'Noah's Ark' seen in 3D

The boat-shaped formation, which was discovered 60 years ago in Doğubeyazıt, was photographed in 3D by geophysicist Larsen and computer engineer and archaeologist Jones.

Noah's Ark was first discovered by Map Captain İlhan Durupınar on September 11, 1959, while working on the Doğubeyazıt map at the General Directorate of Cartography.

The 3D images of the boat-shaped formation, which was discovered in 1959 in the Doğubeyazıt district of Ağrı, analyzed by New Zealand geophysicist John Larsen and American computer engineer and archaeologist Andrew Jones for the first time, opened a new door in the scientific world about Noah's Ark, the reality of which has been a source of curiosity for centuries.

Noah's Ark, whose existence is also mentioned in the holy books, is a legend for some and a phenomenon waiting to be proven for others.

After this discovery was published in international newspapers and magazines, the world's foremost photogrammetry and earth scientist, Prof. Dr. Arthur Brandenberger of Ohio University and Dr. George Vandeman of the Washington Institute of Archaeological Research, a Swedish journalist and 3 European businessmen came to Doğubeyazıt to examine Noah's Ark with the financial support of the Union of Churches.

During their research, the delegation and Durupınar, who headed them, learned from villagers that this form arose as a result of a landslide in 1945 while cultivating a field.

At the end of the working days, the committee prepared an 8-page report, but Durupınar received a half-page "fabricated" report. The laboratory results of the pieces removed from the ship remained a mystery.

Ara Güler posted her first photo.

The honor of taking the first photograph of Noah's Ark and sharing it with world public opinion was bestowed on world-famous photojournalist Ara Güler. The 3rd District in Erzurum. Güler, who took Noah's Ark out of the sky with the military plane assigned to him by Army Command, described that moment years later by saying: "If this is the trace of Noah's Ark, it is like seeing God below."

The first scientific research was carried out 26 years after its discovery, by Dr. Salih Bayraktutan of Erzurum Atatürk University and scientists from the University of California's "Los Alamos National Laboratory," the largest earth and space science research center in the United States.

As a result of this study, which was carried out with the support of the Prime Minister's Office, the "ship's hull" was detected for the first time in underground radar images and an 80-page scientific report was produced.

In the report, "We have obtained findings that cannot be said of this underground hull as 'Not the hull of a ship.' There is a high probability that this underground mass is a ship. In-depth archaeological excavations should begin as soon as possible, before winter arrives."

Although no more detailed studies were carried out after the report, the area where the ship's trail was found, which exactly matched the measurements in the holy books, was declared a 1st grade protected area with Bayraktutan's initiative.

His documentary resonated

The formal existence of Noah's Ark has continued to arouse curiosity despite the years that have passed, although not much research has been done on it.

One of those who pursued this mystery was documentary filmmaker Cem Sertesen. Sertesen, who saw Noah's Ark for the first time on August 10, 1995 in Doğubeyazıt, where he went to shoot another documentary, lit the fuse of the documentary he would make that day.

Sertesen, who interviewed İlhan Durupınar, Ara Güler and Muazzez İlmiye Çiğ, took 22 years to bring this documentary to the public. In 2017, the documentary managed to be among the top ten films out of 750 films at the 9th edition of the TRT Documentary Awards.

Sertesen, who wrote the intriguing story of the documentary together with the deputy director of Culture and Tourism of Ağrı Province, Erkan Kösedağ, brought the reader the book "Noah's Ark: The Discovery of the Century".

After this book, the book "We Were All in the Same Boat," which also includes scientific reports and articles, took its place on the shelves. Sertesen's documentary and books have once again drawn attention to the region.

Underground images in AA for the first time.

Cem Sertesen shared with AA the images of the research, which constitutes the most important part of the documentary "Noah's Ark-2", which he continues to produce in the light of scientific studies.

American computer engineer and archaeologist Andrew Jones managed to record the 3D image of Noah's Ark, which he began tracing when he was a university student at the age of 17, with John Larsen, a geophysicist, geographer, academic and also an expert in underground images from New Zealand.

In 2014, after two weeks of measurements, the hull of the underground ship was detected in 3D and the investigation was completed in 3 years.

The scientists, who conducted this study independently, gave the data and images they obtained to Sertesen for use in his second documentary.

In an interview for the documentary, Jones said they arrived in the area in 2014 as a team from New Zealand and the United States, scanning the area with a device that uses electric current to show what lies beneath the trail of Noah's Ark.

Explaining that this 3D image came about after processing the images a few years later, Jones said:

"This image is the actual data of the image of Noah's Ark found underground. These images are neither fake nor a simulation. This image is the actual data showing the entire ship buried underground.

Any scientist who is an expert in the subject can do this study and come to this conclusion that we have reached. Yes, this structure is an ark, but it's too early to call it Noah's Ark. We have to do a very extensive job. This can only happen with the support of universities and the Turkish state."

"This study was done to mobilize the scientific community"

Speaking to the Anadolu Agency (AA) correspondent about the latest scientific study, Sertesen said that after three years of work, American and New Zealand scientists revealed the photo of that trail underground.

Stating that foreigners highly value Noah's Ark, Sertesen continued his words as follows:

The scientists collected tens of thousands of data by sending electrical signals underground with wires that they placed inch by inch on the 150-meter-long, 50-meter-wide track. The result is an underground 3D image. Scientists did this work to mobilize the scientific community."

"It must be protected from landslides"

Recalling that the age of Noah's Flood has not yet been found, Sertesen explained that geophysicists stated that "in the investigations carried out in that region (Noah's Ark), parts such as the biopsy must be taken and the age of the seeds and plants must be determined."

Sertesen continued his words as follows:

"I'm very curious about the inside of Noah's Ark. What's inside the image of the underground ship? That's because scientists said they had identified three floors of the craft.

Some of the scientists say, 'Don't touch it, the landslide continues in the region.' First, this shape must be protected from landslides. Because if the form is distorted, there is no humor in it. Every pickaxe, every shovel that is hit there is a dagger that will be stuck in the heart of this."

POVERTY RESEARCH, EMANCIPATORY SOCIAL SCIENCE, AND CRITICAL THINKING

The dominant perspective of the interest in poverty has been based on the intention to counteract the most extreme effects of an exclusionary development strategy that generates inequality. In other words, it is a matter of alleviating the most pathetic effects of liberal development in order to prevent conflicts and destabilizing social movements. Currently, research on poverty is dominated by classical economists who limit it within their concepts of well-being and utility (understood purely as an adjusted income scale per equivalent adult), which leaves them blind to take into account the existence of needs other than material needs, such as emotional needs, and sources of well-being other than conventional economic ones.  such as time and knowledge.

Thus, what they really care about is defining minimalist poverty lines to minimize measured poverty and maintain the status quo. By pretending that the threshold doesn't matter, they try to minimize attacks on those thresholds. A critical research perspective on poverty, on the other hand, would coincide with the one opened by Julio Boltvinik, in which poverty is part of the axis of the standard of living that constitutes the economic perspective of the axis of human flourishing.

Some important features in research on inequality

The hegemonic perspective proposes a type of development as a solution to inequality. Based on data from the end of the last century and the beginning of the present, they show that several of the countries of Latin America have experienced decreases in economic inequality measured by the Gini coefficient of household income, which is assumed as a positive result of the structural adjustment dictated by the Washington Consensus and is converted into the concept of development from international organizations such as the World Bank (WB) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

Marshall's classic work gave an account of a new "institutionalized social inequality" because, in describing the way in which, in today's societies, the capitalist class system has been at war with citizenship, he finds that these societies try to organize themselves to maximize the minimum level of well-being for all, finding that historically civil citizenship has developed first,  then the political and finally the social. Thus, it includes social rights such as equality of status, which refers to the recognition of citizens as holders of certain social rights for the simple fact of being citizens and shows that a minimum floor of "welfare" has been established  (education system, social services, social security, etc.), which is not necessarily low. A minimum floor that must ensure the equal status of citizens, so that it is possible to start from the assumption that class inequality is acceptable if equality of citizenship is recognized.

Cortés has proposed the notion of "equality by impoverishment" as a way of explaining the apparent trend of reducing inequality. He considers that the decrease in inequality indicators is explained by a process of increased self-exploitation by the lowest deciles, whose incomes are already so low that they resort to a series of "strategies" or emergent survival actions, but this decrease in economic inequality does not mean an improvement in terms of general well-being for the population.  or the triumph of the development model.

Erik Olin Wright (EOW) does not consider that inequality is a consequence of individual attributes (such as intelligence, education, motivation) but of the way in which the production system is organized around mechanisms of exploitation.

Finally, we face the problem of one-dimensionality in the common measurements of social inequality, by only taking into account the dimension of income, as is the case with poverty, in accordance with the hegemonic vision in this regard. Although the recognition of poverty as a multidimensional phenomenon has grown, simple methodological strategies that reduce the object of study to a single dimension (income) remain hegemonic, despite the fact that they often appear disguised as multidimensional.

Critical Research

 Critical Inquiry should be concerned with the inquiry into poverty and inequality as the first of these lines of empirical research that is possible, that is, that intellectually and socially we have the capacity to address, and that is necessary for the development of a critique of the conditions that hinder human self-realization.

Diagnosis and critique of reductionist approaches to poverty and inequality

This diagnosis and critique includes the identification of the causal processes by which institutions and social structures reproduce inequality and human suffering. If, as Julio Boltvinik affirms, the two main obstacles to human flourishing are poverty and alienation, their consideration acquires primary importance, since they are the main manifestations of the process of suffering that systematically impedes human development. Boltvinik has shown that "the concept of poverty and, therefore, its translation into measurements, is not evident". He relates that orthodox economics has developed a biased conceptualization based on income (the monetary solution, he calls it), as if it were the only source of well-being.

For this reason, it is necessary to develop based on the critical discussion of human needs and nature, which overcomes the reductionist approaches of the monetary solution, and broadens the perspective.

The biological approach formulated by Rowntree at the end of the nineteenth century conceives of "primary poverty" as the condition of people who do not have sufficient income to maintain physical efficiency. The second subsumes the concept of poverty in that of inequality. Sen points out that, despite being related, they are different problems and concepts. A third concept is that of relative deprivation, which Sen finds fruitful, and points out that it can refer to both feelings  and conditions of deprivation. He adds that both are interrelated and points out the importance of the criteria for choosing reference groups that are not, he points out, independent of political activity in the community studied, since the feeling of deprivation is linked to their expectations, to their notion of what is fair and their notion of who has the right to what. But here he introduces the position that gave rise to his important debate with Townsend by pointing out that relative deprivation cannot be the only basis of the concept of poverty, because "there is an irreducible core in our idea of poverty." The fourth concept conceives poverty as a value judgment of the observer. Sen rejects the position that poverty, like beauty, is in the eye of the perceiver, and responds that the social researcher describes existing prescriptions and that this is not an act of prescription but of description. Sen provides here another of his valuable distinctions: between the prescriptive and the descriptive. However, the observation of existing prescriptions is not obvious and the prescriptions are vague, which makes it inevitable that the researcher will complement them with well-founded value judgments. Due to the weight in the methodological training of researchers in logical positivism, in academia avoiding value judgments is the predominant position. A fifth concept, the definition of politics,  conceives poverty as that which can be combated from the political sphere.

From sociology, Peter Towsend defines poverty according to the individual's lack of resources to achieve socially accustomed patterns of life and consumption. However, in Chapter VI of this same work, Townsend (in his eagerness to define a scientific method of measuring poverty), reduces the indicators of this lifestyle to indicators that reveal the objective poverty line and adopts this as the only metric for measuring poverty.

As can be seen, the perspectives on poverty share, to a large extent, the income bias of orthodox economists protected by the postulates of classical theory. They start from the assumption that well-being (utility) is the constituent element of the standard of living, therefore, income crosses across the economists' poverty measurements, even when they make adjustments to the adjusted income scale per person or equivalent adult. All this makes its postulates endogenous.

For Márkus the constitutive element is the development of essential human forces: needs and capacities (realization of the human essence); for Maslow, the satisfaction of basic needs and self-realization (self-realization); for Fromm, the full realization of the faculties of reason, love and productive work (human birth); for Max Neef et al., the realization of fundamental human needs (quality of life); for Doyal and Gough, minimally disabled participation in their way of life (preconditions of human flourishing); for Sen, the capability set or freedom of well-being, understood as the freedom to choose between forms of life or combinations of functionings (axis of standard of living plus health).

In conclusion, the hegemonic perspectives of the study of poverty and inequality are reductionist because their vision of satisfiers is very limited (it does not take into account the subject's relationships and activities); in the same way, their vision of resources or sources of well-being only takes into account conventional economic resources and leaves out the available time and the knowledge and skills of the subject. And, above all, it is reductionist because it reduces the vision of human needs to those closest to those of animals.

At the end of the day, they could ask us: how does combating poverty and inequality bring us closer to emancipation? Our view is that: the division between means and ends is artificial; Quantitative changes determine the direction in which qualitative changes are possible. Qualitative changes are preceded by the accumulation of a series of quantitative changes. In this sense we do not pursue any kind of qualitative change, but an emancipatory qualitative change, so the meaning of quantitative changes needs to be equally emancipatory.

The meaning of the means we use in the struggle for social transformation determines the meaning or character of the transformation we are capable of achieving. A non-democratic political organization seeking a democratic transformation of the organization will likely fail in its formal objectives if it succeeds in seizing political power in society. Alleviating the effects caused by poverty and inequality allows the development of new, more developed capacities and needs, which at the same time make them possible for new transformations. Thus, adopting a broad concept of poverty is what leads us to the possibility of proposing viable alternatives in the short and medium term that, in the long term, allow and push for an emancipatory qualitative transformation.

(Máximo Jaramillo, Pável Diaz, René Jaimez)

Retail sales fell again in November

They were 1.7% lower than the same month in 2023. Year-end sales would bring relief to retail trade

After having rebounded in October, SME retail sales fell 1.7% year-on-year in November and accumulate a contraction of 12.2% in the first 11 months of the year. In the monthly comparison they grew 3.9%. The exit from the recession is not yet a fact and there are sectors that are still in the red. It is pointed out that this month there will be improvements for the Fiestas.

This is according to the SME Retail Sales Index of the Argentine Confederation of Medium-sized Enterprises (CAME). Last month, businesses reported that they received price increases from some suppliers and that, to compensate, they implemented promotions that managed to maintain stability in various areas.

In November, five of the seven items surveyed registered year-on-year declines in sales. The largest contraction was detected in Perfumery (-15.4%), followed by Pharmacies (-10.4%) and Bazaar, decoration, home textiles (-9.4%). On the other hand, Food and beverages (+4.4%) and Footwear and Leather Goods (+2.6%) rose.

These falls and the difficulty of the economy to take off are reflected in other indicators. For example, according to Indec, the manufacturing industrial production index (manufacturing IPI) for October showed a 2% drop compared to the same month in 2023. The accumulated of 2024 presented a decrease of 11.6% and compared to September, the variation was negative by 0.8 percent.

It should be noted that two activity indicators surveyed by Indec and reported on Friday gave negative values in October.

The Synthetic Indicator of Construction Activity (ISAC) registered a 24.5% year-on-year decline and 29% year-to-date. Compared to the same month in 2023, there were decreases of 51.2% in ceramic sanitary ware; 34.9% in granite and calcareous mosaics; 32.9% in round iron and steels for construction; 27.3% in processed concrete; 27.2% in the rest of the inputs (includes taps, seamless steel pipes and glass for construction); 27.0% in gypsum; 26.3% in hollow bricks; 24.2% in ceramic floors and cladding; 19.9% in Portland cement; 16.6% on asphalt; 12.8% in plasterboard; 9.6% in construction paints; and 4.9% in lime.

The Manufacturing Industrial Production Index (IPIM) surveyed by the official statistical agency also showed a fall of 2% in October and 11.6% for the accumulated of the first ten months, with falls in 11 of the 16 divisions covered, including double-digit negative variations in "Non-metallic mineral products" (-16.8%(; "Basic metal industries" (-11.4), "Rubber and plastic products" (-12) and "Metal products" (-12.3). The manufacturing items that showed positive variations were "Food and beverages" (6.9%); "Petroleum refining, coke and nuclear fuel" (12.4), "Motor vehicles, bodies, trailers and auto parts" (4.7), "Other transport equipment" (9.2) and "Tobacco products" (7%).

By category

As for the different items of SME retail sales for November surveyed by CAME, the outlook is as follows:

Food and beverages

Sales of food and beverages rose 4.4% year-on-year in November and accumulated a 14.5% drop in the first eleven months of the year compared to the same period in 2023. In the month-on-month comparison, they were 0.1% above October.

"The sector was satisfied with the behavior of demand in the penultimate month of the year, although it expressed concern about the increases in meat prices, particularly in the last week of the month. This factor raises concerns about a possible decrease in sales during the end of the year holidays. Likewise, informal sales were pointed out as a relevant issue, since businesses reported an unusual increase in their activity," said CAME.

Bazaar, Decoration, Home Textiles & Furniture

Sales in this area fell 9.4% year-on-year in November and add up to a decline of 14.6% in the first eleven months of 2024. Compared to October, sales grew 3.4%.

The sector's overall expectations improved due to price stability and the boost of promotions, which made it easier to obtain liquidity. The businesses consulted by CAME indicated an increase in the supply of imported products, which has made it possible to offer more competitive prices to the consumer. However, the furniture sector was particularly affected, registering minimum sales levels during the month.

Footwear and leather goods

Footwear sales improved by 2.6% year-on-year, and accumulated a 7.2% drop in 2024. Compared to October, they rose 3.4%.

Businesses increased promotions and reduced prices to boost sales, especially in lower-value products. This generated greater movement in the market. However, border cities did not experience the same impact. In the businesses surveyed, they pointed out that, despite the sales, consumers choose to make their purchases in neighboring countries, where they perceive better opportunities, especially in towns near Chile.

Textiles and clothing

In this area, one of the most affected by both the recession as it is non-essential consumption and the opening of imports, sales fell 0.8% year-on-year in November and accumulate an increase of 1.4% in the first eleven months of the year compared to the same period in 2023. In the month-on-month comparison, they increased 3%.

The promotions and sales on many products were attractive, which generated interest, but when it came to making the purchase, doubt and postponement prevailed. Despite this, the stores surveyed maintain positive expectations for December.

Pharmacy

Pharmacy sales decreased 10.4% year-on-year in November and total a 22.1% drop in the first eleven months of the year compared to the same period in 2023. In the month-on-month measurement, they grew 3.2%.

CAME specified: "The reduction in demand was mainly recorded in non-essential products, such as dietary supplements and hair care products, as well as in expensive and specialized treatments, such as medications for chronic diseases."

Perfumery

Perfumery sales fell 15.4% year-on-year, and until November they registered a decline of 28%, compared to the same period in 2023. In relation to October, there was an increase of 6.8%.

Pharmacy and perfumery are two of the sectors most affected by the fall in purchasing power

"Consumers focused their purchase on essential products, leaving aside items considered luxury, such as perfumes and high-end beauty products. In addition, the growth of e-commerce, with its frequent discounts and promotions, diverted some spending from physical stores to online platforms. Although many perfumeries implemented marketing strategies, such as special promotions or new product launches, the results were limited," CAME said.

Hardware, electrical materials and building materials

Sales declined 2.1% year-on-year in November and the contraction through November reached 13.1%. In the month-on-month comparison, they increased 2.5%.

In the shops measured, they observed a slight cooling in the construction industry, with delays in projects and less investment in infrastructure, which affected the demand for materials. The main delays came from residential projects, which also had a negative impact on hardware stores and electrical materials, which did not perform well in November.

On the other hand, CAME highlighted the obstacles faced by SMEs: in November, 50.6% pointed to the lack of sales, 31.3% placed it to high production and logistics costs, 8.3% referred to obstacles to accessing credit, and 4.3% to collection problems, which in some areas such as Food and Beverages was more important than in others.

The tax burden continued to be the main problem for businesses and, as throughout the year, measures are being demanded to strengthen domestic demand.

The Swing of the Innocents.

 We are essentially witnessing how revolts of consciousness, first the "resistance" to the totalitarian integration that continues in the world and then the necessary "revolution" (a change of orientation in human becoming, rather than as a bloody redistribution of privileges), these will undoubtedly give preference to the defensive thesis, to the defense of man.

Yes, without a doubt, but also a conflict of generations, which the critics do not seem to have noticed.

Exacerbated disenchantment and the will to affirm, in the only aspect within their reach, their absolute independence with respect to the world of values they denied. Later, their need to protest against a rotten civilization took the most "constructive" form of a doctrine and a practice that entailed, after an initial anarchist stage, libertarian adherence, (which had become the number one phantom of the bourgeoisie). The judgment and noisy exclusion of rebellious members; the search for the economic, the cult of the market, the destruction of the state, etc. They have their resultant, a kind of black religion, in a somewhat heretical chapel associated with the Austrian school of economics.

We must recognize the members of the libertarian group, who did not exceed 30.15%, in a first election before the runoff, a considerable sum of energy and talents; Most of them made their way and managed to impose on the environmental culture, to a not inconsiderable extent, the forms of the style and the brand of the movement. In fact, thousands of young rebels collected and preserved something of the imperious example and personal influence of Milei and his friends. The latter's attachment to an equally brilliant past is conceived, and his desire to perpetuate it, despite the dispersion of the co-founders, with new elements. In reality, after an eclipse, the LLA group was reconstituted, composed mainly of young people in the midst of whom Milei and Villaroel played the role of glorious older brothers.

Ideology is very often complementary and compensatory rather than expressive of the truest tendencies; here the main issue is rather the conflict between the classical temperament, which tends towards economy and the concentration of means around a precise goal, and romanticism. Man pushes his destiny from one error to the opposite error, struggles endlessly against gravity and is tempted by despair. The solution of the human exception to universal laws involves two aspects, sacrifice  or rebellion.

Absurd man, in the face of nature, must persevere in his "absurdity." But man's revolt, beyond sacrifice, also contains his temptation. This temptation is murder, by which man identifies himself with historical necessity and sacrifices – in his blind struggle against the reason of things embodied by the reason of State or by the legislative nature – his wayward brother, a rebel "absurd" like himself. The rebellious man must not usurp the functions of nature or history, but limit himself to the creative affirmation of solidarity: "I rebel, therefore we are." He must recognize that his revolt is not that of the absolute self, but that of human nature, and that it implies, with the intransigent purity of the means, the limitation of ends. The disposition of the other by the self, the transformation of the other into a thing or property of the Stirnerian "One", is thus rejected. Moreover, he sees in it the very root of the social world of authority and arbitrariness, insofar as it is opposed to the world of free contract. This only exists if the rebel recognizes, even in the adversary, a fraternal self.

What do I need and what means do I have to transform the world? This desire, of immense scope, can only give rise to despair or to a new and more complex alienation. It is a question of changing life, an act that starts neither from a central idea nor from objective necessity, but which has as its seat the ego, this truly individual reality, a factor unknown to Marx and Stirner, which Freud recognized as peripheral, as is essentially the nervous system in the body as a whole. Apart from this conscious activity, located at the limits of being, the transformation of the world will always be done against us; it will be the work of the species or of history, but not ours.

Between experimental reform and revolution made or dreamed of once and for all; between the effort of free culture that demands a different interpretation of the world and the effort of destruction in which its change dialectically resides; Between the precise rejection of some acts in the name of an inner imperative that establishes a "measure" and the general, but diffuse, insurrection of desire against the principle of reality, accompanied by a tacit pact with everything that calls it into question, intelligence and feeling can waver, and youth can choose by temperament. But it is to be assumed that the tradition of our country and the situation will both act in favor of the first part of the alternative.

Bitter benevolent irony and contemptuous enthusiasm clash once again. The "infamous" that had to be crushed according to the fanaticism against which he concentrated all his efforts, even more dangerous than the spirit of compromise against which they rise up, animated by revolutionary intolerance. Subjected to the totalitarian temptation of a world tailored to an ideology, but, recovering quickly, they had as their main title of glory, to oppose the humanitarian aid network and to embody the constant skepticism and generosity at the same time of our people.