Jack Vettriano There's Always Someone Watching You

Jack Vettriano There's Always Someone Watching YouJack Vettriano The Twilight ZoneJack Vettriano The Parlour of TemptationJack Vettriano The British Are Coming
When you see something of value, your brain essentially sees dollar signs, a new study finds.
The effect occurs even if you don't consciously realize the object's worth.
Researchers scanned the brains of subjects who were presented with choices of constantly changing red and green as V1, which is associated with representing basic features such as edge orientations and color.
"When a target had been valuable in the past — if selecting it had had paid off with money — the visual system represented it more strongly," said lead researcher John Serences, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Californiaobjects that represented 10 cents or nothing, with good choices in a gameleading to potential winnings of $10.Upon seeing objects that had been of value previously, brain activity lit up in several areas, including a part of the cortex known

Andrea Mantegna Adoration of the Magi

Andrea Mantegna Adoration of the MagiThomas Moran Entrance to the Grand Canal, VeniceJean Francois Millet The Walk to WorkJean Francois Millet The Angelus
Rincewind could restrain him Twoflower ran around the edge of the pit to the box, which was being dragged across the floor while its lid snapped ineffectually at the tentacle that held it. The little man began to kick at the tentacle in fury. Another one snapped out of the melee around Hrun and caught him around the waist. Hrun himself ...the Eye filled the whole universe in front of him. Rincewind felt his will draining away like water from a sieve.was already an indistinct shape amid the tightening coils. Even as Rincewind stared in horor the Hero's sword was wrenched from his grasp and hurled against a wall."Your spell!" shouted Twoflower.Rincewind did not move. He was looking at the Thing rising out of the pit. It was an enormous eye, and it was staring directly at him. He whimpered as a tentacle fastened itself around his waist. The words of the spell rose unbidden in his throat. He opened his mouth as in a dream, shaping it around the first barbaric syllable. Another tentacle shot out like a whip and coiled around his throat, choking him. Staggering and gasping, Rincewind was dragged across the floor.One flailing arm caught Twoflower's picture box as it skittered past on its tripod. He snatched it up instinctively, as his ancestors might have snatched up a stone when faced with a marauding tiger. If only he could get enough room to swing it against the Eye...

Tamara de Lempicka Portrait of Ira

Tamara de Lempicka Portrait of IraTamara de Lempicka La bella RafaelaTamara de Lempicka Girl in a Green DressTamara de Lempicka Calla Lilies
important, the street was empty. Rincewind sniffed.
"Can you smell oil?" he said.
Then Withel stepped out of the shadows and tripped him up.


At the top of the cellar steps Broadman knelt down and fumbled in his tinderbox. It turned out to be damp.
"I'll kill that bloody cat," he muttered, and groped for the spare box that was normally on the ledge by the door. It was missing. Broadman said a bad word.
A lighted taper appeared in mid-air, right beside him.
HERE, TAKE THIS.
"dared, and drew from his belt the short sword he had taken from the guard a few Thanks," said Broadman.DON'T MENTION IT.Broadman went to throw the taper down the steps. His hand paused in mid-air. He looked at the taper, his brow furrowing. Then he turned around and held the taper up to illuminate the scene. It didn't shed much light, but it did give the darkness a shape..."Oh, no" he breathed.BUT YES, said Death. Rincewind rolled.For a moment he thought Withel was going to spit him where he lay. But it was worse than that. He was waiting for him to get up."I see you have a sword, wizard," he said quietly. "I suggest you rise, and we shall see how well you use it." Rincewind stood up as slowly as he hours and a hundred years ago. It was a short blunt affair

Rene Magritte The Great War

Rene Magritte The Great WarRene Magritte The Empire of LightRene Magritte The Big FamilyRene Magritte Primevere
waterfall at its vast circumference and domed by the baby-blue vault of Heaven.
Astropsychology has been, as yet, unable to establish what they think about.
The Great Turtle was a mere hypothesis until the day the small and secretive kingdom of Krull, whose rim-most mountains project out over the Rimfall, built a gantry and pulley arrangement at the tip of the most precipitous and more powerful gantry was constructed for a deep-space vessel. In the meantime they could only speculate about the revealed cosmos.
There was, for example, the theory that A'Tuin had come from nowhere and would continue at a uniform crawl, or steady gait, into nowhere, for all time. This theory was popular among academics. An alternative, favoured by those of a religious persuasion, was that A'Tuin was crawling from the Birthplcrag and lowered several observers over the Edge in a quartzwindowed brass vessel to peer through the mist veils.The early astrozoologists, hauled back from their long dangle by enormous teams of slaves, were able to bring back much information about the shape and nature of A'Tuin and the elephants but this did not resolve fundamental questions about the nature and purpose of the universe.[1]For example, what was Atuin's actual sex? This vital question, said the Astrozoologists with mounting authority, would not be answered until a larger ace

Albert Bierstadt The Last of the Buffalo

Albert Bierstadt The Last of the BuffaloDante Gabriel Rossetti Venus VerticordiaClaude Monet Haystack at GivernyJean Auguste Dominique Ingres Ingres The Source
Roger was following her example, and Billy Costa was leading the way, being sharper-eyed than most. Soon the snow was falling so thickly that they had to cling on to one another to keep from getting lost, and Lyra thought, perhaps if wedogs? That too was distant and hard to be sure of, blanketed by millions of snowflakes and blown this way and that by little puffing gusts of wind. It might have been the gyptians' sledge dogs, or it might have been wild spirits of the tundra, or even those freed daemons crying for their lost children.
She was seeing things....There weren't any lights in the snow, were there? They must be ghosts as well....Unless they'd come round in a circle, and were stumbling back into Bolvangar. all lie close and keep warm like that...Dig holes in the snow...She was hearing things. There was the snarl of an engine somewhere, not the heavy thump of a zeppelin but something higher like the drone of a hornet. It drifted in and out of hearing.And howling...Dogs? Sledge

Francisco de Goya The Parasol

Francisco de Goya The ParasolBartolome Esteban Murillo Madonna and ChildFrancisco de Zurbaran Still lifeAlbert Bierstadt The Last of the Buffalo
distressing that was to the adult operators. If you remember, we had to discharge quite a number for reasons of stress-related anxiety. But the first big breakthrough was the use of anesthesia combined with the Maystadt anbaric titanium has the property of insulating body from daemon. By the way, what is happening with Lord Asriel?"
"Perhaps you haven't heard," said Mrs. Coulter. "Lord Asriel is under suspended sentence of death. One of the conditions of his exile in Svalbard was that he give up his philosophical work entirely. Unfortunately, he managed to obtain books and materials, and scalpel. We were able to reduce death from operative shock to below five percent.""And the new instrument?" said Mrs. Coulter.Lyra was trembling. The blood was pounding in her ears, and Pantalaimon was pressing his ermine form against her side, and whispering, "Hush, Lyra, they won't do it-we won't let them do it-""Yes, it was a curious discovery by Lord Asriel himself that gave us the key to the new method. He discovered that an alloy of manganese and

John William Waterhouse The Enchanted Garden

John William Waterhouse The Enchanted GardenJohn William Waterhouse Psyche Entering Cupid's GardenJohn William Waterhouse Nymphs Finding the Head of OrpheusJohn William Waterhouse Juliet
Just a sort of toy," said Lyra. "It's mine."
"Yes, we won't take it away from you, dear," said Sister Clara, unfolding the black velvet. "That's pretty, isn't it, like a compass. Into the shower with you," she went on, putting the alethiometer down and whisking back a coal-silk curtain in the corner.
Lyra ."
That wasn't an answer, and whereas Lyra would have pointed that out and asked for more information, she didn't think Lizzie Brooks would; so she assented reluctantly slipped under the warm water and soaped herself while Pantalaimon perched on the curtain rail. They were both conscious that he mustn't be too lively, for the daemons of dull people were dull themselves. When she was washed and dry, the nurse took her temperature and looked into her eyes and ears and throat, and then measured her height and put her on some scales before a clipboard. Then she gave Lyra some pajamas and a dressing gown. They were clean, and of good quality, like Tony Makarios's anorak, but again there was a secondhand air about them. Lyra felt very uneasy."These en't mine," she said."No, dear. Your clothes need a good wash.""Am I going to get my own ones back?""I expect so. Yes, of course.""What is this place?""It's called the Experimental Station

Alphonse Maria Mucha The Judgement of Paris

Alphonse Maria Mucha The Judgement of ParisAlphonse Maria Mucha Savonnerie de BagnoletAlphonse Maria Mucha North Star
Listen, you got to promise not to take vengeance. They done wrong taking it, but you just got to put up with that."
"All right. No vengeance afterwards. But no holding back as I take it, either. If they fight, they die."
"It's hidden in the cellar of the priest's house," she told him. "He thinks there's a spirit in it, and he's been a trying to conjure it out. But that's where it is."
He stood high out, because from her point of view it had vanished behind the rocky headland to the southwest.
He dropped to all fours.
"It's true," he said, with his face now in shadow like hers. "What's your name, child?"
"Lyra Belacqua."
"Then I owe you a debt, Lyra Belacqua," he said.
He turned and lurched away, padding so swiftly across the up on his hind legs and looked west, so that the last of the sun colored his face a creamy brilliant yellow white amid the gloom. She could feel the power of the great creature coming off him like waves of heat."I must work till sunset," he said. "I gave my word this morning to the master here. I still owe a few minutes' work.""The sun's set where I am," she pointed

Edward Hopper Railroad Crossing

Edward Hopper Railroad CrossingEdward Hopper Portrait of OrleansEdward Hopper Pont du Carrousel in the Fog
all, against my inclinations. I'm troubled in my mind about it, but there don't seem to be any alternative. As soon as Jacob's buried according to custom, we'll take our way. You understand me, Lyra: you're a coming too, but it en't , of hiding in damp crabbed closets, of watching a dismal rain-soaked autumn landscape roll past the window, of hiding again, of sleeping near the gas fumes of the engine and waking with a sick headache, and worst of all, of never once being allowed out into the air to run along the bank or clamber over the deck or haul at the lock gates or catch a mooring rope thrown from the lockside.
Because, of course, she had to remain hidden. Tony Costa told her of the gossip an occasion for joy or jubilation. There's trouble and danger ahead for all of us."I'm a putting you under Farder Coram's wing. Don't you be a trouble or a hazard to him, or you'll be a feeling the force of my wrath. Now cut along and explain to Ma Costa, and hold yourself in readiness to leave." The next two weeks passed more busily than any time of Lyra's . Busily, but not quickly, for there were tedious stretches of waiting

Salvador Dali Corpus Hypercubus

Salvador Dali Corpus HypercubusVincent van Gogh View of Arles with Irises IVincent van Gogh Wheatfield with a Lark
By the end of the fourth repetition of the story Lyra was perfectly convinced she did remember it, and even volunteered details of the color of Mr. Coulter's coat and the cloaks and furs hanging in the closet. Ma Costa laughed.point at them, and found that if she held the alethiometer just so in her palms and gazed at it in a particular lazy way, as she thought of it, the long needle
would begin to move more purposefully. Instead of its wayward divagations around the dial it swung smoothly from one picture to another. Sometimes it would pause at three, sometimes two, sometimes five or more, and although she understood nothing of it, And whenever she was alone, Lyra took out the alethiome-ter and pored over it like a lover with a picture of the beloved. So each image had several meanings, did it? Why shouldn't she work them out? Wasn't she Lord Asriel's daughter?Remembering what Farder Coram had said, she tried to focus her mind on three symbols taken at random, and clicked the hands round to

Paul Gauguin Still Life with Three Puppies

Paul Gauguin Still Life with Three PuppiesPaul Gauguin Nave Nave MoePaul Gauguin Manao tupapau
act decisively. Do too much rather than too little. Delays in financial packages have cost a lot already. Further rounds of debate will stoke uncertainty and make things worse.
Second, undo the effects of uncertainty on the portfolio side, and help recycle the funds towards risky assets. The standardthemselves. To caricature: if the world loves American Treasury bills but the funds would be more useful elsewhere, then the government should issue the bills, and use the proceeds to channel the funds where they are needed. It should buy some of the riskier assets, and return some of these funds back to emerging-market countries to offset capital outflows. This is indeed close to what America’s Federal Reserve is now doing with quantitative easing at Home and swap lines to foreign central banks. The only difference is that the Fed issues advice here is to return the private financial sector to health through recapitalisation. That is absolutely right, but easier said than done. And, while damage is slowly repaired, it makes sense for states to recycle part of the funds

James Jacques Joseph Tissot Too Early

James Jacques Joseph Tissot Too EarlyJames Jacques Joseph Tissot Hide and SeekMartin Johnson Heade Orchids and Hummingbird
terrible. She mustn't know that, of course, but there's no reason for her not to know about the problem of Dust. And you might be wrong, Charles; she might well take an interest in it, if it were explained in a simple way. And it might help her later on. It would certainly help me to be less anxious about her."Jordan College was the grandest and richest of all the colleges in Oxford. It was probably the largest, too, though no one knew for certain. The buildings, which were grouped around three irregular quadrangles, dated from every period from the early Middle Ages to the mid-eighteenth century. It had never been planned; it had grown piecemeal, with past and present overlapping at every spot, and the final effect was one of jumbled and squalid grandeur. Some part was always about to fall down, and for five generations the same family, the Parslows, had been employed full time and scaffolders. The present Mr. Parslow was teaching his son the craft; the two of them and their three workmen would scramble like industrious termites over the scaffolding they'd erected at the corner of the library, or over the roof of the chapel
"That's the duty of the old," said the Librarian, "to be anxious on behalf of the young. And the duty of the young is to scorn the anxiety of the old."
They sat for a while longer, and then parted, for it was late, and they were old and anxious.

Tamara de Lempicka Portrait of Ira

Tamara de Lempicka Portrait of IraTamara de Lempicka La bella RafaelaTamara de Lempicka Girl in a Green Dress
Russian," he said. "They're gonna come up all together and at a run. That would be hardest for us, so they'll do that."
"Aim straight," she said.
"I will. And then the fight began. Within a minute the crack of rifles, the whine of ricocheting bullets, the smash of pulverizing rock echoed and rang the length of the mountainside and along the hollow gulch behind. The smell of cordite, and the burning smell that came from the powdered But hell, I don't like taking lives, Hester.""Ours or theirs.""No, it's more than that," he said. "It's theirs or Lyra's. I cain't see how, but we're connected to that child, and I'm glad of it.""There's a man on the left about to shoot," said Hester, and as she spoke, a crack came from his rifle, and chips of stone flew off the boulder a foot from where she crouched. The bullet whined off into the gulch, but she didn't move a muscle."Well, that makes me feel better about doing this," said Lee, and took careful aim.He fired. There was only a small patch of blue to aim at, but he hit it. With a surprised cry the man fell back and died.

Claude Monet The Road Bridge at Argenteuil

Claude Monet The Road Bridge at ArgenteuilClaude Monet The Bridge at ArgenteuilClaude Monet Spring 1880
a swift-rushing swirl of black silk, pale limbs, green pine needles, gray-brown scabby leather. How the witches could keep their balance in the sudden turns and halts and forward darts, let alone aim and shoot, was beyond Will's a responding thrill in the nerves of anyone close by.
Then the witch turned to Will, and he felt the same tingle of intensity, but like Lyra he controlled his expression. He still had the knife in his hand, and she saw what he'd done with itunderstanding.Another cliff-ghast and then a third fell in the stream or on the rocks nearby, stark dead; and then the rest fled, skirling and cluttering into the dark toward the north.A few moments later Serafina Pekkala landed with her own witches and with another: a beautiful witch, fierce-eyed and black-haired, whose cheeks were flushed with anger and excitement.The new witch saw the headless cliff-ghast and spat."Not from our world," she said, "nor from this. Filthy abominations. There are thousands of them, breeding like flies… Who is this? Is this the child Lyra? And who is the boy?"Lyra returned her gaze stolidly, though she felt a quickening of her heart, for Ruta Skadi lived so brilliantly in her nerves that she set up

Edward Hopper Sunday

Edward Hopper SundayAmedeo Modigliani Reclining NudePierre Auguste Renoir Dance at Bougival I
carefully estimated the distance, closed that window, stepped forward four paces, and held up the knife again. If he was right, he'd be in exactly the right spot to reach through, cut through the glass in the cabinet, take out the alethiometer and close the window behind him.
He cut a window at of the wrong one? But on the top shelf was that bulky instrument with the brass rings: he'd made a point of noticing that. And on the shelf in the middle, where Sir Charles had placed the alethiometer, there was a space. This was the right cabinet, and the alethiometer wasn't there.
Will stepped back a moment and took a deep breath.
He'd have to go through properly and look around. Opening windows here and there at random would take all night. He closed the window in front of the cabinet, opened the right height. The glass of the cabinet door was only a handsbreadth in front of it. He put his face close, looking intently at this shelf and that, from top to bottom.The alethiometer wasn't there.At first Will thought he'd got the wrong cabinet. There were four of them in the room. He'd counted that morning, and memorized where they were—tall square cases made of dark wood, with glass sides and fronts and velvet-covered shelves, made for displaying valuable objects of porcelain or ivory or gold. Could he have simply opened a window in front

Thomas Kinkade Pools of Serenity

Thomas Kinkade Pools of SerenityThomas Kinkade Make a Wish Cottage 2Thomas Kinkade Home For Christmas
and I bet he's got a whole lot bigger house than we have. And probably a safe, too. So even if we did get into his house, we'd never find it in time before the police came."
She hung her head. It was all true.
"What we going to do then?" she said.
He didn't answer. But it was we, for certain. He was bound to her now, whether he liked it or not.
He walked to the are. That'll be a start."
Without another word he went inside and put the letters under the pillow in the room he'd slept in. Then, if he were caught, they'd never have them.
Lyra was waiting on the terrace, with Pantalaimon perched on her shoulder as a sparrow. She was looking more cheerful.water's edge, and back to the terrace, and back to the water again. He beat his hands together, looking for an answer, but no answer came, and he shook his head angrily."Just… go there," he said. "Just go there and see him. It's no good asking your scholar to help us, either, not if the police have been to her. She's bound to believe them rather than us. At least if we get into his house, we'll see where the main rooms

Leroy Neiman Gaylord Perry

Leroy Neiman Gaylord PerryLeroy Neiman Gaming TableLeroy Neiman Funny Cide
it's in Hampshire. My class is doing a sort of residential field trip. Kind of environmental study research skills."
"Oh, I see. What was it you wanted?… Archaeology?… Here we are."
Will copied down the address and phone number, and since it was safe to admit he didn't know Oxford, asked where to find it. It wasn't far away. He thanked the librarian and set off.

Inside the building Lyra found a wide desk at the foot of the stairs, with a porter behind it.
"Where back to his newspaper.
The alethiometer didn't tell Lyra people's names, of course. She had read the name Dr. Lister off a pigeonhole on the wall behind him, because if you pretend you know someone, they're more likely to let you in. In some ways Lyra knew Will's world better than he did.are you . She felt Pan, in her pocket, enjoying it."I got a message for someone on the second floor," she said."Who?""Dr. Lister," she said."Dr. Lister's on the third floor. If you've got something for him, you can leave it here and I'll let him know.""Yeah, but this is something he needs right now. He just sent for it. It's not a thing actually, it's something I need to tell him."He looked at her carefully, but he was no match for the bland and vacuous docility Lyra could command when she wanted to; and finally he nodded and went

Leroy Neiman Touchdown

Leroy Neiman TouchdownLeroy Neiman Tony LaRussa Manager of the YearLeroy Neiman The Three Tenors
anything else he'd seen so far. Lyra laughed at his astonishment.
"He—but he spoke! Do all daemons talk?" Will said.
"'Course they do!" said Lyra. "Did you think he was just a pet?"
Will rubbed his hair and blinked. Then he shook his head. "No," he said, addressing Pantalaimon. "You're right, I think. They don't know "Because you can't go and talk to people in my world looking like that; they wouldn't let you near them. You got to look as if you fit in. You got to go about camouflaged. I know, see. I've been doing it for years. You better listen to me or you'll get caught, and if they finabout it.""So we better be careful how we go through," Pantalaimon said.It was strange for only a moment, talking to a mouse. Then it was no more strange than talking into a telephone, because he was really talking to Lyra. But the mouse was separate; there was something of Lyra in his expression, but something else too. It was too hard to work out, when there were so many strange things happening at once. Will tried to bring his thoughts together."You got to find some other clothes first," he said to Lyra, "before you go into my Oxford.""Why?" she said stubbornly.d

Paul Cezanne Vase with Flowers

Paul Cezanne Vase with FlowersPaul Cezanne The Black ClockPaul Cezanne Still Life with Onions
thought was that if you, maybe just once a year, if we could come here at the same time, just for an hour or something, then we could pretend we were close again, because we would be close, if you sat here and I sat just here in my world...”
"Yes," he said, "was whispering shakily, "if we meet someone that we like, and if we marry them, then we must be good to them, and not make comparisons all the time and wish we were married to each other instead...But just keep up this coming here once a year, just for an hour, just to be together..."
They held each other tightly. Minutes passed; a waterbird on the river beside them stirred and called; the occasional car moved over Magdalen Bridge.
Finally they drew apart.
"Well," said Lyra softly.as long as I live, I'll come back. Wherever I am in the world, I'll come back here...”"On Midsummer Day," she said. "At midday. As long as I live. As long as I live..."He found himself unable to see, but he let the hot tears flow and just held her close."And if we, later on, " she

Henri Rousseau The Snake Charmer

Henri Rousseau The Snake CharmerHenri Rousseau The DreamPaul Cezanne Mount Sainte Victoire
Mary couldn't sleep. Every time she closed her eyes, something made her sway and lurch as if she were at the brink of a precipice, and she snapped awake, tense with fear.
This happened three, four, five times, until she realized that sleep was not going to come; so she got up and dressed quietly, , Mary thought, like the migration of some herd of unimaginable beasts. But animals migrated for a purpose; when you saw herds of reindeer moving across the tundra, or wildebeest crossing the savanna, you knew they were going where the food was, or to places where it was good to mate and bear offspring. Their movement had a meaning. These clouds were moving as the result of pure chance, the effect of utterly random events at the level and stepped out of the house and away from the tree with its tentlike branches under which Will and Lyra were sleeping.The moon was bright and high in the sky. There was a lively wind, and the great landscape was mottled with cloud-shadows, moving