isn't it funny how Christians once classified the animal world in terms of levels - bugs at the bottom, then animals, then humans, then angels and so on. How coincidental that evolution actually aligns with this theory. I ain't no Intelligent Designin' dude, but that's something to think about people.

The word nous is somewhat ambiguous, a result of being appropriated by successive philosophers to designate very different concepts.
Homer used nous to signify mental activities in general, but in the pre-Socratics it became increasingly identified with knowledge and with reason as opposed to sense perception.
Anaxagoras's nous was a mechanical ordering force that formed the world out of an original chaos. It began the development of the cosmos.
Plato described it as the immortal, rational part of the soul. It is a godlike kind of thinking in which the truths of conclusions are immediately known without having to understand the preliminary premises.
Aristotle asserted that nous was the intellect, as distinguished from sense perception. He divided it into an active and passive nous. The passive is affected by knowledge. The active is an immortal first cause of all subsequent causes in the world.
To the Stoics, it was the same as logos. This is the whole cosmic reason. It contains human reason as a part.
Plotinus described nous as one of the emanations from divine being.
Some modern followers of the God Antinous consider him the oppossite of nous, the irrational, Dionysian aspect of Spirit.

Sleep in invertebrates
The electrophysiological study of sleep in small invertebrates is complicated. However, even such simple animals as fruit flies appear to sleep, and systematic disturbance of that state leads to cognitive disabilities.[6] There are several methods of measuring cognitive functions in fruit flies. A common method is to let the flies choose whether they want to fly through a tunnel that leads to a light source, or through a dark tunnel. Normally, flies are attracted to light. But if sugar is placed in the end of the dark tunnel, and something the flies dislike is placed in the end of the light tunnel, the flies will eventually learn to fly towards darkness rather than light. Flies deprived of sleep require a longer time to learn this and also forget it more quickly. If an arthropod is experimentally kept awake longer than it is used to, then its coming rest period will be prolonged. In cockroaches that rest period is characterized by the antennae being folded down and by a decreased sensitivity to external stimuli.[7] Sleep has been described in crayfish, too, characterized both by passivity and increased thresholds for sensory stimuli as well as changes in the EEG pattern, markedly differing from the patterns found in crayfish when they are awake.[8]

The Hmm... Factor: a few photos from Micheal Neff's portfolio

What I'm assuming Neff's done here is trace the shadow quickly at a certain time of day, then solidified it with a large piece of chalk and returned to the same spot the next day at exactly the same time. I think it's genius, really, in its simplicity. An art class in elementary school could doe this - but he thought it up, and it looks simply... magical. It's a neat play on the phrase "every cloud has a silver lining," because here they have blue, pink, orange and green linings. To me, it's as though there were some sort of light behind the solid form of the shadow, a light that peeks out from behind and winks at us (in the form of chalk). There's clearly a comment on adulthood and childhood - the child's toy (chalk) is marking the world of the adult (the city streets). Is the light that peeks out from behind the shadows the child in all of us, so to speak? There are no humans in any of the pictures except for those cloaked in cars, so the city landscape is slightly hostile and desolate. I think Neff was trying to make a modern Atlantis with this series, e.g. a magical world where humans can't really exist.

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The quizzical world of Damien Weighill

I'm already cursing myself for not including more of Weighill's work here, but you can visit his site if you like. He's funny, and there's a crispness to the way he draws that I really like. He uses a thick, simple line that is both child-like and very sophisticated. Who else can draw R2D2 that well and make it look so easy? He's really an amazing artist, and, fortunately for us, designs t-shirts as well at Super Superficial, and amazing t-shirt site I've just now discovered! Worth looking at if you like arty, ironic tees.

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Lorin Brown's monsters are out from under the bed: and they're adorable!

I just can't stand to give simply one example of an artist's work, since it's all so incredible, usually! I found Lorin Brown through Lost at E Minor (see Internet Adventures links), and I can't help but fall in love with her cartoon cloisonee every time I look at it! The little monsters that make up the geometric blocks of vibrant color are happy, weird, and invite the viewer to take a second, third and fourth look. In the world of Brown's artwork, there seems to be an underlying silly beauty to everything (even guns!), which she reveals with ease and grace. Lovely!

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Nature can be weirdly captivating

The first photograph was taken by my older sister, Katie, right here in Nebraska, and is an amazing picture to say the least - you almost can't even tell what it is. It's a photograph but it almost looks like a painting! The rest of the pictures were taken from National Geographic magazines a long time ago when I was working on a website on Geocities, and I wanted all the backgrounds to be these breathtaking landscapes, which are a dime a dozen in NG.

David Shrigley art: pictures with something to SAY

As you can see, I'm really impressed by this artist, David Shringley. This is just the tip of the iceberg of his huge amount of work, all very funny and thoughtful (from what I've seen so far). I love that he's eliminated color, and the connection between text and picture is not only essential, but makes both the text and the picture more powerful. The simplicity is childlike, and recalls a nand-drawn comic book, and I wonder if there's not a sort of argument regarding "graphic novels" like those by Daniel Clowes, Jeff Smith, Charles Burns, Marjane Satrapi, David B., and so on. The works by these authors unifies drawing and text beautifully and creatively, often with an odd humor like Shringley exudes here. It also recalls the one panel comics from the internet like Suicide Bunny and Toothpaste for Dinner.com (see my other blog entries!), which is a sort of funny vernacular for serious art. Any way you slice it, it's strange and intriguing and I really like it.

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