Egypt at the Manchester Museum
From Luxor to London: An exhibition of drawings and prints by Adele Wagstaff at the Petrie Museum, UCL April 13-June 26, 2010A collection of drawings and prints inspired by reliefs, monuments and sculpture in Luxor, Thebes and the Petrie’s own collection in London. Many of the drawings and prints are inspired by the Hatshepshut Temple in Deir el-Bahri as well as the Luxor Museum.
Asharq Alawsat (Zahi Hawass)
Around forty years ago, the Egyptian government approved sending 55 of some of the rarest artefacts belonging to the boy king Tutankhamun [to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the US] that were discovered by the British archaeologist Hayward Carter on November 4, 1922. Even though this pharaoh ruled Egypt for less than nine years and died before he could prepare a tomb suitable for someone of his status in the same way his pharaonic ancestors did, over five thousand artefacts were found in his tomb and are still attracting the world’s attention and stealing the hearts of those who view them.Back to the story of King Tutankhamen’s first exhibition in the US, the artefacts were displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and despite that the museum made millions of dollars from donations to the museum and from the catalogues and souvenirs that were sold, Egypt made no financial profits from it. However, we cannot deny the tourist and promotional gains as a result of King Tut’s presence in the US.
Now that we know all the facts, the exhibition of Tutankhamen is back once again in New York City after 40 years. This time, the wonders of King Tut will not be displayed at the Met but in a special display hall in New York. This is because the Metropolitan administration insisted it would not pay Egypt for the exhibition based on the pretext that entry to the museum is usually free, despite the fact that we know no one is allowed to enter the Met unless a donation is made and about other considerable financial profits as mentioned above.
Anubis is the jackal-headed god for the afterlife and mummification, who is seen as a key figure for a Pharaoh to pass into the afterlife. The jackal was associated with associated with death and burials in Ancient Egyptian time for their reputation of scavenging human corpses and eating their flesh. It was common practice to place a figure of Anubis near the entrance of a tomb, and for the priest to don an Anubis mask during the embalming process. This is also one of the reasons the Anubis was selected to sail into New York’s harbour to promote the upcoming King Tut exhibit!The Anubis Shrine and “Anubis Fetishes” are two artefacts found inside King Tut’s tomb which honour the god, and are now held in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo where they have been photographed by Sandro Vannini. Brought online by Heritage Key, the beautiful details of both these fine artefacts can be appreciated from the comfort of your own computer!
Rome celebrated its 2760th birthday on April 21, 2007, marking Romulus’ founding of the ancient city in 753 B.C. This creation story is not precise, and it is more a legend, than a historical fact.
As part of Rome’s birthday bash, all museums are free to both tourists and local residents, Italy’s national postal service created a special commemorative stamp for the occasion, street performers and musicians filled the city centre and various outdoor exhibits sprung up in the busiest sections of Rome.
Italy’s capital even has a birthday song written for the occasion called “Felix Dies Natalis, Roma!” In many ways, the celebration is also an opportunity to welcome the warmer weather of the spring and it is a great time to enjoy outdoor events.
Rome’s birthday has been celebrated for many years and even during the days of Mussolini’s fascist dictatorship. During this period, the celebration was also seen as a fascist labour day.
Google has been getting a lot of flack for its supposed disregard of user privacy. The Google Buzz fiasco is still fresh in everyone’s mind and privacy regulators, especially in Europe, are increasingly critical of Google. But it goes both ways, when it suits them, governments will forget all about user privacy. Google, jus… (read more)
A spectacular 2,300-year-old collection of funerary objects from an Egyptian tomb will be the centerpiece of new Egyptian galleries that open May 8 at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Among the objects is an elaborately decorated, 7-foot inner coffin designed for an Egyptian noblewoman, Meretites.The new galleries give viewers a panoramic look at works created by artists and craftsmen in the ancient civilizations of the Near East, Egypt, Greece and Rome. The Meretites collection, acquired by the Museum in 2007, will be featured at the entrance of the new galleries. Members of the press are invited for an exclusive preview of the new galleries at 10 a.m. Friday, April 30.
Eight priceless pieces of ancient Egyptian antiquities will be on display in Shanghai World Expo which will run from May 1 to Oct. 31, said Lotfy Abdel el-Hamied, head of the Foreign Exhibitions Committee in the Egyptian Museum.“The eight artifacts will be displayed in Shanghai Expo for six months,” Abdel el-Hamied told Xinhua on Monday.
He also asserted that the artifacts date back to different ancient pharaonic dynasties, adding that the oldest piece is the Gold Broad Collar of Ahhoptep with Hawak End-Pieces made in dynasty 18 (1550-1525 B.C.).
“Ancient Egyptians thought that this Gold Broad Collar was protecting the mummies and helping them come back to life,” Abdel el-Hamied said.
Moreover, he said that the most charming one is the Gold Mask of Sheshonq which dates back to the 22nd dynasty (890 B.C.) and was found in 1939 in Tanis Royal Tombs in Delta, northern Cairo.
There’s no place more fitting for an official Gundam Cafe than in Tokyo’s Akihabara district. Sadly Japanese maids don’t draw hearts in syrup over your pancakes or put “love spells” on you like at Maid Cafes…but there are Gundam biscuits! More »
Wired has an article on research into the resilience of interconnected networks – Networked Networks Are Prone to Epic Failure.
Networks that are resilient on their own become fragile and prone to catastrophic failure when connected, suggests a new study with troubling implications for tightly linked modern infrastructures.
Electrical grids, water supplies, computer networks, roads, hospitals, financial systems – all are tied to each other in ways that could make them vulnerable.
“When networks are interdependent, you might think they’re more stable. It might seem like we’re building in redundancy. But it can do the opposite,” said Eugene Stanley, a Boston University physicist and co-author of the study, published April 14 in Nature.
Most theoretical research on network properties has focused on single networks in isolation. In reality, many important networks are tied to each other. Anecdotal evidence — the crash of communications networks (.pdf) in lower Manhattan after 9/11, the plummeting of markets around the world after the Black Monday stock market collapse of 1987 — hints at their fragility, but the underlying mathematics are largely unexplored.
The Nature researchers modeled the behavior of two networks, each possessing what’s known as “broad degree distribution”: A few nodes have many connections, some have an intermediate amount of links and many have just a few. Think of the networks as having only a few branches, but many leaves. On their own, such networks are known to be stable. A random failure is likely to disable a leaf, leaving the rest of the network’s connections mostly intact.
In the new study, the researchers connected two of these networks. While many node failures were required to crash the networks when they were independent, a few failures crashed the networks when they were linked.
“Networks with broad distributions are robust against random attacks. But we found that broad interconnected networks are very fragile,” said study co-author Gerald Paul, a Boston University physicist.
The interconnections fueled a cascading effect, with the failures coursing back and forth. A damaged node in the first network would pull down nodes in the second, which crashed nodes in the first, which brought down more in the second, and so on. And when they looked at data from a 2003 Italian power blackout, in which the electrical grid was linked to the computer network that controlled it, the patterns matched their models’ math.
That broad networks could be so fragile is surprising, but even more important is how rapidly the crash happened, with sudden catastrophic collapse instead of a gradual breakdown, said Indiana University informaticist Alessandro Vespignani in a commentary accompanying the paper. “This makes complete system breakdown even more difficult to control or anticipate than in an isolated network,” he wrote.
Read More http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/networked-networks/#ixzz0lpHRbeRi
It’s about 12:30 am and I’m writing…actually tapping…this spur of the moment post on my iPhone. My parents are asleep in my bedroom, and I am on the couch with Geneen Roth’s new book Women, Food and God along with a bag of Barbara’s Bakery chocolate chip animal cookies. So far, I’ve eaten a dozen and before I inhale the whole bag, I thought I’d try something new and tap blog instead of mindlessly eat away my feelings.
The cookies are 100% natural and made with organic grains so they’re alright, no?
My parents are flying back in the morning and I’ll miss them. I got to have a week of their undivided attention and they spoiled me rotten. I felt wanted.
I’m also terribly missing someone…yes a guy. He’s not just any guy. He’s someone who takes my breath away. But, it’s complicated to use a Facebook choice. A crystal ball would be comforting to peek into perhaps. It’s a long story which is why right now cookies are love.
It’s now closer to 1am and what I want are more animal crackers, but what I need is to feel like I’m that someone special. What I want is to cuddle and be wrapped in the arms and warmth of Mr. Breath Taker, but what I need is to feel that connection…that connection most people never get to experience but we did.
But for now, right now in this present moment, I’ll be with my feelings and tap blog for you fine people. As I tap and share a part of my heart, I feel the urge for the sweetness of the chocolate chip animal cookies die down. Perhaps instead of cookies, I just needed to give that part of me the same undivided attention my parents gave me this week.
I’m here for you body and heart. I’m going to fill you with attention and wisdom from Geneen instead of cookies…Yeah, we’re thinking that non-food indulgence will feel better.
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I didn’t want the cookies; I wanted the way being allowed to have them made me feel: welcomed, deserving, adored. /via @GeneenRoth on Twitter.
Luke Timmerman wrote:
There was more than the usual amount of carnage this week on the Seattle biotech beat.
—AVI Biopharma (NASDAQ: AVII) ousted CEO Les Hudson as part of a boardroom coup. The board installed chief financial officer David Boyle as the interim CEO, and a company spokesman says Boyle has the board’s confidence and is a candidate for the top job on a permanent basis. AVI is eagerly awaiting data this year on a novel drug for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, and is also developing specific RNA-based therapies for Ebola and Marburg virus.
—CombiMatrix (NASDAQ: CBMX), the Mukilteo, WA-based maker of genetic analysis instruments, said it is making a deep round of cuts at its local facility and betting the future of the company on its diagnostics unit in Irvine, CA. CEO Amit Kumar will stay at the helm until a replacement can be found sometime before the end of June.
—Seattle-based Targeted Genetics said it was eliminating three people from its board of directors as part of its ongoing efforts to conserve cash.
—Cell Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CTIC) said it is handing out pink slips to 36 workers in order to save money now that its lymphoma drug, pixantrone, has been rejected by the FDA.
—But not all the local biotech news was so grim. Seattle-based HemaQuest Pharmaceuticals said it nailed down the second half of a Series B venture capital round that totals $12 million.
—Seattle Genetics, the developer of “empowered antibodies” to fight cancer, said the Genentech unit of Roche has extended a partnership to continue using the smaller company’s antibody technology. Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ: SGEN) will get a $9.5 million payment as part of the extension.
—Mirabilis Medica, the Bothell, WA-based developer of ultrasound technology for treating uterine fibroids, has received $1 million in debt and options financing out of a round that could be worth as much as $2 million.
—We also reminded readers earlier in the week of a big event we are planning about the future opportunities in health IT on May 12. This event will bring together a stellar list of speakers, including Swedish Medical Center CEO Rod Hochman; Stephen Friend of Sage Bionetworks; Don Listwin of the Canary Foundation; and David Cerino, who oversees Microsoft’s HealthVault platform.
—I’m also happy to say Xconomy’s life sciences team just got a little bigger this week with the addition of new columnist Sylvia Pagan Westphal. Her first column raises some provocative issues about how things might be different if the world of finance were regulated to the same degree that the FDA oversees new medicines. She is based in Boston, but Sylvia’s column will discuss national issues and run regularly on the Seattle site. You can reach her at [email protected]
—Last, but not least around here, Xconomy made a little news of our own. Xconomy founder Bob Buderi announced the addition of our next new bureau, in Detroit. I will contribute occasional life sciences stories to the mix of stories that are percolating in the state of Michigan. Want to know one obvious Seattle to Michigan connection I’ve already found? Steve Gillis of Arch Venture Partners is a board observer at Lycera, a company founded by University of Michigan professor Gary Glick to treat autoimmune disease. I’m sure we’ll find more interesting connections like these over time.
UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS
(USDA, April 16, 2010) – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today invited public comment on several proposed rules designed to increase the production of advanced biofuels and the development of biorefineries. The programs are authorized under the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 (The Farm Bill). “We view these proposed rules as part of the strategy to help meet President Obama’s goal to accelerate the commercial production of advanced biofuels and create a viable alternative fuels industry,” Vilsack said. The proposed rules affect the following three renewable energy programs administered by USDA Rural Development: Biorefinery Assistance Program – The proposed rule will establish guaranteed loan regulations to develop and construct commercial-scale biorefineries and to retrofit existing facilities using an eligible technology to develop advanced biofuels. Under the proposed rule, USDA Rural Development proposes a rolling application process for the consideration of loan guarantee requests. The Agency will consider a technology that is being adopted in a viable commercial-scale operation that produces advanced biofuels. Click here to read more…
Kentucky Enterprise Fund
By partnering with the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development and Department for Commercialization and Innovation, KSTC is able to offer seed capital for promising, science and technology related start-up companies. Companies seeking capital go through a rigorous due diligence process and are judged in terms of industry fit, return on investment, and potential for economic development. Total Grant Funding: up to $30K. Total Investment Funding: up to $750K. Eligibility: Small or medium sized companies developing and commercializing a technology product and must be located in Kentucky.
http://www.startupkentucky.com/3/apply
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Kentucky Rural Innovation Fund
The goal of the Rural Innovation Fund is to assist rural companies with the development and commercialization of technology that will in turn stimulate the growth of high tech jobs across the state. Companies must be categorized in one of the following industry sectors: 1) Biosciences (BIO); 2) Environmental and Energy Technologies (EET); 3) Human Health and Development (HHD); 4) Information Technology and Communications (ITC); 5) Materials Science and Advanced Manufacturing (MSAM). Award Ceiling (grants and investments combined): $780K. Eligibility: Small businesses (50 or fewer employees) developing and commercializing a technology product, process, or service. Company must be located in a rural area of the state.
http://www.startupkentucky.com/17/apply
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Kentucky SBIR-STTR Matching Funds Program
Funds are for additional work tasks and activities that support and are complementary to a Federal Award. Both Kentucky-Based and out-of-state companies who have received either a Phase 1 or Phase 2 SBIR-STTR Federal Grant, including those with a second year Phase 2 Award, or a Fast-Track grant letter dated January 1 or later in 2009, are eligible to apply subject to the program guidelines. Maximum Match Amount: Phase 1: up to 100% of the Federal SBIR-STTR Program Phase 1 Award, not to exceed $100,000; Phase 2: up to 100% of the Federal SBIR-STTR Program Phase 2 Award, not to exceed $500,000. Application Deadline: April 30, 2010.
http://www.kintera.org/site/c.deIDLKOuGrF/b.2857105/?CFID=87925&CFTOKEN=80643768
Marine and Hydrokinetic Technology Readiness Advancement Initiative – DOE is investing in marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) technologies. The opportunity to harness energy from waves, tides, currents, and ocean thermal gradients represents a promising, largely untapped resource that can produce predictable baseload renewable energy that is within close proximity to loads. The mission of DOE’s Water Power Program is to perform and sponsor the necessary research, development, test, evaluation, and demonstration of innovative water power technologies, in order to effectively generate renewable, environmentally responsible, and cost-effective electricity from MHK resources. It is the intent of this FOA to advance the technical and operational readiness of marine and hydrokinetic systems and components across a range of TRLs, with the unified goal of accelerating the development and deployment of these technologies to provide a domestic source of clean, affordable energy that is both economical and ecologically responsible. This FOA seeks applications in the following Topic Areas: Topic Area 1: MHK Technologies Concept Development; and Topic Area 2: MHK Technology Readiness Level Advancement. Funding will be made available in each Topic Area for the advancement of both MHK “systems” and “components” as defined below. MHK Systems: For the purposes of this announcement, a system is defined as a complete device that is capable of capturing and converting hydrokinetic energy (wave, current, or tidal) with the purpose of generating electricity for the grid, either via a single unit or configured in an array. Integrated ocean thermal systems will not be funded under this announcement. All necessary components should be conceptualized, designed, and integrated. These components may include, but not limited, to: nacelle, hydrodynamic, buoys, power-train, power take-off, mooring, and foundation. MHK Component: For the purposes of this announcement, a component is defined as a sub-system of an MHK system that is optimized for an existing MHK system, or has the potential for cross-cutting multiple MHK systems. DOE is also interested in components that maximize commonality across existing and/or future MHK systems. Components may address marine and hydrokinetic energy (wave, current, tidal, and ocean thermal). Examples include optimized rotors, generators, drive-trains, power take-off devices. Total Funding: $15.36M. Eligibility: Industry. Application Due Date: June 7, 2010.
Posted Date: April 20, 2010
Funding Opportunity Announcement Number: DE-FOA-0000293
Although we’ve been sceptical about the financial viability of vertical farming schemes, that doesn’t mean we are opposed to bringing more greenery into urban areas in any way, and systems that merge vegetation with buildings can be both beneficial and beautiful. We are definitely fans of green roofs.
Parabienta is a wall garden panel system that provides a growth medium to support plants and allow them to grow along vertical surfaces. Vegetated vertical panels help to reduce solar gain on walls, much the same as green roofs help reduce the heat island effect and lower temperatures on roofs. As an added benefit, Parabienta panels have also been shown to help buffer noise, particularly desirable in an urban environment. It might not grow tomatoes, but it will add some welcome green to an urban context.
Parabienta was originally developed by the Shimizu Corporation in Japan. But, while they appear to have used it on projects themselves, the company’s website has only a single brief mention of the material. Although it has been around for a few years now, it doesn’t appear to be readily available as a product for project use, though it was reported that the company was hoping to grow sales of the system (at a cost of about $80 per square foot, including installation and irrigation) to a few million dollars per year.
via: Transmaterial
Erin Kutz wrote:
Earlier this week, my colleague Bruce took a look at venture capital activity across the country in the first quarter of 2010, and found that investors were sinking more cash into startups than they did a year ago.
We track these deals with data provided by private company intelligence platform CB Insights, Dow Jones VentureSource, and MoneyTree, a report compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association using data from Thomson Reuters. Each has their own way of tracking venture dollars and defining deals, so the figures for first quarter venture investing ranged from $4.7 billion to $5.9 billion.
But we also like to provide a closer look by highlighting the top 10 deals for each of the regions we cover, which offers a sense of the trends in the size of individual transactions, the sectors that have gotten the most cash, and the companies that are growing in prominence. The list I have here for the top 10 deals from January to March is drawn mainly from the MoneyTree data, and checked against our Xconomy archives, as well as the Dow Jones and CB Insights numbers.
The highest deal came in at $36 million to TransMedics (we originally reported the deal at $35.4 million based on an SEC filing, but the company later announced it as a $36 million round). The Andover, MA-based company develops systems for transporting organs for transplant. The next three transactions followed closely at TransMedics’ heels, each with $35 million. All four top spots went to life sciences companies (as did another three on the top 10 deals list from Q1 2010).
It’s no surprise to me that seven of the top 10 deals in the first month of this year went to life sciences firms. We track venture investing dollars monthly, thanks to data provided to us by CB Insights, and the sector was the leader in venture dollars in February and March, and a close runner-up in January.
But that doesn’t mean other sectors are necessarily flagging. Energy had a pretty strong showing on the top 10 deals list, with …Next Page »
For some reason, I find this study that analysed children’s drawings of dentists hilarious.
You can almost sense the existential despair of someone who spent months of their life analysing kids’ unconscious representations of dentists to discover they just think of them as the guy with the furniture and a patient.
Children’s drawings about dentistry.
Community Dent Oral Epidemiol. 1976 Jan;4(1):1-6.
Taylor D, Roth G, Mayberry W.
Drawings about the dentist at work were solicited from 1,101 children in grades 2, 4, 6 and 8 in an urban school district. A system to classify the contents of these drawings was developed. The frequency of various items occurring in the children’s drawings was determined. The “typical” or most frequent child’s drawing of the dentist at work was described. This drawing contained a normal dental chair, dentist, a patient in the chair and dental cabinetry or furniture. The picture was a very matter-of-fact representation. Abnormal or bizarre pictures occurred infrequently. A few children drew pictures that did not relate to dentistry.
Link to PubMed entry for study.
Computational Toxicology: Biologically-Based Multi-Scale Modeling – The EPA, as part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, is seeking applications for research in developing quantitative, dose-response models to elucidate the associations between environmental agents and toxicity pathways across multiple scales of biological organization. Additionally, this solicitation calls for research into ways in which the data underlying these models can be managed and shared for easier access, interpretation and use by the broader community of researchers and risk assessors. There are two distinct Research Areas covered by this solicitation: (1) Model Development and Model Evaluation; and (2) Data Management. Applications must propose research in one of these research areas to be eligible for funding. These two areas of research shall be conducted concurrently in the following way: the research team funded under the second research area shall collaborate with the research teams funded under the first research area to ensure that the latter conform their modeling data to a shared ontology. Total Funding: $3M. Eligibility: Public and Private Nonprofit Institutions/Organizations (including institutions of higher education and hospitals). Closing Date: July 15, 2010.
Posted Date: April 15, 2010
Funding Opportunity Number: EPA-G2010-STAR-C4; EPA-G2010-STAR-C3; EPA-G2010-STAR-C2; EPA-G2010-STAR-C1
