The Priory Cross

This is one of the first pieces of jewelry I designed it's based off of the Proiry Cross in Ireland, some History on the symbolism follows, and all comments are welcome.

The Celts were the ancient inhabitants of much of Europe. A spiritual people, their rich mythology and The symbols later merged with the Christian beliefs they embraced to create a distinctive art, seen especially in Ireland and Scotland. The Celtic Cross is known throughout the world as the emblem of Celtic Christianity, and it can be considered the symbol of The Celtics culture itself. Celtic Crosses began to appear during the fifth century A.D., it's shape is derived from a pagan sun symbol, the sunwheel, which later became a symbol of the Christian Godhead.

The sunwheel was originally a cross surrounded by a circle with a center stone representing the sun and mock suns at the four quarters. The stone at the center of the circle also represents the navel of the world. The stone pillar of the cross also embodies phallic and fertility characteristics. The cross represents eternal life; it's horizontal axis being the earthly world and the vertical axis the heavenly world coming together as the union of Heaven and Earth. Celtic Crosses are imbued with continuous and interwoven knot and spiral motifs symbolizing the continuity of life, death and rebirth.

Experiments In Photography Fall

This Photo I can not think of a title for so it's stuck with The name Fall for now, perhaps you might want to suggest a title for it.

Experiments In Photography SoL Invictus

This picture I called Sol Invictus and is part of a series I'm doing with seasonal landscapes, I hope you enjoy it and as all ways your feedback is welcome.

Surgeons & Video Games

hmmm, maybe the next time you have to see a Surgeon you might just want to ask them how often they play video games, I just knew all that gaming was good for something.

CHICAGO, Illinois (Reuters) --

Playing video games appears to help surgeons with skills that truly count: how well they operate using a precise technique, a study said Monday.There was a strong correlation between video game skills and a surgeon's capabilities performing laparoscopic surgery in the study published in the February issue of Archives of Surgery.Laparoscopy and related surgeries involve manipulating instruments through a small incision or body opening where the surgeon's movements are guided by watching a television screen.Video game skills translated into higher scores on a day-and-half-long surgical skills test, and the correlation was much higher than the surgeon's length of training or prior experience in laparoscopic surgery, the study said.

Out of 33 surgeons from Beth Israel Medical Center in New York that participated in the study, the nine doctors who had at some point played video games at least three hours per week made 37 percent fewer errors, performed 27 percent faster, and scored 42 percent better in the test of surgical skills than the 15 surgeons who had never played video games before."It was surprising that past commercial video game play was such a strong predictor of advanced surgical skills," said Iowa State University psychology professor Douglas Gentile, one of the study's authors.It supports previous research that video games can improve "fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination, visual attention, depth perception and computer competency," the study said."Video games may be a practical teaching tool to help train surgeons," senior author Dr. James Rosser of Beth Israel said.While surgeons may benefit from playing video games, the study did not give parents a pass if their children play the games for hours on end.

A 2004 survey by Gentile found 94 percent of adolescents play video games for an average of nine hours a week. Game-playing has been linked to aggressiveness, poor school grades and can become a substitute for exercise."Parents should not see this study as beneficial if their child is playing video games for over an hour a day," Gentile said. "Spending that much time playing video games is not going to help their child's chances of getting into medical school."

Experiments In Photography Trinity Of Light

I call this Trinity of Light

Experiments In Photography

These are a few landscapes that were taken after a Tornado just missed me.

Experiments In Photography

From time to time I will be posting some of my photography here. I hope you enjoy this series of images in light and form, any feedback as well would be great.

ZDnet Runs Afoul with Reader's with comments on The release Of Tecnorati's WTF

Tecnorati's new WTF feature is an interesting way to catch attention, most people know it as an acronym for What The F%&# So using WTF on Tecnorati is just a way to generate attention, and controversy, but don't feel to bad ZDnet fell afoul of it when they commented on it here http://ct.zdnet.com/clicks?t=2… and some readers took exception with it, so I guess WTF is doing it's job and generating the controversy that it was most likely meant to do. So at least now I know WTF to go and you are all welcome to Tell me WTF to go, with WTF. Can you Digg that?