www.olr-plemenitas.hr

Archaeology Fine Arts Gallery Opening on the City Park
Campus Nov 6.
“Archeology” is a dual art exhibit featuring mixed
media construction by Vickie Lever Niolet and
sculpture inspired by Croatian Neolithic motifs by
Vesna Osojnicki, Fulbright scholar-in residence, and
her ceramic students. The Delgado Fine Arts Gallery on
the City Park Campus in Delgado Hall will hold an
opening reception on Thursday, November 6, 6 – 8 p.m.
The exhibit runs through Dec. 4. For further
information, contact Robin Pellegrin, Gallery
director, (504) 483-4624.

Vesna’s ceramic students are enrolled in pottery
classes this fall semester on the City Park and West
Bank campuses and the Northshore Covington facility.

Max Reichard will make a presentation during the art
reception on sculpture inspired by Croatian Neolithic
motifs. Dr. Reichard, acting vice chancellor for
Academic and Student Affairs and College Provost, dean
of the Northshore facility and director of
International programs, has studied pottery with Vesna
in Croatia, as well as in the United States


Ceramic piece inspired by Neolithic artifact from
Croatia created by Vesna Osojnicki, Fulbright
scholar-in residence


Dana 6. novembra 2003 godine u 6 pm je otvorenje
izlozbe keramike i skulpture, u USA, Lujzijana, New
Orleans, u galeriji Fine Arts u Delgado Community
Colegu ( www.dcc.edu  )

Studenti ovog kolega su radili radove na temu
Hrvatske neolitske keramike, vodeni pod mentorstvom akademske
kiparice Vesne Osojnicki. Vesna Osojnicki je korisnik Fulbright resident
programa za jesenski semestar.

Vesna se predstavlja i kao akademski kipar sa opusom
keramoskulptura "Zajeno"

Otvorenju izlozbe biti ce nazocni : uzvanici iz
kulturnih krugova juzene Lujzijane, Fulbrighta i
Internacionalne razmjene studenata.

Tijekom izlozbe biti ce prezentirana video
projekcija Hrvatske turisticke zajednice o Hrvatskoj , i
Internacionalnog worshopa : Oblikovne likovne
radionice Plemenitas www.olr-plemenitas.hr  sa kojim
je sklopljen ugovor razmjene studenata i iskustva u
likovnom stvaralastvu.
DOBRO DOSLI!
Ak, kip. Vesna Osojnicki

plemenitas2@yahoo.com

Iz zirke poezije Ljerke Lukic: Snovidjenja:

Odlazak iz Bosne

Spakirah moj zivot
u dva velika kofera
i dvije manje putne torbe.
Strpah moje iskustvo
u rucni prtljag.
Smjestih moje brige
u dzepove.
Stavih moje nade
u dlanove.
Zalijepih moja moranja
za tabane.
Pohranih moja sjecanja
u dusu.
Ubacih moj oprez
u oci.
Zatvorih roditeljske poljupce i suze
u moj molitvenik.

I krenuh…..
 

Biljeska o autorici

Ljerka Lukic je rodena 1, svibnja 1962 godine u hrvatskoj obitelji u Zivinicama, Bosna i Hercegovina. Diplomirala je materinski jezik i knjizevnost na Pedagoskoj akademiji u Tuzli 1983. Diplomirala je s odlicnom ocjenom kroatistiku na Pedagoskom fakultetu u Osijeku 1986 i magistrirala s odlicnom ocjenom drustveno-humanisticke znanosti iz podrucja filologije. Preselila se u Toronto 1995 gdje uci TESL Predavanje engleskog kao drugog jezika.

Posjeduje vrijednu zbirku narodnih nosnji i rucnih radova iz sjeveroistocne Bosne. Slobodno vrijeme provodi fotografirajuci rucne radove kako bi se otrgli od zaborava i izumiranja. Slika ptice i cvijece (ulje, akrilik, konac…, na platnu). U pripravi su joj za objavu kratke price, putopisi, autobiografski roman….Njene izlozbe, monodrama i knjizevne veceri su vrlo zapazene.

Op-ed:

Ukoliko zelite kupiti knjigu Snovidjenja, autenticnu poeziju Hrvatice iz Bosne i Hercegovine, obratite se Katarini Tepesh naTepeshK@aol.com  i/ili Profesorici Kroatistike i Magistrici Hrvatske filologije Ljerki Susan Lukic naljerka-susan@rogers.com

NB

History of science from the dawn of mankind

Book review by Mirna Flögel-Mršic

A. Simonic:
I. Science - the Greatest Adventure and Challenge of Mankind
II. Paving the way into the Future (Quo vadis scientia?) (Following the Steps of Knowledge into the Future)
III. Civilisation Boundaries (raptures, interfaces, gaps, separation lines) of Knowledge (Mysteries of Culture through History), parts I and II

Under three titles organised in four volumes (2000 pages in total) A. Simonic offers a history of science from the dawn of mankind, when inexperienced humans lived separated by vast inhabited areas, to the present state of the world, dominated by science and burdened with urgent and unsolved problems of our overcrowded Globe, from times when man was scared of frightful natural and imagined forces to the present fear of himself and of the spreading inhumane powers of global market. Yet at the same time Simonic tells the story of separate cultural developments of various defined populations, coagulated by their specific experience, believes and knowledge, which under robust surface differences all hide the same human needs and values. In his books Simonic tries to remove the boundaries between the natural and social sciences and the humanities by expanding the complexity of the anthropological concept of culture, thus covering the vast interdisciplinary spectrum of scholarship known today as "cultural studies."
This unique scholarly work, densely detailed but highly readable, quotes many citations to mimic and reflect the "couleur du temps" through ages, thus presenting the key point views of various cultures during almost entire human history without endorsing or favouring any one of them. He only lays down the groundwork for a common sense approach to the problem of making a good life and evaluating that life in reference to the merits and menaces of presently emerging global society.
At the same time Simonic tries to awaken the social responsibility of scientists, to rehabilitate the human values that support coexistence and tolerance, recognised as virtues in philosophies and religions, and emerging from the universal "Lex vivendi" in biosphere.
Few scholars combine erudition with such clarity and ease of expression and write so purposefully for the general reader providing enormous riches and profound and challenging thoughts.
Simonic's work is a personal, learned, bold, and above all, wise retrospect of the dignified story of mankind, which he has peeled off wars and politics, and by which he offers a masterful, provocative, and eloquent antidote to the dumbed-down consumerism of our own times.
I. Science - the Greatest Adventure and Challenge of Mankind
In "Science - the Greatest Adventure and Challenge of Mankind" Simonic discusses science as the pursuit of knowledge in its many and varied individual forms, emphasising that knowledge itself is not independent and self-justifying. It performs a function, which is essential to human nature, and necessary to human life, yet it is only one of many existential needs in the whole of human life. The function of knowledge is to enlighten, to guide, and to show the way, to offer possibilities and set targets and values which, however, must be freely acknowledged, adopted and put into practice. Knowledge thus has an essentially mediatory function for man's free, responsible activity. The pursuit of knowledge can fulfil its function to the benefit of mankind, societies and individuals only if it remains science committed to the truth, rejecting all ideological distortion.
Science, as a free and responsible activity, must be seen in the overall context of the human life and activity, both of the individual and of society. Within that context, science has also its limits and its obligations. Like all human activity, it is subject to values and standards, which are determined by the need of integrated whole.
Science is a vast intellectual adventure, and it has attracted some of the best minds in every civilisation. To engage in it and tackle the challenge of Nature requires a vivid creative imagination, tempered by firm discipline based on a hard core of observational evidence. For science is not the mere collecting of facts - though this is necessary - it is a system of logical correlation of those facts cementing together a hypothesis or body of theory. This theory is itself tempered by the general outlook of the times in which it is formulated. The theory must be sound enough to attract minds trained in logical thought, and at the same time be open-ended enough to leave room for development and adjustment in the light of later evidence.
Scientific theories change for a whole host of reasons. To the extent that these changes are occasioned by ever more complex experience, science is a growing and expanding body of knowledge, but when they are brought about by religious, philosophical, social or economic reasons, the history of science engages with all the fluctuations of more general history. Nevertheless sooner or later, science always succeeds to free the truth from forged conclusions and offers new ways and views.
With the tremendous growth of scientific research and its importance for modern society, the ethics of science have become a matter of urgent concern not only for scientists but also for society as a whole.

Paving the Way into the Future (Following the Steps of Knowledge into the Future) (Tragovina znanja u buducnost)
Quo vadis scientia?
Under this title Simonic provides a synthetic historical survey of the growing human knowledge, its conventions and organisation into scientific fields, emphasising its origins and potentials, its philosophies, ethics and truthfulness, discussing its challenges and limitations as well as its exploitations by interest groups through changing times to present world.
The struggle to comprehend the strange world in which we live is a noble one, and a continuing struggle. Our present scientific synthesis is just another step along the road to a more comprehensive picture; it is not the final one. Yet the scientific outlook has provided a far more powerful means of understanding, predicting and controlling the world than any other human try. Simonic shares the vision of Francis Bacon, to whom we owe so much of the idealism that has motivated modern science, that "knowledge and power meet in one".
On the contrary to the hopes of prophets of science down through the ages, modern, western science and technology are being used, in the name of reason, to wage war against man and his natural and built environment. Nowhere is this more evident than in the developing world. The world of science faces new problems, which were scarcely imaginable to the brave prophets of science, from Francis Bacon to those of the recent nineteen fiftieth. Ever since the invention of nuclear weapons, we have faced the possibility of being destroyed by our science-based inventions, regardless whether the result may come from the ordinary operation of our science-based industry or uncontrolled genetic engineering. If the solution does not lie within science, then how far beyond it must we go?
Thus within the last generation the public perception of science and technology has changed drastically. Although we still depend on `science' for the operation and improvement of our material culture, few will still believe that science has the answer to all human problems. Indeed, we are now confronted by problems, increasing in number and in intensity, which are not only the results of technological and industrial developments but of subsequent wealth and social polarisation, and for which science, though a necessary element of their solution can by no means be sufficient.
How to make the proper contribution to the solution of the problems created by its own successes, still remains to be seen. It may take a full generation whose common sense of science has been formed by a social and ecological consciousness before the needed conceptions emerge. Simonic' s work strongly assists in the development of that new consciousness.
Whereas before one could imagine science advancing boldly, steadily rolling back the frontier between knowledge and ignorance, now we must cope with our ignorance of the disturbing effects of science-based processes. In the very near future we must collectively make some very hard decisions, not to allow our natural environment become degraded beyond repair. We are living in an age where perturbations of our environment are producing a sort of "science based ignorance" and the greatest danger of all is that we may remain ignorant of our ignorance, and thereby live in an illusion of security.
Simonic emphasises the role of scientists and learned to take the responsibility for the social development, both local and global. His historical review is but to remind that particulated knowledge and reductionist principle pars pro toto, ceteris paribus, could be misleading without the appropriate integrating philosophy, social conscienceness and awareness of individual human needs.
Simonic presents with striking clarity the problems that face people and societies today, and encourages a strategy for dealing with them. He shows how world problems, though man-made, are the result not of technological or social changes themselves, but of lack of foresight and lack of control over those changes. He reminds of ethical principles and urges scientists, artists and educators as creative levers of contemporary civilisation - science, culture and education - to accept the responsibility for shaping a human-friendly future.

Civilisation Boundaries (raptures, interfaces, gaps, separation lines) of Knowledge (Mysteries of Culture through History), parts I and II
Man is distinguished from other living creatures by his free will and imaginative gifts. By putting different talents together he makes discoveries and plans. His discoveries become more subtle and penetrating, as he learns to combine his talents in more complex and intimate ways. So the great discoveries of different ages and different cultures, in technique, in science, in the arts, express in their progression an ever richer and more intricate conjunction and evolution of human faculties.
Yet to admire only our own successes, would make a caricature of knowledge, especially now, when our moves escape the control and when instead of ever more beneficial and harmonious development of human race, polarisation of wealth and power, has endangered so many individuals by favouring only the most competitive, the fastest. Even they are endangered by stress put upon them. Globalisation has confronted interests of separate developmental ways and levels and it has brought fear instead of hope, insecurity instead of wellbeing.
Millions of years of biological evolution have shaped and fitted species to the environment they live in, and provided them with encoded, species specific, survival behaviour. Only the man is not locked into a specific environment. On the contrary, he is ubiquitous, unfitted and vulnerable, yet his genetic survival kit provided man with the capacity to adjust the environment to his needs. He does it by his imagination, his reason, his emotional subtlety and toughness. The series of inventions, by which man from age to age has remade his environment, is a different kind of evolution - not biological, but cultural evolution. Man doesn't inherit the wisdom of how to behave to preserve his species. Man has to make vital decisions. He has to discover the universal lex vivendi, and he is free to obey it or not to obey it for his better or for his worse. No one in the biosphere is ready to kill and poison himself as humans do by drugs, weapons, ideas, greed and ignorance. This is the paradox of the human condition.
The mightier, the richer and the better informed, the less responsible for the wellbeing of individual life and mankind. The simultaneous early traces of material culture, of awakening consciousness as well as artistic and religious expressions show a harmonious and creative start of human material, spiritual and intellectual life. In the effort to understand and use the Nature, to adjust and embellish his surroundings for his needs and extravagancies the man has changed his attitudes towards God, Nature and himself, his creative potential has grown, his capability of understanding has broadened, the "society" has been born and interest groups have been formed, civilisations emerged and vanished, the scales of values have been defined, the rules of social organisation and behaviour have been coded and changed - cultural evolution feeding science, arts, ideologies and religions was progressing.
Yet the constructor of pyramids, coliseum and cathedrals unfortunately didn't remain a fearful artist, bold and victorious conqueror, he turned also to be monstrous devastator, who exterminated animal species, who even tried cannibalism when he, still inexperienced, locally ruined all other sources of food. Of course, we have cause to be proud of the progress of our minds and of some modern work, and our capacities. Yet our achievements escape the control. Triumphs of science and technology encouraged our greedy super-ego to get rid of any humane feelings and the intellectual logic alone seems unable to tie it down. Man is not anymore progressing in a harmonious way. The intellectual progress through the history is followed by the katabasis of ideals, from Olympus to Forum, from Forum to Academies, Monasteries, courts and armies, and further down to football grounds and TV-screens.
Individuals, helpless to confront the feeling of insecurity, trust the society, yet societies are not human-friendly. They do not have needs, individuals do. Societies should recognise the individual needs and universal lex vivendi, if they aim to preserve human race on the globe.
Biological evolution is slow and each change is well tested. Humans are the outcome of the last change on their evolutionary branch, possibly still on probation. Since Darwin taught us to view nature as a brutal competition among species, few philosophers have regarded virtue as a natural impulse. Yet it is the evolutionary biology, not ethical theory, that offers an explanation of why people often sacrifice self-interest for the common good. The evidence of the latest research demonstrates that the hidden manoeuvring of the genes punishes the egotist and rewards the saint. However, the interplay of genes alone cannot trace nor follow "a politically correct choreography". Man's free will shouldn't be used against himself.
The unravelling of the encoded autobiography of our development within the genome reveals our inborn yet limited freedom. However, we do not have to surrender our freedom to the society nor to the global financial engineering. We do not have to accept the perverse inversion of the global market where the man serves the capital instead that capital is serving the man. The history teaches us that intellectual freedom of wise individuals pointed to the right direction at times of crisis, though excommunicated by the selfish interests of mighty contemporaries. Socrates taught us to act morally, Jesus taught that God is the father of every man, Bruno believed the Universe be infinite and God be immanent in all. Their enlightening thoughts survived the poison, the cross and the fire pointing to the natural low of existence, i.e. of subordination of selfishness to the benefit of the harmonious whole.
The reenvoking of the story of our coming into existence and of highlights of our cultural evolution could teach us the rules of coexistence and remind us of the unavoidable universal low of survival. Human achievements, and science in particular, is not a museum of finished constructions, it is a progress, in which the experience is gathered and truth and values perceived. In every age there is a turning point, which offers standards by which to judge the merits of our time against those of previous centuries and other cultures.
A developed nation provides to its citizens political freedom and a decent standard of living. Yet so many countries are unable to accomplish this. The world at the beginning of the twenty-first century is more divided than ever between the rich and the poor, between those living in freedom and those under oppression. Even in prosperous democracies, troubling gaps in well being persist. As the credibility of traditional explanations - colonialism, dependency, racism-declines, many now believe that the principal reason why so many countries and social groups are better off than others lies in the cultural values that powerfully shape nations and peoples' political, economic, and social performance. Globalisation cannot exclude the great majority of population to the benefit of selected few. An evolution of mankind should be promoted to provide existence in peace and security for all. History and science should enlighten our minds with the wisdom to change our values and attitudes to pave the way for a progress of all and to a friendly coexistence of man and nature all over the Globe. Simonic pleads for revitalisation on human needs and values buried by forces of show business, football competitions, global marketing and www races. He confronts the religions and sects, the economies and cultures, scholars and consumers urging the awakening of the responsibility and wisdom, of education and freedom, of friendship and tolerance. Only in true friendship of individuals humans won't be a failed experiment in the course of biological evolution and mankind could look forward to its future.
Simonic's work is provocative and inspiring attempt to encourage every reader to make his own contribution in that direction.

Mirna Flögel-Mršic

Other articles related to Prof. dr. sc. Ante Simonic:

- (E) Quo Vadis Scientia? - Ante Simonic - Autor
 http://www.CroatianWorld.net/CROWNframes.htm?/Letters/3247.htm

- (E,H) Prof. dr. sc. Ante Simonic, Deputy Prime Minister
 http://www.CroatianWorld.net/CROWNframes.htm?/Letters/3255.htm

- (E) CIVILISATIONAL DIVIDES OF KNOWLEDGE BY Dr Ante Simonic
 http://www.CroatianWorld.net/CROWNframes.htm?/Letters/3226.htm

Croatian Musical Heritage Series

Ljerka Pleslic Bjelinski, Michael Edwards and Margaret Casman-Vuko

Ljerka Bjelinski Pleslic & Bruno Bjelinski

performe Bruno Bjelinski  for the first time in Washington DC.

Press Release
For Immediate Release

Croatian Musical Heritage Series Concert at Austrian Embassy

Washington, DC, November 12, 2003 - The Embassy of Croatia, Croatian House, and the Association of Alumni and Friends of Croatian Universities – National Capital Group, are proud to present a very special musical event onFriday, November 14, 2003, at the Austrian Embassy, 3524 International Court, N.W., Washington, D.C. As part of the Croatian Musical Heritage Series, Ljerka Pleslic Bjelinski, Michael Edwards and Margaret Casman-Vuko will present the works of the distinguished Croatian composer Bruno Bjelinski (1909-1992).

Ljerka Pleslic Bjelinski, considered one of the outstanding Croatian pianists of her generation, will interpret the works of her late husband, Bruno Bjelinski. The award-winning artist has earned critical acclaim across the globe, as well as inspired many young musicians at the Music Academy of Zagreb.

Michael Edwards, a Philadelphia-born clarinetist with a deep passion for the music of Bruno Bjelinski, is hailed as one of the world’s leading exponents of the clarinet. In addition to extensive chamber music experience, Mr. Edwards’ solo work has taken him across North America, Europe, and the Far East.

Margaret Casman-Vuko has trained as a soprano in both the United States and Croatia. A graduate of the New England Conservatory School of Music, Ms. Casman-Vuko has a performance background in recital, television, radio, and film.

The event will begin at 7:30 p.m., and is free and open to the public. Donations will be accepted.

###

For further information, please contact:
Alan Vojvodic,  press@croatiaemb.org
Second Secretary
Embassy of the Republic of Croatia to the U.S.
2343 Massachussetts Ave. NW
Washington DC, 20008
Phone: (202) 986 9476
Fax: (202) 234 2363

BRUNO BJELINSKI

BRUNO BJELINSKI

Roden: 1. studenoga 1909. u Trstu
Umro: 3. rujna 1992. u Zagrebu

Malo je skladatelja u XX. stoljecu s tako raznolikim i bogatim glazbenim opusom kakav je ostvario hrvatski skladatelj Bruno Bjelinski.
U ranom stvaralackom razdoblju Bjelinski se zanima iskljucivo za glasovir i komornu glazbu, da bi kasnije napisao golem broj orkestralnih djela, od koncerata za glazbalo i orkestar, petnaest simfonija i sinfonieta, više opera, nekoliko djecjih scensko-glazbenih djela i baleta do velikog broja drugih glazbenih ostvarenja. Nema gotovo niti jednog glazbala kojemu Bjelinski nije posvetio barem jedan koncert. Jednako je važan opus njegovih pjesama, dua, tria, kvarteta i kvinteta posvecenih gudackim, puhackim i kombiniranim komornim sastavima.
Bruno Bjelinski roden je 1. studenoga 1909. u Trstu. U Zagrebu je završio studij prava s doktoratom, te radi kao sudski i odvjetnicki pripravnik. Medutim, od gradanski uglednoga i poželjnog zanimanja pravnika i odvjetnika Bjelinskom je važnija glazba pa tijekom studija upisuje i Glazbenu akademiju, gdje ce uciti u klasi poznatih pedagoga i umjetnika Blagoja Berse i Franje Dugana. Zatim pocinje bogat skladateljski rad. Bjelinski je još kao djecak svirao violinu, potom i glasovir, pa je bilježio i glazbene teme, koje poslije koristi u svojim prvim skladateljskim ostvarenjima. Nastaje niz sonata, tokata i suita, no stvaralacki rad prekinuo je svjetski rat tijekom kojeg je Bjelinski interniran na Vis.
Poslije Drugoga svjetskog rata Bjelinski predaje kontrapunkt i polifoniju u splitskim i zagrebackim školama, a potom i na Glazbenoj akademiji u Zagrebu. U to doba nastaju velika djela poput Koncerta za klarinet, Koncerta za flautu, Serenade za trublju, klavir, gudace i udaraljke i Koncertne simfonije za klavir. Pedesetih godina Bjelinski takoder stvara velik opus za djecu u kojem se isticu Sedam bagatela za klavir, opere Pcelica Maja, Heraklo i Ružno pace, te baleti Pinokio, Petar Pan i Macak u cizmama. U svom kasnom stvaralackom razdoblju Bjelinski sklada operu Orfej XX. stoljeca, Koncert za Romea i Juliju te nekoliko simfonija.

Umro je u Zagrebu 3. rujna 1992. Stalna osobina u opusu Brune Bjelinskog je neoklasicisticka forma i glazbeni izraz. Bjelinski se krece u granicama tonalnosti i nije sklon avangardnom eksperimentiranju. Njegova je glazba pjevna, ritmicki raznolika i polifona, a u najvecem broju njegovih djela prepoznaje se mediteranska vedrina i otvorenost.

Viduka plans Croatia orphanage

By Petr Kogoy
November 14, 2003

MARK VIDUKA says Australia is still the lucky country.

Melbourne-born Viduka's next goal is to establish an orphanage in Croatia, to help house displaced kids following the years of internal conflict following the break-up of Tito's Yugoslavia.

The third of five children, Viduka has four sisters. He was born at Footscray but raised at St Albans, in Melbourne's outer west.

A product of the Melbourne Croatia (Knights) junior ranks, the striker spent three seasons in the National Soccer League before heading overseas in 1995.

Viduka spent the next four seasons with Croatia Zagreb before moving to Britain, signing with Glasgow Celtic in 1998 where his 30 goals in 37 games caught the eye of then Leeds manager David O'Leary.

It was O'Leary who gambled on the big Australian by paying Celtic $14 million on today's exchange rate, to get him to move to the west Yorkshire club.

"I love Australia," Viduka said. "It is a rich country. I love playing for the Socceroos, but there's not much money in Croatia.

"You have to go there to see the number of kids left without parents and fending for themselves since the war ended.  "I get paid well. I want to use some of this money for what I believe is a worthwhile cause."  Other projects on Viduka's agenda include investing in Croatia's burgeoning tourism industry. He sees Croatia's Adriatic coastline as potential for massive growth. "Tourism brings a lot of foreigners to the country," Viduka said. "I'm looking at maybe building a hotel or getting someone to build for me a cruise boat which would sail the many islands found off the Dalmatian coast."

The Australian

http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0,8659,7857903-23215,00.html

Croatian Cup winner poised to take on the world

Makybe Diva, who races in the red and white colours of Croatia

By Ernie Manning

MELBOURNE Cup winner Makybe Diva is poised to take on the world's best gallopers in an overseas campaign. Owner Tony Santic, the millionaire South Australian tuna fisherman, announced plans for his five-year-old shortly after  yesterday's triumph at Flemington.
And trainer David Hall agreed the mare had the capacity to step up to the world stage.
Santic wants to takes his horse back to Europe and show the world how good she can be.
He said: "I bred Makybe Diva at a European stud and then tried to sell her there. Prospective buyers showed little  interest and offered only small amounts as a purchase price.
"I'd like to take her back to Europe and show them now how good she really is."
Santic's life story would make a movie script. Almost broke and on the verge of being evicted from his house several  years ago, he bounced back to be a leader in tuna fishing.
He also owns more than 100 thoroughbreds. Santic's family migrated from the Croatian island of Lobasta 45 years ago. He said: "My father went to work for the Ford Motor Factory at Geelong but within five years moved on to South Australia and returned to his old occupation of fishing."
Santic entered the fishing industry as a teenager but it was anything but a smooth ride.
He explained: "We had tuna fishing quota problems in the late 80s and the company went into receivership in 1990 and the bank was going to evict me, my wife Christine and five children from the house. "By the mid-90s, tuna fishing was booming again and I was able to go into my long time dream of racing gallopers. "I now have 50 mares and foals. I bought about 30 thoroughbreds in New Zealand a few years ago. "I'm still a hands-on fisherman in our business but I'll soon be concentrating on my horses, with my family taking over the fishing." Santic admitted he liked to punt big. "My first two bets on Makybe Diva at the call of the card yesterV More, page 111Big-race victory was planned to the letter V From back pageday were wagers to win $300,000 and $200,000," he said. "Two months ago, I backed Makybe Diva at 50/1, putting on $2000, with the $100,000 from that to go to my family." Makybe Diva, who races in the red and white colours of Croatia, with a Southern Cross for Australia, was named after the  girls in Santic's South Australian office. "They chose the registration by combining their own names, Maureen, Kylie, Belinda, Diane and Vanessa," he said. While Santic had his office girls to thank for the name, Hall, 40, also had a lucky charm riding with him in yesterday's  race. "My partner, Leslee, gave me a lucky penny for my birthday yesterday week," Hall said. "I'll certainly make sure I never
lose the penny. "Hall outlined how the victory was planned for over 12 months.
"Makybe Diva did not win between last year's Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Flemington in November and today," he said. "Everything was focused on her being at a peak when racing fifth-up at the Melbourne Cup." Hall is a son of Adelaide trainer Joe Hall and a cousin of former prominent northern jockey Greg Hall. "In 1987 I came to a Melbourne Cup carnival and won a minor event with Blue Boss," he said. "I was encouraged to move to
Melbourne and we bought stables at Epsom before moving on to stables at Flemington.
"I knew Flemington well because I'd worked there during my school holidays with my uncle Brian Hall, who was stable
foreman for the late trainer Tony Lopes at the famous Chicquita Lodge.
"I now have a 65-horse Flemington stable and 160 gallopers on my books.
"Tony Santic has been a patient owner and I told him early Makybe Diva was a staying type who would take plenty of time to mature.
"The mare will now go for a spell and then we'll look at Tony's overseas plans."
Hall has 20 horses in work for Santic and he believes the best might be yet to come from the mare because of her continued improvement. He comes from a large racing family and his father, Joe, is a successful trainer in Adelaide where 40-year-old Hall jun. also began his career. Hall sen. sent David to Sacred Heart College, the same school as master trainer Bart Cummings, who knows more about winning Melbourne Cups than anyone else.
November 05, 2003

© 2003 West Australian Newspapers Limited
All Rights Reserved.

Source:http://www.thewest.com.au/20031105/sport/tw-sport-home-sto115231.html 

Jazzcubes Poetry

Zagreb Redefined54. Just Standing There. The feet are rooted in the farm dirt, no wind chimes, no chimney to climb, just standing there, inserting envelopes into invitations.                 --Steve Renko

ŽENSKA KLAPA FOLKLORNOG ANSAMBLA LINÐO

DUBROVNIK
HRVATSKA

 

Folklorni ansambl Lindo u gradu Dubrovniku djeluje vec dugih 37 godina njegujuci vrijednu kulturnu baštinu ne samo dubrovackog, vec i hrvatskog podneblja. Njegova posebnost obogacuje turisticku ponudu Hrvatske i cini ju originalnom, što je razlog da je danas FA Lindo poznat i u svijetu.

U veljaci 2000. godine rodila se ideja kod nekolicine plesacica Linda o osnivanju ženske klape pri Folklornom ansamblu, što im je i pošlo za rukom uz pomoc Vedrana Ivankovica, glazbenika u Lindu, koji je preuzeo vodenje klape.

Prvi put se ova klapa predstavila javnosti u kolovozu 2000. godine kada je FA Lindo slavio svoju trideset petu obljetnicu postojanja i djelovanja. Klapa je nastupila na brojnim znacajnim susretima klapa, od Omiša, Bola, Korcule, Blata, Stona i Mlina do Cavtata na najjužnijoj hrvatskoj obali, gdje je pokazala neskriveni entuzijazam i veliku volju za unaprjedivanjem kulturne baštine.

Klapa sudjeluje na Festivalu dalmatinskih klapa Omiš zadnje tri godine (2001., 2002., 2003.). Ove, 2003. godine, ulazi u finalnu vecer i osvaja Broncanog leuta – 3. nagradu publike, što predstavlja veliki uspjeh. “Intonativnom stabilnošcu, glasovnom snagom i svježinom, uigranošcu i rafiniranošcu interpretacije, te izborom repertoara ženska klapa FA Lindo zavrjeduje svaku pohvalu”*. (*Ivana Tomic – Feric) .

Klapa je sudjelovala i na Festivalu klapa Dubrovacko-neretvanske županije 2002. i 2003., koji se održava u Blatu na Korculi, gdje je 2002. osvojila srebrenu plaketu, a 2003. zlatnu plaketu prema ocjenama strucnog ocjenjivackog suda.

U travnju 2002. godine klapa je sudjelovala na 13. Medunarodnom festivalu zborskog pjevanja u Veroni. Na tom svjetski poznatom festivalu klapa je ostvarila takoder veliki uspjeh – zlatno odlicje u kategoriji ženskih folklornih skupina, što je uvelike doprinijelo promidžbi same klape u klapskom svijetu, ali i promidžbi Dubrovnika i Hrvatske.

U listopadu 2002. godine klapa je imala svoj prvi samostalni koncert u Kazalištu Marina Držica u Dubrovniku.

U listopadu 2003. klapa je snimila svoj prvi nosac zvuka u suradnji sa svjetski poznatim glazbenikom i producentom Nenadom Bachom.

U klapi pjevaju dugogodišnje Lindove plesacice u dobi od 18 do 24 godine, pjevaju izvorne i autorske dalmatinske klapske pjesme, ali i obrade domacih zabavnih skladbi.
Klapa djeluje u sastavu:

Ana Bacic, I. sopran
Paula Kusalic, II. sopran
Jelena Jozovic, II. sopran
Luci Vierda, II. sopran
Lidija Jerosimic, I. alt
Margarita Stražicic, I. alt
Fani Favro, II. alt
Ivana Butigan, II. alt
Ivela Raguž, II. alt

Vedran Ivankovic, voditelj klape
 

High-Tech Daydreamers Investing In Immortality

ARTS & IDEAS/CULTURAL DESK | November 1, 2003, Saturday
High-Tech Daydreamers Investing In Immortality

Copyright New York Times Company Nov 1, 2003

Aubrey de Grey took the stage of the Camden Opera House, tugging at a beard worthy of Methuselah, to tell his listeners that they could triumph over death.

Mr. de Grey was not selling an afterlife or a metaphor. He is a geneticist at the University of Cambridge, in England, and his prophecy was straightforward if hard to believe: Getting old and dying are engineering problems. Aging can be reversed and death defeated. People already alive will live a thousand years or longer.

He was at pains to argue that what he calls ''negligible senescence,'' and what the average person would call living forever, is inevitable. His proposed war on aging, he said, is intended to make it happen sooner and make it happen right. He subscribes, it seems, to the philosophy articulated by Woody Allen: ''I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying.''

This notion of getting in on the ground floor of immortality was apparently appealing to the roughly 500 people who came in mid-October to this coastal town of big yachts and small gift shops about 70 miles northeast of Portland to attend Pop!Tech, an annual technology conference. They were ready for the Next Big Thing. After all, many of them were present at the creation of the last one, the spread of the personal computer and the explosive growth of the Internet.

Stephen M. Case, the founder of AOL, was here, as were John Scully and Robert Metcalfe, who started the conference seven years ago. Mr. Scully was the chief executive of Apple, after he had left PepsiCo. Mr. Metcalfe invented the Ethernet and founded 3Com, among a few other achievements, before he became a venture capitalist. Other, lesser known entrepreneurs and investors, along with dot-com veterans, a gaggle of journalists and the merely curious, also attended to look for new ideas or promote them, and to use the gathering of thinkers and talkers as a guide to what's next.

The answer was clear. Now that the giddiness and glamour of the killer app and ultimate hand-held gizmo have passed into memory, it is biology that beckons. The possibility of making money out of biotech is of obvious interest. But the more exciting question in the air was not so much where to put your money as what to think about. Differentiating between vision and fantasy would come next.

Many in the audience seemed unafraid of amending the presumed laws of nature. When Juan Enriquez, from the Harvard Business School, displayed an X-ray of a chicken with three wings and asked who believed that this sort of research ought to continue, about two-thirds of those in the audience raised their hands. This was before they knew its purpose, which is to understand how to regenerate damaged tissues for human beings.

Mr. Enriquez said he was surprised, as well he might be. It is not often you find 300 people ready to vote for extra limbs, no matter the reason.

Other speakers addressed the importance of stem cell research, ocean exploration, a crisis in the patent system, the soul-deadening effect of suburbs, and the mode by which the Earth will die.

For audacity of imagination, though, Mr. de Grey was matched only by Joe Davis, a molecular artist from M.I.T. with a peg leg and a devilish glint in his eye, who, with the help of scientists at Harvard and M.I.T. has made art of DNA by inserting coded messages into the genes of bacteria. He does not work only with DNA. He also pointed out that drawings sent into space, presumably for curious extraterrestrials, lacked anatomically correct female genitalia. He has not been able to remedy that, but he did record vaginal contractions and translate them into a radio broadcast.

He also provided instruction in basic biology using a DNA model made of garden hose to great effect. All in all it was a perfect atmosphere for Mr. de Grey, whose campaign against death has something of the feeling of an Internet start-up. On one hand he is promising the world. On the other, the underlying science and technology are real, Mr. de Grey argued. And the business plan is, if nothing else, bold.

Yet without true expertise in some very sophisticated biology, it was hard to know how far away from the mainstream he was.

Mr. de Grey is probably several steps ahead of the avant garde in his conviction that the 4,000- or 5,000-year life is right around the corner. But extending the average human life to 150 years is commonly discussed. And some gerontologists say there is no theoretical limit to the human life span.

Mr. de Grey's ideas were not completely new to people who have been pondering cyborgs and artificial intelligence for years. ''I think, and I've thought this for a long time, that we live, roughly speaking, in the last generation of human beings,'' said Whitfield Diffie, chief of security for Sun Microsystems, a pioneer in encryption, and a freewheeling thinker often sought after for such conferences as a speaker. He was just visiting this year and said he was fascinated by the grand claims for the biological century, which he views as probably too conservative.

He is convinced, he said, that there are probably people alive already today who will have unlimited life spans. And he was unimpressed by the skepticism of more conservative experts in the field of aging. After all, he said, he had witnessed change coming rapidly from unexpected directions in the digital world.

Mark Hurst, who runs a consulting company in New York and founded a Web site for consumer complaints, thisisbroken.com, said after the meeting that he was ''skeptical and entertained.'' But, he said, ''as far as actually believing it,'' he thinks most of those he talked to at Pop!Tech had the same question about the scientific details as he did, ''What the heck was he talking about?''

Mr. de Grey compared the cellular and molecular damage that aging causes to what happens to a house. Houses keep going, he said, not because they are built to be immortal, but because people keep repairing them. Science should take the same approach to the human body, he argued; many, if not all, of the techniques for making such repairs are already available.

He also had an answer for how to pay for the necessary research. First prove that the life of laboratory mice can be extended. Once people realize that aging can be reversed in a mammal, he said, research will take off, and the demand for extending life far beyond the current limits will be universal. Then people can just keep repairing themselves and researching new ways to take care of future damage.

To get this whole process going, Mr. de Grey established the Methuselah Mouse Prize in September. The prize is drawn from a fund, at methuselahmouse.org, now open for donations. A portion of it is to be offered each time the record is broken for prolonging mouse life. A portion will also be offered for reversing aging, which is a more complicated calculation. The prize fund stands at $28,448.

With enough money, Mr. de Grey said, it would take about 10 years to find a proven method for taking any 2-year-old mouse, already two-thirds of the way through a normal life, and extending it to five years, the equivalent of 150 years for humans. At that point the war on human aging could begin in earnest.

Mr. de Grey described himself as a theoretician, and as such he holds a position that is rejected by most researchers into the science of aging. For instance, Leonard P. Guarente, a professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said, ''The idea of people living to a thousand is preposterous.'' There are mechanisms that may well allow extending life, he said, but so much goes wrong as organisms deteriorate with age that ''trying to fix everything that's going wrong is impossible.''

Mr. de Grey is undeterred by criticism and relatively unconcerned about suggestions that near-immortality, if achievable, might not be entirely a good thing. Asked what would happen to reproduction when the living started to accumulate the way the dead do now, taking up all the space, he said they would no doubt resent new arrivals. He said matter-of-factly that it would be, by and large, a world without children.

He recognized that there would be difficult issues to face but brushed aside any suggestion that defeating death was not a fundamentally good thing to do.

''Aging really is barbaric,'' he said. ''It shouldn't be allowed. I don't need an ethical argument. I don't need any argument. It's visceral. To let people die is bad.''

Although Mr. de Grey got his listeners talking and thinking, there was no indication that their interest meant they had signed on to the program. Mr. Diffie, for one, was unconvinced by the notion of death as something that arrived by accident in evolution. It was, after all, universal. ''My nose for when I don't understand something tells me there's something here I don't understand,'' he said. '' I don't think they understand it either.''

The audience was not lacking in millionaires, but there was no great surge of donations to the Methusaleh Mouse Prize after Mr. de Grey's talk. According to his online record of donations, $1,849 was received during or after Pop!Tech, which ran from Oct. 16 to 18.

Mr. de Grey has no illusions about the challenge he faces. He wants to establish an institute to direct research, he said, adding that he probably needs $500 million to achieve the goal of using mouse research to kick-start a global research explosion on human aging. That includes the prize fund.

Just before a dinner the night after his talk, one of the participants in the conference approached him and asked, ''Can we talk about funding?''

''Yeah,'' Mr. de Grey said, ''how much money do you have?''