John Henry Jobs
Henri Rousseau – Genius or Talent-less Fool?
France’s most famous naïve painter was born in 1844, the son of an ironmonger. At school, Rousseau was a poor student and failed most of his exams. By the age of 19 he found work as a clerk in a lawyer’s office, until he was sacked for stealing stamps, and imprisoned for a month.
In an effort to redeem his standing, Rousseau joined the French Infantry. After 5 years, he left the army, moved to Paris, and found work with the Customs Office. His job was to check carts for smuggled goods at the city gates. His duties were limited due to his lack of capability. At the age of about 27, Rousseau started to paint and draw in his spare time.
In 1885, some fourteen year later, Rousseau made his public debut as an artist, and exhibited two pictures at the “Salon des Artiste Independents”, an exhibiting society formed by avant-garde artists who were unable to gain acceptance at the “Salon des Artistes France”. Visitors mocked and laughed at Rousseau’s paintings, but undeterred, he continued to exhibit each year.
At the age of 59, Rousseau retired from his Customs Office job, and dedicated himself to painting. At about this time, he struck up a friendship with the writer Alfred Jerry, who acted as his publicist, and introduced Rousseau to a new circle of contacts, including Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, and latterly Picasso. Rousseau painted a portrait of Jerry, who destroyed it by using the picture for pistol target practise!
Rousseau’s new friends found his naivety, and gullibility amusing, and he was subjected to a number of pranks, such as falling for a story that the President of France had invited him to a grand reception. Rousseau turned up at the gates of the Elysee Palace, only to be turned away. At the age of 63 he was arrested for fraud, because an acquaintance had persuaded him to open a bank account in a false name for the purposes of embezzlement. At his trial, Rousseau’s paintings were presented as evidence of his childish mentality. The defence counsel’s strategy worked, and Rousseau received a suspended sentence.
Rousseau died in 1910 at the age of 66, and was buried in a pauper’s grave. Few of his drawing survived; his family disposed of most of them after his death!
Rousseau’s lifelong desire was to paint in a precise and realistic style, but he lacked the necessary skill and training. In his paintings, the conventions of perspective, proportion and illumination were ignored. Rousseau liked to paint animals, and copied photographs from books using a pantograph. He could not paint feet, so always placed his subjects ankle deep in grass. To prevent the need to create an impression of depth, he often painted a profusion of vegetation.
Rousseau’s most famous painting is possibly “the Sleeping Gypsy”, for which he drew inspiration from Gerome’s fabulous “Two Majesties”. Rousseau offered to sell his painting to the mayor of his hometown, but the mayor declined the offer, and the painting was discovered 25 years later in a plumber’s workshop.
Rousseau was indifferent to the works of the progressive avant-garde artist around him, finding their paintings too unfinished. Paradoxically, these artists became appreciators of Rousseau’s work, and were instrumental in his posthumous recognition as a great painter. In his work they saw the beginnings of Surrealism, and took pleasure in the childlike quality of his pictures.
For my part, I can admire Rousseau for his dedication and effort. I cannot admire his artistic ability, because he was an adult painting like a child (in the same way that I can draw little gratification from a childish book). Rousseau believed that his paintings were stylised, yet highly realistic representations, and their surrealistic worth is entirely accidental. That doesn’t make him a great artist.
About the Author
Portrait artist working mainly from clients' own photographs.
Who Done It? Andrew Jackson was speeding on his horse...?
AP history assignment help?!!!
Who Done It?- Andrew Jackson was speeding on his horse down the streets of Washington DC. in 1837, when he was shot from behind. Your job is to investigate the murder. The following are your suspects: Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams, James Monroe, Luiz de Onis, John C. Calhoun, Samuel Austin Worcester, John Marshall, Black Hawk, Osceola, Nicolas Biddle, and Martin Van Buren. Dumped in an alley near-by were the following items: A man’s jacket with a note in the pocket that read, “Rather right. “ They also found a reduced-rate pass to the toll road, a hawk drawing, sketches of lighthouses and bridges, and a tally of reduced import duties to South Carolina. Investigate each person’s motive and relation to Jackson. Also explore the possibility of any connections to the evidence. Who done it?
Which of these suspects were on the grassy knoll at the time?
John Henry Jobs
Mississippi Fred McDowell - John Henry.wmv
Computer could make 2 'Jeopardy!' champs deep blue ,
"What Watson does and has demonstrated is the ability to advance the field of artificial intelligence by miles," he said.
Watson, named for IBM founder Thomas J. Watson, is reminiscent of IBM's famous Deep Blue computer, which defeated chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. But while chess is well-defined and mathematical, "Jeopardy!" presents a more open-ended challenge involving troves of information and Acer aspire 1315 battery complexities of human language that would confound a normal computer.
"Language is ambiguous; it's contextual; it's implicit," said IBM scientist David Ferrucci, a leader of the Watson team. Sorting out the context - especially in a game show filled with hints and jokes - is an enormous job for the computer, which also must analyze how certain it is of an answer and whether it should risk a guess, he said.
The massive computer was not behind its podium between Jennings and Rutter; instead it was represented by an IBM Smart Planet icon on an LCD screen.
The practice round was played on a stage at an IBM research center in Yorktown Heights, 38 miles north of Manhattan and across the country from the game show's home in Culver City, Calif. A real contest among the three, to be televised Feb. 14-16, will be played at IBM on Friday.
Watson tore through a category HP pavilion dv6000 battery about female archaeologists, repeatedly activating a mechanical button before either Ken Jennings or Brad Rutter could buzz in, then nailing the questions: "What is Jericho?" "What is Crete?"
Its gentle male voice even scored a laugh when it said, "Let's finish 'Chicks Dig Me.'"
The winner of the televised match will be awarded $1 million. Second place gets $300,000, third place $200,000. IBM, which has headquarters in Armonk, said it would give its winnings to charity while Jennings and Rutter said they would give away half theirs.
In a question-and-answer session with reporters after the practice round, Rutter and Jennings made joking reference to the jump in technology Watson represents.
"When Watson's progeny Acer aspire 1300 battery comes back to kill me from the future," Rutter said, "I have my escape route planned just in case."
Jennings said someone suggested his challenge was like the legend of John Henry, the 19th-century laborer who beat a steam drill in a contest but died in the effort. Jennings prefers a comparison to "Terminator," where the hero was a little more resilient.
"I had a friend tell me, 'Remember John Henry, the steel-drivin' man.' And I was like ... 'Remember John Connor!'" Jennings said. "We're gonna take this guy out!"
About the Author
Wholesaler & distributor of laptop batteries replacement for Compaq, HP, Dell, Acer, Sony, IBM, Toshiba. Our notebook batteries are made from high quality battery cells, which offer the quality and capacity as their (Original Equipment Manufacturer) counterparts. We guarantee our laptop batteries for full 1 year warranty and 30-day money back on every laptop battery.
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