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Welcome, 77 artists, 40 different points of Attica welcomes you by singing Erotokritos an epic romance written at 1713 by Vitsentzos Kornaros

Monday, November 10, 2014

Alpha turns focus to investment banking after absorbing Citibank

Alpha Bank’s appointment of Yiannis Emiris as head of investment and private banking is a sign of the lender’s swing toward investment banking along the lines of Citibank, whose Greek branches Alpha has absorbed. The appointment of Emiris, the former mana... ...


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Tourism arrivals close to 23 mln

The total number of visitors to Greece this year will end up at around 23 million, according to the latest estimates by the Association of Hellenic Tourism Enterprises (SETE), exceeding even the most optimistic forecasts regarding tourism in 2014. SETE ha... ...


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Recovery reflected in vehicle sales

Car sales in Greece continued to speed up last month, as new vehicle registrations increased by 33.7 percent year-on-year in October. In certain categories, such as coaches, sales almost doubled from October 2013, which can explained by the rapid growth i... ...


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Mendota Heights school's Greek myth project goes back to 1890s

Staff at Convent of the Visitation School in Mendota Heights dug up this photo of students in the early 1900s acting out a Greek myth. In the 1890s ...


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25 Years After the Fall of the Wall: My Trip Behind the Iron Curtain

I Traveled Alone Behind the Iron Curtain During the Cold War. By Paul Iorio This is the transit visa that enabled me to get through the Iron Curtain, August 20, 1976. The border crossing, as shown on the visa stamp, was Edirne, which is at the intersection of Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece. I was entering Bulgaria from Turkey. The uber-notorious Iron Curtain began to fall 25 years ago this week and stories abound about the oppression behind it. But what was it REALLY like to travel behind the Iron Curtain as an American at the height of the Cold War? As an adventurous 19-year-old American college student, I traveled alone (via a train that made mostly local stops ) through the Iron Curtain in 1976, journeying non-stop from Italy to Istanbul, Turkey, crossing the entire length of both the former Yugoslavia and Bulgaria and venturing through Thrace and European Turkey. And then I took the whole trip again in reverse! My starting point was Florence (where I was studying for six months). And my non-stop trek spanned fifty-two hours, two time zones and over two thousand miles in August '76, following the route of the original Orient Express, though this train was a ramshackle thing, barely better than refugee boxcars for much of the voyage. (Through most of Yugoslavia, I couldn't even find a seat and had to sleep on my suitcase in the crowded corridor.) I also soon found that the tough reputation of the cops of Communist Eastern Europe was well-deserved -- though I was skeptical about that fact before the trip. As I naively joked early on in my journal when I passed into Slovenia: "I must be in Yugoslavia by now. It's dark, so I can't see the oppression and lack of liberty." My attitude was less jokey several hours later in Zagreb when the Yugoslav police took me off the train for no apparent reason (probably because I was one of only two Americans on board the train that day), forcing me to leave my luggage onboard. Through the language barrier, I think the cops were claiming I didn't have a transit visa -- even after I showed them my transit visa. As I wrote in my journal at the time: "And so off the train I went" -- to the harsh glare of people who had stony "Tito/Khrushchev" expressions on their faces. The only other person booted from the train was a bearded hippie who claimed to be a Stanford University student; he started getting loud about what he called the fascist behavior of the cops, and I asked him to shut up before he got us in deeper trouble. We were detained outside a small side building, a sort of mini-police station, where an officer confiscated my passport. After waiting for around ten minutes, the train made noises as if it were about to leave Zagreb, so, impulsively, I bolted toward the tracks, even though I didn't have my passport and hadn't been given an ok from the police to re-board. But no one stopped me. I wasn't hit by a hail of bullets! And just before I reboarded, some stranger handed me my passport. "Mysteriously received my...passport again as...I was running back to the train and was handed it by a man," I wrote in my journal at the time. "Mysterious totalitarian forces at work." I didn't see the Stanford student get back on the train and assumed he was now in the clutches of some nasty Croatian cops. As the train left Zagreb, I sat down and started writing about what had just happened. But a Yugoslav police officer came into my train car and stood a short distance from me, staring at me in a menacing way. When I put away my pen and paper, he walked away. Through the train window, parts of northern Croatia looked sort of like a Communist Norman Rockwell painting, with peasants, in classic red style, harvesting a field by hand with sickles. As the train approached Belgrade, the landscape became increasingly urban in a very gray way. "The entrance [to Belgrade] is utterly filled with trash, and as you approach it, one sees drab but...modern buildings and a superhighway," I wrote in my diary. I snapped this photo of Belgrade, then the capital of Yugoslavia, from the train in '76. [Note: my original photo was a slide, which I shot a photo of in order to post here.] After Belgrade, the scenery became unexpectedly spectacular, thanks to the thrilling peaks of the Balkan Mountains (one of the most underrated ranges in all of Europe). But just before Bulgaria, the landscape became downbeat again, full of "empty roads, solemn faces, dreary check points," as I wrote in my journal at the time. This part of southern Serbia, between Bulgaria and Kosovo, remains the most desolate, lonely and abandoned area of the world I've ever seen. Despite the oppressive presence of police and soldiers, the civilians on the train were lively and uninhibited throughout the Balkans. At one point, in southeastern Serbia, five very friendly (too friendly!) rural Serbians (with a couple black puppies) insisted -- absolutely insisted -- that I take a picture of them and their dogs, so I did. In return, they gave me a couple Yugoslav cigarettes, three swigs of vodka -- and their addresses so I could send them the pictures. Here was the scene on the train in southern Serbia just before the Bulgarian border when five Serbian guys insisted I snap their pictures! [Note: my original photo was a slide, which I shot a photo of in order to post here.] Just before the Bulgarian border, I found a seat in a compartment that was like a mini-United Nations. I sat across from a confident and exuberant Libyan man (with extremely white teeth) who said he was on his way to study electrical engineering in Bulgaria. Also in the compartment were a soft-spoken guy from Copenhagen and two French men. One of them looked like rocker Ron Wood, the other said he was a Sorbonne professor of Islamic civilization and French. They were talking to each other in English, French and other languages. As the train crossed into Bulgaria at Dimitrovgrad, I experienced the toughness of the Bulgarian border soldiers, widely regarded as the most ruthless in all of eastern Europe at the time. With rifles at the ready, the Bulgarian guards were harsh and humorless. "At the Bulgarian border, the guards had Hitler mustaches, as all traces of Western Europe (as well as humor or smiling) disappeared completely," I wrote in my journal after entering the country. Passing from Yugoslavia to Bulgaria, I could feel the difference between a police state (the former) and a military state (the latter). The first was harsh, the latter potentially lethal. I soon passed through Sofia, which seemed like an extremely insulated and subdued city; the locals at the train station, in old-fashioned clothing and uncomfortable-looking shoes, approached the train and gawked curiously at the train as if they were looking at visitors from another planet. This is the farthest behind the Iron Curtain that anyone could get back in '76: Sofia, Bulgaria. I shot this from the train. [Note: my original photo was a slide, which I shot a photo of in order to post here.] Several hours later, at the exit border -- the tense checkpoint near the three-way intersection of Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece -- the armed Bulgarian cops became even more unfunny than they had been at the entry border. "Long wait at the Bulgaria/Turkey border," I wrote in my journal that night. "Soldiers all around checking bags, shining lights....It is pitch black and probably midnight." In the distance, I saw the silhouette of a tank. A rumor, later proved false, circulated that the train was being delayed because war had broken out between Greece and Turkey over Cyprus. After an anxious period, we were finally allowed to proceed into western Turkey, back into NATO territory. "The train starts into the Turkish black night, soldiers waving goodbye, and I go back to my compartment and sleep," I wrote in my diary. To my surprise, a few yards away at a train window, there was that Stanford student who I had mistakenly thought was left behind in Zagreb the day before; he was looking out the window and singing the Rolling Stones's "Satisfaction." It was a few hours before sunrise on my third day of travel, but Istanbul was still over 12 hours away. After Bulgaria, entering western Turkey felt like someone had opened a window and let in light, air and birds. I was now in westernmost Turkey, aka Thrace. After the monochromatic Balkans, Thrace seemed to come alive in vivid Technicolor like something out of "The Wizard of Oz." . "At sunrise, I wake and see...Turkey," I wrote in my journal. "The train is moving at a snail's pace, stopping every twenty yards or so. The scenery is unlike anything I've seen before. The mountains are sometimes rocky or green or barren like a desert...There are great stretches of huge yellow sunflower fields stretching for [what looks like] miles. The people all wave as the train goes by, and the animals get more exotic and plentiful: goats, gazelles, unnamables, roosters, huge flocks of sheep." Western Turkey and Thrace came alive in color after traveling through the gray Balkans. Here's a photo I shot of the area west of Istanbul. Fifty-two hours after boarding the train in Florence, I arrived in Istanbul at three on a hot afternoon in August, burping Lambrusco, profoundly tired and somewhat dehydrated. I checked into a cheap hostel ($5 a night) in the Sultanahmet neighborhood where American hippies -- who had almost certainly taken a plane, not a train, to Istanbul -- were outside singing Paul Simon's "Homeward Bound" as someone played guitar. After five days in Istanbul, it was time to return to Florence. I considered taking a quick flight back, but (being a broke student back then) went to the train station and took the whole trip behind the Iron Curtain all over again. This time, I fell sick just before the Bulgarian border and remained sick all the way home (and for a week after returning to Florence), sleeping through most of the ride back. No food or beverages were sold onboard and Americans weren't allowed to exit (except to change trains) before their destination, so I was left with nothing to eat or drink except whatever I had with me (which was some bad carbonated Lambrusco wine and stale cheese-bread (don't ask)). In retrospect, I now see that the larger risks of the trip came not behind the Iron Curtain but in running afoul of Muslim traditions in Istanbul. (For example, some guy chased me down the street with a stick in Istanbul for shooting a picture of veiled women gathered in a doorway; another man almost became violent when I didn't show more respect than I was already showing at Istanbul's Pavilion of the Holy Mantle, where the Muslim Prophet Muhammad's hair and teeth are on display (according to the Pavilion). All told, the everyday oppression experienced behind the Iron Curtain was about as bad as the totalitarianism in Islam. After a 52-hour train ride, I finally arrived in Istanbul. .................................. Above, a photo I shot from Istanbul's Galata Bridge, August 1976. * * * * After crossing through Bulgaria, I arrived at the first stop over the border in Yugoslavia (present-day Serbia), Dimitrovgrad, via this visa stamp (left). ................................. I got behind the Iron Curtain using this American passport. But I applied for my transit visas (to Bulgaria and Yugoslavia) through a third-party country -- Italy. Otherwise the visas wouldn't have likely been approved. ................................ Above are various items from my trip behind the Iron Curtain; at center is my visa for entry to Bulgaria; clockwise from the top left are a card for the hostel I stayed at, a pack of Turkish cigarettes, an August 1976 calendar, my own notes about entering Bulgaria, a ticket to the Topkapi, and a couple logos for regional publications.


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Greek, Turkish PMs to co-chair Athens summit

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is to receive his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu in Athens on December 5 and 6 when the two are to co-chair the third session of the Greek-Turkish High-Level Cooperation Council, the Foreign Ministry said on Monday foll... ...


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Ex-prosecutor rebuked over claims of gov’t interference

Claims by former financial prosecutor Spyros Mouzakitis, who had handled a probe into the so-called Lagarde list of wealthy Greeks, that his work was obstructed by the government on Monday prompted the intervention of a Justice Ministry official. In an in... ...


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Greek Premier Samaras Meets With Govt VP Venizelos

Greek government Vice President Evangelos Venizelos characterized the negotiations with the country’s lenders as “rough and challenging” after his meeting with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. The coalition government partners’ meeting focused mainly on the ongoing negotiations with the Troika, ahead of the next Eurogroup on December 8, where Greece’s next day strategy will be decided, as well as the reforms that need to be completed in accordance with the lenders’ guidelines. Venizelos described the negotiations as worthwhile, as they are the last before the country’s exit from the memorandum. Questioned whether the Troika’s representatives are to return to Athens soon, he gave an affirmative answer, adding that “the Greek people will have a clear image of the final decisions and the agreement with our partners before the Presidential vote,” which, according to the Constitution, is scheduled for February 2015. Samaras and Venizelos were also informed by Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis over the latest Eurogroup’s results, in which it was repeated that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) should remain in Greece’s bailout program. Addressing the journalists, Venizelos said that the government now has a double target: The completion of the country’s review by its lenders and the organization of the next day, in the framework that the EU will set. “We want Greece equivalent with its partners in the Eurozone but with a safety net that would prevent the markets from playing games against us,” Venizelos declared. Finally, he repeated that the current coalition government offers the country the only sustainable route to exit the supervision, while what the opposition parties propose are “choices of high risk.”


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A Chinese General's View on Whether China Is a Challenge to America

According to Thucydides, an Ancient Greek historian and author of "History of the Peloponnesian War," the rise of a big power is usually accompanied by a mortal war against the ruling power. It was the rise of Athenian power and the fear it inspired in Sparta that ultimately made the Peloponnesian War inevitable. That is the "Thucydides' Trap" people have been worrying about. Recent studies by Harvard University scholars also indicate that since 1500, 11 of 15 cases of power transition between rising and ruling powers ended in war. Why will China's rapid progress and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation transcend the historical fatalism of the "Thucydides' Trap"? Why is it possible for rising China and the present-day world's sole superpower, the United States, to avoid an all-round showdown in the form of war? This is not the outcome of China's one-sided benign wishes. Nor is it the outcome of the mercy and benevolence of the hegemonic United States. The essential changes in the conditions of our time make it possible for the transition of power between China and U.S. to be peaceful. And it has to be peaceful. NEW REALITIES There are two unprecedented realities in our time: The first significant reality is that, in contrast to the mutually isolating and antagonistic relations between big powers in the past, globalization has deepened the mutual interests of countries. This is particularly true of those of the major powers which are increasingly interdependent. The global village is increasingly becoming a community of common destiny. The development of all countries are closely interconnected. One country's gain may not necessarily be others.' But one country's loss will definitely not just be its own. Though China's progress has inspired fear of the decline of American hegemony, the United States has at the same time pinned its hopes on China's tremendous market in order to escape its economic crisis. Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs and famous scholar Joseph Nye wrote in a recent article that the increase in contemporary power should be looked at from a "positive sum", rather than "zero sum," perspective. "There may be times when a more powerful China is good for the U.S. (and for the world)," he wrote. CHINA NOT CAUSING US DECLINE The decline of American hegemony is definitely not caused by China. Just as British scholar Arnold Toynbee pointed out, the decline of an empire derives from its excessive outward expansion and worsening internal troubles. Instead of a challenge to the United States, China's development is winning both time and space necessary for the soft-landing of American hegemony. WAR IS USELESS The second significant reality of our time is that, thanks to scientific and technological progress, the development of means of war has surpassed the purpose of war. The efficacy of war is on the decline. As a military superpower, the United States has world's largest war apparatus. America's stock of weapons of mass destruction alone suffices to destroy humanity dozens of times. And once is enough to annihilate us all. Despite the considerable gap between Chinese and U.S. militaries, China's existing defense forces and strategic counterstrike capabilities suffice for equivalent destructive counterattacks against any aggressor that seeks to harm its national security and core interests by force. In spite of its military superiority, the United States has no guarantee that it can escape destruction or unaffordable consequences when attempting to destroy others. It is safe to say there will be no winner in an all-round war between China and the United States. China's ascent would surely suffer a severe blow. But it will also be out of question that American hegemony will become a thing of the past. This certainly is not the outcome the Americans want. Nothing can hold back China's advancement and the nation's rejuvenation. China will continue to grow stronger. But the increase in China's strength constitutes no threat or challenge to any country. China has neither the interest, nor the need, to fight the United States for hegemony or leadership. China just wants to realize its dream of national rejuvenation, bid farewell to its humiliating modern history, and truly become a country of national strength with harmonious ethnic relations and a happy and content populace. American suspicions over a stronger China are thus unwarranted. As long as one can abandon historical biases, the mutual opportunities of the broad Pacific can be seen right before one's eyes. The great countries and nations of China and the United States have every reason to avoid facing each other on a collision course, escape the historical fatalism of confrontation between big powers, and to maneuver a win-win scenario together. Of course, this entails strenuous endeavors by the cool-headed and far-sighted healthy forces on both sides. The Chinese wings of goodwill calls for an American counterpart to fly high. Peng Guangqian is a Major General and Deputy Secretary-General of China's National Security Forum. This piece also appeared on China US Focus.


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The Arrogance of the 'Great'

Strange event (A): In 1942 Hitler asked for a loan from the Greeks whom at the time he had invaded, occupied, and starved to death more than ...


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US urged to convince Greek Cypriots for talks

The President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Dervis Eroglu has urged U.S. Vice President Joe Biden to convince Greek Cypriots for talks. LEFKOSA, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus The President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus ...


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Hellenic Petroleum doubles core profits

Greece’s biggest oil refiner Hellenic Petroleum said on Monday its third-quarter core profit almost doubled year-on-year, helped by improved refining margins and production. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), w... ...


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Food authority warns Greeks not to eat wild mushrooms

The Hellenic Food Authority (EFET) has advised the public to avoid consuming wild mushrooms following a recent hike in the number of cases of people being poisoned. According to figures released by the country’s Poison Control Center, some 80 to 140 cases... ...


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Greece Police Chief: Man Was Shot After Pointing Loaded Shotgun at Officers

Police in Greece said Monday that the investigation continues into an officer-involved shooting Sunday on Stone Road in Greece. Time Warner Cable News reporter Mike Hedeen has new details.


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More than 3,000 Turks in Thessaloniki to Commemorate Kemal Ataturk

Mustafa Kemal – who was granted the title “Ataturk,” father of the Turks – founder of modern Turkey, was commemorated today by Turks across the world. The Turkish leader of the early 20th century passed away at the age of 57 on November 10, 1938, of liver cirrhosis and today, more than 3,000 of his compatriots traveled to Thessaloniki, Greece, to visit his birthplace and the house in which he was born in 1881. The Turkish visitors gathered at noon outside Ataturk’s house, on 24 Apostolou Pavlou Street, next to the Turkish Consulate, where they attended the commemoration ceremony held due to the 76th anniversary of his death. According to Turkish news, the majority of them were students from schools across Turkey. At around 1:30pm, Agiou Dimitriou street in downtown Thessaloniki was blocked as the ceremony started, while after its completion, the visitors toured the interior of his first residence, which today operates as the “Ataturk Museum.” At the same day last year, the visiting Turks were no more than 2,500 and, according to local authorities, this increase is due to the fact that Ataturk’s death commemoration day is on a Monday this year, which helped many of them to spend the weekend in Thessaloniki and the surrounding areas, while today, they attended the ceremony, before their return to their country after a three-day holiday in Greece.


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Turkish Premier Davutoglu Heading For Showdown With Samaras

With Turkey pumping up the tension with a warship and energy research vessel off Cyprus - and sending a warship past Greek islands - Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will meet Greek Premier Antonis Samaras in Athens next month. The post Turkish Premier Davutoglu Heading For Showdown With Samaras appeared first on The National Herald.


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Stocks slide anew as bears get settled

The trading week in Greece got off to another southbound start, with the benchmark sliding by as much as 2.5 percent midsession before climbing again and containing losses to just over 1 percent. It appears that the bears are getting settled at Athinon Av... ...


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Concert celebrates Greek culture at UML

LOWELL -- UMass Lowell presents the Violin and Lyras concert celebrating Greek culture on Sunday, Nov. 16, at 3 p.m. at 35 Wilder St. in Durgin Hall.


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Greek Garden now open in Apex

Counter service eatery Greek Garden has opened in the former Yummy Yogurt space in downtown Apex. The menu covers all standards, from pita ...


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Greek Folli Follie Group Wins ‘Discovery of the Year’ Award

Yet another international honorary award managed to attract leading Greek company Folli Follie (FF Group), which currently operates actively in more than 28 countries, defining new trends in all sectors it operates, while maintaining a leading position in ...


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Turkish PM Davutoglu to Meet With Greek PM Samaras in Athens on December 5 and 6

In a period when the bilateral relations of Greece and Turkey have reached their lowest point due to the Turkish actions in Block 3 of Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will visit Athens on December 5 and 6 in order to hold talks with his Greek counterpart Antonis Samaras, it was announced earlier today. “On December 5 and 6, 2014, the 3rd annual Greek-Turkish High-Level Cooperation Council will convene in Athens between the governments of Greece and Turkey, under the chairmanship of Prime Ministers Antonis Samaras and Ahmet Davutoglu,” the Greek Foreign Ministry announced. Greek Foreign Minister and number 2 in the cabinet Evangelos Venizelos informed President of the Hellenic Republic Karolos Papoulias regarding the pact’s content, underlining that it is part of systematic efforts made by the Greek side to demarcate its maritime borders. “The major gain from the tripartite conference is the invitation that we have issued to all the countries in the region to accept the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and to operate within its framework,” Venizelos said. Turkey has not signed up the treaty while Athens, Nicosia and Cairo have called Ankara to stop harassing Cyprus’ sovereignty by its ongoing seismic research for hydrocarbons in the island’s EEZ. The announcement of Turkish PM’s visit to Athens comes only 48 hours after Greece, Cyprus and Egypt signed a tripartite agreement in Cairo, defining the ways the three countries will cooperate in the future on a range of issues, including the energy field. The Cairo Declaration was received with a sense of distrust by the Turkish side, with its leading newspapers characterizing it as a “trilateral front against Turkey.” Cypriot Foreign Affairs Minister Ioannis Kasoulides declared earlier that his country “will continue its energy program as planned. Natural gas should be a motive for Turkey to change its stance,” while underlining that the recent trilateral summit between Greece, Cyprus and Egypt “does not turn against Turkey.” Meanwhile, the chief of the Turkish Navy Staff, Admiral Bulent Bostancıoglu, revealed that “the Turkish Prime Minister’s Office handed rules of engagement to the general staff, and the general staff passed them to the navy,” adding that “if necessary, we will operate under the rules of engagement.”


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Alexander the Great claimed by both sides in battle over name of Macedonia

Alexander waxwork given pride of place in Macedonian museum in latest example of symbolic point-scoring by SkopjeThe Macedonian prime minister Nikola Gruevskis love affair with statues began with Alexander the Great. In 2011, much to the consternation of Greece, Gruevski had the worlds largest sculpture of the warrior king installed in Skopjes central square. Now, after peppering the capital with grandiose bridges, a gargantuan triumphal arch, concert halls, theatres, new government buildings and an assortment of artworks great and small, the premier has gone a step further.Upping the ante in what has become one of the wests more unlikely disputes, Gruevski instructed that waxworks of Alexander, his father, Philip II of Macedon, and his mother, Olympias, be given pride of place in a new archaeological museum. All these exhibits are of priceless value for our country and represent a part of our cultural heritage, Gruevski pronounced as he opened the museum last month. Continue reading...


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Record Number of Tourists in Greece This Year

October’s statistical data have forced the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (SETE) to once again revise this year’s predictions regarding tourist arrivals. According to SETE, the number of international arrivals is expected to reach 20.5 million, a significant increase compared to the 19.5 million arrivals, which was the previous estimate, not including people traveling on cruises. If the provisional Bank of Greece data regarding 1.2 million road and maritime arrivals are confirmed – not taking cruises into account – then the total number of arrivals will exceed 21 million when the same number stood at 17. 9 million in 2013 and 15.5 million in 2012. During the first semester, cruise arrivals showed a slight increase compared to 2013, with the total number standing at around 2.5 million. Overall, the new visitor arrival estimate for 2014 reaches 23 million, showing a 15% increase compared to 2013. International air arrivals in Greece continued in October, rising at a rate of 23.5%, resulting in a 15% increase during the ten month period between January and October 2014, compared to the previous year. SETE President Andreas Andreadis stated: “The latest figures show the great potential of Greek tourism. Despite the worsening economic climate in Europe and Russia, and the highly volatile environment in the region, at the end of 2014, Greece is expected to rise on the list of 15 countries with the largest tourism rate in the world. We are moving considerably faster than expected to achieve the tourism strategic plan ‘2021 Growth Roadmap’ goals.” Andreadis also noted that it is imperative for all Greeks to “move together: government, political parties, social partners, tour operators and employees, in order to further shield the sector, boost investment, improve quality, support small and medium tourism enterprises, and improve competitiveness and sustainability of the Greek tourism, as well as further increase the quality and quantity of employment in the sector.”


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Free baklava from Little Greek

Janine Dorsey loves to save money: it doesn't matter if it's hers or someone else's. She rounds up all the best deals and freebies to be found in the ...


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Tension increases in Eastern Mediterranean over Cyprus gas

“The Greek Cypriot side undertook this action as part of a preconceived scenario and did so together with Greece. It was unwilling to enter into the next ...


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Total Greek Yoghurt Cookbook

Creamy, thick and multi-talented it's one of my favourite ingredients and so a book dedicated to Greek yoghurt recipes sparked my interest.


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How Will the Mideast War End? Christian History May Provide a Clue

A war within Islam, among radical Islamists and Muslim sects Sunni and Shia, is leaving thousands dead and millions displaced. The spectacle of so many Muslims prepared to make bloody, protracted war over their slight religious differences strikes Americans as not merely horrifying but also simply baffling. Why do they do that?, we find ourselves asking, and, perhaps more urgently, Where will this end? One good way to engage these questions is to ask why we don't do that. That we do not ought rightfully to surprise us because as a people we care intensely about religion, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, we do not in the least shrink from violence. The U.S. is both the most religious of highly developed states, given our high rate of religious affiliation and participation, and the most violent, given our astronomically high rate of death by armed violence. Why is it then that we, who are statistically so ready to gun each other down for other reasons, do not do so for religious reasons? THEN: CATHOLIC VS. PROTESTANT. NOW: SUNNI VS. SHIA The answer is rooted in our origin as a state descended from a group of Christian colonies founded when the Protestants and Catholics of Western Europe, emphatically including the British Isles, were tearing themselves apart over religion and wrecking the infrastructures of their own countries in the process, just as the Sunni and Shia are doing in Iraq and Syria today. We are appalled at the spectacle of a beheaded American reporter. Imagine how appalled we would be at the spectacle of a beheaded American president. But just that was the spectacle that the Calvinists (Puritans) of Britain mounted for the edification of their country when they beheaded the Anglican King Charles I in 1649. That execution came midway in a religious civil war that lasted fully nine years (1642-1651) and cost Ireland (which suffered a reign of terror comparable to that of ISIS) and Britain more lives, proportionately, than the two islands would lose in World War I. Devastating as the English Civil War was, its violence is dwarfed by that of the contemporary Thirty Years War (1618-1648) on the European continent. That war began as a regional struggle in Bohemia, quite like the localized Sunni-Alawite conflict in Syria, but it ended with Europe in flames from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean. If Turkey and Iran are both drawn into the current Middle East conflict, that conflict will have spread similarly from the Aegean Sea to the Persian Gulf. The near-total collapse of civil society in the worst-affected parts of Europe during the early seventeenth century led to plague as well as famine, just as the spreading conflict in the Middle East and Pakistan has brought about a recurrence of polio. "Just as Catholics and Protestants concluded in their Wars of Religion, Sunni and Shia have to exhaust one another before concluding that neither side can determine what their religion is to be." Today, the confusing official and unofficial Sunni and Shia alliances of the U.S. leave many in the Middle East asking, "Which side are you on?" Because Shia Iraq supports semi-Shia Syria, which the U.S. opposes, many Iraqi Shia believe that the U.S. has created the Sunni "Islamic State" (ISIS) so as to undo semi-Shia rule in Syria, even at the price of undermining Shia dominance in Iraq. Meanwhile, many Sunni -- observing that in Iraq the U.S. has installed and still supports the first Shia Arab regime in centuries and has been actively seeking to improve relations with Shia Iran -- conclude that the Americans have declared war on "Islam" itself inasmuch as the only true Islam for them is the Sunni version. At cross-purposes like these, the U.S. is, to say the least, ill positioned to rally a nonsectarian, Sunni-Shia coalition against ISIS. And yet President Obama's core assumption -- that only Sunni and Shia can resolve their own war with one another -- is surely correct. But will they? Intra-Christian violence was no less bewildering than intra-Muslim violence is today. Catholic monarchs sometimes ended up supporting Protestants against other Catholics, and vice versa, as the originating religious issues disappeared in the melee of attack and counter-attack and the standard agendas of power politics surged to the fore. When Catholic France turned against Catholic Austria, the tie-breaking outsider -- corresponding to the tie-breaking U.S. in the Mideast conflict -- was the Ottoman Empire. Perhaps most important, just as Sunni and Shia today refuse to recognize one another as equally Muslim, so Protestants and Catholics back then refused to honor one another as equally Christian. Then as now, polemical rhetoric was blood curdling, and public executions were a theatrical part of the mutually intimidating propaganda. Then as now, each side saw its own killers as saints, and its own casualties as martyrs, while denying any such dignity to the pagans or heretics of the other side. Just as Sunni flee Shia-held areas in today's Iraq and Syria while Shia flee Sunni-held areas, so did Catholics and Protestant civilians flee one another en masse during (and after) the Thirty Years War. Before it was all over, the population of Greater Germany -- then a central European region substantially larger than the relatively compact Germany of today -- had declined by more than one third. Other regions suffered only somewhat smaller losses. Not until the twentieth century would Western Europe experience violence greater than that inflicted by what later historians have called Europe's Wars of Religion. HOW EUROPE'S WARS OF RELIGION ENDED How did it all end? It ended when the major European powers realized that their conflicting dreams of an all-Protestant or an all-Catholic Europe had merged into a single nightmare from which the continent had either to awaken or die. The awakening began with the 1648 Peace of Westphalia whose famous formula for religious peace in Europe was, in Latin, Cuius regio, eius religio: "Whose the rule, his the religion." The sovereign in any state, whether the sovereign was a king or a parliament, would have the right to determine the religion of that country, and he or it would not have the right to determine the religion of any other country. The formula of the Peace of Westphalia was by no means a proclamation of full, individual religious freedom. The subjects or citizens of any given state were religiously under the authority of that state's government, and it was assumed that no state would fail to establish a state religion. By no means did each subject or citizen have the right to his (much less her) own religion. Yet limited as it was, the Peace of Westphalia did mark the end of religious warfare in Europe. Moreover, it brought into existence what political scientists still call the "Westphalian System" by which states -- and even alliances or entities like the United Nations -- generally abstain from intervening in any of the internal affairs of a duly recognized fellow state. On that occasion, an argument about religion had massive and long-lasting consequences. "The Peace of Westphalia re-drew parts of the map of Europe. Peace in the Middle East may yet do the same." The profoundly cautionary experience of the Christian Wars of Religion and the instructive example of the Peace of Westphalia deeply marked Britain's American colonies, some of which were founded in explicit fealty to some form of Christianity, yet none of which ever attempted to impose its form on a neighboring colony by military force. When the colonies declared and successively defended their independence from Britain, the framers of the Constitution dealt with religion in a manner closely analogous to that of the drafters of the Peace of Westphalia. Just as the Peace of Westphalia did not seek religious peace in Europe by imposing some sort of compromise generic Christianity upon the continent, the U.S. Constitution framers did not establish a state religion. Instead, they allowed states to continue their respective religious establishments if they had them and so chose. Over time, the states progressively disestablished their established forms of Christianity, and thus the once-unprecedented phenomenon of a Western, culturally European state without an established state religion came into being in the U.S. This happened in part because of the prestige of the Constitution but in part because, as a mood of "never again" took hold in Europe and the dawning Enlightenment explicitly fostered religious toleration, nationalism began to replace religion as that for which one might still sacrifice life itself. The patriot began to replace the saint. Dying for one's country began to replace dying for one's religion. Killing for one's country began to become excusable, even virtuous, just as killing for one's religion had been. And it may be at just this point that Americans can begin to answer the question, Why do they do it? Americans have been appalled at the matter-of-fact manner in which ISIS beheadings have been conducted, and at the lighthearted manner observed online among ISIS bystanders. But we are accustomed to hear our armed forces characterize even their most violent war making in matter-of-fact statements like, "We had a job to do, and we did it." Humor or light-heartedness is, you might say, as American as M.A.S.H. This is not, I hasten to add, to make any simple equation of ISIS with the American armed forces. Far from it! But it is to note that violence and Muslim piety are linked in ISIS the way that violence and American patriotism are linked in the U.S. And, finally, it is to note -- very sadly indeed -- that an intra-Muslim conflict with roots in the seventh century may have come to a belated climax and may have to run its course slowly and brutally. Between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean, Sunni and Shia numbers are so nearly equal that neither is in a position to establish a quick, clear total victory over the other. Just as Protestants and Catholics concluded in their Wars of Religion, Sunni and Shia have to exhaust one another before concluding that neither side can determine what their religion is to be in the future. And they must come to this conclusion on their own -- not through any American intervention or clever coalition-formation. SHIA-SUNNI SORTING MAY BE NECESSARY The past fifty years have been a period of enormous demographic diversification in the West. A Pakistan-born Muslim friend of mine recently noted happily that in 1970, there were just 35,000 Muslims in Canada and one mosque in Toronto, while today there are over one million Muslims in Canada and 35 mosques in Toronto. Yet in the Middle East, this half-century (and earlier) has been one of progressive demographic simplification. Before World War I, Jews accounted for one third of the population of Baghdad, and as late as 1948 there were still 150,000 Jews in Iraq. Today, there are effectively none. True, the founding of the State of Israel led to a vast evacuation/expulsion of Jews from all the Muslim-majority countries of the Middle East. But no such single crisis explains the fact that at the start of the twentieth century, Christians constituted twenty percent of the population of the region, while today they constitute just four percent, and emigration is steadily accelerating. The Copts are leaving Egypt. The Greeks and Armenians are gone from Turkey. Christianity may soon be virtually extinct even in Bethlehem. Demographic simplification in the Middle East is undeniable. "Traumatic mass migration seems already under way and may be the only practically available formula for peace." But there is no guarantee that this process of religious and ethnic simplification should stop at Jews and Christians and not engulf Shia and Sunni as well. The Peace of Westphalia re-drew parts of the map of Europe. Peace in the Middle East may yet do the same. After the Peace of Westphalia, continuing intra-Christian religious discrimination within states where either Protestantism or Catholicism was established led to the expulsion or motivated migration of thousands of Catholics and Protestants to states where their respective forms of Christianity suffered no discrimination. The result was a Europe divided into virtually homogeneous religious enclaves, some large, others quite small. Division of the Mideast into religiously and ethnically homogeneous states would be impossible without traumatic mass migration -- but it seems already under way and may be the only practically available formula for peace. ISIS has slaughtered or expelled Shia and Christians from Mosul, but official Iraq has countenanced a progressive, often violent expulsion of Sunni from much larger Baghdad. A process of mutual expulsion thus begun may have to continue until combustible human elements are almost entirely separated and the fire finally goes out. Partition has been a last-resort path to peace before (consider India and Pakistan). It may be so again. If the European model offers any clue, diversity and tolerance may slowly return to the religiously and ethnically "purified" states that emerge -- but slowly may mean very slowly indeed. Sweden, to name one signatory to the Peace of Westphalia, did not finally disestablish the Lutheran Church as the state religion of Sweden until the year 2000. "If the European model offers any clue, diversity and tolerance may slowly return to the religiously and ethnically 'purified' states that emerge." Terrorism expert Jessica Matthews recently envisioned a peace plan in which the Bashar al-Assad regime (plus backer Iran) and the non-ISIS Sunni opposition (plus backer Saudi Arabia) join forces to defeat ISIS. Perhaps some such revised coalition recipe might work. A rapprochement between the major Sunni and the major Shia power in the Middle East (counting Turkey, for the moment, as a secular power) might even portend a Middle East version of the Peace of Westphalia. I submit, however, that such a rapprochement can only succeed if those two powers and their clients truly impose this rapprochement upon themselves and do not merely temporize with an American diplomatic effort to make them do it for American reasons. Lasting peace will ultimately follow on the defeat of ISIS only if that defeat proves the prelude to something much deeper -- a peace between Sunni and Shia whose true implementation might not be possible without something like the painful sorting of populations that seems already to be under way. Meanwhile, a chastened American diplomacy must finally recognize that there are conflicts for which, with even the best of intentions, there is no American solution. Jack Miles is general editor of the just-published The Norton Anthology of World Religions, a magisterial reference work of seven years of work by a team of seven internationally-recognized scholars. Miles won the Pulitzer Prize in 1996 for his book God: A Biography and is a former MacArthur "Genius" Fellow (2003-2007).


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Are traditional Greek holidays under threat?

A record 15.3 million holidaymakers visited Greece in the first eight months of the year, with arrivals from Britain rising 16 per cent, according to the country’s tourist board. This was a 22 per cent increase on 2013, a year in which Greece had already ...


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Cyprus’ Foreign Minister: We Will Continue our Energy Program as Planned

Nicosia’s firm will to not suspend its ongoing investigations for the exploitation of its hydrocarbons expressed today the country’s Foreign Affairs Minister Ioannis Kasoulides, while it will not take in account Navy Staff Admiral Bulent Bostancıoglu’s recent threatening comments regarding the presence of Turkish battleships in the area and the rules of engagement that were passed to them. “The Republic of Cyprus will continue its energy program as planned. Natural gas should be a motive for Turkey to change its stance,” Kasoulides underlined, assessing that the Turkish threats and violations will not stop and possibly increase in the following period. In addition, the Cypriot Foreign Minister declared that the recent trilateral summit between Greece, Cyprus and Egypt “does not turn against Turkey,” as Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades also said during a joint press conference held with Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras last week in Nicosia. On the contrast, the cooperation between the three neighboring countries “is a political core of peace, stability and security in the sensitive East Mediterranean area,” stressing that Ankara is the one which led itself to isolation due to its applied aggressive policies. During the previous days, reports in the Greek and Cypriot press covered that the chief of the Turkish Navy Staff, Admiral Bulent Bostancıoglu, revealed that “the Turkish Prime Minister’s Office handed rules of engagement to the general staff, and the general staff passed them to the navy,” adding that “if necessary, we will operate under the rules of engagement.” Turkey has recently sent research vessel «Barbaros» to field 3 of Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in order to conduct seismic surveys, escorted by a battleship of the Turkish Navy. This move caused Athens’ and Nicosia’s fierce reaction, and the Cypriot President pulling out from UN-backed negotiations with the Turkish-Cypriot side aiming to reunify the island, divided since 1974, after a Turkish military invasion capturing its northern part.


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Greek consumer prices fall again as deflation cycle continues

Greece has been in deflation mode for close to two years as cuts in wages and pensions and a deep recession forced Greeks to keep their cash close.


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Greece, Cyprus and Israel eye tripartite talks

Greece, Cyprus and Israel might hold a tripartite summit soon, following the talks between the Greek, Cypriot and Egyptian leaders in Cairo on Saturday. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, President Nicos Anastasiades and Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi ... ...


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Greek fascist party snubs Spanish 'offshoot'

Fuelled by a wave of anti-austerity feeling it won seven percent of the popular vote in the 2012 Greek national elections, gaining 21 seats in the ...


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New Playstation4 Game Inspired by Greek Mythology

A new video game featuring Ancient Greeks on Mount Olympus is coming to PlayStation 4 in January 2015. The game was developed by Alien Trap Games and will be called “Apotheon.” The game takes place on Mount Olympus with players making their way to the top while battling a collection of gods and interacting with Non-Player Characters. Everything featured in the game is inspired by Greek mythology. “Apotheon” has the aesthetic of ancient Greek art. It is not the first time that a game inspired by Greek mythology has been launched. Several games have been produced, featuring the feats of Hercules, the gods of Olympus mountain and other ancient heroes, that have been marked with success. Recently another game, called Fury of the Gods was launched. Players choose one of three different Greek mythological deities as their avatar: Zeus, Poseidon, or Hades. Each campaign has a collection of baddies, as gods, monsters and idols march on the player’s temples. Fury of the Gods is free to play and can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store.


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7 Famous Artworks That Are Actually Supposed To Look Completely Different

Mona Lisa was once "rosy and tender." What did the "Rosy Age" of our civilization's "masterpieces" actually look like? The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican was restored just before the turn of the millennium, which took Michelangelo's cracked, darkened work and returned some semblance of the original intent. One scene depicted by Michelangelo is the casting out of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. Their taking of the fruit allows them to see the truth while separating them from their maker, much like art restoration opens our eyes to what a painting is supposed to be while taking away the original strokes of the creator. Since the Sistine Chapel ceiling has been restored, the light surrounding Adam and Eve has shined much more brightly -- illuminating more clearly than in decades both the beauty and the loss. Art restoration is a tricky game. Perhaps worthy to note is a quote often attributed to Leonardo da Vinci: "Art is never finished, only abandoned." Whether the original version of a piece or the deteriorated, surviving piece is the "true" artwork is all opinion. Though, many of our civilization's "masterpieces" don't appear as they were originally supposed to look. And now, a few more works that may require taking a fruit from a snake to see their intended beauty: 1. The colors of "The Night Watch" should actually represent a "Day Watch" and multiple sides of the painting were cut. "Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq" was completed by Rembrandt van Rijn in 1642. The work was later called "The Night Watch," due to a decaying varnish that blackened the entire piece. After the varnish was removed, in the 1940s, it became clear that the painting was actually of a day watch, but the name had already stuck. Rembrandt had intended to use considerable darkness throughout the painting to highlight the bright colors of the militiamen's uniforms and the glow from the angel. Rembrandt's work was considerably cropped in 1715, when the painting was moved to the Amsterdam town hall, presumably because the space allotted to his work was too small to fit the painting. This sort of cropping was common during the period. Most notably, about two feet were lost from the left side, cutting out multiple members of the militia. An arch at the top was also cropped. The image is of a 17th century copy of Rembrandt's work that shows the lighter colors and what was removed in the crop. Image: WikiCommons 2. The "Mona Lisa" is supposed to be far from brown and yellow and much of the ambiguity is just from deterioration. Leonardo da Vinci completed the "Mona Lisa" in the 16th century. The Louvre has housed the painting in Paris since 1797, but varnishes applied to the painting began to darken its look soon after the it was completed. Although the painting has been well-maintained -- it was immediately considered to be valuable -- the work has changed hands a number of times between the rich and the careful, even hanging in the bedroom of Napoleon Bonaparte. A quote from Giorgio Vasari, who viewed the "Mona Lisa" mere decades after its completion gives insight into how significantly the colors have been distorted over the years: "The eyes had that luster and watery sheen always seen in life ... the nostrils, rosy and tender, seemed to be alive ... The opening of the mouth seemed to be not colored but living flesh." The image at right is believed to have been painted by an apprentice of da Vinci at the same time he was working on his "Mona Lisa." It should be noted that these are probably not intended to be exact copies -- the smile and eyes are particularly different -- but the coloring gives decent insight into what da Vinci's work could have originally looked like. The Art Newspaper has a picture of a digital cleaning of da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" that also shows brighter colors while maintaining the signature face. Images: WikiCommons 3. Many details from "The Last Supper" have been lost, including Jesus' feet and Judas spilling salt. "The Last Supper" was completed in the late 15th century, on a wall at the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy. The painting took Leonardo da Vinci a few years to complete, though the exact timeline is unknown. Legend has it that that da Vinci became enraged at a prior who expressed frustration with the number of years the painting had taken to complete, and so the painter threatened to use the prior's face as the model for Judas. The painting's condition began to decline shortly after its completion. Italian painter Gian Paolo Lomazzo stated only midway through the 16th century that "the painting is all ruined.” Besides deterioration over time, several notable destructions to the piece have occurred. In 1652, a doorway was inserted into the mural which removed Jesus' feet. During World War II, the monastery was bombed, though, remarkably, the wall with "The Last Supper" remained intact. The bottom image is a copy of da Vinci's painting by Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli, completed in the early 16th century. It has been used as the primary source for 20th century restoration. Images: WikiCommons 4. "The Scream" is actually four different works. Edvard Munch created "The Scream" series between 1893 and 1910. The medium for two of the works is paint, one is pastel and the other is a lithograph. (A few dozen lithographs exist.) In 2012, the pastel, a lesser-known version of the painting, broke a record at Sotheby's as the "world’s most expensive work of art ever to sell at auction," for $119.9 million. A departure from other works featured in this article, "The Scream," as the collective piece, hasn't been significantly altered over time -- it's barely been a century since the works were completed. The inclusion Munch's "'Mona Lisa' for our time" felt necessary as most people do not realize there are four separate works, each significantly different than the previous version. The image at top left is the painted original, top right is the lithograph; bottom left is the pastel and bottom right is the other painted version. Images: WikiCommons 5. The yellows of Van Gogh have faded considerably. "Bedroom in Arles" has become particularly distorted. The first version of "Bedroom in Arles" was completed by Vincent Van Gogh in 1888, but he painted 3 in total. Each version has marked differences from the other, but since all three were made to be casual gifts at the time of completion, rather than works of intent by an "artist," the lesser-known second and third works are more like separate works rather than parts of a triptych. The yellow pigment Van Gogh used has browned with age, a problem that has plagued many of his other paintings as well. Van Gogh's signature yellow was made possible by the industrial revolution, which introduced new pigments including chrome yellow, a "toxic lead chromate and like many of the pigments of the period was chemically unstable." The image shows the restoration process by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. For a representation of what the museum thinks the colors would have actually looked like, visit its blog. Image: Van Gogh Museum YouTube 6. "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" is a series of woodblock copies, and the versions major museums display are distorted. Katsushika Hokusai completed a ukiyo-e woodblock print in the early 19th century. "The Great Wave" is part of the larger series, "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji," which includes 46 prints in total, after the initial prints became popular. Created with the malleable woodblock, thousands of copies were made, yet each is slightly different. Some have lost the originally intended details. So many variations of "The Great Wave" qualify if for inclusion in this article because it is difficult to say which is definitive. At the very least, details have certainly been lost from the original as the wave now looms before a sky of yellow in most versions. The top image is of the copy held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; the bottom image is of a restored version. Image: WikiCommons 7. "The Thinker" was originally conceived as part of a piece based on Dante's "Inferno." It was also called "The Poet." Auguste Rodin worked on "The Poet" in the late 19th century as a singular figure in a larger piece, called "The Gates of Hell," that would surround a doorway. There were 180 separate figures in the doorway and, originally, the you can view just how "The Thinker" was originally intended to be much smaller in scale. Foundry workers apparently named the figure due to its similarity to a Michelangelo's "Il Penseroso," or "The Thinker." After careful consideration, Rodin decided to make "The Thinker" an independent work. It was cast as a much larger statue, with dozens of copies eventually made. The image shows a casting of "The Gates of Hell" at the Musée Rodin in Paris. Image: WikiCommons BONUS: You probably know "Venus de Milo" was supposed to have arms ... The statue was created circa 100 B.C., and, since it is of Greek origin, the depiction should probably be referenced to as Aphrodite, the goddess of love. The image at right is German archaeologist and art historian Adolf Furtwängler's restoration proposal, based on fragments of the arm found with the statue upon discovery. Images: WikiCommons


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Man claims son shot by Greece Police

13WHAM reached out to Greece Police for comment about our interview with Mr. Manza and about the suspect, but we have not heard back from them ...


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Sokratis Injury Blow for BVB and Greece

News broke today of Greece international defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos's injury which he obtained in a tackle on André Hahn late on in ...


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Euro 2016 Predictions and Betting Odds: Greece vs Faroe Islands

Greece and Faroe Islands will play their next Euro 2016 qualifying match at the Stadio Georgios Karaiskáki on Friday, 14th November. These teams ...


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Greece: Kenya's Kandie Breaks Course Record at Athens Marathon

Kenyan runner Felix Kandie broke the course record of Olympic Champion Stefano Baldini at the Athens Marathon on Sunday with a time of 2 hours ...


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Davutoglu to hold talks in Greece

Davutoglu to hold talks in Greece ... between the governments of Greece and Turkey, under the chairmanship of Prime Ministers Antonis Samaras and ...


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Injuries Plaguing Greece Squad

Greece's coach Claudio Ranieri gestures during the Euro 2016 Group F qualifying football match against Northern Ireland at Karaiskaki stadium in ...


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Perpetual Sadness wins at Thessaloniki

There were also retrospectives based around a century of Greek cinema and Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó, whose Cannes award-winning ...


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PM DAVUTOÄžLU TO VISIT GREECE FOR COOPERATION MEETING

ANKARA — Prime Minister Ahmet DavutoÄŸlu will visit Greek capital Athens on December 5 and 6 to attend a bilateral cooperation meeting, the Turkish ...


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Greek Singer Alexiou’s Concert in Istanbul a Success

Greek singer Haris Alexiou gave a concert at the Istanbul Congress Center on Saturday. This concert was attended by more than 5 thousand fans, who gave the singer a very warm welcome, singing along to many songs throughout the evening. Alexiou performed ...


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Turkish PM Davutoglu to visit Athens in December for talks with Samaras

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will visit Athens in December to hold talks with Greek Premier Antonis Samaras, it was announced on Monday. “On 5 and 6 December 2014, the 3rd annual Greek-Turkish High-Level Cooperation Council will convene in Athen... ...


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Turkish PM to attend cooperation meeting in Greece

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will visit Athens on December 5 and 6 to attend the third Turkey Greece High-Level Cooperation Council. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will visit Greek capital Athens on December 5 and 6 to attend a bilateral cooperation ...


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Greek consumer prices continue to decline

ATHENS--Greek consumer prices continued to decline in October as low demand in the recession-hit economy has led to weak spending in most ...


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Greek gaming company moves to Halifax, highlighting a growing industry

HALIFAX – Vesuvius Media is the most recent import in a growing Nova Scotia gaming industry. The company's owners said they moved here after ...


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Strengthening Ties, Greek Officials to Visit Melbourne

Orfanos is planning on traveling to Melbourne, Australia on November 19, accompanied by a large delegation of Greek entrepreneurs. Two days later ...


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Golden Dawn Members on Stealth Trip to Australia to Raise Funds

xryshayvgh_h_633_451 Two members of Greek extreme far-right political party Golden Dawn will visit Australia this week to raise funds and meet ...


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NSU frat under microscope for hazing claim

Students involved in Greek organizations were involved in National Hazing Prevention Week in September on campus, according to Helen Lahrman, ...


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