The Punchbag of Notre Dame,d'apres Victor Hugo, Evolution of the Species,

drawing by margueritaAct ( in between)Apigollo I still love you,but

Daisy ..... yeah, I am lost in my dreams,darling.

I noticed the sushi you love so much was shared by some other whoever and who cares, I am wandering in the dark looking out the window, do not know for how long, a miracle must happen watching the moon and the stars,as Juliet without Romeo, Obama fumbling,but global warming,or better worming, Spitzer and his sucks,I mean socks,probably changed the color to nude....

do not forget,February 25th, my promised diamonds, castle, but

The fifth thing that Darwin noticed in the Galápagos is, to the casual visitor, by far the most striking. It’s the tameness of the animals. Darwin reported that he would often stride up to the giant tortoises and sit on their backs; after he administered “a few raps on the hinder part of their shells, they would rise up and walk away.” He picked up marine iguanas and tossed them into the ocean; he pulled the tail of a land iguana (“it was greatly astonished . . . and then stared me in the face, as much as to say, ‘What made you pull my tail?’”). And, of the birds, Darwin wrote, “All of them approached sufficiently near to be killed with a switch, and sometimes, as I myself tried, with a cap or hat.”nytimes.com/2010/02/02/fearless/

Note:a synopsis via wiki:

The story dates back to January 6, 1482, the day of the 'Festival of Fools' in Paris. Quasimodo, the deformed bell ringer, is introduced by his crowning as Pope of Fools.

Esmeralda, a beautiful Gypsy with a kind and generous heart, captures the hearts of many men but especially those of Quasimodo and his adopted father, Claude Frollo. Frollo is torn between his lust and the rules of the church. He orders Quasimodo to get her. Quasimodo is caught and whipped and ordered to be tied down in the heat. Esmeralda, seeing his thirst, offers him water. It saves her, for she captures the heart of the hunchback.

She is later accused of the attempted murder of Phoebus, who Frollo attempted to kill in jealousy, and is sentenced to death by hanging. Quasimodo saves her by bringing her to the cathedral under the law of sanctuary. Clopin rallies the Truands (criminals of Paris) to charge the cathedral and rescue Esmeralda. The king, seeing the chaos, vetoes the law of sanctuary and commands his troops to take Esmeralda out and kill her. When Quasimodo sees the Truands, he assumes they are there to hurt Esmeralda, so he drives them off. Frollo betrays Esmeralda by handing her to the troops and watches while she is hanged. Quasimodo pushes him from Notre-Dame to his death. Quasimodo then goes to Mount Faucon (a huge graveyard in Paris where all hanged bodies are thrown), lies next to her corpse and eventually dies of starvation. One year later, excavationists find the skeletons of Esmeralda with a broken neck and Quasimodo locked in an embrace.Victor-Marie Hugo (French pronunciation: [viktɔʁ maʁi yˈɡo]) (26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French poet, playwright, novelist,essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France.In France, Hugo's literary fame comes first from his poetry but also rests upon his novels and his dramatic achievements. Among many volumes of poetry, Les Contemplations and La Légende des siècles stand particularly high in critical esteem, and Hugo is sometimes identified as the greatest French poet. Outside France, his best-known works are the novels Les Misérables and Notre-Dame de Paris (known in English also as The Hunchback of Notre Dame).

Oh,OOOOOBamushmush

drawing by marguerita

“so opposite of George Bush in all these questions, and on Friday I’m answering questions about why are we so much like George Bush on all these questions.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/16/us/politics/16obama.html?scp=12&sq=obama&s

t=cse

Obama:plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose,tralala

drawing collage by marguerita
Where’s the fight?

WASHINGTON — President Obama is well known for bold proposals that have raised expectations, but his administration has shown a tendency for compromise and caution,
and even a willingness to capitulate
on some early initiatives.
In some of his earliest skirmishes, Mr. Obama eventually chose pragmatism over fisticuffs. “If Obama is too timid, if the White House is too cautious,” said Robert Dallek, a presidential historian, “it is going to make him look too opportunistic.
He made all these promises during the campaign, he talked so boldly, he stirred all our hopes, and now he is not following through.”
“The thing we still don’t know about him is what he is willing to fight for,” said Leonard Burman, an economist at the Urban Institute and a Treasury Department official in the Clinton administration.
“The thing I worry about is that he likes giving good speeches, he likes the adulation and he likes to make people happy.”Washington Memo - Despite Major Plans, Obama Taking Softer Stands - NYTimes.com

Obama Aimstrong : I SEE a Wonderful Glimmer......

drawing collage by marguerita           ("lueurs d'espoir")

I see trees of green (read glimmer)


red roses too....(in the white house)

I see em bloom..... for me and for you

And I think to myself....

what a wonderful world.
I see skies of blue..... clouds of white
Bright blessed days...
.dark sacred nights
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world.
The colors of a rainbow.....so pretty ..in the sky
Are also on the faces....

.of people .

.going by

I see friends shaking hands.....sayin.. how do you do Theyre really sayin......i love you.
I hear babies cry......
I watch them grow (hope they do not turn into bankers???!!!) Theyll learn much more.....than Ill never know
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world
(instrumental break)
The colors of a rainbow.....so pretty ..in the sky Are there on the faces.....of people ..going by I see friends shaking hands.....sayin.. how do you do Theyre really sayin...*spoken*(I ....love....you). I hear babies cry...... I watch them grow *spoken*(you know their gonna learn A whole lot more than Ill never know) And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world Yes I think to myself .......what a wonderful world

Main Entry:

¹glim·mer

Pronunciation:

\ˈgli-mər\

Function:

intransitive verb

Inflected Form(s):

glim·mered; glim·mer·ing \ˈglim-riŋ, ˈgli-mə-\

Etymology:

Middle English glimeren; akin to Old English glǣm gleam

Date:

15th century

1 a: to shine faintly or unsteadily b: to give off a subdued unsteady reflection2: to appear indistinctly with a faintly luminous quality

Obama :Captain Mood in Chief

drawing by marguerita
There's the guy in the White House who is trying to fix all this.
''We're starting,''
President Barack Obama said Friday,
''to see a glimmer of hope.''
But do regular Americans see it the same way? Across geography and political lines, the clarion response was this: Who really knows?The American Mood - Is the Angst Bottoming Out? - NYTimes.com
Note:

Hope was personified in Greek mythology as Elpis. When Pandora opened Pandora's Box, she let out all the evils except one: hope. Apparently, the Greeks considered hope to be as dangerous as all the world's evils. But without hope to accompany all their troubles, humanity was filled with despair. It was a great relief when Pandora revisited her box and let out hope as well. It may be worthy to note that in the story, hope is represented as weakly leaving the box but is in effect far more potent than any of the major evils. In some faiths and religions of the world, hope plays a very important role. Hope can be passive in the sense of a wish, or active as a plan or idea, often against popular belief, with persistent, personal action to execute the plan or prove the idea. Consider a prisoner of war who never gives up hope for escape and, against the odds, plans and accomplishes this. By contrast, consider another prisoner who simply wishes or prays for freedom, or another who gives up all hope of freedom.

In Human, All Too Human, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche argued that "Zeus did not want man to throw his life away, no matter how much the other evils might torment him, but rather to go on letting himself be tormented anew. To that end, he gives man hope. In truth, it is the most evil of evils because it prolongs man's torment.

" Emily Dickinson wrote in a poem that "'Hope' is the thing with feathers-- / That perches in the soul."

Ernst Bloch in "Principle of Hope" (1986) traces the human search for a wide range of utopias. Bloch locates utopian projects not only in the social and political realms of the well-known utopian theorists (Marx, Hegel, Lenin) but also in a multiplicity of technical, architectural, geographical utopias, and in multiple works of art (opera, literature, music, dance, film). For Bloch hope permeates everyday life and it is present in countless aspects of popular culture phenomenon such as jokes, fairy tales, fashion or images of death. In his view Hope remains in the present as an open setting of latency and tendencies. I hope you will marry me shagef :]

Martin Seligman in his book Learned Optimism (1990) strongly criticizes the role of churches in the promotion of the idea that the individual has little chance or hope of affecting his or her life. He acknowledges that the social and cultural conditions, such as serfdom and the caste system weighed heavily against the freedom of individuals to change the social circumstances of their lives. Almost as if to avoid the criticism, in his book What You Can Change and What You Can't, he is careful to outline the extent that people can hold out hope for personal action to change some of the things that affect their lives. More recently, psychologist Anthony Scioli (2006) has developed an integrative theory of hope that consists of four elements: attachment, mastery, survival, and spirituality. This approach incorporates contributions from psychology, anthropology, philosophy and theology as well as classical and contemporary literature and the arts.[3]

Obama vis a vis Mea Culpa and Tordesillas......

drawing/collage by marguerita
He urged a shift in attitudes. In America, he said, there had been “a failure to appreciate Europe’s leading role in the world,” and there had been “times when America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive,”
Mr. Obama said and spoke
of Mr. Sarkozy’s “initiative, imagination, creativity.”
Obama Sets a New Tone for Alliance With Europe - NYTimes.com
Note:
Would be nice if The Treaty Of Tordesillas would be taught in American schools,as it happens that not only the population is not cognizant of that Treaty, but as well ,nationally known editors in chief of many newspapers have not a clue about this historical fact.

The Treaty of Tordesillas

1494

The Treaty of Tordesillas was agreed upon by the Spanish and the Portuguese to clear up confusion on newly claimed land in the New World. The early 1400s brought about great advances in European exploration. In order make trade more efficient, Portugal attempted to find a direct water route to the India and China. By using a direct water route, Arab merchants, who owned land trade routes, were not able to make a profit off of the European trade merchants. After Columbus discovered the New World in 1492, it was clear that conflict would soon arise over land claims by Spain and Portugal. The Portuguese also wanted to protect their monopoly on the trade route to Africa and felt threatened. It was only after the realization that Columbus had found something big that land became the important issue. The newly discovered land held great potential wealth which would benefit European nations.

On May 4, 1493 Pope Alexander VI took action to clear up any confusion that may have arisen over territorial claims. He issued a decree which established an imaginary line running north and south through the mid-Atlantic, 100 leagues (480 km) from the Cape Verde islands. Spain would have possession of any unclaimed territories to the west of the line and Portugal would have possession of any unclaimed territory to the east of the line.

After further exploration, the Portuguese grew dissatisfied with the agreement when they realized how much more land Spain had been given. In June of 1494 the line was re-negotiated and the agreement was officially ratified during a meeting in the Spanish town of Tordesillas. The Treaty of Tordesillas re-established the line 370 leagues (1,770 km) west of the Cape Verde Islands.

It was evident that little exploration had taken place at the time the treaty was signed because Spain was granted a much larger portion of land. Portugal was only given possession of Brazil. Portugal pushed over the next several hundred years to move the border of Brazil westward. Because the line was not very well defined, the Spanish did not put up any opposition to this Portuguese expansion.

Obama and the G-String Summit

collage/drawing by marguerita
“Having said that, we must not miss an opportunity to lead, to confront a crisis that knows no borders.”
LONDON — For nearly 30 years, American presidents have arrived at economic summit meetings with nearly identical talking points: the solution to most ailments lies in more economic integration, unleashing free markets and using a light touch to tame capitalism.As President Obama landed here Tuesday night to attend the Group of 20 summit meeting, almost every one of those principles appeared up for debate.Obama, in Europe, Faces Big Challenges to Agenda - NYTimes.com

Allô ! Allô ! James ! Quelle nouvelle?
Absente depuis quinze jours,
Au bout du fil je vous appelle.
Que trouverai-je à mon retour?


Tout va  très bien,
Madame la Marquise
Tout va  très bien, tout va  très bien
Pourtant il faut,
Il faut que l'on vous dise,
On déplore un tout petit rien,
Un incident,
Une bêtise,
La mort de votre jument grise.
Mais à part ça ,
Madame la Marquise
Tout va  très bien, tout va  très bien


Allô ! Allô ! Martin! Quelle nouvelle ?
Ma jument grise morte aujourd'hui?
Expliquez-moi, cocher fidèle
Comment cela s'est-il produit ?


Cela n'est rien,
Madame la Marquise
Cela n'est rien,
Tout va  très bien.
Pourtant il faut,
Il faut que l'on vous dise,
On déplore un tout petit rien.
Elle a péri
Dans l'incendie
Qui détruisit vos écuries
Mais à part ça ,
Madame la Marquise
Tout va  très bien, tout va  très bien


Allô ! Allô ! Pascal! Quelle nouvelle ?
Mes écuries ont donc brûlé ?
Expliquez-moi, mon chef modèle
Comment cela s'est-il passé ?


Cela n'est rien,
Madame la Marquise
Cela n'est rien,
Tout va  très bien.
Pourtant il faut,
Il faut que l'on vous dise,
On déplore un tout petit rien.
Si l'écurie brûla, madame
C'est que l'château était en flamme
Mais à part ça ,
Madame la Marquise
Tout va  très bien, tout va  très bien


Allô ! Allô ! Lucas! Quelle nouvelle ?
Notre château est donc détruit ?
Expliquez-moi, car je chancelle.
Comment cela s'est-il produit ?


Eh bien ! voilà madame la Marquise.
Apprenant qu'il était ruiné,
A pein' fut-il rev'nu de sa surprise
Que m'sieu l'marquis s'est suicidé,
Et c'est en ramassant la pell'
Qu'il renversa tout's les chandell's
Mettant le feu à tout l'château
Qui s'consuma de bas en haut.
Le vent soufflant sur l'incendie
Le propagea sur l'écurie,
Et c'est ainsi qu'en un moment
On vit périr votre jument,
Mais à part ça ,
Madame la Marquise
Tout va  très bien, tout va  très bien

YouTube - Ventura, Tout va très bien

Money,Money,Quo Vadis?

drawing by marguerita
“There’s a lot of money on the sidelines, just waiting for an opportunity."
Thursday’s losses came as the Labor Department reported that continuing jobless claims neared 5 million in the week ended on Saturday, underscoring fears that the labor market has pitched into a freefall. First-time jobless claims were unchanged last week at 627,000.Unemployment has risen to 7.6 percent since the economy fell into a recession in December 2007, and economists expect that jobless rates will break 8 percent this year and go as high as 9 or 10 percent by the time the country begins to recover.Late-Day Drop Sends Dow to a Low - NYTimes.com

Alexandre Herchcovitch:" Things were bad at one time, and my experience is that, eventually, people will consume again. They will want to buy clothes. They will want to get back to their normal way to live.”

Obama & Stimulus

collage by marguerita
One of the two members of the class of rolling, or so-called antifriction, bearings (the other member of the class is the roller bearing). The function of a ball bearing is to connect two machine members that move relative to one another in such a manner that the frictional resistance to motion is minimal. In many applications one of the members is a rotating shaft and the other a fixed housing.
Archimedes was one of the first to think deeply about fluid physics, and while many people know the famous story about his discovery of the principle of buoyancy (he saw the water level rise as he stepped into the bath, then ran naked through the streets yelling “eureka”) few know exactly what he was looking for (“eureka” means “I found it” in ancient Greek).Guest Column: The Absurdly Artificial Divide Between Pure and Applied Research - Olivia Judson Blog - NYTimes.com

Of Bankers ,Money,Chaos,how about THE REAL SPIN?

Bonobos, Left & Right

Frans de Waal points out that primate research was being pulled out of shape by “spin-doctors” who wanted to prove a point about human nature. You can read his excellent article in the eSkeptic for 8 August 2007.

Right-wingers were proclaiming that bonobos were aggressive because they were known to hunt small animals. Wrong! Hunting for food has little to do with aggression.

It’s important not to idealize the bonobo, but there are no known cases of lethal aggression in the wild. Violence has been seen in close confinement, in zoos.

Google Image Result for http://sciencenotes.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/bonobos-ventral-cop-by-fransdewaal.jpg

Living Links - de Waal

Entretempo: Relativity and how to have a roof over the head and food on the table

collage by marguerita

The wave theory was wildly successful in explaining nearly all optical and electromagnetic phenomena, and was a great triumph of nineteenth century physics. By the late nineteenth century, however, a handful of experimental anomalies remained that could not be explained by or were in direct conflict with the wave theory. One of these anomalies involved a controversy over the speed of light. The constant speed of light predicted by Maxwell's equations and confirmed by the Michelson-Morley experiment contradicted the mechanical laws of motion that had been unchallenged since the time of Galileo, which stated that all speeds were relative to the speed of the observer. In 1905, Albert Einstein resolved this paradox by revising the Galilean model of space and time to account for the constancy of the speed of light. Einstein formulated his ideas in his special theory of relativity, which radically altered humankind's understanding of space and time. Einstein also demonstrated a previously unknown fundamental equivalenceenergy and mass with his famous equation between

where E is energy, m is rest mass, and c is the speed of light in a vacuum.

Obama and the(Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy)

collage by marguerita- of (laws of inertia, action and reaction, and acceleration proportional to force)
Newton suffered a mental breakdown in 1675 and was still recovering through 1679. In response to a letter from Hooke, he suggested that a particle, if released, would spiral in to the center of the Earth.
Hooke wrote back, claiming that the path would not be a spiral, but an ellipse. Newton, who hated being bested, then proceeded to work out the mathematics of orbits. Again, he did not publish his calculations. Newton then began devoting his efforts to theological speculation and put the calculations on elliptical motion aside, telling Halley he had lost them (Westfall 1993, p. 403). Halley, who had become interested in orbits, finally convinced Newton to expand and publish his calculations. Newton devoted the period from August 1684 to spring 1686 to this task, and the result became one of the most important and influential works on physics of all times, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) (1687), often shortened to Principia Mathematica or simply "the Principia." Newton, Isaac (1642-1727) -- from Eric Weisstein's World of Scientific Biography

Obama & Tales of old Shanghai

collage by marguerita.
"Among the remedies which it has pleased Almighty God to give man to relieve his sufferings, none is so universal and so efficacious as opium," Thomas Sydenham wrote in 1680.



“You have a problem that is larger than life,”
“To deal with it you need someone who’s larger than life.”

“We are still in the process of digging our way into the debris,” Mr. Holbrooke said in an interview. “We’ve inherited an extraordinarily dysfunctional situation in which the very objectives have to be reviewed.” Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton chose Mr. Holbrooke because of his ability to twist arms as well as hold hands, work closely with the military and improvise inventive solutions to what others write off as insoluble problems. But no one yet knows how his often pyrotechnical style — he whispers, but also pesters, bluffs, threatens, stages fits and publicizes — will work in an administration that prizes low-key competence or in a region that is dangerously unstable.“Richard C. Holbrooke is the diplomatic equivalent of a hydrogen bomb,” said Strobe Talbott, a former deputy secretary of state and a friend.Back on World Stage, a Larger-Than-Life HolbNYTimes.com

Tales of old Shanghai - Opium

Paul Krugman: Hey,D.C.,the sky is falling! Oy!

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Somehow, Washington has lost any sense of what’s at stake — of the reality that we may well be falling into an economic abyss, and that if we do, it will be very hard to get out again.It’s hard to exaggerate how much economic trouble we’re in. The crisis began with housing, but the implosion of the Bush-era housing bubble has set economic dominoes falling not just in the United States, but around the world.Op-Ed Columnist - On the Edge - NYTimes.com

Obamagic Is Coming at You......stay tuned..

drawing by marguerita
However easy it is to blame the US for global economic woes, it is also to the US that the world looks for a solution.The general mood in Davos was one of gloom verging on despair. The gloom is justified, as the update of the World Economic Outlook from the International Monetary Fundmakes plain. Global economic growth is now projected to fall to a mere ½ per cent this year, its lowest rate since the second world war. Output in high-income countries is expected to fall by 2 per cent, the first annual contraction since 1945. Industrial production and merchandise exports are in free fall, as consumers decide they do not need that new car or other goody right now.Concerted action is needed to reverse the downward spiral of despair, and that will only occur if the US gives leadership, writes Martin WolfThe remainder of the article can be read here. Discussion from our forum members and contributors appears below.FT.com | The Economists' Forum | Why Davos Man is waiting for Obama to save him

February 4th, 2009 in Current Affairs, Global economy, Globalisation, US policy, US politics, davos08 | Permalink

Obama 's Status Quo

drawing/collage by marguerita
Like nuclear danger, the planetary ecological crisis threatens something that has never been at stake before our era: the natural foundations of life on which humans and all species depend for survival. Economic and military ups and downs are for a season only. Extinction is forever. Obama and the Return of the Real

Friday Entretempo :Of Mind,Heart,Desire and Justi

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Plato's Republic

"Spirit" is in the sense of a "spirited" horse. Plato thinks that this is the energy that drives the soul and may be used to reason to keep desire in line. Temperance, or moderation, will mean the limitation of desires. The word "temperance" is now a little archaic, and it tends to suggest "temperance" as it came to mean abstention from alcohol, as was advocated in the early days of this century by Cary Nation and the Women's Christian Temperance Union, who brought about Prohibition.

The three parts of the soul also correspond to places in the body: reason to the head, spirit to the heart, and desire to the organs of desire, mostly in the abdomen. Plato simply made a good guess that reason had something to do with the brain. There wasn't a lot of evidence about this; and many people, including the Egyptians and Aristotle, thought that intelligence was centered in the heart. When the Egyptians mummified bodies, they actually used to throw the brain away, while the heart was carefully prepared and replaced in the body. Remember later in the course to compare Plato's parts of the soul and social classes with the doctrine of the gunas and the varnas later in Indian philosophy.

Now, Plato was originally looking for justice, but justice does not appear in the list of virtues.

The answer is that justice applies to them all in the sense of their organization. Reason (and the philosophers) should be in control, with the help of spirit (and the warriors). The philosophers and the warriors are thus the "Guardians" of Plato's ideal state. This does not seem like a familiar sort of definition for justice, but the result, Plato says, is that each interest is satisfied to the proper extent, or, in society, everyone has what is theirs.

The philosophers have the knowledge they want; the warriors have the honors they want; and the commoners have the goods and pleasures they want, in the proper moderation maintained by the philosophers and warriors.The root of all trouble, as far as Plato is concerned, is always unlimited desire.

Note:

In his political writings, Justi stressed that a country could only be economically and commercially successful if it was run by a moderate government that recognised the inviolability of private property. By contrast, despotism necessarily led to the impoverishment and military weakening of a country. Under the influence of Montesquieu Justi extensively discussed the advantages and disadvantages of different forms of government, yet concluded that the only form of government that would be able to coordinate and implement wide-ranging economic reforms was a modernised monarchical regime.Johann Heinrich Gottlob Justi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Obama:Love has come along

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Waiting for Obama and Thoughts from Kant

drawing by marguerita-for the moment they can see in him what they hope to see.

On Tuesday, all eyes and ears will be turned to the man whose oratorical skills have been compared to Abraham Lincoln’s, Franklin Roosevelt’s and John Kennedy’s. What does Barack Obama need to do in his inaugural address? We asked William Safire and other former presidential speechwriters for their ideas.'The Speech': An Experts' Guide - Room for Debate Blog - NYTimes.com

For, in the present case,we shall commence with the principles and proceed to the concepts and only then, if poosible, to the senses; whereas in the case of the speculative reason we began with the senses, and had to end with the principles.
from Critique of Practical Reason by Emmanuel Kant

Obama 's Shifting Reality

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The shifting reality has done more than force a change in focus. It also led Mr. Obama to re-examine his assumptions about a range of issues, hone his thinking and reach out to new advisers, some of them drawn from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign, some of his aides said.
“He approaches the intelligence reports the same way he approaches a lot of the things he reads, whether it’s a story in The New York Times or a report from the ground,” said Denis McDonough, a longtime foreign policy aide who is often charged with finding answers to questions Mr. Obama raises
.At home, Mr. Obama is confronting a fluid economic and financial crisis that is sure to demand evolving thinking and a certain amount of trial and error.
Abroad, Afghanistan, Iran and the Israel-Palestinian conflict are likely to be among the first tests of how Mr. Obama handles the changed landscape.
2 Years After Campaign Began, a Different World - NYTimes.com