Merry Wanderer of the Night [Search results for april] 

Since his 2012 appointment as head of antiquities in the midst of Syria s civil war, Maamoun Abdulkarim says just one thing has been on his mind -- avoiding a repeat of the kind of looting that ravaged Iraq s heritage after the 2003 invasion.

"The images of the looting of the museum in Baghdad and other Iraqi sites are always on my mind, and I told myself that everything must be done to avoid a repeat of that here," he told AFP.

Widespread illegal excavation and the destruction of artefacts and religious sites by jihadists from the Islamic State (IS) group have only added to the sense of urgency.

Before the Syrian conflict began in 2011, Abdulkarim was co-director of a French-Syrian mission working excavating the 700 so-called Dead Cities of northern Syria, which date back to Roman and Byzantine times.

Syria has been the home of many civilisations over the millennia, from the Canaanites to the Ottomans, and is rich in both artistic and architectural treasures.

Since his appointment, Abdulkarim and his colleagues have worked to protect Syria s heritage from a conflict that has killed more than 215,000 people.

So far, they have wrapped and stored some 300,000 items and thousands of manuscripts in secret locations protected from fires, shelling and floods.

The pieces come from 34 museums, including 80,000 items from Damascus alone.

Perhaps the most dramatic rescue yet was from the eastern city of Deir Ezzor last August.

After Mosul in neighbouring Iraq fell to IS in June, and the destruction began there, a decision was taken to evacuate the 13,000 artefacts remaining in Deir Ezzor.

Large parts of the city were in IS hands, but the airport and some districts remained under government control.

Yaarub al-Abdullah, the former director of antiquities for Deir Ezzor, said: "I worked for a week with two colleagues to wrap everything. We put it into a truck that came under heavy machinegun fire.

"We put the boxes on a military plane among dead and injured soldiers. It was terrible, but we managed it," added Abdullah, who now heads the National Museum.

Back in Damascus, Abdulkarim followed the operation with trepidation.

"I didn t sleep for a week after I took the decision to evacuate the artefacts," he said.

"If the plane had crashed, I would have lost three friends and gone to prison for losing 13,000 items," he said, with a smile.

He said an estimated 99 percent of Syria s museum collections had been preserved, thanks to his 2,500 employees, including those in opposition-held areas.

"They feel that protecting our heritage is a question of honour, like defending the honour of their mothers," Abdulkarim said.

But their work has come with a price: around a dozen of them have been killed in the conflict, including five during the course of their work.

Despite their best efforts, Abdulkarim fears thousands of artefacts have already been stolen across the country.

Even worse is the damage that has been done to 300 sites and 445 historic buildings.

In some cases the damage came in fighting. In others, it has come from illegal excavation, even with bulldozers, in places like Mari, Doura Europos, Apamee and Ajaja in the northeast, the Yarmuk valley in southern Daraa, and Hamam near Raqa in the north.

Ayham al-Fakhry, 39, fled his post as director of antiquities in Raqa in 2012, and laments the irreversible losses to Syria s rich heritage.

"Not only do you have the barbarity of the IS jihadists who destroy any representation of humans and Muslim mausoleums, but also the greed of mafia groups coming from Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey to buy pieces found by local residents," he said.

"They pay IS 20 percent of the estimated value and then the mafias take the objects to be sold in Europe or the Gulf," he said.

Despite international action to prevent smuggling antiquities from Syria, Abdulkarim and his colleagues say sanctions on Damascus have left them isolated.

"We felt like we had the plague," he said."Can there be an embargo on heritage? It belongs to the whole world."

Recently though, there have been signs of change, with invitations to Germany and France for directorate staff and an award in Venice for their work.

Abdulkarim urged the international community to rally around those in Syria trying to save their heritage.

"There must be a international mobilisation to save culture and civilisation. It s not just our responsibility, but a collective one," he said.

Author: Sammy Ketz | Source: AFP [March 27, 2015]

Hey all! I have one of my favorite bloggers here today for Memory Monday! April is hysterical to talk to on Twitter and I've discovered that I really trust her overall opinion on a lot of the books we both read. So, here's April, sharing her Memories!

I'm pretty sure it's not possible to be an American product of public school and not remember those awesome Scholastic orders. Once a month a new order from with different possibilities — posters and trinkets for the not so bookishly-inlcined, and shiny books for the readers — would be given to every student. Those of use who loved reading would bring it home and beg hard for books.

I remember most of the time my parents would let me pick something cheap off the order form, counting whatever booked I picked as allowance.

However, one time, they offered up the holy grail to me and let me pick the gift that kept on giving. That's right. I got to get the Boxcar Children set, which let me tell you was baller. It came in this awesome red cardboard boxcar and you would get three books from the series at a time per month, and put them in the boxcar since that was it's purpose. Y'all I think this was the beginning of my being excited about the mail, because after the very first month, the books were delivered to the house. I remember waiting for the monthly package and I would pretty much rip through the adventures of Benny, Jessie and the other kids whose names I totally don't remember, probably because they did not have awesome pink teacups and kind old RICH Grandfather Alden. And those kids would solve mysteries and chill in their Boxcar.

Did any of you get any special Scholastic order? Let me know about your fondness for that monthly order form in the comments!

Bio: April is kind of a big deal and blogs at Good Books And Good Wine. She reads everything under the sun, with a strong preference for YA, fantasy, and romance novels. She works in community education and likes unicorns. You can check out her twitter here.

National Library Week is coming up in the U.S. April 11-17, and April is School Libraries Month (2010 is the 25th anniversary). This got me wondering about the state of libraries around the globe.

What's your earliest memory of a library? What was it like for you? Were you more likely to hang out in the gym or the library when you were in school?

How's the health of the library system in your community? How do you support your local library? How often do you check out books from the library vs. buying books? Tell us what your favorite library is like and include some photos if you can.

I came across the Support Your Local Library challenge today on Home Girl's blog and took it as a good sign that over 370 people were signed up for the challenge. And it's not too late to sign up!

Award-winning author Laurie Halse Anderson believes that “school libraries are the foundation of our culture, not luxuries.” Below is a short video of her speaking to some high school students in New York. Do you agree with her? Do you think libraries are in danger because of the internet?

Can you name this famous library?

Speak to any of these questions on your Weekly Geeks blog post. Be sure to sign Mr. Linky with the direct link to your post, and visit your fellow WGers, as well as your local library, this week!

Edited to add: Don't forget the 24 hour Readathon is next Saturday, April 10th. Read all about it here.

Militants attacked Hatra, a UNESCO World Heritage site, last month, officials and local residents said, though the extent of the damage remains unclear as it is in territory still controlled by ISIL.

The video, released overnight April 3, shows a militant on a ladder using a sledgehammer to bang repeatedly on the back of one of the carved faces until it crashes to the ground and breaks into pieces. The video also shows a militant firing a Kalashnikov rifle at another, while men chop away the bases of some of the larger wall sculptures.

The video corresponded with Associated Press reporting on the attack and was posted to a militant website frequently used by the group.

One of the militants, who speaks Arabic with a distinct Gulf accent on the video, declares they destroyed the site because it is "worshipped instead of God."

ISIL, which holds a third of Iraq and neighboring Syria in its self-declared caliphate, has been destroying ancient relics they say promote idolatry that violates their fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law. Authorities also believe they’ve sold others on the black market to fund their atrocities.

    
Local government officials told the AP last month the militant group had looted and destroyed several ancient sites, including the 3,000 year-old Nimrud, another UNESCO World Heritage site. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called the Nimrud attack "a war crime."

Another video released in February showed militants smashing artifacts in the Mosul Museum and in January, the group burned hundreds of books from the Mosul library and Mosul University, including many rare manuscripts. The majority of the artifacts destroyed in the Mosul Museum attack were from Hatra.

Hatra, located 110 kilometers (68 miles) southwest of the ISIL-held city of Mosul, was a large fortified city during the Parthian Empire and capital of the first Arab kingdom. The site is said to have withstood invasions by the Romans in A.D. 116 and A.D. 198 thanks to its high, thick walls reinforced by towers. The ancient trading center spanned 6 kilometers (4 miles) in circumference and was supported by more than 160 towers. At its heart are a series of temples with a grand temple at the center - a structure supported by columns that once rose to 100 feet.

The video’s release comes after the Iraqi government this week claimed victory against ISIL in Saddam Hussein’s hometown Tikrit. Tikrit is 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of Baghdad on the main highway to Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city. Seizing Tikrit was key to an eventual campaign to retake Mosul - and the historic sites near it.

Source: The Associated Press [April 04, 2015]

Okay, April was insane. Seriously. Check out the list of books I read:

1. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan (A)
2. Armadale by Wilkie Collins (B)
3. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (A)
4. Fifteen by Beverly Cleary (C)
5. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous (Beatrice Sparks) (C)
6. Chicken with Plums by Marjane Satrapi (A)
7. Blubber by Judy Blume (B)
8. I'm Sorry You Feel that Way: The Astonishing but True Story of a Daughter, Sister, Slut, Wife, Mother, and Friend to Man and Dog by Diana Joseph (B)
9. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (A)
10. Catching Fire by Suzanna Collins (A)
11. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (B)

Eleven books! Okay so half of those were from the readathon, but I'm still amazed I got through eleven books in one month. But honestly, as much as a bragged about how awesome April was as a reading month it wasn't as good as I originally thought. Okay, Catching Fire and The Hunger Games were awesome. Definitely my favorite books this month. I really like Fahrenheit 451, The Lightning Thief, and Chicken with Plums. I enjoyed I'm Sorry You Feel That Way but everything else was kind of eh. I finished the Shelf Discovery Challenge this month. It's the first challenge I have completed this year!

So overall I guess it was a pretty good reading month, I really really liked about half the books I read. But I also read more books than I normally do. What is most exciting about this month is that I now have a ton of books that need to be reviewed which means I can read at a more relaxing pace. This is going to be really important for the next two weeks because it's finals time. Oh yeah. So that means I'm going to be absent for about two weeks. I'll still be posting, but the time I'll be able to spend on visiting other blogs is going to drop dramatically. I'll come back though. I promise.

April 2nd was International Children's Book Day. And April is National Poetry Month. In celebration, I have two lovely options for you this week:

Option A: Be a kid!

You could read a picture book (or two or three) and share what you read.
Write up a post sharing your favorite books from childhood
Write up a post about reading together with your child(ren)

Option B: Be a poet!

Write your own poem and share with us!
Write bookish ABC poems--ABC's of favorite authors, favorite books, favorite characters, favorite book blogs, or any combination of the above. Maybe even an ABC's of a bibliophile or book addict. (A is for...B is for...etc.)(For example, ABC's of Dr. Seuss)
Review a book you've read recently in haiku. (It doesn't need to be a poetry book you're reviewing, any book will do.) See Emilyreads for an idea of what I mean.
Read a poetry book and review it
Participate in Poetry Friday (This week's host will be Carol's Corner.)

I've been stressing and down all week (and most of last week too) because I'm really behind on my reading and I haven't really had the motivation to read lately. It's seriously bumming me out, because I have a lot of books that I need to get through, especially since Just Contemporary is coming up, and I have a ton planned for that.

SO — Imagine my delight when I get home to see several posts in my GoogleReader talking about how April at Good Books and Good Wine is hosting an Impromptu/Last Minute Read-a-Thon, running from whenever today until October 3rd. It's not a big prize/challenge filled read-a-thon, just a bunch of people getting together to whittle down that towering pile.

SO

My goal, between now and Monday is to read 8 books. I think that it totally possible IF I stay motivated and DO it. Maybe I'll even get more. That would be awesome, but for now, I'm just hoping to get through these books demanding my attention.

I'll probably update this post, but no promises. But, know that I'm excited for the read-a-thon and hope it will help me get my groove back on!:)

Are you read-a-thoning?! Let me know! I LOVE having read-a-thon buddies! We can chant and cheer each other on! Yay for reading lots of books!:)

"I condemn this mad, destructive act that accentuates the horror of the situation," UNESCO head Irina Bokova said in a statement.

The Islamic State group on Saturday circulated an undated video showing militants equipped with sledgehammers and power tools breaking artefacts before rigging the site with large barrels of powder.

The subsequent footage shows a massive explosion and its aftermath, suggesting the ruins of Nimrud-- which lie on the Tigris about 30 kilometres (18 miles) southeast of IS-held Mosul -- were largely levelled.

Nimrud, founded in the 13th century BC, is one of the most famous archaeological sites in a country often described as the cradle of civilisation.

"With their hammers and explosives they are also obliterating the site itself, clearly determined to wipe out all traces of the history of Iraq’s people," Bokova said.

Iraqi government reports of Nimrud's destruction emerged in early March, when the UNESCO chief branded the IS's violence against the ancient the site as a "war crime".

Bokova repeated the charge on Monday, after the full extent of the crime became known.

"We will do everything possible to fight against this and document it, to ensure that those responsible are identified and brought to justice," she said.

Nimrud was on UNESCO's tentative list of world heritage sites.

Most of the city's priceless artefacts were moved long ago to museums but giant "lamassu" statues -- winged bulls with human heads -- and reliefs were still on site.

The IS tries to justify the destruction of antiquities by saying they are idolatrous, but experts say the group traffics in them to fund its self-proclaimed "caliphate" and destroys only those pieces that are too bulky to be smuggled.

The UN Security Council in February adopted a resolution aimed at choking off financing for IS from antiquities trafficking as well as oil smuggling and ransom payments.

A ban on looted antiquities in Iraq was already in force, and was expanded to Syria under the resolution.

Source: AFP [April 13, 2015]

The report analyzes six of the 12 sites that Syria has nominated as World Heritage Sites: Dura Europos, Ebla, Hama's Waterwheels, Mari, Raqqa, and Ugarit. A forthcoming report will analyze the additional six sites.

"As we continue to study the conditions at Syria's important cultural sites, we have observed significant destruction that is largely the result of conflict. However, unlike our previous analysis of Syria's World Heritage Sites, we're seeing a lot of damage that appears to be the result of widespread looting," said Susan Wolfinbarger, director of the AAAS Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights Project, which authored the report. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania Museum's Penn Cultural Heritage Center and the Smithsonian Institution also contributed to the research.

"This report helps us understand how the extensive the actual damage is to Syria's cultural heritage. It will inform future emergency preservation efforts," said Brian Daniels, director of research and programs at the University of Pennsylvania Museum's Penn Cultural Heritage Center.

In the report, images from 2014 show numerous pits throughout three sites where ancient cities once stood. The pits generally do not appear in similar images from 2011, when the conflict in Syria began. "We interpret these pits as evidence of looting due to the distinct craters visible within the satellite images," said Jonathan Drake, a senior program associate at AAAS.

"This type of documentation really allows us to make a firm statement based on scientific observation of things that have happened at a site," said Wolfinbarger.

"Sometimes when things are reported in the news media or social media, details can be obscured or purposefully misconstrued. But this analysis is replicable. We can say definitively, 'we see this.' And when it is tied it in with other types of information, satellite imagery can give us a more complete picture in parts of the world that are difficult to access."

"These images show the destruction of ancient artifacts, architecture, and most importantly, archaeological context that is the record of humanity's past," said Katharyn Hanson, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Museum's Penn Cultural Heritage Center and a visiting scholar at AAAS. "From the origins of civilization to the first international empires, Syria's cultural heritage and these sites in particular are vitally important to our understanding of history."

The most extensive looting identified in the report was at Dura-Europos, which was founded in the 3rd century B.C. and served as a frontier city as well as the main hub for caravan routes. The site represents a blend of cultural traditions, including Greek, Mesopotamian, Aramaic, Persian, and Roman influences. There have been numerous reports of damage through social media and news reports, and the AAAS report now documents the extent of this activity.

Based on the imagery analysis, 76% of the area within the city wall had been damaged by April 2014, and the looting pits were so close together it was impossible to distinguish individual pits, the researchers report. Looting pits outside the city wall were less dense but still numerous; approximately 3,750 individual pits were observed. Images from 2 April 2014 show four vehicles among the ancient Roman ruins in close proximity to the looting, suggesting that the disturbances at the site may have been ongoing at that time, according to the report.

The second site described in the report is Ebla, the site of an important kingdom in the Early Bronze Age. The site is best known for its archive of several thousand written tablets that "revolutionized knowledge regarding the ancient history and political economy of the region," the report says. Ebla is constructed out of mud brick, so without preservation it is vulnerable to erosion.

The images in the analysis show looting pits, including 45 new holes observed between 18 August 2013 and 4 August 2014, as well as eroded walls, earthen berm fortifications, and heavy vehicle tracks. Military compounds have been constructed on the site, likely due to the fact that the site is elevated over the surrounding plain and provides a good view of the area.

Looting is also widespread at the ancient Mesopotamian city of Mari, which was founded in the early 3rd millennium B.C. and prospered as a node on the trade routes. Like Dura-Europos, Mari is located in the Deir ez-Zor province that has seen violent clashes during the conflict. The Albu Kamal region, where Mari is located, came under the control of ISIS in June 2014.

The looting appears to have ramped up during the last year. The researchers identified 165 visible pits dug between August 2011 and March 2014 (an average of 0.17 pits formed per day). Between 25 March and 11 November 2014, however, they identified 1,286 new pits, an average rate of 5.5 pits dug every day over the seven-month period.

The fourth site is Raqqa, and important city center that exemplifies the transition of a Greek/Byzantine urban center into an Islamic city by 796 A.D. Since 2013 Raqqa has been at the center of the conflict in Syria. After fighting by opposition groups, ISIS took control of the city in October 2013, and in September 2014, the United States and partner nations began an airstrike campaign against ISIS in Raqqa.

The observed damage in vicinity of the Tentative World Heritage site in Raqqa appears to be different from that of the other sites in the analysis, according to the report, with little evidence of direct military conflict. "Rather, when damage is present, it appears to be nearly total and targeted, with specific buildings disappearing while the surrounding buildings remain untouched," the report states.

This phenomenon appears too precise to have been caused by the Syrian Arab Republic Government's military forces, and while it is well known that the United States and other partner air forces have the ability to deliver munitions with high precision, the destroyed sites are all cultural sites located within the UNESCO Tentative World Heritage site boundary, according to the report. "The more plausible explanation is that the demolitions in the vicinity of the Tentative World Heritage site's boundaries are the result of actions by ISIS," the report states.

The two other areas that the researchers analyzed -- the historic waterwheels of Hama, which raised water up to aqueducts for drinking and irrigation, and the ancient site of Ugarit, a mostly stone city that connected the ancient empires of Mesopotamia with those of the Mediterranean -- do not appear to have been damaged.

Copies of the report can be downloaded at http://www.aaas.org/geotech/culturalheritage-SyrianTWHS-122014.html.

Source: American Association for the Advancement of Science [December 17, 2014]

DEWEY began blogging at The Hidden Side of a Leaf in April 2007. While her main topic was books - book reviews, book discussions, reading challenges, book giveaways - her focus was always on building community, as she said herself:

My main focus in blogging is community. I want to share my love for books with other bloggers, hear what they think of what they’re reading, and have lots of bookish fun. My non-review blog activities...are all meant to build community.

In just over a year and a half as a book blogger, Dewey quickly became a leader in the community she sought to foster. Her book reviews were well-thought-out, insightful, and thorough; her style of reviewing and the books she wrote about influenced the reading and blogging choices of many other book bloggers - and while she was a prolific reviewer, her reading outpaced her reviewing, and she often remarked about being behind on her reviews. In addition to her own reading and reviewing, Dewey organized and managed several reading challenges, and founded three events which spread across the book-blogging community: the semi-annual 24-Hour Read-a-Thon, the monthly Bookworms Carnivals, and Weekly Geeks.

In April 2008, Dewey proposed a new sort of "challenge" at her blog; not a reading challenge, but a blogging challenge, to be called "Weekly Geeks" - her initial post to gauge interest in the idea prompted 150 people to sign up! The challenge would involve a weekly assignment - a question, a task, a theme - to be completed and posted on the Geeks' individual blogs and linked at the main assignment post. Not every Geek participated every week, some assignments were more popular than others, and new Geeks joined in as the word spread. Visiting other Geeks' posts for that week was part of the assignment as well, which is where Dewey's community-building focus kicked in.

The book-blogging community was stunned and saddened by the news that Dewey passed away on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - but it never doubted that Dewey's contributions to it would live on, and there was a drive to continue the events she founded. It will take committees of bloggers and several blogs to keep them going, though. Welcome to the new home of Weekly Geeks, part of Dewey's legacy to the community she was so important to.

Written by Florinda

The following table contains links to the many posts that have been written in memory of Dewey:

Blog Name
Tribute Post
Weekly Geek Post
1 More Chapter Dewey You'll Be Missed -- 1330V Dewey Thinking Of Dewey 3 Rs Reading, ‘Riting Randomness Book Bloggers Say Goodbye Blogging For Dewey A Garden Carried In The Pocket Requiem -- A Girl Walks Into A Bookstore Dewey -- A Guy’s Moleskine Notebook Goodbye Dewey -- A Reader’s Respite Rest In Peace Dewey -- A Striped Armchair Rest In Peace Dewey -- APOOO Books RIP Dewey -- Armenian Odar Dewey, Thank You For Everything -- At Home With Books In Honor Of Dewey -- B&B ex libris Dewey -- Back To Books A Sad Loss To The World -- Bart’s Bookshelf :( -- Beastmomma Losing A Blogging Pal -- Becky’s Book Reviews Sad News Indeed In Her Own Words Belle Of The Books Dewey Will Be Missed -- Bibliolatry A Great Loss -- BlogHer Remembering Dewey -- Bloody Hell It’s A Book Barrage Farewell, Beautiful Dewey -- Bluestocking Guide Loss In Our Community -- Bluestocking Society Goodbye To Dewey -- Bold. Blue. Adventure We’ll Miss You Dewey -- Book-A-Rama Unbelievably Sad News For Dewey Book Addiction -- Remembering Dewey Book And Cranny Shock and Sadness -- The Book Mine Set Rest In Peace Dewey -- Book Dads The Butterfly Award -- Book Nut -- Geeky Tribute Book Zombie Remembering Dewey This One's For You Bookfoolery And Babble This One's For Dewey -- Bookgirls Nightstand For Dewey -- Bookish Ruth Farewell Dewey -- Booklorn Sad Day -- Bookopolis Bookworms Carnival -- Bookroom Reviews God Bless You Dew -- Books And Border Collies In Memoriam -- Books And Movies A Huge Loss -- Books And Other Thoughts Remembering Dewey -- Books I Done Read Sad News -- Books Of Mee Bye Dewey -- Books On The Brain A Sad Goodbye -- Bookstack Loss Of A Builder -- Bookworm In Memory Tribute Post brideofthebookgod -- Dewey Care’s Online Book Club -- Weekly Geeks Caribousmom Remembering Dewey -- A Loss In Memory Of Dewey Casual Dread -- Dewey ChainReading -- Remembering Dewey Deus ex machina complex Oh Fuck In The Land Of Denial Everyday Reads Prayerful Weekly Geeks Fizzy Thoughts In Memory Of Dewey For Dewey Fyrefly Books In Memoriam -- Galley Cat Book Blogger Dewey -- Giving Reading A Chance Dewey, You Will Be Missed -- Hey Lady! Whatcha Reading? We Love You Dewey -- In Search Of Giants In Memory Of Dewey -- In Spring It Is The Dawn Farewell Dewey -- Incurable Logophilia Bookshelf Peeping -- It’s All About Books Dewey We’ll Miss You Dewey Tribute Just Add Books Huge Loss Making It Count The Kea <3 -- For Dewey -- Kids Book Buzz Farewell To Dewey -- Kittling Books Dewey's Community -- Kristina’s Favorites For Dewey -- Leafing Through Life Missing You -- Life Happens While Books Wait Dewey -- Literary Escapism Sadness In The Book Blogosphere -- Literate Housewife In Remembrance -- Lit*chick Two Things -- Madeleine’s Book Blog In Memory Of Dewey -- Maggie Reads My Eyes Are Dewey -- Maw Books Blog In Which We Say Goodbye -- Melody’s Reading Corner Dewey ... You’ll Be Missed Honouring Dewey Musings Remembering Dewey -- Musings Of A Bookish Kitty In Memory Of Dewey -- My Friend Amy Farewell Dewey For Dewey My Own Little Reading Room My Prayers For Dewey Remembering Dewey My Years Of Reading Seriously Life... -- Naked Without Books Dewey -- Fortress Is Their Library -- Nothing Of Importance This Is Real Life Tribute To Dewey Out Of The Blue Dewey Remembering Dewey Page After Page Life Is So Fleeting Dewey Edition Pages Turned Remembering Dewey -- Passion For The Page -- RIP Dewey The Printed Page Thoughts And Prayers -- Random Wonder In Remembrance -- Reading Adventures Sad News Indeed -- Reading Derby Dewey You Are Missed -- Reading In Appalachia For Dewey -- Reading Is My SuperPower Oh Dewey -- Reading, Writing and Retirement Candle For Dewey For Dewey Ready When You Are C.B. In Memory Of Dewey -- Rebecca Reads A Farewell -- Savvy Verse & Wit My Dearest Dewey Dewey Tribute She Reads Books In Memoria -- Shelf Life Sad News -- Should Be Reading In Memory Of Dewey -- Sleepy Reader For Dewey -- So Many Books, So Little Time Hole In Our World -- So Many Precious Books Today Is A Sad Day In Memory Of Dewey Some Reads So Sad -- Sophisticated Dorkiness Sad News Remembering Dewey Sprite Writes Dewey -- Stephanies Confessions A Terrible Loss... -- Stephanie’s Written Word The Hidden Side Of A Leaf -- Stuff As Dreams Are Made On Oh No... Weekly Geeks Subliminal Intervention -- Dewey Tales From The Reading Room Saying Goodbye -- Tammy’s Book Nook For Dewey, With Love -- Things Mean A Lot Dewey For Dewey Thoughts Of Joy Extremely Sad News -- Tiny Little Reading Room Rest In Peace Dewey -- Tripping Toward Lucidity Loss -- Trish’s Reading Nook In Memory Of Dewey -- True Confessions Of A Book Lover Dewey -- Valentina’s Room -- For Dewey West Of Mars Public Service Announcement -- Word Lily For Dewey Remembering Dewey Worducopia Goodbye -- In Memory Of Dewey Dear Dewey The Written World In Memory Of Dewey -- You Can Never Have Too Many Books Dewey --

Lisa Roe, an online publicist wrote a three part guest post in memory of Dewey. The posts can be found on these blogs:
1. Part 1 Dewey, Our Blog Friend Remembered @ AndiLit.com
2. Part 2 Lisa Roe’s Memorial Post For Dewey @ BookingMama
3. Part 2 Lisa Roe Remembers Dewey @ Reading Is My SuperPower

Sorry to interrupt the regular flow of posts on the Weekly Geeks site, but I know many of you have been wondering about the next read-a-thon.

The next installment of Dewey’s 24-Hour Read-a-thon has been scheduled for April 2009, as promised. (Yes, that’s next month.) The date? April 18-19. Mark your calendars!

The read-a-thon will be hosted by Nymeth, Trish and Word Lily.

Check the FAQ page for more information, and watch the blog for updates! Stay informed by subscribing to the blog in your feed reader of choice.

Nothing in the world is permanent, and we're foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we're still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it. If change is of the essence of existence one would have thought it only sensible to make it the premise of our philosophy.
-W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965) -
Weekly Geeks started in April 2008. Its brainchild was an effervescent and energetic blogger named Dewey who envisioned a weekly event which would unite the book blogging community. She posted a weekly assignment - a question, a task, a theme - to be completed and posted on the Geeks' individual blogs and linked at the main assignment post. It turned out to be wildly successful.

And then a heartbreaking notification appeared on Dewey's blog on Tuesday, November 25, 2008. The person who seemed to be everywhere in the blogging community, the quintessential community cheerleader who everyone seemed to know and love, had died - leaving a huge hole in our ranks. In the spirit of keeping Dewey's community efforts alive, several bloggers got together and decided to give Weekly Geeks its own space and carry on what Dewey had started.

Over the last nearly three years, the team keeping this blog running has ebbed and flowed. Mostly we've tried to be consistent in posting each Saturday and doing a wrap up each Friday. But, over the last several months not only has our focus as a team struggled, but participation in the weekly assignments has slowed to a trickle. There are those bloggers who come back week in and week out, and sometimes we see some new faces in the links, but overall attendance has sharply declined.

So after some discussion, the Weekly Geeks team has decided that it is time to end this event. We believe that Dewey would approve - she was never someone who hung onto things that were not working. She was willing to look critically at her own inventions and change them up or simply let them go if the community did not seem as excited about them as she was...and so we are taking our direction from the spirit of the person who started this event.

A great deal of thanks are due those individuals who have in some way stepped up over the last three years to help out here, or give us ideas, or participate by posting to their blog one of the assignments. Without the book blogging community behind us, this event would have closed down a long, long time ago.

This is probably also a good time to announce that Weekly Geeks was nominated for the BBAW Best Meme award for this year. The Weekly Geeks team is incredibly honored to be recognized in this way - thank you to those who submitted a nomination!

This blog will remain up, at least for awhile, so that those who wish to may browse the links or read the assignments - perhaps find inspiration for their blog.

This will be the final Weekly Geeks "assignment"...share one of the following on your blog:

• If you knew Dewey - a favorite memory of her, or one of your favorite "events" which was Dewey-inspired.
• Browse the topics here and re-post one of your favorites

The Manchester team - one of only two operating in non-Kurdish Iraq – has just returned from three months of fieldwork there.

During the team’s time in Iraq, Islamic State militants destroyed ruins at the ancient Assyrian capital of Nineveh and are reported to have bulldozed an Assyrian palace at Nimrud and the classical city of Hatra too, as well as wrecking museum artefacts in Mosul.

But despite this, the archaeologists, who returned to southern Iraq in 2012,, continued to work at Tell Khaiber, which is close to the ancient city of Ur, where Sir Leonard Woolley discovered the fabulous 'Royal Tombs' in the 1920s.

The team, directed by Professor Stuart Campbell, Dr Jane Moon and Dr Robert Killick from Manchester, described their Iraqi colleagues as resourceful, innovative and resilient, even when times were bad.

“Everyone is quite rightly expressing outrage at the destruction in and around Mosul. The sad fact is, there is very little one can do to prevent deliberate vandalism by well-armed fanatics.

“But if the militants think they can 'erase history' we are helping to make sure that can't happen: it is the information that is important and not the objects. Our project is actually doing something positive for the Iraqis, and that is appreciated,” Dr Moon said.

In the course of their fieldwork this year the archaeologists discovered, among other things,  50 new documents, written in Babylonian, and found evidence for a scribal school operating at the settlement, which dates to around 1500 BC.

These were in a public building the size of a football pitch, and of an unprecedented format, believed to be an administrative complex serving a capital city of the Babylonian empire.

Professor Campbell said: “We found practice texts in the form of lists of exotic animals, and of precious stones, also evidence for the making and recycling of clay tablets. The whole complex dates to the 'Dark Age' following the fall of Babylon and the disintegration of Hammurabi's empire.

“For a time when this key area of Babylonia was thought to be de-urbanised and chaotic, we have evidence of sophisticated administrative mechanisms and large-scale distribution of grain and other commodities.”

Before returning to the UK, the archaeologists deposited 300 new artefacts in the Iraq Museum and set up a temporary exhibition in Baghdad as well as visiting universities that teach, or are planning to teach, archaeology.

“What we can do is make new discoveries to be proud of and help our Iraqi colleagues and the rest of the world to understand and appreciate what the antiquities actually tells us,” concluded Dr Moon.

Author: Kath Paddison | Source: University of Manchester [April 07, 2015]

'So difficult': Fergie was disappointed she couldn't join her daughters Eugenie and Beatirce at the ceremony
She was disappointed she wasn't able to accompany her daughters, Princess Beatrice, 22, and Eugenie, 21, who attended the wedding with their father Prince Andrew.
'I was not invited,' Ferguson, 51, who was caught up in a scandal last year after she was taped offering access to Prince Andrew for $724,000, said on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
In contact: The 51-year-old said she spoke to her ex-husband Prince Andrew throughout the day
'I went through the phase of feeling so totally worthless and that [it] was quite right they didn't invite me. Why would they - why would they invite me?'
'I chose to go and be in Thailand in a place called Camelia... the jungle embraced me,' she explained.
Ferguson revealed she was in contact with her former husband, whom she married at Westminster Abbey in 1986, throughout the day.
'When Andrew went with the girls, we were talking all morning and he was saying, "It's okay. Just remember we had such a good day. Our wedding was so perfect." Because we're such a unit together. He made me feel very part of the day on April the 29th.'
Royal affair: Fergie said Diana would be 'so proud of her son'
Ferguson is to have a show on Winfrey's new cable station, OWN.
Her interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show will air in the U.S. tomorrow.
Sarah Ferguson Spills on Royal Snub

Duchess Of York Sarah Ferguson: From Royalty To The Real World

source:dailymail

VIA 'It was so difficult': Fergie reveals her hurt over Royal Wedding snub

During the two-month renovation period, “special lighting and ventilation systems, which do not damage the drawings and inscriptions, while at the same time providing a clear view for visitors, will be installed,” said Wahid.

The limestone-topped Pyramid of Khafre was closed for restoration in 2011 before former Antiquities Minister Mohammad Ibrahim announced in October 2012 the Pyramid and as many as six other ancient tombs at the Giza site would be reopened.

The renovation will include the removal of graffiti, which visitors have left on the walls of the pyramid’s passageways and burial chamber, removal of the salt deposits from its walls and the replacement of the outer stairs leading to its entrance, Wahid said.

“Built as a tomb for the 4th Dynasty Pharaoh Khafre, it rises to a height of 150 meters. It looks to be the tallest of the Giza pyramids – but only because it is built at a higher elevation than the Great Pyramid (or Pyramid of Khufu), which is only four meters taller, archaeologist Sherif el-Sabban told The Cairo Post Tuesday.

The pyramid was most likely first opened – and robbed – a few years after it was completed. The first recorded opening of the pyramid was in 1372, and it was fully excavated in 1818 by Giovanni Belzoni, whose graffiti is still seen in the burial chamber, according to Sabban.

Author: Rany Mostafa | Source: The Cairo Post [April 07, 2015]

Spring break is almost over and I'm quite sad about the whole thing. I've had a taste of summer and now it's all I can think about. I'm feeling a little sick today, or maybe I'm just embracing my last lazy day. I'm planning on spending time in bed, watching TV, and reading. I haven't finished five books quite yet, but I think I can make it happen by the end of the day. Essex County

is the real stand-out book I finished and I can't wait to review it. I think it might be my favorite graphic novel.

I'm still hard at work on my Day Zero Project. I've come close to completing two more projects on my list and have several of the long term projects going too. The project has really forced me to change my attitude about life. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by all the things I need to and want to do (and not doing them) I now just see these as things I will finish eventually. Something that will be checked off a list. It's a little freeing, and empowering to realize you can complete your goals with planning and passion.

In other news, my book buying ban has twelve days left. I went to Barnes and Noble this week and even thought I felt like buying a lot of things I resisted. And you know what? I'm still alive. Two things are getting me through this ban. The first is the $40 I taped to my calendar. If I get to April 1st then that money is mine to buy books with. The second is the Goodreads application on my iPod. Now if I see a book I want in the store I just scan it and add it to my wishlist. Once the ban is over I can go through my wishlist and see what what books I'm still pining for and what I can probably forget about.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

I know this is the third Memory Monday you've had to hear from me in a row. Last week was Fairy Tale Fortnight so I shared two fairy tale memories with you. This week, I wanted to share something a little more somber. Fairy Tale Fortnight had me so busy, that I haven't seen much on anyone's blog but mine and Misty's for the whole month of April, so I didn't see this earlier, but I stumbled across an event on JG's blog — The Introverted Reader that I wanted to take part in, and Memory Monday seemed like the perfect place to put it.

JG is hosting this Holocaust Remembrance Week. I wanted to share my first experience with the Holocaust in literature.

The first book I remember reading about the Holocaust is Jane Yolen's The Devil's Arithmetic. It is the story of a young Jewish girl, Hannah, who doesn't really understand the Holocaust, or her Jewish heritage in general. At Passover this year, when she leaves the table to open the door for the symbolic entry of the prophet Elijah, she finds herself looking out across wide fields, instead of the narrow hallway of her aunt's apartment building. She finds herself back in time, right before the Nazi's come to take her entire village to the concentration camps. Hannah, whose Jewish name is Chaya, is terrified. She learned about this in school, and she knows what's coming. But no one will listen to her. They brush it off as the residual effects of the fever that almost took her life. And so, Hannah lives in the camps, and she learns.

I read this book in 6th grade, and I've never forgotten it. It changed the way I viewed both books and the Holocaust. Hannah's story touched me. It made me want to learn more about this tragic time in history so that I would never forget what an important part of the history of our world it is. Hannah's story hurt my heart. Her descriptions of life in the camp are not overly graphic — I read this book in 6th grade and it was most definitely age appropriate but they are also far from sugar coated. She describes what life was like for these Jews and other "undesirables" in stark terms, making it very clear that to live was to feel pain, to breathe was to suffer. From the beginning, when the soldiers strip them naked after their showers and shave their heads to the very end when soldiers go about selecting Jews to die, simply because they are a little too full, my heart broke for these characters.

At 11 years old, I didn't have any previous frame of reference for this type of suffering and abuse and I cried. I cried while reading this book when people were in pain, but also when people showed their innate goodness, sharing bread when they are already starving, and burdens when they are already weak beyond endurance. I've read this book many times since that first read through in 6th grade, and it never fails to touch my heart. I've read many other books about the Holocaust since then, and all of them have their own power and ability to move me. But this is the one that I remember first, because it was my first.

This is a powerful story. One that I dare you to read and not be moved by.

The items were seized by Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers and Federal Arts Department representatives from an auction house and private home in Sydney under laws designed to protect cultural objects.

Local authorities were tipped off by Interpol about the historic items including a Coptic textile fragment and large saucer lamp.

Macquarie University's Ancient Cultures Research Centre director Naguib Kanawati was one of several examiners who was asked to assess the cultural significance of the artefacts.

"While the provenance is unknown, the objects are all funerary in nature and would have been found in a cemetery or multiple cemeteries," he said.

They include a wooden hand belonging to an anthropoid coffin, small statuettes of a man and woman to serve the deceased in the afterlife, as well as a number of amulets.

A preliminary examination by Australian Egyptologists suggested the items date from the New Kingdom to Coptic periods and that some pieces may be over 3,000-years-old.

"As sites were used for burials by successive generations at different stratigraphic levels it is not unusual to find objects belonging to different periods at the same site," Professor Kanawati said.

Federal Arts Minister George Brandis handed the artefacts back at a formal ceremony at the Egyptian Embassy in Yarralumla.

"This is a splendid and significant occasion because it is not often that one government has the opportunity to return to another government, artefacts that are precious not only to Egypt but significant to the history of civilisation itself," he said.

Egypt's ambassador Dr Hassan El-Laithy welcomed the return of the significant items.

"One of the pieces that the Honourable Minister handed back over was a piece that witnessed the Coptic history and Christianity in Egypt... something we are very proud of," he said.

"Egypt was not only privileged by having its old civilisation of the Pharaohs, but also having prophets Moses and Jesus living in Egypt."

Last year Prime Minister Tony Abbott returned a 900-year-old bronze statue of the god Shiva to India that was found to have been looted from a temple in Tamil Nadu.

The statue had been purchased by the National Gallery of Australia in 2008 from a New York art dealer who became embroiled in a stolen art trafficking scandal.

Author: Liz Foschia | Source: ABC News Website [April 08, 2015]

Oh my goodness everyone! Can you believe it?! It's been almost a full year since last years insanely awesome Fairy Tale Fortnight! So now, it's time for Part 2!

I'm fully aware that I pretty much win worst blogger of the year award so far. My new job takes way more time and energy than I was anticipating, and I barely have the time to check my email let alone all the other awesome stuff there is to do online. (How sad it is that I don't even have time for all my old stand by time wasters?! Life is truly sad when you don't even have time available to really, truly waste online, ya know?!)

Anyway — Misty has pretty much been completely and totally made of win lately, being all proactive and boss and stuff. Seriously guys, I'm pretty sure she even bleeds awesomeness.

But anyway — I just wanted to post something to let you all know that it's coming (last 2 weeks of April!!) and that you should get excited for it! Things will be a little different than last year, but still awesome and still fun!:)

SO. What should you do?! Grab a button (fabulous, aren't they?! Like I said, Misty rocks my face) and get reading some fairy tales! We are going to have a place to link up your fairy tale posts, so get reading those fairy tales and retellings, watching those fairy tale movies and shows, and thinking up all kinds of fairy tale goodness!

And then get ready to let the fairy tale games begin!:)

I've selected Books for Soldiers as my charity for the 24 hour Read-a-Thon. Books for Soldiers is a non-profit corporation that ships books, dvds, video games and relief supplies to deployed military members of the US armed forces.

For every book I read, I will donate $5 to Books for Soldiers. Typically, I can read a 300 page book in two hours, so I'm estimating that I will read approximately 12 books (more or less!) Books For Soldiers operates totally on donations, so please consider sponsoring me during the Read-a-thon with a donation. You can donate a flat amount or per book.

Books for Soldiers has provided me with a secure easy pay button to post on this blog. This button is posted below, and will be posted on the sidebar of this blog through the conclusion of the read-a-thon. Payments will be processed using Paypal. All donations are tax-deductible.

If you are interesting in donating, please email me at jenlaw77ATearthlink.net or by posting a comment below. I would like to keep track of the donations earned through this effort.

In addition, I will be sending a copy of each of the books I read to troops overseas. If you are interested in donating books please email me or comment below.

Thank you for considering a contribution to this cause. If you are unable to donate, please follow my progress on Saturday, April 18! I will be hosting an amazing giveaway that day, so stay tuned!