L’Artista Argentino Leonardo Erlich ha creato questa finta piscina per il 21st Century Museum of Contermporary Art in Kanazawa - Giappone. Il trucco è l’utilizzo di materiale acrilico sovrastato da 5 centimetri d’acqua che creano l’effetto piscina. Veramente notevole come effetto!
* In which no man is ever loath to sit for his portrait.
Sandro Kopp painted portraits of his friends via Skype. They’re lovely, gestural and glow that ethereal - though equally unflattering - computer screen luminescence we’re all too familiar with in this digital age. But coupled with traditional oil portraiture, it’s dichotomous and anachronous and wild to think how sitting for a portrait has progressed (or regressed).
“I use media technology to create an old-fashioned art form,” he explained. “Skype allows you to get very intimate. These portraits are all about being present.”
And how lucky for Sandro to have such famous friends, a fact that probably works in his and Lehmann Maupin’s favor. I like them because I like how tired they look. I don’t, however, think you can get any more intimate with Skype than you can painting someone who is sitting directly opposite you, in the flesh. So on that point Mr. Kopp, I disagree.
But thumbs up, nonetheless.
Abstinence-Only Bill of the Day: With the nation’s attention trained on the media’s breathless coverage of Super Tuesday, Utah’s legislature this evening quietly passed a bill requiring schools to teach abstinence-only sex education, or else skip the classes altogether.
Additionally, both teachers and students would be prohibited from discussing contraception and homosexuality in the classroom.
HB363 passed in the state Senate by a vote of 19 to 10. Utah’s House approved the bill last month.
Senator Stuart Reid (R-Ogden) said the legislation takes sex ed out of the hands of teachers “who we have no idea what their morals are” and turns it over to parents.
But Democrats countered that parents already had control over their children’s sex education, as they were given a choice whether to keep their child enrolled in sex ed classes or pull them out.
Under the new legislation, sex ed classes — if they are offered at all — must teach abstinence only, and parents are required to opt in if they want their child to attend.
“It’s concerning when now we’re trying to dictate morality,” said Sen. Ross Romero (D-SLC). “We’ve been discussing this as if every child has the benefit of two loving and caring parents who are ready to have a conversation about appropriate sexual activity, and I’m here to tell you that’s just not the case.”
The Utah PTA expressed vehement opposition to the bill. “I just can’t believe they did this,” said the association’s president-elect, Liz Zentner. “I think they’re going to have to revisit it in a couple years when the teen pregnancy rates and teen [sexually transmitted disease] rates shoot through the roof.”
It remained unclear if Gov. Gary Herbert would sign the bill into law or veto it. Speaking ahead of a House Education Committee hearing on HB363 last month, Herbert said he felt the existing curriculum “works pretty well,” but also said he personally supports abstinence as a form of pre-marital contraception.
This is absolutely disturbing!
“We came, We saw, We destroyed, We forgot” by William Blum
An updated summary of the charming record of US foreign policy. Since the end of the Second World War, the United States of America has …
1. Attempted to overthrow more than 50 governments, most of which were democratically-elected.
2. Attempted to suppress a populist or nationalist movement in 20 countries.
3. Grossly interfered in democratic elections in at least 30 countries.
4. Dropped bombs on the people of more than 30 countries.
5. Attempted to assassinate more than 50 foreign leaders.In total: Since 1945, the United States has carried out one or more of the above actions, on one or more occasions, in the following 69 countries (more than one-third of the countries of the world):
- Afghanistan
- Albania
- Algeria
- Angola
- Australia
- Bolivia
- Bosnia
- Brazil
- British Guiana (now Guyana)
- Bulgaria
- Cambodia
- Chad
- Chile
- China
- Colombia
- Congo (also as Zaire)
- Costa Rica
- Cuba
- Dominican Republic
- East Timor
- Ecuador
- Egypt
- El Salvador
- Fiji
- France
- Germany (plus East Germany)
- Ghana
- Greece
- Grenada
- Guatemala
- Honduras
- India
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Iraq
- Italy
- Jamaica
- Japan
- Kuwait
- Laos
- Lebanon
- Libya
- Mongolia
- Morocco
- Nepal
- Nicaragua
- North Korea
- Pakistan
- Palestine
- Panama
- Peru
- Philippines
- Portugal
- Russia
- Seychelles
- Slovakia
- Somalia
- South Africa
- Soviet Union
- Sudan
- Suriname
- Syria
- Thailand
- Uruguay
- Venezuela
- Vietnam (plus North Vietnam)
- Yemen (plus South Yemen)
- Yugoslavia
The first democratically elected government the CIA overthrew was actually Iran’s in 1953 through Operation Ajax. Democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadiq and his National Front Party planned on nationalizing the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (now known as BP). To protect British interests, the CIA and MI6 overthrew Mossadiq, reinstalled the Shah, and set up a secret police known as SAVAK. Until the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the Shah and SAVAK killed over 20,000 Iranians.





