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Random Roundup Archives

A clearinghouse of Random Roundup files

December 28, 2008 - On Vacation!

December 21, 2008

A visitation by The Ghost of Christmas Presents!

Surprise Stocking Stuffer:
Not a lump of coal - but if the shoe fits...

Down in the cola mine... a commerical gem:
The ultimate game of strategy, Chess, showcases the red COCA-COLA team led by Santa matching wits with the white COKE team headed by the Polar Bear.

Custom chess pieces feature authentic COCA-COLA memorabilia in this version of one of the world's most time-honored games. Using an army of contour bottles, vintage vending machines, vintage cans, bell glasses and bottle caps, these "Kings" of the COCA-COLA world battle for supremacy.

Old Chess Nugget:
Banta was amazed to find Santa playing chess with his dog. He watched the game in astonishment for a while.

“I can hardly believe my eyes!” Banta exclaimed. “That’s the smartest dog I’ve ever seen.”

“Nah, he’s not so smart,” Santa replied. “I’ve beaten him three games out of five”

Jan Xena's Travel Wish List:

10-day Discover Egypt from Gate -1 Travel
Price (starting from $2299 per person, double occupancy) includes:
a. Round trip flights NYC-Cairo
b. Airline fuel surcharges
c. Intra-Egypt flights
d. 8 nights accommodations in your choice of hotels

Special Features:
a. Pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx, and the Egyptian Museum
b. Valley of the Kings & Queens, Luxor
c. King's Chamber, Great Pyramid
d. The Colossi of Memnon

Or how about a week in Scotland with luxury travel expert Tauck? Eight days starts at $3,390.00, not including airfare to and from Glasgow where your journey starts.

For the budget-minded, Gate-1 Travel (great to window-shop there) is offering a 9-day London/Paris escorted tour starting at $799 per person, double occupancy, that includes round-trip airfare from New York.

book bling:

Books from the collection of chess historian van der Lasa: VIDA, Marcus Hieronymus (ca. 1490-1566, Bishop of Alba. Scacchia Ludus; or, The Game of Chess, a poem, [translated into English by W. Erskine], [no imprint] 1735, 2 parts in one volume, 8°, FIRST EDITION OF THIS TRANSLATION, engraved frontispiece (title creased,
final leaves dampstained), contemporary panelled calf, spine gilt (extremities rubbed) [Schachlitteratur 797; KB 4580; Lasa 797]

JONES, Sir William. Caïssa, or the Game of Chess, Oxford, at the Clarendon Press, 1772, 8°, FIRST EDITION, contemporary calf (covers detached) [Schachlitteratur 1341]; and another by Sir John Denham (Poems and Translations, London, 1719).

Sold at Christie's for $885.00, sale 4645
Robert Blass chess book collection
8 May 1992
London, South Kensington

game bling:

A Gothic Revival enamel, pearl- and paste-set gilt-metal chess set CIRCA 1850

Surmounted by a hinged blue and white enamelled chequed playing surface, the red velvet-lined interior fitted with chains to hold thechess pieces toegether, each side with coats-of-arms, knights on horses, soldiers and trophies, flanked to each side by a galloping horse above a further coat-of-arms, on four pierced foliate feet; the chess pieces depicting two sets of one King, one Queen, two bishops, two Knights, two Towers and eight soldiers 22 in. (56 cm.) square.

Sold at Christies for $16,76.00, sale 6560
19th century furniture and sculpture
21 March 2002
London, King Street

bling bling:

Nothing says elegance quite like pearls paired with gemstones. Here is a gorgeous pair of South Seas cultured black pearl and diamond earrings from the premiere house of pearl fashion: Mikimoto, at a relatively modest $3,400.00. (Ho! Ho! Ouch!)

practical bling:

All Jan wants for Christmas is dondelion arriving in Milwaukee safe, sound and on time, two days in Las Vegas with Isis and Michelle, and this Toro single-stage snowblower: Why a snowblower, you may ask? The answer... Brrrrr!

fantasy bling:

Weight Loss Spa Resort at Hilton Head

High fashion mink coat, only $2,999.00
Natural Lunaraine Female Mink Full Let Out Stroller

dig for archaeological bling:

Search for just the right dig (world wide) at the Archaeological Institute of America

great last minute gift bling:

Starting at only $19.95 plus standard shipping of $5.95, a gift basket from Wine Country Gift Baskets is guaranteed to please. This treat-filled "Penguin Box Set" is so cute and the treats are first-quality and fresh!

Peace and good will to all from the gang at Goddesschess!

Nation by nation, peace on earth
Penn Museum celebrates holidays and cultures

Project-Peace on Earth is an annual worldwide telecast concert of Superstar musicians performing Sacred Music from the most mystical concert venues on the planet: Egypt's Great Pyramids, England’s Stonehenge, Australia's Ayers Rock, Peru's Inca Pyramids, Japan's Mount Fuji, and California's Mount Shasta to name a few.

December 14, 2008

What's new in the treasury and heirlooms department? Open these files and have a look!

The director of Harvard's Peabody Museum said he wants to return about 50 ancient carved Mayan jade pieces to Mexico, almost a century after a U.S. consul dredged the artifacts from the sacred lake at the ruins of Chichen Itza. 

US has Sun King's stolen gem, say French experts:  French experts said they had proof that the Hope Diamond, a star exhibit in Washington's Smithsonian Institution, is a legendary gem once owned by King Louis XIV that was looted in the French Revolution. 

Gold collar found in field 'best Iron Age loot in 50 years': An amateur treasure hunter hit gold when he found an Iron Age collar worth more than 350,000 pounds (414,000 euros, 520,000 dollars) in a field.  

A set of 2,300 year old earrings found in Jumilla

4th Century BCE Thracian burial discovered:  Bronze objects, silver earrings and a ring discovered in a looted tomb, which on-site experts say probably belonged to a Thracian king

2,000 Year Old Pearl and Emerald Earring (below) Found in Jerusalem:  In this handout photo provided by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) on November 10, 2008, a 2,000-year-old gold earring inlaid with pearls and precious stones is displayed after its discovery at the City of David archaeological excavation below the Old City walls in East Jerusalem, Israel.

Looters missed this one:  Ancient tomb found near Machu Picchu

World’s Most Expensive Chess Set
Jewel Royale Chess Set

A detailed graphical look at the board and its pieces... Valued at over £5 million ($9.8m USD), this single chess set is the most expensive and exquisite game set of any kind in the world.

December 7, 2008

Dreams of High Flight - Space Chess! First and final frontier?

Kings in space? This Dynasty 1 (c. 3100 BCE) Egyptian game piece proclaims a pharaonic "Lord of the Ladder" from the Petrie collection.

Abydos, Umm el Qaab O (Ivory gaming piece)
Petrie R.T. II, 5.10
Newberry P.S.B.A. 34 (1912) 285
Vandier, Manuel I, 844
Spencer, E.D.O. 457

One Giant Leap for Space Chess - Wednesday, November 26, 2008 5:55 PM by Alan Boyle - NASA Astronaut Greg Chamitoff brought a chessboard to the international space station.

NASA's orbiting chess player is getting ready for the biggest move since his epic "Earth vs. space" match began: the move back down to Earth.

Earth's Latest Move
Video of Chamitoff explaining the game

Re-launching Babylonian chess ? ...
"The ancient Babylonians considered the liver of a sacrificial sheep, amutu, to be the mattalat šame, the "mirror of Heaven." In the same way that one can read the decisions of the Gods in the Heavens, by astrology, one can also read their minds in its image, the liver."

From Egyptian ladders and Babylonian livers to the "great beyond"... - See C.J. Gadd's essay on Babylonian Chess

3 D Space Chess - an interesting preoccupation of modern game inventors that never seems to have achieved "lift off" as a popular option to standard chess. (Click on the pic below for a larger view) "Unfortunately, the rules of the game are not so good." (Hans Bodlaender)

A patent application for 4D Chess (US Patent 5031917 - Three dimensional chess game US Patent Issued on July 16, 1991 - Described as follows...

"A method of enabling the playing of a three dimensional chess game comprising the steps of: providing eight chess boards, each chess board surface being divided into a grid of eight by eight squares, each of said squares being colored with one of two different colors, the laterally and longitudinally adjacent squares being of different colors to form a checkerboard pattern..."

On sale at E-Bay:

Space Chess Classic chess in exciting 4 dimensions (illustrated above)  

Left and right moves
Forward and backward moves
Vertical, up and down moves
All pieces and instructions (copyright 1969) included
Box has wear and tear and masking tape marks

Space Chess in 3D (Click on the pic below for a larger view)

The Planetary Chess Game and Reincarnation by Jon Rappaport - "In the many power struggles of the last century to establish more and more control over the populations of planet Earth, certain principles have been developed. There are at least two levels of this Plan.The first level involves concealment of the whole operation by giving it other faces and other reasons and other justifications."

The "idea" of militarization reinvested in "space chess" - a very old game with a variety of militant new faces we could probably do without...

The hidden symbolism in logic games by Ioni Lazarov "Actually the main trend here is to show how the logic games Chess and Go are connected with our view of the world, how they originate from our impulse for spirituality and enlightenment and how they can in turn bring us back to spirituality and enlightenment. As a whole the metaphysical issues will be ignored where appropriate and the psychological approach will be a priority.

"From Circle and Square to the Image of the World: A Possible Interpretation for some Pertroglyphs of Merels Boards" by Freidrich Berger (Rock Art Research 2004 - Volume 21, Number 1. pp. 11-25)

Looking for the lost secret of Astrology and Chess
Is Chess a Divine Game?

There are some evident correlations between the game of chess and the astrology which lead us to the conclusion that the Chess is a game inspired by the Universal Laws, maybe by the planetary movement.