Peter Friess (The Tech Museum) and Daniel N. Fenton (Team San Jose) announced that “Genghis Khan” will be the next blockbuster exhibition coming to San Jose.

“Genghis Khan’s brutality is well known, but less visible is the man whose natural leadership formed the first united Mongol nation – no small feat,” said Peter Friess, president of The Tech Museum. “Inasmuch as we carry the dark images of Genghis Khan the warlord, there is also the man who brought us passports, the pony express, printed money, hamburgers* and even pants.”

Much can be discovered about Genghis Khan (1167-1227) the ‘emperor of all emperors’ who united nomadic tribes of northeast Asia and founded the Mongol Empire and Mongolia with a visit to The Tech Museum.

More than 200 13th century artifacts from Genghis’ reign will be on display including:

Live Cultural Performers: Mongolian singers, contortionists and musicians.

Live weaponry demonstrations are featured in the exhibition.

Paiza – passports.
Large Siege Weaponry – Large crossbow and tools to conquer walled cities and castles.
Ancient Mongolian Artifacts.
Ger – A traditional nomadic dwelling – Note: One-third of the people in modern Mongolia live in a Ger.
Shaman’s Robe – Ritual dress used to channel spirits. Genghis Khan practiced shamanism and believed in supernatural powers.
Jewelry – Treasures from the ancient Mongolian capital of Karakorum.
Mongolian Noble Woman Mummy – Mummy and coffin treasures including silk and leather robes, jewelry, comb and bowl.
Mongol Weapons – Swords, leather and metal armor, mace-heads, bows and arrows, and an early firearm.
Buddhist Relics – books, statue, and artwork. Note: The Mongolian capital of Karakorum was religiously diverse.
Clothing and Adornments – Silk garments and jewelry from Karakorum and Kublai Khan’s palace.
Musical Instruments – Strings made of horse hair.

Team San Jose extends an invitation. When speaking with Dan Fenton he expressed hope that the people of San Francisco would visit The Tech and enjoy Genghis Khan.

“Genghis Khan The Exhibition” – Opens May 22 (Limited Engagement)

The Tech Museum – 201 South Market Street
San Jose, CA 95113-2008
(408) 294-8324

Special Exhibit Hours:
Monday – Wednesday: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Thursday – Sunday: 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM

Tickets:
Children 3 -17 ~ $15
Adults ~ $25
Special prices for seniors and college students.
Admission includes access to all the regular museum galleries.

*It is amusing that hamburgers, the name coming from the German port of Hamburg, originated in the time of Khan. The fierce Mongol horsemen (the Golden Horde) were so busy conquering the world that having to stop to light fires and eat got in their way. Raw lamb or mutton was formed into flat patties and then placed under their saddles. The horsemen could easily grab some ‘hamburger’ at any time.

Modern day Mongolia (see U.S. Department of State) lies in central Asia between Siberia on the north and China on the south and is slightly larger than Alaska.

Ger/Yurt The burning of soft coal by individual homes or “Ger” (yurt in Russian) adds to the polluted air.

Micky Rourke will star in a film about the Mongol ruler. He says: Genghis Khan Biopic ‘Not Your Stereotypical Blood and Swords‘

Genghis Khan: flickr set.

TeamSanJose on twitter

Benjamin Bratt

Benjamin Bratt was born in San Francisco. He attended Lowell High School. He then spent some time at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, but he left to star in the television series Juarez. Bratt is best known for his work on Law & Order.

Benjamin and his brother, Peter worked together on “La Mission” a film which tells a story of intolerance and love of family in the San Francisco Mission district.

On March 4th Peter Bratt will introduce “La Mission” to the Cinequest Film Festival audience. After the film Benjamin Bratt will follow with a 30 minute conversation at which time he will be presented with the Maverick Spirt Award.

Cool cars, San Francisco, and Benjamin Bratt – well worth the to drive to San Jose.

Cinequest Film Festival

Maverick Spirt Event – Peter and Benjamin Bratt

Screening of “La Mission”

California Theatre – 271 South Market Street – San Jose, CA 95113

Thursday, March 4, 2010 @ 7:00pm

Price $15

SAN FRANCISCO-SAN FRANCISCO BAY SHORELINE- SANTA CLARA VALLEY…INCLUDING SAN JOSE- 341 AM PDT TUE MAY 13 2008
…EXCESSIVE HEAT WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH THURSDAY EVENING FOR THE CITIES OF SAN FRANCISCO…OAKLAND AND SAN JOSE INCLUDING THE SANTA CLARA VALLEY…
A SIGNIFICANT HEAT EVENT IS FORECAST TO DEVELOP BY WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON WITH RECORD OR NEAR RECORD BREAKING HEAT POSSIBLE FOR THE URBAN AREAS OF THE GREATER SAN FRANCISCO BAY REGION. AFTERNOON HIGHS ON WEDNESDAY ARE FORECAST TO REACH THE MID 80S TO MID 90S AND THEN WARM TO THE UPPER 80S TO NEAR 103 ON THURSDAY WITH RECORD TEMPERATURES POSSIBLE. …………………… ALSO…NEVER LEAVE CHILDREN…ELDERLY OR PETS UNATTENDED IN ENCLOSED VEHICLES…EVEN FOR A SHORT TIME. TEMPERATURES QUICKLY RISE TO LIFE-THREATENING LEVELS EVEN WHEN THE WINDOWS ARE PARTIALLY OPENED.

Seriously people, don’t be complete schmucks and leave anything that can’t tolerate heat in the range of 150 degrees fahrenheit in your car. Better yet, don’t drive. Looks like the weather is going to be spectacular for a walk.

Last May, I mentioned the agricultural quarantine that the Light Brown Apple Moth had caused statewide, and now we get official word that the aerial chemical spraying campaign is on it’s way to San Francisco.

The intentions of the chemicals used are to “create sexual confusion”, and get random male mating to occur, which shouldn’t be hard in San Francisco.

While the pesticides & insect “phermones” to be used claim on their containers “Harmful if inhaled. Avoid breathing vapor or spray mist,” that won’t stop California’s multi-billion dollar agricultural industry from forcing you to do just that.

Officials claim no “adverse” effects are expected when aerial dissipation of vast quantities of CheckMate OLR-F and LBAM-F will be sprayed over the Bay Area beginning as early as June. Tell that to hundreds of residents of Santa Cruz and Monterey counties who have reported health problems from last years coating. One of the more dangerous aspects contained in the sprays is a chemical called 2 hydroxy 4n octyloxybenzophenone, an endocrine disrupter that is contained in the “microcapsules”.

Either way, whether you like it or not, it’s your turn Bay Area…

State and local agricultural officials will “explain the Light Brown Apple Moth eradication program and address any concerns” in two “meetings” in SF & Oakland next week.

The locations & times of the two brief 1 hour scheduled public meetings are listed below, as well as info on the relatively untested stew they’ll be dropping on a vast swath of urban populous. A link to an anti-spray website and a likely useless petition is also included for those who wish to practice the futile prospects of “online opposition”.

Sprayings over San Francisco aren’t expected to begin until approx Aug. 1 and other areas to be sprayed as early as June include Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, and Daly City, Colma, Oakland, Piedmont, Emeryville, Albany, El Cerrito, El Sobrante, Tiburon and Belvedere.

Aside from the sprays, the eradication program will also use a “stingerless” wasp that eats moth eggs. The wasps will be released at 1 million per square mile, to be done in the spring in advance of the aerial spraying, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

After a public outcry in Santa Cruz last year, the CDFA had Subterra, the Oregon based manufacturer whose only longterm testing has been on rats & rabbits, publically release the “proprietary” ingredients of the Checkmate LBAM-F spray last year, they are as follows:

Water

(E)-11-Tetradecen-1-yl Acetate

(E,E) -9,11 Tetradecadien-1-yl Acetate

Crosslinked polyurea polymer

Butylated Hydroxytoluene

Polyvinyl Alcohol

Tricaprylyl Methyl Ammonium Chloride

Sodium Phosphate

Ammonium Phosphate

1,2-benzisothiozoli-3-one

2-hydroxy-4-n-octyloxybenzophenone

SOURCE: California Department of Food and Agriculture
http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/phpps/pdep/lbam/lbam_main.html

Direct link to a large jpg map of the proposed spraying sites in the Bay Area region

Petition to Stop The Fumigation

More Info in Opposition http://www.stopthespray.org/ and http://www.lbamspray.com/

The state knows public approval is an uphill battle, and a half million dollars has been set aside to assuage the public through the efforts of Porter Novelli, a corporate PR consultancy and subsidiary of Omnicom. “Crisis Management” is a Porter-Novelli specialty, whose founders came together working on Nixon’s re-election in 1972. Their later work for clients like gov’t agencies, the American Meat Institute, drug, liquor & fast food concerns has had them spinning “product recalls, tampering, environmental and natural disasters, regulatory and legislative issues, labor and factory incidents as well attacks [sic] from advocacy groups at the national as well as the local level.”

Federal Gov’t Press Release Detailing 75 Million That Will Fund The Program

where the sidewalk ends

Originally uploaded by Liz Henry.

Yesterday I went back to work. I teach at Evergreen Valley College
in San Jose. Lo, I found a few handicapped parking spaces out back of the building where I teach, but it was up a very steep hill, in a sort of back alley with no sidewalk connecting it to campus. Out in the main parking lot, there was a big area of disabled parking spots, so I went for that.

Then I had three choices: Head to the center of campus. Head into what looked like a big complicated indoor/outdoor building maze. Head down a sidewalk that went in the direction of my building!

I chose the sidewalk. As I womanfully shoved myself uphill I came around the corner and beheld a hedge and an abrupt sidewalk’s end, with steep curb. After the cussing stopped I waited a few minutes till someone walked by, then asked them to bump me down the curb. From there I went flying down the narrow, winding road to my building; non optimal to say the least.

On the way back out I figured I’d go to the center of campus and get an errand done. From the central bus turnaround, I could *see my own car* up in the handicapped parking area. As the photo here shows, I could also see a buttload of stairs. Stairs ahead, stairs to the left, stairs to the right. There was no path. So if I’d tried to go from the parking lot to the center of campus, I wouldn’t have been able to.

Finally I headed uphill and into the tangle of buildings and classrooms, because I found a ramp. The maze of twisty little passages all alike disgorged me finally into the parking lot.

Oh, my aching triceps!

When I used to go to De Anza, the same thing was true. Maps (previously constructed able-person maps, or maps on paper) were useless. I had a campus map, and tried to mark it up, over time, with rough elevation changes and little markings for stairs, and highlightered paths to indicate the ways I could actually go.

Every campus should take the time to make an easy to understand map with information for people on wheels. In fact that level of info is useful for other kinds of wheels, namely strollers.

We are also looking for San Jose bloggers to join the team so if you’re interested in writing about your town then let us know!

Q: What’s the difference between a south-bay libertarian and a
south-bay liberal?

A. The SB liberal hasn’t gotten his job back, because things are really going downhill. The SB libertarian has been back at a similar job, but this time with no company cafeteria, for a year, because things are really picking up.

I respect the fact that Joann hasn’t appreciated the last few rounds of the game “pick on the republican”, and I say goodbye, and that I’ll miss her!

- She’s from Willow Glen/San Jose area and we need more representation there!

- From Joann’s posts, I viewed her personal blog, where someone had commented, then read that site and found out about the opening of a new restaurant: The Garage- and it is near my sister’s house, who had just moved here and was bemoaning “no good restaurants walkable in SJ”. Of course, if i had just waited a few weeks my sister would have told me there’s a cool new rotisserie in a strip mall near SJSU, but still, Joann got me there first! I got South Bay restaurant cred.

- I like the photos of random people she picks up at the airport.

- I hear that we’re in a bubble of similar political views. I used to commute out of state more for business and I didn’t feel it, but now I do. Joann introduced me to a few Republican pundits and I researched them, and felt more informed and at least now I know who these guys were/are, and if someone wants to argue about their points, I know what they say, at least. Problem with being in the bubble: we aren’t very informed about the other side (or I’m not, at least).

I’ll miss the debate- and I regret that it got personal. I don’t agree with your views, Joann, but I don’t agree with a lot of my people’s views about sex/relationships/careers, etc. and still call them friends, colleagues and neighbors.

Old as I am, I was still pleased to receive an iPod 30GB for Christmas. With my feeble non-geek mind I somehow managed to get the newfangled gizmo loaded up with tunes from local San Jose and San Francisco bands of the 60s like The Chocolate Watchband, Janis Joplin (Big Brother), Jefferson Airplane, The Doobie Brothers, Moby Grape, Grateful Dead, Country Joe & the Fish, and Quicksilver Messenger Service. In the1960s the San Francisco Bay Area music scene was an electric, wondrous and psychedelic experience. Jess–you would have loved it too.

The first time I heard “Tower of Power” preform it was in a bowling alley in Fremont.
Now they will be at The Fillmore–Saturday, January 20. Beware, for there will be a lot of bald heads in the audience.

Red Gift box: Safety
New York may be claiming the title Safest Big City in the country, but the murder rate in San Jose is less than half of that in NYC.

Blue Gift box: Climate
San Jose lies inland, protected on three sides by mountains. Our annual rainfall (October through April ) averages 14.4 inches, and the Fog that can blanket “the City” is not a frequent visitor here in the South Bay. Occasionally snow can be seen coating Mount Hamilton or the Santa Cruz Mountains, but almost never falls on the valley floor. The average Summer temperature ranges from the 50s to the 80s. In the winter the average temperature ranges from the 40s to the 60s.

Gold Gift box: Money
San Jose currently has the highest median income of any city with over 225,000 people, and our residents produce more U.S. patents than any other city in the U.S.

With our gifts you will stay safe and warm while you mingle with the well-to-do and MENSA qualified.

Green Gift Bag:
* Stephen Wozniak- co-founder of Apple Computer. Woz Way is a street in San Jose.
* Peggy Fleming- gold medal 1968 Olympics.
* Stevie Nicks- (Born Stephanie Lynn Nicks in Phoenix, Arizona ) performed with fellow San Jose State University student Lindsey Buckingham at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds in the early 70s.
* Charles Edward Anderson “Chuck” Berry- Born October 18, 1926 in San Jose, although some biographies establish St. Louis, Missouri as his birthplace–but who are you going to believe.
* The Doobie Brothers- I met them back in the 60′s on10th street in San Jose.  I don’t remember what took place, but I’m sure we had a good time.
* Alexander Lee “Skip” Spence musician and singer-songwriter for Quicksilver Messenger Service, the drummer for Jefferson Airplane, and Silicon Valley based Moby Grape. After Spence freaked out and spent time in a mental institution he recorded the solo album–“Oar” — Led Zeppelin came out with “More Oar”  as a Tribute to the magical, crazy genius that was ‘Skip’–Unfortunately his mental illness was not controlled  and he became homeless wandering the streets of Santa Cruz and San Jose.

Tied up with a big Silver Bow: Greg Kihn
* He is best known for “Jeopardy,” which was parodied by Weird Al Yankovic. The Greg Kihn Band headlines the annual Kihncert, which takes place in San Jose. He is also the author of four novels and a collection of short stories. Greg is my favorite local morning DJ on KFOX.