aging brain has emotional benefits

It is certainly encouraging to have stumbled across this headline in one of my many email newsletters. Gives you a good thing to look forward to.

Older but Mellower: Aging brain shifts gears to emotional advantage

Given all the bad news that science has delivered about brain cells withering and memory waning as the years mount, older people have a right to be cranky. But, instead, the over-50 crowd handles life's rotten realities and finds life's bright side more effectively than whippersnappers do. In no small part, that's because the aging brain makes critical emotional adjustments, a new study indicates.

Museum of Bad Art

Weekend Magazine celebrates TIME OFF, something I really value. This was a miscellaneous link towards the front of the current issue with this odd link:
http://www.museumofbadart.org/

I had to investigate. The Weekend Mag introduction says "It started as a joke". The person who started the museum actually had wanted the frame of an ugly painting he found in a trash can. But his friends said it was "so bad it was good". Thus the insperation to celebrate these grade B (and lower?) paintings.

PARKitecture in Western National Parks

from Yahoo!Picks:

In the early 20th century, National Park Service engineers, architects, and landscape architects embraced the notion of "designing with nature" to create rustic structures that commingled harmoniously with the surrounding landscape. The design ethic, since dubbed "parkitecture," resulted in much of the stone and wood creations we see today in parks throughout the West. It extended from entrance signs and entry stations to bridges, kiosks, and lodges. This online exhibit shows off some of the best examples from 10 beloved parks, among them the Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest, and Yosemite national parks. We loved the organic grace of the Triple Arches Bridge in Glacier National Park and the subtlety of the Grand Canyon's Hermit's Rest. The lobby of Mount Rainier's Paradise Inn, built in 1917, looks as fresh and modern as anything you'd see from another group that derives its moniker from "architecture": today's starchitects. (in Design Arts)

religious China

China has had a reputation, since it became communist, of persecuting folks who practice one religion or another. An example is the Tibet situation. I believe there are specific types of persecution for Christians.

With that in mind, the following article caught my attention (in the e-newsletter, Science and Theology):

The Sleeping Giant awakes
China reconsiders the need for spirituality to balance scientific development and consumerism.

This article caused me to look at Wikipedia:
- China and Religion
- Opium of the People
- Karl Marx

GoldSmith / Fletcher Steele Birdhouse in Rochester Gardens

This bird house was designed for the Ellwanger Estate in 1939. Fletcher Steele, the designer, is considered to be the key figure in the transition between Beaux Formalism and modern landscape design.

The original design was given to me be by the Landmark Society, which was in possession of the Steele archives until transferred to Suny College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

Please visit my web-site, I would appreciate your comments and impressions regarding the Ellwanger Estate Bird House birdhouse!

Looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks for your time and attention!

Karl Goldsmith

www.goldsmithbirdhouses.com

Learn and Serve

http://learnandserve.gov/

This is a site that was just broadcast during Saturday morning cartoons. Looks like it has good opportunity for getting involved in some of the biggest help needs that we often hear about.