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Random Roundup Archives
A clearinghouse of Random Roundup files
April 2010 |
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April 25, 2010
Directions on the Box
Archaeologists unearth 6th century Ikea-style temple Archaeologists in Italy have unearthed the remains of a 6th century BC temple-style building complete with detailed assembly instructions which they have likened to an Ikea do-it-yourself furniture pack.
Mysterious desert lines were animal traps Walls formed large funnels to direct gazelle and other large game animals - Larry O'Hanlon - updated 1:39 p.m. ET, Tues., April 20, 2010 - British RAF pilots in the early 20th century were the first to spot the strange kite-like lines on the deserts of Israel, Jordan and Egypt from the air and wonder about their origins. The lines are low, stone walls, usually found as angled pairs, that begin far apart and converge at circular pits. In some places in Jordan the lines formed chains up to 40 miles long.
Ancient stones older than Stonehenge discovered on Dartmoor Ancient stones which are thought to be 1,000 years older than Stonehenge have been discovered in Dartmoor. - Published: 7:00AM BST 19 Apr 2010 - The nine stones at Cut Hill, one of the highest points on Dartmoor in Devon, have been carbon-dated to around 3,500BC
English megaliths linked to death rites - Dartmoor’s stones predate Stonehenge but share traits - Rows of stones stretch across the Dartmoor landscape in England. Scientists suggest that some of the large stones at Dartmoor pre-date Stonehenge and could be related to funerary rites.
Mummified Baboons in British Museum May Reveal Location of the Land of Punt Submitted by owenjarus on Mon, 04/12/2010 - Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Yemen are all possible locations of the Land of Punt. Throughout their history the ancient Egyptians recorded making voyages to a place called the 'Land of Punt'. To the Egyptians it was a far-off source of exotic animals and valuable goods.
Stolen toe of King Tut's dad returned to Egypt - APRIL 14, 2010 - CAIRO — A toe belonging to the father of famed boy pharaoh Tutankhamun has been returned to Egypt nearly a century after it was stolen, the Supreme Council of Antiquities said on Wednesday.
Documentary Now Available of Ancient Caryatid Hairstyles Being Brought to Life - A DVD is now available that documents the Caryatid Hairstyling Project, directed by Dr. Katherine Schwab, associate professor of art history at Fairfield University, that investigates whether elaborate female coiffures seen among the Erechtheion marble Caryatids, or maidens, at the Acropolis Museum in Athens could actually be replicated on women today.
New Acropolis Museum, Athens - Opening Ceremony Video Projections directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari
Mathematical Pi Song
Lyrics:
A long, long time ago
Long before the Super Bowl
and things like lemonade
The Hellenic Republic was full of smarts
and a question resting on the Grecian hearts was
What is the circumference of a circle?The world without pi - ... a commercial ...for pi day
PI - Trailer - QuantumAnomaly "There will be no order - only chaos." - But there is order in chaos, by definition. So you speak of a paradox. And it is in the exploration of paradoxes that you discover new paradigm...
April 18, 2010
Cold Wars, Cold Chess & Cold Cash
Psychic Twins...IN THE FUTURE - posted on You Tube by sokhan6 - September 28, 2008 — In the future, the greatest battle between good and evil will be fought. Between twins. Who are also psychic chess masters.
Cold War in the World of Chess Harold C. Schonebrg, Cultural Correspondent of the New York Times, is the author of the recently published book "Facing The Music". (Published: September 27, 1981) "Not much work has been done on the psychology of the chess genius. An article by Dr. Dennis H. Holding in the September issue of Chess Life cites studies made by Herbert Simon, a Nobelist in economics, and William Chase, a psychologist. Simon and Chase, after considerable work, have decided that chess mastery is based on memory".
Chess - The Musical the characters personalities are loosely based on those of Victor Korchnoi and Bobby Fischer and the oddity of the Merano championship in the musical is based on the similar oddities which occurred during the 1978 World Championship between Korchnoi and Anatoly Karpov.
My Cold War (Diamondback Books), the latest novel by Anne Diamond opens in Montreal in 1956 with a family on a country drive — Based on true events, My Cold War looks back at a dark chapter of the Cold War decade. (My Cold War is available to order or download at lulu.com/diamondback.
Remembering Dr. Zukhar - June 23, 2008 — Posted by Lokodely77 at You Tube Año 1978 - Match Mundial de Ajedrez en Baguio (Filipinas) entre el Anatoly Karpov y Viktor Korchnoi , este ultimo cuenta las incidencias del Dr. Zukhar en el encuentro (In Spanish - though the picture is quite clear...)
That's Zukhar - not Zoltar... though it may be all one and the same thing...
Aleister Crowley - Chess A Wisdom Archive on Aleister Crowley - Chess - A selection of articles related to Aleister Crowley...
More on Crowley & Co. available in this newly published work by Phil Teertha Mistlberger. His new book, "The Three Dangerous Magi", will be released by O-Books and made available in bookstores later this year. It's an in depth study of three of the 20th century's most interesting and controversial spiritual teachers, Osho (Rajneesh), G.I. Gurdjieff, and Aleister Crowley.
Sofia Polgar VS Viktor Kortchnoi - Posted by Xposthmous at You Tube — October 15, 2006 — Viktor Kortchnoi loses to Sofia Polgar in a blitz match..."That's the very first and the very last time you win a game from me -" Oooooh grouchy, grouchy...
Judith Polgar (Money) - Did Someone say "Money"?
Business Chess - A Business game based on classical chess in an interactive cognitive scenario...
Business chess and its Divine Predestination - An excerpt from the interview given by G.K. OVAKIMYAN to the newspaper “Noyev Kovcheg” (“Noah’s Ark”), July, 2002
On Business Chess, Economy, Politics, and School Education "Evidently, to create an effective civil society and acceptable common standards of interstate relations, it is absolutely necessary that the population must adequately understand the essence of the ongoing economic and political processes. And all this may be learnt when one is still at school – by playing Business Chess and watching TV programs showing how professionals play it."
Coins, Bodies, Games, and Gold: The Politics of Meaning in Archaic Greece - Leslie Kurke The invention of coinage in ancient Greece provided an arena in which rival political groups struggled to imprint their views on the world. Here Leslie Kurke analyzes the ideological functions of Greek coinage as one of a number of symbolic practices that arise for the first time in the archaic period. By linking the imagery of metals and coinage to stories about oracles, prostitutes, Eastern tyrants, counterfeiting, retail trade, and games, she traces the rising egalitarian ideology of the polis, as well as the ongoing resistance of an elitist tradition to that development. The argument thus aims to contribute to a Greek "history of ideologies," to chart the ways ideological contestation works through concrete discourses and practices long before the emergence of explicit political theory.
The term Pyx is from the ancient Greek and refers to the boxwood chest ...
... in which the coins are placed for presentation to the Jury. Unlike many quaint customs in the UK this is legally binding procedure and is a trail in the true sense presided over by a judge with an expert jury of assayers. The Judge is the Queen’s Remembrancer which is the oldest judicial position in continuance existence created by King Henry II in 1154.(Pictured Below: Goldsmith's Hall)
Lydia - Herodotus, who wrote around 430 BC, talks about the Lydians as “the first people we know of to have struck gold and silver coins.” We can therefore place the birth of currency in Lydia due to the fact that archaeologists working in the twentieth century on the site of ancient Sardis, capital of the kingdom, found small round ingots of a metal called electrum. This is not pure gold but a natural alloy of gold and silver. It could be found in abundance in the mountains of Lydia and especially in alluvial deposits in the Pactolus River, which retained a reputation for being wealthy that its current condition no longer merits. (Pictured below: Lydian gold coin)
World Coins: Ancient to Modern (List 39A - Winter 2009) Note: This list is now out of date. It is included here for informational purposes only.
It’s a bird! - It’s a plane! No, it’s Russia’s “flying saucer”- Published 03 March, 2010, 13:17 Edited 04 April, 2010, 05:39 Russia has launched a program to build a powerful, multi-purpose airship that will certainly cause many people on the ground to take notice.
Schrödinger's Cash: Minting Quantum Money Quantum physicists think a lot about cash. Not just any old money, you understand. They think about quantum cash. Quantum banknotes aren't like credit cards or dollar bills. They are simply information: a mixture of bits - the 0s and 1s that we use to send electronic transactions - and quantum bits, or qubits, that are governed by the laws of quantum mechanics and can be both a 0 and 1 at the same time.
Ancient Chinese games - February 08, 2009 — New Frontiers - Go and Chinese Chess 1/3 Open all 3 parts in a playlist:
April 11,2010
Scheming Minds
"Amberley excelled at chess -- one mark, Watson, of a scheming mind.
Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of the Retired Colourman""The greatest enemy will hide in the last place you would ever look."
- Julius Caesar 75 B.C
"The only way to get smarter is by playing a smarter opponent."
- Fundamentals of Chess 1883
"First rule of business, protect your investment."
- Etiquette of the Banker 1775
"There is no avoiding war, it can only be postponed to the advantage of your enemy"
- Niccolo Machiavelli 1502Improvised Games
Chess was one of the board games played and the unusual discovery of a wooden ball shows that bowls was played in York as early as the 15th century. Check out 9 mens morris board scratched on the back of a coffin lid (talk about improvisation...) pic is at the bottom of the page.
Makeshift chess at Angkor Thom
Daily Life in Phnom Penh 2004 It is not unusual at all to see two people hunched over a chess "board" drawn on the pavement, with rocks or bottle caps for the chess pieces, and lots of interested kibitzers overseeing the game.
The tradition of improvising a chess set from whatever's on hand is probably as venerable as chess itself. Chess culture is chock-full of sets put together from odds and ends of every description, but here I'm only focusing on sets built from mechanical and electrical bits--mostly nuts, bolts, and washers of various flavors. If you've got a good one I missed, please do link it in the comments.
District 9 Official Movie Trailer Video - PRAWNS not PAWNS! Underground improv with cyber-junkyard bits and a different kind of prison break.. Non-human refugees confined to a restricted area known as District 9 encounter a government operative that is exposed to their advanced biotechnology.
Revolver is a 2005 movie, written and directed by Guy Ritchie: The number 32 comes up repeatedly. "The chess game has many mystical meanings. The Temple of Solomon was chequered like a chess board, which has 64 squares and 32 pieces."[8] The elevator that Jake enters near the end of the movie has buttons for 32 floors. In numerology, its 'opposite' is said to be the number 23, which is commonly associated with 'The 23 Enigma' (which is the idea that everything in the observed universe is somehow related to the number 23).[9] In the Kabbalah the number 13 represents the year where a child becomes a man and thus Jake was stuck on the 13 floor when he finally understood. Chess Room (2:01) AudioTracks Revolver - Nathaniel Mechaly -
Carved bullets Carved bullets have become increasingly more popular with Civil War collectors. Perhaps it's because they have personal and historical value and the fact that a Civil War soldier put time, thought, effort and heart into whittling and carving while passing the time while in camp.
Do It Yourself!
Chess Variant Set Construction by Tony Quintanilla - Lots of helpful hints!
Cybergeek's DIY Chess Set The how-to of the chess set I made my (now ex-) girlfriend for Christmas.
Eldrbarry's Daydream: Turning my own Chess Pieces A picture of a chess set turned out of a piece of 13th Century Oak by an English turner on pages 30, 31 of Gareth Williams' Master Pieces: The Architecture of Chess really grabbed my attention.Where could I find a set like this - especially with that unique knight. It planted the thought in my mind "Why couldn't I make a chess set.myself?"
Turned Chessmen: For Collectors, Players and Woodworkers (Mike Darlow's Woodturing series) (Paperback)n Editorial Reviews "An exhaustive reference…brimming with phots of chess pieces from a great many places and times, and interesting facts about them." - Woodcraft Magazine
Making your own chess set - 2006/08/21 09:35
Where's the Chess Board? - Video August 31, 2008 — Murray and Charlie go the park to play chess. After forgetting to bring the board and the pieces, they are forced to improvise...
#27 A Chess Set In Cinema 4D The Rook Piece: In a previous post, I showed you the basics of making chess pieces in Cinema 4D. Now we are kicking it up a notch and making a Rook piece.
Marines forgot to bring chess set on Philippines mission, so they improvised By Juliana Gittler, Stars and Stripes Pacific edition, Wednesday, December 15, 2004 -
Cpl. Daniel Shannon from Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 262 moves his chess pieceduring a break. The chess set was improvised from small worn aircraft parts. CLARK AIR BASE, Philippines — Arriving to a humanitarian mission without their beloved chessboard to keep them busy, some helicopter squadron Marines got creative.
On second thought...
Fort Collins, Colo., March 31-2010 (UPI) -- A chess teacher has been sent to prison in Colorado despite his protestations he didn't sexually prey on boys interested in learning the game.
DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK, January 29, 2010 Robert Snyder, the author of this book, plead guilty in 2007 to charges of molesting children who happened to be members of the chess team he was coaching. After serving his sentence, he was supposed to serve an extended period of probabtion in which he was to register as a sex offender every 90 days. Instead, Synder fled to another country and assumed a false name. But after appearing on America'a most wanted, he was eventually captured by police and is now once again behind bars.
Jailhouse Rook By Dave McKenna on December 6, 1996 The annual Virginia State Class Championships chess tournament will be held this weekend in Fredericksburg, but Claude Bloodgood, far and away the highest-rated player in the Old Dominion, won't be showing up. In fact, eight of the 13 highest-rated Virginia players won't be able to attend. They'll all be spending the weekend, and years to come, in check--behind bars.
Slight Relapse?
Scotland's Daily Record reports in "Evil Killers Become Prison Chess Pals" Two of Scotland's worst killers have struck up a bizarre jail friendship over games of chess. In an interview with reporters last month, Newton said he killed Brewer because he repeatedly gave up while they were playing chess. 'Every time I put him in check, he'd give up and want to start a new game,' Newton said. 'And I tried to tell him you never give up ... I just got tired of it.'"
Turned Chessmen?
Top Five Activities to do in Jail – Behind Bars and Living it Up - If you’ve ever spent some time behind bars, you know what the deal is. Lots of weight lifting, chess games, and of course, confined boredom.
A Shot of Self-Worth Behind Bars January 12, 2005 - Inc. staff writer Patrick Sauer recently profiled Benecard Services, based in Lawrenceville, N.J., a company where the game of chess has become a large part of its culture. Here, he shares his notes on a recent outing to a N.J. state prison where the company sponsors a chess tournament twice a year.
Memories of the Pittsburgh CC Prison Visits By Bruce Leverett - I read in the paper in January that the State Correctional Institute of Pittsburgh (SCIP) closed. Only then did it finally hit me that the old Pittsburgh Chess Club prison visit program was no more. I have strong memories of participating in this program.
Chess behind bars - New Jersey - photos
Oliver Fluck’s series of Prisoner Chess Portraits is an interesting counterpoint to other prisoner portraiture. It is unfussy, neutral, quiet. Fluck is experimenting with the figure and I would like to see him in the future settle with a preferred vantage point in relation to his sitter. For example, I like the portraits of the Prison Chess Champ and of Christopher Serrone.
Makeshift Paper Chess Pieces used by inmates
Jailhouse Tech in the Spotlight Guys in jail can be pretty crafty, pretty creative. Get someone who’s done real time talking, and, sooner or later, you’ll hear stories about makeshift water heaters or MacGyvered-up toasters. A couple of years ago, I was sent a book by “Angelo,” a guy in jail who wrote a book detailing all the jury-rigged contraptions he found behind bars. Here’s some of what I wrote about Prisoners Inventions in Wired News:
Sometimes in chess if there is no other solution it is better to just escape the situation and attack later. Escape the room!
Chess Room - without a view...
Millennium Library of Winnipeg Manitoba Canada January 30, 2007 Video This is a documentary of the library's "chess room" - with a great view!
Unclear on the Concept?
Man gets 15 years for prison break-in MIAMI (Reuters) Wed Mar 24, 2:31 pm ET– A Florida man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for trying to break back into the jail where he had been held following his conviction in a manslaughter case, local media reported on Wednesday.
Prison walls were no obstacle for a man in western Germany who was being separated from his love. But breaking into her cell every night turned out to be a very bad decision.
Too Clear on the Concept?
Chess and the Wallace Murder Case Edward Winter ‘The Wallace murder case might have been devised by Agatha Christie. In spite of recent evidence that seems to point towards a solution, it retains that tantalizing quality of a classic unsolved mystery.’ – Colin Wilson on page 31 of Unsolved Murders and Mysteries edited by John Canning (London, 1992).
He was dubbed the chessboard killer, but Alexander Pichushkin's deadly antics were no game.By David Lowe Published: 30 Oct 2007
As the minutes tick down, "A Chess Game For Murder", explodes into a gripping story of crime and punishment, tragedy and retribution--and of human beings caught in the shattering cross fire of forces beyond their control . . . forces sometimes within themselves.
April 4, 2010
"B" is for Bee, Beer, Buffoon, Box Turtle, Brainy, Bingham ...
April Fools' day is canceled. Seriously. April Fools' jokes are not happening around the world today, as they have for centuries. The holiday is over.By Stephen Kurczy, Correspondent / April 1, 2010
Men owe women for 'creating beer By Nick Britten - 30 Mar 2010 One of man’s great pleasures might be a pint of beer at the local – but an expert has claimed it would never have existed without the entrepreneurial skills of women.
The day beer saved the world...! And it came to pass that when this goddess arrived at the dawn of day, she found these [Heavens] flooded [with beer], and she was pleased thereat; and she drank [of the beer and blood], and her heart rejoiced, and she became drunk, and she gave no further attention to men and women.
Rosslyn Chapel was haven for bees - Tuesday, 30 March 2010 - The bees entered the hive through a carved flower. An ancient chapel has revealed a new mystery with the discovery of a 600-year-old hive built into the stones.
Why do Bees Dance? Video June 02, 2006 — By means of the waggle dance a bee communicates to its hivemates in which direction they must fly to reach a food source.
Why Do Humans Dance? Denise Chow Staff Writer LiveScience.com – Mon Mar 22 - Monday night's premiere of "Dancing with the Stars" has celebrities - among them Pamela Anderson, Buzz Aldrin and Kate Gosselin - showcasing their dance moves for the world and driving a point home for those sitting at home: For some people, dancing is a natural form of expression. For others with two left feet, dancing can be more of a spectacle.
Giza Pyramids Align Toward City of Sun God Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News The Giza Pyramids | Discovery News - March 24, 2009 -- Some of Egypt's most magnificent pyramids were deliberately designed to follow a pattern of invisible diagonal lines, an Italian study has concluded.
Train ride to the lost city of the Incas April 1, 2010 - Video/Slideshow Machu Picchu, one of the world’s best known archaeological sites.
Friends of Tuva (FoT) was conceived by accident in 1981 to commemorate Tuva's 60th anniversary as a distinctive splotch on the world globe. Because FoT is a brainchild of Ralph Leighton, it is impossible that it could even resemble an organization. Rather, it has been a clearinghouse of information about Tuva and its "patron saint," Richard Feynman
Ancient doorway to afterlife discovered in Egypt Mar 29, CAIRO (AFP) – A large red granite false door from the tomb of an ancient queen's powerful vizier has been discovered in Luxor, Egypt's culture minister said on Monday.
New Wriotten Language of Ancient Scotland Discovered By Jennifer Viegas | Wed Mar 31, 2010 Once thought to be rock art, carved depictions of soldiers, horses and other figures are in fact part of a written language dating back to the Iron Age.
Warrior Tut Volume 63 Number 2, March/April 2010 by W. Raymond Johnson - Sculptures from Luxor prove the "Boy King" was the scourge of Egypt's foes
Tartarus = Tortoise! Saturday March 13 2010 - I always thought "Tartarus" was Hell - not really the Devil-with-pitchfork and eternal fire roasting one's butt kind of place (although some people really do deserve such a place for eternity!), but a place similar to my old Catholic conception of Purgatory, which was where unbaptised babies went when they died, a sort of dread place, not really described.
Turtle Fences? - Video - The Federal Government through the Department of Transportation mandated Michigan spend $400,000 for a turtle fence along Michigan highways.
Somebody PLEASE help this poor man out!
Dr. Leo on Chess History Video (Caution - very painful - see reader's comments... ) September 23, 2006 — Dr. Leo Stefurak gives us a history of chess lesson. Presented at Chessmates Simul in 2005. Seattle Art Museum ...
Richard Feynman to the Rescue !!
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts." - Richard P. Feynman
"No problem is too small or too trivial if we can really do something about it." - Richard Feynman, Letter to Koichi Mano
"In fact the total amount that a physicist knows is very little. He has only to remember the rules to get him from one place to another and he is all right..." - Richard P. Feynman (The Character of Physical Law)
Richard Feynman :: Rules of Chess Video
The Poetry of Reality Video is the fifth installment in the Symphony of Science music video series. It features 12 scientists and science enthusiasts, including Michael Shermer, Jacob Bronowski, Carl Sagan, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Richard Dawkins, Jill Tarter, Lawrence Krauss, Richard Feynman, Brian Greene, Stephen Hawking, Carolyn Porco, and PZ Myers, promoting science through words of wisdom.
The Symphony of Science is a musical project headed by John Boswell designed to deliver scientific knowledge and philosophy in musical form. Here you can watch music videos, download songs, read lyrics and find links relating to the messages conveyed by the music
