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Your Proofness: Dilaira Dubash Master Storyteller: Hurmat Majid Creativity Analysts: Jamal Khurshid, Essa Malik, Talha Ahmed Khan, Mohsin Alam, Maryam Rashid, Hira Fareed, Nabeel Khan, Sobia Khan and Umar Waqas

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, MARCH 6, 2016

Hi light

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Even though not many of us spend time reading actual hard copy books these days, there are people out there who would lie, steal and even kill to get their hands on these books. The idea may seem bizzare to you but such people do exist, in fact they have existed throughout history, ever since words and hieroglyphics were recorded on stone tablets and reed paper. This week we have decided to share with you the obsessions of some of the greatest biblomanicas in history.

One of several unusual behaviours associated with books, bibliomania is the uncontrollable urge to collect books. The condition causes the collector to go to great lengths to buy books and if not then seal them from private and public collections.

Even though the disorder is not a recognised psychological condition, there are several cases on record. The term was coined by John Ferriar, a physician at the Manchaster Royal Infirmary. He used the term to describe his friend Richard Heber in a poem. Other writers also used the term during the 1800s.

Every century has its famous book collectors and its amazing stories of book theft. The case of Stephen Blumberg shows that the obsessive collection of book is still very present in our modern, increasingly electronic society.

Blumberg was an avid collector of antique fixtures from houses and his research into antiques eventually sparked an interest in the texts he was using, which led to his development as a bibliomaniac. He was eventually arrested in 1990 for book theft. When he began collecting antique fixtures from houses as a young boy, he took them from houses that were condemned and would be demolished. The fixtures were of no value to anyone and were not missed. His development as a bibliomaniac was gradual as he was first attracted to the books he used in his research and later branched out to collecting other types of materials.

Unfortunately, Blumberg, despite receiving an annual $72,000 stipend from a trust fund, chose to acquire his books as cheaply as possible and quickly became an adept biblioklept. He was an inventive thief who developed methods for slipping through library security systems such as climbing through ceilings or, at least one time, climbing through an elevator shaft. He saw himself as a ‘rescuer of the past’ because his goal in building his collection was preservation and not profit. When asked about books that people wanted to use, he admitted that he rationalized his action as a type of inter-library loan and stated that he intended to return the material. He had stolen 23,600 books from 268 libraries across North America by the time he was apprehended.

He was a Spanish monk and bibliomaniac. His obsession was so great, he actually murdered a few people to lay hands on their precious books. Vincente’s crimes are said to have begun when he was a monk at the Cistercian Poblet Monastery near Tarragona, where he worked as a librarian. In 1834, the monastery was robbed, with the loss of large amounts of gold and silver, along with rare books. Vincente was strongly suspected of helping the robbers in order to procure the books. He left the order shortly afterwards and moved to Barcelona, where he became the owner of a rare book store. In 1836, a copy of Furs e Ordinations de Valencia by Lambert Palmart, Spain’s first printer, came up for auction. Believed to be the only surviving copy of the book, a consortium of booksellers led by Augustino Patxot outbid Vincente to buy the copy. Three days later, Patxot’s shop burned to the ground with him inside it. Rumours began that Vincente was responsible for the death, and local officials searched his house to avoid giving the impression that they were neglecting the case. When they did so, they discovered a copy of the Ordinations. Vincent admitted to the crime and was hanged.

The earliest documented bibliomaniac in history was Assurbanipal, a king who ruled in ancient Assyria from 668 to 627 BCE. He was trained as a scribe and had a passionate love of the written word. Unlike many bibliomaniacs, Assurbanipal was able to use political power to expand his collection as he claimed books and manuscripts as prizes of war, including texts from collections throughout Babylonia.

While he was able to build one of the most impressive and important tablet collections on earth with these methods, he also recognised the danger that other collectors posed to his library. To ward off these collectors Assurbanipal used the ancient method of ‘book cursing’. To place a book curse, a collector would inscribe a warning on their book that went something like, “Behold, my great collection of books, that I would not actually secure, rather, hope that the wide variety of sprits I believe in would curse anyone who dares to lay an eye on it.” The method was highly effective, even if it was rather stupid.

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, MARCH 6, 2016

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Hi light

The Gutenberg Bible was the first book ever printed on a press, and to obtain one has become the white whale of book collecting. The surviving 48 copies are worth roughly $7 million each, because of their rarity, cultural significance and gorgeous lettering.

About 200 copies were printed on July 4, 1776 as luminaries such as Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin impatiently looked on. Only 26 copies survive to this day. Incredibly, one was discovered behind a painting that had been bought at a flea market for only four bucks.

Leonardo da Vinci’s brain overflowed with futuristic inventions, medical insights, and astronomical observations, and the Codex Leicester is where he put it all. Because it was da Vinci’s personal notebook, the Codex is completely one-of-a-kind. It was purchased by Bill Gates in 1994 for $30,802,500, becoming the most expensive manuscript ever sold.

In 1820, the legendary naturalist John James Audubon resolved to draw every avian species in North America. The result is the intricately beautiful collection of paintings called The Birds of America, which was delivered to subscribers one painting at a time between 1827 and 1838. Individual pages of the book sell for thousands of dollars each, and the complete collection was last sold in 2012, for $8 million.

A first edition of the book, from 1605, is not so easily hunted down.

The last time an original Don Quixote changed hands was 1989, for $1.5 million. You could buy a whole lot of windmills for that.

Ptolemy was one of the most influential thinkers of all time, and Geographia Cosmographia was his masterpiece. An expansive atlas, it includes many detailed maps of the known world. The original scrolls are lost to time, but Ptolemy gained a new audience during the Medieval Period, and those editions seriously interest book collectors for example, a 1477 printing of Geographia Cosmographia was sold in 2006 for $4 million.

There are 260 surviving copies of On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, e each worth between $1-2 million. Most of them are safe in museums museums.

JK Rowling produced seven handmade copies bound with Moroccan leather and decked out in silver and jewels, calling them the ‘Moonstone editions.’ Six copies went to the ‘key people’ who helped her on her way, while she sold the 7th for $3.98 million, as a benefit for the Children’s Voice charity.

W When Shakespeare’s work was collected and published fo for the first time in 1623, it was worth about two dollars.

To Today, an original copy of his first folio is worth $6 million.

Design by Maryam Rashid What would you like to see in Hi Five? Send an email to hifive@tribune.com.pk and let us know!

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, MARCH 6, 2016

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Trivia

Q: What happened to the thief who fell and broke his leg in wet cement?

A: He became a hardened criminal.

Q: What did one volcano say to another?

A: I lava you!

Q: What do you call a bear with no teeth?

A: A gummy bear!

Q: Where do cows go for entertainment?

A: To the moo-vies!

Q: Why are elephants so wrinkled?

A: Because they take too long to iron!

Q: What do you call a chicken crossing a road?

A: Poultry in motion Q: Why did the girl spread peanut butter on the road?

A: To pair it with the traffic jam

Zootopia Release date: March 4, 2016 What it’s about: The modern mammal metropolis of Zootopia is a city like no other. A place where no matter what you are, from the biggest elephant to the smallest shrew, you can be anything.

Rise of the legend Release date: March 11, 2016 What it’s about: A martial artist with extraordinary power returns to the town where his father was murdered to face off against a ruthless crime boss and bring justice back to the people.

Allegiant Release date: March 18, 2016 What it’s about: Beatrice Prior and Tobias Eaton venture into the world outside of the fence and are taken into protective custody by a mysterious agency known as the Bureau of Genetic Welfare.

Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice Release date: March 25, 2016 What it’s about: With Batman and Superman at war with one another, a new threat quickly arises, putting mankind in greater danger than it’s ever known before.

Drum Guru (iOS and Android)

IK Multimedia Amplitube (iOS)

Drum Guru for iOS and Android is a training app for drum enthusiasts of all skill levels and features lessons delivered in video and audio format by some of the world’s leading drummers. There’s a half-speed option so you can break down what’s actually going on, and musical notation and transcription of each lesson that can be viewed while watching the video. Interactive practice mode enables you to play along with or without a click, looped and at different tempos. Lessons are divided into packs of 8-10, categorised by style and skill level. You can add more lessons for very little money via in-app purchase in the style you want to learn.

AmpliTube for iOS brings a beautifully designed set of guitar processors to your mobile device and it works using either the built-in mic or a connected interface to get sound into and out of the hardware. You get four simultaneous stomp boxes, an amp head, cab and mix and you can add more gear by purchasing items in-app. There’s a singletrack recorder, again expandable to eight with master effects if you choose, and a tuner and loop drummer module to play along to. Inter-app audio and Audiobus are supported for touring sound internally and imported songs can be slowed down for you to learn them more easily.

Revontulent Studi Walk Band (Android) This popular app for Android gives you a range of virtual instruments to play on the move.

There’s a virtual piano with single or dual rows, two-player mode, along with pressure sensitivity, key-width adjustment and five keyboard sounds.

You can record MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) and audio and set your recordings as a ringtone. The virtual guitar has chord mode and three model types, and there are also five drum kits that you can play using virtual pads. Bass and synths round off the package, and there’s support for external MIDI keyboards over USB MIDI. It’s possible to add more instruments through in-app purchases. If you’re after a free way to play music on the move, this could be for you.

Musical Piano (Android) This free, ad-supported app gives you a virtual piano and keyboard with various options as well as eight bundled MIDI piano instruments. You can pay to upgrade the app, which unlocks 128 instruments, wireless playback and piano recording.

IK Multimedia iRig Recorder Free (iOS and Android) The app is designed to work with IK’s iRig Mic models but will work with any mic. If you want to record on the move and then clean up and upload your sounds, try it now.

SOURCE: MUSICTECH.NET

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, MARCH 6, 2016

Get your weekly dose of unusual and funny news from across the globe!

Fleece-ing victory displayed The record breaking fleece from Canberra’s wild and woolly sheep, Chris, is on display at the National Museum of Australia. The fleece weighed in at 41 kilogrammes earning a Guinness World Record. It was the formidable fleece that found worldwide fame. Chris was on the run for years, but was recently spotted near Canberra and had his fleece cut. “Suffice to say there was a lot in that fleece when it was shorn from the back of Chris and not all of that is for delicate ears. It was a pretty stinky mess,” Director from the National Museum of Australia Matthew Trinca says. The sheep’s woolly remnants are on display at one of Australia’s most well known museums.

As for Chris, well he’s stepped back from the spotlight, now adjusting to life on a farm in southern New South Wales. “He’s the last sheep to come out when people are around but once he’s there and he realises there’s food at stake he becomes quite bold and he is probably the second most bold sheep there,” says RSPCA worker Tammy Ven Dange. TELEGRAPH.CO.UK

Mustached cat Little Sally Ann, a feline recently found in California Salvation Army donation bin in Fresno, is helping a local shelter spread the word about caring for cats. she also resembles an old man with her bushy eyebrows and furry mustache. But it’s working for her, earning her local fame and the nickname ‘Mustache Kitten.’ Tammy Barker, assistant shelter director for Cat House on the Kings, said Sally Ann was very hungry when she was found in the Salvation Army drop-box. “They said she was really friendly and that every time someone walked into the door, she would run up to them,” Barker said. Sally Ann is improving her health and looking for a “forever home.” HUFFINGTONPOST.COM

World wide weird

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Back to the future

The tunnel in Guizhou Province, China, became the focus of investigation after hundreds of people reported going back in time once they exited the 400-metre structure. Most people reported gaining an hour in time after continuing their drive outside the tunnel, as their mobile phones had gone back exactly 60 minutes. The phenomena became so well known that one journalist working for the Gui Yang Evening News decided to carry out an experiment. He drove through the tunnel — an about five minute journey — ten times, and reported gaining an hour on eight of the trips. With no apparent explanation, and the time gain baffling so many people, conspiracies and theories have abounded online, including everything from real time travel to alien abductions. One person posted online, “Clearly the drivers have missing time, and were probed by aliens.”

Another said, “Maybe the reason why China has so many of the worlds longest living people is not so much because they’re old, but because they spend so long stuck in traffic driving through magic time travel space tunnels.” Another said, “This sounds wacky, must be a time tunnel, for sure.” But those who experienced gaining the hour, said they soon lost it again after driving further away from the tunnel. EXPRESS.CO.UK

A lapse of judgment Josh Reed, who is 6ft 3inches tall and has a beard, travelled from London Stansted to Dortmund on a Ryanair flight with petite brunette Sophie’s passport. According to the 21 year old, security at the gate only checked his boarding pass, meaning he only spotted that he had the wrong travel documents when he landed in Germany. But at no point did anyone else notice that he wasn’t Sophie Watkins. Josh said, “We have different surnames and we couldn’t look more different. It makes you wonder how easy it would be for people that look alike to get through on fake passports.” A spokesman for Ryanair said, “Our handling agent at the boarding gate mistakenly failed to check the passport of this passenger, and Swissport have assured us that appropriate steps will be taken to prevent a recurrence. However, it is Mr Reed’s primary responsibility to ensure that he is travelling on his valid passport in compliance with Ryanair’s terms and conditions.” Josh managed to get through security at the German airport using his driving licence, and girlfriend Sophie sent his actual passport out via courier so he could fly home. MIRROR.CO.UK

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, MARCH 6, 2016

Reading corner

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Rungnado May Day Stadium, Pyongyang, North Korea: 150,000 spectators. This multi-purpose stadium was completed on May 1, 1989. The stadiums name comes from Rungra Island in the Taedong River, the Taedong River is a large river in North Korea.

It is currently used for soccer matches, a few athletics matches, but most often for Arirang Festival performances, which is a gymnastics and artistic festival.

The Arirang gymnastics involve some 100,000 participants which can double the number of spectators.

Beaver Stadium, State College, PA, United States: 106,572 spectators.

This football stadium is located on the campus of The Pennsylvania State University and the home stadium of Penn State Nittany Lions football team.

It first opened on September 17, 1960 and was last expanded in 2001. Today, Beaver Stadium is currently the second largest stadium in college football with a capacity of 107,282, behind Michigan Stadium’s 108,000 seating capacity.

Because of its size, Beaver Stadium has been named one of the scariest place for opposing teams to play.

Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata, India: 120,000 spectators. A multi-purpose stadium used for soccer and athletics.

It was opened in January 1984. Since opening back in early 1984 it didn’t go through any major renovation works, which can be painfully seen both inside and out. It wasn’t until early years of the twenty-first century that the ground was able to meet minimum requirements of FIFA with small portion of seats, a few skyboxes, new giant screens, artificial turf and improved lighting. In 2013 decision was made to reduce capacity heavily from 120,000 to 68,000. This came as an attempt to make it a more comfortable stadium.

Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor, MI, United States: 109,901 spectators.

Nicknamed ‘The Big House’, this football stadium for the University of Michigan was built in 1927 and expanded several times since then (last time in 2010). It is the home of the Michigan Wolverines football team.

Michigan Stadium has seen 258 consecutive crowds of 100,000 plus through the 2014 season, including 115,109 in attendance for the 41-30 win over Notre Dame on Sept. 7, 2013, that broke the all-time attendance record for a college or NFL game.

Estadio Azteca, Mexico City, Mexico: 105,000 spectators.

Opened in 1966 and renovated in 1985, this soccer stadium is the official home stadium of the Mexico national team and the Mexican club Club América.

Over the years it has also been the home of various other Mexican clubs, such as Cruz Azul and Necaxa. Due to safety measures the capacity of the stadium, which could hold 115,000 spectators in 1986, has been slightly reduced to its current total of 105,000.

Neyland Stadium, Knoxville, TN, United States: 102,455 spectators.

This football stadium is the home of the Tennessee Volunteers football team, but is also used to host large conventions and has been a site for several NFL exhibition games. First opened in 1921, and was formerly named as ShieldsWatkins Field. It was renamed Neyland Stadium in 1962, to honour General Robert Neyland, the recently deceased former athletic director and coach. It has been expanded and renovated many times over the years, with the most recent renovation in 2010.

SOURCE: 10MOSTTODAY.COM

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, MARCH 6, 2016

Activity corner

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Test your problem solving skills by completing this puzzle in the least possible time.

Key to last week’s puzzle.

Help Mia find her way back to life by finding all the words given below in the puzzle STAY ACCIDENT LIVE LOVE LIFE

WILL MUSIC WORLD SHATTER TRUST

HOPE NIGHTMARE TRANSCEND HOSPITAL DEATH

What it’s about: Mia Hall, a talented young cellist, thought the most difficult decision she would ever have to make would be whether to pursue her musical dreams at prestigious Juilliard or follow her heart to be with the love of her life, Adam, a rock singer/ guitarist. However, a car wreck changes everything in an instant, and now Mia’s life hangs in the balance. Suspended between life and death, Mia faces a choice that will decide her future.

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, MARCH 6, 2016

1.

Justin is a big fan of onesies.

2.

“I don’t really like to say the word ‘swag’ anymore because it’s kind of played out,” he says.

3.

Justin is a huge fan of Drake and looks up to him like an older brother.

4.

His father, is a former MMA (Mixed Media Arts) fighter.

5.

He’s a big fan of Twitter and loves to interact with his fans. In fact, right after he tweets, he immediately checks to see who replied to it first.

6.

His mother put up various videos of him singing to well-know songs on YouTube, which incidentally started his journey to super-stardom.

7.

Justin has two teddy bears — one named Mr Bear and one named Willis.

8.

R&B singer Usher famously helped launch Justin’s career, although he did initially turn him down, but he later had a change of heart.

9.

If he could have any super power, he would like to be able to fly.

10. His favourite flavour of ice cream is cotton candy.

11. Will Smith is his number one mentor. They usually talk once a week on the phone.

12. His favourite breakfast meal would be Captain Crunch with berries.

13. He doesn’t trust many people. Justin says the only people he trusts are his mom and dad, and Braun with his career.

14. He now has more Twitter followers than the population of Canada.

15. He taught himself how to play the trumpet, guitar, piano and drums.

16. He auctioned his hair after he infamously cut it and it reached a bid of $12,000 on Ebay, with all of the proceeds going to charity.

SOURCE: BOOMSBEAT.COM