The Last Supper: Da Vinci painting in high resolution
October 28, 2007
Have you ever physically stood in front of Leonardo Da Vinci’s masterpiece The Last Supper and studied the details of the 15th century painting by one of mankind’s greatest artists and thinkers? If you have, your time was limited. In Milan’s Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, where the masterpiece painting is housed, only a handful of visitors are allowed in at any one time and must leave after 15 minutes.
If you have never had the privilege of viewing Leonardo Da Vinci’s masterpiece The Last Supper in person, do not despair. Thanks to HAL9000, an Italian imaging company, Leonardo Da Vinci’s masterpiece The Last Supper is available for viewing online at an amazing high resolution of 16 billion pixels.
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Candy: Retro candy favorites of the 50s, 60s, 70s
October 28, 2007
Halloween is hay bales and the pumpkin patch, carving pumpkins, roasting pumpkin seeds, creating a unique costume, trick-or-treating and the ultimate candy sugar rush. According to the National Confectioners Association, Halloween is the single biggest holiday in candy sales. No surprise there. When it comes to the consumption of candy, Easter is the next biggest day for candy sales, followed by Christmas and finally Valentine’s Day.
While chocolate is the perennial favorite among candy lovers of all ages, chocolate is certainly not the only candy favorite. Depending on when you were born and the nostalgic candy memories of childhood, candy nostaglia can differ from decade to decade. As a child of the 60s, my candy favorites were any penny candy as well as Bit o Honey, Sugar Daddies, Sugar Babies, Chick-O-Sticks, Boston Baked Beans and Big Hunk.
In researching the decades of candy popularity, I discovered some of the candy favorites of children in the 50s, 60s and 70s are similar and some unique to the decade.
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Daylight Savings Time: Change in time delayed
October 27, 2007
Slightly bad news for those looking forward to getting an extra hour of sleep this Saturday night.
The switch from Daylight Savings Time to Standard Time — the time each year in the last weekend of October when the hands of the clock are turned back one hour — has been delayed a week. This year, the move back to Standard Time from Daylight Savings Time will occur the first weekend of November.
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Catalog Choice: Go green stop the catalogs
October 27, 2007
The holiday shopping season is upon us. How many unwanted shopping catalogs did you receive in the mail last year? From here on out, you can rid yourself of unwanted catalogs. Catalog Choice is a free service that will help you stop the madness of unwanted catalogs getting stuffed into your mailbox.
Oh sure, we can keep throwing the catalogs that clutter our mailbox into the recycle bin or trash, however stopping the postal mailbox pollution will save millions of trees that are needed to create and publish those catalogs in the first place. It’s alarming to realize that almost half of the the planet’s original forest cover is gone today. According to Catalog Choice, the production and disposal of direct mail alone consumes more energy than three million cars and the manufacturing, distribution, collection and disposal of catalogs generates global warming gases as well as air and water pollution.
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Yoda: Star Wars Jedi Master new postage stamp
October 27, 2007
The Star Wars Saga souvenir sheet of postage stamps featuring Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Chewbacca, Princess Leia Organa and R2-D2, C-3PO, Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Emperor Palpatine, stormtroopers, Boba Fett, the Millennium Falcon, an X-wing starfighter, Queen Padmé Amidala, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, and Darth Maul created by Star Wars poster artist Drew Struzan was offered by the United States Postal Service (USPS) this last Spring.
By popular vote from stamp collecting customers, Jedi Master Yoda was deemed the most favorite character of the Star Wars souvenir sheet of first class stamps. As such, Yoda is now featured in a pane of 20 stamps.
Known for his unique speech of ending sentences in verbs, mischievous, benevolent and the teacher who has mastered the enigmatic wisdom and power of the Force, it is easy to understand how Yoda became one of the most beloved characters in the Star Wars saga.
A few of my favorite Yoda quotes are:
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How sex and drawing are the same
October 26, 2007
“We’re not making pretty perfect pictures. We’re making a record of what we see.” — Danny Gregory
In midlife, it took a life crisis and the intimate introduction to my own mortality to stop the direction of my life long enough to question where I had been and where I was headed, what held meaning and what seemed shallow. Had I been true to my uniquely authentic creative self? Had I allowed my creativity to nourish, define, and give shape to my life? Had I been using creativity to understand the simplest pleasures and deeper meanings of life? If not — as I was to realize upon reflection of the questions — could creativity help me sort things out to understanding and finding my way now?
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Carole King: Welcome to My Livingroom
October 26, 2007
On October 23, Carole King’s Welcome to My Living Room DVD became available. The same day, Carole King was presented with the Living Legend Award at the Dreamers into Doers Awards Gala.
The Dreamers and Doers recognizes those who have taken their pursuits and passions and by starting businesses and/or philanthropic efforts have bettered the communities where they live.
Carole King is the first to receive the first Living Legend Award for inspiring creativity and hope for many decades.
Of Rock ‘n Roll fame as a singer and songwriter, Carole King has spent many years an avid environmentalist.
“When I first started educating legislators about the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA), most people didn’t even know what an ecosystem was,” states King. “Today, with the perils of global warming on everyone’s mind, NREPA is a win/win for the planet and for the American taxpayer.”
Over the decades, Carole King has entertained and inspired us with her music and ideas. Within the official Carole King website is an area called the Ideas page. King states,
“I decided to call this page Ideas because ideas are important to all of us; the idea of love; the idea of family; of contributing to the well-being of humanity and animals and taking care of the environment; of affecting even one person in a positive way during your lifetime.”
Born in 1942, the singer, songwriter, and pianist Carole King has been honored with four Grammy Awards and has been inducted into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She resides in Idaho with her long-time partner Gerry Goffin.
Pumpkin Mini Muffins: Comfort food recipe
October 25, 2007
In addition to using the following pumpkin mini muffin recipe to make mini muffins, the recipe can be used to make pumpkin bread or pumpkin bundt cake. Simple vary the baking times depending on how you choose to use the pumpkin batter. It is a very tasty basic pumpkin muffin and pumpkin bread recipe.
Bite size pumpkin mini muffins won’t last long on the counter. The muffins tend to be grabbed up in multiples. They are that popular with kids and adults.
I add a crumb topping to the pumpkin mini muffins but it is not necessary. Just an extra bit of goodness.
And I like to think that pumpkin as a major ingredient makes the muffin a little more nutritious for my family and friends. Canned pumpkin is easy to keep stocked in the pantry and if you wait until this time of year to stock up, canned pumpkin is usually always on sale at a good price. A seasonal sale coinciding with Thanksgiving, pumpkin pie and all.
Here then is the recipe for Pumpkin Mini Muffins:
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Halloween Safety Month
October 25, 2007
It’s October and that means Halloween. People are carving pumpkins, putting together costumes, and stocking up on candy in preparation for this spooky holiday. While you are getting your trick-or-treat bags ready, the people at Prevent Blindness America want you to remember to be safe this Halloween.
Prevent Blindness America has created a fact sheet with tips for Halloween safety. The fact sheet has a list of Halloween safety recommendations. Some of the recommendations are:
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Lost Book of Nostradamus: video premiere
October 25, 2007
The Lost Book of Nostradamus is believed to be the last and final work of Nostradamus.
Twelve years ago, while researching old texts at the Italian National Library in Rome, Italian journalist Enza Massa discovered the manuscript titled Nostradamus Vatinicia Code. On the inside of the book the name of Michel de Notredame appears. Now known as the Lost Book of Nostradamus, the manuscript includes over eighty watercolor illustrations by Nostradamus. Some of the illustrations by Nostradamus are described as cryptic and bizarre images.
The Lost Book of Nostradamus will premiere on the History Channel Sunday, October 28th at 9pm/8central time. The special will seek to answer the question as to why the manuscript was hidden for over four hundred years and if the images in the Lost Book of Nostradamus is a prophecy and warning that the end of the world is near.
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