Saturday, January 28, 2012

2012 Tradewise Gibraltal Chess Festival

Top ladies after R5:
Well, GM Hou Yifan isn't in first place anymore.  Boo hiss boo.  Keep in mind, the ladies are competing head to head with some of the top  male players in the world, and all those spaces in-between the rankings are held by male players.  There are 256 players competing in the Masters Event! 

4GMDzagnidze NanaGEO25354.52760.0
8GMPolgar JuditHUN27104.02769.0
11GMKoneru HumpyIND25894.02706.0
20GMHou YifanCHN26053.52740.0
29IMMuzychuk AnnaSLO25803.52613.0
33IMZatonskih AnnaUSA25063.52552.0
36IMKhurtsidze NinoGEO24443.52532.0
37IMMuzychuk MariyaUKR24833.52530.0
38GMKosintseva NadezhdaRUS25373.52512.0
39GMZhu ChenQAT24723.52506.0
41GMStefanova AntoanetaBUL25233.52502.0

2012 Tata Steel

Ladies' standings afer R12:

Group B:

1.Harikrishna, P.
2.L'Ami, E.
Motylev, A.
8
4.Bruzon, L.
5.Reinderman, D.
Tiviakov, S.
7
7.Nyzhnik, I.
8.Potkin, V.
Timman, J.
10.Ernst, S.5
11.Cmilyte, V.
Lahno, K.
Vocaturo, D.
4
14.Harika, D.

Group C:

1.Tikkanen, H.
Turov, M.
3.Adhiban, B.
Brandenburg, D.
5.Grover, S.
Sadler, M.
7.Paehtz, E.6
8.Tania, S.
9.Goudriaan, E.5
10.Danielian, E.
Ootes, L.
12.Hopman, P.
Schut, L.
4
14.Haast, A.

Holy Hathor! Where'd The Time Go?

Hola darlings!  Normally this time of year I'm totally bonkers, scratching around the back 1/12th acre looking for grass and treasure underneath a couple feet of snow.  Except, this year, we never got any 60 below zero temperatures nor tons of snow either, so my brain is all confused. So far for January, a measley 12 inches or so, and that's on top of about ZERO measureable snow in December, 2011.  U-N-B-E-L-I-E-V-A-B-L-E!  What's a woman to do? 
Guess it's NO WONDER I'm spending my bonkers time this winter looking at budget decorating blogs and doing stuff that - well, maybe I've got advanced Alzheimer's and I just don't know it yet, but you'd think my friends (or the people at work) would have told me?  But - maybe they did, or tried to, and I just don't remember...
OY!  What's an out of her mind woman to do? 

Nothing.  That's a fat lot of what I did today - about NOTHING!  Yeah yeah yeah, I finally got the remains of the Christmas Tree split apart, tied up in its special sheet and dragged (drug?) out to the garage and its own teensy weensy box that it never came in (it's the box my replacement microwave came in a few years ago).  Thus ends another season.  WHEW!

Except -- except, the living room looks bare naked now. And, it looks off-kilter.  Surely this cannot be the first time that it seems the fireplace is not exactly centered on the wall where it was installed in 2002?  Please tell me I'm not imagining it and it is perfectly centered!  Alas, I'm not happy with this room at all.



It never ceases to amaze me what a difference the angle of light can make in a photograph!
The Christmas Tree used to be in front of the window.  Sob, sob, sob... all naked now.
I shoved furniture this way and that way, but not - that way (if you know what I mean.  Darlings, it's just too damn provocative to put my furniture like that!)  Sucking-up vacuum close behind trying to eradicate the offspring-of-glitter. 

WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME????  This arrangement has made perfectly good sitting and situational sense for several reasons (I only use the front entrance which is just to the right of the photo, above, and I cannot put anything in the path from front door to kitchen at the back of the house, just beyond the stairs you see in the top photo.)  I have heretofore always been happy with it.  Why now, then, do l feel the urge to junk the entire room and start all over, when the budget just will NOT allow? 

I tell you, it's those insidious "budget" decorating blogs.  Ha!  They have sucked me in, lock stock and barrell-shaped waist line. 

Oh, I vacuumed, and vacuumed, and vacuumed (the insidious glitter is everywhere, breeding even as I'm typing this...), and I shoved things around this way and that, and shook out the rugs, and dusted and wiped and swiped.  With plenty of wine breaks in-between, naturally.  And while I was taking those wine breaks, I was looking at dozens and dozens of linked-in "projects-of-the-month", etc. etc. at budget decorating blogs and added several special blogs to my list of Favorites.

I mean, this was serious work (going through those blogs).  I spent nearly the entire day at it, from when I crawled out of bed in search of coffee at 7:15 a.m. until I began typing this.  That's why I haven't even attempted to make a blog entry until now, and it's nearly 7 p.m. local time.

Then I got sappy, and kept in the RED CHRISTMAS LIGHT BULB in the corner lamp, because it reminds me of VALENTINE'S DAY.  Right now, do you know darlings, there are actually online CONTESTS going on over who has the best-decorated Valentine's Day fireplace mantle?  I kid you not!  I think I have caught some kind of budget decorating blog virus...

But that cognizance didn't stop me one whit!  Nope!  I just kept on with the Valentine's Day decorating - ala Maison Newton style.  I dug out a really old old mop of silk roses and stuck them in a vase that is now on the dinette table - on top of the new RED tablecloth.  Yes, heart's-blood red, da-thump, da-thump...

I rationalized away this bit of insanity by saying to myself "Self, the ladies of the investment club will really appreciate this lovely token of remembrance of this ancient holiday with its truly pagan roots when you meet again on February 12th..."  AND, as if that wasn't enough, I created a "vignette" on the side table underneath the lamp with the RED LIGHT BULB.  I added a mini-bouquet of silk roses in a tarnished silver-plate vase that Mom gave to me years ago.  I did not polish the tarnish off the vase!  This is like a major breakthrough, as I'm given to believe that tarnish is part of the shabby-chick ethic. Shabby-chic ethic.  Whatever.  Then I tossed in an old photograph of Mr. Don and I taken when we were still madly in love with each other (in 2002, LOL!)  and - I cannot believe I actually did it, but I did it -- I lit a votive candle inside of a sentimental favorite glass votive holder that I bought at a Pottery Barn (no joke!) in downtown Chicago probably in 1993. 

I even attempted to take photographs, but I have no idea how to take photographs with this camera (or any other camera) in the dark!  But snapped away I did.

Mad, I tell you.  Mad.


I think the Devil took this particular shot with my camera...
Anyway, it's now 7:04 p.m. and darlings,  TODAY THE U.S. FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS WERE ON COMMERCIAL TELEVISION!

And I had no idea they were on!  There I was, farting around all day with the Christmas Tree and sheets and vacuuming and putzing around and looking at all these blogs online, and then I just happened to look in the t.v. thingy that comes with the Sunday Journal/Sentinel about 4 p.m. and lo and behold - I see the skating championships  WERE ON COMMERCIAL T.V.!  Click click click got the recently established from upstairs to downstairs mini (19 incher) flat screen digital t.v. turned on and cursed the crappy reception (it was tres windy out there today, darlings, that's why I didn't venture out, not in 30-40 mph winds -- those blasted winds not only wreak havoc with my balance, they also wreak havoc with my t.v. reception, which I'm totally dependent upon since I'm too cheap to get cable).  So, I was able to watch the final hour of Ice Dancing, but I missed Davis and White, or is it White and Davis?  You know, he's really cute but has too much moppy blonde hair and her eyes are too far apart...  But they are smoking hot together when they hit the ice and who's looking at her eyes then, I ask you!  I've always wondered, though, if she isn't part alien-from-outerspace.  Well, have you never watched X-Files???

How could I have not possibly been aware that the U.S. Figure Skating Championships were taking place THIS WEEKEND?  Now, this is significant because normally this time of year, other than tearing up the turf in the backyard with my hoofs, er, gardening tools in a premature frenzy due entirely to Cabin Fever, I am counting down the days to the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. I am fretting - who will be top woman?  Who will be top - well, okay, nothing else counts except who is the top female singles skater.  Except - not this year.  That, in and of itself, is just damn scary I wasn't even aware that it was this weekend and actually on commercial television! 

All is not lost, however!  The Great Event -- the Ladies' Free Skate -- will be televised tonight at 8:00 p.m.!  HOORAY!  So I have not missed the most important part after all...

Gasp!  I have no idea who even is in first place at this point.  WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?  I'm more interested in doing a Valentine's Day vignette than tracking the figure-skating championships which actually impact real people and real lives?  This is just so damn totally strange-O, people.  Strange-O!

Okay, it's 7:54 p.m. now and time to change the channel from PBS and Jacques Pepin old cooking shows to the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on NBC.  Alas, things just are not the same since Michelle Kwan retired some years ago.  Mirai Nagasu, where are you???

Friday, January 27, 2012

2012 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival

GM Hou Yifan is currently in first place after R4!  Hooray for the ladies!  Top female standings after R4:

1GMHou YifanCHN26053.52900.0
11GMDzagnidze NanaGEO25353.52654.0
14GMKoneru HumpyIND25893.02729.0
15GMPolgar JuditHUN27103.02727.0
33GMKosintseva NadezhdaRUS25373.02459.0
45IMMuzychuk AnnaSLO25802.52585.0
52IMMuzychuk MariyaUKR24832.52535.0
56GMZhu ChenQAT24722.52511.0
61GMStefanova AntoanetaBUL25232.52483.0
64IMMelia SalomeGEO23982.52460.0

The rest of the ladies had 2.0 or lower.  Here are some interesting results from R4:

Bo.No.NameRtgPts. ResultPts. NameRtgNo.
125GMHou Yifan 26053 ½ - ½3 GMAdams Michael 27243
46GMPolgar Judit 2710 ½ - ½ GMKoneru Humpy 258929
1126GMFier Alexandr 2603 0 - 1 GMDzagnidze Nana 253541
1865IMKhurtsidze Nino 24442 ½ - ½2 GMSargissian Gabriel 268313

2012 Tata Steel

Where the ladies are after R11.  Group B ladies aren't doing very well, period.  Group C - two ladies (Elizabeth Paetz and Tania Sachdev) are at 50%.  The final round will be on Sunday, January 29th.

Group B
1.Harikrishna, P.8
2.L'Ami, E.
Motylev, A.
4.Bruzon, L.
5.Reinderman, D.
Tiviakov, S.
6
7.Nyzhnik, I.
8.Ernst, S.
Potkin, V.
Timman, J.
5
11.Lahno, K.
Vocaturo, D.
4
13.Cmilyte, V.
Harika, D.

Group C
1.Tikkanen, H.
Turov, M.
3.Adhiban, B.
4.Brandenburg, D.
Sadler, M.
6.Grover, S.6
7.Paehtz, E.
Tania, S.
9.Goudriaan, E.5
10.Schut, L.4
11.Danielian, E.Hopman, P.
Ootes, L.
14.Haast, A.3

Thursday, January 26, 2012

2012 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival

Top female standings in the Masters Group after R3 (256 players):
3 GMHou YifanCHN26053.03311.0
8 GMPolgar JuditHUN27102.52789.0
14GMKoneru HumpyIND25892.52751.0
18IMMuzychuk AnnaSLO25802.52693.0
20IMZatonskih AnnaUSA25062.52625.0
25GMDzagnidze NanaGEO25352.52496.0
34GMCramling PiaSWE24912.02632.0
39IMKrush IrinaUSA24672.02604.0
50GMStefanova AntoanetaBUL25232.02523.0
54 IM Khurtsidze NinoGEO24442.02499.0
56GMZhukova NataliaUKR24262.02488.0
62IMJavakhishvili LelaGEO24542.02461.0
69IMMelia SalomeGEO23982.02428.0
75GMKosintseva NadezhdaRUS25372.02348.0
82WIMAgrest InnaSWE21892.02243.0
85WIMSeps MonikaSUI21822.02233.0
104IMMuzychuk MariyaUKR24831.52527.0
105GMZhu ChenQAT24721.52499.0

Some R3 results of interest:
325GMHou Yifan 26052 1 - 02 GMAlmasi Zoltan 27174
527GMHowell David W L 26032 ½ - ½2 GMPolgar Judit 27106
629GMKoneru Humpy 25892 ½ - ½2 GMLaznicka Viktor 27048
111GMSvidler Peter 2749 ½ - ½2 IMMuzychuk Anna 258032
127GMShirov Alexei 2710 1 - 0 IMMuzychuk Mariya 248357
1456GMCramling Pia 2491 ½ - ½ GMLupulescu Constantin 264820
1860IMKrush Irina 2467 ½ - ½ GMAkobian Varuzhan 261724

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Naughty, Naughty Cross!

Were some of the carvings Sheela na-gigs?  Did Old Satan's Daughter do a number on Father Blake the way she did to "Reverend Lee" as sung by the fabulous Roberta Flack?  And what an oxymoron - a "pagan cross."  LOL!

Archaeologists uncover mystery of over-zealous priest, fairies and a buried pagan cross

Search is on for legendary Wicklow cross which vanished 60 years ago

Published Tuesday, January 24, 2012, 8:28 AM

A Wicklow community is on the search for a legendary pagan cross that vanished from their St. Patrick’s Church parish 60 years ago.

The Independent
reports that there are disparaging rumors as to why the granite cross may have vanished. Some say that local residents believed the cross was attracting fairies. Others believe it was buried by then priest Fr Matthew Blake, mainly because of its graphic carvings which displayed women and their “exaggerated genitalia.”

The vanished cross was nearly forgotten about until it appeared in an old photo of the Church on the town’s Facebook page. Now, a team of local volunteers, led by their local war memorial committee, is on the search for the legendary cross.

With permission from the clergy, a grounds survey was conducted around the church where the cross may have been buried. A dig is expected to begin in May.

Stan J O’Reilly, who is secretary of the town’s historical society, said of the missing cross, "I've asked a lot of people about it and the story is that the parish priest at the time, Fr Blake, saw something on it he did not like -- something like a nude figure, which was possibly a 'sheela na gig'.”

Believing that it is more than likely that the disappearance of the cross was Fr Blake’s doing, O’Reilly called Fr Blake a “very determined man.”

2012 Tata Steel

I'm watching an excellent Nova special on PBS right now, "Masterpiece," about the painting that might be a previously unknown Leonardo DaVinci drawing!  Absolutely fascinating...  I'm learning a lot about the world of art experts and fraudulent works of art -- how people try to sniff out frauds and how the fraudsters try to fool the experts. 

Excited -- my purchases have started to arrive.  Tonight I opened the box from - get ready for it - LAMPLUST - and was just so struck by how beautiful those LED "burl wood" wall sconces are!  Can't wait to put them up this weekend, darlings! 

In a larger box is the stand-alone oiled-bronze finish towel holder, woooo wooooo!  I didn't open the box but tucked it out of the way until I can open it and assemble the towel holder this weekend.  Hopefully all the pieces will be there for both the wall sconces and the towel holder!  Soon, I hope my upstairs bath will look like a "masterpiece" itself :)

Ladies' standings:

Group B
Standings after round 10
1.Harikrishna, P.8
2.L'Ami, E.
Motylev, A.
7
4.Bruzon, L.
5.Reinderman, D.
Tiviakov, S.
5
7.Nyzhnik, I.
8.Ernst, S.
Lahno, K.
Potkin, V.
Timman, J.
Vocaturo, D.
4
13.Cmilyte, V.
Harika, D.

Group C
Standings after round 10
1.Turov, M.8
2.Tikkanen, H.
3.Adhiban, B.7
4.Brandenburg, D.
Grover, S.
Sadler, M.
6
7.Goudriaan, E.
Paehtz, E.
Tania, S.
10.Schut, L.4
11.Danielian, E.
Haast, A.
Hopman, P.
Ootes, L.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

2012 Tata Steel

Chess femme standings in Groups B and C:

Standings after round 9 (Group B):
1.Harikrishna, P.7
2.Bruzon, L.
L'Ami, E.
Motylev, A.
6
5.Nyzhnik, I.
Tiviakov, S.
7.Ernst, S.
Reinderman, D.
Vocaturo, D.
4
10.Cmilyte, V.
Lahno, K.
Potkin, V.
Timman, J.
14.Harika, D.3


Standings after round 9 (Group C):
1.Tikkanen, H.
Turov, M.
3.Adhiban, B.
4.Brandenburg, D.
Grover, S.
Sadler, M.
5
7.Goudriaan, E.
Paehtz, E.
Schut, L.
4
10.Tania, S.
11.Danielian, E.
Haast, A.
Ootes, L.
3
14.Hopman, P.2

Review: Multiple Origins for Domesticated Dogs

From Science Daily

Ancient Domesticated Dog Skull Found in Siberian Cave: 33,000 Years Old

Jan. 23, 2012) — A 33,000-year-old dog skull unearthed in a Siberian mountain cave presents some of the oldest known evidence of dog domestication and, together with an equally ancient find in a cave in Belgium, indicates that modern dogs may be descended from multiple ancestors.

If you think a Chihuahua doesn't have much in common with a Rottweiler, you might be on to something.

An ancient dog skull, preserved in a cave in the Altai Mountains of Siberia for 33,000 years, presents some of the oldest known evidence of dog domestication and, together with equally ancient dog remains from a cave in Belgium, indicates that domestication of dogs may have occurred repeatedly in different geographic locations rather than with a single domestication event.

In other words, man's best friends may have originated from more than one ancient ancestor, contrary to what some DNA evidence previously has indicated.

"Both the Belgian find and the Siberian find are domesticated species based on morphological characteristics," said Greg Hodgins, a researcher at the University of Arizona's Accelerator Mass

Spectrometry Laboratory and co-author of the study that reports the find.

"Essentially, wolves have long thin snouts and their teeth are not crowded, and domestication results in this shortening of the snout and widening of the jaws and crowding of the teeth."

The Altai Mountain skull is extraordinarily well preserved, said Hodgins, enabling scientists to make multiple measurements of the skull, teeth and mandibles that might not be possible on less well-preserved remains. "The argument that it is domesticated is pretty solid," said Hodgins. "What's interesting is that it doesn't appear to be an ancestor of modern dogs."

The UA's Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory used radiocarbon dating to determine the age of the Siberian skull.

Radioactive carbon, or carbon-14, is one of three carbon isotopes. Along with naturally occurring carbon dioxide, carbon-14 reaches the surface of Earth by atmospheric circulation, where plants absorb it into their tissues through photosynthesis.

Animals and humans take in carbon-14 by ingesting plants or other animals that have eaten plants. "Carbon-14 makes it into all organic molecules," said Hodgins. "It's in all living things."

"We believe that carbon-14 production is essentially constant over time," said Hodgins. "So the amount of carbon-14 present in living organisms in the past was similar to the levels in living organisms today. When an animal or plant dies, the amount of carbon-14 in its remains drops at a predictable rate, called the radioactive half-life. The half-life of radiocarbon is 5,730 years."

"People from all over the world send our laboratory samples of organic material that they have dug out of the ground and we measure how much carbon-14 is left in them. Based on that measurement, and knowing the radiocarbon half-life, we calculate how much time must have passed since the samples had the same amount of carbon-14 as plants and animals living today."

The researchers use a machine called an accelerator mass spectrometer to measure the amount of radioactive carbon remaining in a sample. The machine works in a manner analogous to what happens when a beam of white light passes through a prism: White light separates into the colors of the rainbow.

The accelerator mass spectrometer generates a beam of carbon from the sample and passes it through a powerful magnet, which functions like a prism. "What emerges from it are three beams, one each of the three carbon isotopes," said Hodgins. "The lightest carbon beam, carbon-12, bends the most, and then carbon-13 bends slightly less and carbon-14 bends slightly less than that."

The relative intensities of the three beams represent the sample's carbon mass spectrum. Researchers compare the mass spectrum of an unknown sample to the mass spectra of known-age controls and from this comparison, calculate the sample's radiocarbon age.

At 33,000 years old, the Siberian skull predates a period known as the Last Glacial Maximum, or LGM, which occurred between about 26,000 and 19,000 years ago when the ice sheets of Earth's last ice age reached their greatest extent and severely disrupted the living patterns of humans and animals alive during that time. Neither the Belgian nor the Siberian domesticated lineages appear to have survived the LGM.

However, the two skulls indicate that the domestication of dogs by humans occurred repeatedly throughout early human history at different geographical locations, which could mean that modern dogs have multiple ancestors rather than a single common ancestor.

"In terms of human history, before the last glacial maximum people were living with wolves or canid species in widely separated geographical areas of Euro-Asia, and had been living with them long enough that they were actually changing evolutionarily," said Hodgins. "And then climate change happened, human habitation patterns changed and those relationships with those particular lineages of animals apparently didn't survive."

"The interesting thing is that typically we think of domestication as being cows, sheep and goats, things that produce food through meat or secondary agricultural products such as milk, cheese and wool and things like that," said Hodgins.

"Those are different relationships than humans may have with dogs. The dogs are not necessarily providing products or meat. They are probably providing protection, companionship and perhaps helping on the hunt. And it's really interesting that this appears to have happened first out of all human relationships with animals."

China Institute Lecture Series

In conjunction with a new exhibition:

The Afterlife, Architecture, and Drama: Jin-Yuan Tombs in Southern Shanxi
Renowned scholar and leading architectural historian Nancy Steinhardt is Professor of East Asian Art in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations and Curator of Chinese Art at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. She is author of Chinese Traditional Architecture (1984), Chinese Imperial City Planning (1990), and Liao Architecture (1997); editor and adaptor of A History of Chinese Architecture (2002), co-editor of Hawaii Reader in Traditional Chinese Culture (2005), and has written more than 60 scholarly articles and more than 30 book reviews. She has given more than 120 public lectures and conference talks. Steinhardt has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, American Council of Learned Societies, American Philosophical Society, Graham Foundation for Advanced Study in the Fine Arts, Social Science Research Foundation, and Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation.

Thursday, February 9 ~ 6:30 - 8 PM
$10 member / $15 non-member
To register, please visit http://www.chinainstitute.org/art-culture/exhibition-related-programs or call 212-744-8181, ext. 111.
China Institute
125 East 65th Street
New York, New York 10065
212-744-8181

World Chess Hall of Fame and Museum: Anatomy is Destiny

Really?  No wonder we're in so much trouble these days - too much testerone at loose in the world.


If you're in St. Louis and haven't dropped by the museum yet, I highly recommend it.  It's a lovely building and a great neighborhood (I know, I walked around all of it in September!)  The staff at Chi Chi LLC is great, too - I can tell you from personal experience.

2012: The Year of the Dragon

The Chinese New Year begins on the new moon, Janury 23, 2012.  I thought this "greeting card" from The China Institute was beautiful and wanted to share it with you.

Monday, January 23, 2012

2012 Tata Steel

Must have been a rest day for the A and B Group today - and maybe for C Group too, only yesterday when I updated results C Group's weren't ready yet:
1.Tikkanen, H.
Turov, M.
3.Adhiban, B.
4.Grover, S.5
5.Brandenburg, D.
Sadler, M.
7.Goudriaan, E.
Paehtz, E.
Schut, L.

Tania, S.
11.Ootes, L.3
12.Danielian, E.
13.Haast, A.Hopman, P.2

The action picks up again tomorrow and runs straight through Sunday, so there's a lot of chess left to be played. Stay tuned!

Hitler HATES Bret Favre...

It was too painful, just too damn painful, to write anything about the Packers' loss to those cheating bitches from New York.  Prepare for one of the lowest-rated Superbowls in history, folks.  Three-fourths of the country will definitely be tuned out for this one.

Here is Hitler expressing what every red-blooded Wisconsinite has been feeling since January 15, 2012, including deep hatred of that dirty-rotten traitor, Bret Favre, may his grave (when he croaks) stink like rotten eggs FOREVER.  Amen.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Etta James Dies

The fabulous voice of Etta James has been silenced by death.  I love Etta James' music, have for years, even when I was a teenager and didn't know anything about anything.  I have made references to Ms. Etta over the years at this blog, and posted this back in 2008:

Chess Records
January 26, 2008
Beyonce to play Etta James in new movie...

Ms. Etta died on January 20, 2012.  Here is an article from The New York Times:

Etta James Dies at 73; Voice Behind 'At Last'
By PETER KEEP
NEWS Published: January 20, 2012

Etta James, whose powerful, versatile and emotionally direct voice could enliven the raunchiest blues as well as the subtlest love songs, most indelibly in her signature hit, “At Last,” died on Friday morning in Riverside, Calif. She was 73.       

Her manager, Lupe De Leon, said that the cause was complications of leukemia. Ms. James, who died at Riverside Community Hospital, had been undergoing treatment for some time for a number of conditions, including leukemia and dementia. She also lived in Riverside.

Ms. James was not easy to pigeonhole. She is most often referred to as a rhythm and blues singer, and that is how she made her name in the 1950s with records like “Good Rockin’ Daddy.” She is in both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Blues Hall of Fame.

She was also comfortable, and convincing, singing pop standards, as she did in 1961 with “At Last,” which was written in 1941 and originally recorded by Glenn Miller’s orchestra. And among her four Grammy Awards (including a lifetime-achievement honor in 2003) was one for best jazz vocal performance, which she won in 1995 for the album “Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday.”

Regardless of how she was categorized, she was admired. Expressing a common sentiment, Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote in 1990 that she had “one of the great voices in American popular music, with a huge range, a multiplicity of tones and vast reserves of volume.”

For all her accomplishments, Ms. James had an up-and-down career, partly because of changing audience tastes but largely because of drug problems. She developed a heroin habit in the 1960s; after she overcame it in the 1970s, she began using cocaine. She candidly described her struggles with addiction and her many trips to rehab in her autobiography, “Rage to Survive,” written with David Ritz (1995).

Etta James was born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles on Jan. 25, 1938. Her mother, Dorothy Hawkins, was 14 at the time; her father was long gone, and Ms. James never knew for sure who he was, although she recalled her mother telling her that he was the celebrated pool player Rudolf Wanderone, better known as Minnesota Fats. She was reared by foster parents and moved to San Francisco with her mother when she was 12.

She began singing at the St. Paul Baptist Church in Los Angeles at 5 and turned to secular music as a teenager, forming a vocal group with two friends. She was 15 when she made her first record, “Roll With Me Henry,” which set her own lyrics to the tune of Hank Ballard and the Midnighters’ recent hit “Work With Me Annie.” When some disc jockeys complained that the title was too suggestive, it was changed to “The Wallflower,” although the record itself was not.
       
“The Wallflower” rose to No. 2 on the rhythm-and-blues charts in 1954. As was often the case in those days with records by black performers, a toned-down version was soon recorded by a white singer and found a wider audience: Georgia Gibbs’s version, with the title and lyric changed to “Dance With Me, Henry,” was a No. 1 pop hit in 1955. (Its success was not entirely bad news for Ms. James. She shared the songwriting royalties with Mr. Ballard and the bandleader and talent scout Johnny Otis, who had arranged for her recording session. Mr. Otis died on Tuesday.)

In 1960 Ms. James was signed by Chess Records, the Chicago label that was home to Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters and other leading lights of black music. She quickly had a string of hits, including “All I Could Do Was Cry,” “Trust in Me” and “At Last,” which established her as Chess’s first major female star.

She remained with Chess well into the 1970s, reappearing on the charts after a long absence in 1967 with the funky and high-spirited “Tell Mama.” In the late ’70s and early ’80s she was an opening act for the Rolling Stones.

After decades of touring, recording for various labels and drifting in and out of the public eye, Ms. James found herself in the news in 2009 after Beyoncé Knowles recorded a version of “At Last” closely modeled on hers. (Ms. Knowles played Ms. James in the 2008 movie “Cadillac Records,” a fictionalized account of the rise and fall of Chess.) Ms. Knowles also performed “At Last” at an inaugural ball for President Obama in Washington.

When the movie was released, Ms. James had kind words for Ms. Knowles’s portrayal. But in February 2009, referring specifically to the Washington performance, she told an audience, “I can’t stand Beyoncé,” and threatened to “whip” the younger singer for doing “At Last.” She later said she had been joking, but she did add that she wished she had been invited to sing the song herself for the new president.

Ms. James’s survivors include her husband of 42 years, Artis Mills; two sons, Donto and Sametto James; and four grandchildren.

Though her life had its share of troubles to the end — her husband and sons were locked in a long-running battle over control of her estate, which was resolved in her husband’s favor only weeks before her death — Ms. James said she wanted her music to transcend unhappiness rather than reflect it.

“A lot of people think the blues is depressing,” she told The Los Angeles Times in 1992, “but that’s not the blues I’m singing. When I’m singing blues, I’m singing life. People that can’t stand to listen to the blues, they’ve got to be phonies.”

A version of this article appeared in print on January 21, 2012, on page D8 of the New York edition with the headline: Etta James Dies at 73; Voice Behind ‘At Last’.

Treasure Seekers Destroy Archaeological Site

I would like to be posting more, but today Blogger has been particularly uncooperative - constantly freezing up!  Those 3 posts I did earlier today took HOURS to do.  Darlings, I just don't have the time to screw around with Blogger's fits and starts!  I'm still deconstructing the Christmas Tree! 

Gold diggers ravage archeological site

Two Bedouins from Dimona destroy 2,000-year-old well in search for tall tale buried treasure
Omri Efraim
Published: 01.09.12, 22:36 / Israel News

Two antiquity thieves were apprehended at a Beit Shemesh-adjacent archeological dig where they managed to destroy ancient artifacts in their search for gold.

The robbers, both Bedouin residents of Dimona, brought digging equipment to the Be'er Limon site late last week, and proceeded to operate there for several nights. On Thursday, in the pouring rain, the pair smashed the walls of a 2,000-year-old well located under a structure from the Crusader Period. They dug deep holes in the ground, causing what the Israel Antiquities Authority deemed as "irreversible damage."

The suspects said during questioning that they were searching for a treasure. They claimed that a legend, passed on from generation to generation, asserted one of their forefathers buried gold in the old stones.

"Baseless fairytales about buried treasures make people crazy," said Amir Ganor, who heads the Antiquities Authority's theft prevention unit. "No one can restore a 2,000-year-old stone wall that has been smashed to smithereens at the hands of the robbers."

The authority suspects that another thief operated with the pair, but managed to escape. The thieves were released but are expected to be indicted in the coming days.

Oldest Known Astrology Board Discovered

From Discovery News
Oldest-Known Astrologer's Board Discovered

The 2,000 year-old ivory fragments feature engravings of signs of the zodiac.
Tue Jan 17, 2012 10:15 AM ET
Content provided by Owen Jarus, LiveScience

A research team has discovered what may be the oldest astrologer's board, engraved with zodiac signs and used to determine a person's horoscope.

Dating back more than 2,000 years, the board was discovered in Croatia, in a cave overlooking the Adriatic Sea. The surviving portion of the board consists of 30 ivory fragments engraved with signs of the zodiac. Researchers spent years digging them up and putting them back together. Inscribed in a Greco-Roman style, they include images of Cancer, Gemini and Pisces.

The board fragments were discovered next to a phallic-shaped stalagmite amid thousands of pieces of ancient Hellenistic (Greek style) drinking vessels.

An ancient astrologer, trying to determine a person's horoscope, could have used the board to show the position of the planets, sun and moon at the time the person was born.
"What he would show the client would be where each planet is, where the sun is, where the moon is and what are the points on the zodiac that were rising and setting on the horizon at the moment of birth," said Alexander Jones, a professor at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University. [See Photos of Astrologer's Board]
"This is probably older than any other known example," Jones said. "It's also older than any of the written-down horoscopes that we have from the Greco-Roman world," he said, adding, "we have a lot of horoscopes that are written down as a kind of document on papyrus or on a wall but none of them as old as this."
Jones and StašoForenbaher, a researcher with the Institute for Anthropological Research in Zagreb, reported the discovery in the most recent edition of the Journal for the History of Astronomy.
A 'King Tut experience'
In 1999, the team was digging near the entrance of the Croatian cave, a site well known to archaeologists and people at the nearby hamlet of Nakovana who simply called it "Spila," which means "the cave," Forenbaher told LiveScience.
But what nobody knew at the time was that the cave had a section that had been sealed off more than 2,000 years ago. Forenbaher's girlfriend (now his wife) burrowed through the debris, discovering a wide low passageway that continued in the dark for nearly 33 feet (10 meters). Forenbaher described going through the passageway as "the unique King Tut experience, coming to a place where nobody has been for a couple of thousand years."
Stepping into the cavern "there was a very thin limestone crust on the surface that was cracking under your feet when you went in, which meant that nobody walked there in a very, very, long time," Forenbaher said.
The team would later determine that it had been sealed off in the first century B.C., possibly in response to a military campaign waged against the local people by the Romans.
When the archaeologists investigated they found the phallic-shaped stalagmite, numerous drinking vessels that had been deposited over hundreds of years, and something else. "In the course of that excavation these very tiny bits and pieces of ivory came up," said Forenbaher, "we didn't even realize what we had at the time."
The team went to work. "What followed was years of putting them together, finding more bits and pieces, and figuring out what they were," Forenbaher said. In the end they found themselves staring at the remains of the oldest-known astrologer's board.
How did the board wind up in the cave?
Archaeologists are not certain how the board came to the cave or where it was originally made. Astrology originated in Babylon far back in antiquity, with the Babylonians developing their own form of horoscopes around 2,400 years ago.
Then around 2,100 years ago, astrology spread to the eastern Mediterranean, becoming popular in Egypt, which at the time was under the control of a dynasty of Greek kings.
"It gets modified very much into what we think of as the Greek style of astrology, which is essentially the modern style of astrology," Jones said. "The Greek style is the foundation of astrology that goes through the Middle Ages and into modern Europe, modern India (and) so on."
Radiocarbon dating shows that the ivory used to create the zodiac images dates back around 2,200 years ago, shortly before the appearance of this new form of astrology.
Researchers are not certain where the board was made although Egypt is a possibility. The ivory itself likely came from an elephant that was killed or otherwise died around that time, they suspect. Being a valuable item, the ivory would have been stored for several decades, or even a century, before it was used to construct the zodiac. These signs would then have been attached to a flat (possibly wooden) surface to create the board, which may have included other elements that didn't survive.
At some point it may have been put on a ship heading through the Adriatic Sea, an important route for commerce that the cave overlooks. The people who lived in Croatia at the time were called Illyrians. Although ancient writers tended to have a low opinion of them, archaeological evidence suggests that they interacted with nearby Greek colonies and were very much a part of the Mediterranean world.
It's possible that an astrologer from one of the Greek colonies came to the cave to give a prediction. A consultation held in the flickering light of the cavern would have been a powerful experience, although perhaps not very convenient for the astrologer.
"It doesn't sound like a very practical place for doing the homework for the horoscope like calculating planetary positions," Jones said.
Another possibility is that the Illyrians traded for or stole the astrology board from someone, not fully understanding what it was used for. The board, along with the drinking vessels, would then have been placed as an offering to a deity worshiped in the cave whose identity is unknown.
"There is definitely a possibility that this astrologer's board showed up as an offering together with other special things that were either bought or plundered from a passing ship," Forenbaher said. He pointed out that the drinking vessels found in the cave were carefully chosen. They were foreign-made, and only a few examples of cruder amphora storage vessels were found with them.
"It almost seems that somebody was bringing out wine there, pouring it and then tossing the amphora away because they [the amphora] were not good enough for the gods, they were not good enough to be deposited in the sanctuary," Forenbaher said.
The phallic-shaped stalagmite, which may have grown on the spot naturally, appears to have been a center for these offerings and for rituals performed in the cavern. Forenbaher cautioned that all stalagmites look phallic to some degree and it's difficult to determine what meaning it had to the people in the cave. "It certainly meant something important," he said.
"This is a place where things that were valued locally, were deposited to some kind of supernatural power, to some transcendental entity or whatever [it was]."

2012 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival

(a/k/a Gibraltar)  Since its inception, the organizers of this grand event have made a concerted effort to invite more top-level female players and give them excellent conditions.  2012 is the best yet, according to tournament spokesman Stuart Conquest:

Largest concentration of women
22.01.12 - Stuart Conquest Director of the 2012 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival, scheduled to begin this week, believes the tournament in its 10th edition will see the largest concentration of women chess players ever in a mixed event. He writes: 'The greatest ever gathering of female chess players in a mixed event takes place on the Rock in a week’s time. Never before have so many of the world’s top women joined leading male players to compete in the same tournament'.
Led by the brilliant Judit Polgar, the youngest of the three Hungarian sisters who between them broke every chess record in the books, this year’s female contingent includes champion players from China, India, Russia, the Ukraine, and the USA.

All eyes will be on the reigning Women’s World Champion, 17 year-old Hou Yifan, coming to Gibraltar for the first time. Indian sensation Humpy Koneru will be keen to score well – if things go her way she could take home the special £5,000 Commonwealth prize. Anna Muzychuk, from Slovakia, has been in scintillating form lately, and looks a good bet for a high placing.

Other female stars to follow include former World Champions Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria) and Zhu Chen (Qatar), former European Champion Pia Cramling, and American rivals Irina Krush and Anna Zatonskih.

From Georgia, a nation famous for its support of women’s chess, come four top players, including last year’s joint female winners: Nana Dzagnidze and Salome Melia. Let’s also not forget British Women’s champion Jovanka Houska, who in December recorded a career-best performance at the London Chess Classic.

The action starts on January 24th!

2012 Tata Steel

How are the ladies doing?

Group B - all of the ladies are near the bottom of the ranks with 3.0 (standings after R8):

1.Harikrishna, P.6
2.Motylev, A.
3.Bruzon, L.
L'Ami, E.
5
5.Nyzhnik, I.
6.Ernst, S.
Reinderman, D.
4
8.Potkin, V.
Tiviakov, S.
10.Cmilyte, V.
Harika, D.
Lahno, K.
Timman, J.
Vocaturo, D.
3

Group C - Lisa Schut is at 50%; the other ladies are in the lower ranks (standings after R7):

1.Turov, M.6
2.Tikkanen, H.
3.Adhiban, B.5
4.Brandenburg, D.
Grover, S.
Sadler, M.
4
7.Goudriaan, E.
Schut, L.
9.Tania, S.3
10.Paehtz, E.
11.Danielian, E.
Haast, A.

Hopman, P.
Ootes, L.
2
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