Friday 31 October 2008

Leroy Neiman Ryder Cup painting

Leroy Neiman Ryder Cup paintingLeroy Neiman 37th Ryder Cup paintingLeroy Neiman 18th at Valhalla painting
In some cases, the colour of the border framing the picture was changed, in other cases the colour of the woman's blouse varied. Red, blue, green, grey and white were tested. In all cases, red was judged the most The men were much more likely to ask out a woman wearing red. And they estimated they would spend almost twice as much on her as one in blue.
Despite the clear effect, the men insisted colour played little role in their choices, suggesting they were oblivious to the power of red.
The study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, claims to provide the first hard evidence of 'society's enduring love affair with red'.
From the red body paints used in ancient fertility rituals, to the phrase 'red light district' and the red hearts of Valentine's Day, the colour has long been associated with romance.
In the animal world, red often signals a female is at her most fertile, with female baboons and chimps blushing conspicuously at this time.
Men are not alone in being attracted to red. The research suggests a man in scarlet is just as irresistible to women.

Thursday 30 October 2008

John William Waterhouse Apollo and Daphne painting

John William Waterhouse Apollo and Daphne paintingVincent van Gogh Tree and Man paintingVincent van Gogh In the Jardin du Luxembourg painting
eyes, she felt her heart kick out, twice, so painfully that she feared it might stop; because in that indistinct form she seemed to discern the incarnation of her soul's most deeply buried desire. She forgot the Norman invaders as if they had never been, and struggled down a slope of treacherous pebbles, too quickly for the safety of her not-quitenonagenarian limbs, so that she could pretend to scold the impossible stranger for trespassing on her land.
Usually she was implacable in defence of her beloved fragment of the coast, and when summer weekenders strayed above the high tide line she descended upon them _like a wolf on the fold_, her phrase for it, to explain and to demand: -- This is my garden, do you see. -- And if they grew brazen, -- getoutofitsillyoldmoo, itsthesoddingbeach, -- she would return home to bring out a long green hose and turn it remorselessly upon their

Thomas Kinkade Sunset at Riverbend Farm painting

Thomas Kinkade Sunset at Riverbend Farm paintingThomas Kinkade Make a Wish Cottage 2 paintingVincent van Gogh Wheat Fields painting
fatted days. But now the fleets plying the waters around the peninsula have grown hardier, their crews more skilful, their navigational instruments more accurate. The camel trains are losing to the boats. Desert-ship and sea-ship, the old rivalry, sees a tilt in the balance of power. Jahilia's rulers fret, but there is little they can do. Sometimes Abu Simbel suspects that only theidea am I?_ I bend. I sway. I calculate the odds, trim my sails, manipulate, survive. That is why I won't accuse Hind of adultery. We are a good pair, ice and firefifteen with a flap of his hand. _The boy. Hind will go on seeing him, obviously; what chance does he have against her will?_ It is a weakness in him, he knows, that he sees too much, tolerates too much. He has his appetites, why should she not have hers? As long as she is discreet; and as long as he knows. He must know; knowledge is his narcotic, his addiction. He cannot tolerate what he does pilgrimage

John William Waterhouse Waterhouse Narcissus painting

John William Waterhouse Waterhouse Narcissus paintingJohn William Waterhouse waterhouse Ophelia paintingJohn William Waterhouse Hylas and the Nymphs painting
Mahound and the goddesses Mahound, against his followers' advice, returns to Jahilia, going straight to the House of the Black Stone. The disciples follow him in spite of their fear. A crowd gathers in the hope of further scandal or dismemberment or some such entertainment. Mahound does not disappoint them.
He stands in front of the statues of the Three and announces the abrogation of the verses which Shaitan whispered in his ear. These verses are banished from the true recitation, _al-qur"an_. New verses are thundered in their place.
"Shall He have daughters and you sons?" Mahound recites. "That would be a fine division!
"These are but names you have dreamed of, you and your fathers. Allah vests no authority in them."
He leaves the dumbfounded House before it occurs to anybody to

Tuesday 28 October 2008

Amedeo Modigliani Landscape painting

Amedeo Modigliani Landscape paintingAmedeo Modigliani Caryatid 1 paintingAlphonse Maria Mucha Summer painting
Vishnu, the metamorphoses of Jupiter, who had imitated Vishnu by adopting the form of a bull; and so on, including of course the progress of , now as cockroaches, now as kings, towards the bliss of no-morereturns. _To be born again, first you have to die_. Chamcha did not bother to protest that in most of the examples Gibreel provided in his soliloquies, metamorphosis had not required a death; the new flesh had been entered into through other gates. Gibreel in full flight, his arms waving like imperious wings, brooked no interruptions. "The old must die, you get my message, or the new cannot be whatnot."
Sometimes these tirades would end in tears. Farishta in his exhaustion-beyond-exhaustion would lose control and place his sobbing head on Chamcha's shoulder, while Saladin -- prolonged captivity erodes certain reluctances among the captives -- would stroke his face and kiss the top of his head, _There, there, there_. On other occasions Chamcha's irritation would

Edgar Degas Woman Combing Her Hair painting

Edgar Degas Woman Combing Her Hair paintingFrederic Edwin Church Autumn paintingTitian Sacred and Profane Love [detail] painting
Puddinglane, Threadneedlestreet, zeroing in on London like a bomb.
o o o
When the impossible happened, and his father, out of the blue, offered him an English education, _to get me out of the way_, he thought, _otherwise why, it's obvious, but don't look a gift horse andsoforth_, his mother Nasreen Chamchawala refused to cry, and volunteered, instead, the benefit of her advice. "Don't go dirty like those English," she warned him. "They wipe their bee tee ems with paper only. Also, they get into each other's dirty bathwater." These vile slanders proved to Salahuddin that his mother was doing her damnedest to prevent him from leaving, and in spite of their mutual love he replied, "It is inconceivable, Ammi, what you say. England is a great civilization, what are you talking, bunk."

Monday 27 October 2008

Georges Seurat Sunday Afternoon on the Island of la Grande Jatte painting

Georges Seurat Sunday Afternoon on the Island of la Grande Jatte paintingWilliam Blake Songs of Innocence paintingVincent van Gogh Red vineyards painting
danger I was still in from the conspirators, and from the Senate, and from the Guards battalions at Ac Camp? Of Messalina and our unborn child? Of my grandmother Livia and my promise to deify her if ever I became Emperor? Of Postumus and Germanicus? Of Agrippina and Nero? Of Camilla? No, you would never guess what was passing through my mind. But I shall be frank and tell you what it was, though the confession is a shameful one. I was thinking, "So, I'm Emperor, am I? What nonsense! But at least I'll be able to make people read my books now. Public recitals to large audiences. And good books too, thirty-five years' hard work in them. It won't be unfair. Pollio used to get attentive audiences by giving expensive dinners. He was a very sound historian, and the last of Romans. My History of Carthage is full of amusing anecdotes. I'm sure they'll enjoy it."
That was what I was thinking. I was thinking too, what opportunities I should have, as Emperor, for consulting the secret archives and finding out just what happened on this occasion or on that. How many twisted stories still remained to be straightened out. What a miraculous fate for a historian! And

John William Waterhouse The Lady of Shalott painting

John William Waterhouse The Lady of Shalott paintingLeonardo da Vinci The Last Supper paintingLeonardo da Vinci Mona Lisa Smile painting
can focus on providing massive value to other people and figure out an engaging way to communicate that value, everything else will take care of itself. You’ll still have to work hard, but you won’t have to worry about sacrificing your authenticity. And you won’t have to worry about selling your soul to do what you love.Let’s take the example of the musician. Say his name is Joe. Now, Joe wants to make a living off of his music. Luckily, Joe was born with a lot of creative talent, so he doesn’t have to work very hard at that. But he wasn’t born with the technical ability
I’ve learned that helping others (providing value) and increasing my knowledge and skills (increasing the ability to provide value) is the key to success.
In the spirit of this post by Leo, I’d like to end this with an offer. How can I help you? Drop me a line on the contact form on my , or respond in the comments

Friday 24 October 2008

Raphael Madonna of Loreto painting

Raphael Madonna of Loreto paintingWilliam Bouguereau The Virgin of the Lilies paintingWilliam Bouguereau The Nymphaeum painting
customers and that Caligula should not take too high a commission on the money earned. Much to my disgust I was dragged into this Business, by being dressed up as the comic porter. Caligula, wearing a mask and disguising his voice, was the bawd-master, and played all the usual bawd-master tricks for cheating his guests of their pleasure and their money. When they protested, I was called upon to act as chucker-out. I am strong enough in the arms, stronger than most men, I may say, though my legs are very little use to me; so I caused a great deal of amusement by my clumsy hobbling and by the unexpectedly heavy drubbing I gave the guests when I managed to get hold of them. Caligula declaimed in a theatrical voice, the lines from Homer;
Vulcan with awkward grace his office plies. And unextinguished laughter shakes the skies.

Theodore Chasseriau The Tepidarium painting

Theodore Chasseriau The Tepidarium paintingFrancisco de Goya Teresa Sureda paintingEmile Munier Pardon Mama painting
astonished and overcome by Caligula's genius as a prosecutor. He repeated the counts against himself, point by point, praising them with a professional detachment and muttering "Yes, that's quite unanswerable" and "He's got the last ounce of weight out of that argument" and "A very real dilemma" and "What extraordinary command of language!" When Caligula had finished and sat down with a triumphant grin, Afer was asked if he had anything to say. He answered: "Nothing except that I consider myself most unlucky. I had counted on using my oratorical gifts as some slight offset against the Emperor's anger with me for my inexcusable thoughtlessness in the matter of that cursed inscription. But Fate has weighted the dice far too heavily against me. The Emperor has absolute power, a clear case against me, and a thousand times more eloquence than I could ever hope to achieve even if I escaped sentence and studied until I was a centenarian." He was condemned to death, but reprieved the next day.
Speaking of weighted

William Bouguereau The Nymphaeum painting

William Bouguereau The Nymphaeum paintingWilliam Bouguereau The Madonna of the Roses paintingWilliam Bouguereau The Wave painting
he was asked to throw a javelin at it from his box. He threw one arid missed, and was annoyed with himself for missing, arid called for another. He had always prided himself on his skill with the javelin and did not want the soldiers to think that old age had beaten him. So he got hot and excited, hurling javelin after javelin, trying to hit the boar from an impossible distance, and finally had to stop from exhaustion. The boar was untouched and Tiberius ordered it to be released as a reward for its skill in avoiding his shots.
The chill settled on his liver, but he continued travelling back to Capri. He reached Misenum: it lies at the nearer end of the Bay of Naples. The Western Beet has its headquarters here. Tiberius was annoyed to find the sea so rough that he could not cross. He had a splendid villa, however, on the promontory of Misenum-it had once belonged to the famous epicure Lucullus

Thursday 23 October 2008

William Merritt Chase Venetian Balcony painting

William Merritt Chase Venetian Balcony paintingLorenzo Lotto Lotto Architect paintingTitian Venus with Organist and Cupid painting
Sejanus's death-all his friends who had not been quick in making the change-over, and a great many of those who had. The ones who did not anticipate death by suicide were hurled from the Tarpeian cliff of the Capitoline Hill. Their estates were confiscated, Tiberius paid the accusers very little; he was becoming economical. On Caligula's advice he framed charges against those accusers who were entitled to benefit most heavily and so was able to confiscate their estates too. About sixty senators, two hundred knights and a thousand or more of the commons died at this time. My alliance by marriage with Sejanus's family might easily have cost me my life, had I not been my mother's son. I was now allowed to divorce M'tia and to retain an eighth part of her dowry. As a matter of fact I returned it all to her. She must have thought me a fool. But I did this as some compensation for taking our little child Antonia away from her as soon as she was born. For M}ia had allowed herself to become pregnant by me as soon as she felt that Sejanus's position was

Montague Dawson Evening Shadows painting

Montague Dawson Evening Shadows paintingJohn Singleton Copley The Death of Major Pierson paintingJohn Singleton Copley The Copley Family painting
elevated him to senatorial rank and made him his colleague in the Consulship and a pontiff. But he then did something else which quite cancelled these favours: he invited Caligula to Capri for a few days and then sent him back armed with a most important letter to the Senate. In the letter he said that he had examined the young man, who was now his heir, and found him of a very different temper and character from his brothers and would, indeed, refuse to believe any accusations that might be brought against his morals or loyalty. He now entrusted Caligula to the care of Alius Sejanus, his fellow-Consul, begging him to guard the young man from all harm. He appointed him a pontiff too, and a priest to Augustus.
When the City heard about this letter there was great rejoicing. By making Sejanus responsible for Caligula's safety Tiberius was understood to be warning him that his feud with Germanicus's family had now been carried' far enough. Sejanus's Consulship was regarded as a bad omen for

Claude Monet The Cape Martin painting

Claude Monet The Cape Martin paintingClaude Monet The Bridge at Argenteuil paintingClaude Monet Spring 1880 painting
been current when he was a younger man, all accusing him of being a drunkard, and that in recent years he had been ordered by his doctors to abstain from wine because of a tendency to gout, and that several libels had lately been published accusing him of bloodthirstiness. He asked the accused whether he was not aware of these facts, and whether he thought that the epigram could refer to anyone but his Emperor. The wretched man agreed that he had heard the libels on Tiberius's drunkenness but knew them to have no foundation in truth and had not made any connection in his mind between them and the one on his gate. He was then asked why he had not reported the former libels to the Senate as it was his duty to do. He answered that when he had heard them it was not yet a punishable offence to utter or repeat any epigram, however scurrilous, written against anyone, however virtuous; nor treason to utter or repeat scurrilities directed even against Augustus so long as one did not publish them in writing. Tiberius asked to what time he referred

Henri Rousseau Landscape with Cattle painting

Henri Rousseau Landscape with Cattle paintingHenri Rousseau Horse Attacked by a Jaguar paintingHenri Rousseau Happy Quartet painting
succession to old Occia who had just died. I told Agrippina that if she made friends with Cocceius and Vipsania (who as Castor's mother would do all in her power to help her) she was safe, and so were her children. She took my advice. Vipsania and Callus, who were very sorry for her, made her free of their house and their three country villas and took a great deal of trouble with the children. Callus, for instance, chose new tutors for the boys because Agrippina suspected the old ones of being agents of Sejanus. Nerva was not so much help. He was a jurist and the greatest living authority on the laws of contracts, about which he had written several books: but in all other respects he was so absent-minded and unobservant as to be almost a simpleton. He was kind to her, as he was to everyone, but did not realize what she expected from him.
Unfortunately Vipsania died soon afterwards and the effect on Tiberius was apparent at once. He no longer made any serious attempt to conceal his sexual depravity, the rumours of which everyone had shrunk from taking

Wednesday 22 October 2008

Thomas Kinkade The Rose Garden painting

Thomas Kinkade The Rose Garden paintingCaravaggio Amor Vincit Omnia paintingRaphael Saint George and the Dragon painting
these dreadful relics was a lead tablet on which was Germanicus's name. The house was ritually cleansed and Germanicus began to be more cheerful, though his stomach continued troublesome.
Soon after this hauntings began in the house. Cocks' feathers smeared in blood were round among the cushions and unlucky signs were scrawled on the walls in charcoal, sometimes low down as if a dwarf had written them, sometimes high up as if written by a giant-a man hanging, the word Rome upside down, a weasel; and, though only Agrippina knew of his private superstition about the number twenty-five, this number was constantly recurring. Then appeared the name Germanicus, upside down, every day shortened by a letter. It would have been possible for Plancina these dreadful relics was a lead tablet on which was Germanicus's name. The house was ritually cleansed and Germanicus began to be more cheerful, though his stomach continued troublesome.
Soon after this hauntings began in the house. Cocks' feathers smeared in blood were round among the cushions and unlucky signs were scrawled on the walls in charcoal, sometimes low down as if a dwarf had written them, sometimes high up as if written by a giant-a man hanging, the word Rome upside down, a weasel; and, though only Agrippina knew of his private superstition about the number twenty-five, this number was constantly recurring. Then appeared the name Germanicus, upside down, every day shortened by a letter. It would have been possible for Plancina

Tuesday 21 October 2008

Pierre Auguste Renoir La Loge painting

Pierre Auguste Renoir La Loge paintingPierre Auguste Renoir Dance at Bougival paintingMary Cassatt Children Playing On The Beach painting
Instant gratification isn’t fast enough for me Carrie Fisher
Everywhere you turn, the world is moving faster and we’re expecting things sooner. Think about how many times a day you hear or say something like this:
* I’ll need that ASAP. * Can you FedEx that next-day please? How about same day? * Two Big Macs to go please – and make it quick.
Developing patienceWe live in a 24/7/365 world, learning how to fit 12 hours of work into 8 hours days – working smarter not harder, and we want everything now, now, now. Where we once said hold your head up, keep a positive attitude, we now say – can I get that sooner?
We are bombarded by commercials every day

Francisco de Goya Nude Maja painting

Francisco de Goya Nude Maja paintingchilde hassam Wayside Inn Sudbury Massachusetts paintingEdgar Degas Four Dancers painting
had Gallon and Pallas with me and lived a quiet orderly life. I took an interest in the farm attached to my villa and enjoyed occasional visits from friends in Rome who came out for a holiday. There was a woman permanently living with me, called Acre, a professional prostitute and a very decent woman, I never had any trouble with her in the fifteen years she was with me. Our relationship was a purely Business one. She had deliberately chosen prostitution as her profession; I paid her well; there was no nonsense about her. We were quite fond of each other in a way. At last she told me that she wanted to retire on her earnings. She would marry a decent man, an old soldier for choice, and settle down in one of the colonies and have children before it was too late. She had always wanted to have a houseful of children. So I kissed her and said good-bye and gave her enough dowry-money to make things very easy for her. She did not go away, though, until she had found me a successor whom she could trust to treat me properly. She found me

Monday 20 October 2008

Frida Kahlo Self Portrait painting

Frida Kahlo Self Portrait painting
Frida Kahlo Self Portrait with Monkey painting
hubbub arose. Men stripped themselves to the skin to show the clean silver scars of honourable wounds on their breasts and the ragged and discoloured marks of flogging on their backs. One decrepit old man broke from the ranks, and running forward pulled his mouth open with his fingers to show his bare gums. Then he shouted, "I can't eat hard tack without teeth. General, and I can't march and fight on slops. I served under your father in his first campaign in the Alps and I'd done six years' service even then. I've two grandsons serving in the same company as myself. Give me my discharge. General. I dandled you on my knees when you were a baby! And look. General, I've got a rupture and they expect me to march twenty miles with a hundred pounds'
Frida Kahlo Diego and Frida painting
weight on my back."
"Back to the ranks, Pomponius," ordered Gennanicus, who recognized the old man and was shocked to find him still under arms. "You forget yourself. I'll look into your case later. For Heaven's sake show a good example to the young soldiers!"
Pomponius saluted and returned to the ranks. Germanicus held up his

Mark Rothko paintings

Mark Rothko paintings
Montague Dawson paintings
pleased that I had come forward so willingly and said that he would speak to Tiberius about my offer. But nothing came of it. Perhaps Tiberius believed me incapable of any useful service; perhaps he was merely annoyed at my coming forward with this request when his son Castor had hung back and had persuaded Augustus to send him to raise and train troops in the South of Italy. that nearly all the available reserves of fighting men in Italy had been used up. Augustus was at his wits' end to find an army to send out under Tiberius to secure the Rhine bridgeheads, which apparently the Germans had not yet seized, Of Roman citizens who were liable for service few came forward willingly on
Mary Cassatt paintings
that all was over and killed himself rather than fall alive into the hands of the enemy. Most of the senior officers surviving followed his example, and many of the men. Only one officer kept his head-the same Cassius Caerea who fought

Bartolome Esteban Murillo paintings

Bartolome Esteban Murillo paintings
Berthe Morisot paintings
should protect your health care decisions by at least appointing a care power of attorney. This designates the person who will make your decisions. They are bound to make the decisions that you want, not what they think is best.
To go the extra mile, you can execute a living will. This document attempts to set forth your wishes for different medical scenarios. Then your health care agent will be bound to act according to this document. If you neglect both of these care documents, your might be in the hands of someone you don’t trust.
3. Select the correct beneficiaries
Do you have a policy or retirement plan? Who are your beneficiaries? If your estate is listed as the beneficiary, your heirs could be in for a surprise when you pass away.
and retirement plans automatically pay the designated beneficiary when the policy holder dies. To make sure your family or other heirs get this money, you should designate them by name as the beneficiaries. If your estate gets paid directly, the true beneficiaries will be in for a long
childe hassam paintings

Friday 17 October 2008

Guido Reni reni Aurora painting

Guido Reni reni Aurora paintingFrancois Boucher Madame de Pompadour paintingFrancois Boucher Adoration of the Shepherds painting
surname The Great-oh, that radish!-and another still worse one about how he himself had lost his hair in the Bazaar at Alexandria. I'd tell you them both now but for this boy here, and but for your being certain to miss the point, not having been educated in Caesar's camp. Not a word about the approaching battle except just at the close:But perhaps you'll never bother. I'll tell you the rest: Caesar was a wonderful mimic, you know, and he gave them Pompey's dying speech, preparatory to falling on his sword (the radish again-with the end bitten off). He railed, in Pompey's name, at the Immortal Gods for always allowing vice to triumph over virtue. How
'Poor old Pompey! Up against Julius Caesar and his men! What a chance he has!'"
"You didn't put any of this in your history," said Livy. "Not in the public editions," said Pollio. "I'm not a fool. Still if you like to borrow the private Supplement which I have just finished writing, you'll find it there.

George Frederick Watts Orpheus and Eurydice painting

George Frederick Watts Orpheus and Eurydice paintingCarl Fredrik Aagard The Deer Park paintingSalvador Dali The Great Masturbator painting
Make each meal balanced to control your blood sugar and insulin response. If you don’t let your blood sugar crash then you are less likely to crave an intake of sugar. Balance with whole food proteins, healthy fats and non-processed carbs. Have a slow and steady stream of glucose into your body, and not a rush that is created not store it. Realize that you can burn fat all day long if you give your body the right hormonal signals, which means keeping insulin low and glucagon high with sugar. * Eat sugar from its natural packaging - like fruit (as it is packed with fiber, water, vitamins and minerals) and other complex sources like vegetables. * Base your larger intake of carbohydrates around workouts and other activity. If you are able to use it for fuel right away or to replenish empty muscle and liver glycogen when they need it, then you will not be increasing storage into your fat cells. * Choose to burn fat,

Vincent van Gogh Cornfield with Cypresses painting

Vincent van Gogh Cornfield with Cypresses paintingUnknown Artist Ford Smith Just Between Us paintingUnknown Artist Apple Tree with Red Fruit painting
Choose to eat more natural foods. Choose whole food proteins, healthy fats and natural sources of carbohydrates (processed carbs are just lumps of sugar to the body once digested quickly). If it wasn’t around a thousand years ago or is made by man (and not nature), chances are you don’t need it. Note how it If it’s not near you, you can’t eat it. So get all sources of sweets, deserts and sugar out of your house. If you are even tempted and it’s nowhere to be found, then you can’t have it. Simple enough right? If you want to go out for a treat then make it something that you have to work for and go some place, don’t keep it within arms reach or easy access.says “Choose” above, as it is your choice. * Find the hidden sources of sugars and remove them. Sugar is hidden in places such as sauces, ketchup, soups, processed foods, drinks, so called health bars, and more. Become a label reader and see how much sugar you are consistently putting into your body. Don’t fall for the trick either of “low fat”, because that usually means “more sugar”.

Thursday 16 October 2008

Vincent van Gogh The Bedroom painting

Vincent van Gogh The Bedroom paintingVincent van Gogh Reaper paintingEdmund Blair Leighton Lady in a Garden painting
and in fact a country can easily raise its output above this level. A common situation for this is during wartime, when a country may ramp up production dramatically to support the war effort.
However, if the maximum sustainable output is exceeded, the output has to come crashing down at some point (after all, by definition, that level of output is not sustainable). After this happens, the country has to slog through a long period of low output. The worst part is that the bust is always bigger than the boom.
During periods of high output, everything looks great. Everyone is happy and optimistic that the situation will last forever. But when reality sets in and output plummets, everyone is miserable, and they wonder why they allowed things to overheat in the first place, since they ended up paying a steep price for it.
In the long run, a country gets the highest level of output overall by always staying as close as possible to the maximum sustainable output. There won’t be any periods of miraculous productivity, but there also won’t be any periods of awful stagnation. Not too hot, not too cold, but just right.

Salvador Dali The Rose painting

Salvador Dali The Rose paintingSalvador Dali Paysage aux papillons (Landscape with Butterflies) paintingSalvador Dali Mirage painting
John Philpott of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development said: 'It has been an awful autumn so far for the economy and the jobs market is now being crunched. Today's official figures are dire.'
In the Commons William Hague taunted in Prime Minister's Questions that Mr Brown's claim to have abolished boom and bust was one of the most 'foolish and irresponsible' ever made from Downing Street.
• London and the South-East have taken the biggest hit in job losses. In the last three months 67,000 people have been thrown out of work as the financial crisis has taken its toll in the City, on service industries and the property market.
Together the two regions accounted for more than 40 per cent of the number of people who joined dole queues across the country.
Many of the job losses have come in financial services. At least half of the 40,000 redundancies estimated to have come in European banking have involved people living and working in the City or elsewhere in the south.
Financial job cuts have brought knock-on effects in the service industries

Wednesday 15 October 2008

Carl Fredrik Aagard The Deer Park painting

Carl Fredrik Aagard The Deer Park paintingSalvador Dali The Great Masturbator paintingSalvador Dali Sleep painting
about. He boasted particularly of Cato the Censor, who of all characters in Roman history is to me perhaps the most hateful, as having persistently championed the cause of "ancient virtue" and made it identical in the popular mind with churlishness, pedantry and harshness. I was made to read Cato the Censor's self-glorifying works as text-books, and the account that he gave in one of them of his campaign in Spain, where he destroyed more towns than he had spent days in that country, rather disgusted me with his inhumanity than impressed me with his military skill or patriotism. The poet Virgil has said that the mission of the Roman is to rule; "To spare the conquered and with war the proud, To overbear." Cato overbore the proud, certainly, but less with actual warfare than with clever management of inter-tribal jealousies in Spain; he even employed assassins to remove redoubtable enemies. As for

Rene Magritte The Dangerous Liaison painting

Rene Magritte The Dangerous Liaison paintingRene Magritte Homesickness paintingRene Magritte High Society painting
distances has never been possible for me: a great deal of my travelling has had to be done in a sedan-chair. Then there is the appalling pain that catches me often, after eating, in the pit of my stomach. It has been so bad that on two or three occasions, if my friends had not intervened, I would have plunged a carving-knife (which I madly snatched up) into the place of torment I have heard it said that this pain, which they call "the cardiac passion", is worse than any other pain known to man except the strangury. Well, I must be thankful, I suppose, that I have never had the strangury.
It will be supposed that my mother Antonia, a beautiful and noble woman brought up to the strictest virtue by her mother Octavia, and the one passion of my father's life, would have taken the most loving care of me, her youngest child, and even made a particular favourite of me in pity

Claude Monet Bridge over a Pool of Water Lilies painting

Claude Monet Bridge over a Pool of Water Lilies paintingVincent van Gogh field of poppies paintingMichael Austin The Black Drape painting
I heard this account from Xenophon, a Greek from the island of Cos, who was quite a young man at this time. He was my father's staff-surgeon and had been much disgusted that my grandmother's physician had taken the case out of his hands. Gaius and Lucius, I should explain, were Augustus's grandchildren by Julia and Agrippa. He had adopted them as his own sons while they were still infants. There was a third boy, Postumus, so called because he was born posthumously; Augustus did not adopt him too, but left him to carry on Agrippa's name.
The camp where my father died was named "The Accursed" and his body was carried in a marching military procession to the army's winter quarters at Mainz on the Rhine, my uncle Tiberius walking all the way as chief

Tuesday 14 October 2008

Marc Chagall The Concert painting

Marc Chagall The Concert paintingMarc Chagall La Mariee paintingPaul Gauguin The Yellow Christ painting
ancient family and irreproachable morals, a Consul's son, was bold enough to introduce himself to her one day at Baize on some polite pretext, when she was taking the half-hour's walk allowed her by the seaside, accompanied Only by her duenna. Livia, who was jealous of Julia's good looks, and of Augustus's affection for her, had the young man sent a very strong letter, telling him that he must never expect to hold public office under the father of the girl whose good name he had tried to besmirch by this insufferable familiarity. Julia herself was punished by being forbidden to take her walk outside the grounds of the villa. About this time Julia went quite bald. I do not know whether Livia had a hand in this: it seems not improbable, though certainly baldness was in the Caesar family. At all events, Augustus found an Egyptian wig-maker who made

Thomas Moran Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone painting

Thomas Moran Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone paintingThomas Moran Fort George Island paintingThomas Moran Cliffs of Green River painting
Shall be son, no son, of his hairy last-
A hairy man that is scant of hair,
He shall give Rome poisons and blasphemies
And die from a kick of his aged horse
That carried him as a child.
The hairy fifth to enslave the State,
To enslave the State, though against his will,
Shall be that idiot whom all despised.
He shall have hair in a generous mop.
He shall give Rome water and winter bread,
And die at the hand of his wife, no wife,
To the gain of his son, no son.
The hairy sixth to enslave the State
Shall be son, no son, of this hairy last.
He shall give Rome fiddlers and fear and fire.
His hand shall be red with a parent's blood.
No hairy seventh to him succeeds
And blood shall gush from his tomb.
Now, it must have been plain to Augustus that

Vincent van Gogh Le Moulin a Poivre painting

Vincent van Gogh Le Moulin a Poivre paintingVincent van Gogh Landscape with Olive Trees paintingVincent van Gogh The Yellow House painting
was interested to come across passages in the public chapters which I could have sworn I had written or dictated, the style was so peculiarly my own, and yet which I had no recollection of writing or dictating. If they were by Polybius they were a wonderfully clever piece of mimicry (he had my other histories to study, I admit), but if they were really by myself then my memory is even worse than my enemies declare it to be. Reading over what I have just put down I see that I must be rather exciting than disarming suspicion, first as to my sole authorship of what follows, next as to my integrity as an historian, and finally as to my memory for facts. But I shall let it stand; 'tis myself as I feel, and as the history proceeds the reader will be the more ready to believe that I am hiding nothing-so much being to my discredit.
This is a confidential history. But who, it may be asked, are my confidants? My answer is: it is addressed to posterity. I do not mean my great-grandchildren, or my great-great-grandchildren

Monday 13 October 2008

Caravaggio The Entombment of Christ painting

Caravaggio The Entombment of Christ paintingCaravaggio The Crucifixion of Saint Peter paintingCaravaggio The Cardsharps painting
good search query, I usually start with reference sites like Wikipedia to get a grounding in the general outlines of a topic, so I can start fine-tuning my search queries. I also stay on the lookout for key names and organizations, which can add quite a bit to a web search.
To improve the quality of information my searches uncover, I will very often add one of these terms to my search queries:ebook or e-book or filetype:pdf – For real in-depth information, nothing beats a book – except an ebook, which
howto or how to - If I’m looking for practical advice about a task, searching for “how to” pages will bring me tutorials and walkthroughs, where a more general search might bring me pages and pages of news stories, feature articles, resumes, and definitions to search through.

Sunday 12 October 2008

Edward Hopper Room in New York painting

Edward Hopper Room in New York paintingEdward Hopper Night Windows paintingEdward Hopper Lighthouse Hill painting
of course not, Rufus thought, he had not moved, but he looked to have changed. Although he lay in such calm and beauty, and grandeur, it looked to Rufus as if he had been flung down and left on the street, and as if he were a very successfully disguised stranger. He felt a pang of distress and of disbelief and was about to lean to look more closely, when he felt a light hand on his head, his mother’s, he knew, and heard her say, “Now children”; and they were conveyed to the hall door.
The piano, he saw, was shut.
“Now Mother wants to stay just a minute or two,” she told them. “She’ll be with you directly. So you go straight into the East Room, with Aunt Hannah, and wait for me.”
She touched their faces, and noiselessly closed the door.
Crossing to the East Room they became aware that they were not alone in the dark hall. Andrew stood by the hat rack, holding to the banister, and his rigid, weeping eyes, shining with fury, struck to the roots of their souls like ice, so that they hastened into the

Friday 10 October 2008

William Bouguereau the first kiss painting

William Bouguereau the first kiss paintingClaude Monet Water Lily Pond paintingClaude Monet The Water Lily Pond painting
went wrong and then it was too late. But one of the wheels struck a loose stone in the road and the wheel turned aside very suddenly, and when ...” She paused and went on more quietly and slowly: “You see, when your father tried to make the auto go where it should, stay on the road, he found he couldn’t, he didn’t have any control. Because something was wrong with the steering gear. So, instead of doing as he tried to make it, the auto twisted aside because of the loose stone and ran off the road into a deep ditch.” She paused again. “Do you understand?”
They kept looking at her.
“Your father was thrown from the auto,” she said. “Then the auto went on without him up the other side of the ditch. It went up an eight-foot embankment and then it fell down backward, turned over and landed just beside him.
“They’re pretty sure he was dead even before he was thrown out. Because the only

Thursday 9 October 2008

Guido Reni reni Aurora painting

Guido Reni reni Aurora paintingFrancois Boucher Madame de Pompadour paintingFrancois Boucher Adoration of the Shepherds painting
way last night—and he was—he—got hurt and—so God let him go to sleep and took him straight away with Him to heaven.” She sank her fingers in Catherine’s springy hair and looked intently from one to the other. “Do you see, children? Do you understand?” They stared at her, and now Catherine was sharply awake.
“Is Daddy dead?” Rufus asked. Her glance at him was as startled as if he had slapped her, and again her mouth and then her whole face began to work, uncontrollably this time, and she did not speak, but only nodded her head once, and then again, and then several times rapidly, while one small squeaky “yes” came out of her as if it had been sneezed out; then suddenly sweeping both of them close against her breasts, she tucked her chin down tightly between the crowns of their heads and they felt her whole body shaken as if by a wind, but she did not cry. Catherine began to sniffle quietly because everything seemed very serious and very sad. Rufus listened to his mother’s shattered breathing and gazed sidelong past her fair shoulder at the sheet, rumpled, and at a rubbed place in the rose-patterned

Caravaggio Judith Beheading Holofernes painting

Caravaggio Judith Beheading Holofernes paintingWilliam Bouguereau The Abduction of Psyche paintingPierre-Auguste Cot spring painting
You remember when Aunt Hannah said there was something around, someone or something in the house?”
“Yes, and she told me to shut up, so I did.”
“I simply asked you please to be quiet, Joel, because we were trying to hear.”
“Well, what did you hear?”
“I don’t know’s I heard anything, Joel. I’m not a bit sure. I don’t think I did. But I felt something, very distinctly. So did Andrew.”
“Yes I did, Papa.”
“And Mary.”
“Oh, very much so.”
“What do you mean you felt something?”
“Then you didn’t, Papa?”
“I got a feeling there was some kind of a strain in the room, something or other was up among you; Mary looking as if she’d seen a ghost; all of you ...”
“She did,” Andrew said. “That is, she didn’t actually see anything, but she felt it. She knew something was there. She says it was Jay.”
“Hahh?”
“Jay. Aunt Hannah thinks so too.”

Wednesday 8 October 2008

Guido Reni Baptism of Christ painting

Guido Reni Baptism of Christ paintingGuido Reni reni Aurora paintingFrancois Boucher Madame de Pompadour painting
She kept looking at him.
“See here, Poll,” he said. “It’s bad enough right now, but it’s going to take a while to sink in. When it really sinks in it’s going to be any amount worse. It’ll be so much worse you’ll think it’s more than you can bear. Or any other human being. And worse than that, you’ll have to go through it alone, because there isn’t a thing on earth any of us can do to help, beyond blind animal sympathy.”
She was gazing slantwise towards the floor in some kind of coldly patient irony; he felt sick to death of himself.
“Look at me, Poll,” he said. She looked at him. “That’s when you’re going to need every ounce of common sense you’ve got,” he said. “Just spunk won’t be enough; you’ve got to have gumption. You’ve got to bear it in mind that nobody that ever lived is specially privileged; the axe can fall at any moment, on any neck, without

Tuesday 7 October 2008

Caravaggio Supper at Emmaus painting

Caravaggio Supper at Emmaus paintingCaravaggio Judith Beheading Holofernes paintingWilliam Bouguereau The Abduction of Psyche painting
That’s why they stayed Your father said he knew you’d understand.”
“Of course I do.”
“We just must try to keep from making any assumptions—good or bad.”
“I know. I know we must. It’s just, this waiting in the dark like this, it’s just more than I can stand.”
“We ought to hear very soon.”
Mary glanced at the clock. “Almost any minute,” she said.
She took a little tea.
“I just can’t help wondering,” she said, “why he didn’t say more. ‘A serious accident,’ he said. Not a ‘very’ serious one. Just ‘serious.’ Though, goodness knows, that’s serious enough. But why couldn’t he say?”
“As your father says, it’s ten to one he’s just a plain damned fool,” Hannah said.
“But it’s such an important thing to say, and so simple to say, at least to give some general idea about. At least whether he could come, or go to a hospital

Marc Chagall Birthday painting

Marc Chagall Birthday paintingGeorges Seurat Sunday Afternoon on the Island of la Grande Jatte paintingWilliam Blake Songs of Innocence painting
Mary.”
"Aunt Hannah, Jay is in a serious accident, Andrew has to go out. Would you come up and wait with me and get things ready just in case? Just in case he’s well enough to be brought and not the hospital?”
“Certainly, Mary. Of course I will.”
“And will you tell Mama and Papa not to worry, not to come out, give them my love. We might as well just be calm as we can, till we know.”
“Of course we must. I’ll be right up.”
“Thank you, Aunt Hannah.”
She went into the kitchen and built a quick fire and put on a large kettle of water and a small kettle, for tea. The phone rang.
“Mary! Where do I go?”
“Why, Powell’s Station, out the Pike towards ...”
“I know, but exactly where? Didn’t he say?”
“He said Brannick’s blacksmith shop. B-r-a-n-n-i-c-k. Do you hear?”
“Yes. Brannick.”
“He said they’ll keep the lights on and you can’t miss it. It’s just to the left of the Pike just this side of Bell’s Bridge. Just a little way this side.”
“All right, Mary, Walter will come by here and we’ll bring Aunt

Frida Kahlo Diego and Frida painting

Frida Kahlo Diego and Frida painting
Pino pino color painting
Pino Angelica painting
long run, knew that he was only making things harder for her; only his mother realized that he was beseeching comfort rather than bringing it. She was not in the least angry with him; she was sorry for him and wished that she could be of more help to him, but her mind was not on him, her heart was not with him, and his sobs and the stench of his breath made her a little sick at her stomach. What perplexed him in her voice was its remoteness. He began to realize that he was bringing her no comfort, that she was not leaning on him, that just as he had always feared, she did not really love him. He redoubled his efforts to soothe her and to be strong for her. The harder he tried, the more remote her voice became. At the end of a half hour her face was no less desperate than it had been when he first saw her. And he began to feel that everyone else was watching him, and knew he was no use, and that his mother did not love him. The women watched him one way, the men watched him another. He felt that his wife was thinking ill of him, that she was not even sorry

Monday 6 October 2008

Rembrandt History Painting painting

Rembrandt History Painting paintingJean Auguste Dominique Ingres Perseus and Andromeda paintingGuido Reni Baptism of Christ painting
They turned aside into a darker street, where the fewer faces looked more secret, and came into the odd, shaky light of Market Square. It was almost empty at this hour, but here and there, along the pavement streaked with horse urine, a wagon stayed still, and low firelight shone through the white cloth shell stretched tightly on its hickory hoops. A dark-faced man leaned against the white brick wall, gnawing a turnip; he looked at them low, with sad, pale eyes. When Rufus’ father raised his hand in silent greeting, he raised his hand, but less, and Rufus, turning, saw how he looked sorrowfully, somehow dangerously, after them. They passed a wagon in which a lantern burned low orange; there lay a whole family, large and small, silent, asleep. In the tail of one wagon a woman sat, her face narrow beneath her flare of sunbonnet, her dark eyes in its shade, like smudges of soot. Rufus’ father averted his eyes and touched his straw hat lightly; and Rufus, looking back, saw how her dead eyes kept looking gently ahead of her.
“Well,” his father said, “reckon I’ll hoist me a couple.”

Francois Boucher The Rape of Europa painting

Francois Boucher The Rape of Europa paintingMichelangelo Buonarroti The Creation of Adam paintingMichelangelo Buonarroti Creation of Adam painting
general, you can’t delegate writing — sure, you can hire a writer for a project, but it can be much harder to get a writer going in the style that you want than a bookkeeper. But there are plenty of writing-related tasks that you can easily delegate. Editing is a task I prefer to delegate, for instance. I find it difficult to edit something I wrote. After all, I already know what I want the article or story or whatever to say.
Transcription is another example: if you record an interview, you’ll wind up spending a lot of time transcribing it — at least as long as the original interview was. You can hire a transcriptionist relatively inexpensively and spend your time more productively.
There are tons of smaller tasks that go into writing, but the writer doesn’t actually have to do all of them. It’s not unreasonable to assume that your time is worth money. Pay for someone else to

Lord Frederick Leighton Psamathe painting

Lord Frederick Leighton Psamathe paintingLord Frederick Leighton Odalisque paintingLord Frederick Leighton Nausicaa painting
Reading to your kids is one of the all-time best things you can do with them, and for them. I love reading to my kids, and they love reading with me. It is some of the best quality time ever, and sharing a good book with a child is just a wonderful feeling.
I’ve compiled a list of my all-time favorite children’s books — a list that can start any child’s library. It’s a starting point, to be sure — I’m sure you can think of many more to be included. But these are books I truly love (and my kids do too) and I think most kids and parents will love them. These are mostly time-tested classics, so there might not be too many surprises here, but sometimes it’s useful to be reminded of books we’ve forgotten about.
For Younger Readers

Claude Monet Custom Officer's Cabin at Varengville painting

Claude Monet Custom Officer's Cabin at Varengville paintingClaude Monet Chrysanthemums paintingClaude Monet Camille Monet in the Garden painting
soldiers get through anything - as the brigadier’s done in the corner. There was another painted room, outside under pillars - modern work but, if you ask me, the prettiest in the place; it was the signal office and they made absolute hay of it; rather a shame. ‘This eyesore is what they used as the mess; that’s why I didn’t cover it up; not that it would matter much if it did get damaged; always reminds me of one of the costlier knocking-shops, you know - “ Maison Japonaise”...and this was the ante-room...’
It did not take us long to make our tour of the echoing rooms. Then we went outside on the terrace.
‘Those are the other ranks’ latrines and wash-house; can’t think why they built them just there; it was done before I took the job over. All this used

George Bellows Autumn Brook painting

George Bellows Autumn Brook paintingCaravaggio The Seven Acts of Mercy paintingCaravaggio The Lute Player painting
particularly his fault - some brawl with an official. Once he was locked up the German authorities got at him. It was the time when they were rounding up all their nationals from all parts of the world to make them intoran him to earth dressed as a storm-trooper in a provincial town. At first he wouldn’t have anything to do with Sebastian; spouted all the official jargon about the rebirth of his country, and his belonging to his country, and finding self-realization in the life of the race. But it was only skin deep with him. Six years of Sebastian had taught him more than a year of Hitler; eventually he Nazis. Kurt didn’t want to leave Greece, but the Greeks didn’t want him, and he was marched straight from prison with a lot of other toughs into a German boat and shipped Home.
‘Sebastian went after him, and for a year could find no trace. Then in the

Sunday 5 October 2008

Edward Hopper High Noon painting

Edward Hopper High Noon paintingEdward Hopper Four Lane Road paintingEdward Hopper Excursion into Philosophy painting
started drinking. He lived in a little hotel on the edge of the Arab quarter. I went to see the place later; it was a bar with a few rooms over it, kept by a Greek, smelling of hot oil and garlic and stale wine and old clothes, a place where the small Greek traders came and played draughts and listened to the wireless. He stayed there a month drinking Greek absinthe, occasionally wandering out, they didn’t know where, coming back and drinking again. They were afraid he would come to harm -and followed him sometimes, but he only went to the church or took a car to the monastery outside the town. They loved him there. He’s still loved, you see, wherever he goes, whatever condition he’s in. It’s a thing about him he’ll never lose. You should have heard the proprietor and his family talk of him, tears running down their cheeks; they’d clearly robbed him right and left, but they’d looked after him and tried to make him eat his food. That was the thing that shocked them about him; that he

Thomas Kinkade London At Sunset painting

Thomas Kinkade London At Sunset paintingThomas Kinkade Hometown Pride paintingThomas Kinkade HOMETOWN EVENING painting
punished for what I’ve just done. Perhaps that is why you and I are here together like this...part of a plan.’ That was almost the last thing she said to me -‘part of a plan’ - before we went below and I left her at the cabin door.
Next day the wind had again dropped, and again we were wallowing in the swell. The talk was less of seasickness now than of broken bones; people had been thrown about in the night, and there had been many nasty accidents on bathroom floors. That day, because we had talked so much the day before and because what we had to say needed few words, we spoke little. We had books; Julia found a game she liked. When after long silences we spoke, our thoughts, we found, had kept pace together side by side.
Once I said, ‘You are standing guard over your sadness.’
‘It’s all I have earned. You said yesterday. My wages.’
‘An I.O.U. from life. A promise to pay on demand.’
Rain ceased at midday; at evening the clouds dispersed and

Saturday 4 October 2008

Frida Kahlo Without Hope painting

Frida Kahlo Without Hope paintingFrida Kahlo Thinking about Death paintingFrida Kahlo Sun and Life painting
out with them. “There’s nothing wrong with him really,” I say, “he’s gone hunting” - as though it were an answer to prayer.’
She asked me about my life in Paris. I told her of my rooms with their view of the river and the towers of Notre Dame. ‘I’m hoping Sebastian will come and stay with me when I go back.’
‘It would have been lovely,’ said Lady Marchmain, sighing as though for the unattainable.

‘I hope he’s coming to stay with me in London.’
‘Charles, you know it isn’t possible. London’s the worst place. Even Mr Samgrass couldn’t hold him there. We have no secrets in this

Winslow Homer Light on the Sea painting

Winslow Homer Light on the Sea paintingWinslow Homer Kissing the Moon paintingAndrew Atroshenko Before the Dance painting
you’re alone. I’m sorry, but there it is.’
‘Is that necessary?’

‘I gather very necessary. You may or may not have heard, Sebastian had another outbreak as soon as he got back to England. He was lost over Christmas. Mr Samgrass only found him yesterday evening.’
‘I guessed something of the kind had happened. Are you sure this is the best way of dealing with it?’
‘It’s my mother’s way. Will you have a cocktail, now that he’s gone upstairs?’
‘It would choke me.’
I was always given the room I had on my first visit; it was next to Sebastian’s, and we shared what had once been a dressing-room and had been changed to a bathroom twenty years back by the substitution for the bed, of a deep

Winslow Homer The Herring Net painting

Winslow Homer The Herring Net paintingWinslow Homer The Fog Warning paintingWinslow Homer Rowing Home painting
herself.’ There was no sign of the cocktail tray. After a few minutes Sebastian rang the bell. A footman answered. ‘Mr Wilcox is upstairs with her Ladyship.’ ‘Well, never mind, bring in the cocktail things.’
‘Mr Wilcox has the keys, my Lord.’
‘Oh...well, send him in with them when he comes down.’ We talked a little abou t Anthony Blanche - ‘He had a beard in Istanbul, but I made him take it off’ - and after ten minutes Sebastian said: ‘Well, I don’t want a cocktail anyway; I’m off to my bath,’ and left the room.
It was half past seven; I supposed the others had gone to dress, but, as I was going to follow them, I met Brideshead coming down.
‘Just a moment, Charles, there’s something I’ve got to explain. My mother has given orders that no drinks are to be left in any of the rooms. You’ll understand why. If you want anything, ring and ask Wilcox - only better

Juan Gris Violin and Glass painting

Juan Gris Violin and Glass paintingJuan Gris Violin and Checkerboard paintingJuan Gris Musician's Table painting
He was with Lady Marchmain when I first met them, and I thought then that she could not have found a greater contrast to herself than this intellectual-on-the-make, nor a better foil to her own charm. It was not her way to make a conspicuous entry into anyone’s life, but towards the end of that week Sebastian said rather sourly: ‘You and mummy seem very thick,’ and I realized that in fact I was being drawn into intimacy by swift, imperceptible stages, for she was impatient of any human that fell short of it. By the time that she left I had promised to spend all next vacation, except Christmas itself, at Brideshead.
One Monday morning a week or two later I was in Sebastian’s room waiting for him to return from a tutorial, when Julia walked in, followed by a large man whom she introduced as ‘Mr Mottram’ and addressed as ‘Rex’. They were motoring up from a house where they had spent the week-end, they explained. Rex Mottram was warm and confident in a check ulster; Julia cold

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