The secret life of medieval cats

I was looking for something on heracleion, which by the way is an amazing story. I then happened accross this slightly more quirky yet interesting story about cat footprints on an old medieval book from the 14th century from Dubrovnik.

But at the same time we rush headlong into the unknown, some with changes like powerful metal horses, emblazoned with strange skins they ride, others stand still paralyzed with fear, others drift along as if on a gondola sliding down the stream of life, others again barrelling headlong  into the unknown.  And I stand here on foreign shores uncertain today of which way, moving from knowing to not knowing in moments.

But as we know it is weekend, and it is time mirth and merriment for many, for me who knows what the future will hold. I will wait and see what the weather will do, will the weather be as the weather gods have foretold or wrong again as they miss~told us last weekend? It is the End of winter and we are in the middle of the sea on a very big island..

And as we no man is an Island..

Back to the Medievil books again, I saw the most amazing thing they scan the pages of these old books with a densitometer, and from the amount of dust and grime deposited on a page they determine how often the books were read relative to others, interestingly one of the books had been read significantly more than others. This book was seen to offer assistance and help during the bubonic plague. On a similar vein it was very interesting, I listened to a Podcast from ABC on (New telescope launched in remote Western Australia. The sweaty t-shirt test for selecting a mate. DNA used to identify ancient plagues. Plaque reveals ancient human diets. Vatican award for stem cell research. The Science Show goes to hell. )

It was a surprisingly good podcast albeit that it is Australians who did it, no this is not aspersion, just a subtle stab at some friends who have wondered across the ditch, surprisingly there are some good Australians out there I found the piece on being able to work out exactly what disease exactly people died off.. This also delved into a whole lot of other pieces where DNA have been scraped and collected from various archaeological digs.

As time passes and i wait, i keep realising there are whole lot of books/authors i want to read and in soem cases re-read, pretty damn tricky getting time for all of this reading in between everything else. what is your quintessential list of books that should be re-read or read and why?

and then also thanks to Aivkara for this amazing Link, it is totally amazing …

“…the mistake is a part of it, it is poetry…and for that you need a bad camera.”
     -Miroslav Tichý

what an interesting story, not unlike this blog he was not famous at all and only a handful of people saw his work..

Then for my piece of afternoon free advertising:

LEMMELKAFFE Many of you have probably heard of the Swedish coffee brand Lemmelkaffe. With its roots in the North takes aim at a slightly alternative coffee culture and going hard against the upcoming barista trend prevailing in sweden all cities. Lemmelkaffe is the world's first mörkrpstade boiled coffee and best enjoyed, according to them, over an open fire. Ingemar Backman, Frontsidefly and Glesbygd'n are some of the coffee brand's ambassadors. Surf to www.Lemmelkaffe.com to read more.

and we know because it is Friday it is almost another bread day,  an we know like the bells, we cannot live without our weekly bread, O yeah I shall not walk through the valley of Alpacha and deer doe’s with no bread beneath my raincoat in my Rucksack, for I shall not want no more than a slice of the daily bread and a sip of the golden or red nectar.  I will wonder down green hills and dales through hills with Big trees, my wheels are a spinning, my head loses direction I cannot say which way is home. My new day brings a new dawn, maybe this year I will see the persied’s maybe this year I will stand in shallow waters and watch the silver beast upon the end of the slender filament and willowy stick, It feels a lot like I am trying to fill the space next to this photo, Yes you are right, I might just have to put in another picture here or there.

and in a peaceful moment I discover some tunes within a beat, which are amazing and appeal to my sense of the insane, I cannot say i can categorise Warsaw village band? I cannot say i know what genre they are? And i cannot truly say what nationality I am any more?  there are times I imagine I may be African, at other times I might be German or Polish at Other times I have other heritages, and now i have no identity other than an ever changing speech rhythm and accent, But i can be assured that for the bulk of the time I walk alone, almost Like Caine

Master Po: If a man dwells on the past, then he robs the present. But if a man ignores the past, he may rob the future. The seeds of our destiny are nurtured by the roots of our past.

Caine: I seek not to know the answers, but to understand the questions.

It is strange what we remember about the past, how some things torture us, things we cannot change even if we wanted to. I suspect it is key to then move on and gather as much as we can from those moments, move on, with them in mind. It brings me back to phylogenetic inertia, we are in some ways bound to our past and our past created our future and future moulds our experience of the past in our minds.

a new day a new format a change ..

So after all this rambling it was time to make a change with regards the layout and presentation and possibly the format, only slightly though. A new face to an old picture or familiar person, all breeding contempt. The contempt should be seen as part of our daily bread, such a busy week and it is only Tuesday..
so where did we get to? We, yes the Royal We, not the toilet wee, managed to get the seaweed, have fun and do a few other things.  I DiD discover a need for a bigger beard, not sure how i am going to run that past everyone, but I think there is a distinct need for a bigger beard,  how much? I cannot say at this stage how big the beard should be or how bold or subtle it should be? But we know that it should change. But we know that not unlike any other day we require our daily bread, I wonder if this would be better represented by an array of boring bread pictures, I suspect that this is the actual requirement? this is My BloG and We like bread and we hope you like what we have to dish up for you?
so where are we now, small beard, this photo was from a while back on the train so no harm no foul..
so where to start over, well the weekend was slower than expected, and i read bla bla, no lets stop that bad idea long before it even begins, no that isnt me either, you are getting enough of a change for now, don’t expect more than this. And for those who still receive this as force fed grain down the throat foi gra style .. go to the blog page at least once in a while to look at the pics, albeit that they may be ever so boring.
to recapitulate, yes that is the correct word, I went this weekend and like i seldom do, and went to have a look at a couple of art exhibitions at pateka in porirua, splendid like always. Like every year I went to the world photo journalism awards again, and like the last 2 years it sickened me.. i cannot say they photos where at all bad, but the content is just so shocking and I would suggest having a look, partly for the quality which is in no means spectacular but the content is shocking like always and gives you a boot up the derriere and wakes you up and makes you realise there is a seriously large amount of crap out there  and on the whole we are pretty lucky not to have to deal with a small portion of it ..
But pretty amazing, went to see this exhibition DarkCloud :White Light it is pretty damn amazing.. here is a minuscular scrap of it .. 

Dark cloud : White Light

At the same time there are a number of other exhibitions, there is a lithographic suite by Marian Maguire called Titokowaru’s Dilemma.. pretty amazing, but the UKU RERE contemporary ceramics  exhibition is awesome…

all in all spectacular for a short little visit, these are only a few of the exhibitions..
More Later… but that ees enouh for now,
 there are a  whole lot of others including  Rob McLeod’s – Imposters, Aliens and Angels

maybe as a closing note, after seeing the world photo journalism exhibition I am happy to be here, safer (not safe) we are not safe anywhere. But mroe importantly i was or should say am still horrified as i was before in the previous years about the Hate that humans portray for others in the name of religion, politics, skin colour, greed and any other reason.. It is just totally incomprehensible if you step back and view it objectively.... It is all Just so damn Sad .. It brings me to question if there is actually anything we can do to make a difference? There are those shining lights who appear to make a difference, but so many try to snuff them out.