Pareidolia took Queen's Elizabeth Dollar Canadian bill out of the market

I love Nicholas's Intelliblog and whenever I visit it I learn or I'm touched by something. Today it was the concept pareidolia that I knew by experience but didn't know it had a name:

Pareidolia is a peculiarity of our brain wiring whereby it attempts to look for the familiar in the unfamiliar. The burnt toast really doesn’t look like President Obama, we know that. Our brains tell us that it’s an impossibility, however, this doesn’t stop us from seeing something resembling human features in the configuration of light and dark areas of toasted bread.

Likewise, listening the constant drone of rushing water while in the shower can give rise to an experience of an auditory pareidolia (or to be more precise, a paracusis). We may think we hear the phone ringing or snatches of conversation. The white noise of the falling water stimulates the brain to manufacture all sorts of auditory misperceptions. Scientist Carl Sagan proposed that pareidolia confers on humans an evolutionary advantage, especially where visual stimuli are concerned. He proposed that the human brain has evolved so that it is “hard-wired” to recognise the human face and easily distinguish a myriad variations of the basic features. This allows fast discrimination of friend from foe, but will also allow us to create order out of a chaotic pattern of light and shade, manufacturing a resemblance to a face of patterns on inanimate objects. Pareidolia is perhaps the most innocent form of this tendency of humans to create order out of chaos. (emphasis mine)

How many times I experienced pareidolia! Watching at the clouds and seeing animals appearing and disappearing, faces in stains or at the morning toast.

I really like the idea that it is "an innocent form this tendency of humans to create order out of chaos".

The Queen's Elizabeth portrait appeared on a Canadian dollar bill in 1954 and so many people saw the devil on the Queen's hair (highlighted area) that the bill went out of circulation. The drawing was done from a photography and of course there was no devil.

Fail: Hella Heaven's fail series

Second Hella Heaven's Fail series.

Award day! Sunshine award

I love the awards! I think that it is a way to tell other bloggers that you like their work, create interrelation between bloggers and it also makes people see that bloggers are powerful and deserve awards.

Blogosphere is still new and I believe that in a near future blogs will have right categories and it will be easier to find at search engineerings what we want. Surely... official awards from the Royal Academy, Amnesty International, Ford Foundation, Nobel Prize... lol and, of course, those who are really doing a good job will receive incentives... dream, dream, dream...

The Sunshine award was given to me by Maznah at Cooking Varieties. She is a very special blog friend that I had the luck to know.

Rules of the award:

Rules:

1- Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them.

2- Tell us something about yourself.

3 -Nominate 10 other bloggers.

4 -And let them know you awarded them!

Thank you very much for remembering to pass me this award Mazhah. I'm very honored. Maznah made me share a recipe at her blog something I never thought I would do.

I'm Ana and... hmmm cough, cough,... well, this is so hard! lol Read my profile. I love reading, listening to music, the sun, sharing ideas the beauty and the ugly of human beings affects me in a deep way.

Now the ten bloggers. This is hard because I wish I could give it to all of those who I admire. There is a lot of great bloggers. It's amazing! But here it goes the ten:

Herrad at Access Denied;

Ken Foster at Ken's Sketch Journal;

Mark at Psych Survivor 2.0;

Missy at Missyz Stuff;

Moonomo at Moonstruck on Earth;

Mortonlake at Caring and Sharing;

Muff at Kaleidoscope Muff;

NewsmeBack at Citizen Journalism blog;

Susan at If you're going through hell keep going;

Tony at Tony's Blog;

Thank you all.

I don't know how to knit

I came across with this picture of a girl knitting her sweater at Hyena in Petticoats a while ago and today I wanted to share it. I think this is an amazing picture. The way the girl stares at us and the way her body is positioned says "I'm embarrassed. I have to finish it quickly."

The left picture is at Distance Knitting and I loved this colors and different patterns and textures. Even thou grandma tried many times to teach me I don't know how to knit. It's great that other people do!

Still women prefer spending a huge amount of money in any item that has a label with letters or symbols of a glamorous brand than buying something handmade that is exclusive and very well done.

Usually handmade clothes cost nothing compared to the famous brands.

Country road at sunset by Mari

Mari again! I posted her here and here and as I'm sure I'll publish more of her pictures I'm creating a tag for her. Didn't visit her blog yet? 
Isn't it a lovely road for the dog below?

The Harley Dog

Isn't he irresistible?

Have a great Weekend! found here.

Second of the "Dogs with human professions series".

Luis Moreno-Ocampo International Criminal Court's prosecutor accused of rape?

This is the second time that I find this .pdf file "Complaint against ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo concerning serious misconduct" and I cannot pretend that I didn't see it again
I wish people were informed about what has really happened since his judgement is questionable.
Sometimes it seems that there's no more room for irony in this world. How can it be that a prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is accused of rape? The same man that now wants to be recognized for accusing Muammar Qaddafi of crimes against humanity and demanding his soldiers to rape have morals to do so?
He also set free Thomas Lubanga accused of using children as weapons of war because he withdrew information during the trial.
At the article "Why the world's most powerful world's prosecutor should resign" for The Telegraph Joshua Rozemberg also claims for more explanations.
And now this:

NAIROBI, Kenya Jun 10 - ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo has lost an opportunity to file submissions on the request by 59 victims who have applied to appear before the court to raise their concerns on what they underwent during Kenya's deadliest poll violence. Capital News. by Bernard Momanyu

  
Is the International Criminal Court joking? 

Update:
At this post "ICC - International Criminal Court to request arrest warrant for Qaddafi" May, 16, 2011 it was Ocampo who spoke for the ICC.

Picasso's blue period: two women

They need silence.

Raoul Dufy's regattas

I have nothing to say about Dufy. Just wanted to plunge in his blue. This water...

There's something about blue that touch us deeply.

"Because the sky is blue it makes me cry

Because the sky is... blue!"

John Lennon

Delacroix's "Liberty leading the people": Without liberty there is no freedom

I took these pictures of Delacroix's painting "Liberty leading the people", at this post, at Second Life because it shows a intense light coming from the inside and also to make details more visible. My avatar is at the first and sixth picture as a way to give the dimension of the reproduction. The personification of liberty as a woman of huge proportions with a serene expression but power enough to lead the people is striking. Without liberty there is no freedom.

"Fuck the draft!" led Paul Cohen to court 40 years ago

June, 7 1971: 
1. Facts of Case Cohen v. California 403 (1971)
This case came about when Paul Robert Cohen 19 was arrested after he wore a jacket with the words “Fuck the Draft” expressing his opinion of the draft for the Vietnam war while exiting out of a Los Angeles court room on April 26, 1968.

2. Legal Issue

The legal issues at hand was that even though Cohen did not wear the jacket while in the court room he still in fact wore it while existing the Los Angeles court room which put him in violation of section 415 of the California Penal Code, which prohibited maliciously and willfully disturbing the peace or quiet of any neighborhood or person by offensive conduct. The case was brought before the courts to determine if his actions fell within his right to the 1st and 14th amendment or was he in fact in violation of the California Penal code

3. Rule of Law

While the Court of Appeal thought that Cohen was in violation of the Penal code sentencing him to thirty days of imprisonment.
4. Analysis
After the retrial the court decided that by displaying a four letter word he was not in fact inciting negative behavior with the public. The court ruled declared that a court could not censor speech in order to peace. The courts relied on decisions made with Stromberg v. California and the United States v. O’Brien saying that he wanted to be expressive conveying only his opinion making notion to incite a disturbance of any sort.
5. Conclusion
“The defendant did not engage in, nor threaten to engage in, nor did anyone as the result of his conduct” The court reversed the Court of Appeals decision by 5-4
Source: The First Amendment Rocks!

Image: Dr. Peter L. Steinberg when he was 21 years-old sat next to the poster Fuck the Draft, Dirty Linen Corporation, NY, late 60s;

Michelangelo's contrast of colors revealed

The site WebExhibits is dedicated to the study of colors in a very easy and stimulating way. This is the way they explained how Michelangelo exaggerated the contrasts of color:

"Just a few years after Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) achieved tonal unity, Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) tried a different approach. His colors are brilliant and contrasted, whereas da Vinci’s are subdued and unified. Michelangelo’s contours are crisp and set off against a contrasting background, whereas da Vinci’s blend and avoid silhouette.

Doni Holy Family, Michelangelo Buonarroti, c. 1503.

Michelangelo mixes his colors with both black and white to maximize the contrast range for all the colors he uses. This means the lighter parts of each color (even the black of Joseph’s tunic) are almost white and unrealistically de-saturated."

The only color that has a high enough luminance in pure form is the yellow of Joseph’s cloak; Michelangelo does not have to de-saturate the yellow to get a high value. Therefore, the yellow robe has a different quality from all the others, the hues of which vary substantially in saturation and therefore look somewhat metallic. By using such a wide range of luminances, Michelangelo achieves vivid depth from shading. Still, both contemporaries and present day critics were surprised by his use of color. Why?

Michelangelo was the undisputed master of drawing in 16th century Italy. The cleaning of the Sistine Chapel ceiling and the Doni Tondo have revealed him to be a colorist of great originality, working with a fully-saturated palette.

Keep reading here. Browse the site if you're interested in studying colors. They have interactive tools.

Larry Roibal's drawings on newspapers

Larry Roibal's is a freelancer illustrator with 20 years of experience.

He loves to draw and he illustrates the newspapers's news daily.

At his blog you can find a collection of "Ball point pen on the morning newsprint". He draws on the newspaper's articles and writes a little giving this way his views and analysis of what he reads.

Visiting his blog to reread the news and admire his work brings back the pleasure of reading the news since journalism is far from doing a good job in informing and telling the truth.

Fortunately we have blogs.

Fun: Rubik's cube

Funny, I said the same.

Tiananmen Square: honoring the memory of those who died

Left images are at Tiananmen Square and right Chinese students.

These children, and all children of the world, need happiness and peace.

My homage to Degas

In the center, the Little Dancer, is a sculpture by Edgar Degas I saw at the Louvre.

I did this still life. Painting? Nope. At this National Gallery site you create your own still life. There are apples, oranges, books, vases, and everything you need for a still life. It's very interesting because you can change light, shadow and add what you want. I loved the mirror showing the front image of the dancer instead of the back. It is a Magritte touch I guess.

There are other activities at the site The Art Zone and children can have fun.

Hella Heaven's Rules for Rulers

Nobody tried to explain some basics to some of them. Let's tell them the dos and don'ts without all that jargon.

Tiananmen Square massacre 22th anniversary: The Tiananmen Mothers

The night of June, 3, 1989, in Tianamen Square... unthinkable is the word that comes to my mind. How can it be that a group of people united in peace in a square, the only way to address to their governments, is massacred? Call me naive, stupid whatever but it makes no sense. This is all I want to say today. I have published two posts remembering the unknown hero. That was enough for this blog stop being available in China.

The activist group Tiananmen Square mothers was offered money to silence:

"In an interview with a public German broadcaster, Ding Zilin, the 74-year-old spokeswoman of the Mothers, appeared shocked and appalled at the authorities’ offer, saying while the group welcomed the fact that families had been contacted, the authorities "should not approach us in this manner. Our relatives were killed on government orders, so the government should set up official offices for us. We simply can’t bargain with security police who have had us under surveillance for the past 20 years. That is insult and we won’t accept it."* via DW world.

When the site of the Tiananmen Mothers was launched in 2008, the Chinese government blocked it.

Do we have to remember Chinese government what they ordered to be done in Tiananmen Square twenty one years ago? It seems not since they are doing all they can not to stop people from talking about it and claiming for justice. I congratulate and thanks the Tiananmen Mothers for their work.

Click at the picture to visit. You can use the google translator. I did it and I could understand.

Rule number one: "when people are united reclaiming what they think it is right for them DON'T KILL THEM!."

Update: June,5

I changed the title for "22th anniversary" instead of "21th anniversary". Not good in maths.

David Hockney's enhanced reality

David Hockney was among the pop artists in the sixties but his work is so diverse that it's hard to put any label.

This post was supposed to be about his photocollages where he plays with reality enhancing it's boundaries in a very unique way that inspired many artists. I couldn't make up my mind which works to choose.

His site is a collection of his works that include drawings, paintings, photographies, graphics all part of Hockney's world.

These two paintings are very known and I want to share them with you. The left one seems to be influenced by his collages. I'll post some of them.

Liberty leading the people by Eugene Delacroix

Delacroix painted "Liberty leading the people" in 1830 and could never imagine that his work would be studied for so many decades witness, and guide, other periods in history.
I've been seeing this painting in many places, sites and blogs lately.
Here there is a good article about many interpretations and academical studies of the work.
I rather watch it watching us.