Chess Princess: Nisha N Patkar

Story from Express Buzz (Karnataka) Shimoga girl excels in chess First Published : 31 Dec 2008 10:29:00 AM IST Last Updated : 31 Dec 2008 01:18:35 PM IST SHIMOGA: “I want to play with Grand Master Viswanathan Anand and I dream of becoming a woman grand master,” says Nisha, the young chess champion of Shimoga. Nisha N Patkar, daughter of Nagaraj and Barathi Patkars, has scaled new heights in the field of chess. Nisha, in the seventh standard at Jnanadeepa School, has participated in many state, national and international chess tournaments and carved out a niche for herself. Trained by national chess player Sri Krishna Udupa of Nalanda Chess Academy, she now holds 1845 rank in the FIDE. She was ranked 20th in the Asian Youth Chess Championship in 2005. She took part in the Commonwealth Chess championship and Nagpur Mayor’s Cup in 2008. She has participated in around 35 national-level chess championships. She also bagged the best player in U-9 national-level chess championship in 2004. She has won 4th place in the CBSE south zone national competition in 2005 and in U-12 Nationals held at Sangli in 2008.

More Photos from The Domes

It's pretty funny - dondelion and I were together the entire time we visited the Domes on Sunday 12/28 and I took 30 more photos than he did - of the same stuff! LOL! Here's a photo of dondelion taking a photo of the Domes :) The next photo is a view from the entry into the "Show Dome" featuring the winter/holidays exhibit. It's a veritable feast of eye-catching color and textures. There were lots of people seeing the Domes when we were there - a lot more people than I've ever seen there during previous visits. The revamp (as I understand it, sponsored by a private philanthropical organization) is a great success, the place looks great. A new light show (haven't seen it yet) has also been added thanks to the financial grant that enabled the revamp. The Domes have always been a spectacular sight across the Menomonee River Valley at night to traffic on the expressways and drivers using the viaducts on 6th, 16th, 27th and 35th Streets. They glow and seem to pulsate in the night air - sometimes suggesting the homes of the future (geodesic domes), sometimes suggesting something from outer space. With the addition of a circle of color lights around the "collar" of each of the Domes near their apex, they are even more noticeable than before. Ahhh, looking at the photo of the show makes me yearn for summer. It's gotten very nasty weather-wise here tonight. The temperature has plummeted, the winds are howling and my driveway is once again loaded with ice pellets and snow drifted to half a foot already (we're only supposed to get an inch or two of snow tonight - HA!) Tomorrow will be even worse. Windchills back to 20 below zero while I'm hiking to the bus stop in the morning. Argh! On the plus side, I'm now stuffed with the leftovers from last night's outing to Joey Buona's - chopped salad and a large Supreme Pizza. Oh, it was soooo good! Okay, the salad was a wee little bit soggy after more than 24 hours in the fridge here, but it was still delicious. And dondelion left four pieces of pizza for my supper. Now I'm sleepy. Time to wrap it up for the night.

Susan Polgar On Chess

GM Susan Polgar's December 26, 2008 column from the Lubbock-Avalanche Journal (Online): Polgar: A year-end recap of Texas Tech, SPICE and chess in Lubbock Lubbock Avalanche-Journal Friday, December 26, 2008Story last updated at 12/26/2008 - 3:38 pm First of all, I would like to wish everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year! Secondly, I would like to thank everyone for your support and for sending in so many wonderful comments. Here is a recap of just some of the SPICE activities and various chess events in Lubbock in the past 12 months: • Members of SPICE conducted various Chess Workshops (hosted by the TTU English Department) for LISD teachers and educators in Region 17. • The TTU Knight Raiders Chess Team and SPICE conducted the Super Saturday Chess classes for local youngsters over four Saturdays. • SPICE and the Susan Polgar Foundation organized and hosted the first ever Lubbock Open Scholastic (K-12) Championship with 109 participants at Monterey High School. • SPICE and the Susan Polgar Foundation hosted and conducted the Susan Polgar All-Star Chess Training for some of the most talented girls in America as well as the "Chess: It's a Girl Thing" Summer Camp at TTU. • SPICE and the Susan Polgar Foundation hosted the 5th annual Susan Polgar National Invitational Championship, the most prestigious all-girls national championship in the U.S., at the Frazier Pavilion. • SPICE and the Susan Polgar Foundation organized and hosted the 2008 SPICE CUP International Chess Festival. The main event was the SPICE Cup Invitational, the highest rated 10-player round robin International chess tournament in U.S. history. Another highlight of the festival was the Texas Women's Open Championship. • Visit Lubbock and the Susan Polgar Foundation donated two giant chess sets to the Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport. They are being placed on each end of the passenger terminal for all travelers to use. Lubbock is the first airport to have done this. SPICE helped started or supported chess programs in numerous schools in the area, for example at Harwell Elementary (thanks to the support of the Lubbock Area Foundation), the All-Saints School, Centennial Elementary, Murfee Elementary and Premier High School. We continued our excellent collaboration with Lubbock ISD and Region 17 to promote chess in education. I had the opportunity to present SPICE, Texas Tech and Lubbock: • at the University of Washington in Seattle, Wash. • at the Chess in Education Seminar in Chicago • at the Raytheon's Innovation Day in Los Angeles • at the TCA workshop in Houston with Dr. Alexey Root of UTD • in Budapest, Hungary • in Dresden at the 2008 World Chess Olympiad • at the Chess & Technology Conference in San Luis, Argentina, organized by "Universidad de la Punta" SPICE, Texas Tech, and Lubbock also received plenty of promotion: • at the National Elementary (K-6) Chess Championship in Pittsburgh, PA • at the third annual Susan Polgar World Open for Boys and Girls in Las Vegas • at the 2008 U.S. Open in Dallas • at the Chess Grand Slam Final in Bilbao, Spain • at the National K-12 Championship in Orlando, Fla. In the past year, through the Susan Polgar Foundation, we have given out hundreds of chess sets, chess boards, chess DVDs, chess curriculum, etc. to many of the local schools. Last but not least, Lubbock and Texas Tech received the prestigious "2008 Chess City of the Year" and "2008 Chess College of the Year" awards by the United States Chess Federation. Please keep questions and comments coming by e-mailing me at Susan.Polgar@ttu.edu. See also www.SPICE.ttu.edu and www.SusanPolgar.blogspot.com for more information.

Dronavalli Harika Wins Arjuna Award

Excerpted from The Times of India Sport on! 31 Dec 2008, 0000 hrs IST, RUBINA A KHAN , TNN Check mate Chess-wonder Dronavalli Harika from the Guntur district holds the titles of Woman Grandmaster and International Master, and has been given the Arjuna Award. Her feats this year include the Girl's title at the World Junior Chess Championship in Turkey.

A New Year Resolution - To Learn Chess

A great idea! Make A Resolution to Stick To Last Update: 5:43 pm Web produced by: Jessica Noll Whether you are vowing to take up a hobby, get fit, learn a new skill, read more, become more computer literate, volunteer your time or get your GED in the New Year, the Kenton County Public Library can help with your resolution. Always wanted to learn to play chess? Here is your chance! The Mary Ann Mongan Library in Covington will offer a two-part Chess Class Saturdays, Jan. 17 and 31, from 10:30 a.m. to noon. The class for children in first grade through adults will teach the basics such as pieces, point values, rules and moves. The Covington location also offers Chess Club for children in grades K-12 every Thursday from 3-5 p.m. It’s open to all skill levels.

As I Said Before - It's a Numbers Game

This isn't news - just further confirmation of earlier studies that I wrote about at Goddesschess some time ago. Women are NOT inferior to men when it comes to playing chess, it's just that the relative sample of women who do play is so much smaller than that for men, the statistics get skewed. Women players distribute across a classic "Bell curve" the same way that male players do, it's just that theirs is a LOT smaller. Chess isn't necessarily about testosterone or spatial perception, or even "superior" intelligence. Women do and can play as well as men, and will achieve equal levels of GMs and IMs with the guys - if we can somehow as a world manage to get to that "critical mass" of female chessplayers where the players that possess the skills required for chess reach equal levels. There is still a long way to go. So, darlings, don't be fooled by the folks who say that women can't play chess, or that women don't play chess as well as men, or whatever blah blah blah about the supposed "inferiority" of women when it comes to playing chess. It's a lot of baloney and fear on the part of the folks spewing forth these misleading statements (at best) or downright lies (at worst) about female chessplayers.

Chess Life Magazine January, 2009

Hola darlings! Damn, it is COLD outside. I was pelted smack in the kisser with sleety iceballs all the way home from the bus stop - 3/4th of a mile of sheer hell that would test the mettle of the most stalwart. Ach, I'm sounding like Hemingway - better stop now! The January 2009 issue of Chess Life magazine from USCF arrived in the mail today and there is one hot cover photo of a suited-up Gregory Kaidanov, he is just smoking in that photo! Well done to whomever took that photo, it's a great shot. The shot on the lead pages of the article (267-27) was nice too, but done in black and white. There was an equally fine shot of Jen Shahade on page 37 in the Hip Hop Variation article (about RZA's efforts to promote chess), also in black and white. Mostly I skip through Chess Life, because I do not play through any of the games or read any of the analysis, not being a "serious" chessplayer but a hopeless case -- my interest in chess stems from admiration for the people who actually play the game for something other than occasional amusement! I stop at photos that I find admirable and will read through an article occasionally if it about the ancient origins of the game, about a female or females playing chess or one of my favorite players. Now, I did not read this article, on the 2008 Women's World Championship by GM Pal Benko, but I will spend some time looking it over later because I admired his honesty in writing this - his lead-in says: As a conflict took place between Russian and Georgian troops, the women's world championship lost competitors to the political fallout. One consequence is the imprecision of many of the championship level end-games. I look forward to going over his insights in this article. I noticed last month - and again this month - in large ads, the 2009 National Open is not going to be held at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas in June! Why the hell not? What is, exactly, the "South Point Hotel" - the new venue? Off strip and out of the way and inconvenient! Ach! I think this is a big mistake, but hopefully the rooms will be LOTS cheaper for the patzer players who fork over their entry fees to pay for the prizes won by the big guns, and everyone will be happy - and, come to think of it - maybe some of those overweight dudes will walk off some of their bellies trekking to and from the South Point to the Strip, where all the action still, truly, is!

Mitchell Park Domes!

Hola darlings! Today dondelion and I visited Mother Newton and later we visited the newly revamped Domes! It was much colder today than yesterday, brrrr. Yesterday was a day of rain and fog and massive amounts of melting snow! Then yet another weather system came through late last night or very early this morning - WHOOSH! - and it was back to Winter! Fortunately for us, the melt-off yesterday melted all of the accumulated snow from Christmas Eve Day! It was something amazing, actually. When the taxi pulled up to the house the evening of 12/26 bringing us home from the airport, the roads in the subdivision were still snow-covered and slippery. But it was already warming up amazingly, and the snow-caused fog was even then getting thicker by the moment. Indeed, by Saturday morning the Milwaukee airport was intermittently closed due to poor visibility. Today dawned cold and bright and crisp. We headed out around 10 AM and got back home about 5 PM. The Domes have been newly revamped! The metal structures of the geodesic domes were reinforced and damaged triple-pane glass replaced here and there -- restoring more than 40 years wear and tear! The interior public spaces were revamped too. The bathrooms were totally redone and enlarged, very nice (well, at least the ladies' room was very nice, dondelion didn't notice anything in particular about the mens' room! The ladies room had new sinks and stalls, and additional space, new flooring, and a new paint job.) The terracotta tiled floors were restored and/or redone in parts, everything got repainted, the ceiling was totally replaced, new lighting and benches were put into place, the admissions booth was relocated to the center of the entrance rather than the right side, the doors were replaced, the gift shop was relocated. And - get this - the admission price was lowered! I remember distinctly the last visit dondelion and I had to the rather sad and worn looking Domes - although the interior presentations of the Domes was still as fantastic as ever! I don't exactly remember the admission charge, but I know it was a bit more than $7 each. Now the admission has been lowered to $5 -- or maybe it was just lowered for the holidays? -- I hope the lowered admission is permanent because the displays in the Domes are spectacular and at $5 many more people will come. Indeed, there were lots of people there today when we arrived, shortly before 2:30 PM. The line moved quickly and I was really impressed with the improvements in the appearance of the place. More tomorrow. It's late here, I have to work tomorrow early, I'm working on my laptop after my wireless network crashed on 12/24 - I don't EVEN want to go there, darlings. Time to call it a night.

Happy Holidays - Whew!

What a whirlwind the past few days have been, whew! We're back home from Las Vegas and decompressing. We were fortunate in getting out of Milwaukee only about 2.5 hours behind schedule on Christmas Eve day! It started snowing early, and the cab driver on the way back on on 12/26 said we got between 12 and 15 inches (I believe it). Anyway, we arrived late in LV but the hotel we stayed at (Imperial Palace) had very nice rooms, both of us were comfortable and well looked after by the very friendly staff. More about our LV stay later. We spent Christmas Day at Isis' place and had brunch there, and watched happy Christmas movies until we suddenly had to run back to the Venetian to get our seat assignments for the Christmas Night show of "Phantom of the Opera." Wow - more about that later too. Then we had a rather interesting late dinner (10:30 p.m.) at what was billed as a top-notch Italian restorante - well, it wasn't quite what we had in mind - more about that later... The flight back home on 12/26 left LV on time and arrived in Milwaukee on time - wonderful! The weather - eek! Here is a photo of Mother Newton's Christmas Tree (we visited today).

Arab Women's Chess Championship

Arab Chess Championship: Egypt’s Mona Khaled Takes Lead Correspondent 23 December 2008 SHARJAH - Mona Khaled of Egypt is in commanding position in the Arab Women Chess Championship after taking a full point lead with 3 rounds to go after defeating Hamza Amira of Algeria. Mona is at the top of the table with 5.5 points. Women: Hamza Amira (3.5) lost to Mona Khaled (5.5); Mouradian Knarik (4.5) bt Latreche Sabrina (4); Mezioud Amina (3) lost to Mir Mahmoud Afamia (4.5); Essa Kulood (3.5) drew with Algildah Nibal (3.5); Fuad Natalie (3.5) drew with Jelda Fatma (3.5); Salem Amna (2) lost to Basil Ziana (3.5); Nouman (2.5) lost to Mona (3).

AICF to Host Women's International Tournament in 2009

AICF has announced it will host a women's international tournament in 2009: From The Hindu.com Tuesday, December 23, 2008 International women’s open MANGALORE: The All India Chess Federation (AICF) secretary, D.V. Mr. Sundar said the AICF would conduct an international open tournament exclusively for women next year. “Mangalore could host the tournament,” he added. “Though women could play in the various open international tournaments, we feel by conducting an exclusive international event for them, we could promote the women’s sport better. “We will bring Woman Grandmasters from abroad for the tournament.” — Principal Correspondent

More Shoveling... A Holiday Hiatus

It was a mere 10 below zero F tonight on the walk home and, now being sufficiently thawed out, I have to once again don the down filled coat, hat, two scarves, gloves and over-mittens to shovel out the drifts from yesterday's fierce windstorm. It's supposed to start snowing again later tonight, and I want to get this out of the way while I can. I've got the pot roast going in the slow cooker, 4 hours tonight, 2 hours tomorrow night and then on warm until dondelion arrives, Goddess willing, right on time (around 7 PM by taxi from the airport). I've still got to scrub the bathrooms and vacuum - and wrap gifts for various people at the office that I will haul in tomorrow morning. The temperature is supposed to moderate tomorrow and creep into the mid-20's F - a heat wave. No down coat tomorrow, back to the fiber-filled jacket and tall boots - there are still lots of drifts on the sidewalks that haven't been removed by weary homeowners and the streets are a mess - the city is having the same problem as moi - nowhere to go with the snow! I won't be blogging at all from Las Vegas - assuming we get there. Between tonight and Wednesday we may accumulate as much as 10 additional inches of snow, and the winds, much calmer today (up to 10 mph) than yesterday (sustained at 20-30 mph, with guest at 40 mph and over), are once again supposed to pick up. So - dondelion and my trip to visit Isis and Michelle in Las Vegas is in the Goddess' capable hands. If there aren't any new posts here for 4-5 days, don't run away darlings, I'll be back! Happy Holidays to all of our readers and fans. We appreciate your support and comments and emails. Now it's time to pull out the shovel and work some more at whittling my waistline down :)

Santa v. Rudolph Grudge Match

From the Muskogee Phoenix.com Published December 22, 2008 06:45 pm - Chess battle at North Pole By Eric Morrow Sunday, Dec. 21, was the solstice and the first day of Hanukkah. It also marked the date of the much anticipated grudge match between Santa Claus and Rudolph. The source of the tension was their draw at the North Pole Championship in September. The game ended in a time scramble, as hoof and hand pounded the clock after each move. Rudolph fouled in the scramble when the compact horn on his front right hoof touched a pawn before moving his queen out of danger. The elves and reindeer inhaled as one but Santa moved before the arbiter could compel Rudolph to move his pawn, as required by the touch move rule. On Santa’s next move he, too, accidentally touched the wrong piece, as he reached to check Rudolf with his rook Santa’s sleeve brushed against his king. Dancer and Dasher burst out “Touch move!” But Rudolpf moved his king out of check before the arbiter again acted. Since then, Santa and Rudolph have been taunting each other with trash talk. A small, vocal minority of elves hinted that they can prove that Rudolph secretly got computer assistance when he went outside in the snow to relieve himself. Comet wrote a piece for the “Daily Pole” that Santa just got lucky. Vixon and Sugarplum Mary only fanned the flames when they joined forces and began taking bets. At sundown the match began. The first to win a game won the match. The first two games were hard fought draws. In the third game, however, Santa underestimated black’s attacking potential and failed on his previous move to trade his bishop on b2 for black’s knight at e5. With this hint in mind please try to find how Rudolph mated Santa in two moves. [No board diagram was included in the online version of the article, unfortunately, so we can't see how the pieces were aligned on the board]. Black’s bishop on b8, knight on e5 and queen on f4 are all posed to act in concert. Rudolph struck up the tune by moving his knight to f3, checking white. Black now threatens mate on h2 with its queen supported by either its bishop or knight. Because Santa is in check, he must either take the knight or retreat his king to h1. One way or another the queen next mates on h2. After Rudolph’s knight check on f3, Santa resigned. He took Rudolph’s hoof in hand and said, “Well done. And to all a good night.”

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Don't let the author fool you with the references to "hoof" and "horn" - I think the Rudolph he's talking about is actually a coy reference to WIM Anna Rudolf of Hungary, who played in the Dresden Olympiad for Hungary Women's Team. Note the queen's mate attack :) Santa is recently widowed and word has it that he's making a list and checking it twice, looking for a new mate:) It's a wise man who knows that the way to a woman's heart is through a good mating dance. Ho ho ho.

2008 National 'A' Women's Chess Championship of India

From The Hindu.com - Round 4 Report. Five players currently tied with 2.5/4. Current leader is Kruttika Nadig with 3.0/4. December 22, 2008 Kruttika outplays Swati, in sole lead Kamesh Srinivasan NEW DELHI: Kruttika Nadig sailed past former champion Swati Ghate in the fourth round of the Parsvnath 35th National ‘A’ women’s chess championship at the Russian Centre of Science and Culture here on Sunday. Kruttika played the closed Sicilian with a rare touch of authority to cruise home in 31 moves, for her third win of the tournament. Kruttika is the sole leader with three points, while defending champion Tania Sachdev, Amrutha Mokal, Eesha Karavade, Mary Ann Gomes and Soumya Swaminathan were breathing down her neck with 2.5 points each. On a lively day, when five of the six games were decisive, Kruttika took the cake with her crafty handling of a sharp variation. “I sacrificed a pawn to gain initiative. Eventually, I not only got the pawn back but also a strong positional advantage. I usually don’t play this, but had prepared it in the morning,” said Kruttika. Eesha beats Soumya The fine run of Soumya hit a speed-breaker in the form of Eesha. “I surprised her with the French opening, but she played badly,” said WGM Eesha, after her 34-move demolition of the overnight leader. Amrutha continued to fight hard despite her constant trouble with time. In fact, the lesser the time on her clock, the better she played, as she check-mated the better-rated Padmini Rout in 32 moves. Tania back on track Tania of Air-India revived her fortunes with a clinical performance against last year’s runner-up Kiran Manisha Mohanty. She galloped on an active knight in the end game, against her opponent’s frozen bishop, to grab a crucial point. Asian junior champion Mary consolidated her position with a victory over Pon N. Krithika in 49 moves. The results (fourth round): Amrutha Mokal 2.5 bt Padmini Rout 1; Kruttika Nadig 3 bt Swati Ghate 2; Nisha Mohota 1.5 drew with Bhakti Kulkarni 1; Mary Ann Gomes 2.5 bt Pon N. Krithika 1.5; Tania Sachdev 2.5 bt Kiran Manisha Mohanty 1; Soumya Swaminathan 2.5 lost to Eesha Karavade 2.5.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

The weather notwithstanding! Despite the dire economic news that is pounding on us nearly non-stop, I am a happy person and filled with the holiday spirit. Someone else is, too... another Golden Eagle has shown up in a Salvation Army pot. From NPR: In Fla., A Mystery, Annual Gift To Salvation Army Listen Now [2 min 1 sec] All Things Considered, December 17, 2008 · For the third year in a row, a Liberty Eagle gold coin worth almost $1,000 was dropped in a Salvation Army kettle. Each time, the coin has been accompanied by a small note, "In memory of Mimi." Megan Spears, resource management director of The Salvation Army of Lee County, Fla., talks about the donation.

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The red kettles showed up earlier than usual this year, because the need is greater than ever. I put a dollar in every kettle I pass, and I pass then quite often because there are kettles at both the local Walgreens and Pick 'n Save supermarket that I visit nearly every night after work for something or other. If everyone could put in a small contribution each time they pass a red kettle, Salvation Army would maybe receive enough money to help everyone who needs it through fiscal 2009. These are scary times; you do what you can do and thank Goddess for your blessings, and try to share what you can with others less fortunate, having faith than in due course things will change for the better.

Unique at Chesstique: Chessly Gifts

If you're looking for a last minute chessly gift, or something unique for yourself, please check out our boutique at Chesstique, featuring unique chessly designs by dondelion and Isis. Not the usual stuff. Here is one of Isis' gorgeous hand-made cloth chessboards, this one with satine ribbon, velvetine and gold braided trim. Standard 8x8 playing surface. Several one of a kind pre-made boards are offered, or contact Isis and she'll make up a custom order according to your specifications. We also offer tee-shirts and hoodies for men, women and kids, tote bags, coffee mugs, and various other goodies with our unique Goddesschess designs.

Mysterious La Palma Stone

Story from Andina.com No estimate of age of these findings was given in the story - not even a hint. I found that rather odd. Also note the reference to tourists already showing up in the area because of publicity (?) given to these recent finds, and how the regional authorities are already geared up for an influx of tourists, busy training guides and setting up rest-stops and food vendors! Hmmmm... I guess I just have a suspicious mind. The "stone" is interesting - no way of telling from the photograph how big it actually is (no size was given in the story), but it looks large - and long. At first I thought it was a vertical carving, like on a cliff face (the story did mention caves), but after looking at it more closely I see mountains on the horizon with sky above, so this rock or stone is laying horizontally on the ground. All the easier to carve??? I see what looks like a grid of lines (for a board game?) (upper portion) and what look like cup holes (lower portion), in addition to a sort of zig-zag line that ends in what looks sort of like an angular figure-eight (center of stone, lower portion). Petroglyphs, ceramics, dwellings and cave art found in Amazonas, Peru Bagua Grande, Dec. 16 (ANDINA).- Petroglyphs, dwellings with vaulted niches, ceramics and cave art were discovered during cleaning works in Pachallama hill, located in the village of La Palma, in Jamalca-Utcubamba (Peru’s Amazonas), according to researchers who arrived in the zone. Elvis Chugna, archaeologist and member of the research group of the Sub-regional Directorate of Foreign Trade and Tourism of Bagua-Utcubamba, said that these findings have been confirmed by a recent expedition sent to this zone. He recalled that a first expedition group, integrated by local authorities and of the provincial municipality of Utcubamba, has recently reported this finding. Chugna indicated that the petroglyph includes a group of elements which designs can be viewed according to the sun’s position; in the morning, some geometric shapes can be seen, and at noon, and sunset others figures emerge. In the zone, several caves have been also found with ceramics, thermal waters, fossil mollusks, and impressive flora and fauna, besides of a great variety of orchids. In turn, Benedicto Perez Goicochea, coordinator of the area’s tourist circuit denominated Pachallama, said that due to this discovery, 124 tourists have already visited the zone who have been properly registered in a visitor book. He said that an accommodation is fitted out for tourists that arrive in this place, located three kilometers far from Pachallama hill. The food and security are in charge of peasant patrols of the zone. Pérez also indicated that community members are organized and they continue with the cleaning works. About five hectares have been cleared in the zone (covered of lush vegetation) finding evidences as the petroglyph, which is a stone with engravings and geometric designs that inhabitants denominate the mysterious stone of La Palma. Elkin Herrera, director of the Sub-regional Directorate of Foreign Trade and Tourism of Bagua-Utcubamba, said that a series of activities have been launched in La Palma village such as courses of orientation and training of people, who have been organized as tourist guides. (END) APV/JOT/GCJ/LVT

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One other note - there was only one other photograph of a find from this discovery - photograph two in the Andina article shows a partially re-assembled piece of pottery. Again, no age given. There were no photographs of the "cave art" or "vaulted niches" inside the caves. I understand that a newspaper has limited space to present a story - but why show a broken piece of pottery when you could show a cave painting instead? This all seems rather strange to me, and more than a bit suspicious.

Bronze Hoard Discovered at Cuzco

From Andina.com 277 bronze artifacts found at Archaeological Park of Sacsayhuaman Cusco, Dec. 17 (ANDINA).- Skilled workers and professional staff of Peru's National Institute of Culture in Cusco (INC) founded 277 bronze artifacts (champi) when conducting archaeological research at the Archaeological Park of Sacsayhuaman located on the outskirts of Cusco 179 plumbs (cylindrical cone-shaped weights) of different types and 98 nose rings were discovered inside the enclosure No. 06 of the archaeological site of Inkacárcel that, according to preliminary investigations, was a warehouse or "qolqa". The director of the archeological park, Washington Camacho, said that these artifacts were found with decomposed human remains, and burned products such as corn, among others. He highlighted the importance of this discovery, which would confirm the hypothesis that Incas had different methods of construction used to build their houses, and employed high-quality techniques to control vertical alignments of their buildings. (END) NDP/PZA/JOT/

Orion over Mount Nemrut (Turkey)

A breathtaking photo. See the larger photo for its full impact. Orion Dawn Over Mount Nemrut Credit & Copyright: Tunç Tezel (TWAN) Explanation: What's that in front of Orion? Forty kilometers north of Kahta, Turkey, lies Mount Nemrut, a mountain adorned with the fragments of vast statues built over 2000 years ago. The stone sculptures once stood nearly 10 meters high and depicted lions, eagles, various ancient gods, and King Antiochus I Theos, who ruled Commagene from 86 BC to 38 BC. Ruins of the bodies of several sitting figures are visible on the hill above, illuminated by moonlight. Zeus' head can be found near the above image's center, while the king's head is seen next closest to the horizon. Visible far in the distance in this image, taken three months ago, is the familiar constellation of Orion. The red patch just below Orion's belt is the Orion Nebula, while the bright star to the left of Orion is Sirius. On the far left, a red and brightening horizon announces that the Sun is beginning to rise.

Something Wrong with this Picture...

Is it only me, or is there something wrong with this picture? Why are these chess dudes (2008 Nanjing), only one of whom is Chinese, all dressed in these 21st fantasy versions of the Mao jacket? YECHY - and damn scary, too! What does this say about the modern Chinese mentality? Reminds me of the Borg - EEK! Now that's really scary! (Photo from Susan Polgar's excellent blog)