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"I would love to see museums that haven't been devastated do something of this nature as an insurance policy. Just think if could log into say, 2nd life and virtually tour the Louvre ..."

Mission accomplished

Louvre
http://www.louvre.fr/en/visite...

Guggenheim
http://www.guggenheim.org/new-...

National Gallery of Arts
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions...

British Museum
http://www.britishmuseum.org/w...

Smithsonian
http://www.mnh.si.edu/panorama...

The Met
https://www.google.com/cultura...

and so on

I mean, there was the guy who tried to make his own toaster from scratch and it took him a year and it barely worked once. We all depend on information.

Pretty pathetic. If you're determined to make a toaster from scratch, and know nothing about toasters, make one of these. A competent blacksmith can make one in 20 minutes. An amateur might need a couple of afternoons.

Knowing that's what a toaster was for more than two centuries probably counts as information that's hard to acquire without the Internet, nowadays.

But it's not a substitute for effort.

Researchers who've studied creativity define it as an unusual and appropriate solution to a problem. It's easy to get unusual with drugs, but appropriate is more of a challenge.

Creativity presupposes an unsually deep understanding of a problem domain. That's why your weird doodles aren't worth as much as Picasso's. He could do representational art if he wanted to. He drew this when he was twelve years old.

Now in my experience moments of creative inspiration come after you struggle with a problem for a long time, and you've exhausted all the conventional approaches to it. But because inspiration only comes after a struggle doesn't mean it always comes.

In particular you can be derailed by certain distractions. Fear of failure is one. A little bit of fear is healthy, but if you're ruminating about what comes after failure you're off-task. And another thing that takes your brain off-task is wanting to appear creative.

So I wouldn't be surprised if someone who'd put in the blood sweat and tears but wasn't letting his brain get on with the job might benefit from a little chemical help. But I'd be amazed if someone could waltz into an unfamiliar situation, pop a pill, and know what to do.

All TV characters should have e-mail addresses. It's a no-brainer. It makes it possible for the creators of the characters to know exactly what their fans are like and, more importantly, what the fans want the character to be like.

    It keeps the character alive after the TV show expires.

    Personally I believe that figures in great paintings should have websites. Who wouldn't want to write to Simonetta Vespucci for advice on romance? The responders should be older employees who have been semi-retired by their companies.

    This would be most applicable to Japan, where corporations bought Renaissance paintings for elaborate prices in the 1980s and have been keeping hidden away in vaults since then. They also have older employees that they can't fire but allocate no work for them to do, so they just sit at their desks all day. Young people from all over the world could write e-mails to their favorite art painting characters and have them answered by people who have life experience and wisdom. This would be good for everyone. And it's no more weird than people entering MUDs and Second Life programs as an alternative reality.

Underneath it all, Geeks are Romantics, which explains their basic conservatism and penchant for order. In that light, it's surprising that the Geek Art Guide doesn't emphasize the paintings of Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli. Botticelli nearly single-handedly created the modern (that is post-Renaissance; one must think long term when considering the social impact of the fine arts) ideal of a beautiful woman with his stylized paintings of Simonetta Vespucci (1453-1476), the first Italian super-model. She was the inspiration for The Birth of Venus and her image is found in most of his other surviving paintings. Even 550 years later, her beauty stops traffic.

    The best way to approach the fine arts from a Geek perspective is to read some of writings of Camille Paglia; the thinking man's radical lesbian feminist. She is one of the few modern social and art critics that makes any sense and because of that she is despised by the entire politically-correct liberal arts academic community. She is the one who has shown that after the invention of photography, the artist's obsession with feminine beauty created the advertising industry and abandoned painting. Check out the front third of any issue of Vanity Fair and you can believe it. It's like visiting an art museum. Her books on art criticism are dense but worth the effort.

Since when can a guy who comes up with the lyric, "It's getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes!" be considered an artist?

How about some guy who paints someone sitting in some grass on paper like here or perhaps someone who paints some fruit in a bowl like here. How the hell can fruit a bowl be art? Now the line you stated may not be art in of itself, but when tied with all of the songs lyrics and background music it does becomes Nelly's expression of something(not sure what it is though ;). Also, I may dislike it and you may dislike it, but that doesn't mean it is not some form of art.

Since when can a guy who comes up with the lyric, "It's getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes!" be considered an artist?

How about some guy who paints someone sitting in some grass on paper like here or perhaps someone who paints some fruit in a bowl like here. How the hell can fruit a bowl be art? Now the line you stated may not be art in of itself, but when tied with all of the songs lyrics and background music it does becomes Nelly's expression of something(not sure what it is though ;). Also, I may dislike it and you may dislike it, but that doesn't mean it is not some form of art.

My wife selected a few links from her homeschooling bookmarks, where you can find lots of free material:

Homeschool Central - Study Resources
TeacherFeatures.com
Homeschool Support on the Internet
HomeworkCentral.com - Lesson Plans by Subject
NGA: Teaching Resources: Loan Programs
Novel Study Guides for the Classroom Teacher
Outline Maps
100 Top Map Sites
Unit Studies (huge site!)
Lesson Plans & Teacher Helps
Newton's Apple
MathWork -- Math worksheets you can create in your browser
S.C.O.R.E.
homeschooling.about.com
A to Z Home's Cool - Homeschooling Web Site
Jon's Homeschool Resource Page

Born in Leeuwarden, Holland, the son of a civil engineer, Escher spent most of his childhood in Arnhem. Aspiring to be an architect, Escher enrolled in the School for Architecture and Decorative Arts in Haarlem.

Add M.C. Escher to the list of people who got out of architecture and into something better, like Rick White of Pink Floyd.

Abstract Painting, No. 34, 1964

Your tax dollars at work.