Warriors the Film

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.  A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight; nothing he cares about more than his own personal safety; is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

John Stuart Mill

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.  A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight; nothing he cares about more than his own personal safety; is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. - John Stuart Mill

http://www.warriorsthefilm.com/Movie.html

Church of Maria Treu

Piaristenkirche Maria Treu.
See an awesome 360 Gigapixel image here.

There are other Gigapixel images images here.

The Making of a Polychrome Sculpture

Explore the techniques used to construct and paint Roldana’s Saint Ginés.
See the video here. 

Also read an interesting article about La Roldana’s Saint Ginés here.

The Disappearing Male

The secret reason for the demise of Western Civilization. 

From the cbc.ca website:
“We are conducting a vast toxicological experiment in which our children and our children’s children are the experimental subjects.” Dr. Herbert Needleman

The Disappearing Male is about one of the most important, and least publicized, issues facing the human species: the toxic threat to the male reproductive system.

The last few decades have seen steady and dramatic increases in the incidence of boys and young men suffering from genital deformities, low sperm count, sperm abnormalities and testicular cancer.

At the same time, boys are now far more at risk of suffering from ADHD, autism, Tourette’s syndrome, cerebral palsy, and dyslexia.

The Disappearing Male takes a close and disturbing look at what many doctors and researchers now suspect are responsible for many of these problems: a class of common chemicals that are ubiquitous in our world.

See the video here.

The secret reason for the demise of Western Civilization.

Becoming human: A timeline of human evolution

NewScientist has an interesting interactive timeline of Human evolution. Unfortunately some of the older articles are restricted to subscribers. 

Check out the Timeline of Human Evolution here.

Signs of earliest Scots unearthed

From the bbc.co.uk article:

Archaeologists have discovered the earliest evidence of human beings ever found in Scotland.

The flints were unearthed in a ploughe field near Biggar in South Lanarkshire.

They are similar to tools known to have been used in the Netherlan

and northern Germany 14,000 years ago, or 12,000 BC.
They were probably used by hunters to kill reindeer, mammoth and giant elk and to cut up prey and prepare their skins.

The discovery conjures up a picture of wandering groups of hunters making their way across dry land where the North Sea is now, after the end of the Ice Age.
The details are revealed in the latest edition of British Archaeology magazine.

Read the article here.

World’s Smallest Political Quiz

Take the Quiz now and find out where you fit on the political map!

Take the quiz here.

What is a Creativist?

I found this explanation of what a “Creativist” is and it is the best explanation I have been able to find. I think it sums it up clearly, it defines a spirit that is diminishing in our modern era and I think this diminution is a sign of the decline of mankind in general.

From timothyfalconer.com
A creativist is a human being with a heart-felt need to make things. However this need arises, it drives the creativist to write fiction, paint landscapes, compose symphonies, design computer programs, build sailboats, devise political systems … whatever is imaginable. Creativists use creativity to make things that are altogether new. They hope the fruit of their efforts will have lasting influence, and that their ideas will benefit all people. Creativists want to live on through their work. They’d also like to reap some reward while alive.

Sadly today’s society does not place enough emphasis on ingenuity and evolutionary thought. People are afraid of change. Our social environment rewards what has been successful in the past. Today most creative minds are forced to work within the confines of a consumer culture geared to get the little guy to pay his measly earnings for whatever product attracts attention. The best music, the best writing, the best planning, the best filmmaking, the best graphic design, goes toward the buy and sell of the business world. Art for art’s sake is left to the wealthy, the funded elite, the universities, the dedicated poor, and the many part-time creativists who must keep “real jobs” in order to survive.

Read the rest of the article here.

Know your Presidents Quiz

Take the quiz at the chicagotribune.com here.

15 Must-See Endangered Cultural Treasures

From the smithsonianmag.com article: 

Some of the world’s most precious historic and artistic sites can be visited today—but might be gone tomorrow

Smithsonian spotlights 15 must-see endangered cultural sites, ranging from 20,000-year-old rock carvings in Australia to 20th-century Art Deco buildings along U.S. Route 66. Each testifies to our urge to build and create; each reminds us of how much we stand to lose.

Fenestrelle Fortress, Italy

The Hill of Tara, Ireland

Historic Route 66, U.S.A.

Centennial Baptist Church, U.S.A.

Famagusta Walled City, Cyprus

And more… 

Read the article here.