This is the last video you'll see in awhile. Thanks.

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An attempt (somewhat poor) at writing poetry. Based on a visit a few years back to the national gallery.

On Seeing Verrocchios David

In a room of the Smithsonian,
Universal history came alive,
In a diminutive piece of bronze
Wrought in a forge in Northern Italy,
460 years hence
Under the artists watchful eye.

David, the shepherd, stands over Goliath
In the sublime moment of victory
Over the tormentor of the Israeli tribes.
The look on his young face speaks volumes.
Stamped on lifeless metal,
The artist brings forth from the viewer,
Visions of ancient times.

To my amusement, I listen
To the conversations around me.
The docent drones on about minor technical details.
Grey haired patrons gossip their textbook definitions.
Content with superficial fluff, that ill befits
The progeny of the prophet Moses.

But David, forever gazing
With confidence into the future past.
Brought to life in immortality
By mortal hand.
The artist speaks to me
Across the centuries,
Clearer than that heard
With the senses.

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A reading of a poem by Ockteby.

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A month later, lets see how the Artic is doing. Sorry kids, I don't have any CGI technology to create the fake iceburgs like Gore did in his sci-fi movie "An Inconvenient 'Truth'", just a pencil and some irritation at his pompous attitude. Yes, the scenes of all that falling ice in his movie were borrowed from the dud movie "The Day After Tommorow". There were'nt enough pictures available of the South Pole to warrant inclusion in this months video that differed from last months video. Next month perhaps

http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/c ryosphere/ see the truth here.

http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/c ryosphere/all.final.1978-2006. mov to see the ice sheet grow and recede from 1978 to 2006!

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Is art confined to distinctive time periods? Did the artists of the past actually change the way they thought because certain callendar years are given certain titles? Or, is art defined by the content of the idea in the piece?

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822) & Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872 - 1906) are from quite opposite backgrounds, times, and countries. Both died young. Both had a love of classical culture. I read from Shelley's "Rarely, rarely, comest thou! Spirit of Delight. and Dunbars "The Lesson".

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This is really fun. I'll be sure to try this method with more canons. My old way was rather imperfect, since by the time you got to the third try, the first line is barely heard. Hopefully I can get others to try too.

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This description of "art and poetry" is a century old, but, more truthful then ever!

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Contrary to Al Gore's assertions that your breathing is dooming the planet (although some people's breath should be declared a toxic zone), http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/c ryosphere/ shows with empirical evidence that things are quite normal at the polar regions. Breathe easy everyone. The plants will thank you.

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So much meaning in 4 words. "Life is short, but to learn a profession (an art) takes a long time."

Here's the original Greek saying Ὁ βίος βραχύς, ἡ δὲ τέχνη μακρή

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The Communists called him a Capitalist, the Wall St. crowd called him a Socialist, todays free market zealots scream that he was either a Keynesian, a Statist, a Fascist or a combination of all three. In FDR's own words, he said that "I'm a Democrat and a Christian". So, what was he? I quote FDR's labor secretary for 12 years, Frances Perkins from her book, "The Roosevelt I knew" on the issue.

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A small UP train heading south.

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In the 1860's, two enterprising gentlemen decided to take on the mighty Southern Pacific Railroad, right in its own backyard. James Fair and Alfred Davis built the South Pacific Coast RR as a way of connecting Santa Clara with San Francisco via a steamboat from Dumbarton Point west of todays Newark. My search is for the original pier that ran into todays downtown Newark. Since the old paddle-wheel steamboats were not fast enough, they continued the line all the way into downtown Oakland and the 'mole' in Alameda, so as to take the ferry into San Francisco. They extended the line south from Santa Clara through the mountains into Santa Cruz, shortening the time it took the Southern Pacific by 40 minutes. The line was sold to the Southern Pacific in 1887.

A small portion is still available to see. The The Santa Cruz, Big Trees & Pacific Railway Company operates from Olympia to Santa Cruz as a tourist railroad & common carrier. http://www.roaringcamp.com/

Remnants of the rolling stock can be seen at the Ardenwood Historic Farm Regional Park in Fremont, California http://www.spcrr.org/

Recent photographs of the numerous tunnels they had to build in the mountains can be viewed at http://www.geocities.com/rayho sler/tunnels/tunnels.htm

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