Launch Set for Satellite to Monitor Solar Storms

Δημοσιεύτηκε στις 7 Φεβ 2015

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is due to launch a new solar weather observing satellite into deep space on Sunday, which scientists hope will give better notice of advancing solar storms. (Feb. 7)

Jordanian Airstrikes Against An ISIS Storage And Staging Facility

Δημοσιεύτηκε στις 6 Φεβ 2015

Airstrike against an ISIS Storage and Staging facility, Feb. 5, near Al Hasakah, Syria. The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIS terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria, the region, and the wider international community. The destruction of ISIS targets in Syria and Iraq further limits the terrorist group's ability to project terror and conduct operations. 

Mummified monk in Mongolia 'not dead', say Buddhists

The monk was found wrapped in traditional Buddhist robes

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A mummified monk found preserved in Mongolia last week has been baffling and astounding those who uncovered him.

Senior Buddhists say the monk, found sitting in the lotus position, is in a deep meditative trance and not dead.

Forensic examinations are under way on the remains, found wrapped in cattle skins in north-central Mongolia.

Scientists have yet to determine how the monk is so well preserved, though some think Mongolia's cold weather could be the reason.

But Dr Barry Kerzin, a physician to Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama,told the Siberian Times that the monk was in a rare state of meditation called "tukdam".

"If the meditator can continue to stay in this meditative state, he can become a Buddha," Dr Kerzin said.

The monk was discovered after being stolen by a man hoping to sell him on the black market.

Mongolian police have arrested the culprit and the monk is now being guarded at the National Centre of Forensic Expertise.

Worship for eternity

The monk was found as he was about to be sold on the black market

The identity of the monk is unclear, though there is speculation that he is the teacher of Lama Dashi-Dorzho Itigilov, who was also found mummified.

In 1927, Itigilov - from neighbouring Buryatia in the then Soviet Union - supposedly told his students he was going to die and that they should exhume his body in 30 years.

The lama sat in the lotus position, began meditating and died.

When he was dug up, legend has it that his body was still preserved.

Fearing interference by the Soviet authorities, his followers reburied him and he remained at rest until 2002 when he was again dug up to great fanfare and found still well preserved.

The lama was then placed in a Buddhist temple to be worshipped for eternity.

Κυρήνη , Λιβύη--Cyrene, Libya

Cyrene, Libya

 ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ

The Greek colonizations of Crete and Rhodes of the 9th century BC were shortly followed by their colonizations of Cyrenaica in Eastern Libya. The city of Cyrene was a Greek colony, built in the seventh century BC (631 BC) upon the oracle advice of Delphi, on one of the best verdant regions of Eastern Libya's Green Mountain, by immigrants (or refugees according to some sources) from the island of Thera (Santhorini). However, there was also a failed attempt to colonise Tripolitania under the command of Dorieus, the king of Sparta, who reached the River Cinyps (Wadi Caam), just east of Leptis Magna, in 520 BC and founded a city by that name. 

 Ancient marble floor

The prosperity of Cyrene was founded on the silphium plant, pictured on Cyrenaican coins, where it resembles a stylised leek or a sunflower. The plant once grew only in Libya and apparently its extinction was a grievous blow to the city's economy. 

History 

Cyrene was founded in 630 BC as a settlement of Greeks from the Greek island of Thera (Santorini), traditionally led by Battus I, at a site ten miles from its associated port, Apollonia (Marsa Sousa). Traditional details concerning the founding of the city are contained in Herodotus' Histories IV. Cyrene promptly became the chief town of ancient Libya and established commercial relations with all the Greek cities, reaching the height of its prosperity under its own kings in the 5th century BC. Soon after 460 BC it became a republic. In 413 BC, during the Peloponnesian War, Cyrene supplied Spartan forces with two triremes and pilots. After the death of Alexander the Great of Macedon (323 BC), the Cyrenian republic became subject to the Ptolemaic dynasty.

Ophelas, the general who occupied the city in Ptolemy I's name, ruled the city almost independently until his death, when Ptolemy's son-in-law Magas received governorship of the territory. In 276 BC Magas crowned himself king and declared de facto independence, marrying the daughter of the Seleucid king and forming with him an alliance in order to invade Egypt. The invasion was unsuccessful and in 250 BC, after Magas' death, the city was reabsorbed into Ptolemaic Egypt. Cyrenaica became part of the Ptolemaic empire controlled from Alexandria, and became Roman territory in 96 BC when Ptolemy Apion bequeathed Cyrenaica to Rome. In 74 BC the territory was formally transformed into a Roman province.

The inhabitants of Cyrene at the time of Sulla (c. 85 BC) were divided into four classes: citizens, farmers, resident aliens, and a minority population of Jews. The ruler of the town, Apion, bequeathed it to the Romans, but it kept its self-government. In 74 BC Cyrene was created a Roman province; but, whereas under the Ptolemies the Jewish inhabitants had enjoyed equal rights, they now found themselves increasingly oppressed by the now autonomous and much larger Greek population. Tensions came to a head in the insurrection of the Jews of Cyrene under Vespasian (73 AD, the First Roman-Jewish War) and especially Trajan (117 AD, the Kitos War). This revolt was quelled by Marcius Turbo, but not before huge numbers of people had been killed. According to Eusebius of Caesarea the outbreak of violence left Libya depopulated to such an extent that a few years later new colonies had to be established there by the emperor Hadrian just to maintain the viability of continued settlement.

Plutarch in his work De mulierum virtutibus ("On the Virtues of Women") describes how the tyrant of Cyrene, Nicocrates, was deposed by his wife Aretaphila of Cyrene around the year 50 BC
The famous "Venus of Cyrene", a headless marble statue representing the goddess Venus, a Roman copy of a Greek original, was discovered by Italian soldiers here in 1913. It was transported to Rome, where it remained until 2008, when it was returned to Libya. A large number of Roman sculptures and inscriptions were excavated at Cyrene by Captain Robert Murdoch Smith and Commander Edwin A. Porcher during the mid nineteenth century and can now be seen in the British Museum. They include the Apollo of Cyrene and a unique bronze head of an African man.

Description

A colony of the Greeks of Thera, Cyrene was one of the principal cities in the Hellenic world. It was Romanized and remained a great capital until the earthquake of AD 365. A thousand years of history is written into its ruins, which have been famous since the 18th century.

Cyrene was founded in the 4th century BC by Greeks of Thera (Santorini) guided by Battos, within a zone where Carthaginian influence was preponderant. From 631 BC (the traditional accepted date of its foundation) to 440 BC, this trading centre, situated in the interior, away from the sea, was dominated by the dynasty of the Battiadae. Within little less than a century (430-331), this kingdom was succeeded by a democratic regime; following which the city spontaneously submitted itself to the rule of Alexander the Great and, at his death, was annexed to the kingdom of the Lagids. One of the last of the line of descendants of Berenice and Ptolemy III Euergetes bequeathed it to the Roman people in 96 BC.

Entrance of Temple to Apollo

Established as a Roman province in 74 BC, Cyrenaica shared in the fortunes of the empire and, as such, never ceased to play a preponderant role in the Mediterranean world: it was given by Mark Anthony to Cleopatra, united with Crete by Augustus, who decreed the date of the battle of Actium (34 BC) as the beginning of a new era, and then separated from Crete by Diocletian in a reform of 305, which united it with Egypt. Its capitol, which was reconstructed in the 1st century AD and damaged during the insurrection of the Jews in 116, was entirely rebuilt from the reign of Hadrian. Its decline did not begin until the earthquake and tidal wave of 365, one of the great catastrophes of history. Ammianus Marcelinus found it deserted.

Cyrene, which was described by geographers from Herodotus to Synesius and had its praises sung by Pindar and Callimachus, is not only one of the cities of the Mediterranean world around which myths, legends and stories have been woven over more than 1,000 years, but it is also one of the most impressive complexes of ruins in the entire world.

To the north, the sanctuary and sacred fountain of Apollo, the fountain celebrated by Pindar, Herodotus and Callimachus, regroups the temples of Apollo (7th-4th centuries BC) and Artemis (7th-6th centuries BC), the sacella of Persephone, Hades and Hecate, votive monuments and treasuries. This cultic zone was completed, during the Roman period, by extremely large buildings of which the most important are the Baths of Trajan, restored in the 2nd century. To the west, the Greek theatre was transformed into an amphitheatre by the Romans. To the south-west, the Acropolis constitutes an immense archaeological reserve, whose exploration has been postponed for some time owing to the strategic nature of the site.

 

To the south-east, about 500 m from the sanctuary of Apollo, the agora and the Roman forum, which are well preserved, formed the centre of the civic life. This sector is characterized by the coexistence of both Greek and Roman forms of urban planning within a unified whole of very ample proportions: the Bouleuterion and Capitolium, Agora and Forum, Nomophylakion (public archives depository), and similar are placed side by side with Heroa, of which the best known is that of Battus. It is the urban centre of the ideal city; proud of its past, conscious of the continuity of its history and turned towards the future. The archaeological site of Cyrene is not limited to these three monumental complexes of the sanctuary of Apollo, the Acropolis and the Agora. Excavations have revealed the great interest of the north-eastern sector, where the grandiose ruins of the Augustan period were inhabited until the end of Cyrenian history.

Elsewhere, Cyrene preserves a necropolis complex which is numbered among the most extensive and varied of the ancient world.

Site Monuments 

Ancient forum

 Ruins of ancient theatre in Cyrene, Libya

 Ruins in Cyrene

 Agora walls

Agora of Cyrene

 

 Ginnasio Propilei

Temple to Apollo

Burial chambers, Necropolis

 The temple of Zeus

The Temple of Demeter

Coast Guard Rescues Dog From Icy Water

Δημοσιεύτηκε στις 4 Φεβ 2015

A Coast Guard Station Frankfort crew rescues a dog from the ice-filled channel in Frankfort, Mich., Feb. 3, 2015. Crews are prepared to save lives no matter who they belong to. U.S. Coast Guard video courtesy of Oliver Art Center. Courtesy Video | U.S. Coast Guard District 9 | Date: 02.03.2015

ΟΙ 10 ΠΙΟ ΥΣΧΥΡΟΤΕΡΟΙ ΣΤΡΑΤΟΙ ΣΤΟΝ ΚΟΣΜΟ!

Οι 10 πιο ισχυρότερους στρατούς στον κόσμο

Δημοσιεύθηκε: 3 Φεβ, 2015 17:30 GMT | Τελευταία ενημέρωση: 3, Φεβρουαρίου, 2015 19:02 GMT

REUTERS / Σαμ Hodgson

Ο δικτυακός τόπος παγκόσμια δύναμη πυρός εισήγαγε ένα νέο «κατάταξης» των χωρών με στρατιωτική δύναμη. Οι συγγραφείς της μελέτης έχουν περιληφθεί στον κατάλογο τους συνολικά 106 μέλη. Μάθετε ποιες είναι οι 10 πιο ισχυρότερους στρατούς στον κόσμο.

Οι συγγραφείς χρησιμοποιούν τη λεγόμενη «Global Index δύναμη πυρός» («συνολικό ποσοστό της δύναμης πυρός»), η οποία έχει γίνει με βάση διαφορετικά δεδομένα σχετικά με τις στρατιές των διαφόρων χωρών . Ο κατάλογος  λαμβάνει υπόψη τις γεωγραφικές και επιχειρηματικούς παράγοντες και τιμωρεί τις περίκλειστες χώρες που δεν διαθέτουν στόλο, αλλά δεν μετρούν την πυρηνική ικανότητα. Γενικά, είναι μια πιο ποσοτική παρά ποιοτική λίστα. Η GFP θεωρεί ότι το εργατικό δυναμικό (σύνολο και είναι κατάλληλο για τον πληθυσμό των υπηρεσιών), τα όπλα του στρατού, της αεροπορίας και ναυτική δύναμη, μεταξύ άλλων παραγόντων.Οι τρεις πρώτες θέσεις, σύμφωνα με τα στοιχεία από τον Ιανουάριο του 2015, οι ΗΠΑ, η Ρωσία και η Κίνα καταλαμβάνουν. Και οι 10 πρώτες στρατιωτικές δυνάμεις, κατά σειρά σπουδαιότητας, είναι οι εξής:

1. ΗΠΑ

Δείκτης Ισχύς: 0,2208

Άμυνας Προϋπολογισμός: 612 500 000 000 δολάρια

Στρατιωτικό εργατικό δυναμικό: 120022084

Αριθμός των δεξαμενών: 8325

Αριθμός αεροσκαφών: 13683

Σύνολο Ναυτική Δύναμη: 473

2. Ρωσία

Reuters / ΣΕΡΓΚΕΪ Karpukhin

Δείκτης Ισχύς: 0,2355

Άμυνας Προϋπολογισμός: 76,6 δισεκατομμύρια δολάρια

Στρατιωτικό εργατικό δυναμικό: 46812553

Αριθμός των δεξαμενών: 15.500

Αριθμός αεροσκαφών: 3,082

Σύνολο Ναυτική Δύναμη: 352

3. Κίνα

Δείκτης Ισχύς: 0,2594

Άμυνας Προϋπολογισμός: 126 δισεκατομμύρια δολάρια

Στρατιωτικό εργατικό δυναμικό: 618588627

Αριθμός των δεξαμενών: 9.150

Αριθμός αεροσκαφών: 2.788

Σύνολο Ναυτική Δύναμη: 520

4. Ινδία

REUTERS / Jayanta Dey

Δείκτης Ισχύς: 0,3872

Άμυνας Προϋπολογισμός: 46 δισ δολάρια

Στρατιωτικό εργατικό δυναμικό: 489571520

Αριθμός των δεξαμενών: 3.569

Αριθμός αεροσκαφών: 1,785

Σύνολο Ναυτική Δύναμη: 184

5. Το Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο

Δείκτης Ισχύς: 0,3923

Άμυνας Προϋπολογισμός: 53,6 δισεκατομμύρια δολάρια

Στρατιωτικό εργατικό δυναμικό: 24035131

Αριθμός των δεξαμενών: 407

Αριθμός αεροσκαφών: 908

Σύνολο Ναυτική Δύναμη: 66

6. Γαλλία

AFP / ALAIN Jocard

Δείκτης Ισχύς: 0,4706

Άμυνας Προϋπολογισμός: 43 δισεκατομμύρια δολάρια

Στρατιωτικό εργατικό δυναμικό: 23747168

Αριθμός των δεξαμενών: 423

Αριθμός αεροσκαφών: 1,203

Σύνολο Ναυτική Δύναμη: 120

7. Γερμανία

Δείκτης Ισχύς: 0,4899

Άμυνας Προϋπολογισμός: 45 δισεκατομμύρια δολάρια

Στρατιωτικό εργατικό δυναμικό: 29538413

Αριθμός των δεξαμενών: 408

Αριθμός αεροσκαφών: 710

Σύνολο Ναυτική Δύναμη: 82

8. Τουρκία

REUTERS / Osman Orsal

Δείκτης Ισχύς: 0,5171

Άμυνα προϋπολογισμός: 18.190 εκατομμύρια δολάρια

Στρατιωτικό εργατικό δυναμικό: 35005326

Αριθμός των δεξαμενών: 3.657

Αριθμός αεροσκαφών: 989

Σύνολο Ναυτική Δύναμη: 115

9. Νότια Κορέα

Δείκτης Ισχύς: 0,5536

Άμυνας Προϋπολογισμός: 33,7 δισεκατομμύρια δολάρια

Στρατιωτικό εργατικό δυναμικό: 21033275

Αριθμός των δεξαμενών: 2,346

Αριθμός αεροσκαφών: 1,393

Σύνολο Ναυτική Δύναμη: 166

10. Ιαπωνία

REUTERS / Yuriko Nakao

Δείκτης Ισχύς: 0,5581

Άμυνας Προϋπολογισμός: 49,1 δισεκατομμυρίων δολαρίων

Στρατιωτικό εργατικό δυναμικό: 43930753

Αριθμός των δεξαμενών: 767

Αριθμός αεροσκαφών: 1,595

Σύνολο Ναυτική Δύναμη: 131

Dashcams capture dramatic footage of Taiwanese plane crash

Taiwanese drivers reportedly captured the moments before TransAsia flight GE235 crashed into a river near the country's capital city of Taipei today. The unverified footage appears to show the plane, a turboprop ATR-72, rolling to the left as it descends over a road.

Apple Daily said the plane carried 58 — five crew and 53 passengers — but TransAsia spokesperson Frankie Fang was unable to confirm the number of people on board. Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council confirmed that there had been a plane crash at around 10:45 AM local time. The Taiwanese authority confirmed that two people had died in the crash, but a number of sources report that 12 people are dead. China's Xinhua News said that 27 people were rushed to hospital after being rescued from the plane's fuselage

Unverified footage of the plane, in which its wing appears to strike a car traveling along the raised expressway, was tweeted by Twitter user Missxoxo168. Pictures attributed to Taiwan's TVBS appear to show a taxi cab on the same stretch of road with extensive damage that could have been caused by collision with the plane's wing.

Live footage from the scene of the crash shows a number of rescue workers making efforts to extract passengers from the stricken plane, some three hours after the country's aviation authority said the crash took place. Pictures taken by journalist Tim Culpan on location show most of the plane submerged in water, with rescue workers using inflatable boats to reach the fuselage. The Taipei city government has established a disaster response center to deal with the aftermath of the crash.

This is the second TransAsia ATR-72 turboprop plane to crash in Taiwan in six months. Last July, 48 people were killed when TransAsia flight 222 crashed in Penghu, off the coast of Taiwan, after it failed to make a second landing during typhoon conditions. The two fatal crashes are a blow to the Taiwanese aviation industry, which worked to make changes to its safety record after a series of high-profile crashes in the 1990s and 2000s. Prior to July's incident, the last fatal plane crash on the island occurred in May 2002, when a China Airlines 747 broke up in the air during a flight from Taipei to Hong Kong.

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