Goddesschess Random Roundup

January 25, 2009

Coin of the realm... mostly

One of the world's great games, chess, is the subject of a 500 forint copper-nickel coin in the form of a chessboard.

A Comparative Chronology of Money Monetary History from Ancient Times to the Present Day.

Monopolies and Trusts
By 1900 the wealthiest 2% of Americans controlled over one-third of the nation’s wealth.

A Short History of Monopoly
by Tim Darling - January, 2008; Background: Big Business versus the Working Class (1890-1910)...

The time during which Monopoly was born and grew up spanned one stock market crash (in 1893) to another (in 1929). After the 1893 stock market crashed, unemployment among the working class rose significantly. The U.S. Treasury ran out of gold and was forced to sell high-yield bonds to J. P. Morgan and the other Wall Street monopolists at low rates.

The Pirates of the Caribbean Chess: At World’s End Edition USAopoly. From Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean Movie Collection.

The Devil's Chess Companion
...an homage to Ambrose Bierce's brilliant work, The Devil's Dictionary which contained comical (and cynical) definitions of commonplace words.

Chess Art at Reykjavík Art Museum
Close to 20 original and unusual chessboards by a number of well-known contemporary artists will be on display in the exhibition “The Art of Chess” which opens at Reykjavík Art Museum – Kjarvalsstadir today.

Zither, chess, book, painting, sword.These symbolize classical skill. "There was once a wanderer who cared nothing for fame. although he had many chances for position, he continued to search for teachers who could help him master five things: zither, chess, book, painting, and sword."

How many squares are there on a chessboard?? (the answer is not 64)

Spare Parts Chess

Here is a novel idea to dispose the old cars in a much more greener way. Armando Ramirez proves that old cars are much more safer than any other electronic gadget that is disposed. He has created a custom made chess board which is completely made of old automobile parts.

January 18, 2009

Surrealism and chess... a liquid paradise! 20th Century artists welcome wood pushers into the 4th dimension... although the basic proposition seems to be very ancient and primordial.

The Goddesschess Blog provides a link to last year's auction of a Dali chess set."... a close up look at the details of the digits of renowned artist Salvador Dali (Spanish 1904-1989) could be found in the figures of a chess set designed by Dali at the request of his friend Marcel Duchamp in 1964 for the American Chess Federation."

Marcel Duchamp and Salvadore Dali - birds of a feather... "During this period Duchamp's fascination with transition, change, movement and distance began to manifest, and like many artists of the time he was intrigued with the concept of the 4th dimension and depicting it."

Marcel Duchamp - woman of mystery! "Rrose Sélavy, or Rose Sélavy, (pictured above) was one of the pseudonyms of artist Marcel Duchamp. The name, a pun, sounds like the French phrase "Eros, c'est la vie", which translates to English as "eros, that's life". It has also been read as "arroser la vie" ("to make a toast to life")." Nice hat, Rrosey!

J.P. Morgan assisted with Duchamp's career...

"Rembrandt and Picasso, Mozart, Bob Dylan, Dickens and Hemingway, Gutenberg Bibles, and Babar the elephant, The Morgan Library & Museum is, in the words of The New York Times, "extra special, in a class of its own."

Also in the library collection...

Early surrealistic chess? Ancient Near Eastern Seals & Tablets Male Figure Before a Goddess Drawing Aside Her Mantle Cylinder seal and impression - Syria (ca.1720–1650 B.C.) Note: The "entwined serpents" motif is reflected in the earlier construction of the "backgammon" game unearthed in the Burnt City.

Pablo Picasso - another Spaniard in the surrealist works... African-influenced Period Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), Museum of Modern Art, New York

Senufo Mud Cloth of Côte d'Ivoire

Obi nkyerkyere nyansa kotoku mfa nkoto adakam mmegyina adihonse se, “Kyere me asem!” (Akan Language) Translation: "No one should gather wisdom in a bag, put it in a box, and then stand on a road and say, “Teach me wisdom!”

Senufo horse

Calling all artistic horses!
Two blog requests for horsey art

The Artistic Horse

Horse Art

Last casting call...
More modern surrealism - comes on the heels of a sad announcement about the recent passing of actor, Patrick McGoohan, our favourite Number 6.

In the cult classic T.V. series, "The Prisoner" McGoohan played the quintessential pawn to his "secret service" higher-ups. The analogy is carried forward in the "Checkmate" episode, in which a game of "living chess" takes place on a permanent chessboard assembled in "The Village" square. Be seeing you, Patrick!

Chessbase News features more contemporary works of chess art with "a surreal twist". The Dali influence has gone hi tech!

DIA dazzles eyes with chess sets from Faberge to Salvador Dali Michael H. Hodges - The Detroit News

If you think an exhibition of exotic chess sets is a snore, you really ought to check out "Master Pieces: Chess Sets from the Dr. George & Vivian Dean Collection" before it closes at the Detroit Institute of Arts on May 17.

More info

January 11, 2009
Welcome back from Egypt, Carmen!

Ancient Egypt and India "To my knowledge there are two recent Archeological Projects concerning India and Egypt. They are significant particularly because they are taken up at either end of the India –Egypt trade. The India Project is in progress in the Malabar Coast of Southern India, while the other was taken up in Berenike, a long-abandoned Egyptian port on the Red Sea near the border with Sudan."

1. Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures From the National Museum" arrives in the United States in May 2008 for a 15-month stay, beginning at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Check the schedule for future dates and an exhibition location near you.

2. Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul In 1978, on windswept plains of northern Afghanistan, archaeologists unearthed tombs of ancient nomads that had been sealed for two thousand years and discovered an extraordinary trove: some 22,000 individual pieces of gold buried with the remains of six Bactrian Central Asian nomads.

Treasure Wars (video)

Destination Egypt - Overview (video)

Photo Gallery Egypt

Mummy of female pharaoh uncovered The discovery of such an old mummy is extremely rare, Egyptologists say Egyptologists have discovered the remains of a mummy thought to belong to a queen who ruled 4,300 years ago, Egypt's antiquities chief has said.

"Warm Plasma Cloak" Discovered Enveloping Earth Anne Minard - National Geographic News - January 7, 2009 "The Earth is dressed in layers that protect it from the sun's fierce winds, and scientists have identified a new one they call a "warm plasma cloak."

Passage Graves From An Astronomical Perspective Shown here is the passage grave "Nordenhoj" at Kaerby near Kalundborg in Denmark. Credit: The National Museum of Denmark

Phaistos Disc declared as fake by scholar Some say that its 45 mysterious symbols are the words of a 4,000-year-old poem, or perhaps a sacred text. Others contest that they are a magical inscription, a piece of ancient music or the world's oldest example of punctuation.

The bronze Arkalochori Axe... is a second millennium BC Minoan votive double axe excavated by Spyridon Marinatos in 1934 in the Arkalochori cave on Crete. It is notable for being engraved with an inscription of fifteen symbols. Some of the symbols may be identified as Linear A characters, while others are reminiscent of those found on the Phaistos Disc

Top 10 Discoveries of 2008 Archaeology: Volume 62 Number 1, January/February 2008. For some archaeology buffs, 2008 will always be the year of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. And we have to admit we were glad to see Indiana back in action again after a 20-year absence (we loved it when he name-checked legendary Australian archaeologist V. Gordon Childe). But we did have some quibbles with the film; let's just say we're not big fans of the theory that aliens invented agriculture and leave it at that.

Major R.A.Bagnold, Journeys in the Libyan Desert
1929 and 1930, The Georgaphical Journal, Vol. LXXVIII No. 1. (July 1931)] It is interesting to note that Bagnold's circle is not referred to in any of the Nabta publications, possibly the authors are oblivious to it's existence.

Karkur Talh & Karkur Murr rock art sites" ... on par with the In-Habeter - Mathendous (Messak Settafet, Libya) and Sefar (Tassili N'Ajjer, Algeria) localities as the richest concentrations of rock art anywhere in the Sahara."

The Legacy of Chitrasutra- Fourteen - Shri S Rajam
Part 1 Part 2

"Sangita Kalacharya Vidvan Shri S Rajam is a many splendored jewel of Indian art and music. He is the musicians’ musician, held in very high esteem by the connoisseurs of Carnatic music; he is the creator of sublime art in the pristine and ancient tradition of Chitrasutra; he is an excellent photographer who produced outstanding photographs of temple architecture and sculptures; and in his youth a hero of early South Indian films who composed songs and sung them too."

January 4, 2009
Post New Years Nostrum

1) Rules of Shot Glass Chess

1. Select your favorite alcoholic beverage and pour it into your opponent's 16 glasses. The following quantities are our recommendations, discovered after extensive research and development:

Pawn: 0.5 parts
Bishop: 1 part
Knight: 1 part
Rook: 2 parts
Queen: 3 parts
King: 2 parts

2. Begin the game of chess as normal. Whenever a player makes a capture he must drink the contents of that piece.

3. Illegal moves are permissible as long as neither player notices.

4. The losing player must drink his own king as the final ignominy of defeat.

2) Beer Chess same basic rules as Shot Glass Chess - with beer as the pieces

Combinations of the above two games lead quite reasonably to...

100 Fascinating Facts You Never Knew About the Human Brain - By Alisa Miller - "The human brain has amazed and baffled people throughout the ages. Some scientists and researchers have devoted their entire lives to learning how the brain works. It is no wonder that people enjoy learning facts about this incredible organ in the human body."

and possibly also..

Lady Augusta Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1852), daughter of Lord Byron (the poet who spent some time in a Swiss jail -- in Chillon, not too far from Lausanne...). She was the assistant and patron of Charles Babbage; she wrote programs for his "Analytical Engine."

Too many shots of chess and you may find your ear pressed firmly against a table of some sort.

Counting Boards - Approximately

Is it my imagination or do some of the following sites seem to need reminding of a few possible ludic and divination foundations? Why? Perhaps the need to appear utterly rational overwrites some of the earlier wisdom ...

A History of Counting Machines TIMELINE From the Salamis Tablet to the first PC

An Ancient Base-60 Calculator? by Stephen K. Stephenson How did the Babylonians actually do their base-60 numeric calculations?

A Brief History of the Abacus Abacus is a Latin word that has its origins in the Greek words abax or abakon (meaning "table" or "tablet") which in turn, possibly originated from the Semitic word abq,meaning "sand".

A Brief History of Zero Kristen McQuillin, July 1997 (revised January 2004)

The following represent antedotes to rote historical approaches listed above ...

Chinese numerals Thousands of bones and tortoise shells ... inscribed with ancient Chinese characters. The importance of these finds, as far as learning about the ancient Chinese number system, was that many of the inscriptions contained numerical information about men lost in battle, prisoners taken in battle, the number of sacrifices made, the number of animals killed on hunts, the number of days or months, etc.

Mathematical Treasures by Frank J. Swetz and Victor J. Katz "During the first half of the twentieth century, David Eugene Smith (1860-1944) ... led the way in teaching reforms attuned to the Progressive Education Movement. He firmly believed that the teaching of mathematics should be closely associated with the history of the subject." (Ed. Note: Scroll down this site for an informative illustrated essay.)

Sungka - a mancala based "calculus", board game and divination medium from the Phillipines.

Manansala, Paul. Sungka mathematics of the Philippines. Indian J. Hist. Sci. 30 (1995), no. 1, 13--29. (Reviewer: J. S. Joel.) SC: 01A29 (01A13), MR: 96g:01009.

The author discusses the Sungka Board, which may once have been used as a kind of abacus. The word sungka is from the Philippines, but the author tells us that a similar board is "known over a wide area of the Malayo-Polynesian world from Madagascar to Polynesia, and also through Southeast Asia, India, and even mainland Africa."

Wikimanqala ?! and more Sungka basics

Dakon and Sungka

"The question of origin and spread of the 16-sign geomancy is quite a matter of controversy. Often it is tied together with similar theories on games/gambling of the type described under the general terms mancala or sungka.

H.J.R. Murray: "...the game was common ... in the Philippine Islands, where a boat-shape board with sixteen holes is also used the game being called Chungcajon ..."

http://www.tendreams.org/varo.htm

Surrealist Maria de los Remedios Varo Uranga - a recent Centennial by Dennis Shay

Remedios Varo: The Creative Woman and the Female Quest (a Google book entry)