San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art’s Chief Conservator, Will Shank, always beliebed there was another painting hidden under Pablo Picasso’s “Scene da Rue”. To the naked eye, some of the colors don’t match up. Also, some of the bushwork seems at odds with the final product.
With modern technology they had a way to find out. First, they took high definition digital photographys of the painting. They colors showing through the cracks was transferred to a black and white radiograph. They used a binocular microscrope to see the out of place colors and recreated the original painting.
Picasso was known for painting over paintins. It was a sort of game with him. a 1956 film shows him tranforming one painting into another into another.
You can see how the painting was reconstructed at http://www.sfmoma.org/hiddenpicasso
San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors are once again out of the gates before the rest of the nation. They’ve voted to ban petroleum based plastic bags in their city. These bags are a nuisance and they never breakdown so they sit in landfills for perpetuity.
This laws means that stores grocery and drug stores must either find a plastic bag alternative or switch to paper. Paper bags and cardboard boxes may be an option as well as encouraging customers to bring their own bags. A couple of stores are already charging folks if they want plastic bags. There are corn based bags on the market which are a bit more expensive but they are biodegradable.
Only stores of a certain size will be affected. They’ll have 6 months to complete the switch.
What would you say if I challenged you to stop complaining for 21 days? That’s exactly what Reverend Will Bowen of Christ Church Unity did!
Reverend Bowen noticed that his congregation was beset with complaining. Parishioners critized each other, complained about church services, and whined about one thing or another.
Bowen challenged them all to stop complaining for 21 days. He participated in the challenge himself. They had purple bracelets made to remind themselves of their pledge. Whenever they caught themselves complaining, they were told to switch the bracelet to the other wrist and start over. When they succeeded they earned a certificate of happiness.
It wasn’t easy. It took Reverend Bowen three and half months to meet his goal. Other took seven months to do it.
The program has blossomed into a national phenomenae. Bowen’s Kansas City, Missouri congregation has sent out 126,000 bracelets. A teacher challenged her class to stop complaining. Although the children found it very difficult, many completed the challenge eventually.
