Paris Theodore obit

An unusual story, even for New York City:

Paris Theodore, who died November 16 at 63, was a holster-maker, gun inventor, and clandestine manufacturer of weapons meant to kill men without leaving a trace.

With a secret laboratory located behind a safe at his Seventrees, Ltd. holster shop in the garment district, Theodore evoked comparisons to a fictional master of lethal gadgetry, Q, from the James Bond books. If the stories told by associates and family contain even a few grains of truth, the comparison would have to include 007 himself, because many people think Theodore worked as an assassin for government agencies so secret they don't even have names. He never told.

Government documents show that he was specially exempted from all provisions of the National Firearms Act. . .

Theodore came from a creative family. His mother, Nenette Charisse, was a vaudeville dancer and ballet instructor, and his aunt, Cyd Charisse, was a dance legend. His father, John Theodore, was a sculptor and art professor, and his stepfather, after his parents divorced, was Robert Tucker, a choreographer.

Paris Theodore took up painting and also appeared on Broadway as the character Nibs in the 1954 production of "Peter Pan," starring Mary Martin. He was paid $15,000 for four months' work, his son Ali Theodore said. It was the last money he ever earned that the IRS was aware of, yet somehow he managed to raise a family on Park Avenue.

From the NY Sun. Here's some more info on Theodore's ASP pistol; there's also a tribute web page, while Wikipedia has an entry with a list of Theodore's patents.

So far, so good -- but remember what they say about stories that seem too good to be true. And upon doing a bit more digging, I find that others find Theodore (and his family's) claims of Bond-style derring-do difficult to swallow -- though his prowess as a gadgeteer is unquestioned.

A modern-day Goya

I read this Wall Street Journal article last weekend, but didn't blog it at the time since it wasn't available to nonsubscribers. Now it is -- so take a look at the story of the Pulitzer-winning photo of an execution in Iran, 26 years ago, and the hitherto anonymous photographer responsible.

Props go wild

Accessorised with pearls, a cigarette holder and its wearer’s doe-eyed charm, Audrey Hepburn’s little black dress in Breakfast At Tiffany’s is one of cinema’s most iconic garments.

Yesterday it became the most expensive, selling at auction for £410,000 as the star attraction in a record-breaking sale of film and entertainment memorabilia at Christie’s in Kensington, West London. . .

Among the 276 other lots was James Bond’s first gun, the Walther PPK used by Sean Connery in Dr No, which sold for £54,000 and the hideous reindeer jumper worn by Colin Firth’s Mark Darcy for a particularly embarrassing Christmas party scene in Bridget Jones’ Diary. It fetched £1,080.

From the Times of London.

Capitoline Wolf: ancient or medieval?

In this case I'm going to put my odds on ancient, despite recent claims otherwise:

"Now incontestable proofs tell us that also the she-wolf is not a product of the Antiquities," Adriano La Regina, former Rome’s archaeological superintendent and professor of Etruscology at Rome's La Sapienza University, wrote in Italy’s daily "La Repubblica."

According to La Regina, analysis carried out by restorer Anna Maria Carruba during the 1997 restoration of the bronze statue showed that the she-wolf was cast as a single unit. This technique was typically used in the Middle Ages.

But if this is the argument, there's simply not enough comparative material for certainty.

Gregory Warden, a professor of art history at Southern Methodist University who specializes in Etruscan bronzes, found the suggestion that the she-wolf may be medieval "intriguing." But, he does not consider the matter closed.

"While the statue is singular, and thus difficult to compare to other Etruscan statuary, I do not think that the technical argument is fully persuasive, since we have so little comparative evidence for large-scale bronze casting in the Etruscan world," he said. "We certainly cannot assume that Etruscan bronze-casting techniques would always have been identical to those of the Greeks."

More on the Wolf here; it is still displayed as Etruscan, incidentally.

Hat tip to reader Laura Parrott, who alerted me to this some time ago -- I'm only gradually catching up on all the news from November.

Pyramid concrete controvery continues

From the New York Times:

In new research on the Great Pyramids of Giza, a scientist says he has found more to their construction than cut natural limestone. Some original parts of the massive structures appear to be made of concrete blocks.

If true, historians say, this would be the earliest known application of concrete technology, some 2,500 years before the Romans started using it widely in harbors, amphitheaters and other architecture.

But the "if true" is the sticking point:

Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of antiquities in Egypt and director of the Giza Pyramids excavations, said in an e-mail message, “The idea that concrete was used is unlikely and completely unproven.”

Noting that the pyramids have been restored and reinforced many times with the extensive use of concrete, Dr. Hawass said, “I would ask Dr. Barsoum the question: where did he get the samples he is working with, and how can he show that the samples are not taken from areas that have been restored in modern times?”

Hawass has further derided the theory here, stating:

"We don't know the origin of these samples ... We certainly never gave permission for anyone to take samples," he said. "This well-worn theory keeps coming up for publicity purposes."

Given the current state of Egyptian archeology, failure to get official permission to take samples would be a huge misstep. As is, just publishing controversial interpretations of excavation results without running them past Hawass is enough to draw down official opprobrium.

In any event, the new theory seems to have a gaping weakness in that it was done by geologists without sufficient consultation with archeologists, necessitating a complete review of the samples' origin and possibly new sampling -- which would now seem politically dicey.

Australian wheat scandal

Haven't heard about it yet? Here's a summary:

As scandals go in the annals of Australian business, the one over wheat sales to Iraq during the Saddam Hussein regime is huge. And the political fallout, both domestic and international, may prove to be even mightier. . .

Australia was the main wheat supplier to Iraq while the United Nations Organization was trying to enforce sanctions in its oil-for-food program. As an inquiry has just revealed, it turns out that Australian kickbacks helped finance the Baghdad dictator in defiance of U.N. sanctions. . .

The Cole commission details how, between late 1999 and the start of the second Persian Gulf War in March 2003, AWB made secret payments of $ 224 million to a Jordanian-based trucking company, Alia. AWB knew Alia merely passed the money, less commission, on to the Hussein regime -- this at a time when Howard was preparing to send Australian troops to Iraq in support of U.S.-led coalition forces.

The headsman speaks

Video at Little Green Footballs: Saudi Head-Chopper Discusses His Craft.

Dino eggs: not cheaper by the dozen

A 65m-year-old nest of dinosaur eggs has sold to an unnamed buyer at auction in Los Angeles for $420,000 (£212,000).

The nest contains 22 broken eggs, 19 of which are in embryonic form, with some of the tiny raptors clearly visible.

The nest was discovered in Guangdong, southern China, in 1984 and scientists there had appealed to Bonhams not to allow the auction.

From the BBC. It sounds as if there is quite a bit of amateur fossil-hunting going on in China, but how much of it is actually illegal? Discovery News also had a writeup on the nest prior to the sale here.

Ancient acoustics

Some ancient civilizations may have had an ear — not just an eye — for architecture. Two recent studies suggest early builders intentionally added unusual, and often psychedelic, sound effects to their structures.

Some of the most striking examples are at the 1,100-year-old Maya Great Ball Court at Chichen Itza, Mexico, according to David Lubman, who will present findings at the upcoming Fourth Joint Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and the Acoustical Society of Japan in Hawaii.

Lubman studied the court's acoustic elements, including two "whispering galleries" that allow visitors to hear whispers from 460 feet away. The feature could have once allowed a king or priest to address crowds of up to 3,000 outside without a microphone, Lubman explained.

From Discovery News. The article also cites Chris Scarre, editor of Archaeoacoustics; a review by Scarre of a study suggesting that the locations of Palaeolithic cave paintings coincide with zones of resonance in those caves may be found here.

New robot probe scheduled for Great Pyramid

A robot archaeologist is to be sent deep inside Egypt's largest pyramid in a bid to solve secrets revealed by a first foray more than four years ago, antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass said.

"The new robot will be sent down very narrow passages in the so-called Queen's Chamber, where the first robot was sent in 2002," said Hawass, who heads Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Teams from Egypt and Singapore and a joint group from Britain and Hong Kong plan to insert the robot in February inside the Pyramid of Cheops at Giza, near to Cairo.

From Discovery News.

Warsaw Uprising supply plane unearthed, with crew

Historians in Poland have discovered the wreckage of a World War II RAF Halifax bomber along with the remains of its British and Canadian crew.

The hull of the aircraft, from 148 Squadron, was found buried in a field near the southern Polish town of Dabrowa Tarnowska.

The bomber was shot down while dropping supplies and ammunition to the Polish underground during the Warsaw uprising.

From the BBC. A bit more on the Warsaw Uprising here, and on how the Soviet army was held back to allow the Nazis to crush the Polish resistance (though no mention of the Soviets' active obstruction of the western Allies' supply flights).

Oldest religious site?

Pythons were probably the first idols to be worshipped by man, archaeologists said after unearthing evidence of a ritual dating back 70,000 years.

A rock shaped like an enormous python’s head, discovered in a cave in the Tsodilo hills of Botswana, puts back the date of the first known human ritual by 30,000 years, they say.

Behind the rock, which was covered in man-made indentations, was a chamber that the archaeologists believed was used by a shaman who could have spoken without being seen, giving the impression that it was the snake speaking.

“The shaman would have been able to control everything. It was perfect,” Sheila Coulson, from the University of Oslo, said.

She said that she was astonished to find the rock when she first walked into the cave this year. “You could see the mouth and eyes . . . it looked like a real python.”

Dr Coulson said that sunlight gave the indentations the appearance of scales, while at night firelight made the snake seem to move.

Buried in front of the rock were 13,000 human artefacts, including red stone spearheads that appeared to have been burnt. The researchers believe that they were an offering to the snake.

From the Times of London. An article on the African Rock Python here.

Hooray for the V & A!

The Victoria and Albert Museum has announced that it will no longer charge academics and scholars for using its digital images – a move that could have major implications for art publishing.

The new policy comes into place in order to bolster the museum’s commitment to providing access to its collections, but it will mean that some revenue is lost (possibly over £100,000 a year). It may also put pressure on other major institutions to end charging for image downloads, a practice up to now jealously guarded by many of the big UK galleries.

From early 2007, visitors to the Collections Online database at www.vam.ac.uk will be able to easily download hi-resolution images free of charge, providing they are for academic use. The definition of this will be quite broad, but the finer aspects of the policy’s implementation have yet to be set in stone.

From the 24 Hour Museum. We have commented before on the chilling effect of ever-increasing reproduction fees on academic publications of very limited circulation and laughably small budgets. It's bad enough when a young scholar has to beg for grants to pay for the illustrations accompanying an article, but there are some older books of the highest importance that literally could not have been published if image reproduction fees had been what they are today. It is to be hoped that the V & A's example will start a trend -- and one can be sure that the amount of income forgone will be minimal.

Note, however, that while the precedent is excellent, the new policy covers digitized images only.

Maxentius' imperial standards unearthed in Rome

A truly amazing discovery on the Palatine:

Archaeologists have unearthed what they say are the only existing imperial insignia belonging to Emperor Maxentius - precious objects that were buried to preserve them and keep them from enemies when he was defeated by his rival Constantine.

In fact, the only pieces of Roman imperial regalia of any emperor to survive -- as far as I know.

Excavation under Rome's Palatine Hill near the Colosseum turned up items including three lances and four javelins that experts said are striking for their completeness - digs usually turn up only fragments - and the fact that they are the only known artifacts of their kind.

Some of the objects, which accompanied the emperor during his public appearances, are believed to be the base for the emperor's standards - rectangular or triangular flags, officials said.

An imperial scepter with a carved flower and a globe, and a number of glass spheres, believed to be a symbolic representation of the earth, also were discovered. . .

The items, inside wooden boxes and wrapped in linen and silk, were found buried at a sanctuary last year and have since been restored and analyzed. The depth of the burial allows experts to date them to the early 4th century A.D., ministry officials said.

From the Guardian.