Kechelle blog

Could lead codices prove ‘the major discovery of Christian history’?

">British archaeologists are seeking to authenticate what could be a landmark discovery in the documentation of early Christianity: a trove of 70 lead codices that appear to date from the 1st century CE, which may include key clues to the last days of Jesus' life. As , some researchers are suggesting this could be the most significant find in Christian archeology since the Dead Sea scrolls in 1947.

The codices turned up five years ago in a remote cave in eastern Jordana region where early Christian believers may have fled after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE. The codices are made up of wirebound individual pages, each roughly the size of a credit card. They contain a number of images and textual allusions to the Messiah, as well as some possible references to the crucifixion and resurrection. Some of the codices were sealed, prompting yet more breathless speculation that they could include the sealed book, shown only to the Messiah, mentioned in the Book of Revelation. One of the few sentences translated thus far from the texts, , reads, "I shall walk uprightly"--a phrase that also appears in Revelation. "While it could be simply a sentiment common in Judaism," BBC writer Robert Pigott notes, "it could here be designed to refer to the resurrection."

But the field of biblical archaeology is also prey to plenty of hoaxes and enterprising fraudsters, so investigators are proceeding with due empirical caution. Initial metallurgical research indicates that the codices are about 2,000 years old--based on the manner of corrosion they have undergone, which, as Macrae writes, "experts believe would be impossible to achieve artificially."

Beyond the initial dating tests, however, little is confirmed about the codices or what they contain. And the saga of their discovery has already touched off a battle over ownership rights between Israel and Jordan. As , the cache surfaced when a Jordanian Bedouin saw a menorahthe Jewish religious candleabraexposed in the wake of a flash flood. But the codices somehow passed into the ownership of , who claims that they have been in his family's possession for the past 100 years. The Jordanian government has pledged to "exert all efforts at every level" to get the potentially priceless relics returned, Pigott reports.

Meanwhile, biblical scholars who have examined the codices point to significant textual evidence suggesting their early Christian origin. Philip Davies, emeritus professor of Old Testament Studies at Sheffield University, told Pigott he was "dumbstruck" at the sight of plates representing a picture map of ancient Jerusalem. "There is a cross in the foreground, and behind it is what has to be the tomb [of Jesus], a small building with an opening, and behind that the walls of the city," Davies explained. "There are walls depicted on other pages of these books, too, and they almost certainly refer to Jerusalem."

David Elkington, an ancient religion scholar who heads the British research team investigating the find, has likewise pronounced this nothing less than "the major discovery of Christian history." Elkington told the Daily Mail that "it is a breathtaking thought that we have held these objects that might have been held by the early saints of the Church."

Still, other students of early Christian history are urging caution, citing precedents such asof an ossuary said to contain Jesus' bones. New Testament scholarsince these codices are miniature, they were likely intended for private, rather than liturgical, use. This would likely place their date of origin closer to the 3rd century CE. But only further research and full translation of the codices can fully confirm the nature of the find. The larger lesson here is likely that of Eccliastes 3:1be patient, since "to everything there is a season."

(David Elkington/Rex Features/Rex USA)

Dice-K donates $1 mn to quake aid

Boston pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka is donating $1 million to the Red Sox' official charity for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in his native Japan.

The Red Sox said Friday that his gift to the Red Sox Foundation will be sent to the Japanese Red Cross Society to aid response to the March 11 disaster, which also spawned an atomic crisis thanks to damage to the Fukushima nuclear plant.

Boston's other Japanese hurlers, Hideki Okajima, Junichi Tazawa and Itsuki Shoda, have also made personal donations and joined Matsuzaka, team captain Jason Varitek and others in collecting donations from fans at two spring training games in Florida.

The death toll from Japan's worst post-war disaster had topped 10,000 by Friday, and there was scant hope for 17,500 others still missing.

Matsuzaka, a native of Tokyo, was already a star in Japan when he joined the Red Sox in December 2006, inking a 52 million-dollar, six-year contract.

He became the first Japanese pitcher to start a World Series game as Boston won the Fall Classic in his first Major League season.

"Our efforts on the field are dedicated to all who are suffering from this catastrophe," Matsuzaka said in a videotaped message released by the Red Sox earlier this month. "We are in this together, so we must overcome tragedy together."

Argentina, US tangle over military material

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – Argentina is accusing the U.S. military of trying to sneak guns and spy equipment into the country under the guise of providing a routine police training course — a charge disputed Monday by U.S. officials.

Argentine authorities say they seized nearly 1,000 cubic feet of undeclared equipment, describing it as machine guns and ammunition, drugs and spy equipment. It was on a U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo plane that landed Thursday with material for a training course that a U.S. Special Forces team had been invited to provide to Argentina's federal police.

"Argentine law must be complied with by all, without exception," Foreign Minister Hector Timerman told Arturo Valenzuela, the assistant U.S. secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, when Valenzuela called him to complain about how authorities handled the cargo, the ministry said.

Timerman also said Argentina would file an official protest in Washington and ask for a shared investigation into why the U.S. Air Force would try to violate Argentine law, the ministry said.

The seized material includes equipment "for intercepting communications, various sophisticated and powerful GPS devices, technological elements containing codes labeled secret, and a trunk full of expired medicine," the ministry said.

An Argentine federal judge is demanding a full accounting from the foreign ministry, and some lawmakers vowed to hold investigative hearings.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said he could not confirm if a protest had been filed, but he called on Argentina to return the U.S. equipment.

"We are puzzled and disturbed by the actions of Argentine officials," he told reporters in Washington.

Crowley called the search of the plane "unusual and unannounced" and said minor discrepancies in the manifest "were the kind of thing that could have been cleared up on the ground by customs officials."

The plane arrived at a sensitive time for Argentine-U.S. relations. Since the White House announced that President Barack Obama would visit Chile and Brazil but skip Argentina in his first trip to South America, Timerman has complained about U.S. military policies — in particular, training that the U.S. provides to Latin American police and military at the International Law Enforcement Academy in El Salvador.

The academy replaced the U.S. military's School of the Americas, where critics contend many Latin American military figures learned torture techniques that served the region's dictatorships in decades past. Human rights is a main thrust of the academy's curriculum, but Timerman has focused on the darker history.

A U.S. State Department official with knowledge of the events told The Associated Press that all the key material in the shipment was properly declared and authorized by Argentina, describing the undeclared equipment as a minor problem with the plane's manifest that could have been resolved privately.

For example, the official said, each machine gun and related equipment was declared. But extra gun barrels brought to replace barrels that overheat during live-fire exercises were seized because they lacked matching serial numbers, the official said.

The official agreed to discuss the matter only if not quoted by name because of the sensitivity of continuing talks over the issue.

Also seized was a U.S. medic's kit, brought along in case anyone got injured. While the kit was declared, all the drugs inside weren't individually listed, the official said.

The purported spy equipment is simply satellite phones, which the nine-member Special Forces training team carries with them in the field in case they must communicate through secure channels to their U.S. commanders, the official said. Only one of the three phones listed in the manifest was declared, and the inventory didn't specify all the related computer equipment or classified codes used to make the calls. All were seized, the official said.

"This elite team from the U.S. is on active duty. They're on call. They absolutely had to have it because at any moment if there was a hostage crisis that broke out in the world, they would have to leave and use it to communicate," the official said.

Stretchers, bandages and military rations make up most of the rest of the undeclared equipment. Argentine officials told the Americans during planning for the training course not to worry about declaring such material, the official said.

The course was canceled and the C-17 flew home with the Special Forces team, the official said.

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Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

Admissions Q&A: Cambridge

The University of Cambridge has the distinction of being one of the oldest universities in Europe. By comparison, its Judge Business School is brand new. Cambridge entered Bloomberg Businessweek's list of top MBA programs at number 10 in 2010. The 800-year old university opened the Judge school in 1990 and offers a one-year MBA program. Judge hosts a small, distinctly international student body. About 160 applicants enter the full-time MBA program each year, compared to around 580 at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business and 400 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management.

Conrad Chua, Judge's head of MBA recruitment and admissions, notes that 94 percent of Cambridge MBA students come from outside the U.K. They speak an average of three languages, with no single nationality dominating the population, he says. Students from the U.S. and India each account for 12 percent of the MBAcandidates -- the largest concentrations. A majority of Judge graduates goes on to work in Western Europe (62 percent), followed by Asia (28 percent) and the U.S. (8 percent).

Chua spoke to Bloomberg Businessweek's Erin Zlomek about what potential students can expect from the Judge program and what they might encounter during the application process. Here are edited excerpts of their conversation:

What is unique about the Cambridge MBA program?

The people we select tend to have more work experience than those in U.S. schools. On average our students have between six and seven years of experience and the average age is 30. The academic side is much more intense because we cover everything that a two-year MBA does within one year. We feel work experience adds a different element to the learning process, and there is a lot of learning from fellow classmates.

The other thing which I think is quite different is that there is a lot ofintensive project work. Students do three projects throughout the year. Two of them are consulting projects. In the first, every student has to work with a local organization. At the end of the second term, groups of students work with global organizations for about four to five weeks. At the end of the year, there's a final project that students again have to do in groups.

Why might North Americans want to consider attending Cambridge's MBA program?

For the geographic diversity. Within a short period of time, you get to learn about global businesses and global economic development in a way that you can't get exposed to in the U.S. Or at least (not) to the same degree. If you look at how businesses and organizations in the U.S. are developing, they all want to be global. You need to have that exposure to people of different cultures, different industries, and different backgrounds, which we can provide because of the diverse class that we have.

Whatmakes Cambridge unique from other European MBA programs?

I don't think the entrepreneurial culture is as strong in other areas of Europe as it is here. The area that we are in is kind of like Silicon Valley, where you have a huge research university but also a lot of spinouts from the university and a lot of startups. Many of our students go on to become entrepreneurs.

The quality of our students, the quality of our faculty, and the large number of practical projects in our curriculum also make us attractive.

Tell me more about the global consulting project that you mentioned, and please give some examples.

Most of the projects are done outside of the U.K. and they last about four to five weeks. The students work in groups of about four or five and they help real multinational companies and organizations solve real problems. For example in 2010 we had a group of students working with Toyota (TM.) in Los Angeles. Our business schoolorganizes most of the projects. Though if students have a certain area of interest, they can set up a project themselves. One group last year was very interested in e-commerce in China and set up a project.

As for the other projects done throughout the year, some examples would be helping a company think of how to market a new treatment for lymphoma, or how to market some sort of new application or new use for RFID technology.

How do you assist with job or internship placement?

We don't do placement for internships. Most times students find those themselves. When you have a two-year MBA, the internship is an integral part of the summer in between. Because ours is one year, students might choose to do an internship after the academic part of the program is finished. Others may use the summer to write a business plan, they might do a project with a member of faculty, or they might take another class at the university.

We do have a career services officeand there are employers that regularly reach out to us. Barclays () and Standard Chartered () are two banks that hire our students. Students have also gone on to work at the international units of Google (NasdaqGS: - ) and Amazon (NasdaqGS: - ).

What would you say is the most difficult part of the application process and what are the most common mistakes to avoid?

The interview might be the most difficult. Don't waffle on your answers. Be clear about what you want. Even if applicants are not sure about something they want, they should be clear about that as well. All our interviews are conducted by members of faculty who can see through B.S. quickly. We don't want someone who is saying what they think the interviewer wants to hear. We are looking for honest, direct answers.

What are your tips for writing the essays?

Just be truthful. For the essays, we look at an applicant'sanalytical ability. We ask what they think the main challenges are in their industry. We want to know what their recommendations are and what courses of action they suggest.

How important are GMAT scores to the application process?

The GMAT is an important prerequisite but doesn't guarantee admission. Once we see an applicant's GMAT is within a certain range, we then look at work experience, work references, and essays.

For work experience, we're looking at people that have a track record of excellence. We want to know if they work well in teams, if they work well in multinational, multicultural environments.

What makes an applicant stand out?

Someone who is intellectually strong, who has good work experience, strong leadership potential, and who has something unique that he or she would bring to the program. When I say unique, I mean there is something that the applicant feels passionate about, that they've invested a lot of timeand effort in. It could be something they've done in the workplace, something they've done in the community, or something they've done in sports. We want to know that there is something that they feel strongly about that they'd like to extend, or like to become really great at.

What do you look for in recommendation letters?

We ask for two references -- one from a supervisor and the other from a peer. The peer recommendation could come from a colleague or an ex-colleague. The best recommendations come from someone who knows the candidate well, who can write about how the candidate works in teams, and how the candidate has performed versus their peer group. We want to know if the candidate works well with people from different cultures.

What kind of financial aid is available and which students have the best shot at aid?

There are some bursary awards and some scholarships offered through the school. We don't have full-tuitionscholarships. We have some scholarships that cater to different groups. For example, there is one for North American women, there is one for people with an engineering background, there is another for people interested in the not-for-profit sector. There are also general scholarships that are need-based or merit-based.

Goergl claims world ski super-G crown

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany (AFP) – Austria's Elisabeth Goergl won the women's world super-G title on Tuesday, but defending champion Lindsey Vonn finished a disappointing seventh and reigning Olympic champion Andrea Fischbacher crashed out.

Goergl's winning time of 1min 23.82sec down the icy Kandahar course just edged American Julia Mancuso, 0.05sec off the pace, with local favourite Maria Riesch claiming bronze at 0.21sec.

In-form Swiss teenager Lara Gut finished just out of the medals in fourth at 0.44sec.

The super-G crown is the first major title for the 29-year-old Goergl, who won bronze medals in the downhill and giant slalom at last year's Winter Olympics and claimed a super combined bronze at the 2009 world championships.

"I wasn't nervous at all at the start," said Goergl.

"I had a good run, I did what I had planned to do. The conditions were in my favour in this case."

The eagerly anticipated clash between world champion Vonn, who has dominated women's skiing in the last three years, and Garmisch-born World Cup leader Riesch never materialised as both failed to cope as well as Goergl with the icy slopes.

Having suffered a head injury last week in training, Vonn lost time to Goergl from the first split time and never recovered to finish well down the pecking order, at 0.84sec.

She admitted she was not at her best and may skip Friday's super combined to give herself more time to recover.

"Seventh place is good, but I want to defend my title and I can't do that if it's too dangerous for me and I shouldn't do it," said Vonn.

"But this is the world championships and I tried to do it, but unfortunately things are not going well at the moment.

"I need to see if I can be fit again for the downhill, maybe I'll skip the super combined, I don't really know.

"I still need to talk to the therapists and the doctors because I have to be honest, that wasn't me out there."

She added: "It's not hard to see who was the best, they really deserved it and I'm just disappointed I wasn't quite with it today, my head wasn't in it.

"That was the biggest disappointment for me, I didn't get the chance to give my best, but that's the way it is and the winner, Lizzy, was really great."

Fischbacher suffered a heavy crash after her skies flipped sideways and she slid for several hundred metres at high speeds before the crash barriers caught her. She later skied down.

"I don't really know what happened," said the 25-year-old. "I just thought a bit too much.

"I wanted to turn, but then I started with the turn 10 metres too early and caught the gate."

Slovenia's Tina Maze, Olympic silver medallist in the discipline a year ago, immediately lost time at the top part of the course and finished 11th, while Sweden's Anja Paerson was 10th. Both finished more than a second behind the winner.

The fortnight-long world championships continue on Wednesday with the men's super-G.