Lucian Freud’s Benefits Supervisor Sleeping , 1995, oil on canvas, fetches $A36 million (US $33.6m ) at auction at Christy’s in New York, breaking the record for a work by a living artist, previously held by Jeff Koons.
Photo: AP
The Pope’s chief astronomer says that life on Mars cannot be ruled out.
Writing in the Vatican newspaper, the astronomer, Father Gabriel Funes, said intelligent beings created by God could exist in outer space.
Father Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory near Rome, is a respected scientist who collaborates with universities around the world.
The search for forms of extraterrestrial life, he says, does not contradict belief in God.
The official Vatican newspaper headlines his article ‘Aliens Are My Brother’.
‘Free from sin’
Just as there are multiple forms of life on earth, so there could exist intelligent beings in outer space created by God. And some aliens could even be free from original sin, he speculates. (italics mine)
Asked about the Catholic Church’s condemnation four centuries ago of the Italian inventor of the telescope, Galileo, Father Funes diplomatically says mistakes were made, but it is time to turn the page and look towards the future.
Science and religion need each other, and many astronomers believe in God, he assures readers.
To strengthen its scientific credentials, the Vatican is organising a conference next year to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of the author of the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin.
It’s kind of a sticky wicket wouldn’t you say?
maryt
Becca asked us:
Give Me Five things you enjoyed about
your mother’s day yesterday or from
prior years.
I’m not a Mom but I’ll tell you about my day yesterday:
1.My nephew called to wish me Happy Mother’s Day. In the past the aunts of the family have joined in the celebration for Mother’s Day. We’ve been very lucky that way.
2.My husband, Vinny, and I went to the Bronx Zoo. We visited the Tigers,
3.the seals,
4. the bison,
5. and the polar bears.
The ‘Give Me Five’ Monday meme is designed to share fun information with each other in a simple short list! Here’s how it works. Each week, I will put out a random topic from my list of topics and you share 5 answers of your choice on the given topic and link back here! You can add photos, links or stories or just a simple list of your own of 5 things that relate to the topic as it pertains to you and your life experiences. It doesn’t have to be in any order of importance unless otherwise specified.
Sign up for weekly reminder emails @ beccagirl@charter.net
maryt
The writing prompt for One Single Impression today is WARM.
I thought I’d show you a writing exercise I participated in when I took a poetry workshop a couple years ago. The teacher gave us a word and she told us to take all the meanings of the word and put them in a poem. I thought I would do that today to show you what she meant. Here is my poem:
WARM
Not hot, not cold, not even cool,
a moderate degree
animated and lively as in a debate,
as in a welcome.
To grow kindly or cordial,
to prepare for the game
to prepare leftovers,
intimacy.
Other One Single Impression participants here
maryt
This Week’s Ten Word Challenge will be: florist, grave yard, sausage, magnificent, soap opera, linguist, columns, volume, French, canvas And for the Mini Challenge: suspension bridge, veracity, lunch, multi-faceted, house of ill repute
Here’s my 10-Word Challenge:
The florist delivered the flowers, those sausage-shaped ones, to the grave yard. The family of the soap-opera actor even his ex-wife, The French linguist, were gathered around the very expensive, magnificent cherry wood coffin. For the moment the opening in the ground was covered by canvas to preserve propriety. Two columns of Marines marched forward toward the gravesite and prepared to play Taps at an acceptable volume when the cover of the coffin squeaked open.
And my Mini Challenge:
The house of ill repute was settled under the suspension bridge where the town fathers wanted it. The woman who lived there had such multi-faceted lives. They fed lunch to senior citizens in the area and read palms for those who asked. People from all over came to have their palms read and it never occurred to them to doubt the veracity of what the women told them.
More Wordzzle here
maryt
Cadeau
Man Ray
There is no progress in art, any more than there is progress in making love. There are simply different ways of doing it.” ~Man Ray
maryt
On Friday, May 2, 2008 Mildred Loving died of pneumonia at age 68. Her landmark case made interracial marriage legal.
On June 12, 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9 to 0 that Virginia’s miscegenation laws were aimed at white supremacy, were unconstitutional and violated the 14th Amendment.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I heard Mildred speak in a rare piece of TV footage the other day her voice was quiet and soft like what I would think an angel’s voice would sound like. She appeared shy and retiring.
Loving for All
By Mildred Loving
Prepared for Delivery on June 12, 2007, The 40th Anniversary of the Loving vs. Virginia Announcement
When my late husband, Richard, and I got married in Washington, DC in 1958, it wasn’t to make a political statement or start a fight. We were in love, and we wanted to be married.
We didn’t get married in Washington because we wanted to marry there. We did it there because the government wouldn’t allow us to marry back home in Virginia where we grew up, where we met, where we fell in love, and where we wanted to be together and build our family. You see, I am a woman of color and Richard was white, and at that time people believed it was okay to keep us from marrying because of their ideas of who should marry whom.
When Richard and I came back to our home in Virginia, happily married, we had no intention of battling over the law. We made a commitment to each other in our love and lives, and now had the legal commitment, called marriage, to match. Isn’t that what marriage is?
Not long after our wedding, we were awakened in the middle of the night in our own bedroom by deputy sheriffs and actually arrested for the “crime” of marrying the wrong kind of person. Our marriage certificate was hanging on the wall above the bed. The state prosecuted Richard and me, and after we were found guilty, the judge declared: “Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.” He sentenced us to a year in prison, but offered to suspend the sentence if we left our home in Virginia for 25 years exile.
We left, and got a lawyer. Richard and I had to fight, but still were not fighting for a cause. We were fighting for our love.
Though it turned out we had to fight, happily Richard and I didn’t have to fight alone. Thanks to groups like the ACLU and the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund, and so many good people around the country willing to speak up, we took our case for the freedom to marry all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. And on June 12, 1967, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that, “The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men,” a “basic civil right.”
My generation was bitterly divided over something that should have been so clear and right. The majority believed that what the judge said, that it was God’s plan to keep people apart, and that government should discriminate against people in love. But I have lived long enough now to see big changes. The older generation’s fears and prejudices have given way, and today’s young people realize that if someone loves someone they have a right to marry.
Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don’t think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the “wrong kind of person” for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people’s religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people’s civil rights.
I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard’s and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That’s what Loving, and loving, are all about.
maryt
An Antarctic Total Solar Eclipse
Credit and Copyright: Fred Bruenjes (moonglow.net)
Explanation: The Sun, the Moon, Antarctica, and two photographers all lined up in 2003 Antarctica during an unusual total eclipse of the Sun. Even given the extreme location, a group of enthusiastic eclipse chasers ventured near the bottom of the world to experience the surreal momentary disappearance of the Sun behind the Moon. One of the treasures collected was the above picture — a composite of four separate images digitally combined to realistically simulate how the adaptive human eye saw the eclipse. As the image was taken, both the Moon and the Sun peaked together over an Antarctic ridge. In the sudden darkness, the magnificent corona of the Sun became visible around the Moon. Quite by accident, another photographer was caught in one of the images checking his video camera. Visible to his left are an equipment bag and a collapsible chair.
maryt
Devastation in Myanmar (Burma) from cyclone a few days ago. Upwards of 15,000 people have been killed.
maryt
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