Saturday, February 12th, 2011
DANIEL STOLTE, - University of Arizona
Stephan: I have been following this story for some years since my friend, the late Christopher Bird introduced me to it. It is one of history's small fascinations, and this is the first real breakthrough. When I first saw the images they reminded me of the strange triangular shaped alchemical diary of the Compte de Saint-Germain with which I once spent an afternoon.
Click through to see them: http://voynichcentral.com/gallery to see the images of the pages.
University of Arizona researchers have cracked one of the puzzles surrounding what has been called ‘the world’s most mysterious manuscript’ – the Voynich manuscript, a book filled with drawings and writings nobody has been able to make sense of to this day.
Using radiocarbon dating, a team led by Greg Hodgins in the UA’s department of physics has found the manuscript’s parchment pages date back to the early 15th century, making the book a century older than scholars had previously thought.
This tome makes the ‘DaVinci Code’ look downright lackluster: Rows of text scrawled on visibly aged parchment, flowing around intricately drawn illustrations depicting plants, astronomical charts and human figures bathing in – perhaps – the fountain of youth. At first glance, the ‘Voynich manuscript’ appears to be not unlike any other antique work of writing and drawing.
An alien language
But a second, closer look reveals that nothing here is what it seems. Alien characters, some resembling Latin letters, others unlike anything used in any known language, are arranged into what appear to be words and sentences, except they don’t resemble anything written – or read – by human beings.
Hodgins, an assistant research scientist and assistant professor in the UA’s department of physics […]
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Saturday, February 12th, 2011
ERIC BOEHLERT, - MediaMatters for America
Stephan: I spent time today watching Fox News. Right wing media is truly a parallel universe, unmoored from facts. That millions of Americans actually watch and believe what they see and hear on these programs should be a very sobering realization. The degrading impact of these toxic fantasies on American life can hardly be over-emphasized.
Asked what most viewers and observers of Fox News would be surprised to learn about the controversial cable channel, a former insider from the world of Rupert Murdoch was quick with a response: ‘I don’t think people would believe it’s as concocted as it is; that stuff is just made up.
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Saturday, February 12th, 2011
EDMUND SANDERS, - Los Angeles Times
Stephan: The Israelis are going to have to be very supple to move through this enormous transformation in the Middle East, themselves. If they are smart they will support the development of a democratic Egypt. This will lead to the blossoming of a new era in the Middle East. However, if their Right wing prevails they will fail in this by responding, just as the American Right is, from fear and paranoia. It will be one of history's great lost opportunities to everyone's loss. If you want to get a sense of what this worldview looks like spend a hour with Fox News. I spent about two hours today listening to them. It is the Shadow parallel universe.
Our goal, I believe, as I wrote when the revolution began, is to help Egypt turn into a version of Turkey. A democracy with religious tolerance for all its citizens, a just legal system, and a robust private market. It will be more conservative than Turkey, but if it stabilizes in this way, within three years the Middle East will be transformed. Every other country in the region will see that it can be done, and people will see that radicalization just results in one's country becoming a pariah from most of the world, like Iran.
I think this democratic Egypt can happen. Not that it will, but that it can. Egypt has three major income streams, tourists, a bit of oil, and the Suez Canal. It is different than Iran. I lived in Egypt for most of two years, and know that every Egyptian understands prosperity flows in part from tourists, and that they will disappear if the country is radicalized, repressive, and violent. Also Egyptians like stability. They see themselves proudly as the heirs of one of humanity's great civilizations. Much will depend on how Israel and Egypt work out their relationship.
As Israel faces what many fear could turn into its most serious national security threat in decades, fault lines are widening over how it should respond and some critics say the government appears ill prepared.
With the resignation Friday of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who was widely seen as Israel’s most predictable Arab ally, a quiet panic is spreading here as Israelis debate their next move.
‘This whole situation is making Israel’s hawks more hawkish and the doves more dovish,’ said Yossi Alpher, a former government peace talks advisor and co-editor of Bitterlemons.net, a Middle East political research firm.
Critics say Israel’s leaders have so far seemed surprisingly unprepared to react to leadership change in
Egypt
, whose landmark 1979 peace treaty with Israel has long been a cornerstone of Israel’s stability.
Even as late as Thursday, many Israeli officials were still confidently predicting that Mubarak would survive until at least September. An Israeli lawmaker telephoned Mubarak on Thursday afternoon to offer words of encouragement.
‘They allowed themselves to go into denial,’ said Daniel Levy, a former Israeli Justice Ministry advisor who is now a senior fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington. ‘Now they’ve got no strategy and their options just narrowed.’
Levy said Israel […]
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Saturday, February 12th, 2011
Stephan: This story just never seems to end. There were three reports, from different parts of the country, just today. I chose this one because it gives a small sense of overview. I found this: 'In the United States, Roman Catholic archdioceses have collectively paid some $2 billion in settlements to victims since the priest sex scandals first erupted in Boston nearly a decade ago,' astonishing.
WILMINGTON, Delaware — A Roman Catholic diocese in Delaware agreed to settle 142 claims of sexual abuse by priests for $77 million, a spokesman for the diocese said on Thursday.
The settlement by the Wilmington diocese is roughly $3 million more than the diocese proposed in mid-January, when it said payouts would likely range from $75,000 to $3 million per victim, depending on the severity of the alleged abuse.
The diocese filed for bankruptcy in 2009 due to mounting sex abuse claims dating as far back as the 1950s.
In the United States, Roman Catholic archdioceses have collectively paid some $2 billion in settlements to victims since the priest sex scandals first erupted in Boston nearly a decade ago.
This settlement covers the diocese, with a Catholic population of about 233,000, and its parishes but not religious orders.
Attorney Jeff Anderson, who represented some of the Delaware victims and is a leading attorney in clergy abuse cases, praised the settlement as ‘welcome relief’ for victims after years of litigation.
‘This settlement, when approved by the court, will help them economically to further their healing but, just as important, the noneconomic reforms they devised and won will help vulnerable children now and in the future,’ Anderson said […]
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Friday, February 11th, 2011
AMANDA CHAN, Staff Writer - LiveScience
Stephan:
If you want lasting vision, eat your fish and nuts: The omega-3 fatty acids in these foods may protect against two leading causes of human blindness, a new study in mice has found.
The results showed omega-3s help regulate blood vessel growth in our eyes. That means the fatty acids could help prevent eye diseases such as retinopathy, caused by an overgrowth of leaky blood vessels in the eyes, and age-related macular degeneration, caused by abnormal growth of blood vessels, said study researcher Dr. Lois Smith, an ophthalmologist at Children’s Hospital Boston.
The fatty acids also activated proteins that improve insulin sensitivity, Smith said. Those proteins are the same ones targeted by type 2 diabetes drugs such as Avandia, so the finding shows that fatty acids could be used to improve insulin sensitivity in people with diabetes, she said.
‘Although more clinical studies need to be done, it appears possible that similar to mice, patients would have improved insulin sensitivity with omega-3 fatty acids, with no increased risk of heart disease,’ Smith told MyHealthNewsDaily.
To get the same beneficial health effects as the mice in the study, humans would have to consume 2 grams a day of omega-3 compounds docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic […]
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