ANCIENT EGYPT

well, first of all I should thank Gary for letting us write about something that we like for a change............. Any way, I decided to write about something which I was interested ever since 6th grade. Some people might find this particular subject not so much interesting, but I think it is one of the most fascinating subjects that we can observe on the face of the earth.When I was 12 or 13, my dream was to be an archaeologist , but that thought actually changed as I grew up and found out that job was too boring for a person like me, but I still have a big interest about this subject, I love watching documentaries and movies about pyramids and mummies and stuff ,but sadly I don't have much time to watch them now. Archaeologists have unrevealed many things about the ancient Egyptian civilization, but there are a lot that is still hidden.In this post I'm going to talk about only a few of the facts because this is a vast subject and I can't write everything I know in this.

PYRAMIDS OF GIZA.
There are a lot of controversial theories given by various scientists and archaeologists about these three pyramids, some say that they are tombs and the others take them as ancient Egyptian temples which were created to reach the heavens.Even 4500 years after these pyramids were built we still don't know much about the interior of the Great pyramid itself. In 2003 a robotic camera was inserted through a small hole drilled in a newly discovered door, but scientists found nothing but a dead end. Normally in many ancient cultures pyramids were erected as royal tombs and temples, but these pyramids of Giza shows no such specific reason, and archaeologists have no solid explanation regarding the pyramids of Giza.
It is said that ancient Egyptians had a great knowledge about mathematics and astrology. May be three or two years back, I watched a documentary about the pyramids of Giza.It explained how the ancients chose the location to build these three pyramids , it was very fascinating indeed. Scientist have found out that these pyramids were built according to a particular star constellation, this star constellation was Orion. As earth rotates around the sun and itself, once in every 23000 years Orion takes its place directly above Egypt,the ancient Egyptians got this knowledge and built the pyramids of Giza right under the there stars called the Orion's belt.
But I must say that the ancient Egyptians were not the only people who built their cities according to star constellations.







THE SPHINX.
Spinx is a mythical creature with a head of a man and a body of a lion, just as pyramids the sphinx also was a common icon in Egypt. The great sphinx of Giza is the most splendid and familiar of all. Facing east with a temple between its' paws,it is 260ft long and 65ft high.The sphinx also is very mysterious just like the three pyramids of Giza. Scientists are still unconvinced about the facts as well as the fictions regarding the Great Sphinx .Its' head is said to be molded after that of the pharaoh Khafra who ruled from 2558 to 2532 B.C.,Some scholars suspect it may be even older.Any way the missing nose of the sphinx is the main reason that scientists can't identify the exact pharaoh which it was dedicated to.

THUTANKHAMUN-THE YOUNG PHARAOH.
The honor of finding king Tut goes to the British archaeologist Howard Carter, He was the first person to enter tomb where the sarcophagus of the boy pharaoh was. When the expedition sponsor died shortly after the find, rumors arose that there was a curse in king Tut's tomb, but that was all fiction. This picture,shows a reconstruction of Tut's face based on CT scans of his mummy.

Thutankhamun's tomb was literally a gold mine. Archaeologists found many treasures hidden in his tomb while they were excavating to get to the young pharaoh's sarcophagus .The discovery of his mummy led to many questions about how he died at a very young age. After investigating the mummy and other facts some scientists said that young Tut was murdered and the others proclaimed that he died due to a disease.

KING TUT'S TREASURES








MUMMIES
Anubis was the ancient Egyptian god associated with mummification and burial rituals. This image shows Anubis attending a mummy.

The ancient Egyptians considered mummification as an essential deed for a dead person's spirit to enter the afterlife.It was very carefully done within one or two weeks after the death. First they removed many of the body organs, the whole brain was removed through the nose by inserting a long,thin,iron tool .Then covered it with natron ( a salt) to speed dehydration. And after that they applied medicinal oils all over the corpse and shrouded in stripes of linen.Between the linen they placed jewels that belonged to the dead person.Even animals were mummified in this manner.

Any way, I'm going to stop write here, I could go on writing about this subject, but I also have other things to do.............................................

THE BLACK MARKET

Wow! I really don't know much about the black market, So i hope what I know is enough to write this , I could search the facts on the internet, but I find it very boring.......... For a article this subject would be okay, but if someone would want to criticize it and would want to find solutions to the drawbacks created by this underground economy, I think that would be a very stupid thing to do, because a black market is not something than could be washed away from a society,From what I know, a black market is born when the supply does not match the demand.Theoretically the supply of goods and services can be even with the demand, but it is not practical in the real world, this is because people's needs increase day by day, so most of the time the supply cannot keep up with the demand.Then the black market creeps in to fill in the gap. Here, the prices are made lower or higher than the original price, this actually violates the law of the government,but people are more concerned about their pleasure more than the rules and regulations, so they tend to buy what they want even the quality of the goods are lessened in the black market, after all, 'the customers are always right'
.
Actually, there are two aspects of an underground economy, In this particular market ,sellers give away less quality goods for a cheaper price because the common man cannot afford the actual price.This makes both the dealer and the customer satisfied. Even if the quality is less ,the customer gains some kind of utility from the goods that he or she buy, And of course the dealer is happy and well because he urns a lot from these cheap goods.In my opinion, this type of a black market doesn't harm the moral law, it only makes the legal companies lose a huge amount of money,this is the 1st aspect, the other is about the luxurious goods and services that the black market offer the society. The government taxing certain types of goods or prohibiting them to be used or imported makes them less in the legal market.So as if it is its' holy duty,again the black market gives the customers an opportunity to gain these goods,but for a higher price.Now this type of a black market have very bad effects on a society.
For the first category, we can take goods such as pirate copies of software,counterfeit CDs or DVDs, downloading music and movies from the internet,fake branded designer clothes and perfumes, food items and etc. For the second category,where we talked about luxury goods, we can take medicines, alcohol , ivory, endangered species of animals, drugs, weapons and even human organs.

The primeval situations of a black market are common in communist countries because of their practice of supplying limited amounts of consumer goods through state owned stores.But now almost all of the countries have a blend of the private sector and the government sector,and yet there is a black market in every one of them where people can sell or buy goods and services by violating laws.This is because there is more to a black market than the basics.
A black market in a country is huge,so huge that no one can eliminate it from the face of the earth because 80% of the population and sometimes even the state in each country depend on the black market in some way.
Generally, when people talk about an underground economy, they give more importance to the second type of a black market where people violate laws tremendously. The black market dealers make fortunes by selling Dangerous medications, stolen ancient treasures , body parts of animals such as elephant tusks, snake skins, and fur coats of tigers,panthers and bears, smuggling drugs and weapons and by smuggling human organs which has a popular demand in a black market, these human organs are taken mostly from children in poor countries.And child prostitution is also a well known factor in a black market.As I mentioned above this effects the moral order in a very bad way.
The problem is that the law cannot stand out against the wealth and power of the black market dealers,and most of the time these dealers and are well known powerful people in a society, so it is almost impossible for the law to catch them, This is why I emphasized the fact that a black market cannot be eradicated from a society any time soon.

Glogster

POLITICS IN OUR COUNTRY- TODAY.

Politics always has been a messy broth, and there isn't any politician who tried to taste this broth has ever come out of the kitchen without spilling it on their clothes. There are many countries in the word, and there might be slight differences in the way each of those countries handle political matters,but if we look close enough we can see underneath the red carpet it's the same corrupted system. So Srilanka is also in the same boat.

Srilanka's current political situations have been heated up by last year's victory over the Tamil tigers and by the recent presidential election. I must say, I never liked politics that much and I never will, it's a very confusing subject,and I can't imagine the weight a president have to put up with for his or her country. We all are human, no one is divine, so who ever rules there is some kind of corruption within him.Being a president or a minister doesn't mean that they are super human. This is why I like President Mahinda Rajapaksha Not like other leaders we had in the past, he did his duty, he ended the war, 30 years of sufferings. I just can't believe that now some of our people have forgotten all. I'm not taking sides here, I'm not saying that presidential candidate Genaral Sarath Fonseka is not good enough for the seat, but we must admit that the better candidate was Mahinda Rajapaksha, he has the experience and courage to rule this country. People might say that he never faught in the war,he didn't shed his blood for the people and Fonseka did,so he deserves every thing. Well, that is the point isn't it?, why does one man become a president and the other a soldier? that is because as I said before we are not super human.If the president had to fight and take care of other issues at the same time, would he have been able to do any thing? He did his part as a president by providing all the neccessities to end a war, he put up with all the negative feedbacks from powerful countries and still remained strong, if he knelt in front of them, we would never have gained this victorious peace that we have now ?.And for the General, he also did his duty well by fighting and ending the war, and if we are going to respect the soldiers we must also respect him for what he did.

Now ,the problem is that the government is not magnanimous in their victory, and the opposition party is not humble in their defeat. But it shouldn't be a surprise to any one, because this is the way that the world goes around for years now, and no one can stop it. Just think for a moment, do you think if the presidency went to the hands of Sarath Fonseka the situation would be different? Both of them are men, and the government would also be controlled by humans, they all have the lust for power, so which ever party comes to power corruption won't end,because it's not the fault of the system but the people in it.

And now, Fonseka have been arrested for giving out military information. I'm not going to be critical on that action, because the law is law,he should have thought before he jumped. But the thing is, there's a lot of information about politics kept from the civilians, so it's hard to decide who's right or wrong. My idea is that if he didn't come to politics , he would have been held in high esteem now, even by the government. Some might say that he was arrested because he told the truth. what he said was that the secretary of defence ordered the Tigers to be shot when they came to surrender.Even that is the truth or not, I'm not really against that because I don't think that if they some how lived we would have been able to gain any peace, It is better to destroy every root, because if we don't they are always going to grow back.

I'm actually glad that President Mahinda Rajapaksha was re-elected, he was the better candidate any way. And I don't think that Fonseka would have been able to live up to the people's expectations because he is just a toddler when it comes to politics. Politicians always give faulse promises, they just can't stop it even if they want to. So we should know how to work to make our lives better than always depending on a government. Which ever party you are in, that is the only way to secure your future. and people must understand that which ever party comes to power, corruption is never going to end.

PLASTIC SURGERY

People have been practicing this type of surgery for a long time now, but it has never been this much popular ever before. In the past, plastic surgeries were done to cover up small cuts, bruises, and burns. But today the situation is very different. People can not only cover up small parts of their bodies but they also can change their whole appearance through plastic surgery
Nowadays majority of the people are so eager to stay forever young, so they always try to find the easy way out,and the easiest way to look good is to rely on these cosmetic surgeries. but that is of course if you have a large amount of money and property. In a way these surgeries can actually help people in different ways.If you consider a man or a woman who got burnt in an accident or someone who got ugly scars because of a horrible incident, they can regain their looks and continue their lives without being mentally depressed.
But the point is that rather than for essential reasons ,people do plastic surgeries on themselves just to enhance their beauty and their figure. We can see this happening mostly in the celebrity world.
whatever the reason, plastic surgeries are still ' plastic'. They are not natural. Even after doing a plastic surgery the war does not end, one must constantly keep his or her eye on for any bad effects of the surgery by taking various kinds of drugs and other types of medication. So it's really poisoning the human body. So my opinion is that people should always consider natural means to protect their beauty and figure. In that way people can look and feel good without facing bad consequences. Plastic surgeries are a waste of time and money. Some even can cause death if they are not properly done. If you ask me, I'm really not ready to risk my whole life just to look pretty for the picture.

Hiii guys; welcome to my blog!!!!

Gosh,I still can't believe that 2009 is over. New year came by so quikly and I didn't even notice it. Last x'mas we were soooo busy because of my brothers' engagement, and after that we went to Badulla for some fresh air. I must say,it was really nice ,there is a lot to see eventhough some don't take it as an interesting place to be. I'm really looking forward to get to know my classmates better, It was ok at the first day,but I hope our class would turn out to be more fun in the near future.

BYE-BYE 4 NOW...............................