traveling 17,000 years back in time- meeting the first artists on Earth

would you like to meet the first ever artists on Earth? see what they created and how amazingly it takes us back in time? would you like to imagine how they lived and behaved. may be you would like to travel seventeen thousand years back in time :)

visit: http://www.lascaux.culture.fr/#/fr/00.xml

from the writer's almanac: "On September 12 in 1940, four teenage boys and a dog named Robot stumbled upon Paleolithic drawings in a cave in Lascaux, France. The main cave is approximately 66 feet wide and 16 feet high, and is connected to a number of smaller chambers. There are about 2,000 drawings and engravings, mostly of animals: horses, bison, red deer, stags, cats, and aurochs — large, black cattle-like animals that are now extinct. Horses and stags are the most common subjects; there are also human figures, various geometric shapes, and the outlines of human hands — possibly the signatures of the artists. The chambers have been given evocative names: the Great Hall of the Bulls; the Chamber of Felines; and the Shaft of the Dead Man. In addition to the figures, there also appears to be an Ice Age star chart: clusters of stars that resemble known constellations like Taurus the Bull, the Summer Triangle, and the Pleiades.

Assigning a precise date to the art has been difficult. Scientists used carbon dating to estimate the age of some charcoal found in the caves, and according to that method, the drawings are about 17,000 years old. What's less certain is whether they were produced over a relatively brief period of a hundred years or whether they span a much longer period."

know more about the lascaux cave paintings here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lascaux

and if you are interested, i'll tell you about a book which took me through this journey a few months back. may be you would like to read it :)

-adee

the good or bad in us

last night, i was watching this movie, Blood Diamond. fantastic movie that, but i'll talk about it some other day. (though i might or might not.) this is perhaps my favorite scene from the movie.

Danny Archer (played fabulously by Leonardo DiCaprio) has taken refuge at a local chief, Benjamin's estate who runs a shelter for war victim children and adults. there is blood and carnage all around this oasis of peace and Danny and his companions have literally escaped death a few hours ago. Danny is actually a diamond smuggler who has got entry after lying that he is a journalist.

the little dialogue between these two opposite characters is fantastic as a critique of the human nature. 

Danny Archer(talking about the rebel soldiers): So you think because your intentions are good, they'll spare you, huh? 

Benjamin Kapanay: My heart always told me that people are inherently good. My experience suggests otherwise. But what about you, Mr. Archer? In your long career as a journalist, would you say that people are mostly good?

Danny Archer: No. I'd say they're just people.

Benjamin Kapanay: Exactly. It is what they do that makes them good or bad. A moment of love, even in a bad man, can give meaning to a life. None of us knows whose path will lead us to God.

think about it. i kept thinking about it. and i realized one thing about me. i've never been able to completely hate a person, even if s/he has done some real harm to me. i've always found some bit of good in them, not that i want to further test my patience! dear God, please don't test me anymore :)

and that is why, i want to ask you, do you, would you also believe that there are no good people or bad people, that there are only good deeds and bad deeds? should we define/brand people as good or bad, or is it about being generally good and generally bad? maybe nobody is completely good or bad, OR maybe there are a few pure souls and a few gone beyond redemption, who knows... maybe we are just supposed to forgive and forget and move on OR maybe we are supposed to fight and seek revenge... who knows?

whatever be the answer(s), what i do agree with is this, "A moment of love, even in a bad man, can give meaning to a life." actually, it gives meaning to all of humanity. do you also think so?

religion

a triptych puerile
hanging over the sacrificial altar

a harangue to the old faithful
swaddled in truculent colors

a scrim pulled tightly over eyes
a mind, an extremity familiar

a dirigible in the name of God
in essence, a conflated fear