Daily Dose Of Interesting Information

[Visalakshi Ramani]

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The superlatives in Animal Kingdom part 2.

A pygmy shrew...Small enough to sleep in a teaspoon!


e. The pygmy shrew of Northern Europe is rarely 1.5 inches from nose to its tail.

The smallest bird is the bee humming bird of Cuba. It is 2 inches long with a wing span of 1.1 inches.

A spine tailed swift

f. The fastest creature is the spine tailed swift. It can fly at a speed > 200 m.p.h.

A Goliath beetle!

g. In the insect world the Goliath beetle weighs 3.4 oz. It measures 4inches across and 5.8 inches long.

A South American Bird eating Spider.

h. The south American bird eating spider has a leg span of 10 inches and body length of 3.5 inches. It is the largest of all spiders.

All the images Courtesy Google Images.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

With these we come to the end of the Animal kingdom.

We will start with a new topic from tomorrow. ray2:

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

Introduction.

Various styles of painting.

The history of painting dates back in time to artifacts from prehistoric humans, and spans all cultures. It represents a continuous but periodically disrupted tradition from Antiquity.

Across the cultures, and spanning the continents and millennium, the history of painting is an ongoing river of creativity, that continues into the 21st century.

Representational, religious and classical motifs were in vogue until the early 20th century. Purely abstract and conceptual approaches replaced the classic approaches in the 20th century.

Developments in Eastern painting were historically parallel those in western painting but usually the east preceded the west by a few centuries.

Art forms of Africa, India, China, Japan had significant influence on Western art vice-versa. Initially they served utilitarian purpose.

It was followed by imperial, private, religious and civic, patronage. Aristocracy and the very rich people supported the Eastern and Western painting later.

From the Modern era painters worked for the church and a wealthy aristocracy. Baroque era artists received private commissions from a more educated and prosperous middle class.

The idea "Art for Art's sake" began to find expression in the work of the Romantic painters. The rise of the commercial Art Galleries provided patronage in the 20th Century.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

#1 . The Oldest Painting.

Courtesy Wikipedia.
The oldest cave painting in Lascaux in France.

Cave paintings

Cave paintings adorn the walls and ceilings of the old caves. This term is used especially for those dating back to the ancient times.

The earliest European cave paintings date to some 32,000 years ago.[SUP]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_painting#cite_note-Clottes214-0[/SUP] The purpose served by the paleolithic cave paintings is not known.

The evidence suggests that they were not merely decorations of living areas, since the caves in which they have been found do not have signs of ongoing habitation.

Also, they are often in areas of caves that are not easily accessed. Some theories hold that they may have been a way of communicating with others, while other theories ascribe them a religious or ceremonial purpose.

[h=2][/h]

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 2. Africa.

Rock paintings from the Western Cape.

The paintings by the people who settled in the area some 8,000 years ago depict animals and humans, and are thought to represent religious beliefs.

Human figures are much more common in the rock art of Africa than in Europe. Cave paintings found at the Apollo 11 cave in Namibia may be among the earliest cave art. The estimated age of the images date from approximately 23,000 – 25,000 BCE.

In 2002, a French archaeological team discovered the cave paintings on the outskirts of Somalia. Dating back around 5,000 years, the paintings depict both wild animals and decorated cows. They also feature herders, who are believed to be the creators of the rock art.

Many cave paintings are found in the southeast Algeria. The rock art was first discovered in 1933 and has since yielded 15,000 engravings and drawings that keep a record of the various animal migrations, climatic shifts, and change in human inhabitation patterns in this part of the Sahara from 6000 BCE to the early classical period.

The Cave of swimmers is in southwest Egypt, near the border with Libya, in the mountainous region of Sahara desert. It was discovered in October 1933 . It contains images of people swimming estimated to have been created 10,000 years ago during the time of the most recent Ice Age.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

Another superlatively small reptile.

A file picture shows a 'Brookesia micra' chameleon on a matchstick in

Madagascar, March 16, 2007. The so-called 'Brookesia micra'

chameleon, believed to be the world smallest, has been discovered on

the island of Madagascar, German and American biologists announced

on February 16, 2012. The lizard, with a 16-millimetre body, measures

29 millimeters with its tail full extended.

Courtesy : REUTERS.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

#3. Australia

Significant early cave paintings have been found in Kakadu, Australia. Carbon dating of the age is often impossible since Ocher is a not an organic material.

Sometimes the approximate date can be surmised from the painting content, contextual artifacts, or organic material intentionally or inadvertently mixed with the inorganic ocher paint, including torch soot.

A red ocher painting discovered at the center of the Arnhem Land plateau about two years ago depicts two emu-like birds with their necks outstretched.

They have been identified by a palaeontologists as depicting the giant birds were thought to have become extinct more than 40,000 years ago. This may suggest that they existed later than that.

The Whitsunday Islands are also home to a surprising number of cave paintings. The cave paintings by the sea-faring people on Hook island are remarkable for their abstract, non-figurative, non-representational content. Their significance is a mystery.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 4. India.

The Bhimbetka rock paintings.

The Bhimbetka rock shelters exhibit the earliest traces of human life in India; a number of analyses suggest that some of these shelters were inhabited by humans for in excess of 100,000 years.

The earliest paintings on the cave walls are believed to be of the Mesolithic period, dating to 12,000 years ago.

The most recent painting, consisting of geometric figures, date to the medieval period.

Executed mainly in red and white with the occasional use of green and yellow, the paintings depict the lives and times of the people who lived in the caves.

They depict scenes including childbirth, communal dancing and drinking, religious rites and burials, as well as indigenous animals.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 5. South America.

Serra da Capivara National park is in the north east of Brazil. It has many prehistoric paintings. The park was created to protect the prehistoric artifacts and paintings found there. It became a World heritage site in 1991.

It has an area of 1291.4 square kilometers (319,000 acres). The area has the largest concentration of prehistoric small farms on the American continents. Scientific studies confirm that the Capivara mountain range was densely populated in prehistoric periods.



The Cave of the Hands


The "Cave of the Hands" is located in Santa Cruz, Argentina.

The images of hands are often stenciled negatives. Besides these there are also depictions of human beings, other animals, geometric shapes, zig zag patterns, Sun and hunting scenes.

Similar paintings, though in smaller numbers, can be found in nearby caves. There are also red dots on the ceilings, probably made by submerging their hunting bolas in ink, and then throwing them up. The colors of the paintings vary from red, to white, black or yellow.

The negative hand impressions are calculated to be dated around 550 BC, the positive impressions from 180 BC, and the hunting drawings to be older than 10,000 years.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 6. Europe



30,000 year old painting found in the Chauvet cave of a spotted hyena.

Other sites include England, (Cave etchings and bas-reliefs discovered in 2003), and Magura , Bulgaria. Rock painting was also performed on cliff faces, but few have survived because of erosion.

One well-known example is the rock paintings of Astuvansalmi in the Saimaa area of Finland. The Magdalenian paintings of the Altamira cave, Cantabria, Spain in 1879, the academics of the time considered them hoaxes.

Recent reappraisals and numerous additional discoveries have since demonstrated their authenticity, while at the same time stimulating interest in the artistry of Upper palaeolithic people.

Cave paintings, created with only the most rudimentary tools, can also furnish valuable insight into the culture and beliefs of that era.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 7. North America



Painted Cave, Santa Barbara County, California.

Native artists in the Chumash tribes created the cave paintings that are located in present day Santa Barbara, Ventura, San Luis Obispo Counties in Southern California.

Burro Flats painted cave and Chumash painted cave state Historic park are well executed examples. In the caves of the Southwestern United states, there are native American pictographs

Chumash rock art is a genre of paintings on caves, mountains, cliffs, or other living rock surfaces, created by the Chumash people of Southern California.

Pictographs and petroglyph are common through interior California. The rock painting tradition thrived until the 19th century.

Chumash rock art is considered to be some of the most elaborate rock art tradition in the region. Subject matter and materials

Chumash rock art depicts images like humans, animals, celestial bodies, and other (at times ambiguous) shapes and patterns. These depictions vary considerably and appear to be in no particular order or arrangement.

The colors of the paintings vary as well, from red or black monochromes (different shades of a single color) to elaborate polychrome (many various colors).

The Chumash made paint from a mixture of mineralized soil, stone mortar, and some kind of liquid binder like blood or oil from animals or mashed seeds. The addition of an oil binder helped to make the paint permanent and waterproof.

Hematite or iron oxide produced the Orange and red paints, limonite produced the yellow paint, copper ans serpentine produced the blue and green colors, kaolin clay and gypsum produced the white and black was obtained from manganese or charcoal.

Paint was applied with a person's finger or a brush. Grant organized the types of images depicted in the paintings into two categories: representational and abstract.

Representational images include squares, circles and triangles, zigzags, crisscrosses, parallel lines, and pinwheels. In settled villages, abstract paintings were prominent, while the areas occupied by bands of hunting people reveal representational images.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 7. North America (continued)

Interpretations


Color enhanced Chumash glyphs

Because of some commonly occurring symbols in paintings, it was believed that at least portions of the rock art depicted themes of fertility, water, and rain.

However, the Native California Indians are very reluctant to talk to anyone about the rock art and some deny any knowledge of it altogether.

The natives' hesitancy to discuss the art led archaeologists to believe that they had no idea of the origin of the pictographs. Kroeber recorded some of his thoughts on the origins of the rock art in 1925.

At Painted Cave, a circle enclosing five spokes surrounded by other circles–some spoked, some rayed–is thought to represent the Solar eclipse of November 24, 1677.

Pinwheel shapes, dots, and concentric circles are believed to be celestial bodies. Figures combining human and animal features represent states of transformation the 'alchuklash experienced.

Certain animals, such as rattlesnakes and frogs, are believed to represent spirit helpers.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

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Statistics of my blog of 200 English articles of general interest <visalakshiramani.wordpress.com>

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[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 8. Indonesia.



Gua Tewet, the tree of life Borneo Indonesia.


Most of the hands are left hands, which suggests that painters held the spraying pipe with their right hand.

The size of the hands resembles that of a 13-year-old boy, but considering they were probably smaller in size, it is speculated that they could be a few years older.

Probably they marked their advancement into manhood by stamping their hands on the walls of this sacred cave.[SUP]
[/SUP]

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 9 Southeast Asia

There are rock paintings in caves in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Burma. Thailand caves and scarps along the Thai-Burmese border, in the Petchabun Range of Central Thailand, and overlooking the Mekong River in Nakorn Sawan Province, all contain galleries of rock paintings.

" Neolithic rock paintings are the definite attractions in Gua Tambun (Tambun Caves) situated at Tambun, outside Ipoh. The 5, 000-year old paintings were first discovered in 1959 by more recent rock artists speaks of early dwellers in the Malay Peninsular." Courtesy PERAK

In Malaysia the oldest paintings are at Gua Tambun in Perak, dated at 2000 years, and those in the Painted Cave at Niah Caves National Park are 1200 years old.

The anthropologist who visited Malaysia in the early 1920s found that some of the tribes (especially Negritos) were still producing cave paintings. They had added depictions of modern objects including what are believed to be cars.

In Indonesia the caves at Maros in Sulawesi are famous for their hand prints, also recently found in 38 painted caves in the Sangkulirang area of Kalimantan.

The Padah -Lin- caves of Burma contain 11,000-year-old paintings and many rock tools.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

Think of the Devil and there he appears!

We DO have some power of intuition for sure.

I am not able to blog the posts # 911 onwards. out:

I hesitate to ask for extended memory volume

certainly NOT for every single thread!.

So this thread merges with the other thread

"Did you know that...?" right now!" :bump2:

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 916 has proved that I can post but NOT blog.

So the promised tidbits on and off is still a possibility

Thank Heaven for small mercies!!!:hail:

 

[nannilam_balasubramanian]

Some people rely on intuition and some say it is not pseudo intellectual or pseudo
science.

Balasubramanian
Ambattur

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

This series is continued in the thread

Did you know that...?

under the heading Styles of Art.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

The human body is an amazing thing. Over the hundreds of thousands of years we’ve existed in our current form.

The body has evolved in all sorts of ways. We tan in the sun, we get colds in the winter, and we all love a good bath once a day.

But there are a few things that our bodies keep doing that we might not know about.

So here goes: six of the weirdest and most wonderful facts about the human body!

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 1. Cell renewal!

You shed 600,000 skin cells per hour!

A ten thousand dead skin cells shed off per minute!

Have you ever brushed over some skin in a beam of sunlight and seen the particles fly away?

Well, that’s your dead skin.

Tiny particles of dead skin come off us all the time, and scientists tell us that we usually have 600,000 of these cells fly off per hour.

That’s a lot of dead skin in the air!

 

[renuka]

So we can have a modern day Yaksha Prashna:


Yaksha: What is most amazing about humans in the world?

Yudhisthira:You shed 600,000 skin cells per hour!

A ten thousand dead skin cells shed off per minute!

Have you ever brushed over some skin in a beam of sunlight and seen the particles fly away?

Well, that’s your dead skin.

Tiny particles of dead skin come off us all the time, and scientists tell us that we usually have 600,000 of these cells fly off per hour.

That’s a lot of dead skin in the air YET PEOPLE THINK THAT DEATH WILL NEVER APPROACH THEM!!

Yaksha: Hey..I didnt expect that answer..from where did you get that from.

Yudhsithira: TB Forum Madam VR Ji's Daily Dose of Interesting Information.!!

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

:humble: ray2:

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 2. Nosy poser!

Your nose (or brain) can remember around 50,000 smells!!!

You probably thought a dog’s nose was fairly sensitive, and you’d be right; but that doesn’t mean that our noses don’t have keen senses too.

Between the brain and the nose working together, each of us is able to ‘remember’ 50,000 smells.

So now there’s even more reason to stop and smell the fragrant flowers now and again!

Smell more flowers!

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 3. The mighty nasal blast.

Would you believe that You sneeze at a speed of 100 mph or 160 kmph?

Sneezing is one of those reactions that we simply can’t control, much like coughing or itching.

But did you know that when you sneeze, air is forced out of your nasal passages at more than 100 miles per hour?

That’s incredibly fast, and just goes to show why it’s so easy for colds and flu to be spread when people are sneezing a lot.

In fact, at that speed there’s every chance you could catch a cold from across a room – so make sure you keep a handkerchief handy to cover your nose and mouth wherever you go!