Desired Home of the Week II

from Cultblog

It's as though a piece of Rivendell from The Lord of the Rings was put into Barcelona.  Save one for me, please.

Designed by Antonio Gaudi.

Cape of the Week II

via Cousas

... is she looking at you?...

Witchy outfit of the week XI

by Franck Sorbier

from his circus collection 2006

via Fashion Insider

Evolutionary findings of the week II: Bizarre Deep Sea Creatures found

"The scientists believe some of the colourful and transparent creatures could provide the missing evolutionary link between backboned and invertebrate animals."

Due to copyright restrictions, all images of the amazing sea creatures can only be viewed via this link

A star is born - literally

The pictures of the Carina constellation were taken by the Hubble and were described by experts as looking like a "July 4 fireworks display". It shows a new star being born from within an existing star cluster.  This Hubble Space Telescope image was captured in August 2009 and December 2009 with the Wide Field Camera 3 in both visible and infrared light, which trace the glow of sulfur, hydrogen, and iron.

To read more go to The Telegraph (UK)

My idea of the witches of Macbeth

Doesn't mean they're not old - they could be 1000 years old - just well dressed :)

via Sun in Scorpio

Thought of the Day I

"All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him". - Buddha

Great Podcast I

Thelema Now! podcast
Ordo Templis Orientis
http://oto-usa.org/podcast.html
Review so far - This is a great podcast, it's just a shame about the fact that you're essentially listening to a telephone conversation so the quality of what you're listening to is raspy but the topics are fascinating with a history of the American underground occult scene.

New evidence that Cleopatra took her own life instead of snake bite myth

The Queen of the Nile ended her life in 30BC and it has always been held that it was the bite of an asp – now called the Egyptian cobra – which caused her demise.  Now Christoph Schaefer, German historian and professor at the University of Trier, is presenting evidence that aims to prove drugs and not the reptile were the cause of death.  Hope for blind after scientists turn skin into eye cells"Queen Cleopatra was famous for her beauty and was unlikely to have subjected herself to a long and disfiguring death," he said.
He journeyed with other experts to Alexandria, Egypt, where they consulted ancient medical texts and snake experts.

"Cleopatra wanted to remain beautiful in her death to maintain her myth," he says on the Adventure Science show screened by the German television channel ZDF.
"She probably took a cocktail of opium, hemlock and aconitum. Back then this was a well-known mixture that led to a painless death within just a few hours whereas the snake death could have taken days and been agonising."

Cleopatra reigned from 51BC to 30BC and was the last person to rule Egypt as an Egyptian pharaoh. After she died, Egypt became a Roman province. She was an ally of the Roman emperor Julius Caesar, and established a relationship with the Roman General Mark Anthony. They had three children together and there are letters that suggest she married him, although both were already married; she to a brother and he had a wife in Rome. In 44 BC, after the assassination of Caesar, she aligned with Antony in opposition to Caesar’s legal heir, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian.

After losing the Battle of Actium to Octavian’s forces, Antony committed suicide. Cleopatra followed suit, aged 39 on August 12, 30BC.

Text from The Daily Telegraph - posted 29th of June 2010
Image from Full Issue

Evolutionary findings of the week: 'Fossils push back life by 1.5 billion years' - major scientific discovery & Leviathan whale with teeth

TAKING BACK EVOLUTION A FURTHER 1.5 BILLION YEARS

Why not just ad an additional 1.5 BILLION years to evolutionary history upon finding these little creatures which look like miniature brains.

A virtual image from the fossil (left) of what this creature may have looked like

Read the whole article here

LEVIATHAN WHALE DISCOVERED IN PERUVIAN SEDIMENT

An ancient whale the same size of a sperm whale has been discovered of late with huge teeth which could have been an incredible predator capable of eating other animals the size of dolphins and seals.
For more on the sea monster, click here for the BBC's link.