Dodecahedral sundial

Dodecahedron With Sundial Faces 

Palazzo Madama, Torino

End  XVII Century

Robert Wilson's portraits

Robert Wilson's portraits of Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp

http://stretchingtheboundaries.blogspot.it/2012/09/robert-wilson-portraits-al-palazzo.html

Robert Wilson: Portraits at Palazzo Madama

Video portraits by Robert Wilson, an artist, choreographer, painter, video artist, sound and light designer -http://robertwilson.com/about/biography, at Palazzo Madama, from 20th September to 06th January 2013.
Subjects of his video-portraits are among the others,  actors such as Brad Pitt and  Johnny Depp, and a  Nobel Laureate, the writer Gao Xingjian. His videoportrait is in the treasure tower of the Palazzo. We can see him on the bent glasses of  a showcase of  the tower.

Werewolf

Greg Weeks produced the following for

http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/33730/pg33730.html

Lycanthropus, by C. EDGAR BOLEN

The jellied night has oozed its miry black

From out the hills to fill the valley floor.

Atop the ragged hills the torn cloud-wrack

Is lightning-limned into a hellish door.

A gust of wind across the sky is hurled—

The gods of old are loosed upon the world.

Age-old, the blood-lust wells within my throat;

Tensely I wait, and feel my body shrink;

My hairless hide becomes a furry coat.

Blood-hungry, through the opened door I slink;

I raise my head and howl in horrid glee—

And from the plain a howl comes back to me.

According to the TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: This etext was produced from Weird Tales August-September 1936.

After the Fox

Dear Author (Rob Lee), thank you for this beautiful picture!

"I was lucky and had my telephoto lens (200mm) on the camera when he came for a visit. He's sporting his winter look. Here he is last spring when he was younger (same angle)" writes Rob Lee on 2006.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fuzzy_Freddy.jpg

 www.flickr.com/photos/roblee/34957634/in/set-773976/

www.flickr.com/photos/roblee/11655198/in/set-1357853/

Author Rob Lee from Evergreen, CO, USA

Suricata suricatta

Suricata suricatta :  A group of Meerkats at Auckland Zoo, New Zealand.

Date 27 June 2009, Source originally posted to Flickr as Meerkats
Author Ashleigh Thompson

 Dear Author (Ashleigh Thompson), Thank you for this beautiful picture! 

When America discovered Europe

A very remarkable book this one
The American discovery of Europe,  By Jack D. Forbes
 Let me suggest the reading of it. To stimulate the curiosity, here some small abstracts

What is Cornelius Nepos telling? And Pliny?

 

 

The world's first seismometer was Chinese

Who was the inventor of the first siesmometer?
 Zhang Heng. He was  (AD 78–139) a Chinese astronomer, mathematician, inventor, geographer, cartographer, artist, poet, statesman. He lived under the Han Dynasty (AD 25–220) of China. He was a  Chief Astronomer, Prefect of the Majors for Official Carriages, and then Palace Attendant at the imperial court.  He invented the world's first water-powered armillary sphere,  improved the inflow water clock by adding another tank and invented the world's first seismometer, which discerned the cardinal direction of an earthquake 500 km away. He improved previous Chinese calculations of the formula for pi. In addition to documenting about 2,500 stars in his extensive star catalogue. Some modern scholars have also compared his work in astronomy to that of Ptolemy (AD 86–161). (Adapted from Wiki)

 A replica of an ancient Chinese Siesmograph  (25-220 CE). Picture taken in July 2004  at Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland California.

"In 132 CE, after several serious earthquakes in China, astronomer Zhang Heng invented this instrument to warn people of the next one. When the ground shook, it moved a pendulum inside the jug. The pendulum pushed a lever that opened one dragon's mouth. A ball rolled out and into the toad's mouth below, sounding an alarm. The open dragon mouth pointed in the direction of the earthquake, notifying the Emperor."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EastHanSeismograph.JPG

Ancient solar observatories: Stonehenge

This is Stonehenge. The image shows directions of sun during the day. “The lines on the drawing show the direction and height (altitude) of the sun throughout the day. Thicker and shorter lines mean the sun is higher in the sky. Longer and thinner lines mean the sun is closer to the horizon”, according to Sollumis.com http://www.sollumis.com/. The site is located in the Google Maps. The direction of the sun is given on the summer solstice, choosing an altar at the circle for observation. We see that, at sunrise, the sun is passing near the stone outside the circle.

The qocha of Chuquiña

Chuquiña is a small town in Bolivia.
Near Chuquiña satellite maps show a huge "qocha".
A "qocha" (small lake, lagoon)  is an artificial pond used to gain water for cultivation.
Waru-warus, camellones, qochas were old pre-incaic cultivation techniques.

On Andean qochas you can find more info here
http://www.archaeogate.org/sperimentale/article/1396/1/qochas-on-andean-highlands-by-amelia-carolina-sparavign.html
http://stretchingtheboundaries.blogspot.it/2011/04/qocha.html
http://stretchingtheboundaries.blogspot.it/2011/04/raised-fields.html
http://stretchingtheboundaries.blogspot.it/2011/05/le-qochas-dellaltopiano-andino.html