Monday, March 28, 2011

Japan's radioactive future

Lenin Square today in Pripyat, Ukraine, the
city nearest to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

From Wikipedia:
Certain radioactive elements (such as plutonium-239) in “spent” fuel will remain hazardous to humans and other creatures for hundreds of thousands of years. Other radioisotopes remain hazardous for millions of years. Thus, these wastes must be shielded for centuries and isolated from the living environment for millennia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_waste

Swiss painter Luigi Chialiva (1842-1914)

Feeding the Sheep

Happy Monday

Saturday, March 26, 2011

The Huntington Botanic Garden

 The Huntington estate sits on a hilltop in the San Marino area of Los Angeles.

http://huntington.org/huntingtonlibrary_02.aspx?id=56&linkidentifier=id&itemid=56

Rodeo cowgirls 1920

"Rodeo cowgirls ca. 1920, wearing bloomers, traditional costumes which were safer and more practical than skirts. Photography by Doubleday, Private collection."

Eilean Donan Castle, Scotland

Here's another Scottish Highlands castle — there are so many!
The original castle was built in 1220 as a defense against the Vikings. The outer wall remains, but most of the castle was constructed later. Eilean is the Gaelic word for island, and St. Donan was a martyred Celtic saint. The castle was abandoned for 200 years until it was restored in the early 1900s. It is maintained by a charitable trust and is a popular venue for weddings and film locations.


The weeping angel
Spring Grove Cemetery
Cincinnati, Ohio

Sheik your kitty

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

St. Patrick's Day

These sculptures are part of The Famine Memorial in Dublin, created by the Irish sculptor Rowan Gillespie and given to the City.



Sunday, March 13, 2011

Belgian painter Léon Frédéric

The Four Seasons, Spring

There is a serious lack of information about this artist.

Ardvreck Castle, Scotland

1590-1737
Ardvreck Castle in the Scottish Highlands was built by the MacLeod clan, and survived turf and religious wars until it mysteriously caught fire during the night and was subsequently abandoned. It was once a larger estate that had buildings, a courtyard, and formal gardens. Legends of ghosts still surround the castle, including a daughter who, betrothed to a rival landowner, jumped over the castle wall and fell to her death.


Portrait of a beautiful woman

I came across this portrait and was mesmerized by the beauty of the subject and the technique of the artist. As a little girl I thought this is what sophisticated women looked like, but as an adult, one finds out it was just an illusion. The artist has captured a Barbie doll on canvas.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Angora bunny


Phone booth packing

In 1959 in Durham, South Africa, 25 college students all of a sudden decided to cram themselves into a telephone booth. They set the standard, and their record has never been topped.  

That started a craze of competition between colleges in England, Canada and the United States.

The American record was established in 1959 by students at St. Mary's College of California, above, who stuffed 22 people into a telephone booth.

The fad started and ended in the spring of 1959, ending abruptly at the onset of college examinations. 

http://www.oldetimecooking.co/Fads/stuff_booths.htm