Silence

Piecing together the secret of the emperor . . .


 

Do you know the secret teaching of the Buddha's enigmatic smile? Hint: Hold the image up to a mirror. (The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.)

Showing Up Early/Unexpectedly

Two distinguished gentlemen riding a unicorn, by artist Michael C. Hsiung.

This man is a unicorn (and he couldn't be happier about it)!

A unicorn gargoyle at the castle-like Casa Loma in Toronto, and a desktop unicorn gargoyle.

Another view of Unicorn Peak and Mount Althuski from the summit of Cockscomb.

Is this where unicorns go when they die?  The Unicorn Cemetery.

A faerie riding a unicorn.

Unicorn-themed color palettes from ColourLovers.com:

"Unicorn" by BangBang. The full palette description is here.

"Fairy on a Unicorn" by Just Me. The full palette description is here.

"Lady & Unicorn" by Amael. The full palette description is here.

This puzzle grid contains several big words. Can you find them?

• 7-letter words: 12
• 8-letter words: 2

All letters in the word must touch (in any direction), and no square may be reused.

Click to display solutions

"Did a blurred view of the moon influence the smile of the Mona Lisa?" asks artist David Dodson.

The answer is yes! We put together this animation to show how the craters of a blurry harvest moon perfectly line up with the eyes, nose, cheek bones, and enigmatic smile of Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

Ronan suggests, "So maybe the real question is ... what is the moon smiling at, eh?"

Derek Bair writes:

Sara Soares writes:

 

Omg!  I saw the moon last night and had never thought about it before. This is the first time to see your post.  But I was thinking the same thing.  Actually, Moon is "Luna" in Italian, but I was thinking he was playing with the words.  I don't know, maybe Lona Misa?  That's really far-fetched, but I know back then to paint a smile was "provocative" in that time, and they don't know who that picture was based on.  Leonardo was an out of the box thinker and if there is a possibility that's a self portrait of him, I think there is a possibility that it's the moon he drew.

The philosophy department at my university was so small it didn't have a chair.  Of course, the department did have the Platonic ideal of a chair.

By the way, here's a picture of someone sitting on one of Plato's chairs.  This blue chenille chair came up in my search for Plato's chair, but I doubt its authenticity.

Piecing together the secret of the Eleusinian Mysteries . . .


 

Graphic designer Paulus Bommarito "is part of a small but growing group of sun-gazers in metro Atlanta.  They are disciples of Hira Ratan Manek, a retired spice trader from India who says staring at the sun improves mental and physical health. Called HRM by his followers, Manek says he has rediscovered a practice used by many ancient cultures, from Greeks to Native Americans.  Manek, 70, advocates staring at the sun only near sunrise and sunset. Start with just 10 seconds, he says, and add 10 seconds each time.  He says sun gazing suppresses hunger and has allowed him to go more than a year without eating solid foods." —"Sun-Gazers" Praise Rays, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Saint Probat
Patron of the Exception that Proves the Rule.

Saint Probat sees to it that not all good things must come to an end.  She preaches against burning books, though abhors the idea of wasting good fire.  She is beloved by those who joke about their own race.  She ruled over Liam Neeson's thick German accent in Schindler's List.  She oversees sumo wrestling, Neapolitan Mastiffs, and celebrities who confess that they have developed schizophrenia.

From Prof. Oddfellow's sketchbook:

Showing Someone Else’s Credentials

Hard science: diamond fabrication

Soft science: measuring zero decibel sounds

Soggy science: the study of deep sea sponges

Slippery science: Teflon

Piecing together the secret of Easter Island . . .


 

The phrase "replicable randomness" returns no Google results.  (At least not until the Google spiders find this blog entry.)