And the young pop stars couldn't have found a more public place to express their love than at a press conference, in front of the media.
No more sneaking around: The young pop stars couldn't have found a more public place to express their love than at a press conference
But they have not been seen openly kissing until now.
Selena recently revealed that they had made a decision to go public with their romance.
'I don’t like hiding,' she told Seventeen magazine.
'I do like to keep certain things to myself, but at the end of the day, I’m eighteen, and I’m going to fall in love.
'I’m going to hang out with people, and I’m going to explore myself, and I’m okay with that.'
Bieber is currently in the middle of the Asian leg of his world tour, while Selena is touring this summer with her group the Scene, and wrapping up the final season of her Disney show.

source: dailymail

VIA We've nothing to hide: Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez kiss at press conference

Police estimated the value of the 5,361 vases, kraters, bronze statues and frescoes at about 50 million euros ($58 million). The works, from the 8th century B.C. to the 3rd century, were laid out Wednesday at the National Roman Museum and may go on public display.

Carabineri Gen. Mariano Mossa says it was "by a long shot the biggest recovery in history in terms of the quantity and quality of archaeological treasures."

They were found during an investigation into Basel-based art dealer Gianfranco Becchina, accused by prosecutors of being part of a huge trafficking network.

Source: Associated Press [January 21, 2015]

Adel Shirshab, the country's tourism and antiquities minister, told The Associated Press there are concerns the militants will remove artifacts and damage the site, located 15 kilometers (9 miles) northeast of Mosul. Saeed Mamuzini, a Kurdish official from Mosul, told the AP that the militants had already begun demolishing the Khorsabad site on Sunday, citing multiple witnesses.

On Friday, the group razed 3,000-year old Nimrud and on Saturday, they bulldozed 2,000-year old Hatra — both UNESCO world heritage sites. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has called the destruction a "war crime," and a statement by his spokesman on Sunday night said Ban was "outraged by the continuing destruction of cultural heritage in Iraq" by theIslamic State group.

Khorsabad was constructed as a new capital of Assyria by King Sargon II shortly after he came to power in 721 B.C. and abandoned after his death in 705 B.C. It features a 24-meter thick wall with a stone foundation and seven gates.

Since it was a single-era capital, few objects linked to Sargon II himself were found. However, the site is renowned for shedding light on Assyrian art and architecture.

The sculptured stone slabs that once lined the palace walls are now displayed in museums in Baghdad, Paris, London and Chicago.

The Islamic State group currently controls about a third of Iraq and Syria. The Sunni extremist group has been campaigning to purge ancient relics they say promote idolatry that violates their fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law. A video released last week shows them 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.

At a press conference earlier Sunday, Shirshab said they have called for an extraordinary session of the U.N. Security Council to address the crisis in Iraq.

"The world should bear the responsibility and put an end to the atrocities of the militants, otherwise I think the terrorist groups will continue with their violent acts," he said.

Author: Sameer N. Yacoub | Source: Associated Press [March 09, 2015]

I am in the Iowa City Press-Citizen today. It's part of a series of spotlights on members of the Iowa City arts community. For those of you who are visiting because of the article-- welcome and thanks for stopping by! For those of you who are outside of Iowa City, you can check out the article on the Press Citizen's website. It's just a little Q&A. Also, that says "meet" in the right hand corner, not "mee." Just wanted to clarify that.

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.

Residents say the extremists smashed the locks that had protected the biggest repository of learning in the northern Iraq town, and loaded around 2,000 books — including children’s stories, poetry, philosophy and tomes on sports, health, culture and science — into six pickup trucks. They left only Islamic texts.

The rest?

“These books promote infidelity and call for disobeying Allah. So they will be burned,” a bearded militant in traditional Afghani two-piece clothing told residents, according to one man living nearby who spoke to The Associated Press. The man, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared retaliation, said the Islamic State group official made his impromptu address as others stuffed books into empty flour bags.

Since the Islamic State group seized a third of Iraq and neighbouring Syria, they have sought to purge society of everything that doesn’t conform to their violent interpretation of Islam. They already have destroyed many archaeological relics, deeming them pagan, and even Islamic sites considered idolatrous. Increasingly books are in the firing line.

Mosul, the biggest city in the Islamic State group’s self-declared caliphate, boasts a relatively educated, diverse population that seeks to preserve its heritage sites and libraries. In the chaos that followed the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein, residents near the Central Library hid some of its centuries-old manuscripts in their own homes to prevent their theft or destruction by looters.

But this time, the Islamic State group has made the penalty for such actions death. Presumed destroyed are the Central Library’s collection of Iraqi newspapers dating to the early 20th century, maps and books from the Ottoman Empire and book collections contributed by around 100 of Mosul’s establishment families.

Days after the Central Library’s ransacking, militants broke into University of Mosul’s library. They made a bonfire out of hundreds of books on science and culture, destroying them in front of students.

A University of Mosul history professor, who spoke on condition he not be named because of his fear of the Islamic State group, said the extremists started wrecking the collections of other public libraries last month. He reported particularly heavy damage to the archives of a Sunni Muslim library, the library of the 265-year-old Latin Church and Monastery of the Dominican Fathers and the Mosul Museum Library with works dating back to 5000 BC.

Citing reports by the locals who live near these libraries, the professor added that the militants used to come during the night and carry the materials in refrigerated trucks with Syria-registered license plates. The fate of these old materials is still unknown, though the professor suggested some could be sold on the black market. In September, Iraqi and Syrian officials told the AP that the militants profited from the sale of ancient artifacts.

The professor said Islamic State group militants appeared determined to “change the face of this city … by erasing its iconic buildings and history.”

Since routing government forces and seizing Mosul last summer, the Islamic State group has destroyed dozens of historic sites, including the centuries-old Islamic mosque shrines of the prophets Seth, Jirjis and Jonah.

An Iraqi lawmaker, Hakim al-Zamili, said the Islamic State group “considers culture, civilization and science as their fierce enemies.”

Al-Zamili, who leads the parliament’s Security and Defence Committee, compared the Islamic State group to raiding medieval Mongols, who in 1258 ransacked Baghdad. Libraries’ ancient collections of works on history, medicine and astronomy were dumped into the Tigris River, purportedly turning the waters black from running ink.

“The only difference is that the Mongols threw the books in the Tigris River, while now Daesh is burning them,” he said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group. “Different method, but same mentality.”

Authors: Sinan Salaheddin & Sameer N. Yacoub | Source: Associated Press [January 31, 2015]

The pair are in Sydney where tonight they will attend the premiere for their new film Water For Elephants.
A little upstaged? Witherspoon and Pattinson smile for the cameras next to the elephant before looking at it in bemusement
Pattinson, dressed casually in jeans and a brown shirt, and Witherspoon, who wrapped up in skinny jeans and a thick woollen polo neck jumper, were joined by the film's director Francis Lawrence but were then surprised as they were joined by a mystery guest - an Indian elephant.
Their new friend left them in giggles as she had a little accident on the pavement.
You do it: Witherspoon gives Pattinson some more biscuits to keep the elephant happy
Despite working with an elephant while making the film, Pattinson seemed reluctant to feed the guest star, as Witherspoon handed him some biscuits.
And despite shying away, the Twilight star claimed that working with animals was one of the main reasons he took the role in the film, which is based on the book by Sara Gruen.
Speaking at the press conference he said: 'Francis Lawrence said he wanted to have a meeting and he took me out to the elephant sanctuary where Tai [who plays Rosie the elephant] lives and I saw her doing a handstand and stayed there for about four hours playing catch with her.
You're at the wrong end: Witherspoon and onlookers laugh as Pattinson gets a surprise
'I would literally throw a ball and she would catch it in her trunk and throw it back to me, and I was like, "OK, even if this movie is the worst movie ever made, I get to work with this elephant for three or four months. I'm definitely doing it".'
Witherspoon also spoke about her 'incredible experience' preparing for her role in the film in which she plays circus performer Marlena.
She said: 'I got to train with Ty the elephant for three months. I went to circus school to learn how to do trapeze and acrobatics. It was a unique experience but it was also daunting and scary.'
Chic and simple: Reese looked casual but glamorous in skinny blue jeans, Louboutin heels and a black polo neck jumper
The pair flew straight to Sydney from London where they had attended the premiere in Westfield Shopping Centre in west London.
They also found time to make an appearance on the Graham Norton Show where they both admitted they had fallen in love with Ty.
Witherspoon said: 'She is amazing, thoughtful and communicative', while Pattinson added: 'I genuinely thought we had a real bond, a little something going on.'
A giggle with Graham: Witherspoon and Pattinson burst out laughing as they were interviewed by Norton for his weekly chat show
source: dailymail

VIA Who invited the elephant? Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon upstaged by wrinkly star at Sydney premiere

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]

In an interview with The Associated Press, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova described her angry reaction to Thursday's attack that came just a week after video showed Islamic State militants with sledgehammers destroying ancient artifacts at a museum in Mosul.

"We call this cultural cleansing because unfortunately, we see an acceleration of this destruction of heritage as deliberate warfare," Bokova said. She said the attack fit into a larger "appalling vision" of persecution of minorities in the region and declared that attacks on culture are now a security concern.

"It's not a luxury anymore," Bokova said.

Later Friday, the spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general said Ban Ki-moon condemned the attacks and said the deliberate destruction "constitutes a war crime and represents an attack on humanity as a whole."

The Iraqi government says Islamic State militants "bulldozed" the renowned archaeological site of the ancient city in northern Iraq with heavy military vehicles on Thursday.

Bokova said U.N. officials have to rely on satellite images of the destroyed city to assess the level of damage, because the dangerous security situation makes it impossible to get people close to the site.

But she said officials have seen images of some of the large statues from the site "put on big trucks and we don't know where they are, possibly for illicit trafficking."

Officials have seen photos of destroyed symbols of the ancient kingdom of Assyria, with the head of a human man and the body of a lion or eagle. She called them and other items at the site priceless.

"The symbolism of this, they are in some of the sacred texts even, in the Bible they are mentioned," she said. "All of this is an appalling and tragic act of human destruction."

She said that before the attack, UNESCO had been preparing to include Nimrud on its list of World Heritage Sites. The city was the second capital of Assyria, a kingdom that began around 900 B.C. and became a great regional power. The discovery of treasures in the city's royal tombs in the 1980s is considered one of the 20th century's most significant archaeological finds.

The site lies just south of Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, which was captured by the Islamic State group in June.

Bokova denounced the "cultural chaos" and said she had alerted both Ban and the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

She was meeting with Ban later Friday and said she was sure of his support.

Iraq's U.N. ambassador, Mohamed Alhakim, said Iraq had not yet formally asked for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council. He did not say what exactly Iraq wanted from the council but warned of the looted treasures.

"Somebody is going to buy these," he said.

Bokova said she also plans to meet with Interpol, major museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, major auction houses and Iraq's neighbors in an attempt to stop the illicit trafficking of items from the Nimrud site.

Bokova appealed in a statement Friday to people around the world, especially young people, to protect "the heritage of the whole of humanity."

"I don't see any justification, any religious belief, any other kind of ambition, political or others, that justify this kind of destruction," she said.

Author: Cara Anna | Source: The Associated Press [March 06, 2015]

VIA Moon Microbe Mystery Finally Solved: NASA's dirty little secret?

An informed source at the Center of International Legal Affairs in Iran’s Presidential Office said on Tuesday that an appellate court in Belgium’s eastern city of Liège, situated nearly 90 kilometers (55 miles) southeast of the capital, Brussels, has passed the final verdict in favor of the restitution of the Iranian heritage, IRNA reported.

The source, whose name was not revealed, praised efforts made by Iranian legal experts and officials at Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handcraft and Tourism Organization (ICHTO) for following up on the case.

The contents of the nine boxes were looted over the past years from a 3000-year-old ancient site near the village of Khorvin, situated 80 kilometers (49 miles) northeast of the Iranian capital, Tehran.

Following Iran's demand, the Brussels court ordered the seizure of the pieces and their preservation at the Museum of Brussels University, pending a final verdict.

Since the boxes contained metal items that might have oxidized over time, Iranian officials asked Belgian officials to open the boxes in the presence of ICHTO representatives. The boxes were resealed after experts examined the contents.

The ancient pin was stolen in December 2002 from the European tour of “7000 Years of Persian Art” during its run at St. Peter's Abbey in Ghent.

Iranian officials have filed several other lawsuits in courts in Britain, France, Turkey, and Pakistan for the return of smuggled artifacts over the past years.

Source: Press TV [December 24, 2014]

“The artifacts were discovered hidden in cheap vases during an inspection of a shipping container from Alexandria, Egypt, at the Port of Valencia on Spain’s Mediterranean coast,” said Director-General of Guardia Civil Arsenio Fernandez de Mesa.

The ancient Egyptian artifacts, with a total value of between 200,000 and 300,000 euros (U.S. $225,000-339,000), were recovered as part of a comprehensive crackdown launched by agents from European law enforcement authorities in 14 countries to prevent looting, theft and illicit trafficking of cultural artifacts.

The Spanish police showed the press 36 of the recovered Egyptian artifacts including “a majestic bust of Sekhmet, the ancient Egyptian warrior goddess, worth an estimated 100,000 euros ($125,000),” Spanish Police Captain Javier Morales was quoted as saying by news24.

Also among the most valuable recovered artifacts is a statue of Isis, ancient Egyptian goddess of magic, and a vase covered in hieroglyphics, said Morales.

“During the comprehensive operation, dubbed ‘Aureus,’ the agents carried out checks on 6,244 individuals, 8,222 vehicles, 27 vessels, as well as 2,352 inspections at antique and art dealers, auction houses and secondhand outlets. Checks were also stepped up at airports, land borders and ports in Europe,” according to Europol.

Most of Egypt’s major archaeological sites have been targeted for looting since the 2011 uprising toppled former president Hosni Mubarak. Thousands of ancient Egyptian artifacts, most of which were obtained from illicit digging activities, are now flooding the global markets, auction houses and electronic commerce websites.

In spite of the Egyptian government’s efforts to track smuggled artifacts inside Egypt and in auction houses abroad, the issue is still unsettled.

“During the past four years, Egypt has recovered over 1,600 artifacts and is currently working on other cases in many European countries,” Ministry of Antiquities’ Museums Sector head Ahmed Sharaf previously told The Cairo Post.

It is estimated that around $3 billion in Egyptian antiquities have been looted since the outbreak of the January 25 Revolution in 2011, according to the International Coalition to Protect Egyptian Antiquities, a U.S.-based initiative partnered with Egypt’s Antiquities Ministry.

Author: Rany Mostafa | Source: The Cairo Post [January 29, 2015]

Yesterday was the long awaited Twin Cities Book Festival. I got to Minneapolis on Friday night and was excited to see a Borders right across the street from my hotel. I went there right away of course, but didn't end up buying anything. That, of course, doesn't mean I didn't buy anything on Saturday.

This is the nice stack I came away with. To be fair four of these books are literary magazines (which were only $2 each, it's amazing I didn't just buy the entire table) and one of the magazines is for a friend. I got two issues of Creative Nonfiction, a magazine I love for obvious reasons but rarely get. I talk about Number 31 yesterday in my Awesome Essays post because the subject is publishing and writing in 2025, which seemed to be a huge theme in the panel discussions I went to. Check out that post to share your ideas! I also got Number 23, which is about Mexican-American writers, something I've recently become interested in. I got a little poetry magazine called Bateau and the Alaska Quarterly Review for my friend Michael.

As far as actual books, I got the first comic book in the Fables series, A Blue So Dark by Holly Schindler (the publicist, Courtney, did a great job selling the book to me), and If You Lived Here You'd Already Be Home by John Jodzio from Replacement Press. I'm super excited to read all of these!

Yesterday was a very long and exciting day. Right away in the morning I met Reagan from Miss Remmers Review, Sheila from Book Journey, Kim from Sophisticated Dorkiness, and Alea from Pop Culture Junkie. We all had a great chat about books and life before heading over to Sheila's panel discussion about the future of publishing. Her panel was awesome-- and Kim and I said that she answered all the blogger questions just how we would have answered them. After the panel we browsed some of the tables where publishers and authors were promoting their books.

It was a huge crowd! I was excited to see so many people interested in books all in one room. We all went to get lunch with Liz from Consumed By Books and Joanne from Jo Jo Loves to Read. We talked about books (more) and life (more) and then headed back to the festival because Kim, Alea, and I wanted to go to a panel about comic books and comics that Bill Willingham was speaking at. I never realized there was such a great comics scene in Minneapolis and I'll definitely be checking into the other speakers' work as well.

Later at night Sheila, Reagan, Kim, and I went to Borders for awhile and I found a bunch of books I wanted but didn't buy any, which I think deserves a round of applause. Then my boyfriend met up with us and we went to a Chinese place for dinner.

Take One: Reagan, Sheila, me, and Kim.

Take 423: Reagan, Sheila, me, and Kim.

So that was my fun exciting time at the Twin Cities Book Festival. Hopefully I'll get to go again next year and we can do another Midwest Book Blogger meet-up again soon!

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Awesome essays has returned with a truly awesome essay called Solipsism. I first read this essay in The Best American Essays 2008 edited by Adam Gopnik and it was just a struck of luck that a week earlier I had listened to an episode of Bookworm with Michael Silverblatt that had Ander Monson (author of Solipsism) on it. I was intrigued by Ander Monson's thoughts on nonfiction and memoir, and I think Solipsism is a great entry to these thoughts. The essay poses questions that are bouncing in the nonfiction world these days. Like does nonfiction have to be memoir, and does it have to be about me? Here is a paragraph to get you started:

That is, the 768 instances of "Me." above—and don't forget the single space after each period. which means another keystroke for each instance*—would have meant more in 1895 than it does today. Physically speaking, the work required to generate the 768 instances above on a manual typewriter, where you'd have to press each key hard enough to get the system of levers moving the type bar through an inked ribbon to hit the paper, was far greater than the work it required (work is equal to force times distance, remember) to generate this page on a computer. One reason people get carpal tunnel now is because the physical act of typing (itself lessened by about 95% in electric typewriters as compared to manuals) doesn't require as much work now as it did then, so it's easier for the hands to become lazy and just rest, and not for us to arch our fingers enough etc. It would have taken me, in eighth grade, when I typed 54 words per minute in our class just recently rechristened keyboarding instead of the older typing, approximately 14.2 minutes to generate that page, possibly longer when you think about the fatigue that sets in typing the same letters over and over—no variety of motion at all, just simple repetition—and of course this was on an electric typewriter, not even one of the old manual machines. For me it took less than thirty seconds. I typed "Me. Me. Me." on my Titanium 15" Powerbook keyboard, which isn't all that comfortable, really, though I've gotten used to it because of the ease it otherwise affords, and then highlighted in Dreamweaver, copy-and-pasted a few times until I had a few lines, then copy-and-pasted that a few times, and came up with a good solid page of text, all text about me with a capital M in front. It's almost nothing. I didn't have to think about it much. It's easy to do. You try it.

The format in the online is a bit different from the way it is published in Best American Essays, and honestly I think I preferred the Best American Essays way of relaying footnotes but I think it's still worth it for you to read the essay online. Which you can! Because Ander Monson has it published on his website. This essay really stuck a chord with me because in the very first nonfiction writing class I took in college I think everyone thought that nonfiction has to be about me. But it doesn't. John McPhee is a wonderful example of this, he is one of the most well known nonfiction writers/essayists in the world and he never writes about himself. He picks a subject and intensely researches it to deliver a fascinating narrative. This isn't to say that memoirs or writing about me are bad things, it's just that nonfiction goes beyond that. The essay goes beyond that. I think this essay will really get you thinking about these things, and it's just fun to read. So go check out Solipsism!

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading. This week my teaser is from Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding.

"Message Cleave
Skirt is demonstrably neither sick nor abscent. Appalled by management's blatently sizist attitude to skirt. Obsessive interest in skirt suggests management sick rather than skirt.
Jones

Hmm. Think will cross last bit out as contains mild accusation of sexual harassment whereas v. much enjoying being sexually harassed by Daniel Cleaver.

Aargh. Perpetua just walked past and started reading over shoulder. Just managed to press Alt Screen in nick of time big mistake as merely put CV back up on screen.

'Do let me know when you've finished reading, won't you?' said Perpetua, with a nasty smirk. 'I'd had to feel you were being unused.'" (22)

Burnham Pavilions by Ben van Berkel & Zaha Hadid

VIA «Burnham Pavilions in Millennium Park»

Ballesteros had suffered a 'severe deterioration' as he battled a brain tumour, his family said.
Ballesteros and his wife Carmen in 2004 at Spanish Crown Prince Felipe of Bourbon's wedding
The five-time major winning Spaniard was recovering from surgeries performed in 2008 to remove a malignant tumor from his brain.
Other sports stars who have been paying tribute include Spanish tennis star Rafa Nadal, who said: 'Seve is one of this country's great sportsmen. I've been lucky enough to meet him and play golf with him.’
In a statement on Ballesteros' website today, the family said the 54-year-old golfer passed away at 2:10 am local time at his home at Pedrena, in northern Spain, where he has mostly been since undergoing four operations in late 2008.

Family man: Ballesteros with his former wife Carmen and their son Baldomero after winning the Volvo PGA championship at Wentworth in 1991
In a statement, the Ballesteros family says it 'is very grateful for all the support and gestures of love that have been received since Seve was diagnosed with a brain tumour on 5th October 2008'.
Ballesteros had earlier been blessed by a priest in a ceremony reserved for Catholics who are dangerously ill or close to death.
The golfing legend received the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, according to Spanish national newspaper El Mundo.
Battle: After a second course of chemotherapy in February 2009, Ballesteros said it was a 'miracle to be alive' at a press conference in Madrid Volvo World Match Play Championship just eight months later
During the ceremony a priest uses olive oil to bless a patient on the forehead and hands while reciting prayers.
The paper said the sportsman had received Extreme Unction, an older term for the sacrament, but gave no further details.
The Anointing of the Sick is one part of the Last Rites ritual in the Catholic Church.
Comedy moment: Seve Ballesteros's sense of humour will be sorely missed
Vintage: Ballesteros saw off defending champion Tom Watson in memorable fashion, winning the second of his three Open championships, at St Andrews in 1984
Seve was the last of his kind
There will never be another golfer quite like Seve Ballesteros. Perhaps no other sportsman quite like him either.
Put together the charisma of Arnold Palmer and the shot-making skills of Tiger Woods and you come close. Yet at his peak, hard though it might be to believe, his appeal was greater than the sum of those two giants of the game.
In the 1980s Europe became blessed with a ‘Big Five’ of Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle, Bernhard Langer and Ian Woosnam.
True great: Seve Ballesteros holds the Ryder Cup trophy in the rain in 1997 after Europe beat the United States

Legend: Seve Ballesteros reacting as he wins the British Open golf championship at Royal Lytham and St. Anne's in Lancashire
Severiano Ballesteros "The Matador"

Seve Ballesteros 13Th Fairway approach shot 1986 Masters

Amazing golf shot - Ballesteros on his knees

source:dailymail

VIA Tributes pour in for Seve Ballesteros after golfing legend dies from brain tumour at age of 54

The Montaigne Readalong is a year long project in which I try to read over 1,000 pages of Montaigne's essays. Every Monday I write about the essays I read for the week. You can share your thoughts or join the readalong if you'd like, just check the Montaigne Readalong schedule. You can read several of these essays for free on Google Books or subscribe to Montaigne's essays on Daily Lit.

Essays Read this Week:
1. That it is madness to judge the true and the false from our own capacities
2. On affectionate relationships
3. Nine-and-twenty sonnets of Estienne de La Boetie

Favorite Quotations:
"How many of the things which constantly come into our purview must be deemed monstrous or miraculous if we apply such terms to anything which outstrips our reason! If we consider that we have to grope through a fog even to understand the very things we hold in our hands, then we will certainly find that it is not knowledge but habit which takes away their strangeness." (That it is madness to judge the true and the false)

"And in truth what are these Essays if not monstrosities and grotesques botched together from a variety of limbs having no defined shape, with an order sequence and proportion which are purely fortuitous?" (On affectionate relationships)

General Thoughts:
I can't decide if the order of Montaigne's essays just happen to line up with my thoughts this year or if I'm just reading too much of my own thoughts into his writing, but over the past several weeks it's seemed like Montaigne and I have just been on the same page.

This week I read On affectionate relationships, which was fitting because I've been thinking a lot about friendship. When I went home over spring break I had a strong desire to get back together with old friends. I did get together with a couple of friends I've stayed in touch with since high school, but I didn't see either of the people who were really my best friends in high school. I did run into some people who were good friends of mine, and it was just like seeing a stranger. The loss of old friendships has been painful for me. In On affectionate relationships Montaigne describes a kind of friendship in which the friends will do anything for each and other and are really a part of each other.

"Moreover what we normally call friends and friendships are no more than acquaintances and familiar relationships bound by some change or some suitability, by means of which our souls support each other. In the friendship which I am talking about, souls are mingled and confounded in so universal a blending that they efface the seam which joins them together so that it cannot be found. If you press me to say why I loved him, I that it cannot be expressed except by replying: 'Because it was him: because it was me.'"

I just really loved that quote because I think it perfectly sums up my ideas on friendship. The majority of my friends now are really just familiar relations. We have parties, go out for coffee, and so on, but I don't feel like I know them that well or like they know me that well. It's crazy to think about now, but the only people who I feel really know me are my friends from high school who are still my friends today. I never thought I would stay in touch with so many people from high school, the whole point of college is to branch out and meet new people right? But I've found that friendships are largely disappointing, and the only people who really have my back are the people who watched me through my awkward teenage years.


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The handover marked the latest case of U.S. authorities helping Italy and other countries reclaim what they see as cultural patrimony.

"For decades, two significant pieces of Italian heritage have been on the run," FBI Assistant Director Diego Rodriguez said as he and Manhattan Deputy U.S. Attorney Richard Zabel gave the artworks to Warrant Officer Angelo Ragusa of the Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Culturale, an art-crimes police force.

The painting, called "The Holy Trinity Appearing to Saint Clement," is attributed to the renowned artist Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, also called Giambattista Tiepolo. It was taken from a house in Turin in 1982, prosecutors said.

The Etruscan bronze statuette of the Greek mythological hero Herakles - also known as Heracles or, to the Romans, Hercules - dates to the sixth or fifth century B.C. It vanished from the Oliveriano Archaeological Museum in Pesaro in 1964.

The works eventually ended up with an art dealer and an art-investment firm, which consigned them for sale in recent years. They relinquished the items after learning of the thefts and aren't accused of involvement.

Italy has campaigned in the last decade to get back cultural items including ancient Roman, Greek and Etruscan artifacts the government says were looted or stolen.

New York prosecutors have been involved in the effort before. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan announced in 2011 that a Renaissance painting and a Roman sculpture from about the first century were being returned to Italy after popping up at New York auction houses.

And the Manhattan district attorney's office prosecuted a prominent coin collector who pleaded guilty in 2012 to trying to sell what he believed were ancient coins found in Italy after 1909, when it became illegal to remove antiquities from the country. Some of the coins proved to be forgeries, but five authentic coins from his collection were returned to the Greek government this summer.

Other countries also have taken action in recent years to reclaim antiquities, sometimes with help from U.S. authorities. In one example, fossilized remains of more than 18 dinosaurs were turned over to Mongolia's government last year after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents discovered that mislabeled dinosaur bones were illegally being shipped into the U.S.

Author: Jennifer Peliz | Source: Associated Press [February 28, 2015]

A court in the capital Skopje convicted another six people Friday, including two more former museum officials, over the theft of 160 artefacts that was reported in November 2013.

At the time, police had said that the antiquities, which date from the 4th century AD and include gold and silver jewelry, were believed to have been sold abroad by an organized crime ring. The artefacts have not been located.

The theft from the 'Museum of Macedonia' in central Skopje occurred between November 2011 and October 2013.

All seven defendants denied wrongdoing, and appealed their convictions.

Source: The Associated Press [March 20, 2015]

The always phenomenal folks at Walden Pond Press pretty much rock my face. And today, they have offered up this giveaway of insanely awesome win!

Because they love fairy tales as much as we do, they are offering up a fairy tale trio to one lucky winner.

That one winner will receive a hardcover copy with a signed bookplate of:

(Click to read an excerpt and get
a sneak peek at the fabulous illustrations.
and click again to read Christopher's guest
post on humor in fairy tales!)

(in my blog to be taken to Goodreads. I haven't read this one, but I'm dying to.)

AND

(Click for my review. And then click again for an excerpt of this one too!)

TO ENTER: Leave me a comment with what you think is the funniest moment in fairy tales (morbidly funny works for me...)
Also — make sure you've filled out the FTF Giveaway form! (And check out Misty's blog too! I told you, the folks at Walden are made of win! They are offering this same prize pack to a winner from Misty's blog too!)

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