mama doesn’t care, mama’s lettin’ loose
mama doesn’t care, mama’s lettin’ loose
Employees of Greece’s state TV and Radio Corporation have seized the headquarters in Athens following government plans to suspend it under pressure from austerity cuts.
Soon to be laid-off ERT (Hellenic Radio and Television) employees took over the state network’s headquarters on Tuesday night. Witnesses said dozens of journalists and employees were flown to protests at the building in Athens, according to Der Spiegel.
Employees have also called for a general media blackout in protest, reports Reuters.
“From this time the ERT has passed to the control of workers, not management,” said former technical director of the company, Nick Michalitsis, speaking to the assembled workers on Radiomegaro.
Riot police have been dispatched to deal with protesters, according to local channel Avgi. There has been a further outcry from both trade unions and junior coalition partners.
ERT was described as a “haven of waste” by Government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou, who made the announcement. “There are no tolerances for “sacred cows” that remain intact when cuts are being applied everywhere,” he said in a statement. Both TV and radio channels will go dead between midnight and early Wednesday morning, causing their 2,500 employees to be jobless until it reopens.
The official cutoff had initially been declared as midnight. However, journalists continued to broadcast following a signal to stop.
Source: http://rt.com/news/austerity-greece-state-media-542/Now tell me again how protesting is a waste of time?!! If we stand together against the banksters and corporations - they lose! They always have and they always will because we seriously out number them and because it doesn’t take long for the police, military, and other public “servants” to realize that they are being screwed over just as badly as those who are protesting! When they do, they fight with US against the criminal 1% and then they have no choice but to run, hide, and cower in fear!
So where’s this #doomofgloom at? (at Life On Grand)
“Future Cop” (at Origin Of The Cosmos)
Fluorescent Trails
Jack Hardwicke
Heracleion Photos: Lost Egyptian City Revealed After 1,200 Years Under Sea
CNN Video [Breaking News]: Lost Egyptian City Revealed
It is a city shrouded in myth, swallowed by the Mediterranean Sea and buried in sand and mud for more than 1,200 years. But now archeologists are unearthing the mysteries of Heracleion, uncovering amazingly well-preserved artifacts that tell the story of a vibrant classical-era port.
Known as Heracleion to the ancient Greeks and Thonis to the ancient Eygptians, the city was rediscovered in 2000 by French underwater archaeologist Dr. Franck Goddio and a team from the European Institute for Underwater Acheology (IEASM) after a four-year geophysical survey. The ruins of the lost city were found 30 feet under the surface of the Mediterranean Sea in Aboukir Bay, near Alexandria.A new documentary highlights the major discoveries that have been unearthed at Thonis-Heracleion during a 13-year excavation. Exciting archeological finds help describe an ancient city that was not only a vital international trade hub but possibly an important religious center. The television crew used archeological survey data to construct a computer model of the city (above, last image).
According to the Telegraph, leading research now suggests that Thonis-Heracleion served as a mandatory port of entry for trade between the Mediterranean and the Nile.
So far, 64 ancient shipwrecks and more than 700 anchors have been unearthed from the mud of the bay, the news outlet notes. Other findings include gold coins, weights from Athens (which have never before been found at an Egyptian site) and giant tablets inscribed in ancient Greek and ancient Egyptian. Researchers think that these artifacts point to the city’s prominence as a bustling trade hub.
Researchers have also uncovered a variety of religious artifacts in the sunken city, including 16-foot stone sculptures thought to have adorned the city’s central temple and limestone sarcophagi that are believed to have contained mummified animals.
For more photos, visit Goddio’s Heracleion website.
Experts have marveled at the variety of artifacts found and have been equally impressed by how well preserved they are.
“The archaeological evidence is simply overwhelming,” Professor Sir Barry Cunliffe, a University of Oxford archeologist taking part in the excavation, said in a press release obtained by The Huffington Post. “By lying untouched and protected by sand on the sea floor for centuries they are brilliantly preserved.”
A panel of experts presented their findings at an Oxford University conference on the Thonis-Heracleion excavation earlier this year.
But despite all the excitement over the excavation, one mystery about Thonis-Heracleion remains largely unsolved: Why exactly did it sink? Goddio’s team suggests the weight of large buildings on the region’s water-logged clay and sand soil may have caused the city to sink in the wake of an earthquake.
WATCH: Colossal Sunken Statues Of Thonis-Heracleion
PHOTO GALLERY: Lost city of Heracleion
From Legend to Reality
Thonis-Heracleion (the Egyptian and Greek names of the city) is a city lost between legend and reality. Before the foundation of Alexandria in 331 BC, the city knew glorious times as the obligatory port of entry to Egypt for all ships coming from the Greek world. It had also a religious importance because of the temple of Amun, which played an important role in rites associated with dynasty continuity. The city was founded probably around the 8th century BC, underwent diverse natural catastrophes, and finally sunk entirely into the depths of the Mediterranean in the 8th century AD.Prior to its discovery in 2000 by the IEASM, no trace of Thonis-Heracleion had been found. Its name was almost razed from the memory of mankind, only preserved in ancient classic texts and rare inscriptions found on land by archaeologists. The Greek historian Herodotus (5th century BC) tells us of a great temple that was built where the famous hero Herakles first set foot on to Egypt. He also reports of Helen’s visit to Heracleion with her lover Paris before the Trojan War. More than four centuries after Herodotus’ visit to Egypt, the geographer Strabo observed that the city of Heracleion, which possessed the temple of Herakles, is located straight to the east of Canopus at the mouth of the Canopic branch of the River Nile.
The Discovery
With his unique survey-based approach that utilises the most sophisticated technical equipment, Franck Goddio and his team from the IEASM, in cooperation with the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, were able to locate, map and excavate parts of the city of Thonis-Heracleion, which lies 6.5 kilometres off today’s coastline. The city is located within an overall research area of 11 by 15 kilometres in the western part of Aboukir Bay. Franck Goddio has found important information on the ancient landmarks of Thonis-Heracleion, such as the grand temple of Amun and his son Khonsou (Herakles for the Greeks), the harbours that once controlled all trade into Egypt, and the daily life of its inhabitants. He has also solved a historic enigma that has puzzled Egyptologists over the years: the archaeological material has revealed that Heracleion and Thonis were in fact one and the same city with two names; Heracleion being the name of the city for the Greeks and Thonis for the Egyptians.The objects recovered from the excavations illustrate the cities’ beauty and glory, the magnificence of their grand temples and the abundance of historic evidence: colossal statues, inscriptions and architectural elements, jewellery and coins, ritual objects and ceramics - a civilization frozen in time.
The quantity and quality of the archaeological material excavated from the site of Thonis-Heracleion show that this city had known a time of opulence and a peak in its occupation from the 6th to the 4th century BC. This is readily seen in the large quantity of coins and ceramics dated to this period.
The port of Thonis-Heracleion had numerous large basins and functioned as a hub of international trade. The intense activity in the port fostered the city’s prosperity. More than seven hundred ancient anchors of various forms and over 60 wrecks dating from the 6th to the 2nd century BC are also an eloquent testimony to the intensity of maritime activity here.
The city extended all around the temple and a network of canals in and around the city must have given it a lake dwelling appearance. On the islands and islets dwellings and secondary sanctuaries were located. Excavations here have revealed beautiful archaeological material such as bronze statuettes. On the north side of the temple to Herakles, a grand canal flowed through the city from east to west and connected the port basins with a lake to the west.
—————————————————————
This is absolutely breathtaking. I’m literally speechless with chills from this video footage and photos. If anyone can find the documentary on this (in English, please), send it my way because I’d love to immerse myself in this excavation. The documentary is titled ‘Egypt’s Sunken City: A Legend Is Revealed’. So far, this is all Franck Goddio’s team has published as far as I know; yet, the documentary was produced by the Discovery Channel, so it has to be out there somewhere. Science team…assemmmmmmble…
Want to be happy? Live near a park. Researchers at the University of Exeter found that people living in greener areas were consistently more satisfied, and experienced less distress.
“Nicht #Lustig, Vier” (at Life On Grand)
I’ve written about Penn Station a lot. Glad to see that the potential eviction of Madison Square Garden has everyone’s imagination running wild, too.
Police fire tear gas at protesters on İstiklal Avenue on 31 May.
Me on a daily basis w/ the Alice in Wonderland Caterpillar. #Hookah
This just made my night. #Me #LovesIt (at Life On Grand)