Best place is,,,(drum roll)

1, Iceland

Overall score (out of 100): 100.0

Justice: 100.0

Health: 90.5

Education: 96.7

Economics: 88.0

Politics: 92.8

United States ranks 8, United Kingdom ranks 19.

Egypt ranks…

120, Egypt

Overall score (out of 100): 51.9

Justice: 67.2

Health: 69.6

Education: 67.7

Economics: 63.6

Politics: 29.3

Source: The Daily Beast

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For the last few months, I have been busy writing and working hard, as I am used to doing. Actually, being away from government has been good for me. I needed time to recover from all the trouble, and to give the friends of Seth, the god of chaos, some time to calm down. I have been staying very busy giving public lectures. One recent talk was at the  Mena House hotel for an American group, and another one for 60 Australians was at a resort in Sahl-Hasheesh, Hurghada.

I really enjoyed the two days that I spent at this beautiful seaside resort, and the wonderful people I met there. I even agreed to travel to Australia and New Zealand at the end of May to give some public lectures. I believe that this tour will be a great opportunity to promote tourism in Egypt.

Another lecture that I gave recently was for members of the board from Harvard University, and some other distinguished guests.

This week I gave a talk in Cairo to a conference of eye doctors, who came from all over the world. I told them about the DNA and CT-scanning research we have been doing on Egyptian mummies, and how we have gained a great deal of knowledge about the diseases of the pharaohs.

I feel that it is very important that I take every opportunity to remind members of the press that in spite of what people around the world hear daily about trouble in Egypt, guests who come here to see our ancient monuments have stayed safe. All the tourists that I have met have enjoyed their time in Egypt since the Revolution. We need tourists to come back in even greater numbers for the sake of our economy, and also for the sake of our antiquities – all the ongoing restoration and other projects that we are undertaking require money. Because of the way the government budget has worked for many years, this money has really come from only two sources-tourists and exhibits outside of Egypt.

In addition to giving talks, I have been writing a great deal – something that I love doing very much. I have written a new book about Tutankhamun which will be published in Japanese, and later will be published for the iPad.

My book on antiquities and the 2011 Revolution is almost finished. I have just finished chapter 13, and I still need to write two more chapters. These two chapters will be the most important ones in the book. I will publish this book first in English, and then in Arabic. At the same time, I am working on a few scientific articles.

drhawass.com

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The Actor’s Workshop of Ithaca Theater Company will launch its Emerging Playwright Series tonight with the premiere of “Hatshepsut, the Female Pharaoh,” a one-woman play written by Timothy Lawrence.

The show stars Esosa Edosomwan as Hatshepsut. There will be three performances at Cornell University’s Risley Theatre: at 7:30 p.m. today, and 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Edosomwan, a Cornell graduate as well as an alumna of the Actor’s Workshop of Ithaca, first came across the play in Washington, D.C., while checking out audition postings. After she was cast in the role, Edosomwan wanted to do the first production with the Actor’s Workshop of Ithaca Theater Company. She had been working mostly on camera for film and television work.

Eliza VanCort, founder of the Actor’s Workshop of Ithaca, was eager to direct the show.

This production of “Hatshepsut” will repurpose the “Rent” set recently used by the Melodramatics in Risley Theatre.

Tickets for “Hatshepsut” are $15 ($10 for seniors and students) and are available at Ticket Center Ithaca or by calling 273-4497. For more information, call 339-9999 or visit www.actorsworkshop.biz.

A portion of the proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to the Greater Ithaca Activities Center.

Ithaca Journal

Eleven Hungarian tourists were killed late Sunday when a speeding tour bus overturned at a Red Sea resort town in southeastern Egypt.

The crash also injured 27 Hungarian tourists. It took place at the entrance of Hurghada, 315 miles (510 kilometers) southeast of Cairo.

Four children were among the injured.

Egyptian security and medical officials said the bus was carrying the tourists from their hotel to the airport on a highway. The driver lost control of the bus because of its high speed.

The accident happened on the first day of Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, or Feast of the Sacrifice, when many Egyptians and tourists head to Red Sea resorts for vacation.

The Washington Post

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The Nile crocodile actually comprises two different species — and they are only distantly related.

The large east African Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) is in fact more closely related to four species of Caribbean crocodile than to its small west African neighbour, which has been named (Crocodylus suchus).

Evon Hekkala of Fordham University in New York and her colleagues revealed evidence for the existence of the second species by sequencing the genes of 123 living Nile crocodiles and 57 museum specimens, including several 2,000-year-old crocodile mummies.

The results resolve a centuries-old debate about the classification of the Nile crocodile, and have important implications for the conservation of both species.

The distinction between the two species was apparently known to the ancient Egyptians.

Discover Magazine

This interactive journey, first presented to the public in a 3D theatre in Paris, has now migrated onto the home desktop.

To watch the film, users simply download a plug-in and don a pair of 3D glasses – although the software gives the sensation of depth without them too, to a lesser extent.

With help of cutting-edge 3D technology, the video lets users take a peek inside the 146m-high Great Pyramid, the last of the seven wonders of the ancient world still standing.

The scene appears as it might have 45 centuries ago – full of the loyal people of the second ruler of the fourth dynasty.

But the film is not pure entertainment – besides the educational aspect, it tries to explain one of the theories behind the pyramid’s construction.

What we don’t know is how this colossal monument, made of two million stone blocks that weigh an average of 2.5 tonnes each, was actually built.

The interactive 3D film outlines one hypothesis.

The idea has been drafted by French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin.

It differs sharply from another popular theory which suggests that ancient engineers used an outside stone ramp, spiralling its way to the top. No physical evidence to support such a system has ever been found.

Instead, Mr Houdin insists that the ramp was inside the pyramid – hence it is invisible from the outside.

BBC News

Oxford University is asking for help deciphering ancient Greek texts written on fragments of papyrus found in Egypt.

The huge collection of papyri was found in the Egyptian city Oxyrhynchus (City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish), and scientists dated the some 200,000 segments back to between 500 B.C. and A.D. 1,000.

The images have gone on display on a website which encourages armchair archaeologists to help catalogue and translate them.

Using a software called Ancient Lives, all a person has to do is look at the photocopy of a particular segment and match the symbols with the ones provided. The program will then record the transcriber’s symbol selection, translate the word and store it for later use. This eliminates any need for someone trained to read classical Greek.

Scholars have been studying the Oxyrhynchus collection for more than 100 years and have already rediscovered many lost works, including masterpieces by the ancient Greek poet Sappho and dramatists Menander and Sophocles. Researchers believe that this collection may, in fact, contain a few lost Gospels.

BBC News and Gather

ANCIENT LIVES

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Alleged leaders of an international smuggling ring accused of stealing millions of dollars in antiquities from Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries are now facing federal charges in the United States.

According to a federal indictment, the Department of Justice charged four men with conspiring to smuggle artifacts and launder money.

The indictment identifies the men as Mousa Khouli, who operated a business called Windsor Antiquities in New York; Salem Alshdaifat, who operated a business called Holyland Numismatics with a mailing address in West Bloomfield, Michigan; Joseph A. Lewis, II, described only as a collector of Egyptian antiquities; and Ayman Ramadan, who operated a business called Nafertiti Eastern Sculptures Trading in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Authorities allege the four were part of a sophisticated smuggling operation that crisscrossed the globe, buying antiquities from looters in several countries and then selling them to collectors. The suspects are in custody except for Ramadan, who remains at large.

Among the antiquities that ICE agents confiscated were a Greco-Roman-style Egyptian sarcophagus, a nesting set of three Egyptian sarcophagi, a set of Egyptian funerary boats, and Egyptian limestone figures that date back to 552 B.C.

CNN

Press Release from the US Department of Justice

The collaboration with the University of Michigan also lead to the discovery of several important fossils. Among the specimens are three different types of marine species, namely whales, dugongs, and giant sea turtles, as well as water snakes, and shark teeth.

The Environment Ministry is currently taking steps to secure and protect these fossils. Experts from the nature conservation sector would be educating both the local population of the protectorate and eco-tourism workers on the significance of these fossils and how to preserve them.

Al Masry Al Youm

Lunar Cubit is a site specific proposal to be constructed in Abu Dhabi just outside Masdar City, the world’s first zero carbon metropolis once completed.

Lunar means relating to or involving the moon and cubit is the name given to the oldest recorded units of length; employed though antiquity, the oldest cubit being the royal cubit, dating back to the Step Pyramid of Djoser circa 2,700 B.C.

Lunar Cubit is a timekeeper, a monthly calendar, allowing viewers to measure time through the eight lunar phases represented by a ring of eight pyramids encircling one central pyramid.  All nine are proportional to the Great Pyramid of Cheops in Giza but they’re not made from stone; they’re made of glass and amorphous silicon, giving them the appearance of onyx polished to a mirror finish.

Nine pyramids resting on tan sand; encircled by distant trees; antiquity gilded with technology.

Lunar Cubit