Discovery Channel Magazine India - May 2014

LOCKING HORNS 70RHINOS FOR SALE

JOEL LAMBERT 84HUNTING THE HUNTED

CHINESE ART 30A CASE AGAINST FAKES

MARATHON TROUBLE 22SAFEGUARD YOUR RUN

CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

10 REASONS WE LOVE

LISTSAND HOW THEY FORMAT

OUR BRAIN

PG 58

MAY 2014 I `150 Invitation price `100

06DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

TRENDSPOTTING ON TRAINS ETC.

Having schooled in NY as a pre-teen in Junior High, I was exposed to an idea that holds true even today. I believe that the rickety old subway trains running through New York City often hold the secret to trends of the future.

When I was a kid, it was the Walkman plugged to everyone’s ears on the train. Audio books had just been introduced, and John Grisham was the rage. When spools of cassettes gave way to CDs that sometimes skipped and later got scratched, travellers were introduced to the iPod that came in candy colours and promised a revolutionary change. It was on a subway train that I first noticed an e-book reader, the poised lady flipping through its black and white pages that pretended to look like paper.

Smartphones, of course, are now life-changing legendary, immersing teenagers into their touchscreens with parents wondering whether the technology is an education or a distraction.

On page 14 of this issue, you’ll see a piece of news that’ll take this experience a step further. E-book readers, the first article in the Frontiers section proclaims, will soon come with ambient lighting: They’ll be able to understand the subject you’re reading and set the mood.

And why shouldn't they? Don’t each of the gadgets, from the Walkman downwards, give the user a sense of immersive privacy and an ability to find your own space in a crowd? Won’t the newer e-book readers allow you a way of communicating with your own thoughts without distraction? Whether anyone else does or not, Dumbledore would surely approve.

Also in this issue, you’ll find stories that are equally fascinating with a strong eye on the future. Our cover story takes you in-depth into the working of your brain: How the nerve centre of our existence compartmentalises information and remembers detail. Locking Horns outlines the plight of rhinos, who may be headed towards extinction by humans hunting them down for their horns.

An elaborate feature on Chinese Art takes us into the socialist republic and introduces us to creativity that thrives despite political interference. And a tailpiece on the multi-million dollar forgery industry gives the Made In China tag a whole new financial hue.

Come to think of it, most of the devices on the NY train are made in China as well. Makes one wonder: Do trends boost suppressed economies, or do such economies enourage trends?

Jamal ShaikhEditorial Director

CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

VOLUME 1 NUMBER 4Discovery Channel Magazine reserves all rights throughout the world. Reproduction in any manner, in whole or part, in English or other languages, is prohibited. Discovery Channel

Magazine does not take responsibility for returning unsolicited publication material. • Published and distributed monthly by Living Media India Ltd. (Regd. Office: K-9, Connaught Circus, New Delhi – 110001) under license granted by Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific Pte Ltd., 21 Media Circle #8-01, Singapore 138562. • All Discovery Channel logos © 2014 Discovery Communications, LLC. Discovery Channel and the Discovery Channel logo are trademarks of Discovery Communications, LLC, used under licence. All rights reserved. • The views and opinions expressed or implied in Discovery Channel Magazine do not necessarily reflect those of Living Media India Ltd., MediaCorp Pte Ltd or Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific, including their directors and editorial staff. • All information is correct at the time of going to print. • All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Delhi / New Delhi only. • Published & printed by Ashish Bagga on behalf of Living Media India Limited. Printed at Thomson Press India Limited 18 - 35, Milestone, Delhi - Mathura Road, Faridabad - 121 007, (Haryana). Published at K - 9, Connaught Circus, New Delhi - 110 001. • Editor: Jamal Shaikh

Subscription/Customer CareEmail: [email protected] Phone: +91 120 246 9900Mail: Discovery Channel Magazine India, A 61, Sector 57, Noida 201 301

Editorial BoardPresident and Managing Director Arjan HoekstraSVP Content Group Kevin Dickie SVP and GM, South Asia Rahul JohriVP, Marketing, South Asia Rajiv BakshiVP, Communications Charles YapVP, Programming Charmaine KwanVP, Marketing Magdalene Ng

Editorial (Novus Media Solutions)Editor Luke ClarkDesign Director Richard MacLeanChief Subeditor Josephine PangStaff Writer Daniel SeifertPhoto Editor Haryati MahmoodSenior Designer Bessy Kim

Editor-in-Chief Aroon PurieGroup Chief Executive Officer Ashish BaggaGroup Synergy and Creative Officer Kalli Purie

Editorial Director Jamal Shaikh

Art Director Piyush GargAsst Art Director Rahul Sharma Designer Kishore Rawat

Impact (Advertising)Group Business Head Manoj SharmaAssociate Publisher (Impact) Anil Fernandes

Senior General Managers Kaustav Chatterjee (East), Jitendra Lad (West), Head (North) Subhashis Roy General Manager Shailender Nehru (Bangalore), General Manager Velu Balasubramaniam (Chennai)

Business Head, CRM/CMS & Senior GM Vikas MalhotraChief Manager, Operations GL Ravik KumarMarketing Managers Kunal Bag, Anuradha RanaProduction Anuj Jamdegni

News stand Sales Chief General Manager DVS Rama Rao General Manager - National Deepak Bhatt Sr Manager - North Manish Shrivastava Sr Manager - East Joydeep Roy General Manager - West Rajesh MenonGeneral Manager - Operations Rakesh Sharma

DISCOVERY NETWORKS ASIA-PACIFIC

EDITOR'S LETTER

twitter.com/JamalShaikh instagram.com/JamalShaikh


CONTENTSISSUE 05/14

DEPARTMENTSFRONTIERS

REAL READS14

Wear this vest-like prototype, and its makers say literature

will truly come to life

TECHNOLOGY

H20 NO20

Meet the sexy new device that, if it works as it should, will have

you breathing like Bond

ALTERNATE LIVING

ADVENTURE22

A case for nuclear silo living with 45-centimetre concrete walls

and a 47-tonne door

NICE TO KNOW

HITLER'S CHOC24

How Napoleon and World War II led to the invention of Nutella, plus

other weird equations

IN CONVERSATION WITH

CLEOPATRA25

DCM gets flirty with a female pharaoh, as she drinks some perfectly

good pearls

2024

18

22

THE GRID 15 GET BITTEN BY THIS TICK, AND YOU MAY NEVER EAT MEAT AGAIN!

NEWS 16 WE MAY SOON FINALLY GET OUR HANDS ON A BIT OF BACK TO THE FUTURE KIT (AND NO, IT'S NOT A HOVER-BOARD)

TASTEFUL MUSIC 18 THOSE WITH SOME TYPES OF SYNAESTHESIA CAN TASTE NAMES AND SEE MUSIC. WE'RE JUST A TEENSY BIT JEALOUS

MARATHON MADNESS 22 GOING FOR A LONG RUN? DON'T FORGET YOUR DIAPERS! OH, AND US$347

SO YOU WANT TO BE A 23 CRIME REPORTING FOR YOU? ONLY IF YOU'RE TOUGH ENOUGH TO SMELL HUMAN BRAINS AND ASK HARD QUESTIONS

THE YEAR THAT WAS 24 AH, 1972. WHEN NINE-YEAR-OLDS SANG CREEPY SONGS AND

HANDHELD CALCULATORS WERE LIKE BARBELLS

BIZZARE BEHAVIOUR 26 YOU CAN FORGIVE YOUR COMPANION FOR ACTING STRANGELY IN THESE CITIES, THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE AIR

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE


11MAY 2014

10DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE

ISSUE 05/14FEATURES

SEEKERS

ART AND UTOPIA30

View the world through four Chinese artists' eyes as we speak to the presenter of a recent Discovery Channel show. Dr Agnes Hsu talks

utopia, heritage and heat

ART TALK

FRAMING FAKES42

What a tangled web we weave, when we delve into the world of art forgery. Heck,

some galleries even knowingly sell fakes, as one accomplished ex-forger tells us

BIG PICTURE

CANVAS & CRIME56

Delve into the world of art heists, where two men with fake moustaches walked off with

millions in masterpieces

COVER STORY

INTO THE TOP FIVE58

Everyone from a grocery shopper to Stalin, and even the Greek poet Homer, has used

them. But why do lists have such power over us? And will the internet ever tire of them?

ENVIRONMENT

RHINO CRIMES70

Step inside the world of rhino horn, an ugly place where maimed animals can take days to die — all for a commodity that costs more

than gold, and has no health benefits

EXTREME ADVENTURE

HIDE AND SEEK84

It takes a special forces expert to successfully evade the world's best trackers.

That's if he can remember his bag

THIS MONTH

WHAT'S ON!

102Flight over the highest mountain peak in

the world to the world of Superhumans and how they challenge themselves. All about

Synthetic Biology and a series on 72 Hours before a crime. All this and Building the

World Cup...on Discovery Channel this May.

42 70 84 58 30


11MAY 2014


11MAY 2014

11MAY 2014

ISSUE 05/14FEATURES

SEEKERS

ART AND UTOPIA30

View the world through four Chinese artists' eyes as we speak to the presenter of a recent Discovery Channel show. Dr Agnes Hsu talks

utopia, heritage and heat

ART TALK

FRAMING FAKES42

What a tangled web we weave, when we delve into the world of art forgery. Heck,

some galleries even knowingly sell fakes, as one accomplished ex-forger tells us

BIG PICTURE

CANVAS & CRIME56

Delve into the world of art heists, where two men with fake moustaches walked off with

millions in masterpieces

COVER STORY

INTO THE TOP FIVE58

Everyone from a grocery shopper to Stalin, and even the Greek poet Homer, has used

them. But why do lists have such power over us? And will the internet ever tire of them?

ENVIRONMENT

RHINO CRIMES70

Step inside the world of rhino horn, an ugly place where maimed animals can take days to die — all for a commodity that costs more

than gold, and has no health benefits

EXTREME ADVENTURE

HIDE AND SEEK84

It takes a special forces expert to successfully evade the world's best trackers.

That's if he can remember his bag

THIS MONTH

WHAT'S ON!

102Flight over the highest mountain peak in

the world to the world of Superhumans and how they challenge themselves. All about

Synthetic Biology and a series on 72 Hours before a crime. All this and Building the

World Cup...on Discovery Channel this May.

42 70 84 58 30


11MAY 2014


13MAY 2014

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Pro surfer Garrett McNamara once said, “In Nazaré, Portugal, the ocean is known as a place of death, not of riding waves.” Looking at this image, you wouldn't think he had ever said it — he's the tiny figure in the centre of the photo.

In 2011, he set the world record by surfing a 78-foot (23.8-metre) wave at this same spot in Nazaré. However, the wave in this image, shot in January 2013, could have been even larger. Although the Guinness World Records has yet to verify the claim as of the time of writing, the wave is thought to have been over 100 feet tall — more than 30 metres high.

Frankly though, he doesn’t really need that extra honour — he’s already done something far cooler, literally. In 2007, McNamara and another surfer, Kealii Mamala, made waves when they became the first to ride glacier-generated waves. They spent 20 hours a day over a week in the freezing-cold waters at the foot of Child’s Glacier, in the US state of Alaska, waiting for the perfect moment. They found it when a 75-metre chunk of ice broke off the glacier. Speaking years later, he described the experience as “the closest I’ve ever come to death”.

SURFING THE STORM

WOW


13MAY 2014

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Pro surfer Garrett McNamara once said, “In Nazaré, Portugal, the ocean is known as a place of death, not of riding waves.” Looking at this image, you wouldn't think he had ever said it — he's the tiny figure in the centre of the photo.

In 2011, he set the world record by surfing a 78-foot (23.8-metre) wave at this same spot in Nazaré. However, the wave in this image, shot in January 2013, could have been even larger. Although the Guinness World Records has yet to verify the claim as of the time of writing, the wave is thought to have been over 100 feet tall — more than 30 metres high.

Frankly though, he doesn’t really need that extra honour — he’s already done something far cooler, literally. In 2007, McNamara and another surfer, Kealii Mamala, made waves when they became the first to ride glacier-generated waves. They spent 20 hours a day over a week in the freezing-cold waters at the foot of Child’s Glacier, in the US state of Alaska, waiting for the perfect moment. They found it when a 75-metre chunk of ice broke off the glacier. Speaking years later, he described the experience as “the closest I’ve ever come to death”.

SURFING THE STORM

WOW

15MAY 2014


ASIA-PACIFIC AMERICAS EUROPE MIDDLE EAST/AFRICA

THE REAL MAGNITO A Bosnian man named Muhibija Buljubasic is making headlines because of his supposedly mag-netic body. The 56-year-old has been photographed with cut-lery, remote controls and even a Samsung Galaxy S4 mobile phone “stuck” to his person. His explanation for the power? That he “radiates a special energy”. Sceptics, however, say that so-called “human magnets” just have skin that is greasier and stickier than most.

EPIC GPS FAIL Twenty-five years ago, the US launched its first GPS satellite. Over the years, we’ve become increas-ingly reliant on the technology, leading to dozens of “epic fail” stories. Our favourite? The 61-year-old Belgian woman who programmed her device incorrectly and drove 900 miles (1,450 kilometres) to Croatia instead of 90 miles (145 kilo-metres) to Brussels. She drove for two days, until “suddenly I appeared in Zagreb, I realised I wasn’t in Belgium anymore.”

BLOOD, NOT BOOZE NekNomination is an online trend where participants must quickly down often ridiculous amounts of alcohol before nominating an online friend to best them. It’s been responsible for several deaths. Two Brit-ish students were inspired by the trend to create “Donate & Nominate” a sister trend to promote blood donation, particularly amongst 17- to 24-year-olds. How about blood donation not Bloody Marys, boys and girls?

FISH IN A BARREL Researchers from Oregon State University and other US institutes have discovered that Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) navigate to feeding grounds thousands of kilometres away using an inherited magnet-ic map. Sensing Earth’s magnetic fields, even young salmon can make the journey through shift-ing ocean waters pretty flawless-ly. Researchers found this out by putting salmon in a barrel, and moving magnets around them.

PASSING THE TEST Usually, running multiple blood tests requires dozens of samples. But a company based in the US state of California can run as many as 30 diagnostic tests with just a drop of blood. Named Theranos, it also boasts prices that are around half the standard. Founder Elizabeth Holmes told press while a fertil-ity blood panel can cost up to US$2,000, theirs will cost just US$35. She added Theranos can get results on average in less than four hours.

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A body compression system. A heartbeat and shiver simulator. Localised body temperature control. These are just some of the ways the “sensory fiction” device, a vest-like prototype developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, aims to draw you into a story. Linked with a book called The Girl Who Was Plugged In, it purports to physicalise the “freedom of Barcelona sunshine and the captivity of a dark damp cellar” in the tale. The augmented book even changes lighting page by page, depending on the setting and mood. Such technology has been in the making for a while. We’ve had 3D

movies and smell-o-vision for decades, but they’ve always been more of a gimmick. DCM wonders if having the greatest moments in literature history reduced to flashing LED lights really conveys what the authors wanted. It’s a long shot, but if the tech actually gets better and more immersive, does that mean that the quality of writing may suffer, since it won’t need to shine as much? When George R R Martin’s sixth A Song of Ice and Fire epic finally comes out, could the opening line be a lukewarm, “It was really cold and stuff”? Unlikely, yet unsettling.

INSIDE THE TAJ With the assistance of a 15-lens, backpack-mounted camera, Google plans to offer a Street View of the Jewel of India: the Taj Mahal. The 360-degree image will allow armchair travellers around the globe to view portions of the monument that are closed to public. The Google Trekker project is aimed at mapping some of the world’s most valu-able monuments and sights, including the Grand Canyon, in the United States.

DANCING WITH 3D “What if the visually impaired could navigate unassisted in unfamiliar indoor places? What if you could search for a product and see where the exact shelf is located in a super-store?” This quote is part of the pitch for Google’s Project Tango, which aims to endow a smart-phone with the power to make 250,000 measurements of its environment every second. Hey presto, a 3D model of the space around you.

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PEAS AND PRESSURE Vegetarians tend to have lower blood pressure than non-vegetarians. Research-ers at the National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Centre in Osaka, Japan, reviewed 39 previous studies and found that in general non-meat eaters had blood pressure two to seven units lower than meat-eaters. It’s now hoped that a switch to a vegetarian diet could help wean some people off blood pressure medication, which can have unpleasant side effects.

SPACE NET Japan’s space agency has hatched a plan to deal with deadly space debris (like that in Gravity). Their plan is comically simple, involving a net, possibly up to 10 kilome-tres in length. Hanging from an unmanned spacecraft, the net is meant to automatically align itself with and attract debris, using an electromagnetic field. The downside of the plan, detractors say, is that the net might mistakenly catch work-ing satellites. Whoops.

T H E G R I D HOLY MAGNETS, BATMAN Where do bats come from? Five tiny jawbones of prehistoric bats excavated in Egypt may hold the answer: they likely originated in the eastern parts of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana. The finding comes thanks to palaeomagnetic dating, which relies on the analysis of magnetic metals in rocks. Since Earth’s magnetic field slowly reverses over time, switching from north to south, scientists can use the process to date geological layers.

FIND THAT MATATU Travelling in Kenya’s capital? Nairobi doesn’t have a for-mal bus system, so people get around via “matatu”, privately owned, often beat-up, graffiti-covered vans. As you would imagine, the chaotic system had no official map — until now. Researchers and designers have recently created an open data set of the city’s 130 transit routes in all its glory. It’s hoped the map will help users, passen-gers and the government plan better routes.

ISSUE 05/14

FRONTIERSNEWS

WWF Hero

STRANGE AND SERIOUS EVENTS FROM ACROSS THE WORLD

GRIPPING READ: YOUR BOOK NOWCHANGES LIGHTING PAGE BY PAGE

“WITH GREAT POWER, COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY,” GOES THE FAMOUS LINE IN SPIDER-MAN FILMS. PERHAPS THAT’S WHY THE WORLD WIDE FUND FOR NATURE, OR WWF, CHOSE THE CHARACTER TO BE EARTH HOUR’S FIRST SUPERHERO AMBASSADOR DURING THE YEARLY LIGHTS-OUT EVENT. ALL WELL AND GOOD, BUT WILL THEY ALSO TALK TO HIM ABOUT LITTERING NEW YORK CITY WITH THOSE ULTRA-STICKY WEBS? THAT’S LIKE SPITTING 300 PIECES OF GUM ON THE STREET, DUDE

15MAY 2014


ASIA-PACIFIC AMERICAS EUROPE MIDDLE EAST/AFRICA

THE REAL MAGNITO A Bosnian man named Muhibija Buljubasic is making headlines because of his supposedly mag-netic body. The 56-year-old has been photographed with cut-lery, remote controls and even a Samsung Galaxy S4 mobile phone “stuck” to his person. His explanation for the power? That he “radiates a special energy”. Sceptics, however, say that so-called “human magnets” just have skin that is greasier and stickier than most.

EPIC GPS FAIL Twenty-five years ago, the US launched its first GPS satellite. Over the years, we’ve become increas-ingly reliant on the technology, leading to dozens of “epic fail” stories. Our favourite? The 61-year-old Belgian woman who programmed her device incorrectly and drove 900 miles (1,450 kilometres) to Croatia instead of 90 miles (145 kilo-metres) to Brussels. She drove for two days, until “suddenly I appeared in Zagreb, I realised I wasn’t in Belgium anymore.”

BLOOD, NOT BOOZE NekNomination is an online trend where participants must quickly down often ridiculous amounts of alcohol before nominating an online friend to best them. It’s been responsible for several deaths. Two Brit-ish students were inspired by the trend to create “Donate & Nominate” a sister trend to promote blood donation, particularly amongst 17- to 24-year-olds. How about blood donation not Bloody Marys, boys and girls?

FISH IN A BARREL Researchers from Oregon State University and other US institutes have discovered that Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) navigate to feeding grounds thousands of kilometres away using an inherited magnet-ic map. Sensing Earth’s magnetic fields, even young salmon can make the journey through shift-ing ocean waters pretty flawless-ly. Researchers found this out by putting salmon in a barrel, and moving magnets around them.

PASSING THE TEST Usually, running multiple blood tests requires dozens of samples. But a company based in the US state of California can run as many as 30 diagnostic tests with just a drop of blood. Named Theranos, it also boasts prices that are around half the standard. Founder Elizabeth Holmes told press while a fertil-ity blood panel can cost up to US$2,000, theirs will cost just US$35. She added Theranos can get results on average in less than four hours.

ILLU

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: CA

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.AU

A body compression system. A heartbeat and shiver simulator. Localised body temperature control. These are just some of the ways the “sensory fiction” device, a vest-like prototype developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, aims to draw you into a story. Linked with a book called The Girl Who Was Plugged In, it purports to physicalise the “freedom of Barcelona sunshine and the captivity of a dark damp cellar” in the tale. The augmented book even changes lighting page by page, depending on the setting and mood. Such technology has been in the making for a while. We’ve had 3D

movies and smell-o-vision for decades, but they’ve always been more of a gimmick. DCM wonders if having the greatest moments in literature history reduced to flashing LED lights really conveys what the authors wanted. It’s a long shot, but if the tech actually gets better and more immersive, does that mean that the quality of writing may suffer, since it won’t need to shine as much? When George R R Martin’s sixth A Song of Ice and Fire epic finally comes out, could the opening line be a lukewarm, “It was really cold and stuff”? Unlikely, yet unsettling.

INSIDE THE TAJ With the assistance of a 15-lens, backpack-mounted camera, Google plans to offer a Street View of the Jewel of India: the Taj Mahal. The 360-degree image will allow armchair travellers around the globe to view portions of the monument that are closed to public. The Google Trekker project is aimed at mapping some of the world’s most valu-able monuments and sights, including the Grand Canyon, in the United States.

DANCING WITH 3D “What if the visually impaired could navigate unassisted in unfamiliar indoor places? What if you could search for a product and see where the exact shelf is located in a super-store?” This quote is part of the pitch for Google’s Project Tango, which aims to endow a smart-phone with the power to make 250,000 measurements of its environment every second. Hey presto, a 3D model of the space around you.

BL

OO

DN

AV

IGA

TIO

NM

AG

NE

TS

PEAS AND PRESSURE Vegetarians tend to have lower blood pressure than non-vegetarians. Research-ers at the National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Centre in Osaka, Japan, reviewed 39 previous studies and found that in general non-meat eaters had blood pressure two to seven units lower than meat-eaters. It’s now hoped that a switch to a vegetarian diet could help wean some people off blood pressure medication, which can have unpleasant side effects.

SPACE NET Japan’s space agency has hatched a plan to deal with deadly space debris (like that in Gravity). Their plan is comically simple, involving a net, possibly up to 10 kilome-tres in length. Hanging from an unmanned spacecraft, the net is meant to automatically align itself with and attract debris, using an electromagnetic field. The downside of the plan, detractors say, is that the net might mistakenly catch work-ing satellites. Whoops.

T H E G R I D HOLY MAGNETS, BATMAN Where do bats come from? Five tiny jawbones of prehistoric bats excavated in Egypt may hold the answer: they likely originated in the eastern parts of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana. The finding comes thanks to palaeomagnetic dating, which relies on the analysis of magnetic metals in rocks. Since Earth’s magnetic field slowly reverses over time, switching from north to south, scientists can use the process to date geological layers.

FIND THAT MATATU Travelling in Kenya’s capital? Nairobi doesn’t have a for-mal bus system, so people get around via “matatu”, privately owned, often beat-up, graffiti-covered vans. As you would imagine, the chaotic system had no official map — until now. Researchers and designers have recently created an open data set of the city’s 130 transit routes in all its glory. It’s hoped the map will help users, passen-gers and the government plan better routes.

ISSUE 05/14

FRONTIERSNEWS

WWF Hero

STRANGE AND SERIOUS EVENTS FROM ACROSS THE WORLD

GRIPPING READ: YOUR BOOK NOWCHANGES LIGHTING PAGE BY PAGE

“WITH GREAT POWER, COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY,” GOES THE FAMOUS LINE IN SPIDER-MAN FILMS. PERHAPS THAT’S WHY THE WORLD WIDE FUND FOR NATURE, OR WWF, CHOSE THE CHARACTER TO BE EARTH HOUR’S FIRST SUPERHERO AMBASSADOR DURING THE YEARLY LIGHTS-OUT EVENT. ALL WELL AND GOOD, BUT WILL THEY ALSO TALK TO HIM ABOUT LITTERING NEW YORK CITY WITH THOSE ULTRA-STICKY WEBS? THAT’S LIKE SPITTING 300 PIECES OF GUM ON THE STREET, DUDE


NEWS

PUTTING THE “MMMM” IN MRE

Oxidation is a terrible thing — or is it? The same process that makes your bike rust is also responsible for a new pen’s longevity. The 4.EVER Pininfarina Cambiano might take you a few tries to spell correctly, but luckily it comes with the power to write forever.

How does this sexy bit of kit, which bills itself as “an everlasting writing instrument” needing “no ink and no refill”, work? The secret lies in the tip, made of a material called ethergraf, which oxidises the paper. The tip, meanwhile, erodes so gradually it’s negligible.

All sleek aluminium and shiny wood, the pen forces you to look around and ask: why are so few of our possessions designed to last forever? Waste not, want not, we say, as we chew noodles from a Styrofoam plate with wooden chopsticks, sitting on a plastic chair we’ll likely throw out in five years.

As of writing, Pininfarina had yet to announce a price for the metallic miracle. We can only assume it would be a while before your savings on ink matched the price tag, but it might be worthwhile if it forces us to question the half-life of most of our purchases. Think of how many pens you’ve bought over the past few decades: for school, artwork, or household use. On the other hand, while they can

make the pen last forever, can they also stop us losing it too?

US$10,000According to one US survey, this is the estimated amount of money an average woman spends on shaving-related products over a lifetime.

57 NumberNumber of sheets of toilet paper an average person uses in a day. One blogger tracked his use over a year and found it added up to 4.5 kilometres worth of paper. Reusable toilet paper may seem like a gross concept, but could it be a workable idea?

480–650kmExperts say runners should replace their shoes every few hundred kilometres. Hard-core runners, then, might buy a new pair every three or four months. Pretty pricey, considering good running shoes can cost at least US$100.

3 monthsDentists say we should throw out our toothbrushes after three months. That’s four a year, 40 per decade, 320 in a lifetime, assuming we follow our dentist’s instructions to a “T”. But let’s face it, who does?

ETCH YOUR WORDS IN TIME

PUTTING THE “MMMM” IN MRE

THE US ARMY RECENTLY DEVELOPED A PIZZA MRE (“MEAL, READY-TO-EAT”) FOR SOLDIERS, WHICH CAN REMAIN EDIBLE FOR THREE YEARS

3 YEARS DESPITE THEIR REPUTATION OF LASTING FOREVER, TWINKIES (A US BRAND OF CREAM-FILLED CAKES) LAST LESS THAN TWO MONTHS

45 DAYS ITALIAN ARMY RATIONS DON’T INCLUDE PIZZA. BUT SOLDIERS DO GET A SMALL SHOT OF A 40 PERCENT ALCOHOLIC DRINK. FRENCH RATIONS MEANWHILE INCLUDE DEER PÂTÉ

40%

Forward to the Future Will Nike’s self-tying shoe laces revolutionise athletics and more?“Are we gonna see power laces in 2015? To that, I say yes!” So said Tinker Hatfield, a designer at Nike — and his words should fill any Back to the Future fan with glee.

In the second film of the series, which was released in 1989, a young Michael J Fox travels to the year 2015. Scriptwriters of the time being what they were, they figured that by next year, we would be strutting around in boot-like Nikes with — and this is the really awesome part — self-tying power laces.

However, it took until 2011 for Nike to unveil replicas of the shoes, a range dubbed Nike MAG. While the footwear included a battery to power the funky LEDs (reportedly for five hours between charges) that adorned the sole and ankle, they sadly lacked the power laces.

Now, as Hatfield recently declared, power laces could be just a year away — though as of the time of writing, there had been no word regarding whether the laces would be restricted to just the MAG series, or would be available for other Nike shoes as well.

Regardless of that decision, as Marty McFly might say, “This is heavy.”

“HE-LLO?”According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Back to the Future is the earliest recorded example of someone using “hello” sarcastically. (“Hello, hello? Anybody home? Hey! Think McFly. Think.”)

OCTOBER 21, 1985Every year, your Facebook wall is probably spammed by a meme proclaiming that “today is the date Marty McFly went back to the future”. If you believed them, we’re sorry to burst your bubble, but those are all wrong. The correct date is next October.

PRESIDENTIAL APPROVALIn the 1986 State of the Union address, United States President Ronald Reagan, who is mentioned in the first movie, ended his speech with: “As they said in the film Back to the Future: Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.” IC

ON

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A hi tech ink and pen-nib now allow you to cast your words (as) in stone

“T”. But let’s face it, who does?


TECHNOLOGY

SOUTH KOREAN DESIGNER JEABYUN YEON CLAIMS TO HAVE DESIGNED A CONCEPT THAT DRAWS BREATHABLE AIR FROM WATER AS YOU SWIM. THE SEXY-LOOKING MASK, DUBBED TRITON, SUPPOSEDLY ELIMINATES THE NEED FOR HEAVY TANKS, MAKES YOU FEEL LIKE JAMES BOND, AND ALLOWS YOU TO GRIP THE TWIN HANDLEBAR “GILLS”, AND PRETEND

YOU’RE ON A MOTORBIKE. ALL GOOD STUFF — OR SHOULD WE SAY, TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. CRITICS POINT OUT THAT THE CONCEPT IS FLAWED BECAUSE FIRSTLY, IT RELIES ON TINY MICRO-PROCESSORS RUN BY BATTERIES WITH 30 TIMES THE CAPACITY OF NORMAL BATTERIES (WHICH DON’T EXIST YET). IN ADDITION, SUPPLYING ENOUGH OXYGEN FOR JUST ONE HUMAN BREATH WOULD REQUIRE FILTERING NEARLY SIX LITRES OF WATER, OR 90 LITRES A MINUTE. AND WORSE, BREATHING PURE OXYGEN WOULD EVENTUALLY KILL YOU. STILL, UNDERWATER MOTORBIKE! VROOM, VR-R-ROOM! BUT IF THE HYPOTHETICAL TRITON IS STILL TOO BULKY FOR YOU, TRY THE EQUALLY HYPOTHETICAL RESPIROCYTES. THESE NANOMACHINES ARE DESIGNED TO MIMIC RED BLOOD CELLS BUT HOLD 236 TIMES MORE OXYGEN, ALLOWING A HUMAN TO DIVE FOR HOURS, SPRINT FOR 15 MINUTES ON A SINGLE BREATH, OR SAFELY SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK

TELLING TALES

Air from Water

Last year, it was revealed that the mystery novel The Cuckoo’s Calling, by Robert Galbraith, was in fact written by someone else. You might have heard of her: JK Rowling. A reporter had received a tip that Rowling had used a nom de plume (pen name), and wanted confirmation. He got it thanks to Patrick Juola, who has developed a computer program to analyse the linguistic signature of any piece of writing. His platform, the Java Graphical Authorship Attribution Program, plugged in Rowling’s, Galbraith’s and some other writer’s samples, and analysed four features:

• �Distribution�of�word�length

• �100�most�common�words

• �Pairs�of�words�commonly�occurring�together

• �Groups�of�four�characters�(including�letters,�spaces�and�grammatical�marks�that�regularly�appear�in�a�string.�These�are�known�as�four-grams

His results supported the idea, though didn’t

prove, that Rowling was the author. But when later presented with the results, Rowling admitted that yes, she was Galbraith. While the technology isn’t perfect, it is getting better, and JGAAP is free to download — so if you are thinking of penning some “unsigned” romantic poetry online, your work might be less anonymous than you think.

For example, we plugged this entire page into an online textual analyser, and found that:

• �On�the�Gunning-Fog�Index,�which�measures�readability,�we�are�a�6.5�(6�means�easy,�20�means�hard)�—we�hope�that�is�a�compliment

• �Average�syllables�per�word:�1.75

• �Top�three�most�common�words:�“You”,�“Rowling”�and�“Polaroid”

The most commonsentences by:Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games series)“My name is Katniss Everdeen.”

Stephanie Meyer

(Twilight series)“I sighed.”JK Rowling (Harry Potter series)“Nothing happened.”

BIG DATAWIZARDRY

OTHER DANCE MOVES, OTHER NO-NO’S

Quote Unquote

"SHAKING OR WAVING CAN

ACTUALLY DAMAGE THE IMAGE"

POLAROID CORPORATION

"SHAKE IT LIKE A POLAROID

PICTURE"

'HEY YA!' BY OUTKAST

THE MASHED POTATOFrankly terrible for

mashing potatoes — have you tried it?

THE MOONWALKDid you see the

crew trying it on the Apollo 11 mission?

RAISE THE ROOFImpractical at best, dangerous at worst

during home décor DIY

How�an�algorthim�detected�Rowling’s�ghost�writing

Would�you�like�to�have�gills�like�a�fish�and�distill�oxygen�as�you�swim?

18

the idea, though didn’t Stephanie

Meyer (Twilight series)“I sighed.”JK Rowling (Harry Potter series)“Nothing happened.”

It’s almost as if you shouldn’t take technical advice from pop stars. Shortly after Outkast released their hit single ‘Hey Ya!’, Polaroid gently

reminded customers that while you can shake it on the dance floor,

manhandling your Polaroid is a no-no. While shaking older photos would dry them, modern Polaroid film dries behind a clear plastic

window. The company explained on its website that the image “never touches air, so shaking or waving has no effect,” and can even be damaging. “Rapid movement

during development can cause portions of the film to separate

prematurely, or can cause ‘blobs’ in the picture,” it noted.


PUSHING THE LIMITS

ADVENTURE

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!The glory of finishing a marathon is unmistakable. But it sometimes comes at an embarrassing price

MONSTER FEETSome call it the black badge of courage, but black toenails are still pretty gross. They are the result of broken blood vessels

under the nail, which may itself wither off and contrast nicely

with your shiny new corns, blisters and callouses. Don’t buy

too many open-toed sandals.

TUMMY TROUBLESMarathoners tend to know a lot about their digestive sys-

tems, timing their bowel move-ments by eating spicy food or drinking espresso. That’s be-

cause running can really stress your digestive system. Some

even compete in diapers just in case “runner’s diarrhoea” hits.

JOGGER’S NIPPLESorry, guys. Not only do you have nipples for no reason, they are also more likely to bleed during a race. When

sweat evaporates on your skin, it leaves abrasive salt on your

sensitive areas. Combined with rubbing against your shirt, it’s

like a sandpaper massage.

COSTLYThe price you pay for these side effects can be hefty as

well. The New York City Mara-thon in the US costs US$255 for US entrants, and US$347

for out-of-towners. But the top prize is hefty too: in 2013, they awarded US$100,000 each to the male and female winners.

HALLUCINATIONSMore common with ultra-marathons. These events

often combine sleeplessness, extreme temperature changes and extreme stress. Hence why

weird visions are par for the course. One ultra-marathon

blogger recalls how “Optimus Prime was a running partner”.

16:1HORSE-HUMAN RACE

An argument between two Welsh men in 1979 created an event

to answer this. For 24 years, the answer was a resounding no,

until in 2004 a man named Huw Lobb beat a horse called Kay Bee Jay by two minutes. Bookies’ put the odds at 16 to one against the

two-legged human racers.

Looking for a home to buy? Why not try a former nuclear missile silo! You can live in

one for just US$260,000. The one in question, located in

Osage City, in the US state of Kansas, boasts, among other

things: one grass landing strip, 45-centimetre concrete walls,

as well as a 47-tonne drive-in door.

A company known as 20th Century Castles specialises

in missile silo real estate and as of 2010 had reportedly sold 49 explosively cool properties.

Considering an intercontinental ballistic missile site could cost US$20 million to build in 1960, their purchase price of just a

few hundred thousand dollars is a bargain. Especially when

such sites can easily come with 10 hectares of space.

On the downside, the upkeep will also be pretty monumental, so you should be prepared for mould, dripping pipes and a

nagging sense that whenever your alarm clock goes off, the

facility could well be mere minutes from meltdown. On

the other hand, think of the fun you will have telling your kids, “You can’t fight in here! This is

the War Room!”*

*Ten points for those of you who got that Dr Strangelove

reference

MissilesNot

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Nuclear silo housing options

“OPTIMUS PRIME WAS A RUNNING PARTNER”

23MAY 2014


OCCUPATIONS

ADVENTURE

Great scoops in history

1776THE BELFAST NEWS-

LETTER ACHIEVED FIRST SCOOP WHEN IT

PUBLISHED THE UNITED STATES DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE — BEFORE KING GEORGE III HAD EVEN SEEN IT

1887NELLY BLY EXPOSED HORRIFIC

CONDITIONS AT A NEW YORK

INSANE ASYLUM, BY CHECKING HERSELF IN

1945EDWARD KENNEDY

BROKE THE NEWS THAT WORLD

WAR II WAS OVER — AND WAS FIRED

FOR IT, AS THE SCOOP HAD BEEN

EMBARGOED

1936THE DAILY MIRROR

NABBED AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

WITH HITLER. THE HEADLINE?

“HITLER’S ‘LET’S BE FRIENDS’ PLEA TO

THE WORLD”

1972WITH THE HELP OF A SHADOWY

INSIDE SOURCE, WOODWARD AND CARL BERNSTEIN

BROKE THE WATERGATE

SCANDAL

3of Tapalla’s tips for

getting informa-tion from anyone“Find out what they need and

want. If it’s your normal cop — buy him a doughnut. Befriend

him. Appeal to the heart.”

“Stand your ground. Once they do start giving you info, and they say ‘this is off the record’, keep your word. But at the same time, keep pushing. Don’t stop at just what they give you. Verify the facts.”

“Build your network of sources. Stay in touch with them. They

become your friends, you know? Just because of the sheer amount of times you call them up and ask

them, what’s new?”

Bird: A paid informant who will “fly away”

and gather information for you If it bleeds,

it leads: Stories with gore or violence are always more likely to make it to the top of a report

There weren’t many female

reporters around between 1825 to 1829, when John

Quincy Adams was the sixth President

of the United States. Nor did they get much respect. So how

did Anne Royall become the first female journalist to interview a US president? She followed him to the riverbank where Adams swam every morning, and stole his clothes. She only agreed to return them after he had given

her a shivery interview.

TALK THETALK

Erika Tapalla knows what hu-man brains smell like. “It was a really bad road accident. His body was still under the truck,” she tells DCM. “He was dragged for a good kilometre or so. Bits of his brain were on the pavement.” And the smell? “It was really fishy. And it quickly became rotten fishy,” she recalls.

These are the kind of things you deal with as a TV reporter specialising in crime, espe-cially in Manila, capital of the Philippines. Asked how many dead bodies she saw during

her stint on the show Balita Alas-Singko, Tapalla says without hesitation, hundreds.

The most harrowing thing, she explains, was when a victim’s family gets notified. Since reporters are almost always on the scene first, it means you’ve got to witness the terror in their eyes. “You see the faces of the kids, who are hysterical. That’s when your heart really breaks.” Then you have to film it. “That’s the reality of TV: without drama or action, you’re not going to air.” Sta-

tions will push you to record that crying lady, or to “ask the dumbest questions,” she says, “Questions like, ‘how are you feeling now that your husband is dead?’”

Why did Tapalla go into it? For one thing, there was the travel — she flew to the United States, to Los Ange-les, to cover the extradition of a Filipino spy; and to New York, after the assassination of Osama bin Laden. “You become a part of history as it unravels. That’s something you really can’t pay for.”

SO YOU WANT TO BE ACRIME REPORTER?

“It’s like watching a birds-eye view of a black ocean during the night-time with strobe lights flickering on and off coming from underwater.” That’s how someone with synaesthesia described listening to a song by British indie pop band The xx (yes, that is the band’s name). Answering questions on Reddit, he wrote, “I listen to a lot of music simply because I like how it looks.”

The condition, caused by crossed pathways in the brain, comes

in over 100 different forms. Less rare than previously thought, it is now believed between two and four percent of the population have some form of the sense-muddling condition. Our favourite has to be lexical-gustory synaes-thesia, where words evoke strong tastes.

Researchers have found that it’s even possible to predict the nature of the taste depending on specific sounds. “Eh” and “mmm” sounds tend to evoke mint, while “aye” noises often taste of bacon.

This makes us really want to make friends with someone called Myra Sandwich. We are also intensely curious to know what “lexical gustory synaesthesia” tastes like.

So you want to taste music?Some studies have found that synaesthesia is more common in women than men.

It is commonly thought that left-handed people are more likely to have it.

Some people have developed it as a result of head trauma (not recom-mended).

Whoa, what's going on here?! Synaesthesia allows some people to experience numbers and letters as varying shapes or colours, and sounds as tastes

SCIENCE FICTION

SCIENCE

Looney Tunes

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Steve McCormack no doubt thought he was going to die. It was 2011, and the New Zealand trucker had slipped and landed on a broken high-pressure air valve at a gas station. The valve penetrated his left buttock and relentlessly pumped air into his body at 100 pounds per square inch (close to 690,000 pascals) of pressure. In minutes, his body blew up to twice its usual size.

Nearby rescuers managed to shut off the air supply, but McCormack was like an overstuffed sausage ready to pop, barely able to breathe, and blind in one eye. It took an hour for paramedics to arrive. “They went to put a drip in me,” he later told reporters. “They pushed the needle in and it spat right out.”

Amazingly, the trucker survived and went back to his normal size — though it took around three days for the air to vent out of him. “You can’t turn a tap on and let it out. You just have to fart it out, or burp it out,” he said. If you saw it happen in a Looney Tunes cartoon, you wouldn’t credit it — now we’re not so sure. Could other Bugs Bunny-esque antics work in real life?

Finger in a Gun Barrel. The Build team of MythBusters tackled this one: busted. They tried stuffing the barrel with a gel hand, wax hand, dirt and even a steel spike to make the gun backfire. All the test materials got blown to smithereens.

Shot Full of Holes. When a trapper was shot in the gut in 1822, nobody expected him to survive the antiseptic-free surgeries. But he did, and was left with a fistula (hole) in his stomach. The strong stomach acid disinfected the wound, and gave awestruck doctors a chance to witness the process of digestion for the first time ever. The gutsy victim, meanwhile, lived to 83.

Arrowhead. An awful lot of animals have survived arrows to the head — we found recent references to a moose, deer, duck, goose and cat (whose name, oddly, was Quiver), to name just a few. If you’re impaled, an arrow can actually act as a plug that stems bleeding. Hence why one of the top rules of wildlife medicine is: do not remove embedded foreign objects.

Not-so-Deadly?Analysis of the Iliad found that the 114 fatal wounds mentioned in the Greek saga were caused by spears (106), swords (17), arrows (12) and slings (12). Arrows were the only one with a mortality rate of less than 50 percent.

And you thought ‘gas bag’ was only a phrase...

COLOUR ME SENSORYNew Age sensory descriptions might be on an aura-overlap with exciting combinations underway

????

23MAY 2014


OCCUPATIONS

ADVENTURE

Great scoops in history

1776THE BELFAST NEWS-

LETTER ACHIEVED FIRST SCOOP WHEN IT

PUBLISHED THE UNITED STATES DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE — BEFORE KING GEORGE III HAD EVEN SEEN IT

1887NELLY BLY EXPOSED HORRIFIC

CONDITIONS AT A NEW YORK

INSANE ASYLUM, BY CHECKING HERSELF IN

1945EDWARD KENNEDY

BROKE THE NEWS THAT WORLD

WAR II WAS OVER — AND WAS FIRED

FOR IT, AS THE SCOOP HAD BEEN

EMBARGOED

1936THE DAILY MIRROR

NABBED AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

WITH HITLER. THE HEADLINE?

“HITLER’S ‘LET’S BE FRIENDS’ PLEA TO

THE WORLD”

1972WITH THE HELP OF A SHADOWY

INSIDE SOURCE, WOODWARD AND CARL BERNSTEIN

BROKE THE WATERGATE

SCANDAL

3of Tapalla’s tips for

getting informa-tion from anyone“Find out what they need and

want. If it’s your normal cop — buy him a doughnut. Befriend

him. Appeal to the heart.”

“Stand your ground. Once they do start giving you info, and they say ‘this is off the record’, keep your word. But at the same time, keep pushing. Don’t stop at just what they give you. Verify the facts.”

“Build your network of sources. Stay in touch with them. They

become your friends, you know? Just because of the sheer amount of times you call them up and ask

them, what’s new?”

Bird: A paid informant who will “fly away”

and gather information for you If it bleeds,

it leads: Stories with gore or violence are always more likely to make it to the top of a report

There weren’t many female

reporters around between 1825 to 1829, when John

Quincy Adams was the sixth President

of the United States. Nor did they get much respect. So how

did Anne Royall become the first female journalist to interview a US president? She followed him to the riverbank where Adams swam every morning, and stole his clothes. She only agreed to return them after he had given

her a shivery interview.

TALK THETALK

Erika Tapalla knows what hu-man brains smell like. “It was a really bad road accident. His body was still under the truck,” she tells DCM. “He was dragged for a good kilometre or so. Bits of his brain were on the pavement.” And the smell? “It was really fishy. And it quickly became rotten fishy,” she recalls.

These are the kind of things you deal with as a TV reporter specialising in crime, espe-cially in Manila, capital of the Philippines. Asked how many dead bodies she saw during

her stint on the show Balita Alas-Singko, Tapalla says without hesitation, hundreds.

The most harrowing thing, she explains, was when a victim’s family gets notified. Since reporters are almost always on the scene first, it means you’ve got to witness the terror in their eyes. “You see the faces of the kids, who are hysterical. That’s when your heart really breaks.” Then you have to film it. “That’s the reality of TV: without drama or action, you’re not going to air.” Sta-

tions will push you to record that crying lady, or to “ask the dumbest questions,” she says, “Questions like, ‘how are you feeling now that your husband is dead?’”

Why did Tapalla go into it? For one thing, there was the travel — she flew to the United States, to Los Ange-les, to cover the extradition of a Filipino spy; and to New York, after the assassination of Osama bin Laden. “You become a part of history as it unravels. That’s something you really can’t pay for.”

SO YOU WANT TO BE ACRIME REPORTER?

“It’s like watching a birds-eye view of a black ocean during the night-time with strobe lights flickering on and off coming from underwater.” That’s how someone with synaesthesia described listening to a song by British indie pop band The xx (yes, that is the band’s name). Answering questions on Reddit, he wrote, “I listen to a lot of music simply because I like how it looks.”

The condition, caused by crossed pathways in the brain, comes

in over 100 different forms. Less rare than previously thought, it is now believed between two and four percent of the population have some form of the sense-muddling condition. Our favourite has to be lexical-gustory synaes-thesia, where words evoke strong tastes.

Researchers have found that it’s even possible to predict the nature of the taste depending on specific sounds. “Eh” and “mmm” sounds tend to evoke mint, while “aye” noises often taste of bacon.

This makes us really want to make friends with someone called Myra Sandwich. We are also intensely curious to know what “lexical gustory synaesthesia” tastes like.

So you want to taste music?Some studies have found that synaesthesia is more common in women than men.

It is commonly thought that left-handed people are more likely to have it.

Some people have developed it as a result of head trauma (not recom-mended).

Whoa, what's going on here?! Synaesthesia allows some people to experience numbers and letters as varying shapes or colours, and sounds as tastes

SCIENCE FICTION

SCIENCE

Looney Tunes

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GE

S: D

ISO

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Steve McCormack no doubt thought he was going to die. It was 2011, and the New Zealand trucker had slipped and landed on a broken high-pressure air valve at a gas station. The valve penetrated his left buttock and relentlessly pumped air into his body at 100 pounds per square inch (close to 690,000 pascals) of pressure. In minutes, his body blew up to twice its usual size.

Nearby rescuers managed to shut off the air supply, but McCormack was like an overstuffed sausage ready to pop, barely able to breathe, and blind in one eye. It took an hour for paramedics to arrive. “They went to put a drip in me,” he later told reporters. “They pushed the needle in and it spat right out.”

Amazingly, the trucker survived and went back to his normal size — though it took around three days for the air to vent out of him. “You can’t turn a tap on and let it out. You just have to fart it out, or burp it out,” he said. If you saw it happen in a Looney Tunes cartoon, you wouldn’t credit it — now we’re not so sure. Could other Bugs Bunny-esque antics work in real life?

Finger in a Gun Barrel. The Build team of MythBusters tackled this one: busted. They tried stuffing the barrel with a gel hand, wax hand, dirt and even a steel spike to make the gun backfire. All the test materials got blown to smithereens.

Shot Full of Holes. When a trapper was shot in the gut in 1822, nobody expected him to survive the antiseptic-free surgeries. But he did, and was left with a fistula (hole) in his stomach. The strong stomach acid disinfected the wound, and gave awestruck doctors a chance to witness the process of digestion for the first time ever. The gutsy victim, meanwhile, lived to 83.

Arrowhead. An awful lot of animals have survived arrows to the head — we found recent references to a moose, deer, duck, goose and cat (whose name, oddly, was Quiver), to name just a few. If you’re impaled, an arrow can actually act as a plug that stems bleeding. Hence why one of the top rules of wildlife medicine is: do not remove embedded foreign objects.

Not-so-Deadly?Analysis of the Iliad found that the 114 fatal wounds mentioned in the Greek saga were caused by spears (106), swords (17), arrows (12) and slings (12). Arrows were the only one with a mortality rate of less than 50 percent.

And you thought ‘gas bag’ was only a phrase...

COLOUR ME SENSORYNew Age sensory descriptions might be on an aura-overlap with exciting combinations underway

25MAY 2014


WEIRD COMBOS

HISTORY

THE YEAR THAT WAS: 1972

Apollo 17 marked the last time man walked on the Moon. It has lain untouched by a human being for 42 years. The song ‘Long-Haired Lover From Liverpool’ spent five weeks at the top of the UK charts. Creepily, it is sung by nine-year-old Jimmy Osmond, the youngest artist ever to reach #1 — and makes us want to chew our own ears off. Don’t listen to it. The first handheld calculator,

the chunky HP-35, went on sale for a whopping US$395 (US$2,100 in 2012 dollars), and weighed almost as much as an adult human heart. Prozac was discovered. It remains the world’s best-selling antidepressant, some form of which is taken by an estimated 10 percent of people in the US and Europe. The United States returned the island of Okinawa, which it had overseen since 1945, to Japan.

An audience survey revealed that Dr Who was seen as one of the most violent shows on UK television. The Chandka Forest area in Odisha was hit by droughts and heatwaves so severe that herds of elephants went mad, tearing through several villages and trampling 24 people to death. Film releases in this year included The Godfather, A Clockwork Orange (in the US) and Frenzy.

"Rhubarb Rhubarb"Maybe it’s just us, but DCM would rather nibble on hot buttered cardboard than a plate of rhubarb, which we think is as tasteless as laughing at a funeral. Luckily, rhubarb has a use — or at least, the word does.

In the early days of film and radio, directors would encourage extras

to mutter the word over and over. The effect was a pleasing, crowd-like rumble; a background bla-bla-bla. It’s less popular now, but the term “rhubarb rhubarb” for a crowd’s meaningless noise remains. It is also sometimes known as “peas and carrots” (directors seem far too health-conscious for our

taste) and, in the US, “walla walla”.

Weirdly, the word comes from the ancient Greek “rha barbaron”, literally meaning “foreign rhubarb”. “Barbaron” was Greek for foreigner, because foreigners sounded like they just mumbled an unintelligible bar bar bar. Seems like history came full circle, really.

When Napoleon was trying to march through most of Europe in 1806, he created a trade blockade aimed at paralysing British commerce. The cost of chocolate soared. Italian chocolatiers added chopped hazelnuts to maximise their supply of chocolate, creating a nutty paste called gianduia. History repeated itself in World War II. To stave off rationing, an Italian pastry maker created hazelnut-y Pasta Gianduja in 1946 — in 1964 it was renamed Nutella.

One night in June, 1972, a security guard making the rounds at the Watergate office building, headquarters of the US Democratic National Committee, noticed duct tape on a door lock. The tape was to keep the door from latching. He called the police, who arrested several burglars planning to steal documents and install listening devices. The men were linked to the White House, and the scandal caused Richard Nixon to resign — the only US president ever to do so.

As the story goes, when US soldiers, nicknamed GI (General Infantry) Joes, liberated Italy in 1943, they were unused to the strength of local coffee and hence diluted espresso with water. Horrified baristas dubbed the abomination an “Americano”. It’s also thought to be where we get the term “cup of joe”. Oxforddictionaries.com however says “Americano” dates to the 1970s, and is American Spanish for “American (coffee)”.

US SOLDIERS+

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“AMERICANO”COFFEE

DUCT TAPE+

SECURITY GUARD =

WATERGATESCANDAL

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VANITY TALK

HISTORY

DCM: Greetings, Cleopatra VII Philopator! It is a pleasure to meet with one of the most famous Egyptians in all of history — though you’re not really Egyptian, are you?Cleopatra: Please, call me Cleo. You’re right, my family was ethnically Greek. We ruled in Alexandria, and were descended from one of Alexander the Great’s generals.DCM: How many languages did you speak?Cleopatra: If you believe the historian Plutarch, a total of eight. I dabbled with African tongues, Hebrew, Aramaic, and I was the one of the few rulers of that era to actually speak Egyptian.DCM: Plutarch also noted that your beauty “was in itself not altogether incomparable”. Although he added you “had an irresistible charm” and your presence, combined with the persuasiveness of your discourse “had something stimulating about it. There was a sweetness also in the tones” of your voice. Basically, you were a charmer?Cleopatra: You tell me, handsome. DCM: Teehee! I mean, whatever. Cleopatra: You’re cute when you blush. See, seduction was how I stayed alive. At the time I met Julius Caesar, who was then 52, I was a 21-year-old outlaw in my own country, hunted by my younger brother, who was in power at the time. I was smuggled into a meeting with Caesar in a bedroll — it was either, I captivate

him immediately, or risk death. DCM: You had a son by him — Caesarion — and when he died, moved on to Marc Antony. You even founded a drinking society with your new beau called The Inimitable Livers. Wasn’t there a story about you and a pearl?Cleopatra: Mmm. Plutarch wrote that I made a bet with Antony that I could spend 10 million sesterces on a single meal. And that I dropped a pearl, “the largest in the whole of history” in vinegar, which dissolved it. DCM: And you gulped the whole thing down? Well, scientists recently experimented with vinegar and pearls and found it was possible, with a crushed pearl and boiled vinegar, to dissolve one in just 10 minutes. So... would you say you have a thing for Romans? [Fumbles with gladiator helmet behind desk]Cleopatra: Tsk. It went quite a bit deeper than that, you know. I had children by Antony too, including beautiful twins: Alexander Helios (sun) and Cleopatra Selene (moon). DCM: Which seems like a good time note that you, Cleopatra, lived nearer in time to the first moon landing in 1969 than you did to the building of the Great Pyramid, roughly 2560 BC. And yet we know so little about you.Cleopatra: Perhaps that’s why I’m still so popular, hmm?

"CURSED BE THE PESTY CAT THAT URINATED

OVER THIS BOOK DURING THE

NIGHT"

Quote Unquote

PEARLS OF

WISDOM FROM

A QUEEN

If you wanted to woo Cleopatra, you could do worse than recite a few lines from this ancient Egyptian love song, proof that words of seduction do not dim over three thousand years:

l Love of you is mixed deep in my vitals,l Like water stirred into flour for bread,l Like simples compound in a sweet-tasting drug,l Like pastry and honey mixed to perfection

Unknown scribeCirca 1420

Last year we shared a historian’s charming shot of a medieval manuscript,

desecrated by a four-footed fiend. A cat had trod its inky feet onto the pages, leaving pawprints that have stood

the test of time. Around the same time a Dutch scribe

was similarly plagued, when he found his pages had been

urinated on by a full-bladdered feline. In response, the enraged

scribe drew a surprisingly unskilful likeness of the cat

and scribbled a curse in Latin: “Confundatur pessimus cattus qui minxit super librum istum

in nocte.” He also penned a warning that translates to:

“And beware well not to leave open books at night where cats

can come.”

From handheld calculators to calming effects of Prozac, this was the year that drove many up the wall

Inventionsas equationsWouldn’t think commonplace products to have such profound associations — would you?

IN CONVERSATION WITH... Cleopatra

25MAY 2014


WEIRD COMBOS

HISTORY

THE YEAR THAT WAS: 1972

Apollo 17 marked the last time man walked on the Moon. It has lain untouched by a human being for 42 years. The song ‘Long-Haired Lover From Liverpool’ spent five weeks at the top of the UK charts. Creepily, it is sung by nine-year-old Jimmy Osmond, the youngest artist ever to reach #1 — and makes us want to chew our own ears off. Don’t listen to it. The first handheld calculator,

the chunky HP-35, went on sale for a whopping US$395 (US$2,100 in 2012 dollars), and weighed almost as much as an adult human heart. Prozac was discovered. It remains the world’s best-selling antidepressant, some form of which is taken by an estimated 10 percent of people in the US and Europe. The United States returned the island of Okinawa, which it had overseen since 1945, to Japan.

An audience survey revealed that Dr Who was seen as one of the most violent shows on UK television. The Chandka Forest area in Odisha was hit by droughts and heatwaves so severe that herds of elephants went mad, tearing through several villages and trampling 24 people to death. Film releases in this year included The Godfather, A Clockwork Orange (in the US) and Frenzy.

"Rhubarb Rhubarb"Maybe it’s just us, but DCM would rather nibble on hot buttered cardboard than a plate of rhubarb, which we think is as tasteless as laughing at a funeral. Luckily, rhubarb has a use — or at least, the word does.

In the early days of film and radio, directors would encourage extras

to mutter the word over and over. The effect was a pleasing, crowd-like rumble; a background bla-bla-bla. It’s less popular now, but the term “rhubarb rhubarb” for a crowd’s meaningless noise remains. It is also sometimes known as “peas and carrots” (directors seem far too health-conscious for our

taste) and, in the US, “walla walla”.

Weirdly, the word comes from the ancient Greek “rha barbaron”, literally meaning “foreign rhubarb”. “Barbaron” was Greek for foreigner, because foreigners sounded like they just mumbled an unintelligible bar bar bar. Seems like history came full circle, really.

When Napoleon was trying to march through most of Europe in 1806, he created a trade blockade aimed at paralysing British commerce. The cost of chocolate soared. Italian chocolatiers added chopped hazelnuts to maximise their supply of chocolate, creating a nutty paste called gianduia. History repeated itself in World War II. To stave off rationing, an Italian pastry maker created hazelnut-y Pasta Gianduja in 1946 — in 1964 it was renamed Nutella.

One night in June, 1972, a security guard making the rounds at the Watergate office building, headquarters of the US Democratic National Committee, noticed duct tape on a door lock. The tape was to keep the door from latching. He called the police, who arrested several burglars planning to steal documents and install listening devices. The men were linked to the White House, and the scandal caused Richard Nixon to resign — the only US president ever to do so.

As the story goes, when US soldiers, nicknamed GI (General Infantry) Joes, liberated Italy in 1943, they were unused to the strength of local coffee and hence diluted espresso with water. Horrified baristas dubbed the abomination an “Americano”. It’s also thought to be where we get the term “cup of joe”. Oxforddictionaries.com however says “Americano” dates to the 1970s, and is American Spanish for “American (coffee)”.

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VANITY TALK

HISTORY

DCM: Greetings, Cleopatra VII Philopator! It is a pleasure to meet with one of the most famous Egyptians in all of history — though you’re not really Egyptian, are you?Cleopatra: Please, call me Cleo. You’re right, my family was ethnically Greek. We ruled in Alexandria, and were descended from one of Alexander the Great’s generals.DCM: How many languages did you speak?Cleopatra: If you believe the historian Plutarch, a total of eight. I dabbled with African tongues, Hebrew, Aramaic, and I was the one of the few rulers of that era to actually speak Egyptian.DCM: Plutarch also noted that your beauty “was in itself not altogether incomparable”. Although he added you “had an irresistible charm” and your presence, combined with the persuasiveness of your discourse “had something stimulating about it. There was a sweetness also in the tones” of your voice. Basically, you were a charmer?Cleopatra: You tell me, handsome. DCM: Teehee! I mean, whatever. Cleopatra: You’re cute when you blush. See, seduction was how I stayed alive. At the time I met Julius Caesar, who was then 52, I was a 21-year-old outlaw in my own country, hunted by my younger brother, who was in power at the time. I was smuggled into a meeting with Caesar in a bedroll — it was either, I captivate

him immediately, or risk death. DCM: You had a son by him — Caesarion — and when he died, moved on to Marc Antony. You even founded a drinking society with your new beau called The Inimitable Livers. Wasn’t there a story about you and a pearl?Cleopatra: Mmm. Plutarch wrote that I made a bet with Antony that I could spend 10 million sesterces on a single meal. And that I dropped a pearl, “the largest in the whole of history” in vinegar, which dissolved it. DCM: And you gulped the whole thing down? Well, scientists recently experimented with vinegar and pearls and found it was possible, with a crushed pearl and boiled vinegar, to dissolve one in just 10 minutes. So... would you say you have a thing for Romans? [Fumbles with gladiator helmet behind desk]Cleopatra: Tsk. It went quite a bit deeper than that, you know. I had children by Antony too, including beautiful twins: Alexander Helios (sun) and Cleopatra Selene (moon). DCM: Which seems like a good time note that you, Cleopatra, lived nearer in time to the first moon landing in 1969 than you did to the building of the Great Pyramid, roughly 2560 BC. And yet we know so little about you.Cleopatra: Perhaps that’s why I’m still so popular, hmm?

"CURSED BE THE PESTY CAT THAT URINATED

OVER THIS BOOK DURING THE

NIGHT"

Quote Unquote

PEARLS OF

WISDOM FROM

A QUEEN

If you wanted to woo Cleopatra, you could do worse than recite a few lines from this ancient Egyptian love song, proof that words of seduction do not dim over three thousand years:

l Love of you is mixed deep in my vitals,l Like water stirred into flour for bread,l Like simples compound in a sweet-tasting drug,l Like pastry and honey mixed to perfection

Unknown scribeCirca 1420

Last year we shared a historian’s charming shot of a medieval manuscript,

desecrated by a four-footed fiend. A cat had trod its inky feet onto the pages, leaving pawprints that have stood

the test of time. Around the same time a Dutch scribe

was similarly plagued, when he found his pages had been

urinated on by a full-bladdered feline. In response, the enraged

scribe drew a surprisingly unskilful likeness of the cat

and scribbled a curse in Latin: “Confundatur pessimus cattus qui minxit super librum istum

in nocte.” He also penned a warning that translates to:

“And beware well not to leave open books at night where cats

can come.”

From handheld calculators to calming effects of Prozac, this was the year that drove many up the wall

Inventionsas equationsWouldn’t think commonplace products to have such profound associations — would you?

IN CONVERSATION WITH... Cleopatra


NEWS

WEIRD COMBOS

OBSESSIONS

HAPPY MEALS

Hedgehog SavioursIn 2006 the company redesigned the McFlurry container after learning that inquisitive hedgehogs were getting their heads caught in the lid, causing them to starve to death.

Sick in the City? Odd travel behaviour interpreted

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STOCKHOLM SYNDROME Wherein prisoners bond with their captors. Coined in 1973, after a botched bank robbery turned into a six-day hostage standoff in Stockholm. After the “Norrmalmstorg Robbery”, many of the hostages defended the robbers, and one of the women even became close friends with her captor. An urban legend has it that they became married, but this could be a mistranslation of Swedish articles which

noted the couple were engagerat in each other, which can mean “to be interested”, rather than förlovad, which means “engaged to be married”. Prevalence The FBI estimates 27 percent of hostages taken in the US have some form of Stockholm syndrome.

PARIS SYNDROME Coined in 1986, after psychiatrists noted the strangely high number of Japanese tourists who would visit the city and sustain acute

culture shock. The symptoms, which include dizziness, paranoia, feelings of persecution, and hallucinations, are thought to stem from the idealised visions many Japanese have of Paris, as well as a significant language barrier. Prevalence Speaking to the Guardian in 2006, an employee at the Japanese embassy in Paris noted that “there are around 20 cases a year and it has been happening for several years”.

THREE MORE SYNDROMES

JERUSALEM SYNDROME(Real) Wherein

visitors are overcome by the city’s religious relics and begin to think and behave as if they are a

religious character

FLORENCE SYNDROME(Real) Wherein visitors

are overcome by the beauty of Florence.

Similar symptoms to those experienced in

Paris syndrome

LONDON SYNDROME(Fake) Wherein visitors

to the city queue politely whilst complaining about the weather in what they

believe to be a proper British accent

As one of the world’s biggest brands, McDonald’s has often been criticised as being unhealthy or unethical. But the Golden Arches have done some good deeds too.

Cheap CaloriesStephen Dubner, an economist and one of the authors of hit book Freakonomics, recently called the McDonald’s double cheeseburger “the cheapest, most nutritious food in human history.” A New York Post columnist agreed, asking, “Where else but McDonald’s can poor people obtain so many calories per dollar?”

Bathroom OasesWhere did Occupy Wall Street protestors go to the bathroom when they started demonstrating in 2011? Burger King said they had to make a purchase if they wanted relief. McDonald’s let people wee for free.

TEA IS BELOVED GLOBALLY, BUT PERHAPS NOWHERE MORE SO THAN IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. A PRIME EXAMPLE IS A PHENOMENON KNOWN AS “TELEVISION PICKUP”, WHICH AFFECTS THE UK NATIONAL GRID’S ELECTRICITY TRANSMISSION. THE GRID’S OFFICIAL WEBSITE SUMS IT UP AS “THE HUGE SURGE IN DEMAND FOR ELECTRICITY” AS TV VIEWERS “GET OUT OF THEIR SEATS, SWITCH ON LIGHTS AND… BOIL KETTLES FOR A CUPPA”. A CUP OF TEA, THAT IS. A TYPICAL SURGE CAN CALL FOR AN EXTRA 200 TO 800 MEGAWATTS OF ELECTRICAL USAGE, THOUGH THAT'S A DROP IN THE BUCKET. THE NATIONAL GRID NOTES THAT “THE BIGGEST EVER TV PICKUP — WHICH WE MEASURE AS A KETTLE COUNT — WAS FOLLOWING THE PENALTY SHOOT-OUT AT THE END OF THE 1990 WORLD CUP SEMI-FINAL BETWEEN ENGLAND AND WEST GERMANY”. ACCORDING TO THE GRID, AFTER THE NAIL-BITING YET PAINFULLY UNSUCCESSFUL PENALTY SHOOT-OUT, DEMAND SOARED BY 2,800 MEGAWATTS. THAT'S EQUIVALENT TO 1.12 MILLION KETTLES BREWING A CUPPA, ALL AT ONCE.

TEA IS BELOVED GLOBALLY, BUT PERHAPS NOWHERE MORE SO THAN IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. A PRIME EXAMPLE IS A PHENOMENON KNOWN AS “TELEVISION PICKUP”, WHICH AFFECTS THE UK NATIONAL GRID’S ELECTRICITY TRANSMISSION. THE GRID’S OFFICIAL WEBSITE SUMS IT UP AS “THE HUGE SURGE IN DEMAND FOR ELECTRICITY” AS TV VIEWERS “GET OUT OF THEIR SEATS, SWITCH ON LIGHTS AND… BOIL KETTLES FOR A CUPPA”. A CUP OF TEA, THAT IS. A TYPICAL SURGE CAN CALL FOR AN EXTRA 200 TO 800 MEGAWATTS OF ELECTRICAL USAGE, THOUGH THAT'S A DROP IN THE BUCKET. THE NATIONAL GRID NOTES THAT “THE BIGGEST EVER TV PICKUP — WHICH WE MEASURE AS A KETTLE COUNT — WAS FOLLOWING THE PENALTY SHOOT-OUT AT THE END OF THE 1990 WORLD CUP SEMI-FINAL BETWEEN ENGLAND AND WEST GERMANY”. ACCORDING TO THE GRID, AFTER THE NAIL-BITING YET PAINFULLY UNSUCCESSFUL PENALTY SHOOT-OUT, DEMAND SOARED BY 2,800 MEGAWATTS. THAT'S EQUIVALENT TO 1.12 MILLION KETTLES BREWING A CUPPA, ALL AT ONCE.

Twin passions: The soccer and tea-break nexus


29MAY 2014

FEATURES30 42

70

58

PAGE 30 CONTEMPORARY CHINESE ARTISTS LEAVE ‘CHINESENESS’ BEHIND

PAGE 42 HOW SCIENCE IS HELPING FORGERY IN MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR ART

PAGE 58 WHY WE LOVE LISTS AND HOW THEY FORMAT OUR THOUGHTS

PAGE 70 HOW TO SAVE THE MOST COVETED CONTRABAND—THE RHINO!

PAGE 84 MEET THE FORMER NAVY SEAL WHO TAKES ON EXTREME ESCAPES

84


29MAY 2014

FEATURES30 42

70

58

PAGE 30 CONTEMPORARY CHINESE ARTISTS LEAVE ‘CHINESENESS’ BEHIND

PAGE 42 HOW SCIENCE IS HELPING FORGERY IN MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR ART

PAGE 58 WHY WE LOVE LISTS AND HOW THEY FORMAT OUR THOUGHTS

PAGE 70 HOW TO SAVE THE MOST COVETED CONTRABAND—THE RHINO!

PAGE 84 MEET THE FORMER NAVY SEAL WHO TAKES ON EXTREME ESCAPES

84


31MAY 2014

CHINESE ART THE NEW KID ON THE BLOCK

ART TALK

PART I

DURING ONE OF THE HOTTEST RECORDED SUMMERS IN CHINA, A DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM TAPPED INTO THE NEW REVOLUTION HAPPENING IN CHINESE ART: INTERPRETED IN A FOUR PART SERIES THROUGH THE EYES OF FOUR LOCAL MODERN ARTISTS. LUKE CLARK CAUGHT UP WITH SERIES PRESENTER DR AGNES HSU

ZHANG HUAN AND HIS 2011 SCULPTURE

Q CONFUCIUS NUMBER 2, WHICH IS MADE OF

SILICONE, STEEL, CARBON FIBRE AND ACRYLIC

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31MAY 2014

CHINESE ART THE NEW KID ON THE BLOCK

ART TALK

PART I

DURING ONE OF THE HOTTEST RECORDED SUMMERS IN CHINA, A DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM TAPPED INTO THE NEW REVOLUTION HAPPENING IN CHINESE ART: INTERPRETED IN A FOUR PART SERIES THROUGH THE EYES OF FOUR LOCAL MODERN ARTISTS. LUKE CLARK CAUGHT UP WITH SERIES PRESENTER DR AGNES HSU

ZHANG HUAN AND HIS 2011 SCULPTURE

Q CONFUCIUS NUMBER 2, WHICH IS MADE OF

SILICONE, STEEL, CARBON FIBRE AND ACRYLIC

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33MAY 2014

raversing the globe to Taiwan, China, France, the United States and the United Kingdom, the four-part Discovery Channel production Chineseness profiles four modern artists living in the eye of this storm. Entering the world of contemporary Chinese artists Yang Chihung, Li Chen, Zhang Huan and Xu Bing, the show delves beneath

the surface of this recent phenomenon, and examines the changing notion of identity, as expressed by some of the culture’s new creative leaders.

Born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan, Dr Agnes Hsu (pictured far right) is an archaeologist and art historian based in New York City, in the United States, who has advised UNESCO and the Cultural Property Advisory Committee, and published works on Chinese art and culture. For her, as the host of the show, what began as a front-person role in a documentary series looking into the worlds of four artists, eventually became a labour of love. “By the final episodes, I felt like I gave birth,” she describes over the phone from her adopted

In 2011, sales of artworks by renowned Chinese masters appeared set to propel China ahead of the United States as the world’s biggest art and auction market. Three years on, some of the initial shine has faded, as doubts emerge in the fledgling market about the authenticity of some prominent artworks. A number of frightened buyers have even defaulted on auction payments. Yet, despite fears of a bubble burst, interest and attention has remained strong — leaving no doubt that the world has officially woken up to both, the Chinese art and its talented creators.

CHINESENESS GIVES THE AUDIENCE NOT

JUST AN OVERVIEW OF THE ARTIST'S WORK,

BUT A PEEK INTO THEIR PROCESS OF

CREATING ART

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ART TALK


33MAY 2014

raversing the globe to Taiwan, China, France, the United States and the United Kingdom, the four-part Discovery Channel production Chineseness profiles four modern artists living in the eye of this storm. Entering the world of contemporary Chinese artists Yang Chihung, Li Chen, Zhang Huan and Xu Bing, the show delves beneath

the surface of this recent phenomenon, and examines the changing notion of identity, as expressed by some of the culture’s new creative leaders.

Born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan, Dr Agnes Hsu (pictured far right) is an archaeologist and art historian based in New York City, in the United States, who has advised UNESCO and the Cultural Property Advisory Committee, and published works on Chinese art and culture. For her, as the host of the show, what began as a front-person role in a documentary series looking into the worlds of four artists, eventually became a labour of love. “By the final episodes, I felt like I gave birth,” she describes over the phone from her adopted

In 2011, sales of artworks by renowned Chinese masters appeared set to propel China ahead of the United States as the world’s biggest art and auction market. Three years on, some of the initial shine has faded, as doubts emerge in the fledgling market about the authenticity of some prominent artworks. A number of frightened buyers have even defaulted on auction payments. Yet, despite fears of a bubble burst, interest and attention has remained strong — leaving no doubt that the world has officially woken up to both, the Chinese art and its talented creators.

CHINESENESS GIVES THE AUDIENCE NOT

JUST AN OVERVIEW OF THE ARTIST'S WORK,

BUT A PEEK INTO THEIR PROCESS OF

CREATING ART

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ART TALK


35MAY 2014

home of New York City. “So I’m happy to talk about my child.” In turn, DCM promised to take extra care of Hsu’s creative offspring, as we set off into the maelstrom of struggle, commerce and soaring temperatures that combined to become the new series.

Thanks for joining us, Agnes. Having explored the lives and inner worlds of these four artists, what would you say shone through the most for you from the way each of them spoke about their art, and interpreted their world?

Let me tell you first, the series was filmed in the hottest summer in Asia, and so it was extremely difficult to achieve, with the heat we experienced. But when I finally saw it, it felt like a beautiful child — and I’m sure the Discovery team felt the same way too.

Every single one of these four artists expressed to us what they feel beauty is. And not beauty in a Chinese sense, or beauty from a gender-driven perspective. Despite its artificial ugliness, the artists all see this innate purity to the world. After spending a week with each one of them,

YANG CHIHUNGEndowed with the ambition to become a Western-style painter early in his life, Taiwan-born artist Yang Chihung gained his footing in the competitive New York art scene in the 1980s. However, a sprouted seed brought from home inspired a new style and triggered the Chinese soul inside of him. From Taiwan to New York, from Venice to Shanghai, the trajectory of Yang’s abstract expressionism resonates with that of the rising Chinese contemporary art scene. His is a journey to the West and back.

EPISODE GUIDE

ZHANG HUANIn the past decade, the world has witnessed China’s spectacular economic growth. But subtle changes beneath the surface are also taking place, and contemporary artist Zhang Huan represents the undercurrent. This episode explores how he uses art to convey the country’s journey towards modernisation, and as a tool to liberate the human soul. From his world-famous performance art, to astonishing sculptures and paintings that incorporate incense ash, Zhang’s works transcend borders and are no longer just viewed as art. His unconventional approach incorporates ancient Chinese traditions and beliefs such as Confucianism, with the purpose of reconnecting people to their heritage, to bridge a spiritual and cultural void that he believes has emerged with the country’s dramatic evolution into a 21st-century economic powerhouse.

YANG CHIHUNG'S WORKS ARE AN ENGAGING

MIX OF EASTERN AND WESTERN INFLUENCES

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“THE ARTISTS ARE SURROUNDED BY SO MANY PEOPLE — INCLUDING SYCOPHANTS AND THOSE WHO WILL STIR UP CONTROVERSIES, JUST TO MAKE THE ART SELL HIGHER AND HIGHER AT THE NEXT AUCTION”.

EACH EPISODE OF CHINESENESS LOOKS AT THE STORY OF ONE PROMINENT ARTIST. HERE’S A SUMMARY OF EACH SHOW

ART TALK


35MAY 2014

home of New York City. “So I’m happy to talk about my child.” In turn, DCM promised to take extra care of Hsu’s creative offspring, as we set off into the maelstrom of struggle, commerce and soaring temperatures that combined to become the new series.

Thanks for joining us, Agnes. Having explored the lives and inner worlds of these four artists, what would you say shone through the most for you from the way each of them spoke about their art, and interpreted their world?

Let me tell you first, the series was filmed in the hottest summer in Asia, and so it was extremely difficult to achieve, with the heat we experienced. But when I finally saw it, it felt like a beautiful child — and I’m sure the Discovery team felt the same way too.

Every single one of these four artists expressed to us what they feel beauty is. And not beauty in a Chinese sense, or beauty from a gender-driven perspective. Despite its artificial ugliness, the artists all see this innate purity to the world. After spending a week with each one of them,

YANG CHIHUNGEndowed with the ambition to become a Western-style painter early in his life, Taiwan-born artist Yang Chihung gained his footing in the competitive New York art scene in the 1980s. However, a sprouted seed brought from home inspired a new style and triggered the Chinese soul inside of him. From Taiwan to New York, from Venice to Shanghai, the trajectory of Yang’s abstract expressionism resonates with that of the rising Chinese contemporary art scene. His is a journey to the West and back.

EPISODE GUIDE

ZHANG HUANIn the past decade, the world has witnessed China’s spectacular economic growth. But subtle changes beneath the surface are also taking place, and contemporary artist Zhang Huan represents the undercurrent. This episode explores how he uses art to convey the country’s journey towards modernisation, and as a tool to liberate the human soul. From his world-famous performance art, to astonishing sculptures and paintings that incorporate incense ash, Zhang’s works transcend borders and are no longer just viewed as art. His unconventional approach incorporates ancient Chinese traditions and beliefs such as Confucianism, with the purpose of reconnecting people to their heritage, to bridge a spiritual and cultural void that he believes has emerged with the country’s dramatic evolution into a 21st-century economic powerhouse.

YANG CHIHUNG'S WORKS ARE AN ENGAGING

MIX OF EASTERN AND WESTERN INFLUENCES

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“THE ARTISTS ARE SURROUNDED BY SO MANY PEOPLE — INCLUDING SYCOPHANTS AND THOSE WHO WILL STIR UP CONTROVERSIES, JUST TO MAKE THE ART SELL HIGHER AND HIGHER AT THE NEXT AUCTION”.

EACH EPISODE OF CHINESENESS LOOKS AT THE STORY OF ONE PROMINENT ARTIST. HERE’S A SUMMARY OF EACH SHOW

ART TALK


37MAY 2014

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ZHANG HUAN'S 2008 SCULPTURE, GIANT NO.1, IS MASSIVE, MEASURING 4.2 METRES WIDE, NINE METRES IN LENGTH, AND STRETCHING 4.2 METRES HIGH

then going through the editing process of doing voice-overs and seeing the edited versions many times over, what I think we all realised, was that these artists see this vision of utopia — which gives all of us a sense of hope.

After all that effort, that

must have been very special. It was definitely poignant. We were filming in extreme conditions — when we were in one of the artist’s studios, it was literally 46 degrees Celsius inside; he has an actual furnace in there. Yet while it was very painful at times, it also helped us to really understand their struggles.

Being an artist is not all about the receptions, the gallery openings and the fame they enjoy. Each one of our four artists has a story of struggle. But for each one of them, speaking about their work also gave them courage, to continue on their path.

Of course, they recognise that their utopian world may not actually exist, but still, they just won’t give it up. And it’s that which makes you realise how important these stories are. They’re not just stories about artists, they’re stories about mankind.

There seems to now be far more of a playfulness and sense of daring to Chinese art. Whether it's the influence of performance art, the brightness of the hues and the experimentation with materials and mediums, this new generation of Chinese artists seems to have lost some of the austerity and introspection of the past. Is this an exciting time for contemporary Chinese art?

It’s absolutely exciting, but it is a double-edged sword. It is also a dangerous time, because the industry is commercialised to the ultimate degree, and

now the world is taking notice. The artists are surrounded by so many people — including sycophants and those who will stir up controversies, just to make the art sell higher and higher at the next auction.

As I was filming, I felt like I was in the eye of a storm. There I was, knowing what was happening — and I’m watching it, trying to tell the story of the storm. I felt a bit like a meteorologist in the middle of it all, where everything seems peaceful and glorious and exciting, and there’s this adrenaline pumping. It’s on one hand the most terrifying thing, and on the other hand, ultimately a natural and beautiful thing to watch — like an avalanche or a hurricane. Tragic, yet nature at its finest.

So on one hand, yes, we’re in the middle of a storm of all these styles, all these interpretations — all this evolution, within a revolution. On the other hand, I hope that we don’t lose our way, and that we don’t lose sight of the essence of humanity, and allow commercialism to take over.

Recent times in the art world have obviously been greatly influenced by both commerce and politics. In your opinion, how much are

evolution, the wanting to push forward — I think we’re just like these artists, we’re all hoping for that utopia.

I mean, compared to 20 years ago, we’re pretty much in a utopia. And imagine those people who lived through the Cultural Revolution, or those who were oppressed in Taiwan at the time too. In comparison to that, despite problems that still exist, we are pretty much in a utopia now.

Simply not being hungry can in itself be a utopia. Exactly. One of the questions I asked every artist was what utopia meant to them. But you’d be surprised, not a single one of them answered, “Not being hungry”. [Laughs] And yet, they all had experienced hunger — as an artist, that’s part of what you experience. So yes, we’ve come very far, though there’s still a great distance to go.

The show feels very

timely, as you say. When you look at the changes that this identity — this sense of "Chineseness" — has gone through in the past century, it has been a truly wild ride. Is that something that comes through in the show? And is there a sense also of arrival? What is so interesting about these artists is that they’re all very confident. And I think it is that confidence that distinguishes them from other artists. They’re successful because they are confident.

And it is that confidence that also answers your question about identity. I don’t think they are confused. One of the first questions I asked each artist was, do you see yourself as a Chinese artist? And every single one of them told me, they see themselves as an artist. In my opinion, their identity is not Chinese, per se. Their true identity is as a universal artist — and from

“EACH ONE OF THEM TOLD ME THAT THEY SEE THEMSELVES AS ARTISTS. I THINK THEIR IDENTITY IS NOT CHINESE PER SE. THEIR TRUE IDENTITY IS AS AN UNIVERSAL ARTIST”.

ART TALK


37MAY 2014

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ZHANG HUAN'S 2008 SCULPTURE, GIANT NO.1, IS MASSIVE, MEASURING 4.2 METRES WIDE, NINE METRES IN LENGTH, AND STRETCHING 4.2 METRES HIGH

then going through the editing process of doing voice-overs and seeing the edited versions many times over, what I think we all realised, was that these artists see this vision of utopia — which gives all of us a sense of hope.

After all that effort, that

must have been very special. It was definitely poignant. We were filming in extreme conditions — when we were in one of the artist’s studios, it was literally 46 degrees Celsius inside; he has an actual furnace in there. Yet while it was very painful at times, it also helped us to really understand their struggles.

Being an artist is not all about the receptions, the gallery openings and the fame they enjoy. Each one of our four artists has a story of struggle. But for each one of them, speaking about their work also gave them courage, to continue on their path.

Of course, they recognise that their utopian world may not actually exist, but still, they just won’t give it up. And it’s that which makes you realise how important these stories are. They’re not just stories about artists, they’re stories about mankind.

There seems to now be far more of a playfulness and sense of daring to Chinese art. Whether it's the influence of performance art, the brightness of the hues and the experimentation with materials and mediums, this new generation of Chinese artists seems to have lost some of the austerity and introspection of the past. Is this an exciting time for contemporary Chinese art?

It’s absolutely exciting, but it is a double-edged sword. It is also a dangerous time, because the industry is commercialised to the ultimate degree, and

now the world is taking notice. The artists are surrounded by so many people — including sycophants and those who will stir up controversies, just to make the art sell higher and higher at the next auction.

As I was filming, I felt like I was in the eye of a storm. There I was, knowing what was happening — and I’m watching it, trying to tell the story of the storm. I felt a bit like a meteorologist in the middle of it all, where everything seems peaceful and glorious and exciting, and there’s this adrenaline pumping. It’s on one hand the most terrifying thing, and on the other hand, ultimately a natural and beautiful thing to watch — like an avalanche or a hurricane. Tragic, yet nature at its finest.

So on one hand, yes, we’re in the middle of a storm of all these styles, all these interpretations — all this evolution, within a revolution. On the other hand, I hope that we don’t lose our way, and that we don’t lose sight of the essence of humanity, and allow commercialism to take over.

Recent times in the art world have obviously been greatly influenced by both commerce and politics. In your opinion, how much are

evolution, the wanting to push forward — I think we’re just like these artists, we’re all hoping for that utopia.

I mean, compared to 20 years ago, we’re pretty much in a utopia. And imagine those people who lived through the Cultural Revolution, or those who were oppressed in Taiwan at the time too. In comparison to that, despite problems that still exist, we are pretty much in a utopia now.

Simply not being hungry can in itself be a utopia. Exactly. One of the questions I asked every artist was what utopia meant to them. But you’d be surprised, not a single one of them answered, “Not being hungry”. [Laughs] And yet, they all had experienced hunger — as an artist, that’s part of what you experience. So yes, we’ve come very far, though there’s still a great distance to go.

The show feels very

timely, as you say. When you look at the changes that this identity — this sense of "Chineseness" — has gone through in the past century, it has been a truly wild ride. Is that something that comes through in the show? And is there a sense also of arrival? What is so interesting about these artists is that they’re all very confident. And I think it is that confidence that distinguishes them from other artists. They’re successful because they are confident.

And it is that confidence that also answers your question about identity. I don’t think they are confused. One of the first questions I asked each artist was, do you see yourself as a Chinese artist? And every single one of them told me, they see themselves as an artist. In my opinion, their identity is not Chinese, per se. Their true identity is as a universal artist — and from

“EACH ONE OF THEM TOLD ME THAT THEY SEE THEMSELVES AS ARTISTS. I THINK THEIR IDENTITY IS NOT CHINESE PER SE. THEIR TRUE IDENTITY IS AS AN UNIVERSAL ARTIST”.

ART TALK


39MAY 2014

these forces a theme within the art of these four artists — or a distraction from more important themes? That’s a hard question for me, because I’m a viewer of the art. Do I think politics and commerce play an important role in these artists’ commercial success? Yes. They are defined by the rest of the world as Chinese Artists, and Chinese art will sell right now. However, do I think these themes define their art, from their perspective? No.

In the series, we touch a little bit on their upbringing, in the context of their creative power. Obviously each artist has his own story. You have Yang Chihung, who really is the first bona fide artist of Chinese heritage to venture to and live in Soho, New York [in the United States], to become a contemporary artist. Not a contemporary Chinese artist, but a contemporary artist, painting in a completely Western style. Sure, that is political. Sure, he wanted to have commercial success — but I don’t think all of it was driven by that.

The series also features Zhang Huan and Xu Bing, who both lived through tumultuous times in China. One is from a very poor

EAST MEETS WEST

For most of the month of September last year, 12 massive sculptures produced by Li Chen

(pictured) decorated the famed Place Vendôme public square in Paris, France.

Characteristic of much of his artwork, the sculptures featured traditional Chinese

ink lacquering, paired with delicate touches of gold and silver leaf. Prior to

this exhibition, Li's work had never before been displayed in France — instead, his artworks had been presented several times in parts of Taiwan and China,

twice in Singapore, and once each in Venice, Italy and the

US cities of New York and Seattle.

village, and the other is from Beijing, and whose father was persecuted. Did politics play an impetuous in shaping who they are? Absolutely. But is it expressed in their art, does it define who they are as artists? I don’t think so. That’s my take, having spent time with them.

I’m fascinated by the

number of locations you dealt with for this shoot, covering the lives of two artists born in Taiwan, and two born in China. Given quite recent history, it must be remarkable now to be able to go in and out of each destination so effortlessly. [Laughs] Well, it was interesting for me. My father is Shanghainese, my mother is from Beijing, but I was born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan. Then I moved to the United States and studied in England and the US, and have taught around the world. I do think, as we always say in the idiom, the world is getting smaller and smaller. It was rather astounding for me too, because we filmed it all within a very short period of time, and I was travelling in and out of Taiwan, and in and out of China, in different locations. And I had not been back to Taiwan for 26 years.

My goodness. What was

that like for you? I was astounded. In the Taiwan that I had left as a child, people couldn’t comfortably talk about politics. Then when I go back to Taiwan now, because I speak Mandarin, people are amazed that I was born and raised in Taiwan. Yet when I go to China, they can’t believe I’m from Taiwan — as I’m perfectly comfortable being a Chinese in China.

The commonality that all Chinese share, I think, is that we all take pride in what has happened recently. The

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DID POLITICS PLAY AN IMPETUOUS IN SHAPING WHO THEY ARE? ABSOLUTELY. BUT IS IT EXPRESSED IN THEIR ART, DOES IT DEFINE WHO THEY ARE AS ARTISTS? I DON’T THINK SO.

ART TALK


39MAY 2014

these forces a theme within the art of these four artists — or a distraction from more important themes? That’s a hard question for me, because I’m a viewer of the art. Do I think politics and commerce play an important role in these artists’ commercial success? Yes. They are defined by the rest of the world as Chinese Artists, and Chinese art will sell right now. However, do I think these themes define their art, from their perspective? No.

In the series, we touch a little bit on their upbringing, in the context of their creative power. Obviously each artist has his own story. You have Yang Chihung, who really is the first bona fide artist of Chinese heritage to venture to and live in Soho, New York [in the United States], to become a contemporary artist. Not a contemporary Chinese artist, but a contemporary artist, painting in a completely Western style. Sure, that is political. Sure, he wanted to have commercial success — but I don’t think all of it was driven by that.

The series also features Zhang Huan and Xu Bing, who both lived through tumultuous times in China. One is from a very poor

EAST MEETS WEST

For most of the month of September last year, 12 massive sculptures produced by Li Chen

(pictured) decorated the famed Place Vendôme public square in Paris, France.

Characteristic of much of his artwork, the sculptures featured traditional Chinese

ink lacquering, paired with delicate touches of gold and silver leaf. Prior to

this exhibition, Li's work had never before been displayed in France — instead, his artworks had been presented several times in parts of Taiwan and China,

twice in Singapore, and once each in Venice, Italy and the

US cities of New York and Seattle.

village, and the other is from Beijing, and whose father was persecuted. Did politics play an impetuous in shaping who they are? Absolutely. But is it expressed in their art, does it define who they are as artists? I don’t think so. That’s my take, having spent time with them.

I’m fascinated by the

number of locations you dealt with for this shoot, covering the lives of two artists born in Taiwan, and two born in China. Given quite recent history, it must be remarkable now to be able to go in and out of each destination so effortlessly. [Laughs] Well, it was interesting for me. My father is Shanghainese, my mother is from Beijing, but I was born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan. Then I moved to the United States and studied in England and the US, and have taught around the world. I do think, as we always say in the idiom, the world is getting smaller and smaller. It was rather astounding for me too, because we filmed it all within a very short period of time, and I was travelling in and out of Taiwan, and in and out of China, in different locations. And I had not been back to Taiwan for 26 years.

My goodness. What was

that like for you? I was astounded. In the Taiwan that I had left as a child, people couldn’t comfortably talk about politics. Then when I go back to Taiwan now, because I speak Mandarin, people are amazed that I was born and raised in Taiwan. Yet when I go to China, they can’t believe I’m from Taiwan — as I’m perfectly comfortable being a Chinese in China.

The commonality that all Chinese share, I think, is that we all take pride in what has happened recently. The

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DID POLITICS PLAY AN IMPETUOUS IN SHAPING WHO THEY ARE? ABSOLUTELY. BUT IS IT EXPRESSED IN THEIR ART, DOES IT DEFINE WHO THEY ARE AS ARTISTS? I DON’T THINK SO.

ART TALK


41MAY 2014

LI CHENIn 1992, Li Chen’s statue Water-Moon Avalokitesvara, which features a Buddha sitting on a floating moon, changed the course of Chinese Buddhist sculpture. Taking cues from Eastern religion and philosophy, Li created a rich body of work in a uniquely Chinese vocabulary, which has appealed to a wider audience. Over 20 years after his ground breaking piece, Li Chen exhibits his new works in Paris, the hotbed of Western art. Will his work transcend cultural boundaries while staying true to his Chinese heritage?

XU BINGThe burgeoning success of China’s economy has trickled through the country in the form of tremendous transformation within a span of just a few decades. The rise of gleaming skyscrapers side by side with symbols of ancient China mirrors the face lifts its culture has been undergoing since Mao Zedong’s revolution. Born during the era of China’s early socialist reforms, Chinese artist Xu Bing embodies several of Mao’s ideologies in his body of works. He strives to make art accessible to the people, by playfully and artfully upturning the Chinese script and aesthetics. Explore the evolution of China’s culture through this modern artist, who has deconstructed Chinese culture without losing the essence of its ancient wisdom.

EPISODE GUIDE

that starting point, they get the source of confidence to be who they are. Which, in turn, allows them to be Chinese.

So I think it’s actually the reverse. Each of them starts out as a universal artist, which gives them the talent, the confidence, and the belief in who they are. And this relentless, fearless, sometimes poverty-stricken spirit — is what gives them an increased sense of confidence and identity.

I think this is a show about spirit, about the zeitgeist of our time. Not just as defined

by China, or by Chinese people — but a component of the zeitgeist of the 21st century.

For you personally, how has the notion of Chineseness changed over time? Particularly given your family history and where you live and work? That is probably the hardest question so far! Well, when I first came to the US, my first impression was: how come they don’t look like me? As opposed to, why don’t I look like them? [Laughs] And in some ways, I’m probably a very

selfish person — because I had the complete cultural shock, but I really thought, why don’t they look like me, why don’t they speak my language?

In some ways, that was very Chinese-centric. I’ve since learned several languages, including three dead languages from the past, being an archaeologist. So I literally translate between the dead and the living! [Laughs]

My personal journey, what gave me confidence, was my scholarship. I stopped seeing boundaries. The more that I learned, the more that I P

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THE ART OF WORDS

Xu Bing (pictured) is famous for doing spectacular things

with calligraphy. Of particular interest to English-speakers might

be his Square Word Calligraphy series, which centres around English words

written to resemble Chinese characters. He has also published a volume titled Book from the Ground in 2012. In it, he recounts a day in the life of a young man living in a

big city. Think this sounds a bit boring? You may change your mind when you

realise he “wrote” the whole story without actually putting down a

word. The entire tale is told in icons or pictograms.

realised, well I’m not even a dot in this world, or in history. Then as a teacher, I now bear the additional responsibility to transmit what I know — so that it will not die out. And so that my students, and my own children when I have them, will have the ability to make judgements for themselves. My job is to pass that on, but not to judge it for them.

I approached the series with that same confidence. I’m not an artist, but I’m a musician. And I think what gave me the confidence was almost a lack of identity. I

don’t subscribe to one group or another — when I filmed this, all I wanted to do was film this from their perspective, and for the viewer to come away with his or her own take. My interviewees, when you ask them what they are, they will say, I’m just an artist. So my own answer is, I’m just an archaeologist.

So in a sense, you're a conduit for something bigger? I am! We all are. We are all just these dots — and all together, the dots make up the universe. That’s how I feel.

I DON’T SUBSCRIBE TO ANY GROUP — WHEN I FILMED THIS, I WANTED TO FILM IT FROM THEIR PERSPECTIVE, AND LEAVE IT FOR THE VIEWER TO HAVE HIS OR HER OWN TAKE.

ART TALK


41MAY 2014

LI CHENIn 1992, Li Chen’s statue Water-Moon Avalokitesvara, which features a Buddha sitting on a floating moon, changed the course of Chinese Buddhist sculpture. Taking cues from Eastern religion and philosophy, Li created a rich body of work in a uniquely Chinese vocabulary, which has appealed to a wider audience. Over 20 years after his ground breaking piece, Li Chen exhibits his new works in Paris, the hotbed of Western art. Will his work transcend cultural boundaries while staying true to his Chinese heritage?

XU BINGThe burgeoning success of China’s economy has trickled through the country in the form of tremendous transformation within a span of just a few decades. The rise of gleaming skyscrapers side by side with symbols of ancient China mirrors the face lifts its culture has been undergoing since Mao Zedong’s revolution. Born during the era of China’s early socialist reforms, Chinese artist Xu Bing embodies several of Mao’s ideologies in his body of works. He strives to make art accessible to the people, by playfully and artfully upturning the Chinese script and aesthetics. Explore the evolution of China’s culture through this modern artist, who has deconstructed Chinese culture without losing the essence of its ancient wisdom.

EPISODE GUIDE

that starting point, they get the source of confidence to be who they are. Which, in turn, allows them to be Chinese.

So I think it’s actually the reverse. Each of them starts out as a universal artist, which gives them the talent, the confidence, and the belief in who they are. And this relentless, fearless, sometimes poverty-stricken spirit — is what gives them an increased sense of confidence and identity.

I think this is a show about spirit, about the zeitgeist of our time. Not just as defined

by China, or by Chinese people — but a component of the zeitgeist of the 21st century.

For you personally, how has the notion of Chineseness changed over time? Particularly given your family history and where you live and work? That is probably the hardest question so far! Well, when I first came to the US, my first impression was: how come they don’t look like me? As opposed to, why don’t I look like them? [Laughs] And in some ways, I’m probably a very

selfish person — because I had the complete cultural shock, but I really thought, why don’t they look like me, why don’t they speak my language?

In some ways, that was very Chinese-centric. I’ve since learned several languages, including three dead languages from the past, being an archaeologist. So I literally translate between the dead and the living! [Laughs]

My personal journey, what gave me confidence, was my scholarship. I stopped seeing boundaries. The more that I learned, the more that I P

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THE ART OF WORDS

Xu Bing (pictured) is famous for doing spectacular things

with calligraphy. Of particular interest to English-speakers might

be his Square Word Calligraphy series, which centres around English words

written to resemble Chinese characters. He has also published a volume titled Book from the Ground in 2012. In it, he recounts a day in the life of a young man living in a

big city. Think this sounds a bit boring? You may change your mind when you

realise he “wrote” the whole story without actually putting down a

word. The entire tale is told in icons or pictograms.

realised, well I’m not even a dot in this world, or in history. Then as a teacher, I now bear the additional responsibility to transmit what I know — so that it will not die out. And so that my students, and my own children when I have them, will have the ability to make judgements for themselves. My job is to pass that on, but not to judge it for them.

I approached the series with that same confidence. I’m not an artist, but I’m a musician. And I think what gave me the confidence was almost a lack of identity. I

don’t subscribe to one group or another — when I filmed this, all I wanted to do was film this from their perspective, and for the viewer to come away with his or her own take. My interviewees, when you ask them what they are, they will say, I’m just an artist. So my own answer is, I’m just an archaeologist.

So in a sense, you're a conduit for something bigger? I am! We all are. We are all just these dots — and all together, the dots make up the universe. That’s how I feel.

I DON’T SUBSCRIBE TO ANY GROUP — WHEN I FILMED THIS, I WANTED TO FILM IT FROM THEIR PERSPECTIVE, AND LEAVE IT FOR THE VIEWER TO HAVE HIS OR HER OWN TAKE.

ART TALK

COVER STORY

CRIMES AGAINST CREATIVITYRECORD-HIGH PRICES AND SOPHISTICATED TOOLS TO REPLICATE THE FINEST WORKS, PUSHES THE ART WORLD INTO A FIERCE WAVE OF FAKES AND ROBBERIES. THIEVES, FORGERS AND DETECTIVES ALIKE ARE USING SCIENTIFIC TECHNIQUES AS PART OF THEIR ARSENAL, AS THEY BATTLE FOR SUPREMACY IN THIS MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR CRIME MARKET. CAIN NUNNS WRITES


43MAY 2014

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ART TALK

PART II

COVER STORY

CRIMES AGAINST CREATIVITYRECORD-HIGH PRICES AND SOPHISTICATED TOOLS TO REPLICATE THE FINEST WORKS, PUSHES THE ART WORLD INTO A FIERCE WAVE OF FAKES AND ROBBERIES. THIEVES, FORGERS AND DETECTIVES ALIKE ARE USING SCIENTIFIC TECHNIQUES AS PART OF THEIR ARSENAL, AS THEY BATTLE FOR SUPREMACY IN THIS MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR CRIME MARKET. CAIN NUNNS WRITES


43MAY 2014

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ART TALK

PART II


45MAY 2014

ALBERTO GIACOBETTI'S TROIS HOMES QUI MARCHENT I, WHICH IS ESTIMATED TO BE WORTH £6.2 MILLION TO £8 MILLION (US$10 MILLION TO US$13.3 MILLION), WENT ON SALE IN FEBRUARY 2014 AT CHRISTIE'S AUCTION HOUSE

oday, Driessen, 58, sits stranded in paradise. His estimated US$4.12 million share of the US$10.99 million haul that his gang supposedly raked in for forgeries as the lost work of Pablo Picasso’s mate has long since gone. So too has his family. All that is left is a small café on the sun-kissed Thai island of Koh Samui — a palm- and five-star resort-laced playground off the kingdom’s east coast that helped The Land of Smiles welcome close to 27 million tourists through the turnstiles last year.

“I received a notice to appear. If I go back to Holland, they might return me to

Germany,” he tells Discovery Channel Magazine. “I like the sun a lot more than the cold though — I know that much.” Driessen’s former colleagues have already been locked up. “My wife and son left me here, because I couldn’t afford to look after them. I’ve been here by myself.”

Driessen has made the island his home for the last eight years, because he had to. German authorities still want to arrest the portly Dutchman with the lock of silver hair. “People paid me not to attend trial,” he claims. “They made millions, that's why they didn't want me there. They asked me to make this and that. Then we were supposed to split the money. They sent me to Thailand and paid all of my bills,” he notes. “But of course, they ended up getting convicted.”

The Germans believe Driessen forged about 1,000 sculptures. The Arnhem native and high school dropout puts that figure at closer to 1,300. Driessen says that he spent over three

decades forging paintings and sculptures. But none were as economically and artistically rewarding as the long, languid figures that posthumously made Giacometti the world’s most expensive sculptor. “I loved making Giacomettis,”.

While Giacometti, whose famous face adorns the Swiss 100-franc banknote, and whose L'Homme Qui Marche I sold at Sotheby's in 2011 for US$104.3 million, was a feverish worker, he was also notorious for not keeping track of how many pieces he had actually created.

It was this opacity that made it easier for Driessen to fool the art world for years, by not just reproducing the work, but creating new pieces in his style and stamping them with the same foundries that the Swiss master had used before his death in 1966.

By his own account, Driessen, whose website (www.driessenart.com) now touts “original art reproductions” signed by himself, started out by mimicking expressionists such

as Wassily Kandinsky, Emil Nolde and August Macke. By the late 1980s, he was casting sculptures of the greats. The market for sculptures is murkier than for paintings, partially due to the fact that castings often remain after an artist’s death, and given that the foundries charged with handling castings often made copies of their own.

Driessen says the fakery then spreads along the value chain. “Galleries knowingly sell fakes,” he asserts. “That is a 100 percent yes. It’s all driven by money, and money only. The art world is rotten. I would say at least 300 to 400 forgeries of mine were sold to them — and I’m sure there are a few in museums.” In fact, he believes there are still hundreds of his own works in circulation. “I made 1,300 Giacomettis, but only 800 were destroyed,” he says. “So there are still 500 unaccounted for.”

A BLIND EYEClaims have surfaced recently alleging that art dealers and

NAUGHTY PRESIDENT

Amedeo Modigliani is one of the most faked artists around,

thanks to the popularity and prici-ness of his work. So who better to

forge his artwork and knowingly verify fake Modigliani pieces, than the presi-

dent of the Modigliani Institute? In 2013, Christian Parisot was arrested for provid-ing false certificates of authenticity, to the

tune of US$8.6 million worth of coun-terfeit works. Modiglianis are relatively

difficult to authenticate, due to the artist’s chaotic life, lack of an organised catalogue and his

penchant for paying bills with paintings.

In the 80s, Robert Driessen used to live the high life. He rented and lived in a decadent 11-room villa in eastern Netherlands, and drove a BMW 7 series car. It was a good life for an artist funded by his decades-long run as one of the world’s most successful art forgers, producing paintings and sculptures — particularly of late Swiss heavyweight Alberto Giacometti — that fooled museums, collectors, galleries and every major auction house in the world.

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ART TALK


45MAY 2014

ALBERTO GIACOBETTI'S TROIS HOMES QUI MARCHENT I, WHICH IS ESTIMATED TO BE WORTH £6.2 MILLION TO £8 MILLION (US$10 MILLION TO US$13.3 MILLION), WENT ON SALE IN FEBRUARY 2014 AT CHRISTIE'S AUCTION HOUSE

oday, Driessen, 58, sits stranded in paradise. His estimated US$4.12 million share of the US$10.99 million haul that his gang supposedly raked in for forgeries as the lost work of Pablo Picasso’s mate has long since gone. So too has his family. All that is left is a small café on the sun-kissed Thai island of Koh Samui — a palm- and five-star resort-laced playground off the kingdom’s east coast that helped The Land of Smiles welcome close to 27 million tourists through the turnstiles last year.

“I received a notice to appear. If I go back to Holland, they might return me to

Germany,” he tells Discovery Channel Magazine. “I like the sun a lot more than the cold though — I know that much.” Driessen’s former colleagues have already been locked up. “My wife and son left me here, because I couldn’t afford to look after them. I’ve been here by myself.”

Driessen has made the island his home for the last eight years, because he had to. German authorities still want to arrest the portly Dutchman with the lock of silver hair. “People paid me not to attend trial,” he claims. “They made millions, that's why they didn't want me there. They asked me to make this and that. Then we were supposed to split the money. They sent me to Thailand and paid all of my bills,” he notes. “But of course, they ended up getting convicted.”

The Germans believe Driessen forged about 1,000 sculptures. The Arnhem native and high school dropout puts that figure at closer to 1,300. Driessen says that he spent over three

decades forging paintings and sculptures. But none were as economically and artistically rewarding as the long, languid figures that posthumously made Giacometti the world’s most expensive sculptor. “I loved making Giacomettis,”.

While Giacometti, whose famous face adorns the Swiss 100-franc banknote, and whose L'Homme Qui Marche I sold at Sotheby's in 2011 for US$104.3 million, was a feverish worker, he was also notorious for not keeping track of how many pieces he had actually created.

It was this opacity that made it easier for Driessen to fool the art world for years, by not just reproducing the work, but creating new pieces in his style and stamping them with the same foundries that the Swiss master had used before his death in 1966.

By his own account, Driessen, whose website (www.driessenart.com) now touts “original art reproductions” signed by himself, started out by mimicking expressionists such

as Wassily Kandinsky, Emil Nolde and August Macke. By the late 1980s, he was casting sculptures of the greats. The market for sculptures is murkier than for paintings, partially due to the fact that castings often remain after an artist’s death, and given that the foundries charged with handling castings often made copies of their own.

Driessen says the fakery then spreads along the value chain. “Galleries knowingly sell fakes,” he asserts. “That is a 100 percent yes. It’s all driven by money, and money only. The art world is rotten. I would say at least 300 to 400 forgeries of mine were sold to them — and I’m sure there are a few in museums.” In fact, he believes there are still hundreds of his own works in circulation. “I made 1,300 Giacomettis, but only 800 were destroyed,” he says. “So there are still 500 unaccounted for.”

A BLIND EYEClaims have surfaced recently alleging that art dealers and

NAUGHTY PRESIDENT

Amedeo Modigliani is one of the most faked artists around,

thanks to the popularity and prici-ness of his work. So who better to

forge his artwork and knowingly verify fake Modigliani pieces, than the presi-

dent of the Modigliani Institute? In 2013, Christian Parisot was arrested for provid-ing false certificates of authenticity, to the

tune of US$8.6 million worth of coun-terfeit works. Modiglianis are relatively

difficult to authenticate, due to the artist’s chaotic life, lack of an organised catalogue and his

penchant for paying bills with paintings.

In the 80s, Robert Driessen used to live the high life. He rented and lived in a decadent 11-room villa in eastern Netherlands, and drove a BMW 7 series car. It was a good life for an artist funded by his decades-long run as one of the world’s most successful art forgers, producing paintings and sculptures — particularly of late Swiss heavyweight Alberto Giacometti — that fooled museums, collectors, galleries and every major auction house in the world.

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auction houses have been overly eager by accepting forgeries as genuine, and in turn selling them quickly to turn a profit. Reportedly, if a dealer finds that the work is a forgery, he may quietly withdraw the piece and return it to its previous owner — giving the forger an opportunity to sell it elsewhere.

However, forgeries are not the only art crimes on the block. Today’s art market is more lucrative than at any time in history. Forgeries, along with fraud, theft and the looting of archaeological artifacts, keep the cash registers ringing for various organised crime groups.

One investigator tells DCM

that the value of the illegal art trade has in recent times reached immense proportions. “The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) estimates art crimes run in the region of US$6 billion per year,” says Robert Wittman, a former FBI agent who was instrumental in the creation of FBI’s rapid deployment Art Crime Team in 2004. “About 40 percent of the art market now goes through China, another 40 percent through the US. Some estimates say that up to 70 percent of the Chinese art market is made up of fakes. It’s all hot money, and criminals follow the market.”

As Wittman sees it, the art market often serves as a training ground for other types of illegality. “Art crime is a gateway crime. You shouldn't look at these as just committing another theft. I guarantee that these guys are doing [crimes involving] drugs, stolen cars and guns.” He says authorities are constantly playing catch up with criminals, due to the low priority that most law enforcement agencies place on art crimes. Even the FBI only established its Art Crime Team, responsible for addressing art and cultural property crime, a decade ago.

According to the FBI website, the Art Crime Team has to date recovered more than 2,650 items, valued at over US$150 million. The haul has so far included famed

works such as Francisco de Goya’s 1778 painting, Children With a Cart. “In Chinese villages, they make the same stuff as they did 500 years ago. The only real difference is in the zeros. It’s very difficult to detect,” says Wittman, the author of the book Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World’s Stolen Treasures.

UNDERCOVER MOBSTERDuring his 20-year career, Wittman reportedly helped recover more than US$300 million worth of stolen art and cultural property — including a stint posing as an art professor working for the Russian mob, in a sting operation in Madrid, to recover Francisco de Goya’s work, The Swing.

With the art market currently in the midst of its biggest financial bubble in history, art insiders say that such triumphs may represent just the tip of a global criminal iceberg. Since World War II, most art thefts and operations around the looting of antiquities have involved organised crime groups, ranging from large international syndicates such as Cosa Nostra and the Unione Corse, to small, local organised gangs.

Michelangelo Merisi o Amerighi da Caravaggio was a Roman baroque master who drank, brawled and later murdered his way into exile

“GALLERIES KNOWINGLY SELL FAKES, THAT IS A 100 PERCENT YES. IT’S ALL DRIVEN BY MONEY, AND MONEY ONLY. THE ART WORLD IS ROTTEN AND I WOULD SAY AT LEAST 300 TO 400 FORGERIES OF MINE WERE SOLD TO THEM”.

RECLAIMING PAINTINGS

A few years ago, a collection of over 1,400 Nazi-confiscated

artworks was found in Munich, Ger-many — which is good, right? However, towards the end of last year, there was an outcry over how the case was being

handled. First, experts questioned why it took so long for the discovery of the collec-tion to be announced. The paintings were supposedly found early in 2012, but the find only went public in 2013. Second, German prosecutors decided not to

publish a full inventory, which one US lawyer said was a “huge disser-

vice” to families seeking to reclaim their paintings.

CONFISCATED PAINTINGS STORED

IN THE BASEMENT OF GERMANY'S FEDERAL

CRIMINAL POLICE OFFICE IN WIESBADEN

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IT’S HARDLY JUST FAKE ART THAT GETS PASSED OFF AS REAL. DIARIES, MONEY AND PLAYS HAVE ALL FOOLED MANY AN EXPERT

TUT TUTWOULD YOU PAY US$670,000 FOR A STATUE OF A WOMAN THAT DOESN’T EVEN HAVE ARMS OR A HEAD? IN 2003, THE BOLTON MUSEUM IN THE UNITED KINGDOM DID JUST THAT. CHRISTIE’S AUCTION HOUSE VERIFIED IT AS A GENUINE, 3,300-YEAR-OLD PIECE OF ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ART. THE STATUE, DUBBED THE “AMARNA PRINCESS”, DEPICTED THE GRANDDAUGHTER OF KING TUTANKHAMEN. THE ONLY PROBLEM — YOU CAN SEE WHERE THIS IS GOING — IS THAT IT WAS THE WORK OF A FORGER?

ALL THE WORLD’S A FAKEHAVE YOU HEARD OF VORTIGERN AND ROWENA, THE SHAKESPEARE PLAY? IN 1796, A MAN NAMED WILLIAM HENRY IRELAND CLAIMED TO HAVE FOUND THE BARD’S LOST PLAY, WHICH WAS VERIFIED BY COLLEGE OF HERALDS SECRETARY FRANCIS WEBB. HE ALLEGEDLY SAID IT WAS EITHER FROM SHAKESPEARE’S PEN, “OR FROM HEAVEN”. THE PLAY HAD BEEN WRITTEN BY IRELAND HIMSELF.

“OW, MY HAND!”DURING THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, HOW DID THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT — WHICH HAD SPLIT FROM THE UNION — STOP ITS NEW AND FRAGILE CURRENCY FROM BEING FORGED? GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS HAND-SIGNED EVERY SINGLE BILL. (NATURALLY, CROOKS QUICKLY LEARNED TO FAKE SIGNATURES, TOO).

COUNTERFEIT WAYS

ART TALK


47MAY 2014

auction houses have been overly eager by accepting forgeries as genuine, and in turn selling them quickly to turn a profit. Reportedly, if a dealer finds that the work is a forgery, he may quietly withdraw the piece and return it to its previous owner — giving the forger an opportunity to sell it elsewhere.

However, forgeries are not the only art crimes on the block. Today’s art market is more lucrative than at any time in history. Forgeries, along with fraud, theft and the looting of archaeological artifacts, keep the cash registers ringing for various organised crime groups.

One investigator tells DCM

that the value of the illegal art trade has in recent times reached immense proportions. “The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) estimates art crimes run in the region of US$6 billion per year,” says Robert Wittman, a former FBI agent who was instrumental in the creation of FBI’s rapid deployment Art Crime Team in 2004. “About 40 percent of the art market now goes through China, another 40 percent through the US. Some estimates say that up to 70 percent of the Chinese art market is made up of fakes. It’s all hot money, and criminals follow the market.”

As Wittman sees it, the art market often serves as a training ground for other types of illegality. “Art crime is a gateway crime. You shouldn't look at these as just committing another theft. I guarantee that these guys are doing [crimes involving] drugs, stolen cars and guns.” He says authorities are constantly playing catch up with criminals, due to the low priority that most law enforcement agencies place on art crimes. Even the FBI only established its Art Crime Team, responsible for addressing art and cultural property crime, a decade ago.

According to the FBI website, the Art Crime Team has to date recovered more than 2,650 items, valued at over US$150 million. The haul has so far included famed

works such as Francisco de Goya’s 1778 painting, Children With a Cart. “In Chinese villages, they make the same stuff as they did 500 years ago. The only real difference is in the zeros. It’s very difficult to detect,” says Wittman, the author of the book Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World’s Stolen Treasures.

UNDERCOVER MOBSTERDuring his 20-year career, Wittman reportedly helped recover more than US$300 million worth of stolen art and cultural property — including a stint posing as an art professor working for the Russian mob, in a sting operation in Madrid, to recover Francisco de Goya’s work, The Swing.

With the art market currently in the midst of its biggest financial bubble in history, art insiders say that such triumphs may represent just the tip of a global criminal iceberg. Since World War II, most art thefts and operations around the looting of antiquities have involved organised crime groups, ranging from large international syndicates such as Cosa Nostra and the Unione Corse, to small, local organised gangs.

Michelangelo Merisi o Amerighi da Caravaggio was a Roman baroque master who drank, brawled and later murdered his way into exile

“GALLERIES KNOWINGLY SELL FAKES, THAT IS A 100 PERCENT YES. IT’S ALL DRIVEN BY MONEY, AND MONEY ONLY. THE ART WORLD IS ROTTEN AND I WOULD SAY AT LEAST 300 TO 400 FORGERIES OF MINE WERE SOLD TO THEM”.

RECLAIMING PAINTINGS

A few years ago, a collection of over 1,400 Nazi-confiscated

artworks was found in Munich, Ger-many — which is good, right? However, towards the end of last year, there was an outcry over how the case was being

handled. First, experts questioned why it took so long for the discovery of the collec-tion to be announced. The paintings were supposedly found early in 2012, but the find only went public in 2013. Second, German prosecutors decided not to

publish a full inventory, which one US lawyer said was a “huge disser-

vice” to families seeking to reclaim their paintings.

CONFISCATED PAINTINGS STORED

IN THE BASEMENT OF GERMANY'S FEDERAL

CRIMINAL POLICE OFFICE IN WIESBADEN

MA

IN P

HO

TO: C

OR

BIS

IT’S HARDLY JUST FAKE ART THAT GETS PASSED OFF AS REAL. DIARIES, MONEY AND PLAYS HAVE ALL FOOLED MANY AN EXPERT

TUT TUTWOULD YOU PAY US$670,000 FOR A STATUE OF A WOMAN THAT DOESN’T EVEN HAVE ARMS OR A HEAD? IN 2003, THE BOLTON MUSEUM IN THE UNITED KINGDOM DID JUST THAT. CHRISTIE’S AUCTION HOUSE VERIFIED IT AS A GENUINE, 3,300-YEAR-OLD PIECE OF ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ART. THE STATUE, DUBBED THE “AMARNA PRINCESS”, DEPICTED THE GRANDDAUGHTER OF KING TUTANKHAMEN. THE ONLY PROBLEM — YOU CAN SEE WHERE THIS IS GOING — IS THAT IT WAS THE WORK OF A FORGER?

ALL THE WORLD’S A FAKEHAVE YOU HEARD OF VORTIGERN AND ROWENA, THE SHAKESPEARE PLAY? IN 1796, A MAN NAMED WILLIAM HENRY IRELAND CLAIMED TO HAVE FOUND THE BARD’S LOST PLAY, WHICH WAS VERIFIED BY COLLEGE OF HERALDS SECRETARY FRANCIS WEBB. HE ALLEGEDLY SAID IT WAS EITHER FROM SHAKESPEARE’S PEN, “OR FROM HEAVEN”. THE PLAY HAD BEEN WRITTEN BY IRELAND HIMSELF.

“OW, MY HAND!”DURING THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, HOW DID THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT — WHICH HAD SPLIT FROM THE UNION — STOP ITS NEW AND FRAGILE CURRENCY FROM BEING FORGED? GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS HAND-SIGNED EVERY SINGLE BILL. (NATURALLY, CROOKS QUICKLY LEARNED TO FAKE SIGNATURES, TOO).

COUNTERFEIT WAYS

ART TALK


49MAY 2014

ADOLF’S BIG LIEIN PUBLISHING TERMS, IT WAS A TRUE BOMBSHELL: ADOLF HITLER’S DIARIES HAD BEEN FOUND. IT WAS 1983, AND THE DOCUMENTS HAD PURPORTEDLY BEEN HIDDEN FOR YEARS AFTER BEING RECOVERED FROM A PLANE CRASH IN 1945. THE DIARIES PASSED MUSTER EVEN UNDER SCRUTINY FROM THREE HANDWRITING EXPERTS, BUT WERE SOON REVEALED TO BE FAKES WRITTEN WITH 1980S-ERA INK.

TO BE OR NOT TO BENITO“THIRTY VOLUMES OF MANUSCRIPTS CANNOT BE THE WORK OF A FORGER. YOU CAN FALSIFY A FEW LINES OR EVEN PAGES, BUT NOT A SERIES OF DIARIES.” SO SAID AN EXPERT WHO AUTHENTICATED THE DIARIES OF BENITO MUSSOLINI IN 1957. THEY LATER TURNED OUT TO BE FAKE.

THE $IMPSONS PERHAPS THE FORGERS GOT THEIR IDEA FROM THE SIMPSONS EPISODE THE TROUBLE WITH TRILLIONS, WHEREIN MISTER BURNS STEALS A TRILLION-DOLLAR BILL FROM THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT. BURNS IS EVENTUALLY ARRESTED FOR “GRAND, GRAND, GRAND, GRAND LARCENY”.

GOT 998 PROBLEMS…AND FORGERY IS ONE. LAST YEAR, INDONESIAN POLICE SEIZED A STASH OF FOREIGN CURRENCY VALUED AT NEARLY US$1 BILLION. THE ONLY PROBLEM? THE FORGERS’ STASH CONSISTED PRIMARILY OF AMERICAN MILLION-DOLLAR BILLS — 998 OF THEM, TO BE PRECISE.

in Naples. He also painted Nativity with St Francis and St Lawrence, the completion of which was estimated at 1609 and valued at roughly US$20 million. The painting was stolen from the Oratory of San Lorenzo in Palermo, Sicily in 1969. Still unrecovered, the Mafia has been blamed for its theft, with several former mafiosi-turned-informants testifying at separate times that the mob had stolen and damaged the masterpiece, though the accounts vary.

Lynda Albertson, the chief executive officer of the Association for Research into Crimes against Art (ARCA), says that the layperson’s typical, sometimes even sympathetic, view of fictional art thieves may be well off the mark.

“A network of thieves working for unscrupulous billionaires who are contem-

plating a made-to-order theft of a Picasso for that pride of place spot above the divan in the library? I would have to say, leave that for the Hollywood movies. Thieves come in all shapes and sizes,” Lynda says.

She cites one example of the web of organised crime that art theft can be entangled within. “In 1990, Gabriel Metsu’s Woman Reading a Letter valued at £8 million (over US$13 million), which had been stolen in Dublin, Ireland, later turned up in Istanbul in Turkey as barter for a shipment of heroin,” she says. “It was stolen by Martin Cahill, a serious Irish gangster with ties to the IRA (Irish Republican Army), who was later murdered in a drive-by shooting. In this case you see strong evidence of organised crime elements.”

Yet like conventional occupations, these criminals come in all stripes, she stresses. “If you lined most thieves side by side you wouldn’t see strong similarities — other than perhaps the dollar-bill signs each of them thought the fenced item would bring.”

MURKY WATERSSome experts say that putting a dollar amount on the value of the forged art market is very difficult, because in a bullish market in particular, the prices of authentic artworks vary and fluctuate wildly.

LOOKING UNDERNEATH

What is going on here? Was the artist going through a Batman phase, in-spired by the villainous Two-Face? Or did he just get lazy and nod off halfway through? Neither. This was the work of Francisco de Goya, one of Spain’s most renowned painters. Or should we say, it was the purported work of Goya. The portrait of Maria Isabella de Bourbon, a daughter of the ruling Spanish monarch, was bequeathed to the Fogg Art Museum in 1943. It looked real enough, with the paint bearing the crackle marks of age, but some ex-perts felt something was off with this 18th-century work. In 1954, X-ray im-ages were taken of the painting which revealed an earlier portrait of a dif-ferent woman beneath. Further tests also showed that the surface paint was a modern version that did not exist in Goya’s time, and had been applied, so as to not obscure the “craquelure” (fine cracking of paint over time). After rigorous analysis, the conservators left the work in its (literally) two-faced state, as testament to the sophisti-cated obscurities of forgery.

SINCE WORLD WAR II, MOST ART THEFTS AND OPERATIONS AROUND THE LOOTING OF ANTIQUITIES HAVE INVOLVED ORGANISED CRIME GROUPS.

COUNTERFEIT WAYS

ART TALK

FEMME AU COSTUME TURC DANS UN FANTEUIL, PAINTED BY PABLO PICASSO IN 1955. WHEN IT WENT ON AUCTION AT CHRISTIE'S IN FEBRUARY THIS YEAR, IT WAS THE FIRST TIME IN OVER 50 YEARS THAT IT WAS PUT UP FOR SALE. THE PIECE SOLD FOR £16.9 MILLION, WHICH TRANSLATES TO OVER US$28 MILLION

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49MAY 2014

ADOLF’S BIG LIEIN PUBLISHING TERMS, IT WAS A TRUE BOMBSHELL: ADOLF HITLER’S DIARIES HAD BEEN FOUND. IT WAS 1983, AND THE DOCUMENTS HAD PURPORTEDLY BEEN HIDDEN FOR YEARS AFTER BEING RECOVERED FROM A PLANE CRASH IN 1945. THE DIARIES PASSED MUSTER EVEN UNDER SCRUTINY FROM THREE HANDWRITING EXPERTS, BUT WERE SOON REVEALED TO BE FAKES WRITTEN WITH 1980S-ERA INK.

TO BE OR NOT TO BENITO“THIRTY VOLUMES OF MANUSCRIPTS CANNOT BE THE WORK OF A FORGER. YOU CAN FALSIFY A FEW LINES OR EVEN PAGES, BUT NOT A SERIES OF DIARIES.” SO SAID AN EXPERT WHO AUTHENTICATED THE DIARIES OF BENITO MUSSOLINI IN 1957. THEY LATER TURNED OUT TO BE FAKE.

THE $IMPSONS PERHAPS THE FORGERS GOT THEIR IDEA FROM THE SIMPSONS EPISODE THE TROUBLE WITH TRILLIONS, WHEREIN MISTER BURNS STEALS A TRILLION-DOLLAR BILL FROM THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT. BURNS IS EVENTUALLY ARRESTED FOR “GRAND, GRAND, GRAND, GRAND LARCENY”.

GOT 998 PROBLEMS…AND FORGERY IS ONE. LAST YEAR, INDONESIAN POLICE SEIZED A STASH OF FOREIGN CURRENCY VALUED AT NEARLY US$1 BILLION. THE ONLY PROBLEM? THE FORGERS’ STASH CONSISTED PRIMARILY OF AMERICAN MILLION-DOLLAR BILLS — 998 OF THEM, TO BE PRECISE.

in Naples. He also painted Nativity with St Francis and St Lawrence, the completion of which was estimated at 1609 and valued at roughly US$20 million. The painting was stolen from the Oratory of San Lorenzo in Palermo, Sicily in 1969. Still unrecovered, the Mafia has been blamed for its theft, with several former mafiosi-turned-informants testifying at separate times that the mob had stolen and damaged the masterpiece, though the accounts vary.

Lynda Albertson, the chief executive officer of the Association for Research into Crimes against Art (ARCA), says that the layperson’s typical, sometimes even sympathetic, view of fictional art thieves may be well off the mark.

“A network of thieves working for unscrupulous billionaires who are contem-

plating a made-to-order theft of a Picasso for that pride of place spot above the divan in the library? I would have to say, leave that for the Hollywood movies. Thieves come in all shapes and sizes,” Lynda says.

She cites one example of the web of organised crime that art theft can be entangled within. “In 1990, Gabriel Metsu’s Woman Reading a Letter valued at £8 million (over US$13 million), which had been stolen in Dublin, Ireland, later turned up in Istanbul in Turkey as barter for a shipment of heroin,” she says. “It was stolen by Martin Cahill, a serious Irish gangster with ties to the IRA (Irish Republican Army), who was later murdered in a drive-by shooting. In this case you see strong evidence of organised crime elements.”

Yet like conventional occupations, these criminals come in all stripes, she stresses. “If you lined most thieves side by side you wouldn’t see strong similarities — other than perhaps the dollar-bill signs each of them thought the fenced item would bring.”

MURKY WATERSSome experts say that putting a dollar amount on the value of the forged art market is very difficult, because in a bullish market in particular, the prices of authentic artworks vary and fluctuate wildly.

LOOKING UNDERNEATH

What is going on here? Was the artist going through a Batman phase, in-spired by the villainous Two-Face? Or did he just get lazy and nod off halfway through? Neither. This was the work of Francisco de Goya, one of Spain’s most renowned painters. Or should we say, it was the purported work of Goya. The portrait of Maria Isabella de Bourbon, a daughter of the ruling Spanish monarch, was bequeathed to the Fogg Art Museum in 1943. It looked real enough, with the paint bearing the crackle marks of age, but some ex-perts felt something was off with this 18th-century work. In 1954, X-ray im-ages were taken of the painting which revealed an earlier portrait of a dif-ferent woman beneath. Further tests also showed that the surface paint was a modern version that did not exist in Goya’s time, and had been applied, so as to not obscure the “craquelure” (fine cracking of paint over time). After rigorous analysis, the conservators left the work in its (literally) two-faced state, as testament to the sophisti-cated obscurities of forgery.

SINCE WORLD WAR II, MOST ART THEFTS AND OPERATIONS AROUND THE LOOTING OF ANTIQUITIES HAVE INVOLVED ORGANISED CRIME GROUPS.

COUNTERFEIT WAYS

PERHAPS THE FORGERS GOT THEIR IDEA

DOLLAR BILL FROM THE UNITED STATES

ARRESTED FOR “GRAND, GRAND, GRAND,

ART TALK

FEMME AU COSTUME TURC DANS UN FANTEUIL, PAINTED BY PABLO PICASSO IN 1955. WHEN IT WENT ON AUCTION AT CHRISTIE'S IN FEBRUARY THIS YEAR, IT WAS THE FIRST TIME IN OVER 50 YEARS THAT IT WAS PUT UP FOR SALE. THE PIECE SOLD FOR £16.9 MILLION, WHICH TRANSLATES TO OVER US$28 MILLION

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51MAY 2014

COUNTERFEIT WAYS

for certain, and any guess is merely a guess, not even an educated one.” Some estimate that as little as 1.5 percent of all stolen art is recovered and the thieves successfully prosecuted.

“What is certain is that art crime is very severe, largely because since the 1940s, the majority of art crime involves organised criminal groups — and occasionally terrorist groups, who reap the benefits,” says Charney. He points to reports of Taliban looting in Afghanistan as evidence of how high up the chain of criminality in art crimes can go.

DETECTION SCIENCECombating an increasingly sophisticated group of forgers means the science for detecting fakes and forgeries has greatly improved over the years — with modern dating and analysis making the identification of forged pieces easier.

Morellian techniques, developed in the late 19th century by physician and art collector Giovanni Morelli, are used to help sort the work of artists by their unique idiosyncrasies and stylistic details, which tend to remain consistent throughout the artists’ careers. By picking out recurring details in an artist’s work, analysts can identify and map out a formula, which can then be used to identify or “track” the artist, similar to the way a detective might match

fingerprints, or a graphologist might analyse handwriting samples. The same process can be applied to sculptures too, and might include checking for the use of tools or techniques not available when the artist was alive.

At times, forgers have utilised methods that differed from the original artist’s, such as uncharacteristic brushwork, perspective, or the use of colours or pigments that didn’t exist during the painter’s time. Some forgers will use chemicals to “age” pieces, or even employ materials that date back to when the work was created — while others resort to drilling holes to mimic worm marks. While attempting to authenticate artwork, experts also try to determine the piece’s provenance — if the

HOUSE OF CARDSORSON WELLES’ LAST MAJOR FILM, F FOR FAKE, REVOLVED AROUND THE WORLD OF ART FORGER ELMYR DE HORY AND HIS BIOGRAPHER CLIFFORD IRVING. IRONICALLY, IT WAS LATER FOUND THAT IRVING HAD CREATED HIS OWN FORGERY — FAKING THE DIARIES OF ECCENTRIC BUSINESS MAGNATE HOWARD HUGHES.

MUSEUM OF FAKESA MUSEUM DEDICATED TO FAKERY IN BANGKOK, THAILAND UNDERSCORES THE HUGE MARKET FOR FAKES. THE MUSEUM OF COUNTERFEIT GOODS DISPLAYS, AMONGST OTHER THINGS, FAKE MOBILE PHONE COVERS, VIAGRA, CIGARETTES, PERFUMES, WATCHES AND, WORRYINGLY, EVEN BRAKE PADS.

EXPERT VS FAKERORSON WELLES (PLAYING HIMSELF): "IT’S PRETTY BUT IS IT ART? HOW IS IT VALUED? THE VALUE DEPENDS ON OPINION, OPINION DEPENDS ON THE EXPERT, A FAKER LIKE ELMYR MAKES FOOL OF THE EXPERTS — SO WHO’S THE EXPERT? WHO’S THE FAKER?"DE HORY: "IF THEY ARE HANGED LONG ENOUGH IN THE MUSEUM THEY BECOME REAL".

“Generally, there is little empirical data on this subject, so getting facts and figures are hard,” says Toby Bull, a senior inspector in the Hong Kong Police Force and an art crime expert.

“Interpol used to publish a figure, as did a few others,” he adds. “But they don't now, as tying in a dollar value to art crime, especially when it crosses over and is interrelated to other crimes, is virtually impossible to calculate.”

Even the estimated number of forged pieces is in question. According to Bull and Dr Noah Charney, founder of ARCA, one Italian study estimated that 10 percent of the world's museum collections are either forged or misattributed, while media reports often quote Western law enforcement agencies warning that the total amount of forgeries in the marketplace could be as high as 50 percent. Thomas Hoving, who was director of the esteemed Metropolitan Museum of Art in the United States for 10 years, estimated that forged art comprises up to 40 percent of the entire global art market.

“People say US$6 billion per year, but no one knows,” says Charney. “Reliable sources, like the US Department of Justice, have called art crime the third highest-grossing criminal trade worldwide every year, behind only the drug and arms trade,” he says. “But we do not know

PAINTING IN PRISON

Geert Jan Jansen (pictured) is what you might call a master of forgery. His ability to fake the

brushstrokes of famous artists started innocently enough: he was trying to em-ulate their techniques to better his own. But when a career as an art dealer failed to blossom into success, he went back to his skill, borrowing the style and name of famous painters. Until his arrest in 1994, he spent decades producing around 40

paintings a year. Speaking to author Frank Wynne, Jansen said, “As soon

as I got [to prison], the board of governors asked me to dash

off a couple of Picassos.”

CLOCKWORK FORGERYRENOWNED WATCH BRAND ROLEX PUMPS OUT OVER 700,000 TIMEPIECES A YEAR. SUCH POPULARITY HAS MADE IT A PRIME TARGET FOR FORGERS. ACCORDING TO ONE HOROLOGIST, THERE ARE THREE EASY WAYS TO SPOT A FAKE ROLEX. FIRSTLY, THEIR SECOND HAND MOVEMENT OFTEN STUTTERS. SECONDLY, THEIR WEIGHT IS NOT AS HEFTY, AS FAKES TEND TO BE MADE WITH CHEAPER MATERIALS. THIRDLY, A TRUE ROLEX WILL COME WITH A “CYCLOPS” LENS THAT MAGNIFIES THE DATE — FAKES OFTEN SKIP THIS STEP. AND IF YOU’RE LUCKY, A FORGERY WILL SLIP UP AND BRAND ITSELF A RULEX.

FORGERS USE CHEMICALS TO “AGE” PIECES, MATERIALS THAT DATE TO WHEN THE WORK WAS CREATED — SOME ALSO RESORT TO DRILLING HOLES TO MIMIC WORM MARKS.

ART TALK

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OTO

: AF

P


51MAY 2014

COUNTERFEIT WAYS

for certain, and any guess is merely a guess, not even an educated one.” Some estimate that as little as 1.5 percent of all stolen art is recovered and the thieves successfully prosecuted.

“What is certain is that art crime is very severe, largely because since the 1940s, the majority of art crime involves organised criminal groups — and occasionally terrorist groups, who reap the benefits,” says Charney. He points to reports of Taliban looting in Afghanistan as evidence of how high up the chain of criminality in art crimes can go.

DETECTION SCIENCECombating an increasingly sophisticated group of forgers means the science for detecting fakes and forgeries has greatly improved over the years — with modern dating and analysis making the identification of forged pieces easier.

Morellian techniques, developed in the late 19th century by physician and art collector Giovanni Morelli, are used to help sort the work of artists by their unique idiosyncrasies and stylistic details, which tend to remain consistent throughout the artists’ careers. By picking out recurring details in an artist’s work, analysts can identify and map out a formula, which can then be used to identify or “track” the artist, similar to the way a detective might match

fingerprints, or a graphologist might analyse handwriting samples. The same process can be applied to sculptures too, and might include checking for the use of tools or techniques not available when the artist was alive.

At times, forgers have utilised methods that differed from the original artist’s, such as uncharacteristic brushwork, perspective, or the use of colours or pigments that didn’t exist during the painter’s time. Some forgers will use chemicals to “age” pieces, or even employ materials that date back to when the work was created — while others resort to drilling holes to mimic worm marks. While attempting to authenticate artwork, experts also try to determine the piece’s provenance — if the

HOUSE OF CARDSORSON WELLES’ LAST MAJOR FILM, F FOR FAKE, REVOLVED AROUND THE WORLD OF ART FORGER ELMYR DE HORY AND HIS BIOGRAPHER CLIFFORD IRVING. IRONICALLY, IT WAS LATER FOUND THAT IRVING HAD CREATED HIS OWN FORGERY — FAKING THE DIARIES OF ECCENTRIC BUSINESS MAGNATE HOWARD HUGHES.

MUSEUM OF FAKESA MUSEUM DEDICATED TO FAKERY IN BANGKOK, THAILAND UNDERSCORES THE HUGE MARKET FOR FAKES. THE MUSEUM OF COUNTERFEIT GOODS DISPLAYS, AMONGST OTHER THINGS, FAKE MOBILE PHONE COVERS, VIAGRA, CIGARETTES, PERFUMES, WATCHES AND, WORRYINGLY, EVEN BRAKE PADS.

EXPERT VS FAKERORSON WELLES (PLAYING HIMSELF): "IT’S PRETTY BUT IS IT ART? HOW IS IT VALUED? THE VALUE DEPENDS ON OPINION, OPINION DEPENDS ON THE EXPERT, A FAKER LIKE ELMYR MAKES FOOL OF THE EXPERTS — SO WHO’S THE EXPERT? WHO’S THE FAKER?"DE HORY: "IF THEY ARE HANGED LONG ENOUGH IN THE MUSEUM THEY BECOME REAL".

“Generally, there is little empirical data on this subject, so getting facts and figures are hard,” says Toby Bull, a senior inspector in the Hong Kong Police Force and an art crime expert.

“Interpol used to publish a figure, as did a few others,” he adds. “But they don't now, as tying in a dollar value to art crime, especially when it crosses over and is interrelated to other crimes, is virtually impossible to calculate.”

Even the estimated number of forged pieces is in question. According to Bull and Dr Noah Charney, founder of ARCA, one Italian study estimated that 10 percent of the world's museum collections are either forged or misattributed, while media reports often quote Western law enforcement agencies warning that the total amount of forgeries in the marketplace could be as high as 50 percent. Thomas Hoving, who was director of the esteemed Metropolitan Museum of Art in the United States for 10 years, estimated that forged art comprises up to 40 percent of the entire global art market.

“People say US$6 billion per year, but no one knows,” says Charney. “Reliable sources, like the US Department of Justice, have called art crime the third highest-grossing criminal trade worldwide every year, behind only the drug and arms trade,” he says. “But we do not know

PAINTING IN PRISON

Geert Jan Jansen (pictured) is what you might call a master of forgery. His ability to fake the

brushstrokes of famous artists started innocently enough: he was trying to em-ulate their techniques to better his own. But when a career as an art dealer failed to blossom into success, he went back to his skill, borrowing the style and name of famous painters. Until his arrest in 1994, he spent decades producing around 40

paintings a year. Speaking to author Frank Wynne, Jansen said, “As soon

as I got [to prison], the board of governors asked me to dash

off a couple of Picassos.”

CLOCKWORK FORGERYRENOWNED WATCH BRAND ROLEX PUMPS OUT OVER 700,000 TIMEPIECES A YEAR. SUCH POPULARITY HAS MADE IT A PRIME TARGET FOR FORGERS. ACCORDING TO ONE HOROLOGIST, THERE ARE THREE EASY WAYS TO SPOT A FAKE ROLEX. FIRSTLY, THEIR SECOND HAND MOVEMENT OFTEN STUTTERS. SECONDLY, THEIR WEIGHT IS NOT AS HEFTY, AS FAKES TEND TO BE MADE WITH CHEAPER MATERIALS. THIRDLY, A TRUE ROLEX WILL COME WITH A “CYCLOPS” LENS THAT MAGNIFIES THE DATE — FAKES OFTEN SKIP THIS STEP. AND IF YOU’RE LUCKY, A FORGERY WILL SLIP UP AND BRAND ITSELF A RULEX.

FORGERS USE CHEMICALS TO “AGE” PIECES, MATERIALS THAT DATE TO WHEN THE WORK WAS CREATED — SOME ALSO RESORT TO DRILLING HOLES TO MIMIC WORM MARKS.

ART TALK

PH

OTO

: AF

P


53MAY 2014

With just a snapshot, a square centimetre in size, a snazzy camera-like object called FING-ART-PRINT could spell doom for art thieves, smugglers and forgers. The "fingerprint" in question is captured by recording the artwork’s roughness or topography (in the case of paintings, the unique 3D effect of paint on canvas) and a colour sample.

In a paper presented at the International Conference

on Strategies for Saving Indoor Metallic Collections in 2007, the authors, led by conservation scientist Dr Bill Wei, co-inventor of the technology, detailed the advantages of their system. Museum objects, they noted, are typically identified with a cataloguing system. Objects are photographed and tagged with a sticker, barcode or marker. But, they say, “besides the fact that stickers and markers have

FINGERPRINT FOR ART

the analysis of digital images of paintings, is a technique described in a 2004 paper, which breaks pictures down into a collection of basic images called “subbands”. The Science News article reporting the research explained, “Just as a musical tone consists of a low fundamental frequency with higher-frequency overtones, an image's low-frequency subbands show the broad strokes, while higher-frequency subbands depict details.” As one of the study authors said at the time, “A master might have smooth, consistent strokes, say, while an imitator is jerky.” And since an artist tends to have a unique style throughout his or her career, the subband analysis would set the forged work apart.

Unfortunately, even with such investigative tools at hand, experts do not always agree on the authenticity of an item. To complicate matters, some artists have knowingly accepted copies as their own work or signed off on them — flattered by the attention or admiration of the copy.

ROGUES GALLERYForgery has had a long history. Over 2,000 years ago, Roman artisans made copies of Greek sculptures. However, it’s thought that back then, individual artists were barely known, let alone lionised, and art was created to serve as a historical timepiece, a religious icon, or purely for its aesthetic value.

It wasn’t until the Renaissance period, which ushered in waves of wealth across Europe and drove an insatiable demand for fine art, that these works became a commercial commodity. As a result, the identity of the artist in turn gained a benchmark value in art transactions.

Dr Alexander Nagel, a professor of Renaissance art

at the Institute of Fine Arts in New York, in the United States, has argued that the notion of forgery as we understand it never really existed before a Western art market was established around 1,500 BC. He noted that before that time, a facsimile could usually fill in for an original work, if it transmitted the same content and tone.

While most forgers are considered lesser artists standing on the shoulders of the greats, sometimes even the greats themselves were found with their hands in the cookie jar. For instance, an often-repeated anecdote states that at the end of the 15th century, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (you will know him as Michelangelo) made a sleeping Cupid figure, treated it with acidic earth to age it, then sold it to an art dealer.

Thierry Lenain, art historian at the Institut Français in London, England, and author of the 2011 book

JANSEN WAS SO SUCCESSFUL IN REPLICATING THE STYLES AND COLOURS OF THE MASTERS, THAT EVEN THE FOREMOST CRITICS REGARDED THE WORKS AS NOT ONLY GENUINE BUT AS SOME OF THE FINEST EXAMPLES THEY HAD EVER SEEN.

item has not left a paper trail, it is more likely to be a forgery. Of course, paperwork too can be forged.

X-ray technology can now help sleuths reveal earlier work hidden beneath forgeries, a clear signal that the forger used old canvasses in order to try and mimic the desired time period. In other cases, X-rays can also be used to look inside an object to determine if it has been altered or repaired.

At the laboratories of the Los Angeles-based Getty Conservation Institute, in the United States, which works to preserve global cultural heritage, examiners use handheld X-ray fluorescence devices to identify pigments and other materials by revealing their elemental composition. However, the institute notes in a report that there are limitations to X-ray fluorescence: only elements heavier than potassium can be identified by this method. As it states, the device was designed to be able to carry out X-ray diffraction as well, to detect the molecular or mineralogical composition of pigments. These technologies are then used together, to help uncover forgeries.

There are other methods that allow researchers to weed out the good, the bad, and the well-forged. For example, ultraviolet fluorescence and infrared analysis can spotlight repairs or old paint on canvasses, while carbon dating can date an object that is up to 10,000 years old.

Other innovations have proven invaluable in establishing the authenticity of sculptures. One technique, called stable isotope analysis, determines where marble used in a sculpture was quarried; while another, thermoluminescence, helps to date pottery artefacts.

Wavelet decomposition, or

the disadvantage of reacting with objects, they have the additional disadvantage that they can be removed and/or forged.”

While the technology to measure an artwork’s topography or "roughness" is not new, it is the application in the new device that is exciting. Due to the system’s compactness, its user-friendly nature, and how speedily it works, the authors note, “FING-ART-PRINT is

thus expected to have an enormous impact on the identification and protection of moveable cultural heritage.”

And what about forging the fingerprint of FING-ART-PRINT itself? They're way ahead of you. "It would be virtually impossible to forge the fingerprint on a micrometre scale (the size of a pigment particle), assuming that a forger even knew where the fingerprint was taken."M

AIN

PH

OTO

: "M

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US

EU

M B

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MA

NS

VA

N B

EU

NIN

GE

N, R

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THE FING-ART-PRINT PROJECT (SEE SIDEBAR BOTTOM) HAS PRODUCED A TECHNOLOGY THAT IS QUICK AND EASY TO USE. THE BOXY-LOOKING APPARATUS SHOWN ABOVE TAKES AN EXTREMELY HIGH-RESOLUTION IMAGE OF A SMALL SEGMENT OF THE ARTWORK AND PRODUCES A "FINGERPRINT" (SHOWN OPPOSITE) OF THE PIECE THAT IS VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO COPY

ART TALK


53MAY 2014

With just a snapshot, a square centimetre in size, a snazzy camera-like object called FING-ART-PRINT could spell doom for art thieves, smugglers and forgers. The "fingerprint" in question is captured by recording the artwork’s roughness or topography (in the case of paintings, the unique 3D effect of paint on canvas) and a colour sample.

In a paper presented at the International Conference

on Strategies for Saving Indoor Metallic Collections in 2007, the authors, led by conservation scientist Dr Bill Wei, co-inventor of the technology, detailed the advantages of their system. Museum objects, they noted, are typically identified with a cataloguing system. Objects are photographed and tagged with a sticker, barcode or marker. But, they say, “besides the fact that stickers and markers have

FINGERPRINT FOR ART

the analysis of digital images of paintings, is a technique described in a 2004 paper, which breaks pictures down into a collection of basic images called “subbands”. The Science News article reporting the research explained, “Just as a musical tone consists of a low fundamental frequency with higher-frequency overtones, an image's low-frequency subbands show the broad strokes, while higher-frequency subbands depict details.” As one of the study authors said at the time, “A master might have smooth, consistent strokes, say, while an imitator is jerky.” And since an artist tends to have a unique style throughout his or her career, the subband analysis would set the forged work apart.

Unfortunately, even with such investigative tools at hand, experts do not always agree on the authenticity of an item. To complicate matters, some artists have knowingly accepted copies as their own work or signed off on them — flattered by the attention or admiration of the copy.

ROGUES GALLERYForgery has had a long history. Over 2,000 years ago, Roman artisans made copies of Greek sculptures. However, it’s thought that back then, individual artists were barely known, let alone lionised, and art was created to serve as a historical timepiece, a religious icon, or purely for its aesthetic value.

It wasn’t until the Renaissance period, which ushered in waves of wealth across Europe and drove an insatiable demand for fine art, that these works became a commercial commodity. As a result, the identity of the artist in turn gained a benchmark value in art transactions.

Dr Alexander Nagel, a professor of Renaissance art

at the Institute of Fine Arts in New York, in the United States, has argued that the notion of forgery as we understand it never really existed before a Western art market was established around 1,500 BC. He noted that before that time, a facsimile could usually fill in for an original work, if it transmitted the same content and tone.

While most forgers are considered lesser artists standing on the shoulders of the greats, sometimes even the greats themselves were found with their hands in the cookie jar. For instance, an often-repeated anecdote states that at the end of the 15th century, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (you will know him as Michelangelo) made a sleeping Cupid figure, treated it with acidic earth to age it, then sold it to an art dealer.

Thierry Lenain, art historian at the Institut Français in London, England, and author of the 2011 book

JANSEN WAS SO SUCCESSFUL IN REPLICATING THE STYLES AND COLOURS OF THE MASTERS, THAT EVEN THE FOREMOST CRITICS REGARDED THE WORKS AS NOT ONLY GENUINE BUT AS SOME OF THE FINEST EXAMPLES THEY HAD EVER SEEN.

item has not left a paper trail, it is more likely to be a forgery. Of course, paperwork too can be forged.

X-ray technology can now help sleuths reveal earlier work hidden beneath forgeries, a clear signal that the forger used old canvasses in order to try and mimic the desired time period. In other cases, X-rays can also be used to look inside an object to determine if it has been altered or repaired.

At the laboratories of the Los Angeles-based Getty Conservation Institute, in the United States, which works to preserve global cultural heritage, examiners use handheld X-ray fluorescence devices to identify pigments and other materials by revealing their elemental composition. However, the institute notes in a report that there are limitations to X-ray fluorescence: only elements heavier than potassium can be identified by this method. As it states, the device was designed to be able to carry out X-ray diffraction as well, to detect the molecular or mineralogical composition of pigments. These technologies are then used together, to help uncover forgeries.

There are other methods that allow researchers to weed out the good, the bad, and the well-forged. For example, ultraviolet fluorescence and infrared analysis can spotlight repairs or old paint on canvasses, while carbon dating can date an object that is up to 10,000 years old.

Other innovations have proven invaluable in establishing the authenticity of sculptures. One technique, called stable isotope analysis, determines where marble used in a sculpture was quarried; while another, thermoluminescence, helps to date pottery artefacts.

Wavelet decomposition, or

the disadvantage of reacting with objects, they have the additional disadvantage that they can be removed and/or forged.”

While the technology to measure an artwork’s topography or "roughness" is not new, it is the application in the new device that is exciting. Due to the system’s compactness, its user-friendly nature, and how speedily it works, the authors note, “FING-ART-PRINT is

thus expected to have an enormous impact on the identification and protection of moveable cultural heritage.”

And what about forging the fingerprint of FING-ART-PRINT itself? They're way ahead of you. "It would be virtually impossible to forge the fingerprint on a micrometre scale (the size of a pigment particle), assuming that a forger even knew where the fingerprint was taken."M

AIN

PH

OTO

: "M

AN

SP

OR

TR

ET

" B

Y D

AV

ID V

AN

DE

R P

LA

ES

, C

OU

RT

ES

Y O

F M

US

EU

M B

OIJ

MA

NS

VA

N B

EU

NIN

GE

N, R

OT

TE

RD

AM

, T

HE

NE

TH

ER

LA

ND

S

THE FING-ART-PRINT PROJECT (SEE SIDEBAR BOTTOM) HAS PRODUCED A TECHNOLOGY THAT IS QUICK AND EASY TO USE. THE BOXY-LOOKING APPARATUS SHOWN ABOVE TAKES AN EXTREMELY HIGH-RESOLUTION IMAGE OF A SMALL SEGMENT OF THE ARTWORK AND PRODUCES A "FINGERPRINT" (SHOWN OPPOSITE) OF THE PIECE THAT IS VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO COPY

ART TALK


55MAY 2014

memoir, Caveat Emptor: The Secret Life of an American Art Forger, chronicling the creation and sale of thousands of knock-offs of masters such as James Buttersworth, Martin Johnson Heade and Charles Bird King to famous auction houses. In his book, Perenyi estimated that hundreds of his fakes remain in circulation, saying that spotting one in a catalogue is “like bumping into an old friend”. He admitted to enjoying the cloak-and-dagger aspect of art forgery. “I miss the addictive thrill of fooling the experts,” he wrote. “It was great sport for me.”

More recently in the US state of New York, Chinese immigrant Pei-Shen Qian found himself at the centre of an US$80 million art forgery scandal involving dealer Glafira Rosales, who pleaded guilty to selling more than 60 fake paintings made by Qian, most of them through the prestigious Knoedler & Company gallery. Qian's imitations of paintings by Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and other abstract expressionists helped bring about the collapse of the once-trusted gallery.

While artists have long fallen prey to forgers, criminals have also set their sights on more contemporary targets. In January this year, a Paris high court opened a case brought by graffiti artist John Perello, known as JonOne, in which a little-known dealer had sold about two dozen paintings that have been falsely attributed to the 50-year-old artist. Charney, who also teaches the history of art crime in the ARCA’s Postgraduate Certificate Programme in Art Crime and Cultural Heritage Protection, says forgeries today are very much “on-trend” with public demand. “Forgeries of graffiti art, like Banksy

spray paintings, are fairly new,” he notes. “A Banksy can sell for US$100,000 but it can be made, identically and with the same materials, for about US$10. My colleague at Scotland Yard did an experiment to this end and found it to be true,” he says. Another trend, in Asia this time, is “elegant bribery” (or yahui), which in China describes the buying of favours from officials through gifts of art, and is often used there as a way to launder money. ARCA believes that, along with fake art, the use of art for collateral to secure loans and investments is also likely to rise dramatically.

Meanwhile, back in Driessen’s small café in Thailand, the former forger contemplates his new life. “I’ve started my website selling my own copies. It’s not going terribly well at the moment,” he says, admitting that running on his own reputation is proving more challenging than riding on the back of someone else’s. “There has been some reaction from people,” he says. “But still, its nowhere near as easy as signing Giacometti’s name.”

Just north of Hong Kong lies Dafen Village. You may not have heard of it, but there’s a good chance its work is on your wall, or the wall of someone you know. Up until a few years ago, some 5,000 to 8,000 Chinese artists churned out reproductions of artistic masterpieces at a blistering rate — accounting for 60 percent of the world’s oil paintings.

Rembrandts, Warhols, Monets: you name it, you can get a famed work reproduced for about US$40. Many painters churn out small canvasses at a rate of 10 per day. The economic downturn has hit Dafen, however. At the same time, China’s booming middle class is now better able to afford "real" artwork and doesn't frequent Dafen as much. As such, many workshops have slashed the numbers of their workhorse painters.

But last year, self-proclaimed "anti-designer" Zhenhan Hao forged something real from the artists who churn out fakes. Working with about 40 of the artisans, he commissioned new works of art in the style of a renowned artist — from the artisan themselves. One expert Van Gogh imitator, Mister Zhao, rendered a representation of his bedroom with all the vim and colour of the Dutch legend.

STREETS LINED WITH MONET

PH

OTO

S: R

EU

TE

RS

(M

AIN

); G

ET

TY

IM

AG

ES

A PAINTER WORKS ON A COPY OF A PAINTING BY

MODERN CHINESE PAINTER YUE MINJUN AT DAFEN

VILLAGE, CHINA LEFT: DUTCHMAN HANS VAN

MEEGEREN AT HIS TRIAL FOR FORGING PAINTINGS. HE IS BELIEVED TO BE THE BEST

FORGER OF ALL TIME

Art Forgery: The History of the Modern Obsession, says that the Italian master frequently forged artworks, replacing the pieces with the originals that he was charged with restoring.

Fast-forwarding to contemporary forgers, Han van Meegeren is widely considered to be the greatest of all time. It is popularly held that from the 1920s onwards, after his own work was rebuffed by critics and buyers, an embittered Van Meegeren decided to set out to prove his critics wrong, by creating credible forgeries of leading fine artists, including Frans Hals, Gerard ter Borch and Johannes Vermeer.

To say that Van Meegeren fooled his critics would be a bludgeoning understatement. He was so successful in replicating the styles and colours of the greats, that several of the world’s foremost critics not only regarded the works as genuine — but as some of the finest examples they had ever seen. Experts say that he used historical canvasses and ingeniously formulated his own pigments, eventually fooling collectors into purchasing up to US$30 million worth of fake Vermeers — which were sold to everyone from Nazi leader Hermann Göring, to the Dutch government, which during World War II was keen on stopping artworks by the country’s masters falling into the hands of the Nazis.

In a bizarre twist, Van Meegeren pieces eventually found a lucrative market of their own, which also attracted forgers. One of these was his son, Jacques van Meegeren, who wrote fraudulent certificates verifying the authenticity of his father’s work.

In 2012, Ken Perenyi — the self-described “best American art forger” — published his

PERENYI ADMITTED TO ENJOYING THE CLOAK-AND-DAGGER ASPECT OF ART FORGERY. “I MISS THE ADDICTIVE THRILL OF FOOLING THE EXPERTS,” HE WROTE. “IT WAS GREAT SPORT FOR ME.”

ART TALK


55MAY 2014

memoir, Caveat Emptor: The Secret Life of an American Art Forger, chronicling the creation and sale of thousands of knock-offs of masters such as James Buttersworth, Martin Johnson Heade and Charles Bird King to famous auction houses. In his book, Perenyi estimated that hundreds of his fakes remain in circulation, saying that spotting one in a catalogue is “like bumping into an old friend”. He admitted to enjoying the cloak-and-dagger aspect of art forgery. “I miss the addictive thrill of fooling the experts,” he wrote. “It was great sport for me.”

More recently in the US state of New York, Chinese immigrant Pei-Shen Qian found himself at the centre of an US$80 million art forgery scandal involving dealer Glafira Rosales, who pleaded guilty to selling more than 60 fake paintings made by Qian, most of them through the prestigious Knoedler & Company gallery. Qian's imitations of paintings by Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and other abstract expressionists helped bring about the collapse of the once-trusted gallery.

While artists have long fallen prey to forgers, criminals have also set their sights on more contemporary targets. In January this year, a Paris high court opened a case brought by graffiti artist John Perello, known as JonOne, in which a little-known dealer had sold about two dozen paintings that have been falsely attributed to the 50-year-old artist. Charney, who also teaches the history of art crime in the ARCA’s Postgraduate Certificate Programme in Art Crime and Cultural Heritage Protection, says forgeries today are very much “on-trend” with public demand. “Forgeries of graffiti art, like Banksy

spray paintings, are fairly new,” he notes. “A Banksy can sell for US$100,000 but it can be made, identically and with the same materials, for about US$10. My colleague at Scotland Yard did an experiment to this end and found it to be true,” he says. Another trend, in Asia this time, is “elegant bribery” (or yahui), which in China describes the buying of favours from officials through gifts of art, and is often used there as a way to launder money. ARCA believes that, along with fake art, the use of art for collateral to secure loans and investments is also likely to rise dramatically.

Meanwhile, back in Driessen’s small café in Thailand, the former forger contemplates his new life. “I’ve started my website selling my own copies. It’s not going terribly well at the moment,” he says, admitting that running on his own reputation is proving more challenging than riding on the back of someone else’s. “There has been some reaction from people,” he says. “But still, its nowhere near as easy as signing Giacometti’s name.”

Just north of Hong Kong lies Dafen Village. You may not have heard of it, but there’s a good chance its work is on your wall, or the wall of someone you know. Up until a few years ago, some 5,000 to 8,000 Chinese artists churned out reproductions of artistic masterpieces at a blistering rate — accounting for 60 percent of the world’s oil paintings.

Rembrandts, Warhols, Monets: you name it, you can get a famed work reproduced for about US$40. Many painters churn out small canvasses at a rate of 10 per day. The economic downturn has hit Dafen, however. At the same time, China’s booming middle class is now better able to afford "real" artwork and doesn't frequent Dafen as much. As such, many workshops have slashed the numbers of their workhorse painters.

But last year, self-proclaimed "anti-designer" Zhenhan Hao forged something real from the artists who churn out fakes. Working with about 40 of the artisans, he commissioned new works of art in the style of a renowned artist — from the artisan themselves. One expert Van Gogh imitator, Mister Zhao, rendered a representation of his bedroom with all the vim and colour of the Dutch legend.

STREETS LINED WITH MONET

PH

OTO

S: R

EU

TE

RS

(M

AIN

); G

ET

TY

IM

AG

ES

A PAINTER WORKS ON A COPY OF A PAINTING BY

MODERN CHINESE PAINTER YUE MINJUN AT DAFEN

VILLAGE, CHINA LEFT: DUTCHMAN HANS VAN

MEEGEREN AT HIS TRIAL FOR FORGING PAINTINGS. HE IS BELIEVED TO BE THE BEST

FORGER OF ALL TIME

Art Forgery: The History of the Modern Obsession, says that the Italian master frequently forged artworks, replacing the pieces with the originals that he was charged with restoring.

Fast-forwarding to contemporary forgers, Han van Meegeren is widely considered to be the greatest of all time. It is popularly held that from the 1920s onwards, after his own work was rebuffed by critics and buyers, an embittered Van Meegeren decided to set out to prove his critics wrong, by creating credible forgeries of leading fine artists, including Frans Hals, Gerard ter Borch and Johannes Vermeer.

To say that Van Meegeren fooled his critics would be a bludgeoning understatement. He was so successful in replicating the styles and colours of the greats, that several of the world’s foremost critics not only regarded the works as genuine — but as some of the finest examples they had ever seen. Experts say that he used historical canvasses and ingeniously formulated his own pigments, eventually fooling collectors into purchasing up to US$30 million worth of fake Vermeers — which were sold to everyone from Nazi leader Hermann Göring, to the Dutch government, which during World War II was keen on stopping artworks by the country’s masters falling into the hands of the Nazis.

In a bizarre twist, Van Meegeren pieces eventually found a lucrative market of their own, which also attracted forgers. One of these was his son, Jacques van Meegeren, who wrote fraudulent certificates verifying the authenticity of his father’s work.

In 2012, Ken Perenyi — the self-described “best American art forger” — published his

PERENYI ADMITTED TO ENJOYING THE CLOAK-AND-DAGGER ASPECT OF ART FORGERY. “I MISS THE ADDICTIVE THRILL OF FOOLING THE EXPERTS,” HE WROTE. “IT WAS GREAT SPORT FOR ME.”

ART TALK


57MAY 2014

57MAY 2014

7x

In 1955, a plaster statue of Buddha was dropped as it was being moved, revealing 18-carat gold underneath. It is the largest solid gold statue in the world, now valued at some US$250 million. It’s thought the Golden Buddha was covered in plaster in the 1700s to hide it from invading armies.

The international yearly trade in looted, stolen or smuggled art was estimated at US$4.5 billion to US$6 billion in 2008.

In 2005, thieves stole a huge, hippo-sized bronze sculpture (3.6 metres in length, 1.8 metres in height, and 1.8 metres wide), Henry Moore’s Reclining Fig-ure, worth nearly US$5 million. Police theorise they then cut it up and had it melted down to just US$2,300 worth of scrap metal, which was shipped to China to be used for electrical parts.

US$6,000,000,000

Brussels is home to a beloved small statue of a small urinat-ing boy. The Manneken Pis, first erected in 1388, has been stolen seven times (the cur-rent version dates from 1965). It’s thought to be symbolic of a boy who urinated on some explosives when Brussels was under siege.

2 THIEVESIn 1990, two thieves masquerading as police officers — complete with fake moustaches — stole US$500 million worth of artwork from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Although the largest property crime in US history, the paintings remain unfound.

Because of their high profile, stolen artworks can be hugely difficult to sell, and are often bought at just 10 percent of their estimated legitimate market value.

TONNES

13 PAINTINGSThe half a billion-dollar value is even more impressive considering the thieves stole just 13 pieces of artwork. As of 2013, the FBI was still offering a US$5 million reward for information leading directly to the retrieval of the paintings.

7–10%

1911In 1911, the Mona Lisa was sto-len from the Louvre in Paris, France. Pablo Picasso was one of the main suspects. Thou-sands of people came to the Louvre anyway, just to gawk at the empty spot where the painting was supposed to sit.

1913Mona Lisa was returned and a suspect arrested. As one au-thor of the crime story puts it, “Mona Lisa left the Louvre a work of art. She returned an icon”.

During World War II, the Nazis stole 20 percent of Europe’s great artworks.

under siege.

(3.6 metres in length, 1.8 metres in height, and 1.8 metres wide),

worth nearly US$5 million. Police theorise they then cut it


TONNESIn 1955, a plaster statue of Buddha was dropped as it was being moved, revealing 18-carat gold underneath. It is the largest solid gold statue in the world, now valued at some US$250 million. It’s thought the Golden Buddha was covered in plaster in the 1700s to hide it from invading armies.

TONNES

20%

Steal a masterpiece and you’ll probably end up with far less of a haul than you thought, alas. You’ll make far more money informing on the

greatest heist in American history

ILLUSTRATIONS BY MARK McCORMICK

PICASSOSAND

PICKPOCKETS 5.5

There are actually several versions of Edvard Munch’s famous The Scream. One was stolen in 1994 from the National Museum in Oslo. The thieves, later caught, left behind a postcard of three men bawling with laughter. On it they had scribbled, “Thanks for the poor security”.

CHEEKY WORDS

2 TONNESFICTION VERSUS REALITY1ST BOND FILMIn 1961, a portrait of the Duke of Wellington by Fran-cisco de Goya was stolen from the National Gallery in London. Dr No (1962) poked fun by having the painting turn up in the villain's lair.

110KGIt was later discovered that the painting had been stolen by Kempton Bunton, a 110-ki-logram retired truck driver who had clambered through a museum window. When he confessed in 1965, he was 61 years old. He said his aim had been to ransom the painting for £140,000 (US $390,000) "to buy television licenses for old and poor people".

"I had the best time of my life in jail [in Madrid]. I had the guarantee I was coming out in a year and I bought a cell phone from one of the boys in there. It was like that movie Goodfellas. I had my own kitchen, my own shower, and every day I could bribe one of the guards to go to the market — it was fantastic".Dutchman Michel van Rijn, called the "world's most successful art smuggler", on how even going to jail could be glamorous.

Neuschwanstein Castle, which sits near the German-Austrian border, served as Walt Disney’s inspiration for Sleeping Beauty’s castle. It was also part of Hitler’s proposed “Führermuseum”, the largest art repository in the world, holding millions of masterpieces looted by the Nazis.

Influential castle

PART III

ART TALK


57MAY 2014

57MAY 2014

7x


The international yearly trade in looted, stolen or smuggled art was estimated at US$4.5 billion to US$6 billion in 2008.

In 2005, thieves stole a huge, hippo-sized bronze sculpture (3.6 metres in length, 1.8 metres in height, and 1.8 metres wide), Henry Moore’s Reclining Fig-ure, worth nearly US$5 million. Police theorise they then cut it up and had it melted down to just US$2,300 worth of scrap metal, which was shipped to China to be used for electrical parts.

US$6,000,000,000

Brussels is home to a beloved small statue of a small urinat-ing boy. The Manneken Pis, first erected in 1388, has been stolen seven times (the cur-rent version dates from 1965). It’s thought to be symbolic of a boy who urinated on some explosives when Brussels was under siege.

2 THIEVESIn 1990, two thieves masquerading as police officers — complete with fake moustaches — stole US$500 million worth of artwork from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Although the largest property crime in US history, the paintings remain unfound.


TONNES


13 PAINTINGSThe half a billion-dollar value is even more impressive considering the thieves stole just 13 pieces of artwork. As of 2013, the FBI was still offering a US$5 million reward for information leading directly to the retrieval of the paintings.

7–10%

1911In 1911, the Mona Lisa was sto-len from the Louvre in Paris, France. Pablo Picasso was one of the main suspects. Thou-sands of people came to the Louvre anyway, just to gawk at the empty spot where the painting was supposed to sit.

1913Mona Lisa was returned and a suspect arrested. As one au-thor of the crime story puts it, “Mona Lisa left the Louvre a work of art. She returned an icon”.

During World War II, the Nazis stole 20 percent of Europe’s great artworks.

20%

Steal a masterpiece and you’ll probably end up with far less of a haul than you thought, alas. You’ll make far more money informing on the

greatest heist in American history

ILLUSTRATIONS BY MARK McCORMICK

PICASSOSAND

PICKPOCKETS 5.5

There are actually several versions of Edvard Munch’s famous The Scream. One was stolen in 1994 from the National Museum in Oslo. The thieves, later caught, left behind a postcard of three men bawling with laughter. On it they had scribbled, “Thanks for the poor security”.

CHEEKY WORDS

2 TONNESFICTION VERSUS REALITY1ST BOND FILMIn 1961, a portrait of the Duke of Wellington by Fran-cisco de Goya was stolen from the National Gallery in London. Dr No (1962) poked fun by having the painting turn up in the villain's lair.

110KGIt was later discovered that the painting had been stolen by Kempton Bunton, a 110-ki-logram retired truck driver who had clambered through a museum window. When he confessed in 1965, he was 61 years old. He said his aim had been to ransom the painting for £140,000 (US $390,000) "to buy television licenses for old and poor people".

"I had the best time of my life in jail [in Madrid]. I had the guarantee I was coming out in a year and I bought a cell phone from one of the boys in there. It was like that movie Goodfellas. I had my own kitchen, my own shower, and every day I could bribe one of the guards to go to the market — it was fantastic".Dutchman Michel van Rijn, called the "world's most successful art smuggler", on how even going to jail could be glamorous.

Neuschwanstein Castle, which sits near the German-Austrian border, served as Walt Disney’s inspiration for Sleeping Beauty’s castle. It was also part of Hitler’s proposed “Führermuseum”, the largest art repository in the world, holding millions of masterpieces looted by the Nazis.

Influential castle

PART III

ART TALK


59MAY 2014

They define our day ahead, rank our music, businesses and social strata. In the online world they pop up everywhere we turn. Why are we so enthralled with lists? What do we know about how they impact our minds? And in a world filled with such beautiful forms of expression, why are we hell-bent on reducing everything down to a top-five? Daniel Seifert investigates

LIFE AS A LIST


59MAY 2014

They define our day ahead, rank our music, businesses and social strata. In the online world they pop up everywhere we turn. Why are we so enthralled with lists? What do we know about how they impact our minds? And in a world filled with such beautiful forms of expression, why are we hell-bent on reducing everything down to a top-five? Daniel Seifert investigates

LIFE AS A LIST


61MAY 2014

ublished in 1989, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People went on to became a classic of its kind, selling more than 25 million copies in 38 languages. Former United States president Bill Clinton reportedly liked the book so much that he invited Covey to help him integrate 7 Habits into his own presidential to-do list. The people at TIME magazine too loved Covey’s list — so much so that they added him to two of their own, naming him one of the “25 Most Influential Americans” in 1996, and his book among “The 25 Most Influential Business Management Books” in 2011.

As such, it’s fair to say that Covey not only spawned legions of copycat management books — but he was also responsible for way too many lists.

BRAIN CANDYIt is a given these days that super-busy people seem to make a lot of lists. Fortunately, some of them also

IN THE LATE 80S, STEPHEN R COVEY SET OUT TO MAP THE EMOTIONAL WORLD OF HIGH ACHIEVERS. HE FOCUSSED ON THEIR BEHAVIOUR PATTERNS WHICH SEEMED TO CONTRIBUTE SIGNIFICANTLY TO THEIR SUCCESS. YET BEFORE HE COULD PROCEED FURTHER, COVEY FACED A CRITICAL DECISION: WHAT SHOULD HE CALL THE BOOK? IN THE END, THE ANSWER WAS CRYSTAL CLEAR — HE SIMPLY MADE A LIST.

have a sense of humour about it. “I’m controlling, and I want everything orderly, and I need lists,” admitted actress Sandra Bullock to press. “My mind goes a mile a minute. I’m difficult on every single level.”

Aside from perhaps staying well away from caffeine, what advice might science have for list-obsessives such as Bullock? At a fundamental level, why do we seem to love lists so much? One reason seems to be that lists appear to help us fast-track our path to understanding.

Put simply, when we see something, the human brain immediately seeks to explain and understand it. According to Dr Tania Lombrozo, of the University of California, Berkeley’s department of psychology, in the United States, this deduction process appears to be one that is hardwired within us. “Generating and evaluating explanations is spontaneous, ubiquitous and fundamental to our sense of understanding,” she wrote in a paper.

Lists, it seems, are the equivalent of fast food in the food market of understanding. As Maria Konnikova writes in The New Yorker, when we are reading, our brains seem to find something thrilling about reading a list. “The article-as-numbered-list has several features that make it inherently captivating,” she writes. Konnikova, author of the 2013 book Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, explains that lists are in essence pre-packaged to make them brain-friendly. “The headline catches our eye in a stream of content; it positions its subject within a pre-existing category and classification system,” she writes. “It spatially organises the information; and it promises a story that’s finite, whose

length has been quantified upfront.” The result, Konnikova notes, is what we as readers might consider easy reading.

“The mental heavy lifting of conceptualisation, categorisation, and analysis is completed well in advance of actual consumption — a bit like sipping green juice instead of munching on a bundle of kale,” she explains. “And there’s little that our brains crave more than effortlessly acquired data.”

Lists appear to help do the work that our brain would normally do itself — which may provide a clue as to why we find them so appealing, despite our better judgment. As we’ll explore, it may also be why they are rapidly becoming so overused. But first, let’s have a peek at a few lists we love.

BOMBS AND BALANCEIt was 1940. Across the nation, the Battle of Britain was mapping out the future of the country, as Spitfires and Messerschmitts howled in the skies. All this aerial annihilation was a nuisance though for the members of the Richmond Golf Club, just a few miles from London. Especially given that a bomb had recently had the audacity to destroy one of the club’s buildings.

Yet rather than let the scoundrels in the sky ruin their noble sport completely, the club simply had a good British cup of tea, and drew up a list of temporary rules, the first three of which are shown here. 1. Players are asked to collect bomb and

shrapnel splinters to save these causing damage to the mowing machines.

2. In competitions, during gunfire, or while bombs are falling, players may take cover without penalty for ceasing play.

PH

OTO

S: D

RE

AM

ST

IME

LIFE AS A LIST


61MAY 2014

ublished in 1989, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People went on to became a classic of its kind, selling more than 25 million copies in 38 languages. Former United States president Bill Clinton reportedly liked the book so much that he invited Covey to help him integrate 7 Habits into his own presidential to-do list. The people at TIME magazine too loved Covey’s list — so much so that they added him to two of their own, naming him one of the “25 Most Influential Americans” in 1996, and his book among “The 25 Most Influential Business Management Books” in 2011.

As such, it’s fair to say that Covey not only spawned legions of copycat management books — but he was also responsible for way too many lists.

BRAIN CANDYIt is a given these days that super-busy people seem to make a lot of lists. Fortunately, some of them also

IN THE LATE 80S, STEPHEN R COVEY SET OUT TO MAP THE EMOTIONAL WORLD OF HIGH ACHIEVERS. HE FOCUSSED ON THEIR BEHAVIOUR PATTERNS WHICH SEEMED TO CONTRIBUTE SIGNIFICANTLY TO THEIR SUCCESS. YET BEFORE HE COULD PROCEED FURTHER, COVEY FACED A CRITICAL DECISION: WHAT SHOULD HE CALL THE BOOK? IN THE END, THE ANSWER WAS CRYSTAL CLEAR — HE SIMPLY MADE A LIST.

have a sense of humour about it. “I’m controlling, and I want everything orderly, and I need lists,” admitted actress Sandra Bullock to press. “My mind goes a mile a minute. I’m difficult on every single level.”

Aside from perhaps staying well away from caffeine, what advice might science have for list-obsessives such as Bullock? At a fundamental level, why do we seem to love lists so much? One reason seems to be that lists appear to help us fast-track our path to understanding.

Put simply, when we see something, the human brain immediately seeks to explain and understand it. According to Dr Tania Lombrozo, of the University of California, Berkeley’s department of psychology, in the United States, this deduction process appears to be one that is hardwired within us. “Generating and evaluating explanations is spontaneous, ubiquitous and fundamental to our sense of understanding,” she wrote in a paper.

Lists, it seems, are the equivalent of fast food in the food market of understanding. As Maria Konnikova writes in The New Yorker, when we are reading, our brains seem to find something thrilling about reading a list. “The article-as-numbered-list has several features that make it inherently captivating,” she writes. Konnikova, author of the 2013 book Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, explains that lists are in essence pre-packaged to make them brain-friendly. “The headline catches our eye in a stream of content; it positions its subject within a pre-existing category and classification system,” she writes. “It spatially organises the information; and it promises a story that’s finite, whose

length has been quantified upfront.” The result, Konnikova notes, is what we as readers might consider easy reading.

“The mental heavy lifting of conceptualisation, categorisation, and analysis is completed well in advance of actual consumption — a bit like sipping green juice instead of munching on a bundle of kale,” she explains. “And there’s little that our brains crave more than effortlessly acquired data.”

Lists appear to help do the work that our brain would normally do itself — which may provide a clue as to why we find them so appealing, despite our better judgment. As we’ll explore, it may also be why they are rapidly becoming so overused. But first, let’s have a peek at a few lists we love.

BOMBS AND BALANCEIt was 1940. Across the nation, the Battle of Britain was mapping out the future of the country, as Spitfires and Messerschmitts howled in the skies. All this aerial annihilation was a nuisance though for the members of the Richmond Golf Club, just a few miles from London. Especially given that a bomb had recently had the audacity to destroy one of the club’s buildings.

Yet rather than let the scoundrels in the sky ruin their noble sport completely, the club simply had a good British cup of tea, and drew up a list of temporary rules, the first three of which are shown here. 1. Players are asked to collect bomb and

shrapnel splinters to save these causing damage to the mowing machines.

2. In competitions, during gunfire, or while bombs are falling, players may take cover without penalty for ceasing play.

PH

OTO

S: D

RE

AM

ST

IME

LIFE AS A LIST


63MAY 2014

3. The positions of known delayed-action bombs are marked by red flags placed at reasonably, but not guaranteed, safe distance therefrom. They saved the best for last. Item seven

of the rules reads, “A player whose stroke is affected by the simultaneous explosion of a bomb, may play another ball from the same place. Penalty one stroke.”

Now there’s a good list — and a classic example of lists restoring order from chaos, as the golfers were quite literally instructed to keep calm and caddy on. However, in other cases, popular lists have restricted our understanding of common knowledge.

How many senses do you have? That’s easy, you say, counting off on your fingers: sight, smell, sound, taste and touch. Hence, the five senses. Only that mental list we create because of the phrase, is wrong. To narrow it down to such a tiny inventory is in fact an insult to our workhorse bodies.

Our fetish for top-fives means we often forget about thermoception (sense of temperature), proprioception (sense of where our body parts are in relation to other body parts), nociception (sense of pain), and equilibrioception (sense of balance and gravity). And that’s just a few we’ve missed. So when you think all you’re doing is stopping to smell the roses, your body is in fact also doing a dozen other things in the background.

The sight-smell-sound model that we still adopt today dates all the way

Clark admits the main draw of these lists is their role as a psychological trigger. “From a copywriting standpoint, we’re taught to write ultra-specific headlines, because people respond to them in greater numbers,” he tells DCM. Given we are constantly bombarded with content, lists momentarily bring order. “In a fast-paced, attention-poor environment such as your inbox, you make very quick decisions about what you can afford not to pay attention to.”

Do lists sneak through our defences then? “A headline with the specificity that comes with a list is just much harder to resist,” Clark says. “We feel that we can gauge how much attention we’re going to have to invest, after the click.”

Here are three more reasons that lists rule our world. They’re easy to process. They provide an inherent sense of excitement and anticipation. And they give you the chance to hotly agree or disagree. Think of the last time you scanned Buzzfeed’s “10 Best Books of the Year” and shrieked, “They forgot The Hunger Games? The heathens!”

Still, the popularity of such top-fives, and fact that they can be knocked out in about 10 minutes (“The list headline is the lazy writer’s dream,” Clark says) means that the format has also been accused of dumbing us down. Might they soon face their demise? “I remember the first time I was asked that question, in 2006,” he recalls. “My response remains the same. They’ve worked for well over 100 years, and I doubt human nature changes anytime soon.”

POETRY IN NUMBERSWhat Clark and his crazy content cohort play upon is the fact that we as humans already innately put everything we see in metaphorical boxes. Put simply, our brains are busy little list-makers too. “It’s hard for us not to categorise something the moment we see it,” writes Konnikova.

And perhaps for good reason. She writes that this thirst for categorisation — and hence, organisation — is a process that’s been found to aid recall. It may also explain why the format of a list seems to fit us like a glove. “Because we can process information more easily when it’s in a list than when it’s clustered and undifferentiated, like in standard paragraphs, a list feels more intuitive,” she notes.

HOW MANY SENSES DO YOU HAVE? THAT’S EASY, YOU SAY, SIGHT, SMELL, SOUND, TASTE AND TOUCH. ONLY THAT THE MENTAL LIST WE CREATE BECAUSE OF THIS PHRASE, IS WRONG. TO NARROW IT DOWN TO SUCH A TINY INVENTORY IS IN FACT AN INSULT TO OUR WORKHORSE BODIES.

EYE-CATCHING LISTS

“The Top 10 list remains a mainstay and has been historical-

ly, from Moses to Letterman. We’ve started having fun with the convention

at Copyblogger by using 11 instead of 10 (our lists go all the way up to 11, a la This is Spinal Tap). Otherwise, odd numbers work better than even for some reason, which is why you see a lot of three-, five-, and seven-item lists. And finally, there’s the ‘ridiculous list,’ which can be 75, 101, or just some seemingly random number,

such as 37.”– Brian Clark (pictured left),

founder of Copyblogger, on making attention-

grabbing lists

BASED ON HIS EXPERIENCE, COPYBLOGGER’S BRIAN CLARK SAYS THAT WHEN IT COMES TO MAKING LISTS, CERTAIN NUMBERS SEEM TO DRAW MORE ATTENTION FROM AN AUDIENCE THAN OTHERS

back to Aristotle, who insisted that there could not be more than five senses. It has remained unchanged for millennia, and we still teach this narrow-minded view to kindergarteners today. It’s shame perhaps, not least because watching a toddler try to say equilibrioception would instantly go on our list of Five Cutest Things Ever.

TOP FIVE OF EVERYTHINGThis is what the internet is made up of, in descending order: LOL, Cats, nudity and lists. Or at least, that’s what it feels like. Type in “Top 5” into Google and you’ll get, at the time of writing, 5,820,000,000

results. Yes, 5.82 billion. Why is it that we can’t surf the net nowadays without seeing “10 Nail Varnishes that Will Change your Life”, “20 of History’s Worst Dictators” — or “Three Toddlers with the Best Equilibrioception”?

We sent questions to Brian Clark, former attorney and founder of Copyblogger to find out. It is telling that the behemoth content marketing site bills itself in list-format, proudly extolling the lists it’s on: “Advertising Age ranks Copyblogger as a top marketing blog in its Power150 list. The Guardian named Copyblogger one of the world’s 50 most powerful blogs.” And so on.

LIFE AS A LIST


63MAY 2014

3. The positions of known delayed-action bombs are marked by red flags placed at reasonably, but not guaranteed, safe distance therefrom. They saved the best for last. Item seven

of the rules reads, “A player whose stroke is affected by the simultaneous explosion of a bomb, may play another ball from the same place. Penalty one stroke.”

Now there’s a good list — and a classic example of lists restoring order from chaos, as the golfers were quite literally instructed to keep calm and caddy on. However, in other cases, popular lists have restricted our understanding of common knowledge.

How many senses do you have? That’s easy, you say, counting off on your fingers: sight, smell, sound, taste and touch. Hence, the five senses. Only that mental list we create because of the phrase, is wrong. To narrow it down to such a tiny inventory is in fact an insult to our workhorse bodies.

Our fetish for top-fives means we often forget about thermoception (sense of temperature), proprioception (sense of where our body parts are in relation to other body parts), nociception (sense of pain), and equilibrioception (sense of balance and gravity). And that’s just a few we’ve missed. So when you think all you’re doing is stopping to smell the roses, your body is in fact also doing a dozen other things in the background.

The sight-smell-sound model that we still adopt today dates all the way

Clark admits the main draw of these lists is their role as a psychological trigger. “From a copywriting standpoint, we’re taught to write ultra-specific headlines, because people respond to them in greater numbers,” he tells DCM. Given we are constantly bombarded with content, lists momentarily bring order. “In a fast-paced, attention-poor environment such as your inbox, you make very quick decisions about what you can afford not to pay attention to.”

Do lists sneak through our defences then? “A headline with the specificity that comes with a list is just much harder to resist,” Clark says. “We feel that we can gauge how much attention we’re going to have to invest, after the click.”

Here are three more reasons that lists rule our world. They’re easy to process. They provide an inherent sense of excitement and anticipation. And they give you the chance to hotly agree or disagree. Think of the last time you scanned Buzzfeed’s “10 Best Books of the Year” and shrieked, “They forgot The Hunger Games? The heathens!”

Still, the popularity of such top-fives, and fact that they can be knocked out in about 10 minutes (“The list headline is the lazy writer’s dream,” Clark says) means that the format has also been accused of dumbing us down. Might they soon face their demise? “I remember the first time I was asked that question, in 2006,” he recalls. “My response remains the same. They’ve worked for well over 100 years, and I doubt human nature changes anytime soon.”

POETRY IN NUMBERSWhat Clark and his crazy content cohort play upon is the fact that we as humans already innately put everything we see in metaphorical boxes. Put simply, our brains are busy little list-makers too. “It’s hard for us not to categorise something the moment we see it,” writes Konnikova.

And perhaps for good reason. She writes that this thirst for categorisation — and hence, organisation — is a process that’s been found to aid recall. It may also explain why the format of a list seems to fit us like a glove. “Because we can process information more easily when it’s in a list than when it’s clustered and undifferentiated, like in standard paragraphs, a list feels more intuitive,” she notes.

HOW MANY SENSES DO YOU HAVE? THAT’S EASY, YOU SAY, SIGHT, SMELL, SOUND, TASTE AND TOUCH. ONLY THAT THE MENTAL LIST WE CREATE BECAUSE OF THIS PHRASE, IS WRONG. TO NARROW IT DOWN TO SUCH A TINY INVENTORY IS IN FACT AN INSULT TO OUR WORKHORSE BODIES.

EYE-CATCHING LISTS

“The Top 10 list remains a mainstay and has been historical-

ly, from Moses to Letterman. We’ve started having fun with the convention

at Copyblogger by using 11 instead of 10 (our lists go all the way up to 11, a la This is Spinal Tap). Otherwise, odd numbers work better than even for some reason, which is why you see a lot of three-, five-, and seven-item lists. And finally, there’s the ‘ridiculous list,’ which can be 75, 101, or just some seemingly random number,

such as 37.”– Brian Clark (pictured left),

founder of Copyblogger, on making attention-

grabbing lists

BASED ON HIS EXPERIENCE, COPYBLOGGER’S BRIAN CLARK SAYS THAT WHEN IT COMES TO MAKING LISTS, CERTAIN NUMBERS SEEM TO DRAW MORE ATTENTION FROM AN AUDIENCE THAN OTHERS

back to Aristotle, who insisted that there could not be more than five senses. It has remained unchanged for millennia, and we still teach this narrow-minded view to kindergarteners today. It’s shame perhaps, not least because watching a toddler try to say equilibrioception would instantly go on our list of Five Cutest Things Ever.

TOP FIVE OF EVERYTHINGThis is what the internet is made up of, in descending order: LOL, Cats, nudity and lists. Or at least, that’s what it feels like. Type in “Top 5” into Google and you’ll get, at the time of writing, 5,820,000,000

results. Yes, 5.82 billion. Why is it that we can’t surf the net nowadays without seeing “10 Nail Varnishes that Will Change your Life”, “20 of History’s Worst Dictators” — or “Three Toddlers with the Best Equilibrioception”?

We sent questions to Brian Clark, former attorney and founder of Copyblogger to find out. It is telling that the behemoth content marketing site bills itself in list-format, proudly extolling the lists it’s on: “Advertising Age ranks Copyblogger as a top marketing blog in its Power150 list. The Guardian named Copyblogger one of the world’s 50 most powerful blogs.” And so on.

LIFE AS A LIST


65MAY 2014

A1. AWFUL

B2. BALDY 3. BASHFUL

4. BIGGO-EGO 5. BURPY

D6. DAFFY 7. DEAFY 8. DIPPY

9. DIRTY 10. DIZZY 11. DOLEFUL12. DOPEY 13. DUMPY

F14. FLABBY

G15. GABBY 16. GRUMPY

H17. HICKEY 18. HOPPY19. HOTSY 20. HUNGRY

J21. JAUNTY 22. JUMPY

L23. LAZY

N24. NEURTSY 25. NIFTY

P26. PUFFY

S27. SAPPY 28. SCRAPPY29. SHIFTY 30. SHORTY

31. SILLY 32. SLEEPY33. SNAPPY 34. SNEEZY

35. SNEEZY-WHEEZY 36. SNIFFY37. SNOOPY 38. SOULFUL

39. STRUTTY 40. STUFFY 41. SWIFT

T42. TEARFUL 43. THRIFTY

W44. WEEPY 45. WHEEZY

46. WISTFUL 47. WOEFUL

WALT DISNEY’S IDEAS LIST

WHAT TO NAME THE SEVEN CUDDLY CHARACTERS IN SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARVES? DISNEY’S WRITING TEAM COMPILED A LIST OF 47 POSSIBILITIES. WHAT WOULD NEURTSY EVEN LOOK LIKE?

more poignant by the fact that only the pyramids still stand today.

How much would we know about the Greeks at all if it weren’t for their obsessive list-making? Much of the list frenzy seems to have started in 776 BC, when a naked, sweaty cook named Koroibos of Elis crossed the finish line of a race covered in olive oil. Koroibos’ race was to echo throughout history: he was the first recorded name in the Olympionikai, or Olympic victors list. In their 2006 paper, The Olympic Victor List of Eusebius, historians Dr Paul Christesen and Dr Zara Martirosova-Torlone explained that the list’s enduring popularity at that time was “due to the fact that, by the fourth century BC, numbered Olympiads and the names of Olympian victors became a standard means of identifying individual years”. They thus became an early means of standardising and referencing time by various Greek nations, who kept different calendars across the Mediterranean.

Olympic victor lists were hugely important to modern historians, too. “Their chronographic significance means they are critical to our understanding of the chronological underpinnings of Greek history,” the authors write. Without the victors, our understanding of culture might be significantly more jumbled.

DARK LISTSEven today, there is an undeniable gravitas to certain lists. Think of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in the US capital of Washington DC. From Specialist fourth-class Gerald Lloyd Aadland to Specialist fourth-class James Louis Zyph, there are 58,195 names etched onto its black stone — just the names of the dead. In its simplicity lies its power.

Other lists have proven to be lifesavers. Steven Spielberg’s cinematic masterpiece Schindler’s List was based on the real-life good samaritan Oskar Schindler, a Nazi industrialist who used Jewish labour in his factories. Inclusion on his typewritten list of workers meant more food, better conditions — and a shot at survival. Not for nothing is one of the most powerful lines of the film uttered by a hoarse Sir Ben Kingsley: “The list is life. All around its margins lies the gulf.”

WOULD IT BE EASIER TO CREATE A LIST WITH WORDS? CERTAINLY THAT WOULD MAKE A GROCERY LIST EASIER TO UNDERSTAND. DCM HAS PREVIOUSLY FEATURED MICHELANGELO’S GROCERY LIST, WHICH HAD SKETCHES MATCHING THE ITEMS HE HAD LISTED. THIS MIGHT HAVE ALLOWED EVEN ILLITERATE PEOPLE TO “READ” HIS GROCERY LIST

Indeed, mankind’s longing for a good list apparently goes back a long way. When Homer was writing the Iliad, his epic 15,600-line poem about the Trojan War, he detailed the astonishing breadth of the Greek fleet with the 300-line Catalogue of Ships — naming the captains of the vessels, where they were from, and the heroes they carried. The list literally became poetry: the Iliad was delivered as spoken word, its performers memorising dozens of ethnicities, captains and their troops. For Greeks, the immense roll call was a stirring tribute, where even the smallest players were acknowledged. Homer began the Catalogue of Ships by invoking the nine Muses of Olympus to share their memory of the details: “The mass of troops I could never tally, never name,” he wrote. “Not even if I had 10 tongues and 10 mouths.”

We could even accuse the ancient Greeks of being the fathers of the internet-style best-of list. The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World? It’s hardly a recent concept, dreamed up by a cunning travel agent. It was invented by the Greeks as a kind of Condé Nast Hot List of its time. Although the top seven wonders varied from Greek to Greek, the main contenders were the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the walls of Babylon, the statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Colossus of Rhodes, the Egyptian pyramids and the tomb of King Mausolus at Halicarnassus — a list made

WE AS HUMANS INNATELY PUT EVERYTHING IN METAPHORICAL BOXES. OUR BRAINS ARE BUSY LITTLE LIST-MAKERS. “IT’S HARD FOR US NOT TO CATEGORISE SOMETHING THE MOMENT WE SEE IT,”THIS THIRST FOR CATEGORISATION IS A PROCESS THAT’S BEEN FOUND TO AID RECALL.

LIFE AS A LIST


65MAY 2014

A1. AWFUL

B2. BALDY 3. BASHFUL

4. BIGGO-EGO 5. BURPY

D6. DAFFY 7. DEAFY 8. DIPPY

9. DIRTY 10. DIZZY 11. DOLEFUL12. DOPEY 13. DUMPY

F14. FLABBY

G15. GABBY 16. GRUMPY

H17. HICKEY 18. HOPPY19. HOTSY 20. HUNGRY

J21. JAUNTY 22. JUMPY

L23. LAZY

N24. NEURTSY 25. NIFTY

P26. PUFFY

S27. SAPPY 28. SCRAPPY29. SHIFTY 30. SHORTY

31. SILLY 32. SLEEPY33. SNAPPY 34. SNEEZY

35. SNEEZY-WHEEZY 36. SNIFFY37. SNOOPY 38. SOULFUL

39. STRUTTY 40. STUFFY 41. SWIFT

T42. TEARFUL 43. THRIFTY

W44. WEEPY 45. WHEEZY

46. WISTFUL 47. WOEFUL

WALT DISNEY’S IDEAS LIST

WHAT TO NAME THE SEVEN CUDDLY CHARACTERS IN SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARVES? DISNEY’S WRITING TEAM COMPILED A LIST OF 47 POSSIBILITIES. WHAT WOULD NEURTSY EVEN LOOK LIKE?

BASHFUL

NEURTSY EVEN LOOK LIKE?

DUMPY

GRUMPY

THRIFTY

WOEFUL

21.

24.

more poignant by the fact that only the pyramids still stand today.

How much would we know about the Greeks at all if it weren’t for their obsessive list-making? Much of the list frenzy seems to have started in 776 BC, when a naked, sweaty cook named Koroibos of Elis crossed the finish line of a race covered in olive oil. Koroibos’ race was to echo throughout history: he was the first recorded name in the Olympionikai, or Olympic victors list. In their 2006 paper, The Olympic Victor List of Eusebius, historians Dr Paul Christesen and Dr Zara Martirosova-Torlone explained that the list’s enduring popularity at that time was “due to the fact that, by the fourth century BC, numbered Olympiads and the names of Olympian victors became a standard means of identifying individual years”. They thus became an early means of standardising and referencing time by various Greek nations, who kept different calendars across the Mediterranean.

Olympic victor lists were hugely important to modern historians, too. “Their chronographic significance means they are critical to our understanding of the chronological underpinnings of Greek history,” the authors write. Without the victors, our understanding of culture might be significantly more jumbled.

DARK LISTSEven today, there is an undeniable gravitas to certain lists. Think of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in the US capital of Washington DC. From Specialist fourth-class Gerald Lloyd Aadland to Specialist fourth-class James Louis Zyph, there are 58,195 names etched onto its black stone — just the names of the dead. In its simplicity lies its power.

Other lists have proven to be lifesavers. Steven Spielberg’s cinematic masterpiece Schindler’s List was based on the real-life good samaritan Oskar Schindler, a Nazi industrialist who used Jewish labour in his factories. Inclusion on his typewritten list of workers meant more food, better conditions — and a shot at survival. Not for nothing is one of the most powerful lines of the film uttered by a hoarse Sir Ben Kingsley: “The list is life. All around its margins lies the gulf.”

WOULD IT BE EASIER TO CREATE A LIST WITH WORDS? CERTAINLY THAT WOULD MAKE A GROCERY LIST EASIER TO UNDERSTAND. DCM HAS PREVIOUSLY FEATURED MICHELANGELO’S GROCERY LIST, WHICH HAD SKETCHES MATCHING THE ITEMS HE HAD LISTED. THIS MIGHT HAVE ALLOWED EVEN ILLITERATE PEOPLE TO “READ” HIS GROCERY LIST

Indeed, mankind’s longing for a good list apparently goes back a long way. When Homer was writing the Iliad, his epic 15,600-line poem about the Trojan War, he detailed the astonishing breadth of the Greek fleet with the 300-line Catalogue of Ships — naming the captains of the vessels, where they were from, and the heroes they carried. The list literally became poetry: the Iliad was delivered as spoken word, its performers memorising dozens of ethnicities, captains and their troops. For Greeks, the immense roll call was a stirring tribute, where even the smallest players were acknowledged. Homer began the Catalogue of Ships by invoking the nine Muses of Olympus to share their memory of the details: “The mass of troops I could never tally, never name,” he wrote. “Not even if I had 10 tongues and 10 mouths.”

We could even accuse the ancient Greeks of being the fathers of the internet-style best-of list. The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World? It’s hardly a recent concept, dreamed up by a cunning travel agent. It was invented by the Greeks as a kind of Condé Nast Hot List of its time. Although the top seven wonders varied from Greek to Greek, the main contenders were the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the walls of Babylon, the statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Colossus of Rhodes, the Egyptian pyramids and the tomb of King Mausolus at Halicarnassus — a list made

WE AS HUMANS INNATELY PUT EVERYTHING IN METAPHORICAL BOXES. OUR BRAINS ARE BUSY LITTLE LIST-MAKERS. “IT’S HARD FOR US NOT TO CATEGORISE SOMETHING THE MOMENT WE SEE IT,”THIS THIRST FOR CATEGORISATION IS A PROCESS THAT’S BEEN FOUND TO AID RECALL.

LIFE AS A LIST

27.29.

39. STRUTTY

42.

44.46.


67MAY 2014

DCM CAUGHT UP WITH AMIE STEPANOVICH, SENIOR POLICY COUNCIL AT ACCESS NOW, A HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANISATION DEFENDING DIGITAL RIGHTS. SHE TELLS THAT BASED ON A RANDOM LIST OF KEYWORDS YOU USED ONLINE, YOUR LIFE COULD CHANGE.

Are keyword surveillance lists good? Bad? Or perhaps misguided? People have to know what criteria you are using to add them to a list. When you tag a bunch of keywords, you’re going to get a bunch of false negatives. The algorithm through which these are selected shouldn’t be discretionary when you are talking about depriving people of basic rights.

This is one of the issues we are see-ing with the no-fly list, where different agencies can recommend that people get added — which takes away their right to not only fly in United States airspace but also over US airspace.

Scary stuff! The other thing is there has to be the possibility of redress. If someone has been added to a no-fly list incorrectly and deprived of rights, they have to be able to go through a process that is easy to figure out and efficient, to have them removed from the watch list. They have set up a programme called DHS TRIP [the Department of Home-land Security Traveler Redress Inquiry Programme], but it requires you to plug in even more information. It’s not clear if you’ll be taken off the list, but it does put you square in the government’s eyes for additional surveillance and inquiry. So in the process of trying to say you have been unfairly targeted, you become more targeted. A lot of people have been added to the terror suspect list — just because they have the same name as a suspect. You see a lot of targeting of minorities, who already feel like they’re targeted in the US for many other reasons. Their only digression could be having the same name as somebody else. To get off the list takes even more time, and in some cases people can’t devote that amount of energy and harassment that comes with it..

NAUGHTY OR NICE? THAT’S THE KEYWORD

PH

OTO

S: G

ET

TY

IM

AG

ES

(A

MIE

ST

EPA

NO

VIC

H);

AF

P (

VIE

TN

AM

WA

R M

EM

OR

IAL

)

Elsewhere we see more chilling lists. A register of 46 Soviet military officials dated January 29, 1942, provides a stark example of what would later be called the Purge of the Red Army. Written in blue pencil over the names was five words. “Shoot all named in the list.” It is signed by Joseph Stalin. With his trademark scrawl, the dictator’s pencil erased thousands of other names, and lives, from existence.

Drill. Cops. Dirty bomb. Facility. Cloud. Plague. Grid. Delays. Decapitated. North Korea. Worm. These are just some of the hundreds of keywords the US government, and other governments, lists as suspicious. Use enough of them in a certain order in an email, a Google search or a tweet, and advanced software may add you to a watch list.

Or possibly worse. In 2012, British tourist Leigh Van Bryan sent this tweet to a friend: “Free this week for a quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America? x.” After landing in Los Angeles, he was held for intense questioning and deported, despite telling his interrogators that by “destroy” he simply meant he was going to party rather hard. Another of his tweets read: “3 weeks today, we’re totally in LA pissing people off on Hollywood Blvd and diggin’ Marilyn Monroe up!” His travel partner Emily Bunting was also questioned about the second tweet. “I almost burst out laughing when they asked me if I was going to be Leigh’s lookout while he dug up Marilyn Monroe,” she told The Daily Mail. Somewhat ironically, the line was a

quote from the American comedy TV show Family Guy.

LESS IS MORENot only do lists seem to come in a format that our brains like, they also help to limit that pesky need to choose. In 2011, psychologists Dr Claude Messner and Dr Michaela Wänke tested the “paradox of choice”, whereby the more information and options we have, the worse we seem to feel. Their report in the Journal of Consumer Psychology observed, “Consumers are less satisfied with a product chosen from an extended assortment than from a limited one.” The researchers continued, “Presumably, information overload causes decreased satisfaction and reducing information overload would increase satisfaction.” And since a top-five limits our choices, this could lead to increased satisfaction.

For many, lists are a key not only to ordering and interpreting information, but to retention of data as well. The fact that we tend to write lists vertically helps our learning process too, allowing our eyes to glide smoothly down a page, thus aiding spatial thinking. This is likely also why we make grocery lists: you’ll find that even if you write down the information then leave the list at home, you’re more likely to remember the items, since your brain can better recall the location of the words on the page.

Neuroscientist, German Memory Championships winner and Guinness World Record holder Boris Nikolai Konrad has explained how lists can even help you memorise lists. Speaking to Psychology Today, he noted, “The foundation of most artificial mnemonics is the use of visual imagery and to associate them with pre-learned cues.” The most famous of these is the “method of loci”, where items to remember are associated with physical locations. “The idea is to prepare a list of locations, for example in one’s home,” Konrad said. “When memorising data, for example a list of words, one will mentally walk along them and make visual associations between the to-be-learned word and the location.”

The locations, he added, are a tool in themselves. “If I memorise digits or playing cards, I first have to encode them into an image. Therefore I also have a list of images prepared.” Memory athletes, as they dub themselves, often

DRILL. COPS. DIRTY BOMB. FACILITY. CLOUD. PLAGUE. GRID. DELAYS. DECAPITATED. NORTH KOREA. WORM. THESE ARE JUST SOME OF THE HUNDREDS OF KEYWORDS THE US GOVERNMENT, AND OTHER GOVERNMENTS, LISTS AS SUSPICIOUS.

LIFE AS A LIST


67MAY 2014

DCM CAUGHT UP WITH AMIE STEPANOVICH, SENIOR POLICY COUNCIL AT ACCESS NOW, A HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANISATION DEFENDING DIGITAL RIGHTS. SHE TELLS THAT BASED ON A RANDOM LIST OF KEYWORDS YOU USED ONLINE, YOUR LIFE COULD CHANGE.

Are keyword surveillance lists good? Bad? Or perhaps misguided? People have to know what criteria you are using to add them to a list. When you tag a bunch of keywords, you’re going to get a bunch of false negatives. The algorithm through which these are selected shouldn’t be discretionary when you are talking about depriving people of basic rights.

This is one of the issues we are see-ing with the no-fly list, where different agencies can recommend that people get added — which takes away their right to not only fly in United States airspace but also over US airspace.

Scary stuff! The other thing is there has to be the possibility of redress. If someone has been added to a no-fly list incorrectly and deprived of rights, they have to be able to go through a process that is easy to figure out and efficient, to have them removed from the watch list. They have set up a programme called DHS TRIP [the Department of Home-land Security Traveler Redress Inquiry Programme], but it requires you to plug in even more information. It’s not clear if you’ll be taken off the list, but it does put you square in the government’s eyes for additional surveillance and inquiry. So in the process of trying to say you have been unfairly targeted, you become more targeted. A lot of people have been added to the terror suspect list — just because they have the same name as a suspect. You see a lot of targeting of minorities, who already feel like they’re targeted in the US for many other reasons. Their only digression could be having the same name as somebody else. To get off the list takes even more time, and in some cases people can’t devote that amount of energy and harassment that comes with it..

NAUGHTY OR NICE? THAT’S THE KEYWORD

PH

OTO

S: G

ET

TY

IM

AG

ES

(A

MIE

ST

EPA

NO

VIC

H);

AF

P (

VIE

TN

AM

WA

R M

EM

OR

IAL

)

Elsewhere we see more chilling lists. A register of 46 Soviet military officials dated January 29, 1942, provides a stark example of what would later be called the Purge of the Red Army. Written in blue pencil over the names was five words. “Shoot all named in the list.” It is signed by Joseph Stalin. With his trademark scrawl, the dictator’s pencil erased thousands of other names, and lives, from existence.

Drill. Cops. Dirty bomb. Facility. Cloud. Plague. Grid. Delays. Decapitated. North Korea. Worm. These are just some of the hundreds of keywords the US government, and other governments, lists as suspicious. Use enough of them in a certain order in an email, a Google search or a tweet, and advanced software may add you to a watch list.

Or possibly worse. In 2012, British tourist Leigh Van Bryan sent this tweet to a friend: “Free this week for a quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America? x.” After landing in Los Angeles, he was held for intense questioning and deported, despite telling his interrogators that by “destroy” he simply meant he was going to party rather hard. Another of his tweets read: “3 weeks today, we’re totally in LA pissing people off on Hollywood Blvd and diggin’ Marilyn Monroe up!” His travel partner Emily Bunting was also questioned about the second tweet. “I almost burst out laughing when they asked me if I was going to be Leigh’s lookout while he dug up Marilyn Monroe,” she told The Daily Mail. Somewhat ironically, the line was a

quote from the American comedy TV show Family Guy.

LESS IS MORENot only do lists seem to come in a format that our brains like, they also help to limit that pesky need to choose. In 2011, psychologists Dr Claude Messner and Dr Michaela Wänke tested the “paradox of choice”, whereby the more information and options we have, the worse we seem to feel. Their report in the Journal of Consumer Psychology observed, “Consumers are less satisfied with a product chosen from an extended assortment than from a limited one.” The researchers continued, “Presumably, information overload causes decreased satisfaction and reducing information overload would increase satisfaction.” And since a top-five limits our choices, this could lead to increased satisfaction.

For many, lists are a key not only to ordering and interpreting information, but to retention of data as well. The fact that we tend to write lists vertically helps our learning process too, allowing our eyes to glide smoothly down a page, thus aiding spatial thinking. This is likely also why we make grocery lists: you’ll find that even if you write down the information then leave the list at home, you’re more likely to remember the items, since your brain can better recall the location of the words on the page.

Neuroscientist, German Memory Championships winner and Guinness World Record holder Boris Nikolai Konrad has explained how lists can even help you memorise lists. Speaking to Psychology Today, he noted, “The foundation of most artificial mnemonics is the use of visual imagery and to associate them with pre-learned cues.” The most famous of these is the “method of loci”, where items to remember are associated with physical locations. “The idea is to prepare a list of locations, for example in one’s home,” Konrad said. “When memorising data, for example a list of words, one will mentally walk along them and make visual associations between the to-be-learned word and the location.”

The locations, he added, are a tool in themselves. “If I memorise digits or playing cards, I first have to encode them into an image. Therefore I also have a list of images prepared.” Memory athletes, as they dub themselves, often

DRILL. COPS. DIRTY BOMB. FACILITY. CLOUD. PLAGUE. GRID. DELAYS. DECAPITATED. NORTH KOREA. WORM. THESE ARE JUST SOME OF THE HUNDREDS OF KEYWORDS THE US GOVERNMENT, AND OTHER GOVERNMENTS, LISTS AS SUSPICIOUS.

LIFE AS A LIST


69MAY 2014

ONE OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS OF THE UNITED

STATES, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN IS FAMOUS FOR

THE LIST OF 13 VIRTUES THAT HE LIVED HIS LIFE BY — BUT ALSO FOR THE LIST

HE COMPILED OF PHRASES TO DESCRIBE SOMEONE

WHO IS DRUNK, APTLY DUBBED “THE DRINKERS

DICTIONARY”

have a list of specific images tied to each digit, which may range between zero and 999. Explaining how it works, he said research suggests our brain can store more information if it’s stored in a certain way. “Apparently the mnemonics enable us to directly encode information into long-term memory. Using visual imagery, one can influence which memory system encodes particular information,” he said.

Thanks to social media in particular, even if you’re not looking for them, lists are now everywhere. Every time we search on Google, the results reveal a list. Dozens of times a day, Google ranks what it thinks is most useful to us, influencing our options on everything from which insurance to use, to what restaurant to avoid.

There is a kind of inverse momentum to that ranking too, an understanding that the most important stuff is at the top. Which is why search engine optimisation consultants make their money teaching you what buzzwords to include in your content, edging you closer to the top of the search list.

However, there is also a sense of diminishing returns when a list gets too unmanageable. In their book Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength John Tierney and Roy F Baumeister discuss an episode where a psychologist speaking to a group of the Pentagon’s most powerful generals asked them to summarise their strategic approach — in just 25 words. All failed, except one female general, who wrote: “First I make a list of priorities: one, two, three, and so on. Then I cross out everything from three down.” In just 21 words, the perfect tactical to-do list.

Which brings us to the saviour and scourge of many of us: the to-do list. Psychologists and productivity gurus tell us that a mighty list can be tackled by phrasing action points better. Research suggests the brain likes easily understood, specific tasks — finding them much less overwhelming than generalities.

There’s also a reason many people prefer to write lists with pen and paper: for the savage pleasure of crossing that task out with a scribbled flourish. DCM is sure you know exactly what we mean.

This sense of achievement and certainty can do wonders, which is why therapists often counsel patients with depression to do a simple exercise.

List five things at the end of each day for which they are grateful. It could be as simple as “good weather” or “my sister brought me pizza”. But the act of recounting or writing positive things has shown to have a dramatic effect on mental well-being.

Lists can give us a highly personal peek into the minds of some of the greatest thinkers of history, in ways that no letters or speeches ever could. Albert Einstein, for example, doesn’t come off as such a sweetheart in a list of dictatorial demands he sent to his wife. These include: “You will obey the following points in your relations with me: 1) You will not expect any intimacy from me, nor will you reproach me in any way. 2) You will stop talking to me if I request it. 3) You will leave my bedroom or study immediately without protest if I request it.” We can only hope he was more charming in person.

Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, comes off as a lot more fun thanks to some of his lists. There’s his “List of 13 Virtues”, number one being “Temperance: eat not to Dullness, drink not to elevation.”

Paradoxically, he also has a list of over 200 synonyms for being drunk, which he proudly announced were “gather’d wholly from the modern tavern-conversation of tipplers.” Some highlights included “he is addled”, “he’s casting up his accounts”, “he’s biggy”, “drunk as a wheel-barrow” and “his head is full of bees.”

ON THE LISTLists are also often used to denote status: ranging from the door list at your favourite dance club, which helps you skip past the queue, through to higher honours, like The A-list, the Forbes 500, or the 30 Under 30 Entrepreneurs to Watch. Indeed, a special thing seems to happen once you get your name enshrined on a much-coveted ranking. As Copyblogger’s Clark explains, “Once you’re deemed to be on such a list, you are viewed differently — mostly for the better. It’s just the way humans are wired.”

Book sales are a stark example. Stick something on the New York Times bestseller list and it will likely remain there for a while, purely because people see the list and think they ought to read it. For example, it took the Harry Potter books 10 years to come unstuck

from the list. As Michael Korda noted in Making the List: A Cultural History of the American Bestseller, 1900–1999, boasting about sales very quickly became a way of boosting sales.

The first bestseller list is thought to have appeared in 1895 in a magazine dubbed The Bookman. At the top was Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush by Ian Maclaren. Sadly today, this picture of rural Scottish life languishes at number 5,263,535 in Amazon’s Best Sellers Rank.

There’s a story many scientists, including Stephen Hawking, like to tell. Hawking wrote in A Brief History of Time, “A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the centre of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy.” At the end of the lecture, he wrote, an old lady raised a point. “‘What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.’ The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, ‘What is the tortoise standing on?’ ‘You’re very clever, young man, very clever,’ said the old lady. ‘But it’s tortoises all the way down.’”

The story seems appropriate, given that there is an entry on Wikipedia called “List of lists of lists.” Some might say it takes a special kind of mind to create that page, yet as the introduction points out, “Some articles that consist of a list of things are themselves about lists of things.” In other words, as we’d put it: it’s lists all the way down.

MOST WANTED LIST

One list very few people would want to be on, the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives”,

made its debut on March 14, 1950. The move by the Federal Bureau of

Investigation, in the United States, came after a 1949 news story on the “toughest

guys” to catch. The FBI director at the time, J Edgar Hoover, decided an official list would capture the public’s

imagination — and hopefully assist in arrests.

As of 2011, 465 of those on the list had been apprehended, 153

of them following tip-offs from the public.

PSYCHOLOGISTS TESTED THE “PARADOX OF CHOICE”, WHEREBY THE MORE INFORMATION AND OPTIONS WE HAVE, THE WORSE WE SEEM TO FEEL.REDUCING INFORMATION OVERLOAD WOULD INCREASE SATISFACTION.

LIFE AS A LIST


69MAY 2014

ONE OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS OF THE UNITED

STATES, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN IS FAMOUS FOR

THE LIST OF 13 VIRTUES THAT HE LIVED HIS LIFE BY — BUT ALSO FOR THE LIST

HE COMPILED OF PHRASES TO DESCRIBE SOMEONE

WHO IS DRUNK, APTLY DUBBED “THE DRINKERS

DICTIONARY”

have a list of specific images tied to each digit, which may range between zero and 999. Explaining how it works, he said research suggests our brain can store more information if it’s stored in a certain way. “Apparently the mnemonics enable us to directly encode information into long-term memory. Using visual imagery, one can influence which memory system encodes particular information,” he said.

Thanks to social media in particular, even if you’re not looking for them, lists are now everywhere. Every time we search on Google, the results reveal a list. Dozens of times a day, Google ranks what it thinks is most useful to us, influencing our options on everything from which insurance to use, to what restaurant to avoid.

There is a kind of inverse momentum to that ranking too, an understanding that the most important stuff is at the top. Which is why search engine optimisation consultants make their money teaching you what buzzwords to include in your content, edging you closer to the top of the search list.

However, there is also a sense of diminishing returns when a list gets too unmanageable. In their book Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength John Tierney and Roy F Baumeister discuss an episode where a psychologist speaking to a group of the Pentagon’s most powerful generals asked them to summarise their strategic approach — in just 25 words. All failed, except one female general, who wrote: “First I make a list of priorities: one, two, three, and so on. Then I cross out everything from three down.” In just 21 words, the perfect tactical to-do list.

Which brings us to the saviour and scourge of many of us: the to-do list. Psychologists and productivity gurus tell us that a mighty list can be tackled by phrasing action points better. Research suggests the brain likes easily understood, specific tasks — finding them much less overwhelming than generalities.

There’s also a reason many people prefer to write lists with pen and paper: for the savage pleasure of crossing that task out with a scribbled flourish. DCM is sure you know exactly what we mean.

This sense of achievement and certainty can do wonders, which is why therapists often counsel patients with depression to do a simple exercise.

List five things at the end of each day for which they are grateful. It could be as simple as “good weather” or “my sister brought me pizza”. But the act of recounting or writing positive things has shown to have a dramatic effect on mental well-being.

Lists can give us a highly personal peek into the minds of some of the greatest thinkers of history, in ways that no letters or speeches ever could. Albert Einstein, for example, doesn’t come off as such a sweetheart in a list of dictatorial demands he sent to his wife. These include: “You will obey the following points in your relations with me: 1) You will not expect any intimacy from me, nor will you reproach me in any way. 2) You will stop talking to me if I request it. 3) You will leave my bedroom or study immediately without protest if I request it.” We can only hope he was more charming in person.

Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, comes off as a lot more fun thanks to some of his lists. There’s his “List of 13 Virtues”, number one being “Temperance: eat not to Dullness, drink not to elevation.”

Paradoxically, he also has a list of over 200 synonyms for being drunk, which he proudly announced were “gather’d wholly from the modern tavern-conversation of tipplers.” Some highlights included “he is addled”, “he’s casting up his accounts”, “he’s biggy”, “drunk as a wheel-barrow” and “his head is full of bees.”

ON THE LISTLists are also often used to denote status: ranging from the door list at your favourite dance club, which helps you skip past the queue, through to higher honours, like The A-list, the Forbes 500, or the 30 Under 30 Entrepreneurs to Watch. Indeed, a special thing seems to happen once you get your name enshrined on a much-coveted ranking. As Copyblogger’s Clark explains, “Once you’re deemed to be on such a list, you are viewed differently — mostly for the better. It’s just the way humans are wired.”

Book sales are a stark example. Stick something on the New York Times bestseller list and it will likely remain there for a while, purely because people see the list and think they ought to read it. For example, it took the Harry Potter books 10 years to come unstuck

from the list. As Michael Korda noted in Making the List: A Cultural History of the American Bestseller, 1900–1999, boasting about sales very quickly became a way of boosting sales.

The first bestseller list is thought to have appeared in 1895 in a magazine dubbed The Bookman. At the top was Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush by Ian Maclaren. Sadly today, this picture of rural Scottish life languishes at number 5,263,535 in Amazon’s Best Sellers Rank.

There’s a story many scientists, including Stephen Hawking, like to tell. Hawking wrote in A Brief History of Time, “A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the centre of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy.” At the end of the lecture, he wrote, an old lady raised a point. “‘What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.’ The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, ‘What is the tortoise standing on?’ ‘You’re very clever, young man, very clever,’ said the old lady. ‘But it’s tortoises all the way down.’”

The story seems appropriate, given that there is an entry on Wikipedia called “List of lists of lists.” Some might say it takes a special kind of mind to create that page, yet as the introduction points out, “Some articles that consist of a list of things are themselves about lists of things.” In other words, as we’d put it: it’s lists all the way down.

MOST WANTED LIST

One list very few people would want to be on, the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives”,

made its debut on March 14, 1950. The move by the Federal Bureau of

Investigation, in the United States, came after a 1949 news story on the “toughest

guys” to catch. The FBI director at the time, J Edgar Hoover, decided an official list would capture the public’s

imagination — and hopefully assist in arrests.

As of 2011, 465 of those on the list had been apprehended, 153

of them following tip-offs from the public.

PSYCHOLOGISTS TESTED THE “PARADOX OF CHOICE”, WHEREBY THE MORE INFORMATION AND OPTIONS WE HAVE, THE WORSE WE SEEM TO FEEL.REDUCING INFORMATION OVERLOAD WOULD INCREASE SATISFACTION.

LIFE AS A LIST


71MAY 2014

THE BLACK RHINOCEROS (DICEROS BICORNIS) IS A

CRITICALLY ENDANGERED SPECIES. THEY TYPICALLY

HAVE TWO HORNS, AND MORE RARELY, A THIRD,

SMALLER ONE

LOCKING HORNS

POACHING FOR TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINEASK THE PERSON NEXT TO YOU WHAT HE OR SHE THINKS RHINO HORN MIGHT BE USED FOR IN TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE (TCM). CHANCES ARE, THEY’LL TELL YOU IT IS USED AS AN APHRODISIAC. IT IS NOT. IN CERTAIN ASIAN COUNTRIES, GROUND RHINO HORN IS USED TO CURE ALMOST EVERYTHING BUT IMPOTENCE.

CHINESE RHINOCEROS HORN LIBATION CUP A RARE, MASTERFULLY CARVED CHI-NESE RHINOCEROS HORN LIBATION CUP FROM THE 17TH OR 18TH CEN-TURY, FOUR INCHES TALL AND FITTED TO A RETICULATED TEAKWOOD BASE, SOLD FOR $318,600 AT A SALE OF ASIAN ANTIQUES BY ELITE DECORATIVE ARTS.

HOW RHINO HORNS END UP IN ASIAN JEWELRY SHOPSAN ADEQUATE PARALLEL FOR THE OTHER WRIST-A RHINO HORN BANGLE WORTH THE SAME AS A ROLEX WRIST WATCH (ABOUT U$15,000) WOULD MAKE FOR A GOOD CONVERSATION PIECE, NOT YET ON THE MUST HAVE LIST OF MOST OF YOUR FRIENDS.

"DO YOU HAVE XINIUJIAO?" XIANGYA IS THE CHINESE TERM FOR IVORY, XINGJIAO FOR RHINO HORN. CHINA IS RESPONSIBLE FOR AN ESTIMATED 70% OF THE WORLD TRADE IN IVORY. INTERNATIONAL WILDLIFE TRADE MONITORING ORGANISATION INDICATES THAT NEARLY 80% OF THE REPORTED SEIZURES OF RHINO HORNS IN ASIA BETWEEN 2009 AND LATE LAST YEAR HAPPENED IN CHINA.

PRODUCTS TO SAY LEGALISE OR NOT TO LEGALISE?

SMUGGLED LIKE A NARCOTIC, VALUED HIGHER THAN COCAINE AND GOLD, RHINO HORN HAS BECOME THE MOST COVETED CONTRABAND IN TODAY'S WORLD. LAST YEAR, ONE BLACK OR WHITE RHINO WAS POACHED EVERY EIGHT HOURS IN SOUTH AFRICA. AS ITS BY-PRODUCTS MAKE THEIR WAY INTO ELITIST ASIAN HOMES THE HORN THREATENS THE SURVIVAL OF THE SPECIES. DANIEL ALLEN REPORTS

DWINDLING RHINOS


71MAY 2014

THE BLACK RHINOCEROS (DICEROS BICORNIS) IS A

CRITICALLY ENDANGERED SPECIES. THEY TYPICALLY

HAVE TWO HORNS, AND MORE RARELY, A THIRD,

SMALLER ONE

LOCKING HORNS

POACHING FOR TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINEASK THE PERSON NEXT TO YOU WHAT HE OR SHE THINKS RHINO HORN MIGHT BE USED FOR IN TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE (TCM). CHANCES ARE, THEY’LL TELL YOU IT IS USED AS AN APHRODISIAC. IT IS NOT. IN CERTAIN ASIAN COUNTRIES, GROUND RHINO HORN IS USED TO CURE ALMOST EVERYTHING BUT IMPOTENCE.

CHINESE RHINOCEROS HORN LIBATION CUP A RARE, MASTERFULLY CARVED CHI-NESE RHINOCEROS HORN LIBATION CUP FROM THE 17TH OR 18TH CEN-TURY, FOUR INCHES TALL AND FITTED TO A RETICULATED TEAKWOOD BASE, SOLD FOR $318,600 AT A SALE OF ASIAN ANTIQUES BY ELITE DECORATIVE ARTS.

HOW RHINO HORNS END UP IN ASIAN JEWELRY SHOPSAN ADEQUATE PARALLEL FOR THE OTHER WRIST-A RHINO HORN BANGLE WORTH THE SAME AS A ROLEX WRIST WATCH (ABOUT U$15,000) WOULD MAKE FOR A GOOD CONVERSATION PIECE, NOT YET ON THE MUST HAVE LIST OF MOST OF YOUR FRIENDS.

"DO YOU HAVE XINIUJIAO?" XIANGYA IS THE CHINESE TERM FOR IVORY, XINGJIAO FOR RHINO HORN. CHINA IS RESPONSIBLE FOR AN ESTIMATED 70% OF THE WORLD TRADE IN IVORY. INTERNATIONAL WILDLIFE TRADE MONITORING ORGANISATION INDICATES THAT NEARLY 80% OF THE REPORTED SEIZURES OF RHINO HORNS IN ASIA BETWEEN 2009 AND LATE LAST YEAR HAPPENED IN CHINA.

PRODUCTS TO SAY LEGALISE OR NOT TO LEGALISE?

XIANGYA IS THE CHINESE TERM FOR IVORY, XINGJIAO FOR RHINO HORN. CHINA IS RESPONSIBLE FOR AN ESTIMATED 70% OF THE WORLD TRADE IN IVORY. INTERNATIONAL WILDLIFE TRADE MONITORING ORGANISATION INDICATES THAT NEARLY 80% OF THE REPORTED SEIZURES OF RHINO HORNS IN ASIA BETWEEN 2009 AND LATE LAST YEAR HAPPENED IN CHINA.

SMUGGLED LIKE A NARCOTIC, VALUED HIGHER THAN COCAINE AND GOLD, RHINO HORN HAS BECOME THE MOST COVETED CONTRABAND IN TODAY'S WORLD. LAST YEAR, ONE BLACK OR WHITE RHINO WAS POACHED EVERY EIGHT HOURS IN SOUTH AFRICA. AS ITS BY-PRODUCTS MAKE THEIR WAY INTO ELITIST ASIAN HOMES THE HORN THREATENS THE SURVIVAL OF THE SPECIES. DANIEL ALLEN REPORTS

DWINDLING RHINOS


73MAY 2014

n ex-military man, David Powrie is not often moved to displays of emotion. Yet the sight of an unborn foetus beside a dead female rhino was too much to bear. With its horn crudely hacked off, the pregnant animal had probably taken days to die, barely able to breathe as it wandered through the South African bush in excruciating agony.

“When we came across the carcass, I had to look away for a few seconds,” says Powrie, operations manager at the Sabi Sand Game Reserve, which adjoins South Africa's Kruger National Park. “The pain these poached animals have to endure is truly sickening. I was incredibly

angry and terribly sad. The horrific memory of that rhino lying there still gives me goosebumps.”

Today, South Africa is the last stronghold of the black and white rhinos. Both species were brought back from the brink of extinction here in the 1960s, to a current combined population of around 20,000. Most of these are larger white rhinos, which can weigh more than two metric tonnes.

The rhino has no real predator in the bush besides man, and man is now taking his toll on these almost invincible herbivores. Last year 1,004 South African rhinos were poached, a huge increase from 668 the year

before. The killing shows no sign of abating, with 37 rhinos already poached in the first two weeks of 2014. If the trend continues, the rhino could very quickly disappear from the country's wild spaces completely.

“We are soon going to reach the tipping point for rhinos,” Dr Naomi Doak of wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC said to the Daily Mail. “By the end of 2014, we're starting to be in the negative, in terms of deaths and poaching outstripping births. Then the population will start to decline very quickly.”

POACHER PROFILERhino poaching is practiced by two categories: subsistence and commercial poachers. The former, who usually come from hand-to-mouth communities located near game reserves, hunt animals for food and for use in local traditional medicine. Before 2008, when rhinos were hunted on a far smaller scale, poaching was at this level.

Today the large majority of rhino poaching carried out in southern Africa is

commercial. It is mostly practiced in a far more sophisticated and systematic manner than subsistence poaching, though there have still been cases where rhinos are caught in snares and killed with spears.

Commercial poaching groups typically comprise two to six individuals. With such high financial rewards at stake, recruitment of personnel is not a problem. Many poachers now carry handguns and automatic weapons to defend themselves, and the use of silenced and heavy-calibre weapons has also become more widespread.

Depending on the size of the group, how long its members intend to stay in a particular reserve, and how many rhinos they hope to kill, poachers carry varied weapons, besides a bladed tool such as an axe, panga (machete) or sharp knife to cut off the rhino horn. Removed horns are usually placed in sacks, and may sometimes be buried for later collection.

“Most poachers are patient,” explains Elise Daffue, founder of an anti-rhino poaching website. “They usually have the tactical advantage, and know when to strike, and how to strike. They have their own system of counter-intelligence and access to funding for bribes and a network of informants.”

She continues, “These guys infiltrate local communities and ask for information on the whereabouts of rhinos in an area. They stake out rhino farms and waterholes, and plan at least two getaway routes. Very often they have excellent bushcraft, tracking and military skills. In short,” she notes, “they are formidable adversaries.”

In some cases, poachers

WHAT MAKES A HORN?

Unlike many other animal horns, rhino horns have a distinc-

tive curve and sharply pointed tip. In 2006, researchers at Ohio University

conducted CT scans (a type of X-ray) of rhino horns, and found that the unusual

shape was due to dense mineral deposits of calcium and melanin in the middle. The

rest of the horn is known to be mostly composed of keratin. The lead author

noted, “The horns most closely re-semble the structure of horses’ hoofs,

turtle beaks and cockatoo bills.” In humans, calcium, melanin and keratin are key components

in our hair, skin and nails.

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DWINDLING RHINOS


73MAY 2014

n ex-military man, David Powrie is not often moved to displays of emotion. Yet the sight of an unborn foetus beside a dead female rhino was too much to bear. With its horn crudely hacked off, the pregnant animal had probably taken days to die, barely able to breathe as it wandered through the South African bush in excruciating agony.

“When we came across the carcass, I had to look away for a few seconds,” says Powrie, operations manager at the Sabi Sand Game Reserve, which adjoins South Africa's Kruger National Park. “The pain these poached animals have to endure is truly sickening. I was incredibly

angry and terribly sad. The horrific memory of that rhino lying there still gives me goosebumps.”

Today, South Africa is the last stronghold of the black and white rhinos. Both species were brought back from the brink of extinction here in the 1960s, to a current combined population of around 20,000. Most of these are larger white rhinos, which can weigh more than two metric tonnes.

The rhino has no real predator in the bush besides man, and man is now taking his toll on these almost invincible herbivores. Last year 1,004 South African rhinos were poached, a huge increase from 668 the year

before. The killing shows no sign of abating, with 37 rhinos already poached in the first two weeks of 2014. If the trend continues, the rhino could very quickly disappear from the country's wild spaces completely.

“We are soon going to reach the tipping point for rhinos,” Dr Naomi Doak of wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC said to the Daily Mail. “By the end of 2014, we're starting to be in the negative, in terms of deaths and poaching outstripping births. Then the population will start to decline very quickly.”

POACHER PROFILERhino poaching is practiced by two categories: subsistence and commercial poachers. The former, who usually come from hand-to-mouth communities located near game reserves, hunt animals for food and for use in local traditional medicine. Before 2008, when rhinos were hunted on a far smaller scale, poaching was at this level.

Today the large majority of rhino poaching carried out in southern Africa is

commercial. It is mostly practiced in a far more sophisticated and systematic manner than subsistence poaching, though there have still been cases where rhinos are caught in snares and killed with spears.

Commercial poaching groups typically comprise two to six individuals. With such high financial rewards at stake, recruitment of personnel is not a problem. Many poachers now carry handguns and automatic weapons to defend themselves, and the use of silenced and heavy-calibre weapons has also become more widespread.

Depending on the size of the group, how long its members intend to stay in a particular reserve, and how many rhinos they hope to kill, poachers carry varied weapons, besides a bladed tool such as an axe, panga (machete) or sharp knife to cut off the rhino horn. Removed horns are usually placed in sacks, and may sometimes be buried for later collection.

“Most poachers are patient,” explains Elise Daffue, founder of an anti-rhino poaching website. “They usually have the tactical advantage, and know when to strike, and how to strike. They have their own system of counter-intelligence and access to funding for bribes and a network of informants.”

She continues, “These guys infiltrate local communities and ask for information on the whereabouts of rhinos in an area. They stake out rhino farms and waterholes, and plan at least two getaway routes. Very often they have excellent bushcraft, tracking and military skills. In short,” she notes, “they are formidable adversaries.”

In some cases, poachers

WHAT MAKES A HORN?

Unlike many other animal horns, rhino horns have a distinc-

tive curve and sharply pointed tip. In 2006, researchers at Ohio University

conducted CT scans (a type of X-ray) of rhino horns, and found that the unusual

shape was due to dense mineral deposits of calcium and melanin in the middle. The

rest of the horn is known to be mostly composed of keratin. The lead author

noted, “The horns most closely re-semble the structure of horses’ hoofs,

turtle beaks and cockatoo bills.” In humans, calcium, melanin and keratin are key components

in our hair, skin and nails.

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DWINDLING RHINOS


75MAY 2014

will leave behind a signature. Superstition is rife: many poachers believe that cutting the rhino’s eye damages the window to its soul, thereby helping them to evade capture. Tails are often removed and used by local shamans to sprinkle muthi (traditional medicine) on the poachers' bodies and their getaway vehicles.

BORDER ISSUESMost of the rhinos killed in South Africa are poached in Kruger National Park (KNP), one of the largest and most famous game reserves in Africa. Sprawling over almost 19,500 square kilometres, Kruger is home to around 9,000 white rhinos and 300 black rhinos — and is almost impossible to patrol thoroughly.

KNP shares a 350-kilometre long border with Mozambique. It is thought that over three-quarters of poachers operating inside the park are

Mozambican insurgents who cross this border on foot. In fact, in the month of March 2013 alone, there were 72 known cross-border armed incursions into KNP from Mozambique.

Even if camera traps, aerial reconnaissance missions and foot patrols lead to poachers being detected, park rangers are unable to pursue them once they have crossed back into Mozambique. Conversely, if poachers are apprehended before they kill a rhino, there is very little basis for prosecution.

Many of the Mozambican villages situated close to the KNP boundary are incredibly poor. Poachers can earn as much as 10 years’ salary on a single incursion, so the financial incentives to enter the park are compelling. By earning a desperately needed pay cheque, poachers are often hailed as heroes by their families and local communities.

As South Africa steps up its efforts to intercept rhino horns leaving from domestic gateways, the fears now are that trade routes will simply shift across the border. With Mozambique an increasingly active conduit for ivory and timber, there is little to suggest that the Mozambican government has the means to effectively halt any illegal trade in natural resources.

“This is the problem when you have one contiguous wildlife reserve managed by two countries,” says Powrie. “If one country can't or won't enforce strict anti-poaching measures then there will always be a dangerous dynamic at work.”

He notes, “One of the major challenges now is to encourage Mozambique to step up its anti-poaching operations and to really crack down on wildlife-related crimes. The rhino is already

extinct in Mozambique. It is really not hard to see where we are heading if things continue unchecked.”

DEMAND AND SUPPLYJust north of Hoan Kiem Lake, Hanoi's Old Quarter is a historic hotbed of commerce. Visitors to the Vietnamese capital come here to witness craftsmen at work, browse silk souvenirs, and sample the local snack food. Light years from the acacia-studded plains of South Africa, most remain unaware that these motorbike-laden streets are so linked to the fate of the white and black rhinos.

According to a report by TRAFFIC, between 1990 and 2005, rhino poaching in South Africa averaged just 14 animals a year. Since 2005 however, the situation has rapidly escalated, largely driven by a surge in demand from Vietnam. Rising living standards and increasing amounts of disposable income mean the Southeast Asian country is now one of the world’s largest markets for illegal South African rhino horn.

Made from keratin, which is also a key component in human hair and nails, there is no scientific evidence that rhino horn has any medicinal properties whatsoever. However, when powdered and drunk with water, many Vietnamese still believe it can cure everything from hangovers to cancer. It has also become something of a status symbol, promoted as the “alcoholic drink of millionaires” when mixed with wine.

Trade in rhino horn has been illegal in Vietnam since 2006. Under Vietnamese law, anyone convicted of smuggling banned goods valued at VND1 billion (around US$50,000) or more is punishable by

WHEN POWDERED AND DRUNK WITH WATER, VIETNAMESE BELIEVE IT CAN CURE EVERYTHING FROM HANGOVERS TO CANCER. IT HAS BECOME SOMETHING OF A STATUS SYMBOL, PROMOTED AS THE “ALCOHOLIC DRINK OF MILLIONAIRES”

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CRUEL COMPLICATIONS

Even if a poacher doesn’t aim to kill, rhinos can suffer

complications that arise from their injuries — often leading to painful,

drawn-out deaths. As veterinary pa-thologist Fred Reyers, from the School of Life Sciences, University of Lincoln in the

United Kingdom, explains, the rhinos “often have serious shrapnel injuries which tend to become infected and, if left lying on one side for several hours, are disposed

to muscles on the lower side dying off because the sheer mass of the

animal prevents blood flow.” Infection can in turn cause

damage to the rhino’s vital organs.

DWINDLING RHINOS

TOP THIS POACHED RHINO BULL HAD TO BE EUTHANISED AFTER SPENDING SEVERAL DAYS WANDERING IN THE BUSH IN AGONYBOTTOM LEFT A RANGER PRACTISES ADOPTING A CAMOUFLAGED POSITION IN THE SABI SAND GAME RESERVE BOTTOM RIGHT RANGERS PATROL THE FENCED AROUND SABI SAND.


75MAY 2014

will leave behind a signature. Superstition is rife: many poachers believe that cutting the rhino’s eye damages the window to its soul, thereby helping them to evade capture. Tails are often removed and used by local shamans to sprinkle muthi (traditional medicine) on the poachers' bodies and their getaway vehicles.

BORDER ISSUESMost of the rhinos killed in South Africa are poached in Kruger National Park (KNP), one of the largest and most famous game reserves in Africa. Sprawling over almost 19,500 square kilometres, Kruger is home to around 9,000 white rhinos and 300 black rhinos — and is almost impossible to patrol thoroughly.

KNP shares a 350-kilometre long border with Mozambique. It is thought that over three-quarters of poachers operating inside the park are

Mozambican insurgents who cross this border on foot. In fact, in the month of March 2013 alone, there were 72 known cross-border armed incursions into KNP from Mozambique.

Even if camera traps, aerial reconnaissance missions and foot patrols lead to poachers being detected, park rangers are unable to pursue them once they have crossed back into Mozambique. Conversely, if poachers are apprehended before they kill a rhino, there is very little basis for prosecution.

Many of the Mozambican villages situated close to the KNP boundary are incredibly poor. Poachers can earn as much as 10 years’ salary on a single incursion, so the financial incentives to enter the park are compelling. By earning a desperately needed pay cheque, poachers are often hailed as heroes by their families and local communities.

As South Africa steps up its efforts to intercept rhino horns leaving from domestic gateways, the fears now are that trade routes will simply shift across the border. With Mozambique an increasingly active conduit for ivory and timber, there is little to suggest that the Mozambican government has the means to effectively halt any illegal trade in natural resources.

“This is the problem when you have one contiguous wildlife reserve managed by two countries,” says Powrie. “If one country can't or won't enforce strict anti-poaching measures then there will always be a dangerous dynamic at work.”

He notes, “One of the major challenges now is to encourage Mozambique to step up its anti-poaching operations and to really crack down on wildlife-related crimes. The rhino is already

extinct in Mozambique. It is really not hard to see where we are heading if things continue unchecked.”

DEMAND AND SUPPLYJust north of Hoan Kiem Lake, Hanoi's Old Quarter is a historic hotbed of commerce. Visitors to the Vietnamese capital come here to witness craftsmen at work, browse silk souvenirs, and sample the local snack food. Light years from the acacia-studded plains of South Africa, most remain unaware that these motorbike-laden streets are so linked to the fate of the white and black rhinos.

According to a report by TRAFFIC, between 1990 and 2005, rhino poaching in South Africa averaged just 14 animals a year. Since 2005 however, the situation has rapidly escalated, largely driven by a surge in demand from Vietnam. Rising living standards and increasing amounts of disposable income mean the Southeast Asian country is now one of the world’s largest markets for illegal South African rhino horn.

Made from keratin, which is also a key component in human hair and nails, there is no scientific evidence that rhino horn has any medicinal properties whatsoever. However, when powdered and drunk with water, many Vietnamese still believe it can cure everything from hangovers to cancer. It has also become something of a status symbol, promoted as the “alcoholic drink of millionaires” when mixed with wine.

Trade in rhino horn has been illegal in Vietnam since 2006. Under Vietnamese law, anyone convicted of smuggling banned goods valued at VND1 billion (around US$50,000) or more is punishable by

WHEN POWDERED AND DRUNK WITH WATER, VIETNAMESE BELIEVE IT CAN CURE EVERYTHING FROM HANGOVERS TO CANCER. IT HAS BECOME SOMETHING OF A STATUS SYMBOL, PROMOTED AS THE “ALCOHOLIC DRINK OF MILLIONAIRES”

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CRUEL COMPLICATIONS

Even if a poacher doesn’t aim to kill, rhinos can suffer

complications that arise from their injuries — often leading to painful,

drawn-out deaths. As veterinary pa-thologist Fred Reyers, from the School of Life Sciences, University of Lincoln in the

United Kingdom, explains, the rhinos “often have serious shrapnel injuries which tend to become infected and, if left lying on one side for several hours, are disposed

to muscles on the lower side dying off because the sheer mass of the

animal prevents blood flow.” Infection can in turn cause

damage to the rhino’s vital organs.

DWINDLING RHINOS

TOP THIS POACHED RHINO BULL HAD TO BE EUTHANISED AFTER SPENDING SEVERAL DAYS WANDERING IN THE BUSH IN AGONYBOTTOM LEFT A RANGER PRACTISES ADOPTING A CAMOUFLAGED POSITION IN THE SABI SAND GAME RESERVE BOTTOM RIGHT RANGERS PATROL THE FENCED AROUND SABI SAND.


77MAY 2014

AN AERIAL VIEW OF THE OKAVANGO DELTA IN BOTSWANA. IT NOW OFFERS SANCTUARY TO A GROWING NUMBER OF SOUTH AFRICAN RHINOS P

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DWINDLING RHINOS


77MAY 2014

AN AERIAL VIEW OF THE OKAVANGO DELTA IN BOTSWANA. IT NOW OFFERS SANCTUARY TO A GROWING NUMBER OF SOUTH AFRICAN RHINOS P

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TOP A TRANQUILISED WHITE RHINO, PRIOR TO TRANSLOCATION TO THE OKAVANGO DELTABELOW SOME PROPOSE REMOVING THE HORNS FROM RHINOS IN RESERVES TO PREVENT POACHING, BUT IT'S EXPENSIVE: ONE ESTIMATE PUTS THE COST OF DEHORNING EVERY RHINO IN KNP ONCE AT US$5.8 MILLION TO US$8.8 MILLION

rhino farming to injecting horns with poison to prevent human consumption is now on the table. “We need to employ all the tools at our disposal,” says Rob More, CEO of the Lion Sands Game Reserve, which is located inside Sabi Sand.

Recently a mixture of dye and poison was injected into the horns of more than 100 rhinos inside Sabi Sand. By rendering horns unfit for human consumption, the reserve hopes that poachers will stop targeting their animals, though it is too soon to tell how effective this measure will be, and whether or not it will simply shift the focus onto other nearby rhino populations.

NEW PASTURESWith the sun’s embers fading from the Botswana sky, the daily nocturnal chorus starts up at Mombo Camp, deep in the Okavango Delta. Guests sipping Amarula liqueur around the campfire are treated to their very own wildlife show, as hippos grunt in nearby waterways and a male lion growls throatily in the distance.

Run by Wilderness Safaris, one of the largest safari companies in southern Africa, Mombo offers some of the most luxurious game viewing on the continent. But more than just plump pillows and sundowners in the bush, the camp has also played witness to another rhino conservation measure: translocation, basically moving rhinos to a safer area.

In 2001, Wilderness Safaris, together with Botswana’s Department of Wildlife (DWNP), initiated the Botswana Rhino Reintroduction Programme. The first group of four white rhinos arrived at Mombo from South Africa in November 2001, with a

further 22 white and black rhinos arriving through an exchange programme between South Africa and Botswana.

“The ultimate accolade has come from the rhinos themselves,” says Mpho Malongwa, who today oversees the project for Wilderness, working alongside the DWNP. “In August 2004 the first white rhino calf was born in the wild in Mombo, 16 months after its mother was released in 2001. Since then, a steady birth rate has proven the programme's success.”

The Okavango Delta has proven to be such a productive rhino habitat, that six further animals were translocated there last year from South Africa's Phinda Private Game Reserve. Facilitated by travel company &Beyond, together with Rhino Force, a private company that makes bracelets for sale to raise awareness and funds for rhino conservation, the success of the move may

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life imprisonment. But enforcement is generally lax and public awareness campaigns have so far had little impact. In Hanoi’s Old Quarter, medicine shop owners openly quote varying prices for horn, which can change hands for as much as US$100,000 a kilogram.

“Of course we have to try to educate the Vietnamese and the Chinese about how the rhino horn trade is destroying the species,” says Les Carlisle, conservation manager of travel company &Beyond. “Do I think it will work? No, of course it won't. We're talking about changing deeply ingrained beliefs and habits. It's like trying to stop people taking drugs.”

SMUGGLING SYNDICATESThese days, South African rhino horn is transported to Asia via a secretive, circuitous and increasingly sophisticated trade network. While details of the shadowy syndicates behind the trade are still emerging, the intricate level of organisation is already very clear.

The transport and trade of rhino horn is a multi-stage affair, with Chinese and Vietnamese typically operating as “middlemen” that connect the African and Asian markets. After poaching has occurred, rhino horn is usually handed over to an African middleman, typically a South African national, who then interfaces with Asian buyers at the next level. As you'd expect, these Asian middlemen tend to be well-connected, and can get the horns to market in Asia.

Rhino horns are usually exported whole, though they are occasionally cut into smaller pieces to lower the risk of detection. An increasing amount of rhino horn sold in Vietnam is now fake, with buffalo horn

the main substitute, so Vietnamese buyers prefer to purchase whole horns to ensure authenticity.

JOINING BATTLEAdjoining KNP, the far smaller Sabi Sand private game reserve is home to a number of luxury safari lodges, and is one of the best places in South Africa to see the so-called “Big Five” (lion,

leopard, rhino, Cape buffalo and elephant). Although rhinos have also been lost here, the reserve’s size means anti-poaching measures are more easily enforceable. Today a growing contingent of rangers is tackling poachers with an arsenal that includes automatic weapons, tracker dogs and smartphone technology.“It has become a full-on war,” says Sabi Sand’s

Powrie, “I think a lot of people were caught unawares when the poaching escalated, but the response is gathering momentum. At Sabi Sand we’re spending more and more money on security. But if we don't fight back then these majestic animals will just disappear.”

Anti-poaching measures are not just about rangers with guns. Everything from

A MIXTURE OF DYE AND POISON WAS INJECTED INTO THE HORNS OF MORE THAN 100 RHINOS. BY RENDERING HORNS UNFIT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION, THE RESERVE HOPES THAT POACHERS WILL STOP TARGETING THE ANIMALS.

DWINDLING RHINOS


79MAY 2014

TOP A TRANQUILISED WHITE RHINO, PRIOR TO TRANSLOCATION TO THE OKAVANGO DELTABELOW SOME PROPOSE REMOVING THE HORNS FROM RHINOS IN RESERVES TO PREVENT POACHING, BUT IT'S EXPENSIVE: ONE ESTIMATE PUTS THE COST OF DEHORNING EVERY RHINO IN KNP ONCE AT US$5.8 MILLION TO US$8.8 MILLION

rhino farming to injecting horns with poison to prevent human consumption is now on the table. “We need to employ all the tools at our disposal,” says Rob More, CEO of the Lion Sands Game Reserve, which is located inside Sabi Sand.

Recently a mixture of dye and poison was injected into the horns of more than 100 rhinos inside Sabi Sand. By rendering horns unfit for human consumption, the reserve hopes that poachers will stop targeting their animals, though it is too soon to tell how effective this measure will be, and whether or not it will simply shift the focus onto other nearby rhino populations.

NEW PASTURESWith the sun’s embers fading from the Botswana sky, the daily nocturnal chorus starts up at Mombo Camp, deep in the Okavango Delta. Guests sipping Amarula liqueur around the campfire are treated to their very own wildlife show, as hippos grunt in nearby waterways and a male lion growls throatily in the distance.

Run by Wilderness Safaris, one of the largest safari companies in southern Africa, Mombo offers some of the most luxurious game viewing on the continent. But more than just plump pillows and sundowners in the bush, the camp has also played witness to another rhino conservation measure: translocation, basically moving rhinos to a safer area.

In 2001, Wilderness Safaris, together with Botswana’s Department of Wildlife (DWNP), initiated the Botswana Rhino Reintroduction Programme. The first group of four white rhinos arrived at Mombo from South Africa in November 2001, with a

further 22 white and black rhinos arriving through an exchange programme between South Africa and Botswana.

“The ultimate accolade has come from the rhinos themselves,” says Mpho Malongwa, who today oversees the project for Wilderness, working alongside the DWNP. “In August 2004 the first white rhino calf was born in the wild in Mombo, 16 months after its mother was released in 2001. Since then, a steady birth rate has proven the programme's success.”

The Okavango Delta has proven to be such a productive rhino habitat, that six further animals were translocated there last year from South Africa's Phinda Private Game Reserve. Facilitated by travel company &Beyond, together with Rhino Force, a private company that makes bracelets for sale to raise awareness and funds for rhino conservation, the success of the move may

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life imprisonment. But enforcement is generally lax and public awareness campaigns have so far had little impact. In Hanoi’s Old Quarter, medicine shop owners openly quote varying prices for horn, which can change hands for as much as US$100,000 a kilogram.

“Of course we have to try to educate the Vietnamese and the Chinese about how the rhino horn trade is destroying the species,” says Les Carlisle, conservation manager of travel company &Beyond. “Do I think it will work? No, of course it won't. We're talking about changing deeply ingrained beliefs and habits. It's like trying to stop people taking drugs.”

SMUGGLING SYNDICATESThese days, South African rhino horn is transported to Asia via a secretive, circuitous and increasingly sophisticated trade network. While details of the shadowy syndicates behind the trade are still emerging, the intricate level of organisation is already very clear.

The transport and trade of rhino horn is a multi-stage affair, with Chinese and Vietnamese typically operating as “middlemen” that connect the African and Asian markets. After poaching has occurred, rhino horn is usually handed over to an African middleman, typically a South African national, who then interfaces with Asian buyers at the next level. As you'd expect, these Asian middlemen tend to be well-connected, and can get the horns to market in Asia.

Rhino horns are usually exported whole, though they are occasionally cut into smaller pieces to lower the risk of detection. An increasing amount of rhino horn sold in Vietnam is now fake, with buffalo horn

the main substitute, so Vietnamese buyers prefer to purchase whole horns to ensure authenticity.

JOINING BATTLEAdjoining KNP, the far smaller Sabi Sand private game reserve is home to a number of luxury safari lodges, and is one of the best places in South Africa to see the so-called “Big Five” (lion,

leopard, rhino, Cape buffalo and elephant). Although rhinos have also been lost here, the reserve’s size means anti-poaching measures are more easily enforceable. Today a growing contingent of rangers is tackling poachers with an arsenal that includes automatic weapons, tracker dogs and smartphone technology.“It has become a full-on war,” says Sabi Sand’s

Powrie, “I think a lot of people were caught unawares when the poaching escalated, but the response is gathering momentum. At Sabi Sand we’re spending more and more money on security. But if we don't fight back then these majestic animals will just disappear.”

Anti-poaching measures are not just about rangers with guns. Everything from

A MIXTURE OF DYE AND POISON WAS INJECTED INTO THE HORNS OF MORE THAN 100 RHINOS. BY RENDERING HORNS UNFIT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION, THE RESERVE HOPES THAT POACHERS WILL STOP TARGETING THE ANIMALS.

DWINDLING RHINOS


see a further 100 animals translocated this year.

“With its excellent security system, Botswana is a safe haven for the relocated rhino,” explains &Beyond’s Carlisle. “Translocations are fundamental to securing the ongoing survival of these animals. With so many rhino concentrated in South Africa, this was the ideal opportunity for us to move some of our eggs out of one basket.”

RHINO FARMING?Extreme conditions often

demand extreme responses. Perhaps the most contentious rhino conservation measure that is currently in discussion is the move to legalise the trade in rhino horn. Advocates argue that flooding the market with horn will slash the price, lessening the financial incentive for poaching. With huge quantities of horn stockpiled, many reserves could plough the money generated by sales back into conservation.

“The legalisation debate is emotive and very

A RHINO TRANSLOCATION TEAM FROM &BEYOND PREPARES A WHITE RHINO FOR SHIPMENT TO BOTSWANA. ITS FINAL DESTINATION IS THE OKAVANGO DELTA

USE HERBS, NOT HORNS

Studies investigating the medical properties of rhino horn have found no scientific basis for their supposed health benefits.

Published in a 2006 report, researchers in the UK tested several herbs that could be used as a botanical replacements for rhino horn in traditional Chinese medi-cine — and proposed nine specific spe-cies that practitioners could use instead

of rhino horn in traditional remedies. These substitutes demonstrated at

least some antibacterial or anti-inflammatory properties —

more than rhino horn did in their study.

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divisive,” explains Carlisle. “Essentially, those people who own or manage rhino populations, and are at the front line of the horn war, support legalisation. Those conservationists who don't risk their lives daily trying to save rhinos, are anti-trade.”

“The rhino situation is completely unique. Everyone draws comparisons with the trade in ivory, but it's not the same,” he adds. “If you remove an elephant's tusks, it dies. Every piece of ivory represents a dead elephant. If you remove the horn from a rhino, it grows back. Rhinos are relatively easy to keep in captivity, and farmed rhinos can provide fresh supplies of horn every 18 months. Managed properly, rhino horn is a totally renewable natural resource.”

“At the moment a rhino is worth more dead than alive,” notes Powrie. “Of course it

would be better to see all rhinos in the wild with their horns intact — but we need to do something to change this equation. Until we do, rhinos will keep dying.”

The window to put into action some form of legalised trade may not be open for long. If poaching rates increase further, and rhino populations start to suffer a serious and sustained decline, the pool of animals required for breeding will not be large or diverse enough for farming to be an option. And of course, the fewer rhinos that remain, the higher the price of illegal horn becomes, and the greater the pressure on remaining animals.

“The sad and simple fact is that the market for horn exists, and we cannot simply count on rangers, helicopters, educational campaigns and pleas to save our rhinos,” says the Lion Sands Game

Reserve's Rob More. “These tactics have not worked for tigers or elephants. On their own, they are unlikely to be enough for the rhino either.”

THE MOST CONTENTIOUS CONSERVATION MEASURE CURRENTLY IN DISCUSSION IS THE MOVE TO LEGALISE THE TRADE IN RHINO HORN. ADVOCATES ARGUE THAT FLOODING THE MARKET WITH HORN WILL SLASH THE PRICE.

93%of the world's white rhino population is based in South Africa. A similar percentage of the black rhino population is also found here

THREERhinos were, on average, killed every day in 2013

World rhino population at the beginning of the 20th century:

500,000World rhino population today:

29,000Average weight of an adultrhino horn:

1 – 3 KGStreet value of one kilo of rhino horn:

~US$100,000Alleged financial reward for a Mozambican poacher on the ground:

10 YEARS' SALARY (IN ONE NIGHT)According to 2010 estimates, A live female rhino fetches

~US$45,000while a male costs

US$30,000 TO US$40,000Estimated Cost To Hire A Pri-vate, Anti-Poaching Ranger (As Of 2010):

US$3,000PER MONTH

RHINOS BY NUMBERS

RHINOCEROS HORN CARVINGS, ONCE BELONGING TO ARCHDUKE FERDINAND II, AT SCHLOSS AMBRAS IN INNSBRUCK, AUSTRIA.

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85MAY 2014

MANHUNT

JOEL LAMBERT IS A FORMER NAVY SEAL WHO ALSO TRAINED THE US SPECIAL FORCES. IN DISCOVERY

CHANNEL’S MANHUNT WITH JOEL LAMBERT THIS ESCAPE AND EVASION EXPERT HAS TO FIGHT THE REAL LIFE

ELITE ARMIES OF THE WORLD. IN AN ULTIMATE UNIQUE GAME OF CATCH-ME-IF-YOU-CAN JOEL, WITH MINIMAL SURVIVAL SUPPLIES, IS PITTED AGAINST THE HIGHLY

EQUIPPED MULTI-PRONGED TRACKING TEAMS AS THEIR SOLE TARGET.

LAMBERT TALKS TO LUKE CLARK ABOUT THE EXCRUCIATING EXPERIENCE OF MAKING IT

THROUGH, AND OF TAKING ALONG A CAMERA CREW ON THESE

ESCAPE MISSIONS.

EXTREME SURVIVAL


85MAY 2014

MANHUNT

JOEL LAMBERT IS A FORMER NAVY SEAL WHO ALSO TRAINED THE US SPECIAL FORCES. IN DISCOVERY

CHANNEL’S MANHUNT WITH JOEL LAMBERT THIS ESCAPE AND EVASION EXPERT HAS TO FIGHT THE REAL LIFE

ELITE ARMIES OF THE WORLD. IN AN ULTIMATE UNIQUE GAME OF CATCH-ME-IF-YOU-CAN JOEL, WITH MINIMAL SURVIVAL SUPPLIES, IS PITTED AGAINST THE HIGHLY

EQUIPPED MULTI-PRONGED TRACKING TEAMS AS THEIR SOLE TARGET.

LAMBERT TALKS TO LUKE CLARK ABOUT THE EXCRUCIATING EXPERIENCE OF MAKING IT

THROUGH, AND OF TAKING ALONG A CAMERA CREW ON THESE

ESCAPE MISSIONS.

EXTREME SURVIVAL


87MAY 2014

ello Joel, how are you doing? Where on earth are we speaking to you from? I'm very good! I am in Los Angeles, in the United States; I have my dog snoring on the bed next to me and I'm kicking back in a reading chair, savouring all the downtime I have until I get back to the jungle and get brutalised again!

I can imagine. So first up, how does anybody get prepared for something like this? Obviously you've got a background in the special forces. But even so, this must have been a tough test for you. It totally was, and I knew it was going to be. You know, I got asked that question a lot, people asking, “How are you going to prepare for that?” And I say, “I'm already prepared.”

My life has been the preparation for this. Which doesn't mean that I'm already exactly ready right then. It means I know how to get ready, and I know what I need to do. The tools that I need, are already within me. But, you know, once you're out there’s no way to stay in the kind of operational state that you are in as a SEAL. So there was that challenge. And there's also the physical challenge: I was 40 when I started this series. I'm no longer 27 years old and smashing through walls anymore. But I'm a lot wiser — and a lot smarter than I used to be. So at least I aged well.

What I really needed to do was to prepare my mind and my body, because I didn't want either one of them to be a weak link. I didn't want my body to break because my mind was stronger, and I didn't there to be any mental issues going into this. Both of them held, largely because of my background.

Did you prepare differently, to face each unit? Yes. The preparation I really had to do was to research the units I was going up against: their assets and what they were going to use, the kind of targets they are usually going up against. What are their weaknesses, strengths and capabilities?

What's the level of technology they use? What were they going to use against me — do they have thermal imaging, do they have helicopters or drones? Their air assets? Are they trackers, soldiers, or policemen? Depending on the answers to all these questions, each different unit will think and act differently. So I had to know as much as I could about each force that I was going up against. I wanted to get inside these guys’ heads as much as possible.

And then the other side of the coin, was just as important_ where am I going? What's the change in elevation; when’s the sunrise and sunset? Is there any moonrise? Will there be clouds, or precipitation? What's the ground like; is it wet or dry there? Am I going to have a problem finding water or will there be water

all over the place? How difficult would it be to find food? What are the medicinal and edible and the toxic plants? What's the dangerous fauna — which snakes are dangerous and venomous?

And because I'm going into these guys’ backyards, they have not only a home turf advantage, but they also know this terrain that I'm not used to, and maybe haven't operated in. It's giving away a lot — I researched all that stuff about the area to the extent of how much air I would have, how much moonlight there was going to be. My clothing...! Obviously I'm not bringing much along — one of my biggest strengths is that I want to travel really fast, and really light. So I really want to bring things with multiple usage.

It was an exhaustive exercise. But once I'm in

MANHUNTAs an ex-US Navy SEAL, Joel Lambert trained in escape and evasion among the most skilled of infiltrators his new adversaries have faced. And just as well — because in each country, he is being hunted down by the best tracking force in town, on their home turf. In an exclusive interview, he reveals that though the guns weren't loaded, the dangers were very real and the stakes, as high as ever.

JOEL LAMBERT HAS HIS WORK CUT OUT FOR HIM, HAVING TO EVADE SOME OF THE BEST SEARCH-AND-CAPTURE OPERATIVES IN THE WORLD WHILE HAVING TO KEEP HIS FILM CREW FROM ACCIDENTALLY GIVING THE GAME AWAY P

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87MAY 2014

ello Joel, how are you doing? Where on earth are we speaking to you from? I'm very good! I am in Los Angeles, in the United States; I have my dog snoring on the bed next to me and I'm kicking back in a reading chair, savouring all the downtime I have until I get back to the jungle and get brutalised again!

I can imagine. So first up, how does anybody get prepared for something like this? Obviously you've got a background in the special forces. But even so, this must have been a tough test for you. It totally was, and I knew it was going to be. You know, I got asked that question a lot, people asking, “How are you going to prepare for that?” And I say, “I'm already prepared.”

My life has been the preparation for this. Which doesn't mean that I'm already exactly ready right then. It means I know how to get ready, and I know what I need to do. The tools that I need, are already within me. But, you know, once you're out there’s no way to stay in the kind of operational state that you are in as a SEAL. So there was that challenge. And there's also the physical challenge: I was 40 when I started this series. I'm no longer 27 years old and smashing through walls anymore. But I'm a lot wiser — and a lot smarter than I used to be. So at least I aged well.

What I really needed to do was to prepare my mind and my body, because I didn't want either one of them to be a weak link. I didn't want my body to break because my mind was stronger, and I didn't there to be any mental issues going into this. Both of them held, largely because of my background.

Did you prepare differently, to face each unit? Yes. The preparation I really had to do was to research the units I was going up against: their assets and what they were going to use, the kind of targets they are usually going up against. What are their weaknesses, strengths and capabilities?

What's the level of technology they use? What were they going to use against me — do they have thermal imaging, do they have helicopters or drones? Their air assets? Are they trackers, soldiers, or policemen? Depending on the answers to all these questions, each different unit will think and act differently. So I had to know as much as I could about each force that I was going up against. I wanted to get inside these guys’ heads as much as possible.

And then the other side of the coin, was just as important_ where am I going? What's the change in elevation; when’s the sunrise and sunset? Is there any moonrise? Will there be clouds, or precipitation? What's the ground like; is it wet or dry there? Am I going to have a problem finding water or will there be water

all over the place? How difficult would it be to find food? What are the medicinal and edible and the toxic plants? What's the dangerous fauna — which snakes are dangerous and venomous?

And because I'm going into these guys’ backyards, they have not only a home turf advantage, but they also know this terrain that I'm not used to, and maybe haven't operated in. It's giving away a lot — I researched all that stuff about the area to the extent of how much air I would have, how much moonlight there was going to be. My clothing...! Obviously I'm not bringing much along — one of my biggest strengths is that I want to travel really fast, and really light. So I really want to bring things with multiple usage.

It was an exhaustive exercise. But once I'm in

MANHUNTAs an ex-US Navy SEAL, Joel Lambert trained in escape and evasion among the most skilled of infiltrators his new adversaries have faced. And just as well — because in each country, he is being hunted down by the best tracking force in town, on their home turf. In an exclusive interview, he reveals that though the guns weren't loaded, the dangers were very real and the stakes, as high as ever.

JOEL LAMBERT HAS HIS WORK CUT OUT FOR HIM, HAVING TO EVADE SOME OF THE BEST SEARCH-AND-CAPTURE OPERATIVES IN THE WORLD WHILE HAVING TO KEEP HIS FILM CREW FROM ACCIDENTALLY GIVING THE GAME AWAY P

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89MAY 2014

the field and doing it, it all just turns on and the senses sharpen. Once I’m there, I'm good to go. And then, you just act as a hunter. But all the stuff before that, is what you need the right mind to do. It helps you.

From your own background, and from having done this show, what would you say is unique about special forces soldiers, their operations and their training? The thing that you need to get to the special operations forces is not the technology or the weaponry. It's not the fact that we don't stand guard duty, or that we get to do our own thing and can grow moustaches, beards or long hair, and nonchalantly walk around with our hands in our pockets. That stuff is kind of anti-military about special operations forces. If you meet special operations, on one hand they'll be very military; that's who we are. On the other hand, they'll be very anti-military, in terms of not having all those

military, stick-up-the-behind, salute the officer kind of elements. Because it's about unconventional warfare, these are unconventional soldiers. You get to push back against all that, hence you do develop a disdain for it.

If you look at every genuine special operations unit, the guys without exception have gone through 'approval', which is a very precise and intense process, to select them. And that's just to select them — it's to weed out the guys that aren't cut out for it. Usually it's only between 10 to 20 percent of the guys that show up, and want to be special operations soldiers, that make it through to become one. So what makes special operations forces special, are the individuals in there.

Bear Grylls described exactly that; the ratio of around two out of 10 getting through, and of the almost Fight Club style of training you go through. In the end, there is the knowledge that you’re ready for anything. Was your training the same? Yes, and I also have a unique perspective on it, because in the final couple of years of my time in the military, I also went back as an instructor which gave me a different perspective. So I've seen both sides of the fence, and I understand it now as a mature warrior — someone whose body has been in combat, then coming back and passing it on. I've seen it for what it is.

Of course, going through some of it is just calculated brutality. But the brutality we're inflicting, on these kids is for them. All of the humiliation, all of the brutality, all of the legitimate injuries — and in some cases even death — that are inflicted on the guys we

ON FILMING THE SHOW

Davies says filming such a large-scale event was quite an

undertaking. “But I mean, that’s the nature of the show, that’s what

we set out to do. The access was really remarkable, and that’s a credit to the

producers, and also I think to Joel. He’s a very credible character, with a distin-

guished field history. I think they realised that he was going to give them a good

run for their money. This wasn’t a little gimmicky thing — he was go-

ing to really go for it. So I think they genuinely felt that it

would test them.”

JOEL VERSUS CAMERA OPERATORS It’s absolutely true, there were some real battles. There’s one very funny bit in the Making Of episode, where Joel’s shouting at the cameraman, who’s saying, “It’s a television show!” and Joel goes, “It’s not!” Then he suddenly catches himself, and realises, ah, it is a television show. There’s another really brilliant bit, where they’re getting lost in lion country in South Africa, and Joel’s obviously told the cameraman to shut up and stop moving. And instead, Ryan gets in front of Joel to try and get another shot. It’s just this hilarious bit, where Joel’s going, “When I tell you to stop, I am not saying reposition the camera. I am saying stop!” They really liked each other at the end, it was a very bonding thing — but it’s incredibly hard work.

BLOOD SPORT We did have a lot of injuries. I don’t want to make it sound like we were reckless, but we had some very strange things happen. Nobody can account for the fact that, standing on a boat, you’re going to get hit by a flying fish that’s got a huge barb on it, in the face. I would have thought the chances of that happening were pretty darn slim. I think the security guy had even checked on whether these fish fly, and of course the fish decided to fly at different times. So it was really weird. And we had a lot of the crew going down with heat exhaustion too. No matter how much you prepared for it, it was just way, way hotter than everyone was imagining. But they are an amazing crew — they’re all extremely nice people. I don’t know if any of them will want to work with me again, though! [laughs]

THE FOURTH WALL We really struggled with whether we should allow the crew members to be in the scenes. It’s called “breaking the fourth wall” when you put the crew in, and we struggled with it a bit. We at first decided that we wouldn’t do it, but then, while we didn’t overload the show with the crew, we acknowledged their existence in a couple of places. There are a few spots where you can hear them interacting, or you see Ryan’s legs, and you realise that they are there too. It was a real skeleton crew; there was just had one cameraman, and sometimes a producer.

AMAZING LOCATIONS We had a production team who were really good at doing the research. Woody, our producer a former SAS soldier, was integral in terms of giving us background information. But it’s surprising too how much you can find out: for instance, the Polish border patrol have an amazing website. Then Joel would analyse the maps — he was very into understanding the geography and topography. He was very thorough, and did a lot of preparation in advance.

FROM THE SCENE OF A MANHUNTDISCOVERY CHANNEL EXECUTIVE PRODUCER SARAH DAVIES GIVES US MORE OF THE LOW-DOWN ON THE CRAZY WORLD OF INTERNATIONAL CAT-AND-MOUSE THAT WENT INTO CREATING THE SHOW

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MANHUNT

“I RESEARCHED ALL ABOUT THE AREA, TO KNOW HOW MUCH AIR I WOULD HAVE, HOW MUCH MOONLIGHT THERE WAS GOING TO BE AND WHICH ARE THE EDIBLE AND TOXIC PLANTS; INCLUDING WHAT WOULD I NEED TO DRESS LIKE?”


89MAY 2014

the field and doing it, it all just turns on and the senses sharpen. Once I’m there, I'm good to go. And then, you just act as a hunter. But all the stuff before that, is what you need the right mind to do. It helps you.

From your own background, and from having done this show, what would you say is unique about special forces soldiers, their operations and their training? The thing that you need to get to the special operations forces is not the technology or the weaponry. It's not the fact that we don't stand guard duty, or that we get to do our own thing and can grow moustaches, beards or long hair, and nonchalantly walk around with our hands in our pockets. That stuff is kind of anti-military about special operations forces. If you meet special operations, on one hand they'll be very military; that's who we are. On the other hand, they'll be very anti-military, in terms of not having all those

military, stick-up-the-behind, salute the officer kind of elements. Because it's about unconventional warfare, these are unconventional soldiers. You get to push back against all that, hence you do develop a disdain for it.

If you look at every genuine special operations unit, the guys without exception have gone through 'approval', which is a very precise and intense process, to select them. And that's just to select them — it's to weed out the guys that aren't cut out for it. Usually it's only between 10 to 20 percent of the guys that show up, and want to be special operations soldiers, that make it through to become one. So what makes special operations forces special, are the individuals in there.

Bear Grylls described exactly that; the ratio of around two out of 10 getting through, and of the almost Fight Club style of training you go through. In the end, there is the knowledge that you’re ready for anything. Was your training the same? Yes, and I also have a unique perspective on it, because in the final couple of years of my time in the military, I also went back as an instructor which gave me a different perspective. So I've seen both sides of the fence, and I understand it now as a mature warrior — someone whose body has been in combat, then coming back and passing it on. I've seen it for what it is.

Of course, going through some of it is just calculated brutality. But the brutality we're inflicting, on these kids is for them. All of the humiliation, all of the brutality, all of the legitimate injuries — and in some cases even death — that are inflicted on the guys we

ON FILMING THE SHOW

Davies says filming such a large-scale event was quite an

undertaking. “But I mean, that’s the nature of the show, that’s what

we set out to do. The access was really remarkable, and that’s a credit to the

producers, and also I think to Joel. He’s a very credible character, with a distin-

guished field history. I think they realised that he was going to give them a good

run for their money. This wasn’t a little gimmicky thing — he was go-

ing to really go for it. So I think they genuinely felt that it

would test them.”

JOEL VERSUS CAMERA OPERATORS It’s absolutely true, there were some real battles. There’s one very funny bit in the Making Of episode, where Joel’s shouting at the cameraman, who’s saying, “It’s a television show!” and Joel goes, “It’s not!” Then he suddenly catches himself, and realises, ah, it is a television show. There’s another really brilliant bit, where they’re getting lost in lion country in South Africa, and Joel’s obviously told the cameraman to shut up and stop moving. And instead, Ryan gets in front of Joel to try and get another shot. It’s just this hilarious bit, where Joel’s going, “When I tell you to stop, I am not saying reposition the camera. I am saying stop!” They really liked each other at the end, it was a very bonding thing — but it’s incredibly hard work.

BLOOD SPORT We did have a lot of injuries. I don’t want to make it sound like we were reckless, but we had some very strange things happen. Nobody can account for the fact that, standing on a boat, you’re going to get hit by a flying fish that’s got a huge barb on it, in the face. I would have thought the chances of that happening were pretty darn slim. I think the security guy had even checked on whether these fish fly, and of course the fish decided to fly at different times. So it was really weird. And we had a lot of the crew going down with heat exhaustion too. No matter how much you prepared for it, it was just way, way hotter than everyone was imagining. But they are an amazing crew — they’re all extremely nice people. I don’t know if any of them will want to work with me again, though! [laughs]

THE FOURTH WALL We really struggled with whether we should allow the crew members to be in the scenes. It’s called “breaking the fourth wall” when you put the crew in, and we struggled with it a bit. We at first decided that we wouldn’t do it, but then, while we didn’t overload the show with the crew, we acknowledged their existence in a couple of places. There are a few spots where you can hear them interacting, or you see Ryan’s legs, and you realise that they are there too. It was a real skeleton crew; there was just had one cameraman, and sometimes a producer.

AMAZING LOCATIONS We had a production team who were really good at doing the research. Woody, our producer a former SAS soldier, was integral in terms of giving us background information. But it’s surprising too how much you can find out: for instance, the Polish border patrol have an amazing website. Then Joel would analyse the maps — he was very into understanding the geography and topography. He was very thorough, and did a lot of preparation in advance.

FROM THE SCENE OF A MANHUNTDISCOVERY CHANNEL EXECUTIVE PRODUCER SARAH DAVIES GIVES US MORE OF THE LOW-DOWN ON THE CRAZY WORLD OF INTERNATIONAL CAT-AND-MOUSE THAT WENT INTO CREATING THE SHOW

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MANHUNT

“I RESEARCHED ALL ABOUT THE AREA, TO KNOW HOW MUCH AIR I WOULD HAVE, HOW MUCH MOONLIGHT THERE WAS GOING TO BE AND WHICH ARE THE EDIBLE AND TOXIC PLANTS; INCLUDING WHAT WOULD I NEED TO DRESS LIKE?”


91MAY 2014

recruit, it's for them. We are finding guys who have what it takes in them, and through the process of the selection, unearthing it and polishing it up. And then when they come out, whatever it is that was latent inside them has been brought out.

It's like this archetype, the warrior journey, that's hardwired into humanity. It's so rarely that this is brought to fruition, and really grown to its fullness, except in these warrior cultures, such as the one Bear Grylls experienced in the [UK’s] SAS, or the regiments of the Gurkhas, for instance. It’s inside these warrior societies, like the Thai guard men. There's some guard men that would come over and train with us — they were these little tiny guys, but oh man, they are hard. It's fantastic. And you know, you go through this life as a loner, then discover a brotherhood you never knew existed. For me, that’s

the most enlightening and valuable thing that I have ever experienced.

I had a friend of a friend who worked at an electronics store who said, “Well you just haven't had a child yet. Wait until you have a child.” Well, maybe so, but you know what? I'm a frogman, I'm a SEAL — and that is something so deep that I don't even think having a child could come close to the depth of brotherhood. The pride and humility that comes with standing among the kind of men that I'm privileged to stand among is something else. I’m sure having a child is fantastic, but I don’t think it ever could come close to living life at that level of intensity and razor’s edge.

You also had to prep a film crew to match it with you, and these guys clearly aren’t ex-Navy SEALs. It’s one thing for you to beat these tracking forces alone, but to not get caught and still ensure it’s good TV, must be extraordinarily hard. Behind the scenes, how did you ensure they were match-ready too? Dude, it was such a collision of worlds at first! But as I was learning about the show, I was seeing that what the producers and the creators at Discovery Channel wanted to do was not to take military things, and adapt them to a TV format — which is what every other military show does. They wanted what is effectively an FMP, or full mission profile. So a full military exercise, with everything shown. You know, we were not killing anybody, we were not actually launching missiles, but we were doing everything up until that point — and playing it out as it unfolded. Which is what’s going on in this series. And so that’s exciting: they’re

just launching these cameras along with us.

That being said, how are these camera guys and these producers going to be propelled into this new world? And how am I going to take my tactical stuff and then relate it to a camera? Because from the outset, I didn’t necessarily understand that. And the camera guy’s asking me, “Tell me how you’re doing this.” At first, I’m like, “Shut up man! Just do it, do it!”

So the first episode was a lot of that. You know, I’m hungry and exhausted, and the camera guy’s saying, “Hey Joel, can you show us this?” I kind of had to adjust, and think about how I could still do what I was doing, and maintain the majority of my tactical operational discipline.

Yeah, I guess that could easily be the difference between being found or not found. I mean, operational discipline suffers in order to relate to the camera. But I needed to have it not necessarily affect my overall mission too much. That’s been the challenge, I think.

For the camera operator, it’s about one, keeping up, and two, not compromising

me. Which happens all the time. And I’ve been through several of them. One of them quit, another ended up with a muscle detached from the bone. That was horrible. They are reality cameramen, they’re used to being in the middle of a real situation and “not being there”. But in this situation, they are there — their footprints, the noise they make, the blue t-shirt they wear into the field, are all there. So it’s been difficult for me, without breaking their spirit or impeding them from doing their job, to try to bring a camera operator into this, without compromising me.

And did it come ever come close to that? There was one instance in the Philippines. Those guys are amazing trackers, and I was walking through this field area, where it’s pretty muddy and our footprints would be showing. So I’m being very careful and walking on these hillocks of grass, stepping so delicately. Then I look over to my right, and the cameraman is tromping through the mud, filming my footprints. And I just said, “Do you not get it? Do you not understand what we’re doing here?” And it is very difficult to try to grasp that.

DURING THE EPISODES, VIEWERS GET TO WATCH LAMBERT PUT IN EVERY EFFORT TO ESCAPE HIS

PURSUERS — WHILE ALSO GAINING A

FASCINATING GLIMPSE INTO HOW TRACKERS AND HUNTERS WORK

MANHUNT

EVERY SENSE IN YOUR BODY COMES ALIVE, TO A GREATER DEGREE THAN YOU’RE USED TO. YOUR VISION, YOUR HEARING, BECOME SHARPER. YOU START QUIVERING. IT’S HARD TO DESCRIBE, BUT YOU JUST BECOME PLUGGED IN TO EVERYTHING AROUND YOU.


91MAY 2014

recruit, it's for them. We are finding guys who have what it takes in them, and through the process of the selection, unearthing it and polishing it up. And then when they come out, whatever it is that was latent inside them has been brought out.

It's like this archetype, the warrior journey, that's hardwired into humanity. It's so rarely that this is brought to fruition, and really grown to its fullness, except in these warrior cultures, such as the one Bear Grylls experienced in the [UK’s] SAS, or the regiments of the Gurkhas, for instance. It’s inside these warrior societies, like the Thai guard men. There's some guard men that would come over and train with us — they were these little tiny guys, but oh man, they are hard. It's fantastic. And you know, you go through this life as a loner, then discover a brotherhood you never knew existed. For me, that’s

the most enlightening and valuable thing that I have ever experienced.

I had a friend of a friend who worked at an electronics store who said, “Well you just haven't had a child yet. Wait until you have a child.” Well, maybe so, but you know what? I'm a frogman, I'm a SEAL — and that is something so deep that I don't even think having a child could come close to the depth of brotherhood. The pride and humility that comes with standing among the kind of men that I'm privileged to stand among is something else. I’m sure having a child is fantastic, but I don’t think it ever could come close to living life at that level of intensity and razor’s edge.

You also had to prep a film crew to match it with you, and these guys clearly aren’t ex-Navy SEALs. It’s one thing for you to beat these tracking forces alone, but to not get caught and still ensure it’s good TV, must be extraordinarily hard. Behind the scenes, how did you ensure they were match-ready too? Dude, it was such a collision of worlds at first! But as I was learning about the show, I was seeing that what the producers and the creators at Discovery Channel wanted to do was not to take military things, and adapt them to a TV format — which is what every other military show does. They wanted what is effectively an FMP, or full mission profile. So a full military exercise, with everything shown. You know, we were not killing anybody, we were not actually launching missiles, but we were doing everything up until that point — and playing it out as it unfolded. Which is what’s going on in this series. And so that’s exciting: they’re

just launching these cameras along with us.

That being said, how are these camera guys and these producers going to be propelled into this new world? And how am I going to take my tactical stuff and then relate it to a camera? Because from the outset, I didn’t necessarily understand that. And the camera guy’s asking me, “Tell me how you’re doing this.” At first, I’m like, “Shut up man! Just do it, do it!”

So the first episode was a lot of that. You know, I’m hungry and exhausted, and the camera guy’s saying, “Hey Joel, can you show us this?” I kind of had to adjust, and think about how I could still do what I was doing, and maintain the majority of my tactical operational discipline.

Yeah, I guess that could easily be the difference between being found or not found. I mean, operational discipline suffers in order to relate to the camera. But I needed to have it not necessarily affect my overall mission too much. That’s been the challenge, I think.

For the camera operator, it’s about one, keeping up, and two, not compromising

me. Which happens all the time. And I’ve been through several of them. One of them quit, another ended up with a muscle detached from the bone. That was horrible. They are reality cameramen, they’re used to being in the middle of a real situation and “not being there”. But in this situation, they are there — their footprints, the noise they make, the blue t-shirt they wear into the field, are all there. So it’s been difficult for me, without breaking their spirit or impeding them from doing their job, to try to bring a camera operator into this, without compromising me.

And did it come ever come close to that? There was one instance in the Philippines. Those guys are amazing trackers, and I was walking through this field area, where it’s pretty muddy and our footprints would be showing. So I’m being very careful and walking on these hillocks of grass, stepping so delicately. Then I look over to my right, and the cameraman is tromping through the mud, filming my footprints. And I just said, “Do you not get it? Do you not understand what we’re doing here?” And it is very difficult to try to grasp that.

DURING THE EPISODES, VIEWERS GET TO WATCH LAMBERT PUT IN EVERY EFFORT TO ESCAPE HIS

PURSUERS — WHILE ALSO GAINING A

FASCINATING GLIMPSE INTO HOW TRACKERS AND HUNTERS WORK

MANHUNT

EVERY SENSE IN YOUR BODY COMES ALIVE, TO A GREATER DEGREE THAN YOU’RE USED TO. YOUR VISION, YOUR HEARING, BECOME SHARPER. YOU START QUIVERING. IT’S HARD TO DESCRIBE, BUT YOU JUST BECOME PLUGGED IN TO EVERYTHING AROUND YOU.


93MAY 2014

It was clearly a crazy assignment for them, whether they were following you, or the guys tracking you. Yeah. We had one guy who was almost killed. He had an emergency evacuation, and was given emergency surgery where they cut the other side of his neck and pushed through two inches of spine out the other side. That’s in the behind-the-scenes episode.

The producers and camera operators who were with the hunters in Panama, they stumbled into some Africanised honey bees (also known as killer bees). We had three guys lost in the jungle, and two guys going into anaphylactic shock and having to be given epinephrine. Vomiting all night long. It was really brutal to say the least.

In most of the places I’d go after the hunt, I would wake up in the morning and roll out of bed — and there’d still be these spots of blood on the bed. We dealt with dengue fever, mercer staph (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) infections, heat exhaustion.

One producer was down with heat exhaustion and had to go to the hospital for 24 hours and get like four or five bags of IV fluid. So it was very real, you know.

I’m sure that compared to some of the experiences in your career, that’s something you’re prepared for. Yes, you’re absolutely right. But those crew guys, this is new to them.

I don’t want to give away any spoilers for our readers, in terms of the outcomes. But what would you say were the differences for you between the different episodes, and between the different forces you encountered? Well, some of the special forces, their skill levels were well above average, but then the technology levels would be above average too. For instance in the Philippines, they were using — I mean, they had trucks; that was basically what they had, they had vehicles. But other than that, they were just soldiers on the ground. And they were fantastic — they were clearly great soldiers and great trackers. And in other places, there were massive amounts of technology.

Some places, the terrain would be brutal, just horrible. Other places, it would be really easy terrain, like in South Africa, where it was wide open. But there are lions, hippos, elephants and leopards. You know, stuff that can kill you around every corner. So every single place was different.

And every single situation that I was being put in, they’re impossible odds. I mean, I’m one dude with no technology being hunted by people for whom this is what they do, in their own

ADVERSARY RESOURCES We gave him background research and he had his own, on what assets these guys had. Did they have choppers, or planes, or drones? He seemed pretty amazed when the drones came out when we were in Arizona. I think he was shocked, actually. I don’t think he was anticipating that — whereas of course, we were delighted. Also, we tried to find units with slightly different landscapes, so that they would do things in a slightly different way. The Filipinos didn’t really have any assets, aside from a few jeeps, they just really rely on their own skills — that’s the only thing you can really do in the jungle. Whereas of course in the US, they had a lot.

URBAN CHASE I think the hardest one to film actually was the South Korean one, because they had cameras everywhere. It starts off as urban environment, but then they picked him up really quickly on their CCTV cameras; there’s thousands all around the island. They started blocking all the roads out: he was going to try and go round the island, from town to town. They worked that out, and they set up roadblocks — so he in the end, did have to go into the countryside a little bit and come out the other end. That one was hard for him.

TOUGHEST TEST I think the one that he hated was in the Philippines. While he was really excited about going — he sponsors a child there and they met up when he was there, but he was slightly phased by the terrain. He doesn’t like jungle; he made it very clear that jungle is the worst environment for him.

GUNS I was asked a lot about why we let the soldiers carry weapons. The reason was that it actually would have disabled them if we hadn’t — it would have thrown them off-balance, almost. We thought it was important that they weren’t disadvantaged in any way. But obviously, they didn’t have live rounds. It would have been a bit too dramatic if they’d actually shot him. Towards the end of some of the episodes, you can see that it’s not a game to the soldiers any more, either — they really think this is somebody they should capture. They just got into the zone, it was very highly-charged.

HYPER AWARE Joel said all his senses become much more aware during each hunt. He was definitely going into super sensory awareness. He was very aware of noises and people and movement; which added to the tension of it all. A lot of the time, he was telling the crew to shut up — they thought they were being incredibly quiet, but their one crunch was freaking him out. He also said, as a SEAL, he has this switch that he flicks on. When you go into mission mode, you see your life through the filter of the mission. He definitely went into that mode: that’s why he had screaming matches sometimes with the crew, who had to snap him out of it a little bit. It was a lot for him to deal with.

BEHIND THE SCENES AND ON THE PRECIPICE

SOME OF THE PHILIPPINE ARMY SCOUT RANGERS HOT ON LAMBERT'S TRAIL. LAMBERT'S TASK WAS MADE EVEN HARDER BY THE FACT THAT JUNGLE TERRAIN ISN'T HIS FORTE

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MANHUNT

“YOU GO THROUGH LIFE AS A LONER, THEN DISCOVER THIS BROTHERHOOD YOU NEVER KNEW EXISTED. FOR ME, THAT’S THE MOST ENLIGHTENING AND VALUABLE THING THAT I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED”


93MAY 2014

It was clearly a crazy assignment for them, whether they were following you, or the guys tracking you. Yeah. We had one guy who was almost killed. He had an emergency evacuation, and was given emergency surgery where they cut the other side of his neck and pushed through two inches of spine out the other side. That’s in the behind-the-scenes episode.

The producers and camera operators who were with the hunters in Panama, they stumbled into some Africanised honey bees (also known as killer bees). We had three guys lost in the jungle, and two guys going into anaphylactic shock and having to be given epinephrine. Vomiting all night long. It was really brutal to say the least.

In most of the places I’d go after the hunt, I would wake up in the morning and roll out of bed — and there’d still be these spots of blood on the bed. We dealt with dengue fever, mercer staph (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) infections, heat exhaustion.

One producer was down with heat exhaustion and had to go to the hospital for 24 hours and get like four or five bags of IV fluid. So it was very real, you know.

I’m sure that compared to some of the experiences in your career, that’s something you’re prepared for. Yes, you’re absolutely right. But those crew guys, this is new to them.

I don’t want to give away any spoilers for our readers, in terms of the outcomes. But what would you say were the differences for you between the different episodes, and between the different forces you encountered? Well, some of the special forces, their skill levels were well above average, but then the technology levels would be above average too. For instance in the Philippines, they were using — I mean, they had trucks; that was basically what they had, they had vehicles. But other than that, they were just soldiers on the ground. And they were fantastic — they were clearly great soldiers and great trackers. And in other places, there were massive amounts of technology.

Some places, the terrain would be brutal, just horrible. Other places, it would be really easy terrain, like in South Africa, where it was wide open. But there are lions, hippos, elephants and leopards. You know, stuff that can kill you around every corner. So every single place was different.

And every single situation that I was being put in, they’re impossible odds. I mean, I’m one dude with no technology being hunted by people for whom this is what they do, in their own

ADVERSARY RESOURCES We gave him background research and he had his own, on what assets these guys had. Did they have choppers, or planes, or drones? He seemed pretty amazed when the drones came out when we were in Arizona. I think he was shocked, actually. I don’t think he was anticipating that — whereas of course, we were delighted. Also, we tried to find units with slightly different landscapes, so that they would do things in a slightly different way. The Filipinos didn’t really have any assets, aside from a few jeeps, they just really rely on their own skills — that’s the only thing you can really do in the jungle. Whereas of course in the US, they had a lot.

URBAN CHASE I think the hardest one to film actually was the South Korean one, because they had cameras everywhere. It starts off as urban environment, but then they picked him up really quickly on their CCTV cameras; there’s thousands all around the island. They started blocking all the roads out: he was going to try and go round the island, from town to town. They worked that out, and they set up roadblocks — so he in the end, did have to go into the countryside a little bit and come out the other end. That one was hard for him.

TOUGHEST TEST I think the one that he hated was in the Philippines. While he was really excited about going — he sponsors a child there and they met up when he was there, but he was slightly phased by the terrain. He doesn’t like jungle; he made it very clear that jungle is the worst environment for him.

GUNS I was asked a lot about why we let the soldiers carry weapons. The reason was that it actually would have disabled them if we hadn’t — it would have thrown them off-balance, almost. We thought it was important that they weren’t disadvantaged in any way. But obviously, they didn’t have live rounds. It would have been a bit too dramatic if they’d actually shot him. Towards the end of some of the episodes, you can see that it’s not a game to the soldiers any more, either — they really think this is somebody they should capture. They just got into the zone, it was very highly-charged.

HYPER AWARE Joel said all his senses become much more aware during each hunt. He was definitely going into super sensory awareness. He was very aware of noises and people and movement; which added to the tension of it all. A lot of the time, he was telling the crew to shut up — they thought they were being incredibly quiet, but their one crunch was freaking him out. He also said, as a SEAL, he has this switch that he flicks on. When you go into mission mode, you see your life through the filter of the mission. He definitely went into that mode: that’s why he had screaming matches sometimes with the crew, who had to snap him out of it a little bit. It was a lot for him to deal with.

BEHIND THE SCENES AND ON THE PRECIPICE

SOME OF THE PHILIPPINE ARMY SCOUT RANGERS HOT ON LAMBERT'S TRAIL. LAMBERT'S TASK WAS MADE EVEN HARDER BY THE FACT THAT JUNGLE TERRAIN ISN'T HIS FORTE

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MANHUNT

“YOU GO THROUGH LIFE AS A LONER, THEN DISCOVER THIS BROTHERHOOD YOU NEVER KNEW EXISTED. FOR ME, THAT’S THE MOST ENLIGHTENING AND VALUABLE THING THAT I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED”


95MAY 2014

MANHUNT WITH JOEL LAMBERTEPISODE BY EPISODE, HUNT BY HUNT

PRE-SHOW BEFORE THE CHASE Kicking off the series is an inside look behind-the-scenes at Manhunt with Joel Lambert, Discovery Channel's all-new action and survival series — and the dangerous conditions battled during production. Joel Lambert, an ex-US Navy SEAL, takes on some of the world’s most specialised military and law enforcement tracking units, as he puts them to the test, and challenges them to try to physically capture him over a period of up to 48 hours. Shot in some of the world's most remote and exotic locations, viewers meet each of the hunter forces and hear about the difficulties Lambert experienced in trying to escape and evade each one. The making of the series proves to be as challenging as the hunts, as severe injuries and near-death accidents plague the crew while they try to capture this ultimate game of cat-and-mouse.

SOUTH AFRICA SAFARI SURVIVALLambert is hunted across a private game reserve in South Africa as he faces off against one of the most specialised forces yet — the International Anti-

Poaching Foundation (IAPF). With the reserve full of deadly animals such as lions, leopards, elephants and rhinos, he must be hyper-aware of both the hunter force behind him — and the dangerous game ahead. Made up of ex-military personnel and former poachers, the IAPF’s keen tracking skills allow them to spot even the faintest hint of Lambert, without the aid of high-tech assets. But when the IAPF finds a pride of lions on the prowl, the hunt changes to a life-and-death rescue mission, to find him — before he becomes a lion’s lunch.

POLAND RACE TO THE BRIDGELambert has just 36 hours to escape and evade Poland’s elite border guard, the Straz Graniczna. Over a distance of 25 kilometres, the

border guard deploys all their assets, including thermal camera helicopters, all-terrain vehicles (ATV), motorcycles, tracking dogs and world-class field units, in an attempt to intercept Lambert, before he reaches his extraction point. As the Straz Graniczna mobilises dozens of troops, Lambert is forced to utilise all of his deception tactics — not to mention, make his way down a 20-metre cliff, and risk a daring truck ride, to attempt to save himself in this battle of Polish pride versus Lambert's rigorous training.

MANHUNT

backyard, with at the very least, vehicles that can outrun me. And in some cases, you know, helicopters and thermal imaging. And even closed circuit TV systems, and that kind of stuff. So, it was very, very difficult to do.

So what’s going through your head at these times, while you’re on the run? What’s that experience itself like? Most of us will never experience days like those. Every sense in your body comes alive, to a slightly greater degree than you’re used to. Your vision, your hearing, become sharper. Everything just becomes… you start quivering, you know? You’re just resonating with everything that’s going on. It’s hard to describe, but you just become plugged in to everything around you. You become that human animal again.

I was going to say, that sounds like a wild animal kind of instinct. It’s exactly what happens. To a degree, your instincts wake up. Because while it’s always there, we’re so removed from that kind of life. To wake it up — and that’s part of what you learn to do in the military forces, in combat,

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“I’M ONE WITH NO TECHNOLOGY, BEING HUNTED BY PEOPLE FOR WHOM THIS IS WHAT THEY DO, IN THEIR OWN BACKYARD, EQUIPPED WITH AT THE VERY LEAST, VEHICLES THAT CAN OUTRUN ME”


95MAY 2014


PRE-SHOW BEFORE THE CHASE Kicking off the series is an inside look behind-the-scenes at Manhunt with Joel Lambert, Discovery Channel's all-new action and survival series — and the dangerous conditions battled during production. Joel Lambert, an ex-US Navy SEAL, takes on some of the world’s most specialised military and law enforcement tracking units, as he puts them to the test, and challenges them to try to physically capture him over a period of up to 48 hours. Shot in some of the world's most remote and exotic locations, viewers meet each of the hunter forces and hear about the difficulties Lambert experienced in trying to escape and evade each one. The making of the series proves to be as challenging as the hunts, as severe injuries and near-death accidents plague the crew while they try to capture this ultimate game of cat-and-mouse.

SOUTH AFRICA SAFARI SURVIVALLambert is hunted across a private game reserve in South Africa as he faces off against one of the most specialised forces yet — the International Anti-

Poaching Foundation (IAPF). With the reserve full of deadly animals such as lions, leopards, elephants and rhinos, he must be hyper-aware of both the hunter force behind him — and the dangerous game ahead. Made up of ex-military personnel and former poachers, the IAPF’s keen tracking skills allow them to spot even the faintest hint of Lambert, without the aid of high-tech assets. But when the IAPF finds a pride of lions on the prowl, the hunt changes to a life-and-death rescue mission, to find him — before he becomes a lion’s lunch.

POLAND RACE TO THE BRIDGELambert has just 36 hours to escape and evade Poland’s elite border guard, the Straz Graniczna. Over a distance of 25 kilometres, the

border guard deploys all their assets, including thermal camera helicopters, all-terrain vehicles (ATV), motorcycles, tracking dogs and world-class field units, in an attempt to intercept Lambert, before he reaches his extraction point. As the Straz Graniczna mobilises dozens of troops, Lambert is forced to utilise all of his deception tactics — not to mention, make his way down a 20-metre cliff, and risk a daring truck ride, to attempt to save himself in this battle of Polish pride versus Lambert's rigorous training.

MANHUNT

backyard, with at the very least, vehicles that can outrun me. And in some cases, you know, helicopters and thermal imaging. And even closed circuit TV systems, and that kind of stuff. So, it was very, very difficult to do.

So what’s going through your head at these times, while you’re on the run? What’s that experience itself like? Most of us will never experience days like those. Every sense in your body comes alive, to a slightly greater degree than you’re used to. Your vision, your hearing, become sharper. Everything just becomes… you start quivering, you know? You’re just resonating with everything that’s going on. It’s hard to describe, but you just become plugged in to everything around you. You become that human animal again.

I was going to say, that sounds like a wild animal kind of instinct. It’s exactly what happens. To a degree, your instincts wake up. Because while it’s always there, we’re so removed from that kind of life. To wake it up — and that’s part of what you learn to do in the military forces, in combat,

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“I’M ONE WITH NO TECHNOLOGY, BEING HUNTED BY PEOPLE FOR WHOM THIS IS WHAT THEY DO, IN THEIR OWN BACKYARD, EQUIPPED WITH AT THE VERY LEAST, VEHICLES THAT CAN OUTRUN ME”


97MAY 2014

PANAMA SWIM TO SURVIVEPanama's elite anti-drug trafficking unit SENAFRONT has just 36 hours to track, hunt and capture Lambert in the jungles of San José Island, situated close to 100 kilometres off the coast. Lambert battles for freedom through thick rainforest, rocky shorelines, and some surprising wildlife, while SENAFRONT unleashes its full arsenal, using ATV patrols, boat units, and ground trackers to pressure Lambert from all sides. But when he decides to use the terrain to conceal his trail, SENAFRONT turns the tables by using one of his signature moves against him.

ARIZONA TESTING THE EAGLELambert faces off against the US Army's Phantom Recon unit — a battle-tested group of trackers, supremely skilled in hunting down the most elusive of

targets. Their turf in southern Arizona is the harsh 75,000 acres surrounding Fort Huachuca military base, an area home to mountain lions and bears — and a much-favoured route of illegal immigrants and heavily armed drug smugglers trying to gain passage into the country. And if Phantom Recon is not intimidating enough, Lambert is also being monitored by sophisticated unmanned aerial drones, whose cameras have locked in on his every move. Pitted against both top-notch trackers and the latest aerial spyware, will his skills and endurance be enough to get him to a successful extraction before the “enemy” closes in?

THE PHILIPPINES ESCAPE THE JUNGLELambert faces off against the Philippine Army Scout Rangers, with just 48 hours to escape the dense jungle. Over a distance of 25 kilometres, and with two trucks as their only assets, the Scout Rangers prove they are among the world’s best at jungle tracking, as they utilise their unique skill set to stay hot on Lambert's trail. But the harsh heat and humidity of the Philippine jungle — and an unfortunately timed typhoon — push Lambert, the hunter unit and crew to the brink.

SOUTH KOREA HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHTLambert takes on the South Korean National Police (KNP) SWAT unit in a challenge he has never faced before: urban evasion. On the heavily populated tourist island of Jeju, Lambert must alter his tactics to escape the KNP’s web of over 5,000 closed-circuit television cameras, in addition to their boat, air and mobile assets. Nothing is off-limits as he tries to avoid physical capture through the back alleys of the city. He even leads KNP out into the wilderness on a path of deception and near-misses.

BAG IN THE CABDavies: Joel also managed

to leave his bag in the taxi. Did he tell you that? DCM: No! [laughs]

Davies: Yeah, brilliant. He had a back-pack with a few bits and bobs in it —

and he left it in the taxi. He was using a car to get away. That really scuppered

him, actually. He got very flustered when they came to the checkpoint. He had only

been on the run for about two hours. So he definitely lost it. But he came up

with a brilliant solution — he’s very resourceful. You often see him do

really strange stuff, that I’ve never seen anyone do

before.

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is to make your instincts come back. And these are not necessarily nice instincts, they may be amoral in some cases. But they’re not immoral.

And they are what's keeping you alive. Yeah, exactly. It’s not really something to be judged: it is what it is, it’s who we are at a fundamental level. And I do find it an amazing place to be.

Your background was obviously very much focused on your patch, and

the people you train with, and all of the territories you’re going into. But this must have been something special in terms of learning from so many different foreign forces' cultures, in so many different environments. Did you come away with a universal sense about these quite unusual individuals, and perhaps what's similar about them all? Yes, and that’s one of the things that I really enjoyed about the show. Almost every day, there was so much respect

between myself and the hunter forces. They were so good, and did such a great job, and there was such mutual appreciation and respect, that afterwards it was great to have a drink and eat with them, and to hang out to just kind of connect outside of the battlefield. They were fantastic, I loved hanging out with them. All of them worked with amazing dedication. The highlight in each of these groups is what they can achieve, and their passion for what they do in their units. It was awesome.

How much in each case were you able to discuss the special forces' regular work? Because these are of course under quite a veil of security and secrecy. Well, you know, I learned what I could that which would help me out, but I didn’t get a chance to interact with them very much. Very rarely would I come across them before the hunt, and then after the hunt, sometimes we had a chance to go out and hang out a little bit. The guys in the Philippines were fantastic.



97MAY 2014

PANAMA SWIM TO SURVIVEPanama's elite anti-drug trafficking unit SENAFRONT has just 36 hours to track, hunt and capture Lambert in the jungles of San José Island, situated close to 100 kilometres off the coast. Lambert battles for freedom through thick rainforest, rocky shorelines, and some surprising wildlife, while SENAFRONT unleashes its full arsenal, using ATV patrols, boat units, and ground trackers to pressure Lambert from all sides. But when he decides to use the terrain to conceal his trail, SENAFRONT turns the tables by using one of his signature moves against him.

ARIZONA TESTING THE EAGLELambert faces off against the US Army's Phantom Recon unit — a battle-tested group of trackers, supremely skilled in hunting down the most elusive of

targets. Their turf in southern Arizona is the harsh 75,000 acres surrounding Fort Huachuca military base, an area home to mountain lions and bears — and a much-favoured route of illegal immigrants and heavily armed drug smugglers trying to gain passage into the country. And if Phantom Recon is not intimidating enough, Lambert is also being monitored by sophisticated unmanned aerial drones, whose cameras have locked in on his every move. Pitted against both top-notch trackers and the latest aerial spyware, will his skills and endurance be enough to get him to a successful extraction before the “enemy” closes in?

THE PHILIPPINES ESCAPE THE JUNGLELambert faces off against the Philippine Army Scout Rangers, with just 48 hours to escape the dense jungle. Over a distance of 25 kilometres, and with two trucks as their only assets, the Scout Rangers prove they are among the world’s best at jungle tracking, as they utilise their unique skill set to stay hot on Lambert's trail. But the harsh heat and humidity of the Philippine jungle — and an unfortunately timed typhoon — push Lambert, the hunter unit and crew to the brink.

SOUTH KOREA HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHTLambert takes on the South Korean National Police (KNP) SWAT unit in a challenge he has never faced before: urban evasion. On the heavily populated tourist island of Jeju, Lambert must alter his tactics to escape the KNP’s web of over 5,000 closed-circuit television cameras, in addition to their boat, air and mobile assets. Nothing is off-limits as he tries to avoid physical capture through the back alleys of the city. He even leads KNP out into the wilderness on a path of deception and near-misses.

BAG IN THE CABDavies: Joel also managed

to leave his bag in the taxi. Did he tell you that? DCM: No! [laughs]

Davies: Yeah, brilliant. He had a back-pack with a few bits and bobs in it —

and he left it in the taxi. He was using a car to get away. That really scuppered

him, actually. He got very flustered when they came to the checkpoint. He had only

been on the run for about two hours. So he definitely lost it. But he came up

with a brilliant solution — he’s very resourceful. You often see him do

really strange stuff, that I’ve never seen anyone do

before.

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is to make your instincts come back. And these are not necessarily nice instincts, they may be amoral in some cases. But they’re not immoral.

And they are what's keeping you alive. Yeah, exactly. It’s not really something to be judged: it is what it is, it’s who we are at a fundamental level. And I do find it an amazing place to be.

Your background was obviously very much focused on your patch, and

the people you train with, and all of the territories you’re going into. But this must have been something special in terms of learning from so many different foreign forces' cultures, in so many different environments. Did you come away with a universal sense about these quite unusual individuals, and perhaps what's similar about them all? Yes, and that’s one of the things that I really enjoyed about the show. Almost every day, there was so much respect

between myself and the hunter forces. They were so good, and did such a great job, and there was such mutual appreciation and respect, that afterwards it was great to have a drink and eat with them, and to hang out to just kind of connect outside of the battlefield. They were fantastic, I loved hanging out with them. All of them worked with amazing dedication. The highlight in each of these groups is what they can achieve, and their passion for what they do in their units. It was awesome.

How much in each case were you able to discuss the special forces' regular work? Because these are of course under quite a veil of security and secrecy. Well, you know, I learned what I could that which would help me out, but I didn’t get a chance to interact with them very much. Very rarely would I come across them before the hunt, and then after the hunt, sometimes we had a chance to go out and hang out a little bit. The guys in the Philippines were fantastic.



They came straight from combat; they came out of the jungle to do this show. They finished this training exercise, and then went right back into combat. They were going right back into the field to do their jobs — my hat’s off to those guys.

What was the most surprising bit for you in terms of the experience? There will always be something that stumps you. In special operations, you are conditioned so thoroughly to expect the unexpected. So there’s really not anything that I ran into in the actual hunt that surprised me. Even when something was really kind of jacked up, as you’ll see

in the series, I kind of handled it. Then the producers might say, “Why aren’t you reacting more? This should be a major surprise!” Because it’s not a major surprise — when the unexpected happens, you adapt, improvise and overcome. You deal with it, and move on.

The things that surprised me were how old I’d gotten, how much slower I am — how much more recovery time I needed after doing these operations. Other than of course working with the camera and trying to not be caught, not letting them compromise me, while at the same time getting what we needed to get. With one cameraman in particular, there were a few times that we got into big fights. I would say,

“The most important thing is not getting caught!” He’d reply, “No, the most important thing is making a TV show!” That’s what it was like.

The two out of 10 people that make it into these forces: what would you say is the difference between those two and the other eight? The US military and various other militaries have commissioned study after study trying to isolate what it is — so they can screen better. It is something that’s not been identified yet, and I don’t know exactly what it is either. But I tell you, it certainly comes in different packages. When I joined, there were guys that I kind of thought looked

WITH ONE CAMERAMAN, THERE WERE A FEW TIMES WE GOT INTO FIGHTS. I WOULD SAY, “THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS NOT GETTING CAUGHT!” HE’D REPLY, “THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS MAKING A TV SHOW!”

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WHETHER THROUGH THE WILDS OF THE JUNGLE OR GRASSLAND,

OR IN THE VERY HEART OF A TOURIST CITY, LAMBERT TAKES

HIS HUNTERS ON A MERRY CHASE — AND BRINGS HIS

VIEWERS ALONG FOR THE RIDE


like those video game characters, you know? Rippling biceps, chiselled jaw with stubble. The type you imagine in a barbarian horde. And there was another guy with a little bit of a pot belly. And in the first week, barbarian boy had quit — and the dude with the pot belly was in the back of the class, almost failing everything but getting up, then getting his ass handed to him every time. And he just took it and took it. And over the course of the training, you look at that dude, and you think, “That’s the guy I want with me in combat — because no matter what happens, that guy will not stop, will not quit and he will not let us down.”

Bear Grylls I think described that X-factor quality as “heart”. It is, and in the end he’s right. But I tell you what, as you are doing it, you will identify guys at the beginning that you think have heart, and guys you think don’t have it. And you will be completely wrong.

What was each hunt experience like for you afterwards? Were you a complete mess? Every time I’d do the hunt, I would need

a long recovery time. The first couple of hunts were separated by like, two weeks. Later on, they would stack up and become more back-to-back, partly for financial reasons. In some cases, I’d say, “No way, I can’t do that yet.”

When I finish a hunt, I’ve been going sometimes up to 56 hours, and on no food, very little water and pure adrenaline — and the adrenals are pumping overtime. So by the time I finish, I’ll go and do pickup shots and that stuff. And I am completely spent. There’s blood in my bed, then I just start showering. And

when I'm at home, it’s about five days before I will feel functional. Five days of sleep, 10 to 12 hours a night, and then a three- or four-hour nap in the day.

I will be eating and eating too, wandering the house kind of in a zombie state for a couple of days. Sometimes, I couldn’t really even make a fist. You’d wake up early in the morning and your hand can’t even squeeze, you know what I mean?

Then after about five days I would feel okay, able to do all that I would do routinely. I’d go out and I could have

a normal day, but I still was really weak. I’d go to the gym to work out, and I would try to do a workout, but I would just be sitting. I’d be fine, but I just had no explosiveness, no power. It makes me sad saying this, but after 10 days to two weeks, I would feel okay. I’d feel like I was 95 percent ready to do it again. After the season was done though, I started training really hard, and my coordination, my balance and my strength were just all jacked up for probably two and a half months. I finally got everything back — but it took a lot out of me.

“WHEN I FINISH A HUNT, I’VE BEEN GOING SOMETIMES UP TO 56 HOURS, ON NO FOOD, VERY LITTLE WATER AND PURE ADRENALINE — AND THE ADRENALS ARE PUMPING OVERTIME.”

LAMBERT AND HIS PURSUERS TAKE TO THE CITY FOR A CHANGE IN SOUTH KOREA. WHILE YOU'RE PROBABLY NOT SURPRISED BY THE FACT THAT THERE ARE SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS EVERYWHERE ON JEJU ISLAND, HOW WOULD YOU GO ABOUT HIDING FROM THOSE ALL-SEEING EYES?

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103MAY 2014

WHAT'S ONTHIS MONTH ON DISCOVERY CHANNEL

WHAT'S ON

Everest Jump LiveDiscovery Channel brings an incredible human feat ever captured on television – straight from the peak of the world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest. The world renowned wing-suit jumper Joby Ogwyn attempts the first flight off the summit of the mountain. Discovery will air EVEREST JUMP LIVE in 224 countries and territories across the world.

COMING IN MAY

WHAT'S ON


103MAY 2014

WHAT'S ONTHIS MONTH ON DISCOVERY CHANNEL

Everest Jump LiveDiscovery Channel brings an incredible human feat ever captured on television – straight from the peak of the world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest. The world renowned wing-suit jumper Joby Ogwyn attempts the first flight off the summit of the mountain. Discovery will air EVEREST JUMP LIVE in 224 countries and territories across the world.

COMING IN MAY

WHAT'S ON


105MAY 2014

WHAT'S ON

Superhumans ChallengeCould superheroes actually exist? Prepare to be amazed, astounded and astonished as presenter Tim Fitzhigham goes on a mission to seek out humans with impossible powers – so he can go head to head with them! In each episode Tim meets one real life superhuman and in order to prove, or disprove, their extraordinary abilities, he challenges them to three unbelievable Supertests.

AIRS EVERY MONDAY TO FRIDAY 10 PM, STARTING 1 APRIL

Futurescape With James WoodsFUTURESCAPE WITH JAMES WOODS looks at one idea or discovery that will blow your mind and critically alter life as we know it. Synthetic Biology. Predictive Analytics. Habitable Planets. Nanotechnology. It all sounds like science fiction. It's not. James will ask the big questions, ignite debate and reveal a stunning image of the future.

AIRS EVERY MONDAY 9 PM, STARTING 12 MAY

WHAT'S ON

72 HoursEvery detective knows that the first 72 hours after a crime are crucial to solving it. What is less well known is that the victim's last 72 hours often hold the key to the criminal's identity. Through a cinematic blend of dramatic re-enactments, 72 HOURS takes the viewer through the painstaking investigative process until the case is solved and the criminal convicted. In the end, justice is always served.

AIRS EVERY MONDAY TO FRIDAY 10 PM, STARTING 12 MAY

Building The World CupBUILDING THE WORLD CUP goes behind-the-scenes of one of Brazil’s biggest engineering projects: the creation of three state-of-the-art football stadiums capable of hosting international soccer at the highest level. With the 2014 World Cup looming and the eyes of the world on Brazil, can the country deliver on time and on budget?

AIRS EVERY SATURDAY 8 PM, STARTING 24 MAY


105MAY 2014

WHAT'S ON

Superhumans ChallengeCould superheroes actually exist? Prepare to be amazed, astounded and astonished as presenter Tim Fitzhigham goes on a mission to seek out humans with impossible powers – so he can go head to head with them! In each episode Tim meets one real life superhuman and in order to prove, or disprove, their extraordinary abilities, he challenges them to three unbelievable Supertests.

AIRS EVERY MONDAY TO FRIDAY 10 PM, STARTING 1 APRIL

Futurescape With James WoodsFUTURESCAPE WITH JAMES WOODS looks at one idea or discovery that will blow your mind and critically alter life as we know it. Synthetic Biology. Predictive Analytics. Habitable Planets. Nanotechnology. It all sounds like science fiction. It's not. James will ask the big questions, ignite debate and reveal a stunning image of the future.

AIRS EVERY MONDAY 9 PM, STARTING 12 MAY

WHAT'S ON

72 HoursEvery detective knows that the first 72 hours after a crime are crucial to solving it. What is less well known is that the victim's last 72 hours often hold the key to the criminal's identity. Through a cinematic blend of dramatic re-enactments, 72 HOURS takes the viewer through the painstaking investigative process until the case is solved and the criminal convicted. In the end, justice is always served.

AIRS EVERY MONDAY TO FRIDAY 10 PM, STARTING 12 MAY

Building The World CupBUILDING THE WORLD CUP goes behind-the-scenes of one of Brazil’s biggest engineering projects: the creation of three state-of-the-art football stadiums capable of hosting international soccer at the highest level. With the 2014 World Cup looming and the eyes of the world on Brazil, can the country deliver on time and on budget?

AIRS EVERY SATURDAY 8 PM, STARTING 24 MAY

Documents

Discovery Channel Magazine India - May 2014