The myth of the Muses comes from the Greek mythology. According to the Greeks, the Muses where goddesses that provided inspiration to musicians, poets, and artists. There are two versions of the origin of the Muses: that they are daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, or Uranus and Gaia. It was said that there were nine Muses, and that they were part of the entourage of Apollo. According to the Greek tradition, the Muses love to sing and their first song praised the victory of the Olympian gods over the Titans, when a new cosmic order was established. It is said that sometimes the Muses accompanied the Kings, inspiring their words and filling them with wisdom, giving them the power of justice and virtue. In the tradition, those were monarchs inspired by the Muses, worshiped by their people. They said that the Muses dwelt in the Parnassus, which is a mount consecrated to Apollo, and they may also be found in the fountain Hippocrene in Beotia, in the sanctuary of Helicon. There is a legend that tells that a king had 9 daughters, and these daughters were very proud of being good singers, so they traveled to Helicon and challenged the Muses. The Muses accepted the challenge. The daughters of that king sang a song that raised the enthusiasm of the birds themselves, but the one sang by the Muses was even better, so they lost the challenge and were punished for their arrogance. They were turned into magpies, and since that moment only nasty squawk got out of their mouths, being the magpies one of the birds with the most nasty voice. It is told that the Sirens also challenged the Muses, and their punishment was to loss the feathers of their wings and the Muses used them as ornaments. In the ancient epic Greek stories, the Muses were invoked in the beginning of the book, to help the author to choose the correct words to tell the historical events. The 9 Muses are: Calliope, mother of Orpheus, and muse of poetry. She is depicted with a scroll or with a board an a chisel. Clio is the muse of history. She is depicted with a scroll or with a chest full of books. Erato is the muse of erotic poetry, that was depicted with a lyre. Euterpe is the muse of music, and was depicted with a flute. Melpomene is the muse of tragedy, and was depicted with a knife in one hand and a tragedy mask in the other. Polyhymnia is the muse of sacred poetry and geometry. She appears depicted with a serious expression, and sometimes with her elbow laying in a column, and other times with a finger in her lips asking for silence. Thalia is the muse of comedy and is depicted with happy expression in her face, and crowned with ivy, or with a comedian mask. As she is also the muse of bucolic poetry, sometimes she appears with a shepherd walking stick. Terpsichore is the muse of dance and appears depicted with a string instrument like a lyre, and sometimes dancing. Urania is the muse of astrology and astronomy, and is depicted with compasses or a world globe. Images (in order): Terpsichore, by Thisisbossi; Melpomene, by Thisisbossi; Clio, by Thisisbossi.

“Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision.” -Salvador Dali- Surrealism is one of the artistic trends that are more free and with more sense of humor. Here you are works of the best artists of surrealism. Enjoy them. “My tomb”, by Clovis Trouille “Tentation de Saint Antoine”, by Jean Mandyn “Three sphinxes of bikini”, by Salvador Dali “Portrait of Edward James”, by Rene Magritte ”Winter”, by Giuseppe Arcimboldo “Masken in zerfallener Umgebung”, by Thomas Hafner ”Jazz Bande”, by Roberto Matta ”Tal Josafath”, by Richard Oelze “The sleeping city”, by Paul Delvaux ”L'Ange du foyer ou Le Triomphe du surrealisme”, by Max Ernst ”The duo”, by Giorgio de Chirico ”Le Chantier de Dedale”, by Andre Masson

I've done these Photoshop brushes. They are high resolution brushes of curls. And I want to share them with you. Download them for free, but before please read and understand the terms of use. Terms of use These brushes are free to use in commercial and non-commercial designs, as long as you follow these conditions: - The brushes can't be sold. You can sell the designs you make with the brushes, but not the brushes themselves. - They must be downloaded clicking the links from this article in blog.emmaalvarez.com. If you like the brushes and want your visitors to download them, place a link to this post, so they come and download them from here. Don't directly link them. - You can't redistribute the brushes without my explicit consent. If you want to pack them in a clipart library, cd or dvd, or anything else, ask me first. - You can't claim these brushes as yours. - Don't use these brushes in racist, sexist, hateful or blaspheme works. - You can link back and name blog.emmaalvarez.com in your website or designs, but it's not required, although I will appreciate it. Curls Click here to download

Sometimes you need to work with a team whose members are in different locations of your country, or even the whole world. Others, you may need constant collaboration, because you need to work with others during all day, but they're not in the same place. These situations need to be solved by specialized Internet tools. Microsoft SharePoint is an interesting service that allows to share documents and information and collaborate in a workgroup. For example, programmers, designers, and other team members can collaborate to build websites, games or any other project, sharing their information and keeping track of the changes easily. SherWeb offers sharepoint web hosting, giving you access to SharePoint Services 3.0, that includes features like mobile integration, blogs, brainstorming through wikis, task managers, RSS for projects and information... The design is also customizable, with more than 40 templates and themes. They also offer exchange hosting services, that allow you to share information and work together without fearing the loss of information if, for example, your laptop is lost or broken. It also increases your productivity by providing all the tools you need for collaboration. In addition, there's also web hosting plans with unlimited traffic and 1 to 20 GBs of space, starting from $7.25/month, and dedicated servers. Both for enterprises and for developer teams, services that offer hosted sharepoint are something that are worth trying, because these technologies offer a secure and solid way to get the work done.

Do you know that...? Tortoises can live for an average of 150 years. One of the oldest tortoises in the world was Charles Darwin's tortoise, and reached 176 years old. But in China, another one has been found that seems to be, in the opinion of some veterinarians, 500 years, being the oldest reptile in the world. The biggest tortoise found weighted 752 Kg. Photo by Minds-Eye Tortoises have a poor sense of hearing, but their sight, touch and smell are outstanding. They don't have teeth, and swallow their food without chewing it. One of the favorite foods of sea turtles are jellyfishes. There is a tortoise that segregates a yellow liquid with a very nasty smell that frightens away its predators. These animals change their skin and even their shell, but they do it by parts. Their spine and ribs are joined to their shell. Tortoises are one of the most ancient reptiles, much more than lizards and snakes. In their origins, tortoises where land animals, and after 50 million years some of them became water animals. Photo by Motleypixel Sea turtles are in danger of extinction, because of the trade of their shells, the plundering of their eggs, or the nets of sailors. Currently, there are only 7 species of sea turtles left. Some tortoises hibernate between 3 and 8 months per year. Some species of these animals lay only one egg, while others lay more than 140.

"Follow your common sense You cannot hide yourself Behind a fairytale forever and ever Only by revealing the whole truth can we disclose The soul of this sick bulwark forever and ever Forever and ever Indoctrinated minds so very often Contain sick thoughts And commit most of the evil they preach against Don’t try to convince me with messengers from God You accuse us of sins committed by yourselves It’s easy to condemn without looking in the mirror Behind the scenes opens reality Eternal silence cries out for justice Forgiveness is not for sale Nor is the will to forget Follow your common sense You cannot hide yourself Behind a fairytale forever and ever Only by revealing the whole truth can we disclose The soul of this sick bulwark forever and ever Virginity has been stolen at very young ages And the extinguisher loses its immunity Morbid abuse of power in the garden of Eden Where the apple gets a youthful face Eternal silence cries out for justice Forgiveness is not for sale Nor is the will to forget Follow your common sense You cannot hide yourself Behind a fairytale forever and ever Only by revealing the whole truth can we disclose The soul of this sick bulwark forever and ever Forever and ever Eternal silence cries out for justice Forgiveness is not for sale Nor is the will to forget You can’t go on hiding yourself Behind old fashioned fairy tales And keep washing your hands in innocence" -lyrics of the original song- You can find this song "Cry For The Moon" in the album of Epica "The Phantom Agony" edited in 2003. Epica is a Dutch band of symphonic metal with influence of Nightwish. The powerful voice of the singer Simone Simons is the key of the success of this band. As a curiosity, the name of the band came from an album of Kamelot called Epica.