Coccodrilli e fossili nelle chiese

Pare che la presenza di coccodrilli nelle chiese non sia una rarita', da come si puo' vedere con una semplice ricerca su Internet. Ho, per esempio, trovato il Santuario della Beata Vergine di Mantova   dove un rettile pende dal soffitto. Si legge nel sito, che in epoca cristiana le figure di draghi coccodrilli o serpi venivano spesso associate al male, considerate personificazioni terrene del diavolo. "La collocazione di questi animali nelle chiese ha quindi un forte significato simbolico, come furono nelle chiese medievali l'ubicazione di fossili preistorici; quindi, incatenare l'animale in alto, nella volta della chiesa vuol dire renderlo innocuo, bloccare il male che rappresenta e nello stesso tempo esporre un monito concreto per i fedeli contro l'umana predisposizione all'errore."

Palazzo Madama

Vedi anche A dinosaur in church,  Saint Bertrand's crocodile (questo coccodrillo è descritto in un racconto di M R James - Canon Alberic's Scrapbook)

A dinosaur in church

Very interesting: in marble objects and decorations of churches we can find remains of past eons.
See the item DINOSAUR SKULL FOUND IN CHURCH, by Rossella Lorenzi. "Encased in pinkish marble-like slabs supporting a balustrade, this dinosaur - or what's left of it - has for centuries been the most faithful presence in the Cathedral of St. Ambrose in Vigevano, a town about 20 miles from Milan. The rock contains what appears to be a horizontal section of a dinosaur’s skull.

http://news.discovery.com/dinosaurs/dinosaur-skull-found-in-church.html

Saint Bertrand's crocodile

Very ancient and beautiful cathedral
http://www.cathedrale-saint-bertrand.org/chronologie.html
having a curoius stuffed crocodile on a pillar, as told in the M R James' novel "Canon Alberic' scrapbook",
http://polymathe.over-blog.com/article-21678667.html

M R James - Canon Alberic's Scrapbook

Racconto di M R James dove un collezionista di volumi rari si imbatte, nel paesino dei Pirenei, in un taccuino molto speciale. Il racconto si apre con la visita del protagonista alla cattedrale, dove un coccodrillo impagliato è appeso ad una parete.
"St. Bertrand de Comminges is a decayed town on the spurs of the Pyrenees, not very far from Toulouse, and still nearer to Bagnères-de-Luchon. It was the site of a bishopric until the Revolution, and has a cathedral which is visited by a certain number of tourists. In the spring of 1883 an Englishman arrived at this old-world place ... He was a Cambridge man, who had come specially from Toulouse to see St Bertrand's Church... (He) proposed to himself to fill a notebook and to use several dozens of plates in the process of describing and photographing every corner of the wonderful church that dominates the little hill of  Comminges...

However, the Englishman (let us call him Dennistoun) was soon too deep in his notebook and too busy with his camera to give more than an occasional glance to the sacristan. Whenever he did look at him, he found him at no great distance, either huddling himself back against the wall or crouching in one of the gorgeous stalls. Dennistoun became rather fidgety after a time. Mingled suspicions that he was keeping the old man from his déjeuner, that he was regarded as likely to make away with St Bertrand's ivory crozier, or with the dusty stuffed crocodile that hangs over the font, began to torment him.
'Won't you go home?' he said at last; 'I'm quite well able to finish my notes alone; you can lock me in if you like. I shall want at least two hours more here, and it must be cold for you, isn't it?'
'Good Heavens!' said the little man, whom the suggestion seemed to throw into a state of unaccountable terror, 'such a thing cannot be thought of for a moment. Leave monsieur alone in the church? No, no; two hours, three hours, all will be the same to me... 

http://www.litgothic.com/Texts/alberic.html

Spicules – plasma jets on the Sun

A mystery: why is  the Sun's outer atmosphere – or corona –  so much hotter than its surroundings?
"The corona, the vast gossamer atmosphere of plasma visible from Earth during a total solar eclipse, can notch up temperatures in excess of one million degrees Kelvin (MK). Several rival explanations have jostled to account for why the corona is unexpectedly over 200 times hotter than the visible surface, or photosphere, of the Sun".

It could be the action of spicules to increase the coronal temperature.

read more http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/44717

Profiles - Ibn al-Haytham

"The Scholar and the Caliph" by Jennifer Ouellette is a work of fiction, a imagining of a 10-year period in the life of the medieval Muslim polymath Ibn al-Haytham (AD 965–1040) considered by many historians to be the father of modern optics. He lived during the golden age of Arabic science, creating an early version of the scientific method, two hundred years before scholars in Western Europe. He is most celebrated for his Book of Optics.

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/indepth/44677

Ryusai Shigeharu

Museo Arte Orientale, Arte Giapponese

Snow country

"Snow Country" is a novel by Yasunari Kawabata (1899 – 1972,  Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968). "Snow country" is a literal translation of the Japanese title "Yukiguni". The name comes from the place where the story takes place, where Shimamura arrives in a train coming through a long tunnel under the border mountains between Gunma  and Niigata Prefectures. more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Country

Some Prefer Nettles

"Some prefer nettles" is a novel written by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (1886 – 1965). Considered one of Tanizaki’s most successful novels, Tade kuu mushi has a theme pervading it, the struggle between East and West. 

The protagonist of the novel, Kaname, possesses aesthetic tastes leaning toward the so-called West.  more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Some_Prefer_Nettles

Anche in italiano, Gli insetti preferiscono le ortiche.

Scientist googles crater find

Scientist googles crater find, Monday, 16 August 2010, by Stuart Gary
ABC
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2010/08/16/2982419.htm
"Scientists using Google Maps have discovered a new crater like structure in the Bayuda Desert of Sudan. If confirmed, it will be the second such discovery using the popular online mapping tool and could spawn a new generation of home-based amateur crater hunters. Assistant Professor Amelia Sparavigna from the Politecnico di Torino in Italy has detailed her discovery on the pre-press website arXiv.org."


Slideshow: Photo 1 of 2


Google Crater after (Google Earth)

Ryusai Shigeharu

Personaggio femminile con pugnale, xilografia su carta, tecnica nishiki-e, oban tate-e (37,3 x 25,4 cm) 

Autore: Ryusai Shigeharu, ca. 1830.
Museo Arte Orientale, Arte giapponese

Byōbu, the wind wall

Byōbu (wind wall) are the Japanese folding screens, made from several joined panels bearing decorative painting, used to separate and enclose private spaces. During the Edo Period (1600-1868), Byōbu  adorned samurai residences. The backgrounds of byōbu were made from gold leaf and highly colorful paintings depicting nature and scenes from daily life.

Museo Arte Orientale

Hokusai

"Under a Wave off Kanagawa", also known as The Great Wave, is a woodblock print by the Japanese artist Hokusai. This particular woodblock is one of the most recognized works of Japanese art in the world. It depicts an enormous wave threatening boats near the Japanese prefecture of Kanagawa.  It depicts the area around Mount Fuji and the mountain itself appears in the background. Copies of the print are in many Western collections.

Torino - Museo Arte Orientale

Gyokusen Shuga Cho

Mochizuki Gyokusen (1834-1913)

Torino - Museo Arte Orientale, Via San Domenico 11

Garamantes

Garamantes lived in fertile areas of Sahara, corresponding to the southwestern Libya, which had not always been a desert. In a period lasting from about 10,000 to 6,000 before current era, the country was like a savanna, with some perennial lakes. During the sixth millennium, several great droughts forced people to abandon the region. The lakes disappeared, leaving large fields of salt, one of the main articles of future Garamantian trade.
more http://www.livius.org/ga-gh/garamantes/garamantes.html