Advocating: Lloyd Blankfein, chief executive of Goldman Sachs, appeared in a commercial supporting same-sex marriage for the Human Rights Campaign

Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein, one of Wall Street’s most powerful figures, has become the first major business leader to join a national media campaign in support of same-sex marriage.

Gay rights advocacy group Human Rights Campaign published a video on Sunday in which Mr Blankfein, who has headed investment bank Goldman Sachs since 2006, asks viewers to join a ‘majority of Americans who support marriage equality.’

‘America’s corporations learned long ago that equality is just good business and it’s the right thing to do,’ Mr Blankfein, 57, said in the video, which was posted on popular video website YouTube.

Mr Blankfein, who is married to Laura Jacobs Blankfein and has three children, had already made his views on the issue known.

Last year he was one of the financial industry executives to sign an open letter calling on New York state lawmakers to legalize same-sex marriage.

‘Our campaign is all about recruiting unexpected spokespeople so Americans can connect the dots and realize that on an issue like this there can be agreement,’ Human Rights Campaign spokesman Fred Sainz said.

Besides Mr Blankfein, the Americans for Marriage Equality campaign has attracted a dozen personalities on similar videos, including Senator Al Franken, Cleveland Browns linebacker Scott Fujita and Oscar-winning actress Mo’Nique.

‘The fact that we have Mo’Nique and Lloyd Blankfein campaigning on this should show that we can have commonality on the issue,’ Mr Sainz said.

‘We approached Lloyd Blankfein and literally within hours he had said yes, he would do it.’

Gay marriage remains outlawed in more than 40 of the 50 U.S. states and the issue promises to surface in the 2012 presidential election even as economic woes seem to take priority in the minds of voters.

President Barack Obama has supported rights for same sex couples but has stopped short of endorsing marriage, while most of the Republicans seeking to challenge him in November have come out against it.

Mr Blankfein has long been a supporter of the Democratic party, and before Mr Obama was elected to office, he contributed to Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Clearly the two have overcome their differences as Mr Blankfein has made at least 10 visits to the Obama White House, a number of which were to discuss possible solutions to the country’s economic crisis.

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A senior Iranian military official says Tehran will attack any country used by “enemies” to launch a military strike against his country. The statement comes amid growing tensions between Iran and the West.

­”Any spot used by the enemy for hostile operations against Iran will be subjected to retaliatory aggression by our armed forces,” the deputy head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, said Sunday according to Iran’s Fars news agency.

The official did not name any particular country suspected of acting as a launching pad for military action against Iran, and the six Gulf Arab states considered to be US allies have said they would not allow their territories to be used for attacks on Iran.

Meanwhile, two Iranian naval ships docked in the Saudi port of Jeddah on Sunday, a move Iranian officials say aims to project the country’s “power on the open seas” and “confront Iranophobia.”

Salami’s statement comes as the Revolutionary Guard conducts two-day ground exercises some say are dedicated to demonstrate Iranian military strength.

The Revolutionary Guard is a branch of Iran’s military established to protect the country’s Islamic system.

It is not Tehran’s first warning amid rising tensions with the West. Earlier, Iran warned that any military action against it would result in a “painful” response on Israeli and US bases in the Gulf.

Iran also threatened to close off the vital Gulf oil shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz if becomes subject to oil export sanctions.

Iran’s nuclear program has long been a stumbling block between the country and the West. The tensions escalated last November after an IAEA report claimed Iran had worked on developing nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran has many times denied, reiterating that its nuclear activities are purely peaceful.

­Though UN inspectors failed yet again to find any traces of an Iranian nuclear weapons program, Washington and Tel Aviv are sure to come up with an alleged secret location where Tehran is building nuclear weapons, says Kamel Al Wazne, a political analyst in Beirut.

“Probably, the Israelis are getting desperate at this point, because they think if Iran become capable of building a nuclear weapon – this would be devastating to them,” Al Wazne said, predicting that “before six months we might be heading into a major confrontation in the Persian Gulf.”

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Big Bang scientists extrapolate a hypothetical scenario from a few facts. Yes, some galaxies are expanding, moving further away, but this is not the case with the entire universe. There are galaxies in the universe running perpendicular to the rest of the galaxies. That’s contrary to Big Bang. If Big Bang really occurred, there should be a uniform distribution of gasses.

This uniform distribution of the gasses would have made sure that the gasses would not have coalesced, due to gravitational attraction, into planets and stars. The hypothesis of dark matter providing enough gravitational force has been recently discredited.

“The (galactic) structures discovered during the past few years, however, are so massive that even if CDM (Cold Dark Matter) did exist, it could not account for their formation” (Dr. Duane T. Gish, “The Big Bang Theory Collapses”). Furthermore, an explosion cannot explain the precise orbits and courses of thousands of billions of stars in thousands of billions of galaxies.

Some evolutionary astronomers believe that trillions of stars crashed into each other leaving surviving stars to find precise orderly orbits in space. Not only is this irrational, but if there was such a mass collision of stars then there would be a super mass residue of gas clouds in space to support this hypothesis. The present level of residue of gas clouds in space doesn’t support the magnitude of star deaths required for such a hypothesis. And, as already stated, the origin of stars cannot be explained by the Big Bang because of the reasons mentioned above. It is one thing to say that stars may decay and die into random gas clouds, but it is totally different to say that gas clouds form into stars.

Most people don’t realize how much disagreement there is among evolutionary scientists concerning their own theories. The media doesn’t report those details, at least not to any substantial extent.

Read the author’s recent collage of creationist evidences: The Science Supporting Creation

Excellent articles written by scientists who are creationists may be accessed at The Institute for Creation Research site at: www.icr.org.

The author, Babu G. Ranganathan, has his bachelor’s degree with concentrations in theology and biology and has been recognized for his writings on religion and science in the 24th edition of Marquis “Who’s Who In The East.” The author’s writings may be accessed at www.religionscience.com.

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Iranian historical city of Isfahan and Japan’s Kyoto have been named sister cities on the sidelines of the meeting held at the Japanese cultural week in Isfahan.

While Iran and Japan have many common beliefs in culture such as hospitality, patience, respecting family and friendly manner, the decision was made to boost the two nations’ cultural ties, expressed Japan’s ambassador to Tehran Kinichi Komano.

Iran and Japan have rich cultures, and the cultural and artistic exchanges can pave the path for the development of mutual understanding between the two nations, he added.

The Japanese cultural festival opened in Isfahan during a ceremony held at the Museum of the Contemporary Arts on January 19, 2012.

Talking during the opening ceremony, Komano thanked the Iranian people for sympathizing with the quake-stricken people of Fukushima after the disastrous earthquake and tsunami of March 2011.

The Japanese traditional tea ceremony and calligraphy are part of the programs introduced during the week-long festival.

The Japanese embassy has also mounted photo exhibitions and displayed the children’s paintings on Japan’s disaster-stricken areas of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The Japanese flower arrangement performances, Ikebana, have been presented along with different workshops.

Organized by the Japanese embassy in Iran and the country’s Gun-en Artists group, the event will also be held at the Iranian Artists Forum (IAF) in Tehran from January 25 to 29.

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A church in al-Quds (Jerusalem)

A leader of Israel’s Christian minority has been stabbed to death in Tel Aviv’s district of Jaffa during a parade marking the birthday of Jesus Christ.

An unidentified assailant, dressed as Santa Claus, stabbed Gabi Kadees in the back during the Friday Orthodox Christmas procession and escaped the scene, senior Greek Orthodox cleric Atallah Hanna said.

Last month, Kadees had won a third term to lead Jaffa’s Greek Orthodox community in a controversial election.

Six suspects have been arrested and will be brought before a magistrate, according to police.

Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri said on Saturday that police have set up a special unit to conduct a thorough investigation into the murder.

“We are following all leads, including rumors of a dispute within the Greek Orthodox community in Jaffa over the victim’s recent re-election as leader of the Jaffa Orthodox Church Association,” she said.

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Iran, Iraq and North Korea may have been labeled “the axis of evil” by President George W. Bush but it is Saudi Arabia that is the center of the Satanic universe here on Earth.

President Obama and the hounds from hell in the US Congress and various thinks tanks who seek to send Americans to fight and die in Iran should be targeting their wrath and the US Instruments of National Power at the House of Saud.

Fed incessant propaganda on the dangers of Iranian ownership of nuclear weapons-and still upset about the Shah’s fall and the Iranian hostage crisis–Americans have long since forgotten just how brutal, conniving, and dangerous that Saudi Arabia actually is.

And as cunning and wealthy as the House of Saud is-and with nuke heavy Israel right down the street–it seems very likely that Saudi Arabia is in possession of nuclear weapons either provisioned by the United States or, more likely, Sunni Pakistan. Whatever the case, the US has always had the nuke umbrella open over Saudi Arabia. To put a fine point on that for all to see-mainly Iran—during joint exercises between American and Saudi forces in April 2010, the US decided to launch a nuclear capable TRIDENT ballistic missile from a US submarine operating in Saudi territorial waters.

It is Iran that has eleven operating Jewish synagogues in various enclaves in that country. And it is in Iran’s Constitution that Christians and Jews are, by law, to hold one seat in Parliament. At least it is a start. Such activity is forbidden in Saudi Arabia.

The Economist’s Intelligence Unit 2011 survey of democracy examined 167 countries based on the effectiveness of a particular government and its citizens to handle an open society with press freedoms and free and fair elections, among other categories. Saudi Arabia placed 161st and was tied with Equatorial Guinea and Myanmar for the honor (Iran was 159th).

Internal Terror

The Daily Mail in the UK reported in December 2011 this news: “Textbooks handed out in Saudi Arabian schools teach children how to cut off a thief’s hands and feet under Sharia law, it has emerged. The shocking books, paid for and printed by the Saudi government, also tell teenagers that Jews need to be exterminated and homosexuals should be put to death. This is where terrorism starts in the education system…The textbooks were printed for the 2010-2011 academic year and translated from Arabic… Women are described as weak and irresponsible. In one, for ninth-graders, students are taught the annihilation of the Jewish people is imperative. One text reads in part: ‘The hour (of judgment) will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them. There is a Jew behind me come and kill him. If you teach six million children in these important years of their lives, if you install that in their brain, no wonder we have so many Saudi suicide bombers,” said one commentator.

Then there is this forgotten gem from February 2002: “RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) – Saudi Arabia acknowledged for the first time that 15 of the September 11 suicide hijackers were Saudi citizens, but said Wednesday that the oil-rich kingdom bears no responsibility for their actions. Previously, Saudi Arabia had said the citizenship of 15 of the 19 hijackers was in doubt despite U.S. insistence they were Saudis. But Interior Minister Prince Nayef told The Associated Press that Saudi leaders were shocked to learn 15 of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia.”

In December 2011, the Daily Mail in the UK reported that “a woman convicted of practicing magic and sorcery has been executed by Saudi authorities. The Saudi Interior Ministry says in a statement that the woman was beheaded today, but gave no details of her crime. The London-based al-Hayat daily, however, quoted Abdullah al-Mohsen, chief of the religious police who arrested the woman, as saying she had tricked people into thinking she could treat illnesses, charging them $800 (£500) per session…In September, a Sudanese man, Abdul Hamid bin Hussain bin Moustafa al-Fakki, was also put to death in Saudi Arabia for sorcery. Amnesty International has called for the kingdom’s government to establish an immediate moratorium on executions. The crime of ‘sorcery’ is not defined in Saudi Arabian law but it has been used to punish people for the legitimate exercise of their human rights, including their right to freedom of expression, the charity said.”

Interview with an Executioner

The BBC interviewed a Saudi executioner in June of 2003. It’s just business, so to speak.” ‘…[I am] very proud to do God’s work.’ He does not lose sleep over beheading several people in one day. He said he sometimes shot dead women convicted under Sharia. ‘It depends what they ask me to use. Sometimes they ask me to use a sword and sometimes a gun. But most of the time I use the sword.’ B

Back in 1998, when he carried out his first execution in Jeddah, he was nervous, because many people were watching. But now he no longer suffers from stage fright, he explained. ‘The criminal was tied and blindfolded. With one stroke of the sword I severed his head. It rolled metres away,’ he said, recalling his first beheading. He said his sword was a gift from the government. He keeps it razor sharp and sometimes his children help him clean it. ‘People are amazed how fast it can separate the head from the body,’ he said. Sometimes he also has to carry out amputations of hands or legs. ‘I use a special sharp knife, not a sword. When I cut off a hand I cut it from the joint. If it is a leg the authorities specify where it is to be taken off, so I follow that.’”

Saudi Arabia, with American support, is fomenting religious civil war between the Sunni’s and Shia in Iraq, Syria and much of the Middle East region. It was not enough that the United States kicked the middle east ant hill and, in the process, literally destroyed Iraqi society, to include a once flourishing Christian community. Thus the second phase of the second Iraq war continues on as a campaign of internal destabilization to fan the flames of sectarian conflict/civil war in which the adversaries on each side receive funds and support from the USA, Saudi Arabia and other interested governments. The US strategy seems to be one based on destroying annoying cultures from within rather than by overt invasion.

According to Patrick Cockburn writing in a September 2011 issue of Pakistan’s The News, “Iranian influence is growing in Baghdad because of the escalating struggle between Sunni and Shia Muslims across the region. The Shia-dominated coalition government in Baghdad is worried that the Sunni uprising in Syria may displace Bashar al-Assad and his regime, whose leaders come mostly from the Alawite Shia sect. The Iraqi Shia also strongly sympathizes with the Shia majority in Bahrain, whose movement for democracy has been ruthlessly crushed by the Sunni al-Khalifa monarchy with the backing of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.”

US Committed to Lingerie and F-15′s

Big news of change came recently from Saudi Arabia. 28,000 saleswomen are going to be hired to work in some 7,300 lingerie shops around the country. “Saudi Arabia on the Cups of Change: New rules say only women can sell lingerie, ending male monopoly,” runs the headline in the January 2012 edition of the MidEast News Source. “The move is expected to boost employment for the country’s women, even if they still have to be driven to their place of work because the country still bans female drivers…Saudi’s top cleric, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh, blasted the new ruling for contradicting Islamic law, or Shariah. He warned in his Friday sermon that employing women at shops where they interact with men is a crime. ‘The employment of women in stores that sell female apparel and a woman standing face to face with a man selling to him without modesty or shame can lead to wrongdoing, of which the burden of this will fall on the owners of the stores,’ the mufti thundered….

Right around the same time as “Saudi Arabia and the Cups of Change” came this story in the Ottawa Citizen: “F-15 Sale to Saudi Arabia Just Part of $60 Billion U.S. Sales of Aviation Capabilities to that Country.” Dated January 2012, the article indicates that half of the $60 billion will be in the form of advanced F-15 aircraft. The entire package will help the Saudi’s defend themselves in uncertain times, American government officials intimated.

Really? Defend against what? All the men who are losing their lingerie sales jobs or women who want to drive? To blast to smithereens the majority Shia population in Bahrain, the rebels in Yemen, or the thousands of imported workers who labor in wretched conditions within Saudi Arabia?

“In announcing the F-15 sales agreement Dec. 29, James N. Miller, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, and Andrew Shapiro, assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs, emphasized the close military-to-military ties between the United States and Saudi Arabia. The United States is firmly committed to the security of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as we have been for nearly seven decades, and … more broadly, the United States and Saudi Arabia have a strong mutual interest in the security and stability of the Gulf,” Miller said. The F-15s Saudi Arabia will receive under the agreement “will have the latest generation of computing power, radar technology, infrared sensors and electronic warfare systems,” he added. This agreement reinforces the strong and enduring relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia,” Shapiro said. “It demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a strong Saudi defense capability as a key component to regional security.”

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On Wednesday, December 28, North Korea holds the funeral service for its leader Kim Jong-il, who died on December 17. The first stage of the funeral will be held in Kymsusan memorial complex in Pyongyang – the official residence of Kim Jong-Il’s father, Kim Il Sung.

According to North Korean media, Kim Jong-Il died from a heart attack as he was traveling by train across the country. His younger son, Kim Jong Un, has been named the successor.

According to RIA Novosti, the sarcophagus will be carried along the streets of Pyongyang prior to the ceremony. The people of North Korea will thus be able to bid farewell to the leader, who ruled the 24-million-strong country for over 17 years. According to South Korean media, Kim Jong-Il’s body will rest in a glass coffin with the body of his father at Kymsusan palace.

Russian experts were invited to Pyongyang to embalm Kim Jong-Il, Yonhap agency said. The experts with Vladislav Kozeltsev at the head arrived from the Moscow Center for Biomedical Technologies. The specialists of the center preserve the body of Vladimir Lenin in the Mausoleum. Kim Jong-Il’s car, a carriage of his legendary armored train, his clothes and his desk will be on display in the tomb of the “dear leader.”

A mass meeting of mourning is to take place at the central square in Pyongyang on Thursday morning. Up to 100,000 people are expected to take part in the meeting. They will swear an oath to Kim Jong Un, who still formally serves as Deputy State Defense Committee of the DPRK. Kim Jong Un has already been named the leader of the state, party and armed forces. The information about it has been published in the official publications of the country.

The funeral committee said that the ceremony would be marked with cannon volleys in memory of the deceased leader in Pyongyang and other cities. All locomotives and vessels will sound their sirens, whereas the citizens of North Korea will bow our heads during a three-minute moment of silence.

The DPRK authorities have decided not to welcome foreign delegations for the ceremony. However, a private delegation from South Korea arrived in Pyongyang to bid farewell the North Korean leader. The delegation is headed by the widow of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who conducted the policy of “sunshine” towards the DPRK and visited Pyongyang, RIA Novosti said.

North Korea’s main party newspaper Rodong Sinmun published a special article on the front page about the visit of the South Korean delegation. During the visit, Kim Jong Un thanked the guests for condolences, but there was no special meeting with him.

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Fox Latin America is being forced to apologize after Rupert Murdoch’s Spanish-language outlet added a questionable poll to its Facebook page as part of a failed promotion.

In an outlandish effort to promote a Christmas special this year on the National Geographic Channel, a Fox Latin America staffer asked fans on the group’s Facebook page, “Who do you think is responsible for the death of Christ?”

The options were Pontius Pilate, High Priests and “Jewish People.” Needless to say, this didn’t go over well with a decent number of Fox’s audience.

In the past, Fox has been called out for its criticism with Muslims and its misrepresenting of followers of Islam, and regularly considered a supporter of Judeo-Christian beliefs. The poll that made it to the network’s Facebook page suggests that a new religion might be on the hit-list for the Latin American branch of the News Corp empire, however.

Fox Spokeswoman Guadalupe Lucero immediately apologized to those offended by the error and assures the network’s Facebook followers that it would be the last time such a gaffe was given the go-ahead. The Simon Weisenthal Center, a Jewish advocacy group based out of Buenos Aires, says it isn’t that easy to dimiss, however. In a statement to the Associated Press, the group calls the inclusion of Jews in the answer pool a reference to outdated Catholic propaganda that characterizes Jewish people as the killers of Jesus Christ. That campaign, says the center, “resulted in the persecution and murder of Jews for two millennia.”

Pope Benedict XVI has criticized the Catholic Church for the campaign himself, and in his book Jesus of Nazareth Part II he says there is no wording in the Bible that singles out the Jews for the killing of Christ.

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As Santa is once again moving along his annual route around the globe, the penetrating eye of NORAD is tracking his every move. And with Big Brother watching, Old Saint Nick cannot afford to let things slide and leave some good kid without a present.

­During the holidays, the North American Aerospace Defense Command’s mission is to make sure Christmas comes with all the trimmings. The operation began on 2am EST on December 24, and the tracking crew will stay on high alert until 3am Mountain Time on December 25.

The official NORAD Santa site offers a world map where you can find all the the old man’s stops so far, his current location, and the coordinates of his next waypoint. All Santa’s movements are captured on photo and video, and clicking at a camera icon will bring up a video blog post about the place he visited.

Santa can also be tracked through any mobile device packed with Google maps. Just type “Santa” in and you’ll get his location. This year, developers have even come out with Santa-tracking applications for Android an iOS devices.

The custom of following Santa as he does his work is not new, having appeared more than 50 years ago.

As legend has it, the tradition was born in 1955 after a little boy called the wrong number and reached NORAD’s commander-in-chief. The boy, thinking he had reached a Talk-to-Santa hotline, asked to speak to Santa. Colonel Harry Shoup decided not to disillusion the kid and ordered his team to check their radar for signs of Santa’s sleigh.

Today’s Santa-tracking team is a serious branch of NORAD that uses some 120 phone lines and 23 laptops to answers phone calls, emails and messages in social media during the holidays. Live updates from the team can be found on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

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Inequality in modern-day America is worse than Ancient Rome

The 99 percent has found an ally 2,500 years in the past. It just so happens that it’s with those that found themselves in the Ancient Roman plebian and slave classes.

According to research done recently by historians Walter Schiedel and Steven Friesen, the income inequality gap in modern day America is far greater than the separation within the societies during the days of Julius Caesar. During the Ancient Roman Republic, says the duo’s study published in Per Square Mile, the top one percent controlled 16 percent of society’s wealth. If you fire up the Delorean and go from the Diocletian Empire to twenty-first century USA, you’ll see that things are a little more uneven. Today, that one percent on top controls 40 percent of the country’s wealth.

What difference does a few dozen centuries make, though? Emperors back then had a trained arsenal of soldiers equipped with on equines with hand-trebuchets, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg today calls the NYPD his own army (who come with Tasers and pepper-spray on the ready). Want more? Today the top one percent saw their incomes rise by 275 percent between 1979 and 2007. Back then, well, back then the Romans saw the rise of the Constantine. Neither, frankly, was all that pretty.

Historical humor aside, the narrowing of America’s middle class and rise of poverty has been a long time in the making, even if just become more obvious in recent times thanks in part of course to the Occupy Wall Street movement’s pressing for reform. While 50 million Americans are currently living below the poverty line, in all one-in-two Americans are what the US Census Bureau calls “low-income.” In Washington DC, which is part of the wealthiest metropolitan region per-capital in the country, one-in-ten residents actually earns less than half of what would put them at the poverty line, creating an entire new class of the poorest of the poor which is only increasing as the wealth is torpedoed upwards to the top of the pyramid.

In coming up with their research, Schiedel and Friesen mulled over papyri ledgers, old school estimates and Biblical passages, specifically at around the times when the Roman Empire was at its population peak — around 150 C.E. Putting together the top members of the hierarchy around that times — the patricians, senators, equestrians and decuriones — the researchers have determined that the top 1.5 percent of the 70 million or so citizens of the empire had all-in-all around 20 percent of the wealth.

Despite this inequality, there was never an Occupy the Aqueducts movement or a tent city within the walls of the Coliseum — as far as we know, at least. Instead, rather, those that didn’t match up with the leading ranks were simply disregarded. As Per Square Mile puts it, the empire seems to have been “built on the backs of poor farmers and laborers,” adding, “it’s as though Rome’s 99 percent never existed.”

Sounds like something right out of Fox News.

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On the way out? Tourists lap up the sunshine at Naama Bay, Sharm el-Sheikh. Islamist parties want to stop Westerners drinking alcohol and wearing skimpy beachwear

Bargain holidays for Westerners looking to get a bit of sunshine and a drink by the pool in the winter could be a thing of the past on Egypt’s Red Sea coast.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which won success in the first round of parliamentary elections last month, is set on turning Egypt into a ‘sin-free’ holiday resort.

But the end of sun worshippers flying to resorts like Sharm el-Sheikh could spell disaster for an economy that has already been battered by this year’s political unrest.

Azza al-Jarf, a candidate for the Muslim Brotherhood, told supporters: ‘Tourists don’t need to drink alcohol when they come to Egypt; they have plenty at home.

‘They came to see the ancient civilisation, not to drink alcohol.’

Since its success in the first round of elections on November 28 and 29, the Brotherhood and the even more fundamentalist party of Salafi Muslims called Al-Nour have been under pressure to define their stance on a wide range of issues – including Islamic law, personal freedom and tourism.

Al-Nour has said it seeks to impose strict Islamic law in Egypt, while the Muslim Brotherhood says publicly it does not want to force its views on an appropriate Islamic lifestyle on Egyptians.

The unrest that saw former president Hosni Mubarak ousted has hit the economy hard and shaken investor confidence.

On Sunday, interim prime minister Kamal el-Ganzouri broke down in tears as he said the state of the economy was ‘worse than anyone imagines’.

Turning around the decline in tourism is key to breathing life back into the economy. The industry was also hit by two fatal shark attacks in Sharm el-Sheikh last year.

The Muslim Brotherhood came in first and Al-Nour second in the first round of voting.

The Salafis, who follow the Wahhabi school of thought that predominates in Saudi Arabia, are clear in their opposition to alcohol and skimpy beachwear.

They are also undecided on whether unmarried couples should be allowed to share hotel rooms, or the display of ancient Egyptian statues like fertility gods.

But the Muslim Brotherhood has sent more mixed messages, reflecting it is more inclined to leave tourism alone for the sake of the economy.

Influential cleric Yasser Bourhami has called for ‘halal tourism’ – which includes restrictions on Westerners.

Speaking to private television network Dream TV, he said: ‘A five-star hotel with no alcohol, a beach for women – sisters – separated from men in a bay where the two sides can enjoy a vacation for a week without sins.

‘The tourist doesn’t have to swim with a bikini and harm our youth.’

Tourism accounts for roughly 10 per cent of Egypt’s GDP, employs an estimated 3million people and is one of the pillars of its economy.

Huge swathes of the country, including the Red Sea coast with its stunning coral reefs and Nile Valley cities like Luxor, with its ancient temples and tombs, are solely dependent on tourism.

There are around 15million visitors to Egypt every year and analysts say bookings for its beach resorts – mostly far from the unrest – have recovered faster than areas in the centre of the country where most pharaonic ruins are found.

A total of 1.4million Brits visited the country last year – with 70 per cent (around one million) heading to the beach resorts.

This year, tourist arrivals fell more than 35 per cent in the second quarter because of the unrest, and Egypt expects to earn around $9billion from tourism in 2011 – down by a third.

Source

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Have you heard the term “This is it!” before? Then forget everything else you have heard or read. Ladies and Gentlemen, This Is It! As the US-based writer Terrence Aym announces the release of his latest book, Mysteries of the Multiverse, we present our latest interview with the author.

Terrence Aym has had several of his materials published in Pravda.Ru. His new book Mysteries of the Multiverse is now available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble as a paperback and in four eReader platforms: Kindle, nook, iBook and Kobo.

Are you curious? Then here is a sample…

Why a Russian engineer claims he has a working time machine…

All about a deadly time vortex erupting in Antarctica…

The amazing truth about an American base on the Moon…

How the genius Nikola Tesla almost destroyed the world…

The astonishing story of America’s war against a race of giants…

Thomas Edison’s fantastic attempt to speak with ghosts…

The evidence for terrifying, giant five foot spiders in the Congo…

Interview PRAVDA: Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey and Terrence Aym

PRAVDA: Terrence, how long have you been writing?

AYM: I wrote my first published story more than 25 years ago. The story was fiction and for a teenage romance magazine. I had my younger sister read it before I submitted the piece to the magazine. When she burst out crying, I knew I had a winner.

Three weeks after I sent them the manuscript I received an envelope back in the mail with a check. I made my first sale.

After that, I wrote sporadically. I didn’t submit anything, but instead concentrated on my career in the financial markets. Although my three great loves were the arts, science and Wall Street, I had to choose one of them and chose the financial world as my initial profession.

During the 1990s I wrote some financial articles published by investor magazines and newspapers. It wasn’t until 2009 that I began to seriously write, focusing on a new career and incorporating both my expertise in the financial world and interest in science within many of my articles.

I also write fiction and have several fiction book deals pending: one for a novel, the other for an anthology of short stories.

PRAVDA: Is this your first book?

AYM: “Mysteries of the Multiverse” is not the first book I’ve written, but it is the first book that’s been published.

This book is different from the other books I’ve written. Multiverse focuses on many things that have intrigued me since I was a child. It’s a collection of 25 wide-ranging reports on the paranormal, strange and unexplained covering time travel, mysterious creatures, strange historical tales, and space anomalies.

Much of what’s in the book is entirely new to the reading public.

PRAVDA: You have had many of your pieces published on Pravda.Ru. How do you get the inspiration for your work?

AYM: I could answer “my imagination,” but my imagination has been shaped by my experiences. At a fairly early age I was exposed to ancient cultures and great mysteries. For instance, when I traveled with my parents to the ancient Aztec city of Teotihuacán in Mexico. I climbed the massive Pyramid of the Sun and touched the sacrificial altar where Aztec priests tore out the beating hearts of human sacrifices, seeking favors from the Sun god.

I walked the ruins and sifted through artifacts littering the ground around partially collapsed Aztec homes–long before archaeologists later swarmed over the region collecting and cataloging everything.

I’ve met shamans in the desert, seen Istanbul from the Golden Horn at sunrise, met a man who survived cobra bites by becoming one with the snake, and strolled back alleys of forbidden cities in the darkest corners of night.

At the same time I’ve participated in yacht races around the island of Oahu, Hawaii, and attended elite cocktail parties held in penthouse suites in the towers of Manhattan.

All these experiences–and many more–have created a tapestry of life I can draw from, especially the people I’ve met and learned from through the years.

Much of that comes out in my writing. Some may call it inspiration. I prefer to think of it as tapping into my personal well of people, places, and personalities while being simultaneously driven to explore some of the unexplained oddities of the human experience.

PRAVDA: What would you identify as the greatest influence on your writing or on you as a writer?

AYM: Perhaps the greatest influence in my life as relates to writing–other than the experiences I already mentioned–are the thoughts and ideas of some of the writers that touched my imagination and my spirit as I grew into adulthood.

Many writers influenced me from Poe to Pournelle, from Hemingway to Heinlein. I had the good fortune to actually meet some of them, like Isaac Asimov before he died, and rebel science fiction writer Harlan Ellison.

The writers who influenced me are too many to name, but some wrote only fiction while others stuck mainly to non-fiction. I’ve enjoyed and learned from writers as scholarly as Plutarch to as romantic as Dostoevsky.

A good writer often reads as much as he or she writes.

PRAVDA: What advice would you give to those who wish to make a living out of writing?

You must have a passion for writing and a passion for what you write. Be honest with your readers and yourself. And always strive to deliver what you promise your readers.

As for becoming a successful writer, the “Dean of Science Fiction,” Robert A. Heinlein, once advised aspiring writers to “write, write, and write some more.” Like any craft the more you work at it, the better you become. That advice applies whether someone is writing a novel, a biography, an industrial technical manual, or even commercial copy.

In one respect, writing is a science: there are rules and mechanics and certain “laws” that must be followed to be a good writer. But rules are made to be broken. That’s where art enters the picture. Once you can successfully violate the rules–knowing when, why, and how to break them–then you can develop your own unique style.

No matter how something is written it must be written with clarity, whether the rules are being followed or not. Confusing the reader loses the reader. Famous author Mark Twain knew that and was a stickler for just the right word in all of his stories. Another author who approached her writing the same way was Ayn Rand.

The great majority of writers cannot make a livable wage from writing. Taking journalism at a university can help, but knowing how to write does not provide one with the talent to write, nor the necessary passion to write.

The best writers, the writers loved by millions, the writers remembered throughout the centuries, burned with a brilliant passion and were propelled forward by an insatiable desire to experience, absorb, wonder, deliberate, and create.

The masterpieces of literature that have survived into the 21st Century have strong threads of human passion woven tightly throughout the entire work. The works are truly timeless.

That’s what successful writers should always strive to achieve.

Source

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The Jewish community in the U.S. is one of the largest in the world with over 5.5 million people. The majority of them are business people and those who have “white collar” jobs, though it was not always the case. There is no wonder that there is a powerful U.S. Jewish lobby that supports Israel. However, the relations of Israelis and American Jews have certain issues.

For historical reasons, Jews have special relationship with the U.S. During the persecution of Jews in Germany and later in other European countries occupied by the Nazis, the American continent has become a safe haven for many of them. Back in the 1930s, hundreds of Jews arrived by boat to the U.S. from Germany. By the Second World War the community counted 4.5 million. At the end of the Holocaust, immigration from Europe to the U.S. continued.

The role of the Americans in the creation of Israel and its subsequent economic and military support are obvious. For many decades, the U.S. had been accused of using Israel as their puppets in the Middle East. However, the Soviet Union also engaged in inciting the neighboring Arab states to direct aggression against Israel.

Meanwhile, the role of the Jewish community in the economic and political life of the United States continued to grow steadily. If at the beginning of the 20th century most of them lived in the ghetto and were employed to do “blue collar” jobs, several decades later the situation has changed. By 1957, 70 percent of Jews had “white collar” jobs, while among other white Americans this number is only 35 percent. In 1970, 87 percent of Jews in the U.S. worked as clerks. In addition, the earnings of Jews were 72 percent higher than the earnings of other Americans.

By the beginning of the 21st century Jews managed to achieve even more stunning results. In 2008, 46 percent of Jews earned over 100 thousand dollars a year. Of the 400 Americans who made it to the ranking of Forbes, more than a quarter belong to the Jewish community. Perhaps it has to do with the thirst for education which was encouraged in the Jewish families more than, say, in Irish ones.

By the 1990s, Jews managed to obtain a much greater weight in American politics and finances. They conquered Wall Street and Silicon Valley, the Congress and the White House. After the 1992 elections the number of Jews in the Congress reached its maximum of 33 people.

Today, the community’s impact on the American political life is determined by the presence of a large number of its own publications. One of the largest information resources that distributes news reviews around the world is the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. In addition, there are nearly 80 weeklies, not counting other resources. There are also a number of radio and television programs of local communities.

In the beginning of the 21st century due to the growing number of Muslims the issue of possible conflicts of interest of Muslims and Jews in the United States became particularly acute. It is believed that by 2000 their communities became equal in size. Of course, so far there is no confrontation between the communities. However, some researchers have pointed to the fact that Muslims, unlike Jews, have no such influence in politics. This is partly due to the lack of consolidation among Muslim immigrants from different countries of the Middle East.

At the same time, it is important to emphasize that American Jews cannot remain aloof from the conflict between the administration of Barack Obama and Tel Aviv (which in turn is caused by the continuation of the eternal Arab-Israeli War). In 2009-2011, the U.S. administration pressured Israel to end the settlements.

This caused discontent, especially among Zionist Americans who felt these unfriendly moves to be inappropriate at a time when Israel is already in a dangerous position. In general sympathy of ordinary Americans to a greater extent is on the side of the Israelis rather than the Palestinians (according to opinion polls, the ratio is ten to one).

However, American Jews are mostly engaged with their internal issues rather than the support of their ally in the Middle East. “The number of supporters of Zionism among the Jews in North America declined steadily, especially among young people. At the same time the significance of Israel in the eyes of the Jews of USA and Canada is diminishing, reported the portal Zman.com.

Anyway, in today’s America, the political weight of the Jewish community is very significant. The question of the Jewish lobby in the U.S. has always engendered a great deal of political controversy and speculation at home and abroad. Nevertheless, from a historical point of view, their active participation in national life is justified as we are talking about over five million U.S. citizens.

At the same time, the traditional link between the American Jews and Israelis is not as strong as it would seem. American financial aid in recent years has slightly declined. In addition, the resumption of settlement building received a mixed assessment of the American Jews. This proves that they are not always united with the motherland of their ancestors.

Source

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Noah's Ark replica Schagen Netherlands

Reports about the traces of the legendary Noah’s Ark appear in the media on a regular basis. The majority of such messages say that there is a mysterious object resting on top of Ararat Mount. The object could be the ancient vessel, on which Noah rescued animals from the Great Flood.

Here is what the Bible says about the events, which took place in 2500 BC: “So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female.”

As the Great Flood began, the boat was going higher and higher above the earth until it reached the top of the highest mountain. The flood continued for 40 days and 40 nights and then stopped. The boat continued to rest on top of Ararat Mount.

Many people have tried to find the remnants of Noah’s Ark on the mountain since then. However, the Bible says that the boat stopped on Mountains of Ararat, not Mount Ararat. Experts believe that it goes about Urartu Mountains in eastern Turkey.

In 1960, Lihan Durupinar, a captain of the Turkish army, made several aerial photos. On one of those photos, Durupinar saw a strange object staying at the height of 6,350 feet in Ararat Mountains. The object was shaped as a ship and was nearly 500 feet long. A mission of US and Turkish scientists set off on a mission to the mountains soon after the photo had been published.

At the height of nearly 7,000 feet above the sea level, they saw a flat plot of land covered with grass. The plot looked like a ship indeed. The size of the plot of land was very close to that mentioned in the Bible. The scientists did not conduct a detailed examination of the site. They simply concluded that the strange formation was nothing else but a natural phenomenon.

In September 1960, a 27-year-old US doctor Ron Wyatt, an amateur archeologist, read an article in Life Magazine about the phenomenon. The search for Noah’s Ark became the primary objective in his life.

In 1977, Wyatt started the mission to Turkey with his two sons. Having overcome numerous difficulties, the US researcher and his sons reached the village, where they found conductors among the local population. On the outskirts of the village, the men found several boulders, which looked like anchor rocks. Ron had seen the photos of those rocks in archeology books before. The rocks with holes drilled in them served as anchors for ancient vessels. It turned out that there were crosses engraved on all local rocks.

Some time later, Ron found the object that looked like a ship. The object was submerged deep into the ground. The men had to conduct excavation works to find out whether there was the legendary ship hidden in the ground.

In August 1979, after the Turkish earthquake, Ron Wyatt visited the site again. The researcher discovered that the ground bared the fossilized remains of the vessel. Wyatt had not received a permit for the archeological works by that time, so he decided to work on his own. Next time, he used metal finders in his work. It happened in August 1984.

The scanning revealed a metal network around the object. The network was supposedly of artificial origin. Ron explored the slope of the mountain where the “Ark” was resting. Up in the mountain, he discovered the ruins of an ancient stone construction. There was a plot of land near the ruins measured 120×40 feet. The plot was framed with something like fossilized wood.

In December 1986, Turkish officials representing interior and foreign ministries, as well as a group of researchers from the city of Ataturk approved the official solution saying that the formation discovered by Ron Wyatt and his colleagues contained the remains of Noah’s Ark indeed.

Many discussions have taken place since the “official” discovery of Noah’s Ark. Some scientists say that Wyatt indeed discovered the Biblical vessel, whereas others deny this theory. The search for the Ark still continues.

Source

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Owning a Stradivarius is the dream of every violinist, but buying one will set you back to the tune of millions. In a feat that will strike a chord with any musician, US scientists have used computer technology to recreate the legendary instrument.

A team of radiologists and violin makers used computed tomography (CT) to create over 1,000 images of a 1704 original Stradivarius violin. The 3D images they received were read by a special machine, which carved a new identical instrument. The violin makers then assembled and varnished the replica by hand.

The result follows the original in every detail, including the tiniest cracks, wood thickness and shape – all factors which affect an instrument’s sound.

It’s hoped the news will be music to the ears of violinists around the world. Besides helping uncover the secret of the Stradivarius’ sublime sound, it will give musicians a chance to purchase their own replica – if not for a song, then at least at affordable prices. The makers say their work could have a profound impact on modern string music.

Hailed as the world’s greatest violin maker, Italian Antonio Stradivari (1644 – 1737) produced around 1,000 instruments. Some 650 have survived and are extremely highly valued: a sale this June saw one go for a record $15 million.

Source

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