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POPSPhoto Essay: Examining X-Ray (may need to scroll over to the right to see the entire image) -------In his new book, photographer Nick Veasey creates inside-out images of the everyday and the bizarre. Using a lead-lined studio he shoots his subjects, then composes and embellishes the images on a computer.
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POPSThe Code of Hammurabi Hammurabi (ruled ca. 1796 BC – 1750 BC) believed that he was chosen by the gods to deliver the law to his people. The Code of Hammurabi was one of several sets of laws in the Ancient Near East. Most of these codes come from similar cultures and racial groups in a relatively small geographical area, and they have passages which resemble each other. The earlier Code of Ur-Nammu (21st century BC), the Hittite laws (ca. 1300 BC), and Mosaic Law (traditionally ca. 1400 BC under Moses), all contain statutes that bear at least passing resemblance to those in the Code of Hammurabi and other codices from the same geographic area. The complete text of Hammurabi's Code of Laws. http://eawc.evansville.edu/anthology/hammurabi.htm. Quite shocking. The photographs were taken at the Louvre Museum in Paris. Invictus has a clip on Hammurabi: http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/92611450-2366-40A4-8825-C9287250A843/
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POPSDarvaz, Uzbekistan: The Door to Hell I couldn't find much more on this. One blog entry I read from someone who'd been to Darvaz: "Used to be a mining town, then there was an ENORMOUS gas explosion (the crater is more than 30 metres across and almost twice as deep) so the Soviets pulled out. Now there are just people living in houses in the shadow of rusting industrial equipment and Soviet vehicles with no tyres. And the wind blows....." The blog entry: http://www.h4ppy.com/blog/archives/2002_09_01_h4ppy.html
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POPSNative American Wisdom Quotes What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset. Crowfoot, Blackfoot warrior and orator 1830 - 1890 Go to the site, read some more, and listen. :)
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POPSJokes just jokes An elderly man walks into a confessional. The following conversation ensues: Man: "I am 92 years old, have a wonderful wife of 70 years, many children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. Yesterday, I picked up two college girls, hitchhiking. We went to a motel, where I had sex with each of them three times." Priest: "Are you sorry for your sins?" Man: "What sins?" Priest: "What kind of a Catholic are you?" Man: "I'm Jewish." Priest: "Why are you telling me all this?" Man: "I'm 92 years old ... I'm telling everybody."
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POPSTolstoy & Gandhi: Two Giants Bound By Pacifism
Enlightening account of the relationship between Tolstoy & Gandhi "In South Africa, Tolstoy's writings landed on the desk of a young Indian dissident, Mahatma Gandhi. He was overwhelmed, declaring that after reading Tolstoy his "lack of faith in non-violence vanished." He hung a picture of Tolstoy on his office wall and named the camp where he trained activists in peaceful resistance Tolstoy Farm. Gandhi wrote five letters to Leo Tolstoy and received four in return, all glowing with praise and intellectual exchange. In his last letter, written in September 1910 only weeks before his death, Tolstoy told Gandhi that his activity was "the most central and important of all the work now being done in the world." Years later, Gandhi repaid the compliment, writing that he knew of no one "in India or anywhere else who has had as profound an understanding of nonviolence as Tolstoy had." Tolstoy had inspired Gandhi's legendary instruction to "be the change you want to see in the worl
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POPSStudy: 93% Of People Talked About Once They Leave Room "As well as their breath, body odor, speech patterns, and the way they walked, not to mention general discussion based on the perception that the participant who had left the room was most likely a world-class prick." According to the data, 89 percent of volunteers appeared to listen attentively to the subject's receding footsteps, 47 percent raised their eyebrows and smirked as the subject left, and 23 percent mouthed the words "what the fuck" to others in the room as the door was closing, which usually triggered bouts of stifled giggling Perhaps most exciting was the 9 percent of volunteers who silently flipped the subject off as they left the room, Phillips said the lower-order cognitive functions responsible for knee-jerk gossiping may have played an ancient role in survival by encouraging those in proximity to band together.
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POPSSYMPTOMS OF RELIGIOUS ADDICTION The ultimate temptation of the believer is to assume that his or her way to God is the best or only way for others. The particular Way to God becomes what is adored, not the ineffable and incomprehensible Mystery to which we give the name of God. In essence we have become addicted to the certainty, sureness or sense of security that our faith provides. It is no longer a living by faith, with hope and growing in unconditional love. adapted from When God Becomes a Drug, by Leo Booth