Goddess Demeter - in the Christian Form

We've seen this in other cases of ancient goddesses (particularly) incorporated into the Christian pantheon (although Church Fathers would never describe it that way!) as "saints."


Fragment of "Demeter" stolen from Eleusis in 1801 CE, now residing in the
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge University, England.  According to the
Fitzwilliam, this is not a bust of Demeter, per se, but part of a pair of colums
that flanked the entrance into the sanctum sanctorium of Demeter's Temple at Eleusis.
 It supposedly represents one of the daughters of Appius Claudius Pulcher, the
Roman consul who dedicated the gateway that they supported, between 54 and 48 BC."

 From Barbara G. Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets

Demetra, Saint [not to be confused with Saint Demetria]
[This is the entry directly under Demeter, the Goddess]

As was the rule with other manifestations of the Great Goddess, there was an attempt to Christianize Demeter by making a saint of her.  Though the church refused to canonize "St. Demetra" officially, yet she remained a great favorite of the people, who told miracle-tales abou her and prayed to her as fervently as if she were a certified member of the canon.

The classic myth of Kore-Persephone and Demeter was retold as a popular fairy tale centering on St. Demetra.  The saint's daughter {Kore} was kidnapped by "a wicked Turkish wizard" {Hades} and locked up in a tower.  A young hero rescued her, but perished miserably, chopped in pieces by the wizard and hung from the tower's walls "between heaven and earth."  Guided by a stork {her ancient toemic bird of  birth}, St. Demetra arrived on the scene, reassembled the hero, and brought him back to life.(1)  Several elements of this story were repeated in the Germanic fairy tale of Rapunzel.

A masculinized version of Demeter - or perhaps one of her Demetreroi - was accepted into the canon as a "St. Demetrius," of no known date, and no real biograpny.  His legend, established in the late Middle Ages, made him a warrior saint like the equally mythical St. George.  The basic story was invented to publicize his healing relics preserved at Salonika.(2)

Notes:
(1)  Lawson, 80-84.
(2)  Attwater, 102.

   *****************************************************************



The Cabinet of Curiosities has further information and historical background to fill in the legend of Saint Demetra.  It recalled to my mind something I knew but had forgot - that the Turks (Muslims) in the form of the Ottoman Empire ruled Greece from the 15th century CE until 1821 CE!  The updating of the legend of Demeter and Kore/Persephone was thus updated very late, indeed, to satisfy the mandates of the Greek Christian Orthodox Church.  Wink, wink. 

I found Lawson (see Note 1 from Walker, above) online at Google books:  Modern Greek Folkore and Ancient Greek Religion: A Study in Survivals, 1909.  John Cuthbert Lawson.  You can read the entire updated tale that has the "Turkish" villain/kidnapper/ravisher of Kore/Persephone there.

According to the Cabinet of Curiosities, the tower-like structure on this maiden's head is called a cista and it may have held sacred artifacts used in the Eleusinian rights.  That may be correct, but I think it could also be a representation of the "tower" that the "archaic" Goddess Kar wore on her head.  Kar was an important Goddess in "walled cities" such as Carthage and was, like Demeter, a primal Mother Goddess. Kar - was a manifestation of walled fortifications that the earliest "cities" used to protect themselves against raids and unwanted visitors, and the custom was copied down through the ages - indeed, into cities built in the Dark and Middle Ages in Europe.  The "Old City" of Jerusalem is just one example of a city using Kar's walled fortifications.  Many cities today still survive with this remnant of the Goddess' name of "KAR" or "CAR" in their names.   

Goddess Demeter

Posts of prior interest:

The Former Getty's Aphrodite Might Not be Aphrodite After All
May 20, 2011

Chicomecoatl and Chimalman

June 6, 2010

Dogs in Myth and Legend (Keres related to Demeter)
December 27, 2009

From Barbara G. Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets.

Demeter

Tholos tomb at Mycenae - note the "de" (delta/triangle) above
the door into the tomb. 

Greek meter is "mother."  De is the delta, or triangle, a female-genital sign known as "the letter of the vulva" in the Greek sacred alphebet, as in India it was the Yoni Yantra, or yantra of the vulva.(1)  Corresponding letters - Sanskrit dwr, Celtic duir, Hebrew daleth - meant the Door of birth, death or the sexual paradise.(2)  Thus, Demeter was what Asia called "the Doorway of the Mysterious Feminine ... the root from which Heaven and Earth sprang."(3)  In Mycenae, one of Demeter's earliest cult centers, tholos tombs with their triangular doorways, short vaginal passages and round domes, represented the womb of the Goddess from which rebirth might come.  Doorways generally were sacred to women.  In Sumeria they were painted red, representing the female "blood of life."(4)  In Egypt, doorways were smeared with real blood for religious ceremonies, a custom copied by the Jews for their Passover rites.

The triangle-door-yoni symbolized Demeter's trinity.  Like all the oldest forms of the basic Asiatic Goddess she appeared as Virgin, Mother, and Crone, or Creater, Preserver, Destroyer, like Kali-Cunti who was the same yoni-mother.  Demeter's Virgin form was Kore, the Maiden, sometimes called her "daughter," as in the classical myth of the abduction of Kore, which divided the two aspects of the Goddess into two separate individuals.  Demeter's Mother form had many names and titles, such as Despoena, "the Mistress"; Daeira, "the Goddess"; the Barley-Mother; the Wise One of Earth and Sea; or Pluto, "Abundance."  This last name was transferred to the male underworld god said to have taken the Maiden into the earth-womb during the dark season when fields lay fallow.  But this was a late, artificial myth.  The original Pluto was female, and her "riches" were poured out on the world from her breasts.(5)

The Crone phase of Demeter, Persephone-the-Destroyer, was identified with the Virgin in late myth, so the Maiden abducted into the underworld was sometimes Kore, sometimes Persephone.  Some of the Destroyer's other, earlier names were Melaina, the Black One; Demeter Chthonia, the Subterranean One; or The Avenger (Erinys).  Her black-robed, mare-headed idol, her mane entwined with Gorgon snakes, appeared in one of her oldest cave-shrines, Mavrospelya, the Black Cave, in Phigalia (southwest Arcadia).  She carried a dolphin and a dove, symbols of womb and yoni.  Like the devouring death-goddess everywhere, she was once a cannibla.  She ate the flesh of Pelops, then restored him to life in her cauldron.(6)  She was as fearsome as every other version of the Crone.  The legendary medieval Night-Mare - an equine Fury who tormented sinners in their sleep - was based on ancient images of Mare-headed Demeter.

See note for this image from Eleusis below.

Her cult was already well established at Mycenae in the 13th century B.C. and continued throughout Greece well into the Christian era, a length of time almost equal to the lifespan of Christianity itself.(7)  Her temple at Eleusis, one of the greatest shrines in Greece, became the center of an elaborate mystery-religion.  Sophocles wrote, "Thrice happy they of men who looked upon these rites ere they go to Hades's house; for they alone there have true life."  Aristides said, "The benefit of the festival is not merely the cheerfulness of the moment and the freedom and respite from all previous troubles, but also the possession of happier hopes concerning the end, hopes that our life hereafter will be the better, and that we shall not lie in darkness and filth - the fate that is believed to await the uninitiated."  Isocrates said: "Dementer . . . being graciously minded towards our forefathers because of their services to her, services of which none but the initiated may hear, gave us the greatest of all gifts, first, those fruits of the earth which saved us from living the life of beasts, and secondly, that rite which makes happier the hopes of those that participate therein concerning both the end of life and their whole existence."(8)

Eleusis meant "advent."  Its principal rites brought about the advent of the Divine Child or Savior, variously named Brimus, Dionysus, Triptolemus, Iasion, or Eleuthereos, the Liberator.  Like the corn, he was born of Demeter-the-earth and laid in a manger or winnowing basket.(9)  His flesh was eaten by communicants in the form of bread, made from the first or last sheaves.  His blood was drunk in the form of wine.  Like Jesus, he entered the Earth and rose again.  Communicants were supposed to partake of his immortality, and after death they were known as Demetreioi, blessed ones belonging to Demeter.(10)

Revelations were imparted to the initiate through secret "things heard, things tasted, and things seen."(11)  This formula immediately calls to mind the three admonitory monkeys covering ears, mouth, and eyes, supposedly to illustrate the maxim "Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil."  Was the "evil" a secret descended from Eleusian religion?  Demeter was worshipped as "the Goddess" by Greek peasants all the way through the Middle Ages, even up to the 19th century at Eleusis where she was entitled "Mistress of Earth and Sea."  In 1801 two Englishmen named Clarke and Cripps caused a riot among the peasants by taking the Goddess's image away to a museum in Cambridge.(12)

Early Christians were much opposed to the Eleusinian rites because of their overt sexuality, even through their goal was "regeneration and forgiveness of sins."(13)  Asterius said, "Is not Eleusis the scene of descent into the darkness, and of the solemn acts of intercourse between the hierophant and the priestess, alone together?  Are not the torches extinguished, and does not the large, the numberless assembly of common people believe that their salvation lies in that which is being done by the two in the darkness?"(14)  Fanatic monks destroyed the temple of these sexual mysteries in 396 A.D., but the site remained holy to the Goddess's votaries, and the ceremonies were carried on there and elsewhere.(15)

Rustics never ceased believing that Demeter's spirit was manifest in the final sheaf of the harvest, often called the Demeter, the Corn Mother, the Old Woman, etc.  At harvest festivals it was often dressed in woman's clothing and laid in a manger to make the cattle thrive.(16)  Secret anti-Christian doctrines of medieval Freemasonry also drew some symbolism from the cults of the ancient Mistress of Earth and Sea, particularly the masonic sacred image of Plenty: "an ear of corn near a fall of water."(17)  The ultimate Mystery was revealed at Eleusis in "an ear of corn reaped in silence" - a sacred fetish that the Jews called shibboleth.(18)

Notes:
(1)  Mahanirvanatantra, 127.
(2)  Gaster, 302.
(3)  de Riencourt, 175.
(4)  Hays, 68.
(5)  Graves, W.G., 159, 406; G.M. 1, 61; G.M. 2, 25.
(6)  Graves, G.M. 2, 30.
(7)  Encyc. Brit., "Demeter."
(8)  Lawson, 563-64.
(9)  Graves, W.G., 159.
(10)  Angus, 172.
(11)  H. Smith, 127.
(12)  Lawson, 79, 89-92.
(13)  Angus, 97.
(14)  Lawson, 577.
(15)  Angus, vii.
(16)  Frazer, G.B., 473.
(17)  Elworthy, 105.
(18)  d'Alviella, 2.

Regarding the use of red on the door area of a tholos (or beehive) tomb, see The Tholos Tombs of Mycenae: The great doors opened between two half colums of green serpentin with relief decoration while the pediment and relieving triangle were clad in red marble.

For some interesting comments regarding the antiquity (or not) of the practice of painting doors red, see The Garden Web.com - This Old House forums. 

Note:
Both of the images above are from sporadestours.com that appears to be a synopsis of a tour it offered in 2007 for a mere $1800 - that sounds absolutely fantastic!  It included Eleusis and Mycenae among other sites over 7 days.  The information the website provided accompanying the photograph from Eleusis is particularly interesting - note the mention of Pluto (noted by Barbara Walker, above, as another aspect/name of Demeter before the she-Pluto was turned into a 'he' by the Greeks).  Also note the reference to the comb as a sacred female object used during the Eleusinian rites -- we've seen a comb show up in both Lamiak imagery and Lilith imagery! 

Eleusis was the home of the Eleusinian Mysteries, the most important cult religion of antiquity before Christianity. Like most ancient religious centers, Eleusis was used for cult practices far into prehistoric times, but its fame and importance greatly increased during the 6th century BC, when a major building project was carried out by the Athenian tyrant Peisistratos. Another large-scale reconstruction occurred during the 2nd century AD, especially during the reigns of Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius. The cult continued to function until the end of the 4th century.



The Eleusinian religion was based on the myth of Demeter and her daughter Kore (Persephone). After Kore had been carried off by her uncle Hades to be his bride and the queen of the underworld, Demeter searched for her everywhere; when she came to Eleusis, she disguised herself as an old woman and sat by a well; the women of Eleusis, coming to draw water, tried to talk to Demeter but got no response until a woman named Baubo or Iambe exposed herself to the goddess; Demeter smiled and told the women the fiction that she was Doso from Crete, that she had been captured by pirates, and was now wandering friendless and penniless; having secured a position as nursemaid to the infant son of King Keleus and Queen Metaneira, Demeter held the baby every night in the fire, trying to burn away its mortality; one night Metaneira came upon this scene and cried out; Demeter revealed her true identity, commanded the Eleusinians to build her a temple, and sealed herself inside; since she was the goddess of fertility and vegetation, nothing grew during her isolation; finally Zeus, realizing that without crops, animals, or humans being born there was no future for the gods, commanded his brother Hades to return Kore to her mother; Hades did so, but since Kore had eaten pomegranate seeds in the underworld she was compelled to spend half of each year above the earth and half below (in fact, despite this arrangement, we never hear of Kore/Persephone henceforth other than as the queen of the underworld).


The annual ceremony of the Greater Eleusinia took place every September; initiates holding a small pig purified themselves (and the pig) in the sea, then marched in procession to Eleusis for several days of varying activity, sometimes orgiastic, sometimes in silent mourning; at the climax of the rites, the high priest (Hierophant) and priestess enacted the marriage of Zeus and Demeter (perhaps quite graphically, as analogy with other cult rituals indicates) and the birth of their child; the celebrants handled sacred objects (e.g., a triangle, a serpent, a fennel stalk, a women’s comb, all condemned as obscene by early Christian converts from the mysteries) and then, stunned by the sudden appearance of a great fire from the inner shrine, were shown the supreme sacred object (probably a sheaf of wheat).


The great attraction of the religion was surely that it promised a special sort of afterlife to its initiates. However, since revelation of the nature of the religion and its rites was strictly forbidden, we have no sure idea of what this afterlife consisted. Since the charter myth of the religion concerns the separation of a mother and her child and the eventual reunion of mother and child, I would suppose that the afterlife promised to good Eleusinians was in some way represented as a return to the blissful situation of earliest childhood, before that fateful separation of mother and child, the basis of all subsequent anxiety, took place. Our only ancient evidence says merely that the Eleusinians after death continued to practice the Eleusinian mysteries. In any case, almost anything would be preferable to the usual Greek concept of the afterlife, which regarded the souls of the dead as insensate and powerless, flitting around in the darkness of the underworld and making squeaking noises like bats.

Entering from the east we are in a large forecourt, with a temple of Artemis and a well. We pass through what was the Greater Propylaia, patterned after the Akropolis Propylaia; part of the pediment is in the forecourt, and the relief bust on it may be Marcus Aurelius, who built the Propylaia; we then pass through a second gate, the Lesser Propylaia (forbidden to the non-initiated in antiquity under pain of death); to the right is the Ploutonion, an area and cavern sacred to Plouto; we then come to the Telesterion, or Temple of Demeter, with an inner sanctuary, the Anaktoron; the chief ceremonies of the cult took place in this temple, which was about 170 feet square with 42 columns and eight rows of seats on each side; West is a late Bouleuterion (Council hall) and above is the Museum, very small and very interesting. Outside is a beautiful Roman sarcophagus of the 2nd century AD. Inside are 6 small rooms: 1 contains a magnificent archaic amphora with scenes of Odysseus blinding the Cyclops Polyphemos and Perseus fleeing the pumpkin-headed Gorgon sisters of Medousa; 2 has a cast of the Demeter/Kore relief we saw in the National Museum; 4 contains two models of the site (the lower is the Peisistratid [6th century BC] and the upper is the 2nd century AD Roman); 5 has part of a caryatid column from the Lesser Propylaia and a piece of burial cloth, the only surviving example from Classical times; 6 has pottery representing continuous habitation from the early Bronze Age to the 5th century AD, including fertility idols of the Cycladic type.
The baby pig used as a flesh and blood sacrifice (I suspect it was in place of the symbolic "son" who was born every year after the sacred marriage and mating of the hierophant and the priestess of Demeter) was an animal sacred to the Great Goddess and Walker has some interesting things to say about the pig/boar, too.  I'll get to that in another post.

Further information on the mare-headed (night-mare) aspect of Demeter.  As per usual, the Greeks added a misogynistic twist to the original tale of Demeter and Kore/Persephone by adding a rape of Demeter by Zeus.  Those Greek dudes sure did a lot of raping of non-Greek female goddesses.  Of course, it was just political glossing over of the extremely powerful (and thus greatly feared) ancient goddesses of non-Greek origin.  Those goddesses had to be made into relatively harmless icons of female powerlessness and what better way to do that than through the brutal force of rape?  In the case of Demeter, raped by Zeus when she took the form of a mare; in the case of Kore/Persephone, who was the virgin aspect of Demeter but the Greeks called her Demeter's "daughter" - she was carried off by Hades and raped in the underworld.  This is all rather perverse, though, because Hades was just another version of Pluto, who was, as noted above, Greek-ized into a male but was originally just another aspect of and name for Demeter!  So, in effect, Demeter "raped" herself.  Hmmm...so this is the best the ancient Greek dudes could come up with.  Geez!


Image from The Chess Piece

 I haven't located any actual ancient images of the mare-headed "night-mare" Demeter aspect (with Gorgon serpent mane) (like an ancient sculpture or painted on a krater or other vessel), but I suspect that this is a tamed-down image of her. She is modelled, of course, after the famous horses depicted on the Parthenon of the Goddess Athena on the Acropolis in Athens, and Staunton used those very horses as his inspiration for his "classically designed" chess "knights!"  A "knight"?  Heh heh heh...

I don't know about you, but if I had been one of those ancient Greek male rapists (whether literally or figuratively), I'd have been plenty scared to fall asleep and see one of these coming after me in my dreams.  Those wild eyes!  Those snapping big teeth!  That crazy smile! That wavy, hairy mane that could actually be Gorgon serpents!  EEK! 

The Former Getty's Aphrodite Might Not Be Aphrodite, After All...

Fascinating.  My first impression when I saw this image was that it's a man in drag.  The tiny head, sans hair and headdress, doesn't help the impression any!  It does not look like it belongs to the rest of the sculpture!

From The Los Angeles Times
She's no longer the Getty goddess, but statue is still a puzzle
Jason Felch
May 29, 2011
The goddess statue leaves one controversy behind to find a new home in a small museum in Aidone, Italy, but still in question is which deity she actually represents.

Reporting from Aidone, Italy —— In ancient times, central Sicily was the bread basket of the Western world. Fields of rolling wheat and wildflowers, groves of olive and pomegranate and citrus — even today, fertility seems to spring from the volcanic soils surrounding Mt. Etna as if by divine inspiration.

It was here on the shores of Lake Pergusa that ancient sources say Persephone, the goddess of fertility, was abducted by Hades and taken to the underworld. She was forced to return there for three months every year, the Greek explanation for the barren months of winter.

When Greek colonists settled the region some 2,500 years ago, they built cult sanctuaries to Persephone and her mother, Demeter. The ruins of Morgantina, the major Greek settlement built here, brim with terra-cotta and stone icons of the two deities.

It seems a fitting new home for the J. Paul Getty Museum's famous cult statue of a goddess, which many experts now believe represents Persephone, not Aphrodite, as she has long been known.

Since the Getty's controversial purchase of the statue in 1988 for $18 million, painstaking investigations by police, curators, academics, journalists, attorneys and private investigators have pieced together the statue's journey from an illicit excavation in Morgantina in the late 1970s to the Getty Museum.

The Getty returned the goddess to Italy this spring, and a new exhibition showing the statue and other repatriated antiquities from a private American collector and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York was inaugurated here last week.

The goddess' new home is a 17th century Capuchin monastery that now serves as the archaeological museum in Aidone, a hilltop village of about 6,000 residents. The cozy museum, which holds up to 150 visitors at a time, contains the most important objects discovered in the nearby ruins of Morgantina.

During its 22 years at the Getty Museum, the statue was virtually ignored by scholars, thanks largely to the aura of controversy that surrounded it. But as the scandal recedes, new, deeper mysteries about her are finally coming to the fore.

Who is the goddess? Does her slightly awkward marble head really belong atop the massive limestone body? Where precisely was she found? And what can she tell us about the ancient Greek colonists who worshipped her some 2,400 years ago?

The fact that so little is known about the marble and limestone statue — one of the few surviving sculptures from the apex of Western art — illustrates the lasting harm brought by looting and the trade in illicit antiquities. As the goddess was smuggled through the black market, she was stripped of her meaning and rendered a mute object of beauty.

The one thing scholars agree upon is her importance. The goddess' clinging, windblown drapery is a clear reference to Phidias, the Greek master who a few decades earlier carved the figures that adorned the Parthenon in Greece — many of which now reside in the British Museum.

"It's one of the very few examples we have from the high Classical period," said Katerina Greco, a Sicilian archaeological official and leading expert in Greek art who wrote one of the few studies of the statue. "There is nothing like it in Italy."

Today, central Sicily is an underdeveloped backwater of Europe. Just 17,000 visitors currently see the archaeological museum in Aidone where the statue now sits. At the Getty, about 400,000 saw her every year.

Residents here hope that the statue's return marks the beginning of a new chapter, one focused on economic development and a deeper understanding of the goddess' identity and significance.

"The statue didn't exist by herself, she was made for a specific place and a particular purpose," said Flavia Zisa, president of Mediterranean archaeology at the University of Kore in nearby Enna.

Most experts today agree the goddess most likely does not represent Aphrodite, as former Getty antiquities curator Marion True surmised when she proposed the statue for acquisition. But because some key fragments are missing from the goddess, scholars remain divided.

Greco has argued that the goddess represents Demeter, noting her matronly build and the remains of a veil covering her hair, a feature most often identified with older women in Greek times. In a forthcoming study, New York University professor Clemente Marconi will expand on his argument that the goddess is Persephone.

In an acknowledgement of the changing views of the statue's identity, Sicilian officials have re-branded the statue as the "goddess" of Morgantina and abandoned earlier references to Venus, the Roman name for Aphrodite.

More definitive answers to the mysteries of the goddess may rest with the looters who dug her up. If the statue's exact excavation spot were known, archaeologists could re-excavate the area and build a better understanding of her purpose.

But omerta — the Sicilian oath of silence — has long kept that key piece of information a secret. Whispers in Aidone tell of two shepherd brothers who found the statue on the eastern flank of Morgantina where a sanctuary to Demeter and Persephone has been found.

"It is time for them to speak," said Silvio Raffiotta, a local prosecutor who investigated the statue's looting in the 1990s. "Now there is no risk."

The journey of the Getty's cult goddess is told in Felch's new book, "Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World's Richest Museum," co-written with Ralph Frammolino and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Oh my my, Dr. Zahi Hawass throwing another hissy fit...

See post from yesterday about infrared satellite images being used to great advantage to discover future archaeological dig sites in Egypt.

Egypt’s Hawass says BBC broke regulations
May 29th, 2011 | By Desmond Shephard
Bikyamasr Blog

[Excerpted] CAIRO: Egypt’s Minister of Antiquities Zahi Hawass wrote on his official blog that the BBC had broken government regulations on the reporting of the discovery of 17 previously unknown pyramids and thousands of tombs via satellite.

“According to Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA) regulations, it is prohibited for anyone to announce a discovery before notifying and obtaining the approval of the Ministry first,” he wrote.

“This procedure is in place to ensure that any discoveries people want to announce are real and have been officially verified. If every mission authorized to carry out work in Egypt was allowed to announce things without them being checked first, there could potentially be lots of false claims made all the time,” Hawass added.

Hawass' blog comments.

Upcoming Women's Events

The remainder of 2011 is jam-packed with great women's chess events:

Panamerican Women's Championship, Guayaquil, Ecuador, 12 Jun 2011 - 18 Jun 2011
 1st Hangzhou Women International 2011, Hangzhou, China, 31 Jul 2011 - 11 Aug 2011
 World Junior Girls 2011, Chennai, India, 1 Aug 2011 - 16 Aug 2011
Women's FIDE Grand Prix Series Rostov, Russia 1-Aug-2011 15-Aug-2011

Women's FIDE Grand Prix Series Shenzhen, China 6-Sep-2011 20-Sep-2011
 European  Club Cup 2011 for Men and Women, Rogaska Slatina, Slovenia, 24 Sep 2011 - 2 Oct 2011
 Women's FIDE Grand Prix Series Nalchik, Russia 8-Oct-2011 23-Oct-2011
Women's World Championship Match 2011 10-Nov-2011 5-Dec-2011
Women's World Team Championship 2011 Mardin, Turkey 18-Dec-2011 28-Dec-2011

So, the Women's World Championship Match is on the calendar - but no city listed to host it.  Hmmmm.  The deadline for submitting bids is May 31, 2011 (in my time zone).  Will FIDE surprise us by announcing an accepted bid?

Some items of interest from the Official Regulations for the Match:

13. Prize Fund


13.1 The prize fund of the match, provided by the organizer, should be a minimum of 300,000 (three
hundred thousand) euros, net of any applicable local taxes. The prize fund will be divided 60% for the
winner and 40% to the loser if the FWWCM ends within the 10 regular games. In case the winner is decided by tie-break games, the winner shall receive 55% and the loser 45%.

13.2 The organizer shall pay to FIDE an amount of 20% over and above the total prize fund, net of any
applicable local taxes.

13.3 If the match is played in the country of one of the players, then the opponent shall receive 5%
from the Prize Fund. The balance of the Prize Fund shall then be shared in accordance to Article 13.1
above.

13.4 Before the start of the FWWCM, the players shall each receive 50,000 (fifty thousand) euros in
accordance to the terms of the contract to be signed with FIDE. This amount shall be deducted from the
Prize Fund. The balance of their share of the Prize Fund shall be remitted to the players within ten days
after the completion of the FWWCM.

14. Other expenses

14.1 The organizer shall pay to FIDE an additional 5% over and above the prize fund, net of any local
taxes, to receive the commercial rights (does not include live broadcast of the event or the games).

14.2 The organizer shall pay to FIDE an additional 15,000 (fifteen thousand) euros over and above the
prize fund, net of any applicable taxes, for the budget of the FIDE Commission for World Championships and Olympiads. This budget includes all expenses of FIDE concerning inspections,
meetings with the Organizer, stipend of FIDE Supervisor (where appointed), other meetings of the
WCOC, etc.

14.3 If required by FIDE, the organizer will provide an electronic device to block all mobile signals
around the playing area of the FWWCM. The total cost should be included in the budget of the
organizer and will not exceed the amount of 8,000 (eight thousand) euros.

14.4 If the FWWCM is played in the country of one of the players, the organizer shall provide an
amount of 3,000 euros to the opponent as compensation for transportation and hospitality for inspection
visits.

14.5 The stipends to be paid to the FIDE Principals of the FWWCM are (in euros):

Chairman of Appeals Committee: 7,500
Two members of Appeals Committee: 9,000 (4,500 euros each)
Chief Arbiter: 6,000
Deputy Arbiter: 4,000
Press Officer: 4,000
FIDE Medical Commission: 2,000

I come up with a "maximum" total of 415,500 Euros - net of taxes, which presumably the organizer(s) would have to pay out of their own pockets either directly to the taxing authorities, since turning the additional "tax money" over to the players would in no way guarantee that the funds would subsequently be used to pay the requisite taxes.  Hmmmm, wonder what the potential tax liability would be?  Another 100,000 Euros or so (using 20% as a tax rate)?  More? 

FIDE is nuts!

2nd Danzhou GM 2011

Here is what Mark Crowther at The Week in Chess said:

Mark Crowther - Tuesday 24th May 2011

The 2nd Danzhou tournament took place 15th-24th May 2011. Yu Yangyi was the clear winner with 7/9. After a lot of hard, and broadly successful, chess recently, probably in preparation for her match with Humpy Koneru Women's World Chess Champion Hou Yifan had a disaster coming last with 2/9.

To be fair, Hou was playing against her toughest competition todate.  She started out with a bang by winning the first game behind the white pieces against Zhou Weiqi.  That was her first and last victory. Even Zhou managed to garner 4 points in 9 games.

Danzhou (CHN), 17-24 v 2011															cat. XVII (2659)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0
1.	Yu, Yangyi	g	CHN	2646	*	1	½	½	½	1	1	1	½	1	7	2880
2.	Wang, Yue	g	CHN	2714	0	*	1	1	½	½	½	½	½	1	5½	2733
3.	Bu, Xiangzhi	g	CHN	2662	½	0	*	½	1	½	½	1	½	1	5½	2739
4.	Zhou, Jianchao	g	CHN	2636	½	0	½	*	½	1	1	0	½	1	5	2704
5.	Wang, Hao	g	CHN	2732	½	½	0	½	*	½	½	½	1	1	5	2694
6.	Zhou, Weiqi	g	CHN	2610	0	½	½	0	½	*	½	1	1	0	4	2621
7.	Ni, Hua	g	CHN	2661	0	½	½	0	½	½	*	½	1	½	4	2616
8.	Li, Chao b	g	CHN	2656	0	½	0	1	½	0	½	*	½	1	4	2616
9.	Ding, Liren	g	CHN	2664	½	½	½	½	0	0	0	½	*	½	3	2533
10.	Hou, Yifan	g	CHN	2612	0	0	0	0	0	1	½	0	½	*	2	2444

2011 Chicago Open

Final round is tomorrow.  Here are standings through Round 5 (Open -- 137 players):

#	Name	Rtng	St	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Rd 6	Tot
1	GM P Harikrishna	2666	IND	W56	W15	W22	D20	W9	~2	4.5

19

IM Irina Krush

2469

NY

W109

W3

D73

D49

D29

~24

3.5

28

WIM Iryna Zenyuk

2222

PA

L32

W124

H—

W119

W81

~23

3.5

46

WIM Viktorija Ni

2178

LAT

W117

L35

L4

W120

W100

~33

3.0

56

WFM Tatev Abrahamyan

2335

CA

L1

W43

L74

W91

D52

~77

2.5

100

Margaret M Hua

1973

MO

X87

D62

D67

L34

L46

~88

2.0

103

Myriam Roy

1924

CAN

D91

W112

L49

D85

L45

~89

2.0

129

Sarah Chiang

1962

TX

L70

L86

L109

L83

W137

~132

1.0

Weed Wars!

I have finished "cutting" the backyard.  That is, I have given it a rough cut through foot-tall sprouts from my supposedly guaranteed not-to-sprout Newport plum trees and fought my way through a jungle of ground ivy in full bloom, rousting more than one big, fat bumble fee from a resting place! 

This image isn't quite my yard but it's close...  Despite raking three prior times and spending whatever temperate days we've had (not many) this spring raking up branches and twigs thrown down during the winter and a series of strong wind storms and just plain strong winds we've had, the yard is STILL a MESS!  It looks semi-reasonable in its present state, though, with the worst of the weeds cut down to 2 inches.   What a chore!  I've already got two full yard waste bins so I'm going to have to stuff the third one full once again as I commence raking up what my mulching mower didn't chop into miniscule bits and pieces.  And there's plenty left behind me, including half a ton of nut shells!  Those three large plastic garbage containers on wheels that I use for my yard waste sure get a work-out -- already been picked up two times prior to next pick-up on June 7th -- stuffed full to overflowing.  And they'll be full to overflowing again. 

Well, that's what I get for feeding the animals all winter.  It's threatening rain at the moment - we may get thunderstorms this afternoon.  So, I'm just catching my breath and will put down an application of weed and feed.  Later in the week I'm having the front and back yards core-aerated.  I hope that helps promote growth in the compacted areas.  I haven't had that done for several years.  I may hire someone to come in and over-seed with a slit-cutter - but I'll see how my war against the weeds goes first.

Oh oh - thunder to the west - better get my butt out there now...

Fourteen minutes later:

I put down an entire bag - probably too much (covers 5,000 square feet) - and only covered about half the yard, oh oh.  Well, I have another bag in the garage but I'll change the settings on the spreader before I put that bag of weed/feed down -- later on.  It's raining in earnest now and I've got to dry out, plus the house is rattling with the thunder and there are streaks of intermittent lightning.  Not going out now, nope!  I got coverage on some of the worst ground ivy and dandelion infested/overrun areas with the first batch of weed/feed, so now it will get rained in.  GOOD!  I won't go down without a fight, weeds! 

We may be dodging intermittent t-storms the rest of today, but tomorrow is supposed to be dry, sunny and warm/hot -- in the 80's with high humidity.  Like summer.  Except we've hardly had any spring.

Chores for tomorrow include putting down that second batch of weed/feed out back, raking and, if I have any juice left after raking, continuing the pruning out/chopping down of volunteer trees in the "island" and planting beds.  I'll leave the digging out of grass that has invaded the planting beds for another time, and hope we get some sunny, dry and cooler weather to do that.  That is a MAJOR pain in the you-know-what and I'm breaking out in a sweat right now just thinking about it.  Yechy!

Time for lunch!  My stomach is making feed-me noises.  As this is a three-day weekend and a holiday weekend to boot, I'm treating myself tonight and tomorrow night with steaks!  Got 'em thawing in the fridge even as I type and I picked up some carrots  to add to my other favorite veggies for side dishes and some mushrooms -- can't have a good steak without sauteed mushrooms!  I've got a nice red wine from the latest shipment 'Sis sent to me a few weeks ago that I'm going to use to make a sauce for the steaks.  Hmmm hmmmm hmmmmm, can't wait!  But right now, I've got left-over shepherd's pie in the fridge calling my name.

P.S.  After I took a nice long nap, it had stopped raining.  About 4:15 or so I finished the application of the weed/feed beads in the backyard, so that's done!  It was too wet to do anything else.  We got a good soaking.

Is spring finally here?

It must be here.  While walking to the Pick 'n Save this morning I got wolf whistled at from a passing car.  Now, darlings, that hasn't happened for a couple of years at least.  I thought my wolf-whistle days were behind me. I must look pretty good from the back, LOL!

Maybe it's the hair.  I had it highlighted recently (to hide the grey) with honey blond.  Yes, I gave up my signature red hair in early 2008. It was no longer flattering, so I thought, to my skin tone.  I went to brown but it was too dark.  So I went to a pro and had my hair colored and, starting about 16 months ago, gave in to her gentle badgering and allowed her to put in a few minor highlights. I've been very happy with the results, but I can no longer call myself a redhead. I had new highlights put in a few weeks ago. Now it's as light as I've ever worn it, and it's gotten lighter of late because of working outdoors so much.  My hairdresser told me that would happen, but I didn't believe her.  Turns out she was 100% spot on.

Maybe it was the nearly blondish hair I'm now sporting that caught someone's eye, or maybe my sashshaying walk -- Mr. Don once told me that I had a "particular" walk that he could pick out in a crowd.  Not sure he meant it in a good way...  Anyway, to the man who must have spring on the brain and gave me the wolf whistle - THANK YOU :)

Okay - I've got to get outside and continue the back yard clean-up.  I'm racing against incoming storms!

More later...

CSI Archaeology: New Satellite Tools Reveal Lost Cities and Pyramids

Very interesting - and great images too.  This technology gives new meaning to the saying "we've barely scratched the surface."  Indeed - we barely have!  What secrets will Egypt yet reveal?  What an exciting time for archaeology. 

Egyptian pyramids found by infrared satellite images
24 May 2011 Last updated at 19:32 ET
By Frances Cronin
BBC News

Seventeen lost pyramids are among the buildings identified in a new satellite survey of Egypt.

More than 1,000 tombs and 3,000 ancient settlements were also revealed by looking at infra-red images which show up underground buildings.

Initial excavations have already confirmed some of the findings, including two suspected pyramids.

The work has been pioneered at the University of Alabama at Birmingham by US Egyptologist Dr Sarah Parcak.

She says she was amazed at how much she and her team has found.

"We were very intensely doing this research for over a year. I could see the data as it was emerging, but for me the "Aha!" moment was when I could step back and look at everything that we'd found and I couldn't believe we could locate so many sites all over Egypt.

"To excavate a pyramid is the dream of every archaeologist," she said.

The team analysed images from satellites orbiting 700km above the earth, equipped with cameras so powerful they can pin-point objects less than 1m in diameter on the earth's surface.

Infra-red imaging was used to highlight different materials under the surface.

Test excavations

Ancient Egyptians built their houses and structures out of mud brick, which is much denser than the soil that surrounds it, so the shapes of houses, temples and tombs can be seen.

"It just shows us how easy it is to underestimate both the size and scale of past human settlements," says Dr Parcak.

And she believes there are more antiquities to be discovered:

"These are just the sites [close to] the surface. There are many thousands of additional sites that the Nile has covered over with silt. This is just the beginning of this kind of work."

BBC cameras followed Dr Parcak on her "nervous" journey when she travelled to Egypt to see if excavations could back up what her technology could see under the surface.

In the BBC documentary Egypt's Lost Cities, they visit an area of Saqqara (Sakkara) where the authorities were not initially interested in her findings.

But after being told by Dr Parcak that she had seen two potential pyramids, they made test excavations, and they now believe it is one of the most important archaeological sites in Egypt.

Dr Sarah Parcak has already identified several sites using high resolution satellite imagery that she thinks are of huge significance. See here a streetmap of the ancient city of Tanis.

But Dr Parcak said the most exciting moment was visiting the excavations at Tanis.

"They'd excavated a 3,000-year-old house that the satellite imagery had shown and the outline of the structure matched the satellite imagery almost perfectly. That was real validation of the technology."

The Egyptian authorities plan to use the technology to help - among other things - protect the country's antiquities in the future.

During the recent revolution, looters accessed some well-known archaeological sites.

"We can tell from the imagery a tomb was looted from a particular period of time and we can alert Interpol to watch out for antiquities from that time that may be offered for sale."

She also hopes the new technology will help engage young people in science and will be a major help for archaeologists around the world.

"It allows us to be more focused and selective in the work we do. Faced with a massive site, you don't know where to start.

"It's an important tool to focus where we're excavating. It gives us a much bigger perspective on archaeological sites. We have to think bigger and that's what the satellites allow us to do."

"Indiana Jones is old school, we've moved on from Indy. Sorry, Harrison Ford."

Egypt's Lost Cities is on BBC One on Monday 30 May at 2030 BST. It will also be shown on the Discovery channel in the US.

Interesting New Genetic Study Reveals Shared Sub-Saharan African Ancestry

Press Release at Eurekalert.org

Contact: David Cameron
david_cameron@hms.harvard.edu
617-432-0441
Harvard Medical School

Population genetics reveals shared ancestries
More than just a tool for predicting health, modern genetics is upending long-held assumptions about who we are. A new study by Harvard researchers casts new light on the intermingling and migration of European, Middle Eastern and African and populations since ancient times.

In a paper titled "The History of African Gene Flow into Southern Europeans, Levantines and Jews," published in PLoS Genetics, HMS Associate Professor of Genetics David Reich and his colleagues investigated the proportion of sub-Saharan African ancestry present in various populations in West Eurasia, defined as the geographic area spanning modern Europe and the Middle East. While previous studies have established that such shared ancestry exists, they have not indicated to what degree or how far back the mixing of populations can be traced.

Analyzing publicly available genetic data from 40 populations comprising North Africans, Middle Easterners and Central Asians were doctoral student Priya Moorjani and Alkes Price, an assistant professor in the Program in Molecular and Genetic Epidemiology within the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Moorjani traced genetic ancestry using a method called rolloff. This platform, developed in the Reich lab, compares the size and composition of stretches of DNA between two human populations as a means of estimating when they mixed. The smaller and more broken up the DNA segments, the older the date of mixture.

Moorjani used the technique to examine the genomes of modern West Eurasian populations to find signatures of Sub-Saharan African ancestry. She did this by looking for chromosomal segments in West Eurasian DNA that closely matched those of Sub-Saharan Africans. By plotting the distribution of these segments and estimating their rate of genetic decay, Reich's lab was able to determine the proportion of African genetic ancestry still present, and to infer approximately when the West Eurasian and Sub-Saharan African populations mixed.

"The genetic decay happens very slowly," Moorjani explained, "so today, thousands of years later, there is enough evidence for us to estimate the date of population mixture."

While the researchers detected no African genetic signatures in Northern European populations, they found a distinct presence of African ancestry in Southern European, Middle Eastern and Jewish populations. Modern southern European groups can attribute about 1 to 3 percent of their genetic signature to African ancestry, with the intermingling of populations dating back 55 generations, on average—that is, to roughly 1,600 years ago. Middle Eastern groups have inherited about 4 to 15 percent, with the mixing of populations dating back roughly 32 generations. A diverse array of Jewish populations can date their Sub-Saharan African ancestry back roughly 72 generations, on average, accounting for 3 to 5 percent of their genetic makeup today.

According to Reich, these findings address a long-standing debate over African multicultural influences in Europe. The dates of population mixtures are consistent with documented historical events. For example, the mixing of African and southern European populations coincides with events during the Roman Empire and Arab migrations that followed. The older-mixture dates among African and Jewish populations are consistent with events in biblical times, such as the Jewish diaspora that occurred in 8th to 6th century BC.

"Our study doesn't prove that the African ancestry is associated with migrations associated with events in the Bible documented by archeologists," Reich says, "but it's interesting to speculate."

Reich was surprised to see any level of shared ancestry between the Ashkenazi and non-Ashkenazi Jewish groups. "I've never been convinced they were actually related to each other," Reich says, but he now concludes that his lab's findings have significant cultural and genetic implications. "Population boundaries that many people think are impermeable are, in fact, not that way."

###

8,000 Year Old Civilization on Konkan Coast, India?

Are these man-made structures -- walls?

From dnaindia.com
Photos: 8000-year-old advanced civilisation in Konkan Coast?
Published: Thursday, May 26, 2011 on 21:13 IST | Updated: Thursday, May 26, 2011 on 21:21 IST


One stretch of underwater wall off the Konkan Coast, western India.

 Did the Konkan coast from Shrivardhan in Raigad to Vengurla in Sindhudurga host a human habitat around 8000 years ago? Did that population have well-developed engineering skills? Was there a unique Konkan culture in existence in 6000BC?

A new archaeological discovery, below sea level along the Konkan coast, could give answers to these questions. And explorers say the answer could well be a big ‘Yes!’

Researchers have found a wall-like structure that is 24 kilometres long, 2.7 metres tall, and around 2.5 metres wide. The structure shows uniformity in its construction.

“The structure is not continuous throughout the 225 kilometres from Shrivardhan to Raigad, but it is uniform,” said Dr Ashok Marathe, professor, department of archaeology, Postgraduate and Research Institute, Deccan College, Pune.

“It has been found three metres below the present sea level. It has been constructed on the ancient sand beach, which was taken as the base for the construction. Considering the uniformity of the structure, it was obvious that the structure is man-made and not natural.”

The joint expedition carried by Deccan College and the central government’s department of science and technology, was in progress from 2005.

“We were actually studying the impacts of tsunamis and earthquakes on the western coast when we first found this structure in Valneshwar,” said Marathe. “Then we started talking with the locals and fisherfolks and we got news about more such structures below water.”

Marathe added that, the uniformity also shows that the people who built it belong to the same culture from Shrivardhan to Vengurla.
However, deciding the age of the structure was done on the basis of sea level mapping.

“There have been extensive studies about the sea water coming inside the land,” said Marathe. “The wall’s base, that is ancient sand, is about six metres below the present sea level. Based on the calculations, experts from the National Institute of Oceanography found the age of the wall as around 6000 BC.”

According to him, the sea was away from its present coastline in 6000 BC and this wall could have been an effort to prevent the sea water from coming inside the human habitat.

The discovery has raised a number of questions.

How were these huge stones of Laterite and Deccan Trap variety transported to the coast?

What exactly was the purpose behind building the wall?

If the date of the walls is true then is it from around the same time as the Indus Valley Civilisation?

Why has there been no mention of this civilisation till now?

Marathe, who will retire in July 2011, has asked more people to come forward to take his work ahead and to try to find answer to these questions.

Heiroglyphics Revealed in Great Pyramid Shaft

Pyramid-Exploring Robot Reveals Hidden Hieroglyphs
Written in red paint, the symbols may help Egyptologists figure out why mysterious shafts were built into the pyramids
Discovery News
By Rossella Lorenzi

A robot explorer sent through the Great Pyramid of Giza has begun to unveil some of the secrets behind the 4,500-year-old pharaonic mausoleum as it transmitted the first images behind one of its mysterious doors.

The images revealed hieroglyphs written in red paint that have not been seen by human eyes since the construction of the pyramid. The pictures also unveiled new details about two puzzling copper pins embedded in one of the so called "secret doors."

Published in the Annales du Service Des Antiquities de l'Egypte (ASAE), the images of markings and graffiti could unlock the secrets of the monument's puzzling architecture.

"We believe that if these hieroglyphs could be deciphered they could help Egyptologists work out why these mysterious shafts were built," Rob Richardson, the engineer who designed the robot at the University of Leeds, said. The study was sponsored by Mehdi Tayoubi and Richard Breitner of project partners Dassault Systèmes in France.

Built for the pharaoh Cheops, also known as Khufu, the Great Pyramid is the last remaining wonder of the ancient world.

The monument is the largest of a family of three pyramids on the Giza plateau, on the outskirts of Cairo, and has long been rumored to have hidden passageways leading to secret chambers.

Archaeologists have long puzzled over the purpose of four narrow shafts deep inside the pyramid since they were first discovered in 1872.

Two shafts, extend from the upper, or "Kings Chamber" exit into open air. But the lower two, one on the south side and one on the north side in the so-called "Queen's Chamber" disappear within the structures, deepening the pyramid mystery.

Widely believed to be ritual passageways for the dead pharaoh's soul to reach the afterlife, these 8-inch-square shafts remained unexplored until 1993, when German engineer Rudolf Gantenbrink sent a robot through the southern shaft.

After a steady climb of 213 feet from the heart of the pyramid, the robot came to a stop in front of a mysterious limestone slab adorned with two copper pins.

Nine years later, Hawass explored the southern shaft on live television. As the world held its breath, a tomb-raiding robot pushed a camera through a hole drilled in the copper pinned door -- only to reveal what appeared to be another door.

The following day, Hawass sent the robot through the northern shaft.

After crawling for 213 feet and navigating several sharp bends, the robot came to an abrupt halt in front of another limestone slab.

As with the Gantenbrink door, the stone was adorned with two copper pins.

"I dedicated my whole life to study the secrets of the Great Pyramid. My goal is to finally find out what’s behind these secret doors," Zahi Hawass, Egypt's Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs, told Discovery News in a recent interview.

In the attempt to solve the mystery, Hawass established the Djedi project, a joint international-Egyptian mission, which he named after the magician who Khufu consulted when planning the layout of this pyramid.

"I selected the Djedi team during a competition that I coordinated to pick the best possible robot to explore the shafts in the Great Pyramid," Hawass said.

The winning robot, designed by Leeds University, has indeed gone further than anyone has ever been before in the pyramid.

The project began with the exploration of the southern shaft, which ends at the so called "Gantenbrink’s door."

The robot was able to climb inside the walls of the shaft while carrying a "micro snake" camera that can see around corners.

Unlike previous expeditions, in which camera images were only taken looking straight ahead, the bendy camera was small enough to fit through a small hole in a stone "door," giving researchers a clear view into the chamber beyond. It was at that time that the camera sent back images of 4,500-year-old markings.

"There are many unanswered questions that these images raise," Richardson told Discovery News. "Why is there writing in this space? What does the writing say? There appears to be a masonry cutting mark next to the figures: why was it not cut along this line?" Roberston wondered.

The researchers were also able to scrutinize the two famous copper pins embedded in the door to the chamber that had only ever been glimpsed from the front before.

"The back of the pins curve back on themselves. Why? What was the purpose of these pins? The loops seem too small to serve a mechanical purpose," Richardson said.

The new information dismisses the hypothesis that the copper pins were handles, and might point to an ornamental purpose.

"Also, the back of the door is polished so it must have been important. It doesn't look like it was a rough piece of stone used to stop debris getting into the shaft," project mission manager Shaun Whitehead, of the exploration company Scoutek UK, said.

The Djedi robot is expected to reveal much more in the next months.

The device is equipped with a unique range of tools which include a miniature "beetle" robot that can fit through a 19 mm diameter hole, a coring drill, and a miniaturized ultrasonic device that can tap on walls and listen to the response to help determine the thickness of the stone.

The next step will be an investigation of the chamber's far wall to check whether it is another door, as suggested in the 2002 live exploration, or a solid block of stone.

"Then we are going to explore the northern shaft," Richardson said.

The team has committed to completing the work by the end of 2011. A detailed report on the findings is expected to be published in early 2012.

Roza Lallemand Trophy French Women's Rapid 2011

A great poster from the
official website!

Held May 21 - 22, 2011, Chalons en Champagne, France.
49 Players, 9 Rounds, Swiss. Time Control: 15m+5spm
Website

ch-FRA Rapid w Chalons en Champagne FRA Sat 21st May 2011 - Sun 22nd May 2011 Leading Final Round 9 Standings:
Rk	Name	Ti	FED	Rtg	Pts	TB1	TB2	Perf
1	COLLAS Silvia		FRA	2315	7½	42½	49½	2414
2	GUICHARD Pauline		FRA	2303	7	45	52½	2331
3	LECONTE Maria		FRA	2321	7	44	51	2377
4	MAISURADZE Nino		FRA	2310	6½	43½	51½	2281
5	LAM Sophie		FRA	2071	6½	38½	47	2235
6	BOLLENGIER Andreea		FRA	2211	6½	37½	44	2162
7	CONGIU Mathilde		FRA	2237	6	41	48½	2212
8	DE SEROUX Camille		SUI	2086	6	39½	48½	2143
9	HAUSSERNOT Cecile		FRA	2040	6	38	45	2062
10	WOHLERS-ARMAS Friederike		FRA	2043	5½	44½	50½	2170
11	MONPEURT Cyrielle		FRA	1968	5½	40½	45½	2002
12	SAFRANSKA Anda		FRA	2229	5½	37½	46½	2068
13	ROUMEGOUS Marina		FRA	2133	5½	37	41	2008
14	NAVROTESCU Andreea-Cristiana		FRA	1931	5½	35	41½	2035
15	SOUBIROU Oriane		FRA	2015	5½	35	40½	1940
16	RICHIER Lucie		FRA	1630	5½	31	36½	1828
17	NEUHAUSER Salome		FRA	2073	5	43	52	2103
18	DUBOIS Marie		FRA	1724	5	37	41½	1857
19	DACALOR Aurelie		FRA	1935	5	36	43½	1956
20	BRANLANT Albane		FRA	1696	5	35½	42	1894
21	LUDWICZAK Virginie		FRA	2030	5	35½	42	1890
22	FISCHER Julie		FRA	1863	5	32½	39½	1888
23	MALASSAGNE Isabelle		FRA	1652	5	30	36	1823
24	RICHARD Emma		FRA	2073	4½	40	47½	1995
25	RIGOLOT Lucie		FRA	1970	4½	38½	44	1893
26	SWIERCZ Sonia		FRA	1701	4½	36	41½	1870
27	CHITTIER Celine		FRA	1889	4½	35½	42	1874
28	DIEULEVEUT Floriane		FRA	1699	4½	31	36½	1666
29	MAGNIN Segolene		FRA	1856	4	37½	45	1902
30	ROGER Juliette		FRA	1634	4	35½	40½	1711
31	LE GOUIC Sonia		FRA	1760	4	35	41½	1796
32	GENNESSEAUX Gabrielle		FRA	1674	4	33	38½	1740
33	BARTOLO Alexia		FRA	1578	4	32½	38	1681
34	GERTOSIO-SERENA Sophie		FRA	1823	4	32	39	1695
35	MINAUD Emily		FRA	1670	4	28	32½	1665
36	GIUA Stephanie		FRA	1932	3½	36½	42	1696
37	LE BERRE Tennessee		FRA	1763	3½	34½	40½	1770
38	COLIN Phanie		FRA	1624	3½	34	39½	1670
39	CYRILLE Dominique		FRA	1674	3½	33	37½	1620
40	BOURSIER Claire		FRA	1644	3½	29	33	1556
41	DEL VALLE Clemence		FRA	1557	3½	28½	32	1551
42	CHUNG Mathilde		MNC	1659	3	35	39½	1603
43	CHRETIEN Catherine		FRA	1670	3	26	29½	1511
44	BOILEAU Delphine		FRA	1490	3	26	29½	1507
45	DIMITROVA Svetla		BUL	1650	2½	29	34	1518
46	VEILLERETTE Chantal		FRA	1690	2	30	33½	1484
47	VO Thanh		FRA	1320	2	29	32½	1341
48	ADRIAN Louise		FRA	1410	2	23½	27	1332
49	FROMHERZ Audrey		FRA	1340	2	23	26½	1362
50	BREYSSE Fiora		FRA	1410	1½	22	26	1261

The "Five Note" Scale and Negro Sprituals

Thanks to RHHannaHH (hope I got that right), who sends me these interesting emails from time to time.  I wasn't sure what his (her?) latest was about "Amazing Grace," but since I absolutely love the song - it brings me to tears every time I hear it - I checked it out.

I learned lots of new things by watching this video.  The video quality isn't the best but the audio is okay.  Now I think - finally - I am barely beginning to understand what Terpsy was talking about all those years ago when we were first starting out Goddesschess, and she talked about the five-note scale.  WOW!  Terpsy designed websites and knew all about HTML stuff and I knew NOTHING (still don't) -- but her real passion was music.  Terpsy, wherever you are today - thank you for all you did to get us going.  This is for you.

2011 St. Louis Chess Battle of the Sexes

I have few details - I haven't found information online. 

This morning, I belatedly opened up my latest CCI magazine and there was a special announcement about the CCI meeting to be held in St. Louis, Missouri USA this year in September.  The meeting will coincide with the grand opening of the World Chess Hall of Fame and Museum (September 8, 2011) which will be/is located across the street from the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis (popularly known as the St. Louis Chess Club).  The World Chess Hall of Fame and Museum has partnered with the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis and will be offering rotating exhibits of the Museum's collection of memorabilia and chess sets, etc. and special exhibits focusing on the history of the great game of chess and its players.  Read more about it.  Sounds great!

Back to the upcoming "Chess Battle of the Sexes" - the flyer included with the CCI magazine says that five top women and five top men will play in the event.  Judit Polgar and Hikaru Nakamura are two of the players.

I also noticed at GM Alexandra Kosteniuk's chess blog that she has listed a "St. Louis Battle of the Sexes" on her calendar of upcoming events, with dates September 8 - 21, 2011!  The CCI meeting will take place in St. Louis September 9 - 11, 2011, so attending members will be present in St. Louis during the opening days of this new tournament.

Love the idea!

I'll post more when I know more.

Who Was the Princess of Oroumieh?

See earlier post - about Oroumieh Lake dying a not-so-slow death due to the short-sighted policies of the totally incompetent regime currently ruling in Iran.

According to information in the article, there is a legend that says that the lake formed on the spot where, 1000 years ago, a Princess of Oroumieh was killed while trying to warn the locals of an invasion.

I was not able to find any information on this Princess (of) Oroumieh in the Encyclopedia Iranica online or in a general google search.  No similar name (at least, with the spelling beginning with the letter "O") was found in Barbara Walker's The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets.

So - who was this princess?  I'm wondering if the dating might not be a little off - say by some 400 years or so?  Herstory tells us that hordes of Muslims invaded Iran in the 630s-640's CE and eventually succeeded in deposing the Sassinid Dynasty from the rule of formerly mighty and civilized Persia.  Was the Princess killed while warning the city of a Muslim invasion? Because of the location of the lake, I'm also wondering if the Princess might not have been a Christian - perhaps of an Armenian family. 

In the green and beautiful city of Oroumieh, famous for peaceful coexistence between Azeri people, Kurds, Armenians, Assyrians as well as Muslims and Christians, talk about the fate of the lake is common among ordinary people in teahouses and on the streets.  This inter-religious and inter-racial harmony, alone, is certainly reason enough for the current Iranian regime to want to kill the city of Oroumieh!

Beyond the debates by national and local authorities some folks here suggest another way Oroumieh could be saved.



A local legend says wild purple gladiolas have had a miraculous role in doing just that. The flowers have grown every year for a thousand years in the spot where a princess of Oroumieh was killed as she warned the people of the city about an invading enemy. As a recent sunset turned the lake golden, Kamal the boatman tried to find some hope in the returning blossoms.


"You see, still wild purple gladiolas are appearing in the spring," he said. "The city and its lake can eventually survive."  How the Revolutionary Guard and the Ayatollah and his cohorts must be gnashing their teeth that such legends still survive from the Grand Days of the Persian Empire, before its descent into the Maws of Islamic Hell.  It must particularly irk them that the this still-living legend features a non-Muslim WOMAN!  Morever, it is a legend featuring a woman and a city that still embodies traces of harmony and peace from the long by-gone eon when the Goddess ruled supreme in the world and humankind invented beer and wine-making, tamed animals, invented weaving and the making of cloth, learned bee-keeping, the art of medicine, and invented agriculture. 

Will the Princess of Oroumieh come back once again and save the people of the city, before it is too late? 

SHOCKING NEWS! A REPUBLICAN LIBERAL!

In today's political atmosphere in the USA, unfortunately, Senator Margaret Chase Smith would be drummed out of the Republican Party and, quite possibly, tarred and feathered, certainly smeared by the likes of such blowhards as Limbaugh and - what was his name - the dude that "quit" (yeah, right) FOX News, that bastion of truth, justice and the American Way - NOT!  Beck - bwwaaaaaahhhhaaahhhaaa!

SEEKS RELECTION.  Senator Margaret Chase Smith,
Republican liberal and supporter of the administration,
is seeking re-nomination in the Maine primaries.
(U.P. telephoto)

Here is some information about Senator Margaret Chase Smith from Wikipedia:

Margaret Chase Smith (December 14, 1897 – May 29, 1995) was a Republican Senator from Maine, and one of the most successful politicians in Maine history.[1] She was the first woman to be elected to both the U.S. House and the Senate, and the first woman from Maine to serve in either.[2] She was also the first woman to have her name placed in nomination for the U.S. Presidency at a major party's convention (1964 Republican Convention, won by Barry Goldwater).[3] She was a moderate [4] Republican, included with those known as Rockefeller Republicans. When she left office, Smith had the record as the longest-serving female senator in United States history, ranking 11th in seniority among the members of the Senate, a distinction that was not surpassed until January 5, 2011, when Senator Barbara Mikulski was sworn in for a fifth term.

Oh, how far the party of Lincoln has fallen, the party that used to stand for liberty and social justice. Now we've got such female Republicans "running" for the Presidency of the United States as the quitter Sarah (how much will you pay me?) Palin and that even sillier woman (is it possible? YES) Representative Michelle Bachmann from the 6th District of Minnesota in the House of Representatives in Congress, who should donate her brain to science when she dies -- oh, but she doesn't have one. She's purely autonomic, darlings. Oh my.

How the Chinese, the Iranians, the North Koreans and the Russians must be laughing at us right now...laughing their asses off!

More Short-Sighted Policies = Ecological Disaster

Iran's largest lake turning to salt
By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press – Wed May 25, 6:32 am ET

Abandoned ships stuck in solidified salt of Oroumieh Lake.AP.

OROUMIEH LAKE, Iran – From a hillside, Kamal Saadat looked forlornly at hundreds of potential customers, knowing he could not take them for trips in his boat to enjoy a spring weekend on picturesque Oroumieh Lake, the third largest saltwater lake on earth.

"Look, the boat is stuck... It cannot move anymore," said Saadat, gesturing to where it lay encased by solidifying salt and lamenting that he could not understand why the lake was fading away.

The long popular lake, home to migrating flamingos, pelicans and gulls, has shrunken by 60 percent and could disappear entirely in just a few years, experts say — drained by drought, misguided irrigation policies, development and the damming of rivers that feed it.

Until two years ago, Saadat supplemented his income from almond- and grape-growing by taking tourists on boat tours. But as the lake receded and its salinity rose, he found he had to stop the boat every 10 minutes to unfoul the propeller — and finally, he had to give up this second job that he'd used to support a five-member family.

"The visitors were not enjoying such a boring trip," he said, noting they had to cross hundreds of meters of salty lakebed just to reach the boat from the wharf.

Other boatmen, too, have parked their vessels by their houses, where they stand as sad reminders of the deep-water days. And the lake's ebbing affects an ever-widening circle

In April, authorities stopped activities at the nearby jetty in Golmankhaneh harbor, due to lack of water in the lake, now only two meters deep at its deepest. Jetties in Sharafkhaneh and Eslami harbors faced the same fate.

The receding water has also weakened hotel business and tourism activities in the area, and planned hotel projects remain idle since investors are reluctant to continue.

Beyond tourism, the salt-saturated lake threatens agriculture nearby in northwest Iran, as storms sometimes carry the salt far afield. Many farmers worry about the future of their lands, which for centuries have been famous for apples, grapes, walnuts, almonds, onions, potatoes, as well as aromatic herbal drinks, candies and tasty sweet pastes.

"The salty winds not only will affect surrounding areas but also can damage farming in remote areas," said Masoud Mohammadian, an agriculture official in the eastern part of the lake, some 370 miles (600 kilometers) northwest of the capital Tehran.

Other officials echoed the dire forecast.

Salman Zaker, a parliament member for Oroumieh warned last month that, "with the current trend, the risk of a salt tsunami is increasing." Warning that the lake would dry out within three to five years — an assessment agreed to by the local environment department director, Hasan Abbasnejad — Zaker said eight to 10 billion tons of salt would jeopardize life for millions of people.

Masoud Pezeshkian, another lawmaker and representative for city of Tabriz in the eastern part of the lake said, "The lake has been drying but neither government nor local officials took any step, so far."

How did this disaster develop, and what can be done now?

Official reports blame the drying mainly on a decade-long drought, and peripherally on consumption of water of the feeding rivers for farming. They put 5 percent of the blame on construction of dams and 3 percent on other factors. Others disagree about the relative blame.

The first alarm over the lake's shrinking came in late 1990s amid a nagging drought.

Nonetheless, the government continued construction of 35 dams on the rivers which feed the lake; 10 more dams are on the drawing boards for the next few years.

Also completed was a lake-crossing roadway between Oroumieh and Tabriz, cities on the west and east of the lake. No environmental feasibility study was done in the planning for the road, and environmentalists believe the project worsened the lake's health by acting as a barrier to water circulation.

Nasser Agh, who teaches at Tabriz Sahand University, suggested miscalculations led to late reaction to save the lake. "Experts believed it would be a 10-year rotating drought, at first," he said. But long afterward, the drought still persists, with devastating effects.

In the early 2000s, academic research concluded that the lake could face the same destiny as the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, which has been steadily shrinking since rivers that feed it were diverted by Soviet Union irrigation projects in 1960s. It is now less than one-tenth of its original size.

In April, the Iranian government announced a three-prong effort to save the lake: a cloud-seeding program to increase rainfall in the area, a lowering of water consumption by irrigation systems, and supplying the lake with remote sources of water.

Mohammad Javad Mohammadizadeh, vice-president to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in charge of environmental affairs, said the government approved the three-part approach.

Some experts termed the weather control portion of the program as only a "symbolic action" by government, saying the best answer would be to release more water currently being held back by dams. The evaporation rate has been three times the rainfall rate, making the rivers' historic role vital to sustaining the lake.

"The lake is in such a misery because of the dams," Ismail Kahram, a professor in Tehran Azad University and a prominent environmentalist, told The Associated Press. Three-fifths of the lake has dried up and salt saturation has reached some 350 milligrams per liter from 80 milligrams in 1970s, he said.

Kahram said the government should allow 20 percent of the water from the dams to reach the lake.

Mostafa Ghanbari, secretary of the Society for Savior of the Lake Oroumieh, believes transferring water from the Caspian Sea may be "the only way to save" the lake. But such a project would be ambitious, requiring the pumping of water some 430 miles (700 kilometers), from a body of water at considerably lower elevation.

In the green and beautiful city of Oroumieh, famous for peaceful coexistence between Azeri people, Kurds, Armenians, Assyrians as well as Muslims and Christians, talk about the fate of the lake is common among ordinary people in teahouses and on the streets.

Many express happiness with the government decision to manipulate clouds in hopes of increasing rainfall.

"It is a good decision. Every evening I look at the dark clouds that are coming and I tell my family soon there will be rain," and on some nights there have been showers, said Masoud Ranjbar, a taxi driver.

However, Eskandar Khanjari, a local journalist in Oroumieh, called the cloud-seeding plan "a show." He said recent rainfall was only seasonal, as predicted by meteorologists.

Scoffing at the promises of officials and what he called "non-expert views," he said of efforts to save the lake: "It seems that people have only one way; to pray for rain."

Beyond the debates by national and local authorities some folks here suggest another way Oroumieh could be saved.

A local legend says wild purple gladiolas have had a miraculous role in doing just that. The flowers have grown every year for a thousand years in the spot where a princess of Oroumieh was killed as she warned the people of the city about an invading enemy.

As a recent sunset turned the lake golden, Kamal the boatman tried to find some hope in the returning blossoms.

"You see, still wild purple gladiolas are appearing in the spring," he said. "The city and its lake can eventually survive."

-- Yeah, right, I wish you luck Mr. Kamal. With the current regime not going anywhere soon, run by incompetent gold-diggers who are so busy stashing away gold in their Swiss bank accounts they can't be bothered to have a care for the actual average citizens of Iran, your lake WILL die and so will your city.

This King is an Ass

Since I'm never going to be in Thailand, I will insult its King all I want.  What a jerk! Die, already, and put the next puppet king on the throne.

Thailand arrests American for alleged king insult
By TODD PITMAN and SINFAH TUNSARAWUTH, Associated Press – Fri May 27, 1:02 pm ET

BANGKOK – Thai authorities said Friday they arrested an American citizen on charges he insulted the country's monarchy, in part by posting a link on his blog four years ago to a banned book about the Southeast Asian nation's ailing king.

The man is also suspected of translating, from English into Thai, portions of "The King Never Smiles" — an unauthorized biography of King Bhumibol Adulyadej — and posting them online along with articles he wrote that allegedly defame the royal family, said Tharit Pengdith, who heads the Department of Special Investigation, Thailand's equivalent of the FBI.

The American has denied the charges, according to the Thai-language prachatai.com news website, which tracks cases of lese majeste, as the crime of insulting the monarchy is known.

The 54-year-old Thai-born man lived in the U.S. state of Colorado for around 30 years before returning recently to Thailand for treatment for high blood pressure and gout, the website said. If the allegations are true, the infractions would have been committed while he lived in America — where they are legal — raising concern about the reach of Thai law and how it is applied to Thai nationals and foreign visitors.

Tharit said the man's Thai name was Lerpong Wichaikhammat. Walter M. Braunohler, the U.S. Embassy spokesman in Bangkok, identified the American as Joe Gordon and said a consular officer visited him on Friday morning. He declined comment further, saying only that officials were following the case "very closely."

"We're still looking into what the exact charges are," Braunohler told The Associated Press.

Thailand is a constitutional monarchy but has severe lese majeste laws that mandate a jail term of three to 15 years for any person who "defames, insults or threatens the king, the queen, the heir to the throne or the Regent."

Critics say the lese majeste laws — used with alarming frequency over the last several years — are often a weapon of political harassment and calls have grown recently to amend or abolish them.

Thai-based media routinely self-censor coverage of the royal family, but the Internet has tested the taboo. Thai authorities have responded by trying to block thousands of websites considered subversive, arguing that defending the monarchy is a priority.

Tharit said the man was arrested Tuesday and is facing charges that include inciting public unrest and violating Thailand's Computer Crimes Act. Gordon appeared before a Thai court Thursday, which denied him bail.

A DSI spokeswoman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said the American was arrested in the northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima and is being held in a Bangkok prison.

Rest of article.