Videomessage by Mikhail KOSTARAKOS, Chair of the EU Military Committee

Putin's Council by Culture & Arts

Δημοσιεύτηκε στις 26 Δεκ 2015

President Putin chaired a meeting of the Presidential Council for Culture and Art in the Kremlin.
Vladimir Putin has congratulated the coming New Year and led the outgoing Board of the results: The year of 2015 was marked by the 70th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, and the event, as you know, is linked with the creation of the United Nations and UNESCO.
These organisations have played a crucial, a key role in establishing the post-war world order, in forming the principles of solidarity, humanity and international law, and in affirming the priority of countries’ and peoples’ humanitarian and cultural development.
These celebrations are reflected, one way or another, in practically all the cultural events of our nation, including the Year of Literature. Its main goal was to serve as a reminder of the exceptional significance of literature in people’s lives and, of course, renew the interest in books and reading in society.
December 25, the Kremlin, Moscow

World's longest continental volcano chain in Australia

World's longest continental volcano chain in Australia






The Cosgrove volcano track is shown.
CREDIT Drew Whitehouse, NCI National Facility VizLab
Scientists have discovered the world's longest known chain of continental volcanoes, running 2,000 kilometres across Australia, from the Whitsundays in North Queensland to near Melbourne in central Victoria.

The volcanic chain was created over the past 33 million years, as Australia moved northwards over a hotspot in the Earth's mantle, said leader of the research Dr Rhodri Davies from The Australian National University (ANU).

"We realised that the same hotspot had caused volcanoes in the Whitsundays and the central Victoria region, and also some rare features in New South Wales, roughly halfway between them," said Dr Davies, from the ANU Research School of Earth Sciences.

"The track is nearly three times the length of the famous Yellowstone hotspot track on the North American continent," said Dr Davies.

This kind of volcanic activity is surprising because it occurs away from tectonic plate boundaries, where most volcanoes are found. These hotspots are thought to form above mantle plumes, narrow upwellings of hot rock that originate at Earth's core-mantle boundary almost 3,000 kilometres below the surface.

The study, published in Nature, found that sections of the track have no volcanic activity because the Australian continent is too thick to allow the hot rock in mantle plumes to rise close enough to the Earth's surface for it to melt and form magma.

The research found that the plume created volcanic activity only where Earth's solid outer layer, called the lithosphere, is thinner than 130 kilometres.

These new findings will help scientists to understand volcanism on other continents and from earlier periods in Earth's history, said co-author Dr Nick Rawlinson, now at the University of Aberdeen's School of Geosciences.

"Ultimately this new understanding may help us to reconstruct the past movements of continents from other hotspots," he said.

The giveaway that the continent is just thin enough for melting to begin, such as in northern New South Wales, is the formation of an unusual mineral called leucitite.

Leucitite is found in low-volume magmas that are rich in elements such as potassium, uranium and thorium, said co-author Professor Ian Campbell from the ANU Research School of Earth Sciences.

"Now that we know there is a direct relationship between the volume and chemical composition of magma and the thickness of the continent, we can go back and interpret the geological record better," Professor Campbell said.

The scientists have named the volcanic chain the Cosgrove hotspot track.

Dr Davies said the mantle plume that formed the Australian volcanoes is probably still in existence, under the sea a little to the northwest of Tasmania.

"There are observations of higher mantle temperatures and increased seismicity in this region," he said.

Dakar 2016 RB Team Interviews

The PEUGEOT 2008 DKR16 just got bigger and better!

Peugeot Sport confirmó que en el Dakar 2016 estarán Carlos Sainz, Stephane Peterhansel, Cyril Despres y Sébastien Loeb con los 2008 DKR. Sainz y Loeb competirán en Marruecos, a comienzos de octubre de 2015.

Russian Military Aid in Iraq

Russian Military Aid in Iraq

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TEHRAN (FNA)- The Russian Defense Ministry supplied a large cargo of military and arms aid to Iraq as part of the Moscow-Baghdad growing anti-terrorism cooperation.

"A large number of the Russian-made armored vehicles, with impenetrable and highly resistent armor, have arrived in the Iraqi port of Basra," A Russian source said on Tuesday.

"Arrival of the armored vehicles on one hand will strengthen the Iraqi military against the ISIL terrorists' rocket attacks and on the other hand will pave the way for the Russian army men to have safer presence in Iraq for war on terrorism," the source underlined.

Meantime, military sources said earlier today that at least 12 ISIL militants were killed in the Iraqi fighter jets' attacks in al-Hamrin mountain in Northeastern Iraq.

"Ibrahim al-Halabi, one of the field commanders of the ISIL, was killed in the clashes with the Iraqi army and popular forces in Jazirat Khalidiya East of Ramadi, in Anbar province," the military sources said.

"The Iraqi forces also destroyed three explosive-laden vehicles of the ISIL militants in Jazirat Khalidiya," the sources said.

Meantime, the Iraqi army also seized a large number of the Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) near al-Siniyah air port, West of Beiji.

Al-Fatha region near Beiji witnessed fierce clashes between the Iraqi police and the ISIL, which claimed the lives of tens of the militants.

Reports said on Wednesday that Iraqi forces cemented their hold on newly gained territory in Ramadi, after scoring a breakthrough in their fight against the ISIL group by retaking a large part of the city.

The terrorists, who have lost ground in Iraq over the past few months, meanwhile claimed a suicide bombing that killed eight people near a Shiite mosque in Eastern Baghdad.

Iraqi forces spent months cutting off ISIL supply lines around Ramadi and slowly closing in on the city by taking suburban areas one after the other.

 “The liberation of Al-Tameem was very important and… enables other forces to advance toward the centre of the city of Ramadi,” said Sabah al-Noman, the spokesman for Iraq’s counter-terrorism forces.

He and other military sources said Iraqi forces had also retaken the Anbar Operations Command, a key facility which lies at a fork of the Euphrates River in the city. 

Τρεις μουσουλμανοι μουσικοι που παίζουν τα κάλαντα των Χριστουγέννων είναι το καλύτερο πράγμα που θα δείτε σήμερα

Three Muslim musicians playing Christmas carols is the best thing you will see today
Posted on: 03:39 PM IST Dec 24, 2015 | Updated on: 4:29 pm,Dec 24,2015 IST
IBNLIVE.COM
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This has got to be best and the warmest wish of this season. TATA Sky's latest ad has three Muslim musicians playing Christmas carols like 'Rudolph, The Red Nose Reindeer' and 'We Wish You A Merry Christmas' beautifully on the Mandolin, the Esraj and the Rabaab. The group of three are sufi artists and go by the name of 'Strings for Humanity'. They are seen seated in a room full of candles. The candles are symbolic to other's faith and religion. The video ends with the message 'Don't lose faith in humanity just yet'. The video comes at a time where the entire country is debating about the growing intolerance that is prevailing the country as well as in the world at large. A simple message with a beautiful video just warms up the heart.
humanity1

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/buzz/three-muslim-musicians-playing-christmas-carols-is-the-best-thing-you-will-see-today-1181213.html

LIVE: Modi to meet Putin during official visit to Moscow

Ζωντανή μετάδοση στις 24 Δεκ 2015

Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Moscow on Thursday, December 24, during the 16th India-Russia annual summit where both leaders are expected to sign agreements. A press conference will follow the events with consecutive translation.

During Modi’s last visit to Russia both leaders signed deals on Russian defence helicopters and nuclear reactors. Last year’s summit which took place in New Delhi in December 2014, ended with 20 deals and US$100 billion worth of commercial contracts being signed.

Texas State Aquarium Officials Participate in Ocean Mission

Εικόνα: Δημόσιος Τομέας

CORPUS CHRISTI, Τέξας - Στη μία πλευρά του κόσμου στη μέση του Ειρηνικού Ωκεανού, κάτω από 6.500 πόδια του νερού, βρίσκεται μια οροσειρά το μέγεθος της Καλιφόρνια που περιέχει το μεγαλύτερο γνωστό ηφαίστειο στη Γη.

Από την άλλη πλευρά του πλανήτη, 4.000 καθηγητές και μαθητές σε 103 κατηγορίες σε οκτώ πολιτείες των ΗΠΑ ήθελαν να μάθουν περισσότερα σχετικά με αυτό το ενδιαφέρον γεωλογικό σχηματισμό. Και σε μια αποστολή για να συνδέσετε τα δύο ήταν Suraida Nañez-James, διευθυντής του Texas State Aquarium της εξ αποστάσεως εκπαίδευσης και της ευαισθητοποίησης και της William Sager, πρώτο Τεχνολογία Επιστήμη Μηχανικών του Texas State Aquarium και Μαθηματικά Professional in Residence.

Οι δύο, μαζί με μια ομάδα άλλων επιστημόνων και ερευνητών, απέπλευσε σε ένα σκάφος 300 ποδιών ονομάζεται Falkor στις 5 Οκτωβρίου από τη Χαβάη για να μελετήσει και να χαρτογραφήσει τη μακροπρόθεσμη σβησμένο ηφαίστειο που ονομάζεται TAMU Massif, η οποία είναι περίπου ίση σε μέγεθος με η πολιτεία του Νέου Μεξικού, Sager δήλωσε. Η οροσειρά όπου βρίσκονται είναι γνωστό ως Άνοδος Shatsky.

Ταξίδι 36 ημερών τους τελείωσε στο Γκουάμ στις 10 Νοεμβρίου.

Sager, το Πανεπιστήμιο του Χιούστον γεωφυσικής καθηγητή, ο οποίος είναι κάτοχος διδακτορικού διπλώματος στη θαλάσσια γεωφυσική, δήλωσε ότι ο σκοπός του ταξιδιού ήταν να κατανοήσουν καλύτερα πώς σχηματίζονται τα ηφαίστεια.

Texas State Aquarium officials part of ocean mission

By Dayna Worchel
Corpus Christi Caller-Times | 0 comments

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — On one side of the world in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, underneath 6,500 feet of water, sits a mountain range the size of California that contains the biggest known volcano on Earth.

On the other side of the globe, 4,000 teachers and students in 103 classes across eight states in the United States wanted to learn more about this intriguing geological formation. And on a mission to connect the two were Suraida Nañez-James, the Texas State Aquarium’s manager of distance learning and outreach and William Sager, the Texas State Aquarium’s first Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics Professional in Residence.

The two, along with a team of other scientists and researchers, set sail on a 300-foot vessel called the Falkor on Oct. 5 from Hawaii to study and map the long-dormant volcano called TAMU Massif, which is about equal in size to the state of New Mexico, Sager said. The mountain range where it’s located is known as the Shatsky Rise.

Their 36-day journey ended in Guam on Nov. 10.

Sager, a University of Houston geophysics professor who holds a doctorate in marine geophysics, said the purpose of the trip was to better understand how the volcanoes are formed.

Once Sager and the crew arrived at their destination, the used an instrument called a magnetometer to collect magnetic and topographic data about TAMU Massif. They collected the data the whole time the ship made the journey to the Shatsky Rise.

But the work didn’t end there. Using Skype, Nañez-James taught and showed students in real time how the volcano was mapped and introduced them to the scientists and crew onboard the Falkor. She acted as the educator, blogger, and journalist on the expedition.

“I worked the midnight to 10 a.m. shift which worked out to be about 8 a.m. in Texas. I showed them life at sea and talked to the crew, went to the bridge, and I went to the control room and talked about topographic mapping,” she said.

Nañez-James, a former educator who taught Advanced Placement chemistry, forensic science and biotechnical engineering at Moody High School, holds a master’s degree in marine science and biology from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.

“We really want to get kids excited about science. Our mission is to connect people with science, nature and conservation of the Gulf of Mexico,” she said.

The other positive is for the students to see and learn about science careers, said Leslie Peart, vice president for education and conservation at the Texas State Aquarium.

“She made students understand if we’re going to do projects like this, we will need a bunch of you,” Peart said.

The trip was funded by a variety of sources, Sager said. The Schmidt Ocean Institute lent a team of researchers and student scientists, along with the research vessel Falkor. Sager’s position at the aquarium is supported by Flint Hills Resources Center for Excellence in STEM Education funding.

“I got a small grant from the National Science Foundation and the National Geographic Society funded the travel costs,” he said.

Sager said he is just beginning the process of analyzing the information the team collected during the 36-day journey.

“We have data and will fit it together and put it in modeling programs. No matter what, we will learn more about the TAMU Massif,” he said.