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Saturday, June 23, 2012
Friday, June 22, 2012
GERMANY 4 GREECE 2 FINAL SCORE
Germany are through to the semi-finals following a dynamic attacking display here in Gdansk that put Greece to the sword. Goals from Philipp Lahm, Sami Khedira, Miroslav Klose, and Marco Reus brought Germany their 15th straight competitive win.
Twitter: Οι έλληνες στις κερκίδες είναι στεναχωρημενοι όχι γιατι χάνουμε αλλα γιατι μόλις τελειώσει ο αγώνας θα περάσει η Μέρκελ να τους πάρει τα Ε9
http://www.tsn.ca/soccer/story/?id=398944
http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/gif-angela-merkel-celebrates-philipp-lahm-puts-germany-1up-greece/
Germany’s Lahm chests a crossing ball down, dribbles once, twice as Greece defense fails to close him down. Right-footed shot by the veteran defender, Germany’s captain, slices away from Sifakis and into the far upper corner. 1-0 Germany
http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/gif-angela-merkel-celebrates-philipp-lahm-puts-germany-1up-greece/
25 mins: Reus misses again. The Greek goal is charmed. Joachim Loew is furious. He'll need more chewing gum. Tried biting your nails like Roy Hodgson?
24 mins: Ozil shoots from wide. The ball slides across the net and Klose just fails to reach it.
23 mins: Ozil collects a neat pass from Reus but Michalis Sifakis comfortably clasps Ozil's shot.
21 mins: The Arena Gdansk pitch looks very heavy underfoot, says Ryland James. Maybe that was what caused Klose to stumble in the opening minutes - and the turf is cutting up in both goal mouths after only 10 minutes.
18 mins: Salpingidis, scorer of Greece's equaliser against Poland, breaks forward but the German border guards stop him - at the edge of their penalty area.
15 mins: Samaras yellow card for trampling on Schweinsteiger's ankle. Could be accidental but Slovenian referee Damir Skomina doesn't think so.
13 mins: Marco Reus is clear in front of the Greek goal but fires wide and smacks an advertising hoarding.
11 mins: Kostas Katsouranis goes on the counter-attack, but three German defenders briskly close on him briskly to end the danger.
10 mins: Come on Germans, go easy on the Greeks. You've got the money, they buy your cars. And you still want to be welcome at Greek beaches this year, don't you?
8 mins: In Berlin, an estimated 400,000 people are gathered at the Brandenburg Gate, says AFP's Eloi Rouyer. They wave flags and sing the German national anthem.
6 mins: Ryland James says smoke hangs over the German fans after it looks like a flare was set off. "Wonder if that will mean another fine for the German FA from UEFA."
4 mins: Bayer Leverkusen's Andre Schuerrle, making his tournament debut, blasts the ball into the Greek net but the whistle goes - he's offside. Dramatic start though.
3 mins: The Germans attack from the start. Ozil chips a neat pass to the recalled Klose in the Greek penalty area but he slips.
2 mins: AFP's Dario Thuburn in Athens city centre says: "The cafes in the Thissio neighbourhood around the Parthenon are buzzing with young fans hoping to show Germany....
Virtual Acropolis Tour
http://acropolis-virtualtour.gr/acropolisTour.html
The Virtual Tour of the Acropolis is an interactive website that allows various aspects of the historical site to be explored in a unique way. It consists of high-resolution gigapixel images and panoramas of the four main monuments - the Parthenon, the Propylaia, the Erechtheion and the Temple of Athena Nike - as well as a detailed photographic representation of the inner and outer ancient walls surrounding the hill, all accompanied by historical information and a descriptive map. The images offer a full zoom in towards details of the moments otherwise difficult to reach, an overview of the location of the monument with respect to its surroundings, or even a virtual "walk" through the site. The user is given the opportunity to exploit task-specific applications or create more personalized approaches, being in overall immersed into a virtual visit of the Acropolis.
Greek and German showdown in soccer
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1230463-germany-vs-greece-euro-2012-quarterfinal-live-blog-analysis-and-recap
GERMANY vs. GREECE (kickoff 2.45 p.m. ET)
Lineups
Germany: Neuer, Boateng, Hummels, Badstuber, Lahm, Khedira, Schweinsteiger Reus, Ozil, Schurrle Klose
Greece: Sifakis, Torosidis, Sokratis, K. Papadopoulos, Tzavelas, Makos, Maniatis, Katsouranis, Ninis, Salpigidis, Samaras
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Father beheads his own daughter
JAIPUR, India — A father in northwestern India remained unrepentant Tuesday after beheading his daughter with a ceremonial sword in a rage over her relationships with men, police said.
The father surrendered at a police station, carrying the head in one hand and the bloodied sword in the other, police said.
Residents of Dungarji village expressed shock as they performed the last rites for the 20-year-old woman.
Police said the father, marble miner Oghad Singh, accused his daughter of bringing dishonour to the family and making it hard to find husbands for her two unmarried sisters.
Women wailing in grief lined the dusty road of the village in Rajasthan state as a procession carried Manju Kanwar’s remains to her funeral pyre. As in many north and West Indian villages, the women, including her mother and four sisters, were not allowed to attend the funeral.
A coroner stitched Kanwar’s head onto her body for the funeral. About 100 men, many of them relatives wearing ceremonial Rajput warrior clan turbans, surrounded her muslin-wrapped body, and her brother lit the funeral pyre.
Villagers condemned the father’s actions as extreme. They said the father, his shirt soaked in blood, had carried his daughter’s head through the village, describing what he’d done to neighbours.
“He told me that he took the sword out, and when the daughter was all alone in the house he beheaded her with a single stroke and the head fell on the ground,” said Narayan Singh, a distant relative.
He said he persuaded Singh to surrender, and took him by motorcycle to a police station 5 kilometres (2 miles) away. Police charged Singh, 46, with murder.
“It was a ghastly sight,” officer Ranjit Singh said, describing the father sitting in the station’s waiting room holding the head in one hand and the sword in the other. “Oghad admitted immediately that he killed his daughter because she had earned a bad name for the family.”
Police described Kanwar’s recent life as difficult and unorthodox for the traditional community of about 1,000 just outside the Rajasthani tourist town of Udaipur.
She left her husband from an arranged marriage two years ago and moved back home to live with her parents. She recently began seeing several men which “disgusted” her father, deputy police superintendent Umesh Ojha said.
“Oghad said he was fed up with the lifestyle of his daughter,” Ojha said.
When Manju eloped with one man two weeks ago, her father forced her to return on Sunday and killed her.
Rapidly modernizing India faces increasing social clashes as youths resist traditions like arranged marriage or limits on women venturing outside their parents’ or husbands’ homes.
The country is considered one of the harshest places in the world for women, with female infanticide and child marriage still common.
The U.N.’s gender inequality index places India second to last, above Saudi Arabia, based on labour, reproductive health, education and politics. The index does not consider issues of violence.
Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/news/Indian+unrepentant+after+beheading+daughter+over+lifestyle/6806059/story.html#ixzz1yGXtnwve
Typhoon in Tokyo
A POWERFUL typhoon bringing heavy rain and strong winds has slammed into Japan's Pacific Coast as flights were cancelled and evacuations ordered.
About 10,400 people in coastal Ishinomaki, hit by last year's earthquake and tsunami, were advised to evacuate to higher ground ahead of the arrival there of the typhoon, which would coincide with rises in the tide, a city official said.
The typhoon made landfall on the tip of the Kii peninsula, south of Osaka, shortly after 6pm (AEST) today, and was expected to cut across Japan's main island of Honshu, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
It was moving northeast at 65km/h.
"The typhoon's force may not gain any more but we think the wind and rain will get stronger. It is picking up speed," an official at the agency said.
The typhoon, named Guchol - meaning "turmeric" in a Micronesian language, - packing winds of up to 180km/h, was projected to move over Honshu, including Tokyo, overnight and go out into the Pacific again tomorrow morning, the agency said.
The town of Nachikatsuura, some 400km southwest of Tokyo, ordered nearly 1600 residents to evacuate, warning of the danger of landslides brought on by heavy rain, public broadcaster NHK said.
Airlines have cancelled around 200 domestic flights so far because of the strong winds, NHK said.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/06/typhoon_lashes_southwestern_ja.html
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/powerful-typhoon-guchol-hits-japan/story-e6frfku0-1226401616108#ixzz1yGV06VTD
Fifty shades of Grey outsells Harry Potter
London: There was a time when book-lovers used to stand in queue all night to get their hands on a copy of the latest Harry Potter novel. But now, an erotic trilogy titled "Fifty Shades of Grey" is beating the records in UK that the JK Rowling books had set. It has become the fastest selling paperback of all time in just one week.
The book, dubbed as "mummy porn", is about the sexual awakening of university student Anastasia Steele and her relationship with handsome billionaire Christian Grey.
While there are a number of graphic sex scenes, some involving sado-masochism, it is centred on a conventional love story.
Erika Mitchell, who writes with the pen name 'EL James', beat JK Rowling and Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown in the UK records with the first instalment of her X-rated trilogy, the Daily Mail reported.
The book sold more than 100,000 paperback copies last week alone - a success story which most of the Harry Potter books and all of the Twilight novels have failed to match. The book has been Britain's best-seller for the past nine weeks.
At first, most sales of The Fifty Shades series were of the more discreet e-book version, but as the trilogy's popularity soared its sales have taken off.
Experts say the success of the racy books has been driven by frustrated middle-aged mothers.
"The success has not been driven by people who regularly buy books, but by people who buy maybe three or four books a year," spokesman for Nielsen Book-Scan, who complies the official chart figures, said.
"The books have crossed into the mass market. Clearly, people aren't embarrassed by it anymore," the spokesman said.
Philip Stone, who compiles book charts for The Bookseller magazine, said their reputation had been spread 'totally through word of mouth'.
"It is highly unusual for a book to sell so well without there being a film adaptation or the author being well known, like Dan Brown or JK Rowling," he said.
The author, Erika, 49, initially posted the tales on the Internet as fan fiction based on the Twilight books.
Two years later, she is said to be worth almost 4 million Euros after signing book deals on both sides of the Atlantic and a Hollywood movie contract a few months ago.
http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/mummy-porn-book-beats-harry-potter-records-233511?ndtv_rhs
The book, dubbed as "mummy porn", is about the sexual awakening of university student Anastasia Steele and her relationship with handsome billionaire Christian Grey.
While there are a number of graphic sex scenes, some involving sado-masochism, it is centred on a conventional love story.
The book sold more than 100,000 paperback copies last week alone - a success story which most of the Harry Potter books and all of the Twilight novels have failed to match. The book has been Britain's best-seller for the past nine weeks.
At first, most sales of The Fifty Shades series were of the more discreet e-book version, but as the trilogy's popularity soared its sales have taken off.
Experts say the success of the racy books has been driven by frustrated middle-aged mothers.
"The success has not been driven by people who regularly buy books, but by people who buy maybe three or four books a year," spokesman for Nielsen Book-Scan, who complies the official chart figures, said.
"The books have crossed into the mass market. Clearly, people aren't embarrassed by it anymore," the spokesman said.
Philip Stone, who compiles book charts for The Bookseller magazine, said their reputation had been spread 'totally through word of mouth'.
"It is highly unusual for a book to sell so well without there being a film adaptation or the author being well known, like Dan Brown or JK Rowling," he said.
The author, Erika, 49, initially posted the tales on the Internet as fan fiction based on the Twilight books.
Two years later, she is said to be worth almost 4 million Euros after signing book deals on both sides of the Atlantic and a Hollywood movie contract a few months ago.
http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/mummy-porn-book-beats-harry-potter-records-233511?ndtv_rhs
5.2 for Australia upgraded to 5.3
A magnitude 5.2 earthquake has hit the southeastern coast of Australia, 120km from Melbourne. No immediate details on casualties or damage have been released.
Monday, June 18, 2012
Help the world to heal
Dalai Lama once said, "Genuine compassion is based on the rationale that all human beings have an innate desire to be happy and overcome suffering...[and] on the basis of this recognition of this equality and commonality, you develop a sense of affinity and closeness with others."
Clearly, it is our own ability to experience grief that ultimately allows us to understand the pain of others.
What is compassion really? The definition of compassion is the ability to understand the emotional state of another person or oneself. Often confused with empathy, compassion has the added element of having a desire to alleviate or reduce the suffering of another. Empathy, as most people know, is the ability to put oneself in the other person's place. Although compassion and empathy are two separate things, having compassion for someone can lead to feeling empathy for another person.
Although the above is the accepted definition of compassion, I believe that having compassion for someone involves more than putting yourself in their place and genuinely wanting to understand or even help them. It involves beginning to have a totally different perspective when it comes to how you perceive others.
All of us have access to the compassionate light within each of our souls, and from time to time it is necessary to reconnect with that lost light. For example, instead of assuming that the reason someone has done something that hurts you is because they are selfish or inconsiderate, assume instead that they had a good reason for doing it.
Power of Compassion
A rabbi and his disciple were walking in the street. A man drove by in a fancy carriage and pushed the rabbi out of his way, into a ditch. The rabbi yelled after the rich merchant: “May you have everything you ever want!” The disciple asked him, “Rabbi, why did you say that to a man with such horrible behavior?” The rabbi replied, “Because a happy man wouldn’t have thrown a rabbi into a ditch.
Ah, the power of compassion.
The next time someone does something to upset you, instead of immediately plotting your revenge or staying consumed in doom for weeks on end, try brush it off and have compassion towards the ones who’ve betrayed you any harm done to you by another is the result of them fighting a dark battle within. Being compassionate is much easier said that done, and some may even argue that having compassion means you let others walk all over you. I beg to differ. I like to think of it as you’re letting them walk beneath you, as you rise high above their actions and do not stoop to their low level. Something I will forever remember from a woman’s speech in Toastmasters is this: “Anyone that could deliberately harm another is a deeply unhappy person. Misery likes company and unhappy people want to bring others down with them. Don’t let them win by becoming just as unhappy or insecure as they are.”
Sometimes actions of others are simply unforgivable, this I completely understand, but please don’t let anger hang onto you like a steel anchor weighing you down daily. You’re much better than that. Find a way to let resentment go and move forward with your life. Once again, easier said than done, but definitely not impossible.
Buddha once said, “Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”
Karma and anger
You have heard that it was said to the men of old, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgement.' But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgement; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, "You fool!" shall be liable to the hell of fire. - Matthew 5:21
Jesus is giving us a tremendous clue in this wisdom, that we should understand the law with our conscience, and know that we can kill with a word, with a glance, with our will. We can kill without a knife or a gun. And he tells us that even these actions, that seem so normal, so acceptable, are cause for judgement and punishment. He is saying what he said over and over: that we will reap only what we sow in life. As we do, so shall we receive.
And if we continue day after day nursing resentments against our spouse, our co-workers, and continue feeding our anger toward our father and mother, and continue generating anger toward people on the street, in the grocery store, on the freeway, what do you think you are sowing in the field of your life? What seeds are you planting there? And what do you expect that those seeds will grow?
It's obvious, isn't it? If we plant the seeds of anger, then happiness will not grow there. It's impossible. Yet we expect this. If we plant the seeds of greed, then contentment will not grow there. It cannot happen that way! If you want to grow green beans you cannot plant a thorn bush, and yet this is exactly what we do, everyday.
Once we deeply comprehend this fact, we can see that we are responsible for the state of our life, we are responsible for the well being of others, we are responsible for everything that we experience in life. But for us, who do not comprehend, we blame others, we blame everyone else, and we never recognize that the primary person who is at fault for our problems is OURSELVES.
And if we continue day after day nursing resentments against our spouse, our co-workers, and continue feeding our anger toward our father and mother, and continue generating anger toward people on the street, in the grocery store, on the freeway, what do you think you are sowing in the field of your life? What seeds are you planting there? And what do you expect that those seeds will grow?
It's obvious, isn't it? If we plant the seeds of anger, then happiness will not grow there. It's impossible. Yet we expect this. If we plant the seeds of greed, then contentment will not grow there. It cannot happen that way! If you want to grow green beans you cannot plant a thorn bush, and yet this is exactly what we do, everyday.
Once we deeply comprehend this fact, we can see that we are responsible for the state of our life, we are responsible for the well being of others, we are responsible for everything that we experience in life. But for us, who do not comprehend, we blame others, we blame everyone else, and we never recognize that the primary person who is at fault for our problems is OURSELVES.
Whatever affliction may visit you is for what your own hands have earned.
- Qur'an 42.30
We all say, "If I had a better job" or a better husband or a better car or, "if I get this new computer or this new book or if I can make a little more money or move to a different city, then and only then will I finally be contented and happy and then I will start to do good for others. I'll do some charity once I have everything I need."
We all say, "my boss is making me miserable, my sister is making me angry, my wife is making me anxious, my friend is making me jealous,... and if they change, then things will be better for me. If my husband changes, then I can be a cheerful person. But as long as he keeps being the way he is, then I can't do it."
We all say, "my boss is making me miserable, my sister is making me angry, my wife is making me anxious, my friend is making me jealous,... and if they change, then things will be better for me. If my husband changes, then I can be a cheerful person. But as long as he keeps being the way he is, then I can't do it."
Whatever harm a foe may do to a foe, or a hater to a hater, an ill-directed mind can do one far greater harm. - The Buddha Shakyamuni, from the Dhammapada, 42
We are hurting ourselves. It is not my bosses fault that I am miserable at work. It is my reaction to it that creates my suffering. And really, it is karma: if someone is making me suffer, it is my responsibility to see how I have made others suffer in the same way.
Confucius said:
Confucius said:
In vain have I looked for a single man capable of seeing his own faults and bringing the charge home against himself.http://gnosticteachings.org
Greece saves Europe
How the anti-euro party lost the Greek election and won the future in Europe.
It only took 2200 years for Greece to give us something even more crippling than a Pyrrhic victory. That's a New Democracy victory. I know, I know. It's an ungainly phrase. But none the less apropos.
A quick recap. On Sunday, everybody's favorite past time returned. Greek democracy held world capitalism hostage -- or so the story went. The latest election pitted the mainstream conservative party New Democracy against the more radical leftist party Syriza. Nominally, New Democracy was the "pro-bailout" party and Syriza the "anti-bailout" party. The reality was a bit more complicated. Both wanted to stay in the euro. But both wanted to, ahem, renegotiate the so-called Memorandum that outlined the latest austerity agreement. New Democracy wanted to tinker at the margins. Syriza wanted to rip the whole thing up. Markets worried that Germany would kick Greece out of the euro -- setting off bank runs across the continent -- if Syriza won and tried to play hardball.
But Syriza didn't win the most votes. At least not this time. New Democracy grabbed the pole position, although not an outright majority. Still, New Democracy looks set to create a coalition government -- notwithstanding a bit of good, old-fashioned political intrigue involving the Greek Socialist party, Pasok.
It's been a humbling year for the Socialists. Pasok and New Democracy used to form a de facto duopoly in Greek politics. No longer. Pasok's support has cratered recently. That's what happens when you're in charge during austerity. After getting the boot last year, Pasok came in a distant third during the latest election -- and said they wouldn't join any coalition unless Syriza did too. Their logic was simple. They didn't want to sign onto another doomed austerity project unless their rivals would take the political heat too. But it was just a gambit. Pasok quickly relented.
So, Syriza wins. They get to watch the two big mainstream parties discredit themselves following Germany's austerity orders. And those orders won't get any easier. There had been rumors that Germany would ease up a bit if New Democracy won. Basically, give the Greeks two years instead of one to do the impossible. But nein. So New Democracy will be left with a Sisyphean task. And Syriza will be left exactly where it admittedly wants to be -- waiting to say "I told you so". It might be a long time before New Democracy wins another election.
But forget all that. The euro has been saved, right? Erm, not so much. Spanish and Italian borrowing costs are busy blowing up. In other words, Germany is throwing Greece to political extremists for nearly nothing. Now, to be fair, there's not much to recommend Pasok or New Democracy. On a good day, their extensive patronage networks are horribly inefficient. On a bad day, they'recorrupt. But lighting a fire to a country's political establishment isn't something that should be done lightly. You may not like what takes its place.
There are two nightmares for Europe. The first is that Syriza takes power in a few months and forces a Greek exit. Once it became clear that monetary union isn't irrevocable, depositors in weak countries would want to move their euros to strong countries. Bank runs would hit Spain and Italy overnight. It would take a huge dose of liquidity to put that financial fire out. As in, trillions of euros. But there's a second danger. It's that Syriza foreshadows future "anti-euro" parties in Spain or Italy. That too would be checkmate for the great European experiment. Those countries are too big and have too much leverage for Germany to bully. They are not, as the Spanish prime minister put it, Uganda.
Germany's strategy can be summed up in three words: kicking the can. That's prevented Armageddon so far -- but eventually you have to pick up the can. Greece shows that there's a political limit to how long you keep kicking. Once the political establishment goes, so do any assumptions you can make about the euro crisis.
Markets aren't fooled. Elections that ratify a toxic status quo just mean that the euro will fail over a longer time horizon. Eventually, you need solutions. Even in Europe.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Greek Election Snapshot
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/greek-election-blog-2012/2012/jun/17/greek-elections-greece-polls-live?commentpage=all#block-36#block-36
http://greekcurrent.com/?gclid=CPrkir3f1bACFccBRQod6QNP3w
http://greekcurrent.com/?gclid=CPrkir3f1bACFccBRQod6QNP3w
ATHENS -- Initial exit polls in an election that could decide Greece’s future in the Eurozone show the race as too close to call, with the conservative New Democracy party running neck and neck with the far-left political group Syriza.
There were reports of a last-minute surge in voting before polls closed at 7 p.m. Greek time. New Democracy, mindful of the young voters who tend to vote late and who find Syriza appealing, fired off millions of text messages urging supporters to cast their ballots.
The first exit polls showed New Democracy winning between 27.5% and 30.5% of the vote, ahead of Syriza by a mere 0.5%, well within the statistical margin of error. The socialist PASOK party registered support of about 10% to 12%, a humiliating comedown for a once-dominant force on the Greek political scene.
Much of the world is watching Greece with trepidation, worried that the election result could herald the end to the country’s membership in the Eurozone and possibly the demise of the euro currency itself.
Many in Europe fear a win by Syriza, whose fiery young leader, Alexis Tsipras, has vowed to reverse austerity cuts and rip up Greece’s multibillion-dollar bailout deals with its European and international creditors. European officials, led by Germany, have warned that such a move by Athens would result in a cutoff of rescue loans and expulsion from the 17-nation Eurozone.
New Democracy has pledged to press for an easing of some of the bailout terms but without repudiating the rescue agreements altogether.
If the exit polls hold, neither New Democracy nor Syriza will have enough seats in Greece’s 300-member parliament to form a government on its own. That would touch off negotiations that could take days and deepen the instability already gripping the country and causing fear in the financial markets.
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