Friday, December 24, 2010
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
Leslie Nielsen, Ghost Potter, Dies at 84
In a 1988 interview with The New York Times, Leslie Nielsen discussed his career-rejuvenating transition to comedy, a development that he had recently described as “too good to be true.”
“It’s been dawning on me slowly that for the past 35 years I have been cast against type,” he said, “and I’m finally getting to do what I really wanted to do.”
Thursday, November 25, 2010
I really hated school...
If you have some stereotype of a scientist in your mind, Venter probably doesn't fit it. He has scuba-dived with sharks to gather microbes in the Pacific, and spent much of the past summer sailing through the Greek isles on his 95-foot research vessel, plucking new genetic material from the sea. He rarely goes anywhere without his wife Heather and their dog Darwin. And their home high above the Pacific in La Jolla, Calif. suggests the quest for scientific truth requires no vow of poverty.
"I have been lucky," Venter acknowledged. "Sort of the accidental millionaire in terms of people keep giving me read more...
Labels: science
Monday, November 22, 2010
«Мелодии Рижского гетто» (R)
Да будут их души
присоединены к хранилищу жизни…
Этот эпиграф, напоминающий нам о молитве Эль Мале Рахамим, которой евреи провожают в последний путь своих умерших, предваряет документальный фильм «Мелодии Рижского гетто».
65 лет назад, в ноябре и декабре 1941 года, в течение двух дней, двух «акций», нацисты уничтожили в Рижском гетто около 30 тысяч человек…
В течение одного дня, 4 июля 1941 года, вошедшего в историю как «хрустальная ночь» Риги, в столице Латвии были сожжены 8 синагог. Главная синагога уничтожена нацистами в месте с находившимися там верующими. Их было 300 чел…
«Мелодии» Рижского гетто – это звуки, это музыка и напевы, которые сопровождают воспоминания 5 спасшихся и ныне живущих в Риге узников гетто и шокирующие кадры кинохроники тех времен. «Мелодии» - это звучащие за кадром баллады о трагедии людей, которые нацисты уничтожали только потому, что они – евреи…
Сегодня – в начале ХХI века – Рижское гетто выглядит точно так же, как и 65 лет назад. Время словно не коснулось этих трагических мест – те же дома, дворы, постройки, улицы, по которым евреев гнали на расстрел…
В фильме, наряду со свидетелями трагедии, принимают участие звезды мировой музыки – скрипач Гидон Кремер – сын узника Рижского гетто и оперная певица Inessa Galantew (Иннеса Галант)
«Фашизм не имеет национальности» - эта идея проходит через весь фильм «Мелодии Рижского гетто».
Фильм создан российскими теледокументалистами при содействии коллег и еврейских организаций из Латвии.
За документальный телефильм "Мелодии рижского гетто" (телеканал "Россия") награжден режиссер-постановщик, ведущий МОЛЧАНОВ ВЛАДИМИР КИРИЛЛОВИЧ.
Владимир Молчанов в детстве и юности активно занимался теннисом, был чемпионом СССР среди юношей в парном разряде, в составе юношеской сборной Москвы побеждал на Спартакиаде. Однако приблизиться к успеху своей старшей сестры, Анны Дмитриевой, 20-кратной чемпионки СССР, выведшей советский теннис на мировую арену, ему оказалось не под силу.
В 1967 году он поступил на филологический факультет МГУ имени М. В. Ломоносова в группу нидерландского языка и литературы, который окончил в 1973 году.
С 1973 по 1986 год Владимир Молчанов работал в редакции Западной Европы Агентства печати "Новости" редактором, старшим редактором, собственным корреспондентом в Нидерландах, обозревателем. Около пяти лет занимался журналистскими расследованиями нацистских преступлений. В начале 80-х годов в "Политиздате" вышла его книга документальных очерков "Возмездие должно свершиться", за которую автор был удостоен литературной премии Максима Горького "За лучшую первую книгу молодого автора". В результате его журналистского расследования в конце 70-х годов в Нидерландах был арестован и приговорен к 10 годам тюрьмы нацистский преступник, мультимиллионер Питер Ментен.
(more...)
Смотрите "Изгои" -филм о еврейских партизанах
"Когда Макс Долгицер, 54-летний менеджер из Нью-Йорка и коллекционер произведений искусства, недавно узнал, что некоторые из его родственников были спасены во время войны от смерти в Риге отважным Греком с итальянским паспортом, он был озадачен ... "
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Who is Mr Brown? I wanna know now!
Charles Le Brun (1619-1690) , First Painter to the King Louis XIV, was the founder of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, and the foremost proponent of French classicism. On 28 March 1671, addressing the Royal Academy, he formally presented his treatise:
"all of the various demonstrations that he has drawn, whether heads of animals or heads of men, making note of the signs that mark their natural inclination." (Procès-verbaux de l'Academie I : 358-359)
While the set of drawings is still conserved in the Louvre, the original text has been lost: we have but a rough synthesis by Nivelon, posthumous digests by Henri Testelin and E. Picart, and the dissertation by Morel d'Arleux accompanying the 1806 edition of the engravings.
Louis-Jean-Marie Morel d'Arleux (1755-1827) was curator of drawings and prints at the Musée Napoléon (today the Musée du Louvre). His interest in Le Brun's "demonstrations" and his devotion to their revival are noteworthy, and relate to the current of neo-classicism then in vogue, a conceptual triangulation linking the Roman and the Napoleonic imperium through the reign of the Sun King.Physiognomy, literally the "knowlege of nature," relates to the assessment of human character through study of physical features. This concept of an inherent concordance of body and soul harks back to Antiquity, and regained currency in 17th-century thought.
(read more...)
Friday, November 19, 2010
Naughty Bookworms...
"Who knows what lurks in the stacks of the old abandoned library..." This is a fun movie about a young boy who discovers strange creatures living amongst the old books. For young and old alike...
Bookworm is a popular generalization for any insect which supposedly bores through books.
Actual book-borers are uncommon. Both the larvae of the death watch beetle (Xestobium rufovillosum) and the common furniture beetle (Anobium punctatum) will tunnel through wood and paper if it is nearby the wood.
A major book-feeding insect is the book or paper louse (aka booklouse or paperlouse). A tiny (under 1 mm), soft-bodied wingless Psocoptera (usually Trogium pulsatorium), that actually feeds on microscopic molds and other organic matter found in ill-maintained works (e.g., cool, damp, dark, and undisturbed areas of archives, libraries, and museums), although they will also attack bindings and other book parts. It is not actually a true louse.
Many other insects, like the silverfish (Lepisma saccharina) or cockroach (various Blattodea), will consume these molds and also degraded paper or the starch-based binding pastes – warmth and moisture or high humidity are prerequisites, so damage is more common in the tropics. Modern glues and paper are less attractive to insects.
Two moths, Tineola bisselliella and Hofmannophila pseudospretella, will attack cloth bindings. Leather-bound books attract various other consumers, such as Dermestes lardarius and the larvae of Attagenus unicolor and Stegobium paniceum. The bookworm moth (Heliothis zea or H. virescens) and its larvae are not interested in books. The larvae are pests for cotton or tobacco growers as the cotton bollworm or tobacco budworm.
Labels: movies, rare books
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Маёвка 1987 на Тивериадском Oзере
2.истор. весенняя увеселительная прогулка за город ◆ Маёвкой тогда называли выезд за город на природу, но не для политики, как было при царе, а для отдыха. Михаил Хайкин, « Уха из пескарей. Истории Гончарной улицы» // «Вестник США», 2003 г. (цитата из Национального корпуса русского языка, см. Список литературы)
Saturday, October 30, 2010
ספרים בכפר עין הוד ein hod books
יותר ויותר במחוזותינו. פרטים בטלפון 04-9841107
via Mako
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Riga's Lions
Vrmanes Garden (Latvian: ) is the oldest public garden in the city of Riga, Latvia and currently comprises an area of approximately 5 hectares . The current name is a Latvian transliteration of the gardens original German name. Vrmanes Garden was originally created as Wöhrmann Park in 1814 on behalf of the Governor General of Governorate of Livonia Philip Paulucci , just a couple of years after the outskirts of Riga was burned down during the French invasion of Russia prior to the Siege of Riga . Financing and land for the park was sponsored by the Prussian Consul General to Riga Johann Christoph Wöhrmann (1784-1843) and his mother Anna Gertrud Wöhrmann (née Abels, 1750-1827). The Anna Wöhrmann Memorial depicted on a vintage picture postcardWöhrmann Park was inaugurated with festivities on 8 June 1817 as a fenced 0.8 hectares park with exotic trees, a rose garden and restaurant. A granite obelisk was erected 1829 in the park as a posthumous memorial to Anna Wöhrmann. The memorial was dismantled prior to World War II and recreated 2000 . 1836 the Riga Chemist and Pharmacist Society initiated a mineral water shop in the park restaurant. When the premises became to narrow, reconstructions were conducted according to a project by architect Heinrich Scheel in the years from 1863 to 1864 and 1870 to 1871. 1869 the park had a sundial and fountain installed. Picture postcard dated 1911 showing view of daily life in the garden 1881, the director of the Riga City Gardens and Parks Georg Kuphaldt expanded the park territory considerably
Анна Гертруда Верман (1750-1827) вложила большие средства, чтобы создать парк, который в настоящее время носит ее имя. Открытие парка состоялось в 1817 году. В 1829 году сын Верман, генконсул Пруссии И.К. Германис, в честь матери установил в парке небольшой обелиск. В 1884 году около обелиска были установлены каменные львы скульптора Августа Фольца, а рядом были посажены цветы.
В 1954 году обелиск был снесен, а львы перенесены в другое место. Ансамбль был восстановлен лишь в 2000 году.
(read more...)
Monday, October 18, 2010
Things of Beauty
Scientific and mathematical geniuses are distinguished by a particular elegance of mind. Fiendish complexity becomes something the non-specialist can comprehend. Rarer still is the scientist whose mental elegance creates, or reveals, something of physical beauty. Watson and Crick might have staked a claim for the double helix that is the molecular structure of DNA.
Benoit Mandelbrot, whose death has just been announced, was a mathematician who made it his life's work to find beautiful shapes in nature and decode their secrets. In minute ways, he saw perfect order in apparent chaos, and enabled others to see it, too. He devised, and developed the study of, fractals – seemingly random shapes that conformed to patterns when broken down into one repeating form.
His fractals were invariably things of beauty – seen in phenomena as different as snowflakes and cauliflowers. But his methods also had practical applications that included generating graphics and producing actual works of art. He turned his mind also to economics, declaring the global financial system too complex to function properly. How right he turned out to be. If yesterday belonged to the economists, perhaps tomorrow will be the mathematician's world.(via independent)
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Credibility of Research Findings
“I assumed that everything we physicians did was basically right, but now I was going to help verify it,” he says. “All we’d have to do was systematically review the evidence, trust what it told us, and then everything would be perfect.”
Peer-reviewed studies have come to opposite conclusions on whether using cell phones can cause brain cancer, whether sleeping more than eight hours a night is healthful or dangerous, whether taking aspirin every day is more likely to save your life or cut it short, and whether routine angioplasty works better than pills to unclog heart arteries.
read more...
and "The cranks pile on John Ioannidis' work on the reliability of science"
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
The answer?
"...The town of my birth, Stoke on Trent, is busily turning itself into a giant demolition site, under the auspices of what the City Council like to call "regeneration". Everywhere you turn a new fenced-in empty space has appeared overnight. I suppose I should take an optomistic view and believe that change is a good thing - the city is certainly a lot cleaner than it was when I was a child - but somehow I can't help but look at these urban deserts and hear the distant voices of the of my ancestors, who gave their lives to make the creative, exploitative, desease-ridden, hell-hole that was "The Potteries" famous the world over and make a few men and their families very rich.
All the video footage for this project was filmed during the spring of 2006 on the sites upon which stood the factories ("Potbanks" as we call them around here) of the greatest names in the pottery industry. But, you may say, these companies still exist - you can still go into the finest stores in the world and spend a fortune on their wares - what has happened?
The answer?
Outsourcing!"
read more...
Labels: pottery
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Monday, October 4, 2010
Ass to waist ratio...no boobs
In this study the team measured the attractiveness of scans of 96 bodies of Chinese women who were either students or volunteers, aged between 20-49 years of age.
The study also revealed that BMI (Body mass index) and HWR (Hip to waist ratio) were both strong predictors of attractiveness. Scans of taller women who had longer arms were also rated highly, however leg size did not contribute significantly to the ratings.
"Our results showed consistent attractiveness ratings by men and women and by Hong Kong Chinese and Australian raters, suggesting considerable cross cultural consistency," concluded Brooks. "In part this may be due to shared media experiences. Nonetheless when models are stripped of their most obvious racial and cultural features, the features that make bodies attractive tend to be shared by men and women across cultural divides."
read more...
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Jewish people don't believe in luck...Schlimazeltov!
Maybe some people are just born unlucky? This documentary film weaves together a diverse collection of different voices from London’s Jewish community to explore the concept of “luck” or “mazel”. From lucky charms and curses to global economics and quantum physics, this humorous and philosophical piece of visual poetry navigates the boundaries between religion and superstition to ask how the invisible hand of mazel has touched us all.
Director: Christopher Thomas Allen
Producer: Andrew Hinton
Music: Malcolm Litson
Monday, September 27, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Sinking in Ein Hod, Israel Pottery Always Open
We create hand made pottery:
functional stoneware pots thrown on the potter's wheel, decorated with various glazes, fired in a gas kiln to a high temperature.
Our pottery studio has been open to the public since 1982. We welcome visitors seven days a week and sell a variety of pottery: bowls, plates, casseroles, mugs (all of which can be used for cooking and serving food and drink), boxes, vases, and ocarinas(clay whistles and flutes).
We teach weekly pottery classes all year and conduct short workshops for groups and individuals during the week and on Saturdays and holidays(all ages).
We have a book shop where we sell a large selection of used and rare books in all languages.
For more information about our studio and activities and/or help in arranging visits and workshops with other artists please contact us:
Naomi and Zeev 04-9841107. zeno@netvision.net.il
נעמי וזאב ורוכבסקי קדרות עין הוד-תמיד פתוח קורס קדרות- (מגיל 13) לימוד טכניקות באובניים בחומר צביעה בגלזורות ושריפה בתנור גז סדנת שבת,חגים,ימי קיץ,ימי חול -עבודה בחומר לכל הגלאים-עבודת יד -התנסות באובניים מגיל 18 (30-40 דקות) לקבוצות -סדנת הדגמה-הסבר והדגמה באובניים והתנסות קצרה לכל משתתף (עד 25 איש, 40 דקות) -סדנה פעילה-הסבר והדגמה באובניים ועבודה לכל משתתף באובניים אישי. עד 16 משתתפים, שעה וחצי פרטים- נעמי וזאב ורכובסקי
Second hand books
At zeev Verchovsky "Pottery Always Open" #33 on the map
sink (sngk)
v. sank (sngk) or sunk (sngk), sunk, sink·ing, sinks
v.intr.
1. To descend to the bottom; submerge.
2.
a. To fall or drop to a lower level, especially to go down slowly or in stages: The water in the lake sank several feet during the long, dry summer.
b. To subside or settle gradually, as a massive or weighty structure.
3. To appear to move downward, as the sun or moon in setting.
4. To slope downward; incline.
5. To pass into a specified condition: She sank into a deep sleep.
6.
a. To deteriorate in quality or condition: The patient is sinking fast. The family sank into a state of disgrace.
b. To diminish, as in value.
7. To become weaker, quieter, or less forceful: His voice sank to a whisper.
8.
a. To drop or fall slowly, as from weakness or fatigue: The exhausted runner sank to the ground.
b. To feel great disappointment or discouragement: Her heart sank within her.
9. To seep or soak; penetrate: The water is sinking into the ground.
10. To make an impression; become felt or understood: The meaning finally sank in.
v.tr.
1. To cause to descend beneath a surface: sink a ship.
2. To cause to drop or lower: sank the bucket into the well.
3. To force into the ground: sink a piling.
4. To dig or drill (a mine or well) in the earth.
5. To occupy the full attention of; engross.
6.
a. To make weaker, quieter, or less forceful.
b. To reduce in quantity or worth.
7. To debase the nature of; degrade.
8. To bring to a low or ruined state; defeat or destroy.
9. To suppress or hide: He sank his arrogance and apologized.
10. Informal To defeat, as in a game.
11.
a. To invest: sink money into a new housing project.
b. To invest without any prospect of return.
12. To pay off (a debt).
13. Sports To get (a ball) into a hole or basket.
n.
1. A water basin fixed to a wall or floor and having a drainpipe and generally a piped supply of water.
2. A cesspool.
3. A sinkhole.
4. A natural or artificial means of absorbing or removing a substance or a form of energy from a system.
5. A place regarded as wicked and corrupt.
Idiom:
sink or swim Informal
To fail or succeed without alternative.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Спасибо Леа и ее супругу
23 августа Латгальский культурно-исторический музей посетили гости из Израиля — дочь члена довоенного общества резекненских художников Аркадия Найшлоса Леа Бронфмане с мужем Марком (на снимке).
Художник Аркадий Найшлос (1903 — 1951) родился в Даугавпилсе в семье кожевника, закончил Рижскую Академию художеств и в 1938 году женился на резекненке Нехе Гурвич, которая преподавала латинский язык в Резекненской еврейской гимназии.
Незадолго до начала Второй мировой войны в Резекне проходила большая выставка работ А. Найшлоса. В начале войны художник с женой и дочерью Леа эвакуировались в Среднюю Азию, а все его картины остались в оккупированном Резекне. Часть из них пропала. По возвращении в Латвию А. Найшлос, несмотря на свою болезнь, продолжал рисовать, но в 1951 году скончался.
Теперь картины художника хранятся в семейном архиве его детей Леа и Исаака в Израиле, в частных коллекциях, в фондах Латгальского культурно-исторического музея и др. В 60-е годы прошлого века музей получил шесть картин художника.
То, что специалисты музея интересуются жизнью и творчеством ее отца, Леа узнала в 80-е годы прошлого века, и она прислала репродукции картин отца из семейной коллекции. Она написала также биографию своего отца. Но посетить Латвию семье Леа удалось только в этом году. Во время посещения музея она подарила музею диск с материалами об А. Найшлосе.
Сотрудничество с семьей продолжится. Работники музея ждут в гости и сына художника Исаака. Спасибо Леа и ее супругу за материалы, подаренные музею!
http://rus.rv.lv/?newsid=3408
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Females who can mask their trails
"It is beneficial for males to mate as often as possible, since this is the only way in which they can influence the number of offspring they father. But it is costly for the females to mate often, and this is important for them in surviving during the period they are carrying offspring."
The females of most species of snail excrete a substance in their mucous trails that enables males to find them more easily, since they can distinguish between trails from females and those from other males. The males follow the mucous trails laid down by females in order to find a partner for mating. However, the females of one of the species studied (Littorina saxatilis) have stopped labelling their mucous trails.
(read more...)
Monday, September 13, 2010
She decided to settle in the artists' village in Ein Hod...
in 1968 Lia (or Lea) Schubert arrived in Israel, after having served for eleven years as Artistic Director of the Ballet Academy in Stockholm. She decided to settle in the artists' village in Ein Hod establishing a school as well as a dance company in Haifa. The school attracted many students, young people and adults, dance fans and professionals, dancers and artists of various fields
In 1968, after having served for11 years as the Artistic director of the Ballet Academy in Stockholm, Lia arrived in Israel. In the first year of her stay in Israel she taught ballet at the Batsheva Ensemble, Bat-Dor Dance Company, the Music and Dance Academy in Jerusalem and at the Inbal Dance Theatre where she also served as the rehearsal director. In 1969 Lia established, together with the dancer Kaj Lutman (called Selling in Sweden), the major dancer at the Swedish Royal Opera who had international reputation, the Haifa Dance Center school and the Dance troupe Bimat Harakdanim (The dancers' stage) at the Rothschild Center in Haifa, based on a group of dancers that Oshra Elkayam-Ronen established already in 1967 (Eshel, 1993). Basing the aforementioned on two reputable and rich stage-experienced dance artists constituted a promise for the future.
In 1974, after a generation of classical dancers grew and matured at their school, Schubert and Lutman decided to concentrate on the ballet genre and established the Haifa Ballet Piccolo, supported by the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Education and Haifa Municipality. The troupe provided stage- experience opportunity for young dancers, the school graduates, and fostered their artistic personality. The dancing troupe performed in Haifa, Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem as well as on several television programs. Among the dances Schubert created for the group: Cinderella (1974), Coppélia (1974) and the Hoopoe Legend (1976).
read more...
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Dunbar's number
Evolutionary anthropologist Robin Dunbar expands on "Dunbar's number," his theory that the maximum number of stable relationships a person can maintain is approximately 150. Time to delete a few hundred Facebook friends?
We are the product of our evolutionary history, and that history colors our experience of everyday life -- from the number of friends we have to how religious we are. Renowned evolutionary anthropologist Professor Robin Dunbar visits the RSA to explain how the very distant past underpins all of our current behaviors, and how we can best utilize that knowledge.
Did you know that you have just 150 friends, acquaintances and relatives? And that this is a natural size for villages all over the world? Now known as "Dunbar's Number," it defines the feasible boundaries of our social lives. Dunbar's investigations show us that we inherited the social side of our brains from our mother, and the emotional side from our father; why many women see the world in four or even five different colors, but men only ever have the conventional red, green and blue; and why facial symmetry has everything to do with voter choices in elections. - RSA
Robin Ian MacDonald Dunbar is a British anthropologist and evolutionary biologist, specializing in primate behavior. He is best known for formulating Dunbar's number, roughly 150, a measurement of the "cognitive limit to the number of individuals with whom any one person can maintain stable relationships".
Labels: computers, psychology
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
84 Charing Cross Road ...
Helene Hanff's book 84 Charing Cross Road had previously been a TV program and a stage play before it was converted into this 1986 film. The scene is New York, 1949: Anne Bancroft plays a struggling writer and passionate bibliophile, who answers an advertisement from a rare-volumes bookshop at 84 Charing Cross Road in London.
Labels: movies, rare books
Saturday, September 4, 2010
The best thing that you could possibly buy... Amen
Lame Duck Books, a mainstay of Cambridge, Massachusetts' Harvard Square, will close its doors on September 25, 2010.
John W. Wronoski, who opened Lame Duck originally in Philadelphia in 1984, told the Harvard Crimson that the business was "hemorrhaging" money, "destroyed" by online competition.
"Nowadays people like myself who've devoted...50 years to this world have no means of competing again," he said.
"It was a way of earning an income without actually doing something that I considered odious, like work," he continued. "Not that you don't work an enormous amount in this, but it's completely pleasure."
Wronoski, who does not consider himself a bibliophile because he rejects a personal relationship with books, defined the role of rare booksellers as guardians:
"I maintain custody of these fabulous objects until the right person comes along to relieve me of them," he said. "For me, money is so much less interesting than these objects. I'm selling the best thing that you could possibly buy."
Link
Labels: rare books
Thursday, August 19, 2010
What should the West do? Beats me...
Americans are indeed fat and overbearing, Mexicans lazy and pilfering, Germans disciplined and perverted. The Turks, as everyone knows, are insane and deceitful. I say this affectionately. I live in Turkey. On good days, I love Turkey. But I have long since learned that its people are apt to go berserk on you for no reason whatsoever, and you just can’t trust a word they say. As one Turkish friend put it (a man who has spent many years in America, and thus grasps the depth of the cultural chasm), “It’s not that they’re bad. They don’t even know they’re lying.”
My friend is right, and his comment suggests a point about Turkish culture that I doubt many Westerners grasp. People here—and, I would guess, throughout the Middle East and Mediterranean, though Turkey is the only country I know well—see “truth” as something plastic, connected more to emotions than to facts or logic. If it feels true, it is true. What’s more, feelings here tend to change very quickly—and with them, the truth.
Take, for instance, my former landlord. Last year, my apartment was burgled. Under Turkish law, if your apartment is burgled, you have the right to insist that your landlord install bars on your windows. When I put this to my landlord, he objected, screaming violently, as so often people here do for no reason any American would accept as legitimate. First, my landlord screamed, there was no risk of burglary: there had never before been a burglary in our neighborhood. (Actually, our neighborhood was notorious for it.) Second, he screamed, to install bars would create a hazard: burglars would use them to climb up to the second floor. He offered both arguments in the same sentence. He was unperturbed by the obvious problem with his line of reasoning.
Later, when I discussed the matter with Turkish friends, they explained to me that I had made a critical negotiating mistake: I had insulted his honor by telling him I would have bars installed rather than asking him. The argument, they explained, had nothing to do with the real risk of burglary, and certainly nothing to do with my rights under Turkish rental law. It was about my failure to show the man the proper respect.
I’m not sure my Turkish friends were right about that, though. They are, after all, Turkish, so they pretty much say whatever sounds good to them at the time. They tend to explain these situations ex post facto with appeals to the subtleties of Turkish culture, but the story never stays the same. I’ve been in similar situations in which these same Turkish friends have explained that my mistake was asking, rather than telling. Asking, they have assured me, is a sign of weakness, so no wonder my adversaries sought to take advantage.
(read more...)
Labels: comedy, politics, psychology
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Sham acupuncture ...
Researchers from MD Anderson Cancer Center determined patients with osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee who are treated with traditional Chinese acupuncture (TCA) do not experience any more benefit than those receiving sham acupuncture (placebo). The team did find that the communication style of the acupuncturist could have a significant effect on pain reduction and satisfaction in patients.
"We found a small, but significant effect on pain and satisfaction with treatment, demonstrating a placebo effect related to the clinician's communications style," said Dr. Suarez-Almazor. The team found significant differences in J-MAP pain reduction (0.25) and satisfaction (0.22) for those patients in the high expectations group compared with the neutral group. "The improvement in pain and satisfaction suggests that the benefits of acupuncture may be partially mediated through placebo effects related to the behavior of the acupuncturist," concluded Dr. Suarez-Almazor.
(read more...)
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Takashi Nakazato : Karatsu Potter
Even when producing daily dining utensils, Nakazato is not bound by the restrictions of traditional designs, and introduces free, original forms. However, rather than expressing a mere compulsive resistance to tradition, this approach could be more accurately interpreted as liberation of his aesthetic sense, attitudes, and life style from the fixed confines of tradition, and proceeding in accordance with the forms naturally arising from his own free artistic spirit.
(read more...)
Labels: pottery
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Friday, August 6, 2010
Schizophrenia thru MTV eyes Part 2/3 & 3/3
That’s the daily reality for the more than two million Americans living with Schizophrenia - a debilitating mental illness that blurs the line between what’s real and what’s in your head. In this episode of True Life, you’ll meet three young people doing their best to live with this disorder that will be with them forever.
Part 1
Labels: health, psychology, science
Schizophrenia thru MTV eyes Part 1/3
“True Life: I Have Schizophrenia” – What if you couldn’t tell the difference between reality and a scary hallucination? Or you heard voices in your head telling you to hurt yourself? Or if a trip to the supermarket made you feel as though the world was plotting against you? That’s the daily reality for the more than two million Americans living with Schizophrenia - a debilitating mental illness that blurs the line between what’s real and what’s in your head. In this episode of True Life, you’ll meet three young people doing their best to live with this disorder that will be with them forever.
Part 2 & 3
Labels: health, psychology, science
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Sexy Ovulating Women
Although the end result is to attract the best romantic partner available, Durante's research found that ovulating women's choice of dress is motivated by the other women in their environment. "In order to entice a desirable mate, a woman needs to assess the attractiveness of other women in her local environment to determine how eye-catching she needs to be to snare a good man," Durante says.
In the study, researchers had ovulating women view a series of photographs of attractive local women and then asked them to choose clothing and accessory items to purchase. The majority of participants chose sexier products than those who had been shown photographs of unattractive local women or women who lived over 1000 miles away. This change in consumer choice is not a conscious decision and non-ovulating women are not subject to the effect.
(read more...)
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Who is Patient N?
The DNA donor was selected from a large pool of more than 1,300 volunteers who are participating in an unpublished genotyping survey of Russia’s ethnic populations. The goal of that study is eventually to analyze 4,000 people from about 40 nationalities living around Russia and surrounding territories, from Uzbekistan in central Asia to the Arctic Ocean in the north, and from the Pacific to Poland in the west (essentially spanning the former Soviet Union).
“Using Principal Component Analysis (PCA), we could put different individuals into various ethnic groups governing this geographical distribution,” says Prokhortchouk. “You can distinguish Russians as an ethnic group from Tatars or Poles, Siberia, and so on.”
Based on the PCA, Patient N was selected as an archetypal Russian genome. “Mathematically speaking, he’s Russian!” says Prokhortchouk. “I don’t know anything about his parents or what language he speaks or where he lives, but I know that under mathematical rules [PCA], he’s Russian!”
He is also a renal cancer patient, which provides a further rationale for studying this genome. That work is ongoing. The Prokhortchouk and Skryabin labs are part of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (see Nature, April 2010). Preliminary analysis of the renal cancer focused on SNPs that have been associated in genome wide association studies [GWAS] in renal cancer. “Using linkage disequilibrium, you can trace the SNPs [in the Patient N genome] close to the marker SNPs and go to particular exons in particular genes.” One of those looks particularly interesting, he said, but declined to elaborate.
Although the decision to publish in an unknown Russian journal, which is not yet recognized in PubMed, stifled media attention abroad, the paper attracted considerable media attention inside Russia when it was published last year. The big question on reporters’ minds was: Who is Patient N? “They thought it was Prime Minister Putin. It’s not true!” said Prokhortchouk. Speculation was not unreasonable, given that according to Wikipedia, the institute director Kovalchuk’s brother is described as the “personal banker” to Putin.
(read more...)
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
On Books and Rats
Firmin is the runt of a litter of rats born in the basement of Pembroke Books, a ramshackle old bookstore run by the equally shambolic owner Norman Shine. Forced to compete for food, Firmin ends up chewing on the books that surround him. Thanks to his unusual diet, he acquires the miraculous ability to read. He subsequently develops an insatiable hunger for literature and a very unratlike sense of the world and his place in it. He is a debonair soul trapped in a rat's body¿
But a literary rat is a lonely rat and, spurned by his own kind, he thinks he recognises a kindred soul in Norman. Firmin seeks solace in the Lovelies of the local burlesque cinema and in his own imagination. But the days of the bookshop and of the close community around it are numbered. The area has been marked out for urban regeneration and soon the faded glory of the bookshop, the low-life bars, loan agencies and pawn shops will face the bulldozers.
Brilliantly original and richly allegorical, Firmin is brimming with charm and wistful longing for a world that treasures its seedy theatres, one-of-a-kind characters, and cluttered bookshops.
Labels: rare books
Saturday, July 24, 2010
The Writer Who Couldn't Read or Чукча - писатель
"In January of 2002," writes the neuroscientist Oliver Sacks, "I received a letter from Howard Engel, a Canadian novelist describing a strange problem."
On July 31, 2001, Engel woke up, dressed, made breakfast, and then went to the front door to get his newspaper. "I wasn't aware," he says in our NPR interview, "that it was any different from any other morning."
Engel had suffered a stroke. It had damaged the part of his brain we use when we read, so he couldn't make sense of letters or words. He was suffering from what the French neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene calls "word blindness." His eyes worked. He could see shapes on a page, but they made no sense to him. And because Engel writes detective stories for a living (he authored the Benny Cooperman mystery series, tales of a mild-mannered Toronto private eye), this was an extra-terrible blow. "I thought, well I'm done as a writer. I'm finished."Sacks describes Engel's struggles in a forthcoming book, The Mind's Eye, to be published later this year. The surprise here is that brains are more plastic than one would suppose; even if one part of a brain is compromised by a stroke, a person can sometimes improvise and get another still healthy part of the brain to substitute and help out.
(read more...)
Labels: health, rare books, science
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Books That Are Out to Get You...
מצא עוד סרטים כאלה ב-Ein Hod עין הוד
Do you know that there is a certain sub-genre (sub-sub-genre?) of murder mysteries concerned with the world of authors, manuscripts, rare and deadly books - with the emphasis on deadly books?. Typically, they feature an indefatigable hero leaping around libraries in a race against time, unearthing cyphers, ancient manuscripts and clues hidden in old books.
Thrillers like this belong to a popular sub-genre called bibliomysteries, and as the name suggests, they all concern some sort of bookish skull-duggery. Book lovers love them but if you’re tempted to read one here are a few words of warning. Books can be fatal, as this eager reader is about to discover:
(read more...)
Labels: rare books
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Exlibris: a visual poem
short film teaser EXLIBRIS by Maria Trenor
Exlibris is a visual poem which pays tribute to old books, the shops that sell them and the pleasure of reading, through a single copy of "Don Quixote." Short film teaser edited by Josep Bedmar - Lacomida visuals
Labels: rare books
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Synchronized Swimming... Disgusting...?
According to Israeli law all 18 year olds are drafted to the military. This film follows a young woman, a member of Israel’s national Synchronized Swimming team, during her last year before being drafted.
A new exhibition in the curatorial Studies Program Galler
Curator: Liora Bedford
Participating artists:
Amnon Wolman, David Grubbs, Dorit Barak, Duprass – Ido Govrin & Liora Belford, Jeanne Dunning, Ohad Milstein, Oscar Abush, Tali Mayer, zamir shatz
Opening event: 08/07/10, 20.00
Open through 12/08
Kalisher 5, corner of Tzadok Hacohen, Tel Aviv
Opening hours: sun-thurs- 17.00-20.00
fri- 10.00-15.00. sat- closed
the exhibition will be closed between 12/07-22/07
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Mans vīrs Andrejs Saharovs
How does the “brains” of the Soviet regime, an academician, the “father” of hydrogen bomb, an outstanding intellectual for whom even in the Kremlin all the doors were open can become an irreconcilable champion of human rights and prisoners of conscience and an internationally renown enemy of this system? The film My Husband Andrey Sakharov answers to this question in an intriguing yet subdued, even intimate form – by confronting the views of the witnesses of those times and Sakharov’s colleagues. His widow Yelena Bonner and the last secretary general of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev are two brightest participants of this indirect debate in the film, which not only by presenting facts and their interpretations and forceful poeticism of the documentary footage makes one think about the games of power and guarantees of human freedom that is a topical theme not only in Russia.
Фильм режиссера Инары Колмане «Мой муж Андрей Сахаров», снятый латвийской студией фильмов «Deviņi» совместно с французскими кинодокументалистами, был отмечен премиями на многих международных фестивалях. В 2007 году в номинации полнометражный документальный фильм эта лента была удостоена главного приза Латвийского национального кинофестиваля «Большой Кристап». Интерес к личности легендарного советского академика Андрея Сахарова и по сей день остается большим во всем мире. С одной стороны, Сахаров отец водородной бомбы, с другой - непримиримый критик идеологии СССР, узник совести, сосланный под домашний арест в закрытый для иностранцев город Горький...
Мне посчастливилось быть знакомой с Андреем Дмитриевичем лично. Не стану преувеличивать - чай с академиком Сахаровым и его женой Еленой Боннер на их легендарной московской кухне я не пила. Более того, с Е.Боннер, главной героиней фильма «Мой муж Андрей Сахаров», никогда даже не встречалась. Тем не менее, коль скоро именно в Латвии снят такой фильм, осмелюсь рассказать и о своем знакомстве с Сахаровым. Благо случилось это знакомство во время того злополучного Съезда народных депутатов СССР, когда Горбачев сгонял академика Сахарова с трибуны под улюлюканье и топот ног агрессивно-послушного большинства Съезда. Итак, 2 июня 1989 года. Москва, Кремль...
read more...
Emanuel Yakobson on BBC Беседы с генетиком Эммануилом Якобсоном Part 1 2
Features associated with germline CDKN2A mutations: a GenoMEL study of melanoma-prone families from three continents.
Goldstein AM, Chan M, Harland M, Hayward NK, Demenais F, Bishop DT, Azizi E, Bergman W, Bianchi-scarra G, Bruno W, Calista D, Albright LA, Chaudru V, Chompret A, Cuellar F, Elder DE, Ghiorzo P, Gillanders EM, Gruis NA, Hansson J... expand author list, Hogg D, Holland EA, Kanetsky PA, Kefford RF, Landi MT, Lang J, Leachman SA, Mackie RM, Magnusson V, Mann GJ, Bishop JN, Palmer JM, Puig S, Puig-butille JA, Stark M, Tsao H, Tucker MA, Whitaker L, Yakobson E, Lund Melanoma Study Group, Melanoma Genetics Consortium (GenoMEL) collapse author list
Journal of medical genetics 2007 Feb; 44(2)
BACKGROUND: The major factors individually reported to be associated with an increased frequency of CDKN2A mutations are increased number of patients with melanoma in a family, early age at melanoma diagnosis, and family members with multiple primary... expand abstract melanomas (MPM) or pancreatic cancer. METHODS: These four features were examined in 385 families with > or =3 patients with melanoma pooled by 17 GenoMEL groups, and these attributes were compared across continents. RESULTS: Overall, 39% of families had CDKN2A mutations ranging from 20% (32/162) in Australia to 45% (29/65) in North America to 57% (89/157) in Europe. All four features in each group, except pancreatic cancer in Australia (p = 0.38), individually showed significant associations with CDKN2A mutations, but the effects varied widely across continents. Multivariate examination also showed different predictors of mutation risk across continents. In Australian families, > or =2 patients with MPM, median age at melanoma diagnosis < or =40 years and > or =6 patients with melanoma in a family jointly predicted the mutation risk. In European families, all four factors concurrently predicted the risk, but with less stringent criteria than in Australia. In North American families, only > or =1 patient with MPM and age at diagnosis < or =40 years simultaneously predicted the mutation risk. CONCLUSIONS: The variation in CDKN2A mutations for the four features across continents is consistent with the lower melanoma incidence rates in Europe and higher rates of sporadic melanoma in Australia. The lack of a pancreatic cancer-CDKN2A mutation relationship in Australia probably reflects the divergent spectrum of mutations in families from Australia versus those from North America and Europe. GenoMEL is exploring candidate host, genetic and/or environmental risk factors to better understand the variation observed. collapse abstract
מצא עוד סרטים כאלה ב-Ein Hod עין הוד
Features associated with germline CDKN2A mutations: a GenoMEL study of melanoma-prone families from three continents.
Goldstein AM, Chan M, Harland M, Hayward NK, Demenais F, Bishop DT, Azizi E, Bergman W, Bianchi-scarra G, Bruno W, Calista D, Albright LA, Chaudru V, Chompret A, Cuellar F, Elder DE, Ghiorzo P, Gillanders EM, Gruis NA, Hansson J... expand author list, Hogg D, Holland EA, Kanetsky PA, Kefford RF, Landi MT, Lang J, Leachman SA, Mackie RM, Magnusson V, Mann GJ, Bishop JN, Palmer JM, Puig S, Puig-butille JA, Stark M, Tsao H, Tucker MA, Whitaker L, Yakobson E, Lund Melanoma Study Group, Melanoma Genetics Consortium (GenoMEL) collapse author list
Journal of medical genetics 2007 Feb; 44(2)
BACKGROUND: The major factors individually reported to be associated with an increased frequency of CDKN2A mutations are increased number of patients with melanoma in a family, early age at melanoma diagnosis, and family members with multiple primary... expand abstract melanomas (MPM) or pancreatic cancer. METHODS: These four features were examined in 385 families with > or =3 patients with melanoma pooled by 17 GenoMEL groups, and these attributes were compared across continents. RESULTS: Overall, 39% of families had CDKN2A mutations ranging from 20% (32/162) in Australia to 45% (29/65) in North America to 57% (89/157) in Europe. All four features in each group, except pancreatic cancer in Australia (p = 0.38), individually showed significant associations with CDKN2A mutations, but the effects varied widely across continents. Multivariate examination also showed different predictors of mutation risk across continents. In Australian families, > or =2 patients with MPM, median age at melanoma diagnosis < or =40 years and > or =6 patients with melanoma in a family jointly predicted the mutation risk. In European families, all four factors concurrently predicted the risk, but with less stringent criteria than in Australia. In North American families, only > or =1 patient with MPM and age at diagnosis < or =40 years simultaneously predicted the mutation risk. CONCLUSIONS: The variation in CDKN2A mutations for the four features across continents is consistent with the lower melanoma incidence rates in Europe and higher rates of sporadic melanoma in Australia. The lack of a pancreatic cancer-CDKN2A mutation relationship in Australia probably reflects the divergent spectrum of mutations in families from Australia versus those from North America and Europe. GenoMEL is exploring candidate host, genetic and/or environmental risk factors to better understand the variation observed. collapse abstract
#[Gene silencing RNAi technology: possible application to therapy]
Vestin A, Weinstein J, Davidov E, Sidi Y, Yakobson EA
Harefuah 2006 Feb; 145(2)
RNA interference (RNAi), i.e. gene silencing, or gene expression down-regulation is the process whereby a double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) induces the homology-dependent degradation of cognate messenger RNA (mRNA). When dsRNA is introduced into cells, an ... expand abstractRNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) is assembled. RISC serves as cellular machinery that is responsible for the specific mRNA degradation. This process results in the subsequent reduction of the specific protein translated from appropriate mRNA. Short RNA duplexes (21 nucleotide), called small interfering RNA (siRNA), have become the major tool for induction of gene silencing. With the human genome mapped and sequenced, attempts are currently being made to manipulate the expression of genes involved in viral diseases, carcinogenesis and other disorders with the aim of developing novel therapies. collapse abstract
#
Search for germline alterations in CDKN2A/ARF and CDK4 of 42 Jewish melanoma families with or without neural system tumours.
Marian C, Scope A, Laud K, Friedman E, Pavlotsky F, Yakobson E, Bressac-de paillerets B, Azizi E
British journal of cancer 2005 Jun; 92(12)
To gain insight into the molecular mechanisms involved in the inherited predisposition to melanoma and associated neural system tumours, 42 Jewish, mainly Ashkenazi, melanoma families with or without neural system tumours were genotyped for germline ... expand abstractpoint mutations and genomic deletions at the CDKN2A/ARF and CDK4 loci. CDKN2A/ARF deletion detection was performed using D9S1748, an intragenic microsatellite marker. Allele dosage at the p14ARF locus was analysed by quantitative real-time PCR employing a TaqMan probe that anneals specifically to exon 1beta of the p14ARF gene. For detecting point mutations, dHPLC and direct sequencing of the coding sequences of CDKN2A/ARF and CDK4 was used. No germline alterations in any of the tested genes were detected among the families under study. We conclude that in the majority of Ashkenazi Jewish families, the genes tested are unlikely to be implicated in the predisposition to melanoma and associated neural system tumours. collapse abstract
#
Search for genetic variants associated with cutaneous malignant melanoma in the Ashkenazi Jewish population.
Loo JC, Paterson AD, Hao A, Shennan M, Peretz H, Sidi Y, Hogg D, Yakobson E
Journal of medical genetics 2005 May; 42(5)
#
A single Mediterranean, possibly Jewish, origin for the Val59Gly CDKN2A mutation in four melanoma-prone families.
Yakobson E, Eisenberg S, Isacson R, Halle D, Levy-lahad E, Catane R, Safro M, Sobolev V, Huot T, Peters G, Ruiz A, Malvehy J, Puig S, Chompret A, Avril MF, Shafir R, Peretz H, Bressac-de paillerets B
European journal of human genetics : EJHG 2003 Apr; 11(4)
We have screened for CDKN2A germline mutations in 49 Jewish families with two or more cases of melanoma. The Val59Gly mutation, one of the three different alterations identified among these families, was also detected independently in two kindreds fr... expand abstract
read more
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Good Luck Gia @ Erez
After a pause of a month since their Carroll Gardens space was transformed from an genuine old time pharmacy into a faux old-time "farmacy" and soda foundation by Discovery Channel "Construction Intervention" reality series, The Brooklyn Farmacy and Soda Fountain is finally open for business.
And the old wooden drawers that once held pills are now filled with candy like Lemonheads and Double Bubble gum. The menu (above and below) is simple and features ice cream, sundaes, ice cream sodas, black & whites, shakes, sparkling sodas and, or course, egg creams.
(read more...)
Friday, July 2, 2010
The 100 Greatest
Here is a List of Movies Cited in the Above Video
0’00 - Roxanne, Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Gleaming the Cube, The Princess Bride, A Fish Called Wanda, Star Wars, The Wizard of Oz, Casino, Three Amigos, A Clockwork Orange
1’05 - Dolemite, Glengarry Glen Ross, Bad Santa, The Witches of Eastwick, The Big Lebowski, In Bruges, Full Metal Jacket, There Will Be Blood
2’05 - Toy Story, Casablanca, Encino Man, The Women, Predator, Army of Darkness, They Live, Uncle Buck, Big Trouble in Little China, New Jack City, Billy Madison
3’00 - Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Departed, Carlito’s Way, In the Loop, Glengarry Glen Ross, Stand By Me, Grosse Pointe Blank, Duck Soup, Caddyshack, Planes Trains & Automobiles
4’00 - South Park, Napoleon Dynamite, Mean Girls, The Breakfast Club, As Good as It Gets, The 6th Day, Step Brothers, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Full Metal Jacket, City Slickers, Road House, True Grit, Shot Circuit
5’00 - Raging Bull, The Usual Suspects, Snatch, Caddyshack, The Last Boy Scout, Ghostbusters, The Sandlot, As Good as It Gets
6’00 - 48 Hrs, In Bruges, Silver Streak, Glengarry Glen Ross, A Fish Called Wanda, Goodfellas, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, The Mist, Trading Places
7’00 - The Warriors, Point Break, Gangs of New York, Reservoir Dogs, The Breakfast Club, The Cowboys, Full Metal Jacket, Dodgeball, Donnie Darko, Scarface, The Good the Bad and the Ugly
8’00 - Anchorman, Tropic Thunder, Sexy Beast, In the Loop, Get Shorty, Blazing Saddles, The Way of the Gun, Blade: Trinity, Clerks, The Boondock Saints, The Exorcist, What About Bob?, Weird Science
9’00 - Con Air, True Romance, In the Loop, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Lake Placid, The Front, Gone with the Wind
Link
"Hava Nagila" (Hebrew: הבה נגילה) (lit. Let us rejoice)
Many of us have danced to Hava Nagilah. But how many of us know where it comes from? Here is a charming excerpt from a forthcoming documentary (featuring the co-creator of "Friends," Harry Belafonte, and Leonard Nimoy!) that has the story.
http://www.indiegogo.com/Hava-Nagilah-What-Is-It
This video is a fundraising clip forfilm Hava Nagilah: What Is It? If you'd like to support the making of the film, please make a tax-deductible donation at:
http://www.indiegogo.com/Hava-Nagilah-What-Is-It
Everyone who gives $18 or more will get a credit on the film!
Monday, June 21, 2010
Lisa, Bach and Abu Gosh
מצא עוד סרטים כאלה ב-Ein Hod עין הוד
Lisa Verchovsky ( Ein Hod ) sings
J.S.Bach-"Et Exultavit Spiritus Meus" from "Magnificat"
abu gosh 2.1.2010
on piano eyal bat
The village of Abu Gosh has important Christian connections. Beginning in the twelfth century, Christians began to identify Abu Gosh as Emmaus, where Jesus appeared after the Resurrection (Luke 24:12-31). They imagined an old caravansary they found by the village spring as the destination of the disciples as they walked along the road about seven miles from Jerusalem (Luke 24:13).
The villages impressive Crusader church, in a tranquil garden setting, is built over that spring. Its walls are adorned with paintings of New Testament figures some of the oldest medieval frescos in the world.
Abu Gosh has also been identified as Kiriath Jearim, where the Ark of the Covenant was brought after Philistine captivity (1 Sam. 6:21); a church on the hill with a panoramic view marks that spot.
ליסה ורכובסקי( עין הוד ) שרה באך באבו גוש
ein hod עין הוד
Labels: abu gosh, ein hod, lisa verchovsky, music, ליסה ורכובסקי
Saturday, June 12, 2010
50000 books for free
The Brattle Book Shop was founded in the Cornhill section of Boston in 1825 and has been in the hands of the Gloss Family since 1949. Over the years George and his son Kenneth built this shop into one of the largest antiquarian bookshops in the country.
Housed in a three-story building in the heart of Downtown Boston, The Brattle Book Shop carries an impressive stock of over 250,000 books, maps, prints, postcards and ephemeral items in all subjects. In addition to its general used and out-of-print stock, The Brattle Book Shop also maintains an inventory of collectibles, first editions and fine leather bindings in its rare book room.
Note: Cornhill Street in Boston was once known as the book selling centre of the USA. The shop being demolished was the last remaining bookshop in the Cornhill Street.(via British Pathe)
Labels: history, rare books
Friday, June 11, 2010
Beating the Kos
It was the Turks who early on discovered the power of military bands to excite fighters while encouraging their warrior spirit, and to maintain discipline in unity during marches in times of peace. While the roots of this tradition reach back to the Hun Empire, Turks used music on the military field in an active and functional way. In particular, the morale of the army was boosted by the incessant beating of the large drum, "kos" (a large kettle drum) and by playing inarches.
A Chinese historian described a Chinese general who had come to the region of Balasagun to Central Asia while on duty. The general had brought an ensemble of Hun (Turkish) instruments to China upon his return and had them played at the palace. This proves that Central Asian Turks used military bands in centuries previous to the advent of Islam. Central Europe was introduced to the Ottoman military ensemble, known as mehterhane, in the processions of Turkish envoys. Due to the fact that this ensemble first appeared at German battle fronts, the name, "Yeniçeri mızıkası" (Janissary band) was adopted into the German language. German and various Central European rulers and princes had an incessant desire to have their own mehterhane, and attempted many imitations. Eventually this new kind of military band ensemble came as far as Istanbul. A French style banda (band) was first shown to Selim HI in Istanbul. The French diplomat Raymond de Verninac came to Istanbul in April 1795, The new things that he displayed as soon as he arrived attracted a great deal of interest. Upon his first visit to the Ottoman Sultan, his car was preceded by a band and a squad of French soldiers. The French soldiers had attached bayonets to the ends of their rifles, and the diplomat proceeded to the palace among this ostentatious crowd.
click and play!
The American record company, G.C.R. (Gramophone Concert. Record, which was later to take the name "His Master's Voice"), began to make recordings in Istanbul in 1900. The company's first recordings became available in 1903. At approximately the same time. the German company, Favorite, entered production- While Turkish musicians were hesitant to lend their voices to recordings during these years, minority artists of Greek, Jewish, Armenian and Roma (Gypsy) origins entered the studios and made the first 78 rpm recordings- Among the features which are striking in the early period of 78 rpm record catalogues and collections are the presence of works such as polkas, waltzes, and marches, and the ensembles that played them. The ensemble entitled Garde de S.M.I. Ie Sultan which is presented to music lovers is the "Mızıkay-ı Hümayun" ensemble. There were 33 single-sided records made between the years of 1904-1911. Of these, 24 were marches with the remainder consisting of popular music of the day such as waltzes and polkas.