Turkey's High Court - A Gutsy Ruling

Story from The New York Times: Turkey’s High Court Overturns Headscarf Rule By SABRINA TAVERNISE Published: June 6, 2008 ISTANBUL — Turkey’s highest court dealt a stinging slap to the governing party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday, ruling that a legal change allowing women to attend universities wearing head scarves was unconstitutional. [Hooray! A symbol of women's oppression is done away with.] The Constitutional Court said in a brief statement that the change, proposed by Mr. Erdogan’s party and passed by the Parliament in February, violated principles of secularism set in Turkey’s constitution. The ruling sets the stage for a final showdown between Turkey’s secular elite — its military, judiciary and secular political party — and Mr. Erdogan, a Muslim with an Islamist past. The court is one of Turkey’s most important secular institutions, and the ruling was seen as largely political. It bodes ominously for Mr. Erdogan: The same court is considering a case that would ban him and 70 members of his party from politics. A decision is expected in the summer. Turkey’s political system has been controlled for generations by a powerful secular elite that has stepped in with coups and judicial decisions against elected governments. Mr. Erdogan and his party, Justice and Development, or AKP, have come the closest of any political party in Turkey’s history to breaking its hold on power. In the head-scarf case, the elite establishment argued that allowing veiled women onto college campuses threatens Turkish secularism, which was imposed by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in a secular revolution in the 1920s. Head scarves were banned from campuses in the 1990s. Kemal Anadol, a deputy chairman of the secular opposition Republican People’s Party, called the verdict a triumph of justice and said it showed that secularism and democracy are “constitutional principles that can’t be separated from one other.” Mr. Erdogan calls the case a matter of individual rights, arguing that all Turks should be able to attend university no matter what they wear or believe. But the way his party proposed it — abruptly, with little public discussion — angered the secular old guard and disappointed liberals, who support the changes, but wanted them to be accompanied by changes that would strengthen other rights, like free speech. Some said AKP seemed to be pursuing only those changes that would please its constituency, and not the broader range that was needed to join the European Union. “AKP is lost in the spell of their own power,” said Mithat Sancar, a law professor in Ankara, Turkey’s capital. “When they want to listen to liberals, they do, but when they don’t, they comfortably ignore them.” Despite Mr. Erdogan’s broad popularity — his party won 47 percent of the vote in an election last July — the threat of closure is serious: The authorities have closed more than 20 parties in the past, and Thursday’s ruling seemed like it could be a sign of things to come. The head-scarf amendment is considered to be the single most important irritant that set off the case to ban Mr. Erdogan and 70 other AKP members, and is central to its argument that Mr. Erdogan and his allies are trying to dismantle secularism in Turkey, a charge they strongly dispute. Many secular Turks are skeptical that Mr. Erdogan, whose past is in political Islam, will defend secularism in the future, even though he frequently reassures them that he will. “There is still a group within the AKP that is remembered for their Islamic past,” said Ersin Kalaycioglu, a political science professor from Sabanci University. “Fears don’t need to be rational.” Dengir Firat, a senior member of Mr. Erdogan’s party, said that was no reason for the head-scarf ban. “You can’t limit someone’s liberties on the basis of people’s fears,” he said. [Note to Mr. Firat: Oh yes, you can - and with good reason. There are reasons why neo-Nazis are feared, for instance; and reasons why Islamists who advocate the forcible overthrow of all other religions are feared, for instance...] The military, another strongly secular institution, expressed muted approval of the court’s decision. “A different ruling would have been surprising,” said Gen. Aydogan Babaoglu, chief of Turkey’s Air Force, according to NTV television. All but lost in the debate have been the voices of the women themselves whose future is caught in the political cross hairs. Neslihan Akbulut, a 26-year-old sociology graduate student, said she cried when she heard the verdict. “There is no way for me in Turkey now,” she said. “When I see this result, I feel that I don’t need to wait. I would need to wait for a long time.” [No offense, but try Saudi Arabia.] Sebnem Arsu contributed reporting.

2008 Indian National Women's "B" Chess Championship

This is going to be a tough tournament for the women, competing for spots in the Women's National "A" Tournament in September. Story from The Hindu online: Women’s ‘B’ chess from today KOZHIKODE: Several big names in Indian women’s chess, including former World under-18 champion Aarthie Ramaswamy, Nisha Mohota, Swati Ghate, Eesha Karvade and Mary Ann Gomes, will battle it out in the 35th National women’s ‘B’ chess championship, which opens at Hotel Sana Tower here on Friday. Over a hundred ladies will play for nine qualifying spots for the National women’s ‘A’; the top nine players will join the top three players from the last National ‘A’ for this year’s National women’s ‘A’, scheduled to be held in New Delhi in September. Mohota, with an Elo rating of 2400, is the top seed and starts as one of the favourites for the title. “With five Woman Grandmasters in the fray, this is going to be the strongest National women’s ‘B’ ever, so even to make the qualifying mark, one will have to play really well,” the Kolkata-based WGM told The Hindu. The tournament, to be played over 11 Swiss rounds, should produce some exciting chess over the next one week. “We could see some new talents coming up from Andhra or Tamil Nadu; always do in tournaments like this,” said Mohota.

Never Forget...

...the Goddess of Democracy in Tiananmen Square - and how She was destroyed by the oppressive Communist regime in China. China won't ever be in the "big leagues" until it learns that dissent is the essence of a free people. Of course, its people AREN'T free, and perhaps they won't be within my lifetime. But it's coming, folks, it's coming. Russia is regressing - I expect to see another revolution there before I kick the bucket (sometime within the next 30-40 years). In one of my dreams last night was that great song by the Young Rascals (a true blast from the past!) - I don't know the exact title but it has words "listen, please listen, that's the way it should be, people everywhere just want to be free..." From Bloomberg.com China Should Give Account of Tiananmen Crackdown, U.S. Says By Michael Heath June 3 (Bloomberg) -- China's government should give a full account of the people killed or detained when pro-democracy protests were crushed in Tiananmen Square in 1989, the U.S. State Department said on the 19th anniversary of the crackdown. The government in Beijing needs to reexamine what happened, ``release all Tiananmen-era prisoners and cease harassment of the families of the victims,'' spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement. The State Department estimates between 50 and 200 protesters remain in jail. China's Foreign Ministry declined to address the issue of the detainees when asked earlier today. ``As to that occurrence of political turmoil at the end of the 1980s, there was a clear conclusion long ago,'' spokesman Qin Gang said at a news briefing in Beijing. It ``concerns an internal matter of China, and as a Foreign Ministry spokesman, I can't respond.'' Chinese soldiers, backed by tanks, on June 3-4 killed hundreds of activists who had rallied for weeks in and around Tiananmen Square and in other Chinese cities calling for greater pluralism. China faced international condemnation for the crackdown, which in 1990 then-President Jiang Zemin dismissed as ``much ado about nothing,'' according to Human Rights Watch. ``The time for the Chinese government to provide the fullest possible public accounting of the thousands killed, detained or missing in the massacre that followed the protests is long overdue,'' McCormack said in the statement issued in Washington. Security Tightened China has tightened security at the square, authorizing police to randomly search visitors, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported last month. ``Security around Tiananmen is very important and has great international influence,'' it cited Zhang Peili, an official at the municipal government law office, as saying at the time. The security measures are necessary to protect the Beijing Olympic Games in August, he said. ``The revision will help prevent and stop all kinds of extremist and terrorist incidents and maintain public security,'' Zhang said, according to Xinhua. China should honor its pledge to improve human rights by releasing the Tiananmen-era prisoners before the Beijing Olympics when the square will be used for functions, Human Rights Watch said in a statement yesterday. China wants the 2008 Games ``to expunge the memories of the 1989 Beijing massacre,'' said Sophie Richardson, the New York- based group's Asia advocacy director. ``China could replace the image of the lone man blocking the tanks with the image of Tiananmen prisoners being freed -- a truly Olympian gesture.'' Hundreds of Arrests The 1989 crackdown resulted in the arrest of hundreds of people on charges ranging from ``counterrevolutionary'' offenses to ``hooliganism,'' including robbery, arson and assault, Human Rights Watch said. It estimates 130 protesters remain in jail. McCormack said most of the Tiananmen-era detainees have served ``well over half'' of their sentences and are eligible for parole under Chinese law. U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, the senior Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, will address Chinese Americans and human rights advocates tomorrow during a ceremony in Washington to mark the anniversary. Nearly two decades after the killings and arrests, China continues a relentless crackdown on democracy advocates and opponents of its one-party regime even while preparing for its Olympic debut, Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement. ``The dream of democracy, held so vividly by the students who constructed the statue of the Goddess of Democracy in Tiananmen Square, has proved to be, so far, a midsummer's night dream,'' she will tell protestors today, the statement said. Ros-Lehtinen will cite Chinese efforts to arrest North Korean refugees, shut down unencumbered access to the Internet and close down underground house churches as evidence of continued systematic repression, according to the statement. To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Heath in Sydney at mheath1@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: June 3, 2008 21:33 EDT

Discoveries in Egypt

From Egypt State Information Service Wednesday, June 04, 2008 Sphinx road missing sections discovered Egyptian archeologists have discovered missing sections of the so-called Sphinx road and the bottom part of an unknown pyramid in Sakkara area. The road was mentioned in some ancient Greek manuscripts, according to chief of the Egyptian Supreme Council for Antiquities Zahi Hawwas. According to him, it is believed that the discovered parts are connected to the passage leading to Anubis Temples of the jackal-headed god associated with mummification and the afterlife in Egyptian mythology. Sakkara is one section of the great necropolis of Memphis. The old Kingdom capital and the kings of the 1st dynasty as well as that of the 2nd dynasty are mostly buried in this section of the Memphis necropolis. It is a place that has been of constant interest to Egyptologists. Three major discoveries have recently been made at Sakkara, including a prime minister's tomb, a queen's pyramid, and the tomb of the son of a dynasty-founding king. Each discovery has a fascinating story, with many adventures for the archeologists as they revealed the secrets of the past. Sakkara is best known for the Step Pyramid, the oldest known of Egypt's 97 pyramids. It was built for King Djoser of the 3rd Dynasty by the architect and genius Imhotep, who designed it and its surrounding complex to be as grand as it was unique and revolutionary.

Mitropa Cup

Here are the final standings for the 2008 Mitropa Cup (Women): (1): Italy 16 (2): Germany 14 (3): Hungary 11 (4): Slovakia 9 (5): Austria 6 (6): Switzerland 4 Italy!?! Yes, these weren't the highest rated players in the world, but I believe Italy has only one IM who is a woman - not a strong chessplaying culture for femmes. Interesting.

Fischer's Daughter to Get Part of Estate

Fischer heiress to get share of P140-M estate soon Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 02:52:00 06/05/2008 MANILA, Philippines—Jinky Young, the late Bobby Fischer’s Filipino child, will soon receive her share of the estate left by the chess icon estimated at P140 million, excluding gold deposits and royalty from the movie, “Bobby Fischer Goes to War.” This was disclosed by lawyers Sammy Estimo and Rudy Tacorda after getting word from Reykjavik, Iceland that the Probate Court had already received the claim folder of Jinky Young. The deadline for receiving claims to the estate of the deceased chess legend was May 17, or three months after Fischer died on January 17, 2008 of renal failure. Estimo said that Fischer had contacted him and Grandmaster Eugene Torre in 1984 while he was in an airport prison cell in Japan and had wanted to become a Filipino citizen to be with his child and common-law wife, Marilyn. But Estimo advised him not to push through with his plan because it was in the Philippines that Fischer’s passport was cancelled. With the help of some Icelandic chess friends, Fischer was able to obtain an Icelandic passport and was flown out of Japan in March 2005. Jinky Young and her mother linked up with Bobby in Iceland in September 2005 but that was the last time the three of them lived together as one small family. But Fischer kept in touch with them through daily calls via mobile phones. The late chess legend also sent them monthly euro remittances. Copyright 2008 Philippine Daily Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

* * * * * * * *

If I did the currency conversion correctly, P140M equals $3,186,890 USD. The article did not state what percentage the daughter's share would be. Assuming the movie actually gets made and released, royalties could potentially be quite lucrative. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Wu Tang Clan promote unity through chess

Are these people speaking a foreign language? I swear I didn't understand half of what was written in this article, LOL! But, good for Wu - whoever or whatever Wu is... Clan leader RZA unveils WuChess, his online social network for hip-hop chess-heads worldwide Sean MichaelsWednesday June 4, 2008 guardian.co.uk Fifteen years after 36 Chambers, the Wu-Tang Clan have turned their attention to 64 black and white squares. The hip-hop group's latest project isn't a Method Man album or a street-level mixtape - it's WuChess.com, "the world's first online chess and urban social network". The combination of rap and online chess might not seem like an obvious fit, but the Wu have always been unabashed in their non-bling interests, from kung fu to comic books and science fiction. And chess has long been a passion of founding Clan-member RZA, who created WuChess together with social network ChessPark.com. For a $48 (£24) annual fee, WuChess subscribers can play against hip-hop chess-heads worldwide, form "chess clans" to group their rankings, and even compete against chess-playing rappers like the RZA himself. A "large part" of WuChess' revenue will be donated to the Hip-Hop Chess Federation - whose almost ridiculously cool mission statement is to use "chess, music and martial arts to promote unity, strategy and non-violence". RZA isn't alone in his chess fixation. The game has been surging in the American hip-hop community, with everyone from Ghostface Killah to the Hieroglyphics taking part. No less than the Dilated Peoples' Rakaa leads WuChess' video tour. Everyone seems to have taken to heart the wisdom sampled at the beginning of the Wu-Tang's Da Mystery of Chessboxin': "The game of chess is like a swordfight. You must think first, before you move ... When it's properly used, it's almost invincible." It's only a matter of time before other board games win the support of musical acts. Risk for Coldplay, Boggle for Sigur Rós, and maybe Amy Winehouse's social networking website could chronicle the ups and downs of snakes and ladders.

A Stone Age Tribe Was Killed for Its Women

According to this theory, anyway. Very interesting story from the Telegraph.co.uk: By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 12:01am BST 03/06/2008 Many archaeologists have argued that women have long motivated cycles of violence and blood feuds throughout history but there has really been no solid archaeological evidence to support this view. Now a relatively new method has been used to work out the origins of the victims tossed into a mass grave of skeletons, and so distinguish one tribe from another, revealing that neighbouring tribes were prepared to kill their male rivals to secure their women some 7000 years ago. The Durham University research, described in the academic journal Antiquity, focused on 34 skeletons found buried in the village of Talheim in the south-west of Germany. Geographic "signatures", chemically derived from the skeletons' teeth, suggest they were of people killed in an attack between rival tribes around 5000 BC as previously dated through radiocarbon methods. Before the study, it seemed several women were among this unfortunate group, a minority. But once the new method was used to separate the victims by geographic origin, it was clear that the local group was special - local because it was the only group with any young children, and special because it was the only group without adult women, despite being the largest group. The researchers conclude the absence of local females indicates that they were spared execution and captured instead which may have indeed been the primary motivation for the attack. Lead author Dr Alex Bentley says the simplest explanation is that the women of one tribe were captured."It seems this community was specifically targeted, as could happen in a cycle of revenge between rival groups. Although resources and population were undoubtedly factors in central Europe around that time, women appear to be the immediate reason for the attack. "Our analysis points to the local women being regarded as somehow special and were therefore kept alive." The Durham University-led team, with researchers from University College London, University of Wisconsin and a German government body, came to their conclusions after analysing the strontium, carbon and oxygen isotopes signatures of the skeletons' teeth. These give vital information about the skeletons' geological origin and diet. The skeletons from the mass grave in Talheim, which were excavated in the 1980s, were all buried in a single pit of three metres long. German experts determined that the majority had been killed by a blow to the left side of the head, suggesting the victims were bound and killed, probably with a stone axe. Others may have been killed from arrow-wounds from behind as if the victims had tried to flee. Whereas the women from the local community were spared, what remains open for speculation is why women from the non-local groups wound up killed. How did they get caught up in the massacre? They might even have been from the attacking group. "What we know," Dr. Bentley says, "is that the local women were the target," and what the role was of the others is part of the mystery."

In Spain, Water is a New Battleground

It's only going to get worse as the population continues to grow and the weather gets dryer and hotter in the regions already suffering from drought and lack of potable water. The implications of this article are truly frightening:

From The New York Times
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Published: June 3, 2008
FORTUNA, Spain — Lush fields of lettuce and hothouses of tomatoes line the roads. Verdant new developments of plush pastel vacation homes beckon buyers from Britain and Germany. Golf courses — dozens of them, all recently built — give way to the beach. At last, this hardscrabble corner of southeast Spain is thriving.

There is only one problem with the picture of bounty: this province, Murcia, is running out of water. Swaths of southeast Spain are steadily turning into desert, a process spurred on by global warming and poorly planned development.

Murcia, traditionally a poor farming region, has undergone a resort-building boom in recent years, even as many of its farmers have switched to more thirsty crops, encouraged by water transfer plans, which have become increasingly untenable. The combination has put new pressures on the land and its dwindling supply of water.

This year, farmers are fighting developers over water rights. They are fighting one another over who gets to water their crops. And in a sign of their mounting desperation, they are buying and selling water like gold on a rapidly growing black market, mostly from illegal wells.

Southern Spain has long been plagued by cyclical droughts, but the current crisis, scientists say, probably reflects a more permanent climate change brought on by global warming. And it is a harbinger of a new kind of conflict.

The battles of yesterday were fought over land, they warn. Those of the present center on oil. But those of the future — a future made hotter and drier by climate change in much of the world — seem likely to focus on water, they say.

“Water will be the environmental issue this year — the problem is urgent and immediate,” said Barbara Helferrich, a spokeswoman for the European Union’s Environment Directorate. “If you already have water shortages in spring, you know it’s going to be a really bad summer.”

Dozens of world leaders will be meeting at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters in Rome starting Tuesday to address a global food crisis caused in part by water shortages in Africa, Australia and here in southern Spain.

Climate change means that creeping deserts may eventually drive 135 million people off their land, the United Nations estimates. Most of them are in the developing world. But Southern Europe is experiencing the problem now, its climate drying to the point that it is becoming more like Africa’s, scientists say.

For Murcia, the arrival of the water crisis has been accelerated by developers and farmers who have hewed to water-hungry ventures highly unsuited to a drier, warmer climate: crops like lettuce that need ample irrigation, resorts that promise a swimming pool in the yard, acres of freshly sodded golf courses that sop up millions of gallons a day.

“I come under a lot of pressure to release water from farmers and also from developers,” said Antonio Pérez Gracia, the water manager here in Fortuna, sipping coffee with farmers in a bar in the town’s dusty square. He rued the fact that he could provide each property owner with only 30 percent of its government-determined water allotment.

“I’m not sure what we’ll do this summer,” he added, noting that the local aquifer was sinking so quickly that the pumps would not reach it soon. “I come under a lot of pressure to release water, from farmers and also from developers. They can complain as much as they want, but if there’s no more water, there’s no more water.”

Rubén Vives, a farmer who relies on Mr. Pérez Gracia’s largess, said he could not afford the black market water prices. “This year, my livelihood is in danger,” said Mr. Vives, who has farmed low-water crops like lemons here for nearly two decades.

The hundreds of thousands of wells — most of them illegal — that have in the past provided a temporary reprieve from thirst have depleted underground water to the point of no return. Water from northern Spain that was once transferred here has also slowed to a trickle, as wetter northern provinces are drying up, too.

The scramble for water has set off scandals. Local officials are in prison for taking payoffs to grant building permits in places where there is not adequate water. Chema Gil, a journalist who exposed one such scheme, has been subject to death threats, carries pepper spray and is guarded day and night by the Guardia Civil, a police force with military and civilian functions.

Rest of article.

The International Tour of "The Greeks" Exhibit

I'm jealous! Don will get to see this, and I won't, boo hoo (well, unless I take a couple of days off and fly up...) Image: Greek toy horse, 5-7th Century CE, bone, from Egypt.

From artdaily.org
June 2, 2008
In its Only North American Stop, Exhibition Explores Incredible Legacy of The Greeks

QUEBEC.- The Greek world was at the origin, then at the heart, of social, cultural and political movements that touched Europe, Asia and Africa. Discover the richness of this great civilization through a collection of artifacts spanning 8,000 years of Greek history in a must-see exhibition opening May 30 at the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

The Greeks offers a captivating insight into the land of Socrates and Euclid , the Parthenon and Mount Olympus . It also explores the survival and adaptation of the Greek world within the once-mighty Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman Empires. The exhibition is organized by the prestigious Benaki Museum in Athens and features 180 treasured objects dating from prehistoric to modern times.

“This exhibition illustrates the remarkable diversity and influence of Greek art, culture and society,” said Dr. Victor Rabinovitch , President and CEO of the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation.

“Greece has often been at the crossroads of history and the Greek people have experienced the ebb and flow of history’s fortune for thousands of years. I am delighted the Benaki Museum has shared these remarkable treasures with a Canadian audience.”

Featured in The Greeks are sculptures and ceramics, jewellery and embroidered textiles, paintings, metalwork, religious icons, toys, figurines, lamps, wooden chests and more. The artifacts bear witness to the unparalleled sweep of Greek civilization, which continues to influence the world today.

The exhibition is organized chronologically and has four principal zones: Prehistory and Antiquity (7000 BCE – fourth century CE), the Byzantine Period (fourth century – fifteenth century), The Greeks in the Ottoman Empire (fifteenth century – eighteenth century) and Towards an Independent Greek State (nineteenth century).

Among the many notable objects are a Byzantine processional cross made from moulded, hammered, engraved and punched copper; an elegant chalice in gilded silver plate, crafted during Ottoman rule, and a magnificent oil painting of the English poet Lord Byron in Greek costume, an iconic image from the Greek struggle for independence. The Museum has specially selected 12 artifacts that will be displayed nowhere else on the tour, including a striking crown of oak leaves and flowers in engraved and embossed gold leaf and a magnificent embroidered sperveri (bed tent).

The Museum of Civilization will be the only venue in Canada for the international tour of The Greeks. The exhibition is presented from May 30 to September 28, 2008.

Texas Bush and the Crystal Skull

Got to love this, no matter what your political persuasion may be... from The Onion (where else?)

New Book by Gavin Menzies

Menzies has been skewered by the so-called "experts" for his book "1421: The Year China Discovered the World." It's a large book and it's on my reading list - I completed the Preface and the first chapter, and when summer comes around again and I spend hours out on the deck with my feet up, I'll be reading further. Keep in mind that, as so often has happened, today's "crazy theories" are - 30 years from now - the new orthodoxy. I guess people find it offensive that the Chinese might have been the first to circumnavigate the globe and might, just might, have opened up new thoughts and perspectives during a visit to Italy in 1434. This is the premise of Menzie's new book, briefly mentioned in this "damning by faint praise" article at The Wall Street Journal online: May 30, 2008, 8:10 am Did China Spark the Renaissance? Early 17th century Chinese woodblock print said to depict Zheng He It did indeed, according to Gavin Menzies, the author of the best-selling and highly controversial “1421: The Year China Discovered the World,” who’s back with a sequel, of sorts: “1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance.” In his earlier book (published in 2002), Menzies claimed that the Chinese fleet of admiral Zheng He had traveled to America and circumnavigated the globe in the early 15th century, well before the journeys of Columbus and Magellan. The theory, known as the “1421 hypothesis,” has been discounted by many professional historians. (Menzies himself is a retired British Royal Navy officer who doesn’t read Chinese.) According to its publicity materials, the new book asserts that “a sophisticated Chinese delegation visited Italy in 1434, sparked the Renaissance and forever changed the course of Western civilization. After that date the authority of Aristotle and Ptolemy was overturned and artistic conventions challenged, as was Arabic astronomy and cartography.” “1434” also promises to take us “aboard the remarkable Chinese fleet as it sails from China to Cairo to Florence, and then back across the world,” offering “further astonishing evidence that it was also Chinese advances in science, art, and technology that formed the basis of the European Renaissance and our modern world.” If Menzies’ last book was anything to go by, we can look forward to seeing “1434.” in every Chinese airport bookstore this summer. But we’re already wondering what Menzies is planning next. Perhaps “1447: The Year Zheng He Became the First Man on the Moon.” -Sky Canaves

Leaning Tower of Pisa Good for Next 300 Years

So say the experts - but we know about them, don't we!

From The Telegraph.co.uk
Leaning Tower of Pisa 'saved' for 300 years
By Malcolm Moore in Rome
Last Updated: 2:24AM BST 29/05/2008

The Leaning Tower of Pisa has been saved for another 300 years and is no longer moving, according to the engineers in charge of the rescue operation.

"All of our best hopes have been confirmed. We can now say that the tower will not move again for at least three centuries," said Michele Jamiolkowski, a Turin-based engineer who led the project to stabilise the tower.

The tower currently leans 13 feet off centre, and has been straightened by 14.5 inches since 1999 thanks to a £20 million restoration project.

As an added bonus, the authorities plan to reopen a "secret wonder" of the tower. Until 1935 it was possible, by entering a side door of the tower, to gaze upwards through its seven storeys to see the sky.

"Since then, the view has been obstructed by an attic level where the instruments to measure the stability of the tower were kept," said Nunziate Squeglia, a professor of engineering at the University of Pisa. "But now it can be removed and the view will be back".

The tower, which has been leaning almost since building work first began in 1173, was closed to the public in 1990 because of safety fears. The 183-foot tower was nearly 15 feet off vertical and its structure was found to have been weakened by centuries of strain.

The last attempt at straightening the tower was carried out under orders from Benito Mussolini, who wanted it to be perfectly vertical. Concrete was poured into the foundations, but the result was that the tower sank further into the soil.

The restoration of the tower has also included polishing its marble exterior, which had darkened over the years with pollution and grime. The second phase of the cleaning began on Tuesday and the tower will be shrouded temporarily with a moving scaffold.

The finishing ceremony for the completed straightening and restoration project will take place in three months time, according to Giuseppe Bentivoglio, the head of the council department responsible for the care of monuments in Pisa's Field of Miracles.

New Portrait of Elizabeth I Discovered

BBC NEWS / NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 09:37 GMT, Tuesday, 27 May 2008 10:37 UK Rare Elizabeth I portrait found A rare portrait of Queen Elizabeth I as a young princess has been discovered in a private collection at a stately home in Northamptonshire. The portrait, dating from 1650 to 1680, was found in the Duke of Buccleuch's collection at Boughton House. It shows Elizabeth with siblings Edward VI and Mary I, father Henry VIII and his jester, Will Somers. It is a copy of an original panel painting, which is thought to date back to the early 1550s. The portrait was examined by historians Alison Weir and Tracy Borman after they were told of its existence by the director of Boughton House. It will now be put on display at the stately home, and historians hope to trace the original through publicising the discovery. Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I before her accession to the throne are extremely rare, with only two other proven portraits known - one at Hampton Court and the other at Windsor Castle. Mystery Tracy Borman said that when she was first sent a picture of the portrait she realised it had never been seen before. "The more we found out, the more obvious it was that nobody had come across this," she said. "It's clearly a copy of a lost original and it's that mystery that we started to try to solve. "It's also a very different look to Elizabeth and comparing it to other portraits it helps us to solve the identity of other portraits - for example one always known as the Unknown Lady in the National Portrait Gallery." Charles Lister, house manager at Boughton House, said the picture was to go on public display when the house opens in August. He said: "The portrait is normally in a private area of the house with a number of other Tudor portraits. "When we had a meeting with Tracy it came under discussion and it sort of all went from there. "We knew it was important because it's a picture of Henry VIII and his family but we did not realise it in the context of Elizabeth as princess." The finding is reported in the latest edition of the BBC History Magazine.

Kharg (Khark) Achaemenid Inscription Almost Destroyed

There are photos (before and after). From Circle of Iranian Studies (CAIS) June 2, 2008 LONDON, (CAIS) -- The Achaemenid stone inscription of Khark Island was seriously damaged by vandals on Thursday night. “Unknown people climbed the fence surrounding the cuneiform inscription and destroyed it with a chisel, such that about 70 percent of the inscription has been destroyed,” Khark Deputy Governor Ali Jazebi told the Persian service of CHN on Saturday. “The nature of the damage indicates that it has been done deliberately,” he added. In late February, Iranian experts warned the Islamic Republic's officials of the Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization about the threats posed by the forces of nature and vandals.Unfortunately, no appropriate security system was established to safeguard the cuneiform inscription, which has been incised on a piece of uneven rock encrusted with coral. The irreplaceable relic was discovered during a road construction project on the island in the Persian Gulf in mid-November 2007. The rock, measuring 85x116cm, has become detached from its original terrain. The project was halted for a time because the rock prevented the project managers from continuing their work and finally they were forced to change the route.Shortly after its discovery, the inscription was deciphered by Rasul Bashshash, an expert at the Archaeological Research Center of Iran (ARCI). He made the following translation: “(This) land was a dry area with no water; (I) brought happiness and welfare, Bahana… water wells.”Experts had previously said that the inscription was important since it was another piece of evidence that confirms the word Persian for the Persian Gulf.The discovery of the inscription sparked a media frenzy in the Arab mini-states of the Persian Gulf, where efforts were made to cast doubt on its authenticity. The Bushehr Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Department (BCHTHD) announced on Saturday that they have filed a lawsuit against the suspected vandals. “There are several people (of Arab origin) suspected of (being responsible for) the damage to the inscription. We have sued them so the judicial investigation will begin as soon as possible,” BCHTHD Director Ahmad Dashti told CHN. He refused to name the suspects.Dashti said that 10 to 15 percent of the Old-Persian inscription has been damaged, which is considerably different than the Khark deputy governor’s assessment. He rejected rumors that there was a connection between the vandalism and the disputes over the name of the Persian Gulf. Some people believe that the BCHTHD is responsible for the problem" Dashti rejected by, saying, “The police are responsible for safeguarding the site, and they did their best”; -Obviously their best was not good enough. “However, lack of an appropriate area to establish a guardhouse is one of our main problems here. The island is owned by the Is,mic regime controlled Iran's Oil industries and they don’t provide even a span of earth to us to set up the base,” he explained. An Iranian archaeologist with ICHTO who wishes to remain anonymous for his safety told CAIS correspondent: "another crime has been committed against our nation and the [Islamic] regime is to blame for failing to protect our heritage". He continued, "if the incised Old Persian script on the rock was instead Arabic and there were rumors that one of the toes of such and such [Shiat] Imam touched the rock while he was passing through centuries ago, the regime would have invested billions of rials to erect a shrine over it with a golden dome on top." The destruction of yet another relic in Iran has prompted an outcry by Iranians and the cultural enthusiasts around the world, who see that the Islamic Republic is persisting in a campaign of destruction of invaluable assets of the country's cultural heritage. The destruction of the Achaemenid inscription in Kharg represents the latest in a series of destructions that appears to be aimed at systematically destroying pre-Islamic Iranian heritage sites either by Arab settlers or the Islamic regime in power.

Open Letter from IM Irina Krush - Response

Here is my prior post. Today at Chess Life Online Tom Braunlich gave a response to IM Krush's letter.

Chess News

My June column is up and running at Chessville. This month there's also a separate report on the Frank K. Berry U.S. Women's Chess Championship. Enjoy!

Ancient Eclipse Stopped Battle!

May 28, 585 B.C.: Predicted Solar Eclipse Stops Battle By Randy Alfred 05.28.08 12:00 AM 585 B.C.: A solar eclipse in Asia Minor brings an abrupt halt to a battle, as the warring armies lay down their arms and declare a truce. Historical astronomy later sets a likely date, providing a debatable calculation point for pinning down some dates in ancient history. This was not the first recorded solar eclipse. After failing to predict one such in 2300 B.C., two Chinese astrologers attached to the emperor's court were soon detached from their heads. Clay tablets from Babylon record an eclipse in Ugarit in 1375 B.C. Later records identify total solar eclipses that "turned day into night" in 1063 and 763 B.C. But the 585 B.C. eclipse was the first we know that was predicted. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote that Thales of Milete predicted an eclipse in a year when the Medians and the Lydians were at war. Using the same calculating methods that predict future eclipses, astronomers have been able to calculate when eclipses occurred in the past. You can run the planetary clock in reverse as well as forward. To coin a word, you can postdict as well as predict. The most likely candidate for Thales' eclipse took place on May 28, 585 B.C., though some authorities believe it may have been 25 years earlier in 610 B.C. Hundreds of scholars have debated this for nearly two millenniums. Predicting a solar eclipse is not easy. You need to calculate not only when it will happen, but where it will be visible. In a lunar eclipse, when the moon passes through the Earth's huge sun shadow, the event is visible on the whole side of the Earth that's in nighttime, and totality often lasts more than an hour. But in a solar eclipse, the moon's shadow falls across the Earth in a relatively narrow path, and the maximum duration of totality at any given place is only about 7½ minutes. So you need to know the moon's orbit in great detail -- within a small fraction of a degree of arc. The early Greeks did not have this data. We do not know the method Thales used to make his prediction. The method may have been used only once, because we have no other records of the Greeks of this era accurately predicting further eclipses. Thales is believed to have studied the Egyptians' techniques of land measurement (geo metry in Greek) later codified by Euclid. One has to wonder whether Thales made the famous eclipse prediction himself, or if he simply borrowed it from the Egyptians. However he made the prediction, and however precise or vague it may have been, the eclipse occurred. Aylattes, the king of Lydia, was battling Cyaxares, king of the Medes, probably near the River Halys in what is now central Turkey. The heavens darkened. Soldiers of both kings put down their weapons. The battle was over. And so was the war. After 15 years of back-and-forth fighting between the Medes and the Lydians, the kings of Cilicia and Babylon intervened and negotiated a treaty. The River Halys, where the Battle of the Eclipse was fought, became the border between the Lydians and the Medes. Source: NASA, Crystalinks

"Helen" - More Than Just a Pretty Face

DNA explodes Greek myth about women British researchers have unearthed evidence that proves Helen was much more than a chattel By Robie McKie, science editor The Observer, Sunday June 1 2008 Women in Ancient Greece were major power brokers in their own right, researchers have discovered, and often played key roles in running affairs of state. Until now it was thought they were treated little better than servants. The discovery is part of an investigation by Manchester researchers into the founders of Mycenae, Europe's first great city-state and capital of King Agamemnon's domains. 'It was thought that in those days women were rated as little more than chattels in Ancient Greece,' said Professor Terry Brown, of the faculty of life sciences at Manchester University. 'Our work now suggests that notion is wrong.' Mycenae is one of the most important and evocative archaeological sites in Europe. According to legend, Agamemnon led his armies from Mycenae to Troy to bring back Helen - the wife of his ally, Menelaus - who had run off with the Trojan prince Paris. The citadel was first excavated in the 1870s by Heinrich Schliemann, who uncovered tombs containing crumbling bones draped with jewels and gold face masks. 'I have discovered the graves of Agamemnon, Eurymedon, and their companions, all slain at a banquet by Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthos,' he told the King of Greece. In fact, the graves have since been dated and shown to be too old for those of Agamemnon. Nevertheless, Mycenae has since proved to be a treasure trove of archaeological riches. Most recently, these have involved scientists using a range of new techniques, including facial reconstruction work carried out by Manchester researchers John Prag and Richard Neave. They recreated the faces of seven individuals whose skeletons had been excavated at a circle of graves inside the citadel. The images provided scientists with a family picture album for the rulers of Europe's first great city-state. However, genetics experts have now taken this work a stage further by attempting to extract DNA from 22 of the 35 bodies found in the grave circle. 'The facial reconstructions were carried out 10 years ago, but it is only now that scientists have developed sensitive enough techniques to get DNA from skeletons as old as these,' said Brown. 'In each case we had to deal with a single cell's worth of DNA.' The genetic material isolated by the scientists is known as mitochondrial DNA, which humans inherit exclusively from their mothers. However, of the 22 skeletons that were tested, only four produced enough DNA for full analysis. Nevertheless, findings from these provided a shock for the team from Manchester. While two of the males had DNA that indicated they were unrelated, the genetic material extracted from the remaining pair, a man and a woman, revealed they were brother and sister. They had been thought to have been man and wife. 'To be precise, our DNA evidence suggests the pair were closely related, possibly siblings or possibly cousins. However, the facial reconstruction work of Prag and Neave also shows they were very similar in appearance which indicates they were brother and sister,' said Brown. The critical point, he said, was that the woman was thought to have been buried in a richly endowed grave because she was the wife of a powerful man. That was in keeping with previous ideas about Ancient Greece - that women had little power and could only exert influence through their husbands. 'But this discovery shows both the man and the woman were of equal status and had equal power,' he said. 'Women in Ancient Greece held positions of power by right of birth, it now appears. 'The problem has been that up until recently our interpretation of life in Ancient Greece has been the work of a previous generations of archaeologists, then a male-oriented profession and who interpreted their findings in a male-oriented way. That is changing now and women in Ancient Greece are being seen in a new light.'

Oy!

Hola darlings! Yes, I'm still alive and kicking (sort of). I spent the better part of the past two days putting togther my June column for Chessville. Argggh! It always takes longer than I think it will and this month I had the addition of the U.S. Women's Chess Championship to write about. It's not as if I haven't gone through this exercise before and, by now, I should know better. But I swear to you I thought that, since I'd already had so much written before hand, and since I already had the news published both here and at Chess Femme News, it wouldn't take any time at all to put the June 1st column together. Ha! It took all day Saturday, starting before 9 a.m. until I hit a wall at 8 p.m. (I'd collapsed into bed before 8:30) and most of the day today (again starting before 9:00 a.m. and sending off the final draft of the second column shortly after 7 this evening). BUT - soon, it will be posted at Chessville (I hope). Meanwhile, before I collapse one more I'll try and post a few things...

Women's World Chess Championship?

What's this - has Kirzan finally decided it's going to be held after all? This is an excerpt from a report at The Week in Chess, who got it from the Russian chess site chesspo.ru. The report is about Kirzan guaranteeing the prize fund for the Kamsky-Topalov match to go forward in Lvov. That's great, but that's man chess stuff and I don't care about that! The important part is bolded: The latest is that in a new phone interview with FIDE President Kirsan Iljumzhinov with Yury Vasilyev (who reliably reports the FIDE line) reported at the chess site chesspo.ru. The match Topalov - Kamski takes place in Lvov. Just I has called the president of International chess federation Kirsan Ilyumzhinov who has arrived to Athenes from Moscow for participation in Presidential Council, and has asked him a question which excites now all fans of a chess. . . . KI: I give my personal guarantees. The prize-winning fund will be such what has been specified in the application of the manager of the grandmaster Gata Kamski Alexander Chernenko: 935 000 dollars. The players will receive together 750 000. Besides I shall declare tomorrow the world championship among women. It will take place in Nalchik from August, 28th till September, 18th. The prize-winning fund will be 630 000 dollars. This was posted on Friday, May 30, 2008. So does that mean we can expect an official announcement from FIDE today about the Women's World Chess Championship? Who is putting up the money? What happened to the Turkish Sport Federation's indication that it would be willing to host the Championship? Where the heck is Nalchik?

An Open Letter from IM Irina Krush

Published at Chess Life Online (USCF). I have not yet read the commentary this letter is sure to have generated. My initial feelings upon seeing that such a letter was published was surprise! Sharing the title seems an equitable solution, but not for the reasons stated. I'm in agreement with others that using rapid, blitz and an Armageddon game to decide the title was, under the circumstances, ridiculous. Now, people will be "taking sides" and it bothers me the amount of ill will that this open letter will generate and, of course, those who disdain women chessplayers and "women's chess" will be sneering even more than usual. I can just hear them now "isn't that typical of the stupid cows" they're be hooting to each other. My opinion at this time is that IM Krush's letter moves a matter that is essentially a private dispute that should be addressed by the organizers and TDs at the Championship and the officials of the USCF into the arena of public opinion - where nobody wins and women's chess loses. The haters will now be rubbing their hands in glee waiting for a cat fight between the two highest rated female players in the United States. Great, just great.

Friday Night Miscellany

It's warm and humid and the outdoors is calling. This will be short - very short. Last night it stormed like all get out about 3 in the morning, and kept me up with non-stop thunder, pounding rain, high winds and constant lightning flashes until nearly 4:30 a.m. I'm exhausted! I hate lightning, and now with every storm that comes I fear the giant elm out back will come crashing down on the house. But I hate the thought of having it taken down. The noise of the storm is what woke me up from a satisfying deep sleep. At first I thought it might be hail pounding against the house so, and so I staggered out of bed to the nearest window, lifted the curtain and peered out, just as a gigantic jagged flash of booming lightning crackled across the sky and, from the trajectory, into the ground, less than a block away. But I didn't stay at the window long enough to check it out. I jumped back into bed and it was all I could do not to pull the covers over my head like a scared little kid! I WAS scared! You probably thought I was kidding last week when I mentioned the next big thing - mining poop for gold dust (due to the increase of the uber-wealthy eating food dusted with gold). Darlings, you ain't see nothing yet! Bird poop wars Stealing Used Grease On a more somber note, a former Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Geremi Gonzalez was killed last Sunday by a lightning strike in his home country. I heard about this a couple of days ago on the radio as I was getting ready for work and wasn't paying particular attention, but I thought I heard that lightning actually struck a necklace he was wearing at the time. How likely is that??? I did not find confirmation of this on the internet, but there are over 400 stories and I'm not going to look at every one. There are several news releases on the internet, all about saying the same thing, but this one does report that there are several different versions of what was actually going on at the time of Gonzalez's death. Believe me when I tell you that hearing stories like this one does not put my mind at ease about my fear of lightning! I'm outta here!

Body kept hidden to appease Goddess

From newindpress.com (don't click on the link unless you have a very good pop-up blocker) Wednesday May 28 2008 10:01 IST Express News Service DEOGARH: Raghu Adha (55) of Aadash village under Reamal police limits had died on May 24 after suffering from chicken pox and other ailments. But instead of cremating him, his family members confined the body in bales of neem leaves hoping that it would appease god. With folklore associating chicken pox to wrath of Goddess Mangala, villagers felt that if fire would be lit to the body, it would enrage the goddess, which would attract curse for the village. The family, hence, wrapped the body with neem leaves and hid it in nearby forest. However, after the incident came to light, a team of doctors led by Chief District Medical Officer, Rajarajeshwari Devi accompanied by BDO Biswamohan Ray visited the village and provided medical treatment to other chicken pox-affected patients in the village. They also facilitated cremation of the body through the Aadash panchayat.

Chicago Open

Final standings (chess femmes) for 2008 Chicago Open: Open: (19) Iryna Zenyuk (USA 2186), 4.0 Under 2300: (3) Tatev Abrahamyan (USA 2296), 5.5 (13) Tatiana Vayserberg (USA 2132), 5.0 (27) Yulia Cardona (CUB 2179), 4.0 (31) WFM Chouchanik Airapetian (USA 2143), 4.0 (74) WFM Hana Itkis (USA 2082), 2.0

World Zoroastrian Organization Seminar June 1, 2008

Short notice - I only just received it in email today. WZO’s 2008 Seminar on Zoroastrian Religion, History and Culture Held in association with the World Zarathushtrian Trust Fund Sunday 01.06.2008 - 10.00 - 16.00 Venue: Gulbenkian Room The International Students House, 229 Gt. Portland Street, London W1N 5HD (nearest Underground station: Gt. Portland Street) Sunday 1st June 2008 10.00 - Registration and coffee 10.25 - Welcome and opening address by Darayus S Motivala, President of WZO 10.30 - Morning Session commences 13:00 - Break for Lunch 14.15 - Afternoon Session commences 15:30 - Q & A with the panel of today’s speakers chaired by Ms Shahin Bekhradnia. 16:00 - Closing address by Ms Soonu Engineer. Speaker: Shapour Suren Pahlav Chairperson: Mr Noshir Umrigar “The conversion of Zoroastrian Shrines and Temples in Iran to Islamic Ones” Speaker: Prof Stanley Insler Chairperson: Mr Farrokh Vajifdar "Zarathustra: The Man and the Message" Speakers: Prof Kejia Yan (China) & Dr Takeshi Aoki (Japan) Chairperson: Ms Shahin Bekhradnia “Zoroastrians and the Sassanian Royal Family in the Tang China (618-907)” Please reserve your place by telephoning Mr Darayus S Motivala on +44 (0) 1844 352 887 or email: darayus ‘at’ motivala.uk

Achaemenid Era Gold Cup in Taunton

An unbelievable but true story - this priceless cup was once used for airgun target practice! Notice the inter-twined serpents on the foreheads of both faces.

Story from Yahoo news
Childhood 'toy' revealed as ancient Persian relic
Wed May 28, 8:26 AM ET

LONDON (AFP) - An ancient gold cup mysteriously acquired by a Taunton scrap metal dealer is expected to fetch some 500,000 pounds at auction after languishing for years in a shoe box under its current owner's bed.

Owner John Webber says his grandfather gave him the 5.5-inch (14-centimetre) high mug to play with when he was a child, back in 1945.
He assumed the golden cup, which is decorated with the heads of two women facing in opposite directions, their foreheads garlanded with two knotted snakes, was made from brass.

But he decided to get it valued when he was moving house last year and was told it was actually a rare piece of ancient Persian treasure, beaten out of a single sheet of gold hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus Christ.

Experts said the method of manufacture and the composition of the gold was "consistent with Achaemenid gold and gold smithing" dating back to the third or fourth century BC.

The Achaemenid empire, the first of the Persian empires to rule over significant portions of Greater Iran, was wiped out by Alexander the Great in 330 BC.

Auction house Duke's, in Dorchester, south-west England, will put the cup under the hammer on June 5, with an estimate of 500,000 pounds.

Webber, 70, told The Guardian newspaper that his grandfather had a "good eye" for antiques and picked up "all sorts" as he plied his trade in the town of Taunton in south-west England.

"Heaven knows where he got this, he never said," he added, revealing that as a child, he used the cup for target practice with his air gun.

* * * * *

The only two-faced god I know of is the Roman Janus. Is this a goddess? Is the cup a cult implement of some kind or was it used in worship? Is it purely a decorative object, a wine cup? Is there significance to the two faces? What does the entwined serpent emblem on the forehead of each face mean? Are there any other artifacts like this one published in any museum or collector's catalog? So many questions - and no answers!

Lombard Warrior Buried with Horse

From the Telegraphco.uk Thousand-year-old Lombard warrior skeleton discovered buried with horse in Italy By Malcolm Moore in Rome Last Updated: 11:44AM BST 28/05/2008 Italian archaeologists have discovered a perfectly preserved skeleton of a 1400-year-old Lombard warrior, buried with his horse. The skeleton, which was found in a park at Testona, near Turin, is of a 25-year-old Lombard who died of a fever. Unusually, his horse was buried alongside him. "This is a very rare find," said Gabriella Pantò, the archaeologist leading the dig. "We have not seen many precedents in Italy. We have seen horses' heads buried with warriors, but this find shows the area is vitally important," she added. The Lombards were a nomadic tribe of Germans who settled near the Danube and launched an attack on Italy in the sixth century. Under the leadership of King Alboin, the Lombards stormed across the Alps in the spring of AD568 with an army of around 500,000. Vicenza, Verona and Brescia were quickly conquered from the Byzantines, who were still suffering from battling the Goths. Lombardy was established across the whole of the north of the country, an empire which lasted for around 100 years. The dig revealed a Lombard camp had settled at Testona, and the skeleton of a dog was also found nearby. The invaders had built an aqueduct and irrigation system and a series of small wooden huts, without any foundations. The warrior was also buried with a treasure chest being x-rayed by archaeologists. In addition, a small bag held a pair of pincers, a bronze belt buckle and some armour. He wore a ring on his left index finger and also had both a knife and a "scramasax", a short sword designed for close combat.

Terracotta Warriors Damaged by Quake

From the Sydney Morning Herald
May 29, 2008 - 10:10AM
Photo from ChinaTravelGuide.com)

Temples, ancient pieces of pottery and the famed Terracotta Warriors were among priceless cultural treasures damaged or destroyed in this month's earthquake, state press reported today.

The May 12 quake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale damaged 1,645 cultural relics in worst-hit Sichuan province alone, including 148 regarded as precious, Xinhua news agency said.

One of those severely damaged was the 2000-year-old Erwang Temple, in the same area as the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Dujiangyan irrigation system, which also suffered some impact, Xinhua reported.

The temple was built to honour two ancient kings and was until the quake a popular tourist destination.

A further 239 relics were severely damaged in the neighbouring provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu as well as in the Chongqing Municipality, Xinhua said, citing China's Cultural Heritage Administration.

Tong Mingkang, the administration's deputy head, said experts from all over the country would gather in the affected areas to help restoration work.

"Relics restoration in the disaster area is at the top of our agenda for our bureau in the coming several years," Tong was quoted as saying.

A team of 20 leading experts was already assessing the damage, Xinhua said.

In Shaanxi, to the north-east of the quake zone, seven of the world-famous Terracotta Warriors sustained minor damage and were among 41 precious cultural artefacts affected, according to the Beijing News.

The discovery of the more than 2000-year-old Terracotta Warriors, buried along with China's first emperor, counts as one of the great archaeological sensations of the 20th century. There are an estimated 8000 warriors.

The earthquake cost the lives of more than 68,000 people, according to the latest official toll, making it China's worst natural disaster in a generation.

AFP

The Kings of New York

From Ch. 10, "The Women in the Room": The circuitous route to America took Irina Krush and her family from the Ukraine through Austria and into Italy, and while they waited in limbo for their papers to arrive, with nothing else to do, Irina's father, an accountant, taught her how to play ches. This was in 1989; Irina was four and a half. When she was six, she won twenty dollars in a tournament at the Manhattan Chess Club, playing against men six and seven times her age. When she was twelve, she became a master. by the time she was fourteen, Irina's rating had risen above 2400, and Murrow's reputation as a home to exiled Eastern european chess talent had been firmly established. If you were a competitive chess player from Brooklyn, you just knew, the way Irina did, that this was where Anna Khan had gone, and this was where you belonged. Maybe she could have taken the test and gotten into Stuyvesant, but what did she want with Stuyvesant? She had no desire to spend her formative years doing complex mat homework and competing for college admissions. to tell the truth, she'd never much liked math. This might have been due to her eyesight, which started to degenerate somewhere around the third grade; in the five years it took her to get over her pride and admit that she couldn't see the equations on the chalkboard, any passion she had for numbers died. And what did she want with numbers, anyhow? The reason her eyesight had deteriorated must have had something to do with all the reading she did in poorly lit rooms. She loved to read; she still does. If only she could have been a writen, or even a dancer - but for reasons she couldn't explain (maybe becuase she was an accountant's daughter), chess became her mode of self-expression. This has always been the way she's viewed the game, not as a clash of egos, not as osme grand metaphor for war, not like Fischer and Kasparov have characterized it, as an opportunity to emasculate another human being. The best games, like that time in Buenos Aires when she sacrificed her knight and then her rook (and still managed to win), form like pearls do, over time, over a series of moves, which is why she does her best work in games with longer time control, games that unfold in four or five glorious hours. Oh, she knows there's an inescapable logic at work here, and she doesn't deny it, and she can respect that sort of thinking as well. But this is not the essence of chess. The essence of chess is all wrapped up in beauty. Even if you lose. And maybe this is a feminine perspective, but hell, she's known plenty of men who can apreciate the beauty of the game as much as she can. Otherwise, why would they spend all those hours studying by themselves? Otherwise, what would be the point?

Ratatoskr, the Messenger Squirrel

Thanks to dondelion for passing along this information on Ratatoskr. In Norse mythology, Ratatoskr (anglicized Ratatosk) ("drilling tooth", an apt description of a squirrel) is a red squirrel who runs up and down the Great World Tree Yggdrasil, carrying messages between Veorfolnir, the Eagle who lives at the top of the Tree, and Niohoggr, the Dragon who lives in the Great Tree's roots. This entry from Wikipedia says Ratotoskr not only carries messages among the worlds, he also carries gossip. Not being able to read Old Norse, I am unable to vouch for the translation that is provided at this website. I don't know who put the website together, and I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information. Still, it's a fascinating look at the world of the skalds back in the old old days. Skalds were, I gather, the carriers of ancient oral tradition, troubadours, poets, entertainers, diplomats, teachers and carriers of the old ways. This is (evidently) the only line in Snorri's Edda that talks about Ratatoskr: Ikorni sá er heitir Ratatoskr, renn upp ok niðr eptir askinum ok berr öfundarorð milli arnarins ok Niðhöggs. (The squirrel called Ratatoskr runs up and down the ash-tree, carrying hateful words between the eagle and Nidhogg). My initial take on this is that Ratatoskr has some aspects of Lokki, the mischief-maker - but I wasn't able to find anything else under a quick search on the internet. Anyone out there know more about the traditional role of Ratatoskr in Norse mythology???

Women in Archaeology: Theresa Goell

From the Jewish Women's Archive (online): Biographical Information: Theresa Goell, an archaeologist best known for her work as the the director of the Nemrud Dagh excavations in southeastern Turkey. was born in New York City on July 17, 1901. She grew up in Brooklyn and spend summers at the family's house in the Catskills Mountains. After graduating from Erasmus High School in Brooklyn, Goell entered Syracuse University; she later transferred to Radcliffe College, from there she graduated, Phi Beta Kappa, in 1923. While at Radcliffe, she experienced permanent hearing loss, diagnosed as otosclerosis. She initially overcame this handicap by learning lip reading; as technology developed, she took to wearing hearing aids. During her junior year at Radcliffe she married Cyrus Levinthal; after her graduation, they both studied at Cambridge University. They had one son, Jay, and were divorced in the late 1930s or early 1940s. Having earned the equivalent standard B.A. in architecture from Cambridge in 1933-35, Goell began doing archaeological field work in Jerusalem and Gerasa, Trans-Jordan, under the auspices of the American School of Oriental Research. In Jerusalem she made drawings of ceramics and restored terra-cottas, and worked as an architectural assistant. Theresa returned to New York in the late 1930s. She did interior architectural design and display work at department stores in the Bronx and in Newark, New Jersey. During World War II she did drafting for Naval Contractors in New York City and Brooklyn. While working, she took courses in prehistoric and European art at Columbia University, 1944-45. It was Professor Hartley Lehman at New York University who suggested that she look into the heretofore little studied contents at Mt. Nimrud on the Anatolian plateau of southeastern Turkey. Her own NYU Research from this period led to her life long pursuit to excavate this site, now known as Nemrud Dagh. Goell undertook her first professional archaeological field work during 1946 to 1953; it included a position at Tarsus as the architectural and archaeological assistant the the professor of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University and work with other archaeological expeditions in Palestine, Jordan and Turkey. An active Zionist, Goell worked on numerous buildings in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Goell's first arduous journey to Mt. Nimrud was in 1947; she returned for a second visit in 1951. Little was known about this site before she began excavations there in 1953. The Bollingen Foundation and the National Geographic Society supported the excavation; in March 1961 The National Geographic published an article about Nemrud Dagh and later the National Geographic Society produced a film about it. Goell became the Director of Excavations at Samosata, the city of Antiochus I of Commagene. In 1973, on the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Republic, the Cultural Ministry of Turkey awarded Goell in recognition of her contributions to Anatolian culture and art. She died in New York City in 1985, after a long illness.

* * * * *

This information about Goell is from a summary on a documentary film produced by Goell's niece in 2005, "Queen of the Mountain": Theresa Goell embarked on her career as an archaeologist with four strikes against her: She was a woman, divorced, extremely hard of hearing and a Jew working with Muslims. But all that didn't deter her. Born in 1901, she could have had a comfortable life as the wife of a lawyer and the sister-in-law of a prominent rabbi in Brooklyn, but she left her husband and son for a lifelong adventure that led her to a desolate mountain in Southeast Turkey. Martha Goell Lubell, who has lived in Wynnewood for the last 28 years, chronicled the life of her aunt Theresa, a pioneer female archaeologist, in a new documentary, Queen of the Mountain, filmed mostly on location in Turkey. Since Goell was hard-of-hearing, the film will be screened with open captioning to make the film accessible to hard-of-hearing and deaf viewers. Acclaimed actress Tovah Feldshuh, who recently starred in Golda’s Balcony on Broadway, is the voice of Theresa Goell. In addition to Lubell, who produced and directed the film, others from the Philadelphia area who had a role in the film were Sharon Mullally, the editor and writer; Carol Rosenbaum, who did additional writing; John Anthony, the sound designer; Kevin Diehl, the graphic designer, and Sumi Tonooka, who wrote the music. Lubell says, “I started hearing stories about my aunt’s exploits when I was a little girl growing up in New York.” The idea of putting the saga on film occurred to her while she was making her last film, Daring to Resist, which she produced with Bala Cynwyd filmmaker Barbara Attie. After Theresa Goell’s brother died in the late 1990s, Lubell’s cousins found boxes full of photos, letters, audio tapes and film relating to Theresa’s unusual career as well as her personal struggles: Theresa was nearly deaf, divorced, pursuing a career in what was then a man’s field and a Jewish woman working in a Muslim country. “There was a film in those boxes,” says Lubell. “And I decided to make a film about my aunt, knowing it would take me to those places that I had heard about from her decades before.” Theresa excavated the spectacular burial site of King Antiochus on Nemrud Dagh, a 7,000-foot-high mountain three days’ walk from the nearest post office. Antiochus ruled the kingdom of Commagene, and controlled the trade routes across the Euphrates River in the century before the birth of Christ. Theresa first learned of the site when she wrote a paper in graduate school in 1938. “Finding the tomb of Antiochus at Nemrud Dagh was always something Theresa wanted to do,” reports Donald Sanders, editor of a book on her work at Nemrud Dagh. “We know Antiochus was a very wealthy person. He would have had very elaborate materials buried with him. The contents of the tomb could have rivaled that of King Tut.” Theresa was determined to get to Nemrud Dagh and it took her six years to get permission to excavate, raise money for her excavations, find scholars to collaborate with her and equip a mountaintop camp for 50 people. In 1953, at age 50, she finally got there and kept working there over the next twenty years. Theresa was to work very closely with the Kurdish villagers who became the backbone of her excavations and were almost like her family. “They treat me like a mother,” Goell remarks in her oral history, “ And they’re very kind to me.” “She was thinking on all different levels,” according to Martha Sharp Joukowsky, a professor of archaeology at Brown University who is featured in the film. “Not only of what had to be done in the archaeological sense but also in the human sense, of the people who worked for her and were so devoted to her.” She brought clothing and medicine from New York and treated the medical problems of her workers and their families, and taught their wives hygiene and birth control. Her nephew, Jon Goell, relates: “She was considered queen of the mountain.” Goell never found the tomb but Nemrud Dagh has become a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most famous archaeological destinations in Turkey.

The Glass Ceiling

It's hard to say why there aren't more women at the top of the ladder Mark Anderson, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 Last week's column on women in business -- or the lack thereof -- garnered some interesting reader feedback, most notably a letter from an Ottawa researcher who claims women simply aren't smart enough to out-compete men for top executive positions. Among the "evidence" he uses to support this assertion, the letter-writer notes that 95 per cent of Nobel prize winners are male, and men outnumber women two-to-one on Mensa rolls. Needless to say, only the rashest of fools would agree to weigh in on this particular debate. So here goes. Are men smarter than women? Who knows? And in the context of corporate ladder-climbing, who cares? Because in most, if not all, businesses the smartest people in the room tend to be nowhere near the executive suite. Case in point: For years, the smartest person in a newsroom where I worked was not the editor-in-chief or even one of the section editors, but a lowly columnist. The guy, who I won't name, was a flat-out genius, able (and all-too-willing) to deliver hour-long, extraordinarily erudite monologues on virtually any subject. His evident brilliance aside, no one, himself included, perceived him as "management material" because, well, he just wasn't. Likewise, the IT geek with the PhD in electrical engineering, the accounting nebbish who can recite pi to 23 decimals, the archivist with the photographic memory, the custodian who plays chess at a grand master level. All might out-score the boss on standard IQ tests; none might be suited to the rigours of running a company or department. As long ago as the Renaissance and as recently as the Industrial Revolution it was posited that the world would be run either by intellectuals or scientists, neither prediction ultimately panning out. Indeed, surveying the current political scene, you could even argue there's an inverse relationship between brain-power and leadership: Michael Ignatieff and Stéphane Dion are by all accounts brilliant individuals and less-than-brilliant leaders. Paul Martin is a smart guy who failed spectacularly in the role of national leader. Ditto Kim Campbell. South of the border, Ronald Reagan was a revered leader few would confuse with an intellectual giant -- the Great Communicator rather than the Great Cogitator. So if raw intelligence isn't keeping women from top corporate jobs, what is? Could it be something as simple as testosterone? A recent study out of Britain found that the performance of financial traders varies with the amount of testosterone in their bloodstream. The higher the testosterone level, the more money they make on the trading floor, likely because they're more aggressive and daring in pursuit of their goals. Likewise, controlled aggression, risk-taking and the ability to make hard, fast, unilateral decisions are hallmarks of leadership, without which the corporate ship tends to drift and list, ultimately becoming prey to more ruthless competitors. Do women have this cut-throat combativeness encoded in their DNA, coursing through their veins? Some do. I wouldn't want to meet PepsiCo boss Indra Nooyi in a dark alley, much less Alcatel-Lucent CEO Patricia Russo or tobacco maven Susan Ivey, chairman, president and CEO of Reynolds American. Rest of article.

Need for Coal "Forces" Excavation

Well, at least they're excavating in an attempt to save something, and not just blowing up the mound to get at the coal. From Today's Zaman May 24, 2008 Energy needs spark resumption of mound excavation in Kütahya The urgent need for coal buried beneath an ancient mound, in the Aegean city of Kütahya has forced the resumption of excavation at the site after 10 years In a statement to the Anatolia news agency, Professor A. Nejat Bilgen from the Dumlupınar University (DPÜ) archeology department said they had located a 15-million-ton coal reserve under the protected archeological site of the Seyitömer mound, which is 30 meters high and 200 meters wide. "Upon the demand and initiative of the Turkish Coal Enterprises [TKİ] in an effort to make use of this coal reserve, the Eskişehir Archeological Museum began excavation in 1989, subsequently taken over by the Afyonkarahisar Museum, which continued the project until 1995. Then there was a long interval of 10 years [with little or no excavation taking place]. After a protocol was signed between our university and Seyitömer Lignite Enterprises as a result of the TKİ's efforts, they resumed excavations in 2006. The market value of this huge reserve is YTL 500 million, and it can meet the energy needs of the Tunçbilek thermal power station [near Kütahya]. With the utilization of the reserve under the protected mound, about a total of 10 billion kilowatts of electricity will be produced." Bilgen noted that they planned to finish unearthing all the historical artifacts and cultural strata of the mound at the end of an intense five-year period of work, adding that all the artifacts discovered would be given to museums. Also emphasizing that they would determine to which cultural strata the archeological findings that formed the mound belonged, he said: "We are making drawings of the archeological structure in the mound for the benefit of the world of science and Anatolia. All our efforts are being exerted to that end. We have also established a new archeology department at the university. There is a team of 40 people consisting of experts, archeologists, lecturers and students working on site. Including the workers, we are a team of 100 people who work for six months out of the year. We are trying to contribute to the history of Kütahya in a fast and lasting way," he said. World’s oldest ceramic workshop Bilgen said archaeologists had so far discovered layers from five different cultures at the mound. According to their findings, the top stratum belonged to the Romans and included a temple and sacrificial altar. "The excavation has so far revealed that the mound is about 5,000 years old. We have found that the site was densely inhabited during the Bronze Age and during Phrygian and Roman times. We have also found ceramic moulds that suggest there was a ceramic workshop around 3,000 B.C. in addition to some other uniquely important artifacts. The ceramic moulds have proven to be one of the world's oldest ceramic workshops," he said. Bilgen went on to say that containers, pitchers, earthenware pots, ceramic moulds, lamps, seals and other artifacts they found during the excavations were already on display at the Kütahya Archeology Museum. "By the envisaged end of excavation, we will have found enough artifacts to fill three or four museums."

2008 Chicago Open

I'll have to check to see if any other chess femmes played in this event (there were several sections) - this is the day I normally do updates for Chess Femme News so I'll let all know tonight. Jen Shahade wrote about Iryna Zenyuk's performance at the Chicago Open at Chess Life Online, shortly after playing in the U.S. Women's Chess Championship in Tulsa. There's a nice photo of Zenyuk and near the bottom in Betsy Dynako's mini photo-gallery, a nice photo of Hana Itkis. Okay, I'm looking at the cross-table for the Chicago Open - I don't think it reflects the final round. As it stands (without being updated), Zenyuk was in 31st place with 3.0 after Round 6. A quick look at the cross-table for the U-2300 shows Tatev Abrahamyan in second place with 5.0 after Round 6 (way to go Tatev!) Tatiana Vayserberg from Wisconsin (my home state) was in 24th with 4.0. Go, Tatiana! Chouchanik Airapetian, who did not have such a good U.S. Women's Chess Championship, was in 45th place with 3.0. Hana Itkis was in 67th place with 2.0.

Pengs are Prodigies in Chess

From YorkRegion.Com Michael Power, Staff Writer Published on May 26, 2008 Despite their young ages, Jackie and Janet Peng are clear on what it is about chess they enjoy. “The strategy and how you have to think what to do,” says Jackie, 10, who travels to Quebec City with her sister next month to compete in the Canadian Youth Chess Championship. Her younger sister Janet, 7, also enjoys the challenge the game offers. “The harder you play the harder you have to battle,” she says. The Richmond Hill sisters recently competed in their age groups at the Ontario Youth Chess Championship in Kitchener, organized by the internationally recognized Chess Federation of Canada. Not enough competitors signed up in the under-eight division, so Janet moved to playing against players 10 and younger, said the girls’ mother, Xuekun Xing. Both girls won in their age groups, she said. They can now continue to a national chess competition in Quebec City from July 14 to 17. Winners from that competition move on to the two-week World Youth Chess Championships in Vietnam this October. Jackie started playing chess about a year-and-a-half ago, Ms Xing said. She and her husband, Henry Ping, signed her up for a community program in the game and her school has a chess club. Jackie took to the game quickly, showing an ability to concentrate and think logically, said Mrs. Xing. “She got better and better and played more and more,” she said. “We saw she has a lot of potential in chess.” Jackie played in tournaments in the GTA representing Crosby Heights Public School and her parents signed her up with a private chess teacher two months ago. Janet learned the game largely by watching Jackie play with their father, Mrs. Xing said. She began playing regularly this year, as well, and soon gained skill. When the family arrived at the Kitchener tournament, her younger sibling asked to participate. They hadn’t expected to enter Janet, but registered her on the spot. Like her older sister, she won. “She has some talent, too,” Mrs. Xing said. The sisters also played in and won the Ontario Girls’ Chess Championship May 17. Jackie, especially, is studying hard for the Quebec City tournament. She takes two private lessons per week in the game, said Mrs. Xing. And according to their Thornhill chess teacher, the sisters could be a force during the competition. “I believe they have chances,” said Iuri Lebedev, noting it’s tough to say how good a chance that might be. Janet started playing more recently and does well for her age, while her older sibling competes among the best in her age group, said Mr. Lebedev, who has taught the game for 25 years.. Competing at that level is an achievement, given thousands of children play the game. But like sports, you have to be well-conditioned and healthy to play the game well, he said. Sitting for hours and thinking strategy takes more stamina than it might seem. And training beforehand and being well prepared add to the sisters’ chances. “We have some work to do,” Mr. Lebedev said.

The Kings of New York

From Michael Weinreb's The Kings of New York, this is from the chapter "The Women in the Room." (The photo is 2003 U.S. Women's Chess Champion Anna Hahn, from an event in March, 2002.)

Anna Khan was sixteen years old and the reigning women's chess champion of Latvia when she enrolled at Murrow High School, the latest pubescent prodigy to arrive in Brooklyn from a distant corner of the crumbling Soviet empire. This was in 1993, ten years after Eliot Weiss founded the school's chess club and a few months after it won its first national championship. And for reasons entirely beyond Weiss's control, Anna Khan was the first female ever to compete on his traveling team.

Anna Khan would lead Murrow to two more national championships, in 1993 and 1994. Eventually, after changing her name to Anna Hahn, she won the U.S. Women's Championship in 2003 and earned the title of WIM, which is the abbreviation used for a "Women's International Master," a less stringent title than "International Master," and one that many of the best male players in the world deride as a second-class designation. On a Web site that archives past games from top players, the comments under Hahn's entry and photograph are a catalog of puerilities ("Anna Hahn can mate me any day. Growl.") But then, this is the way it has always been. Since the inception of competitive chess, the upper eschelons of the game have reeked of sexism, and women who dare intrude upon this sanctity are often treated with as much subtlety as if they'd wandered into the back room at Scores. "Guys aren't going to stand around and watch a guy's game because he's a guy," Bruce Pandolfini says. "Maybe if he's Bobby Fischer, but not for any other reason. But that's not why they stand around women. And if they say it's for any other reason, they're lying."

Forty-five years earlier, when a U.S. women's champion named Lisa Lane drew a sudden barrage of media attention (she was on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and was profiled in Newsweek and The New York Times Magazine, which described her as "comely" and "shapely"), Fischer, an equal-opportunity bigot, dismissed her and her entire sex with a barrage of insults. "They can't concentrate, they don't have stamina, and they aren't creative," he said of female chess players. "They're all fish." And that attitude didn't cease with Fischer: in 2002, Garry Kasparov told the Times of London that "chess is a mixture of sport, psychological warfare, science, and art," and that "when you look at all these components, man dominates. Every single component of chess belongs to the areas of male domination."

Of the top players in the world, only one, Hungarian Judit Polgar, is female, and fewer than ten of the world's 950 international grandmasters are women. [This information is somewhat dated.] Some efforts are being made to alter this: in recent years, Kasparov's own foundation has sponsored an all-girls national championship. But there remains a consensus among many of the best male players that this imbalance exists for a reason, that women are not wired for chess in the same way as men, that they they are, by nature and through societal pressure, more social creatures, and that they would prefer to interact with others than be locked in a room by themselves, poring over esoteric middle-game theory. Which is why most of these girls, when they reach the age of twelve or thirteen, an age that Bruce Pandolfini calls "crucial" to one's development as a chess player, simply fade away. Which is why approximately ninety-seven percent of competitive chess players in the United States happen to be male.

Of the thirty-five participants in the high-school varsity section at the city championships, two were girls. One of them was Anna Ginzburg, who came up through the Chess-in-the Schools program and landed one of those coveted spots at Stuyvesant High School. Ginzburg wears wire-rimmed glasses and has a tangle of thick brown hair and a penchant for feminine accessories, like her "Mrs. Affleck" tote bag. On the back of her Chronos digital clock, she's written her name in permanent marker, dotting the I with a flower and underlining the whole thing with a feminine flourish. when she was younger, she was painfully shy, but now she's gotten used to it, to being out-numbered and overlooked. At times, she is able to assimilate into this boys' world, beating them at cards and surprising them over the board and returning their banter when necessary. (Anna's rating is 1656, about the same as Oscar's whom she defeated at cities after an overconfident Oscar hung a rook). But the worst part, she says, is that when she travels to tournaments, she has so few people with whom she can share a hotel room. In that sense, she is very much on her own.

Because there is such disparity in numbers, the women who break through to competitive chess, the women who can manage to thrive amid a sea of testosterone, tend to be unique and forceful personalities. Some, like Elizabeth Vicary, admit that they thrive on the attention (one Russian women's GM, Alexandra Kosteniuk, has posed for so many risque photo shoots that she's been called "the Anna Kournikova of chess"). [Actually, Kosteniuk is a GM who just happens to be a woman]. Many say they've never felt discriminated against, and that if anything, it's just the opposite: men are so deferential, so cowed by their presence, that their brains often seize up and start melting when they play. Adults turn into randy adolescents. They make silly moves they would never make against other men, and when they are called on these things, they attribute their carelessness to the sex of their opponent: Against a man, I would never make such a move. "In most games, I am thinking about girls for fifty to seventy-five percent of the time, another fifteen percent goes to time management, and with what's left over I am calculating," grandmaster Alex Shabalov once admitted to Jennifer Shahade, the strongest female player ever to be born in this country.

* * * * * * *

I'll bet Shabalov never figured those words would be immortalized in such a way. Har! Oooohhhh, Alex, Mr. Ladies' Man.