pacman

I don't like him at all. It is a complete mystery to me that he could be paid so much when he is just not funny. IMO. As for not prolonging his stay, he's a good ten years past his use-by date & he's still on air till next year. WTF. I do like Colbert & I also am glad he got the gig.

Ignorance is bliss. To answer my original question, the holy book that contains the Old Testament almost word for word is the Koran. So we have the Old Testament in the Bible, the Torah & the Koran. Christian, Jew & Muslim all reading the same stories. Apart from Snick, is this widely known or am I the *special* one?

Not the Torah, the other one. Good point. That may explain the confusion, my apologies. BTW Snick, does the Torah contain the Old Testament? I hadn't considered that possibility.

Sorry Willie, I didn't think I was being obtuse. The Christian Bible consists of the First & Second Testament, the old & the new in other words. The holy book I am referring to includes the First of these two testaments. And it isn't a Christian religion! That's what I found interesting.

Yes I did. Gave me shivers & it wasn't me there in the snow. Thank God, I hate the cold, I can't imagine being that cold & that hungry. Brrrr.........

Anybody? I was very surprised when I learnt this. There aren't many holy books, someone care to take a guess?

The city is Montevideo. I think the country is Uruguay but it may be Paraguay. I always get those two confused.

Lung, there's something quite endearing about your honesty. Please don't change...

Unless coming "in-tenting" is some new sexual fad, can we get the title of this thread corrected please? It's quite jarring having to read it every day. Cheers.

And me Sam? Are you going to forsake me too? Why are Canadians so shallow?

That would make more sense, I can't imagine how they could keep track of 124,000 prophets. All the same, in many of the descriptions, they refer to that many prophets so I hold that the question was valid. Call it a draw... Here's another religious question - which holy book contains the First Testament in its entirety almost word for word?

Is too. Thanks 7...

Looks like a picture I saw once of La Paz in Ecuador. Close?

Snick, if you type into Google "124000 prophets", there are over 29,000 sites mentioned. The first page gives plenty of evidence supporting this number of Islamic prophets.

I thought there were three - Moses, Jesus & Mohammed. I had never heard of so many prophets but 124K is the number.

Probably a bit much to expect for someone to know without googling the answer. (Unless you're one of *them*.) The answer is 124,000. That means we have all probably met one of them. I suspect SiamSam is one, he comes out with some weird stuff now & then...

Thanks guys, Nigeria is correct. And Sam, the Biafra I saw drawn on the map in the movie showed the place occupied most of the south east corner of Nigeria. It was a large area. Google Maps doesn't show it al all. It reverts to the Bight of Bonny. One can only assume the place no longer exists. After the British left there was a civil war in Nigeria & the hated Biafrans were forced out of their leadership positions & driven back to the state of Biafra where the population were starved for many years. I don't know what the current status for Biafrans is today but I can't imagine all has been forgiven. Does anyone know?

Right continent, wrong country. Please try again. I never knew myself until I saw the movie "Half of a Yellow Sun".

Where is Biafra & into which country was it subsumed?

It always amazes amuses me how those countries with zero democracy like to include it in their name. The Democratic Republic of Germany (was East Germany), the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire, formerly the DRC) & the Democratic Republic of North Korea being a couple of examples.

Despite the high cost of living..... ............it continues to be popular. Man has complained about living costs forever. Capitalism doesn't cope very well with continuous inflation but as Karl Marx so sagely observed, it can only work if there is a continuous cycle of boom & collapse. Seven, you just need to wait for the next major recession to bring prices within reach again. The only problem then will be if everyone loses their job there will be massive deflation, or worse, stagflation. Whatever happens, we're stuck with the system & even a Socialist-style country like you live in Seven relies on the markets to improve living standards. And Socialist governments have no qualms about taxing the shit out of anybody who has succeeded to amass a fortune. I don't know the answer & many economists work on this very problem. It's not a perfect system but the alternative, a subsistence lifestyle, would prove even less popular with the electorate. Once people have experienced all the trappings a free market can provide, they will fight to keep them. But I don't know how bad it is in Sweden, somehow the government has to keep all those refugees in the manner demanded by the UN Charter for Refugees & that enormous impost has to be found somewhere. You may want to consider emigrating.

The Mercator scale is to be found on any large map. I think it relates to the laying out of the world on a flat surface which gives a false scale for the top & bottom of the world. i.e. a globe can't be drawn to scale in two dimensions.

Islam believes Jesus was a prophet. Muhammad was another, how many prophets do Muslims believe have been sent to Earth by God?

Zaire is no more. The country is the Democratic Republic of Congo, the name by which it is known today.

Stalin's favourite movies were Charlie Chaplin & Westerns. Ironic when you consider it. As for what Obama should do, that's the very question that crossed my mind when I typed my post. His action in endorsing sanctions is probably enough, time will tell, but it isn't so much what he can do now, it is the judgement that has already been made about the man going on his previous form. Russia see Obama as a left wing ideologue, a man who developed his beliefs through his upbringing & academic experience. He has never been hardened by war, he isn't a "hawk" who came to continue the Middle East conflict willingly. That he did was to his credit, the man is not silly & the arguments would have been well considered. But his talk of peace & closing Guantanamo have marked him as someone who the Russians have labelled as an easy foe. Putin would have carefully considered what reaction he might expect from Obama & calculated that he was never going to commit to another fight over somewhere like Crimea. However Crimea isn't the problem, Obama's worst nightmare would be if Putin decides he wants to take back Ukraine. Or other states. NATO would do nothing without Obama's imprimatur. They are mainly an extension of the US military there to do the bidding of their master.