Free Republic

One of the enduring consequences of the era of Phoenician influence -- which had by around 800 BC progressed from trading outposts to full-blown colonies in southern Spain -- was the adoption of alphabetic writing by the native population, first in the south-west. The number of known Tartessian inscriptions on stone is now about 90 and steadily rising with new discoveries. Concentrated densely in southern Portugal (the Algarve and Lower Alentejo), there is a wider scatter of fifteen over south-west Spain. The best exhibition of the inscriptions is on view in the new and innovative Museu da Escrita do Sudoeste,...

A new translation of the Bible updates the religious text with modern technology, replacing several words with emojis. The digital text titled “Bible Emoji: Scripture 4 Millenials” uses Apple’s vast library of emoticons to retell all 66 books of the Bible in a way intended to relate to young people.

......are Hit by Financial Oblivion Evacuation plans for British expats stranded in Spain and Portugal if their banking systems collapse are being drawn up by the Foreign Office. The contingency plans are being put in place to help thousands of Britons if they were unable to get to their money in the event of a catastrophic banking collapse in two of the most vulnerable eurozone economies. Around one million British expats live in Spain, particularly around Marbella and Malaga, and some 50,000 in Portugal. The Foreign Office is concerned that those who have invested savings in their adopted countries would...

Spain and Italy were both told to brace for a debt downgrade after a leading rating agency concluded that a "comprehensive solution to the eurozone crisis is technically and politically beyond reach". The eurozone’s third- and fourth-biggest economies were warned by Fitch of a “near-term” downgrade, alongside Ireland, Belgium, Slovenia and Cyprus. In a further blow, Belgium separately saw its credit rating downgraded two notches, to Aa3, by another leading agency, Moody’s. It cited the “sustained deterioration” in funding conditions for eurozone countries with relatively high levels of public debt, like Belgium, and new risks stemming from the country's troubled...

NOVEMBER 24, 2011, Portugal Hit by Downgrade and Strike BY PATRICIA KOWSMANN LISBON—Portugal suffered a double blow Thursday after Fitch Ratings downgraded its debt to junk, just as a nationwide strike shut public services amid growing discontent over austerity measures that are pushing the country into a deep recession. Fitch, which matched Moody's Investors Service's move in July to place Portugal in junk territory, lowered its rating one notch, to double-B-plus from triple-B-minus, and warned further downgrades were possible because a recession in the country will increase challenges for the government to comply with its austerity plans. It maintained a...

We Have Our Own eCat Says Defkalion November 20, 2011 | Author: admin An article in the Greek publication Tovima quotes Defkalion’s Alexander Xanthoulis as saying that the company has the eCat technology independent of Rossi and is almost ready to roll. They claim that their system is stable and that Rossi’s is not. According to their version of the split, that instability was at its centre and that AR did not demonstrate the eCat to the required specification – that of a stable run lasting at least 48 hours. Tovima Googlated: “We not only continue our program and we...

Roubini Nailed The Euro Crisis Six Years Ago, And Was Told To Shut Up By Italy's Finance Minister Gus Lubin Nov. 11, 2011, 11:54 AM ROUBINI: There's Only One Thing That Will Stop The 'Upcoming Disaster' In Europe Excellent pickup from Adam Button at ForexLive... Six years ago Nouriel Roubini was speaking at Davos when he was interrupted by a cry of "Go back to Turkey!" by Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti. Here's what Roubini was saying that pissed off the Italian: My current concerns are that, while EMU has lead to a process of convergence of nominal variables (inflation,...

Prime Minister George Papandreou will press forward with a referendum on the European Union's financing package and will win a vote of confidence, reports Bloomberg. "We’re not retreating and we haven’t retreated... http://www.breakingeconomics.com/2011/11/papandreou-will-press-on-with.html

On Monday, U.S. stocks racked up their best month in 20 years in October. Greek Premier George Papandreou said he will put Greece's bailout deal through a referendum, potentially undoing a long-awaited agreement struck just last week and sending European stocks down 4.4 percent. The region's bank shares fell 7.9 percent to $16.25. Greek opposition parties said the referendum was putting Greece's European Union membership at risk and instead called for a snap election. U.S. bank shares were expected to follow European lenders lower. The Financial Select Sector SPDR fell 4 percent with Bank of America down 5.9 percent and...

Less than two months ago, on the day after the 10th anniversary of September 11th, the Obama Administration suspended the most successful alien-interdiction program on the northern border. Border Patrol agents based in Rochester and Buffalo, who had taken thousands of illegal aliens into custody, were ordered to stand down. Specifically, a highly successful long-term monitoring of interstate buses and Amtrak trains was ordered to stop. Rochester and Buffalo became, for all intents and purposes, free-transit zones for illegal aliens. From the best enforcement in the northern tier of states, to no enforcement at all – in response to orders...

S&P Downgrades Spain One Notch, Citing Economic Woes OCTOBER 13, 2011, 7:13 P.M. ET DOW JONES NEWSWIRES Standard & Poor's Ratings Services on Thursday downgraded Spain a notch, citing increasingly unpredictable financing conditions that could squeeze a private sector already pressured by lackluster economic growth. The ratings cut is the latest blow to a large European sovereign's credit status after S&P last month downgraded Italy a notch, citing many of the same problems afflicting euro-zone economies. S&P expects the Spanish economy will grow at about 1% in real terms next year, a drop from the 1.5% pace it forecast in...

The ruling Socialists and the opposition center-right Popular Party cut a deal after hours of frantic negotiations to propose a law under which, starting in 2020, the national deficit cannot surpass 0.4 percent of the country's GDP............

My talented Facebook friend, Leisa Simone, wrote the following letter to Michele Bachmann, eloquently highlighting the reasons that no woman, conservative or progressive, should vote for this shyster; if the only qualification for president were breeding ability, she'd be a lock - but we fickle female Americans really kind of like intelligence, knowledge, and intellectual strength in our candidates, male or female. I share Leisa's sentiments in their entirety - she stated very passionately what I, and many others, are thinking: "Dear Michele Bachmann: You've made many ignorant and idiotic statements, but there was one that angered me so much,...

The sonar scans of manmade structures one mile below water off the southeast coast of Cyprus were presented here Thursday by Robert Sarmast, head of the Cyprus/Atlantis Expedition project for the first time. Announcing the results of last year’s expedition to find one of humankind’s greatest mysteries, the legendary Atlantis, Sarmast presented three dimension underwater side-scan sonar pictures of structures 1.5 km below sea level, 80 km off the southeast coast of Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean. He said it was no coincidence that his team discovered a 3km long straight wall intersected at right angles by another wall, adding...

Friday's National Non-Smoking Day turned out to be a non-event for several for smokers The Royal Gazette caught up with. One smoker, who did not want to be named, said she had "no idea it was going on", and "was not sure if she would not have smoked if she had known". The Hamilton office worker who was outside smoking said that she "did not think it would have made a difference." Another man said he thought it was "a stupid idea because people should have choices. They have choices for everything else, we should have choices if we smoke...

The Atlantis between Spain and Morocco Revealing discoveries  Expedition: "The Ibero-Marroqui Atlantis '"   By Maria Fdez-Valmayor  A Scientific Expedition has started off at the end of this summer for the area of the Straits of Gibraltar in search of possible ruins of the well-known civilization like Atlantis by Plato. According to the project? Atlantis Ibero-Moroccan, between the coasts of southwest of the Iberian Peninsula and the northwest of Africa evidences of cities or submerged coastal villages of the Age of the Bronze would have to be, that could belong to the Island or Peninsula of Atlantis. The expedition...