Trisha is an energetic, outgoing and caring individual. She believes in putting family first and is very thankful for the role that her family has played in making her the hard working and ambitious woman she is today.

Born in Edmonton and raised in northern Alberta’s Cold Lake she is proud to call Canada her home.

After graduating high school Trisha continued her education in Hanceville, Alabama USA studying her Bachelor of Science Degree in Medical Laboratory Technology. Upon returning to Canada she went a different direction and began working in Real Estate.

After three years she is the Office Manager of a Real Estate Investment Company in Edmonton, Alberta. Growing up she enjoyed dancing jazz, ballet, tap and folk and uses her dance back round to teach dance fitness classes evenings and weekends.

She enjoys leading an active lifestyle and in her spare time she is studying to become AFLCA certified in group exercise leadership.

Trish has a kind heart and believes that everyone can make a difference for positive change. She has volunteered with the Salvation Army, Samaritan’s Purse, The Edmonton Food Bank, Canadian Blood Services/One Match Stem Cell and Marrow Network and American Red Cross.

Growing up on acreage in a rural community Trish has always had an affinity for animals and is a member of PETA and the Soi Dog Foundation. She hopes to one day adopt a dog to Canada from the organization that helps abused and abandoned cats and dogs in Thailand.

In addition to dancing, Trish enjoys travelling, swimming, snowboarding, creating culinary sensations in the kitchen and making people laugh. Her favourite night of the week is Monday as she gets to catch up with Grammy and Gramps over supper. Her passion for life keeps her pretty busy when she isn’t on the go you can find her curled up reading a book or watching the Food Network.

Sponsored by:

Crystal’s Bridal, Joanne Halldorson Royal LePage Cold Lake, Master & Master Real Estate Edmonton, Tangles Hair Salon Cold Lake, Royal LePage Northern Lights Cold Lake, Louise Johnson Sutton Cold Lake, EK Designs, Shameless Accessories, Family and Friends.

Languages spoken Fluently (please include your native language if English is not your native language)

English

VIA MISS UNIVERSE CANADA 2011 CONTESTANT - Trisha Vergo

Trisha is an energetic, outgoing and caring individual. She believes in putting family first and is very thankful for the role that her family has played in making her the hard working and ambitious woman she is today.

Born in Edmonton and raised in northern Alberta’s Cold Lake she is proud to call Canada her home.

After graduating high school Trisha continued her education in Hanceville, Alabama USA studying her Bachelor of Science Degree in Medical Laboratory Technology. Upon returning to Canada she went a different direction and began working in Real Estate.

After three years she is the Office Manager of a Real Estate Investment Company in Edmonton, Alberta. Growing up she enjoyed dancing jazz, ballet, tap and folk and uses her dance back round to teach dance fitness classes evenings and weekends.

She enjoys leading an active lifestyle and in her spare time she is studying to become AFLCA certified in group exercise leadership.

Trish has a kind heart and believes that everyone can make a difference for positive change. She has volunteered with the Salvation Army, Samaritan’s Purse, The Edmonton Food Bank, Canadian Blood Services/One Match Stem Cell and Marrow Network and American Red Cross.

Growing up on acreage in a rural community Trish has always had an affinity for animals and is a member of PETA and the Soi Dog Foundation. She hopes to one day adopt a dog to Canada from the organization that helps abused and abandoned cats and dogs in Thailand.

In addition to dancing, Trish enjoys travelling, swimming, snowboarding, creating culinary sensations in the kitchen and making people laugh. Her favourite night of the week is Monday as she gets to catch up with Grammy and Gramps over supper. Her passion for life keeps her pretty busy when she isn’t on the go you can find her curled up reading a book or watching the Food Network.

Sponsored by:

Crystal’s Bridal, Joanne Halldorson Royal LePage Cold Lake, Master & Master Real Estate Edmonton, Tangles Hair Salon Cold Lake, Royal LePage Northern Lights Cold Lake, Louise Johnson Sutton Cold Lake, EK Designs, Shameless Accessories, Family and Friends.

Languages spoken Fluently (please include your native language if English is not your native language)

English

VIA Miss Universe Canada 2011 Contestant - Trisha Vergo

I read American Born Chinese all today, which I've been trying not to do with graphic novels anymore but I just couldn't help it today. It was so nice outside and I just wanted nothing more than to take a break from the paper I've been writing, grab my bike and head out to the pond to read this outside. It was great break book too, I found myself laughing within the first few pages. This is kind of a multi-plot novel you might say. The main story is about Jin Wang, a Chinese-American boy who is just starting at a new school. He is totally American, but when he gets introduced to his class everyone laughs at him because of his name, the way he looks, and his interests. He at least makes a friend when Wei-Chen comes to his school from Taiwan. Another story is happening with Danny, a white American teenager trying to fit in, but his Chinese cousin Chin-Kee visits him every year, resulting in mocking so horrible he has to transfer schools every year. And then the final storyline is about The Monkey King, who denies he is a monkey and wants nothing more than to be human. How these three stories intersect is really unexpected and something I think would be hard to carry out in a non graphic format. You'll have to read the book to figure out how that is though.

This is one of the few full color graphic novels I've read, and I personally think I really prefer black and white images. That being said, I really enjoy the American pop art feel this book has. It's very youthful and fun, which is fitting since the book is mostly about struggling Chinese-American youth. I thought this gave the book a nice fluidity and it also worked to put me in the mindset of a kid struggling with fitting in. Chinese-American or not, I think that every kid struggles with fitting in and there were moments in this book where I really felt that same feeling in my stomach I had when I was in third grade. The action of this novel, the escalation of emotions, the desire to punch someone in the face for being a jerk to you all was all easy to relate to and I found that Jin Wang was one of the easiest characters to like I have ever found. Even when he was kind of an ass, because you knew why he was acting that way. And that made him human.

While I really enjoyed the ending of this book, I think it all happened a little too fast. I wish Gene Yang would have drawn out the excitement and suspense a little longer, and there were plot strands I didn't think got tied up. Maybe they were less important parts of the novel, but they left me feeling a little unsatisfied. And I so wanted to be satisfied by this book! Especially on page 163 where Jin says the following: "My mother once explained to me why she chose to marry my father. 'Of all the Ph.D students at the university, he had the thickest glasses,' she said. 'Thick glasses meant long hours of studying. Long hours of studying meant a strong work ethic. A strong work ethic meant a high salary. A high salary meant a good husband. You concentrate on your studies now, Jin. Later, you can have any girl you want.' I was forbidden to date until I had at least a Master's degree." To me, these four panels say so much. They connect Jin's parents to us even though we never meet them, we can see how Jin feels about what his parents think is important, we can see the social tension between them, we can see Jin's desire to be different, to be independent. Moments like that were when his book really shined for me.

I wish I could show you all of the awesome parts of this book, but I can't. To get a sense of the style you should check out the video below in which Gene Yang talks about American Born Chinese and some images from the book are put together for you to enjoy!

This graphic novel earned a B.

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.

So I have been studying for my American History midterm for two hours now, and after searching on the Internet I have realized that there really aren't very many ways to study for things. My test isn't multiple choice, it's a combination of essay questions and defining key terms. The best way to study for this exam seems to be to do exactly what the test will ask me to do, but this hurts my wrist. I typed up the "right" answers and have read over those, but I tend to not soak in information very well through reading. I have a strong desire to go back to high school with the study tables and pre-made study guides. Oh yeah, and multiple choice tests.

I did find one website which was kind of neat though. I love crossword puzzles and Crossword Puzzle Games allows you to make your own crossword puzzles with whatever words and hints you want. It only lets you use twenty words and I had to make a couple different ones because not all of the words fit on one puzzle, but it's kind of a neat tool. If nothing else you will type in the clues which helps you dip back into the definitions of the key terms.

Otherwise I've made a study guide for myself in word by writing paragraphs about the key terms and then taking out words and putting in blanks. I've used this before and I don't know how much it really helps me, but it's better than just rereading everything because I know that doesn't help me at all. I'm a fairly passive textbook reader.

So how about you? How are you or do you study for midterms? Any tips to share with the rest of us?

Spaceport for Virgin Galactic

The well-known architectural bureau

VIA «Norman Foster has become interested in lunar architecture»

After my post on Thursday about avoiding finals I gave studying on Saturday the good old college try. I got some of my paper done, but not nearly enough. This afternoon I'm going to lock myself up in the library and I won't come out until I have at least 1.5 papers done and my reading for Monday. But this morning I'm going to relax a little bit, do some reading and eat some food. Maybe after a little relaxation I'll feel better equipped to plunge into paper writing. Maybe I'll pick up a peppermint latte or something to make myself feel extra prepared.

I'm not sure how other students are, but I really have to coax myself into studying for finals. The week before finals is probably about the worst week because the end is so close. I love actual finals week because you don't have to go to class, so you can just relax and study all week! This is especially true for me this semester because I only have one big final exam (anthropology, the bane of my existence) so for the entirety of finals week I will just work, relax, and study for that stupid exam, which have to do very, very well on. Don't be surprised if I start tweeting about skulls all the time.

If you haven't yet, check out my review of Heart with Joy. I really enjoyed this book and my review doesn't do it justice. I also did a post about Gifts for English Majors you should check out for your holiday shopping. Yesterday I did an Awesome Essays post about and essay called Speaking American, which I think all of you will enjoy because you love language!

Thanks everyone for your overwhelming congratulations about my engagement. I'm obviously very excited about it! We're not planning to get married until after we graduate so it will be a year and a half, and for now I'm just excited about being engaged.

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.

At first, di Lernia and many of his colleagues were optimistic about the future of archaeology in Libya after years of neglect under dictator Moammar Gadhafi. But today, di Lernia has trouble imagining what fieldwork will look like in the war-torn country.

Years after the conflict began, Libya is still unstable. The United Nations was holding talks in Geneva this week to attempt to unify the two rival governments in control of Libya since Gadhafi's dramatic downfall. Meanwhile, ISIS extremists have taken power in parts of the country, such as Derna, a city in the east, where the group Human Rights Watch has documented violent forms of abuse, including executions and floggings.

Alongside reports of human atrocities, there has been a steady stream of reports detailing the threats to Libya's cultural resources, from ideological destruction to unchecked development. In 2013, for example, there was construction equipment sitting at the Hellenic city of Cyrene, one of five UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Libya, ready to clear the way for houses. Another World Heritage Site, Ghadamès — a city sometimes called "the pearl of the desert" that was once home to the Romans and the Berbers — suffered rocket attacks in 2012. The same year, ultraconservative Islamists reportedly destroyed Sufi shrines and graves in Tripoli that don't conform to their beliefs. In 2011, robbers pulled off one of the biggest archaeological heists, stealing a hoard of nearly 8,000 ancient coins from a bank vault in Benghazi.

"I'm afraid if nothing happens, this will be a disaster for generations of Libyan archaeologists — and for universal heritage," di Lernia told Live Science. Today (Jan. 28), he published a commentary in the journal Nature to try to raise awareness about the situation within the scientific community. "It's very difficult to keep the light on Libya in this moment," di Lernia said.

Over the last four years, di Lernia, who is a professor at the Sapienza University of Rome, and his colleagues have been able to publish new research based on the wealth of material they collected in past field seasons. They've shown that dairy farms existed in a once-green Sahara. They have also analyzed Stone Age burials in the desert region.

Though access to the southeastern part of Libya has been restricted since 2011, di Lernia used to be able to travel to Tripoli. But as the fighting between Libya's two governments worsened over the past year, di Lernia wasn't able to get to Libya at all. From afar, it's difficult for international observers to assess the damages in the country.

"From time to time, I succeed in talking to my friends there, and they say that all sites are in danger, all sites are at risk," di Lernia said. "We don't know what's going on in many places. We don't know what's going on in the museums."

In other conflict zones, such as Syria, archaeologists have turned to satellite imagery to assess damage to cultural heritage sites. Those images show that places like Apamea, a Roman city and once-thriving tourist attraction for Syria, has been turned into a moonscape because of the holes gouged out by looters. But the same approach might not work in Libya, di Lernia said, as satellites can't detect more subtle damages, such as graffiti that's been reportedly painted over rock art in the Tadrart Acacus mountains, near the Messak plateau.

Di Lernia used to spend months at a time at the Messak plateau, but he can’t imagine long archaeological field seasons resuming in Libya anytime soon. In Nature, he put forth a host of recommendations to rekindle research, calling for more support for museum, university and lab-based research. Di Lernia said he'd like to see more museum collections go online, and a Web-based library for rock art sites. He also wants to see international universities provide support and funding for Libyan students and scientists to train and work overseas.

"The only way to keep Libyan archaeology alive is to do lab research, desk research, working on the Internet and working on the digitization of cultural heritage in Libya," di Lernia said. "The situation in Libya is a part of a wider picture, I'm afraid. Probably we have to rethink our capacity to do research within this political framework."

Author: Megan Gannon | Source: LiveScience ]January 28, 2015]

The skeleton came into the possession of the university according to the division law. The law allowed foreign missions to have a share in the artefacts they discovered at archaeological sites in Egypt.

Minister of Antiquities Mamdouh Eldamaty explained that the skeleton was unearthed in the Nazlet Khater area of the Upper Egyptian city of Sohag during an excavation by the Leuven University archaeological mission.

After diplomatic efforts, he continued, the university agreed to return the skeleton because it is a very important artefact in the history of Egypt.

Ali Ahmed, head of the Stolen Antiquities Recovery Section, told Ahram Online that the skeleton will arrive next week and a committee is now studying how to put it on display at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat.

Author: Nevine El-Aref | Source: Ahram Online [January 18, 2015]

The princesses, fifth and sixth in line to the throne, will be given protection only when they attend official events on behalf of the Royal Family.
Safe: The Princesses are driven away from Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding reception by a protection officer
Prince Andrew had fought ferociously for the protection officers to stay. He argued his daughters should be treated differently from other minor royals because they enjoy HRH status.
But his argument failed because their cousin Zara Phillips, the daughter of Princess Anne, has no protection – even though she has a higher public profile.
Furious: Prince Andrew is said to have fought to keep the protection officers as he feels they are different to other minor Royals because of their HRH status
The cost of guarding Eugenie, 21, in her first year at Newcastle University has been estimated at £250,000 a year. It includes salaries, accommodation and living and travel expenses of two full-time bodyguards.
Beatrice, 22, studying at the University of London, enjoys the same level of protection.
Prince Andrew insisted his daughters have full-time protection despite private police assessments that they were low-risk targets.
No protection: The Duchess of Gloucester will no longer have security unless on official business, while Zara Philips has no cover despite her high profile
The Home Office is determined to prune the estimated £50million security bill for the Royal Family.
Other minor royals such as the Duchess of Gloucester who, unlike princesses Eugenie and Beatrice, performs official engagements, will also have their protection withdrawn when not on official duty.
source: dailymail

VIA Beatrice and Eugenie are stripped of their 24-hour protection after row over £50,000 annual cost

In October, a Canadian woman made headlines around the world when she personally returned to hand back a 2,000-year old fragment she had stolen from Pompeii on her honeymoon 50 years ago.

The woman from Montreal, who is in her 70s, said the theft of the first century AD terracotta roof decoration had weighed on her conscience for decades.

Now Massimo Osanna, superintendent of the World Heritage-listed site, said that was not an isolated case and hundreds of archeological artefacts had been sent back to the museum in recent years, often with letters of apology written in different languages.

"We have been receiving hundreds of packages with hundreds of fragments now for years," Mr Osanna told the Italian daily, Il Messaggero.

"People write expressing regret, having realised they have made a terrible mistake and that they would never do it again and for this reason they are sending the stolen pieces back.

"But the most curious thing, from an anthropological point of view, are the letters that accompany the stolen fragments which reveal a cross-section of people worth studying."

Mr Osanna said that one particular fresco fragment that had been returned was crucial in the restoration of the Casa del Frutteto, or house of the orchard keeper, which collapsed in the 1980s.

He said the property was restored but after work was completed experts realised a piece of wall plaster was missing. He said it was returned to officials in March and would now be added.

Mr Osanna could not be contacted on Tuesday but said he would like to stage an exhibition to showcase the precious objects that had been returned.

Alessandro Pintucci, president of the Italian Confederation of Archeologists, welcomed the return of artefacts but warned more security was needed to protect valuable cultural sites and to prevent thefts where there were often too few controls.

Pompeii was buried by a sudden volcanic eruption of nearby Mt Vesuvius in 79 AD. The preserved remains of the town attract around 2.5 million tourists every year.

Theft is a problem at ancient sites like Pompeii and the Colosseum in Rome, with tourists regularly trying to take "souvenirs" of their visits.

Last September a pair of American tourists were caught at Fiumicino airport in Rome with a stone artefact they had taken from Pompeii.

Author: Josephine McKenna | Source: Telegraph [December 24, 2014]

A rectangular scrap measuring about 4.five inches by 1.five inches and featuring 15 partial lines of Homer's epic poem The Iliad in the elegant hand of a 4th Century Egyptian scribe was just [DEC] picked up by an unidentified European purchaser for £16,000 right after a feverish Net auction battle.

That value was way above the posted estimated but is standard of the sums that collectors will now devote to lay their hands on these fingerprints from the previous. Indeed, it is not just modern day art that has been setting jaw-dropping records at auction lately - so have ancient scrolls.

When a fragmentary parchment sheet from the 3rd century AD featuring portions of Paul's epistle to the Romans was bought at Sotheby's for £301,000 auctioneers and antiquity authorities alike have been stunned.

But even though there is no suggestion of any impropriety in these unique sales, scholars are alarmed by the burgeoning online trade as some unscrupulous sellers also cash in. They portray a no cost-ranging trade, particularly on the on line auction giant eBay, exactly where precious documents are carved up for sale, potentially stolen goods are trafficked and forgers can flourish.

Brice Jones, a papyrologist and lecturer in New Testament and Early Christianity at Concordia University in Montreal, has turn into an on the web scrolls sleuth, scouring auction web-sites for manuscripts that are usually incorrectly labeled or their provenance unclear.

A couple of pieces are straightforward forgeries. Most famously, the papyrus fragment called the Gospel of Jesus's Wife created headlines for apparently overturning almost two millennia of theological teaching that Jesus was unmarried, but is now widely viewed as a forgery.

Considerably a lot more distressingly, some sellers are dismembering papyrus books to sell things page-by-page, a financially lucrative endeavor that amounts to small extra than vandalism of ancient works.

A single eBay papyrus seller turned out to be two sisters who ran an online beauty supplies store. They had inherited a Book of Revelation from which they cut person pages to sell on an ad hoc basis to fund the wedding costs for one.

But Mr Jones has also identified a proliferation of scrolls becoming sold of which the origin and ownership is unknown or unclear. A fragment of papyrus with neatly penned Greek script of Homers Iliad, 565-580, 4th Century AD. Ex Hamdy Sakr collection, London, formed in the 1960's. There had been only two serious bidders on the piece and it probably went a lot greater than either of them had anticipated.

Papyrus itself is a tall, fibrous reed plant that grew along the shallow banks of the Nile River in Egypt. 'Papyrus' is the Latin type of the Greek word papuros, from which the English word 'paper' is derived.

The papyri - mostly written in ancient Greek and Coptic - variety from items such as rare biblical texts or the lines of the Iliad to hum-drum but fascinating each day records of book-maintaining accounts or letters amongst loved ones members. All exert an incredible lure for collectors, historians, archaeologists and theologians.

But under American and Egyptian law, only antiquities that can be verified currently to have been in private hands ahead of the early 1970s can be traded. Those guidelines are intended to avoid looting and end the export of papyrus that is generally still identified by Bedouin tribesmen, preserved by the arid desert situations. But critics say that lots of sellers skirt or ignore the guidelines on Internet internet sites that are difficult to monitor and regulate.

The disapproving tone from academia also reflects a deep philosophical objection by many scholars to how manuscripts flow by means of private hands, fearing that priceless scripts will disappear forever amid the frenzy of trading.

"The study of ancient papyri is a fascinating field of historical inquiry, simply because these artefacts are the fingerprints of true men and women from a bygone era," Mr Jones told The Telegraph.

"Each time I study a new papyrus, it is as if I am peeking over the shoulders of the scribe who wrote it, eavesdropping on a conversation that in several cases was meant to be private: an argument in between a husband and wife, a divorce contract, an invitation to dinner, a letter in between a father and son.

"But when private collectors acquire papyri for private enjoyment and restrict scholarly access to them, the instant consequence is that we drop worthwhile historical info that would otherwise advance our understanding about ancient people."

Nonetheless, the owner of a little specialist World-wide-web auction corporation, who asked not to be named due to the fact of the sensitivity of the situation, pushed back against these criticisms.

"We are scrupulous about producing certain of ownership despite the fact that not everybody is so fussy and it's accurate that there are some people today who know practically nothing who are out attempting to make a buck in the wild West of the Web," he mentioned.

"But some of these archaeologists and purists simply hate the reality that that any private person would personal, invest in or sell antiquities.

"They ignore the reality that things like this have always been collected. Indeed, some of these scripts have been commissioned by the private collectors of that time.

"Collectors play a crucial function in preserving these items with their interest. A lot of these items would stay hidden, forgotten, fading away, unknown to the scholars, if there was not a industry for them."

Amongst specialists in the research of early Christianity, there is specific concern about the emergence of eBay as a absolutely free-wheeling marketplace for antiquities, with low opening bids and normally exaggerated language to lure in possible purchasers.

An eBay spokesman, however, stated that its150 million buyers and sellers "must make certain listings comply with our clear policy on artefacts. We operate with regulators, law enforcement and other parties which includes the Egyptian Embassy to apply this policy, and if a listing of concern is identified we will need proof that it was legally exported and take away any listing exactly where this proof is not supplied."

As a specialist who spends his life studying such scrolls, Mr Jones also has concerns for the preservation and conservation of sensitive centuries-old documents when they are handled by traders.

He cited then instance of the well-known papyrus codex of the Gospel of Judas, which published in 2006. It was stored by one particular of its owners in a protected-deposit box on Long Island for sixteen years, and then placed in a freezer by a possible purchaser who thought that was the ideal way to preserve it.

"The benefits of these choices have been horrifying: the codex crumbled into quite a few hundreds of tiny pieces and what was after a practically total codex was now badly deteriorated and tricky to restore," he stated.

The booming trade has clearly revealed to scholars how numerous papyri have survived down the centuries.

"This prompts the question: just how quite a few ancient manuscripts are sitting in the basements, match boxes, drawers, safes, or shelves of private collectors about the globe?" Mr Jones asked lately.

"It is nearly certain that numerous ancient manuscripts or fragments thereof are just sitting in the dark closets of their collectors, decaying and crumbling to pieces. The public demands to be conscious of the importance of the preservation of antiquities, for the reason that when they are gone, they are gone forever."

Author: Philip Sherwell | Source: The Telegraph [December 28, 2014]

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

When I originally made the goal to send ten postcards via Postcrossing I figured I would spread it out a little bit. Maybe send one postcard a month or something like that. Let me tell you, Postcrossing is addictive. Once you've sent one postcard you just cannot wait to send the next one, and the next one, and the next one. And since Postcrossing lets you send up to five postcards at a time you're pretty much always all maxed out.

The great thing about Postcrossing is that you send something out there into the world and then you get surprised by a postcard in the mail every once in awhile. So far I've sent ten postcards and received five, but four of my postcards are still traveling to their destinations. I've received postcards from England, Italy, Finland, Poland, and the United States. I've sent postcards even farther, to places like Taiwan and Russia.

Somehow Postcrossing is able to match you to people with like interests. On my profile I talk about liking books, music, and comics. I've had a few people with extremely similar interests to me, even a French girl studying English literature in England.

The way Postcrossing works is you send out a postcard, someone receives that postcard and registers it online, then your name gets sent into the pool for a postcard, someone randomly receives your information and sends you a postcard, which you then register and the cycle repeats.

4% complete, 972 days to go!

Have any of you used Postcrossing?

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.

India's white marvel, the Taj Mahal, is slowly turning brownish-yellow because of air pollution, says an Indo-US study which also identifies the pollutants responsible for the effect.

It says Taj is changing colour due to deposition of dust and carbon-containing particles emitted in the burning of fossil fuels, biomass and garbage. The study confirms what has been suspected for long — that Agra's poor air quality is impacting India's most celebrated monument.

The research was conducted by experts from US universities — Georgia Institute of Technology and University of Wisconsin — as well as Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and Archaeological Survey of India. The paper was published in the Environmental Science & Technology journal in December.

The findings can lead to targeted strategies to curb air pollution in and around Agra and more effective ways to cleanse the marble surface of the 366-year-old mausoleum, which remains by far the most visited man-made structure in the country with footfalls of more than 6 million in 2013.

The researchers first analysed air samples at the site for roughly a year using filters and found high concentrations of suspended particles that could potentially discolour Taj's surface.

Clean marble samples were then placed at various points on the monument accessible only to ASI staff. After two months of exposure, the samples were analysed using electron microscope and X-ray spectroscope.

The pollutants deposited on the marble were identified through these investigations. Researchers found 3% of the deposits to be black carbon, around 30% organic carbon (or brown carbon) and most of the rest dust. Black carbon is emitted by vehicles and other machines that burn fossil fuels. Brown carbon is typically released through burning of biomass and garbage, a common practice in the region.

S N Tripathi of IIT Kanpur, one of the authors, said the team then used a novel approach to estimate how these deposited particles would impact light reflecting off the marble surface. "We found that black carbon gives a greyish colour to the surface while the presence of brown carbon and dust results in yellowish-brown hues," he said.

"Results indicate that deposited light absorbing dust and carbonaceous particles are responsible for the surface discolouration of the Taj Mahal," the study concludes.

Since 2008, ASI has been trying to fight the yellowing of the monument by giving it a clay pack treatment using the lime-rich Fuller's earth (Multani mitti) to clean the marble surface. Researchers are now keen on studying the efficacy of this method and finding ways of improving it.

"Now that we know what's causing the yellowing, the focus should now shift to undoing the effect," Tripathi said.

Author: Amit Bhattacharya | Source: The Times of India [January 02, 2015]

Today's Memory Monday guest is Kate, who recently had her 1 year Blogversary over on her blog, Literary Explorations. We were initially going to swap guest posts and have them go live on the same day, but life gets crazy sometimes.:) So, here is a link to the guest post I wrote for her, about the amazingness that is Contemporary Fiction, and here is Kate, talking about one of her favorite books from childhood. And what do you know, it just so happens that this, is a book that's been banned/challenged numerous times over the years. Let's hear it for celebrating Banned Books Week!:)

Bio:

I'm Kate and I am currently working on my Master's degree in Middle Childhood Education. My favorite genres are historical and realistic fiction. Philippa Gregory, Sandra Gulland and Lauren Willig are just a few of my favorite authors. When I'm not reading or studying for class, I love watching classic films, discovering new wines, and swing-dancing.

Post:

I’ve always been an avid reader, but wasn’t often drawn to the classics. I felt forced to read them in school and even now I’m more likely to pick up the latest YA publication instead of a Jane Austen novel. Now I know there are some good classics out there and I have read my fair share of them, despite my initial hesitations. However most of the time I enjoyed the classics I stumbled on outside of class, the
only exception being To Kill A Mockingbird in 10th grade since I loved Gregory Peck’s role in the movie. Unfortunately this post is not about that novel, although it would have been very appropriate for Banned Books Week. Instead I’ll discuss the book that counted towards all my personal reading requirements in 8th grade English class, Gone With the Wind.

On a whim, I checked out this ginormous book from the library and had all 1,024 pages of it read within a few weeks. I can’t remember if I read the book first or saw the movie, but all I know is that it forever shaped my impression of what a historical novel should be. Rhett and Scarlett are still one of my favorite literary couples and I liked how the novel ended. I was horrified when the sequel Scarlett was published
because it just ruined a perfectly good story for me. The book has to end when Rhett says he doesn’t give a damn because that makes sense. Scarlett realized too late that she was in love with Rhett instead of Ashley and shouldn’t get a second chance to be with him in a sequel. I’m surprised that Margaret Mitchell’s estate
signed off on another book but I guess they just wanted the money from the book sales. Whenever I see Scarlett in stores I can’t help but point it out to whoever is with me just because it’s that horrible of a novel.

Even though the movie is 4 hours long, it still is a very condensed version of the novel. Rhett and Scarlett are the main focus and although it takes place during the Civil War, it’s more of a romantic drama than a war movie. If you’re looking for an accurate portrayal of the war, you won’t find it in Gone with the Wind. I signed up for a Civil War History class this quarter and so far neither Rhett nor Scarlett have shown up. In fact we have yet to study the actual war and it’s been three weeks, but that’s another story.

Gone with the Wind taught me a limited history of the Civil War, but most importantly I learned not to disregard certain books just because they were older and contained a ridiculous number of pages. The classics can be ok reads, but I still can’t help being picky about which ones I’ll give a chance. Since blogging I haven’t picked up any classic novels to read but I did buy a 1936 edition of Gone With the Wind at a used bookstore that I plan on re-reading and reviewing. I might even do a book to film comparison since I haven’t posted one in awhile and need to re-watch my Collectors Edition for my research paper about how the Civil War is portrayed through film.

Thank you so much Kate. I admit that I've never read Gone with the Wind, or seen all of the movie (although I have seen most of it). I started the book when I was around 12, and was shocked to read that Scarlet wasn't actually pretty, because I thought the actress in the movie was gorgeous! It's definitely a book that I've been meaning to actually read for a long time! Hopefully I'll be able to sneak it in soon!

It is finally finally summer! I didn't think this weekend would ever come, but it's here. No more going to class (although I'm taking two online classes), no more dorms, no more front desk, no more tutoring. Just relaxing and working a little here and there and studying a little here and there. And I finally have time to read. It's been three days now that I've been out of school, and you know what? I already miss it. A lot.

Okay, maybe I don't miss school that much. But I miss Iowa City. I'm finding home to be a little bit depressing right now, with all the people I went to high school with. It's a totally different living situation and I am trying to make the best of it. But I'm going back to Iowa City for a few days now to take an Intro to Archives class before I start my archives internship this summer. I am excited about that!

Yesterday I finally finished Sunflowers by Sheramy Bundrick. It was a really good book and I wanted to finish it a long time ago, but finals got in my way. For the next couple of days I'm going to read Dead End Gene Pool by Wendy Burden and I still need to finish Scrolling Forward by David M. Levy. Other than that, I don't know exactly what is coming up for me to read... but my boyfriend and I went to Barnes and Noble last night and he bought a book that I [sadly] just could not resist.

The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell. I am a huge fan of Sex and the City (the TV show) and I've always kind of thought of myself as a Carrie. When my boyfriend pointed this out to me I knew I had to have it. "Before Sex and the City, Carrie Bradshaw was a small-town girl who knew she wanted more. She's ready for real life to start, but first she must navigate her senior year of high school. Up until now, Carrie and her friends have been inseparable. Then Sebastian Kydd comes into the picture, and a friend's betrayal makes her question everything." Okay so the story doesn't sound that good, but I think I deserve a little indulgence after this hellish semester. Just to be fair to the book world I also got a copy of No one belongs here more than you. Stories by Miranda July. I'll probably be ready both of this coming up, but I also want to read Just Kids by Patti Smith soon, because I've been obsessed with reading it ever since I bought it.

I wasn't so great at updating this week (this is all about to change, I swear!) but I did manage to review The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. I also did a meme about my Reading Habits. I'm still looking for suggestions on what I should do as a regular Thursday post since I don't plan on continuing Children's Book Thursday. One suggestion I've gotten is literary criticism post, specifically feminist criticism (this was possibly sparked by my new blog, Woops Feminism, shameless plug there). I'm interested in any ideas of what you might want to see here. Leave me a comment, tweet me, visit my Facebook fan page! I want to hear your ideas!

At a writers conference ten years ago, four aspiring writers met and became close friends. A decade later they are still friends, and very much a part of one another's lives.

Kendell Aim's writing career is in danger. Her editor goes on maternity leave, and her new editor shows no interest in her work.

Mallory St. James is an obsessed workaholic. She's constantly working on yet another best seller.

Tanya Mason is a single mom who supports her two kids and difficult mother by working two jobs.

Faye Truett is married to a televangelist and writes inspirational romances. She has a secret that no one would dare to believe.

Kendell has a quickly approaching book deadline that she needs to meet, but when she learns her husband has been cheating, she flees to her vacation home. Rather than focus on her writing, she works at fixing up her mountain hideaway. Her friends won't allow her to bear this burden alone and come together in a sort of intervention. They collaborate on a novel based on their own lives. Each of them writes a segment of the book, all under Kendell's name.

But they would have never guessed that the book would reach the NY Times Bestseller's list. When the truth is revealed on a day time talk show, they are each forced to reveal a secret they'd kept from one another. Their friendship has survived the years, but will it survive this?

THE ACCIDENTAL BESTSELLER is an intriguing glimpse into the world of publishing and the difficulties that authors must face. It was interesting to learn about how many hands manuscripts pass through on the way to publication. Each of the characters suffer realistic insecurites about their writing and personal lives. I learned a great deal about the publishing process in my reading of THE ACCIDENTAL BESTSELLER. It makes me appreciate and value writers even more!

About the Author:

A native of St. Petersburg, Florida, Wendy has come a long way since her days at Sunshine Elementary School. As a child she read voraciously, was a regular at her local library, and became fast friends with Nancy Drew and Anne of Green Gables. Her love affairs with language and storytelling paid off beginning with her first shift at the campus radio station while studying journalism at the University of Georgia.

After returning to her home state and graduating from the University of South Florida she worked for the Tampa PBS affiliate, WEDU-TV, behind and in front of the camera. Her resume includes on air work, voiceovers and production of a variety of commercial projects and several feature films. She may be best known in the Tampa Bay area as the host of Desperate & Dateless, a radio matchmaking program that aired on WDAE radio, and nationally as host of The Home Front, a magazine format show that aired on PBS affiliates across the country.

The mother of a toddler and an infant when she decided to change careers, she admits it was not the best timing in terms of productivity. “I’m still not certain why I felt so compelled to write my first novel at that particular time,” she says, “but that first book took forever.” Since then she’s written six more books, including Single in Suburbia and THE ACCIDENTAL BESTSELLER. Her work has been sold to publishers in ten countries and to the Rhapsody Book Club. Her novel, Hostile Makeover, was excerpted in Cosmopolitan magazine.

Wendy lives with her husband John and her baseball-crazy teenage sons in the Atlanta suburbs where she spends most of her non-writing time on baseball fields or driving to them. She continues to devour books and is busy producing Accidental Radio, a new feature on her web site.
You can visit her website at www.authorwendywax.com.

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Often in a Rembrandt, a Vermeer, a Leonardo, a Van Eyck, or any other great masterpiece of western art, the layers of paint are covered with varnish, sometimes several coats applied at different times over their history. The varnish was originally applied to protect the paint underneath and make the colors appear more vivid, but over the centuries it can degrade. Conservators carefully clean off the old varnish and replace it with new, but to do this safely it is useful to understand the materials and structure of the painting beneath the surface. Conservation scientists can glean this information by analyzing the hidden layers of paint and varnish.

Now, researchers from Nottingham Trent University's School of Science and Technology have partnered with the National Gallery in London to develop an instrument capable of non-invasively capturing subsurface details from artwork at a high resolution. Their setup, published in an Optics Express paper, will allow conservators and conservation scientists to more effectively peek beneath the surface of paintings and artifacts to learn not only how the artist built up the original composition, but also what coatings have been applied to it over the years.

Traditionally, analyzing the layers of a painting requires taking a very small physical sample -- usually around a quarter of a millimeter across -- to view under a microscope. The technique provides a cross-section of the painting's layers, which can be imaged at high resolution and analyzed to gain detailed information on the chemical composition of the paint, but does involve removing some original paint, even if only a very tiny amount. When studying valuable masterpieces, conservation scientists must therefore sample very selectively from already-damaged areas, often only taking a few minute samples from a large canvas.

More recently, researchers have begun to use non-invasive imaging techniques to study paintings and other historical artifacts. For example, Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) was originally developed for medical imaging but has also been applied to art conservation. Because it uses a beam of light to scan the intact painting without removing physical samples, OCT allows researchers to analyze the painting more extensively. However, the spatial resolution of commercially-available OCT setups is not high enough to fully map the fine layers of paint and varnish.

The Nottingham Trent University researchers gave OCT an upgrade. "We're trying to see how far we can go with non-invasive techniques. We wanted to reach the kind of resolution that conventional destructive techniques have reached," explained Haida Liang, who led the project.

In OCT, a beam of light is split: half is directed towards the sample, and the other half is sent to a reference mirror. The light scatters off both of these surfaces. By measuring the combined signal, which effectively compares the returned light from the sample versus the reference, the apparatus can determine how far into the sample the light penetrated. By repeating this procedure many times across an area, researchers can build up a cross-sectional map of the painting.

Liang and her colleagues used a broadband laser-like light source -- a concentrated beam of light containing a wide range of frequencies. The wider frequency range allows for more precise data collection, but such light sources were not commercially available until recently.

Along with a few other modifications, the addition of the broadband light source enabled the apparatus to scan the painting at a higher resolution. When tested on a late 16th-century copy of a Raphael painting, housed at the National Gallery in London, it performed as well as traditional invasive imaging techniques.

"We are able to not only match the resolution but also to see some of the layer structures with better contrast. That's because OCT is particularly sensitive to changes in refractive index," said Liang. In some places, the ultra-high resolution OCT setup identified varnish layers that were almost indistinguishable from each other under the microscope.

Eventually, the researchers plan to make their instrument available to other art institutions. It could also be useful for analyzing historical manuscripts, which cannot be physically sampled in the same way that paintings can.

In a parallel paper recently published in Optics Express, the researchers also improved the depth into the painting that their apparatus can scan. The two goals are somewhat at odds: using a longer wavelength light source could enhance the penetration depth, but shorter wavelength light (as used in their current setup) provides the best resolution.

"The next challenge is perhaps to be able to do that in one instrument, as well as to extract chemical information from different layers," said Liang.

Source: The Optical Society [April 13, 2015]

The "unique" four foot marble statue is said to have been illegally dug up in Cyrene, a UNESCO world heritage site, before being smuggled to the UK in 2011, via Dubai.

It was uncovered in a west London warehouse by customs officials two years later and handed to the British Museum pending a court's decision over ownership.

District Judge John Zani, who is overseeing the case at Westminster Magistrates Court, was given a detailed analysis of the sculpture during a two hour viewing at the museum.

Accompanied by barristers, solicitors and his legal adviser, the judge carefully examined the statue as he was told stains and other evidence demonstrated that it was “definitely” excavated illegally from the ancient Greek colony of Cyrene.

The statue, which depicts a Greek woman wearing a hood and flowing gown, is said to be unparalleled besides a single comparable example in the Louvre. The woman wears two snake-like bracelets and carries a doll.

It hails from the third centuries BC, when it served as a grave marker.

Authorities in Tripoli have already launched a bid to repatriate the work of art.

A British Museum spokesperson said that as far as they were aware it was the first time a court had convened on the premises.

Jordanian, Riad Al Qassas, who does not reside in the UK, is accused of falsifying paperwork after telling customs that the sculpture came from Turkey, rather than Libya, and was worth £60,000, rather than between £1.5m to £2m.

He denies one count of knowingly or recklessly delivering a false document to HMRC on November 1 last year.

Dr Peter Higgs, curator of Greek sculpture at the British Museum, told District Judge Zani the statue looked “fresh” and had been excavated “fairly recently”.

Highlighting earth stains and marks from vegetation, he pointed to “small pickaxe” marks as the judge circled the statue, studying it closely in a tiny store-room.

A video of the viewing was later played in court.

Dr Higgs said: “The statue is a three-quarter length figure. It is a funerary statue that I believe comes from the region of Cyrenaica, in Libya, which was a Greek colony.

“The statue is thought to represent either Persephone, the goddess of the underworld...or it is meant to be someone who is dedicated to the goddess. I believe it is very unlikely to come from Turkey.”

Dr Higgs said the statue was one of a kind, adding that it was in “the top ten” of its class.

“I believe that the statue was definitely made in Libya, in Cyrenaica,” he added.

“I believe, as I said, it is one of the best examples of its type and is extremely rare.”

Andrew Bird, for HMRC, has told the court that documents suggest Al Qassas had only a marginal role in the export.

He claimed Hassan Fazeli, a Dubai businessman who has claimed the sculpture has belonged to his family collection since 1977, was behind the crime.

Mr Bird said the false documents were submitted by Hassan Fazeli Trading Company LLC, which is based in Dubai, and which was last year accused by New York prosecutors of illegally bringing five ancient Egypt artefacts into the USA.

Ben Watson, representing Al Qassas, indicated his client would be happy to hand over the sculpture to Libya if it was shown to originate from there.

Libya has been plagued by looting and cultural vandalism since the fall of Colonel Gadaffi in 2011, with the resulting power vacuum effectively ending the state-sponsored preservation of Libya's multiple Greek and Roman sites.

The expansion of Islamic State fanatics into North Africa has stoked fears that unique sites will be destroyed, mirroring shocking images from the IS-controlled city of Mosul in Iraq.

A British Museum spokesperson said that as far as they were aware it was the first time a court had convened on its premises.

Author: Victoria Ward | Source: The Telegraph [March 31, 2015]