Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Fairy or wood sprite?


Another Disney photo from last month . . . Olivia loves the fairy world.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Luck is life

There is a Chinese story of a farmer who used a horse to till his fields. One day, the horse escaped into the hills and when the farmer's neighbors sympathized with the old man over his bad luck, the farmer replied, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?"

A week later, the horse returned with a herd of horses from the hills and this time the neighbors congratulated the farmer on his good luck. His reply was, "Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?"

Then, when the farmer's son was attempting to tame one of the wild horses, he fell off its back and broke his leg. Everyone thought this very bad luck. Not the farmer, whose only reaction was, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?"

Some weeks later, the army marched into the village and conscripted every able-bodied youth they found there. When they saw the farmer's son with his broken leg, they left him on the farm. Now was that good luck or bad luck?

Who knows?

Luck is life.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Mary Poppins




My daughter as Michael in her school's performance of Mary Poppins

Monday, March 15, 2010

Eternal truths


The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.
-- William Hazlitt (1778 - 1830)

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

The Berlin Wall

An animated summary of the history of the Berlin Wall - here

Saturday, March 06, 2010

Dizzyworld


Thursday, March 04, 2010

The velocipede

The earliest usable and much copied velocipede was German Karl Drais' Laufmaschine (German for "running machine"), the world's first 'push bike' or balance bicycle (sometimes also called 'swiftwalker' in English), patented in January 1818 and very popular for a short while both in France (where it was called draisienne), and the United Kingdom (where it was nicknamed dandy horse, as it was very popular among dandies). It was made entirely of wood and had no practical use except on a well-maintained pathway in a park or garden.

Monday, March 01, 2010

Huntington Conservatory



Demi-botanist
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