The Journal of Geography January/February 2002, Volume 101 Number 1, Published by the National Council for Geographic Education, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA 15705 contains two scholarly articles (18 pages in all):
1. "Cartographic Methods for Determining the Qibla," by A. Jon Kimerling,
2. "Which Way Is Jerusalem? Which Way Is Mecca? The Direction-Facing Problem in Religion and Geography" by Daniel Z. Levin.
The problems raised through the centuries have affect the practice of Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Bahá'í. The orientation of burials of the dead, and the construction plans of church buildings form examples of the many surprising ways in which this topic has impinged upon religious heritages of the various faiths and also upon archaeological investigations. Even ancient Sun Worship has links to the subject.
In all Islamic languages the sacred direction for prayer toward the Kabah (Ka'ba) in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, is called the qibla, and the desire to fix the qibla exactly from any geographic location led to the early development of advanced mathematics in Islamic countries. Recently, the Taliban captives required the designation of the qibla from their point of incarceration at the American base in Cuba, for example.
Direction Facing in Western Religions pertains, in part, to the historical orientation of prayer towards particular geographic directions, notably Jerusalem for Christianity and Judaism [I Kings 8:47-48, Daniel 6:11, (and the Babylonian Talmud, B'rachot 28b and 30a)]. More recently, the tomb of Bahá'u'llah, (just north of Acre), became a geographic focus for Bahá'í.

The Weekly Telegraph, No. 550, February 6-12, 2002 carries several items of interest:

Saucy Romans - A SET of fish tanks that may have been used to produce the Roman equivalent of brown sauce, enjoyed by wealthy citizens of Pompeii, has been uncovered by British archaeologists.

BBC gets 'dumbing down' warning - TESSA JOWELL, the Culture Secretary, says the BBC has a public duty to provide serious political coverage and must not "dumb down" current affairs. She warned the corporation against giving up highbrow political programmes simply because they were not popular with the public.

Crown Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and his Argentine bride, Maxima Zorreguieta, appear (in an accompanying illustration) before an enthusiastic crowd after their wedding in Amsterdam. The bride's parents did not attend after controversy over her father having served in the infamous Argentine junta of 20 years ago.

Trail proves the Jurassic giants were no slouches - Fossils found in an English quarry show large dinosaurs were agile, writes David Derbyshire. The illustrated article continues: ACROSS a swampy coastal plain of Jurassic England a herd of giant plant-eating dinosaurs was moving in search of food.

Behind them three predators with razor-sharp fangs and powerful claws were in pursuit. Perhaps one of the giants fell sick, or maybe a youngster became separated from the crowd. But in an instant one of the hunters - a one ton theropod carnivore known as a megalosaurus - tucked its legs under its body and ran. The outcome of that charge 163 million years ago is unknown. But the footprints of the hunters and their prey, perfectly preserved as fossils, are giving scientists a glimpse into how Jurassic predators moved. The tracks, uncovered in Ardley Quarry, near Oxford, are among the most extensive in the world. ... Initially the creature (a megalosaurus) was walking with a swagger at four miles an hour. Its three-toed feet were turned inwards. But at one point the tracks changed abruptly as the dinosaur broke into a run, reaching 20 miles an hour. The running steps are placed in a straight line, one in front of the other, as the stride doubles in length from nine to 18 feet. Instead of its toes pointing inwards they splay out.

The Toronto Globe & Mail of January 29, 2002 Ode to the Rock is still rolling - A song the Newfoundland governor wrote 100 years ago has become a deeply felt anthem, by Susan Newhook. ... [The finale of a folk festival last summer, "The Ode to Newfoundland" is 100 years old this month.]
"The colony of Newfoundland was voted out of existence more than 50 years ago, but the province's schools still teach their students to sing its anthem. And the people still sing it at festivals, weddings, political meetings and out on the back porch over the last dark rum and Coke on a warm night." Space forbids copying the whole excellent article, but we will include the words of the Ode:

The Weekly Telegraph, No. 551, February 13-19, 2002:
1. - Peter Simple writes: Missing - In the calendar of the New World Order, the list of sacred days is mounting. Holocaust Memorial Day is already established. September 11 Memorial Day will soon be there. But there is no memorial day for the millions of victims of that festival of slaughter, rape and pillage, the Red Army's invasion and conquest of Eastern Europe in 1945. There is no proposal, either, for a general memorial day for all the victims of Communism in Russia, in China and throughout the world, far more numerous than all the victims of all the other tyrannical systems put together. What would be a suitable day? Karl Marx's birthday? You may well ask why no such memorial is likely to join the list; and then ask again.
2. - In brief - Italy votes to allow return of royal exiles: THE ITALIAN Senate has voted overwhelmingly to allow male heirs of the country's royal family, the House of Savoy, to return after 54 years in exile. The last king, the late Umberto II, took his family into exile in 1946 after Italians voted for a republic.
3. - No Gibraltar veto on sovereignty by Anton La Guardia - Britain and Spain forged ahead last week with talks on sharing sovereignty over Gibraltar as the Government made it clear the 30,000 people on the Rock would not have the power to veto the negotiations or cancel an agreement. ... Mr. (Jack) Straw restated Britain's promise that Gibraltarians would be able to vote in a referendum, but senior Foreign Office sources said a No vote would only suspend the accord, not invalidate it. The comments are likely to increase the suspicions of many Gibraltarians, an estimated 2,000 of whom marched to the Spanish border waving union and Gibraltarian flags.
COMMENT: Gibraltar is the preeminent example of those prophesied "Gates" which were to be the inheritance of Israel.

The Scots Magazine - New series, Vol. 156, No. 2, February, 2002 - Book Review: The Guid Buik- The New Testament rendered in "plain braid Galilee". by John MacLeay
What would you make of "a curn spaemen frae the Aist"? Ring any bells? Or how about "a wheen herds bidin thereout on the hill an keepin garid owre their hirsel at nicht"? Those spaemen are the Magi or Wise men, the herds are the shepherds bound for that place where Mary had "swealed the bairn in a barrie an beddit him in a heck". The Baptist's "cleadin wis a raploch coat a caumel's hair, wi a lethern girth about his waist, an locusts an bumbees' hinnie wis aa his scran", although according to Mark, "foggie-bees' hinniewas his fairin".
The New Testament rendered in "plain braid Galilee" may startle or even offend the ultra conservative, and unquestionably some familiar passages take on something of a shock effect. Should it produce the occasional wee laugh, that would be pardonable, there being reference in the introduction to our tongue's "solid plainness and sly humour", making it an "ideal language in which to express the roughness and straight talking of the New Testament"... . [A further page follows in the same vein.]
The New Testament in Scots. Translated by W. L. Lorimer. £9.99 Canongate ISBN 1-84195-144-7.

From The MSN opening page on the Internet: Props to Propaganda - The case for lying about terrorists. By Scott Shuger - Posted January 26, at 9:02 AM PT.
The article addresses the use of lies in wartime. It gives illustrations thereof, from recent days (e.g. fake, digitally doctored photos of Usama Bin Laden created to make a totally false impression on Afghans who picked up the leaflets which the U.S. dropped over that country). Supportive argument is given by reference to similar tactics during World War II. Churchill, (and others), used such for the purpose of winning at all costs. ("Rumsfeld might have started off his reply by noting that in World War II, British propagandists did a similar number on Adolf Hitler. Der Fuhrer never danced that jig, millions of newsreel viewers saw him dance upon learning of the fall of France - it was a film loop designed to make him look petty and immature... .") ("Churchill said 'In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies'.") Police now separate suspects and question them with the (false) assertion that their friends have made damaging admissions while questioned separately.
COMMENT: See John 8:55-59 for Christ's example when under attack

The Weekly Telegraph, No. 552, February 20-26, 2002:
1. Metric martyrs lose pounds and ounces battle by John Aston Press Association: FIVE market traders - the so-called "metric martyrs" - have lost their High Court battle for the legal right to trade in pounds and ounces.
Lord Justice Laws, sitting with Mr Justice Crane, rejected their claim that domestic law provided a loophole which meant European Union directives requiring goods to be sold in metric units did not apply in England and Wales.
Lawyers for the five had warned during a three-day hearing last November that making it "a criminal offence to sell a pound of bananas in order to please Brussels" threatened to cause a "deep constitutional crisis"... .
All were fighting convictions and court orders against them after they defied weights and measures inspectors... .
2. - Justice, by Peter Simple: ON THE first day of the show trial of Slobodan Milosevic at The Hague, Carla Del Ponte, chief prosecutor of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, spoke of the "medieval savagery" of the "war crimes" he is alleged to have ordered or failed to stop. For those who work for that mysterious entity, the "International Community" and gather at the bar of World Opinion, the word "medieval" is a common term of abuse.
Is medieval savagery, perpetuated by identifiable people caught up in the bloodthirsty frenzy of civil war, worse than modern savagery, in which people are targeted by mathematical calculations and blown to bits by bombs dropped from a height of 50,000 feet by anonymous airmen?
If Milosevic is guilty of "war crimes", although he may have personally killed no one, what about Clinton, Blair and others responsible for the shameful and treacherous war against the Serbs in 1999? When will they be brought to trial at The Hague? The "international justice" Del Ponte speaks of so smugly is a parody of justice. It is a manoeuvre dressed up in fine words, for furtherance of the "One World" policies of the "International Community".
Only those who have somehow got in the way of those policies will ever risk being brought to trial. Others can commit acts of medieval, modern or future savagery as they please and still go free.
COMMENT: Well stated!
3. - Footnote THE Weekly Telegraph reported last week that only by leaving Buckingham Palace for Windsor after Princess Margaret's death did the queen make it possible for the Union Flag to be flown at half mast on the roof of her official London residence. (The Sovereign's Standard is raised when she is in residence on the only flagpole, and it is always flown at full mast because there is always a monarch.)

Leisureways. February-March 2002 contains an illustrated article by Cathy Stapells entitled "Britain - Follow the boy wizard's trail to explore myths and legends through the English countryside" which refers in part to the various settings used in creating the various Harry Potter film scenes. Listed are: Alnwick Castle, Northumberland, Goathland Station, North Yorkshire, Gloucester Cathedral, Gloucester, Bodleian Library, Oxford, Christ Church, Oxford, London Zoo, London, King's Cross Station, London, Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire.
We feel sure the various authorities governing these will have been offered sufficient remuneration for the use of their sites to over-ride any sense of misgivings regarding perversion or desecration which results from this abuse of buildings dedicated to a holy Christian use.

February 6, 2002 is the 50th anniversary of the death of King George VI and consequently, likewise, the 50th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth to the Throne of The LORD over Israel, and the 50th anniversary of Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, becoming a Widow. With the loss of Princess Margaret at 71, (of whom an obituary will already have been inserted into this issue of The Prophetic Expositor), we find the times both tragic, yet prophetic. We must not let the occasion pass without paying our deepest and affectionate respects to those, particularly within our Royal Family, who were closest in relationship to Princess Margaret, on behalf of all Members of the Board of Directors and the General Membership of the British-Israel-World Federation (Canada) Incorporated.

Douglas C. Nesbit,
President