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Today (February 26, 2012), I am getting ready to visit Dumbarton Oaks yet again, for a Study Day co-organized by the Pre-Columbian Studies program at D.O. and the Library of Congress, and focusing on Tenochtitlan/Mexico City, particularly as depicted in early Colonial period maps. Such maps were among my discoveries during my D.O. fellowship year (1995-1996), searching for Aztec palaces. In the old PC Rare Book room in the basement of the Main Building were wonderful high-quality facsimile editions of codices and early maps, there for the browsing.
I found the Mapa de Mexico de 1550, a view of Tenochtitlan/Mexico City full of genre figures and little buildings in native style, some houses marked with a pierced disk to signify that they were native palaces. I was well aware of this meaning of the pierced "preciousness" disk as the most valued objects in the entire Central Mexican world, but as I perused the map on that May evening, I had no idea that the real thing was locked in a safe in the next room. The two matched carved jadeite disks (PC.B.133a and b) were heavy with elegant beauty and ancient meaning. They are probably over 1,500 years old and represent related concepts of preciousness and rulership and even the count of a single day, or the perfect circle of a ripple in still water.
For me, these jade disks would hold a key to the puzzle of Teotihuacan's history, and the importance of water worship (as shown in the Bliss Collection's net-jaguar mural). All of these ideas would develop over the course of my editorship of the new catalogue of the Bliss Collection's objects from Central Mexico, their first comprehensive treatment in over fifty years. I was able to show how the preciousness disk motif linked Bliss Collection objects pertaining to Teotihuacan, and I appreciate the present display of all these objects, with the disks adjacent to the great net-jaguar mural and painted ceramic vessels that repeat the motif.
All of this was far ahead of me as I began to count the Aztec palaces in the Mapa de Mexico – seeking patterns in the surviving locations of known city-state rulers. Meanwhile, I continue to explore the meaning of the preciousness disk, particularly as it expressed the sanctity of water imagery in the Teotihuacan and Aztec worlds. These matters range over my major research topics, such as "Aztecs" and also "hydrology" which merges into "monumental parks" which overlap with "palaces" (and so on). For all these ventures, Dumbarton Oaks has been a valued resource and generous patron, sowing opportunity and hoping that its scholars bring in a harvest of good work.
When I started using the Dumbarton Oaks library in 1981, my research interests were far removed from palaces and polished jades. My 1980 dissertation pertained to crop yields in the Teotihuacan Valley before European contact. In 1981, I moved to Washington to teach at Catholic University in D.C., and weekly visits to the D.O. library were an important part of life as a scholar. Over thirty years later, Dumbarton Oaks continues to be essential to me as a scholar and as a veteran member of its wide-ranging extended family.
Describing the people at Dumbarton Oaks as a "family" may seem trite to outsiders but it bears a lot of truth. From the first time I entered the Main Building I had a sense of being welcome to become a part of the life of an academic great house (including Levi-Strauss's sense of the term). The people were convivial and relaxed and the building seemed a grand old mansion semi-converted to the needs of scholarship but strongly retaining its own identity as an elegant, lived-in home with a fascinating history. And the gardens were an education and inspiration.
In 1981, Elizabeth Boone had just begun her term as Director of Pre-Columbian Studies and I had just begun an assistant professorship in the Anthropology Department of Catholic University. The friendship Elizabeth and I developed then, when we were both new in our careers as pre-Columbianists, has been a great pleasure ever since.
In the early 1980s I was a long-distance weekly commuter between Washington and Pine Grove Mills, Pennsylvania (and my husband), and the Dumbarton Oaks community was essential to me. I learned the impressive range of the D.O. stacks and enjoyed the intellectual interchange at informal meetings, research presentations, and dinners at Elizabeth's home. At several of these I got to know Gordon Willey, Bowditch Professor at Harvard and my own mentor's mentor – a kind of revered academic lineage grandfather figure. My archaeological work was in the settlement pattern analysis tradition that he had pioneered and my mentor Bill Sanders had elaborated. Elizabeth used to serve Chartreuse after dinner because Gordon liked it, and I discovered that I liked it, too. Whenever I drink it, I recall Gordon and his great kindness to other scholars, particularly junior scholars. And I'm so glad he wasn't partial to Fernet Branca or I wouldn't have that occasion to salute his memory.
I began to attend the annual symposia, joined enthusiastically by my husband David Webster, Mayanist archaeologist and a professor of anthropology at Penn State. In those years I also got to know Betty Benson and Bridget Gazzo, who became my good friends and, at crucial times, key resources. Opportunities arose to participate in ongoing Dumbarton Oaks projects such as writing, with Janet Catherine Berlo, the introductory essay for her edited volume on Teotihuacan.
In the early 1980s my research focus was a rural Aztec period village (occupied ca. CE 1200 to 1603) in the Teotihuacan Valley, Mexico. With a National Science Foundation grant I had excavated a fair sample of Cihuatecpan ("Woman-Palace") village, including a house three times the size of the next largest. This discovery moved my life in a new direction for unexpected reasons. I had met my goal of revealing the lives of the commoners, but also uncovered the only Aztec palace ever completely excavated in the Basin of Mexico. That big house was a small but clear example of the Aztec tecpan, "lord-place".
It took me a while to figure out that the structure was a tecpan-palace, because no one had comprehensively studied the archaeology of Aztec palaces. These properties were coveted by the Spanish conquistadores and rebuilt in Spanish style, so very few archaeological remains have survived. But the sixteenth-century chroniclers gave good descriptions of palaces and courtly life, and I learned just how rich these ethnohistorical resources were when I began to research the topic at the Dumbarton Oaks library, with its impressive holdings of facsimile editions of codices, and the most recent Spanish and English editions of all important studies from Mexico and the U.S. My research monograph on Cihuatecpan (1988) owed much to what I was learning at Dumbarton Oaks, and I needed to focus on the palace.
Where better to delve the identity of the Aztec palace than in the buried treasure of the Pre-Columbian Library at Dumbarton Oaks? My fellowship year (1995–1996), devoted to learning about the Aztec palace, was an intellectual watershed, first because I learned so much from my uninterrupted time in the library and second because of the new directions my months at D.O. provided. It was also tremendously enriching to be living in Georgetown with access to Washington's cultural resources, and meet wonderful people who would remain close colleagues and friends.
At a research presentation that fall I met Joanne Pillsbury and we immediately bonded as palace people. She was investigating what would be a radical innovation in Andean studies – identifying huge residential complexes as palaces. Palace-related issues absorbed our attention and we realized that no one had ever brought together basic descriptions of elite residential architecture in the key culture areas of the New World. It was a natural topic for a Dumbarton Oaks summer workshop and a symposium and edited volume, and those projects were developed and had satisfying success. Joanne and I remain trusted colleagues and good friends.
When I began my fellowship year, Jeff Quilter was beginning his term as Director of Pre-Columbian Studies. We had been trained in the same anthropologically-oriented tradition of modern U.S. archaeology, and understood each other as scholars, sharing many interests and the same kind of sense of humor. David and I enjoyed getting to know Jeff and his wife Sarah. Other Pre-Columbian fellows that year were Sue Bergh and Oswaldo Chinchilla, and we have kept in touch.
It was one of the first years that La Quercia was in use, and George Brock, one of the house staff at Dumbarton Oaks, was our resident concierge and local hero. La Quercia was newly refurbished and besides had George as a steward of the building, and so most things were in good working order. George also saw to it that our larger experience as resident fellows in Washington, D.C. was as memorable as the high quality of Dumbarton Oaks's libraries.
Jeff Quilter has joked that I looked at every book in the D.O. Pre-Columbian library, and that is a flattering exaggeration. I didn't look at works pertaining to South America unless I had a particular lead on a topic of interest. Otherwise, I trolled the indexes where possible, and came to use the presence of a useful comprehensive index as a strong measure of the author or editor's scholarly competence. There was a set of about a dozen topics that I sought, reflecting palace-related subjects but also other ongoing interests. I worked my way through that library very systematically, and photocopied important works so that I could continue research after the fellowship year was over. (Recall that this was 1995–96, which might as well be the Upper Paleolithic in terms of research resources available "on line" -- the card catalogues occupied a lot of space in the Rare Book Room.) I skimmed thousands of books to find the information I needed and I was richly rewarded, even finding a previously unknown ethnohistorical reference to Cihuatecpan, the village I had excavated. A D.O. round table meeting in spring 1996 led to further Aztec palace research.
All through the winter of 1995–1996, those of us working in the basement of the Main House enjoyed the spectacle of sub-sub-basement exploration by teams of technicians installing a new telephone system. Renovation and exploration crews were constantly going through Pre-Columbian Studies in the basement, on their way down to the second or even third basement. Ken Johnson, as new guy, got the most challenging assignments at spelunking and his great attitude suggested that he had a strong future at D.O. We scholars, working long hours in the Main House, got to know the staff and their standard of excellence in maintaining and protecting the buildings and gardens. As Dumbarton Oaks became more technically sophisticated, Pete Haggerty and Jo Ann Murray joined the staff and became tech gurus for all of us who worked there.
When, later, I lived in the Fellows Building on and off for years, I had morning kitchen conversations in the Fellows Building with Lila Guillen and I remember Nora Escobar when she first worked there; I enjoy talking with her these days when she's working the desk in the Library or Main Building. We who continue to stay in the Guest House appreciate Mario García's work at maintaining it. Carlos Méndez and I have known each other for years, and I admire his recently unleashed party planning skills with regard to a recent Speakers Dinner. And Hector Paz's range as a chef is admirable; he readily achieves food that has great flavor and is calorically affordable.
In the winter of 1995–1996, all of us at D.O. became aware that the Main Building was a very old and complicated building, and it was most challenged by the elements during the great snowstorm of January 1996, with attendant power outage in D.O. -- the city was paralyzed. When Dumbarton Oaks reopened, the city was still blanketed with snow, gradually restoring its grid of streets to working order, but upper east Georgetown was among the last to get dug out. The walk to and from La Quercia along R Street, very pleasant in nice weather, became magical in a sheath of white that lasted and lasted. Moreover, one felt perfectly safe walking home to La Quercia at night on R Street, unlikely to meet a mugger on the bright, beautiful, nearly impassable street.
Research into Aztec palaces led inevitably to research into Aztec monumental gardens (e.g. Chapultepec Park, first developed as a monumental garden in the 1420s, and Texcotzingo, possibly the world's first botanical garden) and this led to informal conversations about garden design matters with John Dixon Hunt, Joaquim Wolschke-Bulmahn and Michel Conan. These conversations led to publications about monumental gardens, and participation in a Landscape Studies symposium and volume. These days I enjoy conversations with John Beardsley as we compare and contrast ancient and modern solutions to the challenge of the twenty-first century's "new oil": water.
The late 1990s brought continued contact with Dumbarton Oaks as Joanne Pillsbury and I prepared for our summer seminar and symposium on palaces of the New World. The summer seminar brought together Mesoamericanists (George Andrews, Enrique Gonzalez Licon, David Webster, and me) and Andeanists (Joanne, Bill Isbell). We were trying to hammer out the normative values of New World palaces and elite residences (types of plan, sizes, relation to community, etc.) because this basic comparison had never been done before and would create a solid baseline of types, a prerequisite for further interpretation. Moreover, it would help those of us who were participating in the upcoming symposium and preparing our summary statements. I began to think about how the Aztec palace related to those of Tula and West Mexico, how it related to those of Teotihuacan. We got along well and worked hard, and of course the sheer gorgeous luxury of Dumbarton Oaks in summer creates a strong sense of well-being.
We lunched in what can here correctly be called The Fellows Building. The dining room was in the same place then as now, and we used to have interesting conversations among seminar group and also with others we knew – Glenn Ruby, head of publications, or some of the Byzantinists or Landscape people. Ned Keenan was new as Director and would sometimes lunch with us. He was a great proponent of computerization of print media and education, and one lunch time he argued passionately against paper-borne information, promising to prove to us that no one ever used the old paper volumes in the basement compact stacks. We followed him back to the Main Building, through the foyer and down the winding stairs, while he continued to inveigh against paper books. The farthest compact stack pair was open, and when he got there, Keenan was non-plussed to find a serious-looking young woman sitting on the floor of the gap, clearly doing research. When he said "What are you *doing* here?!?" she looked completely dumbfounded, not without reason.
The summer seminaristas got along well, though Bill Isbell and I had a running disagreement about the importance of post-modernism to scholarship. One day the pre-Columbianist table gave rise to (drumroll) raised voices. It was basically Bill and I who raised our voices, and we determinedly parted on good terms after lunch – and just then Bill's wife arrived for a weekend visit. Bill had in fact wooed his wife years before when he was a D.O. Fellow and she was Associate Director of Studies – Judy Siggins, noted scholar and one of my favorite people, was in the mood for a cup of coffee and some catch-up conversation with me, which was immensely fun and relaxing. It was a good example of how the D.O. people-network is so interwoven. I had first met Judy in the early 1980s – Elizabeth Boone introduced us, and the three of us enjoyed the occasional Fellows Building lunch, or dinner and a movie – and we had kept in contact at D.O. symposia and Society for American Archaeology meetings.
We of the seminar were living in La Quercia that summer (except, of course, for Joanne), and David and I had apartment 206 (or as the dangling number read, 209). In the rear, this apartment overlooks the alley and driveways and interesting backs of wonderful-looking Georgetown houses, and if I worked at the table by the window it was like the set of a benign "Rear Window." Walking to the D.O. campus from La Quercia in that and other summers, I always slowed down along Montrose Park because they had a large planting of lavender around the fountain and the fragrance was so refreshing – I have since begun a long bed of lavender around the edge of the big farm pond on our property.
To float on our Pennsylvania pond in summer, watching the hawks and smelling the lavender, is a transcendently pleasant experience, and it shares space on life's short list with being in or around the pool at Dumbarton Oaks. Whenever I was living at D.O., I was in the pool every day that conditions allowed. A lousy swimmer, I got myself a water-exercise flotation belt and did my half hours of laps without getting my face wet. My favorite time at the pool was seven AM and I always felt lucky if I had the space to myself because, while there were other places in the world that were as beautiful, the simple quiet experience of this place, in this garden, could not be surpassed.
And this attitude led to one of my least poised moments at Dumbarton Oaks. No, not that morning in late October when the gardeners walking through the pool area paused and asked if I needed help as I hauled my shivering self out after one lap (water temp, 59°). No, this was when Don Pumphrey, the famously laconic Head of Grounds, asked me a direct question for the first time in the years of our acquaintance: What did I like best about Dumbarton Oaks? "The pool!" I blurted out. Within nanoseconds I realized that to maintain a reputation as a serious scholar and caring human being I should have said "the library!" or "the collection!" or "the people!" But such is my gratitude to the shimmering space centered upon the D.O. pool that when considered from the perspective of a consistently rewarding experience, time in the pool was always a serenely mindful meditation.
Our palaces symposium in mid-October was a success – the papers were mostly strong and on topic, and Joanne and I appreciated the lively interchanges among our colleagues. In late October I turned my attention to plans for my Mesoamerican overview book – the 20 page outline was due at the publisher by the end of the month. The book would become Ancient Mexico and Central America: Archaeology and Culture History; the first edition won the Society for American Archaeology's Book Award. The book was an outgrowth of my editorship of the encyclopedia Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America, and for both these projects the D.O. library was a great help, and so were the people encountered at Dumbarton Oaks – including D.O.'s greater community of scholars, others like me who had been made to feel welcome and made visiting Dumbarton Oaks a regular part of their schedule.
In late 1998, Joanne and I got to work pulling the symposium volume into shape. We looked ahead to an uncomplicated publication process, and had emphasized to our authors the need to move expeditiously. As sometimes happens, misunderstandings occurred between editors and one or two authors. Some papers unrelated to the larger topic were withdrawn, leaving a couple of major culture areas unmentioned. In consequence, essential features of elite residential architecture in these culture areas were reassigned to existing papers. And so my paper on Aztec palaces also presented the basics of palaces in Teotihuacan and Tula. The symposium volume is now in a paperback edition.
As Director of Pre-Columbian Studies, Jeff Quilter had inherited the ongoing project of publishing the first new edition of the catalogue of the Bliss Collection in nearly fifty years. The Andean volumes had been published under Elizabeth Boone's directorship and the Olmec volume was nearly ready for the Publications Office.
As planned in the series, the "Central Mexico" volume would cover the Bliss Collection's objects from the Central Highlands and adjacent regions. Several art historians had considered taking on editorship but then realized that their schedules didn't permit them to come to Dumbarton Oaks for a fellowship term to lay the project's groundwork, select co-authors, and address research issues pertaining to their own share of the write-ups and articles. Jeff knew that I had managed the production of the Mesoamerican encyclopedia manuscript, with hundreds of authors and my own organizational plan, so I could probably deal with the catalogue project and its half-dozen authors and topics. Plus, by then I knew every stage of the book production process and had a fairly comprehensive knowledge of my field and my colleagues. Jeff felt that these were all positive signs of an ability to bring the project to completion, and thus the catalogue series would continue on course.
Frankly, I was daunted (this turned out to be fully justified, as the years passed) and told Jeff that I wasn't really an "objects person" but Jeff pointed out that my experience as a field archaeologist meant that I was of course an "objects" person. Technically, in the art historical sense, I was correct about not being an "objects person" at that time, but again, Dumbarton Oaks gave me a fabulous opportunity to grow as a scholar and I became a hybrid archaeologist-art historian objects person, using the resources of the library and the collection, the objects themselves, training myself to see in the objects the attributes essential to a proper art-historical description and analysis. Interactions with Betty and Elizabeth and Joanne were an immense help in this regard, and Jeff was also building a reputation as an archaeologist with a strong art-historical perspective.
It was during this time that I got to know Sue Boyd, then Curator of the Byzantine Collection, and I can thank Dumbarton Oaks for arranging yet another memorable friendship. We have since enjoyed socializing, and she and David and I went together on a tour of Egypt. When I met her, it was to borrow a book that the D.O. library didn't have, but she did. The book was Fake and I needed to read it as part of a quick study about this chronic problem in the world of art history and art galleries. You would think that a field archaeologist would know about such things, but my specialty was Aztec rural sites, and no one would bother to fake those pot sherds. I read all I could about fakes and how they were detected, because it was possible that some objects in the Bliss Collection were more recently manufactured than previously supposed. There were many questions about the carved greenstone Figure in the Act of Childbirth (Tlazolteotl), now believed to be in the style of Aztec sculpture rather than from the Aztec period. The sibling piece, Rabbit, is also unlikely to have been made and finished five hundred years ago.
The carved jade disks were not at risk in this assessment. The material, type of sculpting and finishing all seem completely authentic. Down in the Rare Book Room of the Pre-Columbian Studies Library, I would don purple latex gloves to handle the jade disks, and I would wonder at their origin. I worked a lot in the Rare Book Room as the catalogue came together, and I remember the day in June 2002 that several things clicked, with the Bliss Collection's jade disks and Teotihuacan mural (and Teo vessels) as material springboards for approaching multiple features of Teotihuacan and its culture: the iconography of the disk motif (in the Bliss Collection's disks, the Teotihuacan mural and vessels – and all over Mesoamerica in the Classic period, always signifying Teotihuacan), the meaning of the mural's water temple, springs and canals, the relationship of water to political power, the timing of the layout of the city's grid of apartment compounds with the city's drainage system, which then fed the nearby system of canal-gridded drained fields ("chinampas") – highly productive agriculture in a challenging setting.
I thought back on the day twenty-five years before, in the town of San Juan Teotihuacan, that my mentor William Sanders took us grad students into the walled confines of the cathedral close, where a verdant pool evidenced one of the last of the old springs that once burbled out at the southwest edge of the ancient city. They watered a drained field area so fertile that a local population of tens of thousands could be supported. Bill explained that powerful factions always try to control water sources, and thus the Colonial period church moved quickly to build on this property and secure this valuable water source. They may have built over a native water temple, like the one on the Dumbarton Oaks mural. Water was the principle reason for the existence of Teotihuacan, and my research into the Bliss Collection objects brought together so many pieces – from iconography to crop yields – of the puzzle that is Teotihuacan.
Tracing these relationships at Teotihuacan and exploring this iconography has become an ongoing focus of my research and scholarly output, with the catalogue itself, of course being the first and primary presentation of my findings and interpretations. Working on the catalogue gave me space to review the existing literature on these matters, heightening the catalogue's timeliness and relevance. The harvest from my association with Dumbarton Oaks continues with upcoming and recent articles, public lectures, book projects. I am currently writing a book about Teotihuacan's rise and fall, from the perspective of access to water as a dominant feature development.
In a sense, the experience of being put in charge of the presentation of these objects by Dumbarton Oaks to the public prompted a new phase of my palace research, because these objects were surely the accoutrements of the elites and the output of elite workshops. To plan the catalogue and begin research, I was offered a one-term fellowship, but opted instead to take my research days twelve at a time – typically, a Monday morning to the next week's Friday afternoon – over the course of the next few years. I believe that because of this "intermittent fellowship" (my term, not D.O.'s) I became the particular demon in the life of Marlene Chazan, Dumbarton Oaks's able long-time financial officer, but it was not my intention to annoy -- my choice was dictated by other obligations and my own nature: I am basically a home-loving person who enjoyed the opportunity to spend significant and well-planned stretches of days at Dumbarton Oaks focusing on the catalogue project and living in the Fellows Building, particularly appreciating Room 7 for its morning light.
If the beauty and comprehensiveness of the completed catalogue volume indicate level of success, then all of us who worked on it deserve hearty congratulations. There were many challenges. The process of coordinating the production of the articles was complicated by communication problems among project participants. Furthermore, these were the years of major campus development and renovation of the Main Building, so the objects were put in storage. In addition, the D.O. Publications Office was hit by the sudden passing of its leader, Glenn Ruby, and it was several years before a steady course was restored.
Changes in the Publications Office leadership had an immediate and costly impact on the catalogue volume. As originally submitted in a format approved by Glenn, the articles varied considerably in length – because the objects varied considerably in interest and importance. Under the new policies of the reorganized Publications Office, however, I was instructed to standardize all articles to 2,000 words. I was dismayed with this directive, and so were my authors. I did my best to ameliorate hard feelings, but in conforming to this policy good will was lost along with extended treatments of some of the Bliss Collection's greatest pieces (the mural, the dart thrower). In time, new Publication Office administration led by Kathy Sparkes revisited these policies and instituted a format that permitted in depth treatment of the most important objects. She and Sara Taylor saw that the volume made us all very proud.
Coincidentally, as I worked on completion of the catalogue and other projects, my husband, David Webster, was appointed as a Senior Fellow in Pre-Columbian Studies. David is one of the most knowledgeable and fair-minded people I know, with great common sense and dedication to duty, so he had excellent qualifications for the appointment. It was tremendously enjoyable for both of us to be a part of the festivities of each special meeting, and as David's spouse I felt completely welcome to the memorable parties.
David will soon come to the end of his term as Senior Fellow, and my current publication projects will depend on continued access to the library, but are not Dumbarton Oaks products. Soon, though. I did so much research on the Net Jaguar and Mural – and jadeite disks – that I have everything ready to develop it into a nice contribution to D.O.'s Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology Studies Series. And in 2013, David and I will be attending Steve Houston's weekend workshop on Piedras Negras, at Dumbarton Oaks. I look forward to all of these opportunities to remain an active part of the Dumbarton Oaks community.]]>
Birds face all directions on this mantle fragment. The tapestry border features small birds with headdresses swimming alongside or riding in fancy boats. They face left, while the rows above and below represents birds in geometric design facing to the right. The brocaded body of the cloth bears a design of diagonal rows of birds facing down.
Each brown rectangle on the body of this tassel bears a schematic bird with long open beak, facing upward. The cloth is woven in two layers—one with birds, the other with wavy lines—that alternately cross through one another. In this way, the birds literally dip under, and emerge above, the waves.
At the top of the tassel, three fantastic creatures face upward. Each has a large eye, tooth-filled jaw or beak, and a crest. A patterned wing and tail suggest that these are supernatural birds, each possibly carrying a staff or banner. The tassel was probably once attached to a long band worn wrapped around the head.
A pattern of birds in spotted diamonds covers this plaque. They pose, symmetrical and upright, as if diving upward. The row of small dots along the top edge of their tails mimics the large dots at the bottom left of the plaque, suggesting a costume or adornment. Birds bedecked in this way were probably also supernaturally empowered.
The plaque itself is part of an ornament in the shape of a shirt. The upper right corner forms part of the neck opening, while the row of large dots on the lower left marks the bottom of the sleeve. The small holes at the edges served to attach other gold plaques, and possibly a textile backing.
Four figures crouch with arms extended on the front of this shirt. At the ends of their arms are big-eyed bird-like objects with ferocious-looking beaks. The objects' bodies look like the tumi knives associated with Andean sacrificial rituals.
The shirt's two central figures have oversize headdresses decorated with many bird heads. Even the tassel-like endings of the lower headdress, collar, and legs look like stylized bird heads. Finally, the spaces around the figures are filled with little birds in different colors. The sheer abundance of bird imagery on garments, props, and background suggests that the fantastic figures, and perhaps by extension the wearer of the shirt, had a special connection to things avian.
Like many cultures, the Romans attributed significant powers of authority to the eagle. This solid-cast bronze example grips a laurel wreath in its beak, a symbol of victory in Greco-Roman antiquity, and stands with its talons splayed over the horns of a bull's head. The hollow interior of the bull's head serves to connect this finial to a pole or staff, and as such it undoubtedly served as a military ensign (insignium) on a standard. Imperial coinage of the third century employed such imagery as a symbol of divine-sanctioned might and victory. The eagle was a symbol of Jupiter, and therefore the bearer of this standard would have boasted the legion's military success, facilitated by the king of the gods.
The handle of this oil lamp comprises an elegantly rendered griffin's head—deriving from pagan mythology—while the dove and cross are symbols of Christian salvation and enlightenment through the Holy Spirit. The griffin, with its eagle's head and lion's body was associated with Apollo, the god of light, but was also widely believed to be a guardian of the divine realm. The griffin, cross, and dove combined Apolline and Christian references into a new, but short-lived cultural hybrid in the period of the transformation of the Roman Empire into a Christian Empire.
The eagle's vast wing span extends over the wolves, its prey. Both pagan and Christian associations on this panel convey the defensive nature of the creature. The eagle's protective powers are amplified with the addition of a bulla or amulet around its neck. Children in antiquity frequently wore apotropaic bulla until adulthood. When featured on the eagle in early Byzantine Egypt, the "eaglestone" amulet provided protection for pregnant women. Likely incorporated into an architectural framework, the decorative panel would have served as protection for the home.
Archangels, according to biblical sources, are celestial beings and intermediaries between God and humankind. Seraphim are the highest order of the angels responsible for protecting God's throne, and they are described as six winged creatures in the Bible. There is, however, no mention of the Archangel Gabriel with wings. The Book of Daniel relates Gabriel's visit in Daniel, 9: 21–22, "While I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight." The angel is a compelling example of the artistic adaptation of mythological characters into the Christian context. The winged goddess Nike (Victory), frequently represented in antiquity crowning emperors, is likely the inspiration for the form of the angel. The angel's ability to communicate is unique, though, and may derive from Mercury, the messenger god who was frequently depicted with wings attached to his feet.
Textiles featuring a jeweled cross flanked by birds are a common arrangement in Coptic Egypt. However, prior to the official declaration of Christianity, weavers were able to incorporate crosses onto garments in only the most unobtrusive way – such as a small cross on the back of the neck or shoulder band of a tunic. In the fifth and sixth centuries, the application of ecclesiastical symbols was encouraged. The cross in this fragment is central, and the four birds circling the arms may be doves or ducks. The dove, when placed within the cross, is often understood as a symbol of the Resurrection. Ducks, however, were extremely popular in Egypt. When applied to a garment, they would have assumed funerary significance.
The emblem of the double-headed eagle is one of the oldest in the world. The Byzantines likely adopted the double-headed bird from Babylonian and Hittite depictions popular in the ancient Near East. Emperor Isaac Komnenos (r.1057–1059) is generally believed to have first used the bicephalous eagle as an imperial emblem. The motif spread to the west, as illustrated by the ring shown next to it. Featured on the silk fragment, the creature is heavily adorned with jewels such as the pearled band at the neck, and the gold crescents with pendants which hang from each beak.
The crescent-shaped gold earrings are like the jewelry suspended from the beaks of the double-headed eagle on the silk textile fragment. The iconography of the peacock, however, places this far from the heraldic tradition. Drinking from the vases, the birds represent the Christian ideal of drinking from the fountain of life. The peacock also symbolized resurrection because of its ability to shed and grow new feathers. The openwork technique is typical of early Byzantine jewelry, and suggests that the earrings may have been produced in Constantinople.
The tri-lobed headdress of these birds easily identifies them as peacocks. The holes near the eyes would have been used to secure the ornaments to a fabric backing. The peacock's association with immortality came from the pagan belief that this bird's flesh did not decay. If these appliqués were affixed to a leather garment, the peacock's pagan symbolism then becomes apotropaic. The workmanship of these pieces is comparable, if not identical, to a sword fragment discovered in Kerch near the Crimea. The production of this luxury metalwork was probably for military regalia.
The bird incised on the bottom of this bowl is most likely a goose, walking towards the right. The green and yellow glazes effectively emphasize the form of the bird encircled by the rinceau pattern of the rim. With some exceptions, fowl were generally not imbued with the deep symbolism of many other birds. The goose is nonetheless appropriately situated in the context of this domestic ware. Various methods of preparation are recorded for the consumption of this fowl, and its movement humorously conveys an attempt to escape its culinary fate.]]>
Other supernatural birds were deities in their own right. With awesome powers of flight, speed, vision, and predation, they impacted the human realm directly and irrevocably. Large birds carrying human heads in their beaks and claws are featured in the arts of Central America and the Andes. Many Mesoamerican gods could transform into their animal selves at will, and any hummingbird, owl, or vulture could be a deity in disguise.
This creature has the hooked beak of a macaw, a vulture's caruncle above the beak, and an owl's tufts above the eyes and ears. In Maya culture, macaws held great significance as solar and regal emblems, vultures as symbols of power and fertility, and owls as messengers of the underworld. When in use on the lid of an incense burner, this piece would emit sweet smelling smoke from the mouth.
This small jade bird holds a head in its claws. The long extension of the beak is suggestive of a hummingbird's tongue, generally used to taste nectar.
Known as the Horrible Bird, the creature depicted on this vessel is well known in Nasca art. Earlier representations are less abstract and show a condor feeding on human parts. Here, a dead human being, depicted in black and white, lies above the creature's belt.
In front of its feline face, the creature on this cup sports the beak of a bird of prey. Feathers on its chest, tail, and wings complete its avian attire. This bird-feline adopts a position similar to that of the staff-bearing birds represented in the art of several later Andean cultures.
Four staff-bearing bird-men appear on this tunic fragment. Each has the head of a raptorial bird, elaborate wings, human-like feet, and hands carrying a staff with a beaked head at either end. Such figures are found in many Andean cultures. Following Wari weaving canons, the figures are wider in the band that was closest to the center of the textile, and more compressed in the band closer to the edge of the cloth.
Man-eating birds animated the myths and folklore of the ancient Andes. They take pride of place on this textile, holding human trophy heads in their beaks. Rows of small birds complete the design. The two large birds are probably pelicans, which appear often in Chimú iconography from Peru's north coast. It is not unusual to see representations such as this, where a monstrous pelican seals the fate of a human victim.]]>
By wearing avian trappings, dignitaries communicated particular affinities with feathered beings. Characteristics of certain species could signal the wearer's exceptional abilities, personality traits, achievements, or occupation. Alternatively, bird attributes could indicate a relationship with specific celestial powers, avian tutelaries, and spiritual helpers. Religious practitioners donned avian costumes to impersonate legendary or supernatural beings in ceremonies, rituals, or reenactments of myths.
These plumes may have been held as fans, worn as tassels, or placed in a headdress. Each feather's quill is folded around plant fibers that are braided and lashed together with a cord. The bright green feathers are from Mealy Parrots, the reddish ones from Greenwing Macaws, and the yellow ones remain unidentified.
Birds were favored as pendants by elites from Costa Rica to Colombia. Their stylized rendering suggests a concern with artistic form at the expense of naturalistic detail. Yet occasional horns, claws, or crests provide diversity and may allude to birds of a specific type or species. Suspended on leaders' chests, these birds were a sign of social distinction, control over precious resources, and possible affinities with certain avian species.
Birds far outnumber other figurative designs in the arts of the cultures of the Intermediate Area of the Americas. The extraordinary diversity of species present in this region of the world, as well as the social disposition of birds, their ability to sing or speak, and above all their unique capacity to fly have stimulated human interest and imagination. Many pendants bear the sharp beak and claws of birds of prey—fitting symbols of strength, power, and majesty.
The Maya lord on this monument carries a feathered shield. He wears an oversize feather headdress in the shape of a hummingbird with a flower on its long thin beak. In Mesoamerica, hummingbirds were associated with the sun, war, sacrifice, and rebirth—fitting symbols for a warrior's headdress.
In the text, a macaw head is part of the second glyph in the third column. Known as mo' in Maya languages, the macaw here represents the syllable mo in the name of the warrior's father, Moch Ahkchamay, who ruled along the Usumacinta River in the 7th century CE. The fact that macaws could talk was surely significant. Several other Maya rulers chose to take the name Macaw because of the bird's powerful associations with the sun, fire, and even sprouting corn.
The figures on this tunic have been described as bird-men. Twelve eagle heads adorn each man's face, headdress, torso, and belt. Another five eagle heads hang off the men's staffs or by their feet. The bird attributes define the men's costumes and personae, possibly animating them with avian powers. The figures' two staffs, embellished with sets of feathers and a dangling human trophy head, further underscore the bird-men's fearsome powers.
The birds represented are harpy eagles with a hooked beak, high nostril, and a raised crown of feathers at the back of the head. The feathers on the staffs have different colored endings, like the striped wing and tail feathers of harpy eagles. Central and South America's largest bird of prey is an apt symbol of power that inspired many ancient images.
The colorful feathers on this figurine once created a bright blue crown, a headband and collar in vibrant red-orange-yellow, a blue-green shirt, and a skirt with five stripes in different iridescent hues. Only the figurine's face, legs, arms, and the human head it holds in each hand were left uncovered. This feather-clad warrior adorned a wall or a high-ranking person's staff at a site on Peru's north coast.
A feather cape and a bird-like tail are part of this lord's costume. The garments are striking, as few full-round Olmec figures are so richly dressed. In addition, the sides of his helmet, the front of his cape above his shoulders, and the three elements at the top of his headdress are incised with profile bird heads—including a round eye, sharp beak, and crest.
Etchings representing tattoos cover the diminutive fist and forearm. Designs include a row of birds drinking from bowls, a row of creatures with shells known as Strombus Monsters, and a row of bird warriors. In Moche art, these creatures are all associated with warfare and human sacrifice, as are the war clubs that decorate the arm and fingers.]]>
Birds carried a rich symbolism in ancient American cultures. Birds of prey like the eagle, hawk, and falcon were metaphors of the sun, cosmological time, and military power. Waterfowl and shorebirds that dive or dip below the water's surface were associated with fish, fertility, and the underworld. Colorful birds, such as macaws and quetzals, were favored for their beauty and claimed as mythical ancestors by some groups.
Sea birds are depicted on many textiles from Peru's central coast. Here, two pelicans are rendered in a geometric style, with large tails and outstretched wings. The long beaks, black-lined necks, and posture are characteristic of the largest sea birds breeding in Peru. Pelicans are also one of the main guano-producing species, and therefore an integral part of human livelihood. Guano was—and continues to be—collected and traded over great distances for use as an agricultural fertilizer.
This gold bird has the striped body, patterned wings, and pointed beak of a falcon. Associated with Andean royalty, falcon feathers are said to have been worn by all descendants of Inka rulers.
A parrot or parakeet stands over a maize plant at the top of this pin. Birds' appetite for corn was a constant concern in Andean agricultural societies, and the pin offers an amusing allusion to competition over food resources.
This tiny spoon was probably used to consume hallucinogens in ritual contexts. In the Andes, the hummingbirds' habit of sucking nectar from flowers was associated with the shamanic ability to conjure visions or spirits.
Water birds decorate finials that once topped staffs held by Sinú dignitaries. The triple-crested bird, probably a type of duck, is hollow and doubles as a rattle. The long neck and curved beak of the second bird are suggestive of an ibis.]]>


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Cancer facts and figures
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subset: commoncrawl


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MINERAL RIDGE - The United Local Golden Eagles opened their Div. III sectional match-up with Campbell Memorial on a 19-0 run, and never let off the gas pedal as they cruised to a 91-26 victory over the Red Devils on Tuesday night at Mineral Ridge High School.
"It was a really good start to what we hope is a long tournament, we stepped up our defense a lot and we've been working really hard on it in practice so it was our focus tonight," senior Emily Zehentbauer said.
The 91 points in a game ties a single-game record for most points scored as a team by the Eagles (21-2, 14-0) in a 91-37 win over Beaver Local.
"We like to score, so it always feel good to score," senior MacKenzie Gatchel said.
Twelve members of the Eagles did just that, recording at least one point. Three girls tallied double figures.
Zehentbauer led all scorers with 25 points and seven rebounds. Gatchel added a double-double, with 10 boards and 15 points. Sam Spitler also added 13 points.
Fact Box
C. MEMORIAL SCORING: Brianna Watons 1-0-2, Amy Jackson 2-0-4, Brittany Williams 3-0-6, Joanna Villanuvea 3-2-8, Aallyah Hasleem 1-0-2, Annopla Hakeem 0-1-1. TOTALS: 11, 4-8: 26
UNITED SCORING: Emily Zehentbauer 11-2-25, Sam Spitler 5-3-13, Tara Gray 2-1-6, Sydney Moats 2-0-4, Allison Parks 2-0-4, MacKenzie Gatchel 5-1-15, Kenzie Firth 1-1-3, Mollie Phillis 2-2-6, Courtney Hydrick 3-3-9, Jenna Plummer 0-3-3, Kassie Chestnut 0-1-1, Elle Smith 1-0-2. TOTALS: 33, 17-38: 91
Three-pointers: Campbell Memorial 0, United 6 (Gatchel 4, Zehentbauer, Gray).
United allowed just one point after the first quarter had come to a close. The 26 total points is the second lowest game-total that the Eagles have allowed this season. United gave up 23 in a 52-23 win over Jackson-Milton.
"My girls didn't quit, we have a lot of young kids and we are trying to work towards next year. United is pretty experienced and they've been here a few times," Campbell coach Kevin Douglas said. "That's exactly what we talked about before the game, they had to work to get here and we have to work to do the same thing. It takes time and patience."
The Eagles had to endure a long layoff before stepping foot onto a court for Tuesday night's game. In practice, Mathias and crew did their best to simulate game situations, but there is a difficulty to replicate such scenarios before they happen.
"We went through the layoff last year too, so we did a couple different things in practice with our intensity and a couple different drills we like to do on hard days," United coach Sam Mathias said. "We did some game situations which helped us keep on schedule with what we wanted to do."
The break, however, had seemingly no affect on the girls.
"I thought it helped us a lot because it gave us time to work on everything that we needed to," Gatchel said. "It showed because we looked good tonight."
The dismissal of Campbell (0-21) leads to a bout with South Range for the sectional crown. The Eagles have already notched two wins against the Raiders this season, but know that a third won't come easy.
"We all know that they are a good team and a well-coached team," Gatchel said. "We have to slow them down offensively and keep them outside, not let them inside the paint."
With the familiarity between the two teams, the Eagles aren't expecting to see too many surprises from the Raiders.
"I just told them in the locker room that it's very hard to beat a team three times," Mathias said. "South Range has nothing to lose and everything to gain in this so we know that they're going to bring the best that they have we've got to match that and do better than that."
But the Eagles have something else on their side now as well.
"We're back in a rhythm now as far as we go, there's not that huge of a break, no more than a week off," Mathias said. "We can still focus on the little things in practice. It's nice to have the game right now instead of being off for another ten or twelve days."


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Top Definition
In hardchat, you pretty much get verbally raped. in the mouth, by 5 dongs, sometimes 6. You get flooded, you get /topic'd for dumb things you say. sometimes local killed.
ex. hardchat: -!- Topic for #: "14:16 <+endo> the irc serv is lighttpd?"
por green 4rrow 09 de Junho de 2010
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dwaan's irc network, where he tries to attract children to molest them, trades his massive cp collection like pokemon cards, and generally abuses kids.
young boy: "lets go to hardchats, i hear there's a creepy guy who wants to stick his penis in us"
por mestri 21 de Dezembro de 2011


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While the action on the court has been slowed by the weather, area teams continue to climb in the polls.
Both Tucker County teams, along with the Petersburg boys and Tygarts Valley and Pocahontas County girls, are ranked in the top 10 in this week's AP high school basketball polls released Monday.
The Mountain Lions, despite playing just once since Jan. 17, moved up one spot to sixth in Class A. Tucker County has a busy week ahead, if the weather cooperates, traveling to East Hardy on Wednesday before returning home to battle Southern, Md., Friday and Pendleton County on Saturday.
Article Photos
The Inter-Mountain file photos
Tucker County's Savannah Ambrose throws a pass in front of Pocahontas County's Sarah Ryder during a PVC matchup last week in Hambleton. The Mountain Lions are ranked fourth in this week's AP poll, while the Warriors are fifth. The teams were slated to play Monday night but weather conditions forced the contest to be moved to Feb. 10 in Dunmore.
The Elkins High School boys will play key games against sectional foes Lewis County and Buckhannon-Upshur this week.
The Vikings (10-2) have won eight straight games to go from unranked to eighth in Class AA. Petersburg will entertain Keyser on Wednesday and visit Moorefield for a Friday night contest.
The Tucker County girls, whose game at No. 6 Pocahontas County on Monday night was postponed until Feb. 10, jumped from seventh to sixth. The Mountain?Lions defeated the Warriors last week, which moved Pocahontas County down two spots to sixth.
Tygarts Valley is 10th this week and is scheduled to host Tucker County at 7:30 p.m. today.
n n n
SECTIONALS LOOM: With postseason play looming, games against sectional foes will fill teams' schedules over the next few weeks.
Weather postponements have forced some schools to scrap non-conference games and concentrate solely on sectional and conference matchups.
The Elkins boys, for instance, will play sectional rivals Lewis County and Buckhannon-Upshur this week alone.
The Tigers are scheduled to play three more contests against sectional opponents over the final three weeks of the regular season.
Girls' sectionals will begin on Feb. 24, followed by the boys on March 3.


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Frozen Dessert
The Missouri Department of Health and Seniors Services and local public health agencies regulate more than 2,000 establishments that manufacture, sell or serve frozen dessert products throughout the state. The Missouri Law, Sections 196.851 – 196.895 RSMo was enacted in 1955 to assure the wholesomeness and purity of the product. Each establishment is inspected and required to obtain a state-issued frozen dessert license annually.
Definition of Frozen Dessert establishment:
- A Frozen Dessert Plant is any place or premise where frozen desserts or mixes are processed, pasteurized, frozen or packaged for distribution or sale.
- A Frozen Dessert Processor is any person who freezes any pasteurized mix into semisolid or solid form for retail distribution or sale as a frozen dessert.
- Frozen Dessert Plants and those establishments processing products such as ice cream, soft-serve products, frozen yogurt, frozen custard, sherbets, water ice, and frozen novelties do require a frozen dessert license.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services has determined that establishments manufacturing and/or freezing ice beverage products exclusively, such as icees, slurpies, frozen cappuccino, etc. or serving hard hand-dipped ice cream do not require a frozen dessert license.
Application and instructions are available online. Contact us if you have any questions.
For more information on the Regulations governing Frozen Dessert, please see the Food Safety page and click the Laws and Regulations listed on that page.


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I have a large world map above my desk that truly fascinates me.
I am not really that great with geograpy (seriously- when I first put this up I thought they had left Hawaii off.) Did you realize how far away from the continent Hawaii is!?
The idea of visiting other countries seems so exciting. I find myself praying over the map every time I look up at it, Show us Lord where you want us to go.
I taped the following quote to the bottom of the map:
God doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called.
Sometimes I expect to look up at the map and have a clear answer- maybe a bright light will shine on "the country" we are called to go do whatever God wants us to do. I also know very well that maybe He doesn't need us to go very far at all.
Whether I travel to New Zealand (hopefully someday) or to the grocery store (almost everyday!), I know I am one of the called. He may not need me to even step outside my house, as I could be called for the sole purpose of raising these three Godly men.
I pray I am always sensitive to God's call for my life, and never view my ministry as wife, mom, and friend as less than. I pray the same for you today. It's a jungle in here... I can't imagine sometimes what it's like out there!


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on February 26, 2013 - 7:45 PM
, updated February 26, 2013 at 10:32 PM
Daemen College has purchased the former YMCA building on Main Street in Snyder for $583,500.
While the deal with the YMCA of Buffalo Niagara has been in the works for some time, the college formally closed on the property Friday, according to records from the Erie County Clerk's Office.
Daemen is still deciding exactly how the new building will be used, said Michael G. Andrei, a college spokesman.
"There are ongoing discussions as to what the final use of the building will be," Andrei said Tuesday. "There are many proposed uses for the building under consideration."
Daemen officials, however, have said in the past that they want to use a major portion of the space in the building for added recreational facilities.
The building, on a 2-acre parcel at 4433 Main St. across from the Daemen campus, served as the Northeast Family Branch of the YMCA for years and includes 26,000 square feet of space, a gymnasium and a swimming pool.
The college has had plans to buy the Snyder building once the YMCA constructed its $24.6 million facility on Tech Drive next to the Erie Community College North Campus. The new facility is more than three times larger and includes two pools, five locker rooms, a giant gym/track and a large play space for kids.
The Northeast Family Branch closed Jan. 13, and the new Y opened to the public the next day, setting in motion the transfer of the old building to Daemen.
Daemen already has been using the more than 60 parking spaces on the property.
email: firstname.lastname@example.com


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Stetson coach Pete Dunn told his Hatters baseball team on Saturday night that he is looking forward to the day when another team beats them. In his eyes, so far this year that hasn't happened.
The Hatters were their own worst enemies again on Sunday, combining physical and mental errors throughout the day in a 7-5 loss to visiting Fairfield. The Stags (5-9) were able to split the four game series with Stetson (10-9) by taking the final two games in similar fashion.
"I don't care if we lose if the other team beats us," Dunn said. "That hasn't happened yet. You aren't going to win every game, but there is only one team that has beaten us regularly this year, and that is ourselves. It is really frustrating and disappointing. No one is beating us, we are beating ourselves. Last night and today are just two examples of that."
On Sunday, the mistakes were both obvious – two errors at shortstop – and more subtle.
Stetson senior starting pitcher Chad Rood gave the Hatters another strong performance, allowing only a first inning solo homer to Anthony Hajjar through five innings of work. It was in the sixth inning when Rood, and the Hatters, first experienced major problems.
"Chad did what he has been doing," Dunn said. "He gave us a good outing today after doing a good job against Bethune on Tuesday. It is a shame that we find a way to waste it when we do get a good effort on the mound by throwing the ball all over the place, or by not catching it."
With the game tied at 1-1 after Stetson manufactured a run in the second, Mike Maschi led off the sixth by sneaking a ball inside the bag at third and into the corner for a double. That was followed by an infield single by Rob LoPinto.
Things started going bad when Mike Bennett dropped down a sacrifice bunt, and Rood fielded and threw to third, unsuccessfully, in an attempt to cut down the lead runner. With the bases loaded, Rood got Hajjar to hit a potential double-play grounder to short, but junior K'shawn Smith's throw to second was wild, allowing two runs to score.
After a pitching change, Ryan Plourde greeted Stetson's Cameron Griffin with a two-run single, giving Fairfield a 5-1 lead.
"No one can win if you don't make plays," Dunn said. "The frustrating part is that they are routine plays. If they were challenging plays where you had to back hand the ball, or make a throw on the run, or charge a ball, that is one thing. But routine ground balls, not being able to play catch and throw the ball back to the pitcher. If you can't do that then you can win."
Facing an uphill battle, the Hatters came charging back, scoring four times in the seventh inning against the Fairfield bullpen. Garrett Russini singled to drive in the first run, the second scored on a wild pitch and then two more scored on a single by the red-hot Robert Bruce.
The junior is the Hatters' leading hitter on the year after going 8-for-15 in the weekend series.
Like has happened often this year, the Hatters were unable to maintain the momentum from their big inning. Fairfield answered by taking advantage of a mental mistake to steal a run. Bennett opened the inning with a single off Stetson senior reliever Joe Dye (2-1), who then walked Hajjar.
After a sacrifice but moved the runners up and an intentional walk loaded the bases, Jack Giannini drove in the winning run with a bouncing ball right at the second base bag. Kevin Fagan fielded the ball and got an out, but was unable to prevent the go-ahead run from scoring.
The Stags then pulled a double-steal to plate an insurance run on a play when the Hatters had a play in place to stop it. Russini's throw, which was supposed to go to Dye on the mound, was high and went through to second base, allowed the Stags to steal the run.
Dunn said the lack of execution by the Hatters, both on the mound and on defense, was key to the two losses to Fairfield, and has been the primary reason why Stetson is just a game over .500 after 19 games.
"You have to pitch and you have to play defense and, if you do that, you are going to be in the game," Dunn said. "You may not win every game, but you are going to be in every game. If you pitch, and you pick up the ball and throw it, then you are going to be in every game. If we had done that today, we might not have won the game, but we would have been in much better shape."
Fairfield reliever Kyle Capaldo (2-2) earned the victory with 1.2 scoreless innings of work. Anthony DiMauro worked the ninth for the Stags to pick up his first save of the year.
Stetson will now travel away from home for the first time in 2013 when they head to Tallahassee on Tuesday for two games against a nationally-ranked Florida State team that was undefeated going into the weekend before dropping a game on Saturday at Maryland.
After the two-game set with the Seminoles, the Hatters will return home to open Atlantic Sun Conference play against preseason league favorite Mercer next weekend.
"We have to flush this one," Dunn said. "It is a whole new ball game now. I just wouldn't have believed going into the season that we would be this bad defensively. We have guys who have made the plays before, but aren't now. Once it gets to this point it is a mental thing. We are going to have to look at our options and see what we can do."


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Signature move that always seems to arise when the specific type of music plays. Its mostly those skinny ass guys wearing sunglasses/or fake smart glasses inside with scarves and too low v neck shirts making a slight guitar rock stance and clapping up high over their heads or slightly to the side, usually vigorously.
I wonder how many hipsters will be doing the hipster clap at Cinespace this Tuesday.
מאת Hacerlo 30 בספטמבר, 2010
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Recent Event Highlights: Neal Stephenson - "We Are All Geeks Now.", Neal Stephenson on Sci-Fi / Fantasy Actors, Beating the codebreakers with quantum cryptography, Exhibits unveil history of U.S. code breaking, and 16 more...
Created by dipity on Oct 20, 2008
Last updated: 01/05/09 at 02:59 AM
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...but of cryptology and analysis," he said. "We're getting involved to help preserve what is a fundamental part of our history." He said there was a danger that with the fast-paced nature of the computer industry, it would lose a sense of its origins by constantly...
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Poland Breaks the Enigma- Unbreakable German Nazi Code Machine in 1932. "Before Poland fell - said George Bush while addressing his huge audience in Gdansk in August 1989, on the eve of the 50-th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II - you gave the Allies Enigma the German Nazi's secret coding machine. Breaking the unbreakable Axis code saves tens of thousand Allied lives, American lives; and for this, you have the enduring gratitude of the American people. And ultimately, Enigma and freedom fighters played a major role in the winning the Second World War". President George Bush's Remarks at the Solidarity Workers Monument in Gdansk July 11, 1989, where he mentioned the Polish contribution to the Victory in giving to the Allies the Enigma Cipher Machine solution. On July 25, 1939, before the war began, the Polish intelligence (Section 2 of the General Staff) provided Great Britain and France with one copy each (with necessary documents) of the German coding machine "Enigma" that allowed to read the secret German messages. A team of Polish cryptologists was evacuated to France, later on to England, where a special center for monitoring and decoding was organized in Bletchley Park. The Polish "Enigma" played a significant role, especially during the Battle of Britain, Battle of the Atlantic and the invasion of the continent in 1944. Other Polish scientists and technicians evacuated to England have to be mentioned as well. The electronics specialists helped with creating the submarine detection system (HFDF -- High Frequency Direction Finding). The Polish engineers constructed the reversible tank periscope and an anti-aircraft cannon, with tens of thousands of which the British troops were equipped. Henryk Zygalski, Jerzy Rozycki and Marian Rejewski, the Polish team of mathematicians who first had success against the Enigma machine. David Kahn, Seizing the ENIGMA. Historian David Kahn writes, "was Rejewski's own stunning achievement, one that elevates him to the pantheon of the greatest cryptanalysts of all time". Rejewski used a mathematical theorem that one mathematics professor has since described as "the theorem that won World War II". BREAKS THE ENIGMA CODE MACHINE (ULTRA) was the greatest secret of World War II after the atom bomb. With the exception of knowledge about that weapon and the probable exception of the time and place of major operations, such as the Normandy invasion, no information was held more tightly .... The security implies ULTRA's significance. ULTRA furnished intelligence better than any in the whole long history of humankind. It was more precise, more trustworthy, more voluminous, more continuous, longer lasting, and available faster, at a higher level, and from more commands than any other form of intelligence - spies or scouts or aerial reconnaissance or prisoner interrogations .... It may be concluded that BREAKS THE ENIGMA CODE (ULTRA) saved the world two years of war, billions of dollars, and millions of lives. Poland suffered greatly under German occupation. Six million Poles, from a population of 35 million, became casualties. Among the dead was Jerzy Rozycki, the youngest member of the Enigma code-breakers.
Did you dream of growing up to be James Bond when you were a kid? Are you still dreaming of it? Lucky for you, becoming a spy doesn't involve getting thrown into a van with a blindfold. You can just apply on their website, like any other job.Full Digg post: http://digg.com/people/MI_6_to_CIA_5_Top_Secret_Agencies_Who_Want_to_Hire_You
Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2008/05/08/Neal_Stephenson_Science_Fiction_as_a_Literary_Genre Bestselling author Neal Stephenson discusses the popularity of science-fiction as a genre, arguing that "we are all geeks now." ----- Neal Stephenson delivered a talk entitled The Fork: Science Fiction versus Mundane Culture at Gresham College. Four professors discuss the origins of science fiction, its overlap with other genres and its developments over more than a century. Neal Stephenson is the best-selling author of such novels as Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, and The Baroque Cycle. He is best know for writing science fiction (in the postcyberpunk genre) and his interests often lead him into investigations of society, mathematics, cryptology, currency and the history of science.
Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2008/05/08/Neal_Stephenson_Science_Fiction_as_a_Literary_Genre Bestselling author Neal Stephenson theorizes on why "niche" science-fiction / fantasy actors like Lucy Lawless, Hugo Weaving and Leonard Nimoy so often end up cast in these types of roles. ----- Neal Stephenson delivered a talk entitled The Fork: Science Fiction versus Mundane Culture at Gresham College. Four professors discuss the origins of science fiction, its overlap with other genres and its developments over more than a century. Neal Stephenson is the best-selling author of such novels as Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, and The Baroque Cycle. He is best know for writing science fiction (in the postcyberpunk genre) and his interests often lead him into investigations of society, mathematics, cryptology, currency and the history of science.
Father Marco Fibbi, a spokesman for the Diocese of Rome, said: "Normally we read the script but this time it was not necessary. The name Dan Brown was enough."Full Digg post: http://digg.com/movies/The_Vatican_Bans_Filming_of_Angels_Demons
A dangerous new strain of malicious software that holds the victim's computers files for ransom has been unleashed, and researchers have yet to crack the encryption key.
Full Digg post: http://digg.com/security/Ransomware_Encrypts_Victim_Files_With_1024_Bit_Key
Cryptography is an arms race, but the finish line may be fast approaching. Up to now, each time the codemakers made a better mousetrap, codebreakers breed a better mouse. But quantum cryptography theoretically could outpace the codebreakers and win the race. Forever.Full Digg post: http://digg.com/security/Beating_the_codebreakers_with_quantum_cryptography_2
Tell Norton to go to hell and switch to UbuntuFull Digg post: http://digg.com/linux_unix/With_Linux_Antivirus_Software_is_Dead_PIC
Swiss citizens recently cast their parliamentary election votes, which were transmitted using quantum cryptology, a method of encoding and decoding data using photons. Could this technology lead to more reliable voting results?Full Digg post: http://digg.com/security/How_Quantum_Cryptology_Works
The scummy truth about the military recruitment complex.Full Digg post: http://digg.com/odd_stuff/Top_Military_Recruitment_Lies
A new AP-Ipsos poll finds that 34 percent of conservatives have not read a book within the past year, compared with 22 percent of liberals and moderates. Among those who had read at least one book, conservatives "typically read eight" books in the past year. Liberals read nine, moderates five.Full Digg post: http://digg.com/political_opinion/POLL_Liberals_Read_More_Books_Than_Conservatives
...them and help them understand their amazing legacy," museum curator Patrick Weadon said. The museum follows the history of cryptology from the Civil War to the present, including an exhibit showing how black slaves used code. Even with the inclusion of modern...
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Anyone actually trying to use the Processing Key on new HD-DVD titles may be in for a bit of a surprise. It appears as if disks created after April 23rd cannot be decrypted using the key. Some players have been also been affected. Ed Felton, a professor of computer science at Princeton University, estimates 3 weeks until we have a new number.Full Digg post: http://digg.com/hardware/The_Number_Has_Been_Rendered_Useless_Does_Not_Work_On_Newer_Titles
"I am a scientist and a believer, and I find no conflict between those world views."Full Digg post: http://digg.com/general_sciences/Collins_How_a_scientist_can_believe_in_God
The real tragedy is that, because mathematics is a heavily layered subject, each new topic building upon the previous ones, once students fall behind catching up can be a nightmare. Indeed, students often meet a rude awakening in late high school or at college when their limited mathematical repertoire fails to provide the necessary tools.Full Digg post: http://digg.com/programming/The_Shocking_State_of_Math_Education_in_America
...Walker & Co. ($19.95) Looking for a history book that would appeal to people who like math? Try "Codebreaker" - a short history of cryptology: the study of codes and ciphers. Journalist Stephen Pincock, who is an editor at The Financial Times and The Scientist...
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Knight-Ridder Washington Bureau
...shared his knowledge as a consultant on a "Secrets of War" television documentary and contributed articles to cryptology and history journals. Much of his writing countered controversial charges that code-breaking provided U.S. officials with advance knowledge...
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San Diego Union Tribune
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The 600 year old, one-of-a-kind book is known as the Voynich Manuscript. The textual content of this mysterious illustrated book is unknown because it is written in an unknown alphabet and unintelligible language, and despite the efforts of expert cryptographers over many decades, not a single word has been decipheredFull Digg post: http://digg.com/tech_news/the_Mysteriously_Illustratrated_600_yr-old_Cryptic_Voynich_Manuscript
We're the CryptoKids and we love cryptology.
What's cryptology? Cryptology is making and breaking codes. It's so cool. We make codes so we can send secret messages to our friends. And we try to figure out what other people are writing about by breaking their codes. It's a lot of fun.Full Digg post: http://digg.com/security/NSA_cryptography_for_kids


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on December 9, 2012 - 9:28 PM
D+ Fred Jackson and C.J. Spiller split carries again, and both struggled behind a patchwork offensive line. They combined for nine attempts and 10 yards in the first half. On the Bills' first trip into the red zone, Jackson lost his career-worst fourth fumble of the season. Spiller had two 13-yard runs on the opening drive of the second half, then had one more touch the rest of the game.
C- Fitzpatrick had a strong performance before the final drive, when he threw an interception. He was 23 of 27 for 225 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions when the Rams took the lead with 48 seconds to go. He was picked off on a third-and-19 play with 12 seconds left. Fitzpatrick was charged with a fumble in the third quarter, but a challenge likely would've turned the play into an incompletion.
B+ Buffalo had its fourth straight game of allowing fewer than 90 rushing yards, its longest streak since 1999. Buffalo stopped a ground attack that was tied for 13th in the league in yards per game and 10th in yards per carry. Steven Jackson and Daryl Richardson combined for 23 carries and 77 yards, a modest 3.3-yard average. Of St. Louis' 10 longest plays, a 12-yard Jackson gain in the second quarter was the only planned run.
B-In the first half, the Bills were heat-seeking missiles, and Sam Bradford was the sun. Dave Wannstedt dialed up an aggressive attack that even sent cornerback Leodis McKelvin on a blitz to nail Bradford on a third down in the first quarter. Mario Williams had a sack and forced a Bradford fumble. Bradford completed fewer than half his throws, but the Bills couldn't stop him on the winning drive.
D I'm docking the Bills for not having a kicker they trust to kick 52-yard field goals. Yes, it's a coaching/front office decision, but an inability to kick field goals of that length proved costly in a game decided by three points. Rookie punter Shawn Powell let an extra-point snap slip through his hands on Buffalo's third-quarter touchdown. McKelvin was decent on his returns.
F Spiller, one of the NFL's most brilliant runners, had eight touches. Gailey once again declined to try a 52-yard field goal, calling a timeout – rather than take a delay-of-game penalty – so he could punt from his 34. Gailey played for a field goal before halftime, rather than try for a TD. He didn't challenge a 7-yard loss on a fumble that replays indicated was an incomplete forward pass.
C-Take out Bradford's 13 scrambling yards, and the Rams' rushing output was even less inspiring. Jackson averaged only 3.4 yards a carry. Richardson averaged 1.3 yards. The Rams finished with five rushing first downs. They played much of the fourth quarter without left tackle Rodger Saffold. But on the start of the winning drive from their own 16, Jackson had runs of 9 and 7 yards.
B-Bradford was outplayed by Fitzpatrick for much of the game. Bradford's final stat line wasn't as good either. But with the game on the line, Bradford and his receivers emerged. Minus top target Danny Amendola, Bradford completed 5 of 11 passes for 68 yards and the winning TD plus a two-point conversion. He converted a fourth-and-1 and a third-and-10 through the air on that drive.
AThe Rams made the Bills one-dimensional. The Rams obviously were so good at stopping the run that Gailey gave the NFL's leading yards-per-carry back one run over the final 22 minutes. The Bills entered with the league's fourth-best run game, and their backs were held to 51 yards. The Rams allowed just three rushing first downs and recovered a Jackson fumble.
B+Fitzpatrick had a remarkable completion percentage and a 93.9 passer rating, but the Rams exploited the Bills' raggedy offensive line and teed off on Fitzpatrick often. The Rams recorded five sacks – the most by a Bills opponent this year – 11 quarterback hits and three passes defensed, including Jo-Lonn Dunbar's game-sealing interception with 12 seconds to play.
C-Atomic-legged rookie Greg Zuerlein wasn't a factor, kicking only one extra point. Johnny Hekker mishandled a snap early in the fourth quarter that led to a scrambly, 0-yard punt to Buffalo's 49-yard line. The Rams' coverage units could've been better, allowing McKelvin to average 28.5 yards on two kickoffs and 11.0 yards on two punts. The Rams did nothing special on their returns.
B Unlike on the Bills' sideline, whenever Jeff Fisher made a critical call, it seemed to work out. The Rams converted a fourth down on the winning drive. They made their two-point conversion. The Rams had the edge in most team stats: total yards, rushing yards, third-down conversions, turnovers, red-zone efficiency. The Bills had negligible leads in passing yards, time of possession and penalty yards.
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Phillip Fetty has been appointed Davis & Elkins College sports information director. In this position, he is responsible for providing coverage of the college's 14 athletic teams.
"It is an honor to be the first full-time sports information director at Davis & Elkins," Fetty said. "I want to thank President Mihalyo, Kevin Wilson and Athletic Director Ronnie Palmer for the opportunity, and I am ready to move sports information forward at D&E."
Fetty most recently served as director of sports information and promotions at West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon, where he designed and implemented a new athletic website, coordinated local media contacts and interviews, and created press releases and game recaps, among other duties.
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Prior to that, he was employed as assistant sports information director at Fairmont State University. He also has worked as a member of the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament staff and as sports editor of Columns, Fairmont State University's student newspaper.
Fetty earned his Master of Science degree in sport management from West Virginia University in 2011 and a Bachelor of Science degree in sport management from Fairmont State University in 2010. He is a member of College Sports Information Directors of America.
A resident of Mt. Clare, Fetty is married to the former Tera McDougal.
D&E is a member of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference and offers NCAA Division II athletics in men's baseball and golf, women's volleyball and softball, and men's and women's basketball, cross country, soccer, swimming and tennis.


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BERKELEY SPRINGS - The Morgan County School Board has agreed to help the Morgan County Commission with application requirements on a grant to clean up the Alex Rickli Memorial Soccer Complex off U.S. 522 soccer field. The U.S. Department of Environmental Protection annual Brownfields & Land Revitalization program grants up to $200,000 for actual cleanup of "brownfields" sites.
The Morgan County Recreation Complex was designated a "brownfields" redevelopment project in February. The Northern West Virginia Brownfields Center partnered with the County Commission to assist in converting the once industrial 9-acre property into a usable space for the community. The county bought the land in 2006. Pieces of glass, metal, and automotive parts, and questionable arsenic levels were found later.
"In order to qualify for the cleanup grant request to the EPA due in November," said Commissioner Brad Close, "we had to have a bonafide purchaser on file. The school board voted Oct. 2 to accept with two contingencies."
Those contingencies are if the grant funding falls through, ownership reverts back to the county; and second, if the grant funding is approved, ownership reverts back to the county after cleanup is completed.
"The property comes back to us," Close said. "The county paid a substantial amount for the property, so we are interested in keeping it."
School board member Aaron Close said, "We're anxious to help for the benefit of the kids. We're looking forward to working with the county to make the field usable."
Brad Close said since the Brownfields Center has worked with the county, there's been no burden on taxpayers. The Northern West Virginia Brownfields Center found previous grants like the $5,000 Foundations for Overcoming Challenges and Utilizing Strengths (FOCUS) grant, which is being used for site development planning activities with the public. The site received a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment earlier this year, at a cost of $5,000 paid by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP). Phase I indicated the potential for "contaminants of concern." This means there is evidence that indicates there may be contaminants and that an additional Phase II Environmental Site Assessment (Phase II ESA) was required.
The Phase II ESA is being conducted. Professional technicians take many soil and water samples as well as conduct other studies (wetland delineation or sonar to look for underground storage tanks). The result of Phase II ESA will determine actual contaminants if any, how much, and where exactly on the property they are. The WVDEP is now spending an additional $45,000 to conduct the Phase II ESA.
A "Visioning Workshop" will be held from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 15 at the American Legion post on North Washington Street (U.S. 522 north of town). The public is invited. The goal is to gather input from the public on their wants, needs or opinions. All ideas are encouraged. Food will be provided.


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It is the local search and directory company that provides the most up-to-date information onnews, events, businesses, from restaurants and retail, besides professional services. ChampsElysees-Paris.com empowers consumers to make informed decisions about where to stay, spend their time and money by delivering trusted content, local expertise and helpful tools.It has the largest photo gallery about Champs Elysees Paris, France.
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Notre adresse pour un shopping hétéroclite de qualité et abordable.De l alimentaire au textile en passant par la beauté.


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Whether its game day or an ordinary day of the week, you like to make it explicitly clear who you're rootin' for. Don't worry, your animated Boston spirit is definitely noticed by those around you. Match your lively Celtics pride with the Clearly Fan tank top and show even your biggest rival that you'll never back down. Featuring a distressed screen print team logo with rhinestone accents on the front, this lightweight tank will keep ya cool whenever you get a little heated defending your Boston Celtics.
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Customized items can be personalized with options such as your name, your favorite number, and/or designs. Some options may be limited by league rules.


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Mon, 01 Aug 2016
We sat down with Dean O'Mara shortly after he arrived on campus to learn more about him, his plans for Campbell Business, and why he chose Campbell. The following is an edited transcript.
June 15, 2016
May 10, 2016
Campbell welcomed nearly 950 new alumni Friday & Saturday as it awarded degrees over 5 ceremonies.
April 8, 2016
The success of the installation ceremony of only the fifth president in the university's 129-year history was the result of the relationships J. Bradley Creed has built with the Campbell community in a short time — just 10 months since his first day on July 1, 2015.
April 6, 2016
On the eve of being officially inaugurated as Campbell's 5th president, J. Bradley Creed shares how he ended up here -- and why. Plus, 4 students share their Campbell story.
Wed, 28 Sep 2016
Mon, 26 Sep 2016
Wed, 21 Sep 2016
University Communications highlights, communicates and promotes the activities of Campbell University's faculty, staff and students, and acts as a liaison between the university and its constituents, including the public, news media, stakeholders and alumni. Among the communications team's responsibilities are distributing news releases and managing the university's internal and external communications. The office produces several print and online publications, including Campbell Magazine and We Are Campbell, and oversees the university's main website and key social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.


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Image Database Retrieval Methods Based on Feature Histograms
Zhong, Daidi
Publication type: Doctoral dissertation
Issue date: 2008-05-23
Belongs to: Tampereen teknillinen yliopisto. Julkaisu - Tampere University of Technology. Publication;734
University: Tampere University of Technology
Faculty: Faculty of Computing and Electrical Engineering
Department: Department of Signal Processing
Proliferation of digital capture, storage and networking systems makes creation of image collections very easy. A difficult and unsolved problem is the formation of computerized image databases which would enable precise retrieval using key images and specified search criteria like expressed in task find me the most similar picture . The task is easy for humans but it is hard to implement in computers due to the complexity of visual information and lack of highly efficient algorithms. In this thesis a class of algorithms for image database retrieval is proposed and investigated. These algorithms are based on two conceptual principles. First principle is that image information used for retrieval should be effectively reduced in order to preserve key information and prevent the growth in computational complexity. Second principle is proper combination of image statistical and structural information in which the latter one is used as little as possible since the former one is much easier to describe and compute. Several methods are developed in the thesis to fulfill those principles, acting on three levels of processing hierarchy from local to global. At a bottom level, local features are constructed from the coefficients of quantized block transforms. Block transforms are widely used in image and video compression and are well known for their excellent ability of preserving perceptual information under heavy quantization. Quantization acts for the concentration of block-wise information in a more condense way, which is highly desirable for the retrieval tasks. In the thesis several new types of local features are introduced and their properties are described. At an intermediate level, histograms of local image features are used as descriptors of global statistical information. Histogram similarity measure is introduced and methods for combining feature histograms are investigated. Finally, at the top level, in the thesis the combination of histograms from image sub-areas is defined as a way to incorporate structural information. The three information processing levels are composed into an overall image database retrieval system. The system parameters, like quantization level, histogram length and image subareas, are optimized iteratively using training datasets. The optimized system performance is evaluated on the example of available face databases using standardized evaluation procedures. The results show that the performance approaches best other methods proposed and sometimes exceeds them. This indicates that proposed methods for the description and combination of statistical and structural information are very effective for the image database retrieval.
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