All posts now transferred to this blog

Thanks to the expertise of my son, all articles posted since 2004 on the previous blog (that’s more than 2,500 articles) have been transferred to this WordPress blog.

The old blog will probably stay on line for a while, to give time for search engines to pick up the new location.

Astra project website

http://www.astraproject.org/download.html

Computer-modelling project recreates sounds of ancient Greek harp

New Kerala

Washington, September 4 : A new computer-modelling project has been successful in recreating the sound of the harp-like Epigonion musical instrument from Ancient Greece.

Researchers associated with the project named ASTRA (Ancient instruments Sound/Timbre Reconstruction Application) say that they have even performed one of the oldest known musical scores dating back to the Middle Ages.

The experts say that they achieved this fate by using the advanced GEANT2 and EUMEDCONNECT research networks to link high capacity computers together, and thereby sharing information to enable the computer-intensive modelling of musical sounds.

According to them, the knowledge of the Epigonion musical instrument, dating back from the Ancient Greek era, is based on archaeological findings, historical pictures and literature.

The researchers say that they transformed this archaeological data by a complex digital audio rendering technique to model the actual sound of the instrument, which created a virtual model of the instrument and reproduced the sound that the instrument might have made by simulating its behaviour as a mechanical system.

The Epigonion is a wooden string instrument that musicians have likened the sound to something similar to a modern harp or a harpsichord.

The ASTRA team say that they have thus far been successful in compiling the sounds of four Epigonion instruments to recreate a medieval musical piece.

They claim that it was all due to their efforts that these instruments have been heard performing together.

“This is an exciting project for us and for musicians and historians around the world. For the first time we can actually hear the musical sounds of the past, using modelling techniques rather than guesswork. Recreating the sound of the Epigonion instrument and the compilation of this musical piece is a great achievement and is the first step towards our goal of constructing a full orchestra in the future,” says Professor De Mattia, Director of the Conservatory of Music of Salerno and Co-ordinator of the ASTRA project.

“The combination of the high speed GeANT2 and EUMEDCONNECT networks and grid computing infrastructures provide the immense computing power vital for this exciting project. Previously the amount of computing power needed to recreate ancient music was unobtainable, but the use of high capacity research networks provides us with the ability to turn our research into reality,” says Dr La Rocca, Co-ordinator of ASTRA gridification.The physical modelling process needs extreme amounts of computing power, and it takes about four hours for a high-powered computer to correctly reproduce a sound lasting only 30 seconds.

To bring together sufficient power and to share information the ASTRA project is using the GILDA and EUMEDGRID grid computing infrastructures, which link computing resources across the Mediterranean at high speed (up to 2.5 Gbps) through the GeANT2 and EUMEDCONNECT research networks.

“The success of the ASTRA project demonstrates how high speed networking technology can underpin research collaboration across a wide range of subjects and allow the academic world to work together across multiple locations. This unique project is delivering a fascinating glimpse into the music of the past for the benefit of the students and researchers of today - we look forward to hearing more music as ASTRA develops,” said Dai Davies, General Manager, DANTE.

As regards the benefits of the collaborative approach used in this project, the researchers say that ASTRA not only makes it possible to recreate instruments that previously would have been either too expensive or too difficult to manufacture by hand, but it also allows any model and its associated data to be accessed by the collaborators.

They say that the research data can thus be shared around the world, making it a truly international project of immense value to working archaeologists and historians.

Introductory 3-hour Latin class in Phillipsburg

Warren Reporter

PHILLIPSBURG — Students at Saints Philip and James School geared up for the new school year by studying the classic language of Latin. Instead of enjoying the last hot and hazy days of summer right before the official start of school, students entered the classroom to participate in a three-hour Latin class.

“As Catholic educators, it is our mission to help each child reach his or her greatest potential both spiritually and academically. Offering Latin introduces our children to the connectivity of the romance languages,” said Principal Judy Francisco. “Hopefully this will inspire them to continue the study of foreign languages. Also, as they study the history of the Church, it will be exciting for them to recognize the Latin parts of the Mass.”

With only one week left of summer vacation, students opted to attend the class to jump-start the learning process. During the class, students were introduced to Latin spelling, vocabulary, and explored the similarities between English and Latin.

They also practiced numbers and played math games, all while speaking Latin.  “Latin helps students to increase their English vocabulary and develop grammar skills necessary for conversation and creative writing skills.  The language mechanics learned through Latin enable students to pick up foreign languages easily, as Latin is the basis for 5 foreign languages - French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish,” said their teacher, Donna Butler, the Latin teacher at Gill St. Bernard’s School in Gladstone, and former Latin and Spanish teacher at All Saints Regional School (now Saints Philip and James School). Butler returned to her roots to teach the introductory three-hour class.

Besides the traditional Latin grammar and vocabulary lessons, students were also treated to stories of the Roman Empire and ancient Roman civilization.  “The culture of the Romans is exciting and interesting. Much of the architecture in the United States, and even our form of government, derives directly from the Roman Empire”, said Butler. “Latin has become increasingly popular due to the increased emphasis on grammar study in the U.S. I applaud Saints Philip and James School for their genuine interest in increasing the academic abilities of their students.”

Saints Philip and James School is a Catholic private co-educational school for students grades pre-K through 8. For more information about the school, call (908) 859-1244.

Arbeia children’s day

The Shields Gazette

CHILDREN from South Tyneside have been bobbing and weaving at a Roman fort.

The youngsters were shown how the Romans used to do their weaving by staff at Arbeia in South Shields.

The children made friendship bracelets, as well as being taught about this part of Roman life.

About 50 children attended the free event, organised by Tyne and Wear museums. Alexandra Vent, gallery interpreter at Arbeia, said: “It was hugely successful.

“The children enjoyed it, along with the parents and grandparents.”

Cavalry tombstone returning to Lancaster City Museum

Lakeland Echo

A NATIONALLY important Roman tombstone discovered in Lancaster will be returning to the city next month.

The memorial for a Roman soldier is due to arrive at Lancaster City Museum on October 12 after months of conservation work in Preston.

Discovered during an excavation in Aldcliffe Road in 2005, the giant tombstone is thought to be in memory of Lucius Nisus Vodullius, a trooper in a Roman army. It depicts a figure on horseback decapitating a man.

A window will have to be removed from the rear of the City Museum to allow the tombstone to be craned into the upstairs gallery.

The tombstone is likely to be on view to the public about a week after its installation and is expected to be a popular draw for historians and visitors alike.

The museum has received a £5,000 grant to improve the displays around the tombstone which should take a few months to complete.

Northampton Roman villa may be inearthed

Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Experts believe the remains of a Roman villa could be unearthed if a housing development in Northampton is allowed to be built.

The London-based Paddington Churches Housing Association has applied to build 108 new homes on wasteland in Booth Rise, Boothville.

In documents submitted with the group’s plans for the land, experts from the Museum of London Archaeology service have said further evidence of a villa originally found during the 1930s could be unearthed.

The group’s report said: “A Roman villa has been identified directly to the south of the site along with a potentially related settlement to the north.

“As such there is high potential for the survival of Roman remains on the site.

“Such remains could include parts of the villa itself, such as masonry walls or tessellated pavements, ancillary masonry or timber buildings. They would be of local or regional significance depending on their nature.”

The remains of a Roman villa were found about 400ft away from the site during a previous excavation in 1938.

Stone walls, a mosaic floor, fragments of a skull, pieces of Roman pottery and Roman coins have also been found in the area.

Documents submitted to the West Northamptonshire Development Corporation (WNDC) by the Paddington Church Housing Association have said it is likely that any archaeological remains found within the site would be carefully removed.

The company has applied to build 96 houses and 12 flats on the site.

The plans will be considered by both Northampton Borough Council and the WNDC, but the WNDC will have the final say on whether the scheme should get the go-ahead.

A public meeting to discuss the plans has been organised by the Boothville Residents’ Association for Tuesday, September 9, from 7.30pm at the Boothville Community Centre in Booth Lane North.

Review: Attila the Hun by Christopher Kelly

I know it’s way wide of any Classical syllabus, but this review in the Telegraph makes the book look a good read.

The lastest ‘iris’ magazine

The seventh issue of Iris magazine is out this September. This issue
looks at re-interpretations of the Classics in contemporary art, theatre and
literature, and includes:

• Iris author interview special: Richard Adams, author of Watership Down and Lindsey Davis, author of the ‘Falco’ novels
• The Many Lives of Venus de Milo: Classical Sculpture and contemporary art
• Re-inventing the Classics: Science Fiction and the Classical world
• Someone Else’s Dream: Magical Realism, Latin America and Classical literature
• Colouring-in the Ancient World: The Classics and contemporary race relations
• Travelogue: a weekend in Florence

It also includes
articles and features on outreach projects, news and reviews, quizzes
and puzzles, a what’s on section, translations and fiction, advice and
more…

The magazine is available to order through the website at www.irismagazine.org.
Iris magazine is part of The Iris Project, an educational charity
promoting Classics in state schools and inner cities, and half of all
copies printed are sent free to state schools which do not offer any
Classical subjects.

best wishes,

Lorna.

Single sex boys’ school opened in Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA – Calling all ninth-grade boys! Raise your hand if this school sounds like fun: wearing jackets and ties every day, staying until 5 p.m., learning Latin and – to top it all off – no girls.

Who’s in?

Turns out, about 270 boys. And 100 more are on a waiting list.

Boys’ Latin of Philadelphia, one of the city’s newer charter schools, began its second year on Wednesday, aiming to be an educational beacon in the financially and academically troubled district. But because it is a single-sex public school - one of four in the city - Boys’ Latin faced
huge opposition and almost didn’t exist.

Critics contend it’s unfair for taxpayers to fund a prep school curriculum for boys only. Supporters say Boys’ Latin is desperately needed in a city where 45 percent of students drop out and male academic achievement badly lags behindthat of females.

“Obviously something had to be done differently to engage these young men and prepare them for graduation, and for success beyond high school graduation,” said David Hardy, Boys’ Latin co-founder and acting principal.

The Women’s Law Project and the
American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania had opposed Hardy’s charter application based on its exclusion of girls. It was initially rejected by Philadelphia school officials in January 2006, but was
approved five months later after then-district CEO Paul Vallas called the gender achievement gap “a crisis.” Boys’ Latin opened in fall 2007.

New rules implemented by the U.S. Education Department in 2006 allow same-sex education whenever schools think it will expand the diversity of courses, improve students’ achievement or
meet their individual needs.

But ACLU attorney Mary Catherine Roper said those regulations conflict with the Constitution and Title IX, a federal law banning sex discrimination in education.

There are nonexclusionary ways to improve education, such as decreasing class sizes , she noted.

“There is no justification for offering kids different opportunities based on their gender,” said Roper.

The 167,000-student Philadelphia district, which is under state supervision for poor performance, has tried to improve by establishing charter schools, hiring private companies and universities to manage schools, and offering single-sex education.

Results have been mixed. Three months ago, the district took six schools away from private and university managers for failure to improve sufficiently, including all-boys FitzSimons High School, which had been run by Victory Schools.

Four percent of FitzSimons’ 11th graders were proficient or higher in math, and 10 percent were proficient or higher in reading on last year’s state standardized tests. FitzSimons was also labeled a “persistently dangerous” school by the state this year.

The district did renew Victory’s contract for all-girls Rhodes High School. In reading, 14.7 percent of juniors were proficient or higher, 3 percent proficient or higher in math.

A district spokeswoman declined to comment and said new district CEO Arlene Ackerman was not available.

There are at least 442 public schools in the U.S. with single-sex educational opportunities, according to the Exton-based National Association for Single Sex Public Education. Most of those are coed schools offering single-sex classrooms.

Asking if single-sex education is good is like asking if coed education is good, said Leonard Sax, the association’s executive director.

“It’s a very diffuse and not very meaningful question,” Sax said. “There are different rationales for single-sex education and different track records.”

Juniors at the city’s public High School for Girls, which has been single-sex
since its founding in 1848, scored 79.3 percent proficient or higher in math and 85.3 percent proficient or better in reading. Hardy noted that no one has suggested making t hat school coed.

Peter Kuriloff, research director at the Center for the Study of Boys’ and Girls’ Lives at the University of Pennsylvania, thinks single-sex classrooms are worth trying in some cases if paired with a strong curriculum.

“It is not a panacea,” said Kuriloff. “Just putting boys in a boys school and girls in a girls school is not going to do anything.”

Richard Cherry Sr. said he sent his son, Richard Jr., to Boys’ Latin because of the smaller class sizes and personal attention. He feared his son would get “lost in the system” at district high schools that he described as chaotic and sometimes violent.

Omar Ortiz, 14, a freshman at Boys’ Latin, said he wasn’t sure about the no-girls part at first. But then he realized he’d be too shy to read a report aloud in his old coed public school.

“I don’t have to be shy here because it’s all guys,” Ortiz said.

His mother, Lydia Hernandez Velez, 57, said she has no qualms sending her son to the school - even though it was not an option for her daughter.

“They’re not the same,” Velez said. “Their needs are different at different times of their lives.”

Boys’ Latin, which opened in trailers with only ninth-graders, now teaches freshmen and sophomores in a renovated former Catholic school. It will add a grade each year until it has grades nine through 12.

Hardy, 57, said boys need a strict academic focus to prevent complaining about missing girls - and Latin is it. Unlike the famous Boston Latin School, which requires an entrance exam, Hardy’s school is first come, first served. But don’t be fooled by the easy admission, he said.

“It’s not for everybody,” Hardy said. “We make that real clear.”