Whats Happening!! Sep 14, 2010 - Founded in the 1980's, by long-term San Francisco residents Hugh and Melba Meakin, Horses in California, Inc, is a non-profit organization ...

Sep 14, 2010 - Founded in the 1980's, by long-term San Francisco residents Hugh andMelba Meakin, Horses in California, Inc, is a non-profit organization ...
UAE Wins Endurance Team Gold; Only One US Rider Completes Race

September 27, 2010 By: Erin Category: What's Happenin'

Sidelines doesn’t normally cover endurance, but anyone who completes -or even attempts to complete- a 100 mile ride in just 8 hours deserves our attention! The press release and photos below are courtesy of USEF and the FEI. A special congratulations to Deborah Reich, the only US rider who completed the race, proving once again that endurance racing is HARD!

Deborah Reich and DJB Juniper. Photo by Shannon Brinkman for USEF.

by Erica Larson for USEF

Lexington, KY – The endurance race at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games kicked off at 7:30 a.m. on Sunday as 108 horse-and-rider combinations headed out on the six-loop track, all hoping to be the first to finish at the end of the day.  The day started out cool and breezy but ended up being perfect weather for an endurance competition.

Five U.S. endurance combinations started the race. However, two of them – Lindsay Graham’s horse, Monk (an eight-year-old Arabian gelding owned by Chris Martin), and Dr. Margaret Sleeper’s horse, Syrocco Harmony (an eight-year-old Arabian gelding), were eliminated for metabolic reasons.  Janice Worthington’s Golden Lightning (a 10-year-old Arabian gelding) was eliminated due to lameness.

The sole finisher for the U.S. was Deborah Reich and her mare eight-year-old Arabian mare, DJB Juniper.  Originally the team alternate, the pair finished the race in 8 hours, 42 minutes and 55 seconds, finishing in 18th place.

“We were in the front groups for about the first half,” Reich said. “She got a little tired on the fifth loop.  But then she was crewed so well that I think she got a second wind and finished the race really strong.”

After being named to the team, Reich trained in Kentucky for a month before the Games. This was Reich’s first World Equestrian Games.

“It was really special to be able to ride here in Kentucky, and I really got to appreciate the beauty of it.  It’s been great to work as a team,” she said. “I am honored to have been picked.  I really believed that I had a horse that could help our team.”

Heather Reynolds and Ssamiam crossed the finish line in fourth place, but were spun after “Sam” did not pass the final examination.

“If this were a horse I expected to come here and do great things with, I would probably be crying right now,” Reynolds said after her ride. “But this is a young horse.  I’m so proud of him right now, and I think he’s an exciting horse for the future.”

Monday morning, after the test of the endurance race, all of the horses were examined and all of the U.S. horses were found to be in good shape. The riders are looking forward to their next race.

Spanish rider Maria Mercedes Alvarez Ponton won her second consecutive WEG gold medal riding Nobby. Photo by Kit Houghton/FEI

Taking home the Individual Gold medal wasMaria Mercedes Alvarez Ponton of Spain and her long time partner, Nobby.  The pair led through much of the day and crossed the finish line with a total ride time of 7 hours, 35 minutes and 44 seconds.  This is the second consecutive WEG Gold Medal for the pair.

For me, he is the best horse,” she said after her ride.  “He has a great heart and recovery time, but what won the race today was his mind.  He has a great mind.”

Finishing just behind them in the Silver-medal position was HH Sheik Mohammad bin Rashid al Maktoum and his flashy chestnut, Ciel Oriental of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).  The pair finished the course with a total ride time of 7 hours, 36 minutes and 39 seconds.

“I had a great ride,” the Sheik said. “I just took care of my horse and he finished the race strong.”

Finally, in the Individual Bronze-medal position was HE Sheik Hamdan Mohammad al Maktoum and SAS Alexis (UAE).  The pair hustled at the end to complete the course in 7 hours, 36 minutes and 56 seconds.

In the Team competition, the riders from the UAE had the fastest total time and took home the Team Gold medal.  The total ride time was 23 hours, 53 minutes and 36 seconds for the team members were HE Sheik Hamdan Mohammad al Maktoum aboard SAS Alexis, HE Sheik Majid Mohammad al Maktoum aboard Kangoo D’Aurabelle and Sheik Rashid Dalmook al Maktoum aboard Rukban Dikruhu Mmn.

The Team Silver medal was awarded to France with a total time of 24 hours, 49 minutes and 46 seconds.  The team was made up of Sarah Chakil aboard Sakalia, Virginie Atger aboard Azim du Florival and Cecile Miletto Mosti aboard Easy Fortnoire.

Team Germany rallied near the end to take home the Bronze medal.  With a total ride time of 25 hours, 34 minutes and 16 seconds, the team was comprised of Gabriela Forster aboard Priceless Gold, Sabrina Arnold aboard Beau Ox and Belinda Hitzler aboard Shagar.

Only five horses were presented at the judging for the coveted title of Best Conditioned Horse this morning.  After inspecting the competitors, the judges decided that Hanaba du Bois, ridden by Jean-Philippe Frances from France, would be awarded the title.

Start of the endurance with the eventual winner Maria Mercedes Alvarez Ponton and Nobby in blue at the front. Photo by Kit Houghton/FEI

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USA Team Wins Third Consecutive Gold Medal at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games™

September 27, 2010 By: Erin Category: What's Happenin'

Shawn Flarida (USA) captured the individual first place ranking on RC Fancy Step at the Reining World Championships presented by John Deere at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.

The USA team captured its third straight gold medal Sunday, this time on home turf.  The Reining World Championships were presented by John Deere in the Alltech Arena as part of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Lexington, Kentucky, USA.

The Belgium team medaled in reining for the first time and took silver.

Italy, on the medal stand for the third time in World Equestrian Games’ history, secured third place.

Final Results- Reining

Individual – 1, RC Fancy Step (Shawn Flarida) USA 227.0; 2, Yellow Jersey (Stefano Massignan) ITA; Gunners Special Nite (Tom McCutcheon) USA, 224.0; 4, Mister Montana Nic (Craig Schmersal) USA; BA Reckless Chick (Bernard Fonck) BEL 223.5.

Teams – 1, USA  674.5; 2, Belgium 659.0; 3, Italy 655.5; 4, Austria 635.5; 5, Canada 652.5.

FULL RESULTS at www.alltechfeigames.com/results

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Mary Lou Harrington Ross

September 14, 2010 By: Erin Category: What's Happenin'

Mary Lou, 56, passed from this life on Sunday, September 5 at home in Dallas after a long struggle with COPD. She leaves behind her husband, Gregory Ross, of Santa Fe, New Mexico; niece, Emily Eikenburg and partner April Miller of Dallas; sister Constance Harrington Coolik of Plano and aunt Mary Alice Phillips of Dallas. She was preceded in death by her mother, Kitty Mattison Harrington, father Conner Harrington, mayor of Plano at his death in 1970; and, cousin Laurel Sage Harrington Morris.  She was the grand daughter of the late Gladys Bishop Haggard Harrington of Plano.

She also leaves first cousins Cynthia Harrington (Dan) and Laurel Hunter Harrington Morris of Blue Ridge, Fred Joseph Harrington of Plano, Dr. Jim Blalock (Debbie) of Oklahoma City, Dr. Bob Blalock (Claudia) of Dallas, and a host of dear and lifelong friends.

Mary Lou was a sixth generation resident of Plano, Texas and was witness to and a significant part of its history.  She was an active in government and civic affairs, having been on the board of directors of the Crisis Center of Collin County, Live From Plano, Plano Junior League and various other groups and organizations. She was a member of the Ladies Polo Auxiliary of Texas.

Mary Lou was instrumental in recruiting J.C. Penney’s to move its headquarters from New York City to Plano.  “Ya’ll come, and bring your momma and papa and cousins too” was the cry. Penney’s move was much talked about in the New York press and Mary Lou and a group of Plano supporters descended upon the city, making public appearances and sparring with radio disc jockeys, selling New Yorkers on Plano Texas.

That Boz Scaggs, of Plano, babysat her portended the rock and roll life that Mary Lou would have.  She was married to Steve Miller’s personal assistant, traveled with the Steve Miller Band for years and personally knew many musicians of the 70’s and 80’s. Steve McCarty, who co-wrote Fly Like an Eagle and Wild Mountain Honey will perform at her Santa Fe Celebration of Life.

Mary Lou retired from real estate development to Santa Fe, New Mexico where she and her attorney husband Gregory were active in the artistic, equestrian and legal communities.  She was equally at ease in the boardroom and the kitchen.  She was renowned for her hospitality and was every inch the consummate Texas lady – strong yet graceful, loving and welcoming.  Her annual Governor’s Cup polo party

and New Years Day black eyed pea brunches were not to be missed.  She would prepare for weeks for hunt breakfasts in the field for the Juan Tomas Hounds.  Mary Lou exuded love, caring and kindness.

A celebration of her life will be held in Santa Fe on September 19.  A memorial will be held at the First Christian Church of Plano on October 2, 2010 at 10:30 a.m.  Her ashes will be interred in Plano Mutual Cemetery.

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INTERNATIONAL EQUESTRIAN FESTIVAL EVENT PREVIEW

September 02, 2010 By: Erin Category: What's Happenin'

Festival ramps up for its opening day September 25, 2010

Lexington, KY (August 30, 2010) – In the spirit of the proud tradition established by previous host cities, the International Equestrian Festival welcomes visitors to downtown Lexington for a celebration worthy of the “Horse Capital of the World.” The Festival, which takes place at the Lexington Convention Center September 25 – October 10, offers something for everyone – from the experienced equestrian to the casual observer.   Tickets are available at the door – $5 for a one-day pass, or $8 for multi-day pass.

EVENT HIGHLIGHTS

The International Equestrian Festival, presented by HRTV, will be bustling with activity from 1 p.m. – 9 p.m. daily.                 .

• International Shopping Expo of more than 200 exhibitors
• Hollywood Casino Hospitality Atrium
• Ecotrack Park horse demonstrations
• Educational seminars
• Horse breed and association appreciation days and demonstrations
• Equestrian celebrities including Clinician Julie Goodnight, Monty Roberts,

Mark Peterson & Dusty, Biomechanics Expert Colleen Kelly, Trainer Rex

Peterson, Singer & Songwriter Templeton Thompson.

Please visit www.internationalequestrianfestival.com for a complete schedule of events.

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Jay Matter

August 27, 2010 By: Erin Category: What's Happenin'

Horse people, it’s time to rally ’round a member of our herd. As many of you know, Jay Matter passed away last week, shortly after being diagnosed with liver cancer. No services are being held for Jay at this time. Rather, Dee would like to invite all of Jay’s many friends to a celebration of his life, which will be held in Wellington in early to mid-December. Entertainment, food and beverages have already been donated, just bring yourselves and your best Jay stories.

Many of you have asked what you can do for Dee right now. An account has been established to provide Dee financial stability during this transitional period. Any amount you would like to contribute would be greatly appreciated. On Dee’s behalf, I’d like to thank you for your kindness & support!

Checks can be made out to “Jocelyn Dee Thomas”, with
Account # 1010297597713 in the memo line, and mailed to:
Wachovia Bank at Wellington East Store
11900 Forest Hill Blvd.
Wellington, FL 33414

If you have any questions about the account, please contact:
Janine Lyons from Wachovia Bank @ 561.838.5361 or
Mary Moricoli @ 561.676.6719 or
Anne Madej @ 847.612.8363

-Kim Tudor

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HORSES IN CALIFORNIA INC. PRESENTS 26TH ANNUAL POLO IN THE PARK

August 27, 2010 By: Erin Category: What's Happenin'

Proceeds Benefit James S. Brady Therapeutic Riding Program For Children with Special Needs

San Francisco, Calif. — September 1, 2010 — Horses in California, Inc. a non-profit organization dedicated to uniting San Francisco through horses and horse-related events is proud to announce their annual Polo in the Park, the Bay Area’s premier charity polo event benefiting the James S. Brady Therapeutic Riding Program (JBTRP). This year’s event will take place Sunday, September 26^th from 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm at the Bercut Equitation Field in Golden Gate Park.

“The James S. Brady Therapeutic Riding Program has brought over 400 mentally or physically challenged children the opportunity to gain a love and respect for animals, better self-confidence, improved social skills, increased joint mobility and enhanced neural development,” said Melba Meakin, Founder of Horses in California, Inc. “San Francisco has a long and prestigious equestrian history that has become critically endangered of disappearing over the past ten years. Horses in California is dedicated to keeping this tradition alive with our annual Polo in the Park event benefiting the JBTRP.”

Now in its 26^th year, Polo in the Park brings together local polo players to vie for the Eric Pedley Perpetual Trophy. Polo in the Park will feature an arena polo tournament. Arena polo is similar to field polo but played in an enclosed field with a softer ball and allows spectators to get even closer to all the action.

In addition to polo, many activities will take place throughout the day for the whole family to enjoy. These events will include:

• English High-Tea Service: Enjoy scrumptious tea sandwiches, scones, sweet treats and English teas sponsored by Tal-y-Tara Tea and Polo Shoppe.
• Raffle Drawings
• Fashion Show By Wee Scotty: Featuring fashions for the holidays for girls ages 2 to 16, including prom wear.
• Live Musical Performances
• Wine Tasting: Exquisite wines from California are available for tasting.
• Horse Shows and Exhibition Show Jumping

“The emotional and spiritual benefits of horseback riding are profound and become self-evident when you witness a child experiencing the joy of horses for the very first time,” said Sarah Meakin, Executive Director of the James S. Brady Therapeutic Riding Program.

Tickets for Polo in the Park are $100 per person or $700 for a table of eight. Children ages 12 and under free. All proceeds benefit the James S. Brady Therapeutic Riding Program. For more information and to purchase tickets visit http://www.sfpolointhepark.com

About Horses in California, Inc.

Founded in the 1980’s, by long-term San Francisco residents Hugh and Melba Meakin, Horses in California, Inc, is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing equestrian-related arts, events, and physical wellness to disadvantaged and special needs children throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. It operates the James S. Brady Therapeutic Riding Program and hosts the annual Polo in the Park charity event.

About the James S. Brady Therapeutic Riding Program

The James S. Brady Therapeutic Riding Program for children with autism and other special needs is the main beneficiary of Polo in the Park, and provides children in the San Francisco Bay Area with horsemanship and horseback riding lessons as a physical or social therapy alternative. The “Brady Program” has helped over 400 mentally or physically challenged children under the direction of personnel who have been certified and insured by the Equine Associated Growth and Learning Association. The organization uses specially trained Norwegian Fiord therapy horses at weekly lessons in Bercut Equitation Field, Golden Gate Park San Francisco.

The “Brady Program” has received a Certificate of Recognition from the California Legislature Assembly and Award of Honor from the City and County of San Francisco.

For More Information Contact:

Michelle Reingold

Cell: (650) 281-5866

Email: mbreingold@gmail.com

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New book out soon about legendary show jumper Snowman!

August 18, 2010 By: Erin Category: What's Happenin'

Lecture: “The Eighty Dollar Champion: A Horse, a Man, and the Dream That Inspired a Nation,” Elizabeth Letts and Harry de Leyer, Friday, August 27, 2 p.m., National Sporting Library & Museum, 102 The Plains Rd., Middleburg, Va.  20117,http://www.nsl.org/eletts.html

Free, RSVP to Elizabeth Tobey, 540-687-6542 x 11 or etobey@nsl.org.

Author Elizabeth Letts, of Chadds Ford, Pa., and horse rider and trainer Harry de Leyer of Charlottesville, Va., will give an informal roundtable discussion about Snowman, the $80 horse that became a national champion show jumper in the 1950’s. This free program will be held at the National Sporting Library & Museum in Middleburg, Va., on Friday, August 27 at 2 p.m. For more information, visit www.nsl.org.

The beloved show jumper is now the subject of a full-length book, “The Eighty Dollar Champion,” by Elizabeth Letts, forthcoming from Ballantine Books this summer. The book, based in part, on Letts’ research as a John H. Daniels Fellow at the National Sporting Library & Museum, is a celebration of Snowman and an exploration of the factors and forces that shaped the sport of show jumping in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, a time that some refer to as The Golden Age of Show Jumping. The Daniels Fellowship sponsors scholars and researchers working on projects related to the Library’s collections on horse and field sports. The lecture is part of the Library’s Fellows’ Roundtable series where Daniels Fellows discuss their research-in-progress.

In February 1956, Harry de Leyer arrived late at the auction in New Holland, Pa.  He had gone there to look for a quiet school horse for his pupils. When he arrived there were only a few stragglers left– horses that had already been loaded onto the truck bound for the slaughterhouse.  Something about one horse caught his eye and he asked the driver to unload that horse so he could take a closer look.  The big gray was dirty, thin, and missing a shoe, but de Leyer paid $80 dollars for him.  Maybe with a bit of luck, the gray would clean up and make a good lesson horse. When he got the horse home, de Leyer discovered that the horse had a gift– he was a natural born jumper.  Eighteen months later, the pair stood under the spotlights at Madison Square Garden: Snowman had captured the National Open Jumper Championship and, along the way, stolen the hearts of people across America.  Now famous, the ex-plowhorse became the subject of two children’s books, appeared on the Johnny Carson show, and toured both Europe and the United States giving exhibitions.

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“Let’s Make WEG 2010 Our Aachen”

August 13, 2010 By: Erin Category: What's Happenin'

by Chris Kappler

Last month I flew to Europe on business. Upon landing, I realized the Grand Prix of Aachen would take place that very day. I happily rescheduled my first appointment so I could see the “Grosse Priz von Aachen”.

I have ridden at Aachen many times, and it is an overwhelming competitive experience. In fact, comparing the thrill of an Olympic gold medal or the Aachen Grand Prix win, most riders would be given pause. What makes Aachen such a unique sporting event?

I jumped into my rental car and arrived early, around 10:30am. Crowds were already making their way into the show. Although I could have gotten rider’s credentials, I decided to experience Aachen as a spectator, not a rider. I went to the ticket counter to buy seats, but of course, the box office was closed since they are always sold out on Grand Prix Sunday. I was lucky to find someone selling a pair of front row seats and gladly paid the scalper’s price!

The first class started at 12:30 with 40 entries in a 1.45 speed competition–   just a teaser for the great class to come. At Aachen, all the riders bring their “A game”, which makes for great watching. Still, I made time to tour the many shops and food stands. By now, it was “standing room only”. I could hardly move about among the nearly 50,000 people. Back in the show ring, the first round ended with 20 clear rounds returning for a jump-off. To the vast crowd’s delight, the dressage and driving champions for the week were brought into the main arena while the jumper course was set and walked. Prizes were awarded with victory parades around the ring. I was astounded by the crowd’s deafening reaction to the presentation!

The course designer, Frank Rothenberger, built a real jumping contest for the second round. This most difficult test produced only 4 additional clear rounds allowing a jump off between four of the fiercest competitors in show jumping. The result? Number one on the world ranking list, Eric Lamaze and his wonderful stallion Hickstead won, and number two in the world, Pius Switzer finished second!! No one needed wonder how they had achieved their world rankings!

At the conclusion of the Grand Prix, no one left the stands. At most events I attend, people scurry away like rats on a sinking ship. At Aachen, the crowd stayed to cheer for the awards ceremony and the parade of teams right to the end. I felt like I was in the middle of a patriotic rally, a send-off of the German teams to the World Equestrian Games with the nation’s great hopes, honor, and pride. All the German Federation was there, including past International champions, to support their riders at this important moment. Anyone would have been proud to be a German equestrian that day!

I can’t think of a show in America that comes close to what Aachen can produce in every way. I don’t want to pick on America, since no country in the world can reproduce the rich history, pride and competitive atmosphere that Aachen does. We can, however, significantly improve our events in America in the many areas I experienced as an Aachen spectator. We can begin with American spectator attendance at WEG this October.

According to the local Lexington newspaper, only 260,000 of the available 600,000 seats at WEG 2010 have been sold. Approximately 100,000 of those seats were actually given away to sponsors and guests of the WEG. How can only 140,000 tickets be sold despite all the years of planning and promoting the WEG? How can an important World Championship be so poorly attended by its host country? The Games cannot have meaning and importance without an enthusiastic audience.

Please come support our American teams! The plans and improvements have been spectacular. What location could be more beautiful than the Blue Grass State in October? Tickets have sounded very exclusive, but in fact they are still available and the price has recently been reduced! Hotels vacancies remain, and with a little searching you can find something not too expensive. I plan to stay near Cincinnati, a mere 60 miles away. The original pain-in-the neck-parking situation has been resolved with convenient on-grounds parking a short walk from the competition areas. Three great reasons to get your plans organized now!

American riders in every discipline need and want your encouragement. That’s why the German people go to Aachen—to cheer on their team against the best competitors in the world. WEG is American horsemen’s chance to take part in a spectacle that brings the best riders in the world together as we cheer our American teams on to great success. Let’s dig in, make every effort possible, and encourage everyone to buy tickets. We Americans can make the Kentucky World Games our Aachen in 2010!

Courtesy of North American Riders Group www.narg.org

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Feds round up more than 100 mustangs along CA-NV border

August 12, 2010 By: Erin Category: What's Happenin'

(AP) – 23 hours ago

RENO, Nev. — Federal land managers have captured more than 100 wild horses a day after an appellate court refused to stop the mustang roundup along the California-Nevada border.

The Bureau of Land Management District Manager Nancy Haug says 119 animals gathered Wednesday were reported to be in good health. The roundup of about 2,000 wild horses is expected to last at least a month.

Horse protection advocates had sought an emergency injunction for the roundup. In Defense of Animals argued the horses have more legal right to the public range than the thousands of livestock grazing there.

The BLM says the overpopulated mustang herds about 120 miles north of Reno are damaging public rangeland and threatening their own well being.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the advocates’ request Tuesday night.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Flintfields Horse Park to Host Great American Insurance Group/USDF Region 2 Dressage Championships

August 12, 2010 By: Erin Category: What's Happenin'

Written by: Phelps Media Group, Inc.
Client: Horse Sports by the Bay, Inc.
Release Date: 2010-08-10

Traverse City, MI – August 10, 2010 – After hosting four very successful weeks of hunter, jumper and dressage competition in July, Horse Sports by the Bay, Inc. is now preparing for an exciting September show at the beautiful Flintfields Horse Park. The Great American Insurance Group/USDF Region 2 Dressage Championships are just five weeks away and counting. The following information will be helpful as the countdown continues to the first horse trotting down center line on September 9.

* This weekend is the last chance to qualify – Please mail entries to Monica Fitzgerald – 7 Aragon Lane – Maggie Valley, NC 28751

* Golf carts are available to rent from Grand Bay Golf Cars at 231-941-7220 or 231-218-2837. Rent in advance to receive a $25 discount. There will be special weekly and daily rental rates on two and four car passenger cars in a limited supply.

* The Dessage4Kids Charity Fundraiser and Exhibitor Party will be held on Saturday, September 11 at 5:00 p.m. in the Grand Prix Arena Pavilion. Tickets are $5 in advance (on entry blank or via email) or $10 at check-in.

Judges include Hilda Gurney, Sandra Hotz, Joan Maccartney, Susan Malone-Casey, Anita Owen, R. Scott Peterson, Debbie Riehl-Rodrigues, and Gary Rockwell. Janine Malone and Susan Moran will be serving as the USEF Technical Delegates.

The Championships will be held in conjunction with the Dressage by the Bay Fall Classic, which offers a full schedule of classes ranging from Training through Grand Prix Level.   Riders winning blue ribbons will receive wonderful first place prizes including gift certificates to a one-year Sidelines Magazine subscription.

Have any questions? Email Dressage@horsesportsbythebay.com for more information or visitwww.horseshowsbythebay.com.

The Bohemian Stilts!

Feast on the special shore of the singing majesty of the truth in a perfect stride to the doors of still sing,

grace be that fracture to whom still plugs path on ground,

may the voice of warmth cator the loss to this I sing with your travel on earth of love,

it is the language of magic to the ears I cannot speak,

might this visible only in the theme!!

Feeling the list of crowded by bed??,

is the war on the worry stopped in the sigh??,

or is the fret that guitars continue to play to those sides??

Shed not those cheeks of smiling shredded as that is the hugs that will bring to more than sky,

foster not a kid be of the family on letter,

written in the formal place of knowing,

I sing back to the stuck a measure of glides that harpists only dream,

the reality is lives are truly compassing!!

As sew eloquence to that stage,

it is in the inch that only an exit would stair??,

each thought to memorized in memory of every spine,

fill this vista of the between to counting every each independent communication,

sway I to state of the wheat so that my every action will describe those that I shield,

it is The Force in I that day to now on the Grand Canyon of Ancients that once taught me Sing!!

In this private note to those that stork the lock on lossed,

be found,

beyond this Pane Window more to the shores of alive,

galaxies on the scene to the Universe of such lived,

across the Milky Way listen??,

no hear it is the wait that makes today the great to this fantastic fan mail,

for not all drink that glass of gone,

some chose to stay??,

no,

the choice was to LIVE!!

Be bright to each form of wonder as it is the life of so Storm,

in the breeze may you see the zone of just a feather in a shadows description,

for in silents its the grace that makes each thought the name of simple delight,

for many Heron gravely creams have been forgotten, left to the tend of people just bomb,

be sure to speak in just a whisper as the Wind does say to truth.

Comfort is the duds on earth,

a simple smile,

that grin,

the dimples with a chortle to laugh,

tears are always common ground yet in even that it is the task to remind remember,

these are the song(s)!!!!!!

Textual Witness ~ Genre of Pharaonic Literature? 'Teachings' And 'Instructions' And Proves To Form Writ Or Is It The Printed That Ethic Teachings Focused On The United States of America "Way Of A Living Trust"

A number of passages in the Instruction of Amenemope have been compared with the Book of Proverbs, including:

(Proverbs 22:17-18):"Incline thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, And apply thine heart to my doctrine; For it is pleasant if thou keep them in thy belly, that they may be established together upon thy lips"

(Amenemope, ch. 1):"Give thine ear, and hear what I say, And apply thine heart to apprehend; It is good for thee to place them in thine heart, let them rest in the casket of thy belly; That they may act as a peg upon thy tongue"^[49]

(Proverbs 22:22):"Rob not the poor, for he is poor, neither oppress (or crush) the lowly in the gate."

(Amenemope, ch. 2):"Beware of robbing the poor, and oppressing the afflicted."^[49]

(Proverbs 22:24-5): "Do not befriend the man of anger, Nor go with a wrathful man, Lest thou learn his ways and take a snare for thy soul."

(Amenemope, ch. 10): "Associate not with a passionate man, Nor approach him for conversation; Leap not to cleave to such an one; That terror carry thee not away."^[49]

(Proverbs 22:29):"[if you] You see a man quick in his work, before kings will he stand, before cravens, he will not stand."

(Amenemope, ch. 30):"A scribe who is skillful in his business findeth worthy to be a courtier"^[49]

(Proverbs 23:1):"When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, Consider diligently what is before thee; And put a knife to thy throat, If thou be a man given to appetite. Be not desirous of his dainties, for they are breads of falsehood."

(Amenemope, ch. 23): "Eat not bread in the presence of a ruler, And lunge not forward(?) with thy mouth before a governor(?). When thou art replenished with that to which thou has no right, It is only a delight to thy spittle. Look upon the dish that is before thee, And let that (alone) supply thy need."^[49] (see above)

(Proverbs 23:4-5):"Toil not to become rich, And cease from dishonest gain; For wealth maketh to itself wings, Like an eagle that flieth heavenwards"

(Amenemope, ch. 7):"Toil not after riches; If stolen goods are brought to thee, they remain not over night with thee. They have made themselves wings like geese. And have flown into the heavens."^[49]

(Proverbs 14:7):"Speak not in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of thy words"

(Amenemope, ch. 21):"Empty not thine inmost soul to everyone, nor spoil (thereby) thine influence"^[49]

(Proverbs 23:10): "Remove not the widows landmark; And enter not into the field of the fatherless."

(Amenemope, ch. 6): "Remove not the landmark from the bounds of the field...and violate not the widows boundary"^[49]

(Proverbs 23:12):"Apply thine heart unto instruction and thine ears to the words of knowledge"

(Amenemope, ch. 1):"Give thine ears, hear the words that are said, give thine heart to interpret them."^[49]

The search for gravitational waves as per Science AAAS

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• • LIGO Lab

  LIGO CALTECH

• • Gravitational waves and how they distort space

  UNIVERSETODAY.COM FEB. 8, 2016

• • Einstein online

  MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE

• • Gravitational waves explained

  PHD COMICS

• • General Relativity explained

  SCIENCE

• • Gravitational astrophysics

  ASTRONOMY & GEOPHYSICS

• • eLISA Gravitational Wave Observatory

  MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR GRAVITATIONAL PHYSICS

• • Advanced Virgo - Listening to the cosmic whisper

  THE EUROPEAN GRAVITATIONAL OBSERVATORY

• • Race to detect gravitational waves advances with new NSF-funded NANOGrav physics frontiers center

  NORTH AMERICAN NANOHERTZ OBSERVATORY FOR GRAVITATIONAL WAVES

Physicists have sought to detect ripples in spacetime called gravitational waves ever since they realized Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity predicted their existence. But only some of the most massive astrophysical events, such mergers of black holes and neutron stars, can produce gravitational waves strong enough to be detected on earth. Since the 1990s, two laser-based facilities in Washington and Louisiana, collectively known as LIGO, have tried to observe waves from such events. They finally detected the first gravitational wave last September, as announced on 11 February. The detection has made Rainer Weiss, the college dropout who invented the gravitational wave detector, a shoo-in for a Nobel Prize. Recent LIGO upgrades, including more sensitive instruments and incorporation of detectors around the world, should bring the detection of many more waves and open up a whole new way of viewing cataclysmic events in the universe.  http://www.sciencemag.org/topic/gravitational-waves

Rainer Weiss at the LIGO testbed at MIT in Cambridge. He conceived the detector concept in 1972.

Meet the college dropout who invented the gravitational wave detector

By Adrian ChoAug. 4, 2016 , 9:00 AM

Nearly 50 years ago, Rainer Weiss dreamed up a way to detect gravitational waves—infinitesimal ripples in spacetime predicted by Einstein’s theory of gravity, general relativity. Last September, that dream came true as 1000 physicists working with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), two huge detectors in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington, sensed a pulse of waves radiated by two massive black holes as they spiraled into each other a billion light-years away. The discovery makes Weiss, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, a sure bet to win a Nobel Prize, his peers say. Weiss, 83, acknowledges the prospect with some apprehension. “It will fuck me up for a year,” he predicts as he nimbly steers his silver Volkswagen Beetle ragtop through Cambridge traffic. “That’s what it did to John Mather.” The line is vintage “Rai,” his friends will tell you: blunt, irreverent, funny, and impatient with anything that gets in the way of his work.

By any measure, Weiss has led an extraordinary life. Born in 1932 in Berlin, he and his family fled the Nazis. He grew up in New York City, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, a street-smart kid with a gift for tinkering who built and sold his own high fidelity (hi-fi) systems. As an MIT undergrad, Weiss flunked out, and he later struggled to get tenure there. Still, he established himself as a leading physicist and worked for more than 40 years on LIGO, one of the most audacious experiments ever attempted. He works on it even now. “He’s the best person I know with a soldering iron,” says David Shoemaker, a LIGO physicist at MIT.

Shoemaker adds that Weiss’s foremost quality is empathy. A college dropout, Shoemaker credits Weiss with getting him into graduate school at MIT without an undergraduate degree. “He sought ways to bring out the best in me,” Shoemaker says. “He also took a rather irregular path, and I think because of that and just his nature, he is really interested in helping people.”

Weiss is also known for speaking his mind. “He is absolutely 100% committed to honesty both in his physics and in life,” says Peter Saulson, a LIGO physicist at Syracuse University in New York, who worked with Weiss at MIT in the 1980s. Dirk Muehlner, a retired physicist in Alamo, California, and one of Weiss’s early graduate students, shares that sentiment. “He’s totally honest. There’s no bullshitting for Rai. There’s no performance.”

People say, 'I failed out of college! My life is over!' Well, it's not over.

Rainer Weiss

Yet getting a fix on Weiss isn’t easy. An inveterate storyteller, he has clearly told his tales many times, smoothing the edges and burnishing the details. As he conjures up his past, little clues—loose threads, differing versions—suggest he’s not quite an open book. In fact, for Weiss, storytelling itself seems to serve some more subtle purpose.

In his modest office at MIT, on the second floor of a brick building resembling an old warehouse, Weiss settles behind a small wooden desk with a gaping hole in the top. Before the advent of flat-panel displays, Weiss took a saw to the desk so that he could tilt back bulky computer monitors. In a staccato New York accent, he tells his tale.

Rainer Weiss was born of a tryst between Frederick Weiss, a neurologist and scion of a wealthy German-Jewish family, and Gertrude Loesner, a stage and radio actress. While Gertrude was pregnant, Frederick, an ardent Communist, got into trouble by testifying in court against an incompetent Nazi doctor. The Nazis abducted him, and Gertrude’s family had to pull strings to get him released. The couple, who wed in 1933, soon fled to Prague, then in Czechoslovakia, where Weiss’s sister was born in 1937. Weiss says he was a happy, headstrong child. “I was probably an egotistical little bastard,” he says.

The family soon had to flee again, when U.K. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain signed an accord ceding parts of Czechoslovakia to Germany. They heard the news on the night of 30 September 1938, while on vacation in the Tatra Mountains in Slovakia. As Chamberlain’s address blared from the hotel’s massive radio, 6-year-old Rainer stared in fascination at the glowing array of vacuum tubes inside the cabinet. The hotel emptied overnight as people fled to Prague.

The family immigrated to New York City in January 1939, 2 months before Hitler’s Weh rmacht rolled into Prague. “It was a miracle,” Weiss says. Unable to pass the medical board exams because of the language barrier, Frederick set up a practice as a counselor and eventually became a noted psychoanalyst. Gertrude worked in department stores, as a housekeeper, and at odd jobs. It was an unhappy household. “My father was a dictator in the true German sense,” Weiss says. “He suppressed my mother.” Both parents blamed Hitler for their marriage, he says.

Weiss says he grew up in an environment of benign neglect. “My parents were singularly uninterested in me,” he says. “My father was too self-centered and too busy with his own practice to pay a lot of attention to me, and my mother was probably deflected more by my sister.” He attended the prestigious Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School on a scholarship—“My mother went over and pleaded for them to take me,” Weiss says—but he sometimes cut classes, and teachers compared him unfavorably with his older schoolmate Murray Gell-Mann, who went on to win the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1969.

As a teenager, Weiss developed two passions: classical music and electronics. Snapping up army surplus parts, he repaired radios out of his bedroom. He even made a deal with the local toughs: If they left him alone as he lugged radios to and from the subway, he’d fix theirs for free. “They would steal things and I would have to fix them,” he says. “It wasn’t a good deal.”

Weiss’s sister, playwright Sybille Pearson, confirms that Weiss spent as much time as possible out of the unhappy home. But, as the only son, he was still something of a prince in his family, she says. For example, whenever the family moved to a new apartment, Weiss got the biggest bedroom to himself, she recalls. “He was adored.”

Nor was he a laggard at school, Pearson says. “He was bright and interested in everything and very smart.” Michael Wallach, Weiss’s classmate at Columbia Grammar, agrees. “Rai’s scientific abilities were widely recognized at school,” says Wallach, a psychologist retired from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, although he adds that Weiss really was a street-smart kid and once broke his leg in some sort of a tangle.

If Weiss did cut classes, it wasn’t to hang out on the corner, says his son, Benjamin Weiss, a historian and curator at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. “He was going to piano recitals at Town Hall.” At the same time, Benjamin speculates, Weiss was drawn to tinkering partly as a reaction to his family’s cerebral atmosphere. “This is a German-refugee kid with very self-consciously cultured parents, and he’s rebelling against them by doing things with his hands,” Benjamin says. “But he’s surely not rejecting doing things with his head.”

If Weiss skipped cheerfully through his youth, he stumbled in early adulthood. He applied to MIT to study electrical engineering so that he could solve a problem in hi-fi—how to suppress the hiss made by the shellac records of the day. But electrical engineering courses disappointed him, as they focused more on power plants than on hi-fi. So Weiss switched to physics—the major that had, he says, the fewest requirements.

Then, in his junior year, Weiss flunked out of school entirely. He fell for a woman he met on a ferry from Nantucket to Boston. “She taught me about folk dancing and playing the piano,” he says. Weiss followed her when she moved to Evanston, Illinois, abandoning his classes in midterm. But the affair fizzled. “I fell in love and went crazy,” he says, “and of course she couldn’t stand to be around a crazy man.” Weiss returned to MIT hoping to take his finals only to find he’d flunked out.

Weiss says he was unfazed. “People say, ‘I failed out of college! My life is over!’ Well, it’s not over. It depends on what you do with it.” He took a job as a technician in MIT’s legendary Building 20, a temporary structure erected during the war, working for Jerrold Zacharias, who studied beams of atoms and molecules with light and microwaves and developed the first commercial atomic clock. Under Zacharias’s tutelage, Weiss finished his bachelor’s degree in 1955 and earned his Ph.D. in 1962.

Other physicists say Zacharias’s approach to research—using high-precision measurements to probe fundamental physics— inspired Weiss’s. But Weiss says he owes Zacharias a larger personal debt. “He got me back into school, then he got me into graduate school, all with a very bad record,” he says. “I think that extends all the way up to tenure.” A photograph of Zacharias hangs on Weiss’s office wall.

After a postdoc at Princeton University developing experimental tests of gravity under physicist Robert Dicke, Weiss returned to MIT in 1964. As a junior faculty member, he says, he published little and didn’t worry about advancing his career. MIT’s Shoemaker says Weiss probably got tenure only for his teaching—and wouldn’t get it today. Bernard Burke, an emeritus physicist at MIT, agrees that early on Weiss was a “happy gadgeteer” who “wasn’t likely to get tenure unless he did something that did something.” But, Burke says, Weiss soon turned things around.

Burke suggested that Weiss turn his attention from gravity to measurements of so-called cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation, an all-pervading fuzz of radio waves that had been discovered in 1965 and that had been tentatively identified as the afterglow of the big bang, stretched to longer, cooler wavelengths by the unrelenting expansion of the universe.

In the late 1960s that connection remained tenuous, however. Radiation from the big bang should have a “thermal spectrum” with a lopsided peak indicating the radiation’s temperature. At long wavelengths, several groups had observed a climbing spectrum consistent with a temperature of 3°C above absolute zero. But in 1968, rocket measurements found high amounts of shorter wavelength radiation that clashed with a thermal spectrum and threatened the big bang hypothesis.

In the 1970s, Rainer Weiss made his name studying the cosmic microwave background with balloons.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

To probe the matter, Weiss and his graduate student Muehlner built a device that would fly on a weather balloon and measure the microwave spectrum to shorter wavelengths. In 1973, after three flights and a rebuild, they had solid data that fit a thermal spectrum and for the first time revealed the telltale peak. “It completely destroyed the rocket result,” Burke says. “Among those interested in the microwave background, [Weiss] was suddenly one of their stars.”

Robert Birgeneau, chancellor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, who was at MIT from 1975 to 2000, says that Weiss’s work won respect within the MIT physics department, too. “He liked to have the affectation of going to a working-class bar and stuff like that,” Birgeneau says. But “people looked up to him broadly at MIT. They respected his passion and his courage in going after really important physics.”

The CMB study not only secured tenure for Weiss, but also propelled him to a leading role in the broader scientific community. In 1976, NASA began work on its Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite, and the project’s scientific working group elected Weiss chair. Launched in 1989, COBE measured the spectrum of the microwaves with exquisite precision, proving beyond doubt that the CMB has a thermal spectrum. It also sensed tiny 1-part-in-100,000 variations in the CMB’s temperature from point to point on the sky—traces of infinitesimal quantum fluctuations in the newborn universe that are essential to the standard model of cosmology. In 2006, Americans John Mather and George Smoot shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for, respectively, measuring the spectrum and detecting the fluctuations.

Some physicists say Weiss should have shared that award. “It was a near miss,” Syracuse’s Saulson says. Nevertheless, Weiss’s contributions to COBE show he excelled in a role for which he says he’s badly suited: leader of a large scientific effort. “He’s a good collaborator,” says Mather, who works at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “He’s also good at deciding who should do what and making sure that people get the credit they deserve.”

Long before COBE, during his wayward untenured days, Weiss hatched the idea that would become LIGO. In the late 1960s, the MIT physics department asked him to teach a graduate course on general relativity. “I couldn’t tell them that I didn’t know any general relativity,” he says. So, striving to stay one step ahead of his students, Weiss focused on experimental tests of gravity.

Weiss’s students asked him to discuss experiments in which Joseph Weber, an engineer at the University of Maryland, College Park, was trying to detect gravitational waves using aluminum cylinders the size of a footlocker. General relativity states that massive objects—such as two black holes—spiraling together should radiate ripples in spacetime. Weber argued that those ripples— gravitational waves—would stretch his cylinders and make them vibrate like tuning forks. In 1969, he would claim a discovery of the waves, which others couldn’t reproduce.

Weiss couldn’t grasp Weber’s method, so he invented his own, based on an L-shaped device called an interferometer. It splits a laser beam and sends the two beams down perpendicular “arms.” The beams reflect off mirrors and race back to the beam splitter. If the arms are precisely the same length, the light waves return in sync and recombine so that light flows back toward the laser. But if the arms differ by a sliver of the light’s wavelength, then the out-of-kilter overlap sends some light leaking out a perpendicular “dark port.” Weiss realized that output could reveal a passing gravitational wave, which generally would stretch the arms by different amounts. He let the class chew on the idea in homework and wrote a 23-page report in the quarterly newsletter of MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics. LIGO sprouted from that document.

Rainer Weiss in his lab in MIT’s Building 20 in the late 1970s, working on radiation detectors called bolometers.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Weiss insists the concept of an interferometric detector was already “floating around.” But others say he was the first to spell out that the detector would have to be kilometers long and to describe how to deal with the various types of noise—from seismic vibrations to the pinging of individual photons on the mirrors—that could drown out the elusive waves.

Making the experiment a reality required mind-boggling technological feats. The twin LIGO interferometers have arms 4 kilometers long. To detect a gravitational wave, physicists must compare the arms’ lengths to within 1/10,000 the width of a proton. Approval to build the $300 million project did not come until 1994, 22 years later (see sidebar, p. 534).

In the meantime, Weiss became a fixture in Building 20, identifiable by the corncob pipes he smoked until he suffered a mild heart attack in 1995. He would work until 2 a.m., says Nergis Mavalvala, a LIGO physicist at MIT who was Weiss’s graduate student from 1990 to 1997, and would stay even later to help a student. When Mavalvala failed her qualifying exams, Weiss had her attend “reform school” in his office every Saturday for weeks. “He didn’t give a damn about the exams,” Mavalvala says. “But he knew that I had to get past them.”

Weiss earned a reputation for lending nontraditional students a helping hand. In 1983, Lyman Page, who had been out of school for 5 years and had spent 2 years sailing around the world, walked into Weiss’s lab and asked whether he could work for him. “He said ‘I can’t pay you, but you can work in the lab,’” Page says. “So I worked as a carpenter during the day and in the lab at night.” Page, now a cosmologist at Princ eton, credits Weiss for giving him a chance that others did not.

A functioning workaholic, Weiss enjoyed a full life outside the lab, too. In 1959, he married Rebecca Young, a recently graduated biology student working at the Harvard University Herbaria. The two frequented the same diner, says Rebecca, a retired children’s librarian. “One evening he asked me to pass the salt and we started having this big conversation about photosynthesis,” she says. “After we had been married for years it occurred to me that he never puts salt on anything.”

Rebecca says she was often a “physics widow,” especially in the 1960s and 70s, when Weiss would travel to Palestine, Texas, to launch his balloon experiments. Still, she says, he was a devoted husband and father. Even when he was away “there was always a lifeline,” she says. On Sundays Weiss would take his children to the lab, says Sarah Weiss, the couple’s daughter, now an ethnomusicologist at Yale-NUS College in Singapore. “I never felt that I didn’t have the access that I needed or hoped for,” she says.

Through it all, Weiss has had music. “Music is a big factor in his life,” Rebecca says. Weiss says he started playing the piano at 20, when the woman he failed to win started teaching him. He plays for an hour every evening, favoring classical composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert, on a Steinway baby grand in the living room of the couple’s two-story Victorian in Newton, Massachusetts. “He goes in there at 8 o’clock and he shuts all the doors,” Rebecca says. “He thinks I can’t hear him.”

Weiss insists that even after 63 years of practice, he isn’t very good. “My technique sucks,” he says. “You will recognize the piece I play, but you won’t be satisfied.”

LIGO has spotted just the type of source Rainer Weiss had hoped to see: black holes spiraling together.

© Matt Weber

Now, Weiss’s tranquil life seems sure to be upended, as physicists expect him to share the Nobel Prize, if not this year, then the next. Since the LIGO team announced their discovery in February, he and LIGO cofounders Kip Thorne of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena and Ronald Drever, retired from Caltech, have already won several prizes: the Special Breakthrough Award, the Gruber Cosmology Prize, the Shaw Prize in Astronomy, and the Kavli Prize in Astrophysics. “To tell you the truth, these prizes give me the willies,” says Weiss, who adds that he plans to use 90% of the award money to help graduate students. Weiss’s humility, expressed in the many stories in which he is never the hero, is striking. “He’s a very modest person,” his friend Wallach says. “That’s part of his charm.” But Weiss’s compulsive storytelling also seems to serve some deeper purpose, as becomes clear in what he calls “this famous story”: how he fell in love and flunked out of college.

The conversation circles back to the incident a couple times. At first, it seems simple enough. Weiss falls in love, comes on too strong, and scares the girl away. On the second pass, however, Weiss says that he wasn’t more of a lover than the woman could handle, but less than she wanted. “I had made a goddess out of her, and you don’t touch a goddess,” he says. “She wanted something more.” But that version soon fades, too. Asked whether he was popular as a young man, Weiss responds, “I wasn’t unpopular. I didn’t have any trouble getting girls.” When it came to love, Weiss says, “I had the experience.”

Wallach remembers it all differently. When Weiss was in his early 20s he fell in love with his piano teacher, a woman in her 30s. Wallach recalls that Weiss spent most of his time at his teacher’s house. “She was, not surprisingly, very taken with him and wanted to marry him,” Wallach says. Too young to marry, Weiss broke it off, he says.

Weiss’s sister questions how much any of it had to do with his failing out of college. “At that age that’s rebellion,” Pearson says. “And from the family we came from, what’s the way to do it? You drop out of school.”

The specifics of the decades-old affair matter far less than the way Weiss tells the story. He revels in changing the details, revealing a little more each time. But he never explains exactly what happened, how he really felt, or why he tells the story in the first place. Perhaps that is the point.

LIGO, Weiss’s brainchild, proved beyond a reasonable doubt the existence of black holes, the intense gravitational fields left by stars that collapse to infinitesimal points. Within a certain distance of that point—beyond the event horizon—gravity grows so strong that nothing can escape, not even light. In telling his tales, Weiss seems to create his own personal event horizon, a charming screen of words and anecdotes behind which he conceals his deeper self. For all his storytelling, Weiss remains a deeply private person.

At the couple’s house, Rebecca explains how, tinkering as always, Weiss has rigged a computer monitor to magnify his sheet music to compensate for his weakening sight. At her insistence, Weiss shows how the system works. In the living room stands his aging Steinway baby grand, the gloss finish worn to matte, the wood showing through at the corners, the top piled with sheet music. A flatpanel screen on makeshift gimbaled mount displays the enlarged music—a Beethoven sonata?—the 16th notes running up and down like staircases. The keyboard beckons.

“No,” Weiss says. “I won’t play.”

*Correction, 26 August, 12:25 p.m.: The story has been updated to reflect that in the photo of Weiss at the lab bench, he is working on equipment for measurements of the cosmic microwave background.