After Russia, what is the second largest country in area amongst the former Soviet republics?

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics | historical state, Eurasia | Britannica.com Union of Soviet Socialist Republics historical state, Eurasia Alternative Titles: Russia, Sojuz Sovetskich Socialisticeskich Respublik, Sovetsky Soyuz, Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, U.S.S.R., Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Spotlight / Geography Learn more about this topic 1 Learn more about the history of the U.S.S.R. 2 This leader succeeded Gorbachev and ushered in the Putin era Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, (U.S.S.R.) also called Soviet Union Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik or Sovetsky Soyuz, former northern Eurasian empire (1917/22–1991) stretching from the Baltic and Black seas to the Pacific Ocean and, in its final years, consisting of 15 Soviet Socialist Republics (S.S.R.’s): Armenia , Azerbaijan, Belorussia (now Belarus), Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kirgiziya (now Kyrgyzstan), Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia (now Moldova), Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. The capital was Moscow, then and now the capital of Russia. Flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 1922–91. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. During the period of its existence, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was by area the world’s largest country. It was also one of the most diverse , with more than 100 distinct nationalities living within its borders. The majority of the population, however, was made up of East Slavs (Russians, Ukrainians, and Belorussians); these groups together made up more than two-thirds of the total population in the late 1980s. At its greatest extent, between 1946 and 1991 (the figures and descriptions given below refer to this period), the U.S.S.R. covered some 8,650,000 square miles (22,400,000 square kilometres), seven times the area of India and two and one-half times that of the United States. The country occupied nearly one-sixth of the Earth’s land surface, including the eastern half of Europe and roughly the northern third of Asia. The U.S.S.R. extended more than 6,800 miles (10,900 kilometres) from east to west, covering 11 of the world’s 24 time zones. The most westerly point was on the Baltic Sea , near Kaliningrad; the easternmost was Cape Dezhnev on the Bering Strait , nearly halfway around the world. From north to south the U.S.S.R. extended some 2,800 miles from Cape Chelyuskin to Kushka on the Afghan border. Nearly half the territory of the U.S.S.R. was north of 60° N, at the same latitude as Alaska, Baffin Island , and Greenland. Related Topics empire In addition to having the world’s longest coastline, the U.S.S.R. had the longest frontiers. To the north the country was bounded by the seas of the Arctic Ocean , and to the east were the seas of the Pacific. On the south the U.S.S.R. was bordered by North Korea, Mongolia , China, Afghanistan, Iran , and Turkey . On the southern frontier there were three seas: the Caspian Sea , the world’s largest inland sea, as well as the almost completely landlocked Black Sea and Sea of Azov . Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Finland, and Norway lay to the west. The U.S.S.R. was the successor to the Russian Empire of the tsars. Following the 1917 Revolution, four socialist republics were established on the territory of the former empire: the Russian and Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist Republics and the Ukrainian and Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republics. On Dec. 30, 1922, these constituent republics established the U.S.S.R. Additional union republics (Soviet Socialist Republics) were set up in subsequent years: the Turkmen and Uzbek S.S.R.’s in 1924, the Tadzhik S.S.R. in 1929, and the Kazakh and Kirgiz S.S.R.’s in 1936. In that year the Transcaucasian Republic was abolished and its territory was divided between three new republics: the Armenian, Azerbaijan, and Georgian S.S.R.’s. In 1940 the Karelo-Finnish, Moldavian, Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian S.S.R.’s were established. The Karelo-Finnish S.S.R. became an autonomous republic in 1956, leaving a tot


The melting Furtwängler Glacier, sometimes used as an example of global warming is near which African geographic feature?

Glaciers Overview - Geography Geography By  Colin Stief, Geography Intern Glaciers are a hot topic these days and are a frequent subject of debate when discussing global climate change or the fate of polar bears. Do you ever find yourself asking what glaciers have to do with global warming? Have you ever wondered what exactly your friend meant when she told you that you moved at a glacial pace? Either way, read on, and learn all about these frozen landforms. Glacier Basics A glacier is essentially a huge mass of ice resting on land or floating in the sea next to land. Moving extremely slowly, a glacier acts similarly to an immense river of ice, often merging with other glaciers in a stream-like manner. Regions with continuous snowfall and constant freezing temperatures foster the development of these frozen rivers. It is so cold in these regions that when a snowflake hits the ground it does not melt, but instead combines with other snowflakes to form larger grains of ice. As more and more snow accumulates, mounting weight and pressure squeeze these grains of ice together to form a glacier. continue reading below our video Test Your General Science Knowledge A glacier cannot form unless is it above the snowline, the lowest elevation at which snow can survive year round. Most glaciers form in high mountain regions such as the Himalayas of Southern Asia or the Alps of Western Europe where regular snow and extremely cold temperatures are present. Glaciers are also found in Antarctica, Greenland, Iceland, Canada, Alaska, and even South America (the Andes), California (the Sierra Nevada), and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. As tiny air bubbles are eventually forced out by the increasing pressure the glacier appears blue, a sign of highly dense, airless ice. Glaciers may be retreating worldwide due to global warming , but they still cover about 10% of earth’s land and hold about 77% of earth's freshwater (29,180,000 cubic kilometers ). Types of Glaciers Glaciers can be characterized in two ways based on their formation: alpine and continental. Alpine Glacier - Most glaciers that form in a mountain are known as alpine glaciers . There are several subtypes of alpine glaciers: Cirque: a cirque is a bowl shaped hollow at the head of a valley. Within a cirque lies a snowfield, the place where snow accumulates to form a cirque glacier . Valley: any glacier that resides in an area eroded by stream action is called a valley glacier. These types of glaciers tend to be very long and often times pass below the snowline. Piedmont: when multiple valley glaciers come together as one at a large stretch of flat line, the resulting mass is a piedmont glacier . Tidewater: a glacier that meets the sea is known as a tidewater glacier. Usually a process called calving occurs, when a piece of the glacier breaks off in to the sea, forming a large mass of floating ice known as an iceberg. Continental Glacier – An expansive, continuous mass of ice considerably bigger than an alpine glacier is known as a continental glacier. There are three primary subtypes: Ice Sheet: the largest of any glacier type, extending over 50,000 square kilometers. The only places on earth that have these frozen monsters are Antarctica and Greenland. Antarctica alone is home to 92% of all glacial ice worldwide. Ice sheets are so massive and heavy that they literally bend the continental crust on which they sit, a phenomena known as isostatic depression. Ice Cap: similar to an ice sheet, though smaller and forming a roughly circular, dome-like structure that completely blankets the landscape underneath. Ice Field : a smaller version on an ice cap that fails to cover the land and is elongated relative to the underlying topography. Glacial Movement There are two types of glacial movement: sliders and creepers. Sliders travel along a thin film of water located on the bottom of the glacier. Creepers, on the other hand, form internal layers of ice crystals that move past one another based on the surrounding conditions (e.g. weight, pressure, temperature). The top and middle layers of


Which group of islands in the Caribbean Sea are divided as? Greater ___: Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico Lesser ___: Leeward Islands, Windward Islands and Leeward ___

Lesser and Greater Antilles / Windward and Leeward Islands - What is What? | Caribbean Travel Blog - RumShopRyan Home / Islands / Lesser and Greater Antilles / Windward and Leeward Islands – What is What? Lesser and Greater Antilles / Windward and Leeward Islands – What is What? February 16, 2010 by RumShopRyan 10 Comments Up, down, north, south, Lesser Antilles, Windward islands; it can all be a little confusing. Let’s set sail and figure out this mystery of the geographical names of the Caribbean Sea. (Photo via ( www.definitivecaribbean.com ) Which islands are in the Greater Antilles and Lesser Antilles? The West Indies are composed of the islands of the Caribbean Sea and can be divided into the Greater Antilles and the Lesser Antilles. The Greater Antilles are the four largest islands in the northwestern portion of the Caribbean Sea and include. It’s simple, just look at them on a map. They are called the Greater Antilles because they are so much bigger than the rest of the Caribbean islands. Greater and Lesser Antilles The Greater Antilles islands include Cuba Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) Jamaica Puerto Rico. The Lesser Antilles include the smaller islands of the Caribbean and are divided up into the Windward Islands and Leeward Islands. The Lesser Antilles chain starts in the Virgin Islands and wraps the eastern Caribbean all the way down to Trinidad and Tobago. The Lesser Antilles islands include The Virgin Islands St. Martin (Guadeloupe (north part) and Netherlands Antilles (south part)) Saba (Netherlands Antilles) St. Vincent and the Grenadines Grenada Trinidad & Tobago Which islands are in the Windward Islands and Leeward Islands? The Windward Islands and the Leeward Islands are part of the Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean Sea. The Windward Islands are southeastern islands of the Caribbean. They’re called the Windward Islands because they’re exposed to the wind (“windward”) of the northeast trade winds (northeasterlies). Windward and Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles The Windward Islands include St. Vincent and the Grenadines Grenada Trinidad Tabago The Leeward Islands are the northwestern islands of the Lesser Antilles. They’re called the Leeward Islands because they’re away from the wind (“lee”). The Leeward Islands include


Which Peruvian city was the historic capital of the sun-worshipping Inca empire?

Cusco Peru - Capital of the Inca Empire Read the Spanish version Cusco, Cuzco or Qosqo are some of the names that this ancient Incan capital is known by. It is a study site for archeologists from all over the world who flock to Peru to marvel at Machu Picchu and the rest of the Inca ruins scattered throughout the valley. Cusco was the administrative center of the Spanish Empire's Viceroyalty of Peru. A vast amount of art and colonial architecture remains throughout the city, especially in the Plaza de Armas. Currently, Cusco is the greatest tourist region of the country and receives over a million visitors a year. Cusco, Peru , is the most ancient urban settlement in all of the Americas, officially over 3,000 years old, but pre-ceramic artifacts have been found there that date back 5,000 years. The true history of the first inhabitants of the city has been lost to Incan legends that claim the city to have been founded by the Incas: Manko Qhapaq and Pachakuteq. Cusco started to gain importance with the Incan society, in the year 1,200 A.C., although as previously mentioned the city existed much before that. Cusco reached its peak at the height of the Inca Empire's expansion, around 1.400 A.C., and its decline began with the arrival of the Spanish in 1533. The Spaniards moved the capital to Lima where the colonial culture flourished. Cusco maintained a relative importance as the administrative center of the Viceroyalty of Peru, as the region was called under the Spanish administration. During this period, Incan nobility maintained certain privileges in the valley of Cusco which allows them to live in relative peace and mix with the arriving Spaniards. We say “relative” because there were some uprisings led by Manko Inka in 1536 that continued until 1572 when the last descendent of the ancient Incan Dynasty, Túpac Amaru I, was executed. During this period, Incan nobility maintained certain privileges in the valley of Cusco which allows them to live in relative peace and mix with the arriving Spaniards. We say “relative” because there were some uprisings led by Manko Inka in 1536 that continued until 1572 when the last descendent of the ancient Incan Dynasty, Túpac Amaru I, was executed. In 1821, after many rebellions throughout all of Latin America , Peru gained independence and maintained Lima as the country's capital. Cusco, however, was chosen as the “Archaeological Capital of South America” in recognition of its historic importance to not only Peru but the whole continent. In 1983 the city was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO . Along the Inca Trail near Cusco is the sacred city of Machu Picchu (“Old Mountain” in the Quechua language), archaeological ruins of incomparable beauty located on the mountain summit. It is believed that the city was a holiday residence of Pachacútec, the first Incan emperor who lived from 1438 to 1470. The city played two functions: one of a palace and one as a religious sanctuary. Machu Picchu is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the new recognized Wonders of the World. Contact us


Which national capital is the only city entirely built in the 20th century to be considered a World Heritage Site by UNESCO?

Brazilia, Brazil  -  Travel Photos by Galen R Frysinger, Sheboygan, Wisconsin   Brazilia Brasï¿½lia is the capital of Brazil. The city and its District are located in the Central-West region of the country, along a plateau known as Planalto Central. It has a population of about 2,557,000 as of the 2008 IBGE estimate, making it the fourth largest city in Brazil, ahead of Belo Horizonte and Fortaleza. However, as a metropolitan area, it ranks much lower at ninth. It is listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.   The National Congress Building. As the national capital, Brasï¿½lia is the seat of all three branches of the Brazilian government. The city also hosts the headquarters of many Brazilian companies such as the Banco do Brasil, Caixa Econï¿½mica Federal, Correios and Brasil Telecom. The city is a world reference for urban planning. The locating of residential buildings around expansive urban areas, of building the city around large avenues and dividing it into sectors, has sparked a debate and reflection on life in big cities in the 20th century. The city's planned design included specific areas for almost everything, including accommodation ï¿½ Hotel Sectors North and South. However, new areas are now being developed as locations for hotels, such as the Hotels and Tourism Sector North, located on the shores of Lake Paranoï¿½.   The city was planned and developed in 1956 with Lï¿½cio Costa as the principal urban planner and Oscar Niemeyer as the principal architect. In 1960, it formally became Brazil's national capital. When seen from above, the main planned part of the city's shape resembles an airplane or a butterfly. The city is commonly referred to as Capital Federal, or simply BSB. People from the city of Brasï¿½lia are known as brasilienses or candangos.   Brasï¿½lia has a sui generis status in Brazil, given it is not a municipality like nearly all cities in Brazil. In fact, there isn't even a definition of what Brasï¿½lia is. Recently, the First Administrative Region within the Distrito Federal (Federal District) ï¿½ which used to be called "Plano Piloto" - was renamed "Brasï¿½lia." But while the name "Brasï¿½lia" is often used in contrast with the "satellite cities," it is most commonly used as the name of the whole of the urban settlements of the Distrito Federal. The Distrito Federal, constitutionally, cannot be divided into municipalities.     The Brazilian capital is the only city in the world built in the 20th century to be awarded (in 1987) the status of Historical and Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO, a specialized agency of the United Nations.   The Juscelino Kubitschek Memorial. The plan of the central city has been likened to a bird, a bow and arrow, or an airplane. Designed by the Brazilian architect Lï¿½cio Costa, its form is emphasized by the Highway Axis (Eixo Rodoviï¿½rio), which curves from the north to the southwest and links Brasï¿½liaï¿½s main residential neighbourhoods, and the straight Monumental Axis (Eixo Monumental), which runs northwest-southeast and is lined by federal and civic buildings. At the northwestern end of the Monumental Axis are federal district and municipal buildings, while at the southeastern end, near the middle shore of Lake Paranoï¿½, stand the executive, judicial, and legislative buildings around the Square of Three Powers, the conceptual heart of the city. These and other major structures were designed by the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. In the Square of Three Powers, he created as a focal point the dramatic Congressional Palace, which is a composition of five parts: twin administrative towers flanked by a large, white concrete dome (the meeting place of the Senate) and by an equally massive concrete bowl (the Chamber of Deputies), which is joined to the dome by an underlying, flat-roofed building.   A series of low-lying annexes (largely out of sight) flank both ends. Also in the square are the glass-faced Planalto Palace (housing the presidential offices) and the Palace of the Supreme Court. Farther ea


After the five oceans, what is the largest sea body in the world?

World's Biggest Oceans & Seas | Pacific & Atlantic Oceans 1 of 12 Intro Water covers more than 70 percent of the Earth's surface , with the largest body of water, the Pacific Ocean, taking up more than one-third of the planet's surface. All of the oceans on Earth are estimated to have a volume of 0.3 billion cubic miles (1.332 billion cubic kilometers) and an average depth of 12,080.7 feet (3,682.2 meters). But the various bodies of water that make up this total ocean area have their own unique characteristics and range in size from the sprawling Pacific to the self-contained Mediterranean. Here are the top 10 biggest seas and oceans in the world, as measured by surface area in square miles (square kilometers). 2 of 12 Bering Sea 873,000 square miles (2,261,060 square kilometers) Located between Alaska and Siberia, the Bering Sea is known as having some of the most harrowing and unpredictable weather conditions on Earth. In fact, the Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch," a television show that chronicles the real-life adventures of five Alaskan King crabbing boats, takes place on the Bering Sea. The Bering Sea's weather is most unforgiving during the winter crabbing season, when winds can reach hurricane-like forces, frigid waves become violent and ice fields pose a major threat if in a boat's path. There are more than 400 species of fish in the Bering Sea, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. However, commercial fishing has impacted the biodiversity of the Bering Sea, leading to the extinction of several rare species, according to The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). 3 of 12 Mediterranean Sea 969,000 square miles (2,509,698 square kilometers) Connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land, the Mediterranean Sea's name comes from the Latin word meaning "inland" or "in the middle of the Earth." The Mediterranean Sea is home to some of the world's busiest shipping routes, also making the sea a prime area for marine pollution. With approximately 400 tons (370 million tonnes) of oil transported annually in the Mediterranean Sea and around 250 to 300 oil tankers crossing the sea every day, accidental oil spills are a common problem. There is an average of ten oil spills in the Mediterranean Sea every year, according to Greenpeace International. A recent study has also found that the Mediterranean is feeling the effects of global warming, having become both warmer and saltier in recent decades. 4 of 12 Caribbean Sea 971,000 square miles (2,514,878 square kilometers) The beauty of the Caribbean Sea is renowned, with its clear, warm water a steady 75 degrees Fahrenheit (24 degrees Celsius). The Caribbean is also less salty than the Atlantic Ocean these qualities help make it a major tourist destination. Possessing a counterclockwise current, the Caribbean Sea's water enters through the Lesser Antilles, exits through the Yucatán Channel and forms the Gulf Stream. Although beautiful, the sea is also dangerous, with frequent volcanic activity, earthquakes and destructive hurricanes . Spain claimed the Caribbean Sea after Christopher Columbus came across it in 1493, making the Caribbean a main route for treasure-hunting expeditions and, later on, trading. There were indeed pirates in the Caribbean, and they preyed on Spanish ships. Today, the top local products traded in the Caribbean are petroleum, iron ore, bauxite, sugar, coffee and bananas. 5 of 12 South China Sea 1,148,000 square miles (2,973,306 square kilometers) Located in the South China Sea are hundreds of tiny islands, with the collective cluster of South China Sea Islands referred to an as archipelago. These islands are mostly uninhabited, with several countries arguing over who has claim over them, according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Also located in the South China Sea are more than 100 identified islands and reefs, most of which are located within the Spratly Islands and are valuable because they are home to rich fishing grounds as well as gas


Which country became the first sovereign state of the 21st century when Indonesia relinquished control on it in May 2002?

New Countries Formed In The 21st Century - Album on Imgur New Countries Formed In The 21st Century by MargaeryTyrellsCleav Apr 30 2014 East Timor East Timor or Timor-Leste, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste is a country in Southeast Asia. The country's size is about 15,410 km2 (5,400 sq mi).  In late 1975, East Timor declared its independence but later that year was invaded and occupied by Indonesia and was declared Indonesia's 27th province the following year. In 1999, following the United Nations-sponsored act of self-determination, Indonesia relinquished control of the territory, and East Timor became the first new sovereign state of the 21st century on May 20, 2002. East Timor has a lower-middle-income economy. About 37.4% of the country's population lives below the international poverty line – which means living on less than U.S. $1.25 per day – and about 50% of the population is illiterate. It continues to suffer the aftereffects of a decades-long struggle for independence against Indonesian occupation, which severely damaged the country's infrastructure and killed at least a hundred thousand people. The country is placed 134th on the Human Development Index (HDI). Nonetheless, East Timor is expected to have the sixth-largest percentage growth in GDP in the world for 2013. Montenegro Montenegro is a country in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast, Kosovo to the east and Albania to the south-east. Its capital and largest city is Podgorica. From 1918, it was a part of Yugoslavia. On the basis of an independence referendum held on 21 May 2006, Montenegro declared independence on 3 June of that year. It has a population of 625,266 (2011) and is classified by the World Bank as a middle-income country. It is a member of the UN but not the EU yet although that will probably change in the future. South Sudan South Sudan, officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in northeastern Africa that gained its independence from Sudan in 2011. Its current capital is Juba, which is also its largest city. South Sudan is bordered by the Republic of Sudan to the north, Ethiopia to the east, Kenya to the southeast, Uganda to the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the southwest, and the Central African Republic to the west. A 2008 census claimed 8,260,490 people inhabited the country although that may be a very rough figure.  The country is located in one of the poorest areas of the world and has been in a state of almost perpetual civil war since it gained independence and for long before that. It is no surprise therefore that the country is in the middle of a humanitarian crisis. The under-five infant mortality rate is 135.3 per 1,000, whilst maternal mortality is the highest in the world at 2,053.9 per 100,000 live births. In 2004, there were only three surgeons serving southern Sudan, with three proper hospitals, and in some areas there was just one doctor for every 500,000 people. Kosovo Kosovo, officially known as the Republic of Kosovo, is a partially recognised state in the Balkan Peninsula of Southeastern Europe. Its largest city and capital is Pristina. Kosovo is landlocked and is bordered by the Republic of Macedonia to the south, Albania to the west and Montenegro to the northwest; to the north and east, it borders the central part of Serbia, whose government claims the territory of Kosovo as its Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija. On 17 February 2008 Kosovo's Parliament declared independence. Its status is disputed; it is recognised as a sovereign state by 107 UN member states. With the Brussels Agreement of 2013 Serbia accepted the legitimacy of Kosovo institutions and its special status within Serbia, but does not recognise it as an independent country.  A 2011 estimate put the population at 1,733,842. South Ossetia Abkhazia Now for both South Ossetia and Abkhazia this is where it gets a little bit tricky. Unlike Kosovo


The Bridge of Sighs was given its name by Lord Byron from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of which beautiful city out of its window before being taken to their cells?

Bridge of Sighs Reviews - Venice, Italy Trendsters Jun 29, 2014 This is along the way, so keep an eye out for it. It's cool if only for legend (as according to Wikipedia here): The view from the Bridge of Sighs was the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment. The bridge name, given by Lord Byron in the 19th century, comes from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice through the window before being taken down to their cells. In reality, the days of inquisitions and summary executions were over by the time the bridge was built and the cells under the palace roof were occupied mostly by small-time criminals. In addition, little could be seen from inside the Bridge due to the stone grills covering the windows. Recommended for:Art & Design LoversHistory Buffs Comment. Art & Design Lovers May 24, 2014 You need to buy special tickets to view the Bridge of Sighs from the inside but looking at it from the outside is the better view of the picturesque enclosed bridge. The view from the Bridge of Sighs was the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment. The bridge name, given by Lord Byron in the 19th century, comes from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice through the window before being taken down to their cells. In reality, the days of inquisitions and summary executions were over by the time the bridge was built and the cells under the palace roof were occupied mostly by small-time criminals. In addition, little could be seen from inside the Bridge due to the stone grills covering the windows. Recommended for:Art & Design LoversLocal Culture Comment. Art & Design Lovers Oct 13, 2013 Most people see the Bridge of Sighs from the exterior, as connecting the Doge's Palace to its adjacent prison. A more insightful experience is to take a tour inside Palazzo Ducale that takes you through the Secret Passageways and through the bridge where you can stop and admire Venice from the other side, as seen through the cracks of the bridge. I took a VIP Access Secret Passages: Doge's Palace and St Mark's Tour with Walks of Italy that I highly recommend which allowed me to spend extra time on the bridge, as well as see the cavernous cells where the Venetian wrongdoers were held - one of which incarcerated the infamous Casanova that managed to escape. Comment.


By political definition, what is the essential difference between Great Britian and United Kingdom?

Difference Between the UK, Great Britain, and England By Matt Rosenberg Updated February 19, 2016. While many people use the terms United Kingdom, Great Britain, and England interchangeably, there is a difference between them -- one is a country, the second is an island, and the third is a part of an island. The United Kingdom The  United Kingdom  is an independent country off the northwestern coast of Europe. It consists of the entire island of Great Britain and a northern part of the island of Ireland. In fact, the official name of the country is the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland." The capital city of the United Kingdom is London and the head of state is currently Queen Elizabeth II. The United Kingdom is one of the founding members of the United Nations and sits on the United Nations Security Council. The creation of the United Kingdom heralds back to 1801 when there was a unification between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In the 1920s, southern Ireland gained independence and the name of the modern country of the United Kingdom became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. continue reading below our video Test Your General Science Knowledge   Great Britain Great Britain is the name of the island northwest of France and east of Ireland. Much of the United Kingdom consists of the island of Great Britain. On the large island of Great Britain there are three somewhat autonomous regions: England, Wales, and Scotland. Great Britain is the ninth largest island on Earth and has an area of 80,823 square miles (209,331 square kilometers). England occupies the southeast portion of the island of Great Britain, Wales is in the southwest, and Scotland is in the north. Scotland and Wales are not independent countries but do have some autonomy from the United Kingdom with respect to internal governance. England England is located in the southern part of the island of Great Britain, which is part of the country of the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom includes the administrative regions of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Each region varies in its level of autonomy, but they are all part of the United Kingdom. While England has traditionally been thought of as the hearth of the United Kingdom, some use the term "England" to refer to the entire country, but this is not correct. Although common to hear or see London, England, though that is technically correct, it does imply that the independent country is named England, but that is not so.  Ireland A final note on Ireland. The northern one-sixth of the island of Ireland is the administrative region of the United Kingdom known as Northern Ireland. The remaining southern five-sixths of the island of Ireland is the independent country known as the  Republic of Ireland (Eire) . Using the Right Term It is inappropriate to refer to the United Kingdom as Great Britain or England; one should be specific about toponyms (place names) and utilize the correct nomenclature. Remember, United Kingdom (or U.K.) is the country, Great Britain is the island, and England is one of the U.K.'s four administrative regions. Since unification, the Union Jack flag has combined elements of England, Scotland, and Ireland to represent the unification of constituent parts of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (although Wales is left out).


Alfred Wegener was the first to publish the hypothesis that these had somehow 'moved' apart but he was unable to provide a convincing explanation for the physical processes which might have caused it. What are we talking about?

Which one is different: gravity, continental drift or evolution? | Uncommon Descent Home » Intelligent Design » Which one is different: gravity, continental drift or evolution? Which one is different: gravity, continental drift or evolution? October 29, 2010 32 Comments Newton’s theory of gravity, Wegener’s theory of continental drift and Darwin’s theory of evolution all have one thing in common: they have all been ridiculed as impossible at one time or another, because they lacked a plausible mechanism. So which theory is different from the rest? I shall argue that Darwin’s theory is unique, in that it has won widespread acceptance despite the existence of weighty scientific arguments showing that its mechanism is incapable of accounting for the phenomena that it purports to explain. However, if Darwin had formulated his theory of evolution in the same way that Newton formulated his theory of gravity, Darwin’s theory would have been invulnerable to these scientific difficulties. It is also a curious fact that although Darwin’s original theory has undergone radical transformation, like those of Newton and Wegner, many scientists and philosophers are proud to call themselves “Darwinists,” whereas no modern scientist would refer to him/herself as a “Newtonian” or “Wegnerian.” In this short essay, I also address the fierce resistance in scientific circles to teaching Intelligent Design in high school classrooms, and I propose a legal strategy for neutralizing the Darwinian crusade. Newton’s theory of gravity In ancient times, gravity was viewed not as an external force acting on bodies, but as an inherent tendency of heavy bodies to fall towards the center of the universe. Experimental evidence in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries overturned the traditional view. The first modern attempt to formulate a systematic theory of gravity was that of Isaac Newton (1642-1727). From the very beginning, Isaac Newton realized that his theory of gravity, while empirically valid, lacked a plausible physical mechanism, as it seemed to require action at a distance. In his fourth letter to Richard Bentley (dated February 25, 1692/3), he wrote: “It is inconceivable that inanimate brute matter should, without the mediation of something else which is not material, operate upon and affect other matter, without mutual contact, as it must do if gravitation in the sense of Epicurus be essential and inherent in it. And this is one reason why I desired you would not ascribe ‘innate gravity’ to me. That gravity should be innate, inherent, and essential to matter, so that one body may act upon another at a distance, through a vacuum, without the mediation of anything else, by and through which their action and force may be conveyed from one to another, is to me so great an absurdity, that I believe no man who has in philosophical matters a competent faculty of thinking can ever fall into it. Gravity must be caused by an agent acting constantly according to certain laws; but whether this agent be material or immaterial, I have left to the consideration of my readers.” (Emphasis mine – VJT.) To make matters worse, Newton’s theory assumed that gravity propagated instantaneously across space: each particle responds instantaneously to every other particle, regardless of the distance between them. Small wonder then, that to some of his contemporaries, Newton’s theory made gravity sound like a spooky, occult force. Indeed, according to two of his friends, Nicolas Fatio de Duillier and David Gregory, Newton himself seems to have thought at one time that gravitation was based directly on the will of God (Van Lunteren, F. (2002), “Nicolas Fatio de Duillier on the mechanical cause of Gravitation”, in Edwards, M.R., Pushing Gravity: New Perspectives on Le Sage’s Theory of Gravitation, Montreal: C. Roy Keys Inc., pp. 41–59); while on two other occasions (in 1675 and 1717), Newton tried to explain the action of gravity in terms of basic mechanical processes propagating through the aether, thereby avoiding the need for action at a distance. Since he was unable


What is also known as Qomolangma or Sagarmatha or Chomolungma in the native tongues of the people around it? Sign up View the step-by-step solution to: What is also known as Qomolangma or Sagarmatha or Chomolungma in the native tongues of the people around it? This question was answered on May 31, 2016. View the Answer What is also known as Qomolangma or Sagarmatha or Chomolungma in the native tongues of the people around it? godwinbrown2                                                   posted a question · May 31, 2016 at 4:31am Top Answer fentrixrox answered the question · May 31, 2016 at 4:32am Other Answers Mount Everest, also known in Nepal as Sagarmāthā and in Tibet as Chomolungma, is Earth's highest mountain. It is located in the Mahalangur mountain range . peterkivuva61 May 31, 2016 at 4:33am {[ getNetScore(29837454) ]} peterkivuva61 answered the question · May 31, 2016 at 4:32am Mount Everest The Nepali name is Sagarmatha and the Tibetan name is Chomolungma or Qomolangma. In 1865, the... View the full answer {[ getNetScore(29837458) ]} Here is the solution... View the full answer {[ getNetScore(29837477) ]} Need a World History tutor? rahulbansal 2 World History experts found online! Average reply time is                       less than an hour Get Homework Help Why Join Course Hero? Course Hero has all the homework and study help you need to succeed! We’ve got course-specific notes, study guides, and practice tests along with expert tutors and customizable flashcards—available anywhere, anytime. - - Study Documents Find the best study resources around, tagged to your specific courses. Share your own to gain free Course Hero access or to earn money with our Marketplace. - Question & Answers Get one-on-one homework help from our expert tutors—available online 24/7. Ask your own questions or browse existing Q&A threads. Satisfaction guaranteed! - Flashcards Browse existing sets or create your own using our digital flashcard system. A simple yet effective studying tool to help you earn the grade that you want!


The Shatt al-Arab waterway constitutes a part of the border between which countries?

Shatt al Arab Encyclopedia  >  Places  >  Asia  >  Middle Eastern and Iranian Physical Geography Shatt al Arab Shatt al Arab (shät äl äˈräb) [ key ], tidal river, 120 mi (193 km) long, formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, flowing SE to the Persian Gulf, forming part of the Iraq-Iran border; the Karun is its chief tributary. The Shatt al Arab flowed through a broad, swampy delta, but the marshlands in Iraq were drained in the early 1990s in order to increase government control over the Arab Shiites (Marsh Arabs) who lived there. Restoration of the marshlands began in 2003, following the invasion of Iraq by Anglo-American forces, but only half the area has been restored. The river supplies fresh water to S Iraq and Kuwait but the construction of dams and the demand for water upstream has led to a greatly increased salt content. The Shatt al Arab is navigable for oceangoing vessels as far as Basra , Iraq's chief port. Iraq and Iran have disputed navigation rights on the Shatt al Arab since 1935, when an international commission gave Iraq total control of the Shatt al Arab, leaving Iran with control only of the approaches to Abadan and Khorramshahr , its chief ports, and unable to develop new port facilities in the delta. To preclude Iraqi political pressure and interference with its oil and freight shipments on the Shatt al Arab, Iran built ports on the Persian Gulf to handle foreign trade. Iran and Iraq negotiated territorial agreements over the Shatt al Arab waterway in 1975, but by the end of the decade skirmishes in the area became prevalent. Full-scale war between the two countries broke out in Sept., 1980, leading to eight years of attacks on coastal areas (see Iran-Iraq War ). The Shatt al Arab remains a source of conflict, as limited water access and unresolved maritime boundaries in the region persist. See R. N. Schofield, Evolution of the Shatt al Arab Boundary Dispute (1986). The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.


"Upon seeing which stunning South American geographic feature did Eleanor Roosevelt reportedly say ""Poor Niagara""?"

Ushuaia Tours | Ushuaia Vacation Packages LIMITED TIME OFFER: BOOK NOW & PAY UP TO 6 MONTHS LATER WITH 0% INTEREST RATE! Our Recommended tours for Ushuaia The Beagle Channel Odyssey of Discovery: The Gable Expedition For AWESOME full-screen photos click here! Getting ready for the paddling adventure! Get ready to experience a one of a kind canoeing and trekking adventure at the Ends of the Earth! We’ll explore the mighty Beagle Channel, the same waters navigated by the first founders of Ushuaia and by adventurous explorers like naturalist Charles Darwin aboard the HMS Beagle in 1833. As we follow this route in our canoes, we’ll feel a sense of freedom and isolation from civilization, taking us back to a time when the Yamana tribe inhabited this distant part of the planet. We’ll stop by the oldest estancia (ranch) in Ushuaia, home to the first non-native settlers of the area. Once our canoeing journey is complete, we’ll hop on a motorboat and make a quick stop at an island where we’ll observe a colony of penguins from our boat. Last, it’s onto our final destination...taking us off the beaten path on the remote, uninhabited Gable Island, the largest island in the Beagle Channel. Our tour starts in the morning with a scenic ride of about 1 hour and 30 minutes to the starting point of our canoeing expedition. During this ride we’ll see the "árboles bandera" (flag trees), which are trees contorted and twisted into incredible shapes by the strong Patagonian winds. We arrive at Lashifashaj River, where we’ll receive a quick lesson on paddling technique as well as a safety briefing from our guide. We’ll then hop into our inflatable canoes and set off downriver to start our canoeing journey. In this stretch we will row as the wind helps carry us down the river and into the sea of the Beagle Channel. Along the sea trip, we may encounter some wildlife and many different sea birds. It’s also not uncommon to find sea lions sunbathing along the small islands that mark our way to Harberton Ranch. We arrive at the Harberton Ranch (the oldest ranch in Ushuaia), founded in 1866 by the Thomas Bridges, who established the first Anglican mission in Ushuaia. He also wrote the first dictionary of the Yaghan language, which he learned in the course of working with the Yamana tribe in his religious mission. Travelers who prefer to opt out of the canoeing portion of this tour will be taken directly to the Harberton Ranch by vehicle and will enjoy the possibility of touring the ranch, which still preserves its original ambience. Following this, we’ll board a motorboat and navigate the Beagle Channel, making our way to Martillo Island, where we will do a short stop of about 15 minutes. We’ll stay on the boat next to the shore while we see a colony of thousands of Magellanic penguins. After the penguin-watching, we’ll navigate to the uninhabited Gable Island, the largest island in the Beagle Channel. After disembarking on this rugged land, we’ll be treated to a tasty lunch with Patagonian wines before heading out on our trekking exploration of the island. Our trek begins across the island through pastures and vast woods, towards the Southern shore, where we’ll reach the cliffs. The trek takes 2 to 2.5 hours depending on the pace of the group. As we explore the island, we’ll come across remnants of both the Yamana civilization, the first civilization on the island, and the remnants of the first non-native settlers to Ushuaia that once inhabited the Gable Island. An exciting day of exploration following Ushuaia’s founders’ route comes to an end as we navigate back to Harberton Ranch and then return to our hotel. Important: the tour’s exact itinerary and duration may change subject to weather conditions and decisions of the tour guide to optimize your tour experience. Along the Shore, across the Forest and into the Mud: a 4x4 Off-Road Adventure at the Ends of the Earth! For AWESOME full-screen photos click here! From atop the mountains: the view of "Lago Escondido" (Hidden Lake) Prepare for a thrilling and scenic 4x4 off-road experience where natural


What gorge in the Ngorongoro area of Tanzania is considered the seat of humanity after the discovery of the earliest known specimens of modern man?

Serengeti Itineraries Serengeti is Tanzaniaï¿½s most famous national park.  The park is a region of grasslands and woodlands in Africa that includes  parts of northern Tanzania and southern Kenya. The whole region is spread  over around thirty thousand square kilometers, with eighty percent of the  region lying in Tanzania. Its far-reaching plains of grass, tinged with the  shadows of acacia trees, have made it the image of a wild and untarnished Africa.  It has more than 1.6 million herbivores and thousands of predators.  Blue Wildebeests, gazelles, zebras and buffalos are the animals most found  in the region. Commonly found in the park, apart from the wildebeest and  zebra, are various types of antelope, many herds of thomsons and grants  gazelle. Small herds of cape buffalo, topi and waterbuck, as well as giraffe  are normally seen. Families of warthog, hyena jackal and lion are a common  sight. Leopards, because of their generally nocturnal hunting habits, are  not often spotted but when you see them you can usually find them asleep  in the branches of a tree. Cheetah can often be spotted out on the open  plains particularly in the morning or late afternoon. Groups of hippo  are relaxing in the bigger pools and rivers and the crocodiles are sometimes  seen sunning themselves on the riverbanks. For people who love birds there   are plenty. Serengeti is home to over 500 different species of birds,   secretary birds, marabou, ostriches, kori bustards, guinea fowl, lilac   breasted rollers, bateleur eagles, Egyptian geese, herons can be seen. Every year around October nearly 1.5 million herbivores travel towards the southern plains,  crossing the Mara River, from the northern hills for the rains. And then back to the  north through the west, once again crossing the Mara River, after the rains in around April.  This phenomenon is sometimes also called the Circular Migration. Over 250,000 wildebeest alone  will die along the journey from Tanzania to upper Kenya, a total of 500 miles. The conservation area also protects Olduvai Gorge,  situated in the plains area. The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge is a steep-  sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley, which stretches along eastern Africa.  Olduvai is in the eastern Serengeti Plains in northern Tanzania and is about  30 miles long. The gorge is named after the Maasai word for the wild sisal plant  Sansevieria ehrenbergii, commonly called Oldupaai.   It is considered the seat of humanity after the discovery  of the earliest known specimens of modern man, Homo habilis  as well as early man Australopithecus boisei. It is one of  the most important prehistoric sites in the world and has  been instrumental in furthering understanding of early human  development. Excavation work there was pioneered by Louis Leakey  in the 1950s and is continued today by his family.


What is the only one of the Seven Wonders that was destroyed with deliberate intent?

Sermon : The Seven Wonders of the World [ Sermon                         The Seven Wonders of the World                                                 ] THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD Lonnie Branam Jeremiah 2: 7-13 Jeremiah 2:12,13 says, “Be astonished, O heavens at this and be horribly afraid. Be very desolate, says the Lord. For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters and hewn themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” Jeremiah described an event which was a marvel to the angels of heaven. Israel had changed gods, and the true God  called on the inhabitants of heaven to be astonished at such a wonder. The prophet described the awful thing Israel did in poetic and symbolic language. He described the one true God as the fountain of living waters and the Baal gods of Canaan as broken cisterns that can hold no water.  Israel forsook Jehovah for the Baal gods of Canaan. The message in this study is a take-off on Jeremiah's statement, “Be astonished O heavens at this!.”  God considered this an  amazing thing,  a wonder hard to believe. You have heard of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.  I want to talk to you about those seven wonders of the ancient world and then seven wonders in our present day world. Curiosity is a natural human characteristic. All of us are attracted to wonderful sights. We smile at the Greeks whom Paul said spent all their time in nothing else but to see and hear some new thing. But we all have the same infirmity. We are attracted to the extraordinary, the abnormal, and the unusual.  Like Israel we clamor for a sign, for some special evidence, some special religious  experience,  and for  something out of the ordinary. The ancient Greeks and Romans were fond of travel and great buildings, and the people of ancient times delighted to talk to their children about the seven wonders of the world. As an introduction to more serious thoughts, let me refresh your memory on the famous Seven Wonders of the ancient world. The first of  those  olden wonders were the Pyramids of Egypt, and to this day they are one of the great wonders of the world. They were the tombs of the Egyptian kings, and they were related to Egyptian idea of the spiritual world. Several of the ancient wonders were related to the spiritual realm.  Interestingly, they are the only one of the Seven Wonders still in existence.  We are told it took the labor of 100,000 men 20 years to build the Great Pyramid of Khufu. The second wonder was the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. They bloomed like a living green miracle in that desert city. It was a series of terraces  planted with flowers, shrubs and trees. King Nebuchadnezzer built the gardens for his princess  to make her feel at home. She formerly lived  in the mountains.  The third wonder was the 40-foot 2 statue of ivory, gold, and precious stones of the Greek god Zeus seated on his throne in Olympia, Greece. It was carved by Phidias for the site of the original Olympic games in the 400's B.C. His eyes of fiery precious gems made him to seem like a living god to the ancient Greeks. The fourth was the great temple of  Diana at Ephesus. that  covered nearly two acres. This temple is referred in Acts 19:27. It was 400 feet long, 60 feet high, and it's gigantic roof was supported by about 100 verticle marble pillars,  sixty feet high. Nothing remains but a  few broken remains, but it is still one of the tourist attractions of Christians.. The fifth wonder was the tomb of a wise King by the name of Mausolus in  Halicarnassus,  a city in Asia Minor. This Mausoleum was 140 feet high and was built by His Queen to honor his memory. The word mausoleum comes from the name Mausolus.  The sixth wonder was the Colossus on the Isl


What war that did not see a change in the borders or reparations even after nearly eight years of fighting but saw over a million deaths is said to be 20th century's longest conventional war?

Iran–Iraq War | Military Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Iraqi Civil War (2014–present) The Iran–Iraq War, also known as the First Persian Gulf War, [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] was an armed conflict between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Iraq lasting from September 1980 to August 1988, making it the 20th century's longest conventional war . [6] [7] It was initially referred to in English as the "Gulf War" prior to the Persian Gulf War of the early 1990s. [8] The Iran–Iraq War is considered one of the most violent conflicts since World War II. The Iran–Iraq War began when Iraq invaded Iran via air and land on 22 September 1980. It followed a long history of border disputes , and was motivated by fears that the Iranian Revolution in 1979 would inspire insurgency among Iraq's long-suppressed Shia majority as well as Iraq's desire to replace Iran as the dominant Persian Gulf state. Although Iraq hoped to take advantage of Iran's revolutionary chaos and attacked without formal warning, they made only limited progress into Iran and were quickly repelled; Iran regained virtually all lost territory by June 1982. For the next six years, Iran was on the offensive. [9] A number of proxy forces participated in the war, most notably the Iranian MEK siding with Ba'athist Iraq and Iraqi Kurdish militias of KDP and PUK siding with Iran - all suffering a major blow by the end of the conflict. Despite calls for a ceasefire by the United Nations Security Council , hostilities continued until 20 August 1988. The war finally ended with Resolution 598 , a U.N.-brokered ceasefire which was accepted by both sides. At the war's conclusion, it took several weeks for Iranian armed forces to evacuate Iraqi territory to honour pre-war international borders set by the 1975 Algiers Agreement . [10] The last prisoners of war were exchanged in 2003. [9] [11] The war cost both sides in lives and economic damage: half a million Iraqi and Iranian soldiers, with an equivalent number of civilians, are believed to have died, with many more injured; however, the war brought neither reparations nor changes in borders. The conflict has been compared to World War I [12] :171 in terms of the tactics used, including large-scale trench warfare with barbed wire stretched across trenches, manned machine-gun posts, bayonet charges, human wave attacks across a no-man's land , and extensive use of chemical weapons such as mustard gas by the Iraqi government against Iranian troops, civilians, and Iraqi Kurds. At the time of the conflict, the U.N. Security Council issued statements that "chemical weapons had been used in the war." U.N. statements never clarified that only Iraq was using chemical weapons, and according to retrospective authors "the international community remained silent as Iraq used weapons of mass destruction against Iranian[s] as well as Iraqi Kurds." [13] [14] [15] Contents Edit The Iran–Iraq War was originally referred to as the Gulf War until the Persian Gulf War of 1990 and 1991, after which it was referred to as the First Persian Gulf War. The Iraq-Kuwait conflict, while originally known as the Second Persian Gulf War, eventually became known simply as the Gulf War. The Iraq War from 2003 to 2011 has since been called the Second Persian Gulf War. In Iran, the war is known as the Imposed War (جنگ تحمیلی, Jang-e Tahmīlī) and the Holy Defence (دفاع مقدس, Defā'-e Moqaddas). In Iraq, Saddam Hussein had initially dubbed the conflict the Whirlwind War. [16] :219 It was also referred to as Saddām's Qādisiyyah (قادسية صدام, Qādisiyyat Ṣaddām), in reference to the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah . Origins Main article: Iran–Iraq relations The Arvand Roud waterway on the Iran–Iraq border Since the Ottoman–Persian Wars of the 16th and 17th centuries, Iran (known as Persia prior to 1935) and the Ottomans fought over Iraq (then known as Mesopotamia) and full control of the Arvand Roud/Shatt al-Arab waterway until the signing of the Treaty of Zuhab in 1639 which established the final borders between Iran and Iraq. [17] :4 The Arvand Roud was considered an importa


On what day in 1683 were the conquering armies of Islam thrown back at the gates of Vienna, in what was a major defeat for the Ottoman Empire?

Obama at the Gates of Vienna | The American Spectator Obama at the Gates of Vienna September 16, 2014, 8:00 am Total: 0 Email Barack Obama is at the Gates of Vienna. But America is not at war with Islam! Got that? As a matter of fact, all those ISIS (or ISIL) people cutting off heads in those videos? They aren’t Islamic at all, according to President Obama: Now let’s make two things clear: ISIL is not Islamic. No religion condones the killing of innocents, and the vast majority of ISIL’s victims have been Muslim….ISIL is a terrorist organization, pure and simple. And it has no vision other than the slaughter of all who stand in its way. Never mind that the beheaders have dropped the “In Syria” or “In the Levant” and simply refer to all their accumulated turf — now the size of Great Britain — as just “IS” as in “Islamic State.” Or that they may have as much as $2 billion in stolen assets . Who lives in the kind of fantasy that believes a self-proclaimed Islamic State has nothing to do with Islam? The atheist Sam Harris has noted this presidential assertion, agog. Writes Harris at his blog in a post titled “Sleepwalking Toward Armageddon”:  As an atheist, I cannot help wondering when this scrim of pretense and delusion will be finally burned away — either by the clear light of reason or by a surfeit of horror meted out to innocents by the parties of God. Which will come first, flying cars and vacations to Mars, or a simple acknowledgment that beliefs guide behavior and that certain religious ideas — jihad, martyrdom, blasphemy, apostasy — reliably lead to oppression and murder? It may be true that no faith teaches people to massacre innocents exactly — but innocence, as the President surely knows, is in the eye of the beholder. Are apostates “innocent”? Blasphemers? Polytheists? Islam has the answer, and the answer is “no.” Harris makes a point of saying: “In drawing a connection between the doctrine of Islam and jihadist violence, I am talking about ideas and their consequences, not about 1.5 billion nominal Muslims, many of whom do not take their religion very seriously.” However, he goes on to point out that: a belief in martyrdom, a hatred of infidels, and a commitment to violent jihad are not fringe phenomena in the Muslim world. These preoccupations are supported by the Koran and numerous hadith. That is why the popular Saudi cleric Mohammed Al-Areefi sounds like the ISIS army chaplain. The man has 9.5 million followers on Twitter (twice as many as Pope Francis has). If you can find an important distinction between the faith he preaches and that which motivates the savagery of ISIS, you should probably consult a neurologist. Understanding and criticizing the doctrine of Islam — and finding some way to inspire Muslims to reform it — is one of the most important challenges the civilized world now faces. But the task isn’t as simple as discrediting the false doctrines of Muslim “extremists,” because most of their views are not false by the light of scripture. A hatred of infidels is arguably the central message of the Koran. The reality of martyrdom and the sanctity of armed jihad are about as controversial under Islam as the resurrection of Jesus is under Christianity. It is not an accident that millions of Muslims recite the shahadah or make pilgrimage to Mecca. Neither is it an accident that horrific footage of infidels and apostates being decapitated has become a popular form of pornography throughout the Muslim world. Each of these practices, including this ghastly method of murder, find explicit support in scripture. And so they do. In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, the late Christopher Hitchens took to the pages of the UK’s Guardian to raise the then-new point to a shell-shocked world that the date September 11th had a specific symbolism in the Islamic world. Wrote Hitchens: It was on September 11 1683 that the conquering armies of Islam were met, held, and thrown back at the gates of Vienna. Now this, of course, is not a date that has only obscure or sectarian significance. It can rightly, if tritely, be c


Andinia plan, Fugu plan, Uganda proposal, and Madagascar plan are some of the attempts for the establishment of what entity in history?

Proposals for a Jewish state : Wikis (The Full Wiki) 9 References Ararat city 1844 Discourse on the Restoration of the Jews by M.M.Noah, page 1. The page 2 shows the map of the Land of Israel In 1820, in a precursor to modern Zionism , Mordecai Manuel Noah tried to found a Jewish homeland at Grand Island in the Niagara River , to be called " Ararat ," after Mount Ararat , the Biblical resting place of Noah's Ark . He erected a monument at the island which read "Ararat, a City of Refuge for the Jews, founded by Mordecai M. Noah in the Month of Tishri, 5586 (September, 1825) and in the Fiftieth Year of American Independence." Some have speculated whether Noah's utopian ideas may have influenced Joseph Smith , who founded the Latter Day Saint movement in Upstate New York a few years later. In his Discourse on the Restoration of the Jews Noah proclaimed his faith that the Jews would return and rebuild their ancient homeland. Noah called on America to take the lead in this endeavor. [3] British Uganda Program Main article: British Uganda Program The British Uganda Program was a plan to give a portion of British East Africa to the Jewish people as a homeland. The offer was first made by British Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain to Theodore Herzl 's Zionist group in 1903. He offered 5,000 square miles (13,000 km2) of the Mau Plateau in what is today Kenya . The offer was a response to pogroms against the Jews in Russia , and it was hoped the area could be a refuge from persecution for the Jewish people. The idea was brought to the World Zionist Organization 's Zionist Congress at its sixth meeting in 1903 meeting in Basel . There a fierce debate ensued. The African land was described as an " ante-chamber to the Holy Land", but other groups felt that accepting the offer would make it more difficult to establish a Jewish state in Palestine (the historical land of Israel). Before the vote on the matter, the Russian delegation stormed out in opposition. In the end, the motion passed by 295 to 177 votes. The next year, a three-man delegation was sent to inspect the plateau. Its high elevation gave it a temperate climate, making it suitable for European settlement. However, the observers found a dangerous land filled with lions and other creatures. Moreover, it was populated by a large number of Maasai who did not seem at all amenable to an influx of Europeans. After receiving this report, the Congress decided in 1905 to politely decline the British offer. Some Jews, who viewed this as a mistake, formed the Jewish Territorialist Organization with the aim of establishing a Jewish state anywhere. [4] A few Jews did move to Kenya, but most settled in the urban centers. Some of these families remain to this day. Jewish Autonomous Oblast in USSR Main article: Jewish Autonomous Oblast On March 28, 1928, the Presidium of the General Executive Committee of the USSR passed the decree "On the attaching for Komzet of free territory near the Amur River in the Far East for settlement of the working Jews." The decree meant that there was "a possibility of establishment of a Jewish administrative territorial unit on the territory of the called region". [5] On August 20, 1930, the General Executive Committee of the Russian Soviet Republic ( RSFSR ) accepted the decree "On formation of the Birobidzhan national region in the structure of the Far Eastern Territory". The State Planning Committee considered the Birobidzhan national region as a separate economic unit. In 1932, the first scheduled figures of the region development were considered and authorized. [5] On May 7, 1934, the Presidium accepted the decree on its transformation in the Jewish Autonomous Region within the Russian Republic. In 1938, with formation of the Khabarovsk Territory, the Jewish Autonomous Region (JAR) was included in its structure. [5] According to Joseph Stalin 's national policy, each of the national groups that formed the Soviet Union would receive a territory in which to pursue cultural autonomy in a socialist framework. In that sense, it was also a response to two s


During the US presidential elections of 1936, the magazine The Literary Digest conducted an opinion poll using millions of people but still ended up being wrong. Who bested the magazine with his scientific technique using only a small percentage of what the magazine had used?

J J.   Michael Hogan George Gallup and the   rhetoric of scientific democracy Профессор Майкл Хоган ( Hogan,J.M. ) пїЅ выпускник The University of Wisconsin-Madison, там же он получил Ph.D. в области риторки в 1983 году.  Его научные интересы сосредоточены на анализе характера и качества обсуждения в обществе различных социальных проблем. В частности им разрабатываются темы, связанные ходом политических кампаний, развитием социальных движений, дебатами по вопросам внешней политики, общественному мнению и опросам. Его основные публикации:   The Panama Canal in American Politics (1986) и The Nuclear Freeze Campaign   (1994), под его редакцией вышла книга Rhetoric and Community.   Studies in Unity and Fragmentation (1998), объединяющая статьи ведущих специалистов по риторике и дискурсу, идет работа над томом Imperialism and Reform in the Progressive Era. В The Pennsylvania State   University профессор М. Хоган читает курсы:Political   Campaigns in the Age of Television, Contemporary American Political   Rhetoric, Political Communication and the Media,  ведет семинар Historical Criticism: The Rhetoric of Social Movements и др.   Предлагаемая ниже статья пїЅ является одной из наиболее цитируемых современых работ по методологии исследований общественого мнения, политической риторике и научного наследия Джорджа Гэллапа. Профессор М. Хоган любезно предоставил нам право ее публикации в сети. Борис Докторов Throughout his career,   George Gallup, the `father" of modern polling, crusaded tirelessly to   establish polling's scientific and cultural legitimacy. In public speeches,   several books, and more than a hundred articles in journals and popular   magazines, Gallup mythologized polling's history of `progress, "deflected   doubts about the polls ' accuracy and technical procedures with a rhetoric   of scientific mystification, and celebrated the collective wisdom of "the   people." Gallup's "rhetoric of scientific democracy" sustained polling's   cultural legitimacy, yet it also diverted attention from its most perplexing   sources of error and stifled debate over its deleterious effects on the   democratic process. "Everybody believes in   public opinion polls-everyone from the man on the street all the way up to   President Thomas E. Dewey." Goodman Ace (as cited in   Field, 1990, p. 37) Polling has come a long   way since 1936. In that fateful year, George Horace Gallup, the father of "scientific" polling, predicted the spectacular failure of the Literary   Digest's presidential "straw poll." Over the next half century, Gallup's   name became virtually synonymous with polling, and today his legacy is an   industry of more than 2000 organizations with annual revenues in excess of   $4 billion (Walden, 1990, p. xiii). Promoting polling as "the pulse of   democracy," George Gallup sold America on a new scientific "instrument" that   he promised might "bridge the gap between the people and those who are   responsible for making decisions in their name" (Gallup & Rae, 1940, pp.   14-15). Throughout his life,   Gallup preached about polling with "evangelical devotion" (Wheeler 1976, p.   87). In public speeches, several books, and more than a hundred articles in   trade publications, academic journals, and popular magazines, [i] Gallup served as polling's unofficial historian as he mythologized the   critical incidents in polling's story of "progress." In addition, he   campaigned hard to establish polling's claim to science by statistically   documenting its record of accuracy and developing lay explanations of its   technical procedures. Above all, Gallup promised that polling could make "democracy work more effectively" (Gallup & Rae, 1940, p. 11). Celebrating   the wisdom of the "common man," Gallup dreamed of a final stage in the   evolution of the American democratic experiment-an age of scientific   democracy, in which "the will of the people" would provide continuous   direction to policy makers "on al


"Ted Sorenson, who was called by JFK as ""intellectual blood bank"" made his best-known contribution to the president in what capacity?"

Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project THOMAS L. HUGHES Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: July 7, 1999 Copyright 2011 ADST Q: When and where were you born? HUGHES: I was born in December, 1925, and grew up in Mankato, a small town in southern Minnesota. Q: Can you tell me a little about your parents and your family? HUGHES: My grandfather Thomas Hughes was a successful lawyer, judge, and civic leader. He was also a prominent local historian. We lived with him in his house until his death in 1934 when I was eight. He wrote several well-regarded books—on the Welsh in Minnesota, on Blue Earth County history, and on Minnesota Indian themes. He was in fact the major frontier historian of Southern Minnesota. For instance, he interviewed Indian chiefs after they lost what we used to call the “Sioux Uprising” of 1862. So I grew up in a house full of his library books and local historical objects. Many years later I edited the second editions of two of his Indian books. Dr. Thomas Lowe, my other grandfather, was a well-known prairie physician in Pipestone, an even smaller town located in southwestern Minnesota. He also served as the town mayor, and in his last years he was elected to the state legislature in St. Paul. I spent some memorable times with both grandfathers in my youth, and I suppose my interest in history, international affairs, and public service derives from both of them. My parents also played active roles in our small town community life. I had one sister, five years younger than I. Q: When you say a small town in Minnesota? HUGHES: Mankato was a then a town of some 15,000, located sixty miles south of the Twin Cities. Mankato meant “Blue Earth” in Sioux for the local blue clay deposits. Q: What was life like growing up in Mankato? 0002 HUGHES: I had all my early schooling there, through public high school. It was a privileged, middle-class, atmosphere. I was surrounded by encouraging parents, teachers, and friends. Even though these were the years of the Great Depression, my youth was more or less problem free—lots of good schooling, lots of devoted attention, and lots of opportunity. In the fourth grade my teacher said, “You're wasting your time taking an hour at lunch. Give it a half hour, come back here, and I'll teach you Norwegian for the rest of the lunch period.” Such attention is rare these days. In school in the eighth grade we all composed autobiographies. Mine touches all my then interests—family trips with my parents and sister to Canada and Mexico, school sports, youthful neighborhood clubs, foreign correspondence, stamp collecting, piano lessons, the family genealogy, and already the writing of small historical sketches. Q: How about at home - the dinner table conversation, that sort of thing? HUGHES: My forebears were very much interested in their own family connections who happened to include several luminaries from early in the century. Grandfather was a cousin of Charles Evans Hughes. Grandmother was related to Grover Cleveland and more distantly to Elihu Root and William Howard Taft. That meant that history and politics had a family setting. My Hughes grandparents were stalwart Republicans while my Lowe grandparents were Democrats. So that spurred lively discussions and gave me some early lessons in diversity and relativism. Q: Was the grange movement established by the time you came along? HUGHES: The grange flourished in the previous century. By the time I was growing up, the plight of Minnesota farmers was a serious one and the Farm Bureau and the Farmers' Union were contesting for political strength. In the middle 1930s Minnesota's Farmer-Labor Party was in power and the flamboyant Floyd B. Olson was governor. By the time I graduated from high school in 1943, Hubert Humphrey had just arrived on the scene and was busy merging the Farmer-Labor party with the Democrats. By then, of course, we were in World War II. It had a major effect on politics. Minnesota had been one of the most isolationist of states with its heav


"The Khartoum Resolution of 1967 that was organized after the Six-Day War became famous for its ""Three No's"" rejecting what entity?"

The Borders of Israel and Palestine | Religion :: Science :: Peace Religion :: Science :: Peace Posted on June 15, 2014 by walk tall hang loose This is a preliminary working draft for a book with the same title. My understanding of the topic is improving all the time. For a better and more detailed understanding of some of the issues hers, please see my articles on Mondoweiss.net: Understanding the partition plan One of the many things wrong with the current Israel-Palestine peace process is the absence of any attempt at reconciliation between the two peoples. Real peace cannot be achieved without reconciliation, and reconciliation needs to be based on truth. Relationships between the two peoples have been poisoned by different narratives of their shared history, some of them mythical. One of the most widespread and persistent myths is that Israel has never declared its borders. Indeed, Israel is frequently described as a borderless state . The purpose of this essay is to debunk this myth, and bring out the implications for understanding the history of the conflict and for the peace process. (Emphases in quoted material have been added by the author.) 1. Background: the Mandate From 1922 to 1948 Palestine was administered by Great Britain under the Mandatory system established by Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations after the First World War. The Turkish Empire was broken up into a number of separate territories under the tutelage of “advanced powers” who would regard the well-being and development of their peoples as “a sacred trust of civilization” until they could “stand alone” as independent states. The League of Nations Mandate for Palestine  differed from the other Mandates in that the British administration was given an additional responsibility: to carry out its policy of the “establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine”. Nature of the Jewish National Home. Consideration of the Articles of the Mandate shows that Palestine, while becoming the Jewish national home, would at the same time remain the national home of the existing Palestinian population, mostly Arabs. Three of the Articles specifically mention Jews. Article 4 set up a Jewish Agency to help Jews settle the land. Article 6 says that Britain should facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions, while ensuring that the rights and position of other sections of the population were not prejudiced. Article 7 said the Jews should be helped to acquire Palestinian citizenship. In all other respects Jews and Arabs were to be treated on an equal basis. National languages were to be Hebrew and Arabic, and there were to be Hebrew and Arabic school systems. There is no hint anywhere that the incoming Jews should have a position superior to the non-Jewish community, and no mention of a Jewish state or an Arab state. This concept was further explained by the Churchill White Paper of 1922 , which also quoted a resolution of the 1921 World Zionist Congress expressing “the determination of the Jewish people to live with the Arab people on terms of unity and mutual respect, and together with them to make the common home into a flourishing community, the up-building of which may assure to each of its peoples an undisturbed national development”. In other words, Palestine was to be a unitary bi-national state. Failure of the Mandate. To cut a long story short: this plan did not work. The Arabs objected to the inward migration of large numbers of foreign Jews into Palestine, and there was a popular revolt against the British administration from 1937-39, in which Jewish settlers were also attacked. The protests were violently suppressed by British forces working together with Jewish members of the Palestine Police and Jewish militias. In 1939, in the McDonald White Paper , the British authorities introduced severe restrictions on Jewish immigration, and they proposed indepe


Alamut Castle, now in modern-day Iran, is remembered today as the home of what notorious group between 1090 and 1256 AD?

2/24/2010 • MHQ An agent of the Order of Assassins (left, in white turban) fatally stabs Nizam al-Mulk, a Seljuk vizier, in 1092, the first of many political murders by the sect. The faces in this depiction, which was contained in an illustrated 14th-century manuscript, were later scratched out (Topkapi Palace Museum, Cami Al Tebari TSMK, Inv. No. H. 1653, folio 360b) During the Crusades, the Muslim sect known as the Assassins tamed more powerful enemies using a shocking means: murder For almost two centuries, from 1090 until 1273, the Order of Assassins played a singular and sinister role in the Middle East. A small Shiite sect more properly known as the Nizari Ismailis, the Assassins were relatively few, geographically dispersed, and despised as heretics by both the Sunni Muslim majority and even by most other Shiites. By conventional standards, the Assassins should have been no match for the superior conventional military power of any of their many enemies. But near the end of the 11th century, the charismatic and ruthless Hasan-i Sabbah forged this small, persecuted sect into one of the most lethally effective terrorist groups the world has ever known. Even the most powerful and carefully guarded rulers of the age—the Abbasid and Fatimid caliphs, the sultans and viziers of the Great Seljuk and Ayyubid empires, the princes of the Crusader states, and emirs who ruled important cities like Damascus, Homs, and Mosul—lived in dread of the chameleonlike Assassin agents. Known as a fida’i (one who risks his life voluntarily, from the Arabic word for “sacrifice”; the plural in Arabic is fidaiyn, or the present-day fedayeen), such an agent might spend months or even years stalking and infiltrating an enemy of his faith before plunging a dagger into the victim’s chest, often in a very public place. Perhaps most terrifying, the Assassins chose not only a close and personal manner of killing but performed it implacably, refusing to flee afterward and appearing to welcome their own swift death. Fanatical and disciplined, Hasan-i Sabbah and his successors were brilliant practitioners of asymmetric warfare. They developed a means of attack that negated most of their enemies’ advantages while requiring the Assassins to hazard only a small number of their own fighters. As with any effective form of deterrence, the Assassins’ targeted killings of hostile political, military, and religious leaders eventually produced a stable and lasting balance of power between them and their enemies, reducing the level of conflict and loss of life on both sides. Today, 750 years after the Mongols crushed them, the Assassins’ pioneering use of suicide terrorism, of murdering systematically though at times indiscriminately to achieve political ends, finds chilling echoes in the tactics of terrorist groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and al Qaeda. But for Hasan-i Sabbah, acts of terror were a legitimate means of self-defense precisely because they focused on high-ranking enemy military, political, and religious leaders who had taken hostile actions against the Ismaili community. There is little doubt he would have viewed the tactics employed by modern Middle Eastern terrorist groups—particularly their targeting of unarmed civilians—with incomprehension and disdain. After the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632, the Muslim world was riven into two groups, Sunnis and Shiites. Shiites believed that only a divinely inspired imam could properly interpret the meaning of the Koran, considered by Muslims to contain God’s revelations to the prophet Muhammad, and the sayings (hadiths) of Muhammad; that only certain direct descendants of Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law Ali were qualified to assume the role of imam; and that the imam should exercise supreme political as well as spiritual authority over the Muslim community. The far more numerous Sunnis believed the Koran and hadiths could be understood through diligent study and the guidance of scholars. They accepted the leadership of caliphs who were not direct descendants of Ali. As the years passed, the Shiite com


The cartoon Dropping the Pilot was published when which world leader was forced to resign in 1890?

GHDI - Image Images - Politics "Dropping the Pilot" (1890) Bismarck was forced to resign in 1890 , two years into the reign of Wilhelm II. Here, we see a weary Bismarck descending the ladder of the “ship” Germany, which he had steered for almost 20 years as chancellor. A young Wilhelm II looks on from the deck. This illustration, entitled “Dropping the Pilot,” was published in the British magazine Punch March 29, 1890.


What is particularly common to King Charles II of England and the state of Connecticut's Royal Charter?

The Connecticut Charter of 1662 - Connecticut History Constitution Prior to being the first of the original thirteen colonies to pen a constitution, Connecticut  was granted a very generous charter by King Charles II of England, which it very bravely preserved when Charles' brother, James, ascended the throne and tried to have this wonderful piece of Connecticut history revoked. The way it was protected demonstrates pure Yankee ingenuity. After this remarkable document came The Fundamental Orders of 1638-1639, a first attempt at a constitution that defined citizen rights. If you look at the flip side of the new Connecticut quarter you'll find the outline of the "Charter Oak" tree. Estimated at over 500 years of age, the tree was a huge white oak. The paper with which it was involved was a Royal Charter granted to Connecticut by England's King Charles II† in 1662. It defined the state's borders and bestowed ownership of the land as well as giving certain rights to the people of Connecticut. Over           the next twenty-five years after it was granted, the British colonies became very           attractive to British aristocracy, so much so that in 1687,           King James II ordered his representatives to seize the Connecticut           Charter. In characteristic defiance, the people of Connecticut           refused to surrender it, so the British threatened to claim           the land and divide it. Some would go to New York and the           remainder to Massachusetts. On October 26, 1687, Sir Edmund Andros, the crown's appointed governor of New England, traveled to Butler's Tavern in Hartford (now Connecticut's capital) and demanded the Charter be surrendered to him at once. Had the people living in Connecticut given it up, their rights would have been revoked, and Connecticut history would have ended there. Considerable debate ensued that night, and during a rowdy argument, the candles lighting the room were suddenly and quite mysteriously extinguished. Captain Joseph Wadsworth, a man fiercely protective of the Charter, was waiting outside. In the midst of the confusion inside the tavern, the Charter was slipped out the door to him. Wadsworth quickly made his way to the Wylls estate in Hartford, where he found an oak tree.  An opening in its trunk became the ideal hiding place for the document. The majestic tree, better known as th "Charter Oak Tree, helping in part to preserve the rights of the state's citizens, stood proudly in Hartford until August 21, 1856, when high winds toppled it. It has become as representative of Connecticut history as has the first Constitution to be drafted in this country. It is presented below in its original wording, which is at times difficult to comprehend. Editing it to adhere to modern-day speech, however, would be to deprive the reader of its originality and to provide a glimpse into just how far the "King's English" has evolved. THE CHARTER FOR THE CONNECTICUT COLONY 1662 GRANTED BY KING CHARLES II *The original Charter of the Colony of Connecticut, 1662, is on permanent exhibition at the Museum of Connecticut History, 231 Capitol Ave., Hartford. Note: What's below is the exact wording,  punctuation and misspellings of the original document. CHARLES THE SECOND, BY THE GRACE OF GOD, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, defender of the Faith; To all to whome theis presents shall come Greetinge: WHEREAS, by the severall Navigacons, discoveryes and susccessfull Plantacons of diverse of our loving Subjects of this our Realme of England, Severall Lands, Islands, Places, Colonies and Plantacons have byn obtayned and setled in that parte of the Continent of America called New England, and thereby the Trade and Comerce there hath byn of late yeares much increased, AND WHEREAS, wee have byn informed by the humble Peticon of our Trusty and welbeloved John Winthrop, John Mason, Samuell Willis, Henry Clerke, Mathew Allen, John Tappen, Nathan Gold, Richard Treate, Richard Lord, Henry Woolicott


The Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, which now has a museum, was the scene of whose assassination?

Audubon Ballroom | Welcome to Harlem's Blog Welcome to Harlem's Blog Historian Arrested While Protesting Renaissance Casino Demolition HARLEM — A local historian was arrested over the weekend for protesting the demolition of the historic Renaissance Casino — once the premiere venue for black society from 1920 to 1979. On Sunday morning, Michael Henry Adams, a historian who has written two books on Harlem architecture, staged a one-man protest in front of the Abyssinian Baptist Church , which once promised to preserve the historic structure but sold it for $10 million earlier this year. However the new owners, BRP Development Corporation, filed plans to demolish the building in order to make room for a condominium a couple of weeks ago, as first reported by New York YIMBY. “I chanted for 45 minutes, ‘Save Harlem Now,’ the police came and told me that I was disturbing the peace,” Adams said. When an officer asked him to leave, Adams said, “You’re gonna have to arrest me cause I’m not leaving,” according to the summons for disorderly conduct. The Renaissance Casino, on the corner of West 137th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, was built in the 1920s by followers of Marcus Garvey who wanted to have a catering facility that would be as fine as any comparable facility in the city, Adams said. It instantly became the leading venue for parties and community events not just in Harlem but all over New York. It also hosted Joe Lewis fights and was the home of a local all-black professional basketball team, he added. Former Mayor David Dinkins had his wedding reception there, according to The New York Times. New designs call for 134 mixed-income residential units, retail space, a community space for churches and a 67-car garage. Twenty percent of the units will be affordable,  BRP  spokeswoman Zoe Tobin said. The plan contradicts what the Abyssinian Development Corporation — the church’s real estate organization — originally intended for the structure when they asked the Landmarks Protection Commission not to protect the building in 2007, according to Adams. The reason they opposed landmark protection was because Abyssinian had plans to save the casino’s exterior and build a 13-story apartment building. Landmark protection, they claimed, would “basically kill the project,” according to a 2007 article by the New York Times. Former mayor  David Dinkins  and Comptroller  Scott Stringer  backed Abyssinian’s request. Neither Dinkins nor Stringer responded to inquiries. Because the Abyssinian Development Corp. no longer owns the Renaissance Casino, they declined to comment. “That was in 2007, you will have to speak with someone at the church about that,” a spokeswoman, who refused to give her name, said when asked about their plan to protect the historic building’s facade. The church spokeswoman said all retail questions need to be addressed to Abyssinian Development Corporation. Adam’s fight to preserve the building goes beyond the Renaissance Casino. He has seen a number of historic buildings — including the Audubon Ballroom , Lenox Lounge , and several of the nightclubs made famous during the Harlem Renaissance — be threatened with demolition over the years. When those buildings are destroyed, they are replaced by expensive condos that end up displacing the people of Harlem, Adams said. “Our heritage in Harlem is under threat and the irony is that not only is the destruction of all these buildings erasing the history of African American achievement in Harlem but the buildings that replace these sites are being filled with people who displace the people of Harlem,” the preservationist said. In Central Harlem, only 3 percent of buildings are protected by the designation of historic district, compared to 26 in the Upper West Side and 10 for all of Manhattan, according to a 2013 Community Board 10 report. “It is a place of importance that is equal in terms of black history as Paris and Rome is to white history,” he said. “Yet people are trying to destroy everything that makes it special and that is immoral.” By Gustavo Solis on


Historians speculate that China attacked India in 1962 as world attention was focused on what other episode?

Argument Without End Argument Without End In Search of Answers to the Vietnam Tragedy By ROBERT S. McNAMARA, JAMES G. BLIGHT and ROBERT K. BRIGHAM with THOMAS J. BIERSTEKER and HERBERT Y. SCHANDLER PublicAffairs Read the Review The Theme and Structure of the Book Most men look at things as they are and wonder why. I dream of things that never were and ask why not?     George Bernard Shaw     From In Retrospect to Argument Without End     The Vietnam War, with which I was personally involved for more than seven years as U.S. secretary of defense (1961-1968), was among the bloodiest in all of human history. It is estimated that something on the order of 3.8 million Vietnamese (North and South, military and civilian) were killed. The United States lost 58,000. Had the United States lost in proportion to its population the same percentage as Vietnam, 27 million Americans would have died. Many times these numbers were wounded. During the course of the war, in addition, North and South Vietnam were nearly destroyed as functioning societies, and America was torn asunder by issues related to the war. Ironically, each principal combatant achieved its objectives: The Hanoi government reunified Vietnam under its leadership; and to the United States, the "dominoes" did not fall, as communism and Soviet and Chinese hegemony did not spread across Southeast Asia.     The thesis of this book is that the war was a tragedy for both sides. Both Washington and Hanoi could have accomplished their purposes without the appalling loss of life. There were missed opportunities, either for avoiding the war before it started or for terminating it before it had run its course. I speculated along these lines in my memoir of the war, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam. But lacking access to former officials and documents from the Hanoi government, I could not pursue the matter further at that time.     Since then, however, this thesis has been buttressed by an analysis of formerly unavailable, newly translated Vietnamese and Chinese documents, as well as the six sets of discussions in Hanoi over more than two years between Vietnamese and U.S. scholars and former officials. For the first time, I believe, an understanding has begun to emerge regarding which of the decisions on each side were made on the basis of an accurate understanding of the motives and capabilities of the adversaries, and which were made on the basis of misperceptions, miscalculations, and misjudgments. On the basis of what our analysis adds to the historical record, we propose lessons that should be drawn for advancing peace among nations in the twenty-first century. The Twenty-First Century: A Bloody Repetition of the Twentieth?     My earliest memory as a child is of a city exploding with joy. The city: San Francisco. The date: November 11, 1918Armistice Day. I was two years old. The city was celebrating not only the end of World War I but also the belief, held so strongly by President Wilsonand many other Americansthat the United States and its allies had won a war to end all wars.     They were wrong, of course. The twentieth century was on its way to becoming the bloodiest, by far, in all of human history. During the century soon to end, 160 million people will have been killed in conflictswithin nations and between nationsacross the globe. If we wish to avoid a repetition in the next century of the tragedy of the twentieth, the time to start is now.     As a first step, we should begin by establishing a realistic appraisal of the problem. It is readily apparent, very complex, and very dangerous. A recent report, titled "Carnegie Commission on the Prevention of Deadly Conflict," chaired by David A. Hamburg and Cyrus R. Vance, stated it very clearly: Peacewill require greater understanding and respect for differences within and across national boundaries. We humans do not have the luxury any longer of indulging our prejudices and ethnocentrism. They are anachronisms of our ancient past. The worldwide historical record is full of hateful and destructive beha


As seen in the movie The Longest Day, paratrooper John Steele saw action during the D-Day invasion of WWII while dangling from where?

February | 2016 | History of Sorts | Page 2 History of Sorts WORLD WAR 2 ,EIGHTIES,MUSIC,FANTASY,ZOMBIES,Hacksaw Ridge,Genocide,Irish WWII Heroes Monthly Archives: February 2016 by dirkdeklein under Book , History , Movie , World War 2 Who is John Steele I hear you say. Well to be honest until recently I had never heard of him either. It’s just that I am a great WW2 movies fan I came across his name. In the movie ” the Longest Day” about D-Day there are a few scenes which made me wonder if they really happened. Some of them are quite funny, there is one scene where a German patrol and an American patrol pass each other by not realizing they are enemies and just walk on minding their own business. Another one where a German officer puts on his boots the wrong way. However there are also some sad scenes. One is showing a paratrooper whose parachute was caught in one of the pinnacles of the church tower. I could not find anything on the patrols or the visually impaired German officer but the story of the paratrooper is true and really happened. This Paratrooper’s name was Private John Steele. he was the American paratrooper who landed on the church tower in Sainte-Mère-Église, the first village in Normandy liberated by the Americans on D-Day, June 6, 1944. On the night before D-Day (June 5–6, 1944), American soldiers of the 82nd Airborne parachuted into the area west of Sainte-Mère-Église in successive waves. The town had been the target of an aerial attack and a stray incendiary bomb had set fire to a house east of the town square. The church bell was rung to alert the town of the emergency and townspeople turned out in large numbers to form a bucket brigade supervised by members of the German garrison. By 0100 hours, the town square was well lit and filled with German soldiers and villagers when two sticks (planeloads of paratroopers) from the 1st and 2nd battalions were dropped in error directly over the village. The paratroopers were easy targets, and Steele was one of only a few non-casualties. His parachute was caught in one of the pinnacles of the church tower, causing the cables on his parachute to stretch to their full length, leaving him hanging on the side of the church to witness the carnage. The wounded paratrooper hung there limply for two hours, pretending to be dead, before the Germans took him prisoner. Steele later escaped from the Germans and rejoined his division when US troops of the 3rd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment attacked the village capturing thirty Germans and killing another eleven. For these actions and his wounds, Steele was awarded the Bronze Star for valor and the Purple Heart for being wounded in combat. Though injured, Private Steele survived his ordeal. He continued to visit the town throughout his life and was an honorary citizen of Ste. Mère Église. The tavern, Auberge John Steele, stands adjacent to the square and maintains his memory through photos, letters and articles hung on its walls. Steele died of throat cancer on May 16, 1969 in Fayetteville, NC just three weeks short of the 25th anniversary of the D-Day invasion But his story as a brave soldier starts much earlier and continued well past the episode in Sainte Mère Église. There is much more to the story of paratrooper John Steele. There are some inconsistencies in various stories that have been cobbled together about him, but it is clear that John Steele was a fearless and brave soldier. He had volunteered his service as a paratrooper and had earlier served in the 82nd Airborne Division in North Africa, prior to parachuting into combat in Sicily with F Company, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment.  On the night of 9 July 1943, John broke his left leg and was sent to a hospital in North Africa.  After he recovered he returned to Italy and fought with his unit from Salerno to Naples. During his jump into Ste. Mère Église on the night of 5-6 June 1944, John was wounded by a shell fragment and was unable to steer his parachute.  As he dangled from the church spire while a battle was going on below him, he tried to cut