Dolor Ignio Animus

"I worship you, O proud and taciturn, As I do night’s high vault; O sorrow’s urn, I love you all the..."

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 03:00:05 -0400

“

I worship you, O proud and taciturn,
As I do night’s high vault; O sorrow’s urn,
I love you all the more because you flee
And seem, gem of my nights, ironically
To multiply the weary leagues that sunder
My arms from all infinity’s blue wonder.

I skirmish and I climb to the attack,
I, a worms’ chorus on a corpse’s back,
O fierce cruel beast, I cherish to the full
The very chill that makes you beautiful.

”

- Jacques LeClercq, Flowers of Evil

~~worship~~ adore

(via finnthehumanist)

whoreofabaddon: Fontana del Fréjus in Turin was originally...

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 02:57:48 -0400

whoreofabaddon:

Fontana del Fréjus in Turin was originally created to commemorate those who died during the construction of the Fréjus Rail Tunnel. Since that time, however, the monument has taken on a markedly different meaning. The black stone angel has become dubbed ‘inarguably’ Lucifer crowned with stars. He is positioned atop the stones to show His precedence over Hell, with the bodies below Him as representations, not simply of damned souls, but also of mankind’s pain in its struggle to obtain true knowledge.

"The trouble with being a daydreamer who doesn’t say much is that the teachers at school, especially..."

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 02:31:15 -0400

“The trouble with being a daydreamer who doesn’t say much is that the teachers at school, especially those who don’t know you very well, are likely to think you’re rather stupid. Or, if not stupid, then dull. No one can see the amazing things that are going on in your head”

- The Daydreamer, Ian McEwan

via dreamwithin-adream

(via sagansense)

sagansense: Sunflowers Do the Math The spiraling shapes in...

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 02:28:18 -0400

sagansense:

Sunflowers Do the Math

The spiraling shapes in cauliflower, artichoke, and sunflower florets (above) share a remarkable feature: The numbers of clockwise and counterclockwise spirals are consecutive Fibonacci numbers—the sequence 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and so on, so that each number is the sum of the last two. What’s more, those spirals pack florets as tight as can be, maximizing their ability to gather sunlight for the plant. But how do plants like sunflowers create such perfect floret arrangements, and what does it have to do with Fibonacci numbers? A plant hormone called auxin, which spurs the growth of leaves, flowers, and other plant organs, is the key: Florets grow where auxin flows. Using a mathematical model that describes how auxin and certain proteins interact to transport each other around inside plants, researchers could predict where the hormone would accumulate. Simulations of that model reproduced patterns exactly matching real “Fibonacci spirals” in sunflowers, the team reports this month in Physical Review Letters. Based on their results, the researchers suggest that such patterns might be more universal in nature than previously thought, so keep an eye out: Fibonacci numbers might be spiraling in every direction.

via sciencemag.org

| image source

via rorschachx, from science-junkie

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Wed, 19 Jun 2013 00:25:02 -0400

If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in...

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 00:23:42 -0400

If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself.

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Wed, 19 Jun 2013 00:21:21 -0400

tash-wani: I found these so funny. I mean he just fits so...

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 00:16:02 -0400

Mr Bean cross Avatar

Mr Bean cross Justin Bieber

Mr Bean cross Lara Croft Tomb Raider

Mr Bean cross Orphan

Mr Bean cross Voldemort

Mr Bean cross Edward Cullen

Mr Bean cross Lady Gaga

Personal Favourite: Mr Bean cross Captain Jack Sparrow

tash-wani:

I found these so funny. I mean he just fits so perfectly into so many others roles and characters. Reblog this!

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Tue, 18 Jun 2013 03:37:18 -0400

licensetocannibalize: yanagoya: So there’s all this quality,...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 03:29:18 -0400

licensetocannibalize:

yanagoya:

So there’s all this quality, deep, symbolic Hannibal fanart everywhere, and that’s what I was gonna draw.

Yeah.

Nailed it.

nailed it shut with mjolnir imo

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Tue, 18 Jun 2013 03:28:34 -0400

breakingnews: Report: Women could begin training for combat...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 03:27:22 -0400

breakingnews:

Report: Women could begin training for combat roles in 2015

CNN reports women could start training for Army Ranger and Navy SEAL units in mid-2015 under plans expected to be announced by the Pentagon on Tuesday, according to a Defense Department official.

It is part of the next step in a longstanding effort to open as many combat jobs as possible to women.

The plan now is for jobs in special operations to be available to women possibly in mid-2015.

The official argued the latest development is not a delay, but is more of an acknowledgment by the military that it needs more time to study the issue.

Full implementation of women into combat positions, including infantry and armor units, is to be completed by January 2016.

The move could open approximately another 6,000 jobs to women in the Army.

Photo via CNN’s Security Clearance

theongreyjoy: “Is that the way of it? A man may have wits, or a...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 03:17:36 -0400

theongreyjoy:

“Is that the way of it? A man may have wits, or a bit of meat between his legs, but not both?” Varys tittered. “Perhaps I should be grateful I was cut, then.”

“It had been so long. He was no rider. He was not even a man. He was Lord Ramsay’s creature, lower than a dog, a worm in human skin.”

“Even those who lack a man’s parts may still have a man’s heart, Your Grace”.

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Tue, 18 Jun 2013 03:01:31 -0400

aseaofquotes: F. Scott Fitzgerald, “Winter Dreams” Submitted...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 02:59:13 -0400

aseaofquotes:

F. Scott Fitzgerald, “Winter Dreams”

Submitted by thehiddenabyss.

Mindfulness: Potent Medicine for Easing Physical...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 02:55:20 -0400

Mindfulness: Potent Medicine for Easing Physical Suffering

We’d like to be forever free from physical discomfort, but we’re in bodies and they get injured, sick, and old. The good news is that the Buddha prescribed some medicine—mindfulness—to help ease that physical discomfort. Mindfulness is not a miracle pill, but it is a miracle practice, meaning that, over time, we can learn to respond skillfully to the inevitable physical suffering that comes with being in bodies.
Bodily discomfort has three components:

The unpleasant physical sensation itself (pain, aching muscles, fatigue).

Our emotional reaction to that discomfort (anger, frustration, fear).

The thoughts that are triggered by the discomfort (the stress-filled stories we spin that have little basis in reality, such as, “This pain will never go away,” “I’ll never be happy again,” “I’ve ruined my partner’s life”).

Note that two of the three components that make up our experience of bodily discomfort are mental in origin! These two mental components are often referred to as “mental suffering.” They can make our physical suffering worse because mental reactions are felt in the body.

What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness is the practice of paying careful attention to what is happening in the present moment, whether it be a sight, a sound, a taste, a smell, a sensation in the body, or mental cognition (this latter includes emotions and thoughts). Mindfulness is called a practice because it takes practice: our minds tend to dwell in the past and the future.

You don’t need to be meditating to practice mindfulness. Right now, stop and take three or four conscious breaths, feeling the physical sensation of the breath as it comes in and goes out of your body. There. You’ve just practiced mindfulness!

Notice that while you were engaging in this conscious breathing, your mind wasn’t dwelling in the past or the future. You may have been aware of a sound, a smell, a bodily sensation other than the breath, an emotion, a thought. Meticulous attention to whatever is happening in the present moment is the essence of mindfulness. The sensation of the breath is often used as an anchor because breathing is always present in the moment.

How can mindfulness help ease physical suffering?

With practice, mindfulness calms and steadies the mind. This is beneficial because when we’re experiencing physical discomfort, our minds often churn with stressful emotions and thoughts, but they’re a muddy blur—we can’t sort them out. With mindfulness, the “mud” settles so we can see more clearly which allows us to identify what emotions and thoughts are present in our minds at the moment. “Ah, this is anger.” “This is fear.” “This is a worry-filled thought about the future.” With this clearer view, we can make skillful choices about how to respond to these emotions and thoughts—choices that will lessen our overall suffering.

Stressful emotions. Our habitual reaction to physical discomfort is some form of resistance and aversion, such as frustration or anger. By practicing mindfulness, we can counter that habitual response with one that’s more skillful.

Once we begin to treat ourselves with kindness, we can calmly and gently examine the actual physical sensation. It’s not a solid block of discomfort. We may feel waves of sensations, some of which may even be pleasant. We may notice some heat, some pulsating, some tingling. Using mindfulness to examine physical sensations reveals their ever-changing nature. This helps break up the sense that our whole being is only the discomfort.

Having noticed that the physical sensation keeps changing, we can reflect that our frustration is impermanent too. It arose but it will pass. This recognition alone weakens its grip on us.

Stressful thought patterns. At a meditation retreat in the 1990s, the Buddhist nun, Ayya Khema, told us, “Most thoughts are just rubbish, but we believe them anyway.” Becoming mindfully aware of the stories we spin about our physical discomfort quiets and steadies the mind so that the “mud” settles and we can see the thoughts more clearly. Then we have a choice. We can continue to blindly believe them or we can calmly assess their validity. Are you absolutely sure you’ll never be happy again or that you’ve ruined your partner’s life?

Letting go of stress-filled stories that have little or no basis in fact is a tremendous relief. A smile might even appear on your face as you acknowledge the convoluted stories the mind can spin. As Buddhist teacher, Jack Kornfield, likes to say, “The mind has no shame.”

Mindfulness calms and steadies the mind so we can respond more skillfully to stressful emotions and thoughts. This, in turn, eases our physical suffering because we’re not adding mental suffering to it. As the wonderfully blunt Zen teacher, Joko Beck, said: “What makes life so frightening is that we let ourselves be carried away in the garbage of our whirling minds. We don’t have to do that.”

Mindfulness is the best medicine for not doing that.

For example, if we’re in pain, aversion in the form of frustration may arise. We have two choices. We can let that habitual response brew and get stronger; this not only increases our mental suffering, but it often increases our physical pain because the muscles surrounding the pain tighten in response to our frustration. Or, we can respond to our frustration by mindfully acknowledging it and beginning to incline our minds toward kindness and compassion for ourselves. (After all, who doesn’t get frustrated at times?)

via neuromorphogenesis

chirart: jhameia: Cover of Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” on the koto...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 02:52:22 -0400

chirart:

jhameia:

Cover of Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” on the koto and shakuhachi by Team Kozan

that shakuhachi player is really rocking it

there’s nothing I don’t love about this

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Tue, 18 Jun 2013 02:45:05 -0400

Virgo's biggest annoyance...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 02:41:34 -0400

zodiaccity:

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Tue, 18 Jun 2013 02:39:15 -0400