Less Pollution And Lighter, More Efficient Bricks? Yes, Please

A striking example of the strength of the British Empire in the early 1900s: In 1911 Britain completed the “All Red Line,” a network of telegraphs that linked its possessions. The system was so redundant that an enemy would have had to cut 49 cables to isolate the United Kingdom, 15 to isolate Canada, or 5 to isolate South Africa. As a result, British communications remained uninterrupted throughout World War I.

Colliding Galaxies in Stephans Quintet : Will either of these galaxies survive? In what might be dubbed as a semi-final round in a galactic elimination tournament, the two spirals of NGC 7318 are colliding. The featured picture was created from images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. When galaxies crash into each other, many things may happen including gravitational distortion, gas condensing to produce new episodes of star formation, and ultimately the two galaxies combining into one. Since these two galaxies are part of Stephans Quintet, a final round of battling galaxies will likely occur over the next few billion years with the eventual result of many scattered stars and one large galaxy. Quite possibly, the remaining galaxy will not be easily identified with any of its initial galactic components. Stephans Quintet was the first identified galaxy group, lies about 300 million light years away, and is visible through a moderately-sized telescope toward the constellation of the Winged Horse . via NASA

js

Flat House + Atelier So-So. 鶴川の家 - Tsurukawa House.  Kanagawa. Japan. photos: Flat House 

“You fight like a girl.”

I’m sorry

I didn’t

realise

that 

was 

a

bad

thing

This is an art project I made in seventh grade, and to this day is the coolest thing I’ve ever made. It can be a wall decoration or a costume peice or whatever you want to do with it short of stopping an actual sword. If anybody is curious as to how one makes something like this, you need: - a big ass piece of cardboard - a big ass piece of foil - a shitload of Elmer’s liquid glue - a box cutter or super strong scissors - masking tape - a sponge - shoe polish - steel wool - a pencil and eraser if you like - (a straightedge and/or yardstick?) - (protractor?) Take the bigass piece of cardboard and draw your design in pencil. You’ll be raising lines or areas with the glue, so keep that in mind with your design. The raised will be the lighter parts. If you like, you can use a straightedge or something to make it look neater. Put a layer of glue over every line you want raised. Do the edges of every large area, but don’t fill it in yet. Let it dry, then repeat until you have a sizable bump. Fill in any raised areas you want with more glue (you will need a ton). Try to not let the glue run over the raised edges of the planes. It’ll take a while to dry after that. Once your design is glued to your satisfaction, let it dry. Trim the edges using the box cutter to get it to the shape you want. Then spread a layer of glue over the top of your project and carefully lay down the big ass piece of foil over the top. Be very careful not to wrinkle it too much, but spread it down as close to the surface as possible without ripping it. Fold the excess foil around the back and secure it with glue and masking tape. Take a sponge and shoe polish and apply liberally over the top of your project. Let it dry. Take the steel wool and rub the shoe polish off of the areas that are raised and supposed to be silver as opposed to black. Voila! A beautiful shield of your own design. Depending on how you want to use it, you can either attach a handle or something to the back or a method of hanging it from the wall. Enjoy!

Dolce Far Niente in Dance Sport - Dance Comp Review

New Post has been published on http://dancecompreview.com/dolce-far-niente-dance-sport/

Dolce Far Niente in Dance Sport

It wasn’t that long ago, when I set up a new training schedule for my partner and I: a plan with all the goals, the training sessions and the topics we wanted to improve. To be honest, I was proud of what I created, because it was so thought through along with a lot of things finally falling into place. Well, at least these were my thoughts – until I brought the plan for discussion to a private lesson with our coach…

I am so glad that I had a professional eye to look over this! When he saw the schedule, he nodded and then said: “Good work so far, but there is one crucial thing missing.” It was like a wakeup call when he told me: “I see everything in this plan, except for the time when you do nothing at all”. That was it! I totally forgot to plan the time for regeneration: one of the key components when it comes to successful training.

In a (dance)-society that is (mostly) driven by the words higher, faster, stronger, we all tend to forget that we only get better in the time we leave our bodies to regenerate. This doesn’t mean of course that we will get better by doing nothing at all. It’s all about doing nothing AFTER we have been working hard. For instance, if we want to make our muscles more powerful, they first have to be exhausted and then they need time to rebuild to an even stronger version. But also our brain needs downtime to process new information. If we learn something new, it’s first saved in the short-term memory and then by processing the information, it will probably be stored in the long-term memory. And as we all know, in sleep our brain consolidates memories best.

Active work demands for active recovery from the physical and mental demands, in order to improve what we are doing. This goes for nearly all aspects in life and also perfectly for dancing. What do I mean by “active recovery”? Here is a quick and personal list:

Giphy

Low Impact Activities

It’s always great to go on a short, easy 15-minute-walk. You can also do a really low impact Yoga session or stretch a little bit. Everything that makes you feel calm, relaxed and refueled. But don’t overdo it! Really give your body a rest!

Giphy

Nutrition

Of course and as always, what you put into your body is crucial. A balanced nutrition is key to your healthy body as well as active recovery. Try to really control the amounts and also the quality of food you are taking in, and your exhausted muscles will thank you. Not to mention, your concentration on the next lesson will be so much better. One really important tip to keep in mind is, that starving your body (in case you are trying to lose weight or you’ve been telling yourself that “you don’t have time to eat”) is not good for your recovery at all. It will stress your system even more and will not let your body improve.

Giphy

Sleep

According to the National Sleep Foundation, Serena Williams, a really successful tennis player, enjoys to go to bed at 7pm in order to get enough sleep. I am not telling you, that this would also work for you, but it is worth giving a thought. I used her example to really emphasize on how important sleeping is, even more for people who are physically active. It doesn’t matter if you consider yourself as a serious athlete/artist, or if you are just in it for fun, but getting the right amount of sleep is decisive to your performance and also to your improvement. Adults between the age 18 and 64 need between 6 and 11 hours, while 7-9 hours of sleep are recommended. I understand that this is a lot of time, but, in my opinion, sleeping is not enough of a priority anymore. Find yourself a sleeping schedule and also keep it on the weekends. Turn off electronics, find your ideal light, sound and temperatures in your bedroom and give your system a chance to reboot.

Giphy

Let go of the “Coulda Woulda Shoulda”

If you now come to the conclusion that some downtime for yourself is what you need, you also have to let go of all the Rumba Walks you could have practiced in that time. Really! Focus on relaxing, recovering and refueling your energy! And, stop overthinking all the things you could’ve, should’ve or would’ve been able to do then. Just enjoy the famous Dolce Far Niente. And, afterwards – Dance on, even better than before!

Author: Sophia Wedel Photography: Maggiore Fotografico Exclusively for Dance Comp Review

Very important to keep in mind when you've hit a plateau in anything

Improving Your Relationship With the Person in the Mirror - Dance Comp Review

New Post has been published on http://dancecompreview.com/improving-your-relationship-with-the-person-in-the-mirror/

Improving Your Relationship With the Person in the Mirror

Do you hate looking at yourself on film or in the mirror? Are you always focusing on what you need to improve, without taking pride in your accomplishments? If you answered yes to either of the above, you may want to make some changes to how you perceive yourself.

An often overlooked part of learning to dance is the importance of staying conscious, not only of what you need to improve, but also of the progress you’ve made. Without this balance, many dancers develop or reinforce negative beliefs about themselves, which may have no basis in reality.

It’s important to remember that what we see is often coloured by the opinions we already hold about ourselves. A person who believes they are fat for example, is likely to still hold that belief even after loosing 50 pounds. In order to develop a more healthy relationship with yourself, you first need to change these limiting beliefs.

Giphy

First: Is the mirror distorted?

Sometimes, it really is the mirror’s fault! A warped mirror can make people appear bigger or smaller, create the impression that they are not balanced well, or make correct technique look strange. Before reading on, try remembering if there is certain mirrors you tend to like dancing in front of more than others, and why.

Giphy

Is your perception of yourself distorted?

This is by far the more likely situation. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to improve yourself of course, and you can’t do that without being aware of what you want to correct. But this can work against you when the self-criticism becomes demoralizing, when it starts to hurt your self-esteem and self-perception.

You might have a distorted perception of yourself if:

You receive compliments about your dancing with skepticism.

You find yourself focusing on the flaws in your appearance and technique, and ignoring what looks good.

You complain frequently about how bad a dancer you are.

You often leave a practice feeling sad, depressed, or angry at yourself.

If a performance or competition goes well, you assume you just ‘got lucky’.

You hang around other dancers or people who complain about themselves a lot.

You spend a lot of money on your appearance, and it still doesn’t seem like enough.

You use words like ‘always’ and ‘never’ when critiquing yourself (ex. ‘I always screw up X, I’ll never get it right.’)

You take constructive criticism very personally.

You quickly give up if a practice isn’t going well.

You feel like this article is telling you to stop working hard.

You compare yourself unfavourably to others

Giphy

If you want to start creating a more positive (and honest) image of yourself, try these tips:

Find at least one thing you did well after each practice. Thank yourself for doing it well.

Ask your instructor to let you know where you’ve made progress, and trust their opinion! Remember that they are the experts.

Ask yourself why you feel fat, clumsy, etc., and using only hard facts, what you know that backs that up. Compare that to why you might be the opposite.

Imagine yourself as a champion dancer. Think of how this person would walk, talk, feel, and dance. Practice being this person in your daily life.

Write down an empowering sentence about yourself, and repeat it daily. For example: ‘Every day, I am becoming a more skilled and competent dancer.’

Make a plan with your instructor, and set some concrete goals you can measure your progress by.

Smile more! Studies show just by smiling, you can trick your body into feeling happier, which boosts your self-confidence.

Stop comparing yourself to anyone but yourself from 24 hours ago.

Practice letting go of your mistakes, either by making it funny, or quickly refocusing on the next movement.

Reward yourself after doing something well, even if only by allowing yourself to feel a little pride.

Surround yourself with positive people.

These mental hacks will allow you to start seeing yourself in a better light. And that in turn, will help you find the motivation you need to become the dancer of your dreams. Go get ‘em!

Author: Ian Crewe Photography: Pavel Yuryev Exclusively for Dance Comp Review