Reading classical works aloud in Sarasota, and talking about them.
. . .we will show you how to translate newly acquired knowledge about mirror neurons, spindle cells, and oscillators into practical, socially intelligent behaviors that can reinforce the neural links between you and your followers.
"Psychologists and neuroscientists are increasingly coming to the conclusion that when we read a story and really understand it, we create a mental simulation of the events described by the story," says Jeffrey M. Zacks, study co-author and director of the Dynamic Cognition Laboratory at Washington University in St. Louis.
The study, forthcoming in the journal Psychological Science, is one of a series in which Zacks and colleagues use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to track real-time brain activity as study participants read and process individual words and short stories.
Nicole Speer, lead author of this study, says findings demonstrate that reading is by no means a passive exercise. Rather, readers mentally simulate each new situation encountered in a narrative. Details about actions and sensation are captured from the text and integrated with personal knowledge from past experiences. These data are then run through mental simulations using brain regions that closely mirror those involved when people perform, imagine, or observe similar real-world activities.
"These results suggest that readers use perceptual and motor representations in the process of comprehending narrated activity, and these representations are dynamically updated at points where relevant aspects of the situation are changing," says Speer, now a research associate with The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) Mental Health Program in Boulder, Colo. "Readers understand a story by simulating the events in the story world and updating their simulation when features of that world change."
via AKMA, who adds relevant links, including a couple pointing to Biblical scholars.
...You now, my Jonathan,
I mourn above all,
among all delights
there will always be tears.
Woe, why am I
followed by evil counsel,
and could give you
no protection in battle?
If I had fallen by your side
I would have died happy
for there is nothing greater
than what love will do.
and living after you
would mean continual dying
since half a soul
is not enough to live.
...
So I have won
an unhappy victory:
what emptiness,
what short-lived joy
have I had from it.
...
I silence my lyre:
if only I could silence too
my mourning and weeping.
My hands hurt from playing,
my voice is hoarse from crying
and my breathing faint.
--Peter Abelard (1079-1142)
A more complete version here.
Pistacia palaestina is distinguished from P. terebinthus "by its egg-shaped leaflets, which are drawn into a long point, with somewhat hairy margins, and by more spreading and branching flower clusters."[1]
 |  This website contains the complete contents of the 12-volume Jewish Encyclopedia, which was originally published between 1901-1906. The Jewish Encyclopedia, which recently became part of the public domain, contains over 15,000 articles and illustrations. |
It's practically impossible to look at Donatello's "David," now on display again after extensive restoration at this city's Museo Nazionale del Bargello, without automatically comparing it to Michelangelo's more famous treatment of the same subject, in the Galleria dell'Accademia half a mile away..The two great Renaissance sculptures differ most obviously in medium and size: Michelangelo's marble colossus stands 17 feet tall; Donatello's bronze, little more than five feet. Stature is in this case inversely proportional to status. Michelangelo's young shepherd, armed only with his sling, has yet to slay his giant foe. Donatello's sword-wielding hero is already triumphant, resting a foot on Goliath's severed head. It's no coincidence that Donatello's 1443 sculpture was commissioned by the Medici family, then Florence's princes in all but name, while Michelangelo made his 1504 work for the defiant Florentine Republic during a brief hiatus in the Medici ascendancy.
Yet if he meant to celebrate monarchical power, Donatello portrayed it with ambivalence. The face of the decapitated Goliath is unmistakably more peaceful than the pensive visage of his conqueror, who seems to foresee the trials (such as his scandalous love for Bathsheba, and the death of his rebellious son Absalom) that will beset his reign. Another revealing touch appears at the statue's base: the little toe of David's right foot curled up under the toe beside it, a mark of imperfection reminding us that the handsome priest-king is not god but man
To free Io, Zeus had Argus slain by Hermes. Hermes, disguised as a shepherd, first put all of Argus's eyes asleep with spoken charms, then slew him by hitting him with a stone, the first stain of bloodshed among the new generation of gods. [8]Further odd fact: "There are only three exact replicas of [Michaelangelo's] David. One is at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida." via Absolute Astronomy.
