Category: GREECE

Fener Greek Bartholomew receives his award by Boğaziçi University. DAILY NEWS photo, Emrah GÜREL

Acclaimed chef Michael Psilakis, known for his Greek comfort food, is as natural in the kitchen as he is on the small screen.

Best known as the 2012 winner of the BBC’s cooking adventure show “No Kitchen Required” — he’s also the program’s co-executive producer — he’s got many cooking awards to his name, including a Michelin star for his now-closed New York City restaurant Anthos and “Chef of the Year” by Esquire Magazine.

So it may be surprising to hear that his initial career path was headed in a very different direction.

“Becoming a chef chose me,” he said. “It wasn’t really something I thought about. I went to school for accounting; I was getting ready to go to law school. I started waiting on tables and fell in love with the restaurant industry.”

Psilakis was determined to take that love to the next level. He owned his first restaurant at 23. With a background in business, his main goal wasn’t churning out the dishes his restaurant served, until his chef didn’t show up for work one day. “I ran into the kitchen to do the best I could,” he says, “and really found the place that was home for me.”

Now he hopes his patrons feel as “at home” in his restaurants as he does. “I hope that I can show someone that you can use food as a vehicle to create an environment where you, your family, the people that you love will come together and create a memory that hopefully later on as you grow will bloom into more memories for your children,” he says.

But Psilakis says it took a life-altering experience to get to this place, and that his early days were more about the art of cooking. “I was really one-dimensional. Worked 18 hours a day in the kitchen. I didn’t know what was going on in the world. I didn’t know if it was raining or sunny, or the day of the week. I had no clue. And I achieved a tremendous amount of critical success from that period.

“But when my father passed away, all of that just didn’t mean as much. It wasn’t important anymore, and what I realized was that the memories that I had with him revolved around food in a way that I never used it before.”

That was the motivation that propelled him to the next level of his career. Psilakis teamed up with restaurateur and The Food Network’s Iron Chef America judge Donatella Arpaia to open a series of successful restaurants. Though the two have parted ways, they remain co-owners of New York’s Upper West Side staple, Kefi, which just reopened after a water main break flooded it.

“She became somebody who started to take interest in food. I became somebody who had an interest in restaurants. So we sort of went on our own way, but I think that the relationship that we had allowed us to develop the platform that was necessary for us to grow. And that growth allowed us both to achieve our own individual growth, which is the most important part of it.”

Right now Psilakis is interested in making Greek food a staple for American diners, beyond the five restaurants he currently owns.

“I am trying my best to take Greek food out of the genre it’s sat in for a long time and bring it into the mainstream. People here in New York – and maybe in the U.S. – look at Italian food as American food today. Like when you are sitting at home and thinking to yourself, what should I eat tonight? The choices are pretty much American or Italian or Asian or Chinese or Japanese. Greek food doesn’t really fit into that equation yet.”

He hopes his newest un-named venture, under construction in Brooklyn, will do just that. He believes the simplicity, accessibility and familiarity of Mediterranean ingredients are what surprise most people about the cuisine. And more importantly, back to his roots, the idea of sitting around a table, enjoying a meal, and making it an experience — an experience that’s even surprised him.

“Who would have thought 15 years ago that I would be cooking food, owning a restaurant in Manhattan, as many restaurants that I have owned, traveled the world, cooked for unbelievable people, presidents, kings? It’s just been a magic carpet ride. You never really sit down and think OK, this is what I want to do with my life and it’s going to end up like this. For me, it was just taking it as it comes, and fortunately, it’s worked out pretty well.”

“Have you taken any action due to the harassment? Describe the review with dates and included any documentation,” the DO letter stated. “What did the review find? Were NNN and others informed of the review and what it found? Have you spoken to NNN about whether he needs support and help?”

The jibes and the taunts about the man’s beard continued as summer arrived. When he scratched his beard, he was told to stop because “it scares the Swedes”. Another employee threatens to beat him if he scratched his beard again, the complaint to DO stated.

His employer also increasingly took issue with the man taking a break to pray, leaving his increasingly stressed out employee to sneak off to the woods to pray – which is required five times daily by observant Muslims. The employer also said he had to quit praying at night, because it would affect his performance at work. Citing the same reason, the employer said the man was not allowed to fast during Ramadan.

Scientists have traced evidence of a close relationship between humans and cats in the ancient village of Quanhucin, Shaanxi province.

Analysis of bones from at least two cats shows they preyed on grain-eating animals, probably rodents.

One of the cats had survived to an old age living in the village, while another had a diet suggesting it had scavenged human food or been fed.

At the same time, remains of an ancient rodent burrow into a grain storage pit, and the rodent-proof design of grain pots, indicated that rats and mice posed a serious problem for Quanhucin farmers.

“At least three different lines of scientific inquiry allow us to tell a story about cat domestication,” said Professor Fiona Marshall from the University of Washington.

“Our data suggest that cats were attracted to ancient farming villages by small animals such as rodents that were living on the grain that the farmers grew, ate and stored.

“Results of this study show that the village of Quanhucin was a source of food for the cats 5300 years ago, and the relationship between humans and cats was commensal, or advantageous for the cats.

“Even if these cats were not yet domesticated, our evidence confirms that they lived in close proximity to farmers, and that the relationship had mutual benefits.”

Previous evidence suggested they were first domesticated in ancient Egypt, where they were kept some 4000 years ago.

More recent findings point to a much earlier association with humans, including the discovery of a wild cat buried with a human nearly 10,000 years ago in Cyprus.

The research is published online in the journal Proceedings Of The National Academy of Sciences.

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Oldest Known Pet Cat? 9,500-Year-Old Burial Found on Cyprus

Since at least the time of the ancient Egyptians, cats have been cherished as companions, worshipped as idols, and kept as agents of pest control and good luck. But now French archaeologists have found evidence that our close relationship with cats may have begun much earlier.

The carefully interred remains of a human and a cat were found buried with seashells, polished stones, and other decorative artifacts in a 9,500-year-old grave site on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. This new find, from the Neolithic village of Shillourokambos, predates early Egyptian art depicting cats by 4,000 years or more.

Jean-Denis Vigne, an archaeologist with the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, and colleagues describe the find in tomorrow’s edition of the research journal Science. The researchers write that the joint burial indicates a strong association between the human and cat and that the feline is possibly the world’s oldest known pet cat.

“The process and timing of cat domestication has been terrifically difficult to document,” said Melinder Zeder, a curator of Old World archaeology at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and president of the International Council for Archaeozoology.

“In the absence of a collar around its neck, the deliberate interment of this animal with a human makes a strong case that cats had a special place in the daily lives, and in the afterlives, of residents of Shillourokambos,” Zeder said.

Spiritual Significance

Most early evidence of cat domestication comes from ancient Egypt. Some experts believe that the Egyptians may have tamed and bred felines to produce a distinct species by the 20th or 19th century B.C.

Cats are frequently represented in Egyptian mythology in the form of the feline goddesses Bastet, Sekhmet, and other deities. Cat art and mummified remains are known from as far back as 4,000 years ago.

But researchers have also stumbled across hints that cats were domesticated much earlier. Experts have found 10,000-year-old engravings and pottery that depict cats dating to the Neolithic period (late Stone Age), Vigne said. He notes such finds provide evidence that, even then, cats had a spiritual significance.

More recently, cat jawbones and other remains not directly linked to human burials have revealed that wild cats were at least associated with early Neolithic settlements on Cyprus, Vigne said.

Cats are not native to Cyprus, an island 70 kilometers (43.5 miles) south of mainland Turkey. Given that fact, researchers behind today’s announcement write that humans must have introduced cats to the island. Whether or not early peoples domesticated the species remains unclear, the researchers write, noting that foxes were also introduced at the same time.

Together Forever

Zeder, the Smithsonian curator, notes that the difficulty in determining precisely when cats were first domesticated is that cats were likely “commensal domesticates.” The phrase describes animals like mice, rats, sparrows, and early dogs, among others, that weren’t raised by people but nonetheless were attracted to human habitations.

Such animals feed on stored food or trash or they prey on other commensals. Which is why finding cat remains in or near ancient human settlements doesn’t necessarily imply the animals had been adopted as pets.

To complicate the issue, domestic cats are physically very similar to their wild counterparts and cannot easily be distinguished on that basis, said Zeder, who also serves on the board of the National Geographic Society’s Committee for Research and Exploration.

“What makes this [new] find special, is [the cat’s] intentional placement with a human burial,” Zeder said.

The cat and human remains described in today’s announcement were unearthed in 2001. The grave also contained offerings such as ochre and flint tools, axes, and seashells.

A combination of factors is seen as evidence that the cat and human were intentionally buried together including the good state of preservation of both remains, the burial of an entire cat without any signs of butchering, and the proximity of the skeletons—just 40 centimeters (16 inches) apart. Analysis suggests that the cat was just eight months old at death and was possibly killed in order to be buried alongside the human.

“The first discovery of cat bones on Cyprus showed that human beings brought cats from the mainland to the islands. But we couldn’t decide if these cats were wild or tame,” said study author Vigne. “With this discovery, we can now decide that cats were linked with humans.”

He notes that wild cats may have been drawn to settlements where grain stores attracted rats and mice. Perhaps people soon realized they could perhaps use the felines to control these pests.

Domestication Experiments

Cats may have been one of many animals “intentionally transported to Cyprus as some kind of gamestocking plan,” Zeder said, noting that the research by Vigne and his colleagues reveals that many non-native wild animals—including pigs, goats, deer, and cattle—were transported to Cyprus “on a kind of Noah’s ark.”

The scientists’ findings also reveal that the residents of the ancient village of Shillourokambos were beginning domestication experiments with many such livestock species.

“[Perhaps] it’s not surprising to find evidence of taming cats and their habituation with human settlements at such an early date,” Zeder added. “What’s really surprising is that we haven’t seen more of this kind of association at an earlier time.”

In contrast to cats, intentional burials of dogs and puppies with humans occurred earlier and have been more common in the archaeological record. The earliest are known from the Natufian stage, 12,000 years ago in Israel.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, approved Monday 3 billion euros ($4.1 billion) in financial aid to help build four major highways in Greece.

Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades has stated that if Greek Cyprus’ preconditions are not met, starting negotiations with the Turkish Cypriots to solve the dispute on the east Mediterranean island of Cyprus will be out of the question.

“If the basic principles, such as living together in peace and free from occupation, are not … guarantee[d], it is out of [the] question to start an unfruitful dialogue,” Anastasiades said on Sunday.

Referring to Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s remarks in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) on Saturday, Anastasiades said the Greek Cypriot side was expecting promising remarks from Davutoğlu, but that those published in the media have led Greek Cyprus to lose good faith.

With long-awaited reunification negotiations between the Greek and Turkish sides on Cyprus expected to resume months ago, the Turkish Cypriots have come up with a new proposal that aims to revive stalled talks that would pave the way for the solution of the island dispute.

After the proposal was declared, Greek Cyprus stated on Saturday that breakaway Turkish Cypriots and the Turkish government have scuttled chances of restarting talks to reunify the island. Greek Cypriot government spokesman Christos Stylianides blamed Turkish Cypriots for “extreme and intransigent” positions, adding that Anastasiades was unwilling to now enter into talks “for the sake of talks.”

Meanwhile, Greek Cypriot politicians have criticized UN Special Envoy to Cyprus Alexander Downer for meeting with Davutoğlu on Saturday at the Turkish Embassy in Lefkoşa, where he took the Turkish Cypriots’ new proposal to convey to the Greek Cypriot side.

Cyprus has been divided between the Greek Cypriot south and the Turkish Cypriot north since 1974, when Turkey sent troops to the island following a Greek-inspired coup that sought to unite the island with Greece.

Γονίδιο που «καθοδηγεί» την ανάπτυξη των καρκινικών όγκων στο 1% των ασθενών ανακάλυψαν επιστήμονες στη Μ. Βρετανία, σύμφωνα με στοιχεία που δημοσιεύθηκαν στο επιστημονικό έντυπο Nature Genetics.

Πρόκειται για την πρώτη φορά που το γονίδιο CUX1 διαπιστώνεται ότι εμπλέκεται στον καρκίνο και μελλοντικά θα μπορούσε να αποτελέσει ένα νέο στόχο των στοχευμένων φαρμακευτικών θεραπειών.

Η ερευνητική ομάδα, με επικεφαλής τον Δρ Ντέιβιντ Ανταμς του Ινστιτούτου Wellcome Trust Sanger, παρατήρησε ότι ο καρκίνος προκαλείται όχι όταν το γονίδιο είναι ενεργό, αλλά όταν αυτό απενεργοποιείται, οπότε πλέον «πυροδοτείται» η ανάπτυξη του καρκινικού όγκου. Σε όσους καρκινοπαθείς είναι ανενεργό, δηλαδή περίπου σε έναν στους 100, ενδεχομένως και αυτό να είναι η βασική γενετική αιτία για την ασθένειά τους.

Οι επιστήμονες ανέλυσαν γενετικά δεδομένα που αφορούσα περισσότερους από 7.600 πάσχοντες από καρκίνο και ανακάλυψαν ότι στο 1% περίπου συμβαίνει μια μετάλλαξη που απενεργοποιεί το γονίδιο CUC1, με συνέπεια να ευνοείται η ανάπτυξη του καρκίνου. Το συγκεκριμένο γονίδιο δεν μεταλλάσσεται συχνά, όμως η μετάλλαξή του συμβαίνει σε πολύ διαφορετικές μορφές καρκίνου.

Έως τώρα δεν είχε εντοπισθεί ως υπεύθυνο για τον καρκίνο, επειδή οι γενετικές μελέτες εστίαζαν την προσοχή τους κυρίως σε γονίδια που μεταλλάσσονται με μεγάλη συχνότητα σε επιμέρους είδη καρκίνου. Το CUX1 μεταλλάσσεται σχετικά πιο συχνά στους αιματολογικούς καρκίνους.

Οι ερευνητές έχουν εντοπίσει μερικές δεκάδες ακόμα γονίδια, τα οποία επίσης μεταλλάσσονται με χαμηλή συχνότητα και μπορεί να παίζουν καθοριστικό ρόλο στην ανάπτυξη καρκίνου. Σχεδιάζουν λοιπόν νέα πειράματα σε ποντίκια, ώστε να τα απενεργοποιήσουν ένα-ένα και να δουν κατά πόσο «πυροδοτείται» καρκίνος.

Αξίζει να σημειωθεί ότι στην ερευνητική ομάδα συμμετείχαν και οι Κωνσταντίνος Αλιφραγκής, η Στέλλα Λεμπιδάκη και η Έλλη Παπαεμμανουήλ.

Ο Κωνσταντίνος Αλιφρανγκής σπούδασε Ιατρική στο Βασιλικό Κολέγιο του Λονδίνου και σήμερα εργάζεται στο Πρόγραμμα Γονιδιώματος Καρκίνου του Ινστιτούτου Wellcome Trust Sanger. Η Έλλη Παπαεμμανουήλ, σπούδασε Βιολογία στο Πανεπιστήμιο της Γλασκόβης και έκανε το διδακτορικό της στο Ίδρυμα Έρευνας κατά του Καρκίνου στο Λονδίνο, ενώ έκτοτε διεξάγει έρευνα στο Πρόγραμμα Γονιδιώματος Καρκίνου του Ινστιτούτου Wellcome Trust Sanger. Έγινε διεθνώς γνωστή το 2011, όταν ανακάλυψε γονίδιο που σχετίζεται με τον καρκίνο του αίματος. Η Στέλλα Λεμπιδάκη αποφοίτησε το 2009 από το Τμήμα Βιολογίας του Πανεπιστημίου Κρήτης και έκανε το διδακτορικό της στο Πανεπιστήμιο του Κέμπριτζ, όπου σήμερα πραγματοποιεί έρευνα στο Τμήμα Φυσιολογίας και Νευροεπιστήμης.