Dürer's Rhino
126 posts
I am cautiously optimistic regarding a new government in Egypt. I am extremely worried that the military will step in to fill the void. I’m not the only one:
“I hoped for a peaceful transition of power which followed the law, so I am worried about this move. This is what the people want, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good for them. This is a very worrying time and the people who are celebrating now should stop treating this like a soccer match. They just wanted to get the president to step down, but they weren’t thinking about the ramifications. The army must give an exact declaration of what they will do. The only legal authority now is from members of parliament. If the army says that they will dissolve our parliament then we will have no constitution, no government and no vice-president. I’ve just been out onto the streets and everyone is waving flags and sounding horns. Most of my friends are not happy about this, because we don’t like the idea of the army taking power. We don’t need another 60 years of military rule.”
– Maged Salib, Cairo
A pheromone released by female squid has been found to send male squid into a rage, increasing their willingness to fight for the opportunity to mate. This levels the playing field for young, small, or shy males who, in other species, may just leave the females to the larger, more aggressive males.
The new art must be based upon science — in particular, upon mathematics, as the most exact, logical, and graphically constructive of the sciences.
– Albrecht Dürer - (1471 – 1528)
When you think of the Renaissance, you probably think of da Vinci, Michelangelo, or another Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. You should also think of Albrecht Dürer, and not just because he was pretty face. He was also a theoretical mathematician who applied his findings to his art, making leaps and bounds in representing the scale and proportion of his subjects.
Ask any art student what the most difficult thing is to draw and 9 times out of 10 you will get “hands” as your answer. Dürer nailed them. And since figurative art apparently wasn’t challenging enough, he painted landscapes, religious iconography, plants, and architecture. He studied animal forms and reproduced them in previously unimagined detail. Not satisfied with simply painting, Dürer created woodcuts and copper engravings to make prints. He made a couple of astronomical maps, too. Oh, and he was a published author on geometry and human proportions in art.
So, yeah. Leonardo et al. were geniuses, but Dürer was geniuser.
Instead of typing up and distributing the notes from my monthly meeting with my Director, I drew a target on the whiteboard across from my desk and I am flinging tiny farm animals at it using my desktop trebuchet. The only way this could be better is if I was wearing a helmet. This helmet:
I don’t just surf the internet, I travel it. One second I’m looking up Jude Law’s IMDB profile and the next I find myself reserving a book at the library on religious asceticism in the Middle Ages.
My travels have a soundtrack that is just as hyperkinetic in its apparent lack of theme. I make lousy mix-tapes because of this.
This was my most recent collision of internet searching and music:
I can’t upload the video by any method, so go to the link at Buzzfeed and watch it. It’s worth it. I promise.
(Edit: FIXED! ~BMCFC)