Archives of previous Random Roundup updates

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The John Dee Society Our primary purpose is to produce a standard edition of the published and unpublished works of Elizabethan England's great polymath, antiquarian and magus Dr.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.

 

 

Public Squares: a list of active partners

BREAKING NEWS!!

DALLAS Saturday, March 20, 9:30AM to 12:30PM
Computer Labs for Kids is looking for volunteers!

Buckner Children and Family Services
5200 Buckner Blvd
Dallas, TX 75227 US
626-408-2390
Saturday, March 20, 9:30AM to 12:30PM

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 March 20th from 9:30 am to 12:30 am.

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

Shira Evans'
Computer Labs for Kids Foundation
.....
We enthusiatically encourage our readers to
join Shira's charity cause on Facebook

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. You can read more about Shira's foundation work and travels at her Facebook site

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Moonwalk on the Rise
15th May 2010, Hyde Park

See the Goddesschess Blog for lots more information about the upcoming Playtex Moonwalk on May 15, 2010 in London. The goal of this event is to raise funds for breast cancer research and patient assistance.

Help support our three intrepid
Showgirl Moonwalkers

Tracy French
Emily French
Lynn Goward

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Archives of previous Access Mundae updates

Chessays

The Game of Go: (pdf) Speculations on its Origins and Symbolism in Ancient China - By Peter Shotwell © 1994-February 2008 "... just as new thinking and new evidence have turned up in recent years to help strengthen the original theses, scholarship and excavations of the multitude of China’s archeological sites that remain underground will undoubtedly influence future thought."

The Games of Chess and Backgammon in Sasanian Persia (pdf) By Touraj Daryaee California State University, Fullerton - "Board games were played in many parts of the ancient world and so it is very difficult to attribute the origin of any board game to a particular region or culture."

Chessquest

• The Montreal Open Chess Championship 2009 - A patzer's eye view of the road to and from Ahuntsic (With gathered links to postscripts on the event in French and English) by Don McLean - September 19, 2009.

Chessquest

The Daunce of Nine-Men's-Morris and the Boundaries Between Worlds by Tracy Boyd © 2004 - Well researched and written, Tracy gives us all something to sing and dance about! A stellar performance shows how the energetric pulse of a living culture courses through many tributary arteries - board games included.

Gender and Chess

• Checkmate? The Role of gender stereotypes in the ultimate intellectual sport... By Anne Mass, Claudio D"Ettole and Maria Cadinu (University of Padova, Italy) In a nutshell, when women played chess with men on the internet but they didn't know the sex of their opponent, they played consistent with their relative skill level. But when they knew they were playing a male opponent, their relative performance levels dropped 50%!

Social/socialization factors at work explain the difference in performance rather any lack of innate ability among females to play chess as well as males...

Chesstories

• Final Gambit by Karah Pino: We received this very interesting chess story for publication from Karah Pino, who stopped playing chess in 1999 after a personal trauma and subsequent realization. This is the true and well written story of her final game.

• George Koltanowski Remembered: Just who was George and what made him so special to chess? The Knight's Tours of George Koltanowski, by Frederic Friedel takes us on a brief journey back in time...

Chess Goddesses

• FILE UPDATE: The Cleveland Public Library has a collection of articles and materials on Gisela Kahn Gresser's chess career. The Gisela Kahn Gresser Collection is available for use by researchers in the John G. White Special Collections Department on the 3rd Floor of the Main Building.

Chessays

• L’Occident chrétien médiéval et les échecs. L’évolution des pièces non figuratives du 10e au début du 16e siècle. Modified for html access March 22, 2009 English-French introduction to French text - Pierre Mille offers a graphically rich and rewarding survey outlining the 10th - 16th Century evolution of non-figurative western chess pieces. Merci, Pierre!

• The Literary World of 15th Century Valencia: The Scachs d'amour Manuscript and its Three Authors by M.C. Romeo. A wonderful description of the Spanish literary circle that made modern chess what it is today.

Chessquest

• Lawrence Totaro has put together a nice pictorial essay on Salvador Dali's artistic interest in chess we are pleased to incorporate into our current library. Updated March 22: This page now hosts recent photos of the Dali Museum - St. Petersburg, Florida and some additional bits of information.

A Collection of Queens

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.

Salome (Shelamzion) Alexandria

(139-67 B.C.E.) was the first queen of the Hasmonean dynasty. She was the wife of Alexander Jannai and the mother of Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II. After Alexander died, she inherited the title of ruler of the government.

Salome was able to make peace in the land by uniting the Pharisees with the Hasmoneans (something her husband had refused to do). Traditional oral law again became the law of the secular government. Her peace-making abilities prevented attacks from Armenia and she became a beloved ruler of the Pharisees.

Salome Alexandria retained the support of her older son, Hyrcanus II, but Aristobulus II did not agree with her diplomatic policies. Salome went so far as to allow the Judean military to use force against Aristobulus II. This, in turn, led to a civil war and the end of Salome Alexandria's peaceful reign.

While she was criticized by Josephus, she was praised in Talmudic texts as a keeper of the oral laws and a peaceful ruler.

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Palace of Japan's warrior queen discovered Archaeologists believe they have discovered the palace of Japan's "Boadicea" – the warrior Queen Himiko. By Julian Ryall in Tokyo Published: 2:24PM GMT 11 Nov 2009 - The building covering nearly 300 square metres was located close to the city of Sakurai and the former Japanese capital of Nara, 300 miles south-west of Tokyo.

3rd-century building fuels debate over lost country BY YOSHITO WATARI AND KAZUAKI OWAKI THE ASAHI SHIMBUN 2009/11/12 - The site of a third-century building in the Makimuku ruins strengthens the theory that Yamataikoku was in Kinai. See also: Queen Himiko and the mystery of Yamatai-koku

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Why Did Hatshepsut Stay King?

Why Didn't She Step Aside? Why Didn't Her Successor Remove Her? The female pharaoh Hatshepsut ruled for more than two decades, first as a regent for her nephew and stepson, Thutmose III, then as full Pharaoh, assuming even a male identity.

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Women in Egypt - Menkaure and His Queen
Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe

Menkaure and His Queen
4th Dynasty - 2548-2530 BCE
Greywacke
Height: 4 feet 67/8 inches (139.5 cm)
(Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

(From p. 3) "The queen represented in the statue, therefore, was no mere wife. Her position and gestures should be interpreted not as indicating inferiority and submission, but signalling her legitimization of Menkaure as pharaoh. She is shown in the act of presenting him, indicating to the world that he is the man whom she is identifying and establishing as pharaoh."

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Female "King" Ruled in Canaan,
Carving Suggests

Ker Than for National Geographic News April 10, 2009 - The home of a mysterious female "king" in Canaan, the land that became ancient Israel, may finally have been identified.

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" No one should gather wisdom in a bag, put it in a box, and then stand on a road and say, “Teach me wisdom!” - African Senufo tribal saying

“ It is right to teach young people that chess is not a game of war, but is a beautiful game.” - Russian Chess Grandmaster Yuri Averbakh

" Remind me again he said, how the little horse shaped one moves." - Terry Pratchett

" Chess predates the universe, as I recall. It was the reason life arose."

"Chess is the greatest game ever invented, because it only looks like a game." - Scott Kerns

 

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