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Famous Quotes

"Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted."

Albert Einstein

Neujahrskonzert 2012

Slender loris

The slender loris is a small, nocturnal primate found only in the tropical rainforests of Southern India and Sri Lanka. They are able to live in wet and dry forests, as well as lowland and highland forests. They prefer thick, thorny vegetation wherein they can easily escape predators and find the large assortment of insects that is the mainstay of their diet. The Indian government has laws protecting the slender loris, but its effect is difficult to gage.

Deaf not dead

Around 1796, by the age of 26, Beethoven began to lose his hearing. He suffered from a severe form of tinnitus, a "ringing" in his ears that made it hard for him to hear music; he also avoided conversation. The cause of Beethoven's deafness is unknown, but it has variously been attributed to typhus, auto-immune disorders (such as systemic lupus erythematosus), and even his habit of immersing his head in cold water to stay awake. The explanation from Beethoven's autopsy was that he had a "distended inner ear," which developed lesions over time.

Beethoven lost his hearing, but composed some of his later pieces while literally pounding the piano with his ear close to the keys. When he premiered his magnificent 9th Symphony, he conducted it without hearing a single note. Because of his deafness—and perhaps the fact that he had not conducted in public for 12 years—Beethoven’s conducting was sporadic and unsynchronized with the orchestra. A member of the orchestra even had to turn him around so that he could see the enthusiastic approval of the audience. Beethoven broke down in tears.

A Tale of Two Cities

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

by Charles Dickens

Couvade Syndrome

Couvade syndrome is a medical/mental condition which “involves a father experiencing some of the behavior of his wife at near the time of childbirth, including her birth pains, postpartum seclusion, food restrictions, and sex taboos”. The term originally referred to the medieval Basque custom in which the father, during or immediately after the birth of a child, took to bed, complained of having labour pains, and was accorded the treatment usually shown women during pregnancy or after childbirth. In some extreme cases, fathers can grow a belly similar to a 7-month pregnant woman and gain approximately 25 to 30 pounds (“phantom pregnancy”). Other symptoms include and are not limited to developed cravings, suffered nausea, breast augmentation, and insomnia.

Pallete of colors: Yellow

Malian Woman
by M.S.Lewis 

 

Yellow evokes the shine of the sun and is found throughout nature and the man-made world as a color that commands attention. This highly visible hue is found on everything from bumblebees to school buses, traffic signs to highlighters. Misbehaving soccer players are shown yellow as a warning, and Tour de France racers know the man in yellow is the rider to beat.

Here, a woman in Diafarabe, Mali, holds her brilliant yellow scarf against a blue African sky.

10 facts about food

1. Apples, potatoes, and onions all taste the same when eaten with your nose plugged.
2. The consumption of natural vanilla causes the body to release catecholamines (including adrenalin) – for this reason it is considered to be mildly addictive.
3. Banana trees are not actually trees – they are giant herbs.
4. Ketchup was originally a fish sauce originating in the orient.
5. Seven-Up – invented in 1920 contained Lithium – the drug commonly prescribed now to sufferers of bi-polar disorder.
6. Sushi is not from Japan. It originated in the 4th century BC, in Southeast Asia. It eventually spread to China, and was introduced into Japan in the 8th century.
7. Honey doesn’t spoil. It is the only known food source that keeps indefinitely in its raw form.
8. The fortune cookie was invented in San Francisco in 1909, at the Japanese Tea Garden Restaurant
9. Limburger cheese is notorious for its strong and generally unpleasant odor. The bacteria known as brevibacterium linens causes this. It is also found on human skin and is partially responsible for body odor.
10. If you are looking for vitamin C, then fresh fruit is best, but other than that, dried fruit contains just as many nutrients and sugar for energy as fresh fruit.

The Well-Stocked Kitchen

Sleep Paralysis

Sleep Paralysis is a condition that affects many people in the world. It is directly related to the REM sleep stage and dreaming. Sleep paralysis corresponds with REM atonia, which is the state of paralysis that occurs during REM sleep. A person experiences sleep paralysis when the brain awakes from the REM sleep cycle, but the paralysis state remains. The person is conscious, but unable to move. They continue to dream and in many cases can visually experience their dreams in their room. A person experiencing sleep paralysis is not fully conscious, but well aware of what is happening. The experience has been described as distorted tunnel vision. The paralysis state may be accompanied by extreme hallucinations and a sense of danger. Many historical claims of alien abduction have been explained by extreme cases of sleep paralysis.

The Nightmare, by Henry Fuseli  (1781)
 is thought to be one of the classic depictions of sleep paralysis perceived as a demonic visitation.

Neujahrskonzert 2012

Johann Strauss Jun. / Josef Strauss - Vaterländischer Marsch

Epic dreams

Epic dreams are extremely vivid and can be life changing. These dreams are so compelling that they will often generate a greater awareness of your natural surroundings. Epic dreams will give you a fresh and new perspective on an aspect of life. When you wake up from an epic dream you will feel as if you have discovered something profound or amazing. The epic dream will remain with you for years. People who experience these types of dreams often report a continuous storyline that constitutes an entirely different and ongoing life. Many people sleep during their epic dreams, having a dream within itself.

The Kiss

Gustav Klimt
(1862 - 1918)

Dreams as world changing events

Dreams have often been credited with influencing world changing events.

Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein after having a dream about the monster. “I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half-vital motion.”

Elias Howe was a sewing machine pioneer who greatly influenced the product in the middle of the 19th century. He is recorded as saying that he had a vivid dream about a group of cannibals that were preparing to cook him. They were dancing around a fire waving their spears up and down. Howe noticed that in the head of each spear there was a small hole, which ultimately gave him the idea of passing the thread through the needle close to the point, not at the other end. It was a major innovation in making mechanical sewing possible.

The scientist Friedrich August Kekulé discovered the seemingly impossible chemical structure of benzene (C6H6) after having a dream about a group of snakes swallowing their tails.

In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA. Watson later reported that the idea came to him after dreaming of a series of spiral staircases.

A few days prior to his death Abraham Lincoln discussed a dream with his wife in which he previewed a dead body wrapped in funeral vestments surrounded by hundreds of mourners. He claims to have been told by a soldier that the president had been assassinated.

Palette of colors: Green

A pool of water at the mouth of Rio Frio Cave reflects the greenery of Belize’s Chiquibul Forest and frames a visitor in silhouette. The easily accessible river cave is a popular attraction

Lady Godiva rode naked?

Lady Godiva was an Anglo-Saxon noble woman who is supposed to have ridden through the streets of Coventry naked in order to force her husband – Leofric (968–1057) – to remove an unfair tax on his tenants. Both she and her husband were very generous to the poor and religious institutions in their time. In 1043 Leofric founded and endowed a Benedictine monastery at Coventry and it is believed that his wife, Godiva, was the primary instigator of this. It is very possible that the legend has sprung from this particular event. But there is no doubt that her husband was a very generous man with little need for coercion. Interestingly, the legend of the Peeping Tom also arises from this myth as later versions of it describe a man, Tom, who peeped at Lady Godiva whilst she rode naked, and was struck blind.

Beginning

It's only the beginning now

...a pathway yet unknown
At times the sound of other steps
...sometimes we walk alone

The best beginnings of our lives
May sometimes end in sorrow
But even on our darkest days
The sun will shine tomorrow.

So we must do our very best
Whatever life may bring
And look beyond the winter chill
To smell the breath of spring.

Into each life will always come
A time to start anew
A new beginning for each heart
As fresh as morning dew.

Although the cares of life are great
And hands are bowed so low
The storms of life will leave behind
The wonder of a rainbow.

The years will never take away
Our chance to start anew
It's only the beginning now
So dreams can still come true.

Gertrude B. McClain

The Doctor by Luke Fields (1844-1927)
It depicts dawn’s early rays streaming in a window, marking the end of night and the rising hope of seeing their child live through the night. Overcome by emotion and hope, the mother drops her head onto her hands while the father comforts her through a simple touch.

Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on,
With all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.