View allAll Photos Tagged Intellection
The solidly built gate, proved no match to the superior intellect, size, and, strength of Super Squirrel. He's also able to bring a smile, maybe just a little one, to those who need it.
I was following this hawk as he moved from one tree to another and on to a third near the water. I was using a monopod. I figured the bird would eventually head out over the water and set up for that. The hawk got ready to jump but rather than going to the water she/he headed toward me, landing in the grass less than 20 feet away from me! The hawk rummaged through the grass for a few seconds and then took off. During all of this action I am fumbling with the monopod, trying not to pole vault down the hill. The solution was to rotate the camera 45 degrees or so. The struggle yielded poor quality images except for this as the bird leaves with the hapless vole/mouse. I couldn't straighten the image without losing some of the bird so I left it uncropped with just a bit of sharpening and levels. Next time I will not try to out think a superior intellect.
'I' am not Mind, and not dependent on its power
Mind is just a tool through which I manifest myself.
'I' am not servant of Mind, but its Master
Intellect, behaviour, conduct, desire and all other mental faculties
can be separated from 'I' and what that remains is 'I'
'I' am unborn, immortal, homogeneous
'I' am the power, 'I' exist...
- Anuj Nair
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© 2010 Anuj Nair. All rights reserved.
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© 2010 Anuj Nair. All rights reserved.
All images and poems are the property of Anuj Nair.
Using these images and poems without permission is in violation of international copyright laws (633/41 DPR19/78-Disg 154/97-L.248/2000). All materials may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, republished, downloaded, displayed, posted or transmitted in any forms or by any means,including electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording without written permission of Anuj Nair. Every violation will be pursued penally.
This is my old Texas Tech friend Mike Flanagan from Lubbock. He was half Louisiana Irish and half Mexican Indian. He taught me chess and the proper way to load and smoke a pipe. He also introduced me to the music of Gustav Mahler, and got me to read THE MASTER AND MARGARITA by Mikhail Bulgakov and A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ by Walter M. Miller, Jr. He said he hated Texas, but after a couple of hours in Denton, he said Denton was the exception. He'd love to live here. He later joined the US Army, and I haven't heard from him in years. He was a brilliant man with a varied and imaginative intellect. I hope he prospered.
Ganesha also known as Ganapati and Vinayaka, is one of the best-known and most worshipped deities in the Hindu pantheon in India!
Although he is known by many attributes, Ganesha's elephant head makes him easy to identify.
Ganesha is widely revered as the remover of obstacles,the patron of arts and sciences and the deva of intellect and wisdom.
As the god of beginnings, he is honoured at the start of rituals and ceremonies.
Clicked in Global Village, Dubai, UAE
History
The John Rogers who bought Riverhill in 1840 was an only child, with a modest fortune, and a fine intellect. He became a classics scholar, a scientist and a friend of Charles Darwin. He was one of the first members of the Royal Horticultural Society and a patron of the plant collectors of the day.
He chose Riverhill because its sheltered situation offered an ideal lime free hillside where he could hope to establish newly introduced trees and shrubs. From his garden notebook, it can be seen that planting started in 1842. Subsequent generations, continued the planting and in 1910 Colonel John Middleton Rogers created what is now known as ‘The Wood Garden’ a fine collection of Japanese Maples, Rhododendrons and Azaleas. His wife, the infamous Muriel, created many additions including the now hidden Rock Gardens.
Until the beginning of the 2nd World War, eight full time gardeners kept Riverhill looking immaculate. Since the war years, however, a shortage of manpower and a lack of money has meant that the garden was allowed to deteriorate, with many parts of the original planting lost to everyday use and visitors.
Today, four generations of the Rogers family live at Riverhill,
The estate is managed by Edward Rogers (Great-great-great-grandson of the John Rogers who bought Riverhill in 1840) and his wife, Sarah.
Name: Slade Joseph Wilson
Gender: Male
DOB: n/a
Status: Active
Meta-Human Abilities:
High Agility
Blood Control
Danger Sensing
Fast Healing
Super Hearing
Super Sight
Super Smell
Super Strength
Non-Meta Abilities:
Escape Artist
High Intellect
Leadership Qualifications
Longevity
Expert Marksmanship
High Stamina
Stealth
Expert Swordsmanship
Expert Tracking
Unarmed Combat
Weapon Master
Notes:
As a solider for the US Army, Wilson trained under his commanding officer, Captain Adeline Kane, and quickly amazed her, demonstrating he was an expert in combat and had impressive talents and skills. Wilson was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel to then, some time later, begin a romantic relationship with Captain Adeline to later have a son with her.
The Army requested Slade to volunteer for a secret medical experiment that was said to be a defense against the enemy's Truth Serum. Wilson complied. (It was later uncovered as an attempt to create metahuman super-soldiers).
Wilson's body reacted violently to the experiment, leaving him aggressive and enraged, and he needed to remain sedated and bedridden through the birth of his second son.
Only later would Slade discover that the experiment had worked and actually enhanced his strenght, speed, senses, stamina, intellect and reflexes beyond that of any ordinary man.
Additionally, William Randolph Wintergreen, a lifelong friend, was sent on a suicide mission and was captured. Wilson put together a costume and went on an unauthorized solo mission to save his friend. In the end he failed to save Wintergreen, and was discharged from the army for disobeying orders. Fed up with the army and its code of blind loyalty. Currently “Deathstroke The Terminator”, works as a global mercenary for hire.
Additional Notes:
Deathstroke was recruited to Task Force X effective (4-23-15)
Criminal Record Revoked Upon Leave
Ted Kord is the second hero to call himself Blue Beetle. He is the successor to Dan Garrett and the predecessor to Jaime Reyes.
Garrett was Ted's mentor and he vowed to take up the crime-fighting legacy. When he found himself unable to activate the Blue Beetle Scarab he turned to science and martial arts instead.
Ted is a scientific and engineering genius. He puts his inventions to public use through Kord Enterprises. He has been a member of Justice League International, the Living Assault Weapons and the Birds of Prey.
His most enduring partnership is with his best friend Booster Gold.
Ted Kord has no superpowers; he possesses a genius-level intellect, with an IQ of 192.
He iss proficient in numerous sciences such as chemistry, physics, engineering, aircraft, and solar tech, as well as an understanding of alien tech.
Despero once claimed that Ted's mind was second only to that of J'onn J'onzz. Former Justice League teammate Guy Gardner claims that Ted was smarter than Batman, "although nobody ever noticed".
Kord is an Olympic-level acrobat and skilled hand-to-hand combatant, having studied in the martial arts of karate and aikido. Dick Grayson stated that Ted was very adept physically, to the point where he was almost ambidextrous. He is also highly skilled in espionage.
Kord is best known for the crime fighting equipment he has invented. He created numerous gadgets, including suction pads, sight-enhancing lenses, and a protective costume.
To prevent being forcibly unmasked, especially if rendered unconscious, Kord's cowl had a lock mechanism that only opened when he touched the mask under his jaw with a chip in his glove, which would at least force an enemy to perform the more troublesome task of cutting through the material to unmask him.
He also created a power armor suit for his friend Booster Gold. The suit contained a fully functioning artificial arm and also provided life-support for Booster as he recovered from potentially fatal injuries. He later converted a suit of alien power armor for Booster to use.
His BB gun was a handheld weapon that could blind villains with a flash of light, or knock them back with a compressed air blast capable of felling a charging rhino.
The original BB gun was designed with a security feature so that it would function only when the Blue Beetle held it, becoming inactive without contact with special circuitry in the Beetle costume's gloves. The BB gun is solar powered.
Blue Beetle's airship, the "Bug", contains high tech equipment, can electrify or magnetize its hull, fire electrical energy, and fly at 600 mph. All models had booster jets hidden under the shell of the Bug. The boosters on the first two models could speed the Bug up to the speed of sound for a short period of time; no time limit was ever given for how long the burst lasted.
Later models of the boosters were used for intercontinental travel at supersonic speed. It was also 90% solar powered. Later models also had energy weapons of various types, from lasers to plasma. The last two models were capable of reaching orbit and all models could operate underwater. No depth was ever given that they could go to, but one model Bug was seen operating on the sea floor after going through an underwater volcano.
All models were remotely controllable from controls built into Kord's gloves.
He also built flight pads similar to Mister Miracle's flight discs used throughout the entire Extreme Justice run and claimed to Barbara Gordon that he could keep the Birds of Prey jet flying 24-7 with technology based on the Darkseid's Mother Boxes.
⚡ Happy 🎯 Heroclix 💫 Friday! 👽
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A year of the shows and performers of the Bijou Planks Theater.
Secret Identity: Ted Kord
Publisher: DC
First appearance: Captain Atom 83 (November 1966)
Created by: Steve Ditko
Although the terminal has been officially called "Grand Central Terminal" since the present structure opened, it has "always been more colloquially and affectionately known as Grand Central Station", a name of one of the earlier railroad stations on the same site.
Grand Central Terminal is the most extraordinary public space in New York City. Opened to the public in 1913, this historic train terminal is a world-famous landmark in Midtown. Its rich history is a story of immense wealth and great engineering. Grand Central is one of the busiest train stations in the world, with approximately 750,000 visitors every day.
"Transportation" designed by Jules Alexis Coulan of Paris (1914), the statues around the clock on Grand Central’s south face represent Mercury, Hercules and Minerva, all considered apt gods to represent the railroads with their attributes of speed, strength and intellect.
At the time, this was considered the largest group of sculptures in the world, at 48 feet (14.6m) high.
The French artist Jules-Alexis Coutan was responsible for the design of the sculpture (known as “Transportation”). However, M. Coutan never visited the US, and the sculptures were carved by the John Donnelly company.
The genesis of this idea came in an amazing music video from Max Richter's "On the Nature of Daylight". The central character here is a woman played by Elizabeth Moss, who is truly outstanding. Watch her face as she seems to be enduring an inner torment that finally dissolves her completely. Notice what happens to the focus. And of course that music simply grabs your heart and MAKES you feel her pain. www.youtube.com/watch?v=InyT9Gyoz_o
Wendy Mass (born 1967), a children's writer, wrote the memorable line: "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about." But in various forms it is a saying that has persisted through the ages and is attributed to the great philosopher Plato (perhaps the greatest intellect who ever lived). It is good advice and not surprising then, that it has persisted for over 2,500 years.
So please be kind...
There is a road from the eye to heart that does not go through the intellect.
Gilbert K. Chesterton
Una delle tante strade del mondo
C'è una strada che va dall'occhio al cuore, senza passare per la ragione
Gilbert K. Chesterton
Girl with Ball is a 1961 painting by Roy Lichtenstein. It is an oil on canvas Pop art work that is now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, after being owned for several decades by Philip Johnson. It is one of Lichtenstein's earliest Pop art works and is known for its source, which is a newspaper ad that ran for several decades and which was among Lichtenstein's earliest works sourced from pop culture.
Girl with Ball was exhibited at Lichtenstein's first solo exhibition and was displayed in Newsweek's review of the show. This work significantly alters the original source and is considered exemplary of Lichtenstein's works that exaggerate the mechanically produced appearance although the result of his painterly work. It is an enduring depiction of the contemporary beauty figure.
Girl with Ball was inspired by a 1961 advertisement for the Mount Airy Lodge in the Pocono Mountains. The ad, which started running in 1955, was widely published in the New York metropolitan area and elsewhere, including several prominent newspapers such as The New York Times and the Daily News. The advertisement was still running in newspapers more than twenty years after Lichtenstein produced the work.
According to the Lichtenstein Foundation website, in autumn 1961, a fellow teacher at Rutgers University named Allan Kaprow made introductions between Lichtenstein and Leo Castelli Gallery director Ivan Karp. Lichtenstein showed Karp several paintings including Girl with Ball, which was the one that intrigued Karp. Karp agreed to represent Lichtenstein weeks later. After showing the painting to Andy Warhol, he sold it to architect Philip Johnson that November. The painting appeared in Newsweek's 1962 review of Lichtenstein's Castelli Gallery show. The work appeared in the April 3, 1963 "Pop! Goes the Easel" show at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston along with his Brattata (1962) and Head-Red and Yellow (1962).
Girl with Ball depicts a woman wearing a bathing suit holding a beach ball with red stripes in the same color as her lips and tongue. Lichtenstein used a painter's version of comic strip artist techniques to create his own rendition of the subject of a nostalgic photograph, resulting in a simplified work of art with its own appeal. He produced the work using Ben-Day dots of primary colors. The process is described as exaggerating the "limitations of mechanical reproduction" to strip the photograph of its polish in a startling and intense form. In 1961, this painting was groundbreaking. Facial features such as nose and mouth are depicted using "commercial shorthand".
His process of reworking original artwork is described as "abstraction by subtraction", in which all features of the original are reduced to simple graphic elements. Lichtenstein alters the planar position of the subject of the picture to position her "nearer to the picture plane". He drew the picture more distorted than might be expected of a cartoonist by augmenting and focusing on her two-dimensionality.
The image and technique were regarded as unartistic. However, the painting presented an allusion to printing technology, with its Ben-Day dots, and to art history, with its "Art Nouveau forms". Though "crude and simplistic" the work demonstrates artistic intellect.
Girl with Ball is described by Diane Waldman as "striking" in the simple and bold way it presents a vacation atmosphere. She notes it is "reminiscent of Picasso's frolicking bather in one of his paintings on the subject, Bather with Beach Ball, 1932," especially in the way Lichtenstein has scaled down the representation and the way he depicts movement.
The newspaper ad source provided Lichtenstein with "one of the most common tropes of the day for the image of a woman." The updated Betty Grable-type subject, was a fashionable glamor figure that Lichtenstein used for a symbolic value that ranks her with "iconoclastic female figures, including Manet's Olympia, 1863, Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907 and de Kooning's three series of Women"
"Worry about a girl, eh ? Hah ! If they think they can cut me off from where the action is, they're mistaken ! I restyled this motorbike for just such an emergency !"
('Batgirl' and motorcycle by DC Collectibles / DC Icons 'Batgirl of Burnside' Deluxe Figure)
Spirit is Substance, matter is accident: that is to say that matter is but a contingent and transitory modality of the radiation of the Spirit which projects the worlds and the cycles while remaining transcendent and immutable.
This radiation produces the polarisation into subject and object: matter is the final point of the descent of the objective pole, sensorial consciousness being the corresponding subjective phenomenon.
For the senses, the object is matter, or let us say the perceptible physical domain; for the Intellect, objective reality is the Spirit in all its forms. It is by it that we exist, and that we know; were it not immanent in physical substances these could not exist for one instant.
And in this Spirit precisely the subject-object opposition is resolved; it is resolved in the Unity which is at once exclusive and inclusive, transcendent and immanent. The alpha as well as the omega, while transcending us infinitely, reside in the depths of our heart.
It may sound like the kind of bogus claim made on late-night infomercials, but trust me when I say it's true: Mr. Brown Pelican's violations of the rules of decency are so goofy they beggar belief. But first, I'm going to jump ahead a bit and talk in general terms about how Mr. Pelican has an amazing ability to disengage his intellect. Then, I'll back up and fill in some of the details. Okay, so to start with the general stuff, Mr. Pelican's supercilious, twisted asseverations have caused the most self-deceiving analphabetics you'll ever see to descend upon us like a swarm of locusts, destroying our moral fiber. Yet there's much more to it than that. His occasional demonstrations of benevolence are not genuine. Nor are Mr. Pelican's promises. In fact, he uses cannibalism to cover up his criminal ineptitude. That's the large elephant in the room that nobody ever talks about. Nevertheless, I unquestionably maintain that people really ought to start talking about it because then they'd realize that Mr. Pelican makes a lot of exaggerated claims. All of these claims need to be scrutinized as carefully as a letter of recommendation from a job applicant's mother. Consider, for example, Mr. Pelican's claim that all any child needs is a big dose of television every day. The fact of the matter is that I profess that the best way to overcome misunderstanding, prejudice, and hate is by means of reason, common sense, clear thinking, and goodwill. Mr. Pelican, in contrast, believes that all it takes to start a rabbit farm is a magician's magic hat.
Riddle us this: what cerebral criminal with an affinity for purple and green loves challenging the Dark Knight with cleverly calculated crimes and puzzling plots?
One of the Dark Knight's most infamous villains, Edward Nygma enjoys flaunting his intellectual superiority by conducting crimes and leaving clues for Batman to piece together. While this habit constantly leads to the aptly named Riddler failing in his criminal endeavors, his puzzle-problem actually stems not only from his own narcissism and ego, but also from a deep-seeded psychological compulsion. Because of this, the Riddler often finds himself a resident of Arkham Asylum following his inevitable capture.
Possessing a genius-level intellect, the Riddler creates elaborate, sometimes Rube Goldberg-esque traps, and is even willing to use innocent civilians as bait. Although not physically imposing, the Riddler's brilliance, neurosis and lack of empathy make him an incredibly dangerous foe. He cares very little—if at all—about the lives of those he uses in his plots and instead only sees them as disposable pawns in his continuing intellectual battle against Batman.
Edward Nygma is the Riddler, a master strategist who incorporates riddles into his crimes in Gotham City, making him an enemy of its protector Batman.
Golden Age
The origin story recounts Edward Nigma's fascination with puzzles from a young age. After a teacher announces that a contest will be held over who can solve a puzzle the fastest, Nigma sets his sights on winning this, craving the glory and satisfaction that will come with the victory. He breaks into the school at night to practice the puzzle until he is able to solve it in under a minute. Due to this he wins the contest and is given a book of riddles as a prize. His cheating rewarded, Edward embraced the mastery of puzzles of all kinds, eventually becoming a carnival employee who excelled at cheating his customers out of their money with his bizarre puzzles and mind games. He soon finds himself longing for greater challenges and thrills and dons the disguise of the "Riddler" to challenge Batman, believing him to be a worthy adversary. In his first encounter with the Dynamic Duo, Riddler first tried to confound the crime-fighters with his infamous double-entry Riddle Clues and then tried to kill them both in a booby-trapped glass maze on a pier, sealing the door so they couldn't leave the structure before it exploded, only for Batman and Robin to escape and the Riddler "vanishing" after getting knocked into the sea by the explosion, leaving only his trademark "?" floating in the water.
Post Crisis on Infinite Earths
Origin
Before the Mask
Ed Nygma, Wayne Enterprises employee
Before the first appearance "the Batman", Edward Nygma was the trusted strategist of Philip Kane, Bruce Wayne's uncle and the CEO of Wayne Enterprises during Wayne's absence, despite Nygma having what was described as a "questionable past".
When Bruce Wayne returned to Gotham and threatened to uproot all the shady plans Nygma had for Wayne Enterprises, Nygma sent the Red Hood Gang after the prodigal son, only for the assassination attempt to fail. His position at Wayne Enterprises now compromised, Nygma departed to begin his endgame for Gotham, giving his boss Philip Kane his resignation in the form of trapping him in his office with a magnet.
"Zero Year"
Having strategically calculated his plans for Gotham, Nygma, donning the alias "the Riddler", cut the power throughout the entire city, telling the people that they would need to get smart or die. As the lights darkened in Gotham, Riddler kicked off what would later be called "Zero Year". Working with a vengeful scientist named Karl Helfern, Riddler sat back as Helfern collected all the materials needed to bring the city to its knees. While Helfern's motives were to hurt Wayne Enterprises, Riddler's motives were to make the city of Gotham smarter - to eradicate those that dumbed down the human race.
Riddler's beginning
As Batman was distracted with Dr. Helfern, Riddler used the time to further the survival challenge he initiated in Gotham by blowing up the retaining walls around Gotham. The approaching hurricane that the city had been preparing for was now unchallenged, and the streets immediately flooded with several feet of water. Using a special chemical developed by Dr. Pamela Isley, Riddler hastened the growth of plants throughout the city - now a dark, savage jungle under Riddler's thumb.
Working with Lieutenant Gordon and Lucius Fox, Batman discovered the Riddler's location after multiple difficult tasks to find his broadcasting spot, tracking him to the Gotham Museum. Finally coming face-to-face, Riddler challenged Batman one last time by demanding he answer twelve riddles. Batman went along with it for a bit, afraid that the villain would detonate weather balloons throughout the city if he did not play along, but ultimately punched Riddler in the face before the mastermind had a chance to ask all his questions. Turning the power back on, Riddler's reign was ended. Nygma, deemed too dangerous for the usual Blackgate Penitentiary, was put in a straight jacket and detained at Arkham Asylum.
The War of Jokes and Riddles
Riddler vs. Joker
After having been imprisoned for about a year following the Zero Year, the Riddler had become a tool for the GCPD whenever they found themselves stumped during an investigation until the day he finally escaped, threatening every guard on his way out of his cell by simply reciting the names of all of their loved ones. Hearing about a seemingly inconsistent string of murders committed by the Joker, the Riddler visited the clown, telling him he deduced that the Joker had lost his ability to laugh and suggested teaming up to take down Batman would be just what he needed. However, the Joker didn't find this offer funny and shot Nygma in the stomach, beginning the event that would later be called, "the War of Jokes and Riddles".
Recruiting every supervillain in Gotham they could, Joker and Riddler both amassed small armies to fight one another, leaving Batman and the rest of the city caught in the middle. For weeks the two sides fought, with Batman unable to contain the casualties caused by both armies; the Bat was forced to ally himself with one side in order to first defeat the other. Batman chose to work with the Riddler, despite Nygma having murdered Kite-Man's young son in a power play, in order to track down the Joker and finally end the war.
In the final confrontation with the clown, after Batman had inevitably betrayed him, Riddler surrendered and revealed that every move of the war - even Kite-Man's involvement - was orchestrated by him as a means to solve the ultimate riddle - how to make the Joker laugh again. Batman, furious over all the civilian casualties, attempted to stab the Riddler with a kitchen knife, only for Nygma to be saved by the Joker himself, an act that was so surprising that Joker regained his ability to laugh. The two criminals were both arrested and taken to Arkham Asylum.
Other Early Crimes
Sometime not long after the War, Joker and Riddler returned to the streets and put their past transgressions behind them. They, along with the Penguin and Catwoman, were contacted by the Designer - a new criminal in Gotham who volunteered to make their wildest schemes a reality. The Riddler agreed to the deal and asked the Designer for unlimited access to deathtraps to use against the Gotham City police. However, the Joker caused the whole deal to fall apart and seemingly killed the Designer, and the villains burned down his base to leave no trace.
At some point, Edward fathered a daughter known as Enigma. Later, perceiving her as less intelligent than himself, he attempted to kill her, though he was unsuccessful.
Nygma would later be returned to Arkham.
New 52
Death of the Family
The Strategist
With the Joker's return to Gotham, sporting his own cut-off face as a mask after a yearlong absence, the clown prince took over Arkham and began to spruce it up in anticipation of Batman's arrival. Nygma, still in his cell, asked Joker to let him out using the keycard of a dead guard. Considering Riddler to be a useful ally, Joker decided to challenge the Riddler in order to make sure he was at the top of his game for when Batman arrived. Tossing a toxic gas capsule into his cell, Joker told Riddler that, in order to survive, the mastermind had to figure out a way to get himself out of the cell. Without a problem, Riddler succeeded in his escape, using only one of the multiple ways he had thought of in advance, and joined Joker in his plan, being given the title of "strategist" in Joker's royal interpretation of Batman's rogues gallery.
After the Joker's defeat, Riddler was taken back to his cell in Arkham.
Forever Evil
When the Crime Syndicate arrived on Earth, the team of super-criminals liberated Riddler, as well as all the other villains around the country, after seemingly killing the Justice League. Nygma, taking advantage of his freedom, immediately invaded the Wayne Enterprises building in order to kill a security guard who had denied him a pack of cards five years ago. Alone in Wayne Tower, having defeated all the advanced security systems of the building, Riddler opened up a pack of cards and played solitaire, waiting for Batman to eventually return.
Endgame
During Joker's endgame, Riddler remained in his cell in Arkham Manor while the rest of the city was infected by Joker's mind control toxin.
When the city was saved and Batman was seemingly killed, the inmates were shipped off, and Wayne Manor was restored to Bruce Wayne, who was trying to restart his life after receiving amnesia during the Joker attack. However, Riddler, Clayface, and Mister Freeze secretly remained behind and ambushed Wayne as he attempted to move back in, hellbent on ruining his life the same way he ruined theirs by funding Batman. The villains were eventually foiled by the new Batman, and Riddler was brought back to the newly renovated Arkham Asylum.
Mockingbird
Using the alias Mockingbird, the Riddler gathered a group of six villains and trapped them aboard a sinking container.
Fighting the Flash
Another formidable opponent - the Flash
Sometime during his stay in Arkham Asylum, Nygma became interested in how to stop the Flash, considering him a new and formidable opponent. After a breakout, Nygma gained possession of the Flash villain Heat Wave after he had been left for dead in Gotham during the the Crime Syndicate's invasion. Next, the mastermind donated an army of "protection" drones to Central City through a collection of shell companies and waited until the police force fell right into his trap by activating them throughout the city. Finally, maneuvering public opinion against the Flash, Riddler secretly convinced the police force to allow the Rogues to arrest its city's hero, under the pretense that he was a threat.
When the Flash was finally captured, the Riddler revealed himself and took control of the drones that had been sent to patrol the city, threatening to use them to kill anybody if the Flash activated his powers. After the Flash was saved by Pied Piper from police custody, Nygma announced that, if the Flash did not reveal his secret identity to the world, he would destroy Central City by using Heat Wave, his hostage, as a human-nuke. Working together with the Rogues, who felt betrayed by the Riddler, the Flash defeated Nygma and the drones and handed him over to the Central City police to be taken back to Gotham.
Rebirth
I Am Bane
Riddler assisted Bane in unlocking a high tech door in Arkham, allowing him access to confront Batman.
Defiance, The Society
Riddler placed Deathstroke on trial for appearing to have reformed, and using Hector Hammond's abilities, he convinces the Secret Society of Super-Villains that Deathstroke is indeed evil by showcasing a simulation of the assassin killing them all right before Deathstroke himself is kidnapped.
Doomsday Clock
During the Doomsday Clock, the Riddler held an underground meeting with several supervillains to talk about the Superman Theory, but the meeting was crashed by the Comedian, who shoots Riddler in the leg.
Death Metal
After Batman accidentally unleashed an ancient evil from the Dark Multiverse, one of the cross-dimensional Dark Knights called the Batman Who Laughs came to Gotham and offered some of its villains metal Joker cards that could give them powers to bend reality. Riddler, serving time in Arkham Asylum, was personally handed a card by the Batman. Riddler used his new power to create a labyrinth around the city, acting as its first line of defense against heroes who wanted to reclaim it. His compulsion to tell riddles was again his downfall though when he was defeated by the newly formed Gotham Resistance.
Infinite Frontier
The Hill
A former mob hitman known as "Mr. Fun" went on a killing spree across The Hill, a lower-class neighbourhood in Gotham. The Riddler deduced the "Hill Ripper's" true identity, but rather than report it to the police he instead decided to plant riddles at the crime scene which would lead to an elaborate scavenger hunt ending at the killer's house. However, the GCPD could not solve the Riddles and, as they were no longer cooperating with Batman, the Dark Knight never found out about them. The Batgirls stumbled across his trail of clues, but rather than play his game they just trailed his henchman Killer Moth back to the Hill Ripper's hideout. He revealed the killer's true identity and escaped, but before he left he told Stephanie Brown that her father the Cluemaster was alive.
Skills and abilities
The Riddler is a criminal genius capable of extraordinary lateral thinking in decoding and formulating puzzles of all kinds. As a private detective during the time he was reformed, he demonstrated investigative skills that rival those of the Dark Knight. However, Batman's observations note that "[Nigma] exhibits personality disorders consistent with a fanatic narcissist, egocentrism, and megalomania crossed with severe obsessive compulsion".
Like most of Batman's enemies (and Batman himself), the Riddler has no superhuman abilities but is a highly cunning criminal strategist. He is not especially talented in fisticuffs (although his endurance has grown from having to engage in it over the years), but sometimes employs weaponry that exploits his gimmick, such as exploding jigsaw pieces, question-mark-shaped pistols, and his infamous question-mark staff, known to house a wide variety of technological devices and weapons. He is shown to be skilled with engineering and technology, having confronted Batman and Robin with unique and elaborate deathtraps. He is also well known for being Batman's most intelligent adversary, and with a flexible theme to his crimes compared to similar criminals: all the Riddler requires is to be able to describe his threatened crime with a riddle or puzzle. Riddler once tried to commit crimes without leaving any clues using self hypnosis; however, he learned too late that while he was asleep his unconscious mind left riddling clues, causing Batman and Robin to capture him. Riddler has a grudging respect for Batman in that he is the only adversary that has a intellectual genius equal to the Riddler; in the episode of Batman the animated series titled "What is Reality"? Riddler came close to defeating Batman once and for all; when Batman was forced to engage in a mind battle of the intellect versus the Riddler after Riddler "captured" Jim Gordon's mind in a virtual reality computer, Batman not only saved Gordon but also gave Riddler a riddle of his own: How could Riddler spread his consciousness 32 times more than Batman and still keep the mental concentration to keep his virtual ward "Riddlerville" together? The answer was that the Riddler couldn't keep his "Virtual World together" and instead suffered an emotional breakdown with his mind trapped in the virtual computer world until his next appearance.
However, the threat that Riddler actually poses is somewhat inconsistent across his various stories. His most formidable depictions emphasize his intelligence and cunning, portraying him as one of few rogues capable of seriously taxing Batman's mental prowess, while also willing to take the precaution of obtaining firearms to deal with the superhero. Some recent depictions, however, have placed a derogatory focus on his flamboyant gimmickry and relative lack of major victories (even despite this applying to most of Batman's enemies), portraying him as petty, overconfident, relatively harmless, and held in low esteem.
The latter approach has proved polarizing, with some fans finding it wasteful in light of the character's classic status and history of compelling stories, while others argue that most of his popularity has come from media other than his comic storylines and enjoy the notion of knowing that his "real" threat level is overrated. In recent years the Riddler has been consistently depicted as a serious threat, with notable successes.
⚡ Happy 🎯 Heroclix 💫 Friday! 👽
_____________________________
A year of the shows and performers of the Bijou Planks Theater.
Secret Identity: Edward Nigma
Publisher: DC Comics
First appearance: Detective Comics #140 (October 1948)
Created by Bill Finger (Writer)
Dick Sprang (Artist)
The Riddler has appeared before in BP 2021 Day 277!
www.flickr.com/photos/paprihaven/51549562768/
He has also been seen trying to ruin Christmas!
He enjoyed the view and conversation. What do you think? Long Legs, Curves, and my Eyes, Smile, and Intellect! Any thoughts?? Perhaps a comment?
Ganesha, also known as Ganapati and Vinayaka, is one of the best-known and most worshipped deities in the Hindu pantheon.
Although Ganesha has many attributes, he is readily identified by his elephant head. He is widely revered, more specifically, as the remover of obstacles and thought to bring good luck, the patron of arts and sciences, and the deva of intellect and wisdom. As the god of beginnings, he is honored at the start of rites and ceremonies. Ganesha is also invoked as a patron of letters and learning during writing sessions.
Intellect enjoys a worshipful intimacy with God and a perfection born of this intimacy. From this worship, emerges Universal Soul, perfect in potentiality but not in actuality, because it is separated from God by Intellect.
The record of the Dantean Way begins with three things—an experience, the environment of that experience, and the means of understanding and expressing that experience; say—a woman, a city, and intellect or poetry; say again—Beatrice, Florence, and Virgil.
-THE FIGURE OF BEATRICE A Study in Dante by CHARLES WILLIAMS
Transhumanism (abbreviated as H+ or h+) is an international and intellectual movement that aims to transform the human condition by developing and creating widely available sophisticated technologies to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities.Transhumanist thinkers study the potential benefits and dangers of emerging technologies that could overcome fundamental human limitations, as well as the ethics[3] of using such technologies.The most common thesis is that human beings may eventually be able to transform themselves into different beings with abilities so greatly expanded from the natural condition as to merit the label of posthuman beings.The contemporary meaning of the term transhumanism was foreshadowed by one of the first professors of futurology, FM-2030, who taught "new concepts of the human" at The New School in the 1960s, when he began to identify people who adopt technologies, lifestyles and worldviews "transitional" to posthumanity as "transhuman".This hypothesis would lay the intellectual groundwork for the British philosopher Max More to begin articulating the principles of transhumanism as a futurist philosophy in 1990 and organizing in California an intelligentsia that has since grown into the worldwide transhumanist movement.
The year 1990 is seen as a "fundamental shift" in human existence by the transhuman community, as the first gene therapy trial,[8] the first designer babies,[9] as well as the mind-augmenting World Wide Web all emerged in that year. In many ways, one could argue the conditions that will eventually lead to the Singularity were set in place by these events in 1990.[original research?]Influenced by seminal works of science fiction, the transhumanist vision of a transformed future humanity has attracted many supporters and detractors from a wide range of perspectives including philosophy and religion.Transhumanism has been characterized by one critic, Francis Fukuyama, as among the world's most dangerous ideas,to which Ronald Bailey countered that it is rather the "movement that epitomizes the most daring, courageous, imaginative and idealistic aspirations of humanity".
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism
What does it mean to be human? Biology has a simple answer: If your DNA is consistent with Homo sapiens, you are human — but we all know that humanity is a lot more complex and nuanced than that. Other schools of science might classify humans by their sociological or psychological behavior, but again we know that actually being human is more than just the sum of our thoughts and actions. You can also look at being human as a sliding scale. If you were to build a human from scratch, from the bottom up, at some point you cross the threshold into humanity — if you believe in evolution, at some point we ceased being a great ape and became human. Likewise, if you slowly remove parts from a human, you cross the threshold into inhumanity. Again, though, we run into the same problem: How do we codify, classify, and ratify what actually makes us human?Does adding empathy make us human? Does removing the desire to procreate make us inhuman? If I physically alter my brain to behave in a different, non-standard way, am I still human? If I have all my limbs removed and my head spliced onto a robot, am I still human? (See: Upgrade your ears: Elective auditory implants give you cyborg hearing.) At first glance these questions might sound inflammatory and hyperbolic, or perhaps surreal and sci-fi, but don’t be fooled: In the next decade, given the continued acceleration of computer technology and biomedicine, we will be forced to confront these questions and attempt to find some answers.
Transhumanism is a cultural and intellectual movement that believes we can, and should, improve the human condition through the use of advanced technologies. One of the core concepts in transhumanist thinking is life extension: Through genetic engineering, nanotech, cloning, and other emerging technologies, eternal life may soon be possible. Likewise, transhumanists are interested in the ever-increasing number of technologies that can boost our physical, intellectual, and psychological capabilities beyond what humans are naturally capable of (thus the term transhuman). Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), for example, which speeds up reaction times and learning speed by running a very weak electric current through your brain, has already been used by the US military to train snipers. On the more extreme side, transhumanism deals with the concepts of mind uploading (to a computer), and what happens when we finally craft a computer with greater-than-human intelligence (the technological singularity). (See: How to create a mind, or die trying.Beyond the obvious benefits of eternal life or superhuman strength, transhumanism also investigates the potential dangers and ethical pitfalls of human enhancement. In the case of life extension, if every human on Earth suddenly stopped dying, overpopulation would trigger a very rapid and very dramatic socioeconomic disaster. Unless we stopped giving birth to babies, of course, but that merely rips open another can of worms: Without birth and death, would society and humanity continue to grow and evolve, or would it stagnate, suffocated by the accumulated ego of intellectuals and demagogues who just will not die? Likewise, if only the rich have access to intelligence- and strength-boosting drugs and technologies, what would happen to society? Should everyone have the right to boost their intellect? Would society still operate smoothly if everyone had an IQ of 300 and five doctorate degrees?As you can see, things get complicated quickly when discussing transhumanist ideas — and life extension and augmented intelligence and strength are just the tip of the iceberg! This philosophical and ethical complexity stems from the fact that transhumanism is all about fusing humans with technology — and technology is advancing, improving, and breaking new ground very, very quickly. Humans have always used technology, of course — our ability to use tools and grasp concepts such as science and physics are what set us apart from other animals — but never has society been so intrinsically linked and underpinned by it. As we have seen in just the last few years, with the advent of the smartphone and ubiquitous high-speed mobile networks, just a handful of new technologies now have the power to completely change how we interact with the the world and people around us..Humans, on the other hand, and the civilizations that they build, move relatively slowly. It took us millions of years to discover language, and thousands more to discover medicine and the scientific method. In the few thousand years since, up until the last century or so, we doubled the human life span, but neurology and physiology were impenetrable black boxes. In just the last 100 years, we’ve doubled our life span again, created bionic eyes and powered exoskeletons, begun to understand how the human brain actually works, and started to make serious headway with boosting intellectual and physical prowess. We’ve already mentioned how tDCS is being used to boost cranial capacity, and as we’ve seen in recent years, sportspeople have definitely shown the efficacy of physical doping.An early television: It would've seemed incredibly alien to our grandparentsIt is due to this jarring juxtaposition — the historical slowness of human and societal evolution vs. the breakneck pace of modern technology — that many find transhumanism to be unpalatable. After all, as I’ve described it here, transhumanism is almost the very definition of unnatural. You’re quite within your rights to find transhumanism a bit, well, weird. And it is weird, don’t get me wrong — but so are most emerging technologies. Do you think that your great grandparents weren’t wigged out by the first television sets? Before it garnered the name “television,” one of its inventors gave it the rather spooky name of “distant electric vision.” Can you imagine the wariness in which passengers approached the first steam trains? Vast mechanical beasts that could pull hundreds of tons and moved far faster than the humble — but state-of-the-art — horse and carriage.The uneasiness that surround new, paradigm-shifting technologies isn’t new, and it has only been amplified by the exponential acceleration of technology that has occurred during our lifetime. If you were born 500 years ago, odds are that you wouldn’t experience a single societal-shifting technology in your lifetime — today, a 40 year old will have lived through the creation of the PC, the internet, the smartphone, and brain implants, to name just a few life-changing technologies. It is unsettling, to say the least, to have the rug repeatedly pulled out from under you, especially when it’s your livelihood at stake. Just think about how many industries and jobs have been obliterated or subsumed by the arrival of the digital computer, and it’s easy to see why we’re wary of transhumanist technologies that will change the very fabric of human civilization.The good news, though, is that humans are almost infinitely adaptable. While you or I might balk at the idea of a brain-computer interface that allows us to download our memories to a PC, and perhaps upload new memories a la The Matrix, our children — who can use smartphones at the age of 24 months, and communicate chiefly through digital means — will probably think nothing of it. For the children of tomorrow, living through a series of disruptive technologies that completely change their lives will be the norm. There might still be some resistance when I opt to have my head spliced onto a robotic exoskeleton, but within a generation children will be used to seeing Iron Seb saving people from car crashes and flying alongside airplanes.The fact of the matter is that transhumanism is just a modern term for an age-old phenomenon. We have been augmenting our humanity — our strength, our wisdom, our empathy — with tools since prehistory. We have always been spooked by technologies that seem unnatural or that cause us to act in inhuman ways — it’s simply human nature. That all changes with the children of today, however. To them, anything that isn’t computerized, digital, and touch-enabled seems unnatural. To them, the smartphone is already an extension of the brain; to them, mind uploading, bionic implants and augmentations, and powered exoskeletons will just be par for the course. To them, transhumanism will just seem like natural evolution — and anyone who doesn’t follow suit, just like those fuddy-duddies who still don’t have a smartphone, will seem thoroughly inhuman.
www.extremetech.com/extreme/152240-what-is-transhumanism-...
Humanity+ is an international nonprofit membership organization that advocates the ethical use of technology to expand human capacities. In other words, we want people to be better than well.Our Humanity+ conferences explore innovations of science and technology and their relationship to humanity. Recent conferences have been held at San Francisco State University, Polytechnic University in Hong Kong, Parsons The New School for Design in New York City, California Technology Institute, and Harvard University.
humanityplus.org/?gclid=Cj0KEQjwipi4BRD7t6zGl6m75IgBEiQAn...
Humanism is a philosophical and ethical stance that emphasizes the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively, and generally prefers critical thinking and evidence (rationalism, empiricism) over acceptance of dogma or superstition. The meaning of the term humanism has fluctuated according to the successive intellectual movements which have identified with it.Generally, however, humanism refers to a perspective that affirms some notion of human freedom and progress. In modern times, humanist movements are typically aligned with secularism, and today humanism typically refers to a non-theistic life stance centred on human agency and looking to science rather than revelation from a supernatural source to understand the world.[
“…Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence -- whether much that is glorious- whether all that is profound -- does not spring from disease of thought -- from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the general intellect…” (Edgar Allan Poe)
www.fotoconcorsolagrua.it/gallery/menzione-di-merito/?ima...
And scarcely anyone appears to care!
(A.W. Tozer)
The only power God recognizes in His Church, is the power of His Spirit. Whereas the only power actually recognized today by the majority of evangelicals, is the power of man. God does His work by the operation of the Spirit--while Christian leaders attempt to do theirs by the power of trained intellect. Bright personality, has taken the place of the divine influence. But only what is done through the Eternal Spirit, will abide eternally.
For centuries the Church stood solidly against every form of worldly entertainment, recognizing it for what it was:
a device for wasting time,
a refuge from the disturbing voice of conscience,
a scheme to divert attention from moral accountability.
But of late she appears to have decided that if she cannot conquer the great god entertainment--she may as well join forces with him and make what use she can of his power.
Christianity is so entangled with the world, that millions never guess how radically they have missed the New Testament pattern. Compromise is everywhere!
Evangelical Christianity is now tragically below the New Testament standard.
Worldliness is an accepted part of our way of life.
Our religious mood is social, instead of spiritual.
We have lost the art of worship.
We are not producing saints.
Our models are successful business men, celebrated athletes and theatrical personalities.
We carry on our religious activities after the methods of the modern advertiser.
Our homes have been turned into theaters.
Our literature is shallow, and our hymnody borders on sacrilege.
And scarcely anyone appears to care!
"Men of broader intellect know that there is no sharp distinction betwixt the real and the unreal" - H.P. Lovecraft
Remind yourself regularly that you are better than you think you are. Successful people are not superhuman. Success does not require a super-intellect. Nor is there anything mystical about success. And success doesn't based on luck. Successful people are just ordinary folks who have developed belief in themselves and what they do. Never -- yes, never -- sell yourself short.
Twirling Intestines.
Regarder de loin marcher entrailles conjectures profond éditeur poète intellect entrailles arrogance vipères froid gaspillé mouvements,
Impii fragmenta, regna dervichea, gradus superaestimati, saepta foetida, vermes humani, corda circumdantes, mores instabilis patefacti.,
колонны антаблемента царапающие навозную кучу тела страхи сцепленные лезвия прерывистая тишина презренные щеки воспаленные кишки,
zavarok szabályok nyilvánvaló kapuk fenséges méreg lenyelve örök gondolatok beszennyezett gyűrődő ráncolt hártyák sötét mesék,
Dispositionen Folterungen konfrontiert Umhänge Hunger Notizen eingesperrt verborgene Gesetze Unglücke Rote schmutzige Tricks kompromittierte Stimmen flüsternde Meinungen Befehle direkter Donner,
道化師のようなやり方、不可能なこと、コケコッコーという音、詩、誤解された偽善者、高慢な想像力、悪徳、成功した嵐、知覚された苦悩、虫に似ている、サナダムシ、空腹.
Steve.D.Hammond.
instinct vs intellect, like 2 midget mexican wrestlers inside the ropes of our capacity to cope with the world
(A young woman is standing inside an apt. with Helen & Di. A large, fluffy white cat is twining repeatedly around Di's ankles.)
Molly: Horatio, bad kitty. (the cat suddenly leaps into Di's arms, nuzzling her & purring.) Oh, my gosh! He doesn't usually act like this with strangers. I'm sorry!
Di: (cuddling the cat) It's all right. He's a good boy.
Helen: (to Molly) We call it the DiAngela Syndrome. It tends to charm animals. A lot of men are affected by it, too. My name is Helen Cafferty and this is Professor DiAngela Royce.
Molly: Professor? (to Di) You don't look like any professors in my college. You look young enough to be a student.
Di: They're all honorary degrees. I don't like institutionalized learning, but I adore taking the final exams.
Molly: What are you? Some kind of genius?
Di: Intellect has less to do with what you know and more to do with where you happen to be standing. I refuse to take those ridiculous IQ tests, but one or two institutions estimated mine to be in the 180s, but to be fair; I have an eidetic memory, and can read 20 or 25,000 words per minute, which helps-
Helen: (interrupts) Yes, she's some kind of genius.
Di: (to the cat) Who's an adorable guy? Who gets all the attention? Is it you, Horatio?
Molly: Yeah, Dana adores him. I take care of him when she's gone for a while. He's usually a cuddle muffin, like now, but this time - I don't know. Cats are supposed to be psychic, right? It's like he knows something's wrong.
Di: He's not psychic, you smell worried.
Molly: I - I beg your pardon?
Di: Mm hm. Sweat glands. Most of the apocrine glands in the skin are located in the groin, armpits, and around the nipples. In the skin, they usually have an odor. They are scent glands. The apocrine glands are mainly responsible for body odor because the sweat they produce is high in protein, which bacteria can break down easily. You're worried, you sweat, Horatio smells it and knows you're on edge. So, he is too. (to the cat) Aren't you, lover? But I'm not worried, I am? No, I'm not. So, he gravitates toward me.
Helen: (to the girl, who's staring at Di) Molly, does your roommate own a horse?
Molly: Not since she was in high school, but she adores them, and she just found a place where she can afford to stable one, so she's been looking. (to Di), Don't tell me - you could smell that, too? Come on, Horatio. (takes the cat from Di, clearly insulted by her odor remarks, and leaves the living area)
Di: Buyers and sellers form an artifice of a relationship because there's got to be trust between them, even if it's tenuous. If I'm a predator looking to coerce a young equestrienne into an isolated location -
Helen: Offer her a ride she can't refuse.
(Cast: Helen-Kestrel R., Di-Me Thank you so much for playing Helen. I apologize for how silly the cat looks, but I couldn't find the right kitty for the pic.))
. . . the three most precious resources of life, I should say books, friends, and nature; and the greatest of these, at least the most constant and always at hand, is nature. Nature we have always with us, an inexhaustible storehouse of that which moves the heart, appeals to the mind, and fires the imagination and health to the body, a stimulus to the intellect, and joy to the soul.
-John Burroughs (1837 - 1921), American writer and naturalist
Big Branch
New River Gorge
once upon a time a white dragon saw the elements falling apart, for this reason he made him self into the form of a man and then created a warrior temple on mount life, this is so he could train the best warriors to face evil.
>master
>good
>attack- 100/100
>strength- 95/100
>intellect- 100/100
>abilities- every type of magic, every fighting technique, the power of every life stone (elements), and almost everything else XD
he trained wa-hune also, so u can see that in her desc.
OC by me
Librarian.
أفكار بشرية مكثفة ، حقائق الحكمة تقدم تصريحات غامضة ، ملائكة كلاسيكية ، الوحي المركزي ، أغراض الاختيار ، التعليقات ، الانتقادات,
dogmatum chartarum de legibus conscientiae existentes agentium philosophorum legendi activistarum existentiam voluptates communium definitionum expressiones quietas,
mesures extrinsèques intellect se rapporte à la nature énonciation compris choses adéquates respect mutable gloutons paresseux confirmant les enseignements points erronés amendes crimes,
rafturi mobile calități prăfuite forme substanțiale aspecte primordiale lipsă de formă se confruntă cu soluții adecvate presupuneri făcute lucrări false,
costituendo domande diversi libri risposte numeriche vizi errori terminando bug frasi composte poteri immensi ordini discussioni un altro capitolo rimane nascosto,
レポートを意味する精密部品指定バックルーム決定されたコンセプト後期料金規律文化的知恵の意図理由外部の議論をお願いします.
Steve.D.Hammond.
"Two qualities are indispensable: first, an intellect that, even in the darkest hour, retains some glimmerings of the inner light which leads to truth; and second, the courage to follow this faint light wherever it may lead."
// Karl Von Clausewitz
Excerpt from brainproject.ca:
Timeless
Great ideas, human intelligence and dreams are timeless. As we begin our journey through this world, the most powerful tools we possess are our intellect and our ability to decide what is good and what is bad. Our brains create those mysterious echoing connections that not only represent past memories and our present experiences, but are also tied to a continuum which is in fact timeless; our future. The brain is the quintessence of the human state.
the followers of urakeh (look at urakeh 1st, that is be4 this pic)
>soldiers
>evil
>attack- 40/100
>strength- 60/100
>intellect- 20/100
>abilities- run really fast, eat/chomp through anything (e.g. trees, people), deafening shout, climb anything.
these are expendable soldiers, so to stop them coming get to their master, he is the one creating them.
OCs by me
kinda like the orcs of LBFW
When God created man in His image, He created a measure; the human perception of the world corresponds to God's creative intention. Man by definition is a center, or "the center" in a given universe; not by accident, but in virtue of the very nature of Being, and this is why that which is large or small for man is large or small in the divine intention; man perceives things as they present themselves in the divine Intellect. And that is why the world of the indefinitely small, as well as the world of the indefinitely large, is as it were forbidden to man, who should not want to disproportionately enlarge the small or to disproportionately reduce the large. Man ought to feel that there is no advantage or happiness in such enterprises; and he would feel it if he had maintained a relationship with the Absolute, or if this relationship were sincere and sufficient. He, who is really at peace with God is free from all unhealthy curiosity, if one may say so; he lives, like a well-guarded child, in the blessed garden of a grace that does not forsake him; the Creator knows the best place for the creature, and He knows what is good for man.
In a certain sense, the world of atoms as well as that of galaxies is hostile to human beings, and comprises for them, in principle or potentially, a climate of alienation and terror. Some people will doubtless argue that "the man of our times" is an "adult," but this is pride, even satanism, for a normal man always keeps a childlike side, as all sacred Scriptures attest by their language; if such were not the case, childhood itself would not comprise a positive aspect. Of course, a mature man ought to be "adult," but he can be so otherwise than by plunging into forbidden abysses; the spiritual victory over illusion is a matter appreciably more serious than the insensitivityof the explorers of the inhuman.
There are two points to consider in created things, namely the empirical appearance and the mechanism; now the appearance manifests the divine intention, as we have stated above; the mechanism merely operates the mode of manifestation.
For example, in man's body the divine intention is expressed by its form, its deiformity, its symbolism and its beauty; the mechanism is its anatomy and vital functioning.
The modern mentality, having always a scientific and "iconoclastic" tendency, tends to overaccentuate the mechanism to the detriment of the creative intention, and does so on all levels, psychological as well as physical; the result is a jaded and "demystified" mentality that is no longer "impressed" by anything. By forgetting the divine intention - which nonetheless is apparent a priori - one ends in an emptiness devoid of all reference points and meaning, and in a mentality of nihilism and despair, if not of careless and brutal materialism. In the face of this deviation it is the child who is right when he believes that the blue sky above us is Paradise.
---
Frithjof Schuon: Roots of the Human Condition
Oṃ Gaṇeśāya Namaḥ,
Oṃ Gan Gaṇapatayē Namaḥ
" Ganesha ... is one of the best-known and most widely worshipped deities in the Hindu pantheon. His image is found throughout India and Nepal. Hindu sects worship him regardless of affiliations. Devotion to Ganesha is widely diffused and extends to Jains, Buddhists, and beyond India. [He} is widely revered as the Remover of Obstacles and more generally as the Lord of Beginnings, patron of arts and sciences, and the deva of intellect and wisdom ... ." Wikipedia. For more about Sri Ganesha: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesha