René O'Deay gBlog

"At a rough estimate, over 2 million objects from ancient Egypt are kept in about 850 public collections, dispersed over 69 countries around the world. This website aims to collect them into a global virtual museum, which can be visited at any time, from any place.

The Global Egyptian Museum is a long-term project, carried out under the aegis of the International Committee for Egyptology (CIPEG).

The Basic Mode, currently showcasing 1301 highlights, is geared to the interested public. A glossary of more than 400 items explains Egyptian terms and themes. Many objects are provided with audio comments and 3D-movies.

The Advanced Mode, equipped with a powerful search and data entry engine, opens up the full database - presently 11321 objects - to professionals and amateurs.

Kids! offers information for children at the age of 8-12 years in an interactive way."The Global Egyptian Museum

I've also posted about this fabulous online directory at my Yahoo360 blog: Blasts from the Past.

A fabulous example of how useful this site could be, check out this link to one of the jewels of King Tut.It breaks down the symbols with translations.

Enjoy!

René

Don't believe everything you see and hear in documentaries produced by Discovery and National Geographic.

Recent documentaries have Dr. Zawi Hawass stating that the mother of King Tut was an obscure Queen called Kia, and his father was Akhenaten.

In reality, archaeologists and Egyptologists have no idea who his mother and father were. There are just no hard facts to support anyone's theories, and that's just what they are: Theories!

Hawass has an unfair advantage to push his theories as fact, his position as the 'Czar' of Egyptology, the Supreme Head of Egyptian Archaeology, all the documentaries he now stars in and profits from, as well as his books that accompany the hugely popular tour of Tutankhamen's Treasures.

Even the reknown Dr. Kent Weeks, head of the Theban Mapping Project, says they have no facts to support any theory about Tut's parents.

So many of these documentaries come out with the host or author claiming to 'know' for fact,when they don't, or with so many fallacies about known facts, it is amazing. And I really get disgusted.

My novel, Sun Child, Prince of Egypt, supports one possible theory about Tut's parents, but it is a novel, and I have that right. It is not an impossible theory, in fact some respected and accredited Egyptologists share the same theory.

So how much truth do you think is in this video about Howard Carter and the Discovery of the Tomb of King Tut?



Do chime in and let me know what your views are.

René

New Orleans Time-Picayune at NOLA.com is the top online news site:

A national organization called the Media Audit has just ranked The News’ two Web sites (buffalo. com and buffalonews.com) fourth in the nation among newspaper Web sites, based on the percentage of adults who have visited in the past 30 days. The top sites are those of the New Orleans Times Picayune, the Washington Post and the San Antonio Express News.

Source: buffalonews.com

See the Media Audit Nov. 2007 newsletter about it.

Tags: New Orleans | San Antonio | Washington | achieving | days | Hours | minutes | news | Site | Technology | Web

Amazon Sales Rank Express ~ Web Widget
"What It Is The S.R.E. Web Widget adds a small portion of the power of Sales Rank Express to your own blog or Web site. It will show your visitors the current Amazon sales rank, customer rating, and other info for one or more books, CDs, DVDs, or anything else, on Amazon.com or any other Amazon site worldwide. Also included is a link to the item’s page on that site, which can include your Amazon affiliate ID for commissioned sales.
Example appears below.
The widget is designed for safety and efficiency. It will not delay or slow down the loading of the rest of your page, even if a temporary glitch or other problem makes the widget fail. It will not compromise the security of your page with active code. And it can be installed by anyone with the slightest familiarity with HTML. "
The SRE Widget!

Get your SRE Widget here from Andy:
Sales Rank Express ~ Web Widget

This is an Amazing Amazon widget, which could be very useful and time-saving for Authors.

I think you can do a little tweaking to get it to match your site.
Thanks to Dorothy at the WritersLife for the heads up.

René

Pitt Unveils New Project in Interview

To get in on the Pink Action with Brad and Angelina check out the Make It Right website.

I'd call this an interesting campaign with an innovative interactive use of the internet to get the public involved in this project.

I also have a lot of respect for Brad and Angelina finding such incredible beneficial uses for the celebrity status they possess.

I like the Concordia and the GRAFT(shown) designs the best of the 13 architects' visions shown on Make it Right.


Which one do you like?

Be sure and let us all know in a comment.

René O'Deay

Electricity revives Bali coral reefs

By JOSEPH COLEMAN

ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

photo

A reporter inspects corals growing on a metal structures submerged by conservationists and fed by electrical cables linked to the shoreline, in Pemuteran bay, Bali, Indonesia, Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2007. As thousands of delegates, experts and activists debate climate at a massive conference that opened Monday in southern Bali, the coral restoration project across the island illustrates the creative ways scientists are attacking the ill-effects of global warming.(AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

PEMUTERAN BAY, Indonesia -- Just a few years ago, the lush coral reefs off Bali island were dying out, bleached by rising temperatures, blasted by dynamite fishing and poisoned by cyanide. Now they are coming back, thanks to an unlikely remedy: electricity.

The coral is thriving on dozens of metal structures submerged in the bay and fed by cables that send low-voltage electricity, which conservationists say is reviving it and spurring greater growth.

Source: seattlepi.nwsource.com

Tags: Bali | CORAL | Indonesia | southern | activists | ATTACKING | blasted | BLEACHED | cables | Climate | coming | conference | conservationists | Creative | cyanide | Debate | DELEGATES | dying | dynamite | ELECTRICAL | Environment | EXPERTS | fishing | global | ill-effects | illustrates | linked | lush | massive | Monday | opened | Pemuteran | poisoned | project | REEFS | remedy | Restoration | revives | rising | SCIENTISTS | shoreline | structures | SUBMERGED | temperatures | Thanks | Thousands | tuesday | unlikely | Ways | YEARS

by Mike Adams

The end of Free Speech in America has arrived at our doorstep. It's a new law called the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, and it is worded in a clever way that could allow the U.S. government to arrest and incarcerate any individual who speaks out against the Bush Administration, the war on Iraq, the Department of Homeland Security or any government agency (including the FDA). The law has already passed the House on a traitorous vote of 405 to 6, and it is now being considered in the Senate where a vote is imminent. All over the internet, intelligent people who care about freedom are speaking out against this extremely dangerous law: Philip Giraldi at the Huffington Post, Declan McCullagh at CNET's News.com, Kathryn Smith at OpEdNews.com, and of course Alex Jones at PrisonPlanet.com

This bill is the beginning of the end of Free Speech in America. If it passes, all the information sources you know and trust could be shut down and their authors imprisoned. NewsTarget could be taken offline and I could be arrested as a "terrorist." Jeff Rense at www.Rense.com could be labeled a "terrorist" and arrested. Byron Richards, Len Horowitz, Paul Craig Roberts, Greg Palast, Ron Paul and even Al Gore could all be arrested, silenced and incarcerated. This is not an exaggeration. It is a literal reading of the law, which you can check yourself here: http://thomas.loc.gov/home/gpoxmlc110/h1955_rfs.xml

The bill states:

‘...ideologically based violence’ means the use, planned use, or threatened use of force or violence by a group or individual to promote the group or individual’s political, religious, or social beliefs...

Note that this means the "planned use of force to promote a political or social belief" would be considered an act of terrorism. This all hinges on the definition of "force," of course. Based on the loose use of logic in Washington these days, and the slippery interpretation of the meaning of words, "force" could mean:

• A grassroots campaign to barrage Congress with faxes

• A non-violent street protest

• A letter-writing campaign that deluges the Senate with too much mail

• A sit-in protest that blocks access to a business or organization

• A grassroots e-mail campaign that overloads the e-mail servers of any government department or agency

You get the idea. "Force" could be defined as practically anything. And since the "planned use of force" would be considered a criminal act of terrorism, anyone who simply thinks about a grassroots action campaign would be engaged in terrorist acts.

If you stopped someone on the street and handed them a Bible, for example, this could be considered an act of terrorism ("...use of force to promote the individual's religious beliefs...")

If you sent a barrage of angry letters to Washington about global warming and the destruction of the environment by the U.S. military, this could also be considered an act of terrorism ("...to promote the individual's political beliefs...")

If you believe in same-sex marriage and you wrote a letter threatning a sit-in protest in front of your state's capitol building, this could also be considered an act of terrorism, even if you never carried it out! ("...planned use of force to promote a social belief...")

The United States is on the fast track to fascism, and the Congress is working right alongside this nation's traitorous leaders to criminalize any thoughts, words or speeches that disagree with current government policies regarding war, terrorism, domestic surveillance and civil liberties. Simply speaking out against the war on Iraq could soon be labeled a crime. Merely thinking thoughts against the war on Iraq could be considered a criminal act.

Source: newstarget.com via René

 

This must be the "Legacy" Bush is so anxious about that he wants to leave us. 

 

Tags: Bush | campaign | clever | Congress | freedom | America | arrest | arrived | BARRAGE | bill | blogs | books | called | CNET | considered | criminal | dangerous | E-MAIL | extremely | Government | Politics

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie start new project in New Orleans. Announcement to come Monday.

A few blocks in the Lower 9th Ward, along the levee from North Derbigny to North Galvez streets, were studded with odd, very large pink blocks, as big as houses, 100 or more of them, with pink roof shapes lying beside them on empty lots.

The empty lots had been a neighborhood until they were scoured by surging floodwaters after the levees broke during Hurricane Katrina, then were scoured again months later by bulldozers after the houses that had stood there were deemed unsalvageable. Now big pink blocks stood everywhere.

The pink blocks look stark and strange in the otherwise brown and olive landscape, like enormous, blank Monopoly houses. They could be mistaken for art, as if Christo, the master environmental artist who wraps whole buildings, bridges and even islands in garish fabric, had been at work.

But the pink blocks may be more than artistic. They may be symbolic stand-ins for real houses to come.

On Monday at 11 a.m., actor Brad Pitt is scheduled to stand in the surrealistic scene and announce details of his "Make It Right" project, a plan to create more than 100 affordable, ecologically sound homes where the pink shapes now stand.

On Nov. 9, at the Clinton Global Initiative in Manhattan, Pitt pledged $5 million to the project, challenging others to match his largess. Producer and environmental philanthropist Steve Bing contributed $5 million. A team of architects led by John Williams of New Orleans began

Source: blog.nola.com via René

Here they are:

"So what are those Big Pink Houses?" 

Some claim this is just a 'band-aid', but ask residents what they think, and they are excited, elated, and filled with hope that someone besides a nonresponsive federal agency is doing something to bring New Orleans back. 

Tags: Hurricane | Angelina Jolie | BLOCKS | Brad Pitt | Green Project | houses | Katrina | levee | Life | lots | lower | lying | new_orleans

WASHINGTON -- Louisiana's hopes for repairing and restoring its tattered coast took a major step forward Thursday as the Bush administration approved the state's plan to use $255 million in federal money for more than 100 conservation and diversion projects, including major efforts in the New Orleans area.

Louisiana's share is based largely on the royalty revenue from oil and

gas production off its shores, MMS spokeswoman Eileen Angelico said.

Source: blog.nola.com

Does that mean Louisiana will finally get it's "fair share"?

Tags: Bush | federal | hopes | Louisiana | New Orleans | Washington | Administration | approved | coastal | Conservation | diversion | efforts | eligible | Environment | finances | gets | including | Management | MINERALS | projects | REPAIRING | restoring | SERVICE | tattered | thursday | tier

By Peter Griffiths

LONDON (Reuters) - A "cyber cold war" waged over the world's computers threatens to become one of the biggest threats to security in the next decade, according to a report published on Thursday.

About 120 countries are developing ways to use the Internet as a weapon to target financial markets, government computer systems and utilities, Internet security company McAfee said in an annual report.

Intelligence agencies already routinely test other states' networks looking for weaknesses and their techniques are growing more sophisticated every year, it said.

Governments must urgently shore up their defenses against industrial espionage and attacks on infrastructure.

Source: reuters.com via René

Cyber attacks stem from China and Russia among others.

Mcafee Report

Tags: London | according | agencies | annual | become | biggest | Computer | countries | Crime | CYBER | decade | developing | Government | growing | Intelligence | internet | Looking | Markets | McAfee | networks | published | report | routinely | Security | sophisticated | states | systems

Tibet’s spiritual and political leader says that he or the Tibetan government-in-exile will recognise successor. Lama tells AsiaNews that first option “is the best choice possible, an exceptional move decided in a moment of need.”

Rome (AsiaNews) – The Dalai Lama’s decision to name his own reincarnation to avoid further Chinese influence on Tibet “is currently the best possible option. The Tibetan people agree with its leader who is taking an importance decision right when it is necessary,” Lama Geshe Gedun Tharchin, founder of the Lam-Rim Institute of Tibetan Culture and professor at the Institute for Oriental and African Studies in Rome, told AsiaNews.

Source: asianews.it

This is becoming decidedly strange.

Tags: Beijing | Lama | oriental | AsiaNews | avoid | Chinese | Choice | currently | Dalai | decision | exceptional | government-in-exile | importance | influence | leader | People | recognise | Reincarnation | says | spiritual | successor | taking | tibet | tibetan

Dhaka, Nov 24 - Several hundred activists of the radical Islamic group Hizb ut Tahrir staged protests here before the arrival of two ships of the US Navy for distributing relief supplies among cyclone-affected people.

Two warships, USS Essex and USS Kearsarge -- each carrying 20 helicopters and 3,500 marines on board with emergency relief supplies, medical and emergency evacuation teams -- are scheduled to enter Bangladesh waters Saturday and Tuesday.

The

protesters Friday carried a banner reading 'Prevent American ships from

entering the Bay of Bengal in the name of distributing relief' and

chanted slogans 'Go back to America' and 'US has no place in

Bangladesh'.

Source: earthtimes.org via René

Tags: America | Bangladesh | Cyclone | dhaka | essex | kearsarge | marines | -affected | activists | arrival | carried | distributing | Emergency | evacuation | HELICOPTERS | Hizb | ISLAMIC | Islamists | naval | navy | presence | protest | RADICAL | relief | Saturday | scheduled | SHIPS | Weather

Here's an offer to win a free LapTop without filling out endless surveys. All you have to do is blog about it. Like this example provided:

Big Giveaway, Real Prize: RuffBook Water Resistant Laptop! ~ The Thinking Blog ~ Knowledge Grows When Shared: "The Thinking Blog is holding a free laptop giveaway and to participate, you just have to write about it! Sponsored by Ruff PC, it is a brand new, rugged, water resistant laptop called RuffBook Tech with magnesium alloy casing built to survive under harsh conditions where ordinary laptops fail. So, this is my entry - now give me the laptop! "

But Ilker has me just wondering if he will update the RuffTop prize with all the microsoft substitutes he lists on his list of great Microsoft Substitutes

The rest of his requirements are posted on the links provided.

More joy. He's got some great sites.

René

Source: reneodeay.blogspot.com via René

Tags: Blog | giveaway | Laptop | Microsoft | Prize | provided | resistant | RuffBook | substitutes | Technology | thinking

Here's an offer to win a free LapTop without filling out endless surveys. All you have to do is blog about it. Like this example provided:

Big Giveaway, Real Prize: RuffBook Water Resistant Laptop! ~ The Thinking Blog ~ Knowledge Grows When Shared: "The Thinking Blog is holding a free laptop giveaway and to participate, you just have to write about it! Sponsored by Ruff PC, it is a brand new, rugged, water resistant laptop called RuffBook Tech with magnesium alloy casing built to survive under harsh conditions where ordinary laptops fail. So, this is my entry - now give me the laptop! "

But Ilker has me just wondering if he will update the RuffTop prize with all the microsoft substitutes he lists on his list of great Microsoft Substitutes

The rest of his requirements are posted on the links provided.

More joy. He's got some great sites.

René

Chinese Imports hurt another traditional US industry. First they put the Washington applegrowers out of business, now it's the shrimpers.

"I never thought I could deal with this in America, especially in my hometown," said Grand Isle Mayor David Camardelle, also a licensed commercial fisher. "We've got the best seafood in the world in our back yard .¤.¤. that's all they know how to do, get on the boats and make a living."

Prices force closure

...starting in 2001, the price at which Wayne Estay Shrimp Co could sell shrimp to
processors kept sinking due to an influx of cheaper imported seafood.
From 1995 until last year, the domestic shrimp industry's share of the
U.S. market was cut in half; it now is responsible for less than 10
percent of the total value of shrimp brought into the United States.

Making less profit, Estay took more risks, such as cutting back on insurance for his buildings and equipment.

Those cutbacks proved fatal when Katrina wiped away everything he
owned. Still, he spent $800,000 rebuilding from the ground up, prodded
by his wife and encouraged by initially higher shrimp production in the
months after the storm.

But prices remained flat.

Source: blog.nola.com via René

Who's next?

Tags: America | brink | fisher | gulf | Hurricane | ISLE | Louisiana | boats | DOCKS | Money & Stuff | Shrimp

For the first time in over two decades the New Orleans City Council has a white majority. Although the split between white and black voters is about 50-50, successful candidates pulled votes from both sides.

White candidates win key black-held seats

"Katrina rearranged the political deck in New Orleans," Xavier University pollster and sociologist Silas Lee said.

Never has the new dynamic been more in play than in Saturday's at-large race.

The Criminal District Court judge seat  was won by a white candidate for the first time in years.

"In the future you're going to have to satisfy the entire city of New Orleans," said Lambert Boissiere, a former City Council member and state senator. "You can't just . . . satisfy one sector."

 University of New Orleans political scientist Ed Chervenakstudies have shown that as the racial composition of a city's electorate approaches a 50-50 split, the political atmosphere tends to grow more contentious as the former majority group suddenly must share the stage.

"Since one group has been dominant for so long, they've just had their way politically, and now they're being challenged," he said. "No one likes to give up power."

Whether that angst will take hold in New Orleans will depend largely on whether newly elected leaders, particularly Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson, who won the at-large seat on the New Orleans City Council, consider the needs of all residents when governing and forming alliances with other politicians.

"You may see candidates represent both sides better than they have in the past," Boissiere said. "Hopefully it will end some of the racial connotations on elections and you'll see people, black and white, start to represent both sides of the equation."

Times-Picayune story by Michelle Krupa, Nov. 19, 2007

Source: nola.com via René

Upcoming elections promise to be interesting, for a change. 

Tags: New Orleans | Candidates | composition | ELECTED | ELECTORATE | Politicians | Politics | racial | residents | sides

Daily News Egypt - Full Article: "Decade-old Luxor massacre changed tourism, terrorism in Egypt
By Daily News Egypt: November 16, 2007 [AP ]
AP: Coffins of 36 victims of the Luxor massacre, 35 Swiss and one foreign Swiss resident, are lined up in a hangar of Zurich airport late in this Nov. 19, 1997 file photo after arriving on an Egyptair flight from Cairo. A total of 58 foreigners were massacred at the Hatshepsut temple
CAIRO: It was a stunning attack, still recalled with horror a decade later: Terrorists armed with knives and automatic weapons massacred 58 foreign tourists, mainly Germans, Swiss and Japanese, at one of Egypt's most popular pharaonic temples. But despite the dramatic bloodshed, the Nov. 17, 1997 attack at Hatshepsut temple in Luxor turned out to be the last gasp in the wave of terrorism that struck Egypt in the 1990s.(?) The 10-year anniversary of the attack highlights the changes that have happened since in Egypt — both in tourism and terrorism.

An Egyptian fundamentalist living in exile in London, says radicals in Egypt have only gone underground, shifting from organized groups to more fragmented ones more difficult to spot.

"Egypt might be witnessing a period calmness but it's just temporarily," said El-Sirri who is facing two death sentences in Egypt for alleged involvement in terrorist groups.

"Groups in Egypt ... might exploit the current social and economic crises to wage new, more dangerous round of terrorism."

Who are they trying to fool?

"...the last gasp in the wave of terrorism that struck Egypt in the 1990s."??

Terrorists have struck tourists in Egypt again and again since then.

Would you go?
René

New Orleans resident landlords of small rental properties are SOL from Road Home program.

A program designed to replace thousands of affordable rental units destroyed by Hurricane Katrina has not rebuilt a single one.

Source: reneodeay.blogspot.com via René

Tags: Hurricane | Louisiana | New Orleans | APPLICANT | FINANCING | forgivable | Katrina | landlord-applicants | Money & Stuff | program | reconstruction | rental | Srpp | stuck

Gambit Weekly : November 13, 2007: The Road Home's Small Rental Property Program isn't a traditional loan program at all; instead, it's an 'incentive" program. Worse yet, the rules apply in a Catch-22 fashion: Only after construction is completed " at the landlord's sole expense " and a rehabilitated property is thoroughly inspected (and a qualified low-income renter identified) can an applicant receive a forgivable loan. Until construction is finished and all paperwork and inspections are completed, landlord-applicants are on their own. Most difficult of all, they have to get their own financing to rebuild. While a forgivable SRPP loan sounds great, the banks that are financing reconstruction work expect timely repayment of every loan they make to SRPP applicants.

Somehow, that crucial bit of information didn't filter out to thousands of small-scale landlords like Mattie Mack.

A program designed to replace thousands of affordable rental units destroyed by Hurricane Katrina has not rebuilt a single one.

Louisiana Recovery Authority's Road Home 'Small Rental Property Program" (SRPP). The SRPP is a companion of sorts to the Road Home homeowners program, which has received tons of publicity. Both programs are administered by ICF International Inc.

SRPP started taking applications in January 2007.
Unfortunately, SRPP isn't helping them. In fact, since January, SRPP hasn't helped any landlords. As of last week, SRPP had not issued a single check for one of the forgivable loans, despite its $869 million budget and Louisiana's loss of 82,000 rental units as a result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

By David Winkler-Schmit for Gambit Weekly : Stuck on Stuck : November 13, 2007

From Ashley's buddy Skip in Vienna, the latest in fashion for the well-heeled New Orleanian.

Ashley Morris: the blog: Well-heeled

Yesterday morning I cried. I didn't know why until I checked my forum on Glyphdoctors.com.

News | Africa - Reuters.com: "LUXOR, Egypt (Reuters) - Egypt put the mummy of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamun on display in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings on Sunday, giving visitors their first chance to see the face of a ruler who died more than 3,000 years ago. In the dimly lit burial chamber workmen removed the gilded lid of Tutankhamun's mummy case and then hoisted the padded box containing the mummy out of the stone sarcophagus where it has lain for most of the time since Tutankhamun's early death. They then moved it to a climate-controlled acrylic glass showcase in the tomb's antechamber and sealed the cover. His wizened face is visible at one end, a white linen cloth covers his body and his blackened feet protrude at the other end. The mummy's face has high cheekbones and cracked and blackened skin with an intact nose."

Zahi Hawass, the Egyptian government's chief archaeologist and a passionate promoter of ancient Egypt, supervised the operation, broadcast live on some television channels.

"The face of Tutankhamun is different from the face of any king at the Cairo Museum," Hawass told reporters.

"He has these beautiful buck teeth and ... the tourists will see a little bit of a smile on the face of the golden boy," he added. "This will ... make the golden boy live forever."

The mummy will be visible to the general public from Monday.

First reactions from tourists were mixed.

Sergei Gostev, a Russian who said he based his opinion on his Christian beliefs, opposed the display. "I think any corpse of a body, even a mummy, should stay in its original place. It should not be a subject of a show," he told Reuters.

Although the artefacts have toured the world, the mummified body has been examined in detail only a handful of times.

Until Sunday, Tutankhamun's mummy had rested in a gilded coffin inside the stone sarcophagus inside the tomb.

But Hawass said humidity caused by the breathing of thousands of visitors a day threatened to further damage the mummy, which has deteriorated over the years.

Here's some of the photos of the operation from Fox News:



They take Tut out of his beautiful gold-covered coffin and his sarcophagus.



And put him in a plain wooden box under glass, with his bare head and feet exposed.

No beaded skull cap nor the golden headband. What did they do with them? Did they remove them for the xrays or the Cat scan?

And what about the gold covered coffin? Where is that?

And Hawass promised to open the last remaining offerings left this King who has brought economically untold millions, perhaps billions, to Egypt since his tomb was discovered and stripped in 1922.

He'll undoubtedly remove those too, "for safe-keeping'.

René O'Deay