Tesla's flying disk In 1911, Nikola Tesla told the New York Herald that he was working on a "flying" anti-gravity machine.
"My flying machine will have neither wings nor propellers. You can see it on the ground and you'll never think it's a flying machine.
However, you will be able to move freely through the air in any direction with perfect safety, at higher speeds that have never been achieved, regardless of the weather or to the right.
Climb on those chains if you want too It can stay absolutely stationary in the air, even in the wind, for a long time. Your elevation power will not depend on devices as delicate as birds have to employ, but on positive mechanical action.
Tesla's flying disk was powered by a free energy system, at a time when aviation and automotive industry depended on oil and petroleum. Your invention had the same fate as your free energy system.
Carl Gustav Carus night painting captures the ethereal beauty of a full moon rising behind pines, a recurring motif among Romantic artists in Dresden.
As Carus himself described it, the "darkening blue" of the clear night sky possesses a crystalline intensity, while a reddish coronal ring delicately encircles the "pale-golden" full moon. The jagged silhouettes of the pines’ pyramidal crowns starkly contrast against the moonlit blue sky, and subtle highlights on the foreground vegetation simulate the moonlight’s gentle gleam.
Carus's low vantage point and the heightened contrasts achieved with his predominantly monochrome palette imbue the painting with an emotional depth that transcends its modest size and subject.
Carus’s fascination with nocturnal scenes and moonlit landscapes is well-documented, evidenced by the many moonlight works he created throughout his career.
He only rarely explored the theme, however, in such a small and focused format.Settling in Dresden in 1814, Carus became a close friend of Caspar David Friedrich and an integral figure within his artistic circle. Friedrich had elevated moonlight to a central theme in Romantic painting, and his influence is evident in Carus’s work.
Although Carus began to distance himself from Friedrich’s circle in the 1820s, Friedrich’s mastery of painting techniques and compositional strategies left a lasting impression. Reflecting on Friedrich’s legacy after his death, Carus wrote: "Of great value to me was the distinct feeling for pure concentration of light that marked his works."
This profound appreciation for light and atmosphere is a hallmark of Carus's moonlit landscapes, demonstrating his ability to blend scientific observation with Romantic ideals.
"Work keeps us from three great evils: Boredom, vice and need"
When you think of the Vatican Museum's most valuable treasures, your mind likely wanders to Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel frescoes or ancient sculptures. However, one of its most precious artifacts is neither a painting nor a statue, but a humble bathtub with an estimated worth of $2 billion.
Grand porphyry bathtub of Emperor Nero (54-68 AD), from his Domus Aurea palace in Rome. The tub is roughly 7.63 m (25 ft) in radius and weighs thousands of pounds.
Perched on large stone legs, it looks like a colossal birdbath. The mosaic it stands on has scenes of Neptune.
This isn't just any bathtub. Commissioned by Emperor Nero in the 1st century AD, this massive basin is carved entirely from purple porphyry, a rare and coveted marble mined from a single quarry in Roman Egypt.
Weighing.over 1,000 pounds, it stands as a testament to the extravagance and engineering prowess of the Roman Empire. A Journey Fit for an Emperor: The story of how this colossal tub made its way from the Egyptian desert to Rome is nothing short of epic.
The porphyry blocks were painstakingly quarried, transported overland to the Nile, shipped across the Mediterranean, and finally carried to Rome - a logistical feat that contributed to the stone's astronomical value. In ancient Rome, bathing was a social activity, and the wealthy used their lavish bathing chambers to flaunt their status. Nero's porphyry basin, with its enormous size and striking purple hue, would have been the ultimate showpiece, cementing the emperor's reputation for opulence.
The Challenge of Moving Marble: 😮🤔 The transportation of such massive marble pieces remains a logistical nightmare even today. The fact that Nero's bathtub has survived intact for nearly two millennia is a testament to Roman engineering and craftsmanship.
The Wild will call you back. Through half-remembered dreams and sunsets painted in burnt sienna and vermillion flames she will call you back home. The coyotes will wake you from your sleep with their clarion call to keep your eyes wide open.
How long have you been sleeping? How much have you forgotten?
The Wild will call you back. She will hang you upside down and shake the nonsense from the pockets of your mind. She will strip your soul naked leaving you raw and exposed under the searing glare of the gods. Offer up the holiness of your confusion and questions. Dress yourself in fireflies and attune your senses to awe while you learn the slow seduction of courting your muse.
Brush the stardust from your wings and wipe the ocean from your eyes. Flex your claws dig your roots deep down into the fertile earth and show your fangs. Gather pollen on your legs and speak in venom and honey. Peel back your colonized tongue and let it hiss and purr and growl and scream.
Do you remember how to stalk as predator and how to surrender as prey?
The Wild will call you back. The owls know your real name and will call you from the darkness of night to dance under the moon. Crack your heart open with your ancestors’ bones and dance in the ecstasy of your love and your grief with flailing limbs bloody knees and mud-stained feet. Braid mugwort into your hair and dream yourself awake.
The Wild will call you back. She will teach you how to die again and again and how to die well. There is no difference between your funeral pyre and your birth canal. Do not bother to try and stop the bleeding. Love with the gentleness and ferocity of your whole soft tender being. Feed the spirits with your beauty and sweetness and ask them to show you the way home.
Art: Aykut Aydogdu
Oh yes, today's is ... BLUE MONDAY, also known as the most depressing day of the year. While the concept as a scientific phenomenon has been widely debunked, it continues to be discussed as a cultural meme and a reminder to focus on mental health during the winter months.
Featuring these beautiful flowers by Ohara Koson.It is a stunning example of the artist's mastery of shin-hanga (new prints), a Japanese art movement in the early 20th century that revitalized traditional ukiyo-e techniques.
Koson, renowned for his exquisite woodblock prints of birds and flowers (kacho-e), often depicted the natural world with exceptional elegance, capturing its transient beauty.
The flowers are depicted with elongated, graceful stems and intricately detailed petals, which seem to flutter delicately as if swaying in the wind. The background is minimal and subdued, allowing the irises to take center stage, enhancing their visual impact and ethereal quality.Irises hold significant cultural meaning in Japan.
They are often associated with purification and protection, particularly in Shōbu no Sekku (Boys’ Day Festival), when iris leaves are used in baths to ward off evil spirits.
The blue irises in Koson’s work also evoke feelings of calm and introspection, aligning with the artist's ability to capture the harmony between nature and human emotion.
Flagged/Reviewed. Removing image. [CharlieBear]