Come back, Col Man! Who else gives us stuff like this?:

Yes, msolga, that one. Eeek and yucky.......

The recovery of the lips? I can understand that!

Yes, that bit, ulllllpppppppp.

I wonder what she looked like when the lips were sewn back on? I wonder if she felt quite the same about her darling precious after that?

Monday December 27, 2004

Police officers rescued a 35-year-old man in a mini-skirt found wedged head-first in a charity clothing bin in the Sydney suburb of Surry Hills early yesterday. The man said he got stuck while donating clothes.

Yeah, sure, sure ....

The dogs that raided the kitchen and the ring leader was a lurcher named Red.

I own an English Lurcher Greyhound named Angel. She could roll over and disconnect her leash from her collar. And you know greyhounds, once they are loose, there is no catching them. We broke her to harness and now she can't do that any more.

We also have a fence in our backyard, a 5 foot chainlink fence with an 8 foot board privacy fence inside of it. The two fences are about a foot and a half apart. We were taking down the board fence and Angel decided she would explore. She got stuck about 30 feet from the end where she entered. We heard her scratching and whimpering (she will not bark). My son stood at the end and called to her. To our surprise, she looked over her shoulder at my son and then put her nose almost on the ground and backed out. We were amazed. A less intelligent dog would have panicked, torn down the fence and severely injured himself trying to get out.

She still never ceases to amaze us with her intelligence and her personality.

Was David scared stiff of Goliath?
By John Hooper
Rome
January 23, 2005




Michelangelo's marble statue of David is seen at the dome of Florence's Accademia Gallery, Italy.
Photo: AP


One of the most intriguing, if least openly discussed, mysteries in art has been resolved.

Michelangelo's David is meant to be a representation in marble of the perfect male form. So why did his creator not make him - how would one say - a little better endowed?

As every visitor to Florence will know, the modest dimensions of David's "pisello" are a running joke with Italians, and the stuff of irreverent postcards.

But, in a paper to be published at the end of this month, two Florentine doctors offer a scientific explanation: the poor chap was shrivelled by the threat of mortal danger. Michelangelo's intention was to depict David as he confronted Goliath.

What the new study shows is that every anatomical detail - right down to the shaping of the muscles in his forehead - is consistent with the combined effects of fear, tension and aggression.

One of the authors of the paper, Pietro Antonio Bernabei, of the Careggi hospital, Florence, said one such effect would be "a contraction of the reproductive organs".

Last year, he and Professor Massimo Gulisano, of Florence University, conducted a computer-assisted study of the 4.34 metre-high statue, in the Galleria dell'Accademia. They emerged, in Professor Gulisano's words, "stupefied" by Michelangelo's physiological accuracy.

The only mistake is at a point in the centre of David's back that is hollow and ought to be rounded. Michelangelo was aware of the error. But, as he wrote at the time: "Mi manco matera" - "I lacked (enough) material".

Dr Bernabei said allowance had to be made for the conventions of high Renaissance art, which depicted activity in a "much more composed and elegant fashion than today". But, anatomically, everything about Michelangelo's David was consistent with a young man "at the moment immediately preceding the slinging of a stone". His right leg is tensed, while the left one juts forward "like that of a fencer, or even a boxer". Tension is written all over his face. His eyes are wide open. His nostrils are flared. And the muscles between his eyebrows stand out, exactly as they would if they were tightened by concentration and aggression.

David is holding something in his right hand, and it has conventionally been assumed that it is a stone. But Dr Gulisano said it is the handle of the sling.

The full findings are to be given in a paper written for the Dutch Institute for Art History, in Florence.

Michelangelo's masterpiece, completed in 1504, was put back on display last May after cleaning, which allowed its anatomical details to be studied much more easily than before.

Now just one great puzzle remains: why, since David was Jewish, did Michelangelo sculpt him uncircumcised?

- Guardian