RINGNEBULA.COM - BACKGROUND IMAGES

The image displayed and used as the background of several pages within ringnebula.com is of a massive cluster of galaxies denoted Abell 2218. Because of its mass and spatial density, it acts as a "cosmic lens," bending light from behind it and focusing a distorted image in the direction of the Earth and the Hubble Space Telescope's optics.

This galactic cluster resides in the constellation Draco. It is approximately 2 billion light-years from Earth, in a Universe estimated to be approximately 15 billion light years in radius.

Credits: NASA ,A. Fruchter and the ERO Team (STScI, ST-ECF):Andrew Fruchter (STScI), Sylvia Baggett (STScI), Richard Hook (ST-ECF), Zoltan Levay (STScI)

Pablo Picasso's Guernica, was created as a centerpiece for the Spanish Pavilion of the 1937 World's Fair in Paris.

On April 27th, 1937, a small village in northern Spain - Guernica - was turned to burning rubble. The Hitler war-machine attack, undertaken on Franco's behalf, had two purposes: 1) to destroy Basque resistance to Nationalist forces within that country, and 2) to demonstrate a new Nazi tactic: the demoralization of civilian populations via blanket-bombardment. Sixteen hundred civilians were killed or wounded in the three hour attack.

On February 6, 2003, US Secretary of State Colin Powell delivered a speech before the UN Security Council in which "proof" was offered of the existence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and that those [fictitious] weapons justified war. Guernica hangs as a backdrop behind a podium where Security Council members traditionally speak before TV cameras. Because it was decided the violent antiwar images would conflict with talk of a new war, the painting was concealed by a large blue drape. "It's only temporary. We're only doing this until the (TV) cameras leave," said Abdellatif Kabbaj, the chief UN media officer.

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0209-04.htm

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The fully constructed background image displayed is primarily Guernica - cropped, colorized, and contrast enhanced. Note what appears to be a classic satanic image and a wailing woman holding a limp infant in her arms on the left side. This enhanced image is then superimposed on the Abell 2218 galactic cluster and set as a "fixed" background. The composite image is intended to display the agony created by a few distorted and ill minds, set within a universe of unspeakable grandeur.