Saturday Trivia

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200703/s1860802.htm
"Dr Mandy Walker from CSIRO Plant Industry laboratories in Adelaide and her colleagues studied the genetics of Vitis vinifera, the grapevine species used to produce almost all the white and red wine varieties sold today. . . . Scientists know white grapes arose as a variant of red grapes at some point in history, but not exactly how.

The new research, published in the latest issue of the Plant Journal, helps answer this question. Specifically, Dr Walker and her team showed that the colour of grape skins is controlled by two genes, VvMYBA1 and VvMYBA2.

They found that either gene can regulate the colour by switching on production of a molecule called anthocyanin, which turns grape skin red.In white grapes, both the genes are mutated, meaning both ways for producing a red colour were switched off. . . . 'Mutations in single genes happen at a fairly low frequency, but the grapes had to have mutations in two genes to turn from red to white and that's just very, very rare.' Exactly when and where the switch might have happened isn't clear, Dr Walker says. 'It most likely occurred before the time of Tutankhamen,' she says.

White wine residue was found in flasks within the ancient Egyptian king's tomb, she says."
See the above page for the full story.

Review: The Professor's Daughter (Graphic novel)
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/02/27/091101.php

"Two of France’s most famous graphic novelists have teamed up to create an astonishing, beautiful and bizarre tale in The Professor's Daughter. Lillian, the daughter of a British professor who is taking home a mummy to put on display, takes the preserved body out of the sarcophagus and takes it on a stroll through Victorian London.The mummy is Imhotep IV and he and Lillian fall deeply in love. They can’t seem to get past a myriad of obstacles though - things just keep getting in the way. His dead spirit children come looking for him and wonder where their mother is, his father seems bent on destroying him, the Professor wants his mummy back, the London police want Imhotep for murder and oh, by the way, did I mention he’s a 1000-year-old mummy?"

The Pharoah's Wheat

http://tinyurl.com/2spape (thebulletin.us)

The pharaonic spirit inspired by the Franklin Institute's King Tut exhibit, ever-present throughout Philadelphia for the past month, has infiltrated the restaurants as well. Fountain Restaurant at the Four Seasons offers "The Golden Bird," a gold-leaf crusted squab stuffed with fava beans and farro; Aya's Café's "Pharaonic Feast" features a "Tut-style" lamb stew; and Haru has created a "Tutansushi" roll. The boy king has inspired the bars as well: McGillin's Old Ale House's "King Tut-tini," served in a martini glass rimmed with gold sugar, mixes Goldschlager with vanilla vodka; and the Swann Lounge's "Pharoah's Elixir," topped with gold leaf, mixes Amaretto and almond liqueur.

Review: Napoleon's Pyramids
http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/reviews/2007-02-28-napoleons-pyramids_x.htm
If you think that finding a smart, intelligent, well-written action thriller is as tough as deciphering hieroglyphics, your powers of deduction are on the wane.
The book you're looking for is Napoleon's Pyramids, and it's a two-fer.
It has a plot as satisfying as an Indiana Jones film and offers enough historical knowledge to render the reader a fascinating raconteur on the topics of ancient Egypt and Napoleon Bonaparte.
At the center of William Dietrich's engaging novel is the young Ethan Gage, a former protégé of Ben Franklin who is unwittingly set on a path to danger and high adventure when he wins an ancient medallion during a Parisian card game.

Ankh 3D adventure grame
http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/03/01/ankh/index.php

"RuneSoft has released a playable demo version of Ankh, a point-and-click graphical adventure game set in Ancient Egypt. Ankh isn’t a stuffy Myst-style game, though. Created by developer Deck 13, Ankh is a 3D cartoon adventure centering on young Assil, who’s thrown a wild party in the grand pyramid built by his father, the Pharaoh’s chief architect, and has fallen out of grace with the gods. A curse has now been cast upon him that he has to remove."

See the above page for the full story. Another review of the same game can be found at:
http://home.nestor.minsk.by/game/news/2007/03/0205.html

Book Review: Does Mozart have anything to do with Egyptology?
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2007/03/03/200703030021.asp

"Christian Jacq, a French writer known for his popular series "Ramsese," which features an Egyptian pharaoh, apparently thinks so. His four-volume series, titled "Mozart El Gran Mago (Mozart the Great Magician)," however, does not directly deal with Jacq's favorite topic.
Instead, Jacq introduces the secretive fraternal organization, the Freemasons, as a link between the genius of Salzburg and Egypt, a clever decision that honors and exploits the popularity of related conspiracy theories initiated by "The Da Vinci Code."
Jacq theorizes in the novel that Mozart was a Freemason. He also posits that Freemasonry's true origins trace back to ancient Egypt. "

See the above for the rest of the review.

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