2007			Mar.	Apr.	May	June	July	Aug.	Sept.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.
2008	Jan.	Feb.	Mar.	Apr.	May	June	July	Aug.	Sept.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.
2009	Jan.	Feb.	Mar	Apr.	May	June	July	Aug.	Sept	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.
2010	Jan.	Feb.	Mar.	Apr.	May	June	July.	Aug.	Sept.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.

 

February 7, 2010

Solitude

"I came to a point where I needed solitude and to just stop the machine of thinking"
- Jack Kerouac, Lonesome Traveler

Solitaire is a fictional character in the James Bond novel and film Live and Let Die. In the film, she was portrayed by Jane Seymour. At the age of 22, Jane Seymour became the youngest actress ever to play a Bond girl.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2010 Last Speaker of Ancient Bo Language Has Died This is a very sad story (in more ways than one) from a few days ago - here are two reports (many more reports online).

Tycho Brahe to be exhumed THURSDAY, 04 FEBRUARY 2010 09:14 RC CULTURE Body of Denmark’s most famous astronomer will be dug up in Prague to determine true cause of death. The riddle of the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe's death in 1601 may now have a good chance of being solved. Prague's cultural department has finally given researchers permission to open the tomb of Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, which lies in the city’s Tyn Cathedral.

John Dee was a friend of Tycho Brahe and was familiar with the work of Copernicus.[9] Many of his astronomical calculations were based on Copernican assumptions, but he never openly espoused the heliocentric theory. Dee applied Copernican theory to the problem of calendar reform. His sound recommendations were not accepted, however, for political reasons.[13]

The John Dee Society Our primary purpose is to produce a standard edition of the published and unpublished works of Elizabethan England's great polymath, antiquarian and magus Dr. John Dee, to make available to students of Renaissance philosophy and of Dee's Enochian magical system a coherent data base of primary source material for their researches.

The History of Solitaire The origins of solitaire are unknown. Some have speculated that the fanciful layouts in solitaire originated with the layouts of tarot cards, long used for divination and fortune-telling.

Lady Cadogan's Illustrated Games of Solitaire or Patience by Adelaide Cadogan A downloadable file from Project Gutenberg

Solitaire, also called Patience, often refers to single-player card games involving a layout of cards with a goal of sorting them in some manner. However it is possible to play the same games competitively (often a head to head race) and cooperatively. The term solitaire is also used for single-player games of concentration and skill using a set layout of tiles, pegs or stones rather than cards. These games include Peg solitaire and Shanghai solitaire.

Mahjong solitaire is a solitaire matching game that uses a set of Mahjong tiles rather than cards. It is also known as Shanghai solitaire, electronic or computerized mahjong, MahJong solitaire, solitaire Mahjong and, erroneously, as Mahjong.

This is a list of solitaire or patience card games. Some varieties that are played by more than one player are marked with a plus sign. This list is marked incomplete because this list below does not list all solitaire games available. Some games may be even variants of existing games.

Solitaire terminology:There are a number of common features in many solitaire (patience) games, such as 'building down' and the 'foundations' and 'tableau', used to simplify the description of new games. Here is a partial list.

Video Description: 1999 Karel Deleeuw Memorial Lecture in Mathematics by Persi Diaconis — a magician, MacArthur Fellow and an expert on the mathematics of card shuffling. Speaker - Persi Diaconis, faculty in mathematics and statistics, Stanford University

Solitaire Chess - For those who don't know what Solitaire Chess is (I assume this applies to most of the readers), it is simply a method of training where you play over an instructional game, and guess the moves of the winning player. So if Bobby Fischer was White in a game where he won, you try to guess only the White moves.

Book on solitaire chess: From world-renowned chess teacher Bruce Pandolfini comes a collection of the 50 best games from his popular “Solitaire Chess” Column in Chess Life magazine.

Ancient Board Games and Solitaire Games From Around the World Copyright © 2008,2009 by Robert Wayne Atkins, P.E. All Rights Reserved. "During hard times it is very easy to become depressed and melancholy. If you allow yourself to fall into this type of mood then it will quickly spread to the other members of your household. During hard times you and your family will need to have some form of entertainment to help take your minds off the depressing situations that exist all around you.:

 

 

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Two relaxing musical selections

Tranquility - Time Solitaire. Music United with Nature.

Universal Mother - Ancient Chants, Blissful Grooves

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What is Obscura Day? An international celebration of wondrous, curious, and esoteric places. WHEN AND WHERE? We are celebrating Obscura Day in cities and towns all over the world! Saturday, March 20th 2010. Mark your calendar. Who's Organizing This? The folks behind Atlas Obscura, a compendium of the world's wonders, curiosities, and esoterica.

World War II computer Colossus that cracked Nazi code Retired British spy catcher Tony Sale rebuilt Colossus, the world's first recognisably programmable computer. Colossus was instrumental in the work of code cracking operations at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire during World War II. It deciphered messages sent by German over the Lorenz Cipher. Colossus was kept as a state secret until the end of the 1990s.

Stonehenge's secret: archaeologist uncovers evidence of encircling hedges... Survey of landscape suggests prehistoric monument was surrounded by two circular hedges. Inevitably dubbed Stonehedge, the evidence from a new survey of the Stonehenge landscape suggests that 4,000 years ago the world's most famous prehistoric monument was surrounded by two circular hedges, planted on low concentric banks.

Funerary art is any work of art forming or placed in a repository for the remains of the dead. Tomb is a general term for the repository, while grave goods are objects—other than the primary human remains—which have been placed inside.[1] Such objects may include the personal possessions of the deceased, or objects specially created for the burial, or miniature versions of things needed in an afterlife. Our knowledge of several cultures is drawn largely from these sources.

Ancient tomb belongs to top general: scholars Global Times January 29 2010] By An Baijie Chinese scholars reported Wednesday that a large ancient tomb they unearthed earlier in Northwest Shaanxi Province belongs to a high-ranking general that was guarded by hundreds of nude pottery figurines.

Tomb Raider: Charles Fellows in Lycia Robbing graves is a crime almost as old as the practice that unwittingly encouraged it, but taking the tombs themselves is an entirely different matter. In the 1840s, Charles Fellows shipped back to London’s British Museum 105 crates of blocks and sculptures taken from tombs scattered in Turkey…

Getting By On Her Looks "Priestess of Amun" by Eti Bonn-Muller Using crystal-clear 3-D images from Meresamun's historic scans, two forensic artists reconstruct the face of a 2,800-year-old Egyptian priestess

Digital Karnak - Reconstructing the Karnak Temple Complex in 3D The ancient Egyptian religious site Karnak, one of the largest temple complexes ever constructed... Digital Karnak (Archive) is a three-dimensional virtual-reality model that runs in real time and allows users to navigate 2,000 years of history.

January 31, 2010

Enochian chess first appears to have been played by members of the Order of the Golden Dawn, who used their boards and pieces for divination as well as gameplay. Documentary evidence for the existence of the game (in the form of a Golden Dawn paper dating from no later than 1897) has come to light, but no historical documents discovered so far have given the complete rules for game play.

Enochian, Rosicrucian or Elemental Chess William W. Wescott and McGregor Mather, the main instigators of the late 19th century Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn devised a special chess game, variously described as Enochian, Rosicrucian or Elemental chess.

A number of interesting books by Steve Nichols - among them, works on Chaturanja, Tarot, Senet (Zenet) and various mystical properties ascribed to these and other forms of "gaming" media.

The Book of Enoch tr. by R.H. Charles [1917] The Book of Enoch, written during the second century B.C.E., is one of the most important non-canonical apocryphal works, and probably had a huge influence on early Christian, particularly Gnostic, beliefs. Filled with hallucinatory visions of heaven and hell, angels and devils, Enoch introduced concepts such as fallen angels, the appearance of a Messiah, Resurrection, a Final Judgement, and a Heavenly Kingdom on Earth. Interspersed with this material are quasi-scientific digressions on calendrical systems, geography, cosmology, astronomy, and meteorology.

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Two Videos featuring J.J. Hurtak

An interview with JJ Hurtak - Melchezedik & the Keys of Enoch

JJ Hurtak on Art and the Divine Mother - with J. Ripstein

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Canon - an inventory of canonic this, that and the other thing - with emphasis on the "other". Full of trivia, but hardly what you would call "trivial"...

Gorillas 'ape humans' over games Gorilla games provide clues to human understanding. Gorillas play competitive games just like humans, according to scientists at the University of St Andrews.The gorillas at San Francisco Zoo were observed over a period of five years playing with a variety of equipment.

Leroy Golf Sumerian Seals Seals were the main interest of Leroy Golf and form the bulk of the collection. His special interests were complex mythologial scens, naked Innana-Ishtar seals and unusual imagery. This has led to the added benefit of having many early Dynastic seals.

It is well known and commented that the cylinder seal was most varied and creative in design in its earliest days, and by the Old Babylonian period it had mostly settled into mediocre “presentation scenes” with perhaps a inscribed name or dedication

Ancient Cylinder Seal Art historian Holly Pittman analyzes the oldest seal found on the Arabian Peninsula. By Peter Nichols...

(< Image) The Abu Dhabi cylinder seal

... In 2008, a soil-survey team was working on a barren dune field in the Western Region of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. On the surface of the sands, at a place that had been recently disturbed by herders and livestock, the surveyors picked up a two-centimeter, minutely inscribed cylinder.

The most sacred of cities David O'Connor's Abydos: Egypt's First Pharaohs and the Cult of Osiris. The American University in Cairo Press, Cairo (2009) - Abydos is situated on the western bank of the Nile about seven kilometres west of the town of Balyana in Middle Egypt. It made its debut on the stage of Egypt's ancient history even before the dynastic period, and it retained its aura of sanctity longer than any other site in Egypt.

Tomb of ancient China's "defense minister" unearthed in northwest ChinaEnglish.news.cn   2010-01-29 XI'AN, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- The family tombs of an high-ranking general of the Han Dynasty (202 B.C.-220 A.D.) was unearthed in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, providing evidence to China's military history, archaeologists said Friday.

Historic Welsh pillar shrouded in mystery 26 January 2010 Published by: Rob Bellis - With a low lying mist over the hills all around, the Valley of the Cross seems a particularly mysterious place on this chilly morning. While the elements – and the Roundheads, who apparently toppled it during the civil war – may have taken their toll, Eliseg’s Pillar remains a majestic sight on the horizon as you approach.

 

Horizontal and vertical: The evolution of evolution 26 January 2010 by Mark Buchanan - Just suppose that Darwin's ideas were only a part of the story of evolution. Suppose that a process he never wrote about, and never even imagined, has been controlling the evolution of life throughout most of the Earth's history. It may sound preposterous, but this is exactly what microbiologist Carl Woese and physicist Nigel Goldenfeld, both at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, believe. Darwin's explanation of evolution, they argue, even in its sophisticated modern form, applies only to a recent phase of life on Earth.

January 24, 2010

BREAKING NEWS!!
Computer Labs for Kids in LA

Computer Labs for Kids is looking for volunteers!

Host: Shira Evans
Location: United Care - 3699 Crenshaw Blvd,
Los Angeles, CA 90016 US
When: Saturday, February 6, 1:30PM to 5:00PM
Phone: 626-408-2390

Hello everyone,

Computer Labs for Kids is looking for volunteers!

We are a 501c3 charity organization which provides a class about laptops to children in foster care. At the end of each course, the children receive their very own laptop. This is very fun and exciting course, and we need your help in order to accomplish it. Please visit our website to see our latest project in Chicago, so you will have an idea of what we do. Click here to see our website.

Right now we are looking for 20 Volunteers Technical Assistants to help foster children one-on-one at our class on February 6th from 1:30 pm to 5:00 pm.

Volunteers will need to arrive at 1:30 pm and also to complete our Volunteer Training Course which can be done online. Click here to start the course.

Volunteer Technical Assistant Requirements: Basic computing skills, love for children and a desire to help them.

Thank you very much!

Shira

 

The Breast of Goddesschess

Moonwalk for breast cancer May 15,2010.

Offensive Nipple Banned by BBC on Popular Antiques Show Story from the dailymail.co.uk BBC orders auction house to remove neo-classical goddess painting 'in case nipple offends viewers' By Daily Mail Reporter Last updated at 12:29 AM on 22nd January 2010

BBC bosses ordered an auction house to remove a neo-classical oil painting of a semi-naked woman in case her exposed nipple offended viewers.

Auctioneer Alan Aldridge was being filmed for Flog it!, BBC2's daytime antique programme, when the production team asked him to take down the 19th-century oil painting.

It features the mythical Greek goddess Ariadne holding a goblet of wine with her left breast exposed. Mr Aldridge, who runs Aldridge Auctioneers in Devizes, Wiltshire, offered to cover the offending nipple, but was still told to take the canvas down.

He said: "It is absolutely ridiculous...."

 

Remembering a previous King of Ridiculous...
On January 28, 2002, Attorney General John Ashcroft, announced that he spent $8000 of US taxpayer’s money for drapes to cover up the exposed breast of The Spirit of Justice, an 18ft aluminum statue of a woman that stands in the Hall of Justice.

 

 

 

 

Absolutely ridiculous? We agree!
Of course you know, THIS MEANS WAR!!!

Poem (pdf) - Courting Lady Litigation

Lady Godiva - (video) Peter and Gordon lip synching on
the old Milton Berle Show...(RIP Gordon Waller)

Monty Python's "naughty bits"... (video)

More Pythonesque Humour "How to recognize different parts of the body"

Oh GET OVER IT!! Three years after a "wardrobe malfunction" bared the singer Janet Jackson's right breast during a televised half-time Super Bowl show, a federal appeals court has been asked to consider whether its appearance was indecent or merely a fleeting and accidental glitch.

 

 

 

Tale of a clssic "biter": Thiel is also a chess master and intensely competitive. He has been known to sweep the chessmen off the table in a fury when losing. And he does not apologise for this hyper-competitveness, saying: "Show me a good loser and I'll show you a loser."

History of the Breast The history of the bra is interesting. But the world history of the breast is riveting...

From Amazon.com "What's in a breast? That depends on who's asking, says Marilyn Yalom, author of this scholarly, illustrated treatise on the breast in Western society. "Babies see food. Men see sex. Doctors see disease. Businesspeople see dollar signs."

From Wikipedia A "Snake Goddess" statuette of ancient Minoan Civilization, c. 1600 BC.

In European pre-historic societies, sculptures of female figures with pronounced or highly exaggerated breasts were common.

A typical example is the so-called Venus of Willendorf, one of many Paleolithic Venus figurines with ample hips and bosom.

Artifacts such as bowls, rock carvings and sacred statues with breasts have been recorded from 15,000 BC up to late antiquity all across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

Many female deities representing love and fertility were associated with breasts and breast milk. Figures of the Phoenician goddess Astarte were represented as pillars studded with breasts. Isis, an Egyptian goddess who represented, among many other things, ideal motherhood, was often portrayed as suckling pharaohs, thereby confirming their divine status as rulers.

Tit for tat is a English saying meaning "equivalent retaliation". It is also a highly effective strategy in game theory for the iterated prisoner's dilemma. It was first introduced by Anatol Rapoport in Robert Axelrod's two tournaments, held around 1980.

"Tit, Tat, Toe" is a game that's currently called "Tic, Tac, Toe" in the United States. It's also called "Noughts and Crosses".

Tit, tat, toe,
My first go,
Three jolly butcher boys
All in a row;
Stick one up,
Stick one down,
Stick one on the old man's crown.

11 Pairs of Tits We’ve Wanted to Touch in Video Games

List of 21 Products Featuring - you guessed it!

Ouch ouch ouch!! (video) Tit For Tat Game Theory , Chak De India - Movie Short - Shah Rukh Khan

Tit for tat in the game of Japanese gift-giving By THOMAS DILLON "Beware of Japanese bearing gifts!" These words were twitched to me at a reception years ago when I first arrived in Japan. The twitcher was a foreign housewife who gripped my arm with fingernails just long enough to dig through flesh into bone. Her eyes shimmered with a glazed mix of soft concern and hard liquor.

January 17, 2010

There he goes, moving across the water
There he goes turning my whole world around

Can you see what I see
Can you cut behind the mystery
I will meet you by the witness tree
Leave the whole world behind...

(Broken Arrow - R. Robertson)

Ancient hominids may have been seafarers Hand axes excavated on Crete suggest hominids made sea crossings to go 'out of Africa' By Bruce Bower January 30th, 2010; Vol.177 #3 (p. 14) ANAHEIM, Calif. — Human ancestors that left Africa hundreds of thousands of years ago to see the rest of the world were no landlubbers. Stone hand axes unearthed on the Mediterranean island of Crete indicate that an ancient Homo species — perhaps Homo erectus — had used rafts or other seagoing vessels to cross from northern Africa to Europe via at least some of the larger islands in between, says archaeologist Thomas Strasser of Providence College in Rhode Island.

Ancient Navigators: Report on Wadi Gawasis Ship NOVA Tuesday , Janduary 12, 2010 - hosts a special on "Pharaoh's Ship" (about Wadi Gawasis) tonight on PBS - hopefully it will run again. Sailing into antiquity BU archeologist unearths clues about ancient Egypt’s sea trade By Colin Nickerson Globe Correspondent

The archeological digs at Egypt’s Wadi Gawasis have yielded neither mummies nor grand monuments. But Boston University archeologist Kathryn Bard and her colleagues are uncovering the oldest remnants of seagoing ships and other relics linked to exotic trade with a mysterious Red Sea realm called Punt.

First Minoan Shipwreck Volume 63 Number 1, January/February 2010 by Eti Bonn-Muller Archaeologist Elpida Hadjidaki plots the location of ceramic artifacts on the floor of the Mediterranean. They were lost when a Minoan ship likely transporting wine and olive oil in hundreds of large vessels sank between 1800 and 1675.

Pseira seal (Courtesy Philip Betancourt)

Crete has seduced archaeologists for more than a century, luring them to its rocky shores with fantastic tales of legendary kings, cunning deities, and mythical creatures. The largest of the Greek islands, Crete was the land of the Minoans (3100-1050 B.C.), a Bronze Age civilization named after its first ruler, King Minos, the "master of the seas" who is said to have rid the waters of pirates.

Massive statue of Pharaoh Taharqa discovered deep in Sudan By Owen Jarus Friday, 8 January 2010BERBER-ABIDIYA ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT The largest piece of the Taharqa statue is pictured here. It includes parts of the base and torso. There is an inscription on the back-pillar. No statue of a pharaoh has ever been found further south of Egypt than this one. At the height of his reign, King Taharqa controlled an empire stretching from Sudan to the Levant.

Interview: Barbara Racker on Neighbourly Relations Between Nubia and Egypt Submitted by Helen Atkinson on Thu, 11/05/2009 - Several artefacts in the exhibition originate from Meroe, Sudan. The Nubians get short shrift when it comes to recognition of significant ancient cultures. A new exhibition at the Clay Center in West Virginia, US, hopes to rectify that. It is cleverly entitled: “Lost Kingdoms of the Nile,” but the artefacts are all Nubian, not Egyptian. The exhibition runs from Sept. 12, 2009 to April 11, 2010.

Egypt's Gold Crush Submitted by Chris Henry 02/02/2009 - Not Just a Shiny Face - Ancient Egypt has a long, deep and consistant relationship with gold. In Egypt, gold was one of the earliest metals to be discovered, and the country became one of the first of many civilisations to boast a wealth of this valuable material. But it was a wealth gained at the expense of the country's resource-rich neighbours.

Mystery surrounds US museum's Egyptian mummy Researchers are trying to determine if bundles in the abdomen and pelvis cavities contain a bird mummy or are organs. The earlier tests led to speculation that the bundles might contain a bird mummy. Lorelei Corcoran, director of the Institute of Egyptian art and archaeology at the University of Memphis, called the mummy "extremely unusual."

Forensic Aspects of Ancient Egypt with Joyce Filer Submitted by Ann on Wed, 01/06/2010 - Star in 'Mummy CSI' at Joyce Filer's study day 'Forensic Aspects of Ancient Egypt' at the University of London The 21st century has seen incredible advances in our knowledge and use of forensic sciences - to investigate crimes and to find out about people from ancient times. How can we apply this information to the people of ancient Egypt? Find out - and test your own skills in a hands-on practical session - at 'Forensic Aspects of Ancient Egypt' presented by Joyce Filer.

Gold treasure, ancient tombs and mediaeval walls The new decade has set off to a good start with excavations yielding valuable finds in Saqqara and Islamic Cairo, Nevine El-Aref reports Abbasid gold coins in Fayoum, two rock- hewn tombs in Saqqara and a four- cornered, mud-brick tower on the wall of Islamic Cairo are the latest antiquities discovered in Egypt.

Egypt tombs suggest free men built pyramids, not slaves The tombs were found near Egypt's great pyramids Tombs discovered near Egypt's great pyramids reinforce the theory they were built by free workers rather than slaves.

Mystery of Great Pyramid solved ? Internal ramps were used to push the stones into place, Houdin says... A French architect claims to have solved the mystery of how Egypt's Great Pyramid was built. Jean-Pierre Houdin said the 4,500-year-old pyramid, just outside Cairo, was built using an inner ramp to lift the massive stones into place.

 

 

Visit to the Cradle of Humankind David Smith takes a trip to the Sterkfontein Caves just outside Johannesburg in search of the Garden of Eden ...The museum shop has an excellent book, Field Guide to the Cradle of Humankind. It contains a foreword by Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, who never missed a chance to hymn the African renaissance and attack the crimes of colonialism.

In praise of… Neanderthal man It seems we have all been guilty of defaming Neanderthal man. Research by a team based at the University of Bristol suggests that, far from being a lumbering, witless no-hoper, he was capable, 50,000 years ago, of producing forms of cosmetic adornment and even of primitive jewellery. In 1985, finds in Murcia, Spain, had suggested that this might be so; and now an expedition led by Professor João Zilhão of Bristol has uncovered a shell which shows "a symbolic dimension in behaviour and thinking that cannot be denied"...

Treasure Found off La Manga The find has been described as one of the most important of all archaeological discoveries. The Ivory tusks measure between 70 and 150 centimetres, with Phoenician writing inscribed.  They have come from a race of elephants which are now believed to be extinct.  There are also copper ingots and stones containing silver and lead.  Ceramic pots which were used for transporting fish and oil have been found too, as well as plates, bowls, combs, ivory knife handles, bronze needles and chandeliers.

Megalithic spin? Brockdorff Circle report literally rewrites history RAPHAEL VASSALLO The long-awaited official report into the excavations of the Gozo Stone (aka Brockdorff) Circle in Xaghra – a unique underground prehistoric burial site near Ggantija temples – may have rewritten Maltese history in more ways than one: by failing to properly acknowledge that the site was originally discovered by Gozitan historian Joseph Attard Tabone, whose extensive research led to its precise relocation in 1965.

Video and Text : Earliest Chinese civilization found in Jiangsu 2010-01-16 Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has announced the country's top six archaeological discoveries of 2009. Among them are the Neolithic Ruins at Dongshan Village in eastern Jiangsu province. The site has evidence of the earliest Chinese civilization ever found.

Bits of 81 ancient bronze mirrors unearthed The Yomiuri Shimbun NARA--A total of 331 broken pieces belonging to 81 ancient bronze mirrors have been unearthed from a stone chamber of the Sakurai Chausuyama burial mound in Sakurai, Nara Prefecture, according to an archaeological institute. The pieces, which belonged to 13 different kinds of mirrors, were the largest number to be excavated as burial items from an ancient tomb in the nation. The tomb dates to between the late third century and early fourth century. Some of the pieces had been made in the same mold as Sankakubuchi Shinjukyo mirrors, which are engraved with Seishi Gannen (in the Japanese reading), a period name of Wei-dynasty China, meaning the first year of the Seishi era, or 240. Himiko, a female ruler of the Yamatai-koku kingdom, is said to have received 100 mirrors from the Wei dynasty in that year.

Temple of Hadad in Aleppo Citadel Sheds Light on Important Periods By H. Sabbagh Saturday, 09 January 2010 Syria (Aleppo) The discovery of the temple of the god Hadad in Aleppo Citadel is considered one of the most important archaeological discoveries in the late 20th century, according to an article published by Prof. Paolo Matthiae of Italy. ... The god Hadad was mentioned in texts from Mari, Ebla and most other ancient Eastern sites, as old kingdoms uses to make offering to the god of storms in his main temple at the centre of the Amorite kingdom centered in Aleppo.

Mound of Ash Reveals Shrine to Zeus Fri Jan 15, 2010 An altar dedicated to the king of the gods was used for ritual ceremonies by the ancient Greeks.

Cappadocia This documentary highlights Cappadocia, the high plateau region of Central Anatolia in Turkey’s heartland. Settled for over 8 millennia, this region features dramatic volcanic landscapes and many caves used in ancient times. The vast array of heritage sites includes Göreme with its rock houses and open air museum, Medieval fortresses, Christian underground cities of the 7th and 8th centuries, and fortified caravansarais along the silk road. Cappadocia illustrates the rich history of early Christians, Sufi mystics, and the Seljuk Turk empire.

No rest for Caravaggio Andy Pemberton • Last Updated: January 12. 2010 Last month a team of archeologists led by the anthropology professor Georgio Gruppioni claimed to have recovered the remains of the Renaissance artist Caravaggio. "He’s a gripping man, and his story is truly amazing, because not only was he one of the two or three greatest and most original painters ever to have lived, but he had the most bizarrely eventful life – including a murder and an amazing midnight jailbreak from the fortress island of Malta – of any major creative figure in all of history,” said Graham-Dixon..." See also "Cardsharps"

 

January 10, 2010

Quantum Chess and Interdimensional Mehen!

Phi: That Golden Number by Mark Freitag - Most people are familiar with the number Pi, since it is one of the most ubiquitous irrational numbers known to man. But, there is another irrational number that has the same propensity for popping up and is not as well known as Pi. This wonderful number is Phi, and it has a tendency to turn up in a great number of places, a few of which will be discussed in this essay.

Golden Ratio Discovered in Quantum World: Hidden Symmetry Observed for the First Time in Solid State Matter - ScienceDaily (Jan. 7, 2010) — Researchers from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie (HZB), in cooperation with colleagues from Oxford and Bristol Universities, as well as the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK, have for the first time observed a nanoscale symmetry hidden in solid state matter. They have measured the signatures of a symmetry showing the same attributes as the golden ratio famous from art and architecture.

Most beautiful' math structure appears in lab for first time 07 January 2010 by David Shiga A complex form of mathematical symmetry linked to string theory has been glimpsed in the real world for the first time, in laboratory experiments on exotic crystals.

Mathematicians discovered a complex 248-dimensional symmetry called E8 in the late 1800s. The dimensions in the structure are not necessarily spatial, like the three dimensions we live in, but they correspond to mathematical degrees of freedom, where each dimension represents a different variable.

Pi calculated to 'record number' of digits By Jason Palmer Science and technology reporter, BBC News - Pi appears in a wide range of formulae and natural phenomena. A computer scientist claims to have computed the mathematical constant pi to nearly 2.7 trillion digits, some 123 billion more than the previous record.

Calculating the Spiral Amy Baczkowski - The magnificent spirals that illuminated the early morning Norwegian skies lasted only a few minutes, but their appearance continues to captivate the minds of people worldwide.  The internet is inundated with pictures and eyewitness video accounts of the event. The Russian Ministry of Defense immediately claimed no mystery behind the December 9, 2009 phenomenon, citing a failed launching of submarine ballistic missiles as the cause. Despite this assertion, global skepticism reigns and theories run rampant...

And no small wonder...

Jar with Small Spirals Early Naqada II (3650-3500 BCE) Pottery Predynastic Egypt (as well as a nice photographic collection of artifacts fropm the Brooklyn Museum and other key locations.

Dizzy2 Be careful: could make you feel dizzy;
Best viewed large;

From magnetic fields to vast galaxies swirling in space, spirals can be seen in every aspect in nature. We see them in the physical forces which shape the Earth - the tides of the ocean, the winds in the atmosphere - and within life itself. Plants and the horns and shells of animals grow in spiral formations and some animals, especially aquatic species, possess a twisting locomotion.

Tombs to lift lid on Egypt's ancient middle class By Marwa Awad Posted 2010/01/05 CAIRO, Jan. 5, 2010 (Reuters) — Two 2,500-year-old tombs discovered at a necropolis near Cairo promise to reveal more about ancient Egypt's middle class, Egypt's chief archaeologist said on Tuesday. Dating from the 26th dynasty, which ruled Egypt from about 664 BC to 525 BC, the tombs were found near the entrance to the archaeological site at the Saqqara burial ground, 30 km (20 miles) south of Cairo.

Largest Saqqara Tomb Discovered By Rossella Lorenzi | Mon Jan 4, 2010 - An Egyptian team led by Dr. Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, has unearthed the largest tomb yet discovered in the ancient necropolis of Saqqara, also known as the "City of the Dead."

Aboriginal folklore leads to meteorite crater Thursday, 7 January 2010 by Aaron Cook Cosmos Online Researchers are using Aboriginal dreaming stories and Google Maps to find new meteorite impact craters. SYDNEY: An Australian Aboriginal 'Dreaming' story has helped experts uncover a meteorite impact crater in the outback of the Northern Territory.

Vatican reveals Secret Archives By Nick Squires in Rome 01 Jan 2010 A 13th-century letter from Genghis Khan’s grandson demanding homage from the pope is among a collection of documents from the Vatican’s Secret Archives that has been published for the first time.

The book documents the Roman Catholic Church’s often hostile dealings with the world of science and the arts, including documents from the heresy trial against Galileo and correspondence exchanged with Erasmus, Voltaire and Mozart. It also reveals the Church’s relations with princes and potentates in countries far beyond its dominion.

Solution or Sellout? January 8, 2010 by Keith Kloor A deal to preserve rock art in Utah's Nine Mile Canyon gets mixed reviews -

Rock-art hunting scene in Nine Mile canyon (Scott Catron/Wikimedia Commons) One day in 2004, before the battle lines over Utah's Nine Mile Canyon had hardened, before the world-renowned rock art destination would be turned into an industrial zone, the opposing sides met for lunch at a Denver country club. In attendance was Bill Barrett Sr., the legendary wildcatter who had come out of retirement to bet big on elusive natural gas deposits buried deep in the plateau above the canyon.

Second Sacred Statue Uncovered at Site of Ancient Hindu Temple in Yogyakarta Astatue of Nandi, the sacred bull that carried the Hindu god Shiva, was discovered on Wednesday among the ruins of what is believed to be an ancient temple at an excavation site in Yogyakarta. Indung Panca Putra, the head of the excavation team from the Yogyakarta Antiquities and Relics Conservation Agency, said the discovery of the statue, which in Hindu mythology is said to embody sexual energy and fertility, meant that the team would now continue its work until Jan. 20. A previous deadline for the excavation work had been set for Jan. 6.

"Lost" Amazon Complex Found; Shapes Seen by Satellite John Roach for National Geographic News - January 4, 2010 - Hundreds of circles, squares, and other geometric shapes once hidden by forest hint at a previously unknown ancient society that flourished in the Amazon, a new study says.  Satellite images of the upper Amazon Basin taken since 1999 have revealed more than 200 geometric earthworks spanning a distance greater than 155 miles (250 kilometers). 

Prehistoric Jewellry Reveals Neanderthal Fashion Sense Even Neanderthals knew how to accessorize. By Jennifer Viegas - Fri Jan 8, 2010 05 - This decorative shell likely adorned the neck of a Neanderthal around 50,000 years ago. Pigment-stained seashells, likely worn as necklaces by Neanderthals, suggest these early Europeans were not only stylish, but that they were also just as smart and crafty as humans in Africa were, according to a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In a new translation of a 3,700-year-old Babylonian, cuneiform clay tablet, “Noah’s Ark” is described as a round, bitumen-covered reed vessel. “The ark didn’t have to go anywhere, it just had to float, and the instructions are for a type of craft which they knew very well. It’s still sometimes used in Iran and Iraq today,” said Irving Finkel of the British Museum. 

Elements of the nation’s heritage are being neglected and forgotten in thousands of boxes that contain millions of objects neither identified nor accounted for,” according to a new report by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of the Interior. The National Park Service alone has a backlog of an estimated 60 million items, and five of the seven Bureau of Indian Affairs facilities “were unable to provide a current inventory listing of the objects in their collections.” The report concluded that poor management, and a lack of manpower and money, caused the problems.

Video - Pandorapedia, your guide to the (boring) world of Pandora and James Cameron’s Avatar. Click the links below to get started, and enter a world beyond your imagination. Pandorapedia keeps on growing and we need your contributions to the site to help us out. Updated information of life on Pandora and other (boring) things related to Avatar.

What am I? - Your input gratefully and graciously accepted!

January 1, 2010

Drunken, Sunken and Odd...
At Worlds End, Goddesschess rocks the boat with an
Ancient New Year Remembered and other rare treasures

Sex and booze figured in Egyptian rites - Archaeologists find evidence for ancient version of ‘Girls Gone Wild’ - By Alan Boyle Science editor - In late 2006, archaeologists digging at the Mut Temple in Luxor discovered a column dating to the reign of Hatshepsut, upon which was carved an inscription describing an ancient Egyptian New Year’s festival called the “Festival of Drunkenness”. Celebrated in honor of the goddess Sekhmet, the whole point of the festival was: get completely and totally smashing drunk, have a lot of sex, pass out… and then – hopefully – wake up the next morning to the sounds of blaring music.

The wild men and women of Goddesschess wonder if Bailey's Irish Cream could have the foregoing effect ...

Synesthetic Experiences, such as seeing a certain color associated with a number, are real and automatic ScienceDaily (Dec. 27, 2009) — For as many as 1 in 20 people, everyday experiences can elicit extra-ordinary associated sensations. The condition is known as synaesthesia and the most common form involves "seeing" colours when reading words and numbers.

Sunken artifact reveals Pharaonic influence - Marwa Awad - Dec. 18, 2009 - Alexandria, Egypt (Reuters) - Egyptian archaeologists pulled a red granite ruin from the seabed near Cleopatra's sunken palace this week that experts said showed the influence of pharaonic design well into Greek and Roman rule. More info and photos at this site and also here.

New discovery will be top highlight at underwater museum - By Hazel Heyer, ETN Staff Writer - |Dec 20, 2009 - The precious artifact is to be the centerpiece in the future Underwater Museum to be constructed in the Stanley area of Alexandria. The museum is set to display over 200 objects excavated from the Mediterranean over the past several years.

The Alexandria National Museum Tour Egypt Feature Story by Zahraa Adel Awed - new items on the approaching horizon...

Seeing double... Herakleion Egypt and Herakleion Crete

The Sunken Cities of Egypt - By Holly Davis - Hidden beneath 2 feet of sand and 21 feet of murky water lie the once great Egyptian cities of Menouthis and Herakleion. The cities thrived on commerce entering the Nile River from the Mediterranean Sea. But the prosperity ended abruptly and mysteriously...

The  Archeological Museum of Herakleion (Crete) contains a unique collection of ancient objects from excavations carried out in all parts of Crete including the archeological sites of Knossos, Phaistos, Gortyn and many others.  The exhibits come mainly from the prehistoric Minoan era which takes its name from the legendary Cretan king, Minos.

A little chess in your chalice? And then what?

A model of terracotta figurines from Palaikastro represents a circular dance being performed by women holding one another's shoulders.

In the middle of the circle is a woman playing the lyre. The model reminds one immediately of modern Cretan dances. It is dated to the Post-Palace period (1400 - 1100 BCE).

Diving deeper into Davy Jones' Locker

14 Day Treasures of Antiquity - Discover and bring to life infinite treasures on this extraordinary cruise. Explore the mysterious pyramids, precious relics of ancient Istanbul and the best sites of the Aegean.

Like the ceramic bathtubs of some periods, the size of a pithos made it a most convenient coffin, especially where wood was in short supply. There is evidence of Middle Helladic burials in Mycenae and Crete where the bones of the interred have been placed in pithoi.

In his cups?

Artistic license makes it appear as though while searching for an honest man, Diogenes thought a pithos also made a good home for himself and maybe also a few of his most faithful companions...

In his coconuts?

December 14, 2009 - A veined octopus peers out of an empty coconut shell off Indonesia in an undated picture released today with a new study. (Watch video of a coconut-carrying octopus in action.)

More Pieces of Six, Seven, or is that Eight... Synaesthesia and/or similacra? Surely, we are now well over our heads in these deep and uncharted waters... Which end is up?

Of the Four Winds and six pointed stars - a BRILLIANT compilation... Connect the dots anyone? Perhaps when the hangover settles down a little...

3) MINOS In the Heraklion Museum in Crete there is the ancient Phaestos Disc made from fired clay. The disc has many carvings. One of the carvings is a circle with six dots in the shape of Sat-kona with a seventh dot in the center. Although at a glance the arrangements do not jump out at us as a Sat-kona, still scholars assure us that it is. This disc dates back to 1700 BCE.

Befriending and releasing Calpyso (Cakra?)with
incantations and oaths...

"O great Cakra, remove the life of all our enemies. I meditate upon You, residing in the middle of the Sat-kona holding conch, cakra, bow, axe, sword, trident, noose, goad, missile, thunderbolt, plough, pestle and mace. You have terrible fangs, fiery hair, three eyes and you have the intensity of a raging inferno and You are adorned with ornaments and necklaces."

Barbarossa was in fact two men, brothers, both named after the older’s red hair and beard. They were unwelcome visitors to Crete in the late 16th century with attacks on Sitia, Chania, Kastelli-Kissamos, Paleohora and many other towns.

Phaistos Disc decipherment claims There are a large number of claims of decipherment of the Phaistos Disc.

• Related to senet, some musings can be found at Philip Coppen's site.

• And also among Peter Aleff's rigorous reconstruction.

"As game board It has been observed that the disc has similarities to a category of ancient game board. Ancient games tended towards two categories, either "battle" games, or "race" (chase) games. Chess is an example of the former, Mehen (literally "the coiled one") an example of the latter. It may be that the Phaistos disc is also an example of a race game board."

Video Captain Jack Sparrow Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life For Me) Pirates of the Caribbean's Captain Sparrow singing Yo ho (a pirate's life for me) in Adventureland WDW (Captain Jack Sparrow's Pirate Tutorial) Yo ho, yo ho, and a Happy New Year to All!

 

 

Ed Note: Mehen - c. 3000 BCE - a six handed Egyptian game is assumed to be the earliest multi player game known. Moreover, since ancient times the blue lotus was emblematic of Egyptian culture. Could this complex configuration of players, signs and enduring symbols signify either oblique or direct reference to the Sat-kona - or vice versa?

Nitiqret (Nitocris)

Nitocris I (alt. Nitiqret, Nitokris I) (died 585 BC) served as the heir to and then the Divine Adoratrice of Amun or God's Wife of Amun for a period of over seventy years, between 655 BC and 585 BC.[1] She was the daughter of the Saite Dynasty 26 king Psamtik I.

By Year 7, Prince Samtutefnakht of Herakleopolis brought him the allegiance of Middle Egypt, with full control of fluvial traffic and caravan links with Nubia, Libya and the Western Oases, providing further economic opportunities. A year later, Psamtik’s diplomacy accomplished the unimaginable: the Divine Adoratrice Shepenwepet II of Thebes adopted his daughter Nitiqret (Nitocris) as her successor, thereby handing him the rest of Egypt. Psamtik had finally grown into his title King of Upper and Lower Egypt.

 

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