Saturday, September 16, 2017

Sacred and Magical Places

An Exploration of Their Mysterious Powers 

What is the actual nature of the sacred sites? How can we explain the extraordinary - and often miraculous - phenomena that occur at them?
Hundreds of millions of pilgrims journey to these power places each year. The momentum of both religious tradition and modern tourism is commonly suggested to explain this astonishing movement of people. 
Yet much more is going on than mere religious custom or vacation travel. How do we account for the enormous popularity of these places? What makes them sacred, and what do people hope to gain from their visits to the sites?












Friday, September 15, 2017

From Sacred Geography to Geopolitics

Geopolitics as “intermediate” science


Geopolitical concepts became the major factors of modern politics since a long time ago. They are built on general principles allowing to easily analyze the situation of any particular country and region.
Geopolitics in its present form is undoubtedly a worldly, “profane”, secularized science. But maybe, among all modern sciences, it saved in itself the greatest connection with Tradition and traditional sciences. 

Modern chemistry is the outcome of the desacralization of a traditional science — alchemy, as modern physics is of magic. Exactly in the same way one might say that modern geopolitics is the product of the freedom from ecclesiastical control and desacralizing of another traditional science — sacred geography. 

But since geopolitics holds a special place among modern sciences, and it is often ranked as a “pseudo-science”, its profanizing is not so accomplished and irreversible, as in the case of chemistry or physics. The connection with sacred geography here is rather distinctly visible. Therefore it is possible to say that geopolitics stands in an intermediate place between traditional science, Sacred Geography and profane science.






Friday, September 08, 2017

Kissing couple of the Caspian Sea

Kissing couple of the Caspian Sea



















Thursday, September 07, 2017

Sunday, June 04, 2017

Haifa Bay International Airport


Aviation progress was, in many cases, much faster than expected. Countries and cities that invested in this direction are booming. In twenty years, the number of passenger airplanes worldwide will double. This development is integrated into the transition to a knowledge economy, and the importance of human capital over material capital.
The maritime port cities have declined considerably as traditional employment centers. Modern shipping requires limited manpower, and except for tourism, it no longer deals with transporting passengers.
The State of Israel, which enjoys the aura of one of the world's most advanced air force and aviation industry, is at the end of the list in the number of airports per capita. The aviation industry is concentrated in the center of the country, around the congested Ben Gurion Airport. The Haifa-Acre metropolis remains behind, especially brcause of the petrochemical plants, which prevent the development of modern services and dense housing.
There are several alternatives throughout the State of Israel to a second for Ben Gurion Airport. In view of the opposition to Ramat David, each of them, with the exception of that in Haifa Bay, will cause the north of the country to decline. Haifa Bay airport may, through minimal investment, become a medium-sized international airport, and through a long-term investment in several stages to the complementary for Ben Gurion Airport in terms of size and services. This is because Haifa's runway has the potential for synergy with the sea port by integrating it as a long wavebreaker, which will greatly increase the area of ​​the sea port.
The spectacular amphitheater of Haifa Bay evokes a sense of heights, creating a constant stimulus for the viewers. The title most commonly associated with 'air' is 'free', and natural air is free air. One thing is clear: Haifa metropolis needs an international airport as breathing air.
Theodor Herzel predicted that Haifa would be the most developed city in the country, and the invention of the airplane. He stated that the Jewish state, like the airplane, would be based on the principle of movement. Without movement it would collapse quickly. Anyone who tries to deprive Haifa-Acre metropolis of the constant movement that the aerial city creates negates Herzel's vision. Every magical place has its uniqueness. The airplanes flying over Haifa Bay are the top of it's magic, like peace doves.




Haifa Bay International Airport - illustration





Saturday, June 03, 2017

Daedalus and Icarus

Here are some traditions, customs and modern cultural aspects regarding Daedalus and Icarus:

  • In Pliny's Natural History he is credited with inventing carpentry "and with it the saw, axe, plumb-line, drill, glue, and isinglass". 
  • Pausanias, in travelling around Greece, attributed to Daedalus numerous archaic wooden cult figures that impressed him: "All the works of this artist, though somewhat uncouth to look at, nevertheless have a touch of the divine in them."
  • It is said he first conceived masts and sails for ships for the navy of Minos. He is said to have carved statues so well they looked as if alive; even possessing self-motion. They would have escaped if not for the chain that bound them to the wall.
  • Daedalus gave his name to any Greek artificer and to many Greek contraptions that represented dextrous skill. At Plataea there was a festival, the Daedala, in which a temporary wooden altar was fashioned, and an effigy was made from an oak-tree and dressed in bridal attire. It was carried in a cart with a woman who acted as bridesmaid. The image was called Daedale and the archaic ritual given an explanation through a myth to the purpose.
  • In the period of Romanticism, Daedalus came to denote the classic artist, a skilled mature craftsman

  • In the period of Romanticism, Icarus symbolized the romantic artist, whose impetuous, passionate and rebellious nature, as well as his defiance of formal aesthetic and social conventions, may ultimately prove to be self-destructive. 
  • Stephen Dedalus, in Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" envisages his future artist-self "a winged form flying above the waves ... a hawk-like man flying sunward above the sea, a prophecy of the end he had been born to serve”.
  • Ovid's treatment of the Icarus myth and its connection with that of Phaëthon influenced the mythological tradition in English literature as received and interpreted by major writers such as Chaucer, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Milton, and Joyce.
  • Bruegel's Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (ca. 1558), famous for relegating the fall to a scarcely noticed event in the background
  • In Renaissance iconography, the significance of Icarus depends on context: in the Orion Fountain at Messina, he is one of many figures associated with water; but he is also shown on the Bankruptcy Court of the Amsterdam Town Hall - where he symbolizes high-flying ambition. The 16th-century painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, traditionally but perhaps erroneously attributed to Pieter Bruegel the Elder, was the inspiration for two of the 20th century's most notable English-language poems.
  • Literary interpretation has found in the myth the structure and consequence of personal over-ambition. An Icarus-related study of the Daedalus myth was published by the French hellenist Françoise Frontisi-Ducroux.
  • In psychology there have been synthetic studies of the Icarus complex with respect to the alleged relationship between fascination for fire, enuresis, high ambition, and ascensionism.
  • In the psychiatric mind features of disease were perceived in the shape of the pendulous emotional ecstatic-high and depressive-low of bipolar disorder. Henry Murray having proposed the term Icarus complex, apparently found symptoms particularly in mania where a person is fond of heights, fascinated by both fire and water, narcissistic and observed with fantastical or far-fetched imaginary cognition.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of what can be collected and created regarding this myth. It can be related to modern political events:
  • The 2001 twin towers disaster.
  • Deadalus is an inspiration for Jesus Christ, who is depicted also with wings. The airplane shape is that of a cross in the sky, so it can explain modern Antisemitism.
  • Theodore Herzel envisioned the airplane as something which will be depended of movement in order to stay in the sky. He wrote a novel about the inventor of the flying machine who destroy it after it create wars. 
  • The decision to build or not to build an airport or an airplane. 
















Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Moshe Kahlon at Haifa Leadership Conference 2017

The first panel on the second day at Haifa Leadership Conference dealt with 'leadership and entrepreneurship'. The panel opened with an interview with Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon.
Kahlon's rose like meteor in the political arena. It is little doubt that he will be the next prime minister of Israel, and will do it well, together with his high-quality group. One tough test in front of him, except in the area of ​​finance, is about changing the face of Haifa metropolitan area, in which he is deeply involved.

During the interview Kahlon showed a good sense of humor:
Question: 'Would you agree to a Bibi-Moses style deal'? 
He replied: '' I felt insulted when the affair was published, because no journalist turned to me yet with a proposal for cooperation ''.
Question: ''Would you be willing to accept gifts as a government minister''? 
He replied: ''Am I at a wedding that I have to get gifts''?!
Question: ''Was Menachem Begin prepared to accept cigars''? 
He repliedd:? ''Begin would ask, 'What is a cigar?' ''
He had humorous answers to many other questions.
Humor is an important element in business and a finance minister has to have it because the combination of humor and business is essential for business success.

Kahlon has to understand that the Haifa metropolitan development equation is the moving of the petrochemical plants and the construction of an international airport in place. Haifa metropolitan area population is about one million inhabitants. The area has many attractions and educated population, but in the last generation there has been a significant socio-economic regression. The government does not add advanced industries and services but on the contrary, strengthen, through the existing regulation, the petrochemical plants in the bay. The need for gradual but full withdrawl of the petrochemical plants is blurred by the debate about the findings of air polution. The main problem of Haifa metropolitan area is its inability to be developed in general. This is due to a severe shortage of construction areas because of these enterprises.
Airports are the anchor for the model of the ''Aerial City'' of economic development, business location and urban development in the 21st century, in a similar way to that of ''Marine Cities'' of the past. Many studies confirm that a good airline service is an important component in the development of urban economy, and airports are the largest investment that a city or region can make. Airports influence the growth and development of cities and regions in many ways. There is a connection between the number of passengers at airports and the growth of employment in their respective regions. 10% growth in passenger traffic at an airport produces 1% growth in employment. More important is that airports and airlines services are closely related to the characteristics of the post-industrial knowledge based economy. The number of flights and number of passengers is parallel in percentage to college graduates, part of a knowledge-based work force, professional and creative jobs, and in particular to the concentration of high-tech industries. It's not the size of the city itself which count, but a minimum size threshold that helps the city to build an airport, thus creating higher levels of human capital. High-tech, tourism and hotels, entertainment, commerce, conferences, offices, etc., are all affected by the aviation industry.
Within the next 20 years the number of passenger airplanes will double. Many countries value the significance of this growth and ensures appropriate infrastructure development of ​​airports. Technology always precedes the infrastructure. More airplanes creates the need for new airports, and not vice versa. The process of building the infrastructure lasts a long time and do not always meet the needs.
Those who could predict the unprecedented expansion of the aviation industry and set up appropriate infrastructure, won an unprecedented economic boom. The most prominent example is Dubai. Its airport is now the largest in terms of passenger volume. From a remote oil state, Dubai has become a global center and millions of tourists and business people come to it every year.

Saturday, December 10, 2016

Phi color combinations of the Tabernacle in the Bible


As it says in Exodus 26:1, “Make the tabernacle with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim worked into them by a skilled craftsman.” 

This reference to the combination blue, purple and scarlet in the construction of the tabernacle appears 26 times in Exodus 25 through 39, describing the colors to be used in the curtains, waistbands, breastpieces, sashes and garments.

Set the primary color of the PhiBar to blue, the secondary color of the PhiBar to purple and the Phi color is scarlet, as illustrated below:

Tabernacle colors

Friday, August 19, 2016

Saturday, April 23, 2016

Haifa Bay in the future - a suggested plan for an international airport

Haifa Bay in the Future according to Haifa's Backyard blog
The illustration above is of a suggested plan for an international airport in Haifa Bay, Israel. It will be combined with a maritime port. 
By clicking on the picture, the enlargement will show clearly the 2 smaller maps below the large one. The map on the right shows the current view of Haifa Bay. The left map, with the yellow spots, is Haifa Bay according to disasterous government plans.
These plans, which are already in early stage of construction, are for a Chinese managed huge container port. 
This port has no natural logistic hinterland, so it will seize its land from Haifa Airport and Kishon Park. It will cancel any option for their existence! It will shut them down!

The new port will serve also as a huge fuels terminal, for the expanded refineries, a move which will seal the fate of Haifa metropolitan area. It will block any possibility for its development. Worse then that, it will increase the cancer rate of the area, which is already very high, because of the air polution locked in the stadium shaped bay. 

The 2 runways in the illustration reflect a new building concept, of a runway which is extended into the sea combined with a waves barrier and docks for a maritime port. The runway is a 'rib' of the port.

The 2 runways lenghs are based on the continental shelf of the bay, as seen by the difference of the water color. The runways are extended from the current small airfield, which is capeble today only for small passengers airplanes landings. The 2 suggested runways are suitable for Boeing 747 landings and are about 10,000 feet long each.

Singapore, which has the largest maritime port in the world, is prospering thanks to its international airport, which had won for the last 4 years in a row the title of the best airport in the world. The economic comparision 'ןאי the decaying economic of Haifa is obvious.


The Green parties of Haifa are making desperate efforts in order to reverse the catastrophic government decisions. Without international cooperation their chances are poor. 

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Rate hike by the Fed as a "Dream Experience"

Capital Market commentators around the world in recent years devote extensive articles explaining movements in the market according to psychological motives, stemming most from the international virtual community. Fashionable trends have become more legitimate than rational considerations, because they motivate the human creativity. Thus the concept of "dream companies", with their name creating more value than the products they sell, as brands in fashion, which besides the name on top of the product have no difference from similar companies.

So it is strange that many commentators of the capital markets do not attach to the Fed's decision about raising interest rates the same ''trendy'' meaning .
If the common investors are affected by ''trendy'' when buying and selling shares, they are influenced by the "trendy" just the same when the Fed raises interest rates. In other words, the small interest rate hike, if there is one at all, has great significance much more than its actual value.

Many stock investments with the "facade fantasy" will disappear. Many investors will sell their shares in the coming days, in order to ride on the wave of "dream of falling", which has a strong psychological meaning almost like the "dream of rising".
We are expecting a sharp decline in the indices of the US equity market, which will be ruthless, long, and difficult to repair.

It is possible, by the way, to also assume, according to the principle of "dream decision", that the motives of the members of the Fed regarding interest rate hike were not rational, but stemmed more from the need to belong and take part in some way, even if negative, in the dreams created by the stock market. May the Fed's force be with you!