here - Crazy Powerful Space Alien is Apollo I can just about file as science fiction, but we're on a thin line when they start spontaneously gaining or losing power according to words and thoughts. He pulls it back towards some kind of 'science' by further explaining that disappearing off into the cosmos is a choice made by a god who has become disillusioned through lack of attention, which makes a bit more sense. Hera went first, apparently - clearly being portrayed as an annoying nag in all the epic poems got to her.

Then Apollo snogs Guest Woman, naturally.

Apollo is actually a big bunch of energy, the others work out. He comes back without Guest Woman, at which point Scotty, very amusingly, tries to attack him with a statuette and gets blasted with lightening (his real mistake was being the only member of the landing party in a red shirt). Kirk starts yelling and Apollo takes his voice - but the god keeps fading in and out and is obviously in trouble. Kirk and Chekov discuss this development while Chekov, because this is only his second episode, reminds us all that he's Russian several more times. (He also stands with his hands on his hips, rather like Captain Janeway, and pops one hip out like he's disco dancing all the while, which is quite possibly the funniest thing yet).

Scotty and Kirk recover and Kirk declares that 'most mythology has its basis in fact.' Um, this is quite a long post already, should I really start getting into this now? Let's just say he's wrong and leave it at that - though with the proviso that, given the concept behind the episode, that the Greek myths were true and the gods were space aliens, it makes sense in context, and in Star Trek's own particular mythology. As a generalising statement, though - no, they're not. Kirk observes that even gods require rest after activity, and forms a plan based on provoking Apollo till he loses his energy.

Back on the Enterprise, Uhura's in a mechanic's overalls, fiddling with the electronics - awesome! (Still wearing massive green hoop earrings though). Spock even specifically states that he can think of no one better equipped to handle it when she points out she hasn't done this in years.

Back on the planet, Kirk yells at Apollo, and we see once again the enormous difference between TOS and the later Star Trek series. 'We have no need for gods,' says Kirk - so far, so Star Trek - 'we find the one quite adequate.' Later Trek series did occasionally look at religion from multiple points of view - in Voyager's 'Sacred Ground', for example, and I believe Deep Space Nine went into this more (I haven't seen much DS9) but usually, the standard position for a modern Trek crewmember is atheism (even Tuvok doesn't believe in the katra, though you'd think the events of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock had proved that one fairly conclusively!). Kirk's standard view, however, is monotheism. This episode is not about humankind not needing gods, it's just about them no needing this particular type of god.

All four then go for Apollo, attacking him with words so he can't blast them all at once. They also grab Guest Woman who, like so many Star Trek women, appears to be inflicted with Stockholm Syndrome. However, and again like the others, she just can't let anyone hurt Kirk, so she jumps in front of him and yells at Apollo herself before he can be blasted. She protests that Apollo told her he was gentle and kind and that a father doesn't destroy his children. Here, we've gone back to identifying Apollo with qualities of the Christian god, not the pagan gods - there's nothing gentle or kind about any of the Greek gods (though Apollo was a god of healing, that's about as gentle as they got) and fathers were quite keen to destroy their children in some cases, usually to stop said children destroying them. She insists he mustn't hurt them and he gives in to her big, well mascared, puppy dog eyes.

Apollo insists everyone from the ship come down, while Kirk replies that in that case he expects Apollo to provide the sheep and pipes (teehee). Kirk then formulates a new plan which depends entirely on Guest Woman remaining loyal and getting over her Stockholm Syndrome (don't worry Kirk, given the choice between you and another man, they always choose you).

Guest Woman is left with a choice between being the mother of a new race of gods or going back to being ogled by Scotty. Apollo gives her goddess-powers and she drops in ow her crewmates. Kirk declares that Chekov is too young to talk to her and win her loyalty back - apparently her decision will be based on how manly the guy who talks to her is. Kirk orders her to reject Apollo, which doesn't impress her much as apparently Giant Space Hands turn her on and she's fallen in love with him. She doesn't want to break her love's heart, but it seems one grasp of Kirk's manly grip is enough to turn her around. That, plus an actual order, as Kirk reminds her of her duty as a Starfleet officer.

Uhura's got the communicators working and Spock's worked out a way to kill or disable Apollo, but they don't want to try it while Guest Woman is with him in case it kills her too. So she, unaware of this, has to get on with rejecting him by telling him she's only been studying him as a scientist. Typically of Apollo, he resorts to ordering her to stay, which doesn't impress her at all. Then there's a really disturbing scene where he produces a raging storm (did he get Zeus's powers as well when Zeus faded?) and Guest Woman is attacked by the wind of the storm, which blows up her skirt, at which point the camera moves up to her face... it's all very accurate to Greek mythology and actually very effective (at least she doesn't turn into a laurel tree). The show doesn't get more specific than that, of course, and while Apollo's distracted Spock and the others save the day but still... nasty.

Apollo is still alive, but less powerful. Weeping, he tells them he would have cherished and loved them, but Kirk tells him they've 'outgrown' him (which is a very nineteenth-century-anthropologist viewpoint). He gives up and 'fades', or goes into space, or whatever, and Kirk and Bones discuss how they wish they hadn't had to destroy him and how fabulous the Greeks were while Guest Woman falls, weeping, into Scotty's arms.

As with so much of the depiction of women in classic Trek, this episode is full of mixed messages. Overall, Guest Woman appears to prove Bones wrong by choosing her duty over her love and Uhura is, as ever, made of awesome, but we haven't quite reached full enlightenment. Uhura still squeals when things get scary, which none of the male characters do, and Guest Woman's reassertion of her job, her independence and her duty results in (sexual) assault, from which she must be pulled away by Scotty, who spends the rest of the episode with his arms around her. However, it's an interesting dramatisation of what must have been a hot issue at the time.

So why are the Greek gods involved? Well, this is about men and women and on one level, the myths of gods like Apollo symbolise the most basic ancient concept of the relationship between men and women; men pursue and women are conquered and have babies. We've grown beyond that, Kirk insists (all evidence from his own behaviour to the contrary!). On the other hand, it's not quite as simple as all that. The title refers to mourning for the loss of beauty, and all the stranded landing party end the episode mourning for Apollo and for the idyllic dream he promised them of a life herding sheep and playing pan-pipes. (Of course, in reality, no such trouble-free idyll ever existed, but that's not really the point). Apollo represents an older way of life that had its good points as well as its bad, but that is no longer appropriate to the way we want to live our lives. It makes a rather nice metaphor, though it falls down a bit because none of the main characters really explain what, exactly, the gods did to inspire Agamemnon and co. or why they needed them.

The best thing about this episode is that it uses the now-familiar trope of the god who's really a space alien to do something other than pit 'scientific' heroes against religious fanatics (I love Stargate, but that is not my favourite plot!). This does something much more interesting, comparing ancient Greek values to those of the viewer and reminding viewers of the importance of acknowledging the acheivement of the past, but moving on, beyond ideas that are no longer considered valid.

From: http://www.trekp.com/gallery02.htm

Housework (Trabalhos caseiros)

Lower social classes have always performed their housework with the help of several family members.


Em todos os tempos as classes sociais menos favorecidas executaram os seus trabalhos caseiros com recurso aos diversos familiares.

Albert Samuel Anker (1831-1910)-'queen Bertha and the spinners'-oil on canvas-1888

Albert Samuel Anker (1831-1910)-'industrious'-'die Arbeitsamen' oil on canvas-1883

Albert Samuel Anker (1831-1910)-'kids breakfast'-'kinderfrüstück' oil on canvas

Albert Samuel Anker (1831-1910)-'girl chicken feedings'-'Mädchen hühner fütternd' oil on canvas

Albert Samuel Anker (1831-1910)-'knitting girl'-'strickendes Mädchen vor Fensternisches'-aquarell Private collection

NASA Comet Hunter Spots Its Valentine

NASA's Stardust spacecraft has downlinked its first images of comet Tempel 1, the target of a flyby planned for Valentine's Day, Feb. 14. The images were taken on Jan. 18 and 19 from a distance of 26.3 million kilometers (16.3 million miles), and 25.4 million kilometers (15.8 million miles) respectively. On Feb. 14, Stardust will fly within about 200 kilometers (124 miles) of the comet's nucleus.

"This is the first of many images to come of comet Tempel 1," said Joe Veverka, principal investigator of NASA's Stardust-NExT mission from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. "Encountering something as small and fast as a comet in the vastness of space is always a challenge, but we are very pleased with how things are setting up for our Valentine's Day flyby."

The composite image is a combination of several images taken by Stardust's navigation camera. Future images will be used to help mission navigators refine Stardust's trajectory, or flight path, as it closes the distance between comet and spacecraft at a rate of about 950,000 kilometers (590,000 miles) a day. On the night of encounter, the navigation camera will be used to acquire 72 high-resolution images of the comet's surface features. Stardust-NExT mission scientists will use these images to see how surface features on comet Tempel 1 have changed over the past five-and-a-half years. (Tempel 1 had previously been visited and imaged in July of 2005 by NASA's Deep Impact mission).

Launched on Feb. 7, 1999, Stardust became the first spacecraft in history to collect samples from a comet (comet Wild 2), and return them to Earth for study. While its sample return capsule parachuted to Earth in January 2006, mission controllers were placing the still-viable spacecraft on a path that would allow NASA the opportunity to re-use the already-proven flight system if a target of opportunity presented itself. In January 2007, NASA re-christened the mission "Stardust-NExT" (New Exploration of Tempel), and the Stardust team began a four-and-a-half year journey for the spacecraft to comet Tempel 1. This will be the second exploration of Tempel 1 by a spacecraft (Deep Impact).

Along with the high-resolution images of the comet's surface, Stardust-NExT will also measure the composition, size distribution and flux of dust emitted into the coma, and provide important new information on how Jupiter-family comets evolve and how they formed 4.6 billion years ago.

Stardust-NExT is a low-cost mission that will expand the investigation of comet Tempel 1 initiated by NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages Stardust-NExT for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. Joe Veverka of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., is the mission's principal investigator. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft and manages day-to-day mission operations.

For More information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stardust/news/stardust20110126.html

Valentine's Day Reminder ~ Eden Fantasys

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NASA's Hubble Finds Most Distant Galaxy Candidate Ever Seen in Universe

Astronomers have pushed NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to its limits by finding what is likely to be the most distant object ever seen in the universe. The object's light traveled 13.2 billion years to reach Hubble, roughly 150 million years longer than the previous record holder. The age of the universe is approximately 13.7 billion years.

The tiny, dim object is a compact galaxy of blue stars that existed 480 million years after the big bang. More than 100 such mini-galaxies would be needed to make up our Milky Way. The new research offers surprising evidence that the rate of star birth in the early universe grew dramatically, increasing by about a factor of 10 from 480 million years to 650 million years after the big bang.

"NASA continues to reach for new heights, and this latest Hubble discovery will deepen our understanding of the universe and benefit generations to come,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, who was the pilot of the space shuttle mission that carried Hubble to orbit. “We could only dream when we launched Hubble more than 20 years ago that it would have the ability to make these types of groundbreaking discoveries and rewrite textbooks.”

Astronomers don't know exactly when the first stars appeared in the universe, but every step farther from Earth takes them deeper into the early formative years when stars and galaxies began to emerge in the aftermath of the big bang.

"These observations provide us with our best insights yet into the earlier primeval objects that have yet to be found," said Rychard Bouwens of the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. Bouwens and Illingworth report the discovery in the Jan. 27 issue of the British science journal Nature.

This observation was made with the Wide Field Camera 3 starting just a few months after it was installed in the observatory in May 2009, during the last NASA space shuttle servicing mission to Hubble. After more than a year of detailed observations and analysis, the object was positively identified in the camera's Hubble Ultra Deep Field-Infrared data taken in the late summers of 2009 and 2010.

The object appears as a faint dot of starlight in the Hubble exposures. It is too young and too small to have the familiar spiral shape that is characteristic of galaxies in the local universe. Although its individual stars can't be resolved by Hubble, the evidence suggests this is a compact galaxy of hot stars formed more than 100-to-200 million years earlier from gas trapped in a pocket of dark matter.

"We're peering into an era where big changes are afoot," said Garth Illingworth of the University of California at Santa Cruz. "The rapid rate at which the star birth is changing tells us if we go a little further back in time we're going to see even more dramatic changes, closer to when the first galaxies were just starting to form."

The proto-galaxy is only visible at the farthest infrared wavelengths observable by Hubble. Observations of earlier times, when the first stars and galaxies were forming, will require Hubble’s successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

The hypothesized hierarchical growth of galaxies -- from stellar clumps to majestic spirals and ellipticals -- didn't become evident until the Hubble deep field exposures. The first 500 million years of the universe's existence, from a z of 1000 to 10, is the missing chapter in the hierarchical growth of galaxies. It's not clear how the universe assembled structure out of a darkening, cooling fireball of the big bang. As with a developing embryo, astronomers know there must have been an early period of rapid changes that would set the initial conditions to make the universe of galaxies what it is today.

"After 20 years of opening our eyes to the universe around us, Hubble continues to awe and surprise astronomers," said Jon Morse, NASA's Astrophysics Division director at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "It now offers a tantalizing look at the very edge of the known universe -- a frontier NASA strives to explore."

Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., in Washington.

For More information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/farthest-galaxy.html

Austrian-Turkish War (1683) - Guerra Austro-Turca (1683)

A Holy League with the participation of Polish, Austrian and German troops was created for the defense of Austria against the Ottoman Empire. Vienna was under siege for two months until the arrival of the Poles. Jan Sobierski, king of Poland, took command of the defending army. The grand vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha Merzifonlu (1634-1683) led the 90,000 Ottoman troops. When the battle in the mountains of Vienna (Kahlenberg) finished, Sobierski met Leopold I in Schwechat. He offered the victory to the Pope while paraphrasing Julius Caesar “venimus, vidimus et Deus vicit”. With this victory the Habsburgs gained remarkable predominance in Central Europe.


Para a defesa da Áustria contra o Império Otomano criou-se a Liga Santa na qual participaram tropas Polaco-Austro-Alemãs. Viena esteve sitiada dois meses até à chegada dos Polacos. Jan Sobierski, rei da Polónia, assumiu o comando do exército defensor. Dirigia os 90.000 soldados Otomanos o Grão-vizir Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha (1634-1683). Finda a batalha nas montanhas de Viena (Kahlenberg), Sobierski encontrou-se com Leopoldo I em Schwechat. Ofereceu a vitória ao Papa e parafraseou Júlio César «venimus, vidimus et Deus vicit». Com esta vitória os Habsburgos ganharam grande predominância na Europa Central.

Franz Geffels (1635-1699)-'Vienna battle at the Kahlenberg 1683'-oil on canvas Wien-Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien (Karlplatz)

Juliusz Kossak (1824-1899)-'Schlacht bei Wien 1683, unter dem Kommando von König Johann II Sobieski von Pole. Im Hintergrund stift Klosternenburg' 'Battle of Vienna in 1683, under the command of King John II Sobieski of Poland. In the background pin Klosternenburg '-oil on canvas-1882

Józef Brandt (1841-1915)-'leaving Vienna or return from Vienna 1683'-oil on canvas

Jan Matejko (1838-1893)-'Sobieski sending message of victory to the Pope'-oil on canvas

Arthur Grottger (1837-1867)-'Sobieski meeting Leopold I after battle of Vienna, September 12, 1683'oil on canvas-1859 Lviv-Art Gallery

Valentine's Day ~ Sibu Beauty ~ Repair & Protect, Cleanse & Detox Combo ~ GIVEAWAY!!! ~ Ends 2/8

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Sea buckthorn facial cream is wonderful as well. I normally don't like cremes - they always seem heavy as if you can feel the residue on your skin. I generally choose serums or oils. This creme however, goes on light and dissolves into your skin quickly. It feels very nourishing.
 
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One lucky winner will receive a  Sea buckthorn facial soap & Sea buckthorn facial cream Repair & Protect, Cleanse & Detox Combo :))
 
MAIN ENTRY:
 
Visit Sibu Beauty and tell me which product you'd really like to try & become a friend @ Wishing Penny via Google Friend Connect. Both parts mandatory to win - thanks :)
 
 
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*Like/Fan Sibu @ Facebook ( 3 bonus entries )

*Like/Fan Me @ Facebook ( 3 bonus entries )

*Follow @Sibu_Beauty at Twitter

*Follow me @jamaise at Twitter & Tweet this :  RT @jamaise #GIVEAWAY #WIN -  Valentine's Day ~ Sibu Beauty ~ Repair & Protect- Cleanse & Detox Combo <3  http://bit.ly/ga1eJ8 ends 2/8 tweet each day for one entry each !

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Giveaway will end on February 8th at 12 pm EST. Winner will be selected using Random .org. I will email the winner & you will have 48 hours to reply back before I draw a new winner . Please remember to leave me your email address if it is not visible on your profile so that I can contact you if you win. Good luck to everyone :)


Disclaimer: Sibu Beauty provided me with all information and product to review. I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.