Wednesday, March 14, 2012

some great drawing

Have you drawn today?

Finally, we do not have to play the mushroom alone, or even the angry birds. Then recently, there is a game up called “Draw Something” that crazily addicted for the phone users, and fascinated everyone for enjoying the game every day, all around, you can see people are drawing, drawing and drawing.
You might have heard about this App recently, especially since it’s quickly becoming one of the most downloaded apps from the past few weeks. The “Pictionary” for iOS and Androidis a simple and intuitive game that tests your artistic skills with a friend or random opponent.
The game is very simple, players can select one out of three drawing words, playing a painting creation on the drawing, and then send to a friend, coins is the prize for who can hit the word right. Game fun estimated the words, you can enjoy the whole process of drawing by the friends, and the rough drawing art work as a mockery!
The developers of “Draw Something” had a clever decision that connects this game App to the Facebook as the new social platform for users to establish a set of elements of the game, App download has exceeded 10 million. The OMGPOP the game development company CEO Dan Porter said, “Draw Something” has become a cultural phenomenon, the average up to five hundred thousand per hour global news about the game, and the creation of drawings total of nearly five hundred million!
“Draw Something” have the free version and the 0.99 $ versions, played the free version are addictive, but also find the words to repeat, it will then purchase the paid version, vocabulary of thousands of exclusive you draw, which is the marketing strategy.

Lost Leonardo da Vinci Mural Behind False Wall?

Scientists use an endoscope to look behind a mural.
By poking high-tech instruments through the wall of one priceless 16th-century mural in Italy, researchers announced Monday that they think they’ve located the first “encouraging” evidence that a second masterpiece—this one a lost Leonardo da Vinci—is hidden beneath.
Mysterious black material behind a mural suggests the location of a ''lost'' Leonardo painting.
Using a tiny camera, the researchers snapped pictures of a telltale hollow space behind Giorgio Vasari’s “Battle of Marciano”—and a brick wall—in the Hall of the 500 in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence‘s city hall. (Video: 360-degree laser scan of the Hall of 500.)
They also uncovered black pigment and lacquer used in painting—clues that the lost Leonardo may have long ago been saved from destruction.
The findings are inconclusive for now—the Leonardo da Vinci investigation was interrupted by political and public outcry—but they’re the first tantalizing leads in a mystery that spans more than four centuries.
The lost work in question is “The Battle of Anghiari” and may stretch more than 20 feet (6 meters) long and 10 feet (3 meters) tall.
According to historical records, Italian statesman Piero Soderini in 1502 commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to paint the scene of Italian knights defeating Milanese forces in 1440 on Tuscany’s plain of Anghiari.
Leonardo, it’s said, used the opportunity to experiment with a new oil-painting technique, but it ended in failure (five Leonardo da Vinci facts).

penguin picture

In the 1550s Vasari was hired to remodel the Hall of 500—named after the 500 members of the Republic of Florence’s Grand Council—and paint several enormous murals, each dozens of feet high.
One mural was to be painted over Leonardo’s unfinished work, but at least one tale describes Vasari as a Leonardo admirer who couldn’t bring himself to destroy the work.
Maurizio Seracini, an art diagnostician at the University of California, San Diego, and a National Geographic Society fellow, has searched for clues about the painting for 36 years. (The Society owns National Geographic News.)
“Since the very first day of my research, the goal was to find where ‘The Battle of Anghiari’ could have been painted … and if it’s still there,” Seracini says in an upcoming National Geographic Channel documentary titled Finding the Lost da Vinci. (Video: Preview Finding the Lost da Vinci.)
“I am convinced it’s there.”
Lost Leonardo: Seek and We Shall Find?
Admiring artists reproduced Leonardo da Vinci’s lost mural before its fate was lost in the sands of time (pictures of the Leonardo reproductions)—one of the most famous reproductions of the lost Leonardo being in Paris’s Louvre Museum.
Although stunning, the reproductions are not Leonardo’s original. The copies almost certainly leave out details lost by shrinking a wall-size mural onto a canvas, and in some cases, it’s thought, entire characters have been left out.
As a result, researchers such as Seracini have searched high and low—quite literally—for clues.
A break came in the 1970s, when Seracini climbed a scaffold in front of Vasari’s painting and spied two words inscribed in a flag: “cerca trova,” which translates to “seek and you shall find.” Seracini took it as a cryptic cue that Vasari had built a false wall in front of the Leonardo.
A team led by Seracini eventually got permission to scan the entire Hall of 500 with high-frequency surface-penetrating radar. The scanning revealed some sort of hollow space—only behind the section of mural with the inscription.
To peek behind Vasari’s fresco, the team planned to drill 14 strategically located centimeter-wide (half-inch) holes in the work. But an outcry ensued after journalists publicized the project.
“It quickly became very, very political. But they were making little boreholes some 30 to 40 feet (9 to 12 meters) above the ground,” said art historian Martin Kempof the University of Oxford, who wasn’t involved in the work.
“In my opinion, that kind of damage can be repaired invisibly.”
Plan B
Despite the public firestorm, National Geographic’s Seracini and his team were given a week to continue their work in late 2011—but not in the 14 spots they’d hoped to investigate.
To avoid damaging original portions of Vasari’s painting, museum curators permitted Seracini and his team to drill only into existing cracks and recently restored spots.
Many of the locations danced on the periphery of the hollow space, but the researchers struck gold: a hollow space behind 6.7 inches (17 centimeters) of fresco and brick.
They inserted an endoscopic camera into the void and took video of rough masonry work as well as spots that appear to have been stroked by a brush (more on the science of the search for the lost Leonardo da Vinci).
Grit removed from the hole was analyzed with x-rays, and the results suggested it contained traces of black pigment.
Based on the x-ray data, Seracini thinks the black pigments are similar to those found in brown glazes of Leonardo’s “Mona Lisa” and “St. John the Baptist.” (Read about the struggle to save Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” from warping.)
Red flakes also pulled from inside the wall could be lacquer—something that wouldn’t be present on a normal plaster wall.
That Seracini found components unique to Renaissance painting leads him to call the work “encouraging evidence,” yet he bemoaned the fact that further samples couldn’t be collected in the time allotted.
“[U]nless I get hold of a piece of it, and prove that it is real paint, I cannot say anything definite, and that’s very frustrating,” Seracini says in the documentary.
One of the Most Famous Discoveries of a Century?
Peter Siddons, a physicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory who has verified famous works of art (including a painting by Rembrandt) with particle accelerators, said it seems pretty clear something is behind the Vasari mural.
“There doesn’t seem to be enough details out there yet, but based on what has been shared so far, I believe there is a painting. They found paint and they found brushstrokes,” Siddons said.
“To jump and say it’s a Leonardo da Vinci? That’s another question.
“Still, someone took the trouble to build this false wall” he said. “I certainly think that’s intriguing.”
Oxford’s Kemp deemed the results interesting but far from conclusive, since wealthy Renaissance Florentines usually painted their walls for decoration—so the pigments may be from that, not Leonardo’s work.
“We can’t even be certain which of the long walls Leonardo painted on, as the early accounts are not explicit by any means,” he said. “Still, this is a suggestive result at this stage to say, Let’s go on a bit further.”
Seracini’s investigation is on hold again and may not proceed until further political issues in Italy are resolved.
If and when the investigation continues—and if the team recovers evidence of the work—Kemp said it will be one for the record books.
“I think this needs to be resolved. We can’t just leave it hanging in the air,” Kemp said.
“If it’s discovered, it would be one of the most famous discoveries of a century.”
refers HERE

Monday, March 12, 2012

L’Odyssée de Cartier

Cona so entranced by this commercial, loves everything about it, it’s visually stunning, moving musical score.  Fantastic creation!
It is amazing, though not that surprising if you know a lot about evolution.

To view it, click HERE!

Friday, March 9, 2012

Some tips to start every day refreshed

Move your alarm clock
You may want to have you alarm clock close to hand so you can constantly keep leaning over and pressing it for a few extra minutes snooze time. The reality is it doesn’t really help. Place your alarm just that bit further away so that you really have to stretch or even get up to reach it – any stretching movement stimulates the waking part of the brain.
Move your alarm clock
Avoid caffeine
It may be through habit that one of the first things we do when we get up is go straight for the caffeine hit, but this should be avoided if possible. Since your body has been several hours without fluid, what you need is a proper rehydrating drink such as freshly squeezed orange or grapefruit juice. A cup of hot water with a touch of lemon and honey is also a good way to start the day. If you can, add some ginger – this acts as an extra boost your circulatory system.
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Deep breathe
There is often a sense of anxiety ahead of a stressful day and sometimes we are far from relaxed when we get up. To get your body into a state of relaxation, it is important to control the functions of the body, like the beating of the heart and breathing properly. A good method is to try 2:1 breathing, this is easy and really effective – you gently slow the rate of exhalation so that you are exhaling twice as long as you are inhaling.
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Surroundings
Your surroundings can have an impact on your mood from the moment you wake. If you wake up surrounded by clutter, then that is hardly going to get you off to the right start. Keep your bedroom as clutter free as possible. You can also pay attention to your decor – certain colours can be good for your mood, choose something that uplifts you. If possible have some green plants in your bedroom – a little bit of greenery can do wonders to enhance your mood and positivity.
Good posture
Your body position is fundamental, bad posture has the effect of limiting the flow of oxygen through your body, meaning you are not getting the maximum benefit, and waking your body up will be a real struggle. Pay attention to straightening your posture, feet flat on the floor, hold your stomach in and extend up through your spine. These small movements will work wonders and act to relieve tension before you get out and face the day ahead.
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Exercising in the morning
Although many of us probably don’t feel like it, a bit of morning exercise will help. We are not talking about a full-on several-mile run, just some activity to increase your body temperature, and get your metabolism and enzyme activity kick-started. This could involve just doing a few basic stretches or even jogging on the spot. If you do fancy taking on something more energetic in the morning, then ensure that you have thoroughly warmed-up.
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Breakfast
Is this the most important meal of the day? Yes! After a long sleep, breakfast is responsible for replacing your liver glycogen, which helps you stay focused and switched-on throughout the morning. Choose your breakfast carefully – sugary breakfast cereals only give you a quick hit and can rapidly wear off. The best bet is to eat some protein combined with carbohydrate to help maintain your alertness throughout the morning. If you find yourself hungry before you have even reached work, you might want to consider eating part of your breakfast at home, and then preparing the remainder to have at work.
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refers HERE