Filed under: Arts and Culture, History, Europe, Greece, News

Greece has been hit hard by the recession. According to EU figures, it has 18.8 percent unemployment, the second highest in Europe and more than twice that of the United States. Last year it saw its economy shrink by 5.5 percent.

Now former deputy health minister Gerasimos Giakoumatos has suggested a controversial plan to get Greece some quick cash--lease the Acropolis and other famous sights. According to the China Daily, Giakoumatos, who is a minister of parliament and a member of the conservative New Democracy party, said the move would save Greece from bankruptcy.

He said there's no shame in leasing out Greece's heritage, and that the real shame is that regular protests against austerity measures keep shutting the sites down. Giakoumatos said the money could go to save the government from having to slash pensions and wages.

Even with the current economic woes, tourism accounts for 18 percent of the country's GDP and is

Read the original article at http://www.gadling.com/2012/01/11/should-greece-lease-the-acropolis/

Filed under: History, Learning, Europe, United Kingdom

You'd never know by looking at the cluster of nondescript buildings that they were the scene of the single most important effort to defeat Nazi Germany. During World War Two, Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes, England, was home to thousands of code breakers listening in on and analyzing German military transmissions. The site was so secret that its existence wasn't revealed to the world until the 1970s.

It was here that the famous German Enigma and Lorenz code machines were broken, allowing the Allies to follow German troop, air, and naval movements. It's impossible to say just how much this helped the war effort, but one intelligence historian, Sir Henry Hinsley, estimated it shortened the war by up to four years.

The work on Enigma was actually started by the Polish Cipher Bureau, which broke the Enigma code five weeks before the war started. They shared the information with their British and French counterparts. Although Poland

Read the original article at http://www.gadling.com/2012/01/10/bletchley-park-see-where-codebreakers-listened-in-on-the-third/

Filed under: History, Learning, Scuba Diving, North America, United States

The wreck of a vessel that served in the Union navy during the Civil War is slated to become Florida's 12th underwater preserve, Tampa Bay Online reports.

The USS Narcissus was a tugboat armed with two cannons that participated in the important Battle of Mobile Bay. Shortly after the war it sank in a storm in Tampa Bay, Florida. As it went under, its boiler exploded and killed everyone aboard.

The wreckage site was first examined in the 1990s and local archaeologists and history buffs set forth to make it an underwater preserve. This will allow divers to visit the site while granting official protection for it. Other underwater preserves are already popular destinations for scuba divers.

The wreck lies in only 15 feet of water and large sections of the boat remain visible, including the fatal boiler. This should make it an attractive spot for divers with a taste for history. The U.S. Navy owns the site and has

Read the original article at http://www.gadling.com/2012/01/06/civil-war-shipwreck-will-become-floridas-next-underwater-preser/

Filed under: Arts and Culture, History, Learning, North America, United States

The Phoenix Art Museum is one of the city's best art spaces. With more than 18,000 objects in its permanent collection, it brings everything from Picasso to medieval Japanese silk to central Arizona. Their Asian collection is especially good.

Now the museum has started the new year with a major new exhibition. Sacred Word and Image: Five World Religions covers the written word and painted image as expressed in Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. By showing the art and writings of these different religions side by side, visitors can see how people each faith use them to express their beliefs.

The exhibit includes a wide variety of objects, including Christian icons, Muslim prayer mats, religious texts, sculptures, and much more. One interesting item is a 7th century Japanese printed prayer, one of the oldest printed texts in the world. When Japan converted to Buddhism in the 7th century, the

Read the original article at http://www.gadling.com/2012/01/05/phoenix-art-museum-opens-exhibit-on-world-religion/

Filed under: Europe, Belgium

Here at Gadling we've talked a lot about the perils of solo travel, from how it can break up relationships to creating feelings of loneliness. On a recent trip to Antwerp I discovered a danger to solo travel I never thought of--people look upon you with suspicion.

I was dining alone in a popular Antwerp restaurant. The waiter had seated me so that I faced another table less than ten feet away. A middle-aged woman and her college-aged daughter sat there. The daughter was directly in front of me facing to my left, so if I looked straight ahead I was looking at her profile.

I didn't give it any thought as I ordered. Sometime during my appetizer I noticed the daughter kept turning to look at me. At first it was just every few minutes, but by the time I got my main course she was giving me annoyed glances every thirty seconds or so.

Obviously she thought I was staring at her. I tried to look elsewhere. She kept looking over so often, though, that anytime I

Read the original article at http://www.gadling.com/2012/01/05/the-perils-of-solo-travel-or-how-to-sexually-harass-someone-wi/

Filed under: Activism, Africa, Asia, Kenya, Tanzania, China, Japan, News

The poaching of elephant tusks is a growing problem due to increased demand from Asian nations, the Kenyan newspaper Business Daily reports.

A loophole in the UN law regulating the ivory trade allows Japan and China to legally purchase some ivory from selected nations under tightly controlled contracts. This has encouraged poachers to smuggle their illegal goods to Asia. Once there, it's much easier to unload them.

African nations are split on a global ivory ban, with Kenya supporting a ban and Tanzania wanting the trade to be legal. This basically comes down to whether nations want short-term profits by killing their wildlife and hacking their tusks off, or long-term profits from safaris and tourism.

Radio Netherlands reports that 2011 was a record year for ivory seizures, showing that at least some nations are taking the problem seriously. It also suggests, of course, that the trade is on the rise.

Authorities

Read the original article at http://www.gadling.com/2012/01/02/ivory-poaching-on-the-rise-thanks-to-asian-demand-and-a-legal-lo/