Hales Corners Challenge XVI: Photographs and Postscript

Hi all.

Hales Corners Challenge XVI was a great success from my perspective.  Darlings!  This is the very first time we ever had to SEND YOU MORE MONEY to cover all the prizes won by the chess femmes!  Like, totally HOO-RAY! 

This has been a very sad time for me, and earlier it was a very trying summer.  But right now is also a very happy time.  Last night Tom Fogec stopped by and personally delivered to me an autograph of GM Josh Friedel, written on the back of a flyer for Hales Corners Challenge XVI.  As you all know, Josh Friedel is one of our few American-minted GMs!  I had posted at the Hales Corners Chess Club blog some weeks before wondering if I might be able to get his autograph -- half joking at the time because of course I wouldn't have thought twice about barging right up to him with pen and paper in hand :)  Tom also told me that all of the chess femmes got together to have their photographs taken, those who played in the Open, and those who played in the Reserve, and that Allen Becker would be sending those to me. It brought good tears to my eyes.

Those photographs were in my email tonight when I got home from a night-out with those wild and crazy chicks with whom I share bus rides to and from work downtown, five days a week.  We are the Rocking Crazy Cougars (or is that Crazy Cougars in Rocking Chairs...), amongst other names, except for "Thelma" because she's only 32 and far too young to be in Cougar territory.  But we're teaching her how to hunt...

Oops, straying from the point here!  It was wonderful to be with supportive, caring friends.  I've had overwhelming support, in fact, and your sympathy and caring have been a life-line during a very dark time.  Of course, one does not just wave one's magic wand and get over the death of a dearly beloved friend, companion, husband-in-everything-but-on-paper, not to mention a business partner and key component of what makes up Goddesschess.  But with such overwhelming support of friends and fans and sympathetic hearts, one carries on.  I'm no doofus.  I know when I have it good.  As Elie-Mae timely reminded me, these are blessings and I didn't even recognize them, like DOH, Jan!  I've been so used to having such wonderfulness in my life, you see.

Okay, enough hokey stuff.  Hey, I'm here, I'm one tough broad even if I can't play myself out of a paper bag on a chessboard!  Of course that makes no sense to anyone who doesn't play chess...

I love these photos!  Thanks so much, chess dudes and chess femmes!

These are the 9 chess femmes who played in the Reserve Section. Oh, me bad.  I SHOULD recognize all of you, but I don't -- maybe a wee bit too much wine with those Cougars I went out with earlier tonight... or - and I plead guilty - just a crappy memory.

 

I DO recognize, on the far right, the beautiful Anne Ulrich (standing, with her hand on the chessboard), and to her immediate left is Pat Foat, who has two chessplaying sons -- hey Pat, good to see you again, sorry to have missed you in person! I do hope we'll have a chance to mix it up OTB at Challenge XVII, but if we don't, let's go out to lunch during the break and schmooze.  And next to Pat is my buddy Ellen Wanek a/k/a Elie-Mae, who runs chess programs in Sheboygan, WI.  Okay, all the rest of you chess femmes, you're young enough to be my granddaughters.  Hmmmm....  Please wear name-tags the next time I see you.  In LARGE PRINT, please.  Hugs to all of you and thank you SO MUCH for coming out and supporting this wonderful local tournament.  CHESS FEMME POWER!!!!

These are, of course, the beautiful ladies who played in the Open. Oh - please excuse Robin Grochowski on the left and Tom Fogec on the right.  Obviously they are no ladies, ahem.  You guys!  You crack me up!  The chess femmes from left to right:  Alena Huang; Rachel Ulrich; Anupama Rajendra; Sandra Pahl. Rah Rah, chess femme power! 

 

I'm too tired to put all the math here that Robin G. presented me with earlier today in an email. Suffice to say, I KNEW we'd owe money this time because of course - wouldn't you know it - after all the tournaments Goddesschess had been depositing funds ahead of time with the Southwest Chess Club to cover potential chess femme prizes during the Hales Corners Chess Challenges, and we always got refunds back -- THIS TIME -- YES, LET ME SHOUT IT OUT AGAIN --THIS TIME (Can I Hear A Gospel Choir, PLEASE! giving me a big HMMMMMMMM and an AMEN) -- WE DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH ON DEPOSIT! 

Woo woo! 

Thank you so much, chess femmes.  Smooches to all of you.

2011 Deadly Earthquake in Spain Caused by Groundwater Removal

Evidence provided in the study.  And yet the energy industry in the USA refuses to acknowledge that increasing earthquakes in and around sites of oil removal where so-called "fracking" is being used (water being pumped into fissures deep underground) is likewise causing those increasing quakes although, according to the article "Scientists have known for decades that pumping water into the Earth can set off small earthquakes."  DUH!

When will we finally learn that when it's ALL about the money, it's NEVER good for mankind in general...

Deadly Spain Earthquake Triggered By Groundwater Removal

By Becky Oskin, OurAmazingPlanet Staff Writer | LiveScience.com – 6 hrs ago

 

Groundwater removal triggered the unusually shallow and deadly earthquake that hit Lorca, Spain, in 2011, according to a new study.

Scientists have known for decades that pumping water into the Earth can set off small earthquakes. But this is the first time that removing water has been identified as an earthquake trigger, researchers said. Both the size and the location of the quake were influenced by groundwater pumping, the study found.

"The fact that the very tiny stress changes due to normal processes, such as the extraction of groundwater, could have an effect on very large systems such as faults, that's very surprising," said Pablo González, lead study author and a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Western Ontario in Canada.

The researchers were also able to precisely calculate the physical changes that generated the quake. The results will help seismologists better understand the physics that control when an earthquake starts and stops — an important step in predicting when and where a quake will occur, and its size.

"We need observations of this sort to calibrate physical models" of faults, said Jean-Philippe Avouac, a geologist at Caltech in Pasadena, Calif., who was not involved in the study. "The initiation and arrest of [fault] ruptures are something we are trying to constrain," he told OurAmazingPlanet.

 

Small quake, devastating effect

The May 5, 2011, earthquake was a relatively moderate magnitude 5.1. Quakes of this size usually don't cause significant damage in developed countries. A 2006 earthquake of magnitude 4.8 near Lorca did not cause any deaths.

But the 2011 quake ruptured only 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) below the Earth's surface, which meant the earthquake's energy was concentrated at the surface. Nine people were killed and dozens were injured, and both unreinforced masonry, like medieval churches, and modern buildings were damaged.

Thanks to previous research work in Spain, González suspected the quake's shallow epicenter could be related to groundwater extraction near Lorca. The groundwater table south of Lorca has dropped as much as 820 feet (250 meters) since 1960.

"When the tragic event occurred, we asked ourselves if the earthquake might be related to the subsidence. The earthquake was very shallow, and moreover, this pattern of subsidence was bounded by the fault," González told OurAmazingPlanet.

Linking subsidence to fault rupture

Using data from satellite imagery and GPS stations, González and his colleagues first confirmed the quake occurred on the Alhama de Murcia fault. Then, they calculated how the crust responded to removing the weight of the water. Releasing the load increased the stress on the Alhama de Murcia fault by a few tens of kilopascals — less than atmospheric pressure — the study found.

During the quake, the fault broke only in areas where removing groundwater increased stress on the fault. From this correlation, González inferred that the groundwater removal not only helped trigger the quake, but also controlled the size of the fault rupture and the earthquake's magnitude.

However, the amount of energy released by the quake far exceeded that built up by groundwater extraction. Thus, the earthquake released both stress caused by groundwater extraction and several centuries of regional deformation, the study concludes. Southeastern Spain is near the plate boundary region that separates the Eurasia and Africa tectonic plates.

The findings were detailed in the Oct. 21 issue of the journal Nature Geosciences.

Hales Corners Challenge XVI - Final Standings

A record number of chess femmes participated in the Hales Corners Chess Challenge XVI today, hosted by my adopted chess Club, Southwest Chess Club, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

I am working off of information provided at the Southwest Chess Club's blog. I'm not sure of the names of all of the chess femmes, only that four played in the Open and nine played in the Reserve.  The prior record was eleven chess femmes.  I am very happy with this great turnout. 

Here are the rankings of the Open and Reserve sections as reported by the USCF -- note: as Tom Fogec explained to me tonight (October 21st) the highest rated players who finish with the same score are listed from highest ELO to lower, without regard to tie breaks that determine actual finish position!  So, in the case of tie scores, the person you see listed as number 1 isn't necessarily the winner.  I didn't know this, oops!

OPEN:

No. Name St Rate Rd 1 Rd 2 Rd 3 Rd 4 Score

1. Friedel, Joshua Ed (1)........ NH 2566 W22 W30 W5 D2 3.5
2. Boor, Carl Brandon (2)........ IL 2361 W47 W11 W10 D1 3.5
3. Williams, William (4)......... WI 2223 W7 D12 W15 W14 3.5
4. Becker, Allen J (8)........... WI 2064 W32 D14 W33 W8 3.5

7. Ulrich, Rachel J (17)......... WI 1892 L3 W40 W35 W29 3.0 (clear top chess femme finisher)
16. Rajendra, Anupama (24)........ WI 1820 L12 W31 W42 D9 2.5
39. Huang, Alena (39)............. WI 1517 W26 L6 L23 L24 1.0
41. Pahl, Sandra R (43)........... WI 1450 L19 L26 L24 W46 1.0

Rachel Ulrich is the real deal!  She won three of four and wins a Goddesschess cash prize of $120.00, in addition to a modest gift bag and free entry to Hales Corners Challenge XVII, should she choose to enter.

Anupama Rajendra won two games and drew one, for a total Goddesschess cash prize of $100.00.

Alena Huang and Sandra Pahl each won a game, good for $40.00 cash each from Goddesschess. 

RESERVE:

No. Name St Rate 1 2 3 4 Score

1. Sydlewski, Dean (2)........... WI 1517 W9 W10 W17 D3 3.5
5. Saycocie, Vanisa (10)......... WI 1283 L2 W20 W19 W15 3.0 (Goddesschess prize $60)
6. Ulrich, Anne E (12)........... WI 1242 D3 W25 W24 D2 3.0 (Goddesschess prize $60)
9. Huang, Sabrina (11)........... WI 1249 L1 W21 W29 D11 2.5 (Goddesschess prize $50)
20. Pandey, Ritika (26)........... WI 877 W33 L5 W16 L7 2.0 (Goddesschess prize $40)
22. Wanek, Ellen Ann (28)......... WI 838 L13 L33 W35 W28 2.0 (Gpoddesschess prize $40)
25. Bepar, Naisha (16)............ WI 1082 -H- L6 L8 W34 1.5 (Goddesschess prize $20)
26. Vootkur, Manisha (19)......... WI 1028 L16 L7 W32 -U- 1.0 (Goddesschess prize $20)
30. Pandey, Divya (30)............ WI 746 L28 W35 L7 L18 1.0 (Goddesschess prize $20)
34. Foat, Patricia J (35)......... WI 306 L19 L31 -B- L25 1.0 (Goddesschess prize $20)

Updated October 21, 2012:

I added the names of Divya Pandey and Ritika Pandey to the Reserve chess femmes, I did not have them on the list last night.

Congratulations to all of the ladies.  On tie-breaks, Anne Ulrich, whom I met a few Challenges ago, is the recipient of a Goddesschess gift bag and receives free entry to the next Hales Corners Challenge should she choose to enter, in addition to her cash prize. 

As you can see, the ladies did very well!  ALL of them won prizes, I couldn't be more pleased.  For the first time ever, we'll have to put MORE into our prize pot!!!  Woo woo!

I hope this is the an indication that the future of chess femmes participating in the Hales Corners Challenges will just keep growing and growing and growing.

I understand photographs from Challenge XVI are on the way.  That means I've got to figure out how to publish them here.  Evidently, all of a sudden I ran up against a LIMIT on images I had no idea existed before a few days ago.  So now Google wants money from me for a supposedly FREE blog, and if I do not pay up, I cannot post any further images at this blog.

My choices are limited.  I can either start a new blog or pay the extortion to add more images to this blog and continue it forward.  Of course, the extortion could increase at any time, as extortionists tend to do.

So, I'm not sure what I'm going to do at the present time. 

2012 European Club Cup - Women

Game featured at The Week in Chess:

GM Hou, Yifan (2605) - GM Kosteniuk, Alexandra (2490)
17th European Club Cup w Eilat ISR (1.1), 2012.10.11

1.e4 c6 2.d3 d5 3.Nd2 e5 4.Ngf3 Bd6 5.d4 exd4 6.exd5 Nf6 7.dxc6 Nxc6 8.Be2 O-O 9.Nb3 Re8 10.O-O Bg4 11.h3 Bxf3 12.Bxf3 Be5 13.Nc5 Rc8 14.Nd3 Bb8 15.Bg5 h6 16.Bh4 g5 17.Bg3 Bxg3 18.fxg3 Qd6 19.Rf2 Kg7 20.Qd2 Qxg3 21.Raf1 Re7 22.c3 Ne5 23.cxd4 Nc4 24.Qb4 Rcc7 25.Rc1 Ne3 26.Rxc7 Rxc7 27.Qd2 Nf5 28.Ne5 Nd6 29.Rf1 Qh4 30.Qd3 Qg3 31.Qd2 Nf5 32.Qd3 Nd6 33.Qd2 Nf5 34.Qd3 Qf4 35.Bxb7 Qxd4+ 36.Qxd4 Nxd4 37.Ba6 Rc2 38.Rf2 Rc1+ 39.Rf1 Rc2 40.Rf2 Rc1+ 41.Kh2 h5 42.Rd2 Nf5 43.Rf2 Nd6 44.Bd3 h4 45.Rf1 Rc7 46.g3 Re7 47.Nf3 Re3 48.Ba6 hxg3+ 49.Kxg3 Nf5+ 50.Kh2 g4 51.hxg4 Nxg4+ 52.Kh3 Ne5 53.Bb7 Nd6 54.Ba8 f5 55.Kg3 Nd3 56.Kh4 Kf6 57.b3 Re8 58.Rd1 Rxa8 59.Rxd3 Ne4 0-1

Lest anyone forget, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk was the 12th Women's World Chess Champion...

From chess-results.com:

Ranking crosstable

Rk.	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo	*	2½	3	2½	2½	4	3½	4	14	261.0	22.0
2	Mika	1½	*	1½	3	2½	3½	3½	3	10	225.0	18.5
3	Ugra	1	2½	*	1	2½	2	2½	3½	9	184.3	15.0
4	SHSM-Nashe Nasledie	1½	1	3	*	2	3½	2	3½	8	196.0	16.5
5	AVS	1½	1½	1½	2	*	3½	4	4	7	199.8	18.0
6	Ashdod	0	½	2	½	½	*	2½	3	5	91.0	9.0
7	Chigorin Club	½	½	1½	2	0	1½	*	3	3	101.3	9.0
8	Rishon Le-Zion	0	1	½	½	0	1	1	*	0	52.3	4.0

Annotation:
Tie Break1: Matchpoints (2 for wins, 1 for Draws, 0 for Losses)
Tie Break2: FIDE-Sonneborn-Berger-Tie-Break
Tie Break3: points (game-points)

 

de Monte-Carlo was once again a veritable powerhouse -- as one can see from the list of players:

 

Team-Composition with round-results

1. Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo (RtgAvg:2578, Captain: Almira Skripchenko / TB1: 14 / TB2: 261)
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Pts.	Games	RtgAvg
1	GM	Hou Yifan	2605	CHN	0	1	1		½	1	1	4.5	6	2409
2	GM	Koneru Humpy	2607	IND	1	½	½	1	1	1	½	5.5	7	2383
3	GM	Muzychuk Anna	2587	SLO	½	½	½	1		1	1	4.5	6	2334
4	GM	Cramling Pia	2514	SWE	1	½	½	1	1		½	4.5	6	2334
5	IM	Skripchenko Almira	2437	FRA				1	1	1		3.0	3	2022
2. Mika (RtgAvg:2472, Captain: Anahit Vardapetyan / TB1: 10 / TB2: 225)
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Pts.	Games	RtgAvg
1	GM	Danielian Elina	2476	ARM	½	1	0	½	½	½	1	4.0	7	2415
2	GM	Harika Dronavalli	2512	IND	½	0	½	½	1	1	1	4.5	7	2393
3	IM	Mkrtchian Lilit	2456	ARM	1	½	½	½	½	1	½	4.5	7	2336
4	IM	Javakhishvili Lela	2444	GEO	1	0	½	1	1	1	1	5.5	7	2244
3. Ugra (RtgAvg:2397, Captain: Pavel Lobach / TB1: 9 / TB2: 184.25)
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Pts.	Games	RtgAvg
1	WGM	Kovanova Baira	2408	RUS	0	0		½	1	0	0	1.5	6	2452
2	WGM	Girya Olga	2454	RUS	1	1	½	½	½	½	½	4.5	7	2410
3	IM	Romanko Marina	2365	RUS	½	½	½	½		½	0	2.5	6	2408
4	WGM	Shadrina Tatiana	2361	RUS	1	1	½	1	1	0	½	5.0	7	2308
5	WIM	Bezgodova Maria	2177	RUS			½		1			1.5	2	1958
4. SHSM-Nashe Nasledie (RtgAvg:2444, Captain: Elder Mukhametov / TB1: 8 / TB2: 196)
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Pts.	Games	RtgAvg
1	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2490	RUS	1	½	½	1	½	1		4.5	6	2428
2	IM	Gunina Valentina	2514	RUS	0		1	1	0	½	1	3.5	6	2432
3	IM	Kovalevskaya Ekaterina	2405	RUS	½	½	½		½	½	1	3.5	6	2407
4	WGM	Kashlinskaya Alina	2368	RUS	0	0		1	0		1	2.0	5	2295
5	IM	Savina Anastasia	2303	RUS		1	0	½		1	½	3.0	5	2185
5. AVS (RtgAvg:2512, Captain: Vladmir Georgiev / TB1: 7 / TB2: 199.75)
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Pts.	Games	RtgAvg
1	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2493	BUL		0	½	½	½	1		2.5	5	2464
2	GM	Lahno Kateryna	2551	UKR	1	½	0		1	1	1	4.5	6	2366
3	GM	Cmilyte Viktorija	2528	LTU	0	½	½	½		1	1	3.5	6	2395
4	WGM	Pogonina Natalija	2476	RUS	½	½		½	1		1	3.5	5	2317
5	IM	Muzychuk Mariya	2474	UKR	0		1	0	1	1	1	4.0	6	2196
6. Ashdod (RtgAvg:2228, TB1: 5 / TB2: 91)
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Pts.	Games	RtgAvg
1	IM	Klinova Masha	2324	ISR	½	½	½		½	½	0	2.5	6	2421
2	IM	Borsuk Angela	2260	ISR	½		½	0	0	0	0	1.0	6	2447
3	WIM	Vasiliev Olga	2240	ISR	1	1	½	0	0	0	0	2.5	7	2380
4	WIM	Tsifanskaya Ludmila A	2087	ISR	½	1	½	0		0	½	2.5	6	2240
5	WFM	Dotan Valeria	2064	ISR		½		0	0			0.5	3	2214
7. Chigorin Club (RtgAvg:2277, Captain: Andrei Lukin / TB1: 3 / TB2: 101.25)
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Pts.	Games	RtgAvg
1	IM	Bodnaruk Anastasia	2425	RUS	½	½	½	½	½	0	0	2.5	7	2423
2	WIM	Bronnikova Elizaveta	2244	RUS	½	½	1	½	0	0	0	2.5	7	2419
3	WIM	Ivkina Olga	2266	RUS	0	1	1	½	0	0	½	3.0	7	2329
4		Ivanova-Skripova Tatiana	2173	RUS	½	0	½	0	0	0	0	1.0	7	2263
8. Rishon Le-Zion (RtgAvg:2036, TB1: 0 / TB2: 52.25)
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Pts.	Games	RtgAvg
1	WIM	Efroimski Marsel	2162	ISR	½	½	½	0	0	0	0	1.5	7	2468
2		Reprun Nadejda	2143	ISR	½	0	0	0	½	0	0	1.0	7	2443
3		Vardi Shlomit	2010	ISR	0			0	0	0	0	0.0	5	2450
4		Federovski Adi	1829	ISR		0	0	½	0	0	0	0.5	6	2291
5		Lahav Michal	1732	ISR	0	½	½					1.0	3	2227

Votive Offerings Uncovered to Goddess Juno

From Gazetta del Sud Online (English)

Tomb raiders lead to new archaeological find

19/10/2012

Votive offerings to Juno from 4th to 2nd century BC

 

ANSA) – Rome, October 19 - Investigations into the activities of four tomb raiders in the Alban hills near Rome have led to the discovery of a previously unknown site containing ancient Roman votive offerings. The ex-votos date from the fourth to the second century BC and include life-sized statues and depictions of parts of the human anatomy in terracotta offered to the ancient Roman goddess Juno. Police caught the tomb robbers in action as they were stealing the devotional objects from a natural cavity in a tufa wall near Lanuvio and Genzano that did not appear on archaeological maps of the area. The cavity appears to be linked to a nearby sanctuary dedicated to Juno the Saviour via a network of caverns and tunnels. The discovery is considered important as it testifies to the existence of a workshop once producing prestigious terracotta objects in the area. Investigators believe the stolen ex-votos were destined for the international collectors' market. Police found other ancient artefacts including sepulchral items mostly dating to the Etruscan era during their search of the tomb raiders' homes.

Donald Alexander McLean - Obituary

From The Montreal Gazette

Donald Alexander (Sandy) McLean
Published October 18, 2012

Peacefully at home, on October 12, 2012 at age 61. A fine musician, composer and dedicated youth worker, son of the late Donald McLean and Thérèse Bouthililer, Don is survived by his sister Anne, A private memorial will be held Sunday, October 21. For details, phone 514 918 1116


A fine turn-out is expected at the memorial on Sunday. 

For those of you who may not know who Don was, he was a principal in the Goddesschess Partnership from its inception.  Don also was the webmaster of the Goddesschess website for many years, until intractable technical problems and ill health (on both our parts) led to the decision to take Goddesschess offline in June, 2012.  We had intended to resurrect Goddesschess at another internet service provider.  Now, the guts of Goddesschess are locked up inside of one of Mr. Don's computers.

Goddess willing, I will get it back online, even if nothing new is ever added to it again.  I'm no techy -- I don't understand things about computers and uploads and downloads and websites and such.  Goddesschess was Don's baby for several years, including his wonderful weekly summary of interesting-news items, "Random Round-Up." 

To Don McLean's extended family members, if you should ever read this, and if are interested in receiving a Family Tree that I prepared as a gift a few years back for Mr. Don, please contact me via this blog.  If I find you on the tree or you can provide me with evidence that you are a relative (I have some names and some memories that Mr. Don passed on over the years), I'll be happy to mail you a printed copy.  It's EXTENSIVE.

If we do not know where we came from, how do we know where we're going...

Hales Corners Challenge XVI

Hello everyone.

Tomorrow the Hales Corners Chess Challenge XVI will take place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

I wish - well, we have a record-number of chess femmes playing in this event -- 13!  Four in the Open and nine in the Reserve.  I was scheduled to play in the Reserve, but right now my heart just is not in anything, so I withdrew early last week.  So, I'm not counted in that big 13.  Before this Challenge, the highest-ever number of femmes that participated in a Challenge was 11.  So a new record has been set, thanks to you all.

I must give kudos to my friends at Southwest Chess Club.  They have been very supportive and understanding during this time.  Tonight one of their members stopped by the house and picked up the gift bags to be presented to the top female finisher in each of the Open and Reserve sections.  Thanks so much for your support.

And - there is STILL TIME TO REGISTER TO PLAY, because there is open registration tomorrow morning before play starts (SEE details below)!!!!!

The next Hales Corners Challenge XVI is scheduled for October 20, 2012.

GM Josh Friedel will be playing, and we're expecting another great turnout.

Goddesschess Prizes for Females in Addition to Above Prizes, Open: $40 per win/$20 per draw; Reserve: $20 per win/$10 per draw (and highest-scoring female in each section wins free entry into HCC XVII).
 

� Life Master Sheldon Gelbart will be on hand throughout the tournament to analyze games for tournament participants

ENTRY FEE

: $35 – Open; $25 – Reserve

(both sections $5 more after October 17, 2012)
Comp Entry Fee for USCF 2200+: Entry fee subtracted from any prizes won
SITE REGISTRATION

: 8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.

ROUNDS

: 10 am -- 1 pm -- 3:30 pm -- 6 pm

Pairings by WinTD---No Computer Entries---No Smoking

PRIZES

 

OPEN - RESERVE

1st—$325 1st—$100

2nd—$175 2nd—$75
A—$100 D—$50
B & Below—$75 E & Below—$40

Goddesschess Prizes for Females in Addition to Above Prizes

Open: $40 per win/$20 per draw; Reserve: $20 per win/$10 per draw


Goddess willing, I will be playing in Challenge XVII, in April, 2013.

Some Memories of Don McLean

I offer this photo montage of our last time together, which was December, 2011-January, 2012 when Don and I travelled to Spain after Christmas. 

We re-visited many places in Madrid and also the beautiful ancient city of Toledo that we first visited in October, 2002, shortly after the death of our friend and mentor, IM Dr. Ricardo Calvo, who was a well-known player in Spain for many years and a noted chess historian. 

This trip, we had a deeper appreciation for the beauty we'd seen the first time, examined more things in depth, and saw new things as, feeling more comfortable in this city we'd visited before, we ventured forth further away from known territory and saw many new things.  Our only regret was that the Archaeological Museum was closed for renovations, something neither of us had foreseen and therefore hadn't thought to check ahead of time online! 

After so many years together, we communicated in shorthand and often, we didn't even have to speak.  We'd just look at each other and know what the other was feeling about what we were seeing, doing, feeling.  Often, we shared dreams.  I had no premonition, though, that Don was going to die.  Now, all is emptiness.  I did not realize that Madrid/Toledo would be the last trip I would ever take with Mr. Don.

This digital slideshow personalized with Smilebox

I may put a few more of these together.  There's a lot to review over the past 13 years.  You'll just have to bear with me.

Don McLean of Goddesschess Passed Away

In his sleep, Thursday night/Friday morning.  I received notification from his twin sister, Anne, earlier today.  Don was 61.

Don (his Canadian friends and family knew him as Sandy) was the long-time webmaster and creative force behind Random Round-Up at the Goddesschess website.  The website was taken off line earlier this summer when we started experiencing technical difficulties with our server and couldn't get them resolved.  Then some serious health problems hit both of us around the same time, although Don had been sick for several months before with what he called "the flu."  We shared atrial fibrillation together, both diagnosed around the same time in June.  I thought we had both been on the path to recovery together.  I was wrong.  Way wrong. 

Don and I first met in December, 1998 and became engaged in November, 2003.  We were friends and fighters both and shared deep connections in ways words cannot describe.  Although we decided not to marry in 2010, we remained deeply bonded. Our last adventure together was in January this year, our second trip to Madrid and Toledo, where Mr. Don wore me out with his go-go-go!  I did many blog entries from Madrid and posted many photographs.

Mr. Don took this photo of our shadows way up a hill at Rentiro Park in Madrid.  I am on the left, holding my ever-present tote bag.  Mr. Don is on the right holding his videocam.  The photo looks like we (or our shadows) are on bases, like chess pieces. 

Don hard at work in the family room at the second laptop (my house) before we left for Madrid a few days later, in January.  He was bundled up in a hoodie and an afghan.  He was often cold here (I keep my heat at 64-65, but I'm used to it), and liked nothing better than snuggling in front of the fireplace in the front room.

This photo was taken with my very ancient browny camera in October 2002 during our first trip to Madrid, at the gift shop on the Royal Palace grounds while we were waiting for our tour to be called.  There was a cache of swords and like all good swashbucklers, Mr. Don went straight for them.

Mr. Don, waiting at Milwaukee airport for our flight to Chicago en route to Madrid, January this year.  We had to get there EARLY and had breakfast before going through security. 

I am shutting down for awhile.  The Summer from Hell has turned into the Autumn of my Worst Nightmares.

Russian Nazca Lines?

Interesting...

LiveScience.com/Image copyright 2012 Geoeye, copyright 2012 GIS Innovatsia, courtesy Google Earth.
A historical Google Earth image from 2007 showing the animal-shaped geoglyph in Russia, which may predate …more
Peru's famous Nazca Lines.

Mysterious Elk-Shaped Structure Discovered in Russia

By Owen Jarus, LiveScience Contributor | LiveScience.com – 10 hrs ago

A huge geoglyph in the shape of an elk or deer discovered in Russia may predate Peru's famous Nazca Lines by thousands of years.

The animal-shaped stone structure, located near Lake Zjuratkul in the Ural Mountains, north of Kazakhstan, has an elongated muzzle, four legs and two antlers. A historical Google Earth satellite image from 2007 shows what may be a tail, but this is less clear in more recent imagery.

Excluding the possible tail, the animal stretches for about 900 feet (275 meters) at its farthest points (northwest to southeast), the researchers estimate, equivalent to two American football fields. The figure faces north and would have been visible from a nearby ridge.

"The figure would initially have looked white and slightly shiny against the green grass background," write Stanislav Grigoriev, of the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of History & Archaeology, and Nikolai Menshenin, of the State Centre for Monument Protection, in an article first detailing the discovery published last spring in the journal Antiquity. They note that it is now covered by a layer of soil.

Fieldwork carried out this past summer has shed more light on the glyph's composition and date, suggesting it may be the product of a "megalithic culture," researchers say. They note that hundreds of megalithic sites have been discovered in the Urals, with the most elaborate structures located on a freshwater island about 35 miles (60 km) northeast of the geoglyph.

Discovery & excavation

A man named Alexander Shestakov first discovered the glyphs using satellite images. He alerted researchers, who sent out a hydroplane and paraglider to survey the giant structure.

This has since progressed to an on-the-ground excavation by a team led by Grigoriev. They've found that the stone architecture of the geoglyph is quite elaborate. When they excavated part of a hind leg the largest stones were on the edges, the smaller ones inside. This past summer they also found the remains of passageways and what appear to be small walls on the hoof and muzzle of the animal.

"The hoof is made of small crushed stones and clay. It seems to me there were very low walls and narrow passages among them. The same situation in the area of a muzzle: crushed stones and clay, four small broad walls and three passages," Grigorievwrote in an email to LiveScience. He cautioned that his team didn't excavate all the way down to the bottom of the walls, not wishing to damage the geoglyph.

Dating the geoglyph

Among the finds from the excavations are about 40 stone tools, made of quartzite, found on the structure's surface. Most of them are pickaxe-like tools called mattocks, useful for digging and chopping. "Perhaps they were used to extract clay," he writes in the email.

The style of stone-working called lithic chipping used on one artifact dates it to the Neolithic and Eneolithic (sixth to third millennia B.C.), though Grigoriev says the technology is more typical of the Eneolithic, between the fourth and third millennia B.C.

If that date is correct, it would make the geoglyph far older than Peru's Nazca Lines, the very earliest of which were created around 500 B.C. Grigorievadded that current studies of ancient pollen at the site will help to narrow down the age.

In the Antiquity journal article, Grigoriev and Menshenin point out that palaeozoological studies show that the landscape in the southern Urals supported fewer trees in the Eneolithic, with forest growth not appearing until about 2,500 years ago. "This means that there were open landscapes in the Eneolithic and Bronze Age, which allowed the hill figure to be created," they write.

A megalithic culture

Researchers say this geoglyph may have been built by a "megalithic culture" in the region that created stone monuments in prehistoric times.

"[M]any megalithic sites with features in common with European megaliths have been located: Some 300 are known but have not yet been studied in detail," write Grigoriev and Menshenin in the Antiquity article. Among these megaliths are numerous "menhirs," large upright standing stones. The most spectacular megalithic complexes are on the relatively small Vera Island, located on Turgoyak Lake, about 35 miles (60 km) northeast of the geoglyph.

Grigoriev and Julia Vasina of the South-Ural State University described the Vera Island megaliths in a 2010 article, noting the surviving portion of one monument, megalith two, as being covered by a mound and supporting a gallery and square chamber. Another monument, megalith one, is cut into the bedrock and covered by a mound consisting of stones, brown sand and lots of grass. It is more than 60 feet (19 meters) long and 20 feet (6 meters) wide. It contains three chambers one of which has "bas relief sculptures" in the shape of animals, probably a bull and wolf.

Stone tools and ceramics found at the megalithic sites date them to between the Eneolithic period and the early Iron Age, around 3,000 years ago. Researchers emphasize more dating work needs to be done to verify; however, if the evidence holds, the giant geoglyph, along with the megaliths, were constructed millennia before Peru's Nazca Lines, a testament to the building prowess of an ancient prehistoric culture in the Ural Mountains.

Kennewick Man: Not From Around Here, Dude!

From the Seattle Times
Originally published Tuesday, October 9, 2012 at 8:19 PM    

Kennewick Man bones not from Columbia Valley, scientist tells tribes

In a historic first meeting of two very different worlds, Columbia Plateau tribal leaders met privately Tuesday with scientist Doug Owsley, who led the court battle to study Kennewick Man.

By Lynda V. Mapes

Seattle Times staff reporter

 

ELLENSBURG — In a historic first meeting of two very different worlds, Columbia Plateau tribal leaders met privately Tuesday with the scientist who led the court battle to study Kennewick Man.

The skeleton, more than 9,500 years old, has long been at the center of a rift between tribal members and scientists, led by Doug Owsley, a physical anthropologist at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History who spearheaded the legal challenge to gain access to the skeleton for scientific study.

Owsley says study shows that not only wasn't Kennewick Man Indian, he wasn't even from the Columbia Valley, which was inhabited by prehistoric Plateau tribes.

Tribal leaders who fought for reburial of the remains invited Owsley to meet with them this week to present the scientific findings to date.

After nine years of legal battles, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2004 ruled that the remains discovered in 1996, eroded from a bank of the Columbia River, were not protected by the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), because the bones were so old that it was impossible to establish a link with modern-day Native Americans.

Owsley spent most of the day presenting his findings from the study of the skeleton, one of the most complete sets of remains ever recovered, for the gathering hosted by Central Washington University.
While Owsley has said in the past that Kennewick Man is not of Native-American descent, he said here for the first time that he believed the man was not even from this area.

Isotopes in the bones told scientists Kennewick Man was a hunter of marine mammals, such as seals, Owsley said. "They are not what you would expect for someone from the Columbia Valley," he said. "You would have to eat salmon 24 hours a day and you would not reach these values. This is a man from the coast, not a man from here. I think he is a coastal man."

Rex Buck, leader of the Wanapum people, told Owsley he appreciated the presentation, but that lamprey eel could provide the same types of marine-mammal nutrients that Owsley noted. "I hope you would think about some of these things, too, and add that to your equation."

Pressed by Armand Minthorn of the Umatilla Board of Trustees, who asked Owsley directly, "Is Kennewick Man Native American?" Owsley said no. "There is not any clear genetic relationship to Native American peoples," Owsley said. "I do not look at him as Native American ... I can't see any kind of continuity. He is a representative of a very different people."

His skull, Owsley said, was most similar to an Asian Coastal people whose characteristics are shared with people, later, of Polynesian descent.

And, while tribes want the remains returned for reburial, Owsley said there is still much more to learn from the skeleton, which has largely been inaccessible but for two instances, in which a team of about 15 scientists could study it for a total of about two weeks.

Tribal members listened for hours to Owsley's highly detailed presentation, but it did not budge their conviction that Kennewick Man is a part of their people's past — and needs to be reburied.

The remains of Kennewick Man reside at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle. Tribal members make regular visits to the museum to pay their respects and offer songs and ceremony to the Ancient One, as he is called in tribal communities. Minthorn said reburial still needs to happen, and that the law should be changed to give tribes better control of sacred remains.

"That is the only way we will get him back," said Minthorn, who added that tribes are waiting until after the election to continue their push to get the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act changed in Congress, so tribes can press for return of the skeleton.

"Today just adds to getting the Kennewick Man back," he told Owsley. "That is our goal and that is going to be our effort. It would be great if you could help. If you don't that is OK, too."

Ruth Jim, a member of the Yakama Tribal Council, where she is head of the tribe's cultural committee, said it is frustrating that Kennewick Man is still out of the ground. "I don't disagree that the scientists want to do their job, but there should be a time limit. The only concern we have as tribal leaders is he needs to return to Mother Earth," she said. [Do they object to mummies being exhibited in museums?]

Vivian Harrison, NAGPRA coordinator for the Yakama, said it was disturbing to look at the slides Owsley showed, with the bones presented on a platform to be scrutinized from every angle. "Really, to me, it's sad. This is a human being and his journey has been interrupted by leaving the ground."

Jaqueline Cook, repatriation specialist for the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, said scientists' finding that the skeleton had been purposefully buried was significant.  "It says a lot that somebody took care of him," Cook said. "To me that says community. And that he is part of the land. And our land."

The day's presentation was "subtly traumatic," said Johnny Buck, one of Rex Buck's sons and a member of the steering committee of the Native Youth Leadership Alliance. "We have medicine people that took care of bodies. But we never did look so long at them."

In parting, Minthorn presented Owsley with a traditional gesture of tribal respect, a Pendleton blanket, on behalf of the Plateau Tribes. With it, he extended his hand — and asked for help in returning the skeleton of the Ancient One.

While they don't know where they are yet headed together, those gathered ended the day with something they did not have before: the start of a relationship.

In his closing prayer, Rex Buck said, "We have listened to this man, and he has listened to us. And it was good."

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

 

This is so wrong! How can these people just ignore all of the scientific evidence that says Kennewick Man's remains are not even Native American, let alone a "relative" of their tribe.  Flying in the face of solid science is just plain silly -- no different than certain politicians who claim the Earth is only 6,000 years old.  In my opinion, to totally ignore good scientific evidence points to an alterior motive that speaks very ill of this tribe and it's leadership.  I don't believe for a second this is only about spiritual beliefs.  Something else is going on here, and it's nasty.

FIDE October 2012 Ratings Lists

Hola darlings!

Just a short post tonight.

GM Judit Polgar has got her ELO back up over 2700 and is now in - gulp - 40th place overall in the top 100 world players:

40

48

Polgar, Judit

HUN

GM

2705

+7

2698

10

It wasn't that long ago, or so it seems (10 years ago perhaps?), that this rating would have had Judit well up in the ranks of the top 10.  I am working from memory here and please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Judit Polgar's top rating ever was around 2711. 

Today, there is no other woman in the top 100 chessplayers in the world.  Judit is still the Gold Standard.  Perhaps Judit will always be the Gold Standard. 

Full list of Top 100 Players (all dudes except for Judit).

Top 100 Women (I'm only showing top 10 or so):

Rank	Name	Title	Country	Rating	Games	B-Year
1	Polgar, Judit	g	HUN	2705	10	1976
2	Koneru, Humpy	g	IND	2607	11	1987
3	Hou, Yifan	g	CHN	2605	9	1994
4	Muzychuk, Anna	g	SLO	2587	21	1990
5	Zhao, Xue	g	CHN	2565	21	1985
6	Dzagnidze, Nana	g	GEO	2555	8	1987
7	Lahno, Kateryna	g	UKR	2551	10	1989
8	Kosintseva, Nadezhda	g	RUS	2539	9	1985
9	Cmilyte, Viktorija	g	LTU	2528	21	1983
10	Sebag, Marie	g	FRA	2521	0	1986

You see what the issues are here.  Only THREE women in the entire world are rated above 2600 -- by the way, congrats to GM Koneru Humpy for her vaulting back into second on the women's list of highest-rated players!  Meanwhile, the top female player (Judit Polgar) is nearly 100 points higher than the next two highest-rated female players in the world (Koneru and Hou), and the top male players have sprinted far far ahead, even leaving Polgar somewhat in their "dust."  So, the gap between male and female ELO ratings is NOT closing. 

This is entirely discouraging.  Female chessplayers are still segregated in the female chess ghetto and will have no hope of breaking out and raising their ELOs unless they go totally Polgar and refuse to play in women-only events, and only play in Opens or Invitationals against usually higher-rated male players and earn their ELOs the HARD WAY. 

But that means giving up relatively easy money, and potentially even starving if they have no other means of support other than their chess tournament earnings.  Because as the statistics stand now, on the face of it at least -- male players will win the prize money, and the female players will go home empty-handed and hungry. 

I understand the lure of potentially earning relatively easy money playing in women-only events; it can be a comfortable living for, say, the top 10 female players in the world, but it totally fricking sucks that they make less than 30 cents on the dollar for what a male player would make in a similarly-level event (top v. top).  That alone should be enough to light a fire under the ladies' collective butts; but it hasn't been. 

The situation shows no signs of resolving into anything better in the long run.  Ratings have gone up all across the board; yeah, there are some more female GMs, but a lot more male GMs have been named during the same period I've been observing things from a distance (about 12 years now).  Female players have some nice money events, but those don't hold a patch to what the top male players are making in a similar event.

The system sucks.  Women, why are you laying down for it?

16th Unive Tournament 2012

Wow!  This is going to be an extremely interesting event, with GM Hou Yifan now assuming, it seems, the former throne of GM Judit Polgar who played in this event over many years!  Check out the line-up:

16th Unive Crown Hoogeveen NED Fri 19th Oct 2012 - Sat 27th Oct 2012 Player List
Rk	Name	Ti	FED	Elo	FIDE Id
1	Nakamura, Hikaru	GM	USA	2775	2016192
2	Giri, Anish	GM	NED	2693	24116068
3	Tiviakov, Sergei	GM	NED	2656	1008013
4	Hou, Yifan	GM	CHN	2623	8602980

Here is the official website. It's in Dutch, but if you read and speak English, you can sort of/kind of make portions of it out. It's a good brain exercise, darlings! Try it!  I find it exhausting, but also hilariously funny when I try to guess what certain words migh mean :)

Get ready!  ACTION STARTS OCTOBER 19/20, 2012!

FM Lorita Mwango in 2nd Place in African Jr. Chess Championship

From The Times of Zambia

Mwango jumps into 2nd position jr chess tourney

October 8, 2012

 

Fide Master Lorita Mwango, Zambia.

By SHAMAOMA MUSONDA -
ZAMBIA chess FIDE Master Lorita Mwango jumped into second position of the on-going Africa Junior Chess Championship after drawing her round-eight match against South Africa’s highly- rated Jacqui Grobbelaar on a day the two other Zambians won their matches.

The two other envoys in the championships Sekelani Tembo, who is in the boys’ Under-14 category, and Jonathan Thomas in the boys under-12 category won their games on a good day for Zambia at the games.

Mwango, who is in the girls’ main event (the Under-16 and under-18 combined category) fought for a dear half-point in the competition to overtook another South African Monica Jansen Van Rensburg to move onto 5.5 points.

for her enthralling exploits, Mwango would in the ninth rounds move to Board-Two from board-three against yet another South African at the competition, Lillian Chen, who lost her previous round match to new Africa Junior Women Chess champion Shrook Wafa of Egypt.

Wafa is leading Mwango by two points on 7.5 while Chen is ninth on four points and a win for Mwango would see her finish second.

Another Zambia chasing medals at the championships is Thomas who beat Priyav Chandna of Botswana to jump into third place with five points and can hope for a good result in the closing round to finish on the podium third position.

Thomas would close his competition with a date against another Tswana in Reginald Sibanda who is seventh on board-three also knowing too well that Egyptian Adham Fawzy, who has a clean eight points from eight rounds, is ready champion.

The third Zambian at the championships, Tembo, recovered from two straight losses that threw him from fifth position down to 11th with this win over Kingsley Mokwena of Botswana to rise to four points and 10th on the log.

Tembo, however, is just 1.5 points off the pace set by yet another Egyptian Mohamed Zayan and will hope for good fortunes when he goes in the ninth and closing round against Zimbabwe’s Sifiso Ncube who is also on four points.

A win for Tembo would bring him to five points and probably shoot him up into top half of the 13 member group while leader Zayan would have to win his match against bottom placed Kingsley Mokwena in order to starve off a strong challenge for the title from Angolan Cristiano Aguiar, who is joint leader on 5.5 points.

Aguiar closes the competition with a game against Takunda Mudzingwa of Zimbabwe while third placed Sachin Modi, who is just half a point off the pace, plays Chess Master Abhiram Sasitharan of Botswana.

Other players on five points, South Africa’s Andre CONRADIE and Egypt’s Mark Yasser, close the tournament with matches against Kenyan Srinjay Mmukhopadhyay and Chris Kolver from South Africa respectively.

Celebrate National Chess Day on October 13, 2012

9 Queens is putting together a special celebration.  If you're in the Tucson area, check it out!

Celebrate National Chess Day with 9 Queens and Bookmans. Join us on October 13, 2012 from 12-2 for free chess lessons, pick up games and a simultaneous exhibition provided by Women’s International Master Amanda Mateer.

Other events free activities include: face-painting, chess arts and crafts, and cupcakes for participants.
President Gerald Ford originally declared October 9, 1976 National Chess Day to “enhance awareness and encourage students and adults to engage in a game known to enhance critical thinking and problem-solving skills.” This marks the fourth year, 9 Queens and Bookmans have partnered to promote chess literacy within the Tucson area.

In honor of National Chess Day, Goddesschess is making contributions to the Wisconsin Scholastic Chess Association and the Wisconsin Scholastic Chess Federation.

Spooky Burial from Old New England

Cue spooky music oooooohhhhoooooohhhoohooooooohhhhoooooohhoooohhhhooooooo....

Holy Shades of the Living Dead, Bat Woman!

Yes, Dildohead, it's true.  These people actually thought there were such things as succubuses and incubuses and haunted souls that came out of the grave at night craving human blood and flesh.  Bwwwwaaahhhhaaaaahhhaaaaa!

Geez, Bat Woman, you give me the creepoids when you laugh like that!

Just so, Dildohead, just so.  Let's go, we've got a crime to solve...

The Great New England Vampire Panic

Two hundred years after the Salem witch trials, farmers became convinced that their relatives were returning from the grave to feed on the living

• By Abigail Tucker
• Smithsonian magazine, October 2012

[Side note: There's that Abi- again -- "daughter."  See prior post about the ruler of el-Dur possibly being a woman -- "Abi-El --" but the article didn't say whose daughter she supposedly was!  I think, actually, the name was complete and the rule was "Daughter of God."  Well, I'm descended from an Abigail too, a rather spooky-sad story, actually.  Seems there are probably several thousand distant cousins around today all descended from the same woman.  I'll write about her later.]

Children playing near a hillside gravel mine found the first graves. One ran home to tell his mother, who was skeptical at first—until the boy produced a skull.

Because this was Griswold, Connecticut, in 1990, police initially thought the burials might be the work of a local serial killer named Michael Ross, and they taped off the area as a crime scene. But the brown, decaying bones turned out to be more than a century old. The Connecticut state archaeologist, Nick Bellantoni, soon determined that the hillside contained a colonial-era farm cemetery. New England is full of such unmarked family plots, and the 29 burials were typical of the 1700s and early 1800s: The dead, many of them children, were laid to rest in thrifty Yankee style, in simple wood coffins, without jewelry or even much clothing, their arms resting by their sides or crossed over their chests.

Except, that is, for Burial Number 4.

Bellantoni was interested in the grave even before the excavation began. It was one of only two stone crypts in the cemetery, and it was partially visible from the mine face.

Scraping away soil with flat-edged shovels, and then brushes and bamboo picks, the archaeologist and his team worked through several feet of earth before reaching the top of the crypt. When Bellantoni lifted the first of the large, flat rocks that formed the roof, he uncovered the remains of a red-painted coffin and a pair of skeletal feet. They lay, he remembers, “in perfect anatomical position.” But when he raised the next stone, Bellantoni saw that the rest of the individual “had been com­pletely...rearranged.” The skeleton had been beheaded; skull and thighbones rested atop the ribs and vertebrae. “It looked like a skull-and-crossbones motif, a Jolly Roger. I’d never seen anything like it,” Bellantoni recalls.

Subsequent analysis showed that the beheading, along with other injuries, including rib fractures, occurred roughly five years after death. Somebody had also smashed the coffin.

The other skeletons in the gravel hillside were packaged for reburial, but not “J.B.,” as the 50ish male skeleton from the 1830s came to be called, because of the initials spelled out in brass tacks on his coffin lid. He was shipped to the National Museum of Health and Medicine, in Washington, D.C., for further study. Meanwhile, Bellantoni started networking. He invited archaeologists and historians to tour the excavation, soliciting theories. Simple vandalism seemed unlikely, as did robbery, because of the lack of valuables at the site.

Finally, one colleague asked: “Ever heard of the Jewett City vampires?”

In 1854, in neighboring Jewett City, Connecticut, townspeople had exhumed several corpses suspected to be vampires that were rising from their graves to kill the living. A few newspaper accounts of these events survived. Had the Griswold grave been desecrated for the same reason?
In the course of his far-flung research, Bellantoni placed a serendipitous phone call to Michael Bell, a Rhode Island folklorist, who had devoted much of the previous decade to studying New England vampire exhumations. The Griswold case occurred at roughly the same time as the other incidents Bell had investigated. And the setting was right: Griswold was rural, agrarian and bordering southern Rhode Island, where multiple exhumations had occurred. Many of the other “vampires,” like J.B., had been disinterred, grotesquely tampered with and reburied.

In light of the tales Bell told of violated corpses, even the posthumous rib fractures began to make sense. J.B.’s accusers had likely rummaged around in his chest cavity, hoping to remove, and perhaps to burn, his heart. ...

Read the rest of this quite lengthy article. 

Abi-El and ed-Dur

A rather disjointed article - is the point really that some copies of some copies of coins - with the copies of copies having an inscription of some kind added to them - pointing to the "Daughter of --" somebody -- ruling ed Dur?  Actually, I always thought "El-" was a title for god - you know, the male type like Ba-al? Beth-el?  Etc. etc.

From The National Online (United Arab Emirates)

Was ed-Dur ruled by a woman?

Rym Ghazal

Oct 2, 2012

Images on a coin can tell the story of place and time.

But for some of the coins found at ed-Dur, it is a name that is causing the greatest debate.

“It is a real mystery,” says Dr Ernie Haerinck. “The coins minted locally have a name added to them in Aramaic. It is ‘Abi’el’, the daughter of so and so.

“Perhaps ed-Dur was a kingdom run by a woman?”

The name was added to “imitations of imitations” of common coins, attributed to the first century AD.

These feature the head of Heracles, or Hercules, wearing the pelt of the Nemean lion on the obverse (with a dot like a wart on his cheek) and on the reverse an enthroned, partially nude male figure or god (Zeus or a sun-god), with a horse or horse-protome, rather than the more common eagle, printed on its outstretched arm.

There is also a three-fluked anchor or trident and palm tree depicted on some coins, linking them to the sun god, as palm wood or branches were burnt around the ed-Dur temple.

The horse also has associations with the sun god, giving further evidence to the site’s Shams/Shamash-cult past.

More than 118 copper or silver coins of different shapes and sizes were found at ed-Dur. They follow to some degree the ancient Greek Attic weight standard of obols (a denomination of less than one gram), drachmas (4-5g) and tetradrachms (14-17g).

“One of the biggest problems we have is that a lot of the pre-Islamic rituals and histories have not been noted down anywhere, and the fact that we have less and less specialists around who can read Aramaic and its different ancient dialects,” says Dr Haerinck.

Besides locally minted coins, which offer proof of autonomy and political and economic independence, there are many unexplained discoveries at ed-Dur, one that led Dr Haerinck to say: “Maybe there were pirates here?

“For the vastness of what has been found here could be explained through one theory and texts by Romans about this area, that just maybe some ed-Dur pirates brought back lots of plunder and treasures from across the world.”