The power of Love

POWER OF LOVE (from "Antigone")

by: Sophocles

 LOVE, thou art victor in fight: thou mak'st all things afraid;
Thou couchest thee softly at night on the cheeks of a maid;
Thou passest the bounds of the sea, and the folds of the fields;
To thee the immortal, to thee the ephemeral yields;
Thou maddenest them that possess thee; thou turnest astray
The souls of the just, to oppress them, out of the way;
Thou hast kindled amongst us pride, and the quarrel of kin;
Thou art lord, by the eyes of a bride, and the love-light therein;
Thou sittest assessor with Right; her kingdom is thine,
Who sports with invincible might, Aphrodite divine.

This English translation, by Sir George Young, of 'Power of Love' is reprinted from Greek Poets in English Verse. Ed. William Hyde Appleton. Cambridge: The Riverside Press, 1893.

Attacks on Immigrants

Anti-immigrant party office in Greece firebombed, Associated Press, August 13, 2012

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Authorities say arsonists have firebombed an Athens office of a far-right, anti-immigrant party, a day after the suspected racist murder of an Iraqi man in the Greek capital.

The fire brigade says nobody was hurt in Monday’s attack on the Golden Dawn facility in the central Pangrati area. The assailants escaped arrest.

The party, which rejects the neo-Nazi label, won 18 of the Greek Parliament’s 300 seats in June elections by running on an anti-immigration, nationalist platform.
Debt-crippled Greece is the European Union’s main entry point for illegal immigrants.

The government has sought to blunt Golden Dawn’s rising influence by placing illegal immigrants in detention camps pending their deportation.

The party’s ascendance has been coupled with growing reports of attacks on immigrants. The Iraqi’s attackers remain at large and unidentified.

According to most of the media, Greece’s misery and unrest is completely due to its economic situation, which is certainly very bad. But not everyone agrees with that characterization, clearly, when an official calls the unwanted influx the nation’s “greatest invasion ever.” Greece is the on-ramp of Europe, whereillegals find it easy to enter Europe from Africa and Asia. It’s estimated that 10 percent of residents are illegal aliens, and many are young men of employable age — that’s rough in a country where the most recent unemployment rate was 23.1 percent (May). More than half of young people under 25 are jobless — 54.9 percent.

http://www.vdare.com/posts/diversity-in-hard-times-violence-heats-up-over-immigration-in-greece

Greek dominance in World shipping

Over 100 German ship funds have already shut down as the long-simmering crisis in global container shipping finally comes to a head. A further 800 funds are threatened with insolvency, according to consultants TPW in Hamburg.

They are not alone. Britain’s oldest shipowner, Stephenson Clark, dating back to 1730, went into liquidation last week, closing the final chapter of Britain’s coal trade and the industrial revolution.

It cited “incredibly depressed” vessel rates. The firm over-invested in the boom four years ago, betting too much on the China syndrome.

Germany is the superpower of container shipping, controlling almost 40pc of the world market. The Germans also misread the cycle and have been struggling to cope ever since with a legacy of debt and a glut of ships. Now everything is going wrong at once.

Container volumes arriving at European ports plunged in June, dashing expectations of a summer rebound. Imports fell 7.5pc from North America and 9pc from Asia. Flows into the Mediterranean region crashed by 16pc, reflecting the violence of the recession in Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal.

Buckling trade is the coup de grace for countless shippers still clinging on by their finger tips. “The market is barely paying above operating cost. If you are loaded with debt, you are in trouble,” said Martin Smith from ship operators Norddeutsche Vermögen in Hamburg.

It is much same story in the Pacific region where Danish shipper Maersk said that it is losing over $200 for every container on the Qingdao-Melbourne route. But what the Germans face is the double-whammy of a funding squeeze.

“If you don’t have a line of credit already, nobody is going to give you one. We’re suffering a liquidity crisis, and its almost impossible for single vessel owners,” said Mr Smith.

Commerzbank – the world’s second-biggest provider of ship finance, and reluctant owner of a flotilla of foreclosed ships – said it is shutting down its €20bn (£15.7bn) ship funding operations entirely to “minimise risk and capital lock-up” under tougher EU banking rules.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/9473476/World-shipping-crisis-threatens-German-dominance-as-Greeks-win-long-game.html

Maria Kiou

Greek Auction to raise money to pay debt

Greece, starved of financing options, will step up its treasury bill issuance on Tuesday, offering an unusually large amount so it can meet looming redemptions on Aug. 20 and fund its cash needs until it secures further aid from its international creditors. The auction, which could raise up to €5 billion ($6.15 billion), is likely to meet decent demand despite Greece's precarious government finances, because this short-term debt is accepted as collateral by the European Central Bank. Greek banks, keen to access ECB emergency facilities, are likely to snap up the new paper. The Greek Public Debt Management Agency said it would auction €3.125 billion of 13-week treasury bills next week. Two noncompetitive auction rounds, if exercised to the maximum allowed amount, could bring the total to €5 billion. The country sold 26-week treasury bills this week, through which it raised €1 billion. Greece was left with no options other than to increase its auction sizes after its euro-zone partners declined to provide it with a bridge loan until a disbursement of crucial aid in coming months. Greece is in talks with international creditors—the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the ECB—on a package of new austerity measures of €11.5 billion, a requirement for Greece to receive its next €31 billion aid installment. A decision by creditors on whether the country is eligible for the funds won't be made until October. Raising €5 billion next week would allow Greece to repay creditors and meet general financing needs. Greece must repay €3.1 billion of debt on Aug. 20, mostly to the ECB. According to RBC Capital Markets analysts, €670 million of coupon payments add to its payment duties.

http://online.wsj.com
Write to Emese Bartha at emese.bartha@dowjones.com

Mount Athos on fire

THESSALONIKI, Greece - A large forest fire that broke out at a remote monastic community in Greece where women have not been allowed for a thousand years spread Thursday to a nearby resort area, forcing the evacuation of a seaside vacation village and sending up a thick pall of smoke over the area.

It was not clear how the fire started Wednesday on the Mount Athos peninsula, a World Heritage site and self-ruled community of Orthodox monks that bans women — and even female animals — from entering. Officials said no damage was caused to the northern Greek peninsula's 20 medieval monasteries, which visitors can only access by sea.

Firefighters managed to prevent the flames from sweeping through Ouranoupolis, a resort village north of the rugged, densely-wooded northern Greek peninsula, on Thursday, although the fire damaged outlying building and elderly people and others were taken to a nearby beach as a precaution. The fire brigade said in a statement that 130 firefighters, assisted by dozens of volunteers and soldiers, water trucks, five water-dropping aircraft and two helicopters were trying to contain the blaze.

The fire brigade said the conflagration started in a remote area in the vicinity of the Serbian Hilandar Monastery, the peninsula's northernmost monastery and one that was badly damaged by fire in 2004. It was unclear how it started, and no immediate estimate was available on the extent of the burned area.

Greece is in the grips of a heat wave, and wildfires have been burning around the country.

Elsewhere, firefighters were trying to extinguish two big fires in the areas of Tripoli and Corinth, in the southern Peloponnese area, which broke out Tuesday and destroyed thousands of acres of forest and shrubbery. Officials said no inhabited areas were under threat, and the blazes seemed to be on the wane Thursday.

A 45-year-old Greek man was arrested and charged with accidentally starting a fire in the Tripoli area.

Forest fires are common during Greece's typically long, hot summers. In 2007, more than 60 people died in a series of huge blazes in the Peloponnese and central Greece.

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Forest+fire+forces+Greek+authorities+partially+evacuate+northern/7061290/story.html#ixzz23DfPLXiY

Dark Side - Kelly Clarkson

Ta xanw mazi sou

Jessica rabbit - why dont you do right

Pidao ta kimata - Stavento/Paola

Break me in the dark - Ganos and Stikoudi

Aslanidou - Psixes

Na man pouli - Thrakiotiko - Lizeta Kalimeri

AFIEROMENO - VANDI- STADOSA OLA

XOLIDIS - I AGAPI AFTI

MAZONAKIS - STIGMES POU DEN SEHO

IAKOBOU - PANTA KRATAI LIGO

PAOLA - GINE MAZI MOU

PIOS - PAPARIZOU

Melina Aslanidou Unplugged

Blue Moon in August

August 2012 is a month with two full moons. And, by popular acclaim, that means it’s a Blue Moon month. That’s because a Blue Moon is sometimes defined as the second full moon in a calendar month. The first full moon is August 1. The second full moon is August 31, 2012.

There are two more definitions for Blue Moon. It can be the third of four full moons in a single season. Or it can be an actual blue-colored moon.

It’s very rare that you would see a blue-colored moon, although unusual sky conditions – certain-sized particles of dust or smoke – can create them. Blue-colored moons aren’t predictable. So don’t be misled by the photo above. The sorts of moons people commonly call Blue Moons aren’t usually blue. For more about truly blue-colored moons, click here.

Now on to folklore’s Blue Moons. Every month has a full moon, and, most of the time, the names for full moons coincide with particular months or seasons of the year. By either definition, the name Blue Moon accounts for times when there happen to be more full moons than is convenient.

Blue moon as second full moon in a month. In recent decades, many people have begun using the name Blue Moon to describe the second full moon of a calendar month.

The time between one full moon and the next is close to the length of a calendar month. So the only time one month can have two full moons is when the first full moon happens in the first few days of the month. This happens every 2-3 years, so these sorts of Blue Moons come about that often.

When is the next Blue Moon, according to this first definition? August 31, 2012.

The idea of a Blue Moon as the second full moon in a month stemmed from the March 1946 issue of Sky and Telescope magazine, which contained an article called “Once in a Blue Moon” by James Hugh Pruett. Pruett was using a 1937 Maine Farmer’s Almanac, but he simplified the definition. He wrote:

Seven times in 19 years there were — and still are — 13 full moons in a year. This gives 11 months with one full moon each and one with two. This second in a month, so I interpret it, was called

Blue Moon.

http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/when-is-the-next-blue-moon

Photos around the world

A montage of 11 pictures showing the moment a tombstoner dived 100ft off a cliff in Cornwall. The unnamed diver was pictured as he leapt from the top of the towering rock face near Penzance. He hurled himself through the air and landed in just 20ft of water below. The stunning image of his dive from the top of the cliff was captured on camera by Alastair Sopp, 25
Picture: ALASTAIR SOPP / SWNS

Day breaks over a misty lavender field in Faulkland, Somerset. The image was taken by renowned landscape photographer Antony Spencer 
Picture: ANTONY SPENCER / CATERS

Over four hours, a team of 12 people in Sydney filled 5,200 cups with 780 litres of coffee and 680 litres of milk to create different shades of brown to make the world's largest coffee mosaic. The picture measured 6.5m x 5.5m and depicted Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe
Picture: NEWSPIX / REX FEATURES

AP Photo 1 day ago A horse wears a 'for sale' notice at the Appleby Horse Fair in Appleby in Westmorland, northern England, Friday June 8, 2012. Appleby Horse Fair has existed under the protection of a charter granted by King James II since 1685. It is one of the key gathering points for the Romany, gypsy and the traveling community. The Fair is attended by about 5,000 travelers who come to buy and sell horses which is held from Thursday to Sunday. The animals are washed and groomed before being ridden at high speed along the 'mad mile' for the viewing of potential buyers.http://www.aliraqi.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=70

400 sheep killed by lightning

UNFORTUNATE SHEEP Four hundred sheep were killed by lightning in the village of Distrato, Konitsa prefecture on Wednesday. The lightning struck as a shepherd was gathering up his flock to put them in their pen in heavy rainfall during a flash thunderstorm. The shepherd was uninjured.

 http://www.athensnews.gr/portal/1/57468?action=print

Are you dating a Psychopath?

• 1.A history of being abusive in previous relationships. As sweet and nice as a person is, if they have a history of being abusive, they will likely repeat their abusive pattern. It is questionable whether or not abusers can change, even with intense psychotherapy. More often than not, even if an abuser goes through periods of time when they are not abusing you or someone else, they will do it again.
• 2.Quick Involvement or a tendency to move quickly. Saying I love you right away, becoming serious after a short amount of time, pushing you to do things sexually before you are ready.
• 3.Unpredictable mood swings or Explosive Anger. Does he get overly angry at minor things? Or switch from extremes of fawning over you to putting you down?
• 4.Alcohol and drug use. Does your partner’s personality change after they have been drinking? Does he/she have trouble stopping once they have started drinking?
• 5.Cruelty toward animals or children. Big red flag. This is one of the biggest signs that someone is a psychopath.
• 6.Belief in rigid sex roles. Things like ‘women should be seen and not heard.’ In teenagers, this is usually seen in gender slurs or sexist behavior, calling girls ‘bitches’ or ‘sluts’ or saying things like ‘boys will be boys.’
• 7.Extreme jealousy or hypersensitivity. Does the person get jealous of platonic friends, or any other person you spend time with? Does he/she exaggerate situations or make you feel guilty even when you have done nothing wrong.
• 8.Controlling behavior. Does he/she always have to decide plans? Does he/she tell you what you can and cannot wear? Or who you are allowed to talk to?
• 9.Attempts to isolate you from your friends of family. Abusers often try to turn you against friends or family, or make you feel guilty for spending time with other people. This makes you dependent on them.
• 10.Use of force or aggression when in an argument or threats of violence.Hitting, pushing, slapping, kicking, biting….none of this is ok. If your partner hurts you, no matter how sorry he may be later, it is abuse and it is against the law. Threatening to do these things is also not ok.
• 11.Blames others for problems or feelings, inability to take responsibility.Abusers try to make you think that everything is your fault. They “don’t want to hurt you,” or they “didn’t mean to hurt you,” but it is “never their fault.” They can make you feel like you are the crazy one. They often make you feel as if you did something to deserve the abuse.
• **Information based on research collected by theSafeSpace.org and RAINN

Esi h thallasa - Sfakianakis