RE: What the heck is with the Arab countries?

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RE: What the heck is with the Arab countries? - 5/30/2010 11:45:00 AM

VideoAdminZeta

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quote:

ORIGINAL: kiwisub12
The simple question was, and i repeat again, What is up with the Arab countries?

Could you possibly stay on topic?

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RE: What the heck is with the Arab countries? - 5/30/2010 12:22:52 PM

SL4V3M4YB3

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quote:

ORIGINAL: DarkSteven
The Arabs were the best seafarers of their time, and devised algebra. Charlemagne, considered an enlightened ruler of the age, was a midget compared to the Arab world and could barely read or write.
So what the hell happened?

Similarly what happened to China, ignorance via religion took over. Every so often a society will reach its intellectual peak and people will assume that the knowledge they have found through brilliant minds will remain intact beyond their deaths. What happens instead is that people start finding alternative answers for those questions that have already been answered in a more clinical way. Why do they do this? Their ego demands they must do something useful with their lives; create or die.

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RE: What the heck is with the Arab countries? - 5/30/2010 12:47:39 PM

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Trade. The middle east was the juncture of southern asia, the far east, north africa & europe, and the home of civilisation in its own right. Gradually civilisation flourished to the east and especially the north west, as people with the middle eastern advances found even more habitable land, and over time trade started to skip the middle east, go via sea. The violent split between muslim arabic world and christian europe only encouraged their cutting off from the high tech world. The defining characteristic of the Arabic world, that which united them against the outside world, was religion....never a good basis for technological advancement. As strong trade links have come back, almost entirely thanks to oil and the gradual secularisation, middle east has come on in leaps and bounds, with Iran now wanting to lay claim to the very pinnacle. The future is a mixed bag for the Arabic world, on the one hand they're slowly becoming more and more secular....on the other, the age of oil could pretty much end any year now, leaving them with almost no valuable resources. Although, maybe they're hoping for global warming....not much at risk of sea level rise, the area would benefit enourmously from increased rainfall.

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RE: What the heck is with the Arab countries? - 5/30/2010 12:52:11 PM

Moonhead

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Is rainfall that big an issue in the middle east or is it more that none of them have a clue about farming in the first place. The Israelis can grow citrus fruit and even have a few vinyards out there.

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RE: What the heck is with the Arab countries? - 5/30/2010 12:56:14 PM

DCWoody

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So can/do the arabic nations, but it's hardly the breadbasket of the world is it. It's an area prone to extreme desertification during (very common) droughts.

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RE: What the heck is with the Arab countries? - 5/30/2010 12:58:17 PM

Moonhead

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Not since the Romans turned it into a desert it hasn't been, no.

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RE: What the heck is with the Arab countries? - 5/30/2010 12:59:58 PM

DCWoody

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Ya, Arstocalcles' weather machine really gave the Romans an edge.

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RE: What the heck is with the Arab countries? - 5/30/2010 1:57:51 PM

Moonhead

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Overcultivation over generations is the main reason the Sahara's there, believe it or not. I was forgetting that's North Africa not the middle east.

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RE: What the heck is with the Arab countries? - 5/30/2010 2:00:23 PM

SL4V3M4YB3

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Africa is the near east, but just like Mohr's circle you can end up finding the origin of planes by travelling in any direction.

There is no East or West, it is all in the mind, they say.

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RE: What the heck is with the Arab countries? - 5/30/2010 2:03:25 PM

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True enough. Anyway, it was the breadbasket of the Empire before they trashed it. Over irrigation raising the watertable and killing the plantlife by satuarating the soil with salt, I think. I think the Egyptians had made the same mistake a couple of thousand years earlier as well.

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RE: What the heck is with the Arab countries? - 5/30/2010 2:06:28 PM

Musicmystery

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quote:

So what the hell happened?

Empires come, empires go. Where is the Mayan Empire today?

The days of the Ottoman Empire, the Persian Empire, the Egyptian Empire, are long past.

Holland was once a world power. The Byzantine Empire is no more. So is the Europe of Charlemange.

Of course, Christendom saw the Eastern Christians and Islamic lands as enemies. That didn't help matters.

But Saladin is gone.

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RE: What the heck is with the Arab countries? - 5/30/2010 2:14:34 PM

popeye1250

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What's wrong?
They're living in the 8 th century still!
They think their "Cloud Friend" is bigger and badder than everyone else's cloud friend.

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RE: What the heck is with the Arab countries? - 5/30/2010 2:19:23 PM

Moonhead

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quote:

ORIGINAL: popeye1250

What's wrong?
They're living in the 8 th century still!
They think their "Cloud Friend" is bigger and badder than everyone else's cloud friend.

Fourteenth century, as a matter of fact. That's why they're so keen on absolute monarchies (like the one they used to have in Iran between Mossadeq and the revolution) and theocracies (like the one they have Iran now, and most likely in Iraq ten minutes after you leave).

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RE: What the heck is with the Arab countries? - 5/30/2010 2:24:23 PM

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quote:

ORIGINAL: popeye1250
What's wrong?
They're living in the 8 th century still!
They think their "Cloud Friend" is bigger and badder than everyone else's cloud friend.

Well if they've invented time travel then they are doing something right.

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RE: What the heck is with the Arab countries? - 5/30/2010 2:25:51 PM

Moonhead

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I don't know if that's true. Didn't stop the Time Lords getting wiped out, did it?

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RE: What the heck is with the Arab countries? - 5/30/2010 2:27:13 PM

Musicmystery

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quote:

Didn't stop the Time Lords getting wiped out, did it?

But with time travel capability, getting wiped out is meaningless.

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RE: What the heck is with the Arab countries? - 5/30/2010 2:27:26 PM

kiwisub12

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Moonhead

True enough. Anyway, it was the breadbasket of the Empire before they trashed it. Over irrigation raising the watertable and killing the plantlife by satuarating the soil with salt, I think. I think the Egyptians had made the same mistake a couple of thousand years earlier as well.

I seem to recall that the same thing is happening in parts of California.

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RE: What the heck is with the Arab countries? - 5/30/2010 2:28:51 PM

SL4V3M4YB3

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I think that was more to do with the fact they chose Timothy Dalton as their leader.

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RE: What the heck is with the Arab countries? - 5/30/2010 2:30:12 PM

kiwisub12

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Actually, thats an interesting thought - the civilisation evolved to such a point that they could - and did- destroy themselves.
No water equals no food equals no extra time to spend in learning more than just how to fill the dinner pot, therefore no new advances in technology.

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RE: What the heck is with the Arab countries? - 5/30/2010 2:33:15 PM

Moonhead

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Musicmystery

quote:

Didn't stop the Time Lords getting wiped out, did it?

But with time travel capability, getting wiped out is meaningless.

No, that's the Daleks.

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