Buying posters via this link
helps Artchive - click here!
|Join the ARTCHIVE PATRON PROGRAM.|
For your donation, receive benefits including two copies of a CD-ROM of this entire site.
VIEW IMAGE LIST
VIEW IMAGE LIST
Piranesi, Giovanni Battista - Italian etcher, archaeologist and architect. He was born in Venice and was active in Rome from 1740. He was famous for his poetic views of Rome and also his fantastic imaginary interiors. Trained in Venice as an engineer and architect, his studies had included perspective and stage design. These skills, allied to his deep knowledge of archaeology, provided the substance for his Vedute (Views), a series of 135 etchings of ancient and contemporary Rome, published from 1745 onwards, which established the popular mental image of the city. Piranesi's image was a thoroughly romanticized one, with effects of scale exploited to make the buildings appear larger and grander and exaggerating the contrasts of light and shade to invest them with drama. His most remarkable etchings are perhaps those of imaginary interiors, the Carceri d'Invenzione (Imaginary Prisons), a series of plates issued in 1749-50 and reworked in 1761.|
Piranesi was also an outspoken architectural polemicist who believed absolutely in the supremacy of Roman over Greek architecture, an argument he expounded most forcefully in his Della magnificenza ed architettura dei Romani (On the Magnificence of Roman Architecture, 1761). In his other major treatise, the Parere sull'architettura (Observations on Architecture, 1765), he advocated an imaginative use of antique Roman models to produce a new style of architecture. Only one building was ever erected to his designs, the rather unexceptional church of S. Maria del Priorato, Rome (1764-6).
Piranesi's influence as an architect may have been negligible, but his romanticized views and imaginary interiors had a profound effect on stage designers, painters of capricci such as Hubert Robert, and even writers: William Beckford, the author of the Gothic novel, Vathek (1786) wrote, 'I drew chasms, and subterranean hollows, the domain of fear and torture, with chains, racks, wheels and dreadful engines in the style of Piranesi.' In the 20th century his imaginary interiors have been admired by the Surrealists and provided source material for horror film set designers.
[Home] [Juxtapositions] [Galleries] [Theory and Criticism] [Art CD-ROM Reviews] [Artchive] [Links]


Update: I am pleased to announce availability of my Pen & Ink Drawing Workbooks at Amazon and other online retailers. Available for only $6 (paperback) and $3 (Kindle), they are a great way to get started drawing with pen and ink. Try them today.
A simple but always interesting composition is a dense wooded area with trunks and branches peeking out from the foliage. It has following 3 main elements:
- Foreground Foliage: This is the foliage that is in front of the trunks and branches.
- Visible Trunks and branches:
- Background Foliage: The foliage behind the trunks and branches.
There are few different ways of drawing this composition as discussed below. The approaches differ with regards to the order in which elements are added and the stroke used. This gives a different feel to the resulting drawing.
Video Demonstration is provided at my YouTube channel. You can click on the links below to see how that landscape is done step by step.
In the approach, we first draw the foreground foliage, then add visible trunks and branches and finally add background foliage as shown below.
Here we first draw a backdrop of foliage and then add dark tapered lines to suggest trunks and branches and finally vary foliage tones to differentiate background and foreground foliage. The approach results in a wooded area with dense feel of foliage.
Here the visible trunks, branches and twigs are drawn first and then foliage added. In this demonstration, more density of branches and twigs are added to show how this can give a different feel for the drawing.
In the above approaches, foliage is not explicitly associated with a specific branch but is instead used to give an overall feel. In this approach, branches are drawn first and then foliage drawn for a branch to give a different feeling for the drawing.
By changing the density and stroke used for foliage and shape and volume of trunks and branches, many variations on this composition are possible. This is a real fun composition that can be done from imagination anytime quickly. Try one today.
You can also Subscribe to receive my weekly emails that demonstrate how do a simple drawing in easy step by step manner. These are great for regular practice and to get weekly inspiration. See a sample here.


A short while ago, I addressed the ins and outs of selecting and using a neutral density filter; to follow up on the basic theme of cool things you can attach to the front of a lens, let’s now take a look at polarizing filters.
What is a Polarizing Filter?
Polarizing filters are often discussed within the same context of ND filters, and for good reason. They both attach to the front of a lens, they both block a certain amount of light from entering the lens, and they both can have a significant impact on the images you produce.
Polarizing filters are also often described in a similar fashion to ND filters — as sunglasses for your lens, but in this case polarized sunglasses. Again, it’s a mostly apt analogy, though unlike sunglasses, both filters avoid tinting your photos. And while ND filters block light coming in from all directions, polarizing filters cut out light coming in from one specific direction, hence the term “polarizing.”
These filters employ specially treated glass to analyze, convert, and concentrate scattered light; your camera, thereby, “sees” and treats that light differently than it would if no polarizing filter were present — specifically, the filter changes how a camera handles reflection and glare.
The Two Types of Polarizers
- Linear Polarizers. A linear polarizer allows light to pass through it only when the polarizer is held at a specific orientation. If, for example, you hold the polarizer at a baseline orientation, it might allow only vertically polarized light to pass through it; if you were to rotate it 90 degrees, only horizontally polarized light could pass.
- Circular Polarizers. A circular polarizer consists of two polarizing elements. The first is a linear polarizer, which functions just as discussed above. The second element is known as a quarter wave plate and is situated behind the linear element so that the light, instead of being polarized only in a left/right manner, can now be polarized in a “circular” fashion. Additionally, you can adjust the angle of polarization by simply rotating the front element.
Linear polarizers are less expensive and are generally regarded as more effective than circular polarizers. But if you are using a modern DSLR — or any camera with through the lens (TTL) metering and autofocus — you will need to use a circular polarizer. It’s yet another quirk of physics and is beyond the scope of this discussion but, in short, linearly polarized light wreaks havoc on TTL metering and autofocus systems. If you’re using a camera from before the advent of these technologies (essentially pre-1970), then you’re probably fine using a linear polarizer.
Any camera/lens combo can work a circular polarizer.
When You Will Want to Use a Polarizing Filter
Though the task that a polarizing filter is designed to perform is very specific (reduce reflections), it can perform that task across a number of scenarios that you will likely be confronted with quite often during your shooting adventures. These are some situations where the use of a polarizing will exhibit the greatest benefits.
- Sky – Many new photographers quickly discover that photographing the sky can be a challenge. It is easy to overexpose. If you don’t have access to an neutral density filter, a polarizing filter can fill in effectively. In fact, you might even prefer the polarizer to the ND filter in some instances, as you will have more flexibility over the degree of change made to the sky. A polarizing filter also cuts out the smoggy haze sometimes associated with shooting in cities.
Polarizer on min effect. Demonstration of the effect of using a circular polarizer by Mike Baird, on Flickr
Polarizer on max effect. Demonstration of the effect of using a circular polarizer. by mikebaird, on Flickr
- Water – Water is tricky to photograph mainly because of its reflective surface. With the sun hanging over you and no polarizing filter on your lens, there is really no effective angle at which to hold your camera to eliminate the reflection and glare being created by the water. You simply need to use a polarizing filter and adjust it until you get the desired effect. You’ll also get the added benefit of enhancing the clarity of the water.
Polarizer on min effect . Demonstration of the effect of using a circular polarizer by mikebaird, on Flickr
Polarizer on max effect. Demonstration of the effect of using a circular polarizer by mikebaird, on Flickr
- Glass – Shooting through glass can be yet another challenge, and the more glass there is, the more difficult it becomes to deal with, as the light just bounces around in multiple directions over multiple levels of glass. A polarizing filter cuts down — or sometimes eliminates — glare and, as is true of its effect on water, increases clarity.
- Color – Of course, reflections aren’t limited to water and glass. Everything you encounter and intend to shoot has some degree of reflectance to it; even if you can’t perceive it, it’s there. This is simply the nature of optics. In addition to being a distraction for photographers, reflected light also serves to lessen the perceived vibrance of objects. This is why a polarizing filter, which reduces or eliminates glare and reflections, can make colors appear deeper and more vibrant.
How to Use a Polarizing Filter Effectively
Polarizing filters, especially circular polarizers, are easy to use. You can see how the use of one is going to impact your shot, and you can make adjustments on the fly by simply rotating the front element of the filter.
For best results, a rule of thumb is to keep the sun at a 90 degree angle to your shooting position — meaning shoot with the sun (or other light source causing reflection) to either side of you instead of behind or in front of you.
Also note that polarizers do not work on metallic surfaces. To be clear, I’m talking about bare metal; if a metal has been painted, then a polarizer will work to varying degrees, which is why some car photographers use polarizers and some don’t. The type of paint finish (pearl, metallic, flake, matte, etc.) has a direct impact on how a polarizer responds. So, if you are using a polarizer for car photography, you will just have to experiment in order to know whether your polarizer will be effective.
Choosing the Right Polarizer
It probably wouldn’t be very practical to put forth a specific checklist of buying points; everyone is going to have different needs and considerations that warrant a great deal of flexibility. There are, however, a few basic ideas to keep in mind when getting ready to buy a filter of any kind.
- Know the filter thread size of your lens, and remember the larger the size the higher the price.
- It is not necessary to buy the most expensive filter on the market, but…
- Don’t skimp on quality. Anytime you place additional glass in front of your lens, you risk lowering image quality. High quality filters use the best glass and coatings, so as to not degrade your images. Unfortunately, higher quality means higher price.
- Good circular polarizers tend to be more expensive than both linear polarizers and ND filters.
- Filter coatings help reduce or eliminate glare and reflections that might otherwise be caused by the filter glass itself; multi-layer coatings are better than mono/single-layer coatings, and both are better than no coating.
Depending on what you shoot, a polarizing filter may become the most useful and most-used photography accessory in your kit. So, consider a polarizing filter an investment; learn how to use it, put it to good use, and maximize its role in your creative ventures.


Like the kilns in Dehua that made blanc de chine, the factories in Yixing in Jiangsu Province also specialised in a rather exclusive product of their own, namely red stoneware. The local clay had a high iron oxide content resulting in the unglazed objects being dark red, brown or even purple. Fired at a high temperature, these pieces were impermeable and glazing was avoided so as to emphasise the structure and colour of the surface. Yixing is famous for its teapots; these are known to preserve the fragrance of the tea very well. The variety of Yixing teapots is amazing and is due to the clay having such plasticity that many different shapes, even sharply angular, could be made. Usually moulds were used to shape the objects and the decorations that were applied in relief. Decorations could also be incised and sometimes comprise long poems or dedications. Apart from teapots, many other objects were made in Yixing for the domestic Chinese market. To a lesser extent the potters also produced for export and Yixing teapots were highly valued in Europe. However, Western shapes are extremely scarce, while Yixing with Western decorations seems to be non-existant. Sometimes Yixing is enhanced with gold, but we are still uncertain if this was done in Europe or in China. It is remarkable that these well-finished pieces are often marked with the name of a workshop or potter's family, an exception in Chinese ceramics. Dates are rare, however. After a period of neglect Yixing craftsmanship was revived in the second half of the 20th century. A continuously changing assortment made by highly creative potters today is available in Yixing.
Currently there are no Yixing 1650-1900 wares for sale.


23. Korean Inkstone
with Squirrel & Grape Design
Inquire about this item
Length: 30.0 cm. (11 3/4 in.) 長 30.0 厘米
Width: 19.0 cm. (7 1/2 in.) 廣 19.0 厘米
Depth: 2.0 cm. (3/4 in.) 深 2.0 厘米
Joseon dynasty 朝鮮朝
18th century A.D. 公元 18 世紀
Acquired in Japan
The Korean designer/artisan responsible for the decoration on the present inkstone stepped out of the traditional boundaries set by Chinese masters to whom his predecessors and contemporaries looked for inspiration, ideas, and technical knowhow. Here the standard “Three Friends of Winter,” the pine, plum, and bamboo that were firmly established in the arts of China, include a new friend, actually two. The fruiting grapevine has replaced the flowering plum, and a small monkey has scampered upon the scene. How does all of this affect the meaning of the “Three Friends of Winter” theme, a theme conveying attributes of fortitude, resilience, and perseverance? Greatly. The meaning of the original three-friend theme was tailor-made for the idealized scholar-gentleman, a theme emblematic of scholarly perseverance and integrity. The fruiting grapevine signified wishes for fertility and numerous progeny, indeed important in a Confucian society. Here, however, the emphasis and focus of the motif is shifted from the soul of the scholar to that of the society as a whole. Interestingly, the word for monkey in Korean is a homophone for emperor and thus the monkey was a symbol of authority and high governmental position. This is quite different from the Chinese who viewed the monkey as a creature cheerful, energetic, and clever and nothing more.
The dark grey stone with greenish tinge, a grinding surface in paler green with lighter swirls of green and one stone eye, allies the material well with the well-known Duan inkstones of Chinese manufacture. However, the present stands apart from Chinese inkstones in its relative massiveness, its stark, sharp geometric form and overall, deeply-cut sculptural décor in which no space around the grinding surface is left untouched. Further, in contrast to Chinese inkstones, which are invariable carefully finished, the Korean example here is left with rough sides and base, an unfinished look in the eyes of the Chinese but to the Koreans, perfectly acceptable, perfectly perfect.
Related examples, all datable to the Joseon dynasty in the 18th century, include an inkstone with monkey-and-grape design published by Kwon To-hong in Pyoru, “Inkstones,” Seoul, 1989, no. 1; a second in Robert Moes, Auspicious Spirits: Korean Folk Paintings and Related Objects, Washington D.C., 1983, no. 80, p 156; and a third with “Diamond Mountain” design also published by Moes as no. 81, p 157.


Prajnaparamita in a Single Letter | Subject: 'A' Letter (Buddhist) | Prajnaparamita Main Page
In the Tantric Buddhist religion the letter 'A' represents a number of different things depending on the Buddhist vehicle and the individual tradition. In Mahayana Buddhism, the letter 'A' relates to the shortest of all of the Prajnaparamita Sutras - the Prajnaparamita in a Single Letter (see below). Also in Tantra theory, the Prajnaparamita Sutras, as a group, can be personified as the female deity of the same name - Prajnaparamita, regarded as the Mother of all wisdom and the mother of all Buddhas.
As a deity represented in art, Prajnaparamita is relatively minor with only a few variations of iconographic form. With regard to the different religious traditions of Tantric Buddhism, it is the Cho (Severance) founded by Machig Labdron and the Drigung Kagyu founded by Jigten Sumgon that place a special emphasis on Prajnaparamita and subsequently depict the deity in their paintings and sculpture.
In general Tantric Buddhist theory the three letters om, a and hum represent the body, speech and mind of an individual. The three letters serve symbolically as a bridge between the individual and the Tantric practice of meditation on the form of a deity - Deity Yoga.
In the Nyingma Tradition the letter 'A' is highly symbolic and closely related to the teachings of the philosophical view known as Dzogchen. A physical yet still symbolic manifestation of the principal of the 'A' is a clear quartz crystal rock. During specific Nyingma initiation rituals an initiation card displaying the letter 'A' will be shown next to a length of clear quartz crystal, or drawn together on a single initiation card. The letter 'A' as an object of meditation can also be found in the Mahamudra traditions of the Sakya and Kagyu Schools but rarely depicted in art. The Bon religion, like the Buddhist Nyingma, place a great deal of emphasis on their form of the Dzogchen philosophy and the Tibetan letter 'A.'
Jeff Watt 8-2016


Simple rectangle of fun fur becomes a gut tube for first year health science students to understand how peristalsis can move food (marbles) from one end to the other. Plastic film and coloured wool simulate the gut mesentry containing blood vessels and nerves.
Long rectangles (80mm x700mm) were cut from artificial fur fabric. The two long edges were sewn together and overlocked, with the fur on the inside. The ends were left open so that marbles could be introduced. Plastic cling wrap was used to simulate the gut mesentry, with coloured yarn to simulate arteries, veins, lymphatics and nerves within the mesentry.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License


Saladin (1138-93), Muslim leader, who recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders.
Born in Tikrit, Iraq, Saladin, as he is known in the West, was a Kurd; his Arabic name is Salah ad-Din Yusuf. At the age of 14 he joined other members of his family (the Ayyubids) in the service of the Syrian ruler Nur ad-Din. Between 1164 and 1169 he distinguished himself in three expeditions sent by Nur ad-Din to aid the decadent Fatimid rulers of Egypt against attacks by the Christian Crusaders based in Palestine. In 1169 he was made commander in chief of the Syrian army and vizier of Egypt. Although nominally subject to the authority of the Fatimid caliph in Cairo, Saladin treated Egypt as an Ayyubid power base, relying mainly on his Kurdish family and supporters. Having revitalized Egypt's economy and reorganized its land and naval forces, Saladin repelled the Crusaders and took the offensive against them. In September 1171 he suppressed the dissident Fatimid regime, reuniting Egypt with the orthodox Abbasid caliphate, but his reluctance to cooperate with Nur ad-Din against the Crusaders brought him to the brink of war with his former master.
After Nur ad-Din's death in 1174, Saladin expanded his power in Syria and northern Mesopotamia, mainly at the expense of his Muslim rivals. Following the submission of Damascus (1174), Aleppo (1183), and Al Mawsil (1186), numerous Muslim armies, allied under Saladin's command, were ready to move against the Crusaders. The young general is one of the few commanders in history who are tremendously respected by their friends and enemies alike. When he took control over Cairo, the Fatimids remained isolated in their palaces. Saladin did not seek revenge, but rather waited until their Caliph died. He then expelled the Fatimids out of their palaces and sent them to exile. Unlike his successors, the young general did not seize the Fatimid's wealth, nor did he occupy their palaces. Like a caring ruler, he opened the gates of Cairo and allowed Egyptian citizens to live within the city walls in areas which had been exclusively occupied by Fatimid royalty. Beause of his sincerety and kindness, he became popular among Egyptian citizens -Moslems and Christians alike- and even had a Jewish personal doctor. And when he later fought Richard the Lionheart, legend goes that Saladin ordered his horsemen to carry ice down the mountain to comfort the British King when he was sick.
In Cairo, Saladin not only built mosques and palaces (in fact he did not build a palace for himself), but also colleges, hospitals,and a fortress, the Citadel, which still remains one of Cairo's landmarks to this day. Unfortunately, it is to be taken against himand his successors that they used some of the Pyramids stones to meet the excessive need for building materials in the growing city. The Citadel was built on a elevated spot near the the Muqattam Hills, and occupies a strategic spot from which you can, to this day, have a panoramic view of Cairo. New city walls were also erected outside the Fatimid walls to defend Cairo from enemy raids.
In 1182, Saladin marched to Palestine and Syria
and never returned to Cairo. For the next 10 years, he fought the Crusaders
and managed to end their presence in the region, at least temporarily.
In 1187 he invaded the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, defeated the Christians at Hittin in Galilee (July 4), and captured Jerusalem the following October. In 1189 the nations of western Europe launched the Third Crusade to win back the holy city.
Despite Saladin's relentless military and diplomatic efforts a Christian land and naval blockade forced the surrender of the Palestinian stronghold of Acre in 1191, but the Crusaders failed to follow up this victory in their quest for Jerusalem. In 1192 Saladin concluded an armistice agreement with King Richard I of England that allowed the Crusaders to reconstitute their kingdom along the Palestinian-Syrian coast but left Jerusalem in Muslim hands. On March 4, 1193, Saladin died in Damascus after a brief illness.When he died in Damascus in 1193, he had almost no personal possessions, but he earned himself a remarkable place in history.
Muslim historiography has immortalized
Saladin as a paragon of princely virtue. He has held enduring fascination
for Western writers, including modern novelists.


1. It’s brass monkeys outside
Meaning: Freezing cold weather.
Origin: ‘Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey’. A ship’s cannon balls used to be stacked on a brass structure called a ‘monkey’ – the brass would contract in cold weather and the cannon balls would fall off.
At various moments in its life, a word will hop languages, change meanings, travel through sinister moments and land in pleasant ones. But no matter how many times it’s superimposed, and how far it gets from its original source, a word doesn’t let go of its memories easily. Here are 11 modern English words with socially insensitive origins.
1. Hysteria (n.) – a wild, irrational eruption of fear or emotion
Hysteria begins in the womb, or so thought the medical scholars of the 1610s, who named the condition after the Latin hystericus, meaning “of the womb.” Those who’ve studied the Victorian era, or read The Awakening in high school, may know that the go-to prognosis of the time for just about every female’s symptom from the occasional hissy fit to chronic seizures was a pesky wayfaring uterus. The condition was thought to be caused by sexual frustration and cured by intercourse or pelvic massage, the latter often performed by physicians and midwives. When doctors finally got fed up with the tedious task in the late 19th century, the personal vibrator was created to take their place. Read More…
By Onna Nelson, University of California, Santa Barbara
1. English red
The Proto-Indo-European (PIE) word for red, reudh, remained largely unchanged for thousands of years, showing up in English red, Spanish rojo, French rouge, German rot, Icelandic rauðr, and Welsh rhudd. Not only did it lead to these words for the color itself, it also led to red-related English words like ruby, rust, and rubeola.
2. English black
The PIE word bhel evolved into many modern words meaning “white,” including Spanish blanco, French blanc, Italian bianco, and Portuguese branco, as well as white-related words such as bleach and blank. So why does the English word black look so much like all these other words for white? Well, bhel also referred to anything bright, like fire, and the result of fire is blackened, charred remains. Hence, black.
3. English green
The PIE word ghre-, meaning “to grow,” is another root which endured the centuries. What grows? Green stuff! Grhe- gave us many modern words meaning “green,” including English green, German grün, and Icelandic grænn, as well as the English words grow, grass, graze and herb.
4. Portuguese red and purple
As languages add color words to their lexicon, the colors a word refers to can get shifted around. Portuguese roxo, related to the same PIE word reudh, used to mean red and red-related colors, including pink, orange, and purple. When the bright red pigment vermilion was imported from China, Portuguese began using vermelho to refer to red, and pushed roxo aside to refer exclusively to purple.
5. English purple
Purpura is the Latin name of a particular kind of shellfish which, when ground up, produces a bright purple dye, which in turn was taken from the Greek word porphura to describe the same sea creature. The word purpura later began to refer to the dye, and eventually the color of this dye. This dye was very expensive, and purple was considered a color of royalty throughout Europe. When this dye was exported to England, the word purple was imported into English as well. Today “purpura” is used by medicos to describe purplish discolorations of the skin.
6. English pink
Lots of fancy color words come from flowers or fruits: violet, periwinkle, lavender, lilac, olive, eggplant, pumpkin, and peach, to name a few. In English, pink used to refer exclusively to a flower called a pink, a dianthus which has pale red petals with fringed edges. “Pink” the verb, meaning to cut or tear jaggedly, has been in use in the English language since the early 14th century. Eventually, English speakers forgot the name of the flower, but preserved the word for the color.
7. Japanese blue and green
Over two-thirds of the world’s languages have a single word for both green and blue, known as grue in English. In Japanese, aoi historically referred to grue. When Crayola crayons were imported, green was labeled midori and blue was labeled aoi. New generations of schoolchildren learned them as different colors. But traces of grue remain: Japanese still refers to “blue” traffic lights and “blue” apples with aoi.
8. Kurdish and Russian blue
In Russian, the word for dark blue is sinii, and in Kurdish the word for blue is šin. In Neo-Aramaic, a central hub of trade, the word for blue is sǐni, and in Kurdish the word for blue is šin. In Arabic, a central hub of trade, the word for ‘Chinese’ is sini. The words for Chinese and blue became synonymous due to the popular blue and white porcelain china commonly traded in the region.
9. Spanish yellow
Amarillo, or “yellow,” is a diminutive form of the Spanish word amargo, which comes from the Latin word amarus, meaning “bitter.” So how did “little bitter” come to be synonymous with “yellow”? In the Middle Ages, medical physicians commonly believed that the human body had four humors. The “bitter humor” referred to bile, which is yellow.
10. English orange
When oranges (the fruit) were exported from India, the word for them was exported too. Sanskrit narangah, or “orange tree,” was borrowed into Persian as narang, “orange (fruit),” which was borrowed into Arabic as naranj, into Italian as arancia, into French as orange, and eventually into English as orange. The color of the fruit was so striking that after borrowing the word and the crop, English speakers eventually began referring to the color by this word as well. Before oranges were imported in the 1500s, the English word for orange (the color) was geoluhread (literally, “yellow-red”).
The following is an excerpt from The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Getting Ahead, in which author Charles Murray discusses words with meanings that have changed — and not always for the better.
Disinterested used to mean uninterested.
The meaning of disinterested is “free of bias and self-interest.” It is essential that a judge be disinterested, for example. Disinterested does NOT, repeat NOT, mean “lack of interest” or “uninterested.” I put this so emphatically because we’re not talking just about proper usage. Disinterest used in its correct sense is on its last legs—I’ve been appalled to see it misused in articles in the Washington Post and other major publications. English does not have another word that conveys the meaning of disinterested as economically. If we lose the distinctive meaning of the word, we have measurably degraded our ability to express ourselves in English.
Understand that some experts say that “persuade” and “convince” are synonyms that go back at least to the sixteenth century. The meanings are so closely knit that often one word serves as well as the other.
After ‘persuade’ we use the structure
to + infinitive:
- I persuaded them to stay for another drink.
- He persuaded her not to take the job.
After ‘convince’ we cannot use a verb infinitive. We say ‘convince someone that‘:
- She convinced the police that she was telling the truth.
- He convinced her that it was the right thing to do.
Both of the above sentence would also be correct without ‘that’:
- She convinced the police she was telling the truth.
- He convinced herit was the right thing to do.
Although Robert finally persuaded his girlfriend to move abroad with him, she was not fully convinced that it was the best thing to do.
In the example, Robert’s girlfriend was persuaded (to move) but was not convinced (that it was the correct decision). So, we can see that when we persuade someone to do something it doesn’t always mean that we have also convinced that person.
The teenager is convinced she can win. The boy was persuaded to run the 10-yard dash.
One more thing is worth mentioning about ‘persuade’ and ‘convince’. If we are absolutely sure about something, we say I’m convinced:
– Are you sure he’s innocent?
– Yes, I’m convinced. NOT
Some related words:
convincing (adjective) It was a convincing argument.
persuasive (adjective) Marta can be very persuasive when she wants.
persuasion (noun) He used his powers of persuasion.
When confronted with issues of word choice, I often find it helpful to consider the associations and connotations a word has in its different forms. A convincing person or argument is one that other people cannot help but agree with, whereas a persuasive person or argument is one that other people find compelling, but which leaves more room (in my mind) for the opportunity to disagree.
If you have been convinced, you have clearly and decisively changed your perspective. If you have been persuaded, then you have chosen to agree with those you previously disagreed with. In the latter case, it may not be so much that you’ve found an argument you agree with so much as you’re indulging someone who has appealed to you, either positively or negatively.
Prefer “convince” when the change of opinion must be definite or to deemphasize the role of whomever did the convincing. Prefer “persuade” to draw attention to either the arguments used or the individuals doing the arguing, to emphasize reluctance on the part of the persuaded, or when you need the word to contain more vowels.
Stop using the dangling participle and misplaced modifiers
Both can seriously change the flow and meaning of your writing. It is important to make sure we qualify the intended words and not just any words in the sentence.
A participle is a verb that acts like an adjective and ends in –ing, such as swimming or cooking or diving. You name it! Any verb can be turned into a participle. A participial phrase is a phrase describing an action, “cooking on the stove”, “swimming in the ocean” and it is used to modify a noun in the sentence. A dangling participle modifies the unintended noun. Examples of dangling participles:
Misinterpreted: Cooking on the stove, Alice decided it was time to turn the vegetables.
It sounds as though Alice herself was being cooked on the stove.
Intended: Alice decided it was time to turn the vegetables that were cooking on the stove.
Misinterpreted: Sunburned and dehydrated, Mom decided it was time for the children to go into the house.
It sounds as though the Mom is sunburned and dehydrated.
Intended: Mom decided it was time for the children, who were sunburned and dehydrated, to go into the house.
A modifier is a word or a phrase that modifies something else in the sentence. Misplaced modifiers are modifiers that modify something else other than what you intended.
Examples of misplaced modifiers:
“I only walked my dog.” which means you did nothing but walk the dog. You did not feed or wash it, etc.
“I walked only my dog.” which means you did not walk anyone else such as your cat or your child, etc.
“I write mostly for other blogs.” which means that you write for other blogs most of the time but you may write for other sources as well.
“I mostly write for other blogs.” which means that your main activity is to write for other blogs. You may do other things too, such as sleep and eat but most of the time, you are writing for other blogs.
This is an excerpt from a book by Farnoosh Brock, available at Amazon.
Photo credit: http://maineschoolwritingcenters.blogspot.com/
Wishing you a wonderful Monday,
Fig. a bad attitude that tends to get someone easily upset.“Why did you get so angry at the slightest criticism? You seem to have a chip on your shoulder.”
A perceived grievance or sense of inferiority.
The word chip has several meanings; the one that we are concerned with here is the earliest known of these, namely ‘a small piece of wood, as might be chopped, or chipped, from a larger block’. The phrase ‘a chip on one’s shoulder’ is reported as originating with the nineteenth century U.S. practice of spoiling for a fight by carrying a chip of wood on one’s shoulder, daring others to knock it off. This suggested derivation has more than the whiff of folk-etymology about it. Anyone who might be inclined to doubt that origin can take heart from an alternative theory.


The Controversy of the World Not Being Flat
The idea that all people believed the Earth was flat until the Age of Discovery and Christopher Columbus sailing West is a myth. While some people did believe that the Earth was flat then and even still do today, among educated circles dating as far back as ancient Greece there is evidence that the Earth was known to be spherical.
As late as 700 BC, Homer was still writing of the world as flat piece of land that was encircled by the waters of a wide river. The center of the world was considered to be Delphi, which makes sense that the Greeks believed this, because for them- Delphi was the center of their world. Greece with her proximal location between the Far East and Africa likely did seem like the center of the Earth at that time, given to the extent the globe had been traveled.
By the time of Anaximander (611 to 547 BC) it is likely the Greeks had already discovered that the Earth was not entirely flat. Anaximander was the first to build a mechanical representation of the Universe, with the Earth as fixed point at the Center and heavenly bodies revolving around it. He was the first known to think of the Earth as floating in space and is known as the Father of Cosmology. He originally envisioned Earth as a cylindrical shape but widely studied the heavenly bodies, their elliptical orbits and was said later to have created a globe. He also was written about by the Greek
historian Strabo as being credited by Eratosthenes as being the first to create a world map. Among his students was thought to have been Pythagoras (Pythagorean Theorem). Pythagoras (570 BC to 495 BC) along with Parmenides of Elea (515 BC est. birth/death not fully known) are credited as the first known to teach that the Earth was Spherical. Plato (427 BC to 347 BC) was familiar with the theories of both men, he studied Pythagorean mathematics in Southern Italy and discusses Parmenides visiting and teaching Socrates in Athens around 450 BC. He taught his own students the Earth was round and wrote in Phadeo, “My conviction is that the Earth is a round body in the centre of the heavens.” Aristotle (384 to 322 BC) also taught the Earth was round and offered the evidence of the curved shadow of the Earth on the Moon during a lunar eclipse, the rising of the constellations from the horizon each night and the sinking of the sun each day beyond the horizon line. Ptolemy (90 to 160 AD) similarly noted that ships vanish and on approach while crossing the sea lands and mountains become larger.
Eratosthenes (276 to 194 BC) was the Greek Director of the Library at Alexandria wrote on the Measurement of the Earth, in which he showed how he was able to calculate the circumference of the Earth. On the Summer Solstice, he observed that at noon there was no shadow being cast over head by a building in Syene but in Alexandria, there was. He measured the shadow and was able to deduce the angle of the sun. With that he used the known distance of 5,000 Stadia between the towns of Syene and Alexandria and with his knowledge of geometry figured this to be 1/50 of a circle. From this, Eratosthenes was able to calculate the approximate circumference of the Earth. He was off by about 15% but that is still extremely impressive given the lack of tools or technology help him arrive at this calculation.
During the Middle Ages there was the shift in education from the Renaissance curiosity of the natural world to an emphasis on Medieval Church doctrines. Although the Greek knowledge of the Earth being round continued within educated circles it was no longer a major emphasis. Even though it had long before been discovered that the Earth was round, once again ideas that the Earth was flat permeated among uneducated groups that did not have access to or could not understand the older Greek writings. One of the reasons for this is because when looking out in the distance over the water, at the horizon line, the Earth does appear to end. On the coast in the South of Portugal there is a vantage point known as the End of the World because as you look into the horizon, it does appear the Earth ends. Christopher Columbus had discovered a map made by Henricus Martellus which was the first map where the world is depicted as being round.
After failing to convince the Portuguese that he could sail around the world, Christopher Columbus used Martellus’s map to convince King Ferdinand that he could get to India by sailing West.
https://great-river-arts.myshopify.com/products/educational-map-series-californias-first-appearance-on-a-map ; https://great-river-arts.myshopify.com/products/educational-map-series-the-lost-map-of-sir-francis-drake, https://great-river-arts.myshopify.com/products/educational-map-series-universalis-cosmographia-1507, https://great-river-arts.myshopify.com/products/educational-map-series-carte-de-lamerique-septentrionnale-1910 , https://great-river-arts.myshopify.com/products/educational-map-series-orteliuss-regionis-typus-1570 , https://great-river-arts.myshopify.com/products/nova-totius-terrarum-1605-hand-colored-laser-reproduction


By Eberhard Bruenig
Tropical rainforests fascinate scientists and explorers. The richness and diversity of types and the variety of species were said for hundreds of years. Measures to guard endangered species inside this environment have been already suggestion worthy within the mid-nineteenth century. because the Nineteen Twenties advertisement greed, political misdemeanor and the relentless elevate within the human inhabitants have all posed expanding threats to the way forward for rainforests. Sustainability is now of paramount significance.
This re-creation of Conservation and administration of Tropical Rainforests applies the big physique of data, event and culture on hand to people who research tropical rainforests. Revised and up to date in gentle of advancements in technology, expertise, economics, politics, and so on. and their results on tropical forests, it describes the foundations of built-in conservation and administration that result in sustainability, opting for the unifying phenomena that keep an eye on the procedures in the rainforest and which are primary to the atmosphere viability. positive aspects of the usual woodland and the socio-cultural ecosystems that are mimicked within the layout of self-sustaining forests also are mentioned. A holistic method of the administration and conservation of rainforests is built during the publication. the point of interest on South-East Asian forestry may be widened to incorporate Africa and Latin the United States. contemporary arguable matters reminiscent of biofuels and carbon credit with admire to tropical forests and their population could be mentioned. This publication is a considerable contribution to the literature; it's a worthy source for all these keen on rainforests
Read or Download Conservation and management of tropical rainforests : an integrated approach to sustainability PDF
Similar forestry books
Spotting the elevated curiosity in wooded area administration around the globe, this publication addresses the present wisdom hole by means of defining sustainable woodland administration, clarifying tools during which ecological wisdom may be utilized and the way conventional silvicultural tools might be superior. Sustainable wooded area administration consists of the enhancement of assorted points of wooded area services equivalent to conservation of biodiversity, conservation of soil and water assets, contribution to the worldwide carbon cycle in addition to wooden creation.
Asian societies are getting into a brand new period of decentralized governance of forests. The authority to make judgements on wooded area administration has shifted to reduce degrees of presidency and, in certain cases, to the local community themselves. yet can governments easily `decentralize` authority clear of the guts, or are there convinced middle parts essential to in attaining sustainable administration and conservation of forests in a decentralized global?
With contributions from prime scientists in agricultural biology and younger researchers, this ebook examines the ecological results that usually come up with quite a few equipment of accelerating crop productiveness. It additionally provides agroecological ways to crop development and productiveness from numerous views, examines substitute strength resources, and discusses different difficulties regarding sustainable agriculture.
Regardless of the superior conservation and environmental policy-making efforts, at the least 80,000 acres of tropical rainforest disappear every day. If motion isn't taken now, specialists estimate that the world's rainforests will in most cases disappear inside of 50 years. at present, the destruction of tropical forests is liable for 17 percentage of synthetic carbon emissions—more than what comes from all of the world's autos, airplanes and ships mixed!
- Mangrove Ecosystems of Asia: Status, Challenges and Management Strategies
- Forest BioEnergy Production: Management, Carbon sequestration and Adaptation
- Soil Formation
- Greenhouse Gas Sinks
- Coastal Saline Soil Rehabilitation and Utilization Based on Forestry Approaches in China
- Common Insect and Mite Galls of the Pacific Northwest (Studies in entomology)
Additional resources for Conservation and management of tropical rainforests : an integrated approach to sustainability
Burham gives a brief but useful regional review for South-east Asia (SEA) (Burham in Whitmore, 1975a). The forest soils of Sarawak, including the unique extensive oligotrophic medium to deep peatswamp soils and the more scattered oligotrophic podzols and podsolic soils in kerangas forests (heath forest) have been intensively pedologically studied, classified, assessed and mapped since the 1950s. A useful overview of the soils of Sarawak from an agricultural and forestry point of view is given by Andriesse (1962).
This spatial patchiness of atmospheric and soil moisture, caused by physiographic heterogeneity at small to medium scale, complicates landuse and forestry planning, and being very vexing, is usually disregarded. 7). The extremely high discharge of water and sediments per square kilometre land surface in the South-east Asian Archipelago is related to the very high intensities of rainfall events and high relief energy. These extremely high discharge rates are indicators of the fragility and vulnerability of the land surface, which impose severe limitations on sustainable land and forest use in the Malesian region.
Neither the original TRF climate was, nor the contemporary climate in an environment of deforestation and air and water pollution is as favourable for plants as scientists and laymen commonly assume. 2°C 1677 mm mm 500 300 100 40 80 30 60 20 40 10 20 0 J FM A M J J A S O N D J FM A M J J A S O N D J FM A M J J A S O N D 0 Fig. 2. Climate diagram of the apparently everwet equatorial climate (examples San Carlos de Rio Negro, Amazonia, Venezuela, and Bintulu, Sarawak) and of the seasonal tropical climate with one dry season at the outer margin of the tropics (example Changjiang, Hainan) (Walter, 1973; data for San Carlos supplied by J.


By exploring a brand new printable biomaterial that might mimic qualities of brain tissue, Northwestern College scientists are now closer to getting a platform able of dealing with these problems applying regenerative drugs.A critical ingredient into the discovery may be the power to manage the self-assembly processes of molecules inside the fabric, enabling the researchers to modify the construction and functions within the techniques through the nanoscale towards scale of noticeable abilities. The laboratory of Samuel I. Stupp revealed a 2018 paper during the journal Science which confirmed that substances might be created with tremendously dynamic molecules programmed to migrate around long distances and self-organize to type larger, “superstructured” bundles of nanofibers.
Now, a investigation team led by Stupp has shown that these superstructures can enhance neuron expansion, a major tracking down that may have implications for mobile transplantation techniques for neurodegenerative disorders which include Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s condition, and also spinal wire personal injury.”This is definitely the primary case in point where exactly we have been capable to consider the phenomenon of molecular reshuffling we noted in 2018 and harness it for an application in regenerative medicine,” mentioned Stupp, the lead writer around the examine plus the director of Northwestern’s Simpson Querrey Institute. “We may use constructs in the new biomaterial to support learn therapies and grasp pathologies.”A pioneer of supramolecular self-assembly, Stupp is in addition the capstone nursing projects Board of Trustees Professor of Substances Science and Engineering, Chemistry, Medicine and Biomedical Engineering and retains appointments inside of the Weinberg College or university of Arts and Sciences, the McCormick Faculty of Engineering and then the Feinberg University of medication.
The new substance is created by mixing two liquids that immediately grow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Materialscientist to be rigid as the final result of interactions identified in chemistry as host-guest complexes that mimic key-lock interactions among the proteins, as well as as being the end result of your concentration of such interactions in micron-scale locations through a longer scale migration of “walking molecules.”The agile molecules address a length many hundreds of https://www.nursingcapstone.net/ situations larger than themselves in an effort to band collectively into sizeable superstructures. For the microscopic scale, this migration will cause a metamorphosis in construction from what appears like an raw chunk of ramen noodles into ropelike bundles.”Typical biomaterials employed in drugs like polymer hydrogels you shouldn’t possess the capabilities to permit molecules to self-assemble and go close to within just these assemblies,” stated Tristan Clemons, a analysis associate in the Stupp lab and co-first author in the paper with Alexandra Edelbrock, a former graduate university student within the group. “This phenomenon is exclusive to your programs we now have engineered in this article.”
Furthermore, since the dynamic molecules move to sort superstructures, good sized pores open up that make it possible for cells to penetrate and connect with bioactive indicators which may be built-in into the biomaterials.Interestingly, the mechanical forces of 3D printing disrupt the host-guest interactions from the superstructures and cause the fabric to move, but it can promptly solidify into any macroscopic form because the interactions are restored spontaneously by self-assembly. This also enables the 3D printing of constructions with distinct levels that harbor different kinds of neural cells in an effort to study their interactions.


Every year, thousands of people lose money to telephone scams and Cal Poly employees are prime targets for these phone phishers. Although phishing is commonly done by email, phone phishing is another tool used to obtain your personal and Cal Poly information. The caller may claim to work for a company you trust like Microsoft or even claim to be from the Cal Poly service desk. They may send mail or place ads to convince you to call them. The caller might offer to help solve your computer problems or sell you a software license and request your credit card information to bill you for the phony service call. They may also attempt to get your Cal Poly username and password, or ask you to make configuration changes to your computer which allows them access to install malicious software and capture sensitive data from you.
Cal Poly will never ask for your password via email, phone or a non-calpoly.edu web form. All password changes are handled through the Cal Poly Portal. You should also expect Cal Poly affiliated vendors to work with your IT support rather than contacting you directly.
How do Phone Call Attacks Work?
First, you have to understand what these attackers are after. They usually want your money, information, or access to your computer (or all three). They do this by tricking you into doing what they want. The bad guys call people around the world, creating situations that seem very urgent. They want to get you off-balance by scaring you so you won’t think clearly, and then rush you into making a mistake. Some of the most common examples include:
- The caller pretends that they are from a government tax department or a tax collection service and that you have unpaid taxes. They explain that if you don’t pay your taxes right away you will go to jail. They then pressure you to pay your taxes with your credit card over the phone. This is a scam. Many tax departments, including the IRS, never call or email people. All official tax notifications are sent by regular mail.
- The caller pretends they are Microsoft Tech Support and explain that your computer is infected. Once they convince you that you are infected, they pressure you into buying their software or giving them remote access to your computer. Microsoft will not call you at home.
- You get an automated voicemail message that your bank account has been canceled, and that you have to call a number to reactivate it. When you call, you get an automated system that asks you to confirm your identity and asks you all sorts of private questions. This is really not your bank, they are simply recording all your information for identity fraud.
The greatest defense you have against phone call attacks is yourself. Keep these things in mind:
- Anytime anyone calls you and creates a tremendous sense of urgency, pressuring you to do something, be extremely suspicious. Even if the phone call seems OK at first, but then starts to feel strange, you can stop and say no at any time.
- If you believe a phone call is an attack, simply hang up. If you want to confirm if the phone call was legitimate, go to the organization’s website (such as your bank) and get the customer support phone number and call them directly yourself. That way, you really know you are talking to the real organization.
- Never trust Caller ID. Bad guys will often spoof the caller number so it looks like it is coming from a legitimate organization or has the same area code as your phone number.
- Never allow a caller to take temporary control of your computer or trick you into downloading software. This is how bad guys can infect your computer.
- If a phone call is coming from someone you do not personally know, let the call go directly to voicemail. This way, you can review unknown calls on your own time. Even better, you can enable this by default on many phones with the “Do Not Disturb” feature.
- Notify email@example.com and (if possible) include the incoming number, the campus extension receiving the call, and the date and time so we can take appropriate action.
- If the caller claims to be contacting you regarding a service request for a computer you aren't aware of, take their information and follow up with ITS Service Desk or the IT contact in your area.
Scams and attacks over the phone are on the rise. You are the best defense you have at detecting and stopping them.


The march was written in 1899. When the march premiered the same year at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, the audience insisted that it be repeated three times. The march is "addressed to no particular nation, but to all of America's friends abroad."
In 1901, John Phillip Sousa heard the Virginia Tech Regimental Band (The Highty-Tighties ) playing "The Thunderer" at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. Sousa was so impressed that he dedicated a performance of his latest march, "Hands Across the Sea", to the band.
Sousa prefaced the sheet music's score with a quotation from the English diplomat John Hookham Frere: "A sudden thought strikes me; let us swear eternal friendship." The march was composed in the wake of the Spanish–American War and is idealistic, in addition to patriotic, in nature.
"Hands Across the Sea" remains as one of Sousa's more popular marches, and is still performed widely by bands.
One reviewer describes the march this way: "Hands Across the Sea opens with a jaunty, carefree theme, the wind sonorities light and generally in their middle and upper ranges. An equally attractive march appears midway through, its manner initially mellow and nonchalant. It gradually turns more animated and colorful, the piccolo dancing merrily above suave wind sonorities. The work closes with this spirited theme playing proudly, the brass flamboyant, the cymbals crashing, and the whole brimming with festivity and vivid color. For band music enthusiasts and Sousa mavens, this three-minute gem will have great appeal."


The Aboriginal Memorial
Galpu, Liyagalawumirr, Wagilag and Wudumin people
The Galpu, Liyagalawumirr, Wagilag and Wudumin people are linked by the major Dhuwa moiety theme of Wititj the Olive Python.
Liyagalawumirr literally means people with bark over their heads (as a shelter). Neville of the Liyagalawumirr people and Philip Gudthaykudthay's imagery is concerned with the Milky Way Story.
Neville graphically depicts the main elements of this story: Glider Possum, spangled perch and fish bones, Crow and the Fish Trap.
Gudthaykudthay's abstracted landscapes map the scene where the narrative is played out. Paddy Dhathangu, although represented by only one log coffin, was nonetheless one of the main initiators of the Memorial.
The path through the Memorial imitates the course of the Glyde River estuary which flows through the Arafura Swamp to the sea. The hollow log coffins are situated broadly according to where the artists' clans live along the river and its tributaries. This map indicates Galpu, Liyagalawumirr, Wagilag and Wudumin land and position in the memorial poles.
The Milky Way
Water has always been of vital importance in the history of human occupation of the Australian continent, even in the monsoonal tropical north. It was no accident that in 1788 Captain Arthur Phillip established the British penal colony on a sacred site, a spring, in Sydney Cove, that would grow into the present day city of Sydney, and, by extension the Australian nation. Indigenous people have never seen the landscape purely as real estate or an exploitable resource but enjoy an intimate spiritual relationship that defines their use of it. In everyday usage, the word gulun from the Djambarrpuyngu language means billabong, waterhole, pool, lagoon or freshwater swamp. It also means stomach, but in a more revealing context a woman's stomach, or womb. Waterholes are thought of as the place of unborn and deceased spirits; it is often said 'I wasn't born then, I was still in the water then'. Gulunbuy, the adjective of gulun, means physically from the mother's womb at birth, and, spiritually from the sacred waterhole.
The Ramingining-Glyde River region is blessed with a number of permanent water courses, springs, and the large inland freshwater Arafura Swamp. Various spirit beings, the Diver Duck, two Spirit Women, the Eel-tailed Catfish, the Long-necked Tortoise, and the Rainbow Serpent, worked to create the lush permanent waterholes at Yathalamarra and at Gatji lagoon. Inland where the Glyde River becomes the Goyder, a Dog Spirit created a spring that became the life-rich Arafura Swamp.
The Wagilag sisters
One of the most important Dhuwa moiety themes in Central Arnhem Land is that of Wititj the Olive Python and the Wagilag Sisters. This story chronicles the creative acts of the ancestral Sisters as they travelled across Arnhem Land, culminating in an epic encounter with Wititj. The story provides the basis for key aspects of Yolngu social life and its rituals, as well as the laws relating to authority, kinship, territory and, significantly, marriage.
The two Sisters — the older of whom has a child, the younger is pregnant — are fleeing their home in the south east, travelling north towards the sea. As they travel they encounter animals, plants and country, which they name — in essence bringing them into being. They come to the stone quarries at Ngilipidji in the land of the Wagilag clan from where they get their name.
Eventually the Sisters set up camp at a waterhole at Mirarrmina in Liyagalawumirr country. They build a bark hut in which to sleep and the younger Sister gives birth. The Sisters are unaware that the waterhole is the sacred home of Wititj, the giant Olive Python.
Wititj is angered by their presence. Sucking in the waters of the lagoon, he rises erect in the sky, spitting out the water which forms the rain clouds of the first monsoon. The Sisters, sheltering in their bark hut, perform songs and dances to deter the Python and stop the deluge of rain, thunder and lightning. Finally, they drop in exhaustion. Wititj descends and swallows the women and children, their dog and all their belongings.
Shortly afterwards Wititj develops a terrible stomach ache. He rises into the sky above the flooded landscape and his groans attract the attention of other great Snakes from surrounding clan estates. When asked what he has been doing, Wititj lies about what he has eaten, realising he has erred by eating beings of the same moiety — the Sisters and the Python are all Dhuwa.
The pain becomes so great that the Python crashes to the ground, leaving the impression of his body in the earth. He vomits the Sisters but retains the children, who belong to the opposite moiety, the Yirritja. When the Sisters are brought to life again by the bites of stinging caterpillars, Wititj beats them with clapsticks and swallows them again.
The songs and dances performed by the women to stop the rain are revealed in a dream to clansmen who had followed them. The men are instructed to return home; they must teach these rites to others, guaranteeing the continuation of the cycles of nature.


Buying posters via this link
helps Artchive - click here!
|The Artchive needs EVERYONE to help!|
If you enjoy this site, please click here
to find out how YOU can help to keep it online.
Buy Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau"An international style of decoration and architecture which developed in the 1880s and 1890s. The name derives from the Maison de l'Art Nouveau, an interior design gallery opened in Paris in 1896, but in fact the movement had different names throughout Europe. In Germany it was known as 'Jugendstil', from the magazine Diejugend (Youth) published from 1896; in Italy 'Stile Liberty' (after the London store, Liberty Style) or 'Floreale'; in Spain 'Modernista', in Austria 'Sezessionstil' and, paradoxically, in France the English term 'Modern Style' was often used, emphasizing the English origins of the movement.
"In design Art Nouveau was characterized by writhing plant forms and an opposition to the historicism which had plagued the 19th century. There was a tension implicit throughout the movement between the decorative and the modern which can be seen in the work of individual designers as well as in the chronology of the whole. Its emphasis on decoration and artistic unity links the movement to contemporary Symbolist ideas in art, as seen in the work of the Vienna Secessionists, but the movement was also associated with Arts and Crafts ideas and, as such, Art Nouveau forms a bridge between Morris and Gropius (recognized by Pevsner in his book, Pioneers of the Modern Movement, 1936).
"In Britain the style was exemplified by the architecture of Rennie Mackintosh, and the design work of the Macdonald sisters. The lingering impact of Morris in England slowed down the progress of the new style in design although Mackmurdo, Godwin, Townsend and even Voysey were influenced towards Art Nouveau. It was in illustration that the ideas were most keenly felt, through the new periodicals and presses - the Yellow Book, the Studio, the Savoy, the Hobby Horse - and though the work of Beardsley, Ricketts and Selwyn Image.
"In France, despite Guimard's famous glass and iron Metro designs, the movement was best expressed in the applied arts, especially the glassware of Lalique (1860-1945) and Galle (1846-1904). In Belgium, the style was promoted through the Societe des Vingts (Les Vingt) established in 1884, and including Ensor as well as the more characteristically Art Nouveau architects Horta and Van de Velde in its members. In Spain the style was concentrated in the eccentric hands of Gaudi in Barcelona. In Vienna, architects like Wagner, Hoffmann and Olbrich, and artists such as Klimt gathered to promote the style through the Secessionist magazine Ver Sacrum. In Germany, the movement split between the decorative tendencies of Otto Eckman (1865-1902) and the Pan magazine, and the streamlined design of Behrens. In America architects like Sullivan and Wright were influenced by European ideas but conceived Art Nouveau in different terms, whilst designers like Tiffany enthusiastically embraced the movement.


THE ART OF CENTRAL THAILAND, 1350-1800
Asian Art Museum, San Francisco Presents First Exhibition Ever Exploring Thailand's Lost Kingdom of Ayutthaya. February 18 - May 8, 2005
In 1686 King Louis XIV of France had the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles specially prepared to receive, with exceptional pomp and ceremony, a group of foreign envoys. The envoys brought with them two shiploads of gifts. In fact, they delivered so many objects of gold, silver, and lacquer that the French complained that their list would be as long as a book. The envoys had been sent from the kingdom of Ayutthaya, or “Siam” as it was known in the West. Though little remembered today, Ayutthaya was one of the largest and most important kingdoms in Southeast Asia. Founded in 1351, the kingdom flourished for more than four hundred years—longer than China’s Ming dynasty. It was a major trading center with diplomatic ties with China, Japan, Persia, the Ryukyu kingdom (Okinawa), and with Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, and Portugal. The envoys’ gifts reflected this trade—more than fifteen hundred pieces of porcelain (mostly Chinese), Persian and Indian carpets, and many other objects from Japan and China were given to the French king and his relatives.
Despite the kingdom’s power, prosperity, and influence, it was destroyed by an invasion from neighboring Burma in 1767. As a result, many Ayutthayan artifacts, especially those made of fragile materials, were lost, and the kingdom’s splendor faded from memory. Beginning February 18, 2005, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco will present The Kingdom of Siam: The Art of Central Thailand, 1350–1800—the world’s first major exhibition of art from Thailand’s lost kingdom of Ayutthaya, and the first exhibition of classical art from Thailand shown in the United States in more than thirty years. The exhibition showcases eighty-nine of the finest surviving works from Ayutthaya, drawn from collections in Thailand, Europe, and the United States; many of these are being displayed for the first time in the West. They include stone and bronze Buddha images, sculptures of Hindu deities, figural and decorative wood carvings, temple furnishings, illuminated manuscripts, jewelry, and textiles. Among the highlights are gold royal regalia and ceremonial objects; a full-sized temple pediment; and sections of royally commissioned temple doors with inlaid mother of pearl. The exhibition will be on view at the Asian Art Museum through May 8, 2005, before traveling to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass., where it will be on view July 16 to October 16, 2005.
While most aspects of the art and culture of China, Japan, and India have been extensively studied, less research exists on the cultural contributions of Southeast Asia. The Kingdom of Siam, organized by the Asian Art Museum in conjunction with the National Museums of Thailand, sheds light on a one of the region’s greatest, but least known, cultures. The exhibition is curated by classical Thai art authority Dr. Forrest McGill, the Asian Art Museum’s Chief Curator and Wattis Curator of South and Southeast Asian Art; and co-curated by M. L. Pattaratorn Chirapravati, Assistant Professor of Asian Art, California State University, Sacramento. The Kingdom of Siam and its accompanying fully illustrated 200-page catalogue (featuring essays on the history, art, and culture of Ayutthaya by leading scholars) will make an important contribution to Southeast Asian cultural history.
More than neighboring kingdoms, including perpetual rival Burma, Ayutthaya was cosmopolitan and outward–looking. The 1600s and early 1700s were a period of great prosperity and cultural accomplishment, but in 1767 Burmese armies destroyed the capital. The human suffering was great, and the loss of artworks and records incalculable. Today, only a few artworks and buildings (in ruins or heavily restored) survive, pointing to the challenges that have faced scholars in trying to piece together the story of the Ayutthaya period (1351–1767, an era equivalent to the period from the Black Death almost to the French Revolution in Europe). The Kingdom of Siam will provide American audiences with the unique opportunity to see some of the finest surviving artworks of this enigmatic culture.
Among the most intriguing objects in the exhibition are the eight artworks culled from an important cache of Buddha images, votive tablets, ritual objects, and royal jewelry found in the crypt of Wat Ratchaburana, one of Ayutthaya’s temples. In 1957 thieves broke into the previously unknown crypt deep within its main tower. They found a rich hoard of Buddhist artworks, ceremonial objects, and royal regalia of gold studded with gems. Word of the finds soon reached officials in Bangkok, who set out to recover as much as possible of what had been stolen, and to investigate the crypt and its riches properly.
Eventually, more than six hundred Buddha images and a thousand Buddhist votive tablets were found. Scholars believe that the crypt at Wat Ratchaburana was sealed in 1424. Thus the crypt and its contents constitute a sort of time capsule of early Siamese art and culture. The significance of this is enormous. Few records survive from Ayutthaya’s first century, and those that do are often of limited usefulness. Artworks firmly dated by inscription or historical documents are rare. The discovery of hundreds of artifacts and artworks known to have been made in 1424 or earlier has revolutionized understanding of the development of Siamese art.
At the Asian Art Museum The Kingdom of Siam is on view in Hambrecht and Osher Galleries on the first floor. The works are presented in generally chronological order, and three major themes are explored: the development of a distinct national culture; cosmopolitanism and the importance of trade; and art as an instrument of royal power.
The people of Siam were of varied ethnicities (Thai, Mon, Cambodian, Chinese, Malay), and several languages were spoken in the kingdom. Its artistic heritage was equally mixed. The exhibition examines how this diversity influenced the development of a characteristic “Ayutthayan style” over the course of a century or more. The most impressive early works in a distinctly Ayutthayan style in the exhibition are two enormous stone faces of Buddha images dating from around or before 1374. It is striking that even in its early days the kingdom could mobilize the resources to create and enshrine stone Buddha images of such size (when intact approximately twenty-three feet high).
During preparations for the exhibition, an extraordinary find was uncovered that illuminates the early development of Ayutthayan culture. A large stone walking Buddha carved in high relief had long been fixed against a wall in a storeroom of one of Thailand’s national museums. Because of the rarity of Ayutthaya stone sculptures of this type, it was requested for the exhibition. When it was moved away from the wall an extensive inscription was discovered carved onto the back. Inscriptions from the Ayutthaya period are rare, and for one to come to light is cause for celebration. According to a forthcoming article, this inscription contains a date equivalent to 1375. If the walking Buddha can be linked to the 1375 date (as seems likely), it will stand as the only securely dated Buddha image of early Ayutthaya.
The exhibition includes a number of other dated or dateable works, which constitute the anchor points for constructing an Ayutthayan chronology. Among these are bronze heads of figures of the Buddha-to-be in previous lives, thought to have been cast in the 1450s; Buddha images that may have been deposited inside a colossal Buddha image in 1538; a large crowned Buddha inscribed with a date equivalent to 1541; and a miniature ivory stupa complex with a date equivalent to 1711. These dateable artworks, fascinating and beautiful in their own right, provide a historical framework within which the exhibition’s other striking objects—for example an elaborate cast iron temple finial, several miniature palatial buildings, a set of bronze serpent heads from a temple balustrade, a Thai sword with a dated Dutch blade, a gilded cabinet bearing a depiction of Louis XIV, and first editions of some of the French envoys’ accounts of their sojourns in Siam—may be better appreciated.
Throughout its history, Ayutthaya exported its goods and was a major trade center, and the activities of foreign merchants there have been studied in some detail. Foreign objects, however, and their impact in Siam, have sometimes been overlooked. The exhibition will explore how trade, and the presence of foreign luxury goods, affected the development of Siam’s arts.
In Ayutthaya, as elsewhere, kings sponsored monuments and artworks to reinforce specific political or social ideas. Only recently have scholars studied this phenomenon in detail, and The Kingdom of Siam reflects this recent scholarship. For example, a large wooden sculpture of a princely figure kneeling with his hand extended before him as if making an offering suggests the richness of meanings and associations of the works in the exhibition. Who is represented, and what was the purpose of the sculpture? Several of the type are known, and they were used by in Buddhist ceremonies in which robes and other necessities were given to monks. The offerings of an ordinary person could be presented in an ordinary way, but a king’s offerings were placed on the hands of such a figure. The figure’s garments are those of a royal person such as are worn by celestials depicted in countless paintings and other artworks. But the crown, when looked at carefully, is seen to have an unusual upper part characteristic only of the headdresses of hermits and ascetics. Thus, the figure almost certainly is meant to be Prince Vessantara, the Buddha in his next-tolast life before achieving Buddhahood. Vessantara was sent into exile and lived as a hermit after giving away his kingdom’s magical elephant. In fact, he gave away everything, including his children, as he perfected the virtue of charity, of which he was the exemplar. A king making donations to the monkhood was emulating Vessantara, in a sort of solemn and resonant role-play.
Such are the revelations provided by this unprecedented exhibition, which
reveals the splendor of a majestic culture that until now has been almost
completely lost in the mists of time.


Wurm is known for his humorous approach to formalism. About the use of humor in his work, Wurm says in an interview: "If you approach things with a sense of humor, people immediately assume you're not to be taken seriously. But I think truths about society and human existence can be approached in different ways. You don't always have to be deadly serious. Sarcasm and humor can help you see things in a lighter vein.
"I am interested in everyday life. All the materials that surrounded me could be useful, as well as the objects, topics involved in contemporary society. My work speaks about the whole entity of a human being: the physical, the spiritual, the psychological and the political."
In the series 'One Minute Sculptures' by Erwin Wurm, viewers are asked to do more than merely look at the museum artworks surrounding them, but to experience the artworks and themselves in new ways. In the form of drawings or brief written directions, the visitor is instructed and encouraged to become an artwork – a 'One Minute Sculpture' – for the duration of sixty seconds
Although the images are slightly humorous, they extend or manipulate reality in ways that can be disturbing. Wurm’s work portrays manipulated images of things in everyday life, things that look familiar, but which become distorted. “I will often use humor to seduce people”, admits Wurm. “To get them to move closer, but it’s never very nice when they look closer."
Wurm’s work is often critical of Western society and the mentality and lifestyle of his childhood during post-World War II Austria. Although Wurm's sculptures are humorous and ridiculous, they are actually quite serious. His criticism is playful, but should not be confused with kindness. He represents his criticism of objects, such as clothing, furniture, cars, houses, and everyday objects to his audience. Common themes in his work include not only our relationship to banal everyday objects, but also philosophers like Freud, and life in postwar Austria.
In below "Bad Thougt" 2016, Wurm make some artwork or object, bag or package it was similar with these form, Wurm use model and molding for technique and execution by metal and patina colored. It like mysterious package, uncommon and feel something hidden.
Erwin Wurm "shrank" his parents' house to reflect the mentality of Austria during the postwar period; the design of the house is typical of the 1950s, but a fraction as wide. The house is furnished with shrunken furniture. This piece was inspired by Wurm's childhood since he grew up during the 1950s through 1970s in postwar Austria.
Growing up, he lived with his parents; his mother stayed at home and his father was a policeman. Therefore, it was difficult to express himself both at school and at home. This limited view has affected Wurm's philosophy of art strongly, and Narrow House is a physical manifestation of it. When the viewer's walkthrough, they feel the tension and claustrophobia that Wurm experienced on a daily basis as a child.


I arranged this version of “Love One Another” for my family to play in church. I played violin, my daughter played cello, my husband played piano. The original music is by Luacine Clark Fox and appears in the LDS Children’s Songbook here. Like most of the Children’s Songbook, it is freely reproducible for noncommercial use.
Here is a quick, no-prep improv to do with students. All of mine enjoyed it.
The student can use any key on the keyboard. They’ll be using their imagination to play something that sounds appropriate, as you talk them through a thunderstorm. If possible, they should be playing continuously.
The teacher will talk through these steps:
- First, the rain is far away and not very loud.
- Gradually, it comes closer, so that the first raindrops actually fall on you.
- The rain grows steadily faster and louder until you are drenched in a downpour.
- Suddenly, there is a thunderclap! (But the rain continues.)
- And another thunderclap!
- There is a brief lull, as the rain lessens.
- With another thunderclap, the rain comes back in full force.
- The wind blows in fits and starts.
- Gradually, the rain moves off, getting softer and lighter as it fades into the distance.
- Until you are left with only a rainbow.
It’s quite interesting to see how many different effects different students come up with, following this same pattern.
Here’s a music game based loosely on Pictionary. I teach private lessons, so we never have enough people for the actual game of Pictionary. This is a non-competitive version for two people.
What you need:
- At least one set of cards with the letter names on them A through F.
- Optional: a set of cards with other musical concepts on them. I wrote these out by hand in a few minutes, but some examples would be: quarter note, whole note, soft, loud, crescendo, repeat sign, bar line, etc. It is important that you actual write these out; don’t use the symbol.
- A bag or bowl or something to draw the cards out of.
- Whiteboard (or paper) with a large staff on it. Click here for a paper version.
- Whiteboard markers (or other writing utensil)
- Put the cards in the bag or bowl.
- Determine how many points you are going for.
How to Play:
- The first player draws a card out of the bag and does not show it to the other player. If it’s a note name, she draws it, including the clef. If it’s a concept, she draws the symbol for it, such as “p” for soft, “f” for loud, etc.
- The second player guesses what was on the card. If he gets it right, a point has been earned. You can keep track of this with tally marks if you’re trying to be quick and simple. I did it with smiley faces, and most of my students enjoyed drawing those. You’re working together as a team, so there is only one set of points to keep track of.
- On the next turn, the second player draws and the first player guesses.
- The game ends when the points goal has been achieved.
- For pre-readers, use a printout of a keyboard, instead of a staff.
- For more advanced readers, specify an interval, such as a third. Draw the note a third above the note on the card, instead of the actual note on the card. The second player still guesses the note on the card, not the one drawn on the staff.
- To make the game move along if you’re running out of time, make the last one a double or nothing challenge, or a triple or nothing challenge.
- If the player draws a card and doesn’t know what it means, either set it aside and draw again, or show it to the teacher and have a discussion about it.


By David Malinowski and the students of UC Berkeley’s freshman/sophomore seminar East Asian Languages 39A
Perhaps nothing visible in the streets of Berkeley seems more straightforward than the signs that name its businesses. The “heat” of the new Heat Hot Sauce Shop and “sliver” of Sliver Pizzeria highlight key traits of the products being sold. Andronico’s, Philz, Moe’s and Oscar’s name their founders. FedEx, McDonald’s, and Bank of America are instantly recognizable for the scale of their brand. Even the bowling alley origins of Berkeley Bowl can be confirmed with a little asking around.
Yet what becomes of the seeming straightforwardness and simplicity of a name when it is written in two languages? Do the names written onto Berkeley’s many bilingual shop signs say the same thing in both languages? How might speakers of these languages read the identities of these businesses differently? And what lessons can be learned about the naturalness of familiar business names in English by studying names in other languages?
These are some of the questions being asked by students in an undergraduate seminar I teach at Berkeley through the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures: “Reading the Multilingual City: Chinese, Korean, and Japanese in Bay Area Linguistic Landscapes.”
In recent field trips to downtown Berkeley and upper Solano Avenue, the students have taken notes and photographed what they could read, and what they couldn’t, in signs containing these and other languages (*Note: This class, and this article, focus mainly on the three East Asian languages mentioned above; however, US Census data from 2000 show at least 29 languages spoken in the city of Berkeley).
Then, in order to begin to explore the relevant histories and backgrounds, the students carried out short interviews with shop owners, employees and passersby. They will use this material, along with findings from later field trips, for semester-end projects on the visibility of multilingualism in our communities. For this Berkeleyside article, the students have contributed some of their initial observations that they have recorded every week in personal blogs for the class.
Of course, just as there are straightforward-sounding business names in one language, Berkeley does appear to have its fair share of bilingual signs in which business names translate more or less directly across languages.
Several students took note of University Avenue’s Taiwan Restaurant (台湾飯店) as an example of the translation of meanings between Chinese and English (“台湾” means “Taiwan” and “飯店” is equivalent to “restaurant”), while the “Sun” in Sun Hong Kong Restaurant (新香港酒家) on Durant Avenue and Ichiban (一番) of Ichiban Japanese Cuisine and Sushi Bar on Shattuck Avenue downtown are examples of the transliteration of sounds from Chinese and Japanese, respectively. “新”, meaning “new”, is pronounced “sun” in Cantonese (the restaurant name only coincidentally looks like the English word “sun”). Meanwhile, “一番”, meaning “Number One” or “the best”, is pronounced “ichiban” in Japanese.
Already in the example of Sun Hong Kong we can see the potential for people of different linguistic backgrounds to read different (and sometimes mistaken) meanings from the names on bilingual signs.
This was the case for many of us as we ventured north from campus on the 18 line to meet with Albert Lou, owner of upper Solano Avenue’s iconic King Tsin Restaurant and Bar. The restaurant, described in its own menu as “the first Mandarin restaurant to open on Solano Avenue,” bears the Chinese name of Beijing’s original Hou Te Fu (厚德福) restaurant, where Mr. Lou’s father, Fat Hing Lou, had apprenticed before leaving China in the political turmoil of the 1940s. Both the restaurant’s history — kindly narrated to us by Mr. Lou over tea — and its two names clearly left an impression on the students in our class: Annie remarked that “Learning so much about the restaurant’s past created a more personal connection, as we heard about how [Mr. Lou]’s father first started the business and his siblings worked every day”; Vivian, meanwhile, reflected on the discovery that “the English name, King Tsin, comes from an unexpected source. I thought that the “King” referred to the monarchy meaning it has, but actually it came from Beijing’s pronunciation: Pe-king. Tsin is a derived sound from the place Ten Tsin, which is a landmark in China.”
Through our visit and conversation with the restaurant’s owner, we learned that King Tsin is neither a translation nor a transliteration of “厚德福”. Instead, it is a business with two names, addressing (at least) two different audiences.
And, as the students continued their investigations on Solano Avenue and other Berkeley streets, they found more and more examples of this phenomenon. Grace, for instance, upon observing the bilingual sign at Liu’s Kitchen, wrote in her blog that “The sign reads as “Liu’s Kitchen” in English. The first Chinese character reads as “liu” and the last two characters mean kitchen, but I couldn’t fit the second character into context. It reads as “tian” and means sky in Chinese. This may have something to do with what we had discussed the week before–when translating one language into another, there are parts that can’t be translated and it is difficult to do an exact translation. I was still curious as to what role the “tian” character plays.”
Ironically, as Lucy notes, the particular cultural and historical resonances of words may make it necessary to create different names in two languages in order to arrive at a similar meaning. “Also on University, we have the “May Flower” 鸿涛, where the first character “hong” means great while “tao” normally refers to a big wave. Therefore, the Mayflower which reached America with the help of big waves is incorporated into the Chinese name of this restaurants. This is one way to prove that when it comes to signs there is a preference of how to get the same point across with a different language.”
As the students observed these Berkeley business names translated, transliterated, and transformed between Chinese, English, and other languages, however, they began to notice that some words prominently displayed on storefronts and shop signs are not names at all.
Lulu, for instance, was struck by her discovery that the calligraphic characters “寿司” at the top of the Solano Avenue restaurant Miyuki read “sushi” and not “Miyuki” (the name of the restaurant does appear in the Japanese hiragana script to the left of the restaurant’s front door). A native speaker of Spanish, Lulu wrote, “I wonder, what does the sign say about the people that go there? If I saw a sign that just said burrito in Spanish, like ‘El Burrito’ or something, it wouldn’t seem like an authentic place; but, it probably would to someone who wasn’t literate in Spanish.”
Throughout the semester, critical readings such as Scouting New York’s Why Everyone Films at the Same Damn New York Chinese Restaurant, in tandem with comparison visits to neighboring cities, have given rise to observations such as Lulu’s. They have pushed our class to ask questions about how, where, and why different languages in multilingual settings might be written or read for their symbolic values — that is, for how they can be seen to represent countries, cultures, or people, in the manner of a national flag — and how people in places like Berkeley might form opinions about what counts as real in restaurants and other so-called “ethnic” businesses.
In her blog, Chelsea has wondered aloud when and why some business owners opt to employ an “’asian font’ of mimicking brush strokes” in their signs’ English lettering. After a recent visit to San Francisco’s Chinatown, Frank and Julian observed that city authorities might use Chinese and English together on street signs as much to attract tourists as to communicate efficiently. Jessica, reflecting on several weeks of observations on foot, online, and on her daily ride on the 1R bus, wrote: “As a result of the business aspect in restaurants, restaurants need to cater to the needs of the customers, causing them to change their setting and menu. In such cases restaurants may try to over-present a culture, like with a Chinese restaurant having a lot of red lanterns and dragon pictures, or changing the menu to fit the tastes of the customers.”
Paradoxically, perhaps, the short and simple texts that are bilingual business signs don’t just have one meaning, and they don’t just mean in one way. And perhaps even more perplexingly, the meanings ascribed to the individual words that appear on these signs may come as much from broader market forces and cultural perceptions as they do from the intentions of individual business owners or sign makers.
Tracing the histories and associations of the words and names visible on the streets of Berkeley is a complex task — and one that cannot be accomplished simply by looking. In the coming weeks, through the end of the UC Berkeley semester in May, we hope to take our next steps in this process through more neighborhood visits, readings, and conversations.
Berkeleyside publishes many articles every day. To see all our stories in chronological order, and read ones you may have missed, check out our All the News grid.


Sick Building Syndrome
Sick Building Syndrome is a key phrase you’ll be hearing a lot about over the next decade or two.
Building Pathology (a.k.a Sick Building Syndrome) is defined as the scientific study of the nature of building failure and its causes, processes, development, and consequences. We, at Building have seen this on many occasions as we are brought in to deal with numerous building defects that aren’t run-of-the-mill building projects, mainly because they’ve been largely caused by:
- Installation of materials that have not been understood correctly
- Workmen that are installing materials they do not understand, or with which they are not familiar
With the rapid advancement of technology, new building materials are entering the market so quickly, that many are being installed without the necessary comprehension of just how they will work in conjunction with the old / new building where they’re being installed.
Either through lack of funds or ignorance, building companies are not keeping up with the new specifications and training needed to ensure that the materials don’t cause more problems than they are there to solve.
Example of Sick Building Syndrome
Let’s take a 100 yr old property in London. The technology behind the construction of the building and the materials would’ve been tried and tested over the previous 50 years and all major problems built out. For its first 50 years the property probably didn’t have many major changes. To begin with, the WC is moved indoors, followed by the addition of a bathroom. So an area is introduced into the house that generates a lot of dampness.
The old property can take this in its stride because the walls and ceiling breathe, the windows rattle and drafts are everywhere. Next it’s time to re-decorate all the ceilings and walls, replacing the old distemper paint with the modern emulsions containing PVA.
Essentially this seals the ceilings and walls so they can’t breathe. Within a decade the windows are changed to new draught-proof double-glazing, further sealing the property. The loft is insulated to keep the heat in. The owners knock holes all over the place and re-wire the property, running in new pipes for heating. So now it’s totally modernised and looks lovely and comfortable to live in, but it may be harbouring big problems for the owners.
Unfortunately more and more properties are starting to develop problems because of all the above, hence the new terms:
- Sick Building Syndrome
- Building Pathology
The story does not stop here:
- We add even more insulation to roofs and walls these days
- Live with a higher volume of people per square metre, so we need more bathrooms
- We add radio frequencies to cover smaller areas (producing hotspots)
- We are running more cables that can produce electromagnetic radiation
Building pathology looks into all of the above and suggests ways of rectifying the problems that we are building into our properties, before and after they’ve become sick.
If you are spotting the tell-tales signs of sick building syndrome and would like a property health check, get in touch with us.


Samuel Lucas JMI School, Hertfordshire
Years 5 and 6 (9 to 11 year-olds)
The children worked collaboratively
with an author-illustrator to make a giant puppet theatre,
complete with decorated proscenium arch and scenery.
This was all hand painted by the children, as were the
masks. From an original idea of cardboard puppets, the
children, wearing masks, became the puppets and the
narrators the puppet masters.
The play was developed out of the students' observations
of the principle characters in the painting. They were
given appropriate names and identities and even relationships
and personality traits. The inspiration for the play
was the mystery of the change in Renoir's style over
the five years he worked on the painting.
Helen Davis (Lead Teacher)
© Samuel Lucas JMI School.
Photo: The National Gallery, London.


In academic circles, often there are two types of sciences, classified as “hard” sciences and “soft” sciences. The “hard” sciences include biology, physics, and chemistry, which are subjects that involve the natural world. On the other hand, the so-called “soft” sciences are those belonging to social science, such as psychology, sociology, economics, anthropology, political science, and many others. The social sciences involve studying human behavior both individually and in groups.
In psychology, for instance, it is the study of the human mind and how it affects a person’s behavior. The arena of psychology covers many topics, like decision-making, learning, coping mechanisms, and many others. Psychology also explores the higher functions of the human mind, termed cognition. This involves how humans process language, emotions, and other information from all around them.
The “social” in social science deals with, well, society. That is, people arranged in groups functioning as one unit, like communities, cities, and nations. There are many branches of social science that deal with this, such as sociology, political science, and anthropology. Human behaviors change a lot when they are in groups, and these social sciences explore that side of humanity.
One of the things examined in social sciences is different cultures of different people. Humans create culture, and depending on where they are and who they are with, cultures are varied in different parts of the world. These cultures shape people’s lives and become the basis for social norms and certain patterns of behavior.
Some people argue that social sciences are not as useful as the hard sciences. This is simply not true, as the findings of social scientists can help shape modern society into a better one. They influence policymaking, for instance, allowing politicians to make more informed decisions regarding laws. Laws affect society, so the laws that are crafted must address the issues a society faces.


Quick Hand Sketches.
These hand sketches are examples of how to draw hands quickly but the techniques also work for more leisurely drawings. If you want to learn to sketch people this kind of hand drawing will aid you by arming you with the tools to capture the forms at some speed. You should practice this slowly to begin with before trying to accelerate your drawing. The first will be of use in drawings of females as it is a young girl's hand. The bones are fragile and the skin smooth.
1. We can think of the palm and the back of the hand as a square or rectangle, angling the lines dependent on the way the hand is positioned. This is something that only requires the practice of sketching the hand in different poses. I practice drawing my own hand and also draw it while holding it to a mirror. I also draw my family and friends who are all used to me doing this formally and informally.
This hand is face down. I sketch the back of it as a square.
2. I sketch in the fingers first concentratiing on the angle, width and placement where they will join the back of the hand. Then I sketch a semi circle at the rear of the hand where it joins up with the wrist. The thumb is a smaller semi circle and crescent. This is all very loose but the angles are important.
3. I refine the edges of the forms now. The thing to remember is that your goal is to find the edge of the palm, fingers etc. You are not drawing an outline. The outer edge of your pencil lines should describe the limits of the hand. Once you have this correct you can go over your lines further refining them.
4. I achieve this by going over the guidelines indenting, almost carving the bone structure. I add nails and a little tone. Note the skin between the fingers.
Hand Sketches 2
1. This is a male hand drawn in the same way. I use the same technique for the palm and add the wrist as a tube.
2. I sketch the thumb.
3. These shapes show me where the fingers will be. All I'm doing here is trying to get the angles.
4. I divide the fingers into their respectcive three parts. I also sketch in the thumb nail. Then I show the pad of the thumb and wrinkles on the palm.
5. I'm ready to draw the hand in a little more detail. I work on the fingers first then the thumb before sketching the wrist and beginning of the arm.
6. A final refining and the hand sketch is finished.
Go to drawing people from hand sketches.