Ophelia's Dream - Danse Macabre

Not the Saint-Saens composition but a piece by German duo Susanne Stierle and Dietmar Greulich.

Back later

Photo Hunt - Footsteps above

This week's Photo Hunt has no set theme so here is a photo of people walking overhead at the Musee d'Orsay.

I'm away Friday, back Saturday hence the autopost.

Boris

This week's entry for the Friday Ark and Carnival of the Cats.

Khamenei not in a coma

NOT IN A COMA

Apparently an Iranian website has denied that Iran's supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei is in a coma

In a separate development, the head of the Basij militia denied that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had explosive diarrhoea while attending Friday prayers at Qom last week....

and a bit more banishing of the foul taste

Love Spirals Downwards

Music to banish the taste of corporate criminals and their shysters

Fade into you - Mazzy Star

Stalin a mass murderer after all...

According to the BBC a Moscow court has rejected a lawsuit filed by Yevgeny Dzhugashvili Joseph Stalin’s grandson claiming that the Russian newspaper; Novaya Gazeta, had defamed Joseph Stalin.

Dzhugashvili said that an article published in the newspaper that claimed Stalin personally ordered the deaths of Soviet citizens was a lie. He had requested a public apology and damages from the opposition newspaper.

The court rejected his petition and the Novaya Gazeta had published a piece referring to declassified death warrants, which it said bore Stalin's personal signature.

Mr Dzhugashvili has five days to appeal against the ruling.

Well there you have it Stalin was a murdering bastard after all and not a doting grandfather....
A more disgraceful legal action from the UK featuring my “favourite” corporate criminal scum Trafigura and their rabble of ugly shysters Carter-Ruck to follow.

A master fingerprinted?

The picture to the left is rather small in real life: just a 33 x 23cm (13 x 9in) and in chalk, pen and ink. When it appeared at auction at Christie’s, New York, in 1998, it was catalogued as “German school, early 19th century”. It sold for $19,000 (£11,400). Now it seems that it could be a Leonardo da Vinci and thus worth about £100 million.

According to the Times carbon dating and infra-red analysis of the artist’s technique are consistent with such a conclusion, but the most compelling evidence is that fragment of a fingerprint.

Peter Paul Biro, a Montreal-based forensic art expert, found the print while examining images captured by a multispectral camera The fingerprint is “highly comparable” to one on Leonardo’s St Jerome in the Vatican. Importantly, St Jerome is an early work from a time when Leonardo was not known to have employed assistants, making it likely that it is his fingerprint.

Martin Kemp, Emeritus Professor of History of Art at the University of Oxford supports these findings. He has rechristened the picture, sold as Young Girl in Profile in Renaissance Dress, as La Bella Principessa after identifying her, “by a process of elimination”, as Bianca Sforza, daughter of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (1452-1508), and his mistress Bernardina de Corradis.

If it is by Leonardo, it would be the only known work by the artist on vellum although Leonardo is known to have asked the French court painter Jean Perréal about the technique of using coloured chalks on vellum in 1494.

Hmmm I daresay the current owner is, let’s say, pleasantly surprised and perhaps even has dollar signs where his pupils should be. Still there is another benefit: Leonardo’s dabs can go on record... you never know when he might go ram raiding....

Britain and Iran on collision course... sort of

Running separate to the furore over June’s stolen election, or its nuclear ambitions Britain and Iran are in a furious (well sort of) war of words over an important cultural artefact.

According to the BBC the Iranian government has said it will cease cultural co-operation with the British Museum unless a treasure known as the Cyrus Cylinder is loaned to the nation.

A British Museum statement said its trustees have "reaffirmed their intention to lend the Cylinder to Iran" but added that "there are a number of issues and practicalities to be resolved, but the intention is to send it as agreed."

Mr Baqaie said Iran's Cultural Heritage Organisation would consider severing ties with the British Museum if the piece was not loaned to them within two months.

The object, which is around 2,500 years old, was ordered to be made by Persian king Cyrus. It is said to represent the first bill of rights and encapsulate religious toleration.

Given that many of the artefacts at the recent Shah Abbas exhibition came from Iran so it is only fair that an important item is loaned to Iran. After all it was hardly dredged up from the Thames riverbed...

Something distorted from the Pompidou Centre

Support Dave Osler, John Gray and Alex Hilton

I know that this is being reported widely elsewhere by British political bloggers but I felt I couldn’t not at least express my support to bloggers Dave Osler, John Gray and Alex Hilton, who are being sued for defamation by Tory activist Johanna Kaschke.

Dave Osler’s latest post sets out the basis for the libel case. This is a brief summary:

In 2007 Kaschke nominated herself as Labour candidate for Bethnal Green & Bow but she received just one vote. Shortly after she defected to the Respect party then a little later to an unnamed Communist Party. Not long after she became a Conservative. Strangely . Kaschke contends that listing her affiliations denies her the right to freedom of association under the European Convention on Human Rights.

The jury will also be asked to decide whether calling her 'one cherry short of a Schwarzwalderkirschtorte'. Is libellous. This was not written by Dave Osler but by a person leaving a comment As Dave Osler says “If I lose on that point, the consequences for internet freedom of speech are clearly considerable.”

John Gray is being sued on a related matter. Alex Hilton’s suit is on the basis that he runs of Labour Home and not for any comment he has made.

This is a ridiculous suit that deserves to be laughed out of court. It appears to be the work of someone who has far too thin a skin for the rough and tumble of politics. I don’t believe that politics should be abusive but one should not run to the courts over such a mild insult! So here goes: Johanna Kaschke is a poopy-faced, knicker-wetter who has fleas, nits and (for the benefit of north American readers) cooties too.

Anyone who goes through four parties in a year is not likely to be considered for high office. Perhaps that is just as well... However, if she wins the the law will demonstrate itself to be an ass but polyorchid (polyorcidism is a condition where a man has more than the normal amount of testicles. In this sense the law will show itself to be a load of bollocks)

The Vegetarian spider? Well not quite but almost!

According to the Times scientists have determined that there is such a thing as a vegetarian spider. Bagheera kiplingi, a South American species, lives almost exclusively on acacia leaf buds and is thought to be the only spider of about 40,000 species to have largely rejected a carnivorous diet.

“This is the first spider known to ‘hunt’ plants as a primary food source,” said Christopher Meehan of Villanova University, in Pennsylvania, who observed the creatures, about the size of a thumbnail, on a field trip in Mexico. It must be pointed out that he didn’t actually discover the species. It was discovered in 1896 although a female of the species was not found until the 1990s.

B kiplingi is not totally vegetarian: they will sometimes eat the larvae of the ants that have a symbiotic relationship with the acacias where they live (The ants guard the trees from intruders and in return the acacia produces nodules on its leaves called Beltan bodies. These are protein and fat rich. The ants feed on them, as do the spiders). The spider will also resort to cannibalism

Despite this the discovery is a major surprise for zoologists. Before Meehan’s discovery it was that spider physiology made plant-eating impossible. “Spiders aren’t thought to be capable of eating solid food at all,” said Meehan. Normally they secrete enzymes onto their prey to digest them outside the body and then consume what’s left as a kind of soup. B kiplingi, however, eats its vegetables whole.

Ah this is utterly fascinating stuff...

George Carlin on cats and dogs

Photo Hunt - Sport

The theme for this week's Photo Hunt is sport. I don't have a lot of sporting photos but here are a couple of shots of a statue to Irish Olympic champion Dr Pat O'Callaghan in his home town of Kanturk, Co Cork. Dr O'Callaghan won gold medals for Ireland the Hammer event at both the 1928 Amsterdam and 1932 Los Angeles games. The photo below is of Dr O'Callaghan in his heyday

Iranian protestor sentenced to death

According to the Guardian the first death sentence has been passed against a defendant accused of involvement in the mass protests in Iran against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's stolen election. A revolutionary court in Tehran handed the penalty to Mohammad Reza Ali-Zamani, 37, after convicting him of muhabereh – taking up arms against Iran's Islamic system.

Ali-Zamani had confessed to working for an exile group, the Iran Monarchy Committee, which Iranian officials describe as a terrorist organisation. Prosecutors alleged that he plotted political assassinations with US military officials in Iraq before returning to Iran "aiming at causing disruption during and after the election".

Ali-Zamani admitted guilt during a series of show trials that began in August in. Many senior pro-reformist politicians confessed to fomenting the unrest that followed Ahmadinejad's victory. Needless to say these trials have been rightly condemned. It is pretty certain that the defendants were tortured to force them to confess.

Ali-Zamani is not well known. His indictment said he had joined the Iran Monarchy Committee after hearing about it on a television satellite channel. His activities are said to have included distributing anti-regime CDs and propaganda, as well as copies of the Satanic Verses (!!!!!!).

Ali-Zamani was accused of meeting an American called Frank in the Iraqi city of Irbil and passing information about conditions inside Iran in exchange for money. He was also alleged to have received instructions on how to build a chemical weapon from a fellow member of the IMC. Another part of the indictment alleges that he met two US military officers named "Mike and Robert" and gave them information on Iranian officials who had allegedly been targeted for assassination.

Prosecutors claimed that Ali-Zamani – who they say had a criminal record for forging revolutionary guard and judicial stamps – took part in an operation, called Salman, in which he gave the IMC information on members of the hardline Basij volunteer militia. They said he had conducted "vast communication activities" inside Iran before being arrested by intelligence officers.

The allegations were dismissed by the IMC, which is run by Iranians living in Europe and the US. A committee spokeswoman, Dordaneh Fouladvand, confirmed that Ali-Zamani had worked with the organisation but insisted he had played no role in the post-election protests. His activities had been limited to working for its radio station, Radio Tondar, she said.

This is clearly an exemplary sentence from what was most certainly a show trial. Is this going to deter protestors? I doubt it somehow. The Iranian government has just created a martyr in the making.

Ted returns after a bit of an absence

All your soya-based dessert products are belong to us

Remember human, this tongue will be rasping your pate come 4am

An absence from the blog that is. This week's entry for the Friday Ark and Carnival of the Cats.

This year’s Nobel Prize for literature goes to Romanian-born German novelist Herta Mueller. The prize recognised her ability to depict “with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose ... the landscape of the dispossessed”.

Mueller is apparently best known for describing the harsh conditions suffered in Romania under the totalitarian rule of the late communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. She began work as a translator but was reportedly sacked after refusing to co-operate with the Securitate, the secret police during the communist regime

She made her literary debut in 1982 with a collection of short stories titled Niederungen, which was promptly censored by the Romanian government. In 1984 an uncensored version was published in Germany and her work depicting life in a small, German-speaking village in Romania was devoured by readers. That work was followed by Oppressive Tango in Romania. She left the country with her husband in 1987.

I am utterly unfamiliar with her work. Sadly there does not seem to be much both in translation and in print here. It sounds like it is definitely well worth reading. I hope this award will result in her work being made available here in the UK.

It being National Poetry Day....

To Hell with TS Elliot, here's the great William Topaz

The Wreck of the Abercrombie Robinson

Twas in the year of 1842 and on the 27th of May
That six Companies of the 91st Regiment with spirits light and gay,
And forming the Second Battalion, left Naas without delay,
Commanded by Captain Bertie Gordon, to proceed to the Cape straightaway.

And on the second of June they sailed for the Cape of Good Hope
On board the "Abercrombie Robinson," a vessel with which few vessels could cope;
And in August the 25th they reached Table Bay,
Where a battalion of the 91st was warned for service without delay.

To relieve the 91st, which was to be stationed at Cape Town,
An order which the 91st obeyed without a single frown;
And all the officers not on duty obtained leave to go ashore,
Leaving only six aboard, in grief to deplore.

There were 460 men of the 91st seemingly all content,
Besides a draft of the Cape Mounted Rides and a draft of the 27th Regiment;
But, alas an hour after midnight on the same night
A strong gale was blowing, which filled the passengers' hearts with fright.

The ship pitched heavily and could be felt touching the ground,
Then Captain Gordon warned the Sergeant-Major and officers all round,
That they might expect a storm, to him it seemed plain;
And, as he predicted, it blew a terrific hurricane.

And the passengers' hearts were filled with dismay,
And a little after three o'clock in the morning the cable broke away,
Then the ship drifted helplessly before the merciless storm,
While the women and children looked sad, pale and forlorn.

Then the thunder roared and the lightning dashed in bright array,
And was one of the greatest storms ever raged over Table Bay,
And the ill-fated vessel drove in towards the shore,
While the Storm Fiend did laugh and loudly did roar.

And the ship rolled and heaved with the raging tide,
While the seas poured down the hatchways and broke over her side,
And the ship wrought for herself a bed in the sand;
Still Captain Bertie hoped all might get safely to land.

'Twas about seven o'clock when daylight did appear,
And when the storm ceases the passengers gave a cheer,
Who had been kept below during the awful night,
Then in small groups they came on deck, a most pitiful sight.

Alas! sad and dejected, sickly looking, pale and forlorn,
Owing to the close confinement during the storm;
And for a time attempts were made to send a rope ashore,
But these proved futile owing to the raging billows which loudly did roar.

Then one of the ship's cutters was carefully lowered over the side,
And her crew towards the shore merrily did glide,
And succeeded in reaching the shore with a leading line,
And two boats were conveyed to the sinking ship just in time.

And to save the women and children from being drowned,
Captain Gordon gave orders to the 91st all round
For the women and children to disembark immediately,
Who to God were crying for help most, frantically.

And the 91st made a most determined stand,
While lowering the women and children it was awful and grand,
As they lowered them gently into the boats over the ship's side,
Regardless of their own lives whatever would betide.

Then the sick were to disembark after the women and children,
And next the 27th Regiment and Cape Mounted Riflemen;
And from half-past eight till ten o'clock the disembarkation went on,
While the women and children looked ghastly pale and woe begone.

The disembarkation of the 91st came at last,
And as there were only two boats available they stood aghast,
Because the boats only carried each time thirty;
Still, the work went on for four hours most manfully.

And at half-past three the last boat left the ship's side,
And o'er the raging billows the small boats did glide,
Containing the officers and crew who remained to the last,
To see the women and children saved and all danger past.

And after a night of great danger and through a raging sea
Seven hundred souls were carried from a sinking ship providentially
And among them were trembling children and nervous women also
And sick men who were dying with their hearts full of woe.

But thank God they were all saved and brought to land,
All through Colonel Bertie Gordon, who wisely did command
The 91st to see to the women and children's safety,
An order which they obeyed right manfully;
And all honour is due to the 91st for their gallantry,
Likewise Captain Bertie Gordon, who behaved so heroically.

For more of the Tayside Tragedian go to McGonagall Online

... or Ataraxia

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