A Different Kind of Fraud at the Brooklyn Museum

Mr. Don and I spent May 17th exploring the Brooklyn Museum - wish we'd had two full days dedicated to doing that instead of only one. Now I came across this sad story at The New York Times. Geez! Arts, Briefly Former Brooklyn Museum Employee Arrested By ROBIN POGREBIN; Compiled by DAVE ITZKOFF Published: June 5, 2009 A former payroll manager for the Brooklyn Museum stole more than $620,000 from the institution by issuing fake paychecks that were directly deposited into his bank account, according to court papers made public on Thursday. The former employee, Dwight Newton, 40, faces up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud if convicted. Mr. Newton worked at the museum, right, from 2002 until he resigned in 2008. Starting in 2005, the complaint said, he created a payroll profile for a fictitious employee with the name “Brooklyn Museum” or “Brooklyn” and subsequently issued checks that went into his personal account. The theft was discovered during a routine annual review of payroll documents, the museum said. Mr. Newton was arrested and charged on Thursday and was released on bond. He was not available for comment on Friday. A woman who answered the phone at his home in East Brunswick, N.J., said, “No comment.”

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This Newton is no known relative of mine! According to family lore, our Newton family name was translated from the French words for "new town" sometime in the late 18th century or early 19th century when my great-great-great-(great?)-grandfather was working as a lumberjack near what is now Antigo, Wisconsin (Wisconsin wasn't a state back then and Antigo probably didn't exist) and the locals couldn't wrap their tongues around the French pronounciation of our surname. Well, that's the family lore, at least. That same family lore further reports that the ancestral Newton came over to Louisiana, which was then French territory, some time during the 1700's - no reason given for leaving France behind but, based upon his descendants, it probably was not due to religious persecution :) Family lore further reports that said Newton, with his family (no mention of family coming over from France, so I assume said Newton Pater married or, at the very least, procreated, upon arrival in the New World), worked their way up the Mississippi River, presumably leaving Newton family seedlings all along the way, until finally settling down to work as lumberjacks in the Antigo (Wisconsin) area. I am given to understand that I have third or fourth or fifth removed cousins still in and about Antigo whom I've not met, and am unlikely to do so. Wait - I believe those are cousins on the side of my Grandmother Ida Newton, whose maiden name was Bellanger (my dad insisted that the name was pronounced in the French way, Be-LAUN-shay), whose second cousin of a second cousin (or something like that) was the mother (or father) of a famous major league pitcher whose last name was Bellanger, only I don't remember his first name and I don't remember what team he pitched for, but it had to have been sometime in the 1950's or early 1960's. The person I remember most from all of the behind-the-hands talk about ancestors is my Uncle Jack Bellanger, who almost never showed up but I do remember as a handsome "old man" with sparkling blue eyes that crinkled at the corners when he smiled, tall and lean, and always dressed in a suit and driving a big car. I realize now, as I did not as a child, that Uncle Jack was actually my Grandmother Newton's brother - don't know if he was an older brother or younger brother. I don't remember what color hair he had, only that he wore a big ring with a blue stone on one of his hands (I don't remember which hand) and he was always smartly dressed. And he seemed to always have money, or at least, what passed for money in our family, which isn't saying much. By all accounts (whispered around the dining table after Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners) Uncle Jack was a real lady-killer and he may have been married several times. I don't exactly remember, but I have a vague recollection that Uncle Jack died either shortly before, or shortly after, my Grandmother Newton died, I think that was about 1960 - I was 8 or 9 and you don't think about such things at that age. Now that I'm thinking about it, I believe I heard a story somewhere along the line that it may have been Uncle Jack who introduced my dad to his first wife (something I only heard about in half-whispered conversations when I used to hid under the dining room table after meals). I think her name was Victoria - or else that was the name of my older half-sister born of the marriage. Anyway, it didn't last long and ended in divorce (or maybe an annulment). And then my father met my mother and the rest, as they say, is history -- four daughters and two sons later. Eek! With such illustrious antecedents, no way am I related to a dude in East Brunswick, New Jersey named Dwight. Anyway, we don't have such a dweeby name as Dwight in our family line!

Blast from the Past: Those Las Vegas Showgirls "Do" Tessellations!

(Image: Tiled ceiling showing use of tessellated patterns, Shiraz, Iran). Goddess' truth! As I was looking up the definition of onomatopoeia for the previous post about domestication of cats, I grabbed my trusty 30+ year old edition of Webster's Collegiate Dictionary off the bookshelf in the den and flipped it open as I settled it above my computer keyboard; it opened to pages 1204 and 1205. On the upper right hand side, page 1205, are the key words "tessellation (to) tethering." When I saw "tessellation" I immediately thought of a Las Vegas Showgirls article that Isis and I put together many moons ago! Check it out: Chess - Tesselations - Knight's Tour - Escher - "Harry Potter May 20, 2003 (Note to self: Please take Mr. Don to task for forgetting his editing task to such an extent that he omitted to close the quote at the end of "Harry Potter. Of course, I suppose that could have been taken as a sign of things to come back then...) For further information on the blow-your-mind subject of tessellations: Lots of cool tessellation graphics at Tessellations.org Refresher on what a tessellation is from Math Forum: What Is a Tessellation? The word tessellation is derived from the Latin word for tile - "tesserae" - as in mosaic tiles. Although the art of creating amazing mosaics out of small bits of colored clay or stone tiles was known from before the Roman period, my recollection is that it was the Persians under Islamic rule who took the art to its highest form, creating intricate geometrical colored patterns out of myriad tesserae and larger glazed bricks. See, for instance, Iran: Visual Arts: History of Iranian Tile.

New Evidence on Domestication of Cats

(Image: Bastet, from the Louvre Museum, 26th Dynasty, 664 - 332 BCE) It's a lengthy article. Here are the key points summarized neatly at Scientific American Online:

• Unlike other domesticated creatures, the house cat contributes little to human survival. Researchers have therefore wondered how and why cats came to live among people.
• Experts traditionally thought that the Egyptians were the first to domesticate the cat, some 3,600 years ago.
• But recent genetic and archaeological discoveries indicate that cat domestication began in the Fertile Crescent, perhaps around 10,000 years ago, when agriculture was getting under way.
• The findings suggest that cats started making themselves at home around people to take advantage of the mice and food scraps found in their settlements.

From the June 2009 Scientific American Magazine The Evolution of House Cats By Carlos A. Driscoll, Juliet Clutton-Brock, Andrew C. Kitchener and Stephen J. O'Brien It is by turns aloof and affectionate, serene and savage, endearing and exasperating. Despite its mercurial nature, however, the house cat is the most popular pet in the world. A third of American households have feline members, and more than 600 million cats live among humans worldwide. Yet as familiar as these creatures are, a complete understanding of their origins has proved elusive. Whereas other once wild animals were domesticated for their milk, meat, wool or servile labor, cats contribute virtually nothing in the way of sustenance or work to human endeavor. How, then, did they become commonplace fixtures in our homes? Scholars long believed that the ancient Egyptians were the first to keep cats as pets, starting around 3,600 years ago. But genetic and archaeological discoveries made over the past five years have revised this scenario—and have generated fresh insights into both the ancestry of the house cat and how its relationship with humans evolved. Cat’s Cradle The question of where house cats first arose has been challenging to resolve for several reasons. Although a number of investigators suspected that all varieties descend from just one cat species—Felis silvestris, the wildcat—they could not be certain. In addition, that species is not confined to a small corner of the globe. It is represented by populations living throughout the Old World—from Scotland to South Africa and from Spain to Mongolia—and until recently scientists had no way of determining unequivocally which of these wildcat populations gave rise to the tamer, so-called domestic kind. Indeed, as an alternative to the Egyptian origins hypothesis, some researchers had even proposed that cat domestication occurred in a number of different locations, with each domestication spawning a different breed. Confounding the issue was the fact that members of these wildcat groups are hard to tell apart from one another and from feral domesticated cats with so-called mackerel-tabby coats because all of them have the same pelage pattern of curved stripes and they interbreed freely with one another, further blurring population boundaries. In 2000 one of us (Driscoll) set out to tackle the question by assembling DNA samples from some 979 wildcats and domestic cats in southern Africa, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and the Middle East. Because wildcats typically defend a single territory for life, he expected that the genetic composition of wildcat groups would vary across geography but remain stable over time, as has occurred in many other cat species. If regional indigenous groups of these animals could be distinguished from one another on the basis of their DNA and if the DNA of domestic cats more closely resembled that of one of the wildcat populations, then he would have clear evidence for where domestication began. In the genetic analysis, published in 2007, Driscoll, another of us (O’Brien) and their colleagues focused on two kinds of DNA that molecular biologists traditionally examine to differentiate subgroups of mammal species: DNA from mitochondria, which is inherited exclusively from the mother, and short, repetitive sequences of nuclear DNA known as microsatellites. Using established computer routines, they assessed the ancestry of each of the 979 individuals sampled based on their genetic signatures. Specifically, they measured how similar each cat’s DNA was to that of all the other cats and grouped the animals having similar DNA together. They then asked whether most of the animals in a group lived in the same region. The results revealed five genetic clusters, or lineages, of wildcats. Four of these lineages corresponded neatly with four of the known subspecies of wildcat and dwelled in specific places: F. silvestris silvestris in Europe, F. s. bieti in China, F. s. ornata in Central Asia and F. s. cafra in southern Africa. The fifth lineage, however, included not only the fifth known subspecies of wildcat—F. s. lybica in the Middle East—but also the hundreds of domestic cats that were sampled, including purebred and mixed-breed felines from the U.S., the U.K. and Japan. In fact, genetically, F. s. lybica wildcats collected in remote deserts of Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia were virtually indistinguishable from domestic cats. That the domestic cats grouped with F. s. lybica alone among wildcats meant that domestic cats arose in a single locale, the Middle East, and not in other places where wildcats are common. (Emphasis added). Rest of article. Excerpts:

• To get a bead on when the taming of the cat began, we turned to the archaeological record. One recent find has proved especially informative in this regard. In 2004 Jean-Denis Vigne of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris and his colleagues reported unearthing the earliest evidence suggestive of humans keeping cats as pets. The discovery comes from the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, where 9,500 years ago an adult human of unknown gender was laid to rest in a shallow grave. An assortment of items accompanied the body—stone tools, a lump of iron oxide, a handful of seashells and, in its own tiny grave just 40 centimeters away, an eight-month-old cat, its body oriented in the same westward direction as the human’s. Because cats are not native to most Mediterranean islands, we know that people must have brought them over by boat, probably from the adjacent Levantine coast. Together the transport of cats to the island and the burial of the human with a cat indicate that people had a special, intentional relationship with cats nearly 10,000 years ago in the Middle East. This locale is consistent with the geographic origin we arrived at through our genetic analyses. It appears, then, that cats were being tamed just as humankind was establishing the first settlements in the part of the Middle East known as the Fertile Crescent.
• Although the exact timeline of cat domestication remains uncertain, long-known archaeological evidence affords some insight into the process. After the Cypriot find, the next oldest hints of an association between humans and cats are a feline molar tooth from an archaeological deposit in Israel dating to roughly 9,000 years ago and another tooth from Pakistan dating to around 4,000 years ago. Testament to full domestication comes from a much later period. A nearly 3,700-year-old ivory cat [c. 1700 BCE] statuette from Israel suggests the cat was a common sight around homes and villages in the Fertile Crescent before its introduction to Egypt. [Baloney!] This scenario makes sense, given that all the other domestic animals (except the donkey) and plants were introduced to the Nile Valley from the Fertile Crescent. But it is Egyptian paintings from the so-called New Kingdom period—Egypt’s golden era, which began nearly 3,600 years ago [c. 1500 BCE - after the Hyksos were kicked out rulership]—that provide the oldest known unmistakable depictions of full domestication. These paintings typically show cats poised under chairs, sometimes collared or tethered, and often eating from bowls or feeding on scraps. The abundance of these illustrations signifies that cats had become common members of Egyptian households by this time.

[Well known associations of the lion with the ancient Egyptian Sun God, RA, and the association of the lioness or lion-headed goddess as one of the "Eyes of Ra" - Sekhmet, an aspect of equally ancient Goddess Het-Hert (Hathor) indicate a much older association between the ancient Egyptians and cats. As far as I am aware, both of these deities pre-date the founding of the dynastic period in ancient Egypt, c. 3500-3400 BCE and are therefore at least 5500 to 5400 years old, and quite possibly older. See, for instance, this information from the Louvre Museum indicating that the bones of a cat were discovered in a predynastic tomb dating to around 4000 BCE - that is, about 6000 years ago].

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For information on the Egyptian cat Goddess, Bast or Bastet, see: Tour Egypt, The Gods of Ancient Egypt - Bast Per-Bast.org For information on the importance of the cat in ancient Egypt (this would extend to any country where grain and other crops subject to the ravages of mice and rat infestations were a problem), see: Wikiland Mythology: Why were cats important in ancient Egypt? One of the key points I gleaned from this information is that the ancient Egyptians called cats "miu" or "miut" ("he or she who mews" - the "t" sound or glyph at the end of Egyptian words often designated a female) for the "meowing" sound that they made! That article cited above I found at the Louvre Museum says that "'The Ancient Egyptian word for cat was "mau", an onomatopoeia for mewing.' " Onomatopoeia is just a fancy word for this definition (from my trusty Webster's Collegiate Dictionary: "the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it."

Gruesome Evidence of Inca Human Sacrifice

Why were the majority of the victims girls, around 15 years of age??? And was the number of victims - 33 - significant? From Yahoo News Peru finds human sacrifices from Inca civilization Thu Jun 4, 4:20 pm ET LIMA (Reuters) – Researchers at an archeological site in northern Peru have made an unusually large discovery of nearly three dozen people sacrificed some 600 years ago by the Incan civilization. The bodies, some of which show signs of having been cut along their necks and collarbones, were otherwise found in good condition, said Carlos Webster, who is leading excavations at the Chotuna-Chornancap camp. The sprawling 235-acre (95-hectare) archeological site is 12 miles outside the coastal city of Chiclayo, near the ancient tomb of Sipan, which was one of the great finds of the last century. The sacrifices were made just decades before Spanish explorers arrived in what is now Peru. Although archeologists regularly find evidence of human sacrifice from Incan and pre-Incan cultures, it is rare to find the remains of 33 people in one place, researchers said. Scientists say human sacrifice was common within the Incan culture, which flourished immediately before the arrival of the Spanish in what is now parts of Peru, Chile and Ecuador between 1400 and the mid-1500s. "Most of the remains belong to young women, around 15 years of age. One of them appears to have been pregnant because in her abdomen, the collarbone of a fetus, probably around 4 months, was found," Webster said of the latest find, made over the past year and a half. "The majority (of the bodies) are in good condition -- skin tissues and hair have been preserved. They were found in a dry area more than 7 feet underground," he said. Incan civilization is best known for its capital city, Machu Picchu, the ruins of which are Peru's top tourist destination and considered one of the new seven wonders of the world. (Reporting by Marco Aquino; Writing by Dana Ford; Editing by Peter Cooney)

The Sardonic Grin

This article gives new meaning to a well-known but poorly understood phrase! (Image: A fourth-century B.C. Phoenician mask found in Tunisia displays a grin not unlike those seen on victims of an ancient Phoenician "sardonic grin" potion administered on the island of Sardinia.Scientists in May 2009 said they had finally uncovered the source of the potion's lethal, smile-inducing effects: the hemlock water-dropwort plant. Photograph by DEA/G. Dagli Orti via Getty Images ) Ancient Death-Smile Potion Decoded? James Owen for National Geographic News June 2, 2009 Thousands of years before the Joker gassed comic book victims into a grinning death, Phoenician colonists on the island of Sardinia were forcing smiles on the faces of the dead. Now scientists say they know just how the ancient seafaring traders created the gruesome smiles some 2,800 years ago—not with a toxic gas like Batman's nemesis but with a plant-based potion. And someday that plant might be used to Botox-like effect, perhaps reducing rather than adding smile lines, the researchers speculate. Ancient Death Grins By the eighth century B.C., Homer had coined the term "sardonic grin"—"sardonic" having its roots in "Sardinia"—in writings referring to the island's ritual killings via grimace-inducing potion. Elderly people who could no longer care for themselves and criminals "were intoxicated with the sardonic herb and then killed by dropping from a high rock or by beating to death," according to the new study. For centuries the herb's identity has been a mystery, but study leader Giovanni Appendino and colleagues say they have discovered a sardonic grin-inducing compound in a plant called hemlock water-dropwort. The white-flowered plant grows on celery-like stalks along ponds and rivers on the island, now part of Italy. Modern Suicide, Ancient Mystery About a decade ago, a Sardinian shepherd committed suicide by eating a hemlock water-dropwort, leaving a corpse with a striking grin. The death spurred study co-author Mauro Ballero, a botanist at the University of Cagliari in Sardinia, to study every dropwort-related fatality on the island in recent decades. For the new study, Ballero and colleagues detailed the molecular structure of the plant's toxin and determined how it affects the human body. Study leader Appendino, an organic chemist from the Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale in Italy, said, "The compound is highly toxic and causes symptoms similar to those described by the ancients for the sardonic smile, including facial paralysis." Hemlock water-dropwort "was already known to contain neurotoxins and was the most likely candidate for the sardonic herb," Appendino said. The hairy buttercup (aka the Sardinian buttercup) was also a candidate, but that plant doesn't grow in the damp places mentioned in ancient texts, nor does it make sense in terms of its toxic properties, Appendino said. "Besides, Sardinia is the only place all over the Mediterranean where [hemlock water-dropwort] grows," he added. A Better Botox? A member of the deadly hemlock family, the herb is especially dangerous because of its fragrant smell and sweet-tasting roots. "Generally poisonous plants are bitter or in some way repel people," Appendino said. Hemlock water-dropwort "is only the second case I know of a toxic plant that is actually attractive to our senses. People might easily eat it in a potion," he added—or perhaps apply it in a lotion. Appendino speculates that the plant may prove to have a cosmetic application. "It relaxes the muscles," he said, "so it removes wrinkles." Findings published in the Journal of Natural Products.

Weighing Legal Interests: Iran v. Victims

From Payvand.com: 06/05/09 Persian Antiquities in Peril: A Legal and Cultural Panel Discussion Press Release by Iranian American Bar Association Presented by: Dr. Matthew Wolfgang Stolper, Professor of Assyriology in the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago Dr. Patty Gerstenblith, Director of the DePaul College of Law's Program in Cultural Heritage Law Sue Benton, Esq., Partner, Winston & Strawn LLP and Lead Counsel for the Chicago Field Museum Dr. Gil Stein, Director of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago Date: Wednesday, June 10, 2009Time: 5:45pm - 8:00pm CSTLocation: University Center, 525 S. State Street, Chicago, IL 60605 In September of 1997, three Hamas suicide bombers blew themselves up in a crowded pedestrian mall in Jerusalem, killing five and wounding nearly 200. Several of the American victims sued the government of Iran, accusing it of being complicit in the attack, and won a $412 million default judgment. In seeking to satisfy that judgment, the plaintiffs have gone to court to seize ancient Persian artifacts being held by the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, the Chicago Field Museum, several Harvard University museums, and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Most of these artifacts date back 2,500 years, to the earliest days of the Persian Empire. The plaintiffs' cases are currently pending in federal court in Chicago and Boston. The museums have all entered the cases to prevent the artifacts from being seized; the Field Museum, the Harvard University museums, and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts argue that they, and not the government of Iran, own the artifacts. The University of Chicago's Oriental Institute has not made that argument – stating that the artifacts in its possession are "on loan" from the government of Iran. Thus the case against the Oriental Institute will most likely turn on the meaning of "commercial activity" under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which was originally passed by Congress in 1976. If the plaintiffs succeed, the artifacts may be dismantled and sold at auction. If this happens, the IABA believes that not only will the archaeological value of the artifacts be compromised, but the museums are also worried about the likely chilling effects such a decision would have on scholarly exchanges. The National Iranian American Council, an Iranian American lobbying organization, is separately concerned about the cultural impact resulting from a decision to seize the artifacts, and has tried to persuade the federal court in Chicago to deny the plaintiffs' request. In an effort to raise awareness about these cases and to further explore their cultural and scholarly impact, the Chicago Chapter of the Iranian American Bar Association (IABA) will host a panel discussion on Wednesday, June 10 from 5:45 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the University Center, 525 S. State Street, Lake Room, Chicago. The panelists include Dr. Gil Stein and Dr. Matthew Stolper of the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, Dr. Patty Gerstenblith of the DePaul University College of Law, and Sue Benton, lead counsel for the Chicago Field Museum. To reserve space for this event, please visit www.iaba.us. IABA is a non-religious, independent organization and is not in any way affiliated with any other organization. IABA is not a lobbying or advocacy group, but primarily an educational organization. As such, IABA seeks to educate and inform the Iranian American community about legal issues of interest, and to ensure that the American public at large as well as our representatives and other government officials are fully and accurately informed on legal matters of interest and concern to the Iranian American community. Attorney Hermine Valizadeh, President of the Chicago Chapter of the Iranian American Bar Association is available for commentary on this most important case and can be reached directly at hvalizadeh@usebrinks.com or 312-321-4810. Or for additional information on this program, please contact Masoud Naseri at 312-840-3183 or at mnaseri@piercelaw.edu. Tickets are free for IABA Members, $10 for non-Members, and $5 for students. Please note seating is very limited. If there is availability on the day of the event, tickets will cost $15 at the door for members and non-members and $10 for students. To RSVP, please visit this link to purchase tickets.

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Hmmmm, well it seems one will not get a very balanced presentation of arguments, as it appears there will be no legal representatives for the plaintiffs appearing at the forum.

China's Lack of Marriageable Women Leads to Scams

Yep - you could see it coming. All those years of abandoning unwanted female infants to die after birth, abortions of female fetuses and the overt favoring of boys over girls have come back to haunt Chinese society today. Mark my words - if this isn't already happening in India, it soon will be. Their birth of male to female children is nearly as distorted. Well, you reap what you sow... This story is from The Wall Street Journal. Image: From The Wall Street Journal, duped farmer Zhou Pin and his new bride, Cai Niucuo. ASIA NEWS JUNE 5, 2009 It's Cold Cash, Not Cold Feet, Motivating Runaway Brides in China Surplus of Bachelors Spurs New Scam; Mr. Zhou, Briefly Betrothed, Now Pines By MEI FONG XIN'AN VILLAGE, HANZHONG, China -- With no eligible women in his village, Zhou Pin, 27 years old, thought he was lucky to find a pretty bride whom he met and married within a week, following the custom in rural China. Ten days later, Cai Niucuo vanished, leaving behind her clothes and identity papers. She did not, however, leave behind her bride price: 38,000 yuan, or about $5,500, which Mr. Zhou and his family had scrimped and borrowed to put together. When Mr. Zhou reported his missing spouse to authorities, he found his situation wasn't unique. In the first two months of this year, Hanzhong town saw a record number of scams designed to extract high bride prices in a region with an oversupply of bachelors. The fleeing Mrs. Zhou was one of 11 runaway brides -- hardly the isolated case or two that the town had seen in years past. The local phenomenon has fueled broader speculation among officials that the fast-footed wives may be part of a larger criminal ring. "She called me soon after she left," says Mr. Zhou, a slight man with a tentative smile. He says she asked how he was doing, and apologized for the hardship she had caused. "I told her, 'I will see you again one day.' " Thanks to its 30-year-old population-planning policy and customary preference for boys, China has one of the largest male-to-female ratios in the world. Using data from the 2005 China census -- the most recent -- a study published in last month's British Journal of Medicine estimates there was a surplus of 32 million males under the age of 20 at the time the census was taken. That's roughly the size of Canada's population. Now some of these men have reached marriageable age, resulting in intense competition for spouses, especially in rural areas. It also appears to have caused a sharp spike in bride prices and betrothal gifts. The higher prices are even found in big cities such as Tianjin. A study by Columbia University economist Shang-Jin Wei found that some areas in China with a high proportion of males have an above-average savings rate, even after accounting for factors such as education levels, income and life-expectancy rates. Areas with more men than women, the study notes, also have low spending rates -- suggesting that many rural Chinese may be saving up for bride prices. Curbing consumption in hopes of connubial pleasure is increasingly the norm in Xin'an Village, or New Peace Village, a lushly verdant spot with 14,000 people, located in central China's Shaanxi province. The village has over 30 men of marriageable age, but no single women. As in other parts of the country, village customs dictate the groom's family pay the bride's family a set amount -- known as cai li -- while the bride furnishes a dowry of mostly simple household items. In the 1980s, before the start of China's economic reforms, cai li sums were small. "When I married, my husband just bought me several sets of clothes," recalls Zhang Shufen, Mr. Zhou's mother. In the 1990s, cai li prices rose to several thousand yuan (about $200 to $400 at today's conversion rates), mirroring the country's growing prosperity. But it was only starting in 2002-03 that villagers noticed a sharp spike in cai li prices, which shot up to between 6,000 to 10,000 yuan -- several years' worth of farming income. Not coincidentally, this was also the period when the first generation of children since the family-planning policy was launched in 1979 started reaching marriageable age. So the normally frugal Xin'an villagers began saving even more in anticipation of rising wedding costs. While the Zhous are fairly well-off by village standards, they had been scrimping for years, growing their own vegetables and eating mainly rice and noodles, with little meat. The family had curbed spending in anticipation of wedding costs for their son who was working in southern Chinese factories. The hope was that he would return with a prospective mate in tow. But when the younger Mr. Zhou returned home a year ago, he was still single. "In our village, when a boy is older than 24, 25, it is a shame on him for not marrying," says his mother. Last December a family friend told his mother that her nephew recently married a girl from neighboring Sichuan province. The bride had three female friends visiting her, who might be interested in marrying local men, said this friend. Encouraged, Mr. Zhou and his mother met the three girls the next day. After an hour's chat with the trio, who claimed to be ages 23, 25 and 27, Mr. Zhou found himself drawn to the prettiest and youngest, Ms. Cai, who had angular features and an ivory complexion. He proposed marriage. She agreed, with one proviso: cai li of 38,000 yuan, or roughly five years' worth of farm income. The Zhous agreed, but took the precaution of running a quick background check. Tang Yunshou, Xin'an's Communist Party secretary, said Ms. Cai's identity and residential papers checked. Three days later the couple registered their union at the local registrar's office. They posed for studio shots, with the bride in a creamy satin gown, the groom in a tuxedo. In one shot, they wear traditional garb, the bride pretending to light a string of firecrackers. Mr. Zhou mugs a grimace, hands to his ears. They held the wedding banquet a week later, on Jan. 4, where Mr Zhou's mother formally handed over the dowry -- half of it loans from family members -- to a woman she believed to be Ms. Cai's cousin. The new bride took up residence with her in-laws, and quickly found favor with her diligent and respectful ways, said Mrs. Zhou. "I treated her better than my own daughter," she said. A red electric scooter, with ribbons on the handles, sits in the living room, a wedding present for Ms. Cai. Matrimony was catching. Two neighbors sought Ms. Cai out, and asked her to act as matchmaker for their sons. Ms. Cai recommended two girls within a few days. The neighbors each paid 40,000 yuan in cai li. On Jan. 28, all these brides vanished, leaving the villagers reeling. While there are no nationwide statistics, wedding scams have occurred before, but usually isolated cases. Mr. Tang, Xin'an's Communist Party secretary, says he has never before seen such clusters of cases. Most of the 11 families involved lost an average of 40,000 yuan. Officials consider these to be fraud cases. So if caught, the women could serve jail time, according to police. Meanwhile, Mr. Zhou is still lovelorn. "I feel I can't hate her," says the deserted husband, who is now so depressed his parents have forbidden him to leave the village, as he longs to. "She must have her own troubles."—Gao Sen contributed to this article. Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A1

2009 Chinese Chess Championships

Whoa! Earlier today I read at Mig's Daily Dirt Chess Blog that Hou Yifan was forfeited a game because she wasn't at her place when the round began, although she was in the room and on her way to the table: Wang Hao was running away with the powerful Chinese Championship, racking up win after win. The only competitor to even keep him in view was teenager Ding Liren, but even he was 1.5 points behind with two rounds to play. Then something interesting happened on the way to the celestial city. Ding Liren beat Wang Hao in their 10th-round game, which had the additional plus of giving him better tiebreaks, if my interpretation of the google translation of the official site is to be trusted. So a Wang Hao loss or draw and Ding Liren win (or WH loss and DL draw) in the final round would give the title to the 16-year-old. As it turned out, tiebreaks weren't necessary. Ding Liren's final-round opponent, Zhou Jianchao, became the second player of the event to be forfeited under the new FIDE "zero tolerance" rule because he wasn't at his board when the games began. Supposedly he overslept. (A few days earlier Hou Yifan was forfeited even though she was apparently in the room at the time and headed to her board.) What a joke to have this happen in the final round of a national championship. Then something almost as odd happened. Wang Hao lost with white to the tournament tailender Liang Chong (who was the recipient of the free point against Hou Yifan). The leader missed a trivial draw in a knight endgame with 59.Nxa5, though to be fair, and again assuming my understanding of the tiebreaks is correct, he knew from the start that he needed to win to take the title because Ding Liren reached 8.5/11 without a fight. Well, that's really adding salt to my pepper statement a day or two ago that Hou had a lousy tournament (earning her lumps, to so speak). But to be forfeited - and - get this - according to what else I read at Mig's, those new-fangled FIDE rules about zero tolerance for showing up late to play don't go into effect until July 1st of this year! But the Chinese organizer, or Chinese Chess Federation - or who the hell knows who? - decided to enforce those new rules anyway: Oscar June 6, 2009 3:54 PM Reply All new FIDE-rules will be effective only from the 1st of July; see e.g. http://www.chesscafe.com/text/geurt128.pdf It seems that the Chinese are ahead of that. Now, it's possible that Hou would have lost that forfeited game; on the other hand, she might have drawn it or won it. In such a fiercely-fought contest as these Championships were, it might have made all the difference in the world. In hypothetical terms, I think this is a good rules. Players should be on time, no excuses. So what if your car breaks down, your husband goes into labor, your teeth all fell out while you were brushing that morning - so what? Right?

Oldest Known Pottery Discovered in China

I'll keep my eye out for further stories on this - who has the oldest pottery seems to be an area of some contention among archaeologists! Story from digitaljournal.com Archaeologists Discover Oldest Pottery Remains in the World Published 7 hours ago by Christopher Szabo. The remnants of the oldest known pottery have been found in a cave in southern China’s Hunnan province. The pottery shards, estimated at being from about 18,000 years Before Present, or 16, 000 years B.C. The Hungarian-language Mult Kor website said the oldest known rice grains were also found in the Yuchanyan cave site, which scientists say shows an important link between hunter-gatherer cave-dwellers and agriculturalists. Associated Press (AP) reported that Elisabetta Boaretto of Bar Ilan University in Israel believed hunter-gatherers were able to make pottery, something not widely accepted. She added the discovery: Supports the proposal made in the past that pottery making by foragers began in south China. An anthropologist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Tracey Lu, explained the significance of ancient pottery finds: Pottery initially serves as a cooking and storage facility. Later on, some pottery vessels become symbols of power and social status, as well as examples of art. Lu said that ancient pottery making was likely spread over a wide area: I agree that pottery was made by foragers in South China, but I also think pottery was produced more or less contemporaneously in several places in East Asia ... from Russia, Japan to North and South China by foragers living in different environments. Until now, the earliest pottery discoveries have come from Japan, at around 17,000 to 16,000 years ago. This form of pottery ware is known as Jomon pottery, and was found on the coast of the island of Kyushu. Like much ancient pottery, it was made of cords pressed into clay and then heated at relatively low temperatures. (600-900 degrees Celsius.)

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For information on Jomon pottery:

Women's Prehistoric Jomon Pottery: History, Illustrations, Links

Japanese Pottery - Clay Figurines from the Jomon Period (some of these sure look like much later eye goddesses that were popular all over the Middle East)

Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History - Jomon Culture, Metropolitan Museum of Art

The image above is identified as "incipient" Jomon: [from] The Odai-Yamamoto site has yielded 46 pottery sherds that have been dated by the radiocarbon method to 16,500 BC (NUTA-6510) to14,920 BC (NUTA-6506).

Compare to the Naqada II black and red ware (second image), circa 3550 - 3400 BCE.

Bone Carving Confirms Man's Presence 12,000 Years Ago

Ancient carvings of elephants and their ancestors, mammoths and mastodons, fascinate me, probably because of their very old connection to the game of chess. The bishop piece in modern Western chess started out his life as an elephant, after all :) Check out this beautiful carving from Vero Beach, Florida, confirmed to be between 12,000 to 14,000 years old. (Image from Vero Beach 32963 article - see link below). It is a never-ending source of amazement to me how artists (ancient and modern), can catch the living essence of an animal with seemingly a few lines! (Compare to this rock-carved image from the other side of the Atlantic, in Somerset, England, dated to circa 13,000 years ago). University of Florida: Epic carving on fossil bone found in Vero Beach BY SANDRA RAWLS, CORRESPONDENT © 2009, VERO BEACH 32963 In what a top Florida anthropologist is calling “the oldest, most spectacular and rare work of art in the Americas,” an amateur Vero Beach fossil hunter has found an ancient bone etched with a clear image of a walking mammoth or mastodon. According to leading experts from the University of Florida, the remarkable find demonstrates with new and startling certainty that humans coexisted with prehistoric animals more than 12,000 years ago in this fossil- rich region of the state. No similar carved figure has ever been authenticated in the United States, or anywhere in this hemisphere. The brown, mineral-hardened bone bearing the unique carving is a foot-long fragment from a larger bone that belonged to an extinct “mammoth, mastodon or ground sloth” according to Dr. Richard C. Hulbert, a vertebrate paleontologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History museum. These animals have been extinct in Florida for at least 10,000 years. Etched into the bone by a highly sharpened stone tool or the tooth of the animal is the clear image of a walking adult mammoth or mastodon. Extensive tests over the past two months have shown that the image was created when the bone was fresh, presumably right after the animal it belonged to was killed or died. Experts who have examined the bone, found at a location which has not been publicly disclosed on the northern side of Vero Beach, concluded the carving and surface are of the same age – 12,000 to 14,000 years old — with no evidence of recent tampering (see accompanying story on tests that have been performed to date). Rest of article.

New Method for Calculating Dates of Human Migration

I think 100 years from now we're going to have a much different take on DNA and migration, but I won't be here and neither will this blog, so here's the article on the latest new technique, from Science Daily Online: New 'Molecular Clock' Aids Dating Of Human Migration History June 4, 2009 Estimating the chronology of population migrations throughout mankind's early history has always been problematic. The most widely used genetic method works back to find the last common ancestor of any particular set of lineages using samples of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), but this method has recently been shown to be unreliable, throwing 20 years of research into doubt. The new method refines the mtDNA calculation by taking into account the process of natural selection - which researchers realised was skewing their results - and has been tested successfully against known colonisation dates confirmed by archaeological evidence, such as in Polynesia in the Pacific (approximately 3,000 years ago), and the Canary Islands (approximately 2,500 years ago). Says PhD student Pedro Soares who devised the new method: "Natural selection's very gradual removal of harmful gene mutations in the mtDNA produces a time-dependent effect on how many mutations you see in the family tree. What we've done is work out a formula that corrects this effect so that we now have a reliable way of dating genetic lineages. "This means that we can put a timescale on any part of the particular family tree, right back to humanity's last common maternal ancestor, known as 'Mitochondrial Eve', who lived some 200,000 years ago. In fact we can date any migration for which we have available data," he says. Moreover, working with a published database of more than 2,000 fully sequenced mtDNA samples, Soares' calculation, for the first time, uses data from the whole of the mtDNA molecule. This means that the results are not only more accurate, but also more precise, giving narrower date ranges. The new method has already yielded some surprising findings. Says archaogeneticist Professor Martin Richards, who supervised Soares: "We can settle the debate regarding mankind's expansion through the Americas. Researchers have been estimating dates from mtDNA that are too old for the archaeological evidence, but our calculations confirm the date to be some 15,000 years ago, around the time of the first unequivocal archaeological remains. [Convenient, aina hey...] "Furthermore, we can say with some confidence that the estimate of humanity's 'out of Africa' migration was around 60-70,000 years ago – some 10-20,000 years earlier than previously thought." The team has devised a simple calculator into which researchers can feed their data and this is being made freely available on the University of Leeds website. The paper is published in the current edition of the American Journal of Human Genetics. Journal reference: Pedro Soares , Luca Ermini , Noel Thomson , Maru Mormina , Teresa Rito , Arne Röhl , Antonio Salas , Stephen Oppenheimer , Vincent Macaulay and Martin B. Richards. Correcting for Purifying Selection: An Improved Human Mitochondrial Molecular Clock. American Journal of Human Genetics, 2009; DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2009.05.001 Adapted from materials provided by University of Leeds, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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Can someone explain this to me in plain English? It seems rather convenient to come up with a new method of dating the migration of people based on mitochondrial DNA that now correlates to the presence of archaeological evidence (other than the bones themselves, that is). That neatly disposes of any bones out there that were deemed older, because those results can now be deemed a mistake. Hmmm... This new method, however, cannot address evidence of human habitation from 50,000 years ago, for instance, that isn't supported by human remains.

Shira Evans and Her Amazing Foundation

Hola! Shira and I have been nattering back and forth via email. While Shira has not played rated chess for awhile (last update to her ELO information at USCF was January, 2006), she's become involved in the most amazing activities. This year Shira started a foundation called Computer Labs for Kids. Shira receives donated or buys laptop computers with donations and then gives them to needy children and provides training and orientation on how to use the laptops! Wow! Shira's first activity was to travel to Agra, India where she taught several girls who are residents of a girls' school there. This You Tube video follows their progress. Shira has just returned to the states from Ashkelon, Israel, and later this year she'll be going to Egypt. You can read more about Shira's foundation work and travels at her Facebook site. Here is a brief update from Shira: Dear Goddesschess Followers, I have a non-profit charity organization which gives laptops to children in areas of need around the world. I am writing this from Israel, having just visited Ashkelon which is right on the Gaza stripborder; an area frequently bombed. And as a chessplayer (ok I've been away from chess for a few years, but I am now inspired to get back into the game) I see something very chessish here. Do you know how psychological the game of chess is when you're sitting across from an opponent? You can be totally winning, get nervous and then lose. Or you can be losing, play a dubious but seemingly brilliant move, and win! It's an incredible rush. Well here in Ashkelon, I see a similar pattern. Here is the most beautiful beach front property, and really, right now there is peace and no sign of bombing or war. I went to the hospital here and spoke with a hospital representative who told stories of people living in terror, afraid to go 15 minutes away from their doorsteps because a bomb siren might go off, and they would have only 15 minutes to get to a safe house. But right now, here in this time, there is calmness, beauty and peace. What makes the area dangerous is that people are living in the past, afraid of what already happened. But right here and now, the area is calm. OK. I drove away from Ashkelon and when I talked to a man who inquired where I had been and I told him, he said, "Oh don't go to Ashkelon. You don't want to visit there." He was sending me mental pictures of war, destruction and dirty, polluted walkways -- the opposite of what Ashkelon really looks like here at this moment in time. So this is what I see.... You're playing a game of chess, and you get into a position where you always mess up (like the war torn Ashkelon), and you think, "Oh no, I'm done for." And there you go losing another game. What we need to do is see the city (or chess position) for how it really is right now at this moment in time. That is where the chess brilliance happens! Hopefully too, I can wake up the people of Israel to a brighter more brilliant future. Please join my charity cause on Facebook! http://apps.facebook.com/causes/245228?m=48fc3623. Happy chessplaying and thanks! Shira

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I'd love to see Shira get back into playing competitive chess, but I don't think she's going to have time! I will stay in touch with Shira. She's doing great work. I hope you'll consider making a donation to her foundation.

2009 Chinese Women's Chess Championship

The final results are in: Rk. Name FED Rtg Pts. TB1 TB2 TB3 1 WGM Shen Yang CHN 2420 8,0 0,0 33,50 6 2 GM Zhao Xue CHN 2531 7,5 1,0 35,75 6 3 Tan Zhongyi CHN 2436 7,5 0,0 30,00 6 4 WIM Zhang Xiaowen CHN 2340 6,5 0,0 22,25 6 5 IM Wang Yu A CHN 2364 5,5 1,5 26,50 3 6 WFM Ding Yixin CHN 2281 5,5 1,0 19,75 4 7 Ju Wenjun CHN 2454 5,5 0,5 26,25 2 8 WGM Gu Xiaobing CHN 2336 5,0 0,0 19,00 3 9 Wang Xiaohui CHN 2265 3,5 0,0 12,50 1 10 WGM Zhang Jilin CHN 2335 2,5 0,0 8,50 0 11 WIM Xu Tong CHN 2231 2,0 0,0 4,00 1 12 Wang Jue CHN 2162 1,0 0,0 4,00 0 Annotation: Tie Break 1: The results of the players in the same point group#results against Tie Break 2: Sonneborn-Berger-Tie-Break (with real points) Tie Break 3: The greater number of victories How did GM Hou Yifan do playing in the Men's section? Not good: Rk. Name FED Rtg Pts. TB1 TB2 TB3 1 GM Wang Hao CHN 2696 8,0 0,0 36,50 7 2 Ding Liren CHN 2458 7,5 0,0 35,75 5 3 GM Bu Xiangzhi CHN 2704 6,0 0,5 28,75 2 4 GM Zhou Weiqi CHN 2563 6,0 0,5 25,50 3 5 GM Ni Hua CHN 2724 5,5 0,0 21,25 4 6 GM Li Chao B CHN 2643 5,0 0,0 21,50 2 7 Ji Dan CHN 2342 4,5 0,5 19,75 2 8 GM Zhou Jianchao CHN 2635 4,5 0,5 19,25 2 9 GM Zhang Pengxiang CHN 2638 4,0 0,0 20,00 1 10 GM Liang Chong CHN 2511 3,0 2,0 11,75 2 11 GM Hou Yifan CHN 2590 3,0 0,0 15,00 0 12 GM Li Shilong CHN 2557 3,0 0,0 14,00 2 Does this mean the Chinese authorities will not pull her back and put her in women-only events? I sure hope not. She has to take her lumps in order to develop. Who the hell is Ding Liren???

Aerial Photography Leads to Stunning Discovery

From the dailyecho.co/uk New Forest discovery thought be one of oldest ever made in UK 9:00am Thursday 4th June 2009 By Chris Yandell (Photo: Dr. Helen Wickstead) TWO 6,000-year-old tombs have been unearthed in Hampshire in one of the biggest archaeological finds for years. The discovery, thought to be among the oldest ever made in the UK, is set to shed new light on the life led by the county’s earliest settlers. Flint tools and fragments of pottery have already been retrieved from the Neolithic site at Damerham in the New Forest. The nationally important find has been made by a team of experts from Kingston University in London. Archaeologist Dr. Helen Wickstead said she and her colleagues were “stunned and delighted” when evidence of the prehistoric complex came to light. She added: “Some artefacts have already been recovered and in the summer a team of volunteers will make a systematic survey on the site. “If we can excavate, we’ll learn a lot more about Neolithic people in the area and discover things such as who was buried there, what kind of life they led and what the environment was like 6,000 years ago.” The site, 15 miles from Stonehenge, is close to Cranborne Chase, one of the most thoroughly researched prehistoric areas in Europe. Last night New Forest author and historian Peter Roberts described the find as extremely rare. The former New Forest Verderer added: “It’s clearly very exciting and will throw new light on the settlements between Cranborne Chase and the Forest.” The tombs were discovered after staff from English Heritage studied aerial photographs of farmland in the Damerham area and saw signs of buried archaeological sites. Dr. Wickstead said she was astonished that the monuments had remained undiscovered for so long. She added: “Cranborne Chase is one of the most famous prehistoric landscapes, a mecca for prehistorians. You’d have thought the archaeological world would have gone over it with a fine tooth comb.” The team has vowed that any human bones found in the tombs will be treated with dignity. “The recovery of ancient human remains is always handled sensitively,” added Dr. Wickstead. “We feel respect for the dead people we study and we treat their remains with care.”

5th Century CE Indian Artifacts Discovered

Photographs! I want photographs! LOL! From the Online Edition of The Hindu 5th century artefacts discovered in West Bengal Raktima Bose Saturday, June 6, 2009 KOLKATA: The arrival of Buddhism in Bengal was till now traced back to the 7th century post-Gupta period. But recent archaeological excavations by the State’s Directorate of Archaeology and Museums at a non-descript village named Dheka in Murshidabad district have thrown up seals and artefacts dating back to the 5th century AD – indicating the presence of the religion in the region much earlier than was previously thought. The site is just 20 kilometres off Karnasubarno, which was considered the earliest Buddhist site in the State and houses the ruins of the ancient Buddhist university of Raktamrittika that finds mention in the travelogues of the famous Chinese pilgrim, Hiuen Tsang (7th century CE Chinese Buddhist monk who travelled to India during the reign on the first Tang Dynasty Emperior, Tai Zong). “The presence of several mounds in the region adjoining Karnasubarno always made me curious,” Amal Roy, superintendent of archaeology at the State’s Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, told The Hindu here on Friday. “So we started excavating at one such site named Deuliapar in February this year and stumbled upon the artefacts.” Among the articles recovered are fragmented stucco figurines, terracotta plaques, earthen lamps, iron nails and slugs, beads, bangles and hopscotch made of terracotta and, most interestingly, terracotta seals inscribed with scripts used way back in 5th century AD. Mr. Roy said that two names – Vijayachandrasya and Vainya – have been deciphered from the seals, though their identities are yet to be established. “We still do not have any concrete evidence as to whether it was a Buddhist site or not. But its close proximity to Karnasubarno and the nature of the artefacts excavated so far are strong indications of its Buddhist affiliation,” Mr. Roy said. The site has three layers, which indicates that it has undergone three phases of construction in the past, starting from the post-Gupta period. Mr. Roy said that the earliest used bricks were large and highly decorated with geometrical patterns. Some were even adorned with stuccos. The later ones were much smaller. Interestingly, archaeologists have lately discovered another site named Ugura, which is not very far from Deulipar, where excavations have revealed Buddhist sculptures inscribed with the image of Lord Buddha. “There is a high possibility that the region housed a flourishing Buddhist centre in early times. The entire picture will become clear once the excavation is completed,” Mr. Roy said. “What we have found till now is just the beginning.”

Shira Evans Has Found Me!

Hola darlings! The email I sent off to two separate email addys has yielded fruit! Shira Evans has found me! (Photo: Shira at a tournament in 2002. I still had this photo on my hard drive. When I got this new computer I deleted all of my old "Chess Goddesses" files for the old website, but this photo remained on my "C" drive and was passed along to my new computer when I did a file transfer). We've exchanged emails and I have much to catch-up on. Suffice to say for now that Shira is into some really interesting activities these days -- I will write all about it but I want to do it right rather than piece-meal, so I'm going to read first and then write a draft with background info before I publish Shira's update that I received from her today, all in one hopefully coherent package! Stayed tuned - I'll be back with that Shira update soon.

2009 Montreal Open Chess Championship

Hola everyone! Goddesschess is very pleased to announce that it will be sponsoring special prizes for chess femmes who participate in the 2009 Montreal Open Chess Championship! Check out the fabulous website for further details about this great event! Press release. Information also available at the Quebec Chess Federation (in French - but a Google translation into English works well). September 11 - 13, 2009, Montreal, Quebec: Round 1: September 11, 2009 Round 2: September 12, 2009 Round 3: September 13, 2009 Special Class Prizes sponsored by Goddesschess: Section B - $45 for best finish by female player Section C - $35 for best finish by female player Section D - $25 for best finish by female player These prizes are in addition to any class prizes that may be won by female players. We'll be featuring photographs from the Tournament and (with their consent) interviews with the prize winners! Ladies, we hope to see you at the Tournament!

The Only Rated Female Chessplayer in Wyoming?

Elizabeth Scott paints a colorful life by Elysia Conner Wednesday, June 3, 2009 12:59 PM MDT Whoa! In an article profiling artist Elizabeth Scott, the author Elysia Conner of the Casper Journal made the following statement: Scott also is a competitive chess player and has won the Wyoming Reserve Chess champion title twice. She is the highest ranked woman chess player in the state, but also the only one, she pointed out. I sincerely hope Ms. Scott is not the lone chess femme in the entire state of Wyoming! Given the wording, I have assumed that Ms. Conner means that Ms. Scott is the only adult chess femme in the state, and she is not including scholastic chess players who are female. Checking further, I looked for and located the Wyoming Chess Association's website, but it doesn't seem to have been updated recently. Not a good sign! I clicked on several links and they were dead-ends to the information I was seeking - namely, a list of current rated players in the state of Wyoming. Maybe I was doing something wrong... I did come across the names of two chess femmes at the combined website of the Wyoming Chess Association and the Cheyenne Chess Club: Shira Evans and Barb Fortune. Personally, I find these names very evocative of two chess goddesses :) Shira Evans is a name out of my past! She was one of two chess femmes who provided me regular updates on her chess adventures while I had Chess Goddesses online between 2001 and 2004. I sent an email to Shira at the email listed at the website, but one of them bounced. I'm keeping my fingers crossed about the other one. I'll do some further checking to see if I can get in touch with her. Shira, if you read this, please email me. You can always reach me via the email at Goddesschess.com. The other lovely young lady who provided me with regular reports of her events for Chess Goddesses was Tatjana Plachinova, from Bulgaria. I was not able to locate her name this evening on the FIDE ratings list, so I assume either she got married and changed her name or she is no longer playing in FIDE-rated chess events. Tatjana, if you read this, I'd love to hear from you. So, I got totally distracted from my search on information about chess femmes in the state of Wyoming, and it's time to eat supper, so I'll report back at a later date!

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Update 10:13 p.m. I looked through the player listings at USCF's website twice for Wyoming, and as far as I can determine, Ms. Elizabeth Scott IS the only current adult female player in the entire state: 103 2582914 010-01-31 LIZABETH G SCOTT 414 009-03-01 Shira Evans' information showed up, but the last update was from January, 2006.

2009 Subic International Open

The 2nd Subic International Open was held May 25 - 31, 2009 in the Philippines. (Image: IM Tania Sachdev, from 2007) Seventy-four (74) players competed. The winner (clear first by half a point) was GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami (hope I have the name correctly) (IRI 2593), with 7.0/9. The best female finish was IM Tania Sachdev (IND 2423), in 18th place with 5.5. Other female finishers whose names I recognized: 38 WGM Mohota Nisha IND 2304 4,5 73 WIM Nadig Kruttika IND 2361 2,0 I did not recognize most of the names. Chess-results.com did not give indication of the sex of the player. I just don't have time to put each name into the FIDE registry to see if a player is M or F. I wish organizers would make this information readily available for future events. It would make my job a lot easier, and there are some folks out here in cyberspace who want to know who were the chess femmes who played in a given event and how they finished. I noted a lot of Chinese players whose names I did not recognize at all. No titles, but I am assuming most of those players were chess dudes, not chess femmes (although a few of them may be women). World, take notice - it seems likely the Chinese will only continue to develop and eventually dominate western chess if more of their players get chances to develop their talent in international competitions.

Southwest Chess Club: More Action Galore!

Sorry not to have published this last night - I claim exhaustion. And hives - this morning shortly after I arrived at the office (when I couldn't do a thing other than pop some antihistimine tablets) I've broken out in hives and not only do I have itchy arms and legs, I have a swollen distorted face and lips because of soft tissue hives that popped up on the inside of the right side my mouth and inside my right cheek. Eek! Have pity on me, for they are no doubt due to the stress of returning to the office after a three week vacation. Sigh, and ugh - I'm not a pretty sight to see at the moment, I look like Charles Laughton in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." Check out the action at my adopted chess club, SOUTHWEST CHESS CLUB: This Thursday night (June 4th) we have a one-night tournament (3 games) in two formats: (1) Action-rated only (Game/29), affects only your Action Rating (not your regular rating), (2) Dual-rated (Game/30), which affects both your Regular Rating and your Action Rating. We will have separate G/29 and G/30 sections. The details are given below: Heatwave Action II: June 4 3-Round Swiss in Two Sections (G/30 Minutes and G/29 Minutes).USCF Rated. EF: $5 members, $7 others. (½ Point Bye available for only first round if requested prior to round) TD is Becker; ATD is Grochowski. OTHER UPCOMING EVENTS (don't miss the Club Championship and other tournaments this summer) ! Sizzling Summer Cook-off Swiss: June 11, 18 & 25 3-Round Swiss in Two Sections. (Open and Under 1600) Game/100 minutes. USCF Rated. EF: $5 members, $7 others. (One ½ Point Bye Available for any round (except round four) if requested at least 2-days prior to round). TD is Fogec; ATD is Grochowski. SWCC Simul Kickoff: July 2 Lecture and a simul. This is a free event. Southwest Chess Club Championship: July 9, 16, 23, 30 & August 6 & 13 6-Round Swiss in One Section. Game/100. USCF Rated. EF: $7 (must be a member to participate). SWCC Membership $10 (can join prior to first round). (Two ½ point byes available in rounds 1 through 5 if requested at least 2-days in advance; no byes available for round 6.) TD is Becker; ATD is Grochowski. Great folks, a friendly relaxed atmosphere, over-the-board chess the way the game should be played. BE THERE - BE SQUARE (AS IN 8X8). LOCATION: St. James Catholic Church in the lower level of the Parish Center building (immediately in front of the church). The address is 7219 South 27th Street, Franklin, Wisconsin.

Upcoming: First Women's U.S. Open Chess Championship

From the Oklahoma Chess Federation website: September 5-7, 2009 - 1st U.S. Women's Open - Tulsa, Oklahoma - $$1600 Gtd. 6-SS G/90(+30). Tulsa Best Western Trade Winds Central, 3141 E. Skelly Dr., Tulsa, OK 74105 (918)749-5561. Prizes: $1600 (Gtd): 1st- $800 + trophy + probable invitation to 2010 U.S. Women's Championship; 2nd - $500, 3rd - $300, class prizes as entries permit. Eligibility: Open to all female USCF members. EF: $80 if rec'd by 8/30; $90 at site. Reg: 9:00-10:15am. Rds: 10:30-3, 9-2, 9-2. Tiebreaks after round 6 if necessary. Byes: One 1/2-point bye available if req. by rd 3. HR: $55, (800) 685-4564. Free wireless. tradewindstulsa.com. Side Events: Sat: Blitz Fischer-Random Pizza Bash. Sun: River Spirit Casino. Info: Frank Berry. Website: www.geocities.com/okiechessfestival. Adv Entry: Cks payable to: Frank K. Berry, 402 S. Willis, Stillwater, OK 74074. FIDE rated. NS. W.

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I'm happy to see Mr. Frank Berry organize this event. I hope it is the first of many U.S. Women's Open Chess Championships to come. We need more women-only event like this one!

2009 Chinese Women's Chess Championship

Standings after Round 7 (tournament ends June 5th): Rk. Name FED Rtg Pts. TB1 TB2 TB3 1 Tan Zhongyi CHN 2436 6,0 0,0 16,00 5 2 WGM Shen Yang CHN 2420 5,5 0,5 15,00 4 GM Zhao Xue CHN 2531 5,5 0,5 15,00 4 4 IM Wang Yu A CHN 2364 4,0 0,0 12,00 2 5 WFM Ding Yixin CHN 2281 3,5 2,0 9,50 3 6 Ju Wenjun CHN 2454 3,5 1,0 14,00 1 7 Wang Xiaohui CHN 2265 3,5 0,5 9,00 1 8 WIM Zhang Xiaowen CHN 2340 3,5 0,5 8,25 3 9 WGM Gu Xiaobing CHN 2336 3,0 0,0 9,00 2 10 WIM Xu Tong CHN 2231 2,0 0,0 3,00 1 11 WGM Zhang Jilin CHN 2335 1,5 0,0 4,25 0 12 Wang Jue CHN 2162 0,5 0,0 2,00 0 Annotation: Tie Break 1: The results of the players in the same point group#results against Tie Break 2: Sonneborn-Berger-Tie-Break (with real points) GM Hou Yifan is playing in the Men's section. She's in 9th place with 2.5 after 7 rounds. A tough event for Hou (and some of the other Chinese GMs, too). Rk. Name FED Rtg Pts. TB1 TB2 TB3 1 GM Wang Hao CHN 2696 6,5 0,0 19,00 6 2 Ding Liren CHN 2458 5,5 0,0 14,50 4 3 GM Bu Xiangzhi CHN 2704 4,5 0,0 13,75 2 4 GM Zhou Weiqi CHN 2563 4,0 0,0 11,75 2 5 GM Ni Hua CHN 2724 3,5 1,5 11,00 2 6 Ji Dan CHN 2342 3,5 0,5 9,75 2 7 GM Zhou Jianchao CHN 2635 3,5 0,0 8,75 2 8 GM Li Chao B CHN 2643 3,0 0,0 8,25 1 9 GM Hou Yifan CHN 2590 2,5 0,0 9,25 0 10 GM Zhang Pengxiang CHN 2638 2,0 0,5 7,25 0 11 GM Liang Chong CHN 2511 2,0 0,5 5,25 1 12 GM Li Shilong CHN 2557 1,5 0,0 4,50 1

Churches "Built by Angels"

From Yahoo News. (Image: From Sacred Sites of Ethiopia and the Arc [sic] of the Covenant - Bet Giorgis Church, Lalibela) Ethiopia: lifting the mystery on rock churches 'built by angels' by Emmanuel Goujon Emmanuel Goujon – Sun May 31, 7:58 pm ET LALIBELA, Ethiopia (AFP) – The ancient mystery shrouding Lalibela, Ethiopia's revered medieval rock-hewn churches, could be lifted by a group of French researchers given the go-ahead for the first comprehensive study of this world heritage site legend says was "built by angels". The team will have full access to the network of 10 Orthodox chapels chiseled out of volcanic rock -- some standing 15 metres (42 feet) high -- in the mountainous heart of Ethiopia. Local lore holds they were built in less than 25 years by their namesake, the 13th-century King Lalibela, with the help of angels after God ordered him to erect a "New Jerusalem". The monolithic structures are located 500 kilometres (300 miles) north of the capital Addis Ababa. Long a holy pilgrimage site in a land proud of its Christian Orthodox heritage, they are also a travel draw in a poverty-stricken country hoping to boost tourism. The multidisciplinary team of historians, archaeologists, topographers and a specialist in liturgy will spend several weeks probing the subterranean complex to try to identify its origins. Historian Marie Laure Derat, with the French Centre for Ethiopian Studies (CFEE), said "there are several theories". In one, "an Egyptian patriarch was believed to be the source of these structures, another says the 13th-century King Lalibela built the site from scratch." "During the day the king would work with Ethiopian artisans and at night he would 'be helped by angels'. Some even cite a key role by the Knights Templar," she said, referring to one of the key Western Christian military orders of the Middle Ages. Though earlier studies have been carried out, they were generally by lone researchers with restricted access who studied mainly church interiors. Derat said the heretofore reluctant Orthodox church gave the French team carte blanche to probe "the entire site, not just the churches, to understand how the periods overlap and to read history in this open book that is Lalibela." Funded by the French government and Ethiopian Airlines, the team is already certain the chapels were not built in one go. Research chief Francois Xavier Fauvelle said three distinct periods have been identified in the maze of deep tunnels, passageways and chapels, some of which resemble ancient Greek temples. "There was originally a basalt dome under which we found evidence of cave dwellers. Then there was the construction of a fortress with trenches, a perimetre wall and underground tunnels," he said pointing to rocks he said where once part of the defence wall. "The third period was established thanks to an enormous mound of earth about 20 metres high that came from the excavation of the church of Gabriel Ruphael," he said, referring to the chapel some believe was once King Lalibela's residence. "The Ruphael Gabriel church was probably part of the fortress and was turned into a church: the facade was extended, windows opened and a chapel dug out," said Fauvelle. UNESCO added Lalibela to its world heritage list in 1978, a boon for tourism efforts in this country of 85 million where poverty is rampant and agriculture accounts for nearly half the economy. Visitors can already join organized tours of the site. But the bid to shed light on its origins has not shaken the Orthodox clergy and faithful here, who contend that Lalibela arose with divine intervention. "It is God through his angels who made these churches," said Alebachew Reta, spokesman for the Lalibela clergy who insisted "the 10 churches were created in just 24 years." "You can observe that even one would be difficult to build in that space of time. So for us it is God's work," said Reta. "For the one who created mankind, building these churches was not difficult."

Obama Goes to Bat for the Queen

All right!

It was evident that a few months ago when President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama travelled to London and met with Queen Elizabeth II, an immediate connection between the parties was made on a deeply personal level. (Photo: Queen Elizabeth II and Michelle Obama during a personal moment, April 2, 2009 - the Queen was not offended). Personally, I was pleased to see this, as I deeply appreciate the long-term historical connection between Great Britain and the United States of America. I think sometimes people tend to forget about the abiding ties between our countries, forged through fire and iron.

I was chagrined to read recent press reports that the French government had neglected to issue an invitation to Queen Elizabeth to participate in D-Day memorial events.

I didn't write about it this year on Memorial Day, but it was in my mind - and the coverage of veterans in our local newspaper, the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel, hasn't helped my emotions. It has published a series of stories on local veterans of WWII, who are dying at the rate of about 1,000 (?) veterans each month. (Not sure if that means 1,000 U.S. WWII veterans a month or worldwide WWII veterans a month. When my dad died, my recollection is that veterans of his era were dying at the rate of 5,000 a month. (Image: my dad, WWII, personal archive). If the 1,000 a month figure is correct, that means that a lot of deaths have occurred since Dad died, and the death rate has slowed, only because there aren't a whole lot of WWII vets left). My dad, a WWII vet, died in early November, 2002. Since he died, my emotions seem to be closer to the surface of my "skin" than ever before, perhaps because I'm dealing with issues of my own mortality. Perhaps because I realize the most important things in life the older I get.


Anyway, knowing how much Queen Elizabeth's family, and Queen Elizabeth and her sister, Princess Margaret, did for morale in Great Britain and the British Empire during WWII, and knowing how many British men died during and after crossing the English Channel to Dunkirk, my thought is that of course she should be invited as a representative of the British people, in addition to PM Gordon Brown. (Image: then Princess Elizabeth in uniform. Princess Elizabeth served with the Auxiliary Territorial Service during World War II).

Call me sentimental - I freely admit it. Queen Elizabeth is of the same generation as my parents; she got married in 1947. She, and my folks (dad now deceased), have lived through the most incredible historic events and hard times that we, their children, can't even imagine.

Bravo to President Obama for sending this blatant message to the French Government. Story from "The Caucus" at The New York Times:

June 1, 2009, 4:10 pm — Updated: 5:26 pm -->
White House Seeks a Proper Invitation for the Queen
By Helene Cooper

The Obama administration is working with their French counterparts to make sure that Britain’s Queen Elizabeth — reportedly miffed, according to the British Press, at not being invited to the D-Day anniversary festivities in Normandy this weekend — gets a formal invitation.

Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said on Monday that President Obama thinks the queen should be present at the event on Saturday. “We are working with those involved to see if we can make that happen,” Mr. Gibbs said.

Mr. Gibbs’s comments came after Buckingham Palace pointedly noted last week that the queen didn’t get an invite, an omission which has had the British press fuming. Mr. Obama is attending the event (French President Nicolas Sarkozy invited him two months ago) as is British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Mr. Sarkozy has said that the queen is welcome to come to the ceremony, but Obama administration officials say that they would like to see her receive a formal invitation.

Driving home that point, Mr. Gibbs joked at the end of his daily briefing with reporters Monday: “Will you — will you — will you please pass that directly to the queen for me?”

More Egypt Pictures by Carmen!

For a change of pace, photos from Cairo, Christmas, 2008: