Art and the Homeless

“We’re in radical agreement today,” Gorsuch assessed. “Perhaps the [lower] court should take a look at that before we do. What would be wrong with that?”  ... in layman's terms what is meant by the legal term radical justice; Gorsuch on Radical Agreement In layman's terms, Justice Neil Gorsuch was expressing that he and the attorney he was speaking with were in complete agreement about a particular point in a case. He suggested that the lower court should reconsider its decision before the Supreme Court takes action, implying that if they agreed so thoroughly, it might be more appropriate for the lower court to address the issue first. This quote reflects Gorsuch's preference for a more cautious and hierarchical approach to legal proceedings, ensuring that lower courts have the opportunity to address issues before the Supreme Court steps in. ... i detect a touch of sarcasm in the comment made by justice gorsuch; Justice Neil Gorsuch's opinion in the case of a public-hig...

… in a blog post yesterday Jonathan Turley writes of seeing on his walk a swan among ducks by which he offers an analogy for intolerance for freedom of expression at colleges to the fable of the ugly duckling;   The Ugly Duckling synopsis: "The Ugly Duckling" is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, first published in 1843, in "New Fairy Tales. First Volume. First Collection" in Copenhagen, Denmark. The tale tells the story of a duckling that is rejected by its siblings and other animals because of its appearance, leading it to wander alone until it eventually discovers it is a swan. The duckling's journey is often interpreted as a metaphor for personal growth and acceptance, highlighting themes of perseverance and the importance of not judging others by their outward appearance The story has been adapted into various media, including opera, musical, and animated films, and continues to be a popular tale for both children and adults. Andersen himself...

What were the circumstances under which scopolamine was identified by chemistry? Scopolamine is named after the naturalist Giovani Antonio Scopoli (1723-88), an Italian physician and naturalist. Scopoli spent his free time in the Alps, collecting plants and insects. The genus Scopolia, which includes four species of flowering plants of the Solanaceae familiy, is named after him. Scopolamine is a tropane alkaloid isolated from members of the Solanaceae family of plants, similar to atropine and hyoscyamine, all of which structurally mimic the natural neurotransmitter acetylcholine. It was first synthesized in 1959, but to date, synthesis remains less efficient than extracting scopolamine from plants. The exact mechanism of action of scopolamine remains poorly understood. Scopolamine is an anticholinergic with various dose-dependent therapeutic and adverse effects. The chemistry of scopolamine involves the determination of its metabolites in rat urine by combining liquid chromatography an...

It may not be evident—at first glance—that one of the influences on my painting is that of the art of Margaret Keane (1927-2022). Margaret Keane is known for her paintings of children (mostly) with unnaturally large eyes. Critics are silent (mostly), about her work, or deride her body-of-work as formulaic and cliché. Her celebrity as an artist, and commercial success, are both as irrelevant to the discussion of her painting as is the scandal involving her legal struggle with her husband. As everyone now knows, for a long time the spouse posed as the actual, painter. The ruse was ultimately exposed in court.  Without taking sides in the controversy, there are, arguably, two sides to it. This observer cannot speak to the difficulties all women certainly face in all aspects of life, except to hypothesize that the husband had, originally, encouraged Margaret to show her paintings in public. It was never her intention to show her work. Consequently, it might be argued, the husband is i...

Engaged thus in the organization of new reality, it provides an analytical tool, not an exhausted structural ideology, which is, itself, derived from another structural ideology, and so on, until it is accepted as “settled science” by the students and workers of the political and economic culture of the democratic society. The threat to the world in Cold War times of Doomsday, as “proof” of the theory of the ideology of fear—as culture sat comfortably situated in the middle—between the two, opposing, sides. We inferred from the student uprisings how to improve propaganda, from the supporters of the theory having different points of view, but with no completely self-existing structural doctrine having resulted. A better approach, we believe, would not only be the most productive one, but of all the given possibilities different from the provisional objective. Any relationship between elements in a specific mode of other elements, within a system, must be included under the background of...

     The commencement of the lunar New Year, 2025, which is, according to the Chinese tradition, the Year of the Snake, did bring to my attention instances of the symbolism of the Sign of the Snake. Moonlighting, in my role as part-time security guard at The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace, it was impossible not to notice the exhibit commemorating the occasion in the main galleria. It is a large object, in the form of an arching snake (“little dragon”), apparently made of inter-woven dry tree branches and leaves. Perplexing, because the optics suggest Autumn, to a Western sensibility.       A comment on the construction technique of the snake display: My snap judgment was it is amateurish. Not to waste time on negativity, upon further reflection, it does make sense in the context of what we know of the tenets of Feng shui. Granted, many other materials could have been used with greater ease, and to outstanding effect, than a bunch of dried leaves and ste...

black and white is the definition of Chiaroscuro  it is binary  the addition of shades of gray qualifies the boundaries of black and white strictly binary black and white chiaroscuro is visually flat  three dimensional form is given to objects by shades of gray addition of color is the addition of temperature colors temperatures are relatively warm and cool  physics measures color by a scale of temperature  above 700-800 degrees Celsius objects appear to glow with an indistinguishable red color   to be scientific the red color observed is heat the infrared light range of the spectrum is invisible to the eye at the other end of the color spectrum is ultraviolet radiation although it is energetic it is not heat energy it causes the fading of artist paint color pigments  impermanent pigments such as dyes fade faster than mineral pigments under ultraviolet light the purpose of this digression is to characterize the familiar colors of the rainbow as en...