Author: Serkadis

We have an awesome giveaway to kick off 2010! Neko Habitat is offering a beautiful acrylic Cradle cat bed for one lucky winner! This sleek modern bed is raised slightly off the floor with stainless steel legs and the shape of the bed is sure to attract kitty for a comfy afternoon nap.

To enter the monthly giveaway, make sure you’re signed-up to receive Moderncat updates via email. The drawing will take place on January 31. International winners are eligible to win if they would like to pay the extra shipping. Complete details on the monthly giveaway here.

EXTRA CHANCE TO WIN!

Neko Habitat wants to hear from you! For an extra chance to win the monthly giveaway, please leave a comment on this post and tell us what products you’d like to see next from Neko Habitat. One extra entry per person.

I-mate was one of the pioneers of the smartphone world, and for much of the last few years also one of the most troubled.  The company always credited itself as the creator of the first Windows Mobile phone, something that was disputed by most that saw the company as simply a trumped up middle man trying to take credit for the work of others, principally HTC.

When HTC decided to strike out on its own and sever ties to I-mate the company floundered, promising many great handsets and delivering only very few.  Most recently the company, after disputes with its ODM’s and claimed internal fraud, shut doors completely, ad we thought we heard the last of them.

However a bit like the villain in a summer movie the company simply refuses to die, with Phonenews.com claiming the troubled company has been bought by a pretty vigorous HTC.

This role reversal apparently came about due to I-mate owning some useful patents and rugged designs which could give HTC a step-up in an area where they have never really done well.

The rumour is far from confirmed, but it is of note that HTC will now be honouring I-mate warranties.

Do you think this is a good deal? Do any of our readers have more information about this?  Let us know in the comments below.

Se acaba de filtrar un vídeo que da a conocer las líneas del nuevo modelo de Toyota, una berlina de bajo coste para el mercado indio cuyo nombre será Toyota Etios. Será mostrada de manera oficial en el Salón de Nueva Delhi que se celebrará entre el 5 y el 11 de este mes.

Tal y como podemos deducir tras ver el vídeo, el modelo contará con un tamaño compacto pero con un diseño muy moderno y estilizado. También se puede apreciar un morro con un cierto toque agresivo y una parrilla alargada y fina.

El Toyota Etios comenzará su comercialización en tres variantes de volúmenes. Su precio rondará los 10.000$ . A continuación os dejo con el vídeo publicado:

Related posts:

1. Toyota 4Runner
2. Toyota Auris 2010, nuevo restyling
3. Toyota mostrará un nuevo híbrido en el Salón de Detroit

from some anarchists, 1 January 2010: “Its been over two months now that two anarchists – Alfredo Bonnano and Christos Stratigopoulos had been arrested in Greece following bank robbery. Needless to say those anarchist comrades need our solidarity and support now. Especially 72 years old Bonnano is in grave danger due to his health problems and extremely bad conditions he is kept in Amfissa prison…” more

El actual campeón del mundo de la fórmula 1, Jenson Button, ha aprovechado para publicar una foto a través de su Twitter en la que posa con su nueva equipación de McLaren-Mercedes. Por otra parte, también ha querido felicitar estas fiestas a todos sus seguidores.

Finalmente, Jenson Button podrá acabar la temporada 2010 vestido de gris/plateado y con la estrella de Mercedes. Después del culebron de finales de 2009, y a pesar de su fichaje por McLaren, resulta irónico que el color vaya a ser, cuanto menos, parecido, o que compita con el logo de la marca de Stuttgart en su monoplaza.

En lo que respecta a la escudería McLaren, la temporada 2010 la afrontará con el monoplaza MP/25.

Related posts:

1. Jenson Button fichará por McLaren
2. Norbert Haug desmiente los rumores sobre el posible fichaje de Jenson Button
3. Jenson Button se proclama Campeón del Mundo de la Fórmula 1 2009 en el GP de Brasil

from friends, 1 January 2010: “Police tactics are currently in flux post-London G20 – this change is very important, so please feedback any new things they are doing on the ground, anything you’ve tried, whether they’ve worked or not.  Feedback contact details are at the end of this guide.   The aim of this guide is not to show you how to conduct a riot. Neither is it intended as a critique on the pros and cons of fighting with the police…” more

Archaeology Magazine

With photos.

The desire for personal adornment, especially in the form of beads, has been with us for a very long time– as far back as the Neanderthal era, some 75,000 years ago or perhaps even more (see “More than an Ornament”. Like many before them, the Predynastic (ca. 3600 B.C.) inhabitants of Hierakonpolis gave into this primeval urge, but seemingly not as freely as those living at other sites of this time. Beads are not especially prevalent, except in the graves of the elite where the selection is choice, but limited in quantity. Then as now, beads were valuable and this lack probably has more to do with theft and plunder over the millennia than with any disaffection for such finery. In fact, bead making appears to have been a significant industry at Hierakonpolis–far more plentiful than the beads themselves are the tools used to make them…or at least this is what we think they are.

Distinctive little flint borers, called microdrills, averaging only 2 cm in length, have been recovered in great numbers at Hierakonpolis in conjunction with evidence to deduce their use. In 1899, the British archaeologist, F.W. Green, discovered two caches which he described as containing “an enormous number of exceedingly small pointed flint implements” (i.e., microdrills) along with many broken carnelian pebbles, some chipped into the form of rough beads, some showing the signs of the beginning of the boring operation, as well as chips of amethyst, steatite, rock crystal, obsidian and ostrich egg shell. These objects had been stowed in cavities, rather like little lockers, hollowed out at the base of the outer wall surrounding the temple precinct in which the famous Narmer palette had been found just the year before.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Tendencias21 (Francisco J. Martín Valentín and Teresa Bedman)

Las autoridades egipcias conceden permiso a España para trabajar en la mayor tumba inédita de la dinastía XVIII en Tebas. Un nuevo proyecto arqueológico español en Luxor (Egipto), a cargo del Instituto de Estudios del Antiguo Egipto de Madrid

El Instituto de Estudios del Antiguo Egipto de Madrid, en cooperación con el Supreme Council of Antiquities de Egipto, bajo el Patrocinio del Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural Español de la Dirección General de Bellas Artes del Ministerio de Cultura, y la Fundación Gaselec de Melilla, iniciará el próximo mes de noviembre de 2009 sus trabajos en un nuevo proyecto a desarrollar en la Tumba nº 28 de Asasif, en la orilla occidental, en Luxor.

Tumba nº 28 de Asasif (Luxor Occidental). Nuevo yacimiento del I.E.A.E. Archivo I.E.A.E. ‘Proyecto TA 28’.

El monumento en el que trabajará el equipo del I.E.A.E. bajo la Dirección del Dr. Francisco J. Martín Valentín, y la co-dirección de Dª Teresa Bedman, posee una altísima importancia arqueológica, artística e histórica, por ser del mismo periodo al que pertenece la Tumba Tebana nº 192 de Jeruef, Senaa, perteneciendo como ésta, al reinado de Amen-Hotep III (Imperio Nuevo, hacia 1360-1353 a C.), y más específicamente, al lapso de tiempo transcurrido entre los años 28 al 36 de dicho soberano, el cual constituye uno de los momentos más agitados e interesantes del Imperio Nuevo egipcio.

Hoy existe un gran vacío en el conocimiento y documentación de los acontecimientos históricos de aquel periodo, porque fue especialmente turbulento. Lo que no fue destruido, o quedó inacabado por la actuación de los partidarios de la nueva religión atoniana, sería posteriormente objeto de una nueva destrucción selectiva en época de los reyes de la dinastía XIX.

Tendencias21
El Instituto de Estudios del Antiguo Egipto ha obtenido permisos para excavar una nueva tumba inédita, la Tumba nº 28 de Asasif (Luxor occidental), su dueño parece ser, según todos los indicios un personaje del que no se conoce demasiado actualmente. Su nombre fue Amen-Hotep, familiarmente llamado Huy.

El Visir Amen-Hotep, llamado Huy. ‘Proyecto Visir Amen-Hotep ATT nº 28’. (www.visiramenhotep.com)
El Visir Amen-Hotep, llamado Huy, fue un personaje muy importante del periodo de Amen-Hotep III (hacia 1387-1348 a C.).

Sin embargo, los documentos y monumentos relacionados con él son escasos en comparación con los referidos a otros personajes del mismo tiempo. El motivo principal de esta oscuridad es, sin duda, el hecho de haber sido perseguida su memoria, y destruidos sus monumentos.

La exploración de su tumba, la Tumba Asasif nº 28, identificada por primera vez por Andrew Gordon como la del Visir Amen-Hotep, Huy, no se ha llevado a cabo hasta el presente de un modo exhaustivo.

Esta tumba se encuentra en la zona de Asasif sur, prácticamente inédita y sin excavar y, según todas las evidencias que hasta ahora conocemos, inacabada.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

from riseup, 26 December 2009: “Two riseup birds recently did a presentation at the People’s Summit celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the Seattle WTO protests. We discussed the dangers of using corporate tools to do organizing work, in particular, the fact that you don’t know what they do with your data. Thanks to some anonymous comments in a blogger’s post about his research regarding a U.S. mobile phone company’s release to law enforcement of its customers’ geographic location information, we now have some answers…” more

from riseup, 26 December 2009: “Two riseup birds recently did a presentation at the People’s Summit celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the Seattle WTO protests. We discussed the dangers of using corporate tools to do organizing work, in particular, the fact that you don’t know what they do with your data. Thanks to some anonymous comments in a blogger’s post about his research regarding a U.S. mobile phone company’s release to law enforcement of its customers’ geographic location information, we now have some answers…” more

from riseup, 26 December 2009: “Two riseup birds recently did a presentation at the People’s Summit celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the Seattle WTO protests. We discussed the dangers of using corporate tools to do organizing work, in particular, the fact that you don’t know what they do with your data. Thanks to some anonymous comments in a blogger’s post about his research regarding a U.S. mobile phone company’s release to law enforcement of its customers’ geographic location information, we now have some answers…” more

Telegram.com (Aaron Nicodemus)

With photo.

A Worcester librarian and researcher believes she has found definitive proof that an urban legend — that American paper manufacturers once made paper from the linen wrappings of Egyptian mummies — is indeed true.

S.J. Wolfe of Worcester, a senior cataloger and serials specialist at the American Antiquarian Society, spent the last 10 years tracing the whereabouts of all the mummies that were imported to the United States.

She recently published a book, “Mummies in Nineteenth Century America,” in which she tells the stories of what happened to some of them.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Ah, yes, Y2K…remember the good old days?  ATM’s weren’t going to recognize your bank card, servers were going to spontaneously combust, and elevators would have no idea where the second floor was. For those of you who look back with nostalgia at the Y2K hysteria, there is a new, albeit much smaller, Y2 “something” glitch to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside again. WMExperts is reporting that some mobile users are seeing text messages sent after 1/1/2010 dated as 1/1/2016.  The most widely affected group seems to be those on Windows Mobile 6.1 and 6.5 although some non-Windows Mobile users are also reporting this behavior. WMExperts has a home grown .cab file posted with a fix, however we haven’t seen anything official from Microsoft or other major manufacturers. How about it? Any of you out there getting text messages from the future?

[Via PocketNow]

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Tim Reid’s Egyptians blog

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Heritage Key (Gary Shaw)

With photos.

At first glance the remains of Fustat are more like an abandoned opencast mine than a medieval capital city – an impression created at its edges where the grey sloping ground enters the great depression of the excavated area. Palm trees, weeds, cacti, and tall grass are evenly dispersed across the site, and the remains of small fired clay and mud-brick buildings are scattered around. The bricks are held together with thick mortar made from recycled limestone – probably re-used from ancient pharaonic buildings. One house still has its window – three thick slats sitting on top of its mud-brick wall. Columns, lying toppled on their sides, speak of better times; some are made from Aswan red granite, and probably started their lives as elements of pharaonic period temples from the Memphite area, before being adapted for Roman temples and then Christian churches until finally being reworked in medieval times. Intricate columns capitals also lie about on the surface.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Bryn Mawr Classical Review (Review by Lun Yee Too)

Stephen Bertman, Lois Parker (ed.),
The Healing Power of Ancient Literature.
Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009.

The Healing Power of Ancient Literature edited by Stephen Bertman and Lois Parker is a small book that crucially hinges on an anachronism, the reading of ancient literatures — for they are several — through the lens of classics and the sciences or arts dealing with the healing of the soul, a more contemporary concern. It is accordingly edited by a classics professor emeritus, Stephen Bertman, and by Lois Parker, the emerita director of Counseling Services at the University of Nevada, Reno. The book attempts a daring feat, namely to show that literature has a healing power, and I argue that it fails in an equally spectacular manner.

The book begins with a one page prologue, entitled ‘Medicine for the Soul’, where we are told quite definitively that ‘literature, especially ancient literature, possesses a profound power to heal our souls, a power that is especially needed today when the rapidity of change and the force of world events combine to make peace of mind an ever more distant and seemingly unreachable goal.’ (p. vii). Lois Parker briefly weighs in next by outlining the scope of the book, which reaches from Egypt to Mesopotamia, Israel, Greece, Rome and China. All of antiquity is somehow read as being equivalent — I assume because it is ancient — and as standing as a counterpoint to our ravaged and ravaging present.

The first chapter, ‘The Wisdom Tradition of Egypt’, by John L. Foster considers long chunks of Egyptian poetry to demonstrate their wisdom. He suggests that the authors and their writings are very much like us: ‘they are so much like us’ and ‘Not so much different from eulogies of today’ (p. 11). Foster does not reveal any further on what basis these comparisons lie but he insists later on in the chapter, ‘I have chosen to emphasize the common threads uniting our culture with the ancient Egyptians — especially by hearing their actual words and their voices speaking’ (p. 21). But I ask if these ‘voices’ are not rather fictional voices and therefore functioning as masks for the author whose intentions might otherwise be quite distinct from his characters?

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Expedition, Volume 51 (Review by Praveena Gullapalli)

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes