One of Leonardo da' Vinci's drawings of the brain. Following the ancient Greeks, he believed the brain was the seat of the soul, which, resided not in brain tissue, but invisibly in its cavities (ventricles). He suggested one of the functions of the brain was to mediated the relationship between the soul and the senses.  

As all the Republicans and Tea Party enthusiasts enter Congress today, I thought this image informative. Obviously they are not good with anatomy, or any branch of science for that matter.  Of the over 100 Republicans elected in November 50% deny the existence of human-made global warming according to research done by ThinkProgress, a progressive blog. OMG, it's gettin' hot in here.

We finally got some more snow tonight.  I played with the dogs on the frozen ppol.  Chris Steele-Perkins took this photo of bikes covered with snow in Japan (2001).  Luckily snow melts.

On this date in 1521, the Roman Catholic Church excommunicated Martin Luther, its most successful heretic, four years after Luther "nailed" his 95 theses protesting the Church's sale of indulgences.  He was able to avoid the punishment of many heretics shown in this image from the Chronicle of Ulrich of Reichental, in which another early protestant reformer, John Hus, is burned at the stake in 1415.

Hiermonymus Bosch from the "Garden of Earthly Delights"

Duke of Berry's January 1 Feast in the early fifteenth century. This is when the French gave presents to each other. Notice the dog on the table. I feel like a Cesar Milan in comparison. My puppy only gets on the table when we aren't looking