HoodedHawk

A 5200 year-old goblet (see image below) from the Burnt City in Iran has a series of images depicting a wild goat jumping up to get leaves from a tree. The animation shown is from an 11-minute documentary about the goblet (which was actually found ~1970). Basically, if you take each image in succession (like a flip-book), you get the animation. Neat.

Note that the post-revolutionary Iranian archaeologists kinda got things wrong; they attribute the tree on the goblet to the “Assyrian Tree of Life”. But the goblet is from 1000 years before any mention of the Assyrian civilization in historical records. Ooops.

I just returned from a wonderful weekend Retreat at the Loyola Retreat House in Faulkner, MD. The House is right on the Potomac River, with beautiful, serene grounds overlooking the water. Surrounded by woods, there are also trails you can walk to enjoy nature even more. Inside the house are accommodations for about 68 or so retreatants. This past weekend (Feb 29-Mar 2, 2008) was a men’s retreat. Meant to be a time of contemplative prayer, it is a silent retreat to allow you to more easily get into the “spirit”. Three meals a day, Mass daily, and many lectures on prayer. Large blocks of time were devoted to individual prayer. You can attend as many or as few of the events as you like. The Jesuit priests (as well as Sisters and lay people) running the retreat were wonderful and quite approachable.

I last went on a retreat almost 30 years ago; other than “I liked it”, I don’t recall it at all. I believe I will be able to remember this retreat. With three kids, the youngest only 17mo, it’s not often I get to spend a weekend in “silence”, lost in my thoughts. Wonderful experience. This photo above is linked to some more pictures.

This giant frog lived 70 million years ago in Madagascar, and was the size of a beachball. From what scientists can tell, it ate whatever could fit in it’s (huge) mouth. The thing looks like it could eat a Yorkie. The little frog in front of it in the picture is the largest frog living in Madagascar today…

Etsy is selling these buttons. Famous paradox; makes your head spin a bit. :)

A company in Portland, Oregon (naturally), Renovo Hardwood Bicycles, makes these absolutely beautiful bikes out of hardwood. They use special computer-controlled machines to carve the wood (and the frame is also hollowed out). They only weigh about 20 lbs. The ride is supposed to be really smooth as the wood dampens vibrations. Just way cool! No price listed, but since each one is custom-made (out of ash, cherry or purpleheart), I’m thinking not cheap.