Stories

Rules to Live by From the Dalai Lama

Jeff

As my readers know, I enjoy collecting quotes and learning about creating photographs. Just look at some of my STATUS QUOtes and photography posts.

One of the blogs I follow is the Digital Photography School. There is so much knowledge there. I encourage you to review their site and subscribe to their emails or RSS feeds.

In a recent post by Darlene Hildebrandt, 11 Rules of Living by Dalai Lama to Help You Bring Zen to Your Photography,she offers some great advice and like many “truths” this advice can be applied to numerous phases and stages of life. I offer a few of them below juxtaposed with quotes that I have heard and which I find relate well to her “rules.” If you find meaning in them and you want to learn how Darlene Hildebrandt understands their relationship to her photography, visit the link above.

  • “Great love and great achievements involve great risk.” – “And the trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.” ― Erica Jong

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  • “When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.” – “Mistakes are the portals of discovery.” ― James Joyce

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  • “Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.” – “When you teach a child, you teach their children as well.” – The Talmud

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  • “Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.” – “Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers.” – Garth Brooks

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Artists Create Street Side Illusions for Your Enjoyment

Jeff

For lack of a better term, I will refer to the picture below as illusional art; perhaps even Trompe-l’œil although I don’t think it quite meets that standard, but I’ll let you decide.

I enjoy seeing how artists can visualize art work using what is available and creating such interesting illusions. If you enjoy this type of art as well, I encourage you to visit the linked website to see other examples. Being a cat lover, I like that one as well.

Via Stencil Works of Street Artist JPS

Two Take Their Love to the Grave

Jeff

Following on the heals of Valentine’s Day, this couple makes us all look bad as they held their romantic embrace for nearly 6,000 years. According to the Huffington Post article (see link below), a grave with two Neolithic skeletons, presumably a couple, was uncovered in Greece in 2013.

Neolithic Couple in Love at Death

They were discovered in the cozy “spooning position” which implies some intimacy. It also causes us to note the care with which these two were buried unless it was by natural causes such as landslide, earthquake, etc.

Via – For more pictures and information.

Saving the Grey Muzzles* – Rescuing Senior Citizen Dogs

Jeff

Hope for Paws received information that a senior dog was apparently abandoned and living in a water treatment facility. This video is the story of what happened to that senior dog, Mufasa, as they went to find him.

Groups helping to care for senior dogs and allowing them to live their lives with dignity:

Hope for Paws

Lionel’s Legacy

“*The Grey Muzzle Organization improves the lives of at-risk senior dogs by providing funding and resources to animal shelters, rescue organizations, sanctuaries, and other non-profit groups nationwide.”

And the Universe Smiled

Jeff

The picture below has been posted on many websites and I thought my readers would enjoy seeing it as well. One site that originally posted it was the NY Daily News

“Smiley

From the NY Daily News Story:

“ A delightful image taken by NASA’s Hubble Telescope shows a part of space appear to form a smiling face for the camera.

The picture, which shows some parts of the universe may be friendlier than others, was taken of galaxy cluster SDSS J1038+4849 — and it seems to be smiling.

The image shows a circle for the head, two gorgeous big bright eyes, a spot for a cute little nose and a big smile fit to be painted on the side of a water tower.

NASA says the picture shows different materials that clustered to form the happy looking environment.

The two bright orange “eyes” are actually bright galaxies, the agency states.

The smile-shaped line underneath them is due to “strong gravitational lensing” that pulls material into the shape.

The phenomenon actually bends light from the camera and creates the image, NASA states.

Many of the more unique Hubble images are due to this occurrence, the agency said.

The telescope has captured more than a million images but this one is a keeper.”

To see links to the NASA site and other images, visit the NY Daily News linked above.

The Contemporary Cave Man

Jeff

This is an interesting story of Ra Paulette who found his passion as a Cave Digger. The video episode below was aired on CBS Sunday Morning. Without any formal training or experience in architecture or cave digging, Mr. Paulette has become an expert at designing and building underground dwellings. Although he has been given the title of “Cave Digger,” once you see his work, you will agree he is much more than that.

So spectacular are the designs and executions of these cave dwellings, that an award winning and Academy Award nominated documentary, Cave Digger, was made. You can learn more about the film here:

Cave Digger

Before you do that, however, why not watch the Sunday Morning segment below which I assure you is quite intriguing.


“For the past 25 years, Ra Paulette has been carving out man-made caves from the sandstone hills of New Mexico, and then sculpting these spaces into works of art he calls wilderness shrines. Lee Cowan has the story of an artist who does his best work underground.”

Earth Is Just A Speck in The Universe And We Are Smaller Yet

Jeff

“On Earth there are more people inside this tiny circle than outside of it:”

Hard to believe how many people live in such a small area of the world

valeriepieris / Via io9.com

It is amazing how big Africa is relative to the other land masses of the world.

Many of the world’s land masses would fit inside Africa

Kai Krause / Via informationisbeautiful.net

I don’t think many people appreciate how large some of the comets flying around earth actually are. At one time I was skeptical that a comet hitting the earth at any speed could wipe out a city, but after seeing the image below, I have changed my mind!

Comets can be the size of a city!

Matt Wang / Via mentalfloss.com

There are many more interesting and “mind blowing” facts on the original BuzzFeed website. Click here to visit that site and see the other startling comparisons.

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, moves on…*

Jeff

I am constantly being inspired by the creativity I see exhibited on the Internet. One reason I enjoy reading the variety of blogs that I visit is to appreciate and admire all the talent that is “out there!”

Every once in a while something resonates strongly with me and I need to try it myself. These explorations are the beginnings of ideas for me to consider and possibly try and perhaps use to grow as an individual.

At one time, I tried calligraphy, but it was nothing like this. These are quite amazing!

Visit the site below to see more examples and perhaps you might want to try your hand (pun) at it!

“3D

“3D

See more and read the article here: 3D Calligraphy Experiments by Tolga Girgin

* The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”
― Omar Khayyam

States Where People Live The Longest – You Might Be Surprised

Jeff

    10 – Utah
    9 – New Jersey
    8 – New Hampshire
    7 – Vermont
    6 – New York
    5 – Massachusetts
    4 – Connecticut
    3 – California
    2 – Minnesota
    1 – Hawaii

To find out why people live longer in these states and how the information was derived, visit the Wall Street Journal’s article: States Where People Live Longest

For each state particular factors such as Life expectancy, Obesity rate and Poverty rate are listed and ranked for comparison.

Note – Sorry for all the “click throughs.” Use the links at the bottom of the page to get to the next section.