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20 Aug 14:24

World’s Oldest Cheese Found in Egyptian Tomb May Be Cursed

by Paul Seaburn

Would you eat a piece of the world’s oldest cheese? Would you eat it if it came from a 3,200 year-old Egyptian tomb and was possibly cursed? After over 20,000 people recently signed a petition to drink the sewage water from a giant Egyptian sarcophagus, that second question probably answers itself. Researchers analyzing a jar full of white powder removed from an ancient Egyptian tomb have determined that it’s cheese – the oldest ever found – and eating it will kill you now and may have killed people in the past. What is the curse of this mummified mozzarella?

In a new study published recently in the journal Analytical Chemistry, a research team led by Enrico Greco of Italy’s University of Catania and China’s Peking University revealed how they discovered the cursed camembert. The tomb belonged to Ptahmes, a mayor of Memphis, the capital of the Ancient Egypt during the Old Kingdom, located about 20 km (12 miles) south of Giza. The tomb dates to the 13th century BCE and was first discovered in 1885 by treasure hunters who found artifacts and paintings identifying it as belonging to Ptahmes, who was mayor, a high ranking office, under pharaohs Seti I and Ramesses II. Some of the artifacts ended up in museums but the location of the tomb was lost as it became covered again with sand.

The tomb of Ptahmes was rediscovered in 2010 and whatever was left by the looters was removed, including broken jars containing a “solidified whitish mass” and a piece of canvas. That mysterious mass eventually ended up in the lab of Enrico Greco, who dissolved a spoonful, removed the proteins and analyzed them with liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. The results showed peptides identifying it as a dairy product made from cow, sheep or goat milk. Other indicators plus the presence of a cloth that could be wrapped around a ball eliminated all other possibilities and Greco held up the jar, faced the camera and said, “Cheese!”

Resisting the spirit of Wallace and Grommit to taste the ancient cheese, the researchers continued researching and found that the cheese from the tomb was cursed. The powder contained the bacteria Brucella melitensis which causes brucellosis, a disease transmitted from animals (cows, sheep and goats are on the list) through unpasteurized dairy products that can cause fever, sweats, malaise, anorexia, headaches, joint and muscle pain, fatigue and depression. Oh, and it can be fatal.

The discovery means this is the world’s oldest known cheese and the world’s oldest know evidence of brucellosis. The sarcophagus of Ptahmes has not yet been found in the tomb, so it’s not known if this could also be the world’s first death by dairy. Could the curse of the world’s oldest cheese have done in the original looters who never came back for the rest of the tomb’s artifacts?

Pass the crackers, Grommit.

27 Feb 21:19

The Final Control: TPP, TTIP, TISA Global Corporate Takeover

by 21wire

21st Century Wire says…

This is a new geopolitical war, taking place between the United States and China.

The rise of the so-called BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, along with countless other emerging economies, means that global power relations are gradually tipping away from the Anglo-American Axis, and towards Eurasia.

The Anglo-American corporate confab will not allow this tectonic shift threaten their “interests.” Collectively, what the TPP, TTIP and TISA really are –  is a new global governance super structure that overrides individual sovereign nations and their laws, and even the rights of their individual citizens.

Under this new secretive regime, all are subservient to the transnational corporate hive…

WATCH: WikiLeaks – The US strategy to create a new global legal and economic system: TPP, TTIP, TISA:


.
READ MORE TPP NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire TPP Files



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18 Sep 20:26

Nutty escape for Rolo the hamster who became stuck in a drainpipe

The hamster's owners tracked her down in their Sheffield home and spent four days dropping food to coax her up - but she just ate it, so they used a tiny ladder and a peanut on a piece of string.
08 May 14:48

European Election Result Predictions: East Midlands

Over the next two weeks I will be trying to predict the results of the European Elections which take place in the UK on May 22, with the results being announced late in the evening of Sunday 25 May. I will be hosting a European Elections Special Programme on LBC from 9pm that evening. Let’s now turn to the East Midands, where 5 seats are up for grabs. The constituency corresponds to the East Midlands region of England, comprising the counties of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Northamptonshire and the non-Metropolitan county of Lincolnshire. The constituency was organized as a result of the European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999, replacing a number of single-member constituencies. These were Leicester, Northamptonshire and Blaby, Nottingham and Leicestershire North West, Nottinghamshire North and Chesterfield, and parts of Lincolnshire and Humberside South, Peak District, and Staffordshire East and Derby.

2009

Con 2
UKIP 1
Lab 1
LibDem 1

In 2004 the result was Con 2, UKIP 2, LibDem 1, Labour 1. In 1999 it was Con 3 Lab 2, LibDem 1 (the constituency had six members in 1999 and 2004).

My prediction for this year is this…

2014

Con 2
Lab 1
UKIP 2

The East Midlands is a very difficult constituency to call. Both the LibDem sitting MEP Bill Newton Dunn, and the sitting UKIP member Roger Helmer started out as Conservatives. Helmer will certainly be re-elected but it is doubtful Newton Dunn will hold on, having just scraped in last time with only 12.5% of the vote. The question is whether that will be enough to give UKIP or Labour a second seat. UKIP will certainly gain a second seat if the Tory vote drops much anyway.

Predicted Winning Candidates

Conservative Party – Emma McClarkin, Andrew Lewer
UKIP – Roger Helmer, Margot Parker
Labour – Glenis Wilmott

OTHER REGIONAL PREDICTIONS

East Anglia
South East
London
South West
West Midlands

06 Mar 20:15

Turkish clerics underline intentions to convert Hagia Sofia to mosque

 Turkish clerics underline intentions to convert Hagia Sofia to mosque
International News Desk
 
Turkish clerics following the end of the holy celebrations of Ramazan Bayramı earlier this month in a speech at the Sultanahmet Camii or the Blue Mosque, made clear that they want the Byzantine cathedral of Saint Sophia or Haghia Sophia to be converted to a mosque.
 
It was reported that the Muezini of Istanbul c
16 Dec 08:06

Documents show Turkey sent guns to Syrian rebels

by Anonymous
Turkey has sent over 47 tons of weaponry to the Syrian rebels since June, according to documents filed under the United Nations trade records, despite repeated denials from government ranks Hurriyet Daily News reported.

The U.N. records show that Turkey has sent varying amounts of guns to the Syrian rebels over the past few months, with the highest amount reaching nearly 29 tons of weaponry in September alone. The numbers are found in the U.N. Comtrade, a database of international trade statistics detailed according to commodities and partner countries.

Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Levent Gumrukcu initially denied the numbers, but later on confirmed to daily Hurriyet that the U.N. numbers were based on previous records from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TUİK), which filed the weaponry sent to Syria as "guns without military uses."

This category, which includes shotguns and hunting rifles, but excludes more advanced weaponry such as Kalashnikovs, allows for states to bypass the weapons embargo currently imposed on Syria.

Turkey has repeatedly denied providing military assistance to the Syrian rebels, despite several reports claiming otherwise.

Back in August, opposition sources claimed that 400 tons of arms had been sent into Syria from Turkey to boost insurgent capabilities against Syrian government forces, after a suspected chemical weapons strike on rebellious suburbs of Damascus. The claims were strictly denied by Turkish diplomats at the time.

In November, authorities seized nearly 1,000 rocket heads after searching a truck in the southern province of Adana. The local governor said 10 people had been detained in the raid, during which 935 rocket heads and 10 launching pads were seized. At the time, Adana Governor Huseyin Avni Cos claimed that the operation proved Turkey was not supporting radical groups in Syria.
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30 Oct 00:18

Female circumcision campaigner horrified as shoppers sign pro-cutting petition - because they're scared of being 'culturally insensitive'

Leyla Hussein, 32, conducted the experiment in Northampton to see 'how crazy political correctness has become'.
01 Jul 12:09

National Audit Office says £25m severance payouts for BBC staff breach corporation's own guidelines and 'put public trust at risk'

BBC pay-offs to senior staff have breached the corporation's own guidelines by being over-generous and have “put public trust at risk”, the National Audit Office said today.

01 Jul 11:46

Horrific video shows Syrian Catholic priest being 'beheaded by jihadist fighters in front of cheering crowd'

GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING: Father Francois Murad (pictured) was killed on 23 June in Gassanieh, northern Syria. Grainy footage purported to show his death is on the internet.
29 Jun 07:57

LP’s New Executive Director Releases Book Introducing the Libertarian Party

by Jill Pyeatt

IPR’s own Wes Benedict has not only been hired to become the Libertarian Party’s Executive Director, but he has also written a book introducing the LP, called Introduction to the Libertarian Party: For Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Independents, and Everyone Else. Here is a description of the book, as found on Amazon:

Many books describe libertarianism, but very few talk about the Libertarian Party. Introduction to the Libertarian Party includes plenty of information about the structure, history, and activities of the Libertarian Party. Written by Wes Benedict, former executive director of both the Libertarian Party of Texas and the Libertarian National Committee. Benedict gives a plainspoken and realistic assessment of the current standing of the Libertarian Party, along with suggestions for how libertarians can become valuable Libertarian Party activists.

You can find more information about the book right here

24 Jun 22:44

Costa Rica signs free trade agreement with European Free Trade Association

by info@ticotimes.net (TicoTimes)
24 Jun 10:11

White House Will Have To Respond To Petition On Pardon For Snowden After It Reaches 100,000 Signatures…

by ZIP
I’m pretty sure we know what Obama’s answer will be. Via Red Alert: A White House petition to pardon NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has finally reached 100,000 signatures, forcing President Obama to issue a response on the matter. The petition attempts to pardon Snowden of any crimes he may have committed while exposing details of various controversial [...]
24 Jun 09:26

With electricity and water in short supply, Egyptians grow tense

by McClatchy Foreign Staff (Amina Ismail)

The towering luxury office buildings that hover over the impoverished neighborhood of Ramlet Boulak used to blatantly symbolize the divisions between Cairo?s wealthy and its poor. Now the scene captures…

Click to Continue »

24 Jun 09:25

Crucified Again

by Mark Tapson

cruv

To order Raymond Ibrahim’s Crucified Again, click here.

Our rights in Egypt, as Christians or converts, are less than the rights of animals. We are deprived of social and civil rights, deprived of our inheritance and left to the fundamentalists to be killed. Nobody bothers to investigate or care about us. – Maher Al-Gohary, Muslim apostate

One of the most disturbing consequences of the “Arab Spring,” the tragic misnomer given by the giddy news media to a violent surge of Islamic fundamentalists against despised Western “puppets” such as Libya’s Qaddafi and Egypt’s Mubarak, is an undisguised genocide against Christian communities in those regions. Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians, the new book by the Freedom Center’s Shillman Fellow Raymond Ibrahim, exposes that genocide not so much as a new war but as the renewal of a very old one.

Ibrahim is, as FrontPage readers well know, a Middle East and Islam specialist best-known for The Al Qaeda Reader. He has appeared in media venues from MSNBC to Reuters to Al Jazeera to Fox News, lectured at universities and before government agencies, and even testified before Congress on the plight of Egypt’s Christian Copts.

“Christians are being persecuted in Muslim countries today,” Ibrahim writes,

for the same reasons as in past centuries. And the patterns of persecution – the same motivations, the same actions, and the same horrific results – recur in countries as different as Kenya and Denmark. Those patterns emerge from themes in the Koran, in Islamic theology, in Sharia law, and in Islamic culture.

Those patterns lead Ibrahim to the inexorable conclusion which he hammers home throughout the book: “One thing alone accounts for such identical patterns in such otherwise diverse nations: Islam itself – whether the strict application of its Sharia, or the supremacist culture born of it.” Indeed, Ibrahim notes that of the top 50 countries documented for Christian persecution today, 42 are either Muslim-majority nations or have sizeable Muslim populations, and no other factors – economic, political, or ethnic – account for that overwhelming predominance.

After documenting some examples of recent Christian persecution in disparate regions, Ibrahim ties them together thusly:

Egypt, Nigeria, Indonesia, and the Philippines have very little in common. These countries do not share the same language, race, or culture. What, then, do they have in common that explains this similar pattern of church attacks during Christian holy days? The answer is Islam.

But what about Islam’s vaunted historic reputation for interfaith tolerance? Didn’t President Obama, in his servile Cairo address in 2009, claim that “Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance”? What about the relatively recent “Golden Age” for Christians in the Muslim world – from approximately 1850-1950 – during which they were largely unoppressed and laws governing dhimmis were abolished?

Ibrahim’s argument is that this era was primarily the result of the impact of Western civilization in breaking down fanaticism in Islamic lands. Muslims even began emulating Western ways, “sloughing off their Islamic identity and mentality and the contempt for ‘infidels’ that… is an integral part of that mentality.” That Golden Age, unfortunately, “was the historical aberration,” and what reversed the trend was a fresh contempt for the West’s “new culture of sexual licentiousness, moral relativism, godlessness, and even Western self-hatred that flooded Western societies in the 1960s.” Muslims also fed off “the hyper-criticism of the West and its values by leftist Western intellectuals,” a faction that remains complicit today.

Ibrahim traces the fascinating history and theological origins of Islam’s “innate hostility to Christianity,” which it targets in no small measure because Christianity, the largest religion in the world and Islam’s historical enemy, is a proselytizing faith – which Islam, with its rigid laws against apostasy, blasphemy, and proselytism, cannot abide. Also, Christians historically have embraced martyrdom rather than betray their faith. But he also notes that

Christians suffer violence at the hands of Muslims for reasons that go beyond conscious applications of Islamic doctrines. The hostility Sharia engenders toward Christians has permeated the culture, mentality, and worldview of the average Muslim.

Ibrahim goes on to catalog a jaw-dropping, relentless litany of examples of forced conversion, attacks on churches and the cross, and savage persecution of Christians throughout the Muslim world, a list broken down by country. He classifies this “climate of hate” into three general categories: harassment by Muslim governments, attacks by Muslim mobs, and attacks by jihadis.

As for why this crisis attracts so little attention, he points to three enormously influential institutions: Western academia, for whitewashing Islam and blaming the West; Western media, for obscuring the persecution; and Western governments for enabling it. They “have all refused to acknowledge what Christians are suffering… in keeping with their reluctance to recognize that Islam itself is the cause of this persecution.” It is this reticence that drives those institutions, for example, to portray “unprovoked Muslim attacks on Christians… as ‘sectarian strife.’” Blurring the line between victim and oppressor, Ibrahim writes, “is a regular tactic of the mainstream media, especially when it comes to reporting on Muslim persecution of Christians.”

Ibrahim rightly points the finger more specifically at the Obama administration, which in both words and actions “has not only ignored Muslim persecution of Christians, but also actually enabled it,” through Obama’s “wholesale support of the ‘Arab Spring.’” He also takes Western Christians themselves to task for buying into the mainstream narrative and for a tendency “to express compassion for anyone and everyone other than fellow Christians.”

“The return of the persecution of Christians under Islam,” Ibrahim concludes, “is the most visible aspect of a larger and more dangerous phenomenon: the return of Islam as a global force.” And we ignore that persecution at our peril.

Even for someone like myself and for FrontPage’s regular readers, who are acutely aware of the resurgent Islamic persecution of Christians in Muslim lands worldwide, Crucified Again is a gripping, must-read eye-opener. [To see FrontPage editor Jamie Glazov’s interview of Raymond Ibrahim about the book, click here.]

Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: Click here.  

24 Jun 09:18

The North Korean Defector - Interview by Chico Harlan

by CHICO HARLAN
What Kim Hyuk has carried with him on his harrowing journey from the streets to the speaking circuit.
24 Jun 09:16

Europe's Basket Case - By Joanna Kakissis

by JOANNA KAKISSIS
Has Greece's dysfunction reached the point of permanent crisis?
24 Jun 09:15

'You Can't Eat Sharia' - By Mohamed ElBaradei

by MOHAMED ELBARADEI
Egypt is on the brink -- not of something better than the old Mubarak dictatorship, but of something even worse.
24 Jun 08:52

Snowden plane to fly through sector controlled by New York air operators

The Cuba-bound flight that is to carry fugitive US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden to safety will fly through the sector controlled by New York air operators, a source close to air traffic has told a Russian news agency.
24 Jun 08:44

Snowden's Stopover: Moscow Is a Safe Choice -- For Now

With a culture of helping whistleblowers and no extradition treaty with Washington, Russia is a reliable bet, at least temporarily
24 Jun 08:43

Snowden to leave Russia for Cuba at 14:05 MSK - source

Former CIA employee Eduard Snowden is expected to depart Moscow for Cuba at 2:05 p.m. on Monday, an informed source has told Interfax.
24 Jun 08:32

Israel rehearses massive al Qaeda attacks from Syria and Egypt

Israeli military, police, Shin Bet and special counterterrorism units early Monday staged their largest ever counter-terror exercise which simulated massive al Qaeda attacks coming in through Syria and Egypt against strategic targets and army bases. The scenario depicted scores of Israeli dead and hundreds injured, as well as the capture of hotels with large numbers of people held hostage. The exercise was planned secretly. Some of the units taking part received no advance warning of their roles until they reached the “targeted locations.” A senior army officer rated the exercise “satisfactory.”  

24 Jun 07:19

Anger at Monmouthshire council limits on rubbish bags

Plans by a Welsh council to restrict the amount of rubbish to be collected to two sacks per fortnight have provoked anger, with more than 1,000 people signing a petition opposing the limit.

24 Jun 07:16

Pressure grows on Lord Leveson to explain why he ignored hacking beyond the press

Lord Justice Leveson is facing mounting questions over why he decided to ignore a bombshell report detailing serious and widespread corruption among police and private investigators that was passed to his inquiry.

23 Jun 22:57

Troika divorce on horizon as Brussels, IMF fight over mistakes

by Claudi Pérez

Heated exchanges, flagrant mistakes, results ranging from mediocre to dismal, and ultimately, a divorce on the horizon. There is no doubt that the troika’s days are numbered, according to a dozen sources consulted about that complex entity comprising the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank (ECB), in charge of bailing out countries struck down by the euro crisis.

“Death to the troika,” said one high-ranking European official in Brussels after examining the plights of countries such as Greece and Cyprus, which are headed for a depression, and to a lesser extent Portugal and Ireland, which are facing a long desert crossing. The IMF has been quite clear about its plans to exit the troika sometime in the future, and the European Commission is already counting the days.

“The conditions are more than sufficient, if governments so wish, for European institutions to take full responsibility for the bailouts,” Commission President José Manuel Durão Barroso has said.

The marriage between Europe and the IMF is practically in tatters, perhaps because there was never any real love to begin with. Back in 2010, when Greece was staring down at the abyss, the European Commission presented member states with the outline of a European Monetary Fund that would be in charge of handling the bailouts. Germany shot down the project point blank. It did not trust the Commission and its lack of experience managing bailouts, and it feared politicization. Neither the Commission nor the ECB wanted the international organization on board, but Brussels ended up accepting the idea because it had no choice.

For a while, the troika suffered from utopian thought: it blandished scores of academic studies that ended up not being quite as scientific as they were purported to be, or which were overly relied on. And when it became evident that the medicine — in other words, the spending cuts — was not working, the troika argued that the dosage was too low and that the doctor had been too benevolent.

These days, not even the troika believes this story anymore. Instead, the time has come to share responsibility for the damage done, and the blame game has begun in earnest. But the cross-accusations could have a boomerang effect: the European Parliament is considering whether to create investigative committees to look into the fiasco.

The problems were there from day one. The ECB was always somewhat absent, too busy obsessing about not losing a single euro. Brussels and Washington now blame it (behind closed doors) of selfishness and lack of commitment, “which can only get worse due to incompatibility problems when it becomes the single banking supervisor,” says Jakob Kirkegaard, of the Peterson Institute.

Meanwhile, the IMF has intoned a mea culpa over the Greek débâcle that sounds curiously like an attack against the Commission. Essentially, the Fund says it is impossible to deal with such a myriad of prime ministers, finance ministers, commissioners, Eurogroup workers and ECB hawks: there is a cacophony of voices and decision-making is disastrous. The IMF also noted that the Greek adjustment was based on unreal hypotheses (the country was supposed to leave recession behind in 2012; instead, the economy will contract over four percent this year) and that essential steps were not taken, such as debt restructuring, a move that Europeans strongly rejected.

“And they continue to reject it, because that is Europe’s problem: it is still in denial over Greece, which cannot come out of the hole without that kind of haircut, and over Portugal and Ireland, which need another push and maybe something more in the Portuguese case, and certainly in Cyprus, which is headed for disaster,” say sources close to the IMF.

The Commission went ballistic after being chewed out by the international organization. Brussels said the Washington-based agency is being disloyal and blaming this attitude on the growing role of emerging economies: China, Brazil and other nations are upset at the risks being taken to bail out Europe, a wealthy continent (Ireland’s per capita income ranks fourth in the EU, higher than Germany and significantly above Brazil). European Commissioner Olli Rehn has accused the Fund of “washing its hands” after being there for all the decision-making. At the same time, he insists that the programs are headed in the right direction. At least that is what he says in public; in private, European sources consulted for this story admitted that the Greek bailout is “not working” and forecast a debt-restructuring scheme of the sort advocated by the IMF. These same sources say there are serious question marks regarding the efficiency of the Portuguese and Irish bailouts, not to mention the case of Cyprus, a poster child for everything that is wrong with the euro crisis management.

And so the troika is condemned to die a slow death: the IMF contributed a third of the Greek bailout, but only 10 percent of Cyprus’s. But the main thing is that the formula appears to have run its course. “One would at least expect the bailouts to shorten the labor pains and shrink the scarring left by the crisis. But the exact opposite is happening,” says a high-ranking EU source.

Not everyone is so critical, though. In Luxembourg, one top official at a European institution partially defended the bailouts. “We need to consider what would have happened without those programs: a collapse of those economies. Besides, without the IMF the bailouts would not have been very different. What’s happened is logical: three strong personalities, unaccustomed to sharing power, have had their inevitable confrontations. But designing the adjustment was difficult: to compensate for the cuts, there was no stimulus in Germany and no devaluation. That’s as much as can be blamed on the troika, including the IMF: that it was only able to impose adjustments on the bailed-out countries, when the problem affects the entire euro zone, including Berlin and Frankfurt.”

But the world of academia is less indulgent. “The troika is uncomfortable for the IMF and for Europe. The Fund is criticizing the EU over its refusal to restructure unsustainable debt levels, its failure to recapitalize banks, and its insistence on austerity. And Europeans are criticizing the Fund over lack of loyalty. So the logical thing now is for each one to go their separate ways. This is no guarantee of success: if Europe remains in denial over the banking sector or the need for debt restructuring, and especially if it remains stuck in this absurd austerity and reforms race without Germany or the ECB compensating for it in some way, then disaster is certain,” says Barry Eichengreen, a professor of economics at UC Berkeley.

Over on this side of the Atlantic, the D-word is used as well. “The troika is a disaster,” states Charles Wyplosz, of the Geneva-based Graduate Institute. The IMF should not have agreed to join, but once inside, excuses are superfluous, he says, adding that the programs were designed to protect countries that are doing well, not to save the bailed-out ones. “And in general there will be no solution until creditors reach a deal with the debtors: we need to end this restructuring taboo. Otherwise, it’s like prescribing large doses of aspirin when what’s required is surgery.”

But perhaps the harshest criticism comes from Paul De Grauwe, of the London School of Economics, who described the troika as “a tremendous mistake in form and content.”

The troika, he says, has orchestrated a recession across Europe with those programs based on austerity but without any caveats for creditor countries like Germany, who should be doing a lot more. “The trouble is, killing the troika is not the solution: the austerity fundamentalists are thick on the ground in European institutions.”

23 Jun 22:55

Gimme That Old-Time Religion: A Growing Number of Greeks Bow To Zeus, Apollo, and Hera

by Terry Firma

Talk about nostalgia!

Public Radio International has a pretty entertaining piece from Greece about the Return of the Hellenes,

… a movement trying to bring back the religion, values, philosophy and way of life of ancient Greece, more than 16 centuries after it was replaced by Christianity.

Remember the good old days? Neither do they, but that doesn’t prevent them from worshiping the dodecatheon, including the long-moribund deities Zeus, Apollo, and Hera. The New Hellenes don’t pray to the old gods, they say, but they do hold them worthy of veneration (as representations of things like beauty, health, and wisdom), and some revivalists offer them sacrifices such as flowers, fruit, milk, and honey.

They also have a soft spot for the Greek hero Prometheus, who helped humans by stealing fire from the gods. There’s an annual festival dedicated to him, held each summer solstice. On Friday, the event was kicked off by

… six runners — in full Greek battle gear — racing the six miles up Mount Olympus, home of the gods, their shields and long spears clanking as they go.

The New Hellenes consider Greece to be a country under Christian occupation, and they chafe under a majority of more than 95% of the population who identify as Greek-Orthodox followers of Jesus. The lack of affection is mutual: in 2007, an official of the Orthodox Church said the Hellenes were “a handful of miserable resuscitators of a degenerate dead religion.”

When I first heard about them, I thought perhaps their intention was to gently satirize (satyrize?) religion — to be Greek Pastafarians, if you will — but that doesn’t appear to be the case. It’s true that followers see the movement as a platform to complain about Christianity, and that it attracts new recruits on the back of the financial and cultural crisis that has gripped Greece since late 2009. But that doesn’t mean that adherents are lacking in sincerity. The founder of the Return of the Hellenes, Tryphon Olympios, explains that

… ancient Greece provides a model of a world where freedom of thought — and freedom of religion — is paramount. “We want to develop a free individual, free from superstitions and free from dogmas. No one tries to impose on you how to worship your god or practice your faith.”

The New Hellenes have twice applied to the Greek religion ministry for official status, and twice the application went nowhere. Until they receive the government’s imprimatur, they are officially prevented from holding mystical gatherings at Greece’s ancient temples. They also can’t build their own because, in Greece, that requires the sign-off of the local Orthodox bishop.

But their marginal status may improve as their numbers increase. The movement already claims to have hundreds of thousands of supporters, and it could grow to have real influence — Zeus willing.

23 Jun 22:52

US Air Force Bombers Could Be Flying Unmanned Missions Within A Decade

by Kris Osborn

B52 Bomber

The Pentagon may be settling into what could be a decade of spartan defense spending, but the Air Force isn’t giving up its hope of buying a sizable fleet of manned and unmanned long-range bombers, the service’s top acquisition officer said recently.

The Air Force wants to replace its aging fleet of B-2s, B-1s and B-52 bombers by the mid 2020s with as many as 100 stealthy Long-Range Strike Bomber aircraft in order to bring next-generation bombing capability to the fleet, said Lt. Gen. Charles Davis, Military Deputy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition.

The strategy would mean five times as many bomber aircraft as the current inventory of 20 B-2 bombers – a way to sustain long-range bombing capability in the event of a protracted conflict, said Davis.

"Should we ever get to something of a sustained nature, we will be more distributed; you will have more capability to maintain a longer ops tempo if you got into a mission where you are fighting for days, weeks, months if need be," Davis said. "Twenty B-2s is not a sustainable force. I mean you just don’t have a lot of long term capability with B-2s to sustain and fight a battle over days at a time."

The lofty goal is not unlike ambitious efforts the Air Force has taken in the past, only to see them reduced in the face of budget realities. Service officials admit, however, that the current fiscal circumstances brought on by sequestration can make longer-term acquisition planning much more difficult.

Overall, Davis addressed the challenges of acquisition in a time of sequestration and fiscal uncertainty, saying the service was working vigorously to deal with obsolesce issues and maintain and upgrade airframes and avionics while also investing in next-generation capability.

Nevertheless, the Air Force’s acquisition strategy for the nuclear-capable bomber is to both simultaneously advance technological capability while focusing on the maturity and readiness of the new components.

An Initial Capabilities Document has been drafted for the program, but the details of which are classified, service officials said.

While much of the details of the program are not publicly available, Davis did explain that the aircraft is harvesting some newer, cutting-edge technologies developed in recent years.

For instance, the new bombers would be primarily manned, but future versions will likely be configured to include an unmanned capability, Air Force officials maintain.

The program, however, will emphasize technological maturity so as to integrate mature and "ready" technologies into a new platform in order to minimize costs and maintain schedule goals.

"Very rarely should we be out maturing new technologies in new platforms," Davis said. "Once we are certain that a technology is at a usable level, then our acquisition programs can do the hard work of integrating. We have a hard enough time integrating engines, air frames, sensors; we should not be inventing things that have not been developed."

Davis also emphasized that the new bomber will likely be a platform that can continue to be upgraded as new systems and technologies emerge and mature.

"You have to figure everything we have is going to be upgraded any number of times over the life of the system," Davis said. "So the idea that you have to have every possible requirement filled at the initial fielding of the system – just makes no sense most of the time."

Extended range to potentially counter Anti-Access/Area Denial – or A2/AD – challenges, fuel efficiency and an ability to operate in a more challenging or contested electro-magnetic or "jamming" environment are among the key attributes.

A2/AD is current Pentagon-speak for how the U.S. military must be prepared to face potential adversaries which are much more technologically advanced than those faced in Iraq and Afghanistan.  As more potential adversaries are now equipped with longer range ballistic missiles, some with various kinds of precision guidance capabilities, it becomes more challenging for the U.S. to operate freely and project power uncontested. 

As a result, the Air Force is hoping these future long-range bombers will be able to fly farther, have more robust abilities against enemy air defenses and carry advanced, next-generation weaponry to improve strike capabilities.

"The new long-range bomber will not only bring in the new technologies of the last 20 years that are not on the B2, but also provide a larger force so we can do much more sustained operations over a wide area if we ever needed to," said Davis.

Join the conversation about this story »

23 Jun 22:05

Interior Ministry pins massacre of 130 in Syria on Ceuta taxi driver

by José María Irujo

Rachid Wahbi looked at the camera and smiled. He hugged two colleagues, thanked Allah and climbed in the truck. He was wearing khaki fatigues and a black turban, and he held a Kalashnikov in his hands. The camera focused on the truck as it rolled away. Seconds later, a tremendous explosion was heard, and the shaking camera captured a dark cloud rising up to the heavens.

Before leaving this world forever, the 33-year-old taxi driver who only weeks earlier had been steering his old white Mercedes through the streets of Ceuta explained his reasons in front of the camera: he was doing this for the jihad, for Allah, and against the enemy Bashar al-Assad.

Thousands of kilometers away, in the 90-square-meter family apartment in the low-income Ceuta neighborhood of El Príncipe Felipe, his wife Sanaa awaited news from him. He had told their four- and six-year-old children that he had bought them presents on his journey.

That was a year ago. Now, the Interior Ministry is saying that Rachid’s suicide attack against a military barracks in Idlib, Syria, caused 130 deaths. The video was uploaded last week on the ministry’s website, coinciding with a press conference by Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz to announce the dismantling in Ceuta of the Al Qaeda network that enlisted Rachid and 11 other young men from the Spanish exclave in North Africa. In the last year, all of them traveled to Syria to fight against the Assad regime.

Until now, security forces had refrained from releasing the video to prevent other young men from finding inspiration for similar attacks. Several high-ranking officials in the anti-terrorist fight expressed surprise at seeing footage of this tribute to jihad on an official website.

A few days after Rachid’s death, his 25-year-old widow — tall, slim and wearing white as a sign of mourning — told EL PAÍS how she had found out about it: “Mustafá called me on the phone and told me: Rachid is dead. He didn’t give me any other details so as not to make me suffer any more. He told me he had been buried following the Muslim rites.”

“He did not kill himself,” she stated at the time. “I don’t know how he died or where. His friend didn’t give me any details. How could he kill himself in front of his friends?” But weeks later, when Al Qaeda sympathizers circulated the video, boasting that this attack had caused “many enemy casualties,” Sanaa recognized her husband. His voice and his image, though blurry, were unmistakable.

“He died on June 1. His friend Mustafá called me and I was in shock. He was in Syria just a few days. Maybe not even a week. During the trip, which lasted six weeks, he would communicate with us through Messenger. They were in Turkey for quite a while, apparently because they were unable to get into Damascus. When they made it to Syria he phoned us, but did not give us details of what they were up to. He didn’t talk about himself; he only asked about me and the kids. I told him to come back, that it was dangerous. My husband was an exemplary man — I am proud of him.”

Why did he travel to Syria? “When he saw the news about Syria on TV, he was really affected. ‘Will nobody do anything for the Muslims?’ he would ask. I wondered the same occasionally. It made you feel like doing something. But what can you do. He felt rage and powerlessness. When he saw the torture of children by Assad’s military, he felt like crying. That touched his heart. He was very sensitive. But I never imagined he would go.”

Rachid’s friends met the same fate. Mustafá Mohammed, aka Piti, was 30, married and a father of two. Mustafá Mohamed, known as “Tafo,” was 24 and his wife was pregnant. They all had families of their own. They all left without providing any explanations. All three were enlisted in Ceuta by an Al Qaeda network that was dismantled after eight people, all Spanish nationals, were arrested. For a year now, the residents of El Príncipe and El Sardinero, where most of them lived, have been dealing with this trickle of pain and death. This shantytown of thousands of illegal dwellings and record unemployment and dropout rates is home to 12,000 people, nearly all Muslims.

 

23 Jun 22:03

US faces questions over Taliban 'embassy'

by newsfeeds@nzherald.co.nz
The Afghan government on Sunday pushed the US for answers on how Taliban rebels were allowed to open an office in Qatar that resembled an embassy, but said it remained committed to the peace process.A Taliban spokesman also dismissed...
23 Jun 21:58

Web Inventor Berners-Lee Warns The Powers That Be Are 'Trying To Take Control' Of The Internet

by James Hurley, The Telegraph

tim berners-leeCompanies and governments “trying to take control of the internet” are undermining the founding principles of the web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee has warned.

The inventor of the World Wide Web said the internet is facing a “major” threat from “people who want to control it on the sly” through “worrying laws” such as SOPA, the US anti-piracy act, and through the actions of internet giants.

“If you can control [the internet], if you can start tweaking what people say, or intercepting communications, it's very, very powerful...it's the sort of power that if you give it to a corrupt government, you give them the ability to stay in power forever.”

Sir Tim was speaking as it emerged that the US government has been collecting huge amounts of personal information from Google, Facebook, Apple and other internet companies.

There have also been reports that British spies have been gathering intelligence from the internet giants "through a covertly run operation set up by America's top spy agency"

“Unwarranted government surveillance is an intrusion on basic human rights that threatens the very foundations of a democratic society,” Sir Tim said. “I call on all web users to demand better legal protection and due process safeguards for the privacy of their online communications, including their right to be informed when someone requests or stores their data.

“Over the last two decades, the web has become an integral part of our lives. A trace of our use of it can reveal very intimate personal things. A store of this information about each person is a huge liability: Whom would you trust to decide when to access it, or even to keep it secure?”

Sir Tim added that a “wake up call” had been delivered when former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak cut off communications services during the uprising that ousted him.

“A lot of people thought the internet was like the air, it just flows. [After this] people asked, 'who could turn off my internet'?”

Sir Tim said "companies and governments in different places all over the world trying to take control of the internet in different ways" is a much bigger threat to its development than fears over any one company having an online monopoly.

"If you remember [web browser] Netscape, people thought, oh the web is great but here's a completely controlling web company, what are we going to do? Then one morning they weren't worried about Netscape any more, it was Microsoft. Then suddenly, wait a moment the browser wasn't the issue, it was the search engine. Then, it's wait a moment, it's the social network.

"If you look at it broadly, yes a monopoly slows innovation, reduces competition. That's why it's important this is an open platform. But monopolies come and go all the time."

Sir Tim called for governments to protect the neutrality and independence of the web and compared its democratic importance to the freedom of the press.

He said "organisations that keep the internet running" should be "connected to government but at arms length. That's really important and as years have gone by that's got more and more important. Once you have an open internet, with an open world wide web on top of it, I'm very optimistic".

Sir Tim was speaking in Monte Carlo at the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the Year competition. He likened the determination he needed when developing the web to the single mindedness exhibited by successful entrepreneurs.

“With the web, it was a paradigm shift. It's a well used phrased but it means that afterwards the world is so different, there weren't the words in the old word to describe the new world. People didn't understand clicks and links and web pages – we didn't have words.

“You just need to stick with it and work with a few people with in a twinkle in their eye because they get it. Some people will respond with excitement – not everybody, maybe three in three hundred will get it. The web took off because a few people around the world had the twinkle in their eye and said they could understand what it would be like if all the information in the world was [online].”

He added that while about "25pc of the world" now uses the web, "a massive gap" remains. "There are number of languages where there isn't a lot of stuff on the web, and a lot of culture that isn't represented. A lot of countries haven't got the backbone for a good internet-based democracy.

"The change for the world will be massive when we go from only 20pc of the world having it to 80pc of the world. It is going to be a wonderful explosion in culture and participation and I hope that people of different cultures use it to understand each other as a result."

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23 Jun 21:54

Audio: Robert Spencer on the BBC takes on Left-fascist Nick Lowles and discusses the Qur'an with an imam

Here by popular demand (thanks to Vlad) is the audio of a BBC show I was on last Friday morning, after I saw that they were planning to discuss the attempt to bar Pamela Geller and me from the U.K. without bothering to ask either of us what we thought about it. I wrote back: "How typical of the BBC to discuss this without giving us a chance to defend ourselves." To my surprise, the producer then contacted me and asked me to be on the show.

It was a lot of fun, although I was a bit shaky from being up all night. There are numerous highlights. Don't miss Nihal, the host, repeatedly asking Nick Lowles of the Left-fascist group Hope Not Hate, which is trying to keep us out of the UK, to come up with even one quote from me demonstrating the "Islamophobia" so wicked as to warrant my being barred from the country. Lowles can't come up with a single quotation -- all he can offer is what he says was the text of an AFDI ad but was actually no such thing.

Don't miss also, about twelve minutes in, Nihal asking me to give him some passages of the Qur'an and Hadith that I found objectionable. After I gave him a few, he asked an imam whom he had on the program to explain the real meaning of the passages I had mentioned. The imam complained that he wasn't prepared to do so, and even said that the Qur'an was my field, not his. Nihal responded incredulously, "But you're an imam!" The imam then repeated the usual tired "out of context" cliches but never offered any context that would render the passages benign.

Much of the discussion ended up centering on my book Did Muhammad Exist?, which Nihal kept trying to get me to say was objectionable as a thesis. I kept answering that there was nothing wrong with historical inquiry, that Jesus had been subjected to it, so why should Muhammad be exempt? At the end of the show the imam said, "He quotes Muhammad, then says he didn't exist," and Nihal thought this was an excellent point, but didn't give me a chance to answer. The obvious response is that Muslims believe he said and did certain things, and so it is important to know the content of the material in order to understand Islamic belief and practice, but it has no more historical value than the stories of Robin Hood. I wasn't allowed a chance to get that in, but after all, it was the BBC -- and a show that was much more fair than their usual standards.