June 15 - 28, 2009

Rounding up this week's universe ...

Our universe is expanding! During recent weeks Goddesschess has been undergoing a massive enlargement of content and categories. While our makeover evolves, events continue to unfold on that little blue planet we call home ...

Women and men in chess – smashing the stereotypes Chessbase article By WGM Natalia Pogonina and Peter Zhdanov "They're all weak, all women. They're stupid compared to men.They shouldn't play chess, you know. They're like beginners. They lose every single game against a man. There isn't a woman player in the world I can't give knight-odds to and still beat." - Robert James Fischer, 1962, Harper's Magazine

The Shira Chess Challenge By JanXena (a/k/a Jan Newton) June 23, 2009 : : "From a little acorn, a mighty oak can grow.  Thus goes the old saying.  Nah, this isn't about acorns!  It's about kids, and a friend from many moons ago, and computers, and a chess challenge!

Stress and chess

While Jan Xena cusses Win Zip files the square planet - video (2:57) - paints an interesting portait of players performing under duress. Elsewhere, at Chesstories, Karah Pino (pdf) takes us on a literary tour of her own experiences with a game that some say is not really a game...

"Memories - light the corners of my mind..."

"First Image of a Memory Being Made By Clara Moskowitz LiveScience Staff Writer – Fri Jun 26, For the first time, an image of a memory being made at the cellular level has been captured by scientists.

Reconstructing lost memories - and memes:

The History of India - by Vikas Kamat

Events in the Land of The Timeless Theater
 
How we know what we know?

Sources of Indian History Professor R.C. Majumdar (portrait - interview), a noted Indian historian has said that "... although it is difficult to accept, the Indians totally lacked the historical sense". The ancient Indians made great inroads into astronomy, physics, mathematics, all kinds of literature and arts but never seriously took to documenting their history and their indifference has cost their posterity very dearly."

Iraq - More posterity unfolds online at the Virtual Iraq Museum

Muscial Way-Back Machine

'Oldest musical instrument' found By Pallab Ghosh - Science correspondent, BBC NewsScientists in Germany have published details of flutes dating back to the time that modern humans began colonising Europe, 35,000 years ago.

Musicians Network: No Neaderthal compositions recorded on this otherwise massive compilation - but there is always hope... Included on this site - an annotated bibliography of musical compositions related to chess.

John Greschak - Connections between Music and Chess

Synopsis of The Magic Flute (German title: Die Zauberflöte) An Opera by W A Mozart: "The libretto to "The Magic Flute" is considered such a jumble of nonsense that it is as well to endeavour to extract some sense from it."

"The Magic Flute will protect you, and sustain you in the greatest of misfortunes."

The Chess Museum has a nice store of Chess book bibliographies: "The amount of chess literature written over time is immense - and it is necessary to have bit of guidance via bibliographical works.  Especially since most collectors of chess books will specialize - some in tournament books, others in autographed books,  in game collections, chess magazines, chess instructing books, grand classics, books on chess history, books by eminent problemists  etc."

A large catalogue of books can be found at chessbookshop.com - which also includes a section on Chess History

Mark Weeks also supplies a nice selections of reference items Chess Bibliography: Some of the best chess books ever written "There are thousands of books available on chess, covering just about every aspect you can imagine. Listed here are a few titles considered classics by many experts on the subject. Classic chess books frequently go in and out of print. If you can't find a new copy of a title that interests you, check out used book resources. And don't forget your local library!

Also noted earlier by Mr. Weeks: "During our reviews of chess history sites, we've encountered three online catalogs of chess books. These were the...

Cleveland Public Library - John G. White collection

Koninklijke Bibliotheek - Van der Linde - Niemeijeriana collection

Max Euwe Centrum - Amsterdam, NL

Everything is like chess! "If you do any reading or communicate with anyone, you are bound to hear how something/anything is like chess. Below is a partial list - of games/ideas/work/thoughts/etc. that people think are like chess. I won’t kid you, there are a lot of games and sports, but there are some oddities as well. Maybe one day no one will ever say anything is like chess except chess. Enjoy."

More books on board games and the people behind their creation and history for relaxed summer reading...

"Will it go 'round in circles - will it fly high like a bird up in the sky?" (Billy Preston)

Solstice 2009 : Going round in cycles and on cycles

Partygoers Greet Solstice at Stonehenge By Nardine Saad, AP STONEHENGE, England (June 21) - Pagans and partygoers drummed, danced or gyrated in hula hoops to stay awake through the night, as more than 35,000 people greeted the summer solstice Sunday at the ancient stone circle of Stonehenge.

Huge Pre-Stonehenge Complex Found via "Crop Circles" James Owen in London for National Geographic News June 15, 2009 - Given away by strange, crop circle-like formations seen from the air, a huge prehistoric ceremonial complex discovered in southern England has taken archaeologists by surprise.

White Mares and Crop Circles Epona is a Celtic horse goddess - a White Mare. A nice play of words could be made on Night Mare, and probably was, hmmm..

Knights Eco-Tour on Bikes Saturday, June 13, 2009
Canadian Press Jessica Murphy - Montreal cyclists bare it all to raise awareness on green issues: - Sporting only helmets, shoes and a blatant disregard for full body sunburns, some 25 nude cyclists took to the streets of Montreal to raise awareness of global environmental issues.

Knight's Tour Notes compiled by George Jelliss — © 2000 – 2004 The mother of all knight's tour web sites...

GoddessVision

"The Godesschess
Brooklyn Gambit 2009"
video (4:34)

Our first video adventure takes us to Egypt via the Brooklyn Museum. Our lips are padlocked - but the Goddesschess Light Orchestra plays on. An original composition "Everybody's Searching for Home", by Dondelion provides the sonic muse for some mysteriously and typically Egyptian board game items, but it is Babi the blue baboon who steals the whole show. No chess in Egypt says H.j.R. Murray - but apparently lots of Egypt in chess ... quite apparently...

 

June 7, 2009

Museums A-Z for New York City A handy traveller's resource...

Seized! New York, NY- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) today seized a Pompeii wall panel fresco from a Manhattan auction house that was reported stolen in Italy 12 years ago.

First Ever Exhibition to Examine an Intriguing but Relatively Unappreciated Aspect of Medals of Dishonour London: The first ever exhibition to examine an intriguing but relatively unappreciated aspect of medal work will open at the British Museum this summer. Alongside the long-standing and well-known association of medals with glory and achievement lies another darker tradition of the medal as an indicator of dishonour.

Geometric patterns make up one of the three nonfigural types of decoration in Islamic art, which also include calligraphy and vegetal patterns. Whether isolated or used in combination with nonfigural ornamentation or figural representation, geometric patterns are popularly associated with Islamic art, largely due to their aniconic quality.

See also: http://www.youngartists.com/islamic.htm

Italian archeologists find commoner’s neighborhoods in Persepolis Rome – A joint Iranian-Italian archeological mission in Iran has made an exceptional discovery: the archeologists have found the first traces of the urban settlement in Persepolis, one of the five capitals of the Achaemenid Empire in ancient Persia.

City in the Clouds In 1706, Paul Lucas, traveling in southwest Turkey on a mission for the court of Louis XIV, came upon the mountaintop ruins of Sagalassos. The first Westerner to see the site, Lucas wrote that he seemed to be confronted with remains of several cities inhabited by fairies.

Living Peru: Chan Chan, the Melting City of the Chimu by Rodney L. Dodig - On a recent trip to Trujillo I had the opportunity to visit the ancient city of Chan Chan, the capital city of the Chimu Civilization. ... our destination inside Chan Chan was the Tschudi Complex or “The Palace.”

Middle East Oldest Village Found In Iran Monday, 25 May 2009 - Iranian and English archeologists have discovered the Middle East's oldest village which dates back to at least 9800 BC in western Iran, Press TV reported.

Rare burial ritual identified in Iran's Sialk Mon, 11 May 2009 - Sialk is a large ancient structure in Kashan, Iran: Archeologists have discovered a mysterious burial ritual performed 9,000 years ago in Iran's Sialk Mound located in the center of the country.

Animal, human statues found in Burnt City Sun, 07 Jun 2009 Burnt City, Sistan-Baluchestan Province, Iran - Archeologists have unearthed 65 statues of human and animal figures in Burnt City, located in Iran's southeastern province of Sistan and Balouchestan.

Indus Valley code is cracked - maybe - By Raja Murthy MUMBAI - A 4,500-year-old mystery has been revived, with Indian-American scientists claiming on April 23 that the puzzling symbols that were found on Indus Valley seals are indeed the written script of a language from an ancient civilization.

Party Animals: Early Human Culture Thrived in Crowds - Party planners know that scrunching a bunch of people into a small space will result in plenty of mingling and discourse.

Ha-Ha! Ape study traces evolution of laughter by Malcolm Ritter - When scientists set out to trace the roots of human laughter, some chimps and gorillas were just tickled to help. Literally.That's how researchers made a variety of apes and some human babies laugh.

Ancient Death-Smile Potion Decoded? James Owen for National Geographic News June 2, 2009 Thousands of years before the Joker gassed comic book victims into a grinning death, Phoenician colonists on the island of Sardinia (map) were forcing smiles on the faces of the dead.

Oldest known pottery found in China The shards of a cone-shaped vase excavated from a cave in southern China are approximately 18,000 years old, 1,000 years older than any previously discovered pottery. By Thomas H. Maugh II June 6, 2009

Oldest 'Taegeuk' (Yin-Yang)Pattern Found in Naju A 1,400-year-old artifact with the Taegeuk pattern has been found, the oldest of its kind in Korean history.

Tomb of legendary Japanese Queen Himiko found Japanese archaeologists believe they have identified the final resting place of the legendary Queen Himiko, who ruled the Yamatai kingdom in the third century, but are unlikely to ever have conclusive proof as the palace has forbidden further excavation of the site.

Bone appears to date human presence in Treasure Coast back 13,000 years by Elliott Jones - June 5, 2009 Carving on incised bone. Vero Beach — Local amateur fossil collector James Kennedy appears to have made an unprecedented archaeological discovery that might help confirm a human presence here up to 13,000 years ago.

 

Islander unearths Buddhist relics May 27, 2009 Maryam Omidi - Maldives - Unearthed: the stupa in three parts: A pre-Islamic stupa was discovered by an islander beneath his house in Raa atoll Agolhitheemu on Monday while digging to build a well.

Marsupial lion found in Aboriginal rock art Wednesday, 27 May 2009 by Kerensa McElroy - The prehistoric painting hints at what marsupial lions may have looked like, and suggests that they co-exited with early Australians. SYDNEY: Ancient rock art depicting the extinct marsupial lion has been found in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, says a study in the journal Antiquity.

Billion-Pixel Pictures Allow Ultra-Zooming for Science Brian Handwerk for National Geographic News May 27, 2009 If a picture is worth a thousand words, what's a thousand-megapixel picture worth?

Crop circle picture gallery shows more complex forms Crop circles are becoming more complex with jellyfish, dragonfly and even Yin and Yang patterns discovered so far this year.

Fire and water reveal true age of ancient relics Fire and water are all that is needed to unlock the internal clocks' of archaeological remains and accurately reveal their age, say scientists.

Researchers dive into ancient treasure Archaeologists from Britain's University of Nottingham and Greece's Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities of the Ministry of Culture are using digital equipment to unlock the mystery behind the ancient Greek town of Pavlopetri, thought to be the oldest submerged town in the world.

Ancient Egypt Brought To Life With Virtual Model Of Historic Temple Complex ScienceDaily (Apr. 30, 2009) — For the past two years, a team of UCLA Egyptologists, digital modelers, web designers, staff and students has been building a three-dimensional virtual-reality model of the ancient Egyptian religious site known as Karnak, one of the largest temple complexes ever constructed.

Tanzania: Laetoli Ancient Footsteps to Get 'Facelift' Musa Juma 17 May 2009 Arusha — The Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism expects to spend Tsh.600 million on an excavation and preservation project of the famous ancient Laetoli footsteps in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

...what sets Laetoli apart from every other site in the world is some footprints that have been found there, certainly one of the most extraordinary cases of preservation and discovery in all of paleoanthropology.

Archaeological Discovery In Jordan Valley: Enormous 'Foot-shaped' Enclosures ScienceDaily (Apr. 6, 2009) — "Foot-shaped" structures have been revealed in the Jordan valley and are among the earliest sites that archeologists believe were built by the ancient people of Israel. The structures are thought to be symbolic of the biblical concept of ownership.

Cartography students know this one well, it is called the Bedolina petroglyph and comes from Northern Italy where it was created between 4000 and 3500 years ago. It has been called the oldest known plan of an inhabited site, and to some people, it is the oldest known map, a distinction that depends largely on whether you think a map is a representation of a space that you physically inhabit.

See also:
http://www.jstor
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki
http://librarycog.uwindsor.ca

 

News from the Temple of Taposiris Magna A radar survey of the temple of Taposiris Magna, west of Alexandria, Egypt, was completed last month as part of the search for the tomb of Cleopatra and Mark Antony.

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Shira Evans and Her Amazing Foundation

This year Shira started a foundation called Computer Labs for Kids. Shira receives donated or buys laptop computers with donations and then gives them to needy children and provides training and orientation on how to use the laptops! Wow!

Shira's first activity was to travel to Agra, India where she taught several girls who are residents of a girls' school there. This You Tube video follows their progress.

Shira has just returned to the states from Ashkelon, Israel, and later this year she'll be going to Egypt. You can read more about Shira's foundation work and travels at her Facebook site.

Here is a brief update from Shira:

Dear Goddesschess Followers,

I have a non-profit charity organization which gives laptops to children in areas of need around the world.

I am writing this from Israel, having just visited Ashkelon which is right on the Gaza stripborder; an area frequently bombed. And as a chessplayer (ok I've been away from chess for a few years, but I am now inspired to get back into the game) I see something very chessish here. Do you know how psychological the game of chess is when you're sitting across from an opponent? You can be totally winning, get nervous and then lose. Or you can be losing, play a dubious but seemingly brilliant move, and win! It's an incredible rush. Well here in Ashkelon, I see a similar pattern. Here is the most beautiful beach front property, and really, right now there is peace and no sign of bombing or war. I went to the hospital here and spoke with a hospital representative who told stories of people living in terror, afraid to go 15 minutes away from their doorsteps because a bomb siren might go off, and they would have only 15 minutes to get to a safe house. But right now, here in this time, there is calmness, beauty and peace.

What makes the area dangerous is that people are living in the past, afraid of what already happened. But right here and now, the area is calm. OK. I drove away from Ashkelon and when I talked to a man who inquired where I had been and I told him, he said, "Oh don't go to Ashkelon. You don't want to visit there."

He was sending me mental pictures of war, destruction and dirty, polluted walkways -- the opposite of what Ashkelon really looks like here at this moment in time. So this is what I see.... You're playing a game of chess, and you get into a position where you always mess up (like the war torn Ashkelon), and you think, "Oh no, I'm done for." And there you go losing another game. What we need to do is see the city (or chess position) for how it really is right now at this moment in time. That is where the chess brilliance happens! Hopefully too, I can wake up the people of Israel to a brighter more brilliant future. Please join my charity cause on Facebook!

Happy chessplaying and thanks!

Shira