Thursday 27 January 2011

Iconic or small religious painting.

i·con·ic

[ahy-kon-ik]
–adjective
1. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of an icon.
2. Art . (of statues, portraits, etc.) executed according to a convention or tradition.





Origin:
1650–60;  < L īconicus  < Gk eikonikós,  equiv. to eikon-  (s. of eikṓn ) icon  + -ikos -ic

At Art school I was led to believe that icons were small, mostly Russian Orthodox paintings that exemplify a particular figure or possibly, by extension idea. Overuse of iconic has reached such epic proportions that a column in Private Eye for uses of the word is overdue.

Great one tonight on Radio 4, 6 o'clock news by Caroline Spellman, presumably minister for slack and lazy statements. She spoke of "iconic forests".

Why we should be worried about bonsai trees in model villages I have no idea!
A selection of iconic images

Tuesday 18 January 2011

Wroecenstan not fair, but swarthy Med types!

In "Origins of the British" (2006), Stephen Oppenheimer states (pages 375 and 378):
  • "By far the majority of male gene types in the British Isles derive from Iberia (Spain and Portugal), ranging from a low of 59% in Fakenham, Norfolk to highs of 96% in Llangefni, north Wales and 93% Castlerea, Ireland. On average only 30% of gene types in England derive from north-west Europe. Even without dating the earlier waves of north-west European immigration, this invalidates the Anglo-Saxon wipeout theory..."
  • "...75-95% of British Isles (genetic) matches derive from Iberia... Ireland, coastal Wales, and central and west-coast Scotland are almost entirely made up from Iberian founders, while the rest of the non-English parts of the British Isles have similarly high rates. England has rather lower rates of Iberian types with marked heterogeneity, but no English sample has less than 58% of Iberian samples...
So the Celts, Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Normans had little influence on my Western British Isles gene pool!

Sunday 16 January 2011

Chester Walls

... and then it rained really hard! So I got my new camera out and tried to find medieval or roman ghosts on duty on the walls.

but the camera and I did not "communicate in an orderly fashion" as the handbook suggested we should. Oh well, back to reading pages of barely comprehensible advice ...........

Saturday 1 January 2011

All work and no play macht.....

All work and no play makes Jack a dull dog
All dog and no play makes Jack a dull work..
Jack, all work and no play makes a dull dog
Jack a dull dog makes all work and no play
All work and no play makes Jack a dull dog
A work and no play makes Jack a dull dog
All work and no play makes Jack a dull dog
Makes a dull dog, Jack, all work and no play
Work and play all no makes Jack a dull dog
All play and no work makes Jack a dull dog

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