#carter apogee

[blueiscoool]

The 5 Most Opulent Artifacts Found in King Tut’s Inner Tomb

All that glitters is sometimes gold—particularly when it comes to the tomb of King Tutankhamun.

There is perhaps no other period in human history that has captured minds and imaginations quite like ancient Egypt. “Egyptomania,” or the intense interest in all thing Egypt, was first sparked by Napoleon’s Egyptian Campaign at the turn of the 19th century. Throughout the 1800s, people across the world emulated the architecture and design of Egyptian culture—for example, Victorian-era jewelry frequently incorporated scarabs, and cartouches and monuments across Europe took the form of obelisks.

The pervasive obsession with Egypt reached an apogee when on November 26, 1922, archaeologist Howard Carter and his team discovered the doorway to the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun (commonly referred to as King Tut) in the Valley of the Kings on the west bank of the Nile. Though archaeological digs had been undertaken throughout the area, most tombs had succumbed to looting and grave robbing, leaving them stripped bare of their original contents. Tut’s tomb, however, had been hidden by debris and rubble, preserving it to near perfect condition.

Despite discovering King Tutankhamun’s tomb in late 1922, it took several months for archaeologists to work their way through and catalogue the contents within the outer chambers. On February 16, 1923, Carter finally came face-to-face with the doorway leading to the tomb’s inner burial chamber and unsealed it. What he and his team were met with was the most well-preserved and intact pharaonic tombs ever found. Over the following eight years, the items and goods contained therein were carefully catalogued and removed, and today are held in the collection of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

To mark the centennial of the unsealing of the burial chamber, we’ve gathered five of the most opulent and intriguing artifacts that were found in King Tutankhamun’s tomb.

Tutankhamun’s Sarcophagus and Three Coffins:

Seeing the sarcophagus was perhaps one of the most exciting moments for the archaeologists at the time, as it indicated early on that the contents were preserved and intact. Crafted of quartzite and red granite, and displaying the images of Isis, Nephthys, Neith, and Serqet, the sarcophagus housed three nesting coffins which held Tutankhamun’s mummified body. The outer two coffins are made of fully gilded wood and inlaid with glass and semiprecious stones, such as turquoise and lapis lazuli. The innermost coffin, however, is made almost entirely out of 110.4 kilos of solid gold, similarly adorned with inlaid stones, and incised with inscriptions and in the shape of Osiris holding scepter and flail.

The Death Mask of Tutankhamun

Found within the innermost coffin upon the mummified body, King Tut’s death mask has become a world-recognized icon of ancient Egypt and the pharaonic era. Composed of 10.23 kilos of solid gold, it depicts Tutankhamun wearing the traditional stripped pharaonic headdress replete with representations of the goddesses Nekhbet and Wadjet above his brow. The mask’s back and shoulders are inscribed in Egyptian hieroglyphs with a protective spell copied from the Book of the Dead, offering protection as the pharaoh moved through the underworld.

Canopic Shrine

In the process of mummification, many of the person’s organs are removed and placed in what are called canopic jars. These containers frequently included lids shaped after the heads of the Sons of Horus, protective deities. Like many other ancient Egyptian tombs, King Tut’s included an alabaster canopic chest containing the four separate jars. However, in the pharaoh’s tomb, these were housed in a canopic shrine. Standing at six-and-a-half feet tall and enrobed in gold, the shrine includes the figure of the goddess Nepthys who stands guard over the royal contents.

Golden Sandals

A large swathe of the items found in King Tutankhamun’s tomb represented personal necessities, such as clothing, toiletries like perfume, and food stuffs. Included among these items were a pair of gold sandals. These golden shoes have been found in numerous other ancient tombs, and it is believed that they were made specifically for funerary and burial practices. The soles of the shoes depict the nine traditional enemies of Egypt, including the Nubians and Libyans, symbolizing that as god-king they were literally beneath his feet.

Golden Chariot

King Tutankhamun’s tomb contained a total of six golden chariots—though, unfortunately, all were in various states of disrepair as they were either mishandled or damaged by looters. After restoration, they were identified as typical D-cab chariots that were meant to be drawn by two horses. The image of a pharaoh driving a chariot was a common symbol of royal power and wealth, and in ancient times, pharaohs were often presented at public events in opulent chariots to highlight their status.

By Annikka Olsen.

[machsabre]

Reboot 2023

So... 

I'd like to say it's because of Covid, but truthfully, it's been a thing long before then too. I've been playing catch up with myself for far too long. I fell out of the comic making groove about a decade ago, and I never quite got back in. In 2017 I started Stargazer Apogee with the intent of getting back into it all. But not long after, I got married, we moved, bought a house, had a new career, and I was starting to have some health issues... It was kinda hard to keep on making a comic. Not to mention, I was coming into this with a “webcomics 2010″ mindset which is NOT how webcomics (or webtoons) are done anymore. And my art was going through a shift in styles at that time too. When I started, it was still traditionally penciled and inked... Then digitally inked... And it just kept harder to match up how I was drawing NOW to how I was drawing at the start of the comic. And then there was the script, which was constantly undergoing rewrites, as I was drawing it. (Which is not the greatest way to get back into groove.) And that’s not even counting the issues that the Pandemic caused. I just was never able to catch up to where I left off, much less where I left off a decade ago. On the plus side, my art DID get better! I mean, my art now is better than it’s ever been in my life.  Then earlier this year... Things sucked. My father died. My family were tools about it. I had some serious issues at work with some projects. I had some health issues that I’ll keep private, My wife and I had Covid back to back, my wonderful dog died out of nowhere and I had my first panic attack. This was all in a span of three months. And I spent weeks just trying to feel normal again. Something that never came and now I’m seeing a therapist and got diagnosed with severe anxiety. I'm not even the same person I was five months ago, much less five years ago. Or ten. In the last couple months, things have changed. The health issues apparently have an inexpensive fix. (Which I'm currently doing.) I got a neat new (better paying, less stressful) job, which gives me a lot of walking so I can get more exercise. (10,000 steps a day is commonplace now.) I’m on bupropion, which has helped me manage that anxiety so much better that panic attacks haven’t happened since, and I’m finally thinking clearly again for the first time in a long time. Which made me realize that I can never re-obtain what I was going for in the past. I need to start anew. So with the new year upon us soon, all previous unfinished stuff is done. Projects will be hard rebooted or completely changed. I'm taking this as a new opportunity, to re-establish myself as a comic creator. So right now, I have projects in mind that I want to do. But the immediate one I’m working on it what I call my “smutty monster-mystery” book. (Currently untitled.) Meant for (im)mature audiences, a little fun mystery story with sex, monsters, murder and dumb jokes. It’ll be a B&W comic, meant to evoke the feelings of those old Carter Brown Mystery novels. More on this soon. I’ll probably make a (new) Patreon for this. But that’s a 2023 issue. Right now, I’m just gonna spend the rest of this year script writing and drawing various stupid stuff.

More on this all soon. 

[outcast-heroes]

Listen, I don’t make my own joke ideas often, but you can bet your ass that when I do.... they’re really dumb and I spend way too much time on them

[dustedmagazine]

Colin Fisher Quartet – Living Midnight (Astral Spirits)

Daniel Carter and Marc Edwards having been making albums in the spirit of Living Midnight for most of their lives. Edwards, through early tenures as the engine room for the energy trio Apogee with David S. Ware and Cooper Moore (then Gene Ashton) and a celebratory iteration of Cecil Taylor’s Unit, onward. Carter, most memorably as one quarter of the New York subways-abiding creative crucible that was Test with Sabir Mateen, Matt Heyner, and the late Tom Bruno. Both men know their way around galvanizing improvised music marathons like the backs of their respective hands.  

Colin Fisher and Brandon Lopez come from a subsequent generation but remain equally enamored with the sort of free jazz that is long in duration and deep in visceral impact. Assembled at a studio, the foursome recorded three pieces spanning over seventy minutes of music. Two were released as opposite sides of a cassette with a CD edition adding the third piece as reflective coda. “Crescent Moon Furnace” clocks to nearly a half-hour and follows an itinerary that echoes the sort of spontaneous, pan-directional interplay that was Test’s calling card. The shifts in thematic trajectory feel spontaneous, but there is an obvious amount of close listening and communicating going on amongst the group.  

Fisher and Carter joust, jest, and gesticulate on a host of reed and wind instruments with the latter adding soprano saxophone, clarinet, flute and (curiously uncredited) trumpet to the tandem fielding of alto and tenor. Passages of ruminative restraint alternate with excoriating blasts and outbursts, but the means always remains intelligible and momentum driven whether full-steam or incremental. Edwards’ invigorating sticks are a serious boon in this regard, forging cascading beats and rhythms that push the horns and Lopez to keep up or scaling back to comparatively quiet small percussion and what sounds like musical saw. The bassist has no difficulty in that regard, his patterns oftentimes a roiling blur amidst the churn.  

Plenty of precedence exists for these organized sound edifices in a non-specific sense. Players have been engaging in similar cathartic conclaves for well over a half-century. As with all involving art, the value comes not in the components, but how the musicians personalize and collectivize them in the moment. On that score, Fisher and his colleagues soundly hit the mark.  

Derek Taylor 

[richardvarey]

Jason Carter's harp guitar

Jason Carter’s harp guitar

How could I resist? 12 strings, two necks, a kilt, and a European rooftop vista. This is a 2010 album of Harp Guitars recorded in France with a stereo pair of Neumann KM184 mics, through an Apogee Ensemble, plus the stereo LR Baggs Ribbon pickup going through Fireye Acoustic Preamps and a Seymour Duncan D-Tar. 18 string Harp Guitar by Lukas Brunner. 12 String Harp Guitar by Stephen Sedgwick.…

[blackkudos]

Lois Mailou Jones

Lois Mailou Jones (November 3, 1905 – June 9, 1998) was an artist who painted and influenced others during the Harlem Renaissance and beyond, during her long teaching and artistic career. Jones was the only African-American female painter of the 1930s and 1940s to achieve fame abroad, and the earliest whose subjects extend beyond the realm of portraiture. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts and is buried on Martha's Vineyard in the Oak Bluffs Cemetery.

Early life and education

Her father, Thomas Vreeland Jones was a building superintendent who later became a lawyer after becoming the first African-American to earn a law degree from Suffolk Law School; her mother, Carolyn Jones was a cosmetologist.

Jones' parents encouraged her to draw and paint as a child in water color. During childhood her mother took her and her brother to Martha's Vineyard where she became lifelong friends with novelist Dorothy West. She attended the High School of Practical Arts in Boston. Meanwhile, she took Boston Museum of Fine Arts evening classes and worked as an apprentice in costume design. She held her first solo exhibition at the age of 17. From 1923 to 1927 she attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston studying design, taking night courses at the Boston Normal Art School. She also pursued graduate work at the Design Art School and Harvard University. She continued her education even after beginning work, attending classes at Columbia University and receiving her bachelor's degree from Howard University in 1945, graduating magna cum laude.

Work

In 1928 she was hired by Charlotte Hawkins Brown after some initial reservations, and founded the art department at Palmer Memorial Institute in North Carolina. As a prep school teacher, she coached a basketball team, taught folk dancing, and played the piano for church services. Only one year later, she was recruited to join the art department at Howard University in Washington D.C., and remained as professor of design and watercolor painting until her retirement in 1977. While developing her own work as an artist, she was also known as an outstanding mentor.

In 1934 Jones met Louis Vergniaud Pierre-Noel, who would become a prominent Haitian artist, while both were graduate students at Columbia University. They corresponded for almost twenty years before marrying in the south of France in 1953. Jones and her husband lived in Washington, D.C. and Haiti. They had no children. He died in 1982.

In the early 1930s Jones exhibited with the William E. Harmon Foundation and other institutions, produced plays and dramatic presentations and began study of masks from various cultures. In 1937 she received a fellowship to study in Paris at the Académie Julian. During one year's time she produced over 30 watercolors. She returned to Howard University and began teaching watercolor painting. She said of her time in Paris:

The French were so inspiring. The people would stand and watch me and say 'mademoiselle, you are so very talented. You are so wonderful.' In other words, the color of my skin didn't matter in Paris and that was one of the main reasons why I think I was encouraged and began to really think I was talented.

In 1938 she produced Les Fétiches (1938) a stunning, African inspired oil which is owned by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Jones' Les Fétiches was instrumental in transitioning 'Négritude'—a distinctly francophone artistic phenomenon—from the predominantly literary realm into the visual. Jones' work provided an important visual link to Négritude authors including Aimé Césaire, Léon Damas, and Léopold Sédar Senghor. It was one of her best known works, and her first piece which combined traditional African forms with Western techniques and materials to create a vibrant and compelling work. She also completed Parisian Beggar Womanwith text supplied by Langston Hughes.

Her main source of inspiration was Céline Marie Tabary, also a painter, whom she worked with for many years. Tabary submitted Jones' paintings for consideration for jury prizes since works by African-American artists were not always accepted. Jones traveled extensively with Tabary, including to the South of France, and they frequently painted each other. They taught art together in the 1940s.

In the 1940s and early 1950s Jones exhibited at the Phillips Collection, Seattle Museum of Art, National Academy of Design, the Barnet Aden Gallery, Pennsylvania's Lincoln University, Howard University, galleries in New York and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. In 1952 Loïs Mailou Jones: Peintures 1937-1951, a collection of more than 100 reproductions of her French paintings, was published.

In 1954 Jones was a guest professor at Centre D'Art and Foyer des Artes Plastiques in Port-au-Prince, Haiti where the government invited her to paint Haitian people and landscapes. Her work became energized by the bright colors. She and her husband returned there during summers for the next several years, in addition to trips to France. There she completed "Peasant girl, Haiti" and also exhibited her work. In 1955 she unveiled portraits of the Haitian president and his wife commissioned by United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Jones's numerous oils and watercolors inspired by Haiti are probably her most widely known works. In them her affinity for bright colors, her personal understanding of Cubism's basic principles, and her search for a distinctly style reached an apogee. In many of her pieces one can see the influence of the Haitian culture, with its African influences, which reinvigorated the way she looked at the world. These include Ode to Kinshasa and Ubi Girl from Tai. Her work became more abstract and hard-edged, after her marriage to Pierre-Noel. Her impressionist techniques gave way to a spirited, richly patterned, and brilliantly colored style.

In 1962 she initiated Howard University's first art student tour of France, including study at Académie de la Grande Chaumière and guided several more tours over the years. In the 1960s she exhibited at School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Cornell University, and galleries in France, New York and Washington, D.C.

In 1968 she documented work and interviews of contemporary Haitian artists for Howard University's "The Black Visual Arts" research grant. And continued the project in 1969 and 1970, traveling to eleven African countries. Her report Contemporary African Art was published in 1970 and in 1971 she delivered 1000 slides and other materials to the University as fulfillment of the project. In 1973-74 she researched "Women artists of the Caribbean and Afro-American Artists."

Her research inspired Jones to synthesize a body of designs and motifs that she combined in large, complex compositions. Jones's return to African themes in her work of the past several decades coincided with the black expressionistic movement in the United States during the 1960s. Skillfully integrating aspects of African masks, figures, and textiles into her vibrant paintings, Jones continued to produce exciting new works at an astonishing rate of speed, even in her late eighties. In her nineties, Jones still painted. Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton collected one of her island seascapes Breezy Day at Gay Head while they were in the White House.

Jones felt that her greatest contribution to the art world was "proof of the talent of black artists." The African-American artist is important in the history of art and I have demonstrated it by working and painting here and all over the world." But her fondest wish was to be known as an "artist"—without labels like black artist, or woman artist. She has produced work that echoes her pride in her African roots and American ancestry.

Lois Mailou Jones' work is in museums all over the world and valued by collectors. Her paintings grace the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, National Portrait Gallery, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the National Palace in Haiti, the National Museum of Afro-American Artists and many others.

Awards and honors

Robert Woods Bliss Award for Landscape for Indian Shops Gay Head, Massachusetts(1941)

Atlanta University award for watercolor painting Old House Near Frederick, Virginia (1942)

Women of 1946 award from the National Council of Negro Women (1946)

John Hope Prize for Landscape for Ville d'Houdain, Pas-de-Calais and award from the Corcoran Gallery of Art for Petite Ville en hautes-Pyrenées (1949)

Atlanta University award for Impasse de l'Oratorie, Grasse, France (1952)

Chevalier of the National Order of Honor and Merit from the government of Haiti. (1954)

Award for design of publication Voici Hätii (1958)

Atlanta University award for Voodoo Worshippers, Haiti and America's National Museum of Art award for Fishing Smacks, Menemsha, Massachusetts (1960)

Elected Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts in London; receives Franz Bader Award for Oil Painting from National Museum of Art for Peasants on Parade (1962)

Howard University Fine Arts Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching (1975)

Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Suffolk University in Boston. She also has received honorary degrees from Colorado State Christian University, Massachusetts College of Art

Honored by President Jimmy Carter at the White House for outstanding achievements in the arts (1980).

Candace Award, Arts and Letters, National Coalition of 100 Black Women (1982)

Legacy

After her death, her friend and adviser, Dr. Chris Chapman completed a book about her life and the African-American pioneers she had worked with and been friends with, including Dr. Carter G. Woodson, Alain Locke, Dorothy West, Josephine Baker, and Matthew Henson. Entitled Lois Mailou Jones: A life in color, it is available through Xlibris and museum stores.

In 1997, Jones' paintings were featured in an exhibition entitled Paris, the City of Light that appeared at several museums throughout the country including the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Milwaukee Art Museum, and the Studio Museum of Harlem. The exhibition also featured the works of Barbara Chase-Riboud, Edward Clark, Harold Cousins, Beauford Delaney, Herbert Gentry, and Larry Potter. The exhibition examined the importance of Paris as an artistic mecca for African-American artists during the 20 years that followed World War II.

From November 14, 2009, to February 29, 2010, a retrospective exhibit of her work entitled Lois Mailou Jones: A life in vibrant colorwas held at the Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, North Carolina. The traveling exhibit included 70 paintings showcasing her various styles and experiences: America, France, Haiti, and Africa.

Wikipedia

[rocknightout-blog]

Los Angeles Rock Show List – April 14th – April 28th

Friday, April 14th Simple Plan w/ Seaway and Set It Off @ The Wiltern Suicide Girls: Blackheart Burlesque @  Teragram Ballroom Dishwalla @ Canyon Club Hell or Highwater w/ Aeges @ Constellation Room at the Observatory Two Door Cinema Club w/ Grouplove @ Santa Barbara Bowl

Saturday, April 15th Coheed and Cambria w/ The Dear Hunter @  Hollywood Palladium Dayshell w/ Silver Snakes @ Viper Room Good Riddance @ Troubadour The White Buffalo @ the Observatory Dishwalla @ The Rose

Sunday, April 16th Thumpasaurus @ Bootleg Theater

Monday, April 17th King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard @ The Roxy Car Seat Headrest @ The Regent DRAEMINGS w/ Ever So Android and Dancing Tongues Irontom @ The Satellite Battery @ Troubadour Shinedown w/ As Lions @ HOB Anaheim Coheed and Cambria w/ The Dear Hunter @ The Observatory

Tuesday, April 18th Twin Peaks w/ Hinds @ The Regent Theater Homeshake @ Echoplex Moth @ Los Globos Stolas w/ Mylets and Icarus The Owl @ Chain Reaction

Wednesday, April 19th Empire of the Sun @ Shrine Expo Hall Bastille @ The Novo Escondido @ The Standard Hotel Horisont @ The Satellite Local Natives @ Fox Theater Future Islands @ The Glass House Twin Peaks and Hinds @ The Observatory Tacocat w/ The Regrettes @ Constellation Room at The Observatory Them Evils@ Slidebar Breaking Benjamin @ Riverside Municipal Auditorium

Thursday, April 20th Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes @ The Hi Hat Mastodon w/ Russian Circles and EODM @ Hollywood Palladium Pond @ The Echo Whitney @ El Rey Oceano @ Whisky A Go Go State Champs w/ Against The Current and Don Broco @ Yost Theatre

Friday, April 21st State Champs w/ Against The Current and Don Broco @ Teragram Ballroom Faster Pussycat @ Whisky A Go Go New Found Glory @ The Observatory Ghost Bath @ Complex Revered Horton Heat @ Don the Beachcomber Pixies @ Fox Theater The Motels @ HOB Anaheim Oceano @ Chain Reaction

Saturday, April 22nd Anthrax w/ Killswitch Engage, The Devil Wears Prada and Code Orange @ The Wiltern Revered Horton Heat @ The Regent Anthony Green @ Apogee Studio Dead Meadow @ HM157 Trap Them @ Complex New Found Glory @ The Observatory Puddle of Mud @ Yost Theatre Whitney @ The Glass House Glass Animals w/ Little Dragon and Jagwar Ma @ Santa Barbara Bowl

Sunday, April 23rd Bayside w/ Say Anything @ The Observatory Lit @ National Orange Show Pavillion Pixies @ HOB Anaheim

Monday, April 24th Cold War Kids @ Grammy Museum Irontom w/ Thumpasaurus @ The Satellite

Tuesday, April 25th Pixies w/ Public Access T.V@ Theatre at Ace Hotel Bayside w/ Say Anything @ Belasco

Wednesday, April 26th The 1975 @ The Greek Pixies w/ Public Access T.V@ Theatre at Ace Hotel Kansas @ The Wiltern San Fermin @ The Roxy

Thursday, April 27th The 1975 @ The Greek Bleacher @ Roxy Theatre Coast Modern w/ 888 and Sundara Karma @ Troubadour The Zombies @ Grammy Museum Dawn of Ashes @ Complex Superjoint @ Whisky A Go Go Metalachi @ Canyon Club

Friday, April 28th New Found Glory w/ Trash Boat @ Troubadour Trapy @ Whisky A Go Go MercyMe w/ Hawk Nelson @ Orpheum Theatre Devil Townsend Project @ The Glass House The Aggrolits @ The Parish at HOB Anaheim

[news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog]

Neil deGrasse Tyson tried his hand at naming Beyoncé's twins

When you're renowned astrophysicist and cosmologist Neil deGrasse Tyson, there's only one thing worth doing when you're bored: come up with names for Beyoncé's heirs. 

Tyson did just that Wednesday afternoon on Twitter when he started sharing names for Queen Bey and Jay-Z to mull over. But because he's Neil deGrasse Tyson, he also gave us a space lesson with each pair of names fit for the twins 

SEE ALSO: Neil deGrasse Tyson isn't riding SpaceX to Mars until Elon Musk answers this challenge

Naming ideas for @Beyonce's twins, inspired by the universe…

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) April 12, 2017

Tyson provided a lot of options, so we did Beyoncé and Jay a favor and ranked them all in order of what we believed to be best to worst. Don't @ us, Mr. Tyson. 

1. Terra and Luna Carter

If we're being honest with ourselves, these twins are as important as both the Earth and the Moon.

“Terra” & “Luna” - Latin for Earth & Moon. Cosmic #NamesForBeyonceTwins

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) April 12, 2017

2. Castor and Pollux Carter

Look at Tyson's description and tell me this isn't perfect. 

“Castor” & “Pollux” — Brightest stars of the constellation Gemini, the Twins. Cosmic #NamesForBeyonceTwins

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) April 12, 2017

3. Ida and Dactyl Carter

Fitting for the first set of twins of the Knowles-Carter dynasty. 

“Ida” & “Dactyl” — First asteroid (Ida) known with a moon (Dactyl). Cosmic #NamesForBeyonceTwins

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) April 12, 2017

4. Phobos and Deimos Carter

Beyoncé is special, and some may argue that Mars is the hottest planet right now (not literally). Why not name them after Mars' moons? 

“Phobos” & “Deimos” - The two moons of Mars. Cosmic #NamesForBeyonceTwins

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) April 12, 2017

5. Aster and Roid Carter

It has a nice ring to it...

“Aster” & “Roid” — Losing ideas fast, so will stop here. Cosmic #NamesForBeyonceTwins

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) April 12, 2017

6. Crescent and Gibbous Carter

“Crescent" & “Gibbous” — Two phases of the Moon that are not New, Full, or Half. Cosmic #NamesForBeyonceTwins

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) April 12, 2017

7. Elgenubi and Eschamali Carter

It's...unique. No Apple, but nonetheless, unique...

“Elgenubi” & “Eschamali” — From the constellation Libra, the Scales. Cosmic #NamesForBeyonceTwins

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) April 12, 2017

8. Dawn and Dusk Carter

Both equally beautiful times of the day.

“Dawn” & “Dusk” — The sky just before sunrise and just after sunset. Cosmic #NamesForBeyonceTwins

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) April 12, 2017

9. Kuiper and Oort Carter

Greatest comet repositories for the offspring of some of the world's greatest entertainers? Makes sense. 

“Kuiper” & “Oort” — The Solar System’s two great Comet repositories. Cosmic #NamesForBeyonceTwins

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) April 12, 2017

10. Oblate and Prolate Carter

This is where you should have stopped, Neil. 

“Oblate” & “Prolate” – Distorted spheres, resembling the shapes of a hamburger and a hot-dog. #NamesForBeyonceTwins

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) April 12, 2017

11. Zenith and Nadir Carter

While these sound pretty, maybe a little too much. I don't know. Maybe that's just me. 

“Zenith" & "Nadir” – The points directly above your head and directly below your feed on the sky. #NamesForBeyonceTwins

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) April 12, 2017

12. Perigee and Apogee Carter

Too good vs. evil, ya know? 

“Perigee” & “Apogee” – The nearest and farthest points from Earth in the Moon’s oval orbit. #NamesForBeyonceTwins

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) April 12, 2017

13. Spirit and Opportunity Carter

Okay now Neil is just flexing his knowledge of all things space. 

“Spirit” & “Opportunity” — Twin intrepid @NASA rovers on Mars. Cosmic #NamesForBeyonceTwins

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) April 12, 2017

14. Up and Down Carter, Top and Bottom Carter, or Strange and Charmed Carter

“Up” & “Down”; “Top” & “Bottom”; “Strange” & “Charmed” — Quark Pairs. Cosmic #NamesForBeyonceTwins

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) April 12, 2017

WATCH: This tricycle for adults will have you looking like the coolest kid on campus

[rossaroundbackstage]

RBP Episode 8 Part-2, Rossaround with PJ Olsson

RBP Episode 8 Part-2, Rossaround with PJ Olsson

PART-2

PJ Olsson is a Grammy Nominated Singer, Songwriter, Recording Engineer, Studio Owner, Entrepreneur and Lead singer with the Alan Parsons band. PJ has worked with hundreds of artists and producers over his long career and has really lived the life of ups and downs of the music business. His story is so great and interesting that we ended up recording this episode for two hours. I did not…

[go-redgirl]

By Patrick Buchanan January 17, 2017

Since World War II, the two men who have most terrified this city by winning the presidency are Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump.   Both came out of the popular culture, Reagan out of Hollywood, Trump out of a successful reality TV show. Both possessed the gifts of showmen -- extraordinarily valuable political assets in a television age that deals cruelly with the uncharismatic.   Both became instruments of insurgencies out to overthrow the establishment of the party whose nomination they were seeking. Reagan emerged as the champion of the postwar conservatism that had captured the Republican Party with Barry Goldwater's nomination in 1964. His victory in 1980 came at the apogee of conservative power. The populism that enabled Trump to crush 16 Republican rivals and put him over the top in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan had also arisen a decade and a half before -- in the 1990s.

A decisive advantage Reagan and Trump both enjoyed is that in their decisive years, the establishments of both parties were seen as having failed the nation. Reagan was victorious after Russia invaded Afghanistan; Americans were taken hostage in Tehran; and the U.S. had endured 21 percent interest rates, 13 percent inflation, 7 percent unemployment and zero growth. When Trump won, Americans had gone through years of wage stagnation. Our industrial base had been hollowed out. And we seemed unable to win or end a half-dozen Middle East wars in which we had become ensnared. What is the common denominator of both the Reagan landslide of 1980 and Trump's victory?

Both candidates appealed to American nationalism.

In the late 1970s, Reagan took the lead in the campaign to save the Panama Canal. "We bought it. We paid for it. It's ours. And we're going to keep it," thundered the Gipper. While he lost the fight for the Canal when the GOP establishment in the Senate lined up behind Jimmy Carter, the battle established Reagan as a leader who put his country first. Trump unapologetically seized upon the nationalist slogan that was most detested by our globalist elites, "America first!"  He would build a wall, secure the border, stop the invasion. He would trash the rotten trade treaties negotiated by transnational elites who had sold out our sovereignty and sent our jobs to China.

He would demand that freeloading allies in Europe, the Far East and the Persian Gulf pay their fair share of the cost of their defense. In the rhetoric of Reagan and Trump there is a simplicity and a directness that is familiar to, and appeals to, the men and women out in Middle America, to whom both directed their campaigns. In his first press conference in January of 1981, Reagan said of the Kremlin, "They reserve unto themselves the right to commit any crime, to lie, to cheat. ... We operate on a different set of standards." He called the Soviet Union an "evil empire" and the "focus of evil in the modern world." The State Department was as wary of what Reagan might say or do then as they are of what Trump might tweet now.

But while there are similarities between these outsiders who captured their nominations and won the presidency by defying and then defeating the establishments of both political parties, the situations they confront are dissimilar. Reagan took office in a time of Cold War clarity. Though there was sharp disagreement over how tough the United States should be and what was needed for national defense, there was no real question as to who our adversaries were. As had been true since the time of Harry Truman, the world struggle was between communism and freedom, the USSR and the West, the Warsaw Pact and the NATO alliance. T

here was a moral clarity then that no longer exists now. Today, the Soviet Empire is gone, the Warsaw Pact is gone, the Soviet Union is gone, and the Communist movement is moribund. NATO embraces three former republics of the USSR, and we confront Moscow in places like Crimea and the Donbass that no American of the Reagan era would have regarded as a national interest of the United States.

We no longer agree on who our greatest enemies are, or what the greatest threats are. Is it Vladimir Putin's Russia? Is it Iran? Is it China, which Secretary of State-designate Rex Tillerson says must be made to vacate the air, missile and naval bases it has built on rocks and reefs in a South China Sea that Beijing claims as its national territory? Is it North Korea, now testing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles? Beyond issues of war and peace, there are issues at home -- race, crime, policing, abortion, LGBT rights, immigration (legal and illegal) and countless others on which this multicultural, multiracial and multiethnic nation is split two, three, many ways. The existential question of the Trump era might be framed thus: How long will this divided democracy endure as one nation and one people?

[baredmirror]

The journey to the stars: This extension of the imaginary voyages of Jules Verne has many variants, from George Pal's Destination Moon to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Such works may incluce intergalactic battles, whose apogee comes in the naïve but technologically wondrous Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977), with its simple-minded hero fighting for good against evil much as Flash Gordon used to do in the old serials. Star Wars and its imitations have been seen, by several social commentators, as a reflection of the Early Carter era, with its post-Watergate longings for clarity, simplicity, moral perspicuity, and a revival of the old frontier virtues.

S. S. Prawer, Caligari’s Children: The Film as Tale of Terror

[t-baba]

The Essential Qualities of a UX Leader

Laser-focused, innovative, patient, authentic. These are all qualities we look for in our leaders. For ambitious UXers, leading a team, a company, or even the field, is probably in your sights.

So what qualities do you need to become a UX leader? And what defines UX leadership?

To find the answers, we asked our UXperts to weigh in on what UX leadership means to them. The good news is, there are types and pathways to become a leader.

Look out for our second instalment next week, featuring practical advice from our experts on how you can become a UX leader.

  Cory Lebson

Cory Lebson (@corylebson), author of The UX Careers Handbook (CRC Press, 2016), has been a user experience consultant for over 20 years. He is the Principal and Owner of Lebsontech LLC, a successful user experience consulting firm he established in 1997. Lebsontech is focused on user research and evaluation, user experience strategy, UX training, and mentoring. Cory also speaks frequently on topics related to UX career development, user experience, user research, information architecture, and accessibility.

What do you think makes a great UX leader?

A great UX leader realises that there are many pathways to great leadership. In my book, I talk about four kinds of UX leadership: workplace leadership, UX organisational leadership, mentorship and thought leadership.

Workplace leadership is what someone may typically think of when they think of UX leadership: leading a UX team in the workplace, making good UX decisions and ultimately producing successful products. While I started down this pathway myself, I chose a number of years ago to become a freelancer and instead channelled my UX leadership energy into UX organisational leadership, helping a local chapter (UXPA DC) and later UXPA international on a voluntary basis.

A UX practitioner who doesn’t lead a team can also be a workplace leader by mentoring others and helping them to improve their skills. Mentorship doesn’t just have to take place within the workplace and can involve giving advice and support to others outside of one specific company.

Finally, thought leadership involves promoting new ideas and information to UX professionals and advocating for UX to those who aren’t already embedded in the profession. Thought leadership can take many forms – writing personal blogs, publishing articles in established electronic periodicals, giving talks and providing training in person, and doing podcasts online, for example.

How can people lead great UX teams?

Sticking with the theme of leadership outside of the workplace, leaders leading a UX Meetup or local, national or international UX professional organisation should not just do everything themselves. Instead, they should create a proper infrastructure to support events and other activities and should pull in other like-minded UXers to help them.

Not only does this make volunteer leadership more enjoyable and provide a basis for more resources to scale upwards towards greater events and activities, but it also spreads the “wealth” of volunteer leadership – that is, provides opportunities for exposure to more people.

  Jodie Moule

Jodie Moule is Co-founder & CEO of Symplicit, a Customer Led Innovation firm based in Australia that has focused on research, strategy and design services since 2003. Following a Design Thinking philosophy that was grounded in the psychology and industrial design backgrounds of the founders; Jodie believes that understanding human behaviour allows you to change the customer experience, and that change happens through great design. Follow Jodie: @jodiemoule @thecookapp @symplicit

What do you think makes a great UX leader?

What makes a great UX leader is what makes any other leader great, really. To my mind, this is a mix of being good at what you do, and also being a great people person. To lead a group of people, you have to have a certain ‘gravitas’ about you, and that to me is the intangible aspect of leaders that gives them the X-factor.

In a practical sense, I think someone who isn’t afraid to jump in and help their team get shit done, and get their hands dirty–guiding by example–is someone I think is a great leader. That would be someone not tied up in the ‘ego’ of merely being a leader for the title’s sake. In my opinion, too many people place too much value in job titles and job descriptions. Those people are not leaders.  

To me, a leader really thinks about the future of the space they work within, and is constantly looking at connecting the dots on where the industry is headed, pushing the boundaries beyond the standard approaches, with a clear vision of where their team needs to head–whether that direction is the popular belief or not–they trust their gut and go for it!

How can people lead great UX teams?

When it comes to leading great teams, I think ‘like attracts like’. If you build something that is great, others will want to be part of that. I also think if you are just setting out to ‘build a team’ you might find that hard. If you are setting out to achieve a mission rather than just ‘building a team’–that’s how you end up building and leading a great team. For example, we always set out to do great work, the rest kinda followed. Be yourself and enjoy the ride! Model great qualities, be passionate and engaged in what you do. Others will see that and want to learn from that, and most importantly–they’ll want to be part of it.

  James Noble

James has helped re-define, create and evolve user experiences for over two decades. Founding one of Asia Pacific’s most innovative experience agencies Carter Digital. An active UX industry advisor, mentor, radio presenter, public speaker and serves on a number creative juries globally including Australia’s first UX & Digital Craft representative for Cannes Lion in 2016. Follow James on LinkedIn, Medium, or Twitter.  

What do you think makes a great UX leader?

Empathy. A regularly refuted topic in UX articles. In my humble opinion, this is where UX began. Being in a position of leadership is easy. Being a competent leader, whom people want to listen to is much harder to achieve. If you can embody what you represent and embrace it, people will follow.

Confidence. Cultivate your craft before your passion. Regardless of profession, UX or otherwise. Be sure of yourself and understand the entire suite of approaches available to you: Learn them, break the rules, and remake and refine it. The knowledge to define and tweak the process to ensure the best possible outcome with certainty is invaluable.

Focus. Empower yourself with the knowledge of process from books, speakers and fellow leaders both in and out of the user experience industry. The solutions you are trying to create can be similar but never identical, forever adding to your mental library. People are your focus, not the medium by which a solution is presented.

Awareness. Know your team. Understand each personality, role, drive and focus of every member of your team. Harness their individual drive to empower to push themselves past that imaginary ceiling.

Inspire. Communicate clearly, concisely and emotively. An engaged team wants to learn, and the goal is to make them better than you. Share ALL your knowledge, thought processes and thinking.

How can people lead great UX teams?

No matter how long you’ve been in an industry, never be too senior to muck in and get your hands dirty. People often let their title get in the way of just getting things done, and done well.

Understanding an audience, defining research questions, analysing results, creating personas, user journeys and flows is never linear. People are individuals. Understand and nurture each need, want and goal to harness your team’s drive and success. Inspire, engage and communicate with each individual in a way in which best fits their personality. Turn your understanding and knowledge of the UX process to motivate the team, including yourself. You’ll effectively set expectations, create a roadmap to understanding your audience, needs, wants and goals. Listen. Respect. Consider. Act. Repeat.

  Dan Szuc

Dan (@dszuc) is a Principal Consultant at Apogee, as well as the co-founder of the UX Hong Kong conference. He has been involved in the UX field for 25 years, and has been based in Hong Kong for 20 years. Dan has lectured about usability, user-centred design, and user experience globally. He co-wrote The Usability Kit, an implementation guide providing best practices and guidelines for usability teams, and he holds a Bachelor of Science in Information Management from Melbourne University in Australia.

What do you think makes a great UX leader?

I suggest we can consider what makes a great leader. Or we can consider that UX is a word in front of leadership that helps describe a type of leadership that does not exist today. Or maybe it’s about what kind of leader do we need in order to have the type of places we wish to work in going forward?

In the spirit of integrated and connected thinking, the answer probably lies in a hybrid of answers to the questions above. I consider a great leader to be a human leader and a person who does not put process above care. A leader who thinks about the needs of the team and a selflessness to get to great outcomes together. A great leader is also someone who can help a team understand and get clarity on a narrative that everyone can get behind and to work together in respectful ways.

How can people lead great UX teams?

By learning from other people who know how to build a sense of team spirit and know how to help people be at their best. To create work environments that are not just about the delivery of work, but to also provide spaces for people to stop, slow down, reflect and talk about their work and to identify gaps in their own capabilities to assist them to be better on a weekly basis. To give people the necessary artefacts to help structure their routines at work and to have a connected understanding or sense of purpose as to why they come to work in the first place. To know that learning never stops and that we need ways to constantly mature and to have people who can play explicit roles to help us to do that, namely–facilitator, mentor, connector and custodian.

  David Travis

Dr David Travis (@userfocus) holds a BSc and a PhD in Psychology and he is a Chartered Psychologist. He has worked in the fields of human factors, usability and user experience since 1989 and has published two books on usability. David helps both large firms and start ups connect with their customers and bring business ideas to market.

What do you think makes a great UX leader? 

I think there are certain characteristics that all good leaders share, whether they work in the field of user experience or in something else. For example, a quick Google search turned up this article. It describes “22 Qualities That Make a Great Leader” such as decisiveness, communication and accountability, and I can see all of them applying to people in a UX leadership role. So I think to really answer this question, we need to address what, if anything, is different about UX leadership?

I want to avoid talking about technical skills here, because although our UX leader needs to know the process to follow to create a good user experience, they won’t be doing the work day-to-day. Technical skills like field research, usability testing, information architecture, interaction design, visual design, technical writing and prototyping are the table stakes—but they are not sufficient to lead a user experience team.

When I mull over this, the one characteristic that I’ve seen in great UX leaders is “Vision”: the ability to describe a future state for the product and to have the soft skills to motivate the team behind this shared vision. As user experience professionals we’re lucky to work in a field where we really can make the world a better place. This is something we do every day by ensuring we’re developing the right kind of products and services for people, avoiding waste and making people’s lives simpler. Articulating this vision to the team is the single most important thing we can do to encourage people to do their best work.

Look out for part 2 of this series next week, when our experts reveal more on UX Leadership.

What do you think makes for excellent leadership in UX? Let us know in the forums or leave a comment.

The post The Essential Qualities of a UX Leader appeared first on UX Mastery.

by UX Mastery Team via UX Mastery http://ift.tt/2m2BUYO

[outcast-heroes]

AFTER SEVEN LONG AND AWFUL YEARS OF EFFORT, I PRESENT.......

This literally took me so long to finish, But I really wanted to make a semi-realistic poster for my story... Might do one with Ash and the bad guys, no idea yet *shrug* But please... notice me *wheeze* 

[outcast-heroes]

Last one I swear,

Just kept imagining Carter’s entrance to the third installment and felt like she needed a new outfit to match everyone else’s in detail, so I tried to make her look cool ✨

[outcast-heroes]

The fact that I’ve had this sitting in a folder finished for like a month without posting is just wild to me so here take my shitty punnery and run with it 🤷🏻‍♀️

[outcast-heroes]

I love drawing these two kicking ass together aaaahhh