William Knox D’Arcy and the History of Irani Oil

The following is a brief history of how the largest oil reserves in Iran were discovered. This does not include every possible detail. Please refer to the sources listed below in order to get more details.

William Knox D’Arcy

William Knox D’Arcy was born in England on the 11th of October, 1849. He was the son of a local solicitor, studied law as a youngster, and then moved to Australia with his family. There he joined his father’s new law business and waited for opportunity to knock.

Mozaffar al-Din Shah Qajar was the fifth Qajar King of Iran. He inherited a bankrupt Iran that was quickly deteriorating due to his predecessor’s financial debts to Russia and Britain. He didn’t do much to reverse the situation but instead spent the remaining money on luxuries and trips to foreign lands.

The Morgan brothers, Fredrick, Thomas, and Edwin, were the sons of an Englishman whose death sentence was pardoned and was instead exiled to Australia for stealing some cloth from a tailor. Thomas and Edwin Morgan grew up to become prospectors. They were hunting for silver when Edwin veered off course and decided to swing his pick at a boulder. The boulder chipped and the insides gleamed. Edwin Morgan had discovered gold.

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Lebanese and Israeli Bloggers

CedarSeed ( Lebanese Blogger)

My grandmother’s neighbour died yesterday when the trucks were bombed in Achrafieh.
She died of fright when the explosion rocked her home.

What a night… God what a night. The number of times I sat up to look out the window expecting to see a red glow in the sky… I didn’t get nearly enough sleep. I’ll nap later.

I briefly glimpsed at the news this morning to find out what the bombing was that kept us up all night, and found out a new block of the southern suburb had been knocked down, and that in the south the IDF had penetrated the territory, waged a full-fledge battle against HA, and taken Marun al Ras. Further than that, I don’t want to read anymore. It’s Sunday. I’d like to pretend it’s a regular one. Yeah right.

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All Kinds of Writings (Israeli Blogger)

Then the explosions. One after another. I couldn’t count as some of them fell together. But I figured it was more than 10.
A few of them were very close. One especially. Car alarms went off from that blast. And I’m eerily calm. Is it possible I’m getting used to this? Can anyone get used to this?

Nine sirens today as Hezbollah’s making sure we stay fit with going up and down the stairs.

My mom was nodding off and the siren scared her so she nearly fainted. She’s fine now.

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Beirut Beltway ( Lebanese Blogger )

More than a week after the Israeli attack began, Lebanon is being destroyed, Hizbullah remains intact. Many Lebanese businesses and factories are counting their immense losses, wondering what they did to Israel, and how destroying their plants and businesses can lead to lasting peace in the region. The Israeli Air Force has failed to stop the rocket attacks on Israeli cities, as evidenced by the attack on Haifa today. This vindicates those of us who argued that the disproportionate and blind Israeli attack can
only empower Hizbullah, and certainly not increased security for Israel.

The defenseless civilians in the south and other areas have no shelters to protect them, and no roads to use to flee the destruction. Hizbullah forgot to build shelters when it imposed its infamous “defense strategy”, and Israel couldn’t care less.

As for Bush. He has never seen a dead baby with a hole in his back.

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Israellycool ( Israeli Blogger )

I’m back, after a relaxing Sabbath break from the news. Well, as relaxing as you can expect with a war going on in the northern and southern parts of your country, some of your friends and acquaintances called away for reserve duty, and the uncertainty as to what news will greet you when you log on to the computer next.

As I am typing this, I hear the roar of airplanes flying past my house. I cannot even imagine what it must be like for my fellow Israelis who are having to grow accustomed to the sound of warning sirens, Katushas landing, and ambulances wailing.

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Lebanon Heart Blogs ( Lebanese Bloggers )

It is shame, and it gives you a snap shot of what will happen if Hezbollah wins… the end of Democracy, the end of freedom of press and the end of Lebanon. Some of you will bombard me with comments saying look at Israel it is destroying Lebanon and killing its people, and if Hezbollah loses then we will be humiliated. That might be true. But this is reality and reality sucks. Nothing is totally black or white. All is gray and dripping with blood. Both prospects of this war are a nightmare; there is no solution
that benefits us, the people of Lebanon. Everything benefits some external power. Iran or the USA. Israel or Syria. Our country is once more the battle ground for foreign powers using internal pawns. No matter who wins, Lebanon will lose!

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Israeli Bunker ( Israeli Blogger )

11AM, I just want to sleep. A siren unsurprisingly starts, you knew it would. Well maybe this time I won’t go down, come on what are the odds. Fine, even if we do get hit, that’s the only way you are getting me out of this bed.

One minute later, down in the bunker where few people came down. In the distance you hear a faint boom, you’ve heard booms in the past one or twice. Then again, boom, louder. 1,2,3, BOOM, BOOM. 1,2, Boom. (Those booms better stop getting louder, on the last two you could feel the vibration from the wall). Boom, they are getting fainter now. Final boom in the distance.

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Lebanese Political Journal ( Lebanese Blogger )

There is a massive anti-US and Israel demonstration going on in Damascus, right now.

They are waving Syrian, Palestian, and Hezbollah flags. They are holding up pictures of Syrian President Bashar al Assad and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Not a Lebanese flag in sight. No mention of Lebanon’s legitimate government.

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http://codedemigod.com/blog ( Lebanese )

Also today, a Syrian diplomat( Faysal Al-Meqdad, i forgot what his title was) announced that Syria is prepared to help in controlling the war in Lebanon if the US would promise that it would help in other problematic areas in the middle east, pointing to the occupied Golan Heights. Well, now it seems more clear why all of this started, doesn’t it?

[ Link ] Thank you fdemmer

More coming soon!

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History of the Israel Palestine Conflict

NPR News is presenting this special series on the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to bring context and perspective to the story, and to help listeners understand the complex situation in the Mideast, the history, and the consequences of the confrontation. To accomplish this, NPR has gone to leading historians of the region to document the deep and conflicting roots of today’s Middle East.  

Zionism emerged as the political movement to create a Jewish state. Herzl brought his followers together in the first Zionist Congress in Switzerland, in 1897, to formulate the movement’s goals and strategies. Herzl had little interest in the Arabs who lived in Palestine, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire.

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BBC correspondent Stuart Hughes blogging in Lebanon

Stuart Hughes, BBC correspondent, is currently in Beirut and is blogging away despite the continuous bombing by Israel.

Spotted an oasis in the middle of a war zone this morning — a beautiful Havana cigar shop in downtown Beirut.

I’m keen to stock up — but I don’t think it’ll be opening for business any time soon.

However, if an Israeli missle lands nearby and blows the windows out it’s within easy looting distance!

and I thought my job was demanding,

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[ Link to Photostream ]

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Google Censorship Word List

Google Blogoscoped as attempted to find out the list of censored words on Google. The writer wrote a script that fed about 27,000 to Google and returned a list that returned the infamous “According to local laws and policies some search results are not showing” sentence.

Some strange words in that list though.

“Tooth”?

“is”?

“belly”?

The list does not have the word “Freedom” in it though. Strange, because that’s one of the words that caught the attention of the US news media the most.

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Stephen Colbert Clip

 Stephen Colbert asks Congressman, the one who sponsored the bill to display the 10 commandments in Congress, to name the 10 commandments.

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Google writes about Net Neutraility

Eric Schmidt, one of the founders of Google, has posted a message about the upcoming bill that may potentially destroy the Internet as we know it today.

In the next few days, the House of Representatives is going to vote on a bill that would fundamentally alter the Internet. That bill, and one that may come up for a key vote in the Senate in the next few weeks, would give the big phone and cable companies the power to pick and choose what you will be able to see and do on the Internet.

Today the Internet is an information highway where anybody – no matter how large or small, how traditional or unconventional – has equal access. But the phone and cable monopolies, who control almost all Internet access, want the power to choose who gets access to high-speed lanes and whose content gets seen first and fastest. They want to build a two-tiered system and block the on-ramps for those who can’t pay.

Creativity, innovation and a free and open marketplace are all at stake in this fight. Please call your representative (202-224-3121) and let your voice be heard.

Thanks for your time, your concern and your support.

Eric Schmidt

[ VISIT the page and find out what you can do to save the Internet ]

The Internet thanks you

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Anti-DRM Protest

There is a protest at the San Fran Apple Store today against DRM (Digital Rights Management).

Why are the protesting?

The iTunes policies are too restrictive. This protest is to spread awareness about these restrictions. Most people believe that once they buy music from iTunes they can use it in any way. They probably believe that they can move it to a non-Apple music player with out any problems but that is not the case. In order to do so you would have to either dump out all your iTunes content and buy CDs and then transfer them to your other devices or you’d have to go through alternate routes which are probably illegal.

Furthermore, Apple reserves the right to make the restrictions even tighter at any time in the future. BoingBoing.net posted an example of just that. They have also decreased the number of times a play list can be recorded from ten to seven. The songs that you download can only be played on five computers other wise the song will refuse to play at all.

Protect your rights. Consumers have the moolah. Research before you spend or you’ll end up supporting policies that may harm you in the future.

The demonstrations are being organized by the Free Software Foundation’s “Defective by Design” group.

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[ More about DRM ]

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