Greek Officials Say Reading of Koran at Sacred Turkish Landmark 'Incomprehensible'

By Doug G. Ware
ISTANBUL, Turkey, June 7 (UPI) -- Greek foreign affairs ministry officials expressed opposition and disappointment in the Turkish government this week, for its allowing the reading of prayers from the Koran at a former religious landmark that remains sacred to both Christians and Muslims.


Turkey's Hagia Sophia museum, a UNESCO world heritage site since 1985, was formerly a Christian church, a Greek Orthodox cathedral and Imperial Ottoman mosque before it became a secular museum in 1935. The landmark is recognizable around the world for its iconic dome and unique architecture. File Photo by Mehmet Cetin/Shutterstock

The first prayer was read at Istanbul's Hagia Sophia, a former Byzantine cathedral, on Monday to mark the start of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. In addition to those in attendance, faithful throughout the heavily-Muslim nation also listened to the prayers via broadcast by the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT).

As Hagia Sophia is considered a sacred site to many for its history, Greece's Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded to the prayer readings by saying they are inappropriate for such a revered and secular landmark.

"We condemn as regressive the Turkish authorities' announcement of the scheduling of a Koran reading in Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, on the occasion of Ramadan," the ministry said in a statement Monday.

"Obsessions, verging on bigotry, with Muslim rituals in a monument of world cultural heritage are incomprehensible and reveal a lack of respect for and connection with reality," the ministry added. "Such actions are not compatible with modern, democratic and secular societies"

Turkey is no longer a secular society. Erdogan is slowly turning it into his own private caliphate!

Another Greek politician said the prayers amount to "disrespect against Orthodox Christians across the world."

Did you really expect Erdogan to respect Christians?

Turkish officials, though, decided last month to allow the Muslim prayers and broadcasts at the site, which is now a heritage museum, until the end of the month.

"Since the United States are siding with the PKK [Kurdistan Workers' Party], and Germany has clung to the [Armenian] genocide lie, friendship has shifted," Samil Tayyar, a deputy for Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party, tweeted last week. "It's our turn. [Hagia] Sophia should be open for worship."

So, Christians will be allowed to worship there as well? The government's defence of the Ottoman slaughter of Armenians reveals the distance Erdogan has taken the country from Attaturk's secular vision of Turkey. That has been abandoned completely as Erdogan attempts to rebuild the Ottoman Empire with himself as Sultan.

Tayyar was referring to a resolution passed by Germany last week that considered mass killings of Americans (sic - Armenians) by Ottoman Turks in World War I a genocide. The declaration upset the Turkish government, which responded by recalling its ambassadors from Berlin.

Hagia Sophia, recognizable around the world for its large dome, was originally a Christian church and a Greek Orthodox cathedral centuries ago before it became an imperial mosque when the Ottoman Empire took power in the 15th century. It was turned into a secular museum in 1935 and designated a UNESCO world heritage site 50 years later.

Ramadan, a holy month of of fasting that commemorates the first revelation of the Koran to the Islamic prophet Muhammad, runs through July 5.

If CO2 Is To Blame, How Do You Explain the Dirty Thirties?

Remarkably few maximum temperature records set in recent decades despite global warming and the heat-island effect

During the Great Depression, CO2 levels were 25 per cent lower than today’s but severe climate change led to the Dirty Thirties

By Gwyn Morgan

The collapse of global commodity prices was sudden and severe. Workers coming off a decade of unprecedented prosperity suddenly found themselves jobless and unable to provide for their beleaguered families. 

For a time, they maintained hope that the downturn would be temporary, but as the first year stretched into the second, many lost hope. Some who had come from provinces of high unemployment to participate in the Alberta boom began their glum journey back. Laidoff workers saw a glimmer of hope when commodity prices appeared to bottom out. At the very least, it seemed, things wouldn’t get worse.

Then nature unleashed a crushing conflagration. Searing winds swept across drought-stricken farms and forests. A young boy comes running breathlessly into the house shouting to his mom, “There’s a big black cloud in the sky.” They hurry outside to behold a terrifying sight in the western sky that would force the family out of their home and into an uncertain future.

This is not, as it may seem, the story of the global oil price collapse combined with the Fort McMurray wildfire. The commodity price collapse in this story was caused by the economic earthquake of 1929 that launched the Great Depression. And the conflagration was the extremely hot and dry weather that turned the fertile prairie “breadbasket” into a drought-stricken wasteland. That black cloud was caused by hundreds of millions of tonnes of topsoil being blown away by the wind.

Impoverished farmers, hoping for an early end to the drought, were encouraged by a couple of years of improved weather. But it was only a temporary respite. The summers of 1936 and 1937 brought an abrupt reversal that proved even hotter, drier and windier. Tens of thousands of farms were abandoned in what is remembered as the Dirty Thirties, displacing 250,000 people whose only skill set was farming.

Inexplicably, the devastatingly hot conditions reversed in 1940, with the arrival of a cooling period that would last until 1975.

Since the Fort McMurray disaster, some have blamed the very product the people work to produce as the cause of the hot, dry weather that nurtured the wildfires. But analysis of temperature data over the past century shows some startling facts. First, the 1930s were by far the hottest period. Of the 10 highest temperature days ever recorded in Canada, seven occurred in the 1930s. And none of those top 10 temperature records were set during the past decade. Yet the atmospheric concentration of CO2 in the 1930s was some 25 per cent lower than today’s levels.

While theories abound, scientists have not been able to explain why, during a period of such low CO2 levels, such an abrupt shift from a long period of moderate temperatures and ample rainfall to devastatingly hot and dry conditions could occur. Likewise, scientists struggle to explain the equally sudden shift in 1940 that saw a 35-year-long cooling period even as greenhouse gas emissions rapidly increased.

See my theory on 30 year temperature cycles. It may help to explain this.

But whatever the answer to that question, one thing is crystal clear: Tying any single extreme weather event to atmospheric CO2 concentrations simply isn’t historically or scientifically credible.

The Fort McMurray fires took about one million barrels per day out of production. But did that reduce global consumption of fossil fuels? Of course not. Countries including Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Angola and Ivory Coast quickly filled the void.

Not only do these countries have appalling human rights records but, as we have become painfully aware, some of the proceeds from their sales are funnelled to extremist groups who shatter the lives of people throughout the Middle East and North African region and foment terror across the west.

Those who celebrated the Fort McMurray disaster as divine environmental justice need to know this: Shutting down the Canadian oilsands altogether would reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by a minuscule one-10th of a per cent, only to be replaced by oil from countries whose environmental and human rights records are vastly inferior to Canada’s.

My vote goes to the made-in-Canada oil produced by those resilient, hard-working Canadians who have been forced to endure job loses, destructive wildfires and environmental extremist schadenfreude as they proudly anchor a crucial economic cornerstone of our country.

I’ll take the values contained in their made-in-Canada oil over that Middle Eastern and North African stuff any day.

Gwyn Morgan is a retired Canadian business leader who has been a director of five global corporations. He was the founding president and chief executive officer of Encana. 

Not being one to take someone else's claims without first checking their veracity, I list below the Record Maximum daily temperatures for each month for several stations across Canada. These are actual data, not massaged and they are very interesting. All stations have data going back to at least 1928.

These temperatures are in degrees Celcius

Agassiz CDA, B.C.

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Extreme Maximum (°C)

17.2

21.7

25

32.2

36

36.7

38.3

39.4

35.6

28.3

21.1

17.2

Date (yyyy/dd)

1974/ 15

1906/ 10

1900/ 31

1900/ 29

1983/ 29

1925/ 25

1958/ 27

1898/ 10

1898/ 08

1923/ 01

1949/ 04

1935/ 01

Notice 8 of the 12 records occur before 1936. None occur after 1983.

Calgary A, Alta

Extreme Maximum (°C)

17.6

22.6

25.4

29.4

32.4

35

36.1

35.6

33.3

29.4

22.8

19.5

Date (yyyy/dd)

2003/ 07

1992/ 27

2004/ 30

1926/ 29

1986/ 30

1926/ 26

1919/ 15

1914/ 03

1967/ 01

1889/ 05

1975/ 04

1999/ 27

Notice: 6 records occur before 1927 incl 4 of 5 between Apr - Aug. Recent records are almost all wintertime.

Regina A, Sask

Extreme Maximum (°C)

10.4

15.6

24.4

32.8

37.2

40.6

43.3

40.6

37.2

32

23.6

15

Date (yyyy/dd)

2002/ 08

1932/ 28

1910/ 23

1952/ 28

1900/ 28

1988/ 05

1937/ 05

1949/ 06

1940/ 03

1992/ 01

1999/ 07

1939/ 08

Notice: 8 of 12 records before 1953, again most recent in winter

Toronto, Ont

Extreme Maximum (°C)

16.1

14.4

26.7

32.2

34.4

36.7

40.6

38.9

37.8

30

23.9

19.9

Date (yyyy/dd)

1967/ 25

1976/ 25

1946/ 28

1842/ 22

1962/ 18

1964/ 30

1936/ 08

1918/ 13

1953/ 02

1963/ 07

1950/ 01

1982/ 03

Notice: only 3 records before 1937, but all 9 remaining between 1946 -1982. This is a clear example of the heat-island effect in big cities

Montreal/St Hubert, Que

Extreme Maximum (°C)

13.9

15.3

23.7

30.6

33.3

35

35.6

35.6

33.8

28.9

22.8

17.1

Date (yyyy/dd) Notice: another heat-island effect here. Even so, only 2 records after 1981.

1995/ 15

1981/ 22

1977/ 30

1976/ 18

1962/ 19

1933/ 28

1955/ 10

1955/ 04

2002/ 09

1949/ 11

1938/ 07

2001/ 06

As a climate specialist, I would have expected many more record maximum temperatures to have occurred between the 1980s and 2010. Instead, only 15 record temperatures out of 60 occurred since 1979 and only 4 of them were in the 21st century - 3 of those 4 occurred in winter.

Any records that might have been set in the past year are solely the responsibility of the record strong El Nino.

The heat-island effect is the obvious rise in temperatures in a city because of the expansion of that city. Concrete, cement, and glass raise temperatures considerably more than grass and trees. The few records in Montreal and Toronto going back to the early nineteen hundreds are a testimony to that effect in Canada's two largest cities. The effect is still occurring and should have resulted in many more records in recent decades, but in fact, there are very few. 

Curious, huh?

Cuomo Issues Executive Order to Fight BDS

Photo by Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo

By Jacob Kornbluh 

NEW YORK – New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Sunday signed an executive order that orders state agencies to divest themselves of companies and organizations who support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against the state of Israel.

“In New York, we lead by example. We are also a place of action. We want to take immediate action because we want Israel to know that we are on their side,” Cuomo said during a speech, attended by Jewish leaders, at The Harvard Club. “If you boycott against Israel, New York will boycott you.”
The executive order – the first such signed by a governor – will command the commissioner of the Office of General Services to compile a list over the next six months of businesses and groups engaged in “boycott, divestment or sanctions activity targeting Israel, either directly or through a parent or subsidiary.”

Once the process is completed, all executive-branch agencies and departments will be required to divest themselves of any company on the list to be made public, according to the draft first published by The New York Times. “The State of New York will not permit its own investment activity to further the BDS campaign in any way, shape or form, whether directly or indirectly,” the order states.

“New York stands in solidarity with Israel today and always. This state will not stand for the politics of discrimination in any form, and we will continue to demonstrate our unwavering support for the people of Israel in the fight for freedom, liberty and democracy,” said Cuomo. “I’m proud to sign this nation’s leading executive order, which will help protect Israel from the threat of divestment.”

Cuomo called on governors from all states to follow his lead and take immediate action to fight the BDS movement. According to the governor’s office, Cuomo has been named as the Co-Chair of the American Jewish Committee’s Governors against BDS initiative. “This order sends the message that this state will do everything in its power to end this hateful, intolerant campaign. New York and Israel share an unbreakable bond and I pray that the Israeli and Palestinian people will find a way to live side by side and find peace, prosperity and security,” he said.

Following his speech, Cuomo marched in the Celebrate Israel parade on fifth avenue, alongside a truck blaring Israeli music. “I am the first governor in the country to sign an executive order saying we oppose the boycott of Israel. I am proud of it  and I hope other states follow our lead,” Cuomo told reporters before marching. “It is very important that Israel is strong, not just for the sake of Israel but for the sake of all democracies. Israel is an important strategic ally of the U.S. And we have to keep that relationship strong. And even in this difficult time of turmoil, I want Israel to know New York stands with them.”

Asked if he has responded to President Obama’s April letter requesting to lift state sanctions against Iran as part of the Iran nuclear deal, Cuomo said: “I would have to check. I don’t know if we have.”

Last month, Texas Governor Greg Abbott informed the Obama administration that the state of Texas would reject the administration’s request, sent to all states on April 8, 2016, to “review” its economic sanctions against Iran in order to abide by the terms of the international accord. He also urged other states to follow his lead and reject the administration’s request to lift state sanctions on Iran in a letter sent to 49 governors on May 31.

Senator Chuck Schumer on Sunday said he would seek to introduce the same idea to fight BDS on a federal level. “I think what the governor has done is an excellent idea,” Schumer told reporters. “I think that the state (of New York) should not do any business with any company that participates in BDS, and I am looking at introducing a federal law to do the same thing. BDS is a movement that is just totally unfair to Israel. They hold Israel to one standard and hold the other countries, including those who are sworn enemies to Israel, to another standard.”

Thai Tiger Temple Monk Caught Fleeing with Skins, Fangs

By AFP

Thai authorities uncovered a trove of animal parts and intercepted a monk trying to leave a controversial "tiger temple" with skins and fangs Thursday, the latest discovery to fuel accusations that the zoo is involved in the illegal wildlife trade.

Dozens of police and park officials have been stationed at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua temple in western Kanchanaburi province since Monday after receiving a court order to remove over 100 adult cats from the complex.

For decades the infamous temple has been a popular stop for tourists who pay a steep fee to pet and be photographed with the predators -- which animal rights groups say are heavily sedated.



Thai wildlife officials load a tiger into a cage on a truck after they removed it from an enclosure after the animal was anaesthetised at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi province, western Thailand on May 30, 2016 ©Christophe Archambault (AFP/File)

"Today we found tiger skins and amulets in a car which was trying to leave the temple," Adisorn Noochdumrong, the deputy director of Thailand's parks department, told AFP.

He said around 10 tiger fangs were also found in the truck, and that some of the hundreds of amulets contained tiger parts.

In addition to skins that were later found in monks' quarters, officials discovered a living lion, hornbill, sun bear and banteng (an endangered species of wild cattle) inside the temple compound, he said.

They also uncovered around 20 containers of preserved tiger parts holding "both whole bodies and organs to be used for medicines," Adisorn told AFP.

The discovery comes after authorities found dozens of dead tiger cubs inside a freezer at the temple Wednesday.

Animals rights groups and conservationists have long accused the temple of secretly acting as a tiger farm and reaping huge profits from selling animals and tiger parts on the black market for use in Chinese medicine.


A Thai wildlife official speaks with a monk before officials removed tigers from enclosures at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi province, western Thailand on May 30, 2016 ©Christophe Archambault (AFP/File)

The temple has always denied trafficking allegations and says it provides higher quality care for the animals than official park facilities.

Repeated efforts to shut down the site over the years have been delayed and complicated by the fact that secular Thai authorities are often reluctant to intervene in the affairs of the clergy.

Park authorities said they have removed 84 tigers so far this week and are transferring the animals to nearby breeding centres.

Police said they have not filed any criminal charges yet and are still investigating the temple.

Previous raids of the temple revealed that dozens of hornbills, jackals and Asian bears were also being kept at the sanctuary without proper permits.


Thai wildlife officials use a tunnel of cages to capture a tiger and remove it from an enclosure at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi province, western Thailand on May 30, 2016 ©Christophe Archambault (AFP/File)

Ready for Synthetic Designer Babies Without Parents?

Synthetic human genome could make it possible to create humans who lack biological parents

Project would use chemicals to create the DNA present in human chromosomes

Thomson Reuters 

An artist's illustration of the human genome, with its iconic DNA double helix, partly made up of human genes. The project proposes using chemicals to create the DNA present in the human genome. (Handout/National Human Genome Research Institute/Reuters)

A group of scientists on Thursday proposed an ambitious project to create a synthetic human genome, or genetic blueprint, in an endeavour that is bound to raise concerns over the extent to which human life can or should be engineered.

The project, which arose from a meeting of scientists last month at Harvard University, aims to build such a synthetic genome and test it in cells in the laboratory within 10 years. The project was unveiled in the journal Science by the experts involved.

A synthetic human genome could make it possible to create humans who lack biological parents. It would involve using chemicals to create the DNA present in human chromosomes. The scientists proposed the launch of what they called the Human Genome Project-Write, or HGP-write, later this year, and said they would seek public involvement and the consideration of ethical, legal and social implications.

Group seeking $100M US

The scientists said they hoped to get $100 million US in public and private funding to launch the project this year and expect total costs would be less than the $3 billion US used for the original Human Genome Project that completely mapped human DNA for the first time.

The new project "will include whole-genome engineering of human cell lines and other organisms of agricultural and public health significance, or those needed to interpret human biological functions," the 25 scientists, led by geneticist Jef Boeke of the New York University Langone Medical Center, wrote in the journal Science.

The group includes scientists from such institutions as Harvard Medical School, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the U.S. government's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Yale University, University of Edinburgh, Columbia University, the University of Washington, Autodesk Bio/Nano Research Group and others.

They said genome synthesis is "a logical extension" of the genetic engineering tools that have been used safely within the biotech industry for approximately 40 years and have "provided important societal benefits."

Three North Korean Waitresses Defect to South Korea

Pyongyang’s restaurants overseas are being hit hard by international sanctions

By Elizabeth Shim

An employee of a North Korean restaurant in the eastern Chinese city of Yanji tries to stop the camera crew from filming the site on April 11. Many of Pyongyang's state-run restaurants are being hit hard by sanctions, according to Seoul's spy agency. Photo by Yonhap/UPI

SEOUL, June 1 (UPI) -- Three North Korean waitresses who fled a restaurant in China in May have arrived in South Korea, according to government officials.

"It is true North Korean waitresses who once worked in a third-party country have entered the [South]," said a Seoul unification ministry official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, according to local news service News 1.

The defectors, all in their late twenties, were in in custody in Thailand before the South Korean embassy in Bangkok accepted them as refugees.

They all fled from the same restaurant near the historical city of Xi'an in central China.

Two of the women are 29 years old, and the third is 28. All are originally from Pyongyang, Yonhap reported.

The defections occurred on May 10, immediately after the end of North Korea's Seventh Party Congress.

The waitresses traveled by land carrying only bare necessities through China and Laos to reach Thailand. They probably did not have access to their passports.

The defections took place a month after a group of 13 defectors fled another China-based North Korean restaurant in early April.

More state workers who are trusted by the regime are leaving, possibly because of financial troubles.

Seoul's National Intelligence Service told South Korean parliamentarians on April 27 that North Korean restaurants overseas are being hit hard by international sanctions. About 20 North Korean restaurants in China, the United Arab Emirates and other locations have closed, according to the spy agency.

One of the 13 defectors who arrived in the South on April 7 had said that as "sanctions worsened, many saw that there is no hope in the North Korean regime...which is why we fled to Seoul."

Cuba has a Cancer Vaccine that Cost a Dollar, but Don't Get Excited

Cuban scientists have found a vaccine against lung cancer at the ridiculous price of a dollar, but the Americans could be several years before you can buy in the United States

CimaVax is a medicine and treatment for lung cancer that costs only $ 1. This vaccine, which is not a miracle cure, target the tumor by attacking the proteins that allow it to grow. Doctors hope that one day this vaccine becomes mandatory for children, as are those against measles, mumps and rubella. 

According to a 2007 study of patients with terminal lung cancer in more than half the cases there was a reduction of the tumor. However, the drug has yet to be approved by the US Agency for Food and Drug Administration ( Food and Drug Administation -FDA) before being marketed in the United States. This can take years and who knows how much it will cost once the major pharmaceutical companies have got their hands on it. 

Blogger's comments:
Well, we know for sure that once a pharmaceutical company gets control of the vaccine, it's price will sky-rocket. There are some pharmaceutical companies that have a conscience, but many who's only purpose is to separate you from your money regardless of whether it kills you.

My other concern is how long the FDA will take to approve the drug. Will pharmaceuticals influence the duration of the testing?