A bust of Minerva (Greek: Athena) has been set into the bezel of this hollow gold ring.

She wears a snake-edged aegis and a Corinthian helmet in her role as warrior goddess. Similar in function to an amulet, a ring with a portrait of a divinity brought the wearer under the deity’s protection.

Minerva, who was very popular as a motif on such rings, was often a protectress of heroes such as Herakles or Theseus. She was also connected with skilled crafts and healing. Although the stone of this cameo is chalcedony, it looks very like emerald, a stone particularly prized by the Romans.

The extremely high relief carving of…Read more

Photo credits – Carina Maiwald

Comment by photographer:

Last year, I met an animal which I thought would only exist in my fantasy: a zorse, the hybrid between a zebra stallion and a horse mare. Zuri, the mare you see in the photo, was only 1.5 years old and although I’ve been working as a photographer with horses for over 6 years, this was different from anything I’ve known so far.

The wild instinct is very strong in zorses and I had to rethink a lot of techniques to get the animal’s attention during the session. While a horse is a typical flight animal, a zorse is ready to fight. A horse is curious, a zorse doesn’t want to be bothered, which makes t…Read more

THEY’RE MADE OUT OF MEAT

“They’re made out of meat.”

“Meat?”

“Meat. They’re made out of meat.”

“Meat?”

“There’s no doubt about it. We picked up several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, and probed them all the way through. They’re completely meat.”

“That’s impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars?”

“They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don’t come from them. The signals come from machines.”

“So who made the machines? That’s who we want to contact.”

“They made the machines. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Meat made the machines.”

“That’s ridiculous. How can meat make a…Read more