This item showed up in some news briefs at Artform International News Digest:
COPYRIGHT FOR PYRAMIDS?
Egypt may soon seek to protect its pyramids from fakes and copies. As the APA reports, the Egyptian government hopes to introduce a special form of copyright for the pyramids as well as other ancient sites. According to the new legislation, which may soon become law, the Egyptian government would have the right to collect a tax for all copies of the pyramids, the Sphinx, and other sites. The new law, which is intended to have international jurisdiction, would allow the Egyptian state to collect funds for the upkeep of these sites. "Egypt alone has the right to reproduce its monuments from antiquity," said Zahi Hawass, the director of the antiquities administration. Hawass added that artists—both Egyptian and foreign—would continue to enjoy the privilege of "being inspired" by the country's cultural treasures for their own works. The only clause is that these artistic inspirations cannot result in "exact copies."
A cultural war seems to be on the horizon. After the announcement was made, the Egyptian newspaper El Wafd made a public request to Las Vegas's Luxor Hotel and Casino complex, which features duplicates of the Valley of the Kings, to give part of its profits back to the Egyptian city Luxor, where the original valley is located. "Thirty-five million tourists come every year to Las Vegas to see the reproduction of Luxor," the newspaper stated, according to the APA. "Only six million visit the real Luxor." According to Hawass, the Vegas Hotel will not be required to pay royalties under the new law, despite the fact that its website advertises "the only pyramid shaped building in the world." Hawass claims that the hotel is neither "an exact copy of the pyramids," nor does its interior share any similarities with those of the pharaohs' burial sites.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Royal Goddesses/Queens of Ebla
From Archaeology Magazine online
From the trenches
Royal Goddesses of a Bronze Age State
Volume 61 Number 1, January/February 2008
by Marco Merola
It's been more than 30 years since Italian archaeologists found a vast archive of 17,000 cuneiform tablets at the Bronze Age site of Ebla in northern Syria. But the ancient city is still surprising those who work there. Last year archaeologist Paolo Matthiae's team discovered two almost perfectly preserved figurines that confirm textual evidence for a royal cult of the dead focused on the city's queens. They also found an unusual tablet that allowed scholars to reconstruct the political climate that led to Ebla's destruction in 2300 B.C., when it was sacked by Sargon of Akkad.
"We made the finds in two peripheral rooms of the great Royal Palace, where we discovered the cuneiform archive in the 1970s," explains Matthiae. "They were part of the zone behind the Court of the Audience Hall, a sort of storage area which must have held the treasures of the king of Ebla."
Initially the team avoided the rooms, assuming they had been emptied when Sargon ransacked the city. "But we were wrong!" says Matthiae. "Evidently the two statues were crushed into the ground and miraculously escaped the pillage."
Both figurines are intricate representations of women, which are rare in Near Eastern Bronze Age art. One, made of steatite and wood, is depicted with her arms arranged in a gesture indicating prayer. The second figurine holds a goblet and wears an ornate gold dress. Both seem to have been used in a ritual mentioned in a tablet from Ebla that describes how the city's dead queens became female deities who were then worshiped privately by their successors. Matthiae suspects the steatite figure depicts a living queen who would have prayed to the gold-covered figurine, itself a representation of a dead queen who had become a goddess.
© 2008 by the Archaeological Institute of America www.archaeology.org/0801/trenches/goddesses.html
From the trenches
Royal Goddesses of a Bronze Age State
Volume 61 Number 1, January/February 2008
by Marco Merola
It's been more than 30 years since Italian archaeologists found a vast archive of 17,000 cuneiform tablets at the Bronze Age site of Ebla in northern Syria. But the ancient city is still surprising those who work there. Last year archaeologist Paolo Matthiae's team discovered two almost perfectly preserved figurines that confirm textual evidence for a royal cult of the dead focused on the city's queens. They also found an unusual tablet that allowed scholars to reconstruct the political climate that led to Ebla's destruction in 2300 B.C., when it was sacked by Sargon of Akkad.
"We made the finds in two peripheral rooms of the great Royal Palace, where we discovered the cuneiform archive in the 1970s," explains Matthiae. "They were part of the zone behind the Court of the Audience Hall, a sort of storage area which must have held the treasures of the king of Ebla."
Initially the team avoided the rooms, assuming they had been emptied when Sargon ransacked the city. "But we were wrong!" says Matthiae. "Evidently the two statues were crushed into the ground and miraculously escaped the pillage."
Both figurines are intricate representations of women, which are rare in Near Eastern Bronze Age art. One, made of steatite and wood, is depicted with her arms arranged in a gesture indicating prayer. The second figurine holds a goblet and wears an ornate gold dress. Both seem to have been used in a ritual mentioned in a tablet from Ebla that describes how the city's dead queens became female deities who were then worshiped privately by their successors. Matthiae suspects the steatite figure depicts a living queen who would have prayed to the gold-covered figurine, itself a representation of a dead queen who had become a goddess.© 2008 by the Archaeological Institute of America www.archaeology.org/0801/trenches/goddesses.html
Little Green Man
It seems particularly during the Roman period of the Egyptian Empire that "little green man" gaming pieces came into vogue. Here's one for sale at BC Galleries in Australia:
Item Code: a5755
Description:
A fragmentary glazed faience figurine of Harpocrates, the infant Horus. A fully three-dimensional figure with flat, circular base; possibly a large game piece.
Origin:
Roman period, circa 1st-2nd century A.D. Egypt
Dimensions:
Height: 62 mm
Price: AUD$650 USD$542 (approx.)
A Legend About the Goddess Lakshmi
From The Times of India
Goddess of East, wealth for all
30 Dec 2007, 0201 hrs IST, Prashant Dayal,TNN
AHMEDABAD: Saumyak Shah started a saree store in Ratanpol area of the Walled city in 1953 and called it "Deepak Stores". As the city grew westward, Shah opened another shop on Ashram Road in 1983, now known as 'Deepkala'. Today Shah has his third showroom on the Shivranjani crossroads, in new Ahmedabad, but has not closed the Ratanpol shop.
These are the traders of old Ahmedabad who had small beginnings and believe that the Walled city brought them prosperity, because the Goddess of wealth, Lakshmi, resided there. Folklore has it that nearly 600 years ago, a guard of the ancient city of Ahmedabad, Khwaja Siddiqui, posted at Teen Darwaza had stopped the Goddess from leaving the city without the permission of Sultan Ahmed Shah.
The Goddess promised that she would stand right there till the guard returned after seeking permission from the Sultan. When the guard met the Sultan, he was so enraged at the idea of the Goddess leaving, he beheaded the guard. The Goddess stayed.
In memory of the guard's sacrifice and honour of the Goddess, a lamp burns 24x7 to this day at Teen Darwaza, one of Ahmedabad's most beautiful gates.
It is said that the Mahalakshmi temple at Dhana Suthar ni pol in Kalupur is dedicated to this Goddess. The priest of this temple, Bhupendra Bhatt, is the tenth descendant. The local mujawar has been lighting this lamp for the last 50 years and says this place is revered by both Hindus and Muslims.
The traders who launched businesses here owe their prosperity to this belief that Lakshmi (wealth) is more stable here than outside the fort wall. Many businessmen retailed to West Ahmedabad but still have their original shops in the Walled city.
West Ahmedabad still hears of several cases of fraud, and businesses winding up, but nothing of this sort for ancient family businesses.
Shah of Deepkala says, "There is also a section of people on that side of the river who never cross the river to the western bank and these are our dedicated clientele".
Dilip Rochwani of Azad Sweetmart, who set up his first shop in 1958 in the Revdi bazaar area of Kalupur, does not want to leave this area. He has other shops in West Ahmedabad but he says, "we had started on a very small scale for the middle class and they are our dedicated customers whom we don't want to leave".
Goddess of East, wealth for all
30 Dec 2007, 0201 hrs IST, Prashant Dayal,TNN
AHMEDABAD: Saumyak Shah started a saree store in Ratanpol area of the Walled city in 1953 and called it "Deepak Stores". As the city grew westward, Shah opened another shop on Ashram Road in 1983, now known as 'Deepkala'. Today Shah has his third showroom on the Shivranjani crossroads, in new Ahmedabad, but has not closed the Ratanpol shop.
These are the traders of old Ahmedabad who had small beginnings and believe that the Walled city brought them prosperity, because the Goddess of wealth, Lakshmi, resided there. Folklore has it that nearly 600 years ago, a guard of the ancient city of Ahmedabad, Khwaja Siddiqui, posted at Teen Darwaza had stopped the Goddess from leaving the city without the permission of Sultan Ahmed Shah.
The Goddess promised that she would stand right there till the guard returned after seeking permission from the Sultan. When the guard met the Sultan, he was so enraged at the idea of the Goddess leaving, he beheaded the guard. The Goddess stayed.
In memory of the guard's sacrifice and honour of the Goddess, a lamp burns 24x7 to this day at Teen Darwaza, one of Ahmedabad's most beautiful gates.
It is said that the Mahalakshmi temple at Dhana Suthar ni pol in Kalupur is dedicated to this Goddess. The priest of this temple, Bhupendra Bhatt, is the tenth descendant. The local mujawar has been lighting this lamp for the last 50 years and says this place is revered by both Hindus and Muslims.
The traders who launched businesses here owe their prosperity to this belief that Lakshmi (wealth) is more stable here than outside the fort wall. Many businessmen retailed to West Ahmedabad but still have their original shops in the Walled city.
West Ahmedabad still hears of several cases of fraud, and businesses winding up, but nothing of this sort for ancient family businesses.
Shah of Deepkala says, "There is also a section of people on that side of the river who never cross the river to the western bank and these are our dedicated clientele".
Dilip Rochwani of Azad Sweetmart, who set up his first shop in 1958 in the Revdi bazaar area of Kalupur, does not want to leave this area. He has other shops in West Ahmedabad but he says, "we had started on a very small scale for the middle class and they are our dedicated customers whom we don't want to leave".
Struck on the Head with a Chessboard
[24.12.2007 13:40]
Yanukovych`s friends told him he was struck with chess board on his head
The Party of Regions will act toughly, should the power’s activities be destructive.
Party of Regions leader Victor Yanukovych said this in an interview to Inter television.
According to him, the Party of Regions will undertake actions, “stipulated by the law.” At the same time, he stressed “we are law-abiding people”.
At the same time, Victor Yanukovych said he recently heard from his friends that is he trying to play chess with his opponents, while his opponent take the chess board and strike him on his head. He noted: “We will pay attention to that”.
Victor Yanukovych also stressed that any radical actions never benefited to the country. “We have always been opposed to radical actions”, he said.
The Party of Regions leader added he does not envy either the government or the coalition, because “this coalition is non-viable”.
At the same time, he noted: “We will not put any obstacles on the way of this coalition, if it proposes a real way for the country’s development, and there will be no populist slogans but real steps”.
Victor Yanukovych refused to forecast the period of tenure of the current government, and just recalled that the experience indicates that governments in Ukraine are shifted annually.
ctnstant URL of article: http://www.unian.net/eng/news/news-228083.html
*************************************************************************************
Ah, yes. The old "strike your enemy on the head with your chessboard" ploy. There are many historical precedents, including this one reported on at Goddesschess:
King Canute and the Murder of the Danish Earl over a Chess Game
Yanukovych`s friends told him he was struck with chess board on his head
The Party of Regions will act toughly, should the power’s activities be destructive.
Party of Regions leader Victor Yanukovych said this in an interview to Inter television.
According to him, the Party of Regions will undertake actions, “stipulated by the law.” At the same time, he stressed “we are law-abiding people”.
At the same time, Victor Yanukovych said he recently heard from his friends that is he trying to play chess with his opponents, while his opponent take the chess board and strike him on his head. He noted: “We will pay attention to that”.
Victor Yanukovych also stressed that any radical actions never benefited to the country. “We have always been opposed to radical actions”, he said.
The Party of Regions leader added he does not envy either the government or the coalition, because “this coalition is non-viable”.
At the same time, he noted: “We will not put any obstacles on the way of this coalition, if it proposes a real way for the country’s development, and there will be no populist slogans but real steps”.
Victor Yanukovych refused to forecast the period of tenure of the current government, and just recalled that the experience indicates that governments in Ukraine are shifted annually.
ctnstant URL of article: http://www.unian.net/eng/news/news-228083.html
*************************************************************************************
Ah, yes. The old "strike your enemy on the head with your chessboard" ploy. There are many historical precedents, including this one reported on at Goddesschess:
King Canute and the Murder of the Danish Earl over a Chess Game
Rematch Between GMs Torre and Antonio to Promote Chess
Philippines Grandmasters Eugene Torre and Rogelio “Joey” Antonio are set for a 12-game rematch during the summer of 2008 to promote chess in the Philippines, leading up to the next chess Olympiad.
Torre, Antonio ready for rematch
Baguio, Mindoro eyed as host of GMs’ battle
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:49:00 12/30/2007
MANILA, Philippines -- Grandmasters Eugene Torre and Rogelio “Joey” Antonio Jr. are ready for a rematch.
The country’s top woodpushers will try to outwit each other in a 12-match marathon in the summer of 2008 for two reasons: Promote chess in the countryside and prepare themselves for the Chess Olympiad slated late next year.
Antonio became the first local player to beat Torre with a one-game victory in their 1998 match.
“Hindi na rin naman kami bumabata (We’re not getting any younger),” said Torre. “We need to develop more young chess talents. We’re hoping to get the interest of potential talents from the grassroots level by going to their places.”
Organizers are planning to hold the matches in Baguio City and in Puerto Galera in Mindoro to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the World Chess Championships match between Anatoly Karpov and Victor Korchnoi, also held in Baguio City, in 1978.
Torre is an adopted son of Baguio while Antonio hails from Oriental Mindoro.
Torre and Antonio are expected to lead the country’s campaign in the Chess Olympiad set in Dresden, Germany on November 12 to 25. It will be the fifth time that Germany is hosting a chess Olympiad.
“Hindi natin alam baka yun na ang aming (We don’t know if it will be our) last Olympiad next year,” said Antonio. “Anuman ang mangyari, maganda na ’yung preparado kami (Whatever happens, it’s better that we are prepared).”
Quezon City majority floor leader and fourth district Councilor Ariel Inton is also open to his city’s hosting of the Torre and Antonio rematch.
“Both players are based in Quezon City,” said Inton.
“It would be great for our city and our people if they will play here. If it’s not possible for us to host all 12 matches, even just the first three and the last three.”
Marlon Bernardino, contributor
Copyright 2007 Philippine Daily Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Torre, Antonio ready for rematch
Baguio, Mindoro eyed as host of GMs’ battle
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:49:00 12/30/2007
MANILA, Philippines -- Grandmasters Eugene Torre and Rogelio “Joey” Antonio Jr. are ready for a rematch.
The country’s top woodpushers will try to outwit each other in a 12-match marathon in the summer of 2008 for two reasons: Promote chess in the countryside and prepare themselves for the Chess Olympiad slated late next year.
Antonio became the first local player to beat Torre with a one-game victory in their 1998 match.
“Hindi na rin naman kami bumabata (We’re not getting any younger),” said Torre. “We need to develop more young chess talents. We’re hoping to get the interest of potential talents from the grassroots level by going to their places.”
Organizers are planning to hold the matches in Baguio City and in Puerto Galera in Mindoro to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the World Chess Championships match between Anatoly Karpov and Victor Korchnoi, also held in Baguio City, in 1978.
Torre is an adopted son of Baguio while Antonio hails from Oriental Mindoro.
Torre and Antonio are expected to lead the country’s campaign in the Chess Olympiad set in Dresden, Germany on November 12 to 25. It will be the fifth time that Germany is hosting a chess Olympiad.
“Hindi natin alam baka yun na ang aming (We don’t know if it will be our) last Olympiad next year,” said Antonio. “Anuman ang mangyari, maganda na ’yung preparado kami (Whatever happens, it’s better that we are prepared).”
Quezon City majority floor leader and fourth district Councilor Ariel Inton is also open to his city’s hosting of the Torre and Antonio rematch.
“Both players are based in Quezon City,” said Inton.
“It would be great for our city and our people if they will play here. If it’s not possible for us to host all 12 matches, even just the first three and the last three.”
Marlon Bernardino, contributor
Copyright 2007 Philippine Daily Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The Transformational Power of Chess
Can a long-term nation-wide effort to promote chess among its citizens spur economic development? An interesting hypothesis...
Chess
The transformational power of chess
With Errol Tiwari
Sunday, December 30th 2007
It was on Sunday, March 18, that two chess players took a daring step and announced a chess tournament; the first for well over a decade. Four persons arrived for the tournament, including the two organisers.
On Tuesday, December 18, by coincidence, a glorious cocktail reception was held at the King's Plaza Hotel for a number of distinguished guests, including my own Director-General, Ambassador Elisabeth Harper, to celebrate nine months of uninterrupted activity in chess and specifically, to distribute the prizes for the National Chess Championships.
It was nine months of magic. Each month there was a tournament. An Interim Steering Committee for the Development of Chess was established. A senior FIDE (the governing body of world chess) official visited us. We took the game to some schools with the intention of carrying the game to all of the schools, and held a chess clinic for school teachers and students. Dr Frank Anthony, the Minister of Youth Sport and Culture, imported 200 chess sets for distribution to schools. Kei-Shar's began reselling tournament-sized chess sets, thereby making chess equipment available to the masses. It was magic.
But it was our sponsors who were the true magicians for chess. They crafted the framework paper for us to develop the game. They were the David Copperfields of chess. Our sponsors listened to what we were saying, and they believed in what we were saying. Their response was quick, tangible and mighty. And our best talent came rushing out from little corners of obscurity where they had resided for years. In one moment there was hope again, and a candle was lit to brighten the darkness of chess in Guyana.
Significantly, our sponsors supported the renewal of a game and a cause. When chess is integrated fully into the schools, we would have made a great step forward for the game, but more importantly, it a giant leap for Guyana.
I believe there is an interconnection between chess and the economic development of one's country. Ever since Viswanathan Anand became a grandmaster in the late 1980s, India has been transformed into an economic giant. Business people think smarter. They make smarter choices.
Russia, or the former USSR, prospered rapidly after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution as chess was being developed and promoted among the masses. Lenin was a passionate chess player, and he created the platform for chess to be spread to the four corners of the great land mass of his country.
And take a look at China. Quite suddenly, as China began to produce both male and female grandmasters, the economy gathered momentum and began ballooning. China is an economic giant today.
Our sponsors did more than sponsor chess this year. They sponsored the development of a nation. They sponsored a platform from which a new discipline will be shared among those who play the game. They sponsored a new beginning, and who knows, perhaps a new culture of intelligent and structured thinking among ourselves.
During the year also, the media were lavish in their coverage of chess, especially for the National Championships. The newspapers and television stations worked in a vigorous national effort to promote the ancient game and reached people in some very remote locations in Guyana. If our sponsors and the media can continue to help us reach people, and spread the gospel of the rewards to be gained from playing chess, we would owe them an immeasurable debt of thanks.
For next year, our minds are set on attending the 2008 Chess Olympiad in Germany. We will be channelling our energies in that direction. We will also be concentrating on the Inter-Guiana Games. Simultaneously, we will be moving forward with activities to promote the game in schools, and training vigorously for the inevitable foreign competition. In time, we would produce a grandmaster, and then we shall determine for sure whether having a grandmaster has anything to do with economic development. In time we will know.
Happy New Year!
Chess
The transformational power of chess
With Errol Tiwari
Sunday, December 30th 2007
It was on Sunday, March 18, that two chess players took a daring step and announced a chess tournament; the first for well over a decade. Four persons arrived for the tournament, including the two organisers.
On Tuesday, December 18, by coincidence, a glorious cocktail reception was held at the King's Plaza Hotel for a number of distinguished guests, including my own Director-General, Ambassador Elisabeth Harper, to celebrate nine months of uninterrupted activity in chess and specifically, to distribute the prizes for the National Chess Championships.
It was nine months of magic. Each month there was a tournament. An Interim Steering Committee for the Development of Chess was established. A senior FIDE (the governing body of world chess) official visited us. We took the game to some schools with the intention of carrying the game to all of the schools, and held a chess clinic for school teachers and students. Dr Frank Anthony, the Minister of Youth Sport and Culture, imported 200 chess sets for distribution to schools. Kei-Shar's began reselling tournament-sized chess sets, thereby making chess equipment available to the masses. It was magic.
But it was our sponsors who were the true magicians for chess. They crafted the framework paper for us to develop the game. They were the David Copperfields of chess. Our sponsors listened to what we were saying, and they believed in what we were saying. Their response was quick, tangible and mighty. And our best talent came rushing out from little corners of obscurity where they had resided for years. In one moment there was hope again, and a candle was lit to brighten the darkness of chess in Guyana.
Significantly, our sponsors supported the renewal of a game and a cause. When chess is integrated fully into the schools, we would have made a great step forward for the game, but more importantly, it a giant leap for Guyana.
I believe there is an interconnection between chess and the economic development of one's country. Ever since Viswanathan Anand became a grandmaster in the late 1980s, India has been transformed into an economic giant. Business people think smarter. They make smarter choices.
Russia, or the former USSR, prospered rapidly after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution as chess was being developed and promoted among the masses. Lenin was a passionate chess player, and he created the platform for chess to be spread to the four corners of the great land mass of his country.
And take a look at China. Quite suddenly, as China began to produce both male and female grandmasters, the economy gathered momentum and began ballooning. China is an economic giant today.
Our sponsors did more than sponsor chess this year. They sponsored the development of a nation. They sponsored a platform from which a new discipline will be shared among those who play the game. They sponsored a new beginning, and who knows, perhaps a new culture of intelligent and structured thinking among ourselves.
During the year also, the media were lavish in their coverage of chess, especially for the National Championships. The newspapers and television stations worked in a vigorous national effort to promote the ancient game and reached people in some very remote locations in Guyana. If our sponsors and the media can continue to help us reach people, and spread the gospel of the rewards to be gained from playing chess, we would owe them an immeasurable debt of thanks.
For next year, our minds are set on attending the 2008 Chess Olympiad in Germany. We will be channelling our energies in that direction. We will also be concentrating on the Inter-Guiana Games. Simultaneously, we will be moving forward with activities to promote the game in schools, and training vigorously for the inevitable foreign competition. In time, we would produce a grandmaster, and then we shall determine for sure whether having a grandmaster has anything to do with economic development. In time we will know.
Happy New Year!
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Lakshmi Back in the News
Lakshmi Tatma, the little Indian girl born with four arms and four legs, is back in the news:
Villagers idolize Lakshmi as Goddess, sans extra limbs
December 29th, 2007 - 6:34 pm ICT by admin
By Ajay Kumar
Bihar, Dec 29 (ANI): A two-year-old girl born with four arms, four legs and extra internal organs is worshipped like a Goddess in her village even after being successfully operated upon last month to cure of her birth defect.
Lakshmi Tatma, born with the deformity was named after the four-armed Hindu goddess of wealth (Lakshmi).
Indian Goddesses and Gods are depicted in epics and mythological books as very powerful with more than one pair of hands equipped with arms to kill the demons.Referred to as an incarnation of the Goddesses, the villagers want to build a permanent temple to honour the deity.
“When she was born, she had four hands and four legs. We were very happy that the Goddess has taken birth. When she was being taken to Bangalore for the operation, all of us thought that there should be some remembrance of the form in which she was born, so we decided to build a temple and worship her. said Indradev, Lakshmis uncle.
“Whenever such a child is born, we have seen that the child doesn’t survive. But Lakshmi fought back and she survived the operation too. The villagers worship her for the same,” said Rajesh, Sarpanch, Kottarpatti village.
A team of around 30 medics removed what amounted to Lakshmi’s headless identical twin sister who was joined at the pelvis and who did not develop and separate properly in the womb, in an extremely rare case, in a risky operation.
The rare birth defect is known as a parasitic twin. While cutting off the extra limbs, doctors had also removed extra internal organs and corrected a deformed skeleton. The hospital said it did not charge Lakshmi’s poor parents even a penny of the steep 2.5 million rupees the surgery cost.
She will need what doctors termed corrective treatment at a later date, but is being allowed to go home as her parents were keen to get back to their village. Lakshmi’s parents are poor labourers from Bihar state in northern India. They told the media that they had refused offers from circus owners to buy their daughter. (ANI)
Villagers idolize Lakshmi as Goddess, sans extra limbs
December 29th, 2007 - 6:34 pm ICT by admin
By Ajay Kumar
Bihar, Dec 29 (ANI): A two-year-old girl born with four arms, four legs and extra internal organs is worshipped like a Goddess in her village even after being successfully operated upon last month to cure of her birth defect.
Lakshmi Tatma, born with the deformity was named after the four-armed Hindu goddess of wealth (Lakshmi).
Indian Goddesses and Gods are depicted in epics and mythological books as very powerful with more than one pair of hands equipped with arms to kill the demons.Referred to as an incarnation of the Goddesses, the villagers want to build a permanent temple to honour the deity.
“When she was born, she had four hands and four legs. We were very happy that the Goddess has taken birth. When she was being taken to Bangalore for the operation, all of us thought that there should be some remembrance of the form in which she was born, so we decided to build a temple and worship her. said Indradev, Lakshmis uncle.
“Whenever such a child is born, we have seen that the child doesn’t survive. But Lakshmi fought back and she survived the operation too. The villagers worship her for the same,” said Rajesh, Sarpanch, Kottarpatti village.
A team of around 30 medics removed what amounted to Lakshmi’s headless identical twin sister who was joined at the pelvis and who did not develop and separate properly in the womb, in an extremely rare case, in a risky operation.
The rare birth defect is known as a parasitic twin. While cutting off the extra limbs, doctors had also removed extra internal organs and corrected a deformed skeleton. The hospital said it did not charge Lakshmi’s poor parents even a penny of the steep 2.5 million rupees the surgery cost.
She will need what doctors termed corrective treatment at a later date, but is being allowed to go home as her parents were keen to get back to their village. Lakshmi’s parents are poor labourers from Bihar state in northern India. They told the media that they had refused offers from circus owners to buy their daughter. (ANI)
U.S. Chess League
The U.S. Chess League is growing. Teams have been added in Chicago and Arizona for the 2008 season, so the League now boasts 14 teams.
The Arizona Scorpions will be managed by NM Leo Martinez. The Scorpion lineup will include Leo, as well as the following players: IM Levon Altounian, IM Mark Ginsburg and FM Daniel Rensch. Robby Adamson, who penned many articles on the U.S. Chess League for CLO will also join the Scorpions as a team member and an assistant manager.
The Chicago Blaze is managed by USCF TD Glenn Panner. Sevan Muradian, 2007 USCF organizer of the year is the assistant manager. The squad will include GM Dmitry Gurevich, IM Angelo Young, FM Mehmed Pasalic, and Adam Strunk. The games will be played at the Touch Move Chess Center in Chicago.
Read Jennifer Shahade's article at Chess Life Online.
The Arizona Scorpions will be managed by NM Leo Martinez. The Scorpion lineup will include Leo, as well as the following players: IM Levon Altounian, IM Mark Ginsburg and FM Daniel Rensch. Robby Adamson, who penned many articles on the U.S. Chess League for CLO will also join the Scorpions as a team member and an assistant manager.
The Chicago Blaze is managed by USCF TD Glenn Panner. Sevan Muradian, 2007 USCF organizer of the year is the assistant manager. The squad will include GM Dmitry Gurevich, IM Angelo Young, FM Mehmed Pasalic, and Adam Strunk. The games will be played at the Touch Move Chess Center in Chicago.
Read Jennifer Shahade's article at Chess Life Online.
Iran, US engaged in a lethal Chess Game
By Linda S. Heard
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Dec 28, 2007, 00:18
In this ongoing and protracted game of chess, there are two teams at play. On the one side of the table is the US and Israel and on the other is Russia and Iran. Parts of the game are being held in the open with other sessions behind closed doors. Which side will eventually be checkmated is anybody’s guess. What’s certain is the game is high stakes for both teams but different for each partner on the same team. The US and Russia are hungry for hegemony. But for Israel and Iran, their very survival could hang on the outcome.
More.
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Dec 28, 2007, 00:18
In this ongoing and protracted game of chess, there are two teams at play. On the one side of the table is the US and Israel and on the other is Russia and Iran. Parts of the game are being held in the open with other sessions behind closed doors. Which side will eventually be checkmated is anybody’s guess. What’s certain is the game is high stakes for both teams but different for each partner on the same team. The US and Russia are hungry for hegemony. But for Israel and Iran, their very survival could hang on the outcome.
More.
NEWS FLASH! Kushan Icon Excavated in Canada
A most exciting discovery, possibly the discovery of the century, was uncovered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in December, 2006. The present owner of the rare icon has now authorized release of information regarding the remarkable discovery to the public.
The exact location of the site, where excavation is ongoing, is not being released to the public, to protect the area from being overrun by treasure-hunters.
The piece was uncovered by a collector digging for Depression-era glass flagons in the curb area of an unidentified residential street in Verdun (Montreal), Quebec, Canada, in mid-December, 2006. At first dismissing the find as a piece of junk, the finder later turned the piece over to an historian friend as a "christmas present" joke.
The wooden icon, since identified as an extremely rare "scarred warrior" from the Kushan Empire (c. 2nd century BCE - 3rd century CE), is all the more remarkable for having survived, and in such fine condition. Wooden artifacts very rarely survive 2000 years, and then only under specific conditions, such as in the dry desert climate away from the Nile River in Egypt, where several carved wooden items have been excavated. In addition, much of the original decorative paint detail remains visible on the warrior.
Experts are split on whether the warrior's missing left arm was lost during the 2000 years since it was first carved in the "clothespin" style associated with the Kushan city of Begram, or whether the arm was deliberately left off, in the "scarred warrior" tradition.
Under the rule of the Kushans, northwest India and adjoining regions participated both in seagoing trade and in commerce along the Silk Road to China. The name Kushan derives from the Chinese term Guishang, used in historical writings to describe one branch of the Yuezhi—a loose confederation of Indo-European people who had been living in northwestern China until they were driven west by another group, the Xiongnu, in 176–160 BCE. The Yuezhi reached Bactria (northwest Afghanistan and Tajikistan) around 135 BCE. Kujula Kadphises united the disparate tribes in the first century BCE. Gradually wresting control of the area from the Scytho-Parthians [Persians], the Yuezhi moved south into the northwest Indian region traditionally known as Gandhara (now parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan) and established a capital near Kabul. They had learned to use a form of the Greek alphabet, and Kujula's son was the first Indian ruler to strike gold coins in imitation of the Roman aureus exchanged along the caravan routes.
Some historians have speculated that the "clothespin" style of carved icons were actually board game pieces, possibly pawns in the Persian game of chatrang, a direct ancestor of modern chess. This hypothesis has not, however, been accepted by board games scholars, primarily for two reasons; first, no two or more icons have ever been discovered in close proximity to each other, thereby preventing their positive identification as board game pieces; second, the age of the few recovered "scarred warrior" and "clothespin" style carvings would push back the game of chess some 400-500 years earliers than most experts date its invention.
The remarkable icon, now in the possession of conservators of an internationally renowned museum in the midwestern United States, has been carbon-dated to c. 67 CE (+/- 50). The piece has been "stabilized" and there are no plans by the owner to offer it for exhibit.
What is not known is how the icon traveled half a world away, from the Hindu Kush area of its origins 2000 years ago to modern-day Montreal. The piece was discovered near the property that formerly housed the Togo Embassy, leading some to speculate that the piece may have arrived in Montreal through nefarious methods.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Wobble Chess Set
Got $289? Here's a chess set that caught my eye. I love how the pieces are designed, they have a very sensual look about them. The board - well, that doesn't appeal.
From arango-design.com:
The Wobble Chess set, designed by Adin Mümma, 2006, is made of beautiful walnut and maple hardwood. The pieces are rounded and weighted to fit the concave landscape of the board, giving a quiet action to the intense game.
Additional Information:
Design: Adin Mümma / 2006 / Canada
Materials: Walnut, Maple and Chrome Plated Zinc
Dimensions: 15" Length x 15" Width
Design: Adin Mümma / 2006 / Canada
Materials: Walnut, Maple and Chrome Plated Zinc
Dimensions: 15" Length x 15" Width
Teach Chess to Teach Kids About Money
The article cites several other things parents can do to teach their children about money and how to handle it. But teaching kids how to play chess makes sense to me because of the known benefits in developing critical thinking skills and self-control.
From NuWire Investor
Teaching Kids About Money: 10 Tips
Ways for parents to teach their children about money
Published on: Wednesday, December 26, 2007Written by: Trista Winnie
Parents have been giving financial advice to their children for ages. "Neither a borrower nor a lender be," Polonius told his son Laertes in William Shakespeare's Hamlet. As with good hygiene and good manners, most parents strive to teach their children lessons on how to be good at handling money.
"If you can teach your child the difference between needs and wants, how to budget and how to save, your child will know more than many adults," according to Scott Reeves of Forbes. "But if you get it wrong, your child is likely to join the millions of Americans who rack up huge credit card debt and get stung each month by stiff interest payments."
In other words, no pressure.
The lives of children who understand money, its value and how to handle it will be far easier than those of children who don't.
Here are 10 tips for teaching your kids about money, focusing on saving and investing money, so they will grow up and use it responsibly. . . .
3) Teach them critical thinking
While not directly a lesson in money, kids who learn how to think critically will make better decisions when it comes to money because they will be able to consider the short, medium and long term effects of their decisions, as well as plan for contingencies.
One great way to teach them how to plan, strategize and think critically is to teach them chess. Chess is a game in which cause and effect, concrete rules, analysis and planning for different scenarios are all crucial. Chess can also help kids hone their ability to recognize when to take risks and when to play it safe, which is a critical investment skill.
A real life example of this can be found in the story of David MacEnulty, an English teacher who taught a group of inner-city, low-income students in the South Bronx how to play chess. These students went on to compete and win in chess competitions and their critical thinking skills put them on the path to success. The story was documented in the 2005 movie, Knights of the South Bronx.
From NuWire Investor
Teaching Kids About Money: 10 Tips
Ways for parents to teach their children about money
Published on: Wednesday, December 26, 2007Written by: Trista Winnie
Parents have been giving financial advice to their children for ages. "Neither a borrower nor a lender be," Polonius told his son Laertes in William Shakespeare's Hamlet. As with good hygiene and good manners, most parents strive to teach their children lessons on how to be good at handling money.
"If you can teach your child the difference between needs and wants, how to budget and how to save, your child will know more than many adults," according to Scott Reeves of Forbes. "But if you get it wrong, your child is likely to join the millions of Americans who rack up huge credit card debt and get stung each month by stiff interest payments."
In other words, no pressure.
The lives of children who understand money, its value and how to handle it will be far easier than those of children who don't.
Here are 10 tips for teaching your kids about money, focusing on saving and investing money, so they will grow up and use it responsibly. . . .
3) Teach them critical thinking
While not directly a lesson in money, kids who learn how to think critically will make better decisions when it comes to money because they will be able to consider the short, medium and long term effects of their decisions, as well as plan for contingencies.
One great way to teach them how to plan, strategize and think critically is to teach them chess. Chess is a game in which cause and effect, concrete rules, analysis and planning for different scenarios are all crucial. Chess can also help kids hone their ability to recognize when to take risks and when to play it safe, which is a critical investment skill.
A real life example of this can be found in the story of David MacEnulty, an English teacher who taught a group of inner-city, low-income students in the South Bronx how to play chess. These students went on to compete and win in chess competitions and their critical thinking skills put them on the path to success. The story was documented in the 2005 movie, Knights of the South Bronx.
Image of the Sole Female Jain Tirthankar Discovered
From The Daily Star:
1,800-year-old terracotta discovered
Staff Correspondent, Khulna
Staff Correspondent, Khulna
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Khulna office of the Archaeology Department has discovered an 1,800-year-old terracotta plaque bearing the image of the only female Jain Tirthankar, Mallinath.
The rare terracotta piece was discovered after digging a large mound of earth at Damdampir of Manirampur upazila in Jessore on December 18 but the discovery was kept secret for security reasons.
"We did not immediately disclose the facts about this particular discovery for security reasons," said Shihabuddin Mohammad Akbar, director of the Khulna regional office of Archaeology Department.
He said the digging began in 2004-05 financial year under the direct supervision of the Khulna Archaeology Department office.
Besides the seven-inch-long red sandstone terracotta image of Jain Mallinath, more antiques including earthenware from the 200-year-old Jain dynasty were discovered at the site, Shihabuddin said.
He said Mallinath was the daughter of Kumbharaja of Mithila and Prabhavati. Mallinath was 19th of the 24 Jain Tirthankars.
Shihabuddin expects that more antiques will be found at the site where digging work is still going on.
Friday Night Miscellany - Demon Plow Operators
Hola Darlings!
Do you suppose if I blew up a plow and its driver I'd be convicted of a crime by a jury of my peers?
I came home tonight to 8 inches of snow in my driveway - the driveway that dondelion and I labored so hard to clear last Saturday. It was obvious because of the hard pack and ruts in the road that the plow had not yet been through my street. So, tired though I was after a long hard day at the office, I pulled out my trusty shovel and worked my way ever so slowly down from the porch to the road and back again, and then cleared out a 10 foot width of open space at the base of the driveway, figuring that once the plow came through the snow would disburse over the cleared area and not pile up into a mountain across the base of the drive that would be frozen by morning.
Ha! I heard that %*)4!@#+@^ come through but by the time I ran downstairs and threw open the front door he was already gone. I would have run after him down the street, that #$(8&^%@+(*, cursing all the way and hurling snowballs.
Of course, I would have had to climb over the mountain of snow that the plow left behind at the base of my once-cleared driveway in order to chase after him. That $^^*&@^(+=*@.
I swear to the Goddess, if I see him, I'll kill him. I'll take my plastic shovel and I'll chase him down and I'll chop his head off with it.
Murder of city plow operators aside, I snapped the photo this evening, just experimenting. I didn't have the camera set to the correct speed but I was too tired to look it up in the instruction booklet, so I just snapped away. This is a scene from my deck (not yet shoveled).
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Pyramid Discovered in Mexico City
From The New York Times:
Ancient Pyramid Found In Central Mexico City
By REUTERS
Published: December 27, 2007
Filed at 10:40 p.m. ET
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Archeologists have discovered the ruins of an 800-year-old Aztec pyramid in the heart of the Mexican capital that could show the ancient city is at least a century older than previously thought.
Mexican archeologists found the ruins, which are about 36 feet high, in the central Tlatelolco area, once a major religious and political centre for the Aztec elite.
Since the discovery of another pyramid at the site 15 years ago, historians have thought Tlatelolco was founded by the Aztecs in 1325, the same year as the twin city of Tenochtitlan nearby, the capital of the Aztec empire, which the Spanish razed in 1521 to found Mexico City, conquering the Aztecs.
The pyramid, found last month as part of an investigation begun in August, could have been built in 1100 or 1200, signaling the Aztecs began to develop their civilization in the mountains of central Mexico earlier than believed.
"We have found the stairs of this, much older pyramid. The (Aztec) timeline is going to need to be revised," archaeologist Patricia Ledesma said at the site on Thursday.
Tlatelolco, visited by thousands of tourists for its pre-Hispanic ruins and colonial-era Spanish church and convent, is also infamous for the 1968 massacre of leftist students by state security forces there, days before Mexico hosted the Olympic Games.
Ledesma and the archaeological group's coordinator, Salvador Guilliem, said they will continue to dig and study the area next year to get a better idea of the pyramid's size and age.
The archeologists also have detected a sculpture that could be of the Aztec rain god Tlaloc, or of the god of the sky and earth Tezcatlipoca.
In addition, the dig has turned up five skulls and a series of rooms near the pyramid that could date from 1431.
"What we hope to find soon should tell us much more about the society of Tlatelolco," said Ledesma.
Mexico City is littered with pre-Hispanic ruins. In August, archeologists in the city's crime-ridden Iztapalapa district unearthed what they believe may be the main pyramid of Tenochtitlan.
The Aztecs, a warlike and religious people who built monumental works and are credited with inventing chocolate, ruled an empire stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean and encompassing much of modern-day central Mexico.
(Editing by Xavier Briand)
Ancient Pyramid Found In Central Mexico City
By REUTERS
Published: December 27, 2007
Filed at 10:40 p.m. ET
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Archeologists have discovered the ruins of an 800-year-old Aztec pyramid in the heart of the Mexican capital that could show the ancient city is at least a century older than previously thought.
Mexican archeologists found the ruins, which are about 36 feet high, in the central Tlatelolco area, once a major religious and political centre for the Aztec elite.
Since the discovery of another pyramid at the site 15 years ago, historians have thought Tlatelolco was founded by the Aztecs in 1325, the same year as the twin city of Tenochtitlan nearby, the capital of the Aztec empire, which the Spanish razed in 1521 to found Mexico City, conquering the Aztecs.
The pyramid, found last month as part of an investigation begun in August, could have been built in 1100 or 1200, signaling the Aztecs began to develop their civilization in the mountains of central Mexico earlier than believed.
"We have found the stairs of this, much older pyramid. The (Aztec) timeline is going to need to be revised," archaeologist Patricia Ledesma said at the site on Thursday.
Tlatelolco, visited by thousands of tourists for its pre-Hispanic ruins and colonial-era Spanish church and convent, is also infamous for the 1968 massacre of leftist students by state security forces there, days before Mexico hosted the Olympic Games.
Ledesma and the archaeological group's coordinator, Salvador Guilliem, said they will continue to dig and study the area next year to get a better idea of the pyramid's size and age.
The archeologists also have detected a sculpture that could be of the Aztec rain god Tlaloc, or of the god of the sky and earth Tezcatlipoca.
In addition, the dig has turned up five skulls and a series of rooms near the pyramid that could date from 1431.
"What we hope to find soon should tell us much more about the society of Tlatelolco," said Ledesma.
Mexico City is littered with pre-Hispanic ruins. In August, archeologists in the city's crime-ridden Iztapalapa district unearthed what they believe may be the main pyramid of Tenochtitlan.
The Aztecs, a warlike and religious people who built monumental works and are credited with inventing chocolate, ruled an empire stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean and encompassing much of modern-day central Mexico.
(Editing by Xavier Briand)
Jiroft Artifacts to Be Returned to Iran
From CAIS (Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies):
(Image: Oscar Muscarella at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art says this game board is a forgery - see link at end of article)
Iran Wins Battle Against London Barakat Gallery in Jiroft's Smuggled Artefacts
December 22, 2007
LONDON, (CAIS) -- A London appeal court made a ruling on Friday that the city’s Barakat Gallery must return 18 artefacts smuggled from the ancient site of Jiroft in southern Iran.
In March 2007, London’s High Court had rejected Iran’s ownership of the 5,000-year-old artefacts which had been put up for auction at the Barakat Gallery, which has offices in Mayfair, central London and Beverly Hills.
Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization (CHTHO) appealed against the court decision in May.
“The return of the artefacts is vital for Iranian culture and civilization,” deputy director of CHTHO’s Legal Department Sussan Cheraghchi told the Persian service of CHN.
The collection of historic items consists of two jars, five cups, six vases, a bowl, a vessel and three weights.
Lawyers and other experts had reckoned that Iran and the Barakat Gallery had equal chances of winning the legal battle. The court had set a security of 100,000 euros for the appeal, and Iran had accepted to pay the sum to induce the appeal court to begin legal proceedings.
If Iran had lost the case, the security would have been paid to the Barakat Gallery as compensation for the delay in the auction of the artefacts.
In March 2005, Britain returned 118 ancient artefacts which had been looted from Jiroft. The items had been confiscated by HM Customs and Excise at Heathrow Airport in the summer of 2004.
Jiroft came under the spotlight in 2002, when reports surfaced that local people had begun extensive illegal excavations and were plundering priceless relics.
Five excavation seasons have been carried out at the Jiroft site, under the supervision of Professor Yusef Majidzadeh, leading to the discovery of a ziggurat made of more than four million mud bricks dating back to circa 2200 BCE.
After numerous rare discoveries in the region, Majidzadeh declared Jiroft to be a cradle of art and civilisation, and named it as the “archaeologists’ lost paradise”.
In March 2007, London’s High Court had rejected Iran’s ownership of the 5,000-year-old artefacts which had been put up for auction at the Barakat Gallery, which has offices in Mayfair, central London and Beverly Hills.
Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization (CHTHO) appealed against the court decision in May.
“The return of the artefacts is vital for Iranian culture and civilization,” deputy director of CHTHO’s Legal Department Sussan Cheraghchi told the Persian service of CHN.
The collection of historic items consists of two jars, five cups, six vases, a bowl, a vessel and three weights.
Lawyers and other experts had reckoned that Iran and the Barakat Gallery had equal chances of winning the legal battle. The court had set a security of 100,000 euros for the appeal, and Iran had accepted to pay the sum to induce the appeal court to begin legal proceedings.
If Iran had lost the case, the security would have been paid to the Barakat Gallery as compensation for the delay in the auction of the artefacts.
In March 2005, Britain returned 118 ancient artefacts which had been looted from Jiroft. The items had been confiscated by HM Customs and Excise at Heathrow Airport in the summer of 2004.
Jiroft came under the spotlight in 2002, when reports surfaced that local people had begun extensive illegal excavations and were plundering priceless relics.
Five excavation seasons have been carried out at the Jiroft site, under the supervision of Professor Yusef Majidzadeh, leading to the discovery of a ziggurat made of more than four million mud bricks dating back to circa 2200 BCE.
After numerous rare discoveries in the region, Majidzadeh declared Jiroft to be a cradle of art and civilisation, and named it as the “archaeologists’ lost paradise”.
*************************************************************************************
Not mentioned is whether any of these artifacts are forgeries...
2007 Russian Championship Superfinals
Women's standings after Round 8:
1. Tairova, Elena m RUS 2391 6½
2. Korbut, Ekaterina m RUS 2443 6
3. Pogonina, Natalija wg RUS 2462 5½
4. Kosintseva, Tatiana m RUS 2492 5
5. Matveeva, Svetlana m RUS 2433 4½
6. Ovod, Evgenija m RUS 2386 4½
7. Kosintseva, Nadezhda m RUS 2469 4
8. Shadrina, Tatiana wg RUS 2379 4
9. Stepovaia, Tatiana wg RUS 2375 3½
10. Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina m RUS 2448 2
11. Girya, Olga wf RUS 2338 2
12. Gunina, Valentina wf RUS 2359 ½
1. Tairova, Elena m RUS 2391 6½
2. Korbut, Ekaterina m RUS 2443 6
3. Pogonina, Natalija wg RUS 2462 5½
4. Kosintseva, Tatiana m RUS 2492 5
5. Matveeva, Svetlana m RUS 2433 4½
6. Ovod, Evgenija m RUS 2386 4½
7. Kosintseva, Nadezhda m RUS 2469 4
8. Shadrina, Tatiana wg RUS 2379 4
9. Stepovaia, Tatiana wg RUS 2375 3½
10. Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina m RUS 2448 2
11. Girya, Olga wf RUS 2338 2
12. Gunina, Valentina wf RUS 2359 ½
Matsu Back in the News
Original post. Matsu gets around - and travels first class.
Hsingkang spruced up with new open plaza in front of Matsu temple
Thursday, December 27, 2007
By Dan Bloom, Special to The China Post
Every year in the spring, thousands of religious pilgrims make the long trek from Taichung (台中) County to Chiayi (嘉義) County--and back again--in honor of the goddess Matsu (媽祖). But tourists flock to Hsingkang in southern Taiwan every day of the year, especially on weekends.
As a result, Hsingkang (新港) has become a popular weekend tourist destination, and with the High Speed Rail now whisking passengers up and down Taiwan's long west coast, Hsingkang has become a lot closer for people living in the Taipei and Kaohsiung regions.
The High Speed Rail's well-designed Taibao (太保) station is just five kilometers away from Hsingkang and is a quick and convenient bus or taxi ride from the station. With more and more tourists coming to town on weekends and with the growing popularity of the springtime Matsu pilgrimage, town officials, together with central government planners, have built a new open plaza in front of the Fengtien Temple, complete with a white cobblestone roadway and gracefully-modern red street lamps, designed to look like festival lanterns, that contrast sharply, yet harmoniously, with the adjacent temple area nearby.
. . .
Maggie Lin, a temple guide and a native of Hsingkang, showed me around when I was visiting recently, and she told me some interesting stories about the goddess Matsu as well.
. . .
Inside the temple grounds, Lin took me to the fifth floor of a building behind the main temple, where you can see a long panorama of the temple itself and the main street in front of the temple. It makes a great photograph, too, I might add. Lin also told me an interesting story about the Hsingkang Matsu's trip to New York City a few months ago to visit the United Nations.
"On the flight from Taoyuan to New Jersey, the statue of Matsu was originally given a ticket for a seat in economy class, but when one of the Taiwanese flight attendants noticed that the famous goddess was aboard, she arranged for Matsu to be moved up to a first-class seat," Lin said.
"In addition, the Hsingkang man who was watching over Matsu during the plane ride to New York used some special red fortune dice to ask Matsu what she would like to drink and eat on the airplane. The assistant would ask a simple question that required just a yes or no answer, and when the answer was ascertained, Matsu would be given the coffee or tea drink that she had asked for.
"The same went for the meals that were served to Matsu during her flight, which, by the way, marked the first time she had ever visited North America. It was really an interesting trip over and back, and now Matsu is safely back in her resting place here in Hsingkang, with many stories to tell about her trip to the United Nations."
. . .
Hsingkang spruced up with new open plaza in front of Matsu temple
Thursday, December 27, 2007
By Dan Bloom, Special to The China Post
Every year in the spring, thousands of religious pilgrims make the long trek from Taichung (台中) County to Chiayi (嘉義) County--and back again--in honor of the goddess Matsu (媽祖). But tourists flock to Hsingkang in southern Taiwan every day of the year, especially on weekends.
As a result, Hsingkang (新港) has become a popular weekend tourist destination, and with the High Speed Rail now whisking passengers up and down Taiwan's long west coast, Hsingkang has become a lot closer for people living in the Taipei and Kaohsiung regions.
The High Speed Rail's well-designed Taibao (太保) station is just five kilometers away from Hsingkang and is a quick and convenient bus or taxi ride from the station. With more and more tourists coming to town on weekends and with the growing popularity of the springtime Matsu pilgrimage, town officials, together with central government planners, have built a new open plaza in front of the Fengtien Temple, complete with a white cobblestone roadway and gracefully-modern red street lamps, designed to look like festival lanterns, that contrast sharply, yet harmoniously, with the adjacent temple area nearby.
. . .
Maggie Lin, a temple guide and a native of Hsingkang, showed me around when I was visiting recently, and she told me some interesting stories about the goddess Matsu as well.
. . .
Inside the temple grounds, Lin took me to the fifth floor of a building behind the main temple, where you can see a long panorama of the temple itself and the main street in front of the temple. It makes a great photograph, too, I might add. Lin also told me an interesting story about the Hsingkang Matsu's trip to New York City a few months ago to visit the United Nations.
"On the flight from Taoyuan to New Jersey, the statue of Matsu was originally given a ticket for a seat in economy class, but when one of the Taiwanese flight attendants noticed that the famous goddess was aboard, she arranged for Matsu to be moved up to a first-class seat," Lin said.
"In addition, the Hsingkang man who was watching over Matsu during the plane ride to New York used some special red fortune dice to ask Matsu what she would like to drink and eat on the airplane. The assistant would ask a simple question that required just a yes or no answer, and when the answer was ascertained, Matsu would be given the coffee or tea drink that she had asked for.
"The same went for the meals that were served to Matsu during her flight, which, by the way, marked the first time she had ever visited North America. It was really an interesting trip over and back, and now Matsu is safely back in her resting place here in Hsingkang, with many stories to tell about her trip to the United Nations."
. . .
The Moon and Mars on Christmas Eve
On December 23 and 24th, we were experimenting with different settings on my digital camera and dondelion took several night shots outdoors. We don't have a tripod (now on my list of things to purchase in 2008) so this image on the slow shutter speed for night shots came out a wee bit blurred. It's looking due east from my front porch, taken Christmas Eve. The moon and Mars, above to the north/northeast of the moon, were spectacular.
Blast From the Past: Two Years After Katrina
This article first appeared in The Wall Street Journal on September 8, 2005. I remember getting chills down my spine when I read it. In fact, I made a copy of the article and came across it recently when I was cleaning out one of my desk drawers at the office. I found it online at several places. Perhaps others found the article as chilling as I did. I think it's well worth reading.
Old-Line Families Escape Worst of Flood And Plot the Future
by Christopher Cooper
NEW ORLEANS - On a sultry morning earlier this week, Ashton O'Dwyer stepped out of his home on this city's grandest street and made a beeline for his neighbor's pool. Wearing nothing but a pair of blue swim trunks and carrying two milk jugs, he drew enough pool water to flush the toilet in his home.
The mostly African-American neighborhoods of New Orleans are largely underwater, and the people who lived there have scattered across the country. But in many of the predominantly white and more affluent areas, streets are dry and passable. Gracious homes are mostly intact and powered by generators. Yesterday, officials reiterated that all residents must leave New Orleans, but it's still unclear how far they will go to enforce the order.
The green expanse of Audubon Park, in the city's Uptown area, has doubled in recent days as a heliport for the city's rich -- and a terminus for the small armies of private security guards who have been dispatched to keep the homes there safe and habitable. Mr. O'Dwyer has cellphone service and ice cubes to cool off his highballs in the evening. By yesterday, the city water service even sprang to life, making the daily trips to his neighbor's pool unnecessary. A pair of oil-company engineers, dispatched by his son-in-law, delivered four cases of water, a box of delicacies including herring with mustard sauce and 15 gallons of generator gasoline.
Despite the disaster that has overwhelmed New Orleans, the city's monied, mostly white elite is hanging on and maneuvering to play a role in the recovery when the floodwaters of Katrina are gone. "New Orleans is ready to be rebuilt. Let's start right here," says Mr. O'Dwyer, standing in his expansive kitchen, next to a counter covered with a jumble of weaponry and electric wires.
More than a few people in Uptown, the fashionable district surrounding St. Charles Ave., have ancestors who arrived here in the 1700s. High society is still dominated by these old-line families, represented today by prominent figures such as former New Orleans Board of Trade President Thomas Westfeldt; Richard Freeman, scion of the family that long owned the city's Coca-Cola bottling plant; and William Boatner Reily, owner of a Louisiana coffee company. Their social pecking order is dictated by the mysterious hierarchy of "krewes," groups with hereditary membership that participate in the annual carnival leading up to Mardi Gras. In recent years, the city's most powerful business circles have expanded to include some newcomers and non-whites, such as Mayor Ray Nagin, the former Cox Communications executive elected in 2002.
A few blocks from Mr. O'Dwyer, in an exclusive gated community known as Audubon Place, is the home of James Reiss, descendent of an old-line Uptown family. He fled Hurricane Katrina just before the storm and returned soon afterward by private helicopter. Mr. Reiss became wealthy as a supplier of electronic systems to shipbuilders, and he serves in Mayor Nagin's administration as chairman of the city's Regional Transit Authority. When New Orleans descended into a spiral of looting and anarchy, Mr. Reiss helicoptered in an Israeli security company to guard his Audubon Place house and those of his neighbors.
He says he has been in contact with about 40 other New Orleans business leaders since the storm. Tomorrow, he says, he and some of those leaders plan to be in Dallas, meeting with Mr. Nagin to begin mapping out a future for the city.
The power elite of New Orleans -- whether they are still in the city or have moved temporarily to enclaves such as Destin, Fla., and Vail, Colo. -- insist the remade city won't simply restore the old order. New Orleans before the flood was burdened by a teeming underclass, substandard schools and a high crime rate. The city has few corporate headquarters.
The new city must be something very different, Mr. Reiss says, with better services and fewer poor people. "Those who want to see this city rebuilt want to see it done in a completely different way: demographically, geographically and politically," he says. "I'm not just speaking for myself here. The way we've been living is not going to happen again, or we're out."
Not every white business leader or prominent family supports that view. Some black leaders and their allies in New Orleans fear that it boils down to preventing large numbers of blacks from returning to the city and eliminating the African-American voting majority. Rep. William Jefferson, a sharecropper's son who was educated at Harvard and is currently serving his eighth term in Congress, points out that the evacuees from New Orleans already have been spread out across many states far from their old home and won't be able to afford to return. "This is an example of poor people forced to make choices because they don't have the money to do otherwise," Mr. Jefferson says.
Calvin Fayard, a wealthy white plaintiffs' lawyer who lives near Mr. O'Dwyer, says the mass evacuation could turn a Democratic stronghold into a Republican one. Mr. Fayard, a prominent Democratic fund-raiser, says tampering with the city's demographics means tampering with its unique culture and shouldn't be done. "People can't survive a year temporarily -- they'll go somewhere, get a job and never come back," he says.
Mr. Reiss acknowledges that shrinking parts of the city occupied by hardscrabble neighborhoods would inevitably result in fewer poor and African-American residents. But he says the electoral balance of the city wouldn't change significantly and that the business elite isn't trying to reverse the last 30 years of black political control. "We understand that African Americans have had a great deal of influence on the history of New Orleans," he says.
A key question will be the position of Mr. Nagin, who was elected with the support of the city's business leadership. He couldn't be reached yesterday. Mr. Reiss says the mayor suggested the Dallas meeting and will likely attend when he goes there to visit his evacuated family.
Black politicians have controlled City Hall here since the late 1970s, but the wealthy white families of New Orleans have never been fully eclipsed. Stuffing campaign coffers with donations, these families dominate the city's professional and executive classes, including the white-shoe law firms, engineering offices, and local shipping companies. White voters often act as a swing bloc, propelling blacks or Creoles into the city's top political jobs. That was the case with Mr. Nagin, who defeated another African American to win the mayoral election in 2002.
Creoles, as many mixed-race residents of New Orleans call themselves, dominate the city's white-collar and government ranks and tend to ally themselves with white voters on issues such as crime and education, while sharing many of the same social concerns as African-American voters. Though the flooding took a toll on many Creole neighborhoods, it's likely that Creoles will return to the city in fairly large numbers, since many of them have the means to do so.
© 2005 Dow Jones & Company
Old-Line Families Escape Worst of Flood And Plot the Future
by Christopher Cooper
NEW ORLEANS - On a sultry morning earlier this week, Ashton O'Dwyer stepped out of his home on this city's grandest street and made a beeline for his neighbor's pool. Wearing nothing but a pair of blue swim trunks and carrying two milk jugs, he drew enough pool water to flush the toilet in his home.
The mostly African-American neighborhoods of New Orleans are largely underwater, and the people who lived there have scattered across the country. But in many of the predominantly white and more affluent areas, streets are dry and passable. Gracious homes are mostly intact and powered by generators. Yesterday, officials reiterated that all residents must leave New Orleans, but it's still unclear how far they will go to enforce the order.
The green expanse of Audubon Park, in the city's Uptown area, has doubled in recent days as a heliport for the city's rich -- and a terminus for the small armies of private security guards who have been dispatched to keep the homes there safe and habitable. Mr. O'Dwyer has cellphone service and ice cubes to cool off his highballs in the evening. By yesterday, the city water service even sprang to life, making the daily trips to his neighbor's pool unnecessary. A pair of oil-company engineers, dispatched by his son-in-law, delivered four cases of water, a box of delicacies including herring with mustard sauce and 15 gallons of generator gasoline.
Despite the disaster that has overwhelmed New Orleans, the city's monied, mostly white elite is hanging on and maneuvering to play a role in the recovery when the floodwaters of Katrina are gone. "New Orleans is ready to be rebuilt. Let's start right here," says Mr. O'Dwyer, standing in his expansive kitchen, next to a counter covered with a jumble of weaponry and electric wires.
More than a few people in Uptown, the fashionable district surrounding St. Charles Ave., have ancestors who arrived here in the 1700s. High society is still dominated by these old-line families, represented today by prominent figures such as former New Orleans Board of Trade President Thomas Westfeldt; Richard Freeman, scion of the family that long owned the city's Coca-Cola bottling plant; and William Boatner Reily, owner of a Louisiana coffee company. Their social pecking order is dictated by the mysterious hierarchy of "krewes," groups with hereditary membership that participate in the annual carnival leading up to Mardi Gras. In recent years, the city's most powerful business circles have expanded to include some newcomers and non-whites, such as Mayor Ray Nagin, the former Cox Communications executive elected in 2002.
A few blocks from Mr. O'Dwyer, in an exclusive gated community known as Audubon Place, is the home of James Reiss, descendent of an old-line Uptown family. He fled Hurricane Katrina just before the storm and returned soon afterward by private helicopter. Mr. Reiss became wealthy as a supplier of electronic systems to shipbuilders, and he serves in Mayor Nagin's administration as chairman of the city's Regional Transit Authority. When New Orleans descended into a spiral of looting and anarchy, Mr. Reiss helicoptered in an Israeli security company to guard his Audubon Place house and those of his neighbors.
He says he has been in contact with about 40 other New Orleans business leaders since the storm. Tomorrow, he says, he and some of those leaders plan to be in Dallas, meeting with Mr. Nagin to begin mapping out a future for the city.
The power elite of New Orleans -- whether they are still in the city or have moved temporarily to enclaves such as Destin, Fla., and Vail, Colo. -- insist the remade city won't simply restore the old order. New Orleans before the flood was burdened by a teeming underclass, substandard schools and a high crime rate. The city has few corporate headquarters.
The new city must be something very different, Mr. Reiss says, with better services and fewer poor people. "Those who want to see this city rebuilt want to see it done in a completely different way: demographically, geographically and politically," he says. "I'm not just speaking for myself here. The way we've been living is not going to happen again, or we're out."
Not every white business leader or prominent family supports that view. Some black leaders and their allies in New Orleans fear that it boils down to preventing large numbers of blacks from returning to the city and eliminating the African-American voting majority. Rep. William Jefferson, a sharecropper's son who was educated at Harvard and is currently serving his eighth term in Congress, points out that the evacuees from New Orleans already have been spread out across many states far from their old home and won't be able to afford to return. "This is an example of poor people forced to make choices because they don't have the money to do otherwise," Mr. Jefferson says.
Calvin Fayard, a wealthy white plaintiffs' lawyer who lives near Mr. O'Dwyer, says the mass evacuation could turn a Democratic stronghold into a Republican one. Mr. Fayard, a prominent Democratic fund-raiser, says tampering with the city's demographics means tampering with its unique culture and shouldn't be done. "People can't survive a year temporarily -- they'll go somewhere, get a job and never come back," he says.
Mr. Reiss acknowledges that shrinking parts of the city occupied by hardscrabble neighborhoods would inevitably result in fewer poor and African-American residents. But he says the electoral balance of the city wouldn't change significantly and that the business elite isn't trying to reverse the last 30 years of black political control. "We understand that African Americans have had a great deal of influence on the history of New Orleans," he says.
A key question will be the position of Mr. Nagin, who was elected with the support of the city's business leadership. He couldn't be reached yesterday. Mr. Reiss says the mayor suggested the Dallas meeting and will likely attend when he goes there to visit his evacuated family.
Black politicians have controlled City Hall here since the late 1970s, but the wealthy white families of New Orleans have never been fully eclipsed. Stuffing campaign coffers with donations, these families dominate the city's professional and executive classes, including the white-shoe law firms, engineering offices, and local shipping companies. White voters often act as a swing bloc, propelling blacks or Creoles into the city's top political jobs. That was the case with Mr. Nagin, who defeated another African American to win the mayoral election in 2002.
Creoles, as many mixed-race residents of New Orleans call themselves, dominate the city's white-collar and government ranks and tend to ally themselves with white voters on issues such as crime and education, while sharing many of the same social concerns as African-American voters. Though the flooding took a toll on many Creole neighborhoods, it's likely that Creoles will return to the city in fairly large numbers, since many of them have the means to do so.
© 2005 Dow Jones & Company
Monday, December 24, 2007
Christmas Eve, 2007
Hola!
Whew! It's been a whirlwind since dondelion arrived on Wednesday. Yesterday was the first day of virtually no activity because the weather turned very nasty - high winds, very cold, and sharp blowing snow for 24 hours. I made a big breakfast for us in the morning, including some "country style" bacon - a gift from friend P - THANKS P! - it was truly delicious, never had any bacon quite like it. The taste was extremely decadent - rich and smoky and sweet.
Later we settled in the living room before the fireplace to watch the Packers v. Bears game. The house was drafty and coldish because of the strong winds outside rattling the timbers, and the fireplace warmed things up nicely, but we turned the game off shortly into the third quarter. Don took this photo of the Christmas tree from the overlook upstairs during half-time.
We lucked out - our area received only a few inches of snow which Don promptly dispatched with the shovel this morning. The wind was still up a bit but it was not snowing and so we ventured out shortly after 10 a.m. Unfortunately, the Woolrich gloves I'd picked out for Don did not fit - so we took the opportunity to travel to the Mall where I hoped to exchange them for a larger size. However, the largest size the store had in stock did not fit Don's hands! As he nearly had a stroke when he found out how much I'd paid for them (okay, so I'm extragavant sometimes), he insisted I get a refund, which we used to buy lunch at Olive Garden.
Unlike last Christmas Eve Day, this year there were LOTS of people out and about. The Mall was crowded with shoppers; Half Price Books was busy and, as per usual with Mr. Don, he got into an interesting conversation (about coinage) with a shopper who happened to wander from one aisle over (antiques, collecting, and coins) into the aisle we were browsing in (ancient art and architecture).
When the growling in my stomach could no longer be denied and my legs were tired from trudging around in my new shoe-boots (what can I say - they're heavy), we headed to Olive Garden for a nice, relaxing lunch. The restaurant was busy too, but not overly so. We got seated right away. We arrived home at 3 p.m. and settled in for the evening.
I've got a pot-roast with vegetables in the slow-cooker for a late supper. Later we'll take a walk around the neighborhood and admire all of the neighbors' decorations now that it's dark out. We're going to watch a movie or two until midnight, when we'll open our gifts. I think I'll sneak "A Christmas Carol" in the movie mix :)
Happy Christmas to all. Thank you so much for making this blog a smashing success!
Tiny Tim and Scrooge Play Chess
For those of you who celebrate Christmas, a wonderful little addition to Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." For those of you who do not celebrate Christmas, enjoy the chess!
From the MuskogeePhoenix.com
Published December 24, 2007 05:04 pm - Chess: Tiny Tim’s chess moves
By Eric Morrow
Submitted Story
Tiny Tim v. Scrooge
It is a little know fact that after the events in Dickens’ “Christmas Carol” Scrooge and Tiny Tim regularly played chess together. This week’s position is from one of those games. The game occurred on Christmas day in 1853, ten years after Scrooge’s night with the three ghosts. Tiny Tim is playing white, Scrooge, black.
With a smile Scrooge said “Ba humbug” to Tim’s threats and pinned white queen’s with his bishop at b7. Scrooge thought he was about to win Tim’s queen and the game. Tim saw, however, that Scrooge’s greed had given him an unexpected Christmas gift. Please try and find how Tim saved his queen and secured a winning position.
In chess notation, the board is a grid: the vertical columns are numbered "1" through "8"; the horizontal rows, "a" through "h". Each square on the board is identified by a specific letter and number. For example, if the white rook at d1 were to move to d3, the notation would be rd3 (r=rook, q=queen, x=takes, etc.).
Tim first checked black by moving his rook at d1 to d8. Because black’s pawns pin their king to the 8th rank, the queen must capture the rook. This deflection-sacrifice saves the queen because it leaves the black bishop unprotected. After qxr Tim then captured the bishop with his queen.
White threatens to pin black’s king by moving its rook to a8 with the support of its queen. Scrooge craftily moved his knight to a6. Now if Tim gets greedy and takes the knight with his rook, Scrooge could perpetually check the white king with his queen. Tim thus moved his rook over to c1.
This renews the threat of the rook moving to the 8th rank and pinning the black queen. Scrooge saw that his best reply was to accept the loss of his knight and move it to c7 (although c5 is very similar).
After Tim took the knight with his queen, Scrooge could check the white king. But only temporarily, as the white king is checked across the board towards the protection of its queen and rook. Once the checks ended Scrooge resigned.
The lesson here is to not overvalue one’s own attack and scoff at your opponent’s potential threats with a silent “Bah, Humbug.”
From the MuskogeePhoenix.com
Published December 24, 2007 05:04 pm - Chess: Tiny Tim’s chess moves
By Eric Morrow
Submitted Story
Tiny Tim v. Scrooge
It is a little know fact that after the events in Dickens’ “Christmas Carol” Scrooge and Tiny Tim regularly played chess together. This week’s position is from one of those games. The game occurred on Christmas day in 1853, ten years after Scrooge’s night with the three ghosts. Tiny Tim is playing white, Scrooge, black.
With a smile Scrooge said “Ba humbug” to Tim’s threats and pinned white queen’s with his bishop at b7. Scrooge thought he was about to win Tim’s queen and the game. Tim saw, however, that Scrooge’s greed had given him an unexpected Christmas gift. Please try and find how Tim saved his queen and secured a winning position.
In chess notation, the board is a grid: the vertical columns are numbered "1" through "8"; the horizontal rows, "a" through "h". Each square on the board is identified by a specific letter and number. For example, if the white rook at d1 were to move to d3, the notation would be rd3 (r=rook, q=queen, x=takes, etc.).
Tim first checked black by moving his rook at d1 to d8. Because black’s pawns pin their king to the 8th rank, the queen must capture the rook. This deflection-sacrifice saves the queen because it leaves the black bishop unprotected. After qxr Tim then captured the bishop with his queen.
White threatens to pin black’s king by moving its rook to a8 with the support of its queen. Scrooge craftily moved his knight to a6. Now if Tim gets greedy and takes the knight with his rook, Scrooge could perpetually check the white king with his queen. Tim thus moved his rook over to c1.
This renews the threat of the rook moving to the 8th rank and pinning the black queen. Scrooge saw that his best reply was to accept the loss of his knight and move it to c7 (although c5 is very similar).
After Tim took the knight with his queen, Scrooge could check the white king. But only temporarily, as the white king is checked across the board towards the protection of its queen and rook. Once the checks ended Scrooge resigned.
The lesson here is to not overvalue one’s own attack and scoff at your opponent’s potential threats with a silent “Bah, Humbug.”
Ancient Games: Points to Ponder
A short essay from the Elliott Avedon Museum and Archive of Games website:
Origins of Games - Issues to Ponder
There is considerable difficulty in determining the origin of many games. This page offers some reasons why this is so.
The main issue seems to be - are most games just modifications of a couple of games from the very distant past which have evolved and have been diffused throughout the world over time? Or are most games individual creative productions which were invented in different parts of the world at time periods in time.
One reason that determining the origin of games is difficult is because games have been around a long time, and people didn't bother to maintain records about something as inconsequential as games. Although there are ancient tomb paintings depicting game playing, or remnants of ancient game equipment [discovered in archaeological excavations in Egypt and Mesopotamia], no one specifically maintained information about when or where a game was "invented' or from which culture it was "borrowed". Such record keeping is a product of the late middle ages and onward.
In examining the origins of anything in society, one knows that a thing is either a spontaneous invention of someone, someplace - or the thing is a modified copy of the original that shows up in some other place. That's easy to see because a chair is a chair, or a can opener is a can opener, and this is also true with regard to certain intellectual concepts in mathematics or physics, for example. With games - this is not always the case. Nowadays, when one identifies something as a game as opposed to something else in society, they recognize that a game is a special device or behavior used for recreative purposes. It is taken for granted that games have been perpetuated by civilization to amuse and to entertain. Nonetheless, some people may have also consciously used games for other purposes, such as education or treatment of illness.
This has probably been the case since people first began playing games, and may help to explain why in the 19th and early 20th centuries so much of scholarly study of game origins concerned their use in religious rites and practices of certain cultures. In examining anything, one may arbitrarily concentrate on the physical aspects of the thing, or how it might have been used. In the case of a chair or a can opener - its design is limited by its function. Since games may be assigned different functions in society, they may have been consciously modified. This has confused investigation in the past. (For example, in our time those 52 pieces of blank white plastic with little bumps on them are in reality a deck of Braille playing cards designed for use of sightless persons.)
In a physical sense, there are two types of games - those that require special equipment and/or settings - and those that don't. Examples of the former would be roulette or tennis; while examples of the latter would be 20 questions or charades. Tracing the origins of games without physical equipment is even more difficult. At times, it is possible to trace connections among games even though they may look and seem very different. A case in point is a standard European Chess set and a Japanese Shogi set. Although they have different boards and playing pieces - one of the pieces in each set features the same unique move. In the West it's called the knight's move - one forward and one to the side, or one to the side and one forward. Or another example would be in decks of playing cards from many different cultures - all decks of cards are divided into suits and sequences. Similarities such as these have led a number of scholars to conclude that many games have a singular origin and were diffused to different cultures over time by traders, travelers, and soldiers.
Because of these and certain other reasons, for the most part - theories about the origins and early geographical distribution of games are just theories which may never be verified!
Origins of Games - Issues to Ponder
There is considerable difficulty in determining the origin of many games. This page offers some reasons why this is so.
The main issue seems to be - are most games just modifications of a couple of games from the very distant past which have evolved and have been diffused throughout the world over time? Or are most games individual creative productions which were invented in different parts of the world at time periods in time.
One reason that determining the origin of games is difficult is because games have been around a long time, and people didn't bother to maintain records about something as inconsequential as games. Although there are ancient tomb paintings depicting game playing, or remnants of ancient game equipment [discovered in archaeological excavations in Egypt and Mesopotamia], no one specifically maintained information about when or where a game was "invented' or from which culture it was "borrowed". Such record keeping is a product of the late middle ages and onward.
In examining the origins of anything in society, one knows that a thing is either a spontaneous invention of someone, someplace - or the thing is a modified copy of the original that shows up in some other place. That's easy to see because a chair is a chair, or a can opener is a can opener, and this is also true with regard to certain intellectual concepts in mathematics or physics, for example. With games - this is not always the case. Nowadays, when one identifies something as a game as opposed to something else in society, they recognize that a game is a special device or behavior used for recreative purposes. It is taken for granted that games have been perpetuated by civilization to amuse and to entertain. Nonetheless, some people may have also consciously used games for other purposes, such as education or treatment of illness.
This has probably been the case since people first began playing games, and may help to explain why in the 19th and early 20th centuries so much of scholarly study of game origins concerned their use in religious rites and practices of certain cultures. In examining anything, one may arbitrarily concentrate on the physical aspects of the thing, or how it might have been used. In the case of a chair or a can opener - its design is limited by its function. Since games may be assigned different functions in society, they may have been consciously modified. This has confused investigation in the past. (For example, in our time those 52 pieces of blank white plastic with little bumps on them are in reality a deck of Braille playing cards designed for use of sightless persons.)
In a physical sense, there are two types of games - those that require special equipment and/or settings - and those that don't. Examples of the former would be roulette or tennis; while examples of the latter would be 20 questions or charades. Tracing the origins of games without physical equipment is even more difficult. At times, it is possible to trace connections among games even though they may look and seem very different. A case in point is a standard European Chess set and a Japanese Shogi set. Although they have different boards and playing pieces - one of the pieces in each set features the same unique move. In the West it's called the knight's move - one forward and one to the side, or one to the side and one forward. Or another example would be in decks of playing cards from many different cultures - all decks of cards are divided into suits and sequences. Similarities such as these have led a number of scholars to conclude that many games have a singular origin and were diffused to different cultures over time by traders, travelers, and soldiers.
Because of these and certain other reasons, for the most part - theories about the origins and early geographical distribution of games are just theories which may never be verified!
The World's Oldest Ice Skates
Where And Why Humans Made Skates Out Of Animal Bones
(Illustration of a bone skate used in the experiments. (Credit: Image courtesy of Blackwell Publishing)
ScienceDaily (Dec. 24, 2007) — Archaeological evidence shows that bone skates (skates made of animal bones) are the oldest human powered means of transport, dating back to 3000 BC. Why people started skating on ice and where is not as clear, since ancient remains were found in several locations spread across Central and North Europe.
In a recent paper, published in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Dr Formenti and Professor Minetti show substantial evidence supporting the hypothesis that the birth of ice skating took place in Southern Finland, where the number of lakes within 100 square kilometres is the highest in the world.
"In Central and Northern Europe, five thousand years ago people struggled to survive the severe winter conditions and it seems unlikely that ice skating developed as a hobby" says Dr Formenti. "As happened later for skis and bicycles, I am convinced that we first made ice skates in order to limit the energy required for our daily journeys".
Formenti and Minetti did their experiments on an ice rink by the Alps, where they measured the energy consumption of people skating on bones. Through mathematical models and computer simulations of 240 ten-kilometre journeys, their research study shows that in winter the use of bone skates would have limited the energy requirements of Finnish people by 10%. On the other hand, the advantage given by the use of skates in other North European countries would be only about 1%.
Subsequent studies performed by Formenti and Minetti have shown how fast and how far people could skate in past epochs, from 3000BC to date.
Adapted from materials provided by Wiley-Blackwell.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Where Boys Were Kings, a Shift Toward Baby Girls
From The New York Times
By CHOE SANG-HUN
Published: December 23, 2007
SEOUL, South Korea — When Park He-ran was a young mother, other women would approach her to ask what her secret was. She had given birth to three boys in a row at a time when South Korean women considered it their paramount duty to bear a son.
Ms. Park, a 61-year-old newspaper executive, gets a different reaction today. “When I tell people I have three sons and no daughter, they say they are sorry for my misfortune,” she said. “Within a generation, I have turned from the luckiest woman possible to a pitiful mother.”
In South Korea, once one of Asia’s most rigidly patriarchal societies, a centuries-old preference for baby boys is fast receding. And that has led to what seems to be a decrease in the number of abortions performed after ultrasounds that reveal the sex of a fetus.
According to a study released by the World Bank in October, South Korea is the first of several Asian countries with large sex imbalances at birth to reverse the trend, moving toward greater parity between the sexes. Last year, the ratio was 107.4 boys born for every 100 girls, still above what is considered normal, but down from a peak of 116.5 boys born for every 100 girls in 1990.
The most important factor in changing attitudes toward girls was the radical shift in the country’s economy that opened the doors to women in the work force as never before and dismantled long-held traditions, which so devalued daughters that mothers would often apologize for giving birth to a girl.
The government also played a small role starting in the 1970s. After growing alarmed by the rise in sex-preference abortions, leaders mounted campaigns to change people’s attitudes, including one that featured the popular slogan “One daughter raised well is worth 10 sons!”
In 1987, the government banned doctors from revealing the sex of a fetus before birth. But experts say enforcement was lax because officials feared too many doctors would be caught.
Demographers say the rapid change in South Koreans’ feelings about female babies gives them hope that sex imbalances will begin to shrink in other rapidly developing Asian countries — notably China and India — where the same combination of a preference for boys and new technology has led to the widespread practice of aborting female fetuses.
“China and India are closely studying South Korea as a trendsetter in Asia,” said Chung Woo-jin, a professor at Yonsei University in Seoul. “They are curious whether the same social and economic changes can occur in their countries as fast as they did in South Korea’s relatively small and densely populated society.”
In China in 2005, the ratio was 120 boys born for every 100 girls, according to the United Nations Population Fund. Vietnam reported a ratio of 110 boys to 100 girls last year. And although India recorded about 108 boys for every 100 girls in 2001, when the last census was taken, experts say the gap is sure to have widened by now.
The Population Fund warned in an October report that the rampant tinkering with nature’s probabilities in Asia could eventually lead to increased sexual violence and trafficking of women as a generation of boys finds marriage prospects severely limited.
In South Korea, the gap in the ratio of boys to girls born began to widen in the 1970s, but experts say it became especially pronounced in the mid-1980s as ultrasound technology became more widespread and increasing wages allowed more families to pay for the tests. The imbalance was widest from 1990 through 1995, when it remained above 112 to 100.
The imbalance has been closing steadily only since 2002. Last year’s ratio of 107.4 boys for every 100 girls was closer to the ratio of 105 to 100 that demographers consider normal and, according to The World Factbook, published by the Central Intelligence Agency, just above the global average of 107 boys born for every 100 girls.
The preference for boys here is centuries old and was rooted in part in an agrarian society that relied on sons to do the hard work on family farms. But in Asia’s Confucian societies, men were also accorded special status because they were considered the carriers of the family’s all-important bloodline.
That elevated status came with certain perquisites — men received their families’ inheritance — but also responsibilities. Once the eldest son married, he and his wife went to live with his family; he was expected to support his parents financially while his wife was expected to care for them in their old age.
The wife’s lowly role in her new family was constantly reinforced by customs that included requiring a daughter-in-law to serve her father-in-law food while on her knees.
“In the old days, when there was no adequate social safety net, Korean parents regarded having a son as kind of making an investment for old age security,” Professor Chung said. It was common for married Korean men to feel ashamed if they had no sons. Some went so far as to divorce wives who did not bear boys.
Then in the 1970s and ’80s, the country threw itself into an industrial revolution that would remake society in ways few South Koreans could have imagined.
Sons drifted away to higher-paying jobs in the cities, leaving their parents behind. And older Koreans found their own incomes rising, allowing them to save money for retirement rather than relying on their sons for support.
Married daughters, no longer shackled to their husbands’ families, returned to provide emotional or financial support for their own elderly parents.
“Daughters are much better at emotional contact with their parents, visiting them more often, while Korean sons tend to be distant,” said Kim Seung-kwon, a demographer at the government’s Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs.
Ms. Park, the newspaper executive, said such changes forced people to rethink their old biases. “In restaurants and parks, when you see a large family out for a dinner or picnic, 9 out of 10, it’s the wife who brings the family together with her parents, not the husband with his parents,” she said. “To be practical, for an old Korean parent, having a daughter sometimes is much better than having a son.”
The economic changes also unleashed a revolution of a different sort. With the economy heating up, men could no longer afford to keep women out of the workforce, and women began slowly to gain confidence, and grudging respect.
Although change is coming slowly and deep prejudices remain — in some businesses, women are pressured to leave their jobs when pregnant — women are more accepted now in the workplace and at the best universities that send graduates to the top corporations.
Six of 10 South Korean women entered college last year; fewer than one out of 10 did so in 1981. And in the National Assembly, once one of the nation’s most male-dominated institutions, women now hold about 13 percent of the seats, about double the percentage they held just four years ago.
Shin Hye-sun, 39, says she has witnessed many of the changes in women’s status during her 13 years at the TBC television station in Taegu, in central South Korea. “When I first joined the company in 1995, a woman was expected to quit her job once she got married; we called it a ‘resignation on a company suggestion,’” she said. Now, she said, many women stay after marriage and take a three-month break after giving birth before returning to work.
“If someone suggests that a woman should quit after marriage, female workers in my company will take it as an insult and say so,” Ms. Shin said.
According to the World Bank study, one of the surprises in South Korea was that it took as long as it did for the effects of a booming economy to translate into changes in people’s attitudes toward the birth of daughters.
The study suggests that the country’s former authoritarian rulers helped slow the transition by upholding laws and devising policies that supported a continuation of Confucian hierarchy, which encourages fealty not only to family patriarchs, but also to the nation’s leaders.
With the move toward democracy in the late 1980s, the concept of equal rights for men and women began to creep into Koreans’ thinking. In 1990, the law guaranteeing men their family’s inheritance — a cornerstone of the Confucian system — was the first of the so-called family laws to fall; the rest would be dismantled over the next 15 years.
After 2002, the narrowing of the gender gap signaled that attitudes about the value of women — and ultimately of daughters — had begun to catch up to the seismic changes in the economy and the law.
And last year, a study by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs showed that of 5,400 married South Korean women younger than 45 who were surveyed, only 10 percent said they felt that they must have a son. That was down from 40 percent in 1991.
“When my father took me to our ancestral graves for worshiping, my grandfather used to say, ‘Why did you bring a daughter here?’” said Park Su-mi, 29, a newlywed who calls the idea that only men carry on a family’s bloodline “unscientific and absurd.”
“My husband and I have no preference at all for boys,” she said. “We don’t care whether we have a boy or girl because we don’t see any difference between a boy and a girl in helping make our family happy.”
By CHOE SANG-HUN
Published: December 23, 2007
SEOUL, South Korea — When Park He-ran was a young mother, other women would approach her to ask what her secret was. She had given birth to three boys in a row at a time when South Korean women considered it their paramount duty to bear a son.
Ms. Park, a 61-year-old newspaper executive, gets a different reaction today. “When I tell people I have three sons and no daughter, they say they are sorry for my misfortune,” she said. “Within a generation, I have turned from the luckiest woman possible to a pitiful mother.”
In South Korea, once one of Asia’s most rigidly patriarchal societies, a centuries-old preference for baby boys is fast receding. And that has led to what seems to be a decrease in the number of abortions performed after ultrasounds that reveal the sex of a fetus.
According to a study released by the World Bank in October, South Korea is the first of several Asian countries with large sex imbalances at birth to reverse the trend, moving toward greater parity between the sexes. Last year, the ratio was 107.4 boys born for every 100 girls, still above what is considered normal, but down from a peak of 116.5 boys born for every 100 girls in 1990.
The most important factor in changing attitudes toward girls was the radical shift in the country’s economy that opened the doors to women in the work force as never before and dismantled long-held traditions, which so devalued daughters that mothers would often apologize for giving birth to a girl.
The government also played a small role starting in the 1970s. After growing alarmed by the rise in sex-preference abortions, leaders mounted campaigns to change people’s attitudes, including one that featured the popular slogan “One daughter raised well is worth 10 sons!”
In 1987, the government banned doctors from revealing the sex of a fetus before birth. But experts say enforcement was lax because officials feared too many doctors would be caught.
Demographers say the rapid change in South Koreans’ feelings about female babies gives them hope that sex imbalances will begin to shrink in other rapidly developing Asian countries — notably China and India — where the same combination of a preference for boys and new technology has led to the widespread practice of aborting female fetuses.
“China and India are closely studying South Korea as a trendsetter in Asia,” said Chung Woo-jin, a professor at Yonsei University in Seoul. “They are curious whether the same social and economic changes can occur in their countries as fast as they did in South Korea’s relatively small and densely populated society.”
In China in 2005, the ratio was 120 boys born for every 100 girls, according to the United Nations Population Fund. Vietnam reported a ratio of 110 boys to 100 girls last year. And although India recorded about 108 boys for every 100 girls in 2001, when the last census was taken, experts say the gap is sure to have widened by now.
The Population Fund warned in an October report that the rampant tinkering with nature’s probabilities in Asia could eventually lead to increased sexual violence and trafficking of women as a generation of boys finds marriage prospects severely limited.
In South Korea, the gap in the ratio of boys to girls born began to widen in the 1970s, but experts say it became especially pronounced in the mid-1980s as ultrasound technology became more widespread and increasing wages allowed more families to pay for the tests. The imbalance was widest from 1990 through 1995, when it remained above 112 to 100.
The imbalance has been closing steadily only since 2002. Last year’s ratio of 107.4 boys for every 100 girls was closer to the ratio of 105 to 100 that demographers consider normal and, according to The World Factbook, published by the Central Intelligence Agency, just above the global average of 107 boys born for every 100 girls.
The preference for boys here is centuries old and was rooted in part in an agrarian society that relied on sons to do the hard work on family farms. But in Asia’s Confucian societies, men were also accorded special status because they were considered the carriers of the family’s all-important bloodline.
That elevated status came with certain perquisites — men received their families’ inheritance — but also responsibilities. Once the eldest son married, he and his wife went to live with his family; he was expected to support his parents financially while his wife was expected to care for them in their old age.
The wife’s lowly role in her new family was constantly reinforced by customs that included requiring a daughter-in-law to serve her father-in-law food while on her knees.
“In the old days, when there was no adequate social safety net, Korean parents regarded having a son as kind of making an investment for old age security,” Professor Chung said. It was common for married Korean men to feel ashamed if they had no sons. Some went so far as to divorce wives who did not bear boys.
Then in the 1970s and ’80s, the country threw itself into an industrial revolution that would remake society in ways few South Koreans could have imagined.
Sons drifted away to higher-paying jobs in the cities, leaving their parents behind. And older Koreans found their own incomes rising, allowing them to save money for retirement rather than relying on their sons for support.
Married daughters, no longer shackled to their husbands’ families, returned to provide emotional or financial support for their own elderly parents.
“Daughters are much better at emotional contact with their parents, visiting them more often, while Korean sons tend to be distant,” said Kim Seung-kwon, a demographer at the government’s Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs.
Ms. Park, the newspaper executive, said such changes forced people to rethink their old biases. “In restaurants and parks, when you see a large family out for a dinner or picnic, 9 out of 10, it’s the wife who brings the family together with her parents, not the husband with his parents,” she said. “To be practical, for an old Korean parent, having a daughter sometimes is much better than having a son.”
The economic changes also unleashed a revolution of a different sort. With the economy heating up, men could no longer afford to keep women out of the workforce, and women began slowly to gain confidence, and grudging respect.
Although change is coming slowly and deep prejudices remain — in some businesses, women are pressured to leave their jobs when pregnant — women are more accepted now in the workplace and at the best universities that send graduates to the top corporations.
Six of 10 South Korean women entered college last year; fewer than one out of 10 did so in 1981. And in the National Assembly, once one of the nation’s most male-dominated institutions, women now hold about 13 percent of the seats, about double the percentage they held just four years ago.
Shin Hye-sun, 39, says she has witnessed many of the changes in women’s status during her 13 years at the TBC television station in Taegu, in central South Korea. “When I first joined the company in 1995, a woman was expected to quit her job once she got married; we called it a ‘resignation on a company suggestion,’” she said. Now, she said, many women stay after marriage and take a three-month break after giving birth before returning to work.
“If someone suggests that a woman should quit after marriage, female workers in my company will take it as an insult and say so,” Ms. Shin said.
According to the World Bank study, one of the surprises in South Korea was that it took as long as it did for the effects of a booming economy to translate into changes in people’s attitudes toward the birth of daughters.
The study suggests that the country’s former authoritarian rulers helped slow the transition by upholding laws and devising policies that supported a continuation of Confucian hierarchy, which encourages fealty not only to family patriarchs, but also to the nation’s leaders.
With the move toward democracy in the late 1980s, the concept of equal rights for men and women began to creep into Koreans’ thinking. In 1990, the law guaranteeing men their family’s inheritance — a cornerstone of the Confucian system — was the first of the so-called family laws to fall; the rest would be dismantled over the next 15 years.
After 2002, the narrowing of the gender gap signaled that attitudes about the value of women — and ultimately of daughters — had begun to catch up to the seismic changes in the economy and the law.
And last year, a study by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs showed that of 5,400 married South Korean women younger than 45 who were surveyed, only 10 percent said they felt that they must have a son. That was down from 40 percent in 1991.
“When my father took me to our ancestral graves for worshiping, my grandfather used to say, ‘Why did you bring a daughter here?’” said Park Su-mi, 29, a newlywed who calls the idea that only men carry on a family’s bloodline “unscientific and absurd.”
“My husband and I have no preference at all for boys,” she said. “We don’t care whether we have a boy or girl because we don’t see any difference between a boy and a girl in helping make our family happy.”
Be Someone Founder Honored
Isis sent me this for posting:
Date:
Dec 20, 2007 6:44 AM
Subject: In The News!
“BE SOMEONE, INC.” FOUNDER HONORED AS WESTERN UNION “PAY IT FORWARD” CONTEST WINNER FOR MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN ATLANTA.(ATLANTA) (Dec. 20, 2007) The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) and 104.1 KISS FM radio announced today Orrin “Checkmate” Hudson, Founder of Be Someone, Inc. has been selected as one of three Western Union “Pay It Forward” Hero contest winners. The individuals chosen as prize winners were selected in honor of their unwavering dedication and steadfast support of the local Atlanta community within which they live and work.
Be Someone, Inc. is an non-profit organization that has enabled more than 20,000 children to learn problem solving techniques and achieve their potential by applying chess skills to everyday life problems. Be Someone, Inc. ( www.besomeone.org ) mentors at risk youth and helps young people to learn proven success principles. Immediate and lasting results which are achieved through the Be Someone program include students improving their GPA, increased classroom participation and fewer drop-outs, improved concentration and problem solving skills leading to positive community involvement and goal setting for measurable results in the classroom and at home.
Orrin Hudson started Be Someone in 2001, after hearing of seven employees who were shot in a Wendy’s Restaurant for $2400. He believed that evil prevails when good people do nothing, so he made the decision to dedicate his life to helping kids win in the game of chess and thus in the game of life. He believes so strongly that attitudes and personal strength through making good decisions can change your life, he is carrying his message of hope, “Heads Up, Pants Up, Grades Up!” throughout America in the effort of implementing real change in the lives of our country’s young people.
“Today is the best day of my life. The good you do for others comes back to you, and I am living proof. I want to thank Western Union and KISS 104.1 FM for this wonderful award.” stated Hudson.
“We are proud to team up with 104.1 KISS FM to recognize the everyday heroes in Atlanta through the “Pay It Forward” program.”, said Margaret Lapkin, marketing director, Western Union. “The concept of “paying it forward” refers to the repaying the good deeds one has received by doing good things for other people. We feel those chosen have taken this concept to a new level. Western Union has made a commitment to supporting others in many countries around the world, and in the United States. We see this program as a great opportunity to recognize local heroes, such as Orrin Hudson, and thank them for their determined dedication to their communities.”
Orrin Hudson teaches these same strategies in his presentations to adult groups and corporate audiences. For more information on Be Someone, Inc., or to have Orrin speak for your school, church, organization or meeting visit www.besomeone.org or call 678-526-0292
Date:
Dec 20, 2007 6:44 AM
Subject: In The News!
“BE SOMEONE, INC.” FOUNDER HONORED AS WESTERN UNION “PAY IT FORWARD” CONTEST WINNER FOR MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN ATLANTA.(ATLANTA) (Dec. 20, 2007) The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) and 104.1 KISS FM radio announced today Orrin “Checkmate” Hudson, Founder of Be Someone, Inc. has been selected as one of three Western Union “Pay It Forward” Hero contest winners. The individuals chosen as prize winners were selected in honor of their unwavering dedication and steadfast support of the local Atlanta community within which they live and work.
Be Someone, Inc. is an non-profit organization that has enabled more than 20,000 children to learn problem solving techniques and achieve their potential by applying chess skills to everyday life problems. Be Someone, Inc. ( www.besomeone.org ) mentors at risk youth and helps young people to learn proven success principles. Immediate and lasting results which are achieved through the Be Someone program include students improving their GPA, increased classroom participation and fewer drop-outs, improved concentration and problem solving skills leading to positive community involvement and goal setting for measurable results in the classroom and at home.
Orrin Hudson started Be Someone in 2001, after hearing of seven employees who were shot in a Wendy’s Restaurant for $2400. He believed that evil prevails when good people do nothing, so he made the decision to dedicate his life to helping kids win in the game of chess and thus in the game of life. He believes so strongly that attitudes and personal strength through making good decisions can change your life, he is carrying his message of hope, “Heads Up, Pants Up, Grades Up!” throughout America in the effort of implementing real change in the lives of our country’s young people.
“Today is the best day of my life. The good you do for others comes back to you, and I am living proof. I want to thank Western Union and KISS 104.1 FM for this wonderful award.” stated Hudson.
“We are proud to team up with 104.1 KISS FM to recognize the everyday heroes in Atlanta through the “Pay It Forward” program.”, said Margaret Lapkin, marketing director, Western Union. “The concept of “paying it forward” refers to the repaying the good deeds one has received by doing good things for other people. We feel those chosen have taken this concept to a new level. Western Union has made a commitment to supporting others in many countries around the world, and in the United States. We see this program as a great opportunity to recognize local heroes, such as Orrin Hudson, and thank them for their determined dedication to their communities.”
Orrin Hudson teaches these same strategies in his presentations to adult groups and corporate audiences. For more information on Be Someone, Inc., or to have Orrin speak for your school, church, organization or meeting visit www.besomeone.org or call 678-526-0292
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Great Year for Chess in India
Press Trust of India
Thursday, December 20, 2007 (New Delhi)
The year 2007 witnessed a golden period for Indian chess with Viswanathan Anand reaching the top of the world ranking list while also becoming World Champion.
Anand, who has been consistent in maintaining his top-three position for almost last 15 years, climbed to the top of FIDE's world ranking list for the first time in his over two-decade career and went on to clinch the World Championship title as well as the ELO rating of 2800 to make it a memorable year not only for himself but for the country as well.
Besides Anand's unparallelled achievements, Koneru Humpy continued where she had left off last year, achieving the rare feat of an ELO rating of 2600 to become only the second woman in the world after Hungarian Judit Polgar to do so. Humpy was also awarded the Padmashree for claiming gold medals in the sport on its debut in the 2006 Asian Games in Doha.
Humpy repeated her dazzling performance at the Asian Indoor Games in Macau by winning two gold medals - one each in rapid and blitz - along with a silver in the classic version. She also proved her mettle by bagging back-to-back open tournaments at Hilversum in The Netherlands and Luxembourg. Tania Sachdev, the glamour girl of the sport, won the Asian women's title and then pocketed the National women's 'A' crown for the second successive year.
Krishnan Sasikiran also reached new heights in his career by crossing the 2700 ELO rating mark, albeit for a brief period as he slipped after his none-too-impressive performance at the Aerosvit tournament.
He was the only Indian to reach the fourth round of the World Cup at the Khanty-Mansiysk in Russia while citymate R B Ramesh lifted the Commonwealth Chess Trophy to end the year on a bright note for the country after Anand had set the ball rolling with his win in the Amber Rapid and Blindfold tournament.
Anand comfortably won in the rapid format and finished overall second to Russian Vladimir Kramnik in the elite field with only Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria giving it a miss.
Anand also won the 14-round prestigious category-20 Morelia-Linares Super GM tournament ahead of Topalov, Peter Svidler, Vassily Ivanchuk, Peter Leko and Levon Aronian to be at the top of the FIDE rankings.Anand won the Mainz rapid title for 10th time by defeating Aronian in the final. The Indian ace, however, finished runner-up to the Armenian in his debut in 'Chess960' rapid world championship at the same venue.
The 38-year-old Chennai-born finished second to Ivanchuk in the World Blitz Championship. His happy hunting ground at Wijk Aan Zee was not so lucky for him this time as Anand finished fifth after losing to Kramnik and Topalov at the Corus Super Grandmasters tournament.
Meanwhile, Delhi prodigy Parimarjan Negi tied for the top position but finished third after the tie-break in the World Youth Star competition while G N Gopal and teenager Abhijeet Gupta became the 16th and 17th Grandmasters of the country apart from many others earning various title norms. Prominent among the norm-makers included IM G Rohit, MS Thejkumar who earned GM norms, while 12-year-old Sahaj Grover claimed his first IM norm along with P Karthikeyan, Sasikant Kutwal and Nisha Mohta, Amruta Mokal, N Kirthika and R Preeti earned their respective WIM norms.
If the seniors were at their best, the junior brigade was also exemplary with the national team winning the World Youth (Under-16) Chess Olympiad gold medal. The team members -- R Ashwath, B Adhiban, P Shyam Nikhil, Swayam Mishra and S Nitin -- also won individual medals. Adhiban bagged the bronze on first board, Nikhil pocketed the silver medal on fourth board and Mishra received bronze on the reserve board.
In the age-group division, Ivana Furtado hogged the limelight for bringing the gold medal for the second time in world girls' Under-8 category at the Youth championships.Prince Bajaj was the boys' Under-10 bronze winner while Shalmali Gagare came third in girls' Under-14.
However, none of the Indians could be successful at the Junior World championships as bright young stars - GM Parimarjan Negi, GN Gopal, Abhijeet Gupta, Ashwin Kamparia, Deepan Chakravarty, D Harika, Eesha Karvade -- failed to win a medal.
It was particularly disappointing that top seed Harika lost the last three games in a row after leading in the initial rounds of the girl's event.Similar was the story for the seniors as all Indians, except Sasikiran, lost in the first round in World Cup chess. Grandmasters Abhijeet Kunte, Harikrishna, Surya Sekhar Ganguly and GN Gopal fell at the first hurdle.
Sasikiran finally lost in the fourth round of the premier event.
Thursday, December 20, 2007 (New Delhi)
The year 2007 witnessed a golden period for Indian chess with Viswanathan Anand reaching the top of the world ranking list while also becoming World Champion.
Anand, who has been consistent in maintaining his top-three position for almost last 15 years, climbed to the top of FIDE's world ranking list for the first time in his over two-decade career and went on to clinch the World Championship title as well as the ELO rating of 2800 to make it a memorable year not only for himself but for the country as well.
Besides Anand's unparallelled achievements, Koneru Humpy continued where she had left off last year, achieving the rare feat of an ELO rating of 2600 to become only the second woman in the world after Hungarian Judit Polgar to do so. Humpy was also awarded the Padmashree for claiming gold medals in the sport on its debut in the 2006 Asian Games in Doha.
Humpy repeated her dazzling performance at the Asian Indoor Games in Macau by winning two gold medals - one each in rapid and blitz - along with a silver in the classic version. She also proved her mettle by bagging back-to-back open tournaments at Hilversum in The Netherlands and Luxembourg. Tania Sachdev, the glamour girl of the sport, won the Asian women's title and then pocketed the National women's 'A' crown for the second successive year.
Krishnan Sasikiran also reached new heights in his career by crossing the 2700 ELO rating mark, albeit for a brief period as he slipped after his none-too-impressive performance at the Aerosvit tournament.
He was the only Indian to reach the fourth round of the World Cup at the Khanty-Mansiysk in Russia while citymate R B Ramesh lifted the Commonwealth Chess Trophy to end the year on a bright note for the country after Anand had set the ball rolling with his win in the Amber Rapid and Blindfold tournament.
Anand comfortably won in the rapid format and finished overall second to Russian Vladimir Kramnik in the elite field with only Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria giving it a miss.
Anand also won the 14-round prestigious category-20 Morelia-Linares Super GM tournament ahead of Topalov, Peter Svidler, Vassily Ivanchuk, Peter Leko and Levon Aronian to be at the top of the FIDE rankings.Anand won the Mainz rapid title for 10th time by defeating Aronian in the final. The Indian ace, however, finished runner-up to the Armenian in his debut in 'Chess960' rapid world championship at the same venue.
The 38-year-old Chennai-born finished second to Ivanchuk in the World Blitz Championship. His happy hunting ground at Wijk Aan Zee was not so lucky for him this time as Anand finished fifth after losing to Kramnik and Topalov at the Corus Super Grandmasters tournament.
Meanwhile, Delhi prodigy Parimarjan Negi tied for the top position but finished third after the tie-break in the World Youth Star competition while G N Gopal and teenager Abhijeet Gupta became the 16th and 17th Grandmasters of the country apart from many others earning various title norms. Prominent among the norm-makers included IM G Rohit, MS Thejkumar who earned GM norms, while 12-year-old Sahaj Grover claimed his first IM norm along with P Karthikeyan, Sasikant Kutwal and Nisha Mohta, Amruta Mokal, N Kirthika and R Preeti earned their respective WIM norms.
If the seniors were at their best, the junior brigade was also exemplary with the national team winning the World Youth (Under-16) Chess Olympiad gold medal. The team members -- R Ashwath, B Adhiban, P Shyam Nikhil, Swayam Mishra and S Nitin -- also won individual medals. Adhiban bagged the bronze on first board, Nikhil pocketed the silver medal on fourth board and Mishra received bronze on the reserve board.
In the age-group division, Ivana Furtado hogged the limelight for bringing the gold medal for the second time in world girls' Under-8 category at the Youth championships.Prince Bajaj was the boys' Under-10 bronze winner while Shalmali Gagare came third in girls' Under-14.
However, none of the Indians could be successful at the Junior World championships as bright young stars - GM Parimarjan Negi, GN Gopal, Abhijeet Gupta, Ashwin Kamparia, Deepan Chakravarty, D Harika, Eesha Karvade -- failed to win a medal.
It was particularly disappointing that top seed Harika lost the last three games in a row after leading in the initial rounds of the girl's event.Similar was the story for the seniors as all Indians, except Sasikiran, lost in the first round in World Cup chess. Grandmasters Abhijeet Kunte, Harikrishna, Surya Sekhar Ganguly and GN Gopal fell at the first hurdle.
Sasikiran finally lost in the fourth round of the premier event.
China Raises 800-Year-Old Sunken Ship
Story from Associated Press
BEIJING (AP) — After 800 years at the bottom of the sea, a merchant ship loaded with porcelain and other rare antiques was raised to the surface Friday in a specially built basket, a state news agency reported.
The Nanhai No. 1, which means "South China Sea No. 1," sank off the south China coast with some 60,000 to 80,000 items on board, Xinhua News Agency reported, citing Wu Jiancheng, head of the excavation project.
Archaeologists built a steel basket around the 100-foot vessel, and it took about two hours for a crane to lift the ship and surrounding silt to the surface, Xinhua said. The basket was as large as a basketball court and as tall as a three-story building.
Green-glazed porcelain plates and shadowy blue porcelain items were among rare antiques found during the initial exploration of the ship. Archaeologists have also recovered containers made of gold and silver as well as about 6,000 copper coins.
The ship dates from the early Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). It was discovered in 1987 off the coast near the city of Yangjiang, in Guangdong province, in more than 65 feet of water.
The Nanhai No. 1 was placed on a waiting barge. It will be deposited in a huge glass pool at a museum where the water temperature, pressure and other environmental conditions are the same as where it has lain on the sea bed.
Feng Shaowen, head of the Yangjiang city cultural bureau, said visitors will be able watch the excavation of the ship through windows on the pool.
The recovery of the Nanhai No. 1 was originally scheduled for Saturday, but organizers decided to raise it a day early because of favorable weather.
More coverage at BBC News.
BEIJING (AP) — After 800 years at the bottom of the sea, a merchant ship loaded with porcelain and other rare antiques was raised to the surface Friday in a specially built basket, a state news agency reported.
The Nanhai No. 1, which means "South China Sea No. 1," sank off the south China coast with some 60,000 to 80,000 items on board, Xinhua News Agency reported, citing Wu Jiancheng, head of the excavation project.
Archaeologists built a steel basket around the 100-foot vessel, and it took about two hours for a crane to lift the ship and surrounding silt to the surface, Xinhua said. The basket was as large as a basketball court and as tall as a three-story building.
Green-glazed porcelain plates and shadowy blue porcelain items were among rare antiques found during the initial exploration of the ship. Archaeologists have also recovered containers made of gold and silver as well as about 6,000 copper coins.
The ship dates from the early Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). It was discovered in 1987 off the coast near the city of Yangjiang, in Guangdong province, in more than 65 feet of water.
The Nanhai No. 1 was placed on a waiting barge. It will be deposited in a huge glass pool at a museum where the water temperature, pressure and other environmental conditions are the same as where it has lain on the sea bed.
Feng Shaowen, head of the Yangjiang city cultural bureau, said visitors will be able watch the excavation of the ship through windows on the pool.
The recovery of the Nanhai No. 1 was originally scheduled for Saturday, but organizers decided to raise it a day early because of favorable weather.
More coverage at BBC News.
NEWS FLASH! Mars Replaces Rudolph!
Mars May Replace Rudolph Christmas Eve
Red Planet Will Shine Brightly, Positioned Opposite The Sun
December 20, 2007
(AP) Mars will be unusually bright this Christmas Eve and the moon will be shining full - a development that might make Santa Claus rethink his need for Rudolph's red nose. That idea, from Miami Space Transit Planetarium director Jack Horkheimer, made us wonder if retooling a certain reindeer song is the best way to explain it to the kids:
Mars is a red-tinged planet
With a very shiny glow
And if you look to see it
You will find the moon in tow.
The red planet will shine brighter because it will be directly opposite the sun, reflecting the most light, and fairly close to Earth, only 55.5 million miles away. The full moon will appear nearby, rising about an hour later, said Horkheimer, host of the public television show "Star Gazer."
All of the other Yuletides
Santa would have at his side
The shiny nose of Rudolph
Acting as his big sleigh's guide
Mars will outshine the brightest star and won't be as noticeable in the sky for nine more years, Horkheimer said. The Hubble Space Telescope took a picture of Mars, which came closest to Earth on Dec. 18, but it will be brighter on Christmas Eve because of its position opposite the sun.
But this very Christmas Eve Santa came to say:
"Rudolph, now with Mars so bright,
You just stay at home tonight."
"It will be a brilliant red light," Horkheimer said. "It is so bright it knocks your socks off." He added that this would allow Santa to give Rudolph a pink slip, albeit a temporary one.
Then all the reindeer teased him.
And they shouted out with glee:
"Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer
Outsourced to astronomy."
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Red Planet Will Shine Brightly, Positioned Opposite The Sun
December 20, 2007
(AP) Mars will be unusually bright this Christmas Eve and the moon will be shining full - a development that might make Santa Claus rethink his need for Rudolph's red nose. That idea, from Miami Space Transit Planetarium director Jack Horkheimer, made us wonder if retooling a certain reindeer song is the best way to explain it to the kids:
Mars is a red-tinged planet
With a very shiny glow
And if you look to see it
You will find the moon in tow.
The red planet will shine brighter because it will be directly opposite the sun, reflecting the most light, and fairly close to Earth, only 55.5 million miles away. The full moon will appear nearby, rising about an hour later, said Horkheimer, host of the public television show "Star Gazer."
All of the other Yuletides
Santa would have at his side
The shiny nose of Rudolph
Acting as his big sleigh's guide
Mars will outshine the brightest star and won't be as noticeable in the sky for nine more years, Horkheimer said. The Hubble Space Telescope took a picture of Mars, which came closest to Earth on Dec. 18, but it will be brighter on Christmas Eve because of its position opposite the sun.
But this very Christmas Eve Santa came to say:
"Rudolph, now with Mars so bright,
You just stay at home tonight."
"It will be a brilliant red light," Horkheimer said. "It is so bright it knocks your socks off." He added that this would allow Santa to give Rudolph a pink slip, albeit a temporary one.
Then all the reindeer teased him.
And they shouted out with glee:
"Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer
Outsourced to astronomy."
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Friday, December 21, 2007
2007 Russian Championship Superfinals
Women's standings after 3 rounds:
1. Pogonina, Natalija wg RUS 2462 3
2. Kosintseva, Tatiana m RUS 2492 2½
3. Ovod, Evgenija m RUS 2386 2
4. Matveeva, Svetlana m RUS 2433 2
5. Tairova, Elena m RUS 2391 2
6. Korbut, Ekaterina m RUS 2443 2
7. Stepovaia, Tatiana wg RUS 2375 1½
8. Shadrina, Tatiana wg RUS 2379 1
9. Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina m RUS 2448 1
10. Kosintseva, Nadezhda m RUS 2469 ½
11. Gunina, Valentina wf RUS 2359 ½
12. Girya, Olga wf RUS 2338 0
1. Pogonina, Natalija wg RUS 2462 3
2. Kosintseva, Tatiana m RUS 2492 2½
3. Ovod, Evgenija m RUS 2386 2
4. Matveeva, Svetlana m RUS 2433 2
5. Tairova, Elena m RUS 2391 2
6. Korbut, Ekaterina m RUS 2443 2
7. Stepovaia, Tatiana wg RUS 2375 1½
8. Shadrina, Tatiana wg RUS 2379 1
9. Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina m RUS 2448 1
10. Kosintseva, Nadezhda m RUS 2469 ½
11. Gunina, Valentina wf RUS 2359 ½
12. Girya, Olga wf RUS 2338 0
Nepal's Goddess Stumbles Into Modernity
From The New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 21, 2007
Filed at 3:12 p.m. ET
KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) -- The living goddess likes bubble gum.
On a cold autumn evening, during a festival giving thanks for the monsoon rains, dozens of chanting worshippers pulled her enormous wooden chariot through the narrow streets of Katmandu's old city. Thousands of cheering people pressed forward, hoping for a blessing. Drunken young men danced around her, pounding drums and shouting.
But the goddess -- a child wrapped in red silk, a third eye painted on her forehead as a sign of enlightenment -- took little notice of the joyous riot. Instead, she stared ahead intently, her jaw pumping furiously. Then, finally, she blew a yellow bubble about the size of a plum.
And then the goddess smiled, just a little.
Priti Shakya is 10 years old, the daughter of a family of poor goldsmiths. At the age of 4, a panel of judges examined her in a series of ancient ceremonies -- checking her horoscope, searching for physical imperfections and, as a final test, seeing if she would be frightened after a night spent in a room filled with 108 freshly decapitated animal heads. She was not.
So Priti became a goddess, worshipped as the incarnation of the powerful Hindu deity Taleju, and going into near-complete isolation in an ancient Katmandu palace.
She will return home only at the onset of menstruation, when a new goddess will be named. Then Priti will be left to adjust to a life that -- suddenly and absolutely -- is supposed to be completely normal.
That is how it has been for nearly four centuries, in a tradition that held out against modernity even as Nepal, ever so slowly, began to change.
But modernity is coming, even to the goddess.
She has been dragged into Nepal's political maelstrom, her influence argued over by everyone from Maoist militants to the prime minister. Her role, meanwhile, has become a topic of public debate, with human rights lawyers, politicians and academics wrangling about a child's rights and an ancient form of worship.
Today, everything from television to insults reach into the goddess' palace.
A communist politician called her an ''evil symbol'' and the Supreme Court launched an investigation after activists said the tradition violates Nepalese law. In a showdown that melded religion, politics and the monarchy, the nascent democratic government refused to allow King Gyanendra to receive the goddess' annual blessing -- thought to be an all-important protector of the king. When the king went without permission, the government slashed the number of royal bodyguards.
Among the Shakyas, the goldsmith caste that chooses the goddess from its daughters, it has become increasingly difficult to find families willing to send their girls away.
For some people, all this is simply too much.
''We know there needs to be change,'' said Manju Shree Ratna Bajracharya, the eighth generation of priest from his family to oversee the temple of the royal kumari -- or virgin -- as the goddess is commonly called. ''But this criticism of the tradition, this is pure ignorance.''
He is bitter about politicians who focus on the kumaris for political gain, and the way she has been pulled into their battles with the king. He distrusts the rights activists, wondering if they are using the practice for publicity.
''The tradition can't be treated like this,'' said Bajracharya, who spends most of his days working as a bureaucrat in the state electricity company. ''It is too important to Nepal.''
But any criticism at all would have been unthinkable just a few decades ago, when Nepal was emerging from centuries of Himalayan isolation. It was a nation bound by feudal traditions, a country that handed out visitors' visas very reluctantly, and where few people could imagine a king without absolute power.
While change did eventually come -- foreigners began arriving regularly in the 1960s, when Katmandu became famous for its hippies and cheap drugs -- it came slowly. It was only five years ago, for instance, when women earned equal inheritance rights under Nepalese law.
Today, Nepal is a democracy -- albeit a fragile one, with crushing poverty, a figurehead monarch and a powerful Maoist militant movement with tenuous ties to mainstream politics -- and change is coming even to the kumari.
Some of those changes are political, such as how the prime minister now seeks her official blessing, instead of the king. But some are more personal.
Teachers have been appointed, keeping the goddess on the same academic track as any other girl her age. There's also television in the palace these days, giving the kumari access to everything from Bollywood to the news, and there's talk that she may be allowed someday to live at home with her family.
It is an attempt to give some normalcy to the goddesses, who can flail desperately when they return to the outside world.
Rashmila Shakya, one of eight ex-royal kumaris still alive, remembers the pain of her return. Now a 25-year-old computer technician, she left the kumari palace at age 12. She'd had no proper schooling, and her feet had not touched the outside ground for years. Her only playmates had been the children of the palace's caretaker, and while her family could visit, even they saw her as a goddess. Her return home took a heavy toll.
''I didn't even know how to walk around like a regular person,'' said Shakya, a quiet, bookish young woman who dreams of becoming a software designer. ''The crowds frightened me.''
Still, she said, she doesn't regret her time in the palace.
''Not everybody gets to be a goddess,'' she said, smiling. ''In one life, I got to have two lives.''
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 21, 2007
Filed at 3:12 p.m. ET
KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) -- The living goddess likes bubble gum.
On a cold autumn evening, during a festival giving thanks for the monsoon rains, dozens of chanting worshippers pulled her enormous wooden chariot through the narrow streets of Katmandu's old city. Thousands of cheering people pressed forward, hoping for a blessing. Drunken young men danced around her, pounding drums and shouting.
But the goddess -- a child wrapped in red silk, a third eye painted on her forehead as a sign of enlightenment -- took little notice of the joyous riot. Instead, she stared ahead intently, her jaw pumping furiously. Then, finally, she blew a yellow bubble about the size of a plum.
And then the goddess smiled, just a little.
Priti Shakya is 10 years old, the daughter of a family of poor goldsmiths. At the age of 4, a panel of judges examined her in a series of ancient ceremonies -- checking her horoscope, searching for physical imperfections and, as a final test, seeing if she would be frightened after a night spent in a room filled with 108 freshly decapitated animal heads. She was not.
So Priti became a goddess, worshipped as the incarnation of the powerful Hindu deity Taleju, and going into near-complete isolation in an ancient Katmandu palace.
She will return home only at the onset of menstruation, when a new goddess will be named. Then Priti will be left to adjust to a life that -- suddenly and absolutely -- is supposed to be completely normal.
That is how it has been for nearly four centuries, in a tradition that held out against modernity even as Nepal, ever so slowly, began to change.
But modernity is coming, even to the goddess.
She has been dragged into Nepal's political maelstrom, her influence argued over by everyone from Maoist militants to the prime minister. Her role, meanwhile, has become a topic of public debate, with human rights lawyers, politicians and academics wrangling about a child's rights and an ancient form of worship.
Today, everything from television to insults reach into the goddess' palace.
A communist politician called her an ''evil symbol'' and the Supreme Court launched an investigation after activists said the tradition violates Nepalese law. In a showdown that melded religion, politics and the monarchy, the nascent democratic government refused to allow King Gyanendra to receive the goddess' annual blessing -- thought to be an all-important protector of the king. When the king went without permission, the government slashed the number of royal bodyguards.
Among the Shakyas, the goldsmith caste that chooses the goddess from its daughters, it has become increasingly difficult to find families willing to send their girls away.
For some people, all this is simply too much.
''We know there needs to be change,'' said Manju Shree Ratna Bajracharya, the eighth generation of priest from his family to oversee the temple of the royal kumari -- or virgin -- as the goddess is commonly called. ''But this criticism of the tradition, this is pure ignorance.''
He is bitter about politicians who focus on the kumaris for political gain, and the way she has been pulled into their battles with the king. He distrusts the rights activists, wondering if they are using the practice for publicity.
''The tradition can't be treated like this,'' said Bajracharya, who spends most of his days working as a bureaucrat in the state electricity company. ''It is too important to Nepal.''
But any criticism at all would have been unthinkable just a few decades ago, when Nepal was emerging from centuries of Himalayan isolation. It was a nation bound by feudal traditions, a country that handed out visitors' visas very reluctantly, and where few people could imagine a king without absolute power.
While change did eventually come -- foreigners began arriving regularly in the 1960s, when Katmandu became famous for its hippies and cheap drugs -- it came slowly. It was only five years ago, for instance, when women earned equal inheritance rights under Nepalese law.
Today, Nepal is a democracy -- albeit a fragile one, with crushing poverty, a figurehead monarch and a powerful Maoist militant movement with tenuous ties to mainstream politics -- and change is coming even to the kumari.
Some of those changes are political, such as how the prime minister now seeks her official blessing, instead of the king. But some are more personal.
Teachers have been appointed, keeping the goddess on the same academic track as any other girl her age. There's also television in the palace these days, giving the kumari access to everything from Bollywood to the news, and there's talk that she may be allowed someday to live at home with her family.
It is an attempt to give some normalcy to the goddesses, who can flail desperately when they return to the outside world.
Rashmila Shakya, one of eight ex-royal kumaris still alive, remembers the pain of her return. Now a 25-year-old computer technician, she left the kumari palace at age 12. She'd had no proper schooling, and her feet had not touched the outside ground for years. Her only playmates had been the children of the palace's caretaker, and while her family could visit, even they saw her as a goddess. Her return home took a heavy toll.
''I didn't even know how to walk around like a regular person,'' said Shakya, a quiet, bookish young woman who dreams of becoming a software designer. ''The crowds frightened me.''
Still, she said, she doesn't regret her time in the palace.
''Not everybody gets to be a goddess,'' she said, smiling. ''In one life, I got to have two lives.''
Friday Afternoon Miscellany
Hola! Just a few quick posts. dondelion is here and we've got a full schedule planned, so I am not sure how much time (or inclination) to post until after Christmas. Tonight we're going to see a play, tomorrow it's the art museum, Sunday the Packer game is the Number One Priority, on Monday we will do our visit to the mall and lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, on Tuesday it's dinner with the family - the rest of the time we spend talking and cooking (we both like cooking).
Some items that caught my eye during the past week (enjoy!):
The Bactrian Gold hoard discovered in Afghanistan in 1978 is going to be touring the United States for the first time ever, beginning in May, 2008. The National Geographic has an article and some stunning photos of the objects and jewelry. The treasures will begin a 17-month tour of the U.S starting at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where they will be on display from May 25 to September 7, 2008. The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City have also tentatively scheduled stops along the tour. Oooohhh, a trip to San Francisco or New York to see this - hmmm...
The thought of scientists (or anyone) tinkering around with "artificial DNA" creating new life forms is something VERY disturbing and scary to me.
Here's a quote: "We're heading into an era where people will be writing DNA programs like the early days of computer programming, but who will own these programs?" asked Drew Endy, a scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Won't those guys EVER learn? Maybe they all need to go see "I Am Legend" or revisit the 1970's version, "Omega Man" - or read Stephen King's classic "The Stand." Geez! These guys might genetically engineer an "artificial life form" that could wipe out every single living thing on the planet, and they're worried about frigging property rights!
Honestly, have certain people lost ALL sense of proportion - not to mention their sense of humor? Borders under fire from evangelicals for a promotional Christmas card that says "Oh come all ye faithless... ." LOL! I think that's hilarious!
The Norwegian government has plans to build a "doomsday" vault to house seeds of all the known food crops. Gee, nice to know that our seeds will be safe even though the scientists may wipe us all out with their genetically engineered "artificial life forms." We'll leave the seeds for some future instellar travelers - assuming the "aritficial life form" doesn't also knock them off should they ever land here in the future...
The Haunted Internet: be afraid, very afraid...
Everything you never wanted to know about crystal skulls. I understand a crystal skull will be featured in the new Indiana Jones movie and no, I'm not referring to Harrison Ford who is looking rather skeletal to me these days; he hasn't aged well and even with all the makeup they pile on him he is too old looking to be playing the formerly hunky main character! Harrison, darling, it's an unfortunate fact of life that we all grow older and greyer. Sixty-something you should not be portraying thirty-something Indy!
Some items that caught my eye during the past week (enjoy!):
The Bactrian Gold hoard discovered in Afghanistan in 1978 is going to be touring the United States for the first time ever, beginning in May, 2008. The National Geographic has an article and some stunning photos of the objects and jewelry. The treasures will begin a 17-month tour of the U.S starting at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where they will be on display from May 25 to September 7, 2008. The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City have also tentatively scheduled stops along the tour. Oooohhh, a trip to San Francisco or New York to see this - hmmm...
The thought of scientists (or anyone) tinkering around with "artificial DNA" creating new life forms is something VERY disturbing and scary to me.
Here's a quote: "We're heading into an era where people will be writing DNA programs like the early days of computer programming, but who will own these programs?" asked Drew Endy, a scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Won't those guys EVER learn? Maybe they all need to go see "I Am Legend" or revisit the 1970's version, "Omega Man" - or read Stephen King's classic "The Stand." Geez! These guys might genetically engineer an "artificial life form" that could wipe out every single living thing on the planet, and they're worried about frigging property rights!
Honestly, have certain people lost ALL sense of proportion - not to mention their sense of humor? Borders under fire from evangelicals for a promotional Christmas card that says "Oh come all ye faithless... ." LOL! I think that's hilarious!
The Norwegian government has plans to build a "doomsday" vault to house seeds of all the known food crops. Gee, nice to know that our seeds will be safe even though the scientists may wipe us all out with their genetically engineered "artificial life forms." We'll leave the seeds for some future instellar travelers - assuming the "aritficial life form" doesn't also knock them off should they ever land here in the future...
The Haunted Internet: be afraid, very afraid...
Everything you never wanted to know about crystal skulls. I understand a crystal skull will be featured in the new Indiana Jones movie and no, I'm not referring to Harrison Ford who is looking rather skeletal to me these days; he hasn't aged well and even with all the makeup they pile on him he is too old looking to be playing the formerly hunky main character! Harrison, darling, it's an unfortunate fact of life that we all grow older and greyer. Sixty-something you should not be portraying thirty-something Indy!
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Record-Breaking Treasure Trove Found In Gaul
Record-breaking haul from Gaul discovered at farm in Brittany
By John Lichfield in Paris
Published: 20 December 2007
Asterix and Obelix, had they existed, might have paid for their mead and other magic potions with gold-silver-copper coins stamped with elaborate images of men and horses.
The largest treasure trove of pre-Roman, Gaulish money ever to be found has been discovered in central Brittany.
The 545 coins – each worth thousands of euros to collectors but priceless to historians and archaeologists – could overturn much of the received wisdom about the complexity, and wealth, of pre-Roman Celtic society in France. Why was such enormous wealth, a king's ransom at the time, buried in the grounds of a large Gaulish farm 40 miles south of Saint-Brieuc in the first century BC? Why was the hoard never recovered?'
"Treasure on this scale would only have been used for transactions between aristocratic families," said Yves Menez, an archaeologist specialising in iron-age Brittany. It has always been assumed that the Celtic nobility lived in fortified towns, not in the wild and dangerous countryside. "The reality must have been more complex," Mr Menez said. Like all Gaulish coins, the 58 "stateres" and 487 quarter "stateres" found near to the village of Laniscat are copies of early Greek money.
Gauls served as mercenaries in the armies of Alexander the Great. The money that they brought home served as the model for home-minted coins. Some of the new treasure trove, rescued from the site of a proposed dual-carriageway, have the familiar Celtic monetary pattern of a horse on one side and a man's head on the reverse. Other coins have hitherto unknown designs, such as horses with human heads.
There are also images of riders and wild boars.
Smaller caches of Gaulish coins have turned up in the past but rarely of such quality and never in such numbers.
Most transactions for goods in Gaulish times were conducted through barter.
Coins were for the super-rich. "This is an exceptional discovery," said Mr Menez. "It represents a colossal fortune for the period. Each of these coins was like a 500 euro note today."
The hoard of coins was discovered by the French government agency, the Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives (INRAP), which has the right to explore any potentially significant site before a road or new building covers it forever. The coins are believed to have been minted in around 75 to 5BC. They were probably buried just before, or during, the first Roman invasions of what is now northern and western France.
A dig led by INRAP archaeologist Eddie Roy discovered the coins scattered over 200 square metres of a site soon to be occupied by a new by-pass.
It is believed that they were all buried together but disturbed over the centuries by agricultural ploughing. "We found a single coin about 30cms down and then we started a systematic search," Mr Roy said.
"We found 50 more in a single day and then, with the help of metal detectors, we located all the others."
The dig unearthed the remains of a large manor house or farm, which is thought to have belonged to the "Osisme" people – a Celtic tribe living in the far west of the Breton peninsula. The coins were probably buried in the farm's boundary embankment. Why? To hide the wealth from the Romans? Possibly. The farm was occupied for several centuries after the treasure was buried but the coins were never recovered: one small part of Gaul which resisted the Roman invasion.
By John Lichfield in Paris
Published: 20 December 2007
Asterix and Obelix, had they existed, might have paid for their mead and other magic potions with gold-silver-copper coins stamped with elaborate images of men and horses.
The largest treasure trove of pre-Roman, Gaulish money ever to be found has been discovered in central Brittany.
The 545 coins – each worth thousands of euros to collectors but priceless to historians and archaeologists – could overturn much of the received wisdom about the complexity, and wealth, of pre-Roman Celtic society in France. Why was such enormous wealth, a king's ransom at the time, buried in the grounds of a large Gaulish farm 40 miles south of Saint-Brieuc in the first century BC? Why was the hoard never recovered?'
"Treasure on this scale would only have been used for transactions between aristocratic families," said Yves Menez, an archaeologist specialising in iron-age Brittany. It has always been assumed that the Celtic nobility lived in fortified towns, not in the wild and dangerous countryside. "The reality must have been more complex," Mr Menez said. Like all Gaulish coins, the 58 "stateres" and 487 quarter "stateres" found near to the village of Laniscat are copies of early Greek money.
Gauls served as mercenaries in the armies of Alexander the Great. The money that they brought home served as the model for home-minted coins. Some of the new treasure trove, rescued from the site of a proposed dual-carriageway, have the familiar Celtic monetary pattern of a horse on one side and a man's head on the reverse. Other coins have hitherto unknown designs, such as horses with human heads.
There are also images of riders and wild boars.
Smaller caches of Gaulish coins have turned up in the past but rarely of such quality and never in such numbers.
Most transactions for goods in Gaulish times were conducted through barter.
Coins were for the super-rich. "This is an exceptional discovery," said Mr Menez. "It represents a colossal fortune for the period. Each of these coins was like a 500 euro note today."
The hoard of coins was discovered by the French government agency, the Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives (INRAP), which has the right to explore any potentially significant site before a road or new building covers it forever. The coins are believed to have been minted in around 75 to 5BC. They were probably buried just before, or during, the first Roman invasions of what is now northern and western France.
A dig led by INRAP archaeologist Eddie Roy discovered the coins scattered over 200 square metres of a site soon to be occupied by a new by-pass.
It is believed that they were all buried together but disturbed over the centuries by agricultural ploughing. "We found a single coin about 30cms down and then we started a systematic search," Mr Roy said.
"We found 50 more in a single day and then, with the help of metal detectors, we located all the others."
The dig unearthed the remains of a large manor house or farm, which is thought to have belonged to the "Osisme" people – a Celtic tribe living in the far west of the Breton peninsula. The coins were probably buried in the farm's boundary embankment. Why? To hide the wealth from the Romans? Possibly. The farm was occupied for several centuries after the treasure was buried but the coins were never recovered: one small part of Gaul which resisted the Roman invasion.
Celebrating Yalda in Iran
Throughout history religions and governments have tried to remove the Goddess from the world, but people always have and always will pay homage to her in one way or another:
Yalda, the victory of light over darkness
Tue, 18 Dec 2007 22:00:40
By Tamara Ebrahimpour, Press TV, Tehran
On Yalda festival, Iranians celebrate the arrival of winter, the renewal of the sun and the victory of light over darkness.
Considered the longest night of the year, Yalda eve is the night when ancient Iranians celebrated the birth of Mithra, the goddess of light.
Every 21st of December Iranians celebrate Yalda which means birth in Syriac. It is believed that when this night ends, days become longer as light (Sun) has defeated darkness.
Ancient Persians believed that evil forces were dominant on the longest night of the year and that the next day belonged to the Lord of Wisdom, Ahura Mazda.
The Persians would burn fires all night to ensure the defeat of evil. They would hold feasts, raise charity, honor their deities and pray to the goddess Mithra.
As Yalda coincides with the beginning of winter, people also celebrated the end of the previous harvest by eating dried and fresh fruits and praying to the deities for a bumper winter crop next year.
One of the main features of the Yalda festival was the temporary subversion of order, which lasted up to the Sassanid period.
Masters served servants, children headed the family and a mock king was crowned.
Today the Yalda festival is a time when family members gather at the home of the elders until after midnight.
Guests are served with dried fruits, nuts, and winter fruits like pomegranates and watermelons, which symbolize the red color of dawn in the sky.
They also practice bibliomancy with the poetry of the highly respected mystic Iranian poet Hafez. Persians believe whenever one is faced with difficulties or has a general question, one can ask the poet for an answer. Hafiz sings to the questioner in his own enigmatic way and allows individuals to look in the mirror of their soul through his poems.
TE/HGH/MG
Yalda, the victory of light over darkness
Tue, 18 Dec 2007 22:00:40
By Tamara Ebrahimpour, Press TV, Tehran
On Yalda festival, Iranians celebrate the arrival of winter, the renewal of the sun and the victory of light over darkness.
Considered the longest night of the year, Yalda eve is the night when ancient Iranians celebrated the birth of Mithra, the goddess of light.
Every 21st of December Iranians celebrate Yalda which means birth in Syriac. It is believed that when this night ends, days become longer as light (Sun) has defeated darkness.
Ancient Persians believed that evil forces were dominant on the longest night of the year and that the next day belonged to the Lord of Wisdom, Ahura Mazda.
The Persians would burn fires all night to ensure the defeat of evil. They would hold feasts, raise charity, honor their deities and pray to the goddess Mithra.
As Yalda coincides with the beginning of winter, people also celebrated the end of the previous harvest by eating dried and fresh fruits and praying to the deities for a bumper winter crop next year.
One of the main features of the Yalda festival was the temporary subversion of order, which lasted up to the Sassanid period.
Masters served servants, children headed the family and a mock king was crowned.
Today the Yalda festival is a time when family members gather at the home of the elders until after midnight.
Guests are served with dried fruits, nuts, and winter fruits like pomegranates and watermelons, which symbolize the red color of dawn in the sky.
They also practice bibliomancy with the poetry of the highly respected mystic Iranian poet Hafez. Persians believe whenever one is faced with difficulties or has a general question, one can ask the poet for an answer. Hafiz sings to the questioner in his own enigmatic way and allows individuals to look in the mirror of their soul through his poems.
TE/HGH/MG
Iraqi Cuneiform Tablet Offered on eBay
From BBC online:
eBay Iraq relic auction stopped
December 18, 2007
Swiss authorities have blocked the sale of an ancient clay tablet, thought to have been smuggled from Iraq, on the internet auction site eBay.
A German archaeologist spotted the 4,000-tear-old tablet on eBay's Swiss site. It is carved with cuneiform - one of the oldest known types of writing.
Swiss authorities were alerted and eBay stopped the auction minutes before the end of the bidding deadline.
Police confiscated the tablet at a storage facility in Zurich.
Swiss officials said that criminal proceedings have been started against the seller, who has not been named but faces a fine of up to 500,000 Swiss francs (300,000 euros) or a prison term.
Switzerland has a ban on trading Iraqi cultural artefacts exported from the country after 1990.
'Invaluable'
Yves Fischer, a senior official in Switzerland's culture department, said the tablet had been offered at a starting price of 250 euros ($360) on eBay but it was not clear if any bids were made.
Cuneiform tablets are on a list of endangered Iraqi cultural objects drawn up by the International Council of Museums.
"This Mesopotamian cuneiform tablet has an invaluable historical value," but the seller "could have acquired it for less than 300 euros," Mr Fischer said.
"If it's a tainted object, then the goal will be to return it to Iraq," he added.
The tablet has not yet been deciphered.
Cuneiform tablets were used throughout the Middle East and ancient Persia for recording the deeds of leaders as well as correspondence and book-keeping.
The Iraqi National Library and the country's National Museum were both heavily looted in the days following the US-led invasion in 2003.
eBay Iraq relic auction stopped
December 18, 2007
Swiss authorities have blocked the sale of an ancient clay tablet, thought to have been smuggled from Iraq, on the internet auction site eBay.
A German archaeologist spotted the 4,000-tear-old tablet on eBay's Swiss site. It is carved with cuneiform - one of the oldest known types of writing.
Swiss authorities were alerted and eBay stopped the auction minutes before the end of the bidding deadline.
Police confiscated the tablet at a storage facility in Zurich.
Swiss officials said that criminal proceedings have been started against the seller, who has not been named but faces a fine of up to 500,000 Swiss francs (300,000 euros) or a prison term.
Switzerland has a ban on trading Iraqi cultural artefacts exported from the country after 1990.
'Invaluable'
Yves Fischer, a senior official in Switzerland's culture department, said the tablet had been offered at a starting price of 250 euros ($360) on eBay but it was not clear if any bids were made.
Cuneiform tablets are on a list of endangered Iraqi cultural objects drawn up by the International Council of Museums.
"This Mesopotamian cuneiform tablet has an invaluable historical value," but the seller "could have acquired it for less than 300 euros," Mr Fischer said.
"If it's a tainted object, then the goal will be to return it to Iraq," he added.
The tablet has not yet been deciphered.
Cuneiform tablets were used throughout the Middle East and ancient Persia for recording the deeds of leaders as well as correspondence and book-keeping.
The Iraqi National Library and the country's National Museum were both heavily looted in the days following the US-led invasion in 2003.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Goddess Padmavati
From newindpress.com
Diamond-studded gold armour to Padmavati
Wednesday December 19 2007 07:33 IST
TIRUPATI: J Rameshwara Rao, Chairman and Managing Director of My Home group of companies, will offer diamond-studded golden armour to Goddess Padmavati on Wednesday.
Rao will hand over the 'Swarna Vajra Kavacham', which costs about Rs 1 crore, to Sri Tridandi Chinna Jeeyar Swamy who, in turn, will hand it over to priests at the pre-designated time on Wednesday evening.
********************************************************************************
Just how much money (in US dollars) is RS 1 crore?
RS 1 crore = 10,000,000.00 INR = 253,119.65 USD
Diamond-studded gold armour to Padmavati
Wednesday December 19 2007 07:33 IST
TIRUPATI: J Rameshwara Rao, Chairman and Managing Director of My Home group of companies, will offer diamond-studded golden armour to Goddess Padmavati on Wednesday.
Rao will hand over the 'Swarna Vajra Kavacham', which costs about Rs 1 crore, to Sri Tridandi Chinna Jeeyar Swamy who, in turn, will hand it over to priests at the pre-designated time on Wednesday evening.
********************************************************************************
Just how much money (in US dollars) is RS 1 crore?
RS 1 crore = 10,000,000.00 INR = 253,119.65 USD
Anand Says: Koneru Humpy - Our Best Hope
Anand Speaks:
From The telegraphindia.com
December 19, 2007
Calcutta: Not many were aware of Viswanathan Anand’s visit to the city late on Tuesday evening, his first after being crowned world champion. The occasion was the felicitation of NIIT’s zonal chess champions, DPS Ruby Park.
The lateness of the hour was the cause of a sparse turnout at the function, at which state sports minister Subhas Chakraborty was also present, but Anand had no complaints. He even said he felt proud to be in the “sports city”.
The following are excerpts from his interaction with the media:
On his goals for the New Year
Anything I attain in chess gives me great joy. I will be playing in the Corus event next month. Although I have won the title there five times, I am motivated to do really well this time too. I would also like to defend my world title.
On whether he was satisfied with the reception he received when he got back to India
I must say that I was satisfied with the reception. It was fantastic on my return in New Delhi and Chennai. There are no complaints.
On whether he has plans of settling down in Chennai
I have been operating out of Spain for the past few years… It’s not that I haven’t been in touch with India but the thing is that I spend a lot of time travelling. In October I moved to Chennai and will gradually settle down there. But I will still have to travel a lot to play in different tournaments across the world… A lot of Indian players have emerged strongly in the last few years. I regularly work with Sandipan Chanda, Surya Sekhar Ganguly and others. Lack of practice partners was one of the reasons for my moving out but now things have changed. I can now spend more and more time at home.
On whether he is keen on fighting Garri Kasparov again
If Kasparov changes his mind about his retirement I would welcome that. We can have a great match. We didn’t have an opportunity after 1995 and that’s a pity.
On whether he is feeling the pressure of being world champion
October was pleasant and passed off in a haze… The feeling was funny. But thereafter, as things settled down, the feeling was no different. I’ve stopped thinking about it. For me things have remained the same. Maybe when you go here and there and people refer to you as the world champion it will hit you. I think I have enough experience to cope with the pressures involved. Maybe I will have a new feeling when I go to Linares the next time.
On how he looks at the new crop of Indian talent
Youngsters have been emerging but the progress has been slow. Sasikiran has made steady progress over the years. The next set of players behind him are also making progress though it has been slower than expected. There are other players coming through. (G.N.) Gopal was impressive in Russia. Koneru (Humpy) has done well too and remains our best hope to become the second world champion.
On the lack of international tournaments in India
I agree there has been lack of showpiece tournaments. We really need to do a bit more here… I hope something is done.
On the lack of infrastructure in the game
We need to develop more sponsorship for the national championships and other showcase events.
On Sourav Ganguly’s ensuing 100th Test in Melbourne
All the best Sourav… We are waiting… Just go for it.
From The telegraphindia.com
December 19, 2007
Calcutta: Not many were aware of Viswanathan Anand’s visit to the city late on Tuesday evening, his first after being crowned world champion. The occasion was the felicitation of NIIT’s zonal chess champions, DPS Ruby Park.
The lateness of the hour was the cause of a sparse turnout at the function, at which state sports minister Subhas Chakraborty was also present, but Anand had no complaints. He even said he felt proud to be in the “sports city”.
The following are excerpts from his interaction with the media:
On his goals for the New Year
Anything I attain in chess gives me great joy. I will be playing in the Corus event next month. Although I have won the title there five times, I am motivated to do really well this time too. I would also like to defend my world title.
On whether he was satisfied with the reception he received when he got back to India
I must say that I was satisfied with the reception. It was fantastic on my return in New Delhi and Chennai. There are no complaints.
On whether he has plans of settling down in Chennai
I have been operating out of Spain for the past few years… It’s not that I haven’t been in touch with India but the thing is that I spend a lot of time travelling. In October I moved to Chennai and will gradually settle down there. But I will still have to travel a lot to play in different tournaments across the world… A lot of Indian players have emerged strongly in the last few years. I regularly work with Sandipan Chanda, Surya Sekhar Ganguly and others. Lack of practice partners was one of the reasons for my moving out but now things have changed. I can now spend more and more time at home.
On whether he is keen on fighting Garri Kasparov again
If Kasparov changes his mind about his retirement I would welcome that. We can have a great match. We didn’t have an opportunity after 1995 and that’s a pity.
On whether he is feeling the pressure of being world champion
October was pleasant and passed off in a haze… The feeling was funny. But thereafter, as things settled down, the feeling was no different. I’ve stopped thinking about it. For me things have remained the same. Maybe when you go here and there and people refer to you as the world champion it will hit you. I think I have enough experience to cope with the pressures involved. Maybe I will have a new feeling when I go to Linares the next time.
On how he looks at the new crop of Indian talent
Youngsters have been emerging but the progress has been slow. Sasikiran has made steady progress over the years. The next set of players behind him are also making progress though it has been slower than expected. There are other players coming through. (G.N.) Gopal was impressive in Russia. Koneru (Humpy) has done well too and remains our best hope to become the second world champion.
On the lack of international tournaments in India
I agree there has been lack of showpiece tournaments. We really need to do a bit more here… I hope something is done.
On the lack of infrastructure in the game
We need to develop more sponsorship for the national championships and other showcase events.
On Sourav Ganguly’s ensuing 100th Test in Melbourne
All the best Sourav… We are waiting… Just go for it.
Ancient Egyptians Ahead of Time
From The Times of India
18 Dec 2007, 0107 hrs IST, AGENCIES
The recent discovery of an industrial complex in Egypt has led researchers to revise their conceptions over what level of advancement the Nile civilization had actually reached, with their advanced glass-making abilities proving that the ancient Egyptians were technologically much more ahead of their time than scholars previously thought, according to LiveScience.com.
The site, at Amarna, is on the banks of the Nile and dates back to the reign of Akhenaten (1352-1336 B C), just a few years before the rule of Tutankhamun.
Historians have said Egyptians of that time imported their glass. But a team led by archaeologist Paul Nicholson of Cardiff University in Wales has reconstructed a 3,000-year-old glass furnace, showing that ancient Egyptian glassmaking methods were much more advanced than thought.
The researchers used local sand to produce a glass ingot from their own experimental reconstruction of an ancient furnace near the site.
They also discovered that the glassworks was part of an "industrial complex," as they've described it. The site contained a potter's workshop and facilities for making blue pigment and materials used in architectural inlays.
The site was near one of the main temples at Amarna and may have been used to produce materials for state buildings, the researchers figure.
"It has been argued that the Egyptians imported their glass and worked it into the artefacts that have been discovered from this time," Nicholson said. "I believe there is now enough evidence to show that skilled craftsmen could make their own glass and were probably involved in a range of other manufacturing industries as well."
The findings, announced today, are detailed in the book "Brilliant Things for Akhenaten" (Egypt Exploration Society, 2007).
18 Dec 2007, 0107 hrs IST, AGENCIES
The recent discovery of an industrial complex in Egypt has led researchers to revise their conceptions over what level of advancement the Nile civilization had actually reached, with their advanced glass-making abilities proving that the ancient Egyptians were technologically much more ahead of their time than scholars previously thought, according to LiveScience.com.
The site, at Amarna, is on the banks of the Nile and dates back to the reign of Akhenaten (1352-1336 B C), just a few years before the rule of Tutankhamun.
Historians have said Egyptians of that time imported their glass. But a team led by archaeologist Paul Nicholson of Cardiff University in Wales has reconstructed a 3,000-year-old glass furnace, showing that ancient Egyptian glassmaking methods were much more advanced than thought.
The researchers used local sand to produce a glass ingot from their own experimental reconstruction of an ancient furnace near the site.
They also discovered that the glassworks was part of an "industrial complex," as they've described it. The site contained a potter's workshop and facilities for making blue pigment and materials used in architectural inlays.
The site was near one of the main temples at Amarna and may have been used to produce materials for state buildings, the researchers figure.
"It has been argued that the Egyptians imported their glass and worked it into the artefacts that have been discovered from this time," Nicholson said. "I believe there is now enough evidence to show that skilled craftsmen could make their own glass and were probably involved in a range of other manufacturing industries as well."
The findings, announced today, are detailed in the book "Brilliant Things for Akhenaten" (Egypt Exploration Society, 2007).
Monday, December 17, 2007
Saudi Rape Victim "Pardoned"
Original article posted on November 16, 2007.
From The New York Times.
Saudi King Pardons Rape Victim Sentenced to Be Lashed, Saudi Paper Reports
By KATHERINE ZOEPF
Published: December 18, 2007
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — King Abdullah has pardoned a woman who was sentenced to 200 lashes after pressing charges against seven men who raped her, a Saudi newspaper reported Monday.
There was no immediate confirmation from the Ministry of Justice or the Ministry of Information, but the paper, Al Jazirah, is close to the religious establishment that controls the Justice Ministry, Reuters reported.
The case has provoked a rare and angry public debate in Saudi Arabia, leading to renewed calls for an overhaul of the Saudi judicial system.
The rape took place a year and a half ago in Qatif, a small Shiite town in the Eastern Province, the center of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry. The woman, who has been publicly identified only as the “Qatif girl,” said she met a former boyfriend to retrieve a photograph of herself. They were sitting in a car when seven men attacked, raping them both.
The woman and her former boyfriend were originally sentenced to 90 lashes for being together in private, while the attackers received sentences ranging from 10 months to five years in prison, and 80 to 1,000 lashes. For a woman to be meeting in private with a man who is not her husband or a relative is a crime in Saudi Arabia, where the legal code is based on a strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islamic law.
The woman’s lawyer, Abdulrahman al-Lahem, a well-known human rights activist, appealed, saying that the attackers’ sentences were too lenient and that of the victim was too harsh. The appeal brought down the wrath of the court. In November, it doubled the woman’s sentence and stripped Mr. Lahem of his license to practice, but it also increased the sentences of her attackers to prison terms of two to nine years.
Mr. Lahem could not be reached by phone late Monday, but the editor in chief of Al Watan, a Saudi daily that Mr. Lahem writes for, said it had been known in Riyadh political circles since early this month that the woman would be pardoned. The editor, Jamal Khashoggi, said he believed that the timing of the pardon, on the eve of the Id al-Adha holiday, was coincidental.
“I’ve been hearing for two or three weeks now that the pardon would be issued,” Mr. Khashoggi said in a telephone interview.
“It has been expected that the girl would be pardoned in the end — in similar cases, very public cases like this, it has been the same,” he said. “One of our writers was recently sentenced to a number of lashes and received a pardon from the king.”
Mr. Khashoggi said the woman, who has married, was not jailed while she appealed. There have been reports that her brother has tried to kill her to remove the “stain” to the family’s honor, and bloggers and international human rights activists have expressed concern for her safety.
The Saudi minister of social affairs, Abdul Mohsin al-Akkas, reached by telephone, said Saudi women who ran into trouble with the law frequently feared retribution from their relatives. Some women who serve prison time refuse to leave prison at the end of their sentences, he said. The Ministry of Social Affairs operates shelters for those women, and Mr. Akkas said the Qatif victim would be able to live in one.
“If after the pardon she decides that she needs housing because of her circumstances, then we will offer that,” he said.
Commenting on the pardon, the Saudi justice minister, Abdullah bin Mohammed al-Sheik, told Al Jazirah that the king fully supported the verdicts against the woman but had decided to pardon her because it was in the “interests of the people.”
Bernard Haykel, a professor of Near Eastern studies at Princeton University who specializes in Saudi Arabia, said that was a kind of “double message” commonly employed by the Saudi government.
“On one hand this tells people, ‘We support our system and we will punish you if you violate it,’” he said. “Yet he’s also showing mercy. Throughout, he’s making it clear that he is not disagreeing with the judge’s opinion on this sensitive issue of sexual chastity, but he believes that there is a higher interest to be served by the pardon, whether that’s relationships between Shiites and Sunnis, or international opinion.”
“Conservative scholars and judges will still take this pardon as a slap in the face,” Mr. Haykel continued. “These decisions are always made like this, ad hoc, so that the core values and institutions of the Saudi state are not questioned or threatened.”
**********************************************************************************
What about the "sexual chastity" of the men who committed the rape - remember, both the female AND the male who was with her in the car were gang raped. What does this say about the "sexual chastity" of Saudi males? And - never mentioned - what kind of sentence did the male who was raped receive from the Islamic Court?
From The New York Times.
Saudi King Pardons Rape Victim Sentenced to Be Lashed, Saudi Paper Reports
By KATHERINE ZOEPF
Published: December 18, 2007
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — King Abdullah has pardoned a woman who was sentenced to 200 lashes after pressing charges against seven men who raped her, a Saudi newspaper reported Monday.
There was no immediate confirmation from the Ministry of Justice or the Ministry of Information, but the paper, Al Jazirah, is close to the religious establishment that controls the Justice Ministry, Reuters reported.
The case has provoked a rare and angry public debate in Saudi Arabia, leading to renewed calls for an overhaul of the Saudi judicial system.
The rape took place a year and a half ago in Qatif, a small Shiite town in the Eastern Province, the center of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry. The woman, who has been publicly identified only as the “Qatif girl,” said she met a former boyfriend to retrieve a photograph of herself. They were sitting in a car when seven men attacked, raping them both.
The woman and her former boyfriend were originally sentenced to 90 lashes for being together in private, while the attackers received sentences ranging from 10 months to five years in prison, and 80 to 1,000 lashes. For a woman to be meeting in private with a man who is not her husband or a relative is a crime in Saudi Arabia, where the legal code is based on a strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islamic law.
The woman’s lawyer, Abdulrahman al-Lahem, a well-known human rights activist, appealed, saying that the attackers’ sentences were too lenient and that of the victim was too harsh. The appeal brought down the wrath of the court. In November, it doubled the woman’s sentence and stripped Mr. Lahem of his license to practice, but it also increased the sentences of her attackers to prison terms of two to nine years.
Mr. Lahem could not be reached by phone late Monday, but the editor in chief of Al Watan, a Saudi daily that Mr. Lahem writes for, said it had been known in Riyadh political circles since early this month that the woman would be pardoned. The editor, Jamal Khashoggi, said he believed that the timing of the pardon, on the eve of the Id al-Adha holiday, was coincidental.
“I’ve been hearing for two or three weeks now that the pardon would be issued,” Mr. Khashoggi said in a telephone interview.
“It has been expected that the girl would be pardoned in the end — in similar cases, very public cases like this, it has been the same,” he said. “One of our writers was recently sentenced to a number of lashes and received a pardon from the king.”
Mr. Khashoggi said the woman, who has married, was not jailed while she appealed. There have been reports that her brother has tried to kill her to remove the “stain” to the family’s honor, and bloggers and international human rights activists have expressed concern for her safety.
The Saudi minister of social affairs, Abdul Mohsin al-Akkas, reached by telephone, said Saudi women who ran into trouble with the law frequently feared retribution from their relatives. Some women who serve prison time refuse to leave prison at the end of their sentences, he said. The Ministry of Social Affairs operates shelters for those women, and Mr. Akkas said the Qatif victim would be able to live in one.
“If after the pardon she decides that she needs housing because of her circumstances, then we will offer that,” he said.
Commenting on the pardon, the Saudi justice minister, Abdullah bin Mohammed al-Sheik, told Al Jazirah that the king fully supported the verdicts against the woman but had decided to pardon her because it was in the “interests of the people.”
Bernard Haykel, a professor of Near Eastern studies at Princeton University who specializes in Saudi Arabia, said that was a kind of “double message” commonly employed by the Saudi government.
“On one hand this tells people, ‘We support our system and we will punish you if you violate it,’” he said. “Yet he’s also showing mercy. Throughout, he’s making it clear that he is not disagreeing with the judge’s opinion on this sensitive issue of sexual chastity, but he believes that there is a higher interest to be served by the pardon, whether that’s relationships between Shiites and Sunnis, or international opinion.”
“Conservative scholars and judges will still take this pardon as a slap in the face,” Mr. Haykel continued. “These decisions are always made like this, ad hoc, so that the core values and institutions of the Saudi state are not questioned or threatened.”
**********************************************************************************
What about the "sexual chastity" of the men who committed the rape - remember, both the female AND the male who was with her in the car were gang raped. What does this say about the "sexual chastity" of Saudi males? And - never mentioned - what kind of sentence did the male who was raped receive from the Islamic Court?
We're Mad as Hell, and We Ain't Gonna Take It Anymore
Using Webster's newest word "WOOT WOOT WOOT WOOT..."
From theage.com.au
Pretty in pink, female vigilantes also handy with an axe
Amrit Dhillon, New Delhi
December 15, 2007
THE day her sister was dragged by the hair around the courtyard by an alcoholic husband was the day Sampat Devi decided that men needed to be given a taste of their own medicine.
Her brother-in-law was angry at being reproached for squandering his wages on liquor rather than on food for their children.
She rounded up other women in Banda, a remote region of north India, and ran after the malefactor with whatever "weapons" were lying around — walking sticks, iron rods, a child's cricket bat. The women chased him into a sugar cane field and thrashed him.
That was two years ago. Now, more than 100 women, dressed in pink nylon saris and known as the "Gulabi Gang" or Pink Gang, are the scourge of violent husbands, inefficient policemen and corrupt officials.
"None of the men here pay any attention to us. The only way to get them to listen is to scare them. I'm not scared of any of them. But to make sure we have the upper hand, we always go with sticks and axes to deal with someone," said Ms Devi, 50, speaking from Banda on her mobile phone.
Ms Devi decided on the uniform of a pink sari for the vigilantes so that they would be easily recognised.
The Pink Gang's activities range from beating up men who abuse their wives for not bearing a son to shaming officials who have sold subsidised grain intended for the poor on the black market for a profit.
In Maharashtra, western India, women in some villages have forcibly shut down liquor shops to stop their families being ruined by the man's alcohol addiction, but this is the first time women have taken the law into their own hands.
The Pink Gang has even stormed the local police station to confront policemen who refused to file a complaint from a low-caste man against a moneylender simply because of his caste.
Women in Indian villages are traditionally in thrall to husbands and social conventions that restrict their freedom. The countryside is still feudal in its attitudes towards women.
When they walk on the street, it is usually two paces behind the husband, to show his superior "god-like" status. The worst-treated women are poor and low-caste. Few have the courage to stand up for themselves.
But Ms Devi is feisty and forceful. She marches at the front of her female storm-troopers whenever a deviant man needs to be put right.
Her husband, who supports her activities, sells ice-cream and earns a small income with which they raise five children. They were married when Ms Devi was 12 years old.
"Women are at the bottom of society with no help from anyone. We can't keep waiting forever. That's why I formed the group so that the moment a woman calls me to say she's in trouble, we're on the spot fast," she said.
"A woman on her own would be ineffective. Men would just laugh at her. But when we're in a group, men get nervous. "Even the local criminals are scared of us," she said, adding that her husband supports her.
From theage.com.au
Pretty in pink, female vigilantes also handy with an axe
Amrit Dhillon, New Delhi
December 15, 2007
THE day her sister was dragged by the hair around the courtyard by an alcoholic husband was the day Sampat Devi decided that men needed to be given a taste of their own medicine.
Her brother-in-law was angry at being reproached for squandering his wages on liquor rather than on food for their children.
She rounded up other women in Banda, a remote region of north India, and ran after the malefactor with whatever "weapons" were lying around — walking sticks, iron rods, a child's cricket bat. The women chased him into a sugar cane field and thrashed him.
That was two years ago. Now, more than 100 women, dressed in pink nylon saris and known as the "Gulabi Gang" or Pink Gang, are the scourge of violent husbands, inefficient policemen and corrupt officials.
"None of the men here pay any attention to us. The only way to get them to listen is to scare them. I'm not scared of any of them. But to make sure we have the upper hand, we always go with sticks and axes to deal with someone," said Ms Devi, 50, speaking from Banda on her mobile phone.
Ms Devi decided on the uniform of a pink sari for the vigilantes so that they would be easily recognised.
The Pink Gang's activities range from beating up men who abuse their wives for not bearing a son to shaming officials who have sold subsidised grain intended for the poor on the black market for a profit.
In Maharashtra, western India, women in some villages have forcibly shut down liquor shops to stop their families being ruined by the man's alcohol addiction, but this is the first time women have taken the law into their own hands.
The Pink Gang has even stormed the local police station to confront policemen who refused to file a complaint from a low-caste man against a moneylender simply because of his caste.
Women in Indian villages are traditionally in thrall to husbands and social conventions that restrict their freedom. The countryside is still feudal in its attitudes towards women.
When they walk on the street, it is usually two paces behind the husband, to show his superior "god-like" status. The worst-treated women are poor and low-caste. Few have the courage to stand up for themselves.
But Ms Devi is feisty and forceful. She marches at the front of her female storm-troopers whenever a deviant man needs to be put right.
Her husband, who supports her activities, sells ice-cream and earns a small income with which they raise five children. They were married when Ms Devi was 12 years old.
"Women are at the bottom of society with no help from anyone. We can't keep waiting forever. That's why I formed the group so that the moment a woman calls me to say she's in trouble, we're on the spot fast," she said.
"A woman on her own would be ineffective. Men would just laugh at her. But when we're in a group, men get nervous. "Even the local criminals are scared of us," she said, adding that her husband supports her.
The "Portable Antiquities Scheme"
The PAS has been a resounding success in Great Britain since enacted, but it's now under threat:
From The Guardian Unlimited
Maev Kennedy
Monday December 17, 2007
Some 1,650 years ago someone was so comprehensively fed up with the state of the Roman empire that they committed an act of treason, blasphemy and probably criminal defacing of the coinage. They cursed the emperor Valens by hammering a coin with his image into lead, then folding the lead over his face.
The battered scraps of metal discovered by Tom Redmayne, an amateur metal detector, in a muddy field in Lincolnshire are a unique find.
The mid-fourth century was a time of turmoil in Roman Britain. A Roman aristocrat, Valentinus, had been exiled to Britain where he was stirring up trouble.
Thousands of Roman cursing charms survive, scrawled on pieces of lead with a hole punched to hang them up. Many were found thrown into the hot springs in Bath, demanding revenge on those guilty of petty theft.
Nothing as audacious as cursing an emperor has ever been found before. However, Sam Moorhead, a coins expert at the British Museum and expert adviser to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, which encourages voluntary reporting of finds, is convinced it is the only explanation.
Redmayne's find is unprecedented, but is just one of a torrent of 300,000 valuable, fascinating or downright weird object finds reported by amateurs in the 10 years since PAS was created.
It is a time of turmoil for the scheme itself. Leading and amateur archaeologists are joining forces to lobby the government to ring-fence its funding. Lord Renfrew, retired professor of archaeology at Cambridge, calls on the culture department to transfer PAS and its funding to the British Museum, which is facing a budget cut of 25% in the wake of the recent government spending review.
Caral - Oldest Civilization in the World?
From the Times of India:
16 Dec 2007, 0001 hrs IST
Shobhan Saxena,TNN
The ruins were so magnificent and sprawling that some people believed that the aliens from a faraway galaxy had built the huge pyramids that stood in the desert across the Andes.
Some historians believed that the complex society, which existed at that time, was born out of fear and war. They looked for the telltale signs of violence that they believed led to the creation of this civilisation. But, they could not find even a hint of any warfare. It was baffling. Even years after Ruth Shady Solis found the ancient city of pyramids at Caral in Peru, it continues to surprise historians around the world. It took Ruth Shady many years and many rounds of carbon dating to prove that the earliest known civilisation in South Americas—at 2,627 BC–was much older than the Harappa Valley towns and the pyramids of Egypt.
Solis, an archaeologist at the National University of San Marcos, Lima, was looking for the fabled missing link of archaeology— a ‘mother city’—when she stumbled upon the ancient city of Caral in the Supe Valley of Peru a few years ago. Her findings were stunning.
It showed that a full-fledged urban civilisation existed at the place around 2700 BC. The archaeologist and her team found a huge compound at Caral: 65 hectares in the central zone, encompassing six large pyramids, many smaller pyramids, two circular plazas, temples, amphitheatres and other architectural features including residential districts spread in the desert, 23 km from the coast.
The discovery of Caral has pushed back the history of the Americas: Caral is more than 1,000 years older than Machu Picchu of the Incas. They built huge structures in Caral hundreds of years before the famous drainage system of Harappa and the pyramids of Egypt were even designed.
But, it was not easy for Ruth Shady to prove this. It was only in 2001 that the journal Science reported the Peruvian archaeologist’s discovery. And, despite the hard evidence backing her, she is still trying to convince people that Caral was indeed the oldest urban civilisation in the world.
"There were many problems, many of them in my own country," says Ruth Shady, on a visit to India to discuss her discovery with other historians. "The discovery of Caral challenged the accepted beliefs. Some historians were not ready to believe that an urban civilisation existed in Peru even before the pyramids were built in Egypt," she says.
Basically, there were two problems. First, for decades archaeologist have been looking for a ‘mother city’ to find an answer to the question: why did humans become civilised?
The historians had been searching for this answer in Egypt, Mesopotamia (Iraq), India and China. They didn’t expect to find the first signs of city life in a Peruvian desert. Secondly, most historians believed that only the fear of war could motivate people to form complex societies. And, since Caral did not show any trace of warfare; no battlements, no weapons, and no mutilated bodies, they found it hard to accept it as the mother city.
That’s when Ruth Shady stepped in with her discovery. "This place is somewhere between the seat of the gods and the home of man," she says, adding that Caral was a gentle society, built on trade and pleasure. "This great civilisation was based on trade in cotton. Caral made the cotton for the nets, which were sold to the fishermen living near the coast. Caral became a booming trading centre and the trade spread," she says.
Caral was born in trade and not bloodshed. Warfare came much later. This is what this mother city shows: great civilisations are born in peace. Ruth Shady continues to battle for this great truth.
********************************************************************************
Sunday, December 16, 2007
2007 Russian Championship Superfinals
I saw this report at The Week in Chess:
The Russian Championship Superfinals take place 17th-30th December 2007. Players are: Men: Alekseev, Amonatov, Vitjugov, Grischuk, Dreev, Inarkiev, Morozevich, Rychagov, Svidler, Timofeev, Tomashevsky, Jakovenko. Women: Galliamova, Gunina, Matveeva, Kovalevskaya, Korbut, N.Kosintseva, T.Kosintseva, Kosteniuk, Ovod, Stepovaya, Tairova, Shadrina. Official site: http://www.russiachess.org/
Unfortunately for me, the official site is in Russian (can't read it). The players' lists are quite impressive. Some of the best male and female players in the world (and some very promising up-and-coming players) will participate in this event.
The Russian Championship Superfinals take place 17th-30th December 2007. Players are: Men: Alekseev, Amonatov, Vitjugov, Grischuk, Dreev, Inarkiev, Morozevich, Rychagov, Svidler, Timofeev, Tomashevsky, Jakovenko. Women: Galliamova, Gunina, Matveeva, Kovalevskaya, Korbut, N.Kosintseva, T.Kosintseva, Kosteniuk, Ovod, Stepovaya, Tairova, Shadrina. Official site: http://www.russiachess.org/
Unfortunately for me, the official site is in Russian (can't read it). The players' lists are quite impressive. Some of the best male and female players in the world (and some very promising up-and-coming players) will participate in this event.
2007 World Cup
Wow! USA's GM Gata Kamsky beat Spain's GM Alexei Shirov 2.5 to 1.5 and takes the World Cup. In defeating Shirov, Kamsky has won the right t0 play - someone - and if he wins, he gets the right to eventually play - someone else - for a future chance at the world championship - at some future time. LOL! Well, that's how I understand it, darlings. Check the official website if you want to review the action going all the way back to the first round of knock-out games.
In any event, this is a big WIN for US chess. Too bad the event hasn't been covered by the American press - although there's lots of blog and chess website coverage. Perhaps if Kamsky succeeds in advancing to the world championship match he will get some decent press coverage by non-chess folks!
There's great commentary about the Kamsky win at Mig's Daily Dirt.
In any event, this is a big WIN for US chess. Too bad the event hasn't been covered by the American press - although there's lots of blog and chess website coverage. Perhaps if Kamsky succeeds in advancing to the world championship match he will get some decent press coverage by non-chess folks!
There's great commentary about the Kamsky win at Mig's Daily Dirt.
Cleopatra's Needle (London)
There are three "Cleopatra's Needles" (0belisks) from ancient Egypt that were given as gifts from Egypt to England (London), France (Paris) and the United States (New York). A fascinating story from the Timesonline about the transport of the London obelisk:
December 16, 2007
Steady as she goes: the day Cleopatra’s Needle arrived in London
Steady as she goes: the day Cleopatra’s Needle arrived in London
IT required some true Victorian ingenuity to bring Cleopatra’s Needle from Alexandria to the banks of the Thames.
Photographs to be auctioned next month show it in the final stages of its trip, encased in an iron cylinder, having been transported some 2,000 miles from Egypt in a specially built vessel.
The rare photographs, dating from January 1878, capture the moment when the 69ft-high, 187-ton red granite monument was lifted onto its site on the Thames Embankment.
It had survived an eventful journey. It was given to Britain by Mehmet Ali, the Albanian-born viceroy of Egypt, to commemorate Lord Nelson’s victory over Napoleon in the battle of the Nile in 1798, but the vessel carrying it was caught up in a storm and had to be abandoned before it was safely towed to harbour.
Etched with hieroglyphs, it became known as Cleopatra’s Needle because of its association with her home city, Alexandria, even though it was made in Egypt for Thotmes III, the pharaoh, in 1460BC, about 1,400 years before her reign.
The archive, whose owner wishes to remain anonymous, is expected to raise £20,000 when it is auctioned by the Exeter-based Hampton & Littlewood. It also includes letters that belonged to Waynman Dixon, one of the people responsible for transporting the 3,500-year-old obelisk to Britain.
Rachel Littlewood, a director of Hampton & Littlewood, said: “The photographs chart the progress of the Needle as it was lowered into a 93ft-long cigar-shaped container ship called the Cleopatra.
“On October 14, 1877 disaster struck in storm-force seas in the Bay of Biscay. With the Cleopatra in danger of sinking, the steam ship Olga, which was towing her, sent six volunteers in a boat to take off the Cleopatra’s five crew and skipper. But the boat was swamped and the volunteers drowned.
“Eventually the Olga cut the tow rope, leaving the Cleopatra adrift in the Bay of Biscay. It remained afloat and was spotted five days later floating peacefully off the northern coast of Spain. It was towed into Falmouth, Cornwall, and from there to the Embankment in London.”
More information from HistoricUK.com.
Follow-Up: Antiquities Fraud Back in the News
Here's a follow-up to a recent post from BBC News:
December 13, 2007
A sculpture which has drawn crowds to a Chicago museum has been unmasked as a fake created by a British forger.
The Art Institute of Chicago reportedly paid $125,000 (£61,225) for the faun in 1997, believing it to be by the 19th Century French artist Paul Gauguin.
But it was created by Shaun Greenhalgh, from Bolton, Greater Manchester, who was jailed last month for fraud. His mother, Olive, received a suspended sentence for fraud. His father, George, 84, will be sentenced later.
The institute's director of public affairs, Eric Hogan, told the Chicago Tribune: "No one could think of any other instance in which anything like this happened here."
Last month, British police said the Greenhalgh family were behind "the most sustained and diverse" art forgery case ever. The family had conspired to defraud art institutions between June 1989 and March 2006. All three admitted fraud and money laundering at Bolton Crown Court in November.
Following the court case, police said they had evidence of a forged Gauguin ceramic, although they did not know its whereabouts. This prompted investigators from the Art Newspaper to step in.
It revealed that the half-man, half-goat ceramic figure in Chicago was a fake. Mr Hogan said "everyone who bought and sold [the work] did so in good faith", and the institute did not "have experience in this area".
Shaun Greenhalgh passed off scores of faked artefacts and artworks as genuine. Last month he was jailed for four years and eight months. His 83-year-old mother was given a 12-month suspended sentence for her part in the con. And his father will be sentenced after medical reports.
The trio made about £850,000 ($1.74m) from the sale of art and antiques. Bolton Council paid thousands of pounds for the so-called Amarna Princess believing it was 3,300 years old - but three years later experts found it was counterfeit. The statue was said to represent one of the daughters of Pharaoh Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti, the mother of Tutankhamun.
The scam came to light after George Greenhalgh presented three faked Assyrian reliefs - ancient stone wall art - to the British Museum for examination in 2005. Errors in the cuneiform script - in effect, spelling mistakes - prompted museum officials to doubt their authenticity. They alerted the Metropolitan Police's Art and Antiques Unit which began an investigation.
Antiquities: The Hottest Investment
From Time.com
By Maria Baugh
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
The sculpture is just three and a half inches tall and looks like a female body-builder with a lion's head. But there's no question that the 1948 purchase of the "Guennol Lioness" by Alistair Bradley Martin was a brilliant investment. The 5,000 year-old piece of Mesopotamian religious art — presumably of Inanna, goddess of sex and war — was sold at auction by Sotheby's New York last week for a record-shattering $57.2 million. Found at an archaeological dig near Baghdad, it is an extremely rare representation of the goddess — known elsewhere as Ishtar — in animal form. She is one of the earliest of the gods whose names have survived through history. Before her sale, the most expensive piece of sculpture of any period sold at auction was a piece by Pablo Picasso which went for $29 million. The previous antiquities record was set by a Roman bronze which sold for $28 million.
Such prices may scare away ordinary investors from even considering antiquities, which are defined as relics of ancient times that include coins, sculpture, tools, pottery and jewelry. among other objects. Can such objects even be a possibility for folks of much more modest means?
The good news is that it is possible for the individual investor to buy antiquities — and for a surprisingly moderate sum. According to John Ambrose, founder and director of Fragments of Time, a Boston-area antiquities dealer, they're within even a modest investor's reach. "For under $10,000 a year you could acquire two to four quality objects with good provenance that you could expect would not only hold their value but increase in value over time," he says. In the past, the increase was anywhere from 8 to 9% annually, but in recent years that figure has gone up.
Hicham Aboutaam, who is co-owner with his brother, Ali, of Phoenix Ancient Art in New York City and Geneva, attributes the increasing value to a couple of factors. For one, there is now a finite number of legitimate objects circulating in the U.S. due to more stringent art import legislation, enacted within the last few years. In addition, there is an increased interest in art and antiquities as investment. "People have started to appreciate the fact that this is a field where you can still get high quality objects for a fraction of what you would spend on a contemporary art object, where speculation is the biggest element determining value," he says. Ambrose agrees: "The art market has gained status as a respected asset class."
So what should the novice collector know before jumping in and buying the first Greek vase they find? Ambrose advises that they study up on an era or object that they are truly interested in. He also suggests building rapport with a dealer. "A respected dealer will work with you...and they love to share their knowledge," he says. Aboutaam says that the new collector needs to understand the importance of the provenance, or history, of the object. "Check the authenticity of the piece. Who is selling it and who has seen it in terms of scholars or experts?" he says. "And it's crucial to get a condition report from a third party."
Are there particular eras that the investor should look at now? "In terms of investments I do think there are still pockets of antiquities that are generally undervalued," says Ambrose, sounding as much like a stock broker as an art dealer. He lists Roman lamps, Roman bronze brooches, Greek pottery (especially south Italian Greek pottery) and Egyptian amulets, which, he says, are overlooked. "There can be fascinating intact examples," says Ambrose.
And, no matter how ornate a stock certificate might be, an Egyptian amulet is always going to look better in your living room display case.
By Maria Baugh
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
The sculpture is just three and a half inches tall and looks like a female body-builder with a lion's head. But there's no question that the 1948 purchase of the "Guennol Lioness" by Alistair Bradley Martin was a brilliant investment. The 5,000 year-old piece of Mesopotamian religious art — presumably of Inanna, goddess of sex and war — was sold at auction by Sotheby's New York last week for a record-shattering $57.2 million. Found at an archaeological dig near Baghdad, it is an extremely rare representation of the goddess — known elsewhere as Ishtar — in animal form. She is one of the earliest of the gods whose names have survived through history. Before her sale, the most expensive piece of sculpture of any period sold at auction was a piece by Pablo Picasso which went for $29 million. The previous antiquities record was set by a Roman bronze which sold for $28 million.
Such prices may scare away ordinary investors from even considering antiquities, which are defined as relics of ancient times that include coins, sculpture, tools, pottery and jewelry. among other objects. Can such objects even be a possibility for folks of much more modest means?
The good news is that it is possible for the individual investor to buy antiquities — and for a surprisingly moderate sum. According to John Ambrose, founder and director of Fragments of Time, a Boston-area antiquities dealer, they're within even a modest investor's reach. "For under $10,000 a year you could acquire two to four quality objects with good provenance that you could expect would not only hold their value but increase in value over time," he says. In the past, the increase was anywhere from 8 to 9% annually, but in recent years that figure has gone up.
Hicham Aboutaam, who is co-owner with his brother, Ali, of Phoenix Ancient Art in New York City and Geneva, attributes the increasing value to a couple of factors. For one, there is now a finite number of legitimate objects circulating in the U.S. due to more stringent art import legislation, enacted within the last few years. In addition, there is an increased interest in art and antiquities as investment. "People have started to appreciate the fact that this is a field where you can still get high quality objects for a fraction of what you would spend on a contemporary art object, where speculation is the biggest element determining value," he says. Ambrose agrees: "The art market has gained status as a respected asset class."
So what should the novice collector know before jumping in and buying the first Greek vase they find? Ambrose advises that they study up on an era or object that they are truly interested in. He also suggests building rapport with a dealer. "A respected dealer will work with you...and they love to share their knowledge," he says. Aboutaam says that the new collector needs to understand the importance of the provenance, or history, of the object. "Check the authenticity of the piece. Who is selling it and who has seen it in terms of scholars or experts?" he says. "And it's crucial to get a condition report from a third party."
Are there particular eras that the investor should look at now? "In terms of investments I do think there are still pockets of antiquities that are generally undervalued," says Ambrose, sounding as much like a stock broker as an art dealer. He lists Roman lamps, Roman bronze brooches, Greek pottery (especially south Italian Greek pottery) and Egyptian amulets, which, he says, are overlooked. "There can be fascinating intact examples," says Ambrose.
And, no matter how ornate a stock certificate might be, an Egyptian amulet is always going to look better in your living room display case.
Nearly 1,000 Ancient Tombs Discovered in China
A fantastic discovery in China - I wish there were some photographs of the artifacts excavated:
From United Press International
Nearly 1,000 ancient tombs found in China
Published: Dec. 9, 2007 at 3:33 PM
ZHENGHOU, China, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- Archaeologists in China recently discovered nearly 1,000 tombs in Henan Province, some of which may have been created 2,200 years ago.
A significant portion of the 972 discovered tombs are thought to date back to China's Eastern Zhou Dynasty, which occurred between 770-221 B.C., while others have been linked to the later Han and Northern Wei Dynasties, China's official Xinhua news agency said Saturday.
The hundreds of tombs were found near the ancient city of Luoyang, which served as the capital of six major Chinese dynasties.The discovery was made during a State Administration of Cultural Heritage archaeological effort that began in 2003 and had been attempting to preserve the area's ancient relics.
The dig also unearthed 20,000 artifacts ranging from bronze basins to jade ornaments, Xinhua reported.An expert with the excavation effort said those artifacts will offer a glimpse into the funeral customs and daily rituals of the ancient cultures.
© 2007 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
From United Press International
Nearly 1,000 ancient tombs found in China
Published: Dec. 9, 2007 at 3:33 PM
ZHENGHOU, China, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- Archaeologists in China recently discovered nearly 1,000 tombs in Henan Province, some of which may have been created 2,200 years ago.
A significant portion of the 972 discovered tombs are thought to date back to China's Eastern Zhou Dynasty, which occurred between 770-221 B.C., while others have been linked to the later Han and Northern Wei Dynasties, China's official Xinhua news agency said Saturday.
The hundreds of tombs were found near the ancient city of Luoyang, which served as the capital of six major Chinese dynasties.The discovery was made during a State Administration of Cultural Heritage archaeological effort that began in 2003 and had been attempting to preserve the area's ancient relics.
The dig also unearthed 20,000 artifacts ranging from bronze basins to jade ornaments, Xinhua reported.An expert with the excavation effort said those artifacts will offer a glimpse into the funeral customs and daily rituals of the ancient cultures.
© 2007 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
There Be Giants...
Giants. Did they exist? Who the heck knows?
Giants are mentioned in the early part of the Old Testament of the Bible as the "Nephilim" - fellers of men. Those "Nephilim" were specifically described as half-breeds created by the mating of "male" angels from Heaven and the female "daughters of the earth." They are, I believe, the equivalent of the demigods often written of by the ancient Sumerians and Egyptians and - much later - the ancient Greeks: big, strong, powerful, certainly super-human in strength, intelligence and ability, but not immortal.
There are countless blogs (and before blogs, message board entries) about these giants, and countless theories about their origins. From my early internet days, the mesage boards entries I remember the best have to do with alien origins from outer space. Ahem.
Now, The National Geographic has weighed in, presenting a couple of enhanced and doctored-up photographs that had been presented on the internet as evidence of these giants. Because of the legitimacy that The National Geographic Society enjoys in the eyes of the public, such an article is tantamount to telling the general public that giants are phoney and never existed and do not exist, end of story. Period.
Take a look at the photos presented in the article. It is obvious to me that these images of "giant" burials are phoney. For one thing, the scale of these "giants" in relation to the average human is so out of whack in relation to the little bit of information we have about them, that they cannot be taken as real. Those photos most remind me of the "Amazing Amazon Woman" from a 1950's "B" movie. For another thing, the condition of the "bones" is utterly amazing, just based on the little bit I know about how water and soil conditions can degrade the human body, including its bones.
And so, common sense to the rescue! I don't recall reading any description of any giant as big as those presented in these "photographs" except, perhaps, the giant from the fairy-tale "Jack and the Beanstalk." I freely admit, this may reflect my utter lack of discretion in choosing reading material, darlings :) But, since The National Geographic has said - without saying - that ALL accounts of giants are to be dismissed as frauds and fakes, those voices out there who say otherwise, legitimate or not, will now have a harder row to hoe.
I don't care for this type of archaeology by innuendo - on the part of the fraudsters, or on the part of The National Geographic Society.
Giants are mentioned in the early part of the Old Testament of the Bible as the "Nephilim" - fellers of men. Those "Nephilim" were specifically described as half-breeds created by the mating of "male" angels from Heaven and the female "daughters of the earth." They are, I believe, the equivalent of the demigods often written of by the ancient Sumerians and Egyptians and - much later - the ancient Greeks: big, strong, powerful, certainly super-human in strength, intelligence and ability, but not immortal.
There are countless blogs (and before blogs, message board entries) about these giants, and countless theories about their origins. From my early internet days, the mesage boards entries I remember the best have to do with alien origins from outer space. Ahem.
Now, The National Geographic has weighed in, presenting a couple of enhanced and doctored-up photographs that had been presented on the internet as evidence of these giants. Because of the legitimacy that The National Geographic Society enjoys in the eyes of the public, such an article is tantamount to telling the general public that giants are phoney and never existed and do not exist, end of story. Period.
Take a look at the photos presented in the article. It is obvious to me that these images of "giant" burials are phoney. For one thing, the scale of these "giants" in relation to the average human is so out of whack in relation to the little bit of information we have about them, that they cannot be taken as real. Those photos most remind me of the "Amazing Amazon Woman" from a 1950's "B" movie. For another thing, the condition of the "bones" is utterly amazing, just based on the little bit I know about how water and soil conditions can degrade the human body, including its bones.
And so, common sense to the rescue! I don't recall reading any description of any giant as big as those presented in these "photographs" except, perhaps, the giant from the fairy-tale "Jack and the Beanstalk." I freely admit, this may reflect my utter lack of discretion in choosing reading material, darlings :) But, since The National Geographic has said - without saying - that ALL accounts of giants are to be dismissed as frauds and fakes, those voices out there who say otherwise, legitimate or not, will now have a harder row to hoe.
I don't care for this type of archaeology by innuendo - on the part of the fraudsters, or on the part of The National Geographic Society.
American Library Association 2008 Mid-Winter Meeting
What would our world be without libraries? Think about it for a moment. In the not-so-good olden days, the barbarians always attacked and burned the libraries, and killed every "learned" person they could get their hands on. Wipe out knowledge, wipe out history. Re-write everything according to your own credo. It happened again and again and again. In more recent times, many cultures have been guilty of committing this most horrid of sins; think about "Fahreinheit 451."
In this day of the internet and practically instantaneous communication, think about the proverbial "Chinese Wall" that many countries put up around their internet access. To me. it's the equivalent of the multiple burnings of the library at Alexandria.
Libraries are under attack in the United States. Oh, they may not be facing fire-bomb throwing hordes of barbarians, but the chilling effect on freedom of speech and ease of accessibility is the equivalent. Most libraries are funded by public taxes. Cut-backs in funding have become the norm. Decreased staffing of trained librarians; decreased funds to purchase new books; decreased hours of accessibility. Library branches closed permanently, with remaining libraries too far away to reach readily by public transportation, cutting off access to those of us who don't have cars. For those libraries that remain open, there are incessant attacks from various groups objecting to this book or that book, or objecting to free computer access that is offered at some libraries. You can read about these in the newspapers all the time.
Against this background, the American Library Association has announced its 2008 Mid-Winter Meeting, to be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA) January 11-16, 2008. The key-note speaker is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Cool!
In this day of the internet and practically instantaneous communication, think about the proverbial "Chinese Wall" that many countries put up around their internet access. To me. it's the equivalent of the multiple burnings of the library at Alexandria.
Libraries are under attack in the United States. Oh, they may not be facing fire-bomb throwing hordes of barbarians, but the chilling effect on freedom of speech and ease of accessibility is the equivalent. Most libraries are funded by public taxes. Cut-backs in funding have become the norm. Decreased staffing of trained librarians; decreased funds to purchase new books; decreased hours of accessibility. Library branches closed permanently, with remaining libraries too far away to reach readily by public transportation, cutting off access to those of us who don't have cars. For those libraries that remain open, there are incessant attacks from various groups objecting to this book or that book, or objecting to free computer access that is offered at some libraries. You can read about these in the newspapers all the time.
Against this background, the American Library Association has announced its 2008 Mid-Winter Meeting, to be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA) January 11-16, 2008. The key-note speaker is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Cool!
Friday Night Miscellany - One Day Late
A few interesting items for your reading pleasure:
There’s a new translation of the epic Medieval poem "Sir Gawain and the Green Man" and it sounds worth a read. Trying to read the poem in the original Middle English – practically impossible, despite some intriguing words. For instance:
Thou wyl grant me godly the gomen that I ask / bi ryght"
translates to:
You’ll gracefully grant me this game which I ask for / by right."
The word "gomen" in the sentence means "game!" I would never have guessed that in a million years – I was thinking the word meant something like favor or boon!
Read the review of Simon Armitage’s translation in "A Stranger in Camelot."
*******************************************************************************
In the same Book Reviews section at The New York Times, I saw that Joe McGinniss has published a new book about a murder – or was it?
I remember McGinniss from reading his bestseller "Fatal Vision," about the Green Beret surgeon – Jeffrey McDonald, who was convicted of murdering his wife and children whom, he claimed, were murdered by hippies high on drugs, who’d invaded his home (on a military base) in the middle of the night. The case hinged on forensic evidence painstakingly gathered and analyzed, long before CSI type shows became popular on television and long before DNA analysis and other technical analytical tools existed that seem to make crime-solving so easy today (at least, on television). "Fatal Vision" was made into a highly acclaimed mini-series on television, with Gary Cole playing the role of Jeffrey McDonald and Karl Mulden playing his father-in-law, who at first firmly believed in McDonald’s version of events and supported his son-in-law, until the slowly accumulated forensic evidence led him, painfully, to conclude otherwise. The slow revelation of the evidence in the book was relentless – and chilling. Mulden played the role superbly.
Read the review by Bob Shacochis of McGinnis’ new book, "Never Enough."
The "First Chapter" is also available – a verbatim preview.
**************************************************************************************
Okay – so this clerk at a Dunkin’ Donuts store named Dustin Hoffman hits this would-be robber over the head with a coffee cup, and says he was more worried about what he would look like on the surveillance video and whether he could become famous on YouTube than concerned for his safety. Darlings, I couldn’t make this up!
**************************************************************************************
Another – can you believe this – with a Christmas twist. A Christmas card mailed on December 23, 1914 has finally been delivered by the United States Postal Service. Geez, these guys are really efficient, ya know?
There’s a new translation of the epic Medieval poem "Sir Gawain and the Green Man" and it sounds worth a read. Trying to read the poem in the original Middle English – practically impossible, despite some intriguing words. For instance:
Thou wyl grant me godly the gomen that I ask / bi ryght"
translates to:
You’ll gracefully grant me this game which I ask for / by right."
The word "gomen" in the sentence means "game!" I would never have guessed that in a million years – I was thinking the word meant something like favor or boon!
Read the review of Simon Armitage’s translation in "A Stranger in Camelot."
*******************************************************************************
In the same Book Reviews section at The New York Times, I saw that Joe McGinniss has published a new book about a murder – or was it?
I remember McGinniss from reading his bestseller "Fatal Vision," about the Green Beret surgeon – Jeffrey McDonald, who was convicted of murdering his wife and children whom, he claimed, were murdered by hippies high on drugs, who’d invaded his home (on a military base) in the middle of the night. The case hinged on forensic evidence painstakingly gathered and analyzed, long before CSI type shows became popular on television and long before DNA analysis and other technical analytical tools existed that seem to make crime-solving so easy today (at least, on television). "Fatal Vision" was made into a highly acclaimed mini-series on television, with Gary Cole playing the role of Jeffrey McDonald and Karl Mulden playing his father-in-law, who at first firmly believed in McDonald’s version of events and supported his son-in-law, until the slowly accumulated forensic evidence led him, painfully, to conclude otherwise. The slow revelation of the evidence in the book was relentless – and chilling. Mulden played the role superbly.
Read the review by Bob Shacochis of McGinnis’ new book, "Never Enough."
The "First Chapter" is also available – a verbatim preview.
**************************************************************************************
Okay – so this clerk at a Dunkin’ Donuts store named Dustin Hoffman hits this would-be robber over the head with a coffee cup, and says he was more worried about what he would look like on the surveillance video and whether he could become famous on YouTube than concerned for his safety. Darlings, I couldn’t make this up!
**************************************************************************************
Another – can you believe this – with a Christmas twist. A Christmas card mailed on December 23, 1914 has finally been delivered by the United States Postal Service. Geez, these guys are really efficient, ya know?
Shopping, shopping, shopping...
Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful...
Yes, soon I'll be settling in front of the fireplace for the evening, but I wanted to drop by and post a few things before further induling myself.
Indulge myself today - I did - in droves, darlings! Today was another ladies of the investment club spa-and-shop-til-we-drop day. Oh, we had so much fun! We had a wonderful time despite the never-ending snow (started with small gritty snow sometime late last night or early this morning, then it turned to big fluffy flakes and now it's back to small gritty snow. We may get up to 9 inches by tomorrow morning and the winds are going to whip up to around 20 mph, meaning I'll have 3 foot high drifts by sunbreak tomorrow). The constant snow made for rather slippery road conditions off the expressways, and we did a fishtail worthy of the name on the way back to my house while Ms. P was pulling onto 83rd Street in my subdivision - the last street in the entire city, I swear, to ever be salted or plowed. So, tomorrow I will be totally stressed as I haul out the shovel yet again and attack the drifts and attempt to fling the snow sufficiently out of the way to create a pathway from my front door down to the road - and pray that I don't get plowed in. I already have 3 feet of ice boulders at the base of my driveway that I could not shovel out because of their sheer weight when we had ice/sleet/snow/ ice/sleet on December 1st. Sigh.
But today - ahhhh, today. My spa de-stressing treatment and wash/cut/ style was just what the doctor ordered. I had two more inches of hair chopped off. Perhaps this length (about an inch below shoulder length) will give me the fullness I want... Our friend Ms. G was totally transformed - she hasn't had a professional hair cut in TEN FRIGGING YEARS! She went from Old School Marm Bun to a snazzy layered short cut that frames her face perfectly! I couldn't stop looking at her during lunch and finally blurted out that she looked 15 years younger. Well, she does! Amazing what a good "do" can do for one! But perhaps not the most tactful comment I've ever made...
After the Aveda spa visit we had a leisurely lunch, then we did some shopping, then Ms. G had to leave us. Ms. P and I continued, braving the blowing snow as we trod the streets of Bayshore Town Center and hit several stores. Altogether we visited Sears; Brooks Bros. that is not really Brooks Bros. but I can never remember the name of the store and for some reason it reminds me of Brooks Bros. or perhaps Brooks & Dunn; Boston Store; Kohls; Yankee Candle Shoppe; Bath & Body Works; Coldwater Creek; J. Jill. I think that's all of them. I finished up my shopping for dondelion, bought a new pair of Sketchers, a new pair of Totes waterproof boots, some scented tea light candles, hair spray from Aveda, and five beautifully scented products (I mixed and matched after-bath/shower body spritz and silky body cream) for the fabulous price of $25 at Bath & Body Works.
Speaking of Bath & Body Works, there were several guys (those trailing behind their wives and girlfriends) huddled in a small cul de sac near the entrance doors, making jokes and laughing with each other - they were so cute! I couldn't help but overhear them as I was perusing the "Velvet Tuberose" and "Japanese Cherry Blossom" displays and had to chuckle at their comments and bon amie. Those guys get extra kudos for following their gals into such a shop instead of begging off and heading toward the nearest video store!
A super-special treat as we shopped was coming across two groups of carolers, one group of four women, one group of four men. Both groups were excellent, singing winter/Christmas-y songs a capella. It was a perfect cherry on top of our wonderful ladies' day.
Tonight I will wrap gifts in front of the fire and admire my beautiful Yule tree. It's particularly sparkling this year as I added extra gold bead garland and some new crystal and gold ornaments.
Yes, soon I'll be settling in front of the fireplace for the evening, but I wanted to drop by and post a few things before further induling myself.
Indulge myself today - I did - in droves, darlings! Today was another ladies of the investment club spa-and-shop-til-we-drop day. Oh, we had so much fun! We had a wonderful time despite the never-ending snow (started with small gritty snow sometime late last night or early this morning, then it turned to big fluffy flakes and now it's back to small gritty snow. We may get up to 9 inches by tomorrow morning and the winds are going to whip up to around 20 mph, meaning I'll have 3 foot high drifts by sunbreak tomorrow). The constant snow made for rather slippery road conditions off the expressways, and we did a fishtail worthy of the name on the way back to my house while Ms. P was pulling onto 83rd Street in my subdivision - the last street in the entire city, I swear, to ever be salted or plowed. So, tomorrow I will be totally stressed as I haul out the shovel yet again and attack the drifts and attempt to fling the snow sufficiently out of the way to create a pathway from my front door down to the road - and pray that I don't get plowed in. I already have 3 feet of ice boulders at the base of my driveway that I could not shovel out because of their sheer weight when we had ice/sleet/snow/ ice/sleet on December 1st. Sigh.
But today - ahhhh, today. My spa de-stressing treatment and wash/cut/ style was just what the doctor ordered. I had two more inches of hair chopped off. Perhaps this length (about an inch below shoulder length) will give me the fullness I want... Our friend Ms. G was totally transformed - she hasn't had a professional hair cut in TEN FRIGGING YEARS! She went from Old School Marm Bun to a snazzy layered short cut that frames her face perfectly! I couldn't stop looking at her during lunch and finally blurted out that she looked 15 years younger. Well, she does! Amazing what a good "do" can do for one! But perhaps not the most tactful comment I've ever made...
After the Aveda spa visit we had a leisurely lunch, then we did some shopping, then Ms. G had to leave us. Ms. P and I continued, braving the blowing snow as we trod the streets of Bayshore Town Center and hit several stores. Altogether we visited Sears; Brooks Bros. that is not really Brooks Bros. but I can never remember the name of the store and for some reason it reminds me of Brooks Bros. or perhaps Brooks & Dunn; Boston Store; Kohls; Yankee Candle Shoppe; Bath & Body Works; Coldwater Creek; J. Jill. I think that's all of them. I finished up my shopping for dondelion, bought a new pair of Sketchers, a new pair of Totes waterproof boots, some scented tea light candles, hair spray from Aveda, and five beautifully scented products (I mixed and matched after-bath/shower body spritz and silky body cream) for the fabulous price of $25 at Bath & Body Works.
Speaking of Bath & Body Works, there were several guys (those trailing behind their wives and girlfriends) huddled in a small cul de sac near the entrance doors, making jokes and laughing with each other - they were so cute! I couldn't help but overhear them as I was perusing the "Velvet Tuberose" and "Japanese Cherry Blossom" displays and had to chuckle at their comments and bon amie. Those guys get extra kudos for following their gals into such a shop instead of begging off and heading toward the nearest video store!
A super-special treat as we shopped was coming across two groups of carolers, one group of four women, one group of four men. Both groups were excellent, singing winter/Christmas-y songs a capella. It was a perfect cherry on top of our wonderful ladies' day.
Tonight I will wrap gifts in front of the fire and admire my beautiful Yule tree. It's particularly sparkling this year as I added extra gold bead garland and some new crystal and gold ornaments.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Ancient Games: Toguz Kumalak
While I was doing some follow-up research tonight on the "other" Kumalak (a form of divination practiced in Kazakhstan and Central Asia), I came across this game. It is a mancala game. I don't know how long it has been played in Central Asia, but my guess is that it is related to the "other" Kumalak.
Mancala-type games are very old, but I don't know how far back they've been traced. I have only a vague idea about how the game is played - mancala is not a subject I've studied. I can relate some general information: the earliest games were played on "boards" scooped out of the ground (therefore leaving no trace, and therefore dating is problematical) and I believe were first played in sub-Sarahan Africa. Mancala-type games have been found carved in the stone blocks at Kurna in Egypt (dating to c. 1400 BCE) and lots of boards carved in stone blocks have been found in Petra (in Jordan). Mancala-type games have not gone extinct (such as Senet and 20-squares) and continue to be very popular today.
This information is from "Wikimanqala.org":
Тоғызқұмалақ (toğızqumalaq, sometimes spelled toghyzqumalaq or togyzqumalaq, according to different transliterations, or toguz kumalak, "nine balls") is the Kazakh name of a mancala game also known as toguz korgool in Kyrgyz.
It is played traditionally in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, parts of Russia (Altay, Khakassia, Tuva), Western Mongolia and in China in regions close to the aforementioned countries.
There are regular toğızqumalaq championships held in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia. The first western tournament was in August 2006 at the Mindsports Olympiad (MSO) in London, England. It was won by Aidos Seitzhanov from Kazakhstan.
Complete rules are given at Wikimanqala, with illustrations. I've abstracted the rules here, without the illustrations:
Rules
Toğızqumalaq is played on a wooden (nowadays also plastic) board made of two rows of nine holes, plus two kazans ("boilers"), either in the middle of the board or one at each end of it. The players own the kazan at their right, if at the ends, or the one on the other half of ther board, if in the middle.
As captures are made by pairs, the holes are usually made in a way so it is evident whether the contents are odd or even.
As captures are made by pairs, the holes are usually made in a way so it is evident whether the contents are odd or even.
To begin the game, there must be nine balls per hole, except the kazans, which are empty. That is, 162 balls are needed.
The game is played by taking turns.
On his turn, a player takes all the balls of a hole on his side of the board, and distribute them anticlockwise, one per hole, on the following holes, starting from the very same hole he has taken them.
If the last ball falls into a hole on the opponent's side, and the contents of this hole become an even number of balls, these are captured and stored on the player's kazan.
If the movement is done from a hole containing just a single ball, it is moved to the next hole, leaving the starting hole empty.
Tuzdyq
If the last ball falls into a hole on the opponent's side, and the contents of this hole number then three balls, the hole becomes your тұздық, tuzdyq, (or түз үй according to Maksat Shotayev, tüz üy, i.e. "sacred place" in Kazakh; or tuz in Kyrgyz which means "salt") and it is marked as such.
If the last ball falls into a hole on the opponent's side, and the contents of this hole number then three balls, the hole becomes your тұздық, tuzdyq, (or түз үй according to Maksat Shotayev, tüz üy, i.e. "sacred place" in Kazakh; or tuz in Kyrgyz which means "salt") and it is marked as such.
Only a tuzdyq per player can be made in a game.
A tuzdyq cannot be done on the opponent's last hole (ninth, the one on his right).
A tuzdyq cannot be done if it is symmetrical to the opponent's one (if the opponent has his tuzdyq in our first hole, we can not make ours on his first hole).
In the cases a tuzdyq cannot be done, we can finish a movement there, but the hole does not become a tuzdyq.
A movement cannot begin from a tuzdyq.
The balls that fall into a tuzdyq are captured by his owner. If it is overcharged, we can take the balls and store them in the kazan.
End of the game
The game ends when a player cannot move at his turn, because all the holes on his side (except a possible tuzdyq) are empty.
End of the game
The game ends when a player cannot move at his turn, because all the holes on his side (except a possible tuzdyq) are empty.
When the game is over, the player who has still balls on his side (except in a possible tuzdyq) gets them and adds them to his kazan.
Both players add the contents of their tuzdyq (the one on the opponent's side) to their kazan.
The winner is the player with more balls at the end of the game. If both players have captured 81 balls, the game is a draw.
Well, I confess, I can't make heads nor tails out of the rules. I can only learn a game by actually having it shown to me by someone who knows how to play! I plan on doing some more posts about some interesting aspects of this game - as time permits.
An Update on Lakshmi
Two year old toddler Lakshmi Tatma, who had the extra limbs and some extra organs of a "parasitic twin" (a twin who failed to develop fully) removed in a complicated 27-hour operation conducted by teams of surgeons, has left the hopsital under her own power. Doctors consider her recovery remarkable. Unfortunately, the story at the UK Daily Mail was a "not found;" I got this information from a story at the UK Sun, which featured a typically tabloid headline!
How Squirrels Train Humans
LOL! This squirrel reminds me of one particularly bold one who raps on my patio door on Saturday and Sunday mornings as I sit at the dinette table reading the newspaper. He's bold as brass and won't stop with his antics until I toss out extra nuts - and he doesn't want peanuts - only the best will do for him: walnuts, pecans, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts, filberts. My squirrels have me well trained.
From Macon.com
Bold squirrel goes for handout at downtown office
December 4, 2007
By Liz Fabian
For more than two years, Martha Reed has noticed a little squirrel outside her office window in downtown Macon.
Then, two weeks ago when the squirrel was foraging around in the grass, she tossed a pecan his way.
Now he comes calling several times a day, scratching on the glass door of Bob Lewis and Associates on the first floor of the old Southern Trust building that serves as the City Hall Annex.
"He's just turned out to be a pet. I guess I ought to name him," Reed said. "I just don't know what I ought to call him."
When she left work Friday, she felt a little guilty.
"I thought about him all weekend," Reed said. "I thought, 'He's going to have to fend for himself. I'm not coming down here on the weekends just to feed him.' "
When Reed got back to work Monday, the squirrel was bolder than ever.
"He even climbs up on the door, up on the handle, wanting me to open it," she said.
Reed makes sure she doesn't get too close to her new friend.
"A squirrel will bite, and I don't trust him," she said.
Once he gets a nut, the bushy-tailed rodent scurries over to a small patch of sod nestled between the concrete sidewalks. He looks around and ducks into the bushes. When he finds a good hiding place, he digs a while and buries the nut.
"I'm afraid I might have done the wrong thing. I don't want him to be dependent on me to feed him every day," she said.
So how many pecans does John Doe Squirrel get a day?
"I have no idea," Reed said with a laugh.
By lunchtime Monday, an office colleague was already on the way to buy more pecans.
"I guess we'll feed him all winter."
From Macon.com
Bold squirrel goes for handout at downtown office
December 4, 2007
By Liz Fabian
For more than two years, Martha Reed has noticed a little squirrel outside her office window in downtown Macon.
Then, two weeks ago when the squirrel was foraging around in the grass, she tossed a pecan his way.
Now he comes calling several times a day, scratching on the glass door of Bob Lewis and Associates on the first floor of the old Southern Trust building that serves as the City Hall Annex.
"He's just turned out to be a pet. I guess I ought to name him," Reed said. "I just don't know what I ought to call him."
When she left work Friday, she felt a little guilty.
"I thought about him all weekend," Reed said. "I thought, 'He's going to have to fend for himself. I'm not coming down here on the weekends just to feed him.' "
When Reed got back to work Monday, the squirrel was bolder than ever.
"He even climbs up on the door, up on the handle, wanting me to open it," she said.
Reed makes sure she doesn't get too close to her new friend.
"A squirrel will bite, and I don't trust him," she said.
Once he gets a nut, the bushy-tailed rodent scurries over to a small patch of sod nestled between the concrete sidewalks. He looks around and ducks into the bushes. When he finds a good hiding place, he digs a while and buries the nut.
"I'm afraid I might have done the wrong thing. I don't want him to be dependent on me to feed him every day," she said.
So how many pecans does John Doe Squirrel get a day?
"I have no idea," Reed said with a laugh.
By lunchtime Monday, an office colleague was already on the way to buy more pecans.
"I guess we'll feed him all winter."
How Did These People Survive?
A fascinating story, reported at The New York Times:
After a Window Washer’s 47-Floor Plunge, the Big Question Is: How Did He Survive?
By JAMES BARRON and AL BAKER
Published: December 12, 2007
A 29-year-old man plunges 17 stories in the atrium of a hotel in Minneapolis, landing on an overhang.
A 22-year-old amateur sky diver goes into free fall more than a mile above the earth when his main parachute and reserve chute fail to open. He lands in a three-foot-deep duck pond.
Both men survived.
The question of why was echoed when a window-washing platform gave way on Friday and two brothers preparing to clean the black-glass skin of an apartment building on the Upper East Side fell 47 floors. Why did one die and the other survive, though he is grievously injured?
Five days later, the answer can still be only guessed at. Officials and window-washing colleagues of the two brothers speculated that they tried to ride their platform to the ground, as one window washer said he had been trained to do in such an accident.
If so, they were relying on basic physics — the platform would have generated some small amount of wind resistance, slowing the fall — and luck.
Fortune, if there is any to be found, was with the brother who survived, Alcides Moreno, 37. He was conscious and sitting up soon after firefighters arrived.
“He was on top of what was left of the platform that they were working on,” said one official who was at the scene.
The brother who was killed, Edgar Moreno, 30, may have been thrown off the platform as it hurtled toward the ground. The official, who did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to speak about the investigation, said part of his body was under the platform.
It was a distinctly urban kind of tragedy, one that brought to mind a distinctly different kind of accident — long-distance falls by military pilots or sky divers whose parachutes failed to open, and who survived.
It was also distinctly different from the case of Joshua Hanson, a Wisconsin bar owner who survived another harrowing fall. He crashed through a window on the 17th floor of a Minneapolis hotel in January after what a police spokeswoman described to The St. Paul Pioneer Press as a little “tomfoolery and a little too much to drink.” He broke a leg and his lungs collapsed, but he left the hospital after seven days.
“I’m doing fine,” he said this week.
Just as Mr. Hanson’s friends marveled at his recovery, experienced rescuers were still marveling on Tuesday at Alcides Moreno’s survival.
“It is nothing short of a miracle — nothing short of a miracle — to fall from that height and still be, well, to still be alive,” said Deputy Chief Thomas E. McKavanagh of Division 3, an operational commander on the scene after the accident and a 28-year veteran of the Fire Department.
Alcides Moreno was in critical condition at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital in Manhattan on Tuesday, and hospital officials have refused to discuss details of his condition.
Relatives said over the weekend that Mr. Moreno’s injuries included collapsed lungs, damaged kidneys and bone fractures. His wife, Rosario, said at her home that his face looked good, considering what happened. He has a broken nose and a gash above one eye, she said, adding, “We’re taking it day by day.”
The doctors have not been able to explain how her husband managed to survive because, Ms. Moreno said, they had never treated such a case. “They’ve never dealt with anything like this,” she said. “They’re learning from it.” She said they had not given her a prognosis.
The brothers were employed by City Wide Window Cleaning and were working at the Solow Tower, at 265 East 66th Street, at Second Avenue, when the scaffold gave way. Vincente Bustamante, 35, a good friend of both Moreno brothers and himself a window washer for 12 years, said he believed that Alcides Moreno survived because he followed the training window washers receive when they learn their job.
Window washers are taught that if a scaffold gives way, they should lie down flat on the platform, on their stomach because, Mr. Bustamante said, it gives them the best chance of survival should the scaffold catch on something on the way down. Maybe that is what Alcides Moreno did, he said.
“If you go over, that’s it,” he said. “You’re dead.”
He believed that that was what happened to Edgar Moreno — that he was either thrown from the platform, or jumped from it out of fear. “That’s your first instinct, because you’re scared — to jump,” Mr. Bustamante said.
It was not clear how much training the Morenos had received. The city requires people who work on a suspended scaffold to have a certificate showing they have completed a safety course. The city also requires each contractor to have a licensed master or special rigger, who can designate a foreman to oversee a job.
Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, which represents unionized window washers in Manhattan, provides a weekly course over 18 months. Matthew Nerzig, a spokesman for the union, said the course is supposed to supplement 3,000 hours of apprentice work. He said there are no specific state requirements for window washers, but tradesmen are supposed to have 2,000 hours as apprentices and 180 hours of classroom training.
But the company the Morenos were working for, City Wide Window Cleaning of Jamaica, Queens, is not a union company. The company has not returned calls since the accident, and Ms. Moreno said no one from City Wide had called her to express condolences.
At least two agencies are investigating the accident — the city’s Buildings Department and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Chief McKavanagh, who was helping to oversee the rescue, said it appeared that lightweight material on the platform may have absorbed some of the blow for Alcides Moreno. It may have acted as a sort of shock absorber, he said.
“If they both rode it down, which is quite possible, God bless them if they had the wherewithal to continue to hold on,” Chief McKavanagh said. “That is incredible.”
“It is a horrible story,” he continued, adding that if Mr. Moreno lives, “that will be a miracle.”
“I do not like to use that word so often,” he said, “but this is.”
Nate Schweber contributed reporting.
After a Window Washer’s 47-Floor Plunge, the Big Question Is: How Did He Survive?
By JAMES BARRON and AL BAKER
Published: December 12, 2007
A 29-year-old man plunges 17 stories in the atrium of a hotel in Minneapolis, landing on an overhang.
A 22-year-old amateur sky diver goes into free fall more than a mile above the earth when his main parachute and reserve chute fail to open. He lands in a three-foot-deep duck pond.
Both men survived.
The question of why was echoed when a window-washing platform gave way on Friday and two brothers preparing to clean the black-glass skin of an apartment building on the Upper East Side fell 47 floors. Why did one die and the other survive, though he is grievously injured?
Five days later, the answer can still be only guessed at. Officials and window-washing colleagues of the two brothers speculated that they tried to ride their platform to the ground, as one window washer said he had been trained to do in such an accident.
If so, they were relying on basic physics — the platform would have generated some small amount of wind resistance, slowing the fall — and luck.
Fortune, if there is any to be found, was with the brother who survived, Alcides Moreno, 37. He was conscious and sitting up soon after firefighters arrived.
“He was on top of what was left of the platform that they were working on,” said one official who was at the scene.
The brother who was killed, Edgar Moreno, 30, may have been thrown off the platform as it hurtled toward the ground. The official, who did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to speak about the investigation, said part of his body was under the platform.
It was a distinctly urban kind of tragedy, one that brought to mind a distinctly different kind of accident — long-distance falls by military pilots or sky divers whose parachutes failed to open, and who survived.
It was also distinctly different from the case of Joshua Hanson, a Wisconsin bar owner who survived another harrowing fall. He crashed through a window on the 17th floor of a Minneapolis hotel in January after what a police spokeswoman described to The St. Paul Pioneer Press as a little “tomfoolery and a little too much to drink.” He broke a leg and his lungs collapsed, but he left the hospital after seven days.
“I’m doing fine,” he said this week.
Just as Mr. Hanson’s friends marveled at his recovery, experienced rescuers were still marveling on Tuesday at Alcides Moreno’s survival.
“It is nothing short of a miracle — nothing short of a miracle — to fall from that height and still be, well, to still be alive,” said Deputy Chief Thomas E. McKavanagh of Division 3, an operational commander on the scene after the accident and a 28-year veteran of the Fire Department.
Alcides Moreno was in critical condition at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital in Manhattan on Tuesday, and hospital officials have refused to discuss details of his condition.
Relatives said over the weekend that Mr. Moreno’s injuries included collapsed lungs, damaged kidneys and bone fractures. His wife, Rosario, said at her home that his face looked good, considering what happened. He has a broken nose and a gash above one eye, she said, adding, “We’re taking it day by day.”
The doctors have not been able to explain how her husband managed to survive because, Ms. Moreno said, they had never treated such a case. “They’ve never dealt with anything like this,” she said. “They’re learning from it.” She said they had not given her a prognosis.
The brothers were employed by City Wide Window Cleaning and were working at the Solow Tower, at 265 East 66th Street, at Second Avenue, when the scaffold gave way. Vincente Bustamante, 35, a good friend of both Moreno brothers and himself a window washer for 12 years, said he believed that Alcides Moreno survived because he followed the training window washers receive when they learn their job.
Window washers are taught that if a scaffold gives way, they should lie down flat on the platform, on their stomach because, Mr. Bustamante said, it gives them the best chance of survival should the scaffold catch on something on the way down. Maybe that is what Alcides Moreno did, he said.
“If you go over, that’s it,” he said. “You’re dead.”
He believed that that was what happened to Edgar Moreno — that he was either thrown from the platform, or jumped from it out of fear. “That’s your first instinct, because you’re scared — to jump,” Mr. Bustamante said.
It was not clear how much training the Morenos had received. The city requires people who work on a suspended scaffold to have a certificate showing they have completed a safety course. The city also requires each contractor to have a licensed master or special rigger, who can designate a foreman to oversee a job.
Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, which represents unionized window washers in Manhattan, provides a weekly course over 18 months. Matthew Nerzig, a spokesman for the union, said the course is supposed to supplement 3,000 hours of apprentice work. He said there are no specific state requirements for window washers, but tradesmen are supposed to have 2,000 hours as apprentices and 180 hours of classroom training.
But the company the Morenos were working for, City Wide Window Cleaning of Jamaica, Queens, is not a union company. The company has not returned calls since the accident, and Ms. Moreno said no one from City Wide had called her to express condolences.
At least two agencies are investigating the accident — the city’s Buildings Department and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Chief McKavanagh, who was helping to oversee the rescue, said it appeared that lightweight material on the platform may have absorbed some of the blow for Alcides Moreno. It may have acted as a sort of shock absorber, he said.
“If they both rode it down, which is quite possible, God bless them if they had the wherewithal to continue to hold on,” Chief McKavanagh said. “That is incredible.”
“It is a horrible story,” he continued, adding that if Mr. Moreno lives, “that will be a miracle.”
“I do not like to use that word so often,” he said, “but this is.”
Nate Schweber contributed reporting.
Divination and Fortune-Telling Outlawed in Tajikistan
Well, how silly. Do the officials really think they'll be able to stop people from doing something they've been doing for thousands of years (long before Islam was invented)? This reminds me of the communists' attempts in Russia and China to stamp out organized religion. All it did was go underground. Supression never works in the long run.
Tajikistan launches campaign against witchcraft
Wed Dec 12, 11:31 AM ET
DUSHANBE (Reuters) - Tajikistan is launching a crackdown on witchcraft and fortune-telling as part of an anti-poverty drive after earlier banning lavish weddings and expensive funerals.
Occultism is on the rise in Muslim Tajikistan. It is the poorest nation in ex-Soviet Central Asia, borders Afghanistan and was ravaged by a 1992-97 civil war. Queues to see sorcerers are often longer than those for regular doctors.
"Those indulging in sorcery and fortune-telling shall be fined between 30 and 40 times the minimum monthly wage (85 pounds to 113 pounds)," says the text of a draft law backed by the lower chamber of the Tajik parliament on Wednesday and obtained by Reuters.
The draft law has to be passed by the upper house and signed by President Imomali Rakhmon to become law. But this is widely seen as a formality.
Rakhmon, in power since 1992, earlier this year imposed heavy fines on extravagant weddings and funerals. He set out strict limits for the ceremonies, including the number of guests, meals and cars.
He also ordered the Tajik anti-corruption watchdog to investigate the incomes of students riding in expensive cars or using posh cell phones.
(Reporting by Roman Kozhevnikov; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov, Editing by Matthew Tostevin)
Tajikistan launches campaign against witchcraft
Wed Dec 12, 11:31 AM ET
DUSHANBE (Reuters) - Tajikistan is launching a crackdown on witchcraft and fortune-telling as part of an anti-poverty drive after earlier banning lavish weddings and expensive funerals.
Occultism is on the rise in Muslim Tajikistan. It is the poorest nation in ex-Soviet Central Asia, borders Afghanistan and was ravaged by a 1992-97 civil war. Queues to see sorcerers are often longer than those for regular doctors.
"Those indulging in sorcery and fortune-telling shall be fined between 30 and 40 times the minimum monthly wage (85 pounds to 113 pounds)," says the text of a draft law backed by the lower chamber of the Tajik parliament on Wednesday and obtained by Reuters.
The draft law has to be passed by the upper house and signed by President Imomali Rakhmon to become law. But this is widely seen as a formality.
Rakhmon, in power since 1992, earlier this year imposed heavy fines on extravagant weddings and funerals. He set out strict limits for the ceremonies, including the number of guests, meals and cars.
He also ordered the Tajik anti-corruption watchdog to investigate the incomes of students riding in expensive cars or using posh cell phones.
(Reporting by Roman Kozhevnikov; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov, Editing by Matthew Tostevin)
Thursday, December 13, 2007
A Kidnapped Sacrifice
I wonder - what side would Perry Mason represent... It may seem humous to us, but in the rural villages in India where a water buffalo is a very expensive piece of property and propitiation of the goddesses is essential to the continuation of an orderly cycle of life, this is serious business.
Bangalore: Kidnapped buffalo story ends in court!
Haveri Dec 14: This kidnap story ended in court. Nothing unusual about it. But when the victim ambled into the additional civil court premises here on Thursday under police protection and bellowed, the case made local headlines.
The case relates to the kidnapping of a buffalo belonging to one village by another village.
When the advocate of the complainant pleaded that as an interim measure the buffalo be given to Kanavalli as its presence was required for a religious jatra, judge Padmaprasad permitted the complainant Tippanna Mailannavar, a gram panchayat member of Kanavalli, to keep the buffalo until further orders.
Tippanna told TOI that the hebuffalo was presented to the village goddess of Kanavalli by Jagadish Kattebennur in 2005. But the buffalo was kidnapped on Nov 18, 2007 by Motebennur villagers led by Bhojaraj Ballary to offer it in sacrifice to Motebennur village goddess Dyamavva in the jatra to be held from December 28, charged Tippanna.
Bhojaraj Ballary, the accused, denied the kidnap charge and said the buffalo belonged to their village deity.
Basavaraj Kalasur, temple trust committee member of Kanavalli, said they needed the buffalo for the village jatra scheduled to begin in the first week of January 2008.
Tippanna and others lodged a complaint with Guttal police. When no action was forthcoming, he moved the Haveri court.
Based on the complaint, the court appointed S M Katagi as court commissioner to bring the buffalo and the vehicle used for kidnap to the court. Accordingly, Tippanna’s advocate P V Naduvinamath along with the court commissioner Katagi and Byadagi circle police inspector brought the buffalo to Haveri court.
Times News Network
Bangalore: Kidnapped buffalo story ends in court!
Haveri Dec 14: This kidnap story ended in court. Nothing unusual about it. But when the victim ambled into the additional civil court premises here on Thursday under police protection and bellowed, the case made local headlines.
The case relates to the kidnapping of a buffalo belonging to one village by another village.
When the advocate of the complainant pleaded that as an interim measure the buffalo be given to Kanavalli as its presence was required for a religious jatra, judge Padmaprasad permitted the complainant Tippanna Mailannavar, a gram panchayat member of Kanavalli, to keep the buffalo until further orders.
Tippanna told TOI that the hebuffalo was presented to the village goddess of Kanavalli by Jagadish Kattebennur in 2005. But the buffalo was kidnapped on Nov 18, 2007 by Motebennur villagers led by Bhojaraj Ballary to offer it in sacrifice to Motebennur village goddess Dyamavva in the jatra to be held from December 28, charged Tippanna.
Bhojaraj Ballary, the accused, denied the kidnap charge and said the buffalo belonged to their village deity.
Basavaraj Kalasur, temple trust committee member of Kanavalli, said they needed the buffalo for the village jatra scheduled to begin in the first week of January 2008.
Tippanna and others lodged a complaint with Guttal police. When no action was forthcoming, he moved the Haveri court.
Based on the complaint, the court appointed S M Katagi as court commissioner to bring the buffalo and the vehicle used for kidnap to the court. Accordingly, Tippanna’s advocate P V Naduvinamath along with the court commissioner Katagi and Byadagi circle police inspector brought the buffalo to Haveri court.
Times News Network
Minerva Lives - in California
Minerva Statue Installed at Inauguration of California Hall of Fame Classical bronze of Roman Goddess of Wisdom Will be Symbol of California Museum for History, Women, the Arts
(PRWEB) December 11, 2007 -- Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver will preside at the special unveiling of a life-sized bronze statue of Minerva to take place during the inauguration of a Hall of Fame inside the California Museum for History Women and the Arts.
The statue has been donated by Collie Christensen (CEO of Equus Eleven) and his wife Kira Christensen. Minerva a classical symbol of wisdom features prominently on the Great Seal of the State of California. Since 2004 the California Museum for History Women and the Arts has recognized the distinguished women of California with the annual Minerva Award. The statue valued at $950,000 will be on prominent view at the newly built Minerva exhibit at the museum.
Maria Shriver said speaking in May that Minerva represents the 'ultimate multi-tasker'. Known as Minerva to the ancient Romans and Athena to the Greeks the goddess' deeds were legendary as was her kindness to humanity. When challenged to provide the greatest benefit to earth the goddess is said to have produced the olive tree. Source of oil and emblem of peace olive trees were first planted in California by the Franciscan missionaries.
According to mythology Minerva was the Olympian protector of democracy dedicating herself to law justice and good counsel. She was considered a prudent warrior forcefully protecting the popular assemblies from outside enemies. She encouraged the creativity of men and women in innumerable ways fostering agriculture inventing musical instruments and taking personal delight in the useful and ornamental arts.
The Minerva statue is an exact duplicate in bronze of one of the greatest treasures of the Archaeological Museum in Florence Italy. The nearly life-sized statue represents the Roman goddess in a pose of dignified self-assured conversation. She extends her right arm and hand as if to expound a point. Her other hand is wrapped inside her cloak resting easily on her hip. Her classical attire consists of a cloak known as a himation which covers her left shoulder and is drawn tightly around her body. Its broad form contrasts with the many vertical folds of the robe or chiton which reaches her feet. As a warrior Minerva wears a breastplate with a Gorgon's head and a Corinthian helmet crested with a serpent a symbol of eternity.
The renowned Marinelli Foundry in Florence using plaster molds taken directly from the museum original in the 1930's cast the bronze. Such molds are no longer made today. The antique prototype was discovered in the Arezzo in 1541 and brought to Florence ten years later by Cosmo I Grand Duke of Tuscany. The 'Minerva of Arezzo' is among the most celebrated sculptures of the Etrusco-Roman school generally dated to the second century strongly influenced by Greek classical art.
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This Minerva is a wimped out version of a "classical" Athena, which was already a wimped out version of the archaic Athena. The only remnants of the ancient, powerful serpent goddess who was Athena are the serpent on top of Minerva's warrior's helmet and the "Gorgon" on her "breastplate."
Captain Kidd's Shipwreck Found
Not exactly an "ancient navigator" but certainly a fascinating character and story!
Indiana University Discovers 1699 Captain Kidd Shipwreck
December 13, 2007
Newswise — Resting in less than 10 feet of Caribbean seawater, the wreckage of Quedagh Merchant, the ship abandoned by the scandalous 17th century pirate Captain William Kidd as he raced to New York in an ill-fated attempt to clear his name, has escaped discovery -- until now.
An underwater archaeology team from Indiana University announced today (Dec. 13) the discovery of the remnants. IU marine protection authority Charles Beeker said his team has been licensed to study the wreckage and to convert the site into an underwater preserve, where it will be accessible to the public.
Beeker, director of Academic Diving and Underwater Science Programs in IU Bloomington's School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, said it is remarkable that the wreck has remained undiscovered all these years given its location, just 70 feet off the coast of Catalina Island in the Dominican Republic, and because it has been sought actively by treasure hunters.
"I've been on literally thousands of shipwrecks in my career," Beeker said. "This is one of the first sites I've been on where I haven't seen any looting. We've got a shipwreck in crystal clear, pristine water that's amazingly untouched. We want to keep it that way, so we made the announcement now to ensure the site's protection from looters."
The find is valuable because of the potential to reveal important information about piracy in the Caribbean and about the legendary Capt. Kidd, said John Foster, California's state underwater archaeologist, who is participating in the research.
"I look forward to a meticulous study of the ship, its age, its armament, its construction, its use, its contents and the reconstructed wrecking process that resulted in the site we see today," Foster said. "Because there is extensive, written documentation, this is an opportunity we rarely have to test historic information against the archaeological record."
Historians differ on whether Kidd was actually a pirate or a privateer -- someone who captured pirates. After his conviction of piracy and murder charges in a sensational London trial, he was left to hang over the River Thames for two years.
Historians write that Kidd captured the Quedagh Merchant, loaded with valuable satins and silks, gold, silver and other East Indian merchandise, but left the ship in the Caribbean as he sailed to New York on a less conspicuous sloop to clear his name of the criminal charges.
Anthropologist Geoffrey Conrad, director of IU Bloomington's Mathers Museum of World Cultures, said the men Kidd entrusted with his ship reportedly looted it, and then set it ablaze and adrift down the Rio Dulce. Conrad said the location of the wreckage and the formation and size of the canons, which had been used as ballast, are consistent with historical records of the ship. They also found pieces of several anchors under the cannons.
"All the evidence that we find underwater is consistent with what we know from historical documentation, which is extensive," Conrad said. "Through rigorous archeological investigations, we will conclusively prove that this is the Capt. Kidd shipwreck."
The IU team examined the shipwreck at the request of the Dominican Republic's Oficina Nacional De Patrimonio Cultural Subacuático.
"The site was initially discovered by a local prominent resident of Casa De Campo, who recognized the significance of the numerous cannons and requested the site be properly investigated," said ONPCS Technical Director Francis Soto. "So, I contacted IU."
Beeker and Conrad have worked closely with ONPCS for 11 years since they began conducting underwater and land-based archaeological research related to the era when the Old World and New World first met.
"It continues our work down there from the age of discovery to the golden age of piracy, the transformation of both the native and introduced cultures of the Caribbean," Conrad said.
Much of their work is focused in the area of La Isabela Bay, the site of the first permanent Spanish settlement established by Christopher Columbus. The Taino were the first indigenous people to interact with Europeans. Beeker said much of the history of this period is based on speculation, something he and Conrad are trying to change.
The IU research in the Dominican Republic typically involves professors and graduate students from various IU Bloomington schools and departments, including the School of HPER, the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and the departments of anthropology, biology, geology and mathematics in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Anthropology doctorate student Fritz Hanselmann, who teaches underwater archaeology techniques in HPER, said there have only been a few pirate ships ever discovered in the Americas, and that IU's multi-disciplinary research will make a significant contribution to the field.
HPER Dean Robert M. Goodman accompanied the most recent expedition to learn more about this successful interdisciplinary and international research collaboration. He also went to explore potential public health linkages between the School of HPER and the Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo, founded in 1538. It is the largest university in the country and the oldest in the Americas.
"Indiana University is working to increase its international presence," Goodman said. "Earlier this month, the IU Board of Trustees was presented a strategic plan that calls for increased student and faculty participation in study abroad and international service learning programs, as well as the development of strategic international partnerships that support overseas study, global research and the recruitment of international students.
"The archeological work being done by IU in the Dominican Republic affords us tremendous entrée for wider areas of collaboration," he said.
"Because of the network that Mr. Beeker and Dr. Conrad have established, the Universidad Autonóma de Santo Domingo is eager to establish a formal agreement with IU. We met with the secretary of state for environment and national resources, the dean of faculties of health sciences at the university, representatives from USAID, and the president of the hotel association, all of whom are eager to foster relationships between IU and agencies of the Dominican Republic. This was an incredibly productive trip for IU."
Beeker and his students have conducted underwater research projects on submerged ships, cargo and other cultural and biological resources throughout the United States and the Caribbean for more than 20 years. Many of his research projects have resulted in the establishment of state or federal underwater parks and preserves, and have led to a number of site nominations to the National Register of Historic Places.
Indiana University Discovers 1699 Captain Kidd Shipwreck
December 13, 2007
Newswise — Resting in less than 10 feet of Caribbean seawater, the wreckage of Quedagh Merchant, the ship abandoned by the scandalous 17th century pirate Captain William Kidd as he raced to New York in an ill-fated attempt to clear his name, has escaped discovery -- until now.
An underwater archaeology team from Indiana University announced today (Dec. 13) the discovery of the remnants. IU marine protection authority Charles Beeker said his team has been licensed to study the wreckage and to convert the site into an underwater preserve, where it will be accessible to the public.
Beeker, director of Academic Diving and Underwater Science Programs in IU Bloomington's School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, said it is remarkable that the wreck has remained undiscovered all these years given its location, just 70 feet off the coast of Catalina Island in the Dominican Republic, and because it has been sought actively by treasure hunters.
"I've been on literally thousands of shipwrecks in my career," Beeker said. "This is one of the first sites I've been on where I haven't seen any looting. We've got a shipwreck in crystal clear, pristine water that's amazingly untouched. We want to keep it that way, so we made the announcement now to ensure the site's protection from looters."
The find is valuable because of the potential to reveal important information about piracy in the Caribbean and about the legendary Capt. Kidd, said John Foster, California's state underwater archaeologist, who is participating in the research.
"I look forward to a meticulous study of the ship, its age, its armament, its construction, its use, its contents and the reconstructed wrecking process that resulted in the site we see today," Foster said. "Because there is extensive, written documentation, this is an opportunity we rarely have to test historic information against the archaeological record."
Historians differ on whether Kidd was actually a pirate or a privateer -- someone who captured pirates. After his conviction of piracy and murder charges in a sensational London trial, he was left to hang over the River Thames for two years.
Historians write that Kidd captured the Quedagh Merchant, loaded with valuable satins and silks, gold, silver and other East Indian merchandise, but left the ship in the Caribbean as he sailed to New York on a less conspicuous sloop to clear his name of the criminal charges.
Anthropologist Geoffrey Conrad, director of IU Bloomington's Mathers Museum of World Cultures, said the men Kidd entrusted with his ship reportedly looted it, and then set it ablaze and adrift down the Rio Dulce. Conrad said the location of the wreckage and the formation and size of the canons, which had been used as ballast, are consistent with historical records of the ship. They also found pieces of several anchors under the cannons.
"All the evidence that we find underwater is consistent with what we know from historical documentation, which is extensive," Conrad said. "Through rigorous archeological investigations, we will conclusively prove that this is the Capt. Kidd shipwreck."
The IU team examined the shipwreck at the request of the Dominican Republic's Oficina Nacional De Patrimonio Cultural Subacuático.
"The site was initially discovered by a local prominent resident of Casa De Campo, who recognized the significance of the numerous cannons and requested the site be properly investigated," said ONPCS Technical Director Francis Soto. "So, I contacted IU."
Beeker and Conrad have worked closely with ONPCS for 11 years since they began conducting underwater and land-based archaeological research related to the era when the Old World and New World first met.
"It continues our work down there from the age of discovery to the golden age of piracy, the transformation of both the native and introduced cultures of the Caribbean," Conrad said.
Much of their work is focused in the area of La Isabela Bay, the site of the first permanent Spanish settlement established by Christopher Columbus. The Taino were the first indigenous people to interact with Europeans. Beeker said much of the history of this period is based on speculation, something he and Conrad are trying to change.
The IU research in the Dominican Republic typically involves professors and graduate students from various IU Bloomington schools and departments, including the School of HPER, the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and the departments of anthropology, biology, geology and mathematics in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Anthropology doctorate student Fritz Hanselmann, who teaches underwater archaeology techniques in HPER, said there have only been a few pirate ships ever discovered in the Americas, and that IU's multi-disciplinary research will make a significant contribution to the field.
HPER Dean Robert M. Goodman accompanied the most recent expedition to learn more about this successful interdisciplinary and international research collaboration. He also went to explore potential public health linkages between the School of HPER and the Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo, founded in 1538. It is the largest university in the country and the oldest in the Americas.
"Indiana University is working to increase its international presence," Goodman said. "Earlier this month, the IU Board of Trustees was presented a strategic plan that calls for increased student and faculty participation in study abroad and international service learning programs, as well as the development of strategic international partnerships that support overseas study, global research and the recruitment of international students.
"The archeological work being done by IU in the Dominican Republic affords us tremendous entrée for wider areas of collaboration," he said.
"Because of the network that Mr. Beeker and Dr. Conrad have established, the Universidad Autonóma de Santo Domingo is eager to establish a formal agreement with IU. We met with the secretary of state for environment and national resources, the dean of faculties of health sciences at the university, representatives from USAID, and the president of the hotel association, all of whom are eager to foster relationships between IU and agencies of the Dominican Republic. This was an incredibly productive trip for IU."
Beeker and his students have conducted underwater research projects on submerged ships, cargo and other cultural and biological resources throughout the United States and the Caribbean for more than 20 years. Many of his research projects have resulted in the establishment of state or federal underwater parks and preserves, and have led to a number of site nominations to the National Register of Historic Places.
Antiquities Fraud Back in the News
Unbelievable - the Art Institute of Chicago has been taken in by a fraud!
I wrote about these folks back in April.
Chicago museum says The Faun is a fake
Wed Dec 12, 9:08 AM ET
CHICAGO - A half-man, half-goat ceramic figure supposedly sculpted by 19th century French artist Paul Gauguin has delighted aficionados visiting the Art Institute of Chicago for a decade, but now the museum says "The Faun" is a fake.
"No one could think of any other instance in which anything like this happened here," the director of public affairs at the institute, Erin Hogan, told the Chicago Tribune for a story posted Tuesday on its Web site. "So we don't have experience in this area."
The museum said the sculpture is among scores of forgeries produced by the Greenhalgh family, which has been under investigation by authorities in Great Britain for nearly two years.
A private dealer bought the piece at Sotheby's in 1994 and the Art Institute purchased it from the dealer three years later.
A British judge sentenced Shaun Greenhalgh, 47, to four years and eight months in prison last month. His mother, Olive, 83, received a suspended term of 12 months, and his father, George, 84, was to be sentenced later.
Shaun Greenhalgh created the fakes, while his parents handled most of the sales. All three pleaded guilty earlier this year to defrauding art institutions and other buyers over 17 years. They had also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to laundering the proceeds from the sale of a fake Egyptian statuette.
The creations by the Greenhalghs also included Assyrian stone reliefs, and several copies of paintings by American artist Henry Moran.
Hogan declined to reveal the purchase price of the discredited piece and said the Art Institute was talking with Sotheby's and the private dealer about possible compensation.
"Everyone who bought and sold (the work) did so in good faith," he said.
I wrote about these folks back in April.
Chicago museum says The Faun is a fake
Wed Dec 12, 9:08 AM ET
CHICAGO - A half-man, half-goat ceramic figure supposedly sculpted by 19th century French artist Paul Gauguin has delighted aficionados visiting the Art Institute of Chicago for a decade, but now the museum says "The Faun" is a fake.
"No one could think of any other instance in which anything like this happened here," the director of public affairs at the institute, Erin Hogan, told the Chicago Tribune for a story posted Tuesday on its Web site. "So we don't have experience in this area."
The museum said the sculpture is among scores of forgeries produced by the Greenhalgh family, which has been under investigation by authorities in Great Britain for nearly two years.
A private dealer bought the piece at Sotheby's in 1994 and the Art Institute purchased it from the dealer three years later.
A British judge sentenced Shaun Greenhalgh, 47, to four years and eight months in prison last month. His mother, Olive, 83, received a suspended term of 12 months, and his father, George, 84, was to be sentenced later.
Shaun Greenhalgh created the fakes, while his parents handled most of the sales. All three pleaded guilty earlier this year to defrauding art institutions and other buyers over 17 years. They had also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to laundering the proceeds from the sale of a fake Egyptian statuette.
The creations by the Greenhalghs also included Assyrian stone reliefs, and several copies of paintings by American artist Henry Moran.
Hogan declined to reveal the purchase price of the discredited piece and said the Art Institute was talking with Sotheby's and the private dealer about possible compensation.
"Everyone who bought and sold (the work) did so in good faith," he said.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Historic Games Re-enacted by Human Chess Pieces
From time to time, certain historic chess games are re-enacted by using humans as "living chess pieces," bringing an entirely new dynamic to the game.
I don't know if it is the oldest re-enactment but I think it must be right up there - the chess game at Marostica that dates back to the Middle Ages - and it's a romantic tale, too :)
Here's a report from The Hindu Online about another historic game played with human pieces - a game between Alekhine and Lasker!
Historic game between Grandmasters comes ‘alive’
T. Nandakumar
December 11, 2007
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For once, the students of Abraham Memorial High School, Thirumala, proved that size does matter in the game of chess.
Everything about the ‘live’ match organised by the Department of Sports and the Russian Cultural Centre here on Monday was of giant proportions. While the interior of the Jimmy George indoor stadium was converted into an oversize chessboard, the children positioned themselves as the pawns.
The match was held as the re-enactment of a contest between Grandmasters Alexander Alekhine and Emanuel Lasker at Zurich in Switzerland 73 years ago. It was arranged to coincide with the 115th birth anniversary of Alekhine who prevailed over his rival.
Dressed in black and white as chessmen, the students took position in each square in response to the moves made by C.S. Nair representing Alekhin and V.R. Pillai as Lasker. The soft music of Peter Tchaikovsky’s symphony and special light effects gave a theatrical effect to the live game.
Lasker’s king finally admitted defeat after both sides had made about 30 moves.
The event was organised by K.V.B. Menon, who was instrumental in promoting the game of chess in Kerala for over 60 years.
Sports Director G. Kishore inaugurated the programme. Director of the Russian Cultural Centre Ratheesh C. Nair presided over the inaugural function.
The winners of the chess tournament organised by the Russian Cultural Centre last week were chosen to represent the two Grandmasters. Students and chess enthusiasts turned up to witness the programme.
I don't know if it is the oldest re-enactment but I think it must be right up there - the chess game at Marostica that dates back to the Middle Ages - and it's a romantic tale, too :)
Here's a report from The Hindu Online about another historic game played with human pieces - a game between Alekhine and Lasker!
Historic game between Grandmasters comes ‘alive’
T. Nandakumar
December 11, 2007
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For once, the students of Abraham Memorial High School, Thirumala, proved that size does matter in the game of chess.
Everything about the ‘live’ match organised by the Department of Sports and the Russian Cultural Centre here on Monday was of giant proportions. While the interior of the Jimmy George indoor stadium was converted into an oversize chessboard, the children positioned themselves as the pawns.
The match was held as the re-enactment of a contest between Grandmasters Alexander Alekhine and Emanuel Lasker at Zurich in Switzerland 73 years ago. It was arranged to coincide with the 115th birth anniversary of Alekhine who prevailed over his rival.
Dressed in black and white as chessmen, the students took position in each square in response to the moves made by C.S. Nair representing Alekhin and V.R. Pillai as Lasker. The soft music of Peter Tchaikovsky’s symphony and special light effects gave a theatrical effect to the live game.
Lasker’s king finally admitted defeat after both sides had made about 30 moves.
The event was organised by K.V.B. Menon, who was instrumental in promoting the game of chess in Kerala for over 60 years.
Sports Director G. Kishore inaugurated the programme. Director of the Russian Cultural Centre Ratheesh C. Nair presided over the inaugural function.
The winners of the chess tournament organised by the Russian Cultural Centre last week were chosen to represent the two Grandmasters. Students and chess enthusiasts turned up to witness the programme.
Chess News
If you haven't already read it - it's USA's Gata Kamsky v. Spain's Alexei Shirov in the final match at the World Cup! Yeah! Age (ahem) and experience (lots of experience) over the youth contingent. A great match - expect some exciting chess.
There's a new interview of India's GM Koneru Humpy posted at Latestchess.com (India). You can see the same interview with some different photos (newer and older photos) at Chessbase which, unfortunately, did not include an actual link to the Latestchess.com interview. Darlings, now really - that's really bad form! But - thanks for the photos, Chessbase.
I personally think that Humpy is a stunning young lady. In her photographs sometimes she looks very beautiful; sometimes she looks plain. But there's always a certain look of strength and purpose about her that seems to radiate off the page and catches my attention.
She's been losing that "teenager" extra weight that so many of us femmes seem to put on during the years from 12 to 20, and looking better every day. I think she needs a new "'do" to make the most of her beautiful eyes and full lips - she has a round face shape and it takes careful hair-styling to bring out one's best features with this face shape. Ahhh, to be 20 and on top of the world!
There's a new interview of India's GM Koneru Humpy posted at Latestchess.com (India). You can see the same interview with some different photos (newer and older photos) at Chessbase which, unfortunately, did not include an actual link to the Latestchess.com interview. Darlings, now really - that's really bad form! But - thanks for the photos, Chessbase.
I personally think that Humpy is a stunning young lady. In her photographs sometimes she looks very beautiful; sometimes she looks plain. But there's always a certain look of strength and purpose about her that seems to radiate off the page and catches my attention.
She's been losing that "teenager" extra weight that so many of us femmes seem to put on during the years from 12 to 20, and looking better every day. I think she needs a new "'do" to make the most of her beautiful eyes and full lips - she has a round face shape and it takes careful hair-styling to bring out one's best features with this face shape. Ahhh, to be 20 and on top of the world!
Baby's Skeleton Hints at Human Sacrifice
Hola darlings! Well, what a horrid topic - but I have to say this article about the discovery of an infant's skeleton in an ongoing excavation in the Czech Republic is fascinating. We know that in ancient times human sacrifice was practiced, often in mistaken concepts of "propitiating the gods."
The skeleton mentioned in this article is of interest, however, because it dates to the Middle Ages, when it is generally thought that, in Europe at least, human sacrifice had long since vanished (although Robert Graves mentions a rite or ritual that survived into the 1940's - on Malorca? or perhaps it was Majorca? - in his "The White Goddess," the equivalent of "king sacrifice" practiced by the women of the island once a year...).
Archaeologists find unique baby skeleton
By ČTK / Published 12 December 2007
Usti nad Labem, North Bohemia, Dec 11 (CTK) - Archaeologists have uncovered a unique skeleton of a baby, possibly a sacrifice, from the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries in a medieval house's foundations near a church in the centre of Usti nad Labem, Lukas Gal told CTK Tuesday.
The baby that was not older than six months was probably buried there intentionally. The find is unique since the dead were commonly buried at cemeteries then, said Gal from the Terra Verita company working on the archaeological research for the local museum.
"Human sacrifices were extremely rare in the Middle Ages," Gal said, adding that the find proves the existence of pre-Christian, pagan habits in the late Middle Ages in the locality.
"Christianity was widely spread in the 13th and 14th century, but some older traditions that were not common especially in towns survived here," Gal said.
The archaeologists will now measure the bones and put them into their original shape. A team of anthropologists will then determine the baby' sex and study pathological changes. They will also look into whether the baby was killed or not.
The entire study of the skeleton is to take one and a half years.
Another valuable item - a unique eight-cm-long ceramic statuette of Virgin Mary with Jesus from the late 14th century was recently uncovered at the same locality.
The team of archaeologists has been surveying the area in Usti around the Church of the Assumption of Our Lady for a couple of months. They have mapped the history of the original settlement and found items dating back up to 6500 years B.C., such as ceramic vessels, dishes and flint tools, along with coins, tiles and animal bones from later periods.
The archaeological research is to continue till the end of January.
Afterwards, a large shopping centre will be built on the plot.
This story is from the Czech News Agency (ČTK).The Prague Daily Monitor and Monitor CE are not responsible for its content.
Copyright 2007 by the Czech News Agency (ČTK). All rights reserved. Copying, dissemination or other publication of this article or parts thereof without the prior written consent of ČTK is expressly forbidden.
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Personally, I don't think this is evidence of "infant sacrifice." It could just as well be evidence of "crib death" (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) and a grieving family not being able to part with the infant by burying her or him in the community graveyard. It certainly was not unheard of - in Europe and elsewhere - for the bodies of dead family members to be buried underneath the floors of the family homestead in ancient times. Perhaps the practice persisted in this particular village in this particular part of Eastern Europe much longer than anywhere else. New discoveries may yet be made. Or, it could just be what I think it is, a family burying a beloved infant close to them, an infant who died too soon.
The skeleton mentioned in this article is of interest, however, because it dates to the Middle Ages, when it is generally thought that, in Europe at least, human sacrifice had long since vanished (although Robert Graves mentions a rite or ritual that survived into the 1940's - on Malorca? or perhaps it was Majorca? - in his "The White Goddess," the equivalent of "king sacrifice" practiced by the women of the island once a year...).
Archaeologists find unique baby skeleton
By ČTK / Published 12 December 2007
Usti nad Labem, North Bohemia, Dec 11 (CTK) - Archaeologists have uncovered a unique skeleton of a baby, possibly a sacrifice, from the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries in a medieval house's foundations near a church in the centre of Usti nad Labem, Lukas Gal told CTK Tuesday.
The baby that was not older than six months was probably buried there intentionally. The find is unique since the dead were commonly buried at cemeteries then, said Gal from the Terra Verita company working on the archaeological research for the local museum.
"Human sacrifices were extremely rare in the Middle Ages," Gal said, adding that the find proves the existence of pre-Christian, pagan habits in the late Middle Ages in the locality.
"Christianity was widely spread in the 13th and 14th century, but some older traditions that were not common especially in towns survived here," Gal said.
The archaeologists will now measure the bones and put them into their original shape. A team of anthropologists will then determine the baby' sex and study pathological changes. They will also look into whether the baby was killed or not.
The entire study of the skeleton is to take one and a half years.
Another valuable item - a unique eight-cm-long ceramic statuette of Virgin Mary with Jesus from the late 14th century was recently uncovered at the same locality.
The team of archaeologists has been surveying the area in Usti around the Church of the Assumption of Our Lady for a couple of months. They have mapped the history of the original settlement and found items dating back up to 6500 years B.C., such as ceramic vessels, dishes and flint tools, along with coins, tiles and animal bones from later periods.
The archaeological research is to continue till the end of January.
Afterwards, a large shopping centre will be built on the plot.
This story is from the Czech News Agency (ČTK).The Prague Daily Monitor and Monitor CE are not responsible for its content.
Copyright 2007 by the Czech News Agency (ČTK). All rights reserved. Copying, dissemination or other publication of this article or parts thereof without the prior written consent of ČTK is expressly forbidden.
********************************************************************************
Personally, I don't think this is evidence of "infant sacrifice." It could just as well be evidence of "crib death" (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) and a grieving family not being able to part with the infant by burying her or him in the community graveyard. It certainly was not unheard of - in Europe and elsewhere - for the bodies of dead family members to be buried underneath the floors of the family homestead in ancient times. Perhaps the practice persisted in this particular village in this particular part of Eastern Europe much longer than anywhere else. New discoveries may yet be made. Or, it could just be what I think it is, a family burying a beloved infant close to them, an infant who died too soon.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Twisted Murder in the Name of a Goddess
In the midst of India's amazing rush into the 21st century abundance of capitalism after years of stagnation under socialism/Stalinism, an example of what ignorance and religious extremism can do. Sadly, this kind of behavior is not at all unusual in many areas of India. How very very sad. The Goddess is not pleased with this kind of behavior.
Brothers kill teenage sister to please goddess
Alka Rastogi
Lucknow, December 11, 2007
In a bizarre case, two brothers under the spell of a tantrik killed their own teenage sister to propitiate Goddess Kali.
The trantrik had advised the two brothers that if they murder their own sister they would become very rich overnight.
According to reports, Shambhu Babu and Krishna Babu who live in Rawatpur locality in Fatehpur had been approaching tantriks and astrologers for becoming rich.
Ramesh, allegedly a tantrik, advised them to perform yagna and hawan in their house. After the rituals the he told them to slaughter their teenage sister to propitiate Goddess Kali. He said that by doing this they will get a hidden treasure inside the house. He also said that if they failed to do so they would not get the jewellery which will shift to some other place.
The greed to become rich overnight blinded their senses and they hacked to death their 13-year-old sister Pinki.
The body of Pinki was hacked into several pieces and offered to the Goddess.
It is learnt that after hearing Pinki's screams, neighbours rushed to the house of the two brothers, locked from inside. By the time the door was broke open Pinki had been sacrificed.
It is alleged that fearing arrest the two brothers dumped Pinki's body into a river. The brothers however, maintained that the girl had jumped into the river on her own.
The villagers are demanding arrest of the tantrik.
Brothers kill teenage sister to please goddess
Alka Rastogi
Lucknow, December 11, 2007
In a bizarre case, two brothers under the spell of a tantrik killed their own teenage sister to propitiate Goddess Kali.
The trantrik had advised the two brothers that if they murder their own sister they would become very rich overnight.
According to reports, Shambhu Babu and Krishna Babu who live in Rawatpur locality in Fatehpur had been approaching tantriks and astrologers for becoming rich.
Ramesh, allegedly a tantrik, advised them to perform yagna and hawan in their house. After the rituals the he told them to slaughter their teenage sister to propitiate Goddess Kali. He said that by doing this they will get a hidden treasure inside the house. He also said that if they failed to do so they would not get the jewellery which will shift to some other place.
The greed to become rich overnight blinded their senses and they hacked to death their 13-year-old sister Pinki.
The body of Pinki was hacked into several pieces and offered to the Goddess.
It is learnt that after hearing Pinki's screams, neighbours rushed to the house of the two brothers, locked from inside. By the time the door was broke open Pinki had been sacrificed.
It is alleged that fearing arrest the two brothers dumped Pinki's body into a river. The brothers however, maintained that the girl had jumped into the river on her own.
The villagers are demanding arrest of the tantrik.
Oy! Ice Storm
Oh darlings, what a day today. I knew I shouldn't have gone into the office, I knew it! When I got up at 6 a.m., in the pitch black, it was pouring down snow. Earlier I'd heard rain beating against the west side of the house. Not a good sign, particularly on top of the now shrunk down and hopelessly compacted foot of snow already on the ground.
I got up, put on my waterproof slippers (they have 3 inch rubber soles that go up along the sides of the boot, the most amazing slippers ever made) and I performed a miracle by walking on top of slush/ice/snow (without ever sinking once!!!) the 30 plus feet from the front porch to the mail box at the curb.
I had my coffee, I made and ate a cheese sandwich on hearty rye with mayo to sustain myself for the battle to come, and whilst listening to tales of spin-outs, accidents and lots of official and business cancellations and dire warnings to stay at home if you could, I headed out the door to walk the shorter 1/2 mile course to catch the 7:50 a.m. bus rather than my usual 7:40 a.m. bus that stops 3/4 mile away on another road. With the entire school district shut down for the day, it was blissfully peaceful on the bus - for all five of us passengers who were stupid enough to actually go to work (other than the perhaps even more stupid bus driver)...
Of course, it was a Day from the Annals of Hell. Bossman was in rare form - guess he must have got his shoes a bit wet this morning in the slush, tch tch. He was Hell on Wheels from the minute he butted his head into my office (the first of - I swear - at least 100 interruptions during the course of the day, not including the lunch hour when I wasn't there) until the moment I snuck out while he was in the men's room, about 4:14 p.m.
I'm so fricking sore, I can't even describe what my muscles are feeling like. After climbing over countless snowbanks during the half mile trudge home from the bus, I had to climb over a 3 foot high snowbank at the base of my driveway (it had been plowed in - AGAIN). I then slogged my way up the 30 foot driveway. Fortunately, a box containing the new waterproof Sorel boots I'd ordered through Zappo's online last night were sitting on my front porch. Nice work Zappo's! You guys have my business from now on. Talk about timely, geez! So, I peeled myself out of my waterlogged formerly water-resistant knee high boots, and put on my new Sorels. I then attacked the 100 pounds weight per square inch snow with my trusty shovel.
I worked for a lot less time than I thought - about 40 minutes. Only long enough to hack out a pathway for myself from front porch to roadway and mailbox. Enough to permanently damage both of shoulders, permanently cripple my elbows and hips, not to mention my lower back. Even my legs, which are the strongest part of my body, are aching right now.
So tonight I'm not going to be blogging as usual, or updating Chess Femme News, or doing Christmas shopping, or even my beloved historical research. I've got the much inferior 1974 remake of "Miracle On 34th Street" on t.v. and after it's over I'm going to soak in a full tub of hot water until I fall asleep and drown myself. By candlelight. Then the house will burn down - but only after the gigantic Chinese Elm that towers so majestically over the roof finally succumbs to the weight of its ice-coated limbs and crashed through the roof, second floor, and first floor to the basement. My body won't burn, though, since I will be submerged in the tub and by morning turned into a gigantic Jan icecube that can be buried in, sans casket. That will save my estate money. Unfortunately, since I'll be dying intestate, the bulk of my estate other than my pension, 401(k) and life insurance (which goes to designated beneficiaries) will go to my undeserving relatives rather than to the Goddesschess Foundation to fund women chessplayers for the next 10 plus years. Hmmmm, maybe I can't croak tonight after all... I've got to do a Will and Trust first. Geez!
I got up, put on my waterproof slippers (they have 3 inch rubber soles that go up along the sides of the boot, the most amazing slippers ever made) and I performed a miracle by walking on top of slush/ice/snow (without ever sinking once!!!) the 30 plus feet from the front porch to the mail box at the curb.
I had my coffee, I made and ate a cheese sandwich on hearty rye with mayo to sustain myself for the battle to come, and whilst listening to tales of spin-outs, accidents and lots of official and business cancellations and dire warnings to stay at home if you could, I headed out the door to walk the shorter 1/2 mile course to catch the 7:50 a.m. bus rather than my usual 7:40 a.m. bus that stops 3/4 mile away on another road. With the entire school district shut down for the day, it was blissfully peaceful on the bus - for all five of us passengers who were stupid enough to actually go to work (other than the perhaps even more stupid bus driver)...
Of course, it was a Day from the Annals of Hell. Bossman was in rare form - guess he must have got his shoes a bit wet this morning in the slush, tch tch. He was Hell on Wheels from the minute he butted his head into my office (the first of - I swear - at least 100 interruptions during the course of the day, not including the lunch hour when I wasn't there) until the moment I snuck out while he was in the men's room, about 4:14 p.m.
I'm so fricking sore, I can't even describe what my muscles are feeling like. After climbing over countless snowbanks during the half mile trudge home from the bus, I had to climb over a 3 foot high snowbank at the base of my driveway (it had been plowed in - AGAIN). I then slogged my way up the 30 foot driveway. Fortunately, a box containing the new waterproof Sorel boots I'd ordered through Zappo's online last night were sitting on my front porch. Nice work Zappo's! You guys have my business from now on. Talk about timely, geez! So, I peeled myself out of my waterlogged formerly water-resistant knee high boots, and put on my new Sorels. I then attacked the 100 pounds weight per square inch snow with my trusty shovel.
I worked for a lot less time than I thought - about 40 minutes. Only long enough to hack out a pathway for myself from front porch to roadway and mailbox. Enough to permanently damage both of shoulders, permanently cripple my elbows and hips, not to mention my lower back. Even my legs, which are the strongest part of my body, are aching right now.
So tonight I'm not going to be blogging as usual, or updating Chess Femme News, or doing Christmas shopping, or even my beloved historical research. I've got the much inferior 1974 remake of "Miracle On 34th Street" on t.v. and after it's over I'm going to soak in a full tub of hot water until I fall asleep and drown myself. By candlelight. Then the house will burn down - but only after the gigantic Chinese Elm that towers so majestically over the roof finally succumbs to the weight of its ice-coated limbs and crashed through the roof, second floor, and first floor to the basement. My body won't burn, though, since I will be submerged in the tub and by morning turned into a gigantic Jan icecube that can be buried in, sans casket. That will save my estate money. Unfortunately, since I'll be dying intestate, the bulk of my estate other than my pension, 401(k) and life insurance (which goes to designated beneficiaries) will go to my undeserving relatives rather than to the Goddesschess Foundation to fund women chessplayers for the next 10 plus years. Hmmmm, maybe I can't croak tonight after all... I've got to do a Will and Trust first. Geez!
New Stone Circle Discovered in Sweden
Ancient stone circle found in Skåne
Published: 9 Dec 07 10:57 CET
Ancient remains including a 3,000 year-old stone circle and presumed place of sacrifice have been discovered near Vitemölla on Österlen in the far south of Sweden. The site extends over two hectares and is older and bigger than the region's celebrated Ale's Stones.
The site, presumed to date from the bronze age, is reported to be probably the largest stone circle in the whole of northern Europe.
The find was made by Bob G Lind, a private researcher and archeo-astronomer, reports Kvällsposten. Lind has named the stone circle Heimdall's Stones after Woden's son Heimdall who in the Edda (of Norse mythology) is described as the most radiant sun god in the world.
The cult centre site is in the shape of a gigantic sun dial and includes a large phallus symbol pointing due north. Lind explains that the stone sundial shows the sunrise and sunset in connection with moments such as the summer solstice, autumnal equinox and winter solstice.
"I suddenly saw how it all fitted together. My measurements confirmed all the theories," Lind explained.
Lind explained how he stumbled over the site while out walking with friends. He later confirmed his instincts when flying over the area to photograph the site, which is on land owned by the county council.
Heimdall's Stones was inspected on Friday by Thomas Romberg of the regional heritage board, who confirmed the site's distinct pattern, according to Skånska Dagbladet. The find has yet to be officially reported to the National Heritage Board (RAÄ). The site has also been inspected by archaeologist Nils-Axel Mörner, who described how he was taken aback with amazement."Bob G Lind is to be congratulated", Mörner enthuses.
Bob G Lind is reported to be something of a controversial figure and has had a long running feud with the National Heritage Board over the history of Sweden's hitherto largest stone circle site, Ale's Stones in Kåseberga, also on Österlen.
TT/Peter Vinthagen Simpson
Published: 9 Dec 07 10:57 CET
Ancient remains including a 3,000 year-old stone circle and presumed place of sacrifice have been discovered near Vitemölla on Österlen in the far south of Sweden. The site extends over two hectares and is older and bigger than the region's celebrated Ale's Stones.
The site, presumed to date from the bronze age, is reported to be probably the largest stone circle in the whole of northern Europe.
The find was made by Bob G Lind, a private researcher and archeo-astronomer, reports Kvällsposten. Lind has named the stone circle Heimdall's Stones after Woden's son Heimdall who in the Edda (of Norse mythology) is described as the most radiant sun god in the world.
The cult centre site is in the shape of a gigantic sun dial and includes a large phallus symbol pointing due north. Lind explains that the stone sundial shows the sunrise and sunset in connection with moments such as the summer solstice, autumnal equinox and winter solstice.
"I suddenly saw how it all fitted together. My measurements confirmed all the theories," Lind explained.
Lind explained how he stumbled over the site while out walking with friends. He later confirmed his instincts when flying over the area to photograph the site, which is on land owned by the county council.
Heimdall's Stones was inspected on Friday by Thomas Romberg of the regional heritage board, who confirmed the site's distinct pattern, according to Skånska Dagbladet. The find has yet to be officially reported to the National Heritage Board (RAÄ). The site has also been inspected by archaeologist Nils-Axel Mörner, who described how he was taken aback with amazement."Bob G Lind is to be congratulated", Mörner enthuses.
Bob G Lind is reported to be something of a controversial figure and has had a long running feud with the National Heritage Board over the history of Sweden's hitherto largest stone circle site, Ale's Stones in Kåseberga, also on Österlen.
TT/Peter Vinthagen Simpson
Monday, December 10, 2007
Ray Robson
Wow - Susan Polgar's blog reported fantastic news: Thirteen year old Ray Robson earned his final IM norm. All right! A young, promising IM for the USA! Wonder if he'll be in the qualifying event for the US Championships?
Parsvnath Commonwealth Chess Championships
The event (282 players, 9 rounds) was won by GM Ramesh R B 2473 IND 8½/9. Several women played in the event, here are their final standings:
7 11 IM Harika Dronavalli 2480 IND 7½ 43½
47 20 29 WGM Tania Sachdev 2413 IND 7 40
28 27 WGM Mohota Nisha 2416 IND 6½ 42
45 83 WIM Kiran Manisha Mohanty 2263 IND 6½ 35
60 84 WIM Gomes Mary Ann 2262 IND 6 36
62 94 WIM Soumya Swaminathan 2244 IND 6 35½
74 107 WIM Nadig Kruttika 2208 IND 6 34
76 123 WFM Pon N Krithika 2140 IND 6 33
87 104 WIM Khegay Anjela 2218 SIN 6 27
98 56 WGM Karavade Eesha 2331 IND 5½ 34
99 61 WGM Ramaswamy Aarthie 2317 IND 5½ 34
118 132 WFM Bhakti Kulkarni 2112 IND 5½ 30
130 196 WFM Oliver Shannon 1940 AUS 5½ 23½
158 149 WFM Pujari Rucha 2061 IND 5 24½
160 156 WIM Greef Melissa 2025 RSA 5 23½
209 114 WIM Hamid Rani 2189 BAN 4 22½
210 183 WFM Kotepalli Sai Nirupama 1977 IND 4 22
220 208 WIM Jule Alexandra 1896 AUS 4 19
225 230 WFM Harris Rebecca 1819 AUS 4 16
232 207 WCM Wijesuriya G V 1897 SRI 3½ 22
266 252 Vini Mary Thomas 1634 IND 3 13½
I think I may have missed some of the ladies - sorry!
7 11 IM Harika Dronavalli 2480 IND 7½ 43½
47 20 29 WGM Tania Sachdev 2413 IND 7 40
28 27 WGM Mohota Nisha 2416 IND 6½ 42
45 83 WIM Kiran Manisha Mohanty 2263 IND 6½ 35
60 84 WIM Gomes Mary Ann 2262 IND 6 36
62 94 WIM Soumya Swaminathan 2244 IND 6 35½
74 107 WIM Nadig Kruttika 2208 IND 6 34
76 123 WFM Pon N Krithika 2140 IND 6 33
87 104 WIM Khegay Anjela 2218 SIN 6 27
98 56 WGM Karavade Eesha 2331 IND 5½ 34
99 61 WGM Ramaswamy Aarthie 2317 IND 5½ 34
118 132 WFM Bhakti Kulkarni 2112 IND 5½ 30
130 196 WFM Oliver Shannon 1940 AUS 5½ 23½
158 149 WFM Pujari Rucha 2061 IND 5 24½
160 156 WIM Greef Melissa 2025 RSA 5 23½
209 114 WIM Hamid Rani 2189 BAN 4 22½
210 183 WFM Kotepalli Sai Nirupama 1977 IND 4 22
220 208 WIM Jule Alexandra 1896 AUS 4 19
225 230 WFM Harris Rebecca 1819 AUS 4 16
232 207 WCM Wijesuriya G V 1897 SRI 3½ 22
266 252 Vini Mary Thomas 1634 IND 3 13½
I think I may have missed some of the ladies - sorry!
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Heinrich Schliemann - in Investor's Business Daily???
I've always been a fan of Schliemann's, although it's been quite popular to bash the man during the past several years. I may have to rethink things after seeing his memory (may the Saints be preserved) hyped in the Investor's Business Daily :) Good Goddess, what is the world coming to? The lovely lady to the right is Sophia Schliemann, wearing some of the fabulous gold jewelry that Schliemann recovered from "Priam's Treasure."
Investors.com
Leaders & Success
A Rich Man's Dig For Treasure
BY BRIAN DEAGON
INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted 12/6/2007
In 1863, Heinrich Schliemann retired a millionaire at age 41. He had built his stash by dealing in gold and indigo. Now he wanted to pursue his personal interests.
At first he tried writing. He published a book of his global travels, but that wasn't enough to satisfy his ambition to achieve fame. So he set out to be an archaeologist.
Archaeologists at the time considered Schliemann's excavation methods sloppy. But he discovered large treasures in Turkey and Greece. Most significant, Schliemann is credited with discovering the location of an ancient city most assumed was a myth — the Troy described in Homer's "Iliad."
Schliemann started as a novice but grew into an expert. Unlike fellow archaeologists, he brought to his dig site a team: photographers, surveyors, experts on history and plant remains. They contributed to his title: father of scientific archaeology.
Questioning His Trail
Schliemann was sometimes wrong on identifying treasures, though the locations he excavated were of historical significance.
To this day, critics debate his legacy and practices. One critical book published in 1995, "Schliemann of Troy: Treasures and Deceit," by David Traill, maintains Schliemann was a liar and a con man, though also brilliant, gregarious and enormously talented. Others maintain that despite Schliemann's faults and propensity to exaggerate, his impact on archaeology and the discovery of crucial treasures secure his place as a significant archaeologist.
Born in 1822 in Germany, the son of a Protestant pastor, Schliemann claimed in his autobiography that his father seeded his interest in exploration. Instead of reading typical fairy tales, Schliemann was told about "The Iliad" — the love between Helen, wife of the king of Sparta, and Paris, son of Priam of Troy, and how their elopement caused a war between the Greeks and Trojans. Schliemann later resolved to prove that Troy was real.
But that was a long way off.
At age 14 he started working at a local grocery, reading voraciously whenever possible. His employment ended five years later due to a back injury. He then took a job as a cabin boy on a ship bound for Venezuela, but it sank in a gale near Holland, where the survivors washed up on the shore. Landing in Amsterdam, he took a job as an office attendant.
Schliemann continued his academic passion. He tapped his talent for learning languages, becoming fluent in Dutch, English, Spanish, Italian, French, Russian, Arabic, and ancient and modern Greek.
A pivotal event was the 1850 death of his brother, a wealthy speculator in the California gold fields.
Seeking his brother's inheritance, Schliemann arrived in California a year later and started a bank in Sacramento. He made over $1 million buying and reselling gold dust in half a year. He left for Russian shortly thereafter due to what he said was a severe fever. Others claim he was involved in underhanded business practices amid a Wild West where lynching was common.
Schliemann displayed his business savvy in Russia, where he cornered the market for the mineral indigo.
During the Crimean War in 1854, Schliemann expanded his fortune even more doing work as a military contractor. He cornered the market in brimstone, lead and saltpeter — used in gunpowder — all of which he sold to the Russian government.
His extraordinary wealth set the stage for Schliemann to travel the world. This included China, Japan, India, Egypt, Mexico, France and Greece, all by the age of 45.
The next year he launched his dream to be an archaeologist and find Troy in Turkey or Greece.
Those who believed it existed focused on three locations. The most popular choice was Bunarbashi by the Aegean Sea.
Schliemann looked it over but was not convinced, as the Homeric tales that described the geography of Troy didn't seem to match the area. "The Iliad" said Mount Ida was visible from the walls of Troy, but the mountain could not be seen from Bunarbashi. Other descriptions also failed to match up.
Before continuing his exploration, Schliemann went to Paris for two years to study, write a book on Troy and receive a doctorate.
Returning to the Mediterranean area, Schliemann met with British archaeologist Frank Calvert, who believed the place to look for Troy was Hisarlik in present-day Turkey. The geography was a match.
Calvert had long focused on Hisarlik as the right site, but he couldn't persuade the British government to support his excavations. So he turned to Schliemann, who had the money and drive to begin the work.
When Schliemann announced he was intent on discovering Troy, some archaeologists reacted with indifference and sarcasm.
Schliemann shrugged them off. The Hisarlik excavation started in 1871 with the help of 70 local workers. In the first dig, all Schliemann found was a relief and an ancient wall. Coming back the next summer, this time with 160 workers, Schliemann's crew dug deeper. This time the team determined that multiple cities had been built and rebuilt at the site, one above the other.
Targeting The Jackpot
Schliemann aimed to find what he called Priam's Treasure. According to Homer, Priam ruled Troy during the Trojan War. The king must have hidden his treasure somewhere in the city, Schliemann thought.
With shafts dug deep into the hillside, Schliemann caught site of a glint of copper. Upon further excavation, he found cups, vases, necklaces, a copper shield and gold earrings. He claimed it was Priam's Treasure and that Troy had been found, a view accepted by many.
Problems with the Turkish government erupted when officials discovered that Schliemann had pilfered many precious artifacts. Forced to leave Turkey, he headed for Greece to evacuate Mycenae.
There he uncovered gold, silver and bronze artifacts and laid bare considerable fortifications. He discovered remnants of the Mycenaean civilization, shedding much light on the prehistoric period of Greece.
He also excavated Tiryns, where he unearthed an important Bronze Age palace, in 1876.
After 20 years of work, from 1870 to 1890, Schliemann traveled to Athens for an operation on his chronically infected ears. The problem led to Schliemann's death that year.
After his death, archaeologists continued to study Schliemann's work and dig at the same sites. They discovered that the actual city of Homer's Troy was several layers deeper than Schliemann claimed, but that he was in the right spot.
As a testament to observers who described Schliemann as ferociously ambitious and gregarious, he had this inscribed at his mausoleum:
"For the Hero Schliemann."
Copyright 2000-2007 Investor's Business Daily, Inc.
Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree
Hola darlings! I'm sure I've mentioned this before. I'm a creature of the light. The darkness wears me down. I don't like forcing myself out of bed at 6 a.m. when it's still dark outside, and I don't like coming home from the office at 6 p.m. when it's dark outside. Yech! But - this morning - the Christmas Spirit hit me. Well, that's not to say I haven't been in a festive mood, because I like Christmas - when it's here I know the days are already starting to get longer by a few minutes each day and except for brutal temperatures in January and February and the occasional blizzard or ice storm in March and April (and even May), the worst is over! I know that in a scant six months it will still be lingering daylight at 9:30 p.m. Ahhhhhhh, those long warm evenings spent out on the deck, sipping wine, listening to smooth jazz, communing with the stars and my resident critters. That's the life, darlings!
As is my wont even on the weekends, I arose at 6 a.m. this morning. I was sitting at the dinette table, just two paltry mini fluorescent light bulbs in my five-light chandelier holding off the chill darkness as it snowed outside, brrrrr. As I do every Sunday morning, I had my coffee at hand and the big thick newspaper to keep me company. I generally spend a good 3 to 4 hours reading through the entire Sunday newspaper, including most of the sale papers, marvelling at how many things I would like to buy if only I could afford them! I had my favorite smooth jazz radio station (FM) on the radio and was munching on some salt-crusted rye bread and butter when one of my favorite songs came on: Nat King Cole's "Christmas Song." You know the song - even if you don't know the title. It's the one that starts out "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose..."
That did it - it was the perfect time, the perfect song. I was enveloped in Nat's marvelous voice and swept back to my childhood when Nat King Cole actually had a television show. His talent and charisma were such that even broadcast television recognized it, and so there was this black man on the t.v. - in black and white (ironic???) in the late 1950's, and I just loved the man. When he sang, I was transported to another world. Indeed, he was a favorite of the entire family. Unfortunately, the show was never a commercial success; sponsors were scared to death of being boycotted by the southern white racists back then, and so the show disappeared after about a year. Of course, back then, as a five year old, I had no idea what was going on; I just knew I loved the man with the wonderful voice, and to this day I will stop and listen, no matter where I am, when I hear Nat King Cole's voice.
"The Christmas Song" represents the essence of Christmas to me (I'm about to commit blasphemy here - even more so than Bing Crosby's "White Christmas"), and even after all these years, the song never fails to touch me. And so it did, again, this morning.
Today was the big day to decorate the Christmas tree, as the Packers were going to be on t.v. I could watch The Pack whup major butt while I spent a leisurely 3 hours decorating the tree. Yesterday, I'd successfully managed to retrieve it from the garage (although not without some mishap). For a rather smallish tree (it's only 6.5 feet tall and not very wide), it's amazingly heavy. It's also in three sections that somehow manage to come apart whenever I'm attempting to lift the tree or drag it somewhere...
Anyway, darlings, I gave up decorating the tree for the day at about 6:00 p.m. Whew! Been at it since 10:30 a.m. and somehow I have lots of ornaments left over that were ALL on the tree last year. Eek! What did I do wrong, I ask you? And - ohmygoddess - I asked dondelion to bring me a minimum of 10 quite beautiful burgundy and gold bead sunburst ornaments when he comes for Christmas. I found them online while shopping yesterday but it seems the only place that sells them is a tire place in Canada (I'm not kidding, it's a tire place) and you must go to one of their stores in person in order to purchase the ornaments - can you imagine?
I'm scratching my head wondering where on earth I managed to put on to the tree all the left-overs I have this year. I'll take it up tomorrow night when I get home from the office. And of course the burgundy Canadian starbursts will have places on the tree found for them, too!
The photograph is from Christmas, 2006. I don't think it quite does the tree justice - but you get the general idea. I like lots of glitz and glamour - pearls and gold and the sparkle of "diamonds".
Cyberspace Terrorism or Just "Amateurs" Goofing Around?
China Link Suspected in Lab Hacking
By JOHN MARKOFF
Published: December 9, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 8 — A cyber attack reported last week by one of the federal government’s nuclear weapons laboratories may have originated in China, according to a confidential memorandum distributed Wednesday to public and private security officials by the Department of Homeland Security.
Security researchers said the memorandum, which was obtained by The New York Times from an executive at a private company, included a list of Web and Internet addresses that were linked to locations in China. However, they noted that such links did not prove that the Chinese government or Chinese citizens were involved in the attacks. In the past, intruders have compromised computers in China and then used them to disguise their true location.
Officials at the lab, Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, said the attacks did not compromise classified information, though they acknowledged that they were still working to understand the full extent of the intrusion.
The Department of Homeland Security distributed the confidential warning to computer security officials on Wednesday after what it described as a set of “sophisticated attempts” to compromise computers used by the private sector and the government.
Government computer security officials said the warning, which was issued by the United States Computer Emergency Response Team, known as US-CERT, was related to an October attack that was also disclosed last week by officials at the Oak Ridge laboratory.
According to a letter to employees written by the laboratory’s director, Thom Mason, an unknown group of attackers sent targeted e-mail messages to roughly 1,100 employees as part of the ruse.
“At this point, we have determined that the thieves made approximately 1,100 attempts to steal data with a very sophisticated strategy that involved sending staff a total of seven ‘phishing’ e-mails, all of which at first glance appeared legitimate,” he wrote in an e-mail message sent to employees on Monday. “At present we believe that about 11 staff opened the attachments, which enabled the hackers to infiltrate the system and remove data.”
In a statement posted on the laboratory’s Web site, the agency stated: “The original e-mail and first potential corruption occurred on October 29, 2007. We have reason to believe that data was stolen from a database used for visitors to the Laboratory.”
The laboratory said the attackers were able to gain access to a database containing personal information about visitors to the laboratory going back to 1990.
The US-CERT advisory, which was not made public, stated: “The level of sophistication and the scope of these cyber security incidents indicate that they are coordinated and targeted at private sector systems.”
The US-CERT memo referred to the use of e-mail messages that fool employees into clicking on documents that then permit attackers to plant programs in their computers. These programs are then able to copy and forward specific data — like passwords — to remote locations.
Despite improvements in computer security, phishing attacks are still a big problem. In the case of the Oak Ridge intrusion, the e-mail messages were made to seem authentic. One described a scientific conference and another referred to a Federal Trade Commission complaint.
Computer security researchers cautioned that despite the US-CERT description of the attacks as sophisticated, such threats are frequently undertaken by amateur computer hackers.
Classified federal computer networks are not supposed to be connected physically to the open Internet. Even so, sensitive data like employee e-mail databases can easily be compromised once access is gained to computers inside federal agencies.
By JOHN MARKOFF
Published: December 9, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 8 — A cyber attack reported last week by one of the federal government’s nuclear weapons laboratories may have originated in China, according to a confidential memorandum distributed Wednesday to public and private security officials by the Department of Homeland Security.
Security researchers said the memorandum, which was obtained by The New York Times from an executive at a private company, included a list of Web and Internet addresses that were linked to locations in China. However, they noted that such links did not prove that the Chinese government or Chinese citizens were involved in the attacks. In the past, intruders have compromised computers in China and then used them to disguise their true location.
Officials at the lab, Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, said the attacks did not compromise classified information, though they acknowledged that they were still working to understand the full extent of the intrusion.
The Department of Homeland Security distributed the confidential warning to computer security officials on Wednesday after what it described as a set of “sophisticated attempts” to compromise computers used by the private sector and the government.
Government computer security officials said the warning, which was issued by the United States Computer Emergency Response Team, known as US-CERT, was related to an October attack that was also disclosed last week by officials at the Oak Ridge laboratory.
According to a letter to employees written by the laboratory’s director, Thom Mason, an unknown group of attackers sent targeted e-mail messages to roughly 1,100 employees as part of the ruse.
“At this point, we have determined that the thieves made approximately 1,100 attempts to steal data with a very sophisticated strategy that involved sending staff a total of seven ‘phishing’ e-mails, all of which at first glance appeared legitimate,” he wrote in an e-mail message sent to employees on Monday. “At present we believe that about 11 staff opened the attachments, which enabled the hackers to infiltrate the system and remove data.”
In a statement posted on the laboratory’s Web site, the agency stated: “The original e-mail and first potential corruption occurred on October 29, 2007. We have reason to believe that data was stolen from a database used for visitors to the Laboratory.”
The laboratory said the attackers were able to gain access to a database containing personal information about visitors to the laboratory going back to 1990.
The US-CERT advisory, which was not made public, stated: “The level of sophistication and the scope of these cyber security incidents indicate that they are coordinated and targeted at private sector systems.”
The US-CERT memo referred to the use of e-mail messages that fool employees into clicking on documents that then permit attackers to plant programs in their computers. These programs are then able to copy and forward specific data — like passwords — to remote locations.
Despite improvements in computer security, phishing attacks are still a big problem. In the case of the Oak Ridge intrusion, the e-mail messages were made to seem authentic. One described a scientific conference and another referred to a Federal Trade Commission complaint.
Computer security researchers cautioned that despite the US-CERT description of the attacks as sophisticated, such threats are frequently undertaken by amateur computer hackers.
Classified federal computer networks are not supposed to be connected physically to the open Internet. Even so, sensitive data like employee e-mail databases can easily be compromised once access is gained to computers inside federal agencies.
As Iraqis Vie for Kirkuk’s Oil, Kurds Are Pawns
From The New York Times:
By STEPHEN FARRELL
Published: December 9, 2007
KIRKUK, Iraq — Even by the skewed standards of a country where millions are homeless or in exile, the squalor of the Kirkuk soccer stadium is a startling sight.
Published: December 9, 2007
KIRKUK, Iraq — Even by the skewed standards of a country where millions are homeless or in exile, the squalor of the Kirkuk soccer stadium is a startling sight.
On the outskirts of a city adjoining some of Iraq’s most lucrative oil reserves, a rivulet of urine flows past the entrance to the barren playing field.
There are no spectators, only 2,200 Kurdish squatters who have converted the dugouts, stands and parking lot into a refugee city of cinder-block hovels covered in Kurdish political graffiti, some for President Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
These homeless Kurds are here not for soccer but for politics. They are reluctant players in a future referendum to decide whether oil-rich Tamim Province in the north and its capital, Kirkuk, will become part of the semiautonomous Kurdish regional government or remain under administration by Baghdad.
Under the Iraqi Constitution the referendum is due before Dec. 31. But in a nation with a famously slow political clock, one of the few things on which Kirkuk’s Kurdish, Arab and Turkmen communities agree is that yet another political deadline is about to be missed.
This unstable city can ill afford much more delay and uncertainty. The fusion of oil, politics and ethnic tensions make Kirkuk one of the most potentially explosive places in the country, and its fate is seen as a crucial issue by all sides in the debate about whether Iraq will eventually be partitioned among Kurds, Sunni Arabs and Shiite Arabs.
What rankles the stadium’s impoverished Kurds most is that while they remain in a foul-smelling limbo, on the other side of town some of the Arabs who were forcibly moved here by Saddam Hussein still live in comfortable suburbs, a legacy of the dictator’s notorious 1980s Anfal campaign to depopulate Kurdish areas and “Arabize” Tamim.
Moreover, some of the squatting Kurds complain that it is their own leaders who forced them to move to Kirkuk, to pack the city with Kurdish votes before the referendum.
Hajji Walid Muhammad, 67, a taxi driver here, grumbled that after the 2003 invasion, the Kurdish authorities told a gathering of Kirkuk-born Kurds living nearby in Chamchamal, “Even if you own a small tent you have to go back to your own homeland.”
When asked what would have happened if he had refused, Mr. Muhammad said: “By God’s name, they would cut off our food basket and not pay us our salary and give us nothing else and force us to go back. They ordered us to go back.”
Najat Jaseem Muhammad also said that the authorities “encouraged” him to leave Chamchamal, where he had lived since 1997. He said he was happy to be back in the town of his birth, but not to be living in such conditions, without enough money to escape.
“They said: ‘If you do not return, we will lose Kirkuk. You are Kurdish and Kirkuk must return to the arms of Kurdistan,’” he said, standing in front of political graffiti on a stadium pillar.
“It was not a matter of being forced, but if anyone stayed over there they would not have been supplied with anything and they would have been oppressed,” he added. “They would have stopped my work.”
In a province where the population balance has been distorted by decades of gerrymandering and forced settlement, the Iraqi Constitution spells out a three-stage process to resolve the issue. First a process of “normalization” to restore the city’s population balance to what it was before Mr. Hussein’s decrees, then a census, then the referendum.
But even that first stage is incomplete. American and international officials who have pushed for progress on the issue are conceding that the Dec. 31 date is unfeasible.
The inevitable delay frustrates the Kurds, who are confident of victory and suspect delaying tactics by opponents intent on keeping the land, and the oil.
In contrast, the delay is welcomed with ill-concealed delight by Kirkuk’s Arabs.
“I believe the main error was to set a holy date for the referendum,” said Tahsin Kahya, an Arab member of Kirkuk Provincial Council.
“A problem created over 35 years cannot be fixed in seven or eight months,” he added, ticking off with the ease of frequent practice the constitutional, logistic, legal, parliamentary, boundary, property and financial hurdles he believed should delay a referendum for “years, of course.”
In a volatile city where Sunni insurgent violence has been reduced significantly in recent months but not eliminated, how the Kurds react to the missed deadline will be crucial.
Another Game Bites the Dust - Computer Dust, That Is...
From The New York Times:
Death of Checkers, The
By CLIVE THOMPSON
Published: December 9, 2007
Checkers has been around for more than 400 years, has been enjoyed by billions of players and has taught generations of young children the joy of strategy.
And now it’s all over. This July, Jonathan Schaeffer, a computer scientist at the University of Alberta in Canada, announced that after running a computer program almost nonstop for 18 years, he had calculated the result of every possible endgame that could be played, all 39 trillion of them. He also revealed a sober fact about the game: checkers is a draw. As with tic-tac-toe, if both players never make a mistake, every match will end in a deadlock.
One upshot is that Schaeffer now possesses software that can play unbeatable checkers. Indeed, go to his Web site and you can play online yourself, providing you’re prepared to lose again and again and again — or maybe, just maybe, fight to a draw, assuming you, too, play with the crystalline perfection of a silicon brain.
Schaeffer did not solve checkers by replicating human intuition or game-playing ability. Rather, he employed what’s known as a “brute force” attack. He programmed a cluster of computers to play out every possible position involving 10 or fewer pieces. At the peak of his labors, he had 200 computers working around the clock on the problem, both in Alberta and down in California. (The data requirements were so high that for a while in the early ’90s, more than 80 percent of the Internet traffic in western North America was checkers data being shipped between two research institutions.)
The brute-force method is slow, which is its big limit. Schaeffer says he suspects you couldn’t use it to solve chess, because that game — with between 1040 and 1050 possible arrangements of pieces — is far more complicated than checkers, which has 5 × 1020 positions. “Chess won’t be solved in my lifetime,” he predicts. “We need some new breakthrough in technology to do that.
Death of Checkers, The
By CLIVE THOMPSON
Published: December 9, 2007
Checkers has been around for more than 400 years, has been enjoyed by billions of players and has taught generations of young children the joy of strategy.
And now it’s all over. This July, Jonathan Schaeffer, a computer scientist at the University of Alberta in Canada, announced that after running a computer program almost nonstop for 18 years, he had calculated the result of every possible endgame that could be played, all 39 trillion of them. He also revealed a sober fact about the game: checkers is a draw. As with tic-tac-toe, if both players never make a mistake, every match will end in a deadlock.
One upshot is that Schaeffer now possesses software that can play unbeatable checkers. Indeed, go to his Web site and you can play online yourself, providing you’re prepared to lose again and again and again — or maybe, just maybe, fight to a draw, assuming you, too, play with the crystalline perfection of a silicon brain.
Schaeffer did not solve checkers by replicating human intuition or game-playing ability. Rather, he employed what’s known as a “brute force” attack. He programmed a cluster of computers to play out every possible position involving 10 or fewer pieces. At the peak of his labors, he had 200 computers working around the clock on the problem, both in Alberta and down in California. (The data requirements were so high that for a while in the early ’90s, more than 80 percent of the Internet traffic in western North America was checkers data being shipped between two research institutions.)
The brute-force method is slow, which is its big limit. Schaeffer says he suspects you couldn’t use it to solve chess, because that game — with between 1040 and 1050 possible arrangements of pieces — is far more complicated than checkers, which has 5 × 1020 positions. “Chess won’t be solved in my lifetime,” he predicts. “We need some new breakthrough in technology to do that.
A White Knight for Iran's Women
From The Sunday Times
December 9, 2007
As coach to the Iranian chess team the British grandmaster found a way to put the nation’s zealots in check
Nigel Short
It was on, perhaps, the fifth occasion that the tournament hall was plunged into darkness at the Asian Cities chess championship in Tehran earlier this year that a daring, heterodox thought entered my head: could it be possible that when President Mahmoud Ahmadine-jad says Iran needs nuclear power for civilian purposes he might be telling the truth?
I am still slightly baffled as to how I, an oenophile, atheist Englishman, became Iran’s national chess coach: it began one evening five years ago when I was in my study thinking of interesting places to visit. Belgium did not set my pulse racing. Iran, on the other hand, had real novelty value.
Unfortunately I didn’t know anyone there. Undeterred, I fired off an e-mail to the president of the Iranian chess federation proposing that I play a match in Tehran against Ehsan Ghaem Maghami, the young Iranian champion. Twelve days later I received a response – “Dear Grandmaster Short, we agree with everything.”
Chess allegedly originated in India, although the first clear references to the game appear in Persian in the 6th century AD. The word “checkmate” is derived from the Persian “shah mat” – “the king is dead”. Alas, in more recent times the game did not enjoy official approval in Iran, and in the early 1980s it was banned by Ayatol-lah Khomeini as unIslamic. Shortly before his death, the supreme leader, in an uncharacteristic act of liberalism, revoked this measure, but not before he had ruined a generation of players.
The match with Ghaem Maghami proceeded smoothly (I won) and received excellent publicity. I was greatly touched by the warmth and friendliness of ordinary Iranians. However, there were a couple of jarring notes amid all the goodwill.
One of the girls on the national team invited me to her home for dinner, to which I agreed. It turned out that in order to take up her invitation I had to have the permission of both the federation and the religious police. Then, on the last day, as Mehrdad, an official and by now a friend, came to collect me from the hotel, a disagreement over payment occurred, which was odd because the federation owned the hotel.
When I asked for my passport, the woman at reception smiled but pointedly did nothing. Once previously I had been denied egress from a hotel, in Azerbaijan in the then Soviet Union in 1983, when I had been incarcerated for a day to prevent me, presumably as a potential spy for Her Majesty’s government, from witnessing the October revolutionary parade. It seemed quite fitting: Baku and Tehran, geographically so close; Marx and Muhammad, so radically different for their countless devotees but, from my perspective, more or less the same thing. This time, having finally been given my passport, I fought my way out, pushing, shoving, elbowing and barging my way past the porter who was blocking the door until I tumbled outside. Hailing a taxi, I reached the airport with minutes to spare.
After this highly stressful experience, I was in no particular hurry to return. However, more than three years later, after a chance chat with Mehrdad, I agreed to become the coach for the Iranian team for the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, in 2006, in which chess had been included as a sport for the first time.
I was assisted by the urbane, chain-smoking Khosrow Harandi. As Iran’s leading player during the 1970s, he had enjoyed an active international career. After Khomeini’s prohibition, Khosrow, who was living in Britain at the time, registered with the British Chess Federation so that he might continue to play. He is apparently the only Iranian sportsman since the revolution to have competed against an Israeli, despite dire warnings as to the possible consequences. “I won,” he told me with a smile. “I had to.”
My team comprised two men (Ehsan Ghaem Maghami and Elshan Moradiabadi) and a woman (Atousa Pourkashiyan). Realistically we had little chance of competing successfully against the superpow-ers of India and China, but against the others we could hope. Ehsan was on poor form but both Elshan and, in particular, Atousa excelled. Both were in contention for individual medals.
Sadly Atousa, who was within a whisker of success, blew the bronze with an unexpected last-round defeat. How should one comfort a distraught 18-year-old girl when it is expressly forbidden to shake hands, let alone hug her? Such are the problems of coaching Iran. Nevertheless, after recovering from these individual setbacks and by routing the strong Qatari team in the final round of the team event, we took a bronze – a great result.
In my report of the event, I stressed a vital and obvious point: if women are to reach their full potential, they have to be allowed to participate against the best opposition, which in chess means men. Within a week of this report having been submitted, the Iranian minister of sport had agreed to an unprecedented change in regulations. While it would be inaccurate for me to claim full responsibility for this seismic shift, it would, perhaps, be fair to say that I acted as a catalyst.
After Qatar, I was engaged as national coach in the run-up to the Asian Indoor Games in Macau, southern China. It was a part-time post, which required occasional visits rather than a permanent presence. There is no way I would have done it otherwise.
I have visited 84 countries, and Iran remains low on the list of places I would consider emigrating to. It is not the least bit dangerous – as many people in the West imagine – provided, of course, you observe the laws. However, if you are the sort of person sensitive enough to find Britain’s omnipresent CCTVs and the security checks at Heathrow airport an insult to human dignity, then you are likely to find Iran oppressive.
Iran is a strange society. Satellite TV is banned but you will find dishes on many a roof. Alcohol is forbidden but widely available in people’s homes. Cheap heroin, from next-door Afghanistan, is a major problem. And one doesn’t need a tour guide to find (scarf-clad) prostitutes walking the streets. All vices (or perceived vices) are present in abundance. In this, Iran does not differ from western countries, but the amount of hypocrisy is far greater.
In February I was appointed captain of the Tehran women’s team for the Asian Cities championship. Three (male) officials from the Islamic guidance ministry were sent to ensure the propriety of my players. Particular emphasis was laid on a good hijab. Outside, in the trendy cafes of the city, seductive expanses of hair can be glimpsed beneath fashionably bohemian attire, but for my girls, aged between 14 and 26, the strictest austerity was required. There were no objections. All were delighted, for once, to be allowed to compete with the boys.
Everything went well until one evening, when we all gathered in my suite to analyse a game in preparation for the following day. Suddenly there came an irate banging on the door. I opened it to find a bearded ministry official on the verge of apoplexy. I politely invited him in: after all, he had a job to do, as did I. He didn’t look much fun, but as none of us was naked and I didn’t imagine the subtleties of the Sicilian Najdorf were going to hold his interest, I reckoned he would soon be gone. In he stormed and barked something in Farsi, whereupon my team, in a state of panic, got up, grabbed their belongings and hurried out.
I was devastated. When I met them later in the restaurant, I told them, quite sincerely, that I must be insane to do this job and I was going to quit there and then. “Don’t, please. We need you,” they implored.
Meanwhile the hirsute ogre submitted a harshly condemnatory report. Interestingly, neither of his colleagues was prepared to sign it. Several members of our delegation quietly spoke to him to explain that coaching does, in fact, involve sitting down around a chessboard. Gradually he admitted that perhaps he had overreacted. On the final day, he came up to me and offered his hand, which I took as, if not an apology, then at least a peace offering. Despite the hassle, my team responded brilliantly, finishing eighth – way ahead of their 15th seeding – which made it all worthwhile.
With time I have found visiting Iran progressively easier. Usually only errant British sailors get to travel there visa-free, and the rest of us require approval from the Iranian foreign affairs ministry. Last time I received a multiple-entry visa, which is convenient but difficult to come by. With my expanding circle of friends, evenings at restaurants, coffee shops and homes become ever more enjoyable. My liver enjoys a much-deserved rest. Even the chaotic, cacophonous, clogged traffic has become a familiar friend.
I am always impressed by the high levels of education in Tehran. My coaching is conducted exclusively in English and without a translator. That does not mean that every word is understood, but I rarely have trouble communicating.
Unfortunately for Iran, the most qualified, moderate people are the ones most likely to emigrate. They do so in massive numbers. Several friends have left the country and many others will follow.
It is not only the lack of freedom (on the internet, even social networking sites such as Facebook are banned) but also the lack of good job opportunities that drives them away. With weak private enterprise and a large state sector, jobs are created by such inane expediencies as tearing up parking meters so graduates may write out tickets. How very Soviet.
December 9, 2007
As coach to the Iranian chess team the British grandmaster found a way to put the nation’s zealots in check
Nigel Short
It was on, perhaps, the fifth occasion that the tournament hall was plunged into darkness at the Asian Cities chess championship in Tehran earlier this year that a daring, heterodox thought entered my head: could it be possible that when President Mahmoud Ahmadine-jad says Iran needs nuclear power for civilian purposes he might be telling the truth?
I am still slightly baffled as to how I, an oenophile, atheist Englishman, became Iran’s national chess coach: it began one evening five years ago when I was in my study thinking of interesting places to visit. Belgium did not set my pulse racing. Iran, on the other hand, had real novelty value.
Unfortunately I didn’t know anyone there. Undeterred, I fired off an e-mail to the president of the Iranian chess federation proposing that I play a match in Tehran against Ehsan Ghaem Maghami, the young Iranian champion. Twelve days later I received a response – “Dear Grandmaster Short, we agree with everything.”
Chess allegedly originated in India, although the first clear references to the game appear in Persian in the 6th century AD. The word “checkmate” is derived from the Persian “shah mat” – “the king is dead”. Alas, in more recent times the game did not enjoy official approval in Iran, and in the early 1980s it was banned by Ayatol-lah Khomeini as unIslamic. Shortly before his death, the supreme leader, in an uncharacteristic act of liberalism, revoked this measure, but not before he had ruined a generation of players.
The match with Ghaem Maghami proceeded smoothly (I won) and received excellent publicity. I was greatly touched by the warmth and friendliness of ordinary Iranians. However, there were a couple of jarring notes amid all the goodwill.
One of the girls on the national team invited me to her home for dinner, to which I agreed. It turned out that in order to take up her invitation I had to have the permission of both the federation and the religious police. Then, on the last day, as Mehrdad, an official and by now a friend, came to collect me from the hotel, a disagreement over payment occurred, which was odd because the federation owned the hotel.
When I asked for my passport, the woman at reception smiled but pointedly did nothing. Once previously I had been denied egress from a hotel, in Azerbaijan in the then Soviet Union in 1983, when I had been incarcerated for a day to prevent me, presumably as a potential spy for Her Majesty’s government, from witnessing the October revolutionary parade. It seemed quite fitting: Baku and Tehran, geographically so close; Marx and Muhammad, so radically different for their countless devotees but, from my perspective, more or less the same thing. This time, having finally been given my passport, I fought my way out, pushing, shoving, elbowing and barging my way past the porter who was blocking the door until I tumbled outside. Hailing a taxi, I reached the airport with minutes to spare.
After this highly stressful experience, I was in no particular hurry to return. However, more than three years later, after a chance chat with Mehrdad, I agreed to become the coach for the Iranian team for the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, in 2006, in which chess had been included as a sport for the first time.
I was assisted by the urbane, chain-smoking Khosrow Harandi. As Iran’s leading player during the 1970s, he had enjoyed an active international career. After Khomeini’s prohibition, Khosrow, who was living in Britain at the time, registered with the British Chess Federation so that he might continue to play. He is apparently the only Iranian sportsman since the revolution to have competed against an Israeli, despite dire warnings as to the possible consequences. “I won,” he told me with a smile. “I had to.”
My team comprised two men (Ehsan Ghaem Maghami and Elshan Moradiabadi) and a woman (Atousa Pourkashiyan). Realistically we had little chance of competing successfully against the superpow-ers of India and China, but against the others we could hope. Ehsan was on poor form but both Elshan and, in particular, Atousa excelled. Both were in contention for individual medals.
Sadly Atousa, who was within a whisker of success, blew the bronze with an unexpected last-round defeat. How should one comfort a distraught 18-year-old girl when it is expressly forbidden to shake hands, let alone hug her? Such are the problems of coaching Iran. Nevertheless, after recovering from these individual setbacks and by routing the strong Qatari team in the final round of the team event, we took a bronze – a great result.
In my report of the event, I stressed a vital and obvious point: if women are to reach their full potential, they have to be allowed to participate against the best opposition, which in chess means men. Within a week of this report having been submitted, the Iranian minister of sport had agreed to an unprecedented change in regulations. While it would be inaccurate for me to claim full responsibility for this seismic shift, it would, perhaps, be fair to say that I acted as a catalyst.
After Qatar, I was engaged as national coach in the run-up to the Asian Indoor Games in Macau, southern China. It was a part-time post, which required occasional visits rather than a permanent presence. There is no way I would have done it otherwise.
I have visited 84 countries, and Iran remains low on the list of places I would consider emigrating to. It is not the least bit dangerous – as many people in the West imagine – provided, of course, you observe the laws. However, if you are the sort of person sensitive enough to find Britain’s omnipresent CCTVs and the security checks at Heathrow airport an insult to human dignity, then you are likely to find Iran oppressive.
Iran is a strange society. Satellite TV is banned but you will find dishes on many a roof. Alcohol is forbidden but widely available in people’s homes. Cheap heroin, from next-door Afghanistan, is a major problem. And one doesn’t need a tour guide to find (scarf-clad) prostitutes walking the streets. All vices (or perceived vices) are present in abundance. In this, Iran does not differ from western countries, but the amount of hypocrisy is far greater.
In February I was appointed captain of the Tehran women’s team for the Asian Cities championship. Three (male) officials from the Islamic guidance ministry were sent to ensure the propriety of my players. Particular emphasis was laid on a good hijab. Outside, in the trendy cafes of the city, seductive expanses of hair can be glimpsed beneath fashionably bohemian attire, but for my girls, aged between 14 and 26, the strictest austerity was required. There were no objections. All were delighted, for once, to be allowed to compete with the boys.
Everything went well until one evening, when we all gathered in my suite to analyse a game in preparation for the following day. Suddenly there came an irate banging on the door. I opened it to find a bearded ministry official on the verge of apoplexy. I politely invited him in: after all, he had a job to do, as did I. He didn’t look much fun, but as none of us was naked and I didn’t imagine the subtleties of the Sicilian Najdorf were going to hold his interest, I reckoned he would soon be gone. In he stormed and barked something in Farsi, whereupon my team, in a state of panic, got up, grabbed their belongings and hurried out.
I was devastated. When I met them later in the restaurant, I told them, quite sincerely, that I must be insane to do this job and I was going to quit there and then. “Don’t, please. We need you,” they implored.
Meanwhile the hirsute ogre submitted a harshly condemnatory report. Interestingly, neither of his colleagues was prepared to sign it. Several members of our delegation quietly spoke to him to explain that coaching does, in fact, involve sitting down around a chessboard. Gradually he admitted that perhaps he had overreacted. On the final day, he came up to me and offered his hand, which I took as, if not an apology, then at least a peace offering. Despite the hassle, my team responded brilliantly, finishing eighth – way ahead of their 15th seeding – which made it all worthwhile.
With time I have found visiting Iran progressively easier. Usually only errant British sailors get to travel there visa-free, and the rest of us require approval from the Iranian foreign affairs ministry. Last time I received a multiple-entry visa, which is convenient but difficult to come by. With my expanding circle of friends, evenings at restaurants, coffee shops and homes become ever more enjoyable. My liver enjoys a much-deserved rest. Even the chaotic, cacophonous, clogged traffic has become a familiar friend.
I am always impressed by the high levels of education in Tehran. My coaching is conducted exclusively in English and without a translator. That does not mean that every word is understood, but I rarely have trouble communicating.
Unfortunately for Iran, the most qualified, moderate people are the ones most likely to emigrate. They do so in massive numbers. Several friends have left the country and many others will follow.
It is not only the lack of freedom (on the internet, even social networking sites such as Facebook are banned) but also the lack of good job opportunities that drives them away. With weak private enterprise and a large state sector, jobs are created by such inane expediencies as tearing up parking meters so graduates may write out tickets. How very Soviet.
Something to Make You Smile
A few items passed along to me:
From Isis, wisdom from "Maxine:"
Maxine on Border Problems:
Everyone concentrates on the problems we're having in this country lately; illegal immigration, hurricane recovery, alligators attacking people in Florida . .
Not me. I concentrate on solutions for the problems. It's a win-win situation.
+ Dig a moat the length of the Mexican border.
+ Send the dirt to New Orleans to raise the level of the levies.
+ Put the Florida alligators in the moat along the Mexican border.
Any other problems you would like for me to solve today ?
From one of my sisters:
MENTAL HOSPITAL PHONE MENU
Hello and thank you for calling The State Mental Hospital. Please select from the following options menu:
If you are obsessive-compulsive, press 1 repeatedly.
If you are co-dependent, please ask someone to press 2 for you.
If you have multiple personalities, press 3, 4, 5 and 6.
If you are paranoid, we know who you are and what you want, stay on the Line so we can trace your call.
If you are delusional, press 7 and your call will be forwarded to the Mother Ship.
If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and a little voice will tell You which number to press.
If you are manic-depressive, it doesn't matter which number you press, Nothing will make you happy anyway.
If you are dyslexic, press 9696969696969696.
If you are bipolar, please leave a message after the beep or before the Beep or after the beep. Please wait for the beep.
If you have short-term memory loss, press 9. If you have short-term Memory loss, press 9. If you have short-term memory loss, press 9.
If you have low self-esteem, please hang up, our operators are too busy to talk with you.
If you are menopausal, put the gun down, hang up, turn on the fan, lie down and cry. You won't be crazy forever.
If you are blonde, don't press any buttons, you'll just mess it up.
This coming week is National Mental Health Care week. You can do your part by remembering to contact at least one unstable person to show you care. (Well, my job is done .....Your turn)
From Isis, wisdom from "Maxine:"
Maxine on Border Problems:
Everyone concentrates on the problems we're having in this country lately; illegal immigration, hurricane recovery, alligators attacking people in Florida . .
Not me. I concentrate on solutions for the problems. It's a win-win situation.
+ Dig a moat the length of the Mexican border.
+ Send the dirt to New Orleans to raise the level of the levies.
+ Put the Florida alligators in the moat along the Mexican border.
Any other problems you would like for me to solve today ?
From one of my sisters:
MENTAL HOSPITAL PHONE MENU
Hello and thank you for calling The State Mental Hospital. Please select from the following options menu:
If you are obsessive-compulsive, press 1 repeatedly.
If you are co-dependent, please ask someone to press 2 for you.
If you have multiple personalities, press 3, 4, 5 and 6.
If you are paranoid, we know who you are and what you want, stay on the Line so we can trace your call.
If you are delusional, press 7 and your call will be forwarded to the Mother Ship.
If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and a little voice will tell You which number to press.
If you are manic-depressive, it doesn't matter which number you press, Nothing will make you happy anyway.
If you are dyslexic, press 9696969696969696.
If you are bipolar, please leave a message after the beep or before the Beep or after the beep. Please wait for the beep.
If you have short-term memory loss, press 9. If you have short-term Memory loss, press 9. If you have short-term memory loss, press 9.
If you have low self-esteem, please hang up, our operators are too busy to talk with you.
If you are menopausal, put the gun down, hang up, turn on the fan, lie down and cry. You won't be crazy forever.
If you are blonde, don't press any buttons, you'll just mess it up.
This coming week is National Mental Health Care week. You can do your part by remembering to contact at least one unstable person to show you care. (Well, my job is done .....Your turn)
Ancient Persian Bridge Destroyed by Islamic Regime
CAIS reports:
Islamic Regime have Finally Destroyed 2200-year-old Parthian Bridge of Khoda-Afarid (Negin)
December 8, 2007
LONDON, (CAIS) -- Islamic regime's authority have destroyed the remains of 2200-year-old Khoda-Afarid bridge also known as Negin, in Shiniyar district of Masjed-Soleyman in Khuzestan province.
The destruction of the bridge was began in September under the guise of construction of a new bridge, and despite all the oppositions from cultural figures and the Iranian nation, the Khuzestan Governor office went ahead and removed the last stone of the ancient bridge.
The ancient bridge of Khoda-Afarid (Xodā-āfarīd) which is known to local Bakhtiari population known as Negin, was one of the best preserved and intact bridges of its type remained in Iran-proper from Arsacid dynasty (248 BCE-224 CE).
"The 60 meters in length was the best survived Parthian water engineering example in the country, which was demolished despite the 100-meter legal protection boundary, imposed by Khuzestan Province Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization [KCHTO]" said Mojtaba Gahstooni, the spokesman for the Khusestan’s Friends of the Cultural Heritage Association (Tariana) in September 2007.
Since 1979 and the rise of Islamic regime to power, the ruling clerics have been devoted themselves to destroy and erase all the pre-Islamic Iranian culture and civilisation, under the guise of construction projects. Since then, the regime have destroyed large number of major cultural landmarks associated with the ancient Iranian civilisation.
Islamic Regime have Finally Destroyed 2200-year-old Parthian Bridge of Khoda-Afarid (Negin)
December 8, 2007
LONDON, (CAIS) -- Islamic regime's authority have destroyed the remains of 2200-year-old Khoda-Afarid bridge also known as Negin, in Shiniyar district of Masjed-Soleyman in Khuzestan province.
The destruction of the bridge was began in September under the guise of construction of a new bridge, and despite all the oppositions from cultural figures and the Iranian nation, the Khuzestan Governor office went ahead and removed the last stone of the ancient bridge.
The ancient bridge of Khoda-Afarid (Xodā-āfarīd) which is known to local Bakhtiari population known as Negin, was one of the best preserved and intact bridges of its type remained in Iran-proper from Arsacid dynasty (248 BCE-224 CE).
"The 60 meters in length was the best survived Parthian water engineering example in the country, which was demolished despite the 100-meter legal protection boundary, imposed by Khuzestan Province Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization [KCHTO]" said Mojtaba Gahstooni, the spokesman for the Khusestan’s Friends of the Cultural Heritage Association (Tariana) in September 2007.
Since 1979 and the rise of Islamic regime to power, the ruling clerics have been devoted themselves to destroy and erase all the pre-Islamic Iranian culture and civilisation, under the guise of construction projects. Since then, the regime have destroyed large number of major cultural landmarks associated with the ancient Iranian civilisation.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Water Wars - More Precious Than Oil
Darlings - here's a no-brainer investment tip: buy a good water ETF like PHO, and hang on to it for dear life for the next 20 years.
Think I'm full of baloney? Just take a look at what is happening in the USA: severe, sustained drought in the southwest due to climate changes; the same in the southeast US (I sure wouldn't want to be living in Atlanta right now); more and more sink holes showing up in Florida due to depletion of water tables.
We also have deteriorating and collapsing infrastructure, often more than 100 years old, that needs to be replaced. We have lead pipes and PCP pipes, both hazardous to people's health. We have antiquated sewerage treatment systems. We have systems that co-mingle sanitary sewerage with storm run-off.
And we in the USA have a LOT of fresh water sources and the technology to provide safe drinking water to all of our population. BUT - THE COST! Oy! The cost!
So, what are they going to do in China? Asia? Africa?
From the Times Online
December 4, 2007
Water shortages are likely to be trigger for wars, says UN chief Ban Ki Moon
By Leo Lewis in Beppu
A struggle by nations to secure sources of clean water will be “potent fuel” for war, the first Asia-Pacific Water Summit heard yesterday.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon, told delegates from across the region that the planet faced a water crisis that was especially troubling for Asia.
High population growth, rising consumption, pollution and poor water management posed significant threats, he said, adding that climate change was also making “a bad situation worse”.
Mr Ban went on to condemn the lack of heed paid by governments to these warning signs: “Throughout the world, water resources continue to be spoiled, wasted and degraded.
“The consequences for humanity are grave. Water scarcity threatens economic and social gains and is a potent fuel for wars and conflict.”
His remarks come as environmental experts in Great Britain have identified 46 countries — home to 2.7 billion people — where climate change and water-related crises will create a high risk of violent conflict.
A further 56, representing another 1.2 billion people, are at high risk of political instability, claims a report by International Alert, which concludes that it is now “too late to believe the situation can be made safe solely by reducing carbon emissions worldwide and mitigating climate change”.
Janani Vivekananda, one of the authors of the International Alert report said: “Water management will be a huge tinderbox and now is the time for international organisations to come together. There is huge potential not just for conflict but for co-operation.”
Mr Ban's comments were echoed by many of the other speakers at the water summit, who gathered in southwestern Japan to discuss a range of issues, including policies that might prevent the various aspects of an Asian water crisis deepening into armed conflict.
Yasuo Fukuda, the Japanese Prime Minister, vowed yesterday that water and climate change would be at the top of the agenda for the Group of Eight summit in Japan next summer.
The Beppu summit, which began on the same day as UN Climate Change talks in Bali, also coincides with a study directly linking water shortages to violence throughout history.
In a report published in by the United States National Academy of Sciences journal today, David Zhang, of Hong Kong University, has analysed a half millennium's worth of human conflict — more than 8,000 wars — and concluded that climate change and resulting water shortage has been a far greater trigger than imagined previously.
If global warming continues, water shortages could trigger more wars, Dr Zhang told The Times: “We are on alert, because this gives us the indication that resource shortage is the main cause of war. Human beings will definitely have conflicts over this; whether it turns to war depends on the quality of the social buffer available to each nation, but the danger is right there.”
The Asia Development Bank, which was also represented at the Beppu summit, informed delegates that without rational water development and better management, the future social development of Asian developing countries would be seriously jeopardised. The president of the ADB, Haruhiko Kuroda, said that his bank now plans to double investment in Asian water projects to $2 billion per year, given the potential for conflict if water governance remains weak.
Think I'm full of baloney? Just take a look at what is happening in the USA: severe, sustained drought in the southwest due to climate changes; the same in the southeast US (I sure wouldn't want to be living in Atlanta right now); more and more sink holes showing up in Florida due to depletion of water tables.
We also have deteriorating and collapsing infrastructure, often more than 100 years old, that needs to be replaced. We have lead pipes and PCP pipes, both hazardous to people's health. We have antiquated sewerage treatment systems. We have systems that co-mingle sanitary sewerage with storm run-off.
And we in the USA have a LOT of fresh water sources and the technology to provide safe drinking water to all of our population. BUT - THE COST! Oy! The cost!
So, what are they going to do in China? Asia? Africa?
From the Times Online
December 4, 2007
Water shortages are likely to be trigger for wars, says UN chief Ban Ki Moon
By Leo Lewis in Beppu
A struggle by nations to secure sources of clean water will be “potent fuel” for war, the first Asia-Pacific Water Summit heard yesterday.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon, told delegates from across the region that the planet faced a water crisis that was especially troubling for Asia.
High population growth, rising consumption, pollution and poor water management posed significant threats, he said, adding that climate change was also making “a bad situation worse”.
Mr Ban went on to condemn the lack of heed paid by governments to these warning signs: “Throughout the world, water resources continue to be spoiled, wasted and degraded.
“The consequences for humanity are grave. Water scarcity threatens economic and social gains and is a potent fuel for wars and conflict.”
His remarks come as environmental experts in Great Britain have identified 46 countries — home to 2.7 billion people — where climate change and water-related crises will create a high risk of violent conflict.
A further 56, representing another 1.2 billion people, are at high risk of political instability, claims a report by International Alert, which concludes that it is now “too late to believe the situation can be made safe solely by reducing carbon emissions worldwide and mitigating climate change”.
Janani Vivekananda, one of the authors of the International Alert report said: “Water management will be a huge tinderbox and now is the time for international organisations to come together. There is huge potential not just for conflict but for co-operation.”
Mr Ban's comments were echoed by many of the other speakers at the water summit, who gathered in southwestern Japan to discuss a range of issues, including policies that might prevent the various aspects of an Asian water crisis deepening into armed conflict.
Yasuo Fukuda, the Japanese Prime Minister, vowed yesterday that water and climate change would be at the top of the agenda for the Group of Eight summit in Japan next summer.
The Beppu summit, which began on the same day as UN Climate Change talks in Bali, also coincides with a study directly linking water shortages to violence throughout history.
In a report published in by the United States National Academy of Sciences journal today, David Zhang, of Hong Kong University, has analysed a half millennium's worth of human conflict — more than 8,000 wars — and concluded that climate change and resulting water shortage has been a far greater trigger than imagined previously.
If global warming continues, water shortages could trigger more wars, Dr Zhang told The Times: “We are on alert, because this gives us the indication that resource shortage is the main cause of war. Human beings will definitely have conflicts over this; whether it turns to war depends on the quality of the social buffer available to each nation, but the danger is right there.”
The Asia Development Bank, which was also represented at the Beppu summit, informed delegates that without rational water development and better management, the future social development of Asian developing countries would be seriously jeopardised. The president of the ADB, Haruhiko Kuroda, said that his bank now plans to double investment in Asian water projects to $2 billion per year, given the potential for conflict if water governance remains weak.
Are the "Nessie" in Loch Ness Some of These?
Remains Of Prehistoric Sea "Monster" Found
Bus-Sized Reptile May Be New Species Of Plesiosaur; Found Near Norway
OSLO, Norway, Dec. 4, 2007
(CBS/AP) Remains of a bus-sized prehistoric "monster" reptile found on a remote Arctic island may be a new species never before recorded by science, researchers said Tuesday.
Initial excavation of a site on the Svalbard islands in August yielded the remains, teeth, skull fragments and vertebrae of a reptile estimated to measure nearly 40 feet long, said paleontologist Joern Harald Hurum of the Natural History Museum at the University of Oslo.
"The new monster we found this year is of the same species as the one we excavated this year (and found last year) there are not two new species of large pliosaurs but one," Hurm told CBSNews.com via e-mail.
His team described those 150-million-year-old remains as belonging to a short-necked plesiosaur measuring more than 30 feet - "as long as a bus ... with teeth larger than cucumbers."
The short-necked plesiosaur was a voracious reptile often described as the Tyrannosaurus rex of the oceans. Mark Evans, a plesiosaur expert at the Leicester City Museums in Britain, said he [did] not know enough about the Norwegian find to comment on it specifically. But he said new types of the sea reptiles are being found regularly. "We are regularly seeing new species of plesiosaurs popping up - in a way because, in the past 10 or 15 years, there has been what we call a renaissance in plesiosaur research," Evans said by telephone.
Hurum said the team had only managed to excavate a 3-yard area of the find. The Norwegian-led team plans to present more detailed findings early next year, and return to Svalbard, 300 miles north of Norway's mainland, to excavate further next year.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Prior story.
Bus-Sized Reptile May Be New Species Of Plesiosaur; Found Near Norway
OSLO, Norway, Dec. 4, 2007
(CBS/AP) Remains of a bus-sized prehistoric "monster" reptile found on a remote Arctic island may be a new species never before recorded by science, researchers said Tuesday.
Initial excavation of a site on the Svalbard islands in August yielded the remains, teeth, skull fragments and vertebrae of a reptile estimated to measure nearly 40 feet long, said paleontologist Joern Harald Hurum of the Natural History Museum at the University of Oslo.
"The new monster we found this year is of the same species as the one we excavated this year (and found last year) there are not two new species of large pliosaurs but one," Hurm told CBSNews.com via e-mail.
His team described those 150-million-year-old remains as belonging to a short-necked plesiosaur measuring more than 30 feet - "as long as a bus ... with teeth larger than cucumbers."
The short-necked plesiosaur was a voracious reptile often described as the Tyrannosaurus rex of the oceans. Mark Evans, a plesiosaur expert at the Leicester City Museums in Britain, said he [did] not know enough about the Norwegian find to comment on it specifically. But he said new types of the sea reptiles are being found regularly. "We are regularly seeing new species of plesiosaurs popping up - in a way because, in the past 10 or 15 years, there has been what we call a renaissance in plesiosaur research," Evans said by telephone.
Hurum said the team had only managed to excavate a 3-yard area of the find. The Norwegian-led team plans to present more detailed findings early next year, and return to Svalbard, 300 miles north of Norway's mainland, to excavate further next year.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Prior story.
The Judas Gospel Revisited
Did the National Geographic make a hash of the translation of the Judas Gospel? And, if so, was it deliberate?
From The New York Times
December 1, 2007
Gospel Truth
By APRIL D. DECONICK
AMID much publicity last year, the National Geographic Society announced that a lost 3rd-century religious text had been found, the Gospel of Judas Iscariot. The shocker: Judas didn’t betray Jesus. Instead, Jesus asked Judas, his most trusted and beloved disciple, to hand him over to be killed. Judas’s reward? Ascent to heaven and exaltation above the other disciples.
It was a great story. Unfortunately, after re-translating the society’s transcription of the Coptic text, I have found that the actual meaning is vastly different. While National Geographic’s translation supported the provocative interpretation of Judas as a hero, a more careful reading makes clear that Judas is not only no hero, he is a demon.
Several of the translation choices made by the society’s scholars fall well outside the commonly accepted practices in the field. For example, in one instance the National Geographic transcription refers to Judas as a “daimon,” which the society’s experts have translated as “spirit.” Actually, the universally accepted word for “spirit” is “pneuma ” — in Gnostic literature “daimon” is always taken to mean “demon.”
Likewise, Judas is not set apart “for” the holy generation, as the National Geographic translation says, he is separated “from” it. He does not receive the mysteries of the kingdom because “it is possible for him to go there.” He receives them because Jesus tells him that he can’t go there, and Jesus doesn’t want Judas to betray him out of ignorance. Jesus wants him informed, so that the demonic Judas can suffer all that he deserves.
Perhaps the most egregious mistake I found was a single alteration made to the original Coptic. According to the National Geographic translation, Judas’s ascent to the holy generation would be cursed. But it’s clear from the transcription that the scholars altered the Coptic original, which eliminated a negative from the original sentence. In fact, the original states that Judas will “not ascend to the holy generation.” To its credit, National Geographic has acknowledged this mistake, albeit far too late to change the public misconception.
So what does the Gospel of Judas really say? It says that Judas is a specific demon called the “Thirteenth.” In certain Gnostic traditions, this is the given name of the king of demons — an entity known as Ialdabaoth who lives in the 13th realm above the earth. Judas is his human alter ego, his undercover agent in the world. These Gnostics equated Ialdabaoth with the Hebrew Yahweh, whom they saw as a jealous and wrathful deity and an opponent of the supreme God whom Jesus came to earth to reveal.
Whoever wrote the Gospel of Judas was a harsh critic of mainstream Christianity and its rituals. Because Judas is a demon working for Ialdabaoth, the author believed, when Judas sacrifices Jesus he does so to the demons, not to the supreme God. This mocks mainstream Christians’ belief in the atoning value of Jesus’ death and in the effectiveness of the Eucharist.
How could these serious mistakes have been made? Were they genuine errors or was something more deliberate going on? This is the question of the hour, and I do not have a satisfactory answer.
Admittedly, the society had a tough task: restoring an old gospel that was lying in a box of its own crumbs. It had been looted from an Egyptian tomb in the 1970s and languished on the underground antiquities market for decades, even spending time in someone’s freezer. So it is truly incredible that the society could resurrect any part of it, let alone piece together about 85 percent of it.
That said, I think the big problem is that National Geographic wanted an exclusive. So it required its scholars to sign nondisclosure statements, to not discuss the text with other experts before publication. The best scholarship is done when life-sized photos of each page of a new manuscript are published before a translation, allowing experts worldwide to share information as they independently work through the text.
Another difficulty is that when National Geographic published its transcription, the facsimiles of the original manuscript it made public were reduced by 56 percent, making them fairly useless for academic work. Without life-size copies, we are the blind leading the blind. The situation reminds me of the deadlock that held scholarship back on the Dead Sea Scrolls decades ago. When manuscripts are hoarded by a few, it results in errors and monopoly interpretations that are very hard to overturn even after they are proved wrong.
To avoid this, the Society of Biblical Literature passed a resolution in 1991 holding that, if the condition of the written manuscript requires that access be restricted, a facsimile reproduction should be the first order of business. It’s a shame that National Geographic, and its group of scholars, did not follow this sensible injunction.
I have wondered why so many scholars and writers have been inspired by the National Geographic version of the Gospel of Judas. I think it may stem from an understandable desire to reform the relationship between Jews and Christians. Judas is a frightening character. For Christians, he is the one who had it all and yet betrayed God to his death for a few coins. For Jews, he is the man whose story was used by Christians to persecute them for centuries. Although we should continue to work toward a reconciliation of this ancient schism, manufacturing a hero Judas is not the answer.
April D. DeConick, a professor of Biblical studies at Rice University, is the author of “The Thirteenth Apostle: What the Gospel of Judas Really Says.”
From The New York Times
December 1, 2007
Gospel Truth
By APRIL D. DECONICK
AMID much publicity last year, the National Geographic Society announced that a lost 3rd-century religious text had been found, the Gospel of Judas Iscariot. The shocker: Judas didn’t betray Jesus. Instead, Jesus asked Judas, his most trusted and beloved disciple, to hand him over to be killed. Judas’s reward? Ascent to heaven and exaltation above the other disciples.
It was a great story. Unfortunately, after re-translating the society’s transcription of the Coptic text, I have found that the actual meaning is vastly different. While National Geographic’s translation supported the provocative interpretation of Judas as a hero, a more careful reading makes clear that Judas is not only no hero, he is a demon.
Several of the translation choices made by the society’s scholars fall well outside the commonly accepted practices in the field. For example, in one instance the National Geographic transcription refers to Judas as a “daimon,” which the society’s experts have translated as “spirit.” Actually, the universally accepted word for “spirit” is “pneuma ” — in Gnostic literature “daimon” is always taken to mean “demon.”
Likewise, Judas is not set apart “for” the holy generation, as the National Geographic translation says, he is separated “from” it. He does not receive the mysteries of the kingdom because “it is possible for him to go there.” He receives them because Jesus tells him that he can’t go there, and Jesus doesn’t want Judas to betray him out of ignorance. Jesus wants him informed, so that the demonic Judas can suffer all that he deserves.
Perhaps the most egregious mistake I found was a single alteration made to the original Coptic. According to the National Geographic translation, Judas’s ascent to the holy generation would be cursed. But it’s clear from the transcription that the scholars altered the Coptic original, which eliminated a negative from the original sentence. In fact, the original states that Judas will “not ascend to the holy generation.” To its credit, National Geographic has acknowledged this mistake, albeit far too late to change the public misconception.
So what does the Gospel of Judas really say? It says that Judas is a specific demon called the “Thirteenth.” In certain Gnostic traditions, this is the given name of the king of demons — an entity known as Ialdabaoth who lives in the 13th realm above the earth. Judas is his human alter ego, his undercover agent in the world. These Gnostics equated Ialdabaoth with the Hebrew Yahweh, whom they saw as a jealous and wrathful deity and an opponent of the supreme God whom Jesus came to earth to reveal.
Whoever wrote the Gospel of Judas was a harsh critic of mainstream Christianity and its rituals. Because Judas is a demon working for Ialdabaoth, the author believed, when Judas sacrifices Jesus he does so to the demons, not to the supreme God. This mocks mainstream Christians’ belief in the atoning value of Jesus’ death and in the effectiveness of the Eucharist.
How could these serious mistakes have been made? Were they genuine errors or was something more deliberate going on? This is the question of the hour, and I do not have a satisfactory answer.
Admittedly, the society had a tough task: restoring an old gospel that was lying in a box of its own crumbs. It had been looted from an Egyptian tomb in the 1970s and languished on the underground antiquities market for decades, even spending time in someone’s freezer. So it is truly incredible that the society could resurrect any part of it, let alone piece together about 85 percent of it.
That said, I think the big problem is that National Geographic wanted an exclusive. So it required its scholars to sign nondisclosure statements, to not discuss the text with other experts before publication. The best scholarship is done when life-sized photos of each page of a new manuscript are published before a translation, allowing experts worldwide to share information as they independently work through the text.
Another difficulty is that when National Geographic published its transcription, the facsimiles of the original manuscript it made public were reduced by 56 percent, making them fairly useless for academic work. Without life-size copies, we are the blind leading the blind. The situation reminds me of the deadlock that held scholarship back on the Dead Sea Scrolls decades ago. When manuscripts are hoarded by a few, it results in errors and monopoly interpretations that are very hard to overturn even after they are proved wrong.
To avoid this, the Society of Biblical Literature passed a resolution in 1991 holding that, if the condition of the written manuscript requires that access be restricted, a facsimile reproduction should be the first order of business. It’s a shame that National Geographic, and its group of scholars, did not follow this sensible injunction.
I have wondered why so many scholars and writers have been inspired by the National Geographic version of the Gospel of Judas. I think it may stem from an understandable desire to reform the relationship between Jews and Christians. Judas is a frightening character. For Christians, he is the one who had it all and yet betrayed God to his death for a few coins. For Jews, he is the man whose story was used by Christians to persecute them for centuries. Although we should continue to work toward a reconciliation of this ancient schism, manufacturing a hero Judas is not the answer.
April D. DeConick, a professor of Biblical studies at Rice University, is the author of “The Thirteenth Apostle: What the Gospel of Judas Really Says.”
Phillipines' Newest Grandmaster is "Just So"
14-year-old Filipino is newest grandmaster
December 08, 2007 01:48:00
Roy Luarca, Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines -- It took a little longer, but Wesley So finally became a Grandmaster Friday.
The Filipino sensation drew with Iranian GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami in the ninth and final round of the third Prospero Cup International Open chess championship to complete the requirements for the coveted title at 14 years, one month and 28 days, the seventh youngest in the world to do so.
Unable to gain headway with the white pieces, So readily accepted Maghami's truce offer after 19 moves of the Sicilian Najdorf to qualify as the country's eighth and youngest GM.
He joins Eugene Torre, who became Asia's first GM in 1974, the late Rosendo Balinas (1976), Rogelio Antonio Jr. (1998), Buenaventura "Bong" Villamayor (2000), Nelson Mariano (2004), Mark Paragua (2005) and Darwin Laylo (2007) in the elite list of Filipino chess players.
"Masayang-masaya po ako. Magandang pamasko na ito (GM title) sa akin, (I'm very happy. This is already a beautiful Christmas gift for me," said So, who finished the nine-round Pichay Cup held at the Duty Free Fiesta Mall in Parañaque City with 6 points, a full point behind champion GM Ni Hua of China and half a point off Torre, Paragua and Singaporean GM Zhang Zhong.
The former Promil whiz kid, second of three children of accountants William and Eleanor So, obtained his first GM result in the Bad Wiesse Open in Germany in November 2006, but got stalled in his next international tournaments.
Dedicating at least four hours to chess study everyday, So expanded his game-repertoire and eventually clinched his second GM norm in the World Junior Chess Championships in Yerevan, Armenia, in September.
So, a high school sophomore of St. Francis of Assisi College System-Bacoor, also holds the distinction of being the country's youngest chess Olympian at 12 in Turin, Italy, in 2006, and youngest National Junior Open champion at 13 in May.
So is regarded as the world's strongest player in his age-group with an Elo rating of 2531, edging Indian GM Parimarjan Negi (born 1993, Elo 2514). His strength was amply proven when So won this year's World Under 16 Team Championship Board 1 gold medal in Singapore with a phenomenal score of 9.5 points out of a perfect 10.
"This is a dream come true for Wesley, said his mother Eleanor, comptroller of the De La Salle Health Sciences Institute in Dasmariñas, Cavite. "I'm very thankful his hard work and dedication has been rewarded."
So became the second player to earn his GM title since former Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero Pichay took over the presidency of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines last year.
The 27-year-old Laylo clinched his GM title by landing seventh in the sixth Asian Individual Chess Championship held at the Cebu International Convention Center in Mandaue City in September.Pichay lauded So's achievement.
"This is really a memorable year for local chess. We produced not only one but two GMs in a span of three months and we are confident we can have more GMs next year," said Pichay, who has already hosted five major international chess tournaments in his incumbency.
NCFP secretary general Tagaytay City Mayor Abraham "Bambol" Tolentino said So's achievement will encourage local chess players to devote more time to the game.
Those who earned their GM titles at an earlier age than So were Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine (12 years and seven months), Parimarjan Negi of India (13 years, three months and 22 days), Magnus Carlsen of Norway (13 years, three months and 27 days), Bu Xiangzhi of China (13 years, 10 months and 13 days), Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan (14 years and 14 days), and Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine (14 years, 17 days).
So, currently the country's second-ranked player with Torre, dislodged GM Etienne Bacrot of France, who got his GM title at 14 years and two months, at seventh spot.
By comparison, the great Bobby Fischer of the United States was 15 years, six months and one day when he become a GM in 1958.
The top-seeded Ni and Torre drew their match after 42 moves of the Larsen opening, as did Paragua and Zhang in only 10 moves of the Ruy Lopez.
Ni, who tied for first place with compatriot GM Li Chao in the second President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Cup last month, bagged the top prize of $5,000. Paragua, Zhong and Torre each pocketed $3,000.
Eight players, led by So and unheralded Deniel Causo, shared fifth to 12th places and received $1,062 each.Bunched with them at six points were GM Rogelio Antonio Jr. and Fide Master Fernie Donguines, who split the point after 78 moves of the Torre Attack; and Li and IM Jayson Gonzales, who also halved the point.
Singapore-based Filipino IM Julio Catalino Sadorra also earned his first GM result after drawing with GM Dao Thien Hai of Vietnam and finishing with 5.5 points. Causo, on the other hand, clinched his first IM result after stunning Laylo.
Final standings: 7 points -- H. Ni (China); 6.5 -- M. Paragua (RP), Z. Zhong (Singapore), E. Torre (RP); 6 -- W. So (RP), D. Causo (RP), C. Li (China), E. Maghami (Iran), F. Donguines (RP), R. Antonio (RP), J. Gonzales (RP), W. Zhou (China); 5.5 -- J. Sadorra (RP), R. Bitoon (RP), D.T. Hai (Vietnam), N.A. Dung (Vietnam), J. Gomez (RP), E. Senador (RP), H. Nouri (RP), R. Dableo (RP), S. Severino (RP), C. Garma (RP), Y. Lie (China), R. Bancod (RP)
Copyright 2007 INQUIRER.net and content partners. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
December 08, 2007 01:48:00
Roy Luarca, Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines -- It took a little longer, but Wesley So finally became a Grandmaster Friday.
The Filipino sensation drew with Iranian GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami in the ninth and final round of the third Prospero Cup International Open chess championship to complete the requirements for the coveted title at 14 years, one month and 28 days, the seventh youngest in the world to do so.
Unable to gain headway with the white pieces, So readily accepted Maghami's truce offer after 19 moves of the Sicilian Najdorf to qualify as the country's eighth and youngest GM.
He joins Eugene Torre, who became Asia's first GM in 1974, the late Rosendo Balinas (1976), Rogelio Antonio Jr. (1998), Buenaventura "Bong" Villamayor (2000), Nelson Mariano (2004), Mark Paragua (2005) and Darwin Laylo (2007) in the elite list of Filipino chess players.
"Masayang-masaya po ako. Magandang pamasko na ito (GM title) sa akin, (I'm very happy. This is already a beautiful Christmas gift for me," said So, who finished the nine-round Pichay Cup held at the Duty Free Fiesta Mall in Parañaque City with 6 points, a full point behind champion GM Ni Hua of China and half a point off Torre, Paragua and Singaporean GM Zhang Zhong.
The former Promil whiz kid, second of three children of accountants William and Eleanor So, obtained his first GM result in the Bad Wiesse Open in Germany in November 2006, but got stalled in his next international tournaments.
Dedicating at least four hours to chess study everyday, So expanded his game-repertoire and eventually clinched his second GM norm in the World Junior Chess Championships in Yerevan, Armenia, in September.
So, a high school sophomore of St. Francis of Assisi College System-Bacoor, also holds the distinction of being the country's youngest chess Olympian at 12 in Turin, Italy, in 2006, and youngest National Junior Open champion at 13 in May.
So is regarded as the world's strongest player in his age-group with an Elo rating of 2531, edging Indian GM Parimarjan Negi (born 1993, Elo 2514). His strength was amply proven when So won this year's World Under 16 Team Championship Board 1 gold medal in Singapore with a phenomenal score of 9.5 points out of a perfect 10.
"This is a dream come true for Wesley, said his mother Eleanor, comptroller of the De La Salle Health Sciences Institute in Dasmariñas, Cavite. "I'm very thankful his hard work and dedication has been rewarded."
So became the second player to earn his GM title since former Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero Pichay took over the presidency of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines last year.
The 27-year-old Laylo clinched his GM title by landing seventh in the sixth Asian Individual Chess Championship held at the Cebu International Convention Center in Mandaue City in September.Pichay lauded So's achievement.
"This is really a memorable year for local chess. We produced not only one but two GMs in a span of three months and we are confident we can have more GMs next year," said Pichay, who has already hosted five major international chess tournaments in his incumbency.
NCFP secretary general Tagaytay City Mayor Abraham "Bambol" Tolentino said So's achievement will encourage local chess players to devote more time to the game.
Those who earned their GM titles at an earlier age than So were Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine (12 years and seven months), Parimarjan Negi of India (13 years, three months and 22 days), Magnus Carlsen of Norway (13 years, three months and 27 days), Bu Xiangzhi of China (13 years, 10 months and 13 days), Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan (14 years and 14 days), and Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine (14 years, 17 days).
So, currently the country's second-ranked player with Torre, dislodged GM Etienne Bacrot of France, who got his GM title at 14 years and two months, at seventh spot.
By comparison, the great Bobby Fischer of the United States was 15 years, six months and one day when he become a GM in 1958.
The top-seeded Ni and Torre drew their match after 42 moves of the Larsen opening, as did Paragua and Zhang in only 10 moves of the Ruy Lopez.
Ni, who tied for first place with compatriot GM Li Chao in the second President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Cup last month, bagged the top prize of $5,000. Paragua, Zhong and Torre each pocketed $3,000.
Eight players, led by So and unheralded Deniel Causo, shared fifth to 12th places and received $1,062 each.Bunched with them at six points were GM Rogelio Antonio Jr. and Fide Master Fernie Donguines, who split the point after 78 moves of the Torre Attack; and Li and IM Jayson Gonzales, who also halved the point.
Singapore-based Filipino IM Julio Catalino Sadorra also earned his first GM result after drawing with GM Dao Thien Hai of Vietnam and finishing with 5.5 points. Causo, on the other hand, clinched his first IM result after stunning Laylo.
Final standings: 7 points -- H. Ni (China); 6.5 -- M. Paragua (RP), Z. Zhong (Singapore), E. Torre (RP); 6 -- W. So (RP), D. Causo (RP), C. Li (China), E. Maghami (Iran), F. Donguines (RP), R. Antonio (RP), J. Gonzales (RP), W. Zhou (China); 5.5 -- J. Sadorra (RP), R. Bitoon (RP), D.T. Hai (Vietnam), N.A. Dung (Vietnam), J. Gomez (RP), E. Senador (RP), H. Nouri (RP), R. Dableo (RP), S. Severino (RP), C. Garma (RP), Y. Lie (China), R. Bancod (RP)
Copyright 2007 INQUIRER.net and content partners. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
2007 World Cup
Hola darlings!
As you know, I generally don't do much reporting of men v. men chess. Unfortunately, the Kid (Nisipeanu) was eliminated from the event - but he gave it a good shot and in general my attention would cease to be focused on such an event (men v. men only). But, the final four have been determined for the World Cup, and I have to say they present interesting match-ups. Youth v. Experience, 2007. What can I say?
The final four, including Kamsky from the USA (interesting...) for Round 6 in the Knock-Out event are:
World Chess Cup Round 6 9th-11th December 2007
Karjakin, Sergey UKR 2694 vs Shirov, Alexei ESP 2739
Carlsen, Magnus NOR 2714 vs Kamsky, Gata USA 2714
Of course I'm absolutely predictable. I'll be rooting for Kamsky and Shirov :) Since they'll both be behind black, they'll have their work cut out for them.
I understand from what I've read at Mig's Daily Dirt that Shirov generally has Karjakin's number, so perhaps he has the edge. As for Carlsen/
Kamsky, I'm rooting for Kamsky both because he's the "old guy", he's a lawyer (YAH! we're not all Brian Lafferty types), and he's an American.
As you know, I generally don't do much reporting of men v. men chess. Unfortunately, the Kid (Nisipeanu) was eliminated from the event - but he gave it a good shot and in general my attention would cease to be focused on such an event (men v. men only). But, the final four have been determined for the World Cup, and I have to say they present interesting match-ups. Youth v. Experience, 2007. What can I say?
The final four, including Kamsky from the USA (interesting...) for Round 6 in the Knock-Out event are:
World Chess Cup Round 6 9th-11th December 2007
Karjakin, Sergey UKR 2694 vs Shirov, Alexei ESP 2739
Carlsen, Magnus NOR 2714 vs Kamsky, Gata USA 2714
Of course I'm absolutely predictable. I'll be rooting for Kamsky and Shirov :) Since they'll both be behind black, they'll have their work cut out for them.
I understand from what I've read at Mig's Daily Dirt that Shirov generally has Karjakin's number, so perhaps he has the edge. As for Carlsen/
Kamsky, I'm rooting for Kamsky both because he's the "old guy", he's a lawyer (YAH! we're not all Brian Lafferty types), and he's an American.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Honey, We ALL Need Money...
Chess prodigy Ivana Furtado needs money power
Pramod Acharya / CNN-IBN
Published on Fri, Dec 07, 2007 at 12:37
Panjim: Goa's Ivana Furtado is the youngest world chess champion and she is already working steadily to overtake the other big-wigs of the game.
Equally at ease with her playmates as with the 64 squares, eight-year-old Ivana Furtado is a special talent and if you take a numeric test, she'll come out to be one of the sharpest at her age in the world. Her cute smile hides the razor sharp mind of the undisputed World Junior Chess Champion.
"I am very, very happy as I have won the world championship. I want to become Grand Master in future," Ivana Furtado, World Junior Chess Champion, says.
The little champ made her school proud by pocketing two world championships, one Asian title and two World School gold medals.
And though she looks good to catch up with the seniors soon, it's the financial backing that needs to keep pace with her rapid rise.
"There is still not enough financial support from authorities. Authorities will have to look at children like Ivana and the laurels that they are earning and support them for their bright future in the sports," Eli Furtado, father of Ivana, says. For now though, she's gunning for Koneru Humpy's crown.
**********************************************************************************
The person who wrote this article did Furtado no favors. I found its tone is arrogant and insulting, to say the least.
"Gunning for Humpy's crown"? Methinks the little girl has to grow a couple of shoe sizes and put in a hell of a lot more work before she can take on Humpy, who has paid her dues on her way to becoming the second highest rated female player in the world. Mr. Furtado might want to consider getting a better-paying job than looking for hand-outs to support his daughter's chess-playing. We ALL need money, and there are lots of other worthy young chessplayers out there looking for financial support too.
Finally, the little girl is NOT "undisputed World Junior Chess Champion." She won a division championship title for her age group and is one of several "world champion" title holders from the Juniors and Girls "World Championship."
Pramod Acharya / CNN-IBN
Published on Fri, Dec 07, 2007 at 12:37
Panjim: Goa's Ivana Furtado is the youngest world chess champion and she is already working steadily to overtake the other big-wigs of the game.
Equally at ease with her playmates as with the 64 squares, eight-year-old Ivana Furtado is a special talent and if you take a numeric test, she'll come out to be one of the sharpest at her age in the world. Her cute smile hides the razor sharp mind of the undisputed World Junior Chess Champion.
"I am very, very happy as I have won the world championship. I want to become Grand Master in future," Ivana Furtado, World Junior Chess Champion, says.
The little champ made her school proud by pocketing two world championships, one Asian title and two World School gold medals.
And though she looks good to catch up with the seniors soon, it's the financial backing that needs to keep pace with her rapid rise.
"There is still not enough financial support from authorities. Authorities will have to look at children like Ivana and the laurels that they are earning and support them for their bright future in the sports," Eli Furtado, father of Ivana, says. For now though, she's gunning for Koneru Humpy's crown.
**********************************************************************************
The person who wrote this article did Furtado no favors. I found its tone is arrogant and insulting, to say the least.
"Gunning for Humpy's crown"? Methinks the little girl has to grow a couple of shoe sizes and put in a hell of a lot more work before she can take on Humpy, who has paid her dues on her way to becoming the second highest rated female player in the world. Mr. Furtado might want to consider getting a better-paying job than looking for hand-outs to support his daughter's chess-playing. We ALL need money, and there are lots of other worthy young chessplayers out there looking for financial support too.
Finally, the little girl is NOT "undisputed World Junior Chess Champion." She won a division championship title for her age group and is one of several "world champion" title holders from the Juniors and Girls "World Championship."
Guennol Lioness Sold for Record Amount
See my prior post. This report adds more details about the bona fides of the tiny artifact. Mea culpa, it was not, evidently, looted but was excavated by Woolley (some would say he was a looter, but that's what they did back then, in the wild woolly [pun, har!] days of archaeology.
From Archaeology News, a report from The Daily Mail:
£10m an inch - 3 1/4in carving of lioness roars into the record books as Briton buys it for £29m
By BARRY WIGMORE
Last updated at 23:19pm on 7th December 2007
At a mere 3 1/4in tall, it could be taken for an insignificant trinket.
But, this ancient carving of a lioness smashed sale records when it was bought by a British man for an astonishing £29million. The price - the most ever paid at auction for a sculpture - means the tiny artefact is worth nearly £10million an inch.
It had been thought it would fetch no more than £9million. But fierce competition for the 5,000-year- old Mesopotamian figure came from five bidders, three on phones and two in the main hall of Sotheby's New York saleroom.
The winner, who was standing at the back, did not enter the bidding until it reached nearly £14million. After the sale, the man confirmed he was English, but declined to give his name.
Known as the Guennol Lioness, the carving fetched twice as much as the previous record of £14.5million paid earlier this year for a Picasso bronze, Tete de Femme (Woman's Head), which at 3 11/2 in is almost ten times as tall.
The white limestone carving depicts a lioness's head on a muscular woman's body, with its tail curved around a slim waist.
Its first owner was probably a powerful tribal chief in Mesopotamia who wore it as a pendant on a leather thong to ward off evil.
It was found at a site near Baghdad about 80 years ago by British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley and bought in 1931 by Joseph Brummer, a New York art dealer. In 1948, he sold it to New Yorker Alastair Bradley Martin and his wife Edith. Mr Martin, grandson of steel magnate Henry Phipps, spent his life building a collection of African, Asian and American folk art. The couple - who have Welsh origins, called their estate Guennol - which is Welsh for Martin.
For most of the time since the Martins bought the lioness, it has been on permanent loan to New York's Brooklyn Museum. It was carved by a craftsman from Elam, part of the cultural region of Mesopotamia. This was the same sophisticated civilisation that invented the wheel and saw the first written words, currency, and organised cities.
When new, it was probably painted. Four holes drilled in its back were for a thong to hang it round the neck, and its missing lower hind legs are thought to have been made of gold or silver.
Richard Keresey, worldwide head of Sotheby's antiquities department, said: "I like to think of it as one of the first great sculptures of civilisation. "The new owner has the distinction of possessing one of the oldest, rarest and most beautiful works of art from the ancient world." ********************************************************************************
Hmmm, bought by a mysterious Englishman, heh? My guess is that the bidder was an agent for someone from the Middle East, backed by lots of oil money, looking to bring the Guennol Lioness "back home." Unless the purchaser lends her to a museum, she will now sit in a vault or a glass case closely guarded in an underground gallery where few people will ever see her again. I think that's very sad.
Friday Night Miscellany
Whew - I'm exhausted! We had snow Tuesday night and last night - a total of 10 inches on top of what fell Saturday. More is due tomorrow night. I'm already sick of shoveling!
Some strange stuff to entertain you:
First - a Chinese man with green sweat, and the doctors can't figure out what's wrong with him. Ahem! He's obviously been eating too much Soylent Green, darlings!
Pascal: "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." Twain: "Man is kind enough when he is not excited by religion." Tom Robbins: "A sense of humor, properly developed, is superior to any religion so far devised." Frank commentary on religious fanatics (Christian and non-Christian) in "Let Us Kill All Teddy Bears" by Mark Morford at SFGate.com.
How to Good-Bye Depression: If You Constrict Anus 100 Times Everyday. Malarkey? or Effective Way?, a new book by Hiroyuki Nishigaki. Darlings, I have absolutely no comment on this. Reviews at Amazon.com. (Okay, I do have a question: How do you "dent" your navel?)
Blast from the Past: The Lake Worth Monster.
Chimps outperform university students in memory tests. This is news?
Some strange stuff to entertain you:
First - a Chinese man with green sweat, and the doctors can't figure out what's wrong with him. Ahem! He's obviously been eating too much Soylent Green, darlings!
Pascal: "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." Twain: "Man is kind enough when he is not excited by religion." Tom Robbins: "A sense of humor, properly developed, is superior to any religion so far devised." Frank commentary on religious fanatics (Christian and non-Christian) in "Let Us Kill All Teddy Bears" by Mark Morford at SFGate.com.
How to Good-Bye Depression: If You Constrict Anus 100 Times Everyday. Malarkey? or Effective Way?, a new book by Hiroyuki Nishigaki. Darlings, I have absolutely no comment on this. Reviews at Amazon.com. (Okay, I do have a question: How do you "dent" your navel?)
Blast from the Past: The Lake Worth Monster.
Chimps outperform university students in memory tests. This is news?
Thursday, December 6, 2007
New International Women's Chess Tournament
Chessbase has announced a brand new tournament:
İş Bankası - Atatürk International Women Masters Chess Tournament
to be held in March, 2008. Sponsored by the Turkish bank İş Bankası for the next 10 years, the goal is to establish a women's tournament of the caliber of Corus and Linares, in addition to promoting women's chess in Turkey with a goal of winning an Olympiad.
In addition to a $16,000 prize fund, there will be some appearance fees paid and other prizes (based on ELO and starting rank), in addition to a travel stipend of either $300 or $800, with free accomodations and transportation to and from the playing venue, and $50 pocket money.
Play is limited to 10 players, two of whom will be Turkish players. The "invitation" list for the 8 non-Turkish players is the top 24 rated women in the world plus GM Peng Zhaoqin (#41 on the FIDE ratings list).
An exciting new event. I look forward to reading who the players are who will accept the invitations.
İş Bankası - Atatürk International Women Masters Chess Tournament
to be held in March, 2008. Sponsored by the Turkish bank İş Bankası for the next 10 years, the goal is to establish a women's tournament of the caliber of Corus and Linares, in addition to promoting women's chess in Turkey with a goal of winning an Olympiad.
In addition to a $16,000 prize fund, there will be some appearance fees paid and other prizes (based on ELO and starting rank), in addition to a travel stipend of either $300 or $800, with free accomodations and transportation to and from the playing venue, and $50 pocket money.
Play is limited to 10 players, two of whom will be Turkish players. The "invitation" list for the 8 non-Turkish players is the top 24 rated women in the world plus GM Peng Zhaoqin (#41 on the FIDE ratings list).
An exciting new event. I look forward to reading who the players are who will accept the invitations.
Tania Sachdev: Criticism spurs her to greater heights
When Tania won her maiden women’s National crown in Chennai in December 2006, there were many, including some officials of the All India Chess Federation, who dismissed the achievement as a ‘fluke’. When she retained the title as the only unbeaten player in Pune, even her worst critics had to agree grudgingly, writes Rakesh Rao.
Sportstar Weekly
VOL.30 :: NO.49 :: Dec. 08, 2007
For more than a decade, Tania Sachdev remained the poor, rich girl of Indian chess. Her achievements were often dismissed and hard work overlooked. The attention given by the media was seen as “undeserving” by a majority of those who could not accept a Delhi girl doing well in a sport where players from the north were often among the also-rans.
If Tania were a golfer, like her brother, or a tennis player, none would have cared to dismiss her talent because of the way she carries herself. Since this happy-go-lucky girl does not conform to the ‘image’ of a serious chess player, as perceived in the nation’s chess circle, she has faced undue criticism for years.
But in the last 11 months, Tania has done enough to silence her detractors and attract more admirers than ever before.
Performing beyond expectations, Tania bagged two back-to-back National women’s titles and in between, the Asian women’s crown and a Grandmaster norm. What came as a “bonus” was the 20-game International Master norm that accompanied the Asian title. That meant Tania had met the technical requirement of being an International Master.
Winning the Asian title ahead of a strong brigade from China has made even the most stubborn cynics take note of this gritty campaigner. The attention moved from her presentable looks to laboured performances. It is not that Tania lacked achievements. She only lacked genuine appreciation. Now, for change, accolades are coming her way.
Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte, who saw Tania win her second successive National title in Pune recently, hailed her success. “The quality of her games has surely improved in the past year. Her play looks more sharp, solid and compact. Undoubtedly, she is among the best in the country at the moment,” said Kunte.
When Tania won her maiden women’s National crown in Chennai in December 2006, there were many, including some officials of the All India Chess Federation, who dismissed the achievement as a ‘fluke’. When she retained the title as the only unbeaten player in Pune, even her worst critics had to agree grudgingly.
How does Tania react to all the criticism?
“I am aware of the criticism that I’ve faced all these years. That has never made me angry but steeled my resolve to perform better,” reveals this English Literature graduate from the Delhi University.
“Unlike some of the girls from my peer group, I have continued with my academics and other interests. I socialise and spend time on what I like to do, like any girl of my age. What people overlook is the fact that for me to prepare and perform in chess, it takes double the effort than most others. I play chess because of the joy it brings. Even watching movies, or going out with friends, make me happy.
But I’ve never sacrificed my chess for friends or vice-versa. I know I am very fortunate, that my parents have supported me all along. They’ve taught me how to strike a balance between playing chess and leading a normal life. I guess I’ve managed both pretty well,” says Tania, whose well-rounded personality and honesty comes across strikingly, particularly when compared to some of the frontline players in the country.
A well-travelled, well-read lady like Tania is a good ambassador for Indian women’s chess. She is articulate, presentable and noticeably humble. Her photogenic looks have made her one of the favourites for the Capital’s newspaper supplements. Apart from potential and performances, what sets Tania apart is her demeanour. She qualifies to be the face of Indian women’s chess.
“One day, I want to become a television newsreader,” says Tania, admitting that she is fascinated by the job of a newscaster. “But I am in no hurry. At the moment, I am really enjoying the way I am playing. For now, news-reading can wait,” declares this 20-year-old, known to speak her mind.
A closer look at the making of Tania the champion reveals that she has been remarkably consistent. Today, Tania enjoys her best rating of 2413 and is placed 46th among the ladies [in the world rankings].
For someone who has been playing competitive chess since 1992, Tania holds a unique record of being a top-10 finisher in each of her appearances in the World age-group championships. A bronze medallist in the World (under-12) girls’ category in 1998, she narrowly missed being in the medal-bracket quite a few times.
At the Asian level, Tania has won gold medals in the under-20 and under-14 sections.
Fortunate to get timely coaching and guidance from Delhi’s G. B. Joshi, Tania has worked with International Master Varugeese Koshy, Grandmasters Michael Krasenkow and Elizbar Ubilava from time to time.
Since late 2006, IM Vishal Sareen has given Tania a lot of confidence by helping her understand the mental aspect of the game better.
Overall, Tania is a perfect example of how hardwork can help in getting commendable results in spite of limited talent.
No doubt, there are more talented girls playing chess in this country, but Tania has worked harder on her chess to make her results more visible. Aware that her hardwork is invisible to most in the country’s chess circle, an undeterred Tania is determined to let the results reflect her.
Sportstar Weekly
VOL.30 :: NO.49 :: Dec. 08, 2007
For more than a decade, Tania Sachdev remained the poor, rich girl of Indian chess. Her achievements were often dismissed and hard work overlooked. The attention given by the media was seen as “undeserving” by a majority of those who could not accept a Delhi girl doing well in a sport where players from the north were often among the also-rans.
If Tania were a golfer, like her brother, or a tennis player, none would have cared to dismiss her talent because of the way she carries herself. Since this happy-go-lucky girl does not conform to the ‘image’ of a serious chess player, as perceived in the nation’s chess circle, she has faced undue criticism for years.
But in the last 11 months, Tania has done enough to silence her detractors and attract more admirers than ever before.
Performing beyond expectations, Tania bagged two back-to-back National women’s titles and in between, the Asian women’s crown and a Grandmaster norm. What came as a “bonus” was the 20-game International Master norm that accompanied the Asian title. That meant Tania had met the technical requirement of being an International Master.
Winning the Asian title ahead of a strong brigade from China has made even the most stubborn cynics take note of this gritty campaigner. The attention moved from her presentable looks to laboured performances. It is not that Tania lacked achievements. She only lacked genuine appreciation. Now, for change, accolades are coming her way.
Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte, who saw Tania win her second successive National title in Pune recently, hailed her success. “The quality of her games has surely improved in the past year. Her play looks more sharp, solid and compact. Undoubtedly, she is among the best in the country at the moment,” said Kunte.
When Tania won her maiden women’s National crown in Chennai in December 2006, there were many, including some officials of the All India Chess Federation, who dismissed the achievement as a ‘fluke’. When she retained the title as the only unbeaten player in Pune, even her worst critics had to agree grudgingly.
How does Tania react to all the criticism?
“I am aware of the criticism that I’ve faced all these years. That has never made me angry but steeled my resolve to perform better,” reveals this English Literature graduate from the Delhi University.
“Unlike some of the girls from my peer group, I have continued with my academics and other interests. I socialise and spend time on what I like to do, like any girl of my age. What people overlook is the fact that for me to prepare and perform in chess, it takes double the effort than most others. I play chess because of the joy it brings. Even watching movies, or going out with friends, make me happy.
But I’ve never sacrificed my chess for friends or vice-versa. I know I am very fortunate, that my parents have supported me all along. They’ve taught me how to strike a balance between playing chess and leading a normal life. I guess I’ve managed both pretty well,” says Tania, whose well-rounded personality and honesty comes across strikingly, particularly when compared to some of the frontline players in the country.
A well-travelled, well-read lady like Tania is a good ambassador for Indian women’s chess. She is articulate, presentable and noticeably humble. Her photogenic looks have made her one of the favourites for the Capital’s newspaper supplements. Apart from potential and performances, what sets Tania apart is her demeanour. She qualifies to be the face of Indian women’s chess.
“One day, I want to become a television newsreader,” says Tania, admitting that she is fascinated by the job of a newscaster. “But I am in no hurry. At the moment, I am really enjoying the way I am playing. For now, news-reading can wait,” declares this 20-year-old, known to speak her mind.
A closer look at the making of Tania the champion reveals that she has been remarkably consistent. Today, Tania enjoys her best rating of 2413 and is placed 46th among the ladies [in the world rankings].
For someone who has been playing competitive chess since 1992, Tania holds a unique record of being a top-10 finisher in each of her appearances in the World age-group championships. A bronze medallist in the World (under-12) girls’ category in 1998, she narrowly missed being in the medal-bracket quite a few times.
At the Asian level, Tania has won gold medals in the under-20 and under-14 sections.
Fortunate to get timely coaching and guidance from Delhi’s G. B. Joshi, Tania has worked with International Master Varugeese Koshy, Grandmasters Michael Krasenkow and Elizbar Ubilava from time to time.
Since late 2006, IM Vishal Sareen has given Tania a lot of confidence by helping her understand the mental aspect of the game better.
Overall, Tania is a perfect example of how hardwork can help in getting commendable results in spite of limited talent.
No doubt, there are more talented girls playing chess in this country, but Tania has worked harder on her chess to make her results more visible. Aware that her hardwork is invisible to most in the country’s chess circle, an undeterred Tania is determined to let the results reflect her.
Important Evidence of Ancient Trade
This story presents important news about a possible trading connection between Turkey and China hundreds of years before Silk Road contact (circa 200 BCE), which is generally considered the first contact between East and West. But that "contact date" has been pushed WAY back, because of unique wheat and barley grains discovered in archaeological an dig two years ago, grains that are from Turkey, and date to 2650 BCE.
This discovery, evidence of some kind of contact between two distant cultures, dates to approximately the time the beautiful wooden game boards of twenty squares were buried in the tombs at Ur, to be excavated by Woolley in the 1930's.
The article mentions the Tarim Basin mummies discovered in 1987 as evidence of Caucasian people with dress similar to that worn in Turkey at the time, the mummies dating back to at least 2,000 BCE and quite possibly beyond. Some of the mummies had red hair and blonde hair, they were also tall - much taller than the "indigenous" Chinese, and they had high-bridged noses. Textile studies have pretty much conclusively confirmed that the Tarim Basin people were immigrants from the west, who arrived before 2000 BCE, using the same weaving techniques and patterns that were prevalent in eastern Europe. (See recommended reading: "The Mummies of Urumchi").
Goddesschess is always interested in news about ancient trade connections because trade is an obvious way to transmit board games from one culture to another. Where people interacted, they spoke, ate, laughed, drank, shared stories. They exchanged gifts, played games, made love and married, in addition to bartering, buying and selling goods of all kinds. As people moved across the lands, they took their culture - and their games - with them.
From Archaeology News (a report from Radio ABC Australia):
Ancient wheat suggests early China, Middle East trade
Last Updated 06/12/2007, 16:12:40
Wheat grains nearly 5,000 years old found at a Chinese archaeological site two years ago, have revealed that western man travelled to China much earlier than previously thought.
The research, published by Professor John Dodson and Professor Xiaoqiang Li, shows there are no modern wild varieties of the wheat and barley, which were found in the region in a domesticated form, and carbon dated to 2,650BC.
It is now thought they originated in the Middle East, which showed exchanges between China hundreds of years before the Silk Road, previously thought to be the earliest contact, around 200BC.
Professor Dodson, from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, has told Radio Australia's Connect Asia program, "Certainly an exchange of technology," he said."There could have been trade, so I guess we're saying certainly a trade in technology and ideas."
Mummy links
Professor Dodson says a major archaeological find in the region in 1987, the Xinjiang mummies, may be evidence of those who brought the wheat from the Middle East.
Archaeologists discovered around 100 perfectly preserved corpses in a dry, hilly region in China's far northwest, which dated at 4,000 years old, and showed Caucasian features.
Professor Dodson says the fact that the mummies were of ordinary families, not royalty, also gives insights into past relationships between China and the west.
"The clothing they wore was of a style that was only recognised from Turkey and areas like that, so this seems to be pretty strong evidence that there were people making that journey east 4,000 years ago," he said. "The intriguing thing is that there might be a link between those people bringing in Middle East agricultural practices - there may be a good strong link there between these wheat grains and these barley grains that we're finding."
You can find the full interview with Professor Dodson at the Connect Asia website: http://radioaustralia.net.au/connectasia
This discovery, evidence of some kind of contact between two distant cultures, dates to approximately the time the beautiful wooden game boards of twenty squares were buried in the tombs at Ur, to be excavated by Woolley in the 1930's.
The article mentions the Tarim Basin mummies discovered in 1987 as evidence of Caucasian people with dress similar to that worn in Turkey at the time, the mummies dating back to at least 2,000 BCE and quite possibly beyond. Some of the mummies had red hair and blonde hair, they were also tall - much taller than the "indigenous" Chinese, and they had high-bridged noses. Textile studies have pretty much conclusively confirmed that the Tarim Basin people were immigrants from the west, who arrived before 2000 BCE, using the same weaving techniques and patterns that were prevalent in eastern Europe. (See recommended reading: "The Mummies of Urumchi").
Goddesschess is always interested in news about ancient trade connections because trade is an obvious way to transmit board games from one culture to another. Where people interacted, they spoke, ate, laughed, drank, shared stories. They exchanged gifts, played games, made love and married, in addition to bartering, buying and selling goods of all kinds. As people moved across the lands, they took their culture - and their games - with them.
From Archaeology News (a report from Radio ABC Australia):
Ancient wheat suggests early China, Middle East trade
Last Updated 06/12/2007, 16:12:40
Wheat grains nearly 5,000 years old found at a Chinese archaeological site two years ago, have revealed that western man travelled to China much earlier than previously thought.
The research, published by Professor John Dodson and Professor Xiaoqiang Li, shows there are no modern wild varieties of the wheat and barley, which were found in the region in a domesticated form, and carbon dated to 2,650BC.
It is now thought they originated in the Middle East, which showed exchanges between China hundreds of years before the Silk Road, previously thought to be the earliest contact, around 200BC.
Professor Dodson, from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, has told Radio Australia's Connect Asia program, "Certainly an exchange of technology," he said."There could have been trade, so I guess we're saying certainly a trade in technology and ideas."
Mummy links
Professor Dodson says a major archaeological find in the region in 1987, the Xinjiang mummies, may be evidence of those who brought the wheat from the Middle East.
Archaeologists discovered around 100 perfectly preserved corpses in a dry, hilly region in China's far northwest, which dated at 4,000 years old, and showed Caucasian features.
Professor Dodson says the fact that the mummies were of ordinary families, not royalty, also gives insights into past relationships between China and the west.
"The clothing they wore was of a style that was only recognised from Turkey and areas like that, so this seems to be pretty strong evidence that there were people making that journey east 4,000 years ago," he said. "The intriguing thing is that there might be a link between those people bringing in Middle East agricultural practices - there may be a good strong link there between these wheat grains and these barley grains that we're finding."
You can find the full interview with Professor Dodson at the Connect Asia website: http://radioaustralia.net.au/connectasia
Feuding Gypsy Clans
They are called "gypsies," "gipsies," "tinkers" and "Romany." They are mysterious - and like it that way. They are "clannish," close-knit and close-mouthed. That is why this is such a fascinating story.
Gypsy clans feud over fortunetelling biz
By GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press Writer
Wed Dec 5, 2:44 PM ET
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. - A dispute between two Gypsy clans over control of the fortunetelling trade in this Southern California city has spilled into court, offering a rare glimpse of an insular culture that has long settled scores according to its own Old World rules of honor.
The turf war in well-to-do Orange County has unfolded like a gangster movie, with allegations of death threats, a graveside scuffle, and nicknames like "White Bob" and "Black Bob" — details revealed in a police report and requests for restraining orders.
"The older Gypsies are pulling out their hair, not wanting the courts in our business because they'll find out too much about us," said Tom Merino, who is distantly related to one of the clans but has spurned his heritage.
"Ignorance is the Gypsies' weapon against the outside world."
The Stevens and Merino clans, like other Gypsy families, have run numerous fortunetelling businesses in Southern California for decades.
The trouble started two years ago when Edward Merino and his wife, Sonia, opened fortunetelling parlors in two trendy resort sections of Newport Beach, not far from where the Stevenses did business.
Members of the Stevens clan promptly broke in, stole a credit card machine and threatened to kill the Merinos if they didn't shut the places down, the Merinos claim in court papers. Since then, the bad blood has only gotten worse.
The Stevenses "are very territorial," Merino attorney Tom Quinn said. "This is crazy stuff."
At the root of the conflict lies a delicate system of intermarriage and social customs that has defused tensions among Gypsy clans for generations, said Anne Sutherland, a University of California, Riverside anthropologist who has studied Gypsies.
Gypsies trace their origins to India more than 1,000 years ago. They migrated to Europe in the 1300s. For centuries, Gypsies were enslaved and persecuted in Europe, where they were scorned as nomadic thieves and con artists skilled primarily at palm reading.
Gypsies — also known as Romany — began arriving in the U.S. from Romania toward the end of the 19th century. Experts believe there are now about 1 million in America, one-fifth of them in California, where they dominate the fortunetelling and psychic shops in funky beach communities and other neighborhoods.
The Stevens and Merino clans adopted an Old World custom of uniting families through marriage to cope with intense competition, much as European nobility once did to avert war. A Merino married the Stevens patriarch, George Stevens.
But the family bond did not prevent tensions from flaring when, the Merinos say, the Stevenses demanded they pay $500,000 up front and $5,000 a week to open their fortunetelling businesses in the Stevenses' back yard. The Merinos refused to pay, and went ahead and opened their parlors. The alleged break-in soon followed.
Gypsies have traditionally resolved disputes in front of a secret council of elders that can impose fines, make territorial decisions or order someone shunned. They don't like to involve non-Gypsies, who are considered impure.
The Merinos, though, went to court after the alleged break-in and obtained a restraining order in 2006 requiring George Stevens to stay a safe distance away.
That the dispute wound up in court reflects an erosion of tradition among the Gypsies, said Ian Hancock, an expert on Gypsy language and culture at the University of Texas.
"It used to be that the Romany world was absolutely insulated from the outside world," said Hancock, a Gypsy himself. "But it's very hard to resist the pressures of MTV, and people are beginning to see alternatives." He cited cases in which Gypsy women in Houston hired lawyers to get their ex-husbands to pay child support — something previously unheard of.
Things were calm for months until the Stevens patriarch died of a heart attack at age 53 last May. Edward "Davie" Merino showed up at the funeral, pulling up at the cemetery in a limo with what was described as a menacingly burly chauffeur.
Merino says members of the Stevens clan attacked him and screamed, "We will make your life a living hell!" But the Stevenses claim that Merino flashed a gun and threatened to "come back and kill all of you." Both sides agree that before speeding off, Merino shouted that he wanted to make sure "the mother-(expletive) was dead."
Merino declined repeated requests for an interview through his attorney and calls to his home were not returned.
After the scrap, someone left ominous phone messages and threatened to kill Sonia Merino and the couple's children, ages 9 and 11, Edward Merino claimed in court papers.
Edward Merino filed for restraining orders against four Stevens men and two Stevens women. Over the summer, a judge granted such an order against just one person, the new Stevens patriarch, Ted Stevens.
Stevens' nephew, the only Gypsy directly involved in the feud who spoke to The Associated Press, said the Merinos concocted the allegations and are using the courts to try to drive their rivals out of Newport Beach.
"They beat themselves up and then they testify that we hired people to come to their house and beat them up," said Steve Stevens, who goes by the nickname "White Bob" to distinguish him from his swarthier cousin, "Black Bob."
Stevens, who owns two fortunetelling parlors and a deli, added: "I feel like they've made me out like a character on `The Sopranos.' I'm a businessman. I'm a family man. That's all I am."
Gypsy clans feud over fortunetelling biz
By GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press Writer
Wed Dec 5, 2:44 PM ET
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. - A dispute between two Gypsy clans over control of the fortunetelling trade in this Southern California city has spilled into court, offering a rare glimpse of an insular culture that has long settled scores according to its own Old World rules of honor.
The turf war in well-to-do Orange County has unfolded like a gangster movie, with allegations of death threats, a graveside scuffle, and nicknames like "White Bob" and "Black Bob" — details revealed in a police report and requests for restraining orders.
"The older Gypsies are pulling out their hair, not wanting the courts in our business because they'll find out too much about us," said Tom Merino, who is distantly related to one of the clans but has spurned his heritage.
"Ignorance is the Gypsies' weapon against the outside world."
The Stevens and Merino clans, like other Gypsy families, have run numerous fortunetelling businesses in Southern California for decades.
The trouble started two years ago when Edward Merino and his wife, Sonia, opened fortunetelling parlors in two trendy resort sections of Newport Beach, not far from where the Stevenses did business.
Members of the Stevens clan promptly broke in, stole a credit card machine and threatened to kill the Merinos if they didn't shut the places down, the Merinos claim in court papers. Since then, the bad blood has only gotten worse.
The Stevenses "are very territorial," Merino attorney Tom Quinn said. "This is crazy stuff."
At the root of the conflict lies a delicate system of intermarriage and social customs that has defused tensions among Gypsy clans for generations, said Anne Sutherland, a University of California, Riverside anthropologist who has studied Gypsies.
Gypsies trace their origins to India more than 1,000 years ago. They migrated to Europe in the 1300s. For centuries, Gypsies were enslaved and persecuted in Europe, where they were scorned as nomadic thieves and con artists skilled primarily at palm reading.
Gypsies — also known as Romany — began arriving in the U.S. from Romania toward the end of the 19th century. Experts believe there are now about 1 million in America, one-fifth of them in California, where they dominate the fortunetelling and psychic shops in funky beach communities and other neighborhoods.
The Stevens and Merino clans adopted an Old World custom of uniting families through marriage to cope with intense competition, much as European nobility once did to avert war. A Merino married the Stevens patriarch, George Stevens.
But the family bond did not prevent tensions from flaring when, the Merinos say, the Stevenses demanded they pay $500,000 up front and $5,000 a week to open their fortunetelling businesses in the Stevenses' back yard. The Merinos refused to pay, and went ahead and opened their parlors. The alleged break-in soon followed.
Gypsies have traditionally resolved disputes in front of a secret council of elders that can impose fines, make territorial decisions or order someone shunned. They don't like to involve non-Gypsies, who are considered impure.
The Merinos, though, went to court after the alleged break-in and obtained a restraining order in 2006 requiring George Stevens to stay a safe distance away.
That the dispute wound up in court reflects an erosion of tradition among the Gypsies, said Ian Hancock, an expert on Gypsy language and culture at the University of Texas.
"It used to be that the Romany world was absolutely insulated from the outside world," said Hancock, a Gypsy himself. "But it's very hard to resist the pressures of MTV, and people are beginning to see alternatives." He cited cases in which Gypsy women in Houston hired lawyers to get their ex-husbands to pay child support — something previously unheard of.
Things were calm for months until the Stevens patriarch died of a heart attack at age 53 last May. Edward "Davie" Merino showed up at the funeral, pulling up at the cemetery in a limo with what was described as a menacingly burly chauffeur.
Merino says members of the Stevens clan attacked him and screamed, "We will make your life a living hell!" But the Stevenses claim that Merino flashed a gun and threatened to "come back and kill all of you." Both sides agree that before speeding off, Merino shouted that he wanted to make sure "the mother-(expletive) was dead."
Merino declined repeated requests for an interview through his attorney and calls to his home were not returned.
After the scrap, someone left ominous phone messages and threatened to kill Sonia Merino and the couple's children, ages 9 and 11, Edward Merino claimed in court papers.
Edward Merino filed for restraining orders against four Stevens men and two Stevens women. Over the summer, a judge granted such an order against just one person, the new Stevens patriarch, Ted Stevens.
Stevens' nephew, the only Gypsy directly involved in the feud who spoke to The Associated Press, said the Merinos concocted the allegations and are using the courts to try to drive their rivals out of Newport Beach.
"They beat themselves up and then they testify that we hired people to come to their house and beat them up," said Steve Stevens, who goes by the nickname "White Bob" to distinguish him from his swarthier cousin, "Black Bob."
Stevens, who owns two fortunetelling parlors and a deli, added: "I feel like they've made me out like a character on `The Sopranos.' I'm a businessman. I'm a family man. That's all I am."
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
India political "goddess" struggles in key state vote
The stakes are unbelievably huge in this political end-game.
05 Dec 2007 05:00:42 GMT05 Dec 2007 05:00:42 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Simon Denyer
IDAR, India, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Billed as "the goddess of sacrifice", she descended in a helicopter from a cloudless sky, towards an expectant crowd.
But Sonia Gandhi, India's most powerful politician, has been short of magic this week as she struggles to strike an emotional chord with voters in her Congress party's campaign a week ahead of state elections in the key western battleground of Gujarat.
The vote, in which Congress is trying to unseat a Hindu nationalist state government, is being closely watched as the countdown begins to national polls due by mid-2009 and could even influence their timing.
"This government believes in its own development and the development of a handful of people," Gandhi told a listless crowd of thousands in the town of Idar in southeastern Gujarat this week, many of them poor tribal farmers.
"We are committed to throw the cheats, liars and people who make fake promises out of Gujarat," she said, speaking in Hindi from a prepared text, to a brief burst of flat applause.
For a decade Gujarat, one of India's most prosperous states but also one of its most communally divided, has been a stronghold of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
But its controversial chief minister Narendra Modi is more vulnerable than ever before as he heads into the elections, due to be held in two stages on Dec. 11 and 16, analysts say, with several dissident party members defecting to the opposition.
It would be a major prize for Congress, which heads the national coalition government, to wrest Gujarat from Modi, who has been accused of encouraging communal riots in 2002 in which up to 2,500 people were killed, most minority Muslims.
A win might encourage Congress to advance national elections.
But many analysts think Modi might just about hang on -- partly because Congress has waged an uninspired campaign.
"They started very late, organisationally they are not in good shape, and third you have not seen any focused campaigning by local Congress leaders," said Achyut Yagnik, a social scientist in the state's main city Ahmedabad.
Modi swept the 2002 state elections, held just nine months after the riots, on an overt pro-Hindu and anti-Muslim platform, winning 127 of the state assembly's 182 seats.
While he still plays the occasional anti-Muslim card, this time he is selling himself more as a champion of development in one of the fastest growing states in a booming India, boasting of everything from industrial development to rural electrification.
Congress has tried to fight him on his terms, arguing that electricity has still not reached many households, and promising free televisions to everyone below the poverty line.
DON'T MENTION THE RIOTS
But the party which prides itself on its secular ideals has largely steered clear of attacking Modi for the 2002 riots, for fear of antagonising Hindu voters.
Its strongest card is Gandhi, the Italian-born widow of assassinated former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who renounced her own chance to become prime minister despite winning national elections in 2004.
She may have struggled to connect with many people in Idar, but is attracting large crowds, and some, like 18-year-old student Neelam Rathore, were buying her message.
"Modi is a loud and a smart liar. Sonia is simple, honest and is willing to sacrifice her life for the people," Rathore said. "I like the way she talks, I trust her."
Gandhi briefly upped the ante on Saturday, lashing out at the "peddlers of death" running the state.
"She is slinging Italian mud at me," Modi retorted. "That kind of mud only makes me and the lotus stronger," he said, referring to India's national flower and his party's symbol.
Then a retreat. Gandhi, on the back foot, chose her words more carefully, avoiding any direct reference to the riots. Development, she said at one rally, was not possible without social unity, which the BJP had failed to deliver.
Political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan says Congress is struggling to define its identity in Gujarat or spell out a clear alternative vision to Modi's.
"They have not shown the stomach for a fight," he added. "It's a sign of
05 Dec 2007 05:00:42 GMT05 Dec 2007 05:00:42 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Simon Denyer
IDAR, India, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Billed as "the goddess of sacrifice", she descended in a helicopter from a cloudless sky, towards an expectant crowd.
But Sonia Gandhi, India's most powerful politician, has been short of magic this week as she struggles to strike an emotional chord with voters in her Congress party's campaign a week ahead of state elections in the key western battleground of Gujarat.
The vote, in which Congress is trying to unseat a Hindu nationalist state government, is being closely watched as the countdown begins to national polls due by mid-2009 and could even influence their timing.
"This government believes in its own development and the development of a handful of people," Gandhi told a listless crowd of thousands in the town of Idar in southeastern Gujarat this week, many of them poor tribal farmers.
"We are committed to throw the cheats, liars and people who make fake promises out of Gujarat," she said, speaking in Hindi from a prepared text, to a brief burst of flat applause.
For a decade Gujarat, one of India's most prosperous states but also one of its most communally divided, has been a stronghold of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
But its controversial chief minister Narendra Modi is more vulnerable than ever before as he heads into the elections, due to be held in two stages on Dec. 11 and 16, analysts say, with several dissident party members defecting to the opposition.
It would be a major prize for Congress, which heads the national coalition government, to wrest Gujarat from Modi, who has been accused of encouraging communal riots in 2002 in which up to 2,500 people were killed, most minority Muslims.
A win might encourage Congress to advance national elections.
But many analysts think Modi might just about hang on -- partly because Congress has waged an uninspired campaign.
"They started very late, organisationally they are not in good shape, and third you have not seen any focused campaigning by local Congress leaders," said Achyut Yagnik, a social scientist in the state's main city Ahmedabad.
Modi swept the 2002 state elections, held just nine months after the riots, on an overt pro-Hindu and anti-Muslim platform, winning 127 of the state assembly's 182 seats.
While he still plays the occasional anti-Muslim card, this time he is selling himself more as a champion of development in one of the fastest growing states in a booming India, boasting of everything from industrial development to rural electrification.
Congress has tried to fight him on his terms, arguing that electricity has still not reached many households, and promising free televisions to everyone below the poverty line.
DON'T MENTION THE RIOTS
But the party which prides itself on its secular ideals has largely steered clear of attacking Modi for the 2002 riots, for fear of antagonising Hindu voters.
Its strongest card is Gandhi, the Italian-born widow of assassinated former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who renounced her own chance to become prime minister despite winning national elections in 2004.
She may have struggled to connect with many people in Idar, but is attracting large crowds, and some, like 18-year-old student Neelam Rathore, were buying her message.
"Modi is a loud and a smart liar. Sonia is simple, honest and is willing to sacrifice her life for the people," Rathore said. "I like the way she talks, I trust her."
Gandhi briefly upped the ante on Saturday, lashing out at the "peddlers of death" running the state.
"She is slinging Italian mud at me," Modi retorted. "That kind of mud only makes me and the lotus stronger," he said, referring to India's national flower and his party's symbol.
Then a retreat. Gandhi, on the back foot, chose her words more carefully, avoiding any direct reference to the riots. Development, she said at one rally, was not possible without social unity, which the BJP had failed to deliver.
Political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan says Congress is struggling to define its identity in Gujarat or spell out a clear alternative vision to Modi's.
"They have not shown the stomach for a fight," he added. "It's a sign of