Rémy the rat tells his brother he doesn't want to just be a rat, he wants to evolve into a creature beyond the basic rat instincts. And so he does. Going back to that first rat-like mammal, most of the fossil remains of the 'Morgies' are in Wales and in the Yunnan Province in China. There's abundent examples, but there are no complete skeltons. The artist who created the model had to work with the paleobiologist: "Staab fashioned a skeleton from clay. Next, just as in a forensic reconstruction, he layered clay muscles over the bones, then added clay "skin" and sculpted it to look like fur. After Staab sent pictures of his Morgie off to the Smithsonian, Behrensmeyer asked him to make the head a bit bigger to reflect a large brain in relation to body size, one of the defining characteristics of mammals. She also recommended that Staab enlarge Morgie's eyes, because Morganucodon probably was nocturnal and needed highly sensitive eyes for effective hunting. And she asked him to add hair to the tail. After a bit more back and forth, the clay model finally satisfied both artist and scientist." (from http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2003/november/around_the_mall.php. I enjoyed Googling about Morgie and Rémy, and had lots of fun learning things about both. I discovered there is even a trailer for the movie with Japanese subtitles: I wouldn't be surprised if this movie is eventually made into many subtitled versions, one of them certainly in Chinese that those in the Yunnan Province would understand. As the movie theater with the huge Ratatouille spread is in Chinatown, everything there has Chinese 'subtitles'. Note the McDonald's sign below the large image: But Rémy would not be found there, oh no! Monday, July 9, 2007 A "View from Museum Porch - Colored" 12:23am I'll send this up to the print place, for copies, but I'll do that later. "Monday morning" will arrive all too soon! Monday, July 9, 2007 B "View from Museum Porch - Prints" 9:44pm I've got the print version up. Look under the 'artwork' gallery and look for the extended size link. After a bit of fiddling, I decided the original 14x17 picture would best fit into the 16x20 picture size, with a bit of adjustment to make it longer. (Yes, 8x10 also fits, but it will be better viewed at the same size I originally drew it. And the 11x14 might work, I think it just would be more white at the sides. That's what happened when I tested an out of size photo print, in a tiny format, the picture was not cropped, but just had white at the border.) I know right where I'll put my print when it arrives. I've got a 16x20 frame that is being occupied by an earlier picture, the 'Vampire family portrait'. I'll take that drawing out, replace it with the new print, and put the nail higher up to accommodate the taller picture. I have to do that now. I've got so much of the walls covered, one has to come down to make room for the new one. 'Vampire family portrait' has been up for four and a half years, so it's had a good long showing. I'll put "View from the Museum Porch" in my "Favorites" gallery tomorrow. Tuesday, July 10, 2007 "The Radiance is in the Moment" 8:41pm I was reading about how a writer should not be afraid to write badly, and I could not resist. I had to see what 'bad art' I could create: Thursday, July 12, 2007 "New Desk Top" 9:49pm After learning of an entire website devoted to nothing but desktops and wallpapers created by contributing artists, I got the idea it was time I changed my desktop. I browsed through quite a few of those images, and saw lots of cool dragons, and even a lovely Isis. I'd had the same one for many years, a photograph offered up by a favorite journaller, which has served me well. But it's been there a long while. But rather than use one of their many offerings, I got inspired to create a new one: I even organized the icons better, browsers with browsers, and image editors and other creative programs together, etc. I give the link to it in case you'd like to use the same desktop. And I made the 1333x1002 version, too. Saturday, July 14, 2007 A "The Two Powers Reconciled" 2:39pm I've found a lovely new resource which I've spent the good part of a night and part of a morning examining, APIS: Advanced Papyrological Information System. I searched the texts for 'Seth' and found many things of interest, some which further confirm what I've read in TeVelde's _Seth, God of Confusion_. In reading TeVelde, I find, "Weill 2) characterised the myth of Horus and Seth as 'l'histoire de deux dieux primordialement égaux, rivaux et concurrents, complémentaires et nécessaires à l'équilibre du monde.'" [(2) R. Weill, Notes sur l'histoire primitive des grandes religions égyptiennes, BIFAO 47 (1948), p. 112 - via TeVelde, Seth, God of Confusion, page 78)] My French along with some online translating help is good enough to read "the history of two Gods essentially equals, rivals and competitors, complementary and necessary to the balance of the world." Horus and Seth are called 'The Two Comrades'. In the Book of the Dead, the deceased becomes as all the gods, and becomes as Thoth, who: "filled out (27)the Sound Eye after its crushing on that day when the Two Comrades fought. What does that mean? It means the day when Horus fought Seth, when he (28)injured the face of Horus and Horus snatched away Seth's testicles." [chicago.apis.5425, Inventory Id P. OIM 9787 Book of the Dead, VIth - Ist century B.C.] Further on in that same book, there is similarily: "Another spell. To be said (27)by Osiris N.: I am Thoth; (31)I judged between the Two Comrades. (33)I did away with their fighting; I put an end to their laments." [chicago.apis.5427, Inventory Id P. OIM 9787 (3)] This Book of the Dead gives clues to the Two being 'complementary and necessary': "(25)(If) Horus becomes pure, Seth becomes divine, and vice versa." [chicago.apis.5425, Inventory Id P. OIM 9787] In a different version of the Book of the Dead, again we see: "(if) Horus becomes pure, Seth becomes divine, and vice versa." [chicago.apis.253, Book of the Dead, IInd - Ist century B.C. Inventory Id P. OIM 10486] The Coffin texts are older than the Books (SCROLLS) of the Dead, as the texts were placed on the inside of the coffin so the mummy's Ka and Ba could read them. They read and declare: "My (132)spine is (155)the Twin Souls." [chicago.apis.5529, Coffin texts, XXIVth - XXIst century B.C. 2374 BCE - 2061 BCE P. OIM 14063] TeVelde explains the 'twin souls': Fig. 10. Horus and Seth united as "he with the two faces" "This union of Horus and Seth was depicted in the Am Duat and the Book of Gates by a figure with two heads." [SGoC, page 69] "In the Shabaka text the uniting (sm3) and the reconciling (htp) of Horus and Seth are spoken of in the same breath. 4) In BD 17 5) the dead says: "I am He with the two ba's, who are in his two chicks." Most of the Egyptian commentators explain this compound figure as an amalgamation of Osiris and Re. 6) One commentator, however, does not explain this compound figure as Osiris and Re, but as Horus and Seth: "Those are the ba of Horus and the ba of Seth, when he came to Letopolis. Finally they embraced one another and became He with the two ba's." 7) Here too the uniting of two opposites into a totality seems to be meant. Kees 8) called the two-headed Horus-Seth figure the union of the forces of the two gods and De Buck 9) a kind of Janus figure. According to him it stems from the impulse to see totality as a unity of two inimical and yet collaborating opposites." [SGoC, page 70] Ideally, the 'two rivals' are be in balance. I find this from that same Coffin text very interesting: "My (98)eyes are (113)the God of Magic. My (99)ears are (114)the Great Hearer. My (100)eyebrows are (115)the Two Powers." Just who would that 'God of Magic' be? Could it be this united Seth-Horus? If one eye is the inward looking eye, that is of Set and one eye is the outward looking eye, that is of Horus, could thusly they united be this 'God of Magic'? Further hinting at this is the title for the eyebrows, 'the Two Powers'. The names of the Pharoahs Peribsen and Khasekhemui explain this, also: "The Horus name of a successor of Peribsen is Khasekhem (the power has appeared). It has been suggested that Khasekhem is identical with Khasekhemui (the two powers have appeared). If that is indeed the case, 2) then we should have a development reminiscent of Sekhemib taking the Seth name Peribsen. Over the serekh in which Khasekhemui is written, however, the Seth-animal does not appear alone, but in company with the Horus falcon. The name Khasekhemui is sometimes supplemented (the two lords who are in him, are reconciled). Thus both Peribsen's Seth name and Khasekhemui's Horus-Seth name proclaim the reconciliation of Horus and Seth." [SGoC, page 73] Now I wonder who 'the Great Hearer' is? Know any Gods famous for big ears? (Big, tall, squared off ears, maybe?)