Mary River Turtle

This came as part of an email purporting to be National Geographic images of the year. They were stunning, but this fellow caught my eye. There is a whole blog about it here at wordpress. Here is the description on several Blogs:

The australian amateur photographer Chris Van Wyk was snorkeling in the  Mary River, a river system in South East Queensland, Australia, when met this beauty and didn’t lose the cance to take some amazing shots.

Some weeds have grown on the head of this  Mary River Turtle creating the illusion of a green crest that could make even a Sex Pistols really envious…

Click here to see the whole Chris Van Wyk’s Flickr Gallery

There’s not much more to say about it… his smile won me over!

Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis, father of Hand Washing

Sometimes the world just calls you. I have been soliciting input from people in my life for this Blog, and Jack Churchill suggested Ignaz. Then I am watching childrens TV and one of the cartoon characters was named Ignaz Semmelweis. SO he is my next entry even though I had never heard of him before… bbut I guess that the point of this Blog! Here is the beginning of his Wiki entry: Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis (July 1, 1818 – August 13, 1865) was a Hungarian physician described as the “savior of mothers”,[1] who discovered by 1847 that the incidence of puerperal fever could be drastically cut by the use of hand disinfection (by means of hand washing with chlorinated lime solution) in obstetrical clinics. He singlehandedly (what is the sound of one hand washing?) reduced mortality to below 1%, though no-one took him seriously until after his death when Pasteur  confirmed the germ theory. Incidentally he died at age 47 after a nervous breakdown, presumably from not being listened to. Oh, when you go to Wikipedia, it also has this great image of him as a boy!

He was in great conflict with the prevailing ideology of the time that disease was the imbalance of the four humors and required bloodletting. He also was up against the ego of Doctors who felt that their social status precluded the concept that their hands could be considered unclean. He also pioneered sterilization of instruments. But the medical community so fought him that he fell into depression and despair and aged prematurely. A great man of science and a savior of women, so few know his name.

Armstead Snow Machine

Armstead Snow Motors from Seeking Michigan on Vimeo.

This was created in 1924…why haven’t we seen it before? It seems to work beautifully! EIther click the image above, or click here to see it in action!

Andy Goldsworthy, Natural Artist

Rocks arranged by color

From Wikipedia: “Andy Goldsworthy (born 26 July 1956) is a British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist living in Scotland who produces site-specificsculpture and land art situated in natural and urban settings. His art involves the use of natural and found objects, to create both temporary and permanent sculptures which draw out the character of their environment.” Andy Goldsworthy has always been a favorite of mine. His works not only are set in nature, reflecting the natural beauty of creation,but the are literally made from nature. He uses no man made items such  as string or nails or glue… he pins leaves with thorns and arranges rocks by color, or applies flower petals to achieve color. He holds ice in place with spit until it sets. His creations are each inspiring and yet they vary so much that there is an eagerness set up to see the next boundary he crosses, in the same way the “Three Dudes from Tokyo” do with Pitagora Suichi. Goldsworthy’s works are featured in a documentary called “Rivers and Tides”, and beyond the art he creates, his very life is an enviable artpiece. Make sure you seek out and see his icework, his leafwork, his stacked rocks and his water reflections.

Plastic Wrap Tab

 

Who Knew?

So someone pointed out to me that plastic wrap rolls have this push in tab that you are supposed to activate before using. This keeps the roll from pulling out when you tug out a sheet, and keeps it steady while you rip the sheet against the cutting edge. Apparently they have been made like this for a long time, but not only had i never noticed, I rarely find anyone else who knows it! How do these things get by us?

 

Giant Crystal Caves in Mexico

 

Giant Crystals

I was going to make my next post a simple household hint that everyone should know, when I saw a documentary on National Geographic about these crystals. My jaw dropped. Those are people on those crystals. Apparently the Earth has these mind blowing phenomena at a level below the crust that we just never get to see, but the configuration of the caves in Mexico gets us to this one. It is so hot and filled with poisonous gases that researchers can only be in there for about 9 minutes! It makes you wonder if the areas of the world that are considered spiritual energy vortexes like Sedona or Shasta, perhaps they are right on top of a certain configuration of crystals! You can see more of these incredible images at www.nationalgeographic.com Household hint to follow!

 

Luther Burbank, American Inventor

Luther Burbank was one of the great American Inventors, as important as Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, both of whom were friends of his. He suggested to Ford the use of factory automation processes. As a botanist he developed more than 800 strains and varieties of plants over his 55-year career. Burbank’s varied creations included fruits, flowers, grains, grasses, and vegetables. He developed a spineless cactus (useful for cattle-feed) and the plumcot.
Burbank’s most successful strains and varieties include the Shasta daisy, the Fire poppy, the July Elberta peach, the Santa Rosa plum, the Flaming Gold nectarine, the Wickson plum, the Freestone peach, and the white blackberry. A natural genetic variant of the Burbank potato with russet-colored skin later became known as the Russet Burbank potato. This large, brown-skinned, white-fleshed potato has become the world’s predominant potato in food processing.
Though most people have heard his name (often in reference to schools names), few know about the contributions he made to the American food table. He also was very spiritual and was referred to in “Autobiography of a Yogi” by Paramahansa Yogananda
“His heart was fathomlessly deep, long acquainted with humility, patience, sacrifice. His little home amid the roses was austerely simple; he knew the worthlessness of luxury, the joy of few possessions. The modesty with which he wore his scientific fame repeatedly reminded me of the trees that bend low with the burden of ripening fruits; it is the barren tree that lifts its head high in an empty boast.” (Yogananda, 1946, p. 352)

Tom Dowd, Music Producer

Tom Dowd was a brilliant mathematician and physicist who changed careers abruptly after the development of the atomic bomb and changed the course of musical history. He is responsible for Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk, Cream, Rod Stewart, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Allman Brothers Band, Dusty Springfield and countless other celebrated musicians. Dowd also formed both strong professional and personal relationships with many of these artists, including Eric Clapton, starting with Cream and leading to their working partnership on Layla and Other Assorted Loves Songs and collaborations on several of Clapton’s finest solo albums. So much of the music i love was produced by him, and yet he was man behind the curtain. Even being responsible for so much of musical history, he, like Geoff Emerick before him, was paid only scale and was never compensated commensurate to the contribution he made to history. See http://www.thelanguageofmusic.com/

Louis Kahn, Architect

Louis Kahn
Every architect knows the prolific and groundbreaking work of Louis Kahn, but few average people know more than I.M. Pei and Frank Lloyd Wright. He was first brought to the attention of the general public in the film “My Architect” by his son Nathaniel Kahn. Part of the interest was generated by the circumstances of his death… he was found dead in the men’s room at Penn Station, when Nathaniel was 11. The journey he takes into his father’s life reveals multiple families, which adds to his lurid mystique. But the central element of his genius remains the extraordinary works of architecture around the world, and as the film takes us from building to building, you are confronted with the enormity of his vision and realize what was lost. If you look up Louis Kahn in either Google or Wiki, there are some gpood photos of his works.

Chihuly, the Art of Glass

Happily the world of art is a broader spectrum than most categories. Most people can name 10 artists; Michelangelo, Leonardo Davinci, Raphael, Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Monet, Seurat, Toulouse Latrec, Andy Warhol, Klee etc.But how many lawyers can you name? Melvin Belli…. who was the Monkey Scopes guy…hmmm. When people can name more lawyers than artists I’ll really start to panic.
So an incredible talent that everyone in Seattle knows is Chihuly (http://www.chihuly.com/) His glass work stands out in its beauty, size and presentation. He is aware of the space around his work, seeing the boundary of his work as the beginning of the setting of the negative space, and as such presents his work against the work of nature, framing it in the spectrum of life’s majesty. He is also a character and that never hurts…. was Liberace really that amazing of a piano player?
I have more fine artists I want to share, but my thinking is that I want to vary the categories as much as possible so the next installment will be the architect and scientist you should know about. Later, Clif (www.newmoongraphics.com)