Be Your Inspiration

Courage

Rembrandt van Rijn's 407th Birthday.

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669) was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art history and the most important in Dutch history His contributions to art came in a period of great wealth and cultural achievement that historians call the Dutch Golden Age when Dutch Golden Age painting, although in many ways antithetical to the Baroque style that dominated Europe, was extremely prolific and innovative.

Top 10 Interesting facts about Rembrandt van Rijn:

1. At the beginning of his artistic career Rembrandt mainly painted portraits and a tenth of them were self portraits, but biblical themes formed the core of Rembrandt's oeuvre.

2. Rembrandt didn't come from a family of artists or craftsman, as many of his contemporaries. His father was a miller and his mother came from a family of bakers.

3. Though he was a successful portrait painter in his early days, but Rembrandt's later years were marked by financial hardships.

4. The Night Watch, which is one of the most famous paintings in the world, was painted by Rembrandt van Rijn between 1640 and 1642. The Night Watch is his most celebrated work.

5. Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum drew thousands of visitors eager to see Rembrandt van Rijn's "The Night Watch" and other Dutch treasures after Queen Beatrix reopened the national museum in April this year following its decade-long renovation.

6. It is believed that Rembrandt's eyes failed to align correctly, and he suffered from stereo blindness. It was concluded after studying 36 of Rembrandt's self-portraits.

7. Because of Rembrandt van Rijn's empathy for the human condition, he has been called "one of the great prophets of civilization."

8. In the late 1640s, Rembrandt started a relationship with the much younger lady, who had initially been his maid.

9. His most famous works include: Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp (1632), Belshazzar's Feast (1635), Night Watch (1642), Bathsheba at Her Bath (1654) and Syndics of the Drapers' Guild (1662).

10. Rembrandt died at the age of 63 on October 4, 1669 in Amsterdam.

Source: Wikipedia, ibnlive

TIME

Knowledge

Some Facts We know and Don't Know

• If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.
• The strongest muscle in proportion to its size in the human body is the tongue.
• Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie.
• The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.
• Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.
• A person cannot taste food unless it is mixed with saliva. For example, if strong-tasting substance like salt is placed on a dry tongue, the taste buds will not be able to taste it. As soon as a drop of saliva is added and the salt is dissolved, however, a definite taste sensation results. This is true for all foods. Try it!
• The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.
• Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks otherwise it will digest itself
• Humans are the only primates that don't have pigment in the palms of their hands.
• Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.
• It's possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs.
• Dogs have four toes on their hind feet, and five on their front feet.
• The ant can lift 50 times its own weight, can pull 30 times its own weight and always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.
• A cockroach will live nine days without it's head, before it starves to death.
• Butterflies taste with their feet.
• Elephants are the only mamals that can't jump.
• Starfish don't have brains.
• Polar bears are left handed.
• A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.
• An ostrich's eye is bigger that it's brain.
• The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds.
• The fingerprints of koala bears are virtually indistinguishable from those of humans, so much so that they could be confused at a crime scene.
• Snails can sleep for 3 years without eating
• Porcupines float in water.
• Armadillos are the only animal besides humans that can get leprosy.
• Many hamsters only blink one eye at a time.
• A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.
• A male emperor moth can smell a female emperor moth up to 7 miles away.
• A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue!
• Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into to shark's stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode.
• Ten percent of the Russian government's income comes from the sale of vodka.
• The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.
• The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." uses every letter in the alphabet. (Developed by Western Union to Test telex/two communications)
• The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is "uncopyrightable".
• Stewardesses' is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.
• No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, and purple.
• "I am" is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.
• The Hawaiian alphabet has 12 letters.
• 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
• If you spell out consecutive numbers, you have to go up to one thousand until you would find the letter "a"
• Men can read smaller print than women; women can hear better than men.
• Bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers were all invented by women.
• The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.
• The airplane Buddy Holly died in was the "American Pie." (Thus the name of the Don McLean song.)
• Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history. Spades - King David; Clubs - Alexander the Great; Hearts - Charlemagne; and Diamonds - Julius Caesar.
• Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.
• Pearls melt in vinegar.
• Honey is the only food that doesn't spoil.
• If you put a raisin in a glass of champagne, it will keep floating to the top and sinking to the bottom.
• Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.
• It was discovered on a space mission that a frog can throw up. The frog throws up its stomach first, so the stomach is dangling out of its mouth.Then the frog uses its forearms to dig out all of the stomach's contents and then swallows the stomach back down again.
• If NASA sent birds into space they would soon die; they need gravity to swallow.
• Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building, it has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls off the twentieth floor. It supposedly takes about eight floors for the cat to realise what is occurring, relax and correct itself.
• Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards, and are on the Australian coat of arms for that reason.
• The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
• More people are killed annually by donkeys than die in aircrashes.
• Certain frogs can be frozen solid, then thawed, and survive.
• Cat's urine glows under a black light.
• A shark can detect one part of blood in 100 million parts of water.
• A rat can last longer without water than a camel.
• To escape the grip of a crocodile's jaws, push your thumbs into its eyeballs - it will let you go instantly.
• If you toss a penny 10000 times, it will not be heads 5000 times,but more like 4950. The heads picture weighs more, so it ends up on the bottom.
• Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2-6 years of age.
• The 3 most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.
• Coca Cola was originally green.
• 40% of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.
• Every person has a unique tongue print.
• The most common name in the world is Mohammed.
• Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.
• The world's youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.
• The youngest Pope was 11 years old.
• Einstein couldn't speak fluently when he was nine. His parents thought he might be retarded.
• Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.
• Sherlock Holmes never said "Elementary, my dear Watson".
• In "Casablanca", Humphrey Bogart never said "Play it again, Sam".
• In the TV series I Love Lucy, Ricki Ricardo never actually said "Lucy you have some 'splaining to do"
• A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time: 1/100th of a second.
• Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a "Friday the 13th."
• First novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer
• The mask used by Michael Myers in the original film "Halloween" was actually a Captain Kirk mask painted white.
• James Doohan, who played Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott on Star Trek, was missing the entire middle finger of his right hand.
• All of the clocks in the movie "Pulp Fiction" are stuck on 4:20.
• Debra Winger was the voice of E.T.
• During the chariot scene in 'Ben Hur' a small red car can be seen in the distance.
• The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time television were Fred and Wilma Flintstone.
• Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic to carrots.
• Every day more money is printed for monopoly than the US Treasury.
• The city with the most Roll Royces per capita: Hong Kong
• Percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28% Percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%
• Barbie's measurements if she were life size: 39-23-33
• Cost of raising a medium-sized dog to the age of 11: £4000
• Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them used to burn their houses down - hence the expression "to get fired."
• The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the "General Purpose" vehicle, G.P.
• The term "whole 9 yards" came from WWII fighter pilots in the South Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got the "whole 9 yards."
• The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
• The US Interstate road system was designed so that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.
• The cruise liner Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of fuel that it burns.
• A Saudi Arabian woman can get a divorce if her husband doesn't give her coffee.
• The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle.
• Most lipstick contains fish scales.
• Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear trousers.
• Ketchup was sold in the 1830s as medicine
• You can tell from the statue of a mounted horseman how the rider died. If all four of the horse's feet are on the ground, he died of natural causes. One foot raised means he died from wounds suffered in battle. Two legs raised means he died in action.

Source:begent.org

Achieve with All Your Might

Nature Gives us the Best Inspiration.

Lester William Polsfuss' 98th Birthday.

Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 13, 2009)known as Les Paul was an American jazz, country and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid-body electric guitar, which made the sound of rock and roll possible. He is credited with many recording innovations. Although he was not the first to use the technique, his early experiments with overdubbing (also known as sound on sound)delay effects such as tape delay, phasing effects and multitrack recording were among the first to attract widespread attention.
His innovative talents extended into his playing style, including licks, trills, chording sequences, fretting techniques and timing, which set him apart from his contemporaries and inspired many guitarists of the present day.He recorded with his wife Mary Ford in the 1950s, and they sold millions of records.

Honors and Awards:

• Paul was initiated into the Gamma Delta chapter of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity at the University of Miami in 1952. 
• He has earned the Presidential award from the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity.
• In 1979, Paul and Ford's 1951 recording of "How High the Moon" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Paul received a Grammy Trustees Award for his lifetime achievements in 1983, and in 2001 the Special Merit/Technical Grammy Award. 
• In 1988, Paul was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Jeff Beck.
• In 1991, the Mix Foundation established an annual award in his name.It honors "individuals or institutions that have set the highest standards of excellence in the creative application of audio technology".
• In 2005, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his development of the solid-body electric guitar .
• In 2006, Paul was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
• He was named an honorary member of the Audio Engineering Society.
• In 2007, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
• On November 15, 2008, he received the American Music Masters award through the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at a tribute concert at the State Theater in Cleveland, Ohio.
• In August, 2009, Paul was named one of the ten best electric guitar players of all-time by Time magazine. 
• On June 9–10, 2011 Google celebrated what would have been Paul's 96th birthday with a Google doodle of an interactive guitar.
• On November 23, 2011, Paul was ranked at #18 on Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
• In 2010, Paul was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

Source: Wikipedia

Try Me!

Never Give Up

I am Always the Way I am

Oh My Friend.

My opinion about Evolution....

When someone shows the Reasons to Leave...

Nothing can Stop The Spirit.

Like ME...

Look, Appreciate and Notice.

Life is a Gift.

Life!

I am Never Tired of Chasing My Dreams...

Happy Mother's Day.

I'd rather..........

Never Give Up!

Saul Bass' 93rd Birthday.

Saul Bass (May 8, 1920 – April 25, 1996) was an American graphic designer and Oscar winning filmmaker, best known for his design of motion picture title sequences, film posters, and corporate logos.

During his 40-year career Bass worked for some of Hollywood's most prominent filmmakers, including Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese. Among his most famous title sequences are the animated paper cut-out of a heroin addict's arm for Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm, the credits racing up and down what eventually becomes a high-angle shot of a skyscraper in Hitchcock's North by Northwest, and the disjointed text that races together and apart in Psycho.

Bass designed some of the most iconic corporate logos in North America, including the AT&T "bell" logo in 1969, as well as AT&T's "globe" logo in 1983 after the breakup of the Bell System. He also designed Continental Airlines' 1968 "jetstream" logo and United Airlines' 1974 "tulip" logo which became some of the most recognized airline industry logos of the era.

 Logos, He Designed.:

 

 Source: Wikipedia.

Enjoy the Little things.

Respect.

When Road Trips Go Wrong!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Source:boutique-homes.com

 

Satyajit Ray's 92nd Birthday.

Satyajit Ray(2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian filmmaker, regarded as one of the great auteurs of world cinema. Ray was born in the city of Calcutta into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature.

Ray directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. He was also a fiction writer, publisher, illustrator, calligrapher, graphic designer and film critic. He authored several short stories and novels, primarily aimed at children and adolescent. Feluda, the sleuth, and Professor Shonku, the scientist in his science fictions, are popular fictional characters created by him.

In 1949, French director Jean Renoir came to Calcutta to shoot his film The River. Ray helped him to find locations in the countryside. Ray told Renoir about his idea of filming Pather Panchali, which had long been on his mind, and Renoir encouraged him in the project. In 1950, D.J. Keymer sent Ray to London to work at its headquarters office. During his three months in London, Ray watched 99 films. Among these was the neorealist film Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thief) (1948) by Vittorio De Sica, which had a profound impact on him. Ray later said that he came out of the theater determined to become a film-maker .

Ray directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. He was also a fiction writer, publisher, illustrator, calligrapher, graphic designer and film critic. He authored several short stories and novels, primarily aimed at children and adolescent. Feluda, the sleuth, and Professor Shonku, the scientist in his science fictions, are popular fictional characters created by him.

Ray's first film, Pather Panchali (1955), won eleven international prizes, including Best Human Documentary at the Cannes Film Festival. This film, Aparajito (1956) and Apur Sansar (1959) form The Apu Trilogy. Ray did the scripting, casting, scoring, and editing, and designed his own credit titles and publicity material. Ray received many major awards in his career, including 32 Indian National Film Awards, a number of awards at international film festivals and award ceremonies, and an Academy Award in 1992. The Government of India honoured him with the Bharat Ratna in 1992.

Source: Wikipedia.

Always try your Best...

Make Every Moment in Life Count.

The Art of Life.