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Muslim Conspiracy Theories
This page lists some of the conspiracy theories that are widely circulated among the world's Muslims.
- 1 Accidents and Natural Disasters
- 2 Diseases and Disorders
- 2.1 Americans and Christians responsible for the creation and spread of AIDS
- 2.2 Americans lacing polio vaccines with anti-fertility agent to sterilizes Muslim children
- 2.3 Israeli melons exported to Arab country infected with AIDS
- 2.4 Israelis are dropping libido-boosting 'sex gum' in Gaza
- 2.5 Mossad plot to import Israeli uni-sex hair product which causes infertility to Egypt
- 2.6 Peace treaty with Israel causes endemic diseases; cancers, hepatitis, and kidney infections
- 3 Free Speech
- 4 History
- 5 Islamic Terrorism
- 5.1 Indian or American agents responsible for Osama bin Laden "revenge" attacks
- 5.2 Non-Muslims responsible for the 7/7 Bombings
- 5.3 Jewish involvement in 9/11 attacks (including claim that 4000 Jews skipped work on that day)
- 5.4 Zionists responsible for the Alexandria Church Bombing
- 5.5 Boko Haram an American conspiracy to destroy Islam in Nigeria
- 5.6 Jews and other Zionists behind the Boston Bombings
- 6 Muslim Brotherhood
- 7 People
- 8 Soft Drinks
- 9 Supernatural and Science Fictional
- 10 Miscellaneous
- 10.1 Iranian TV report exposes "Zionist" companies
- 10.2 Tom and Jerry a "Zionist cartoon conspiracy"
- 10.3 Selling alcohol in Jammu and Kashmir, part of a "well planned conspiracy"
- 10.4 Jews training wild boars and pigs to make scary sounds and uproot Arabs' trees
- 10.5 US and UK Zionists using money from Jews to spread homosexuality in order to control the world
- 11 See Also
- 12 External Links
- 13 References
Accidents and Natural Disasters
December 2004 Tsunami caused by Indians, Israelis and Americans
Some Muslims believe that the December 26th tsunami was caused by Indians, Israelis and Americans (i.e. the Hindus, Jews, and Christians).
According to Al-Osboa', India, in its heated nuclear race with Pakistan, has lately received sophisticated nuclear know-how from the United States and Israel, both of which "showed readiness to cooperate with India in experiments to exterminate humankind."
Since 1992, the magazine argued, leading geological centers in Britain, Turkey and other countries, warned of the need "not to hold nuclear experiments in the region of the Indian Ocean known as 'the Fire Belt,' in which the epicenter of the earthquake lies.
Geologists labeled that region 'The Fire Belt' for being "a dangerous terrain that can move at anytime, without human intervention," Al-Osboa' wrote.
Despite warnings not to carry out nuclear experiments in and around the 'Fire Belt', "Israel and India continue to conduct nuclear tests in the Indian Ocean, and the United States has recently decided to carry out similar tests in the Australian deserts, which is included in the 'Fire Belt', the Egyptian weekly magazine wrote.
"Last year only, Arab and Islamic states have asked the United States to stop its nuclear activities in that region, and to urge Israel and India to follow suite," Al-Osboa' reported.
Although Al-Osboa' does not rule out the possibility that the tsunami could have been caused by a natural earthquake it speculates however that, "while it has not been proved yet, there has been a joint Israeli-Indian secret nuclear experiment [conducted on December 26] that caused the earthquake."
The Egyptian weekly magazine concludes in its report that "the exchange of nuclear experts between Israel and India, and US pressure on Pakistan which is exerted by supplying India with state-of-the-art nuclear technology and preventing Islamabad from cooperating with Asian and Islamic states in the nuclear field, pose a big question mark on the causes behind the violent Asian earthquake."
Incitement against Israel and Jews in Egyptian media is usually limited to the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict yet exceptions are known to occur.
In August 2002, the Paris Supreme Court summoned Ibrahim Naafi', editor of the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram, for having authorized the publication of a controversial article entitled 'Jewish matza is made from Arab blood' in the October 28, 2000 edition of the paper.Naafi' was charged with incitement to anti-Semitism and racist violence.
Joseph Nasr, Jerusalem Post, January 6 2005, http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/january2005/060105nuketest.htm&date=2011-06-06.
Sinai shark attacks could be Israeli plot
"What is being said about the Mossad throwing the deadly shark [in the sea] to hit tourism in Egypt is not out of the question, but it needs time to confirm," South Sinai Gov.Israeli officials said the claims were too ludicrous to comment on. Israel has issued an advisory warning against travel to Sinai due to plots against Israelis by terrorist groups linked to al-Qaida.
The Jerusalem Post, December 6, 2010, http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Egypt-Sinai-shark-attacks-could-be-Israeli-plot.
Diseases and Disorders
Americans and Christians responsible for the creation and spread of AIDS
Repeated by several Muslim clerics, is the claim that America is responsible for the creation of the AIDS virus, and through Christian missionary groups, African Muslims have been injected with contaminated polio vaccines.[1]
. . .
Missionaries from the World Health Organisation and Christian groups went into Africa and inoculated people for diphtheria, malaria, yellow fever and they put in the medicine the AIDS virus.
Sheikh Khalid Yasin, quoted in NineMSN, October 9, 2005
Americans lacing polio vaccines with anti-fertility agent to sterilizes Muslim children
A variant of the previous conspiracy theory which has led to deadly consiquences.
The theory's source seems to be a physician and the president of Nigeria's Supreme Council for Shari'a Law, Ibrahim Datti Ahmed, 68. Dr. Ahmed, an Islamist, accuses Americans of lacing the vaccine with an anti-fertility agent that sterilizes children (or, in an alternate theory, it infects them with AIDS) and considers them, according to John Murphy of the Baltimore Sun, "the worst criminals on Earth … Even Hitler was not as evil as that."
This fear of polio vaccines caught on because of the war in Iraq, explained a doctor with the World Health Organization. "If America is fighting people in the Middle East," goes the Islamist logic, "the conclusion is that they are fighting Muslims." Local imams repeated and spread the sterilization theory, which won wide acceptance despite vocal assurances to the contrary from the WHO, the Nigerian government, and many Nigerian doctors and scientists.
Ibrahim Shekarau, governor of Kano, one of the three Nigerian states that refused the polio vaccine, justified the decision not to vaccinate on the grounds that "it is a lesser of two evils to sacrifice two, three, four, five, even ten children than allow hundreds of thousands or possibly millions of girl-children likely to be rendered infertile."
. . .
By mid-2004 the conspiracy theory had jumped to India, where a health worker noted that in one slum, "many poor and ignorant women regard the anti-polio drops as a deceptive strategy to control the birth rate." Such phobia about the West infecting Muslims with diseases is nothing new.
. . .
The polio-vaccine conspiracy theory has had direct consequences: Sixteen countries where polio had been eradicated have in recent months reported outbreaks of the disease – twelve in Africa (Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Sudan, and Togo) and four in Asia (India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen). Yemen has had the largest polio outbreak, with more than 83 cases since April. The WHO calls this "a major epidemic."
Daniel Pipes, New York Sun, May 24, 2005
. . .
Pakistan's ever growing religious right are convinced that vaccinations are part of a western conspiracy. Campaigners have to battle rumours that vaccinations have been designed by western organizations to reduce Muslim populations.
Himayat ul-Haq, runs a madrassa in the North- West Pakhtunkhwa, where people follow a strict form of Deobandi Islam. He preaches that polio, like all endemic diseases are signs of God's will and therefore anything blocking them are an insult to Allah: "We are all Muslim. We will do what Allah has said. God is the creator of all diseases. And he knows how to heal them".
. . .
Himayat ul-Haq doesn't see why the West would be interested in helping Pakistan and continues to harbour his own suspicions voicing the belief common also amongst Islamic fundamentalists in Nigeria that polio vaccines were designed to keep Muslim populations down.
Devi Boerema, RNW, February 16, 2011
Israeli melons exported to Arab country infected with AIDS
An SMS message being sent around the country this week said, "The Saudi Interior Ministry warns its citizens of a truck loaded with AIDS infected melons that Israel brought into the country via a 'ground corridor.'"
The Interior Minister's spokesman General Mansour al Turki responded to news of the message and made it clear to a-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper that the Ministry "did not issue any such announcement. This is just a rumor."
This is not the first rumor to spread through the country recently. Just last month another rumor had it that sweets containing carcinogenic flour were being sold in many stores.
. . .
"The HIV virus cannot survive in any temperature other than that of the human body, which cannot be reached in fruits," he [Head of the center for chemicals and toxins in Mecca, Dr Ahmad Elias] explained.
The rumor, despite being denied several times, has gained so much steam in the Arab world that it made it to the front page of one of the most important Arabic language newspapers.Many received an SMS supposedly from the Saudi Interior Ministry saying, "Please forward quickly."
Roee Nahmias, YNet News, April 13, 2007
Israelis are dropping libido-boosting 'sex gum' in Gaza
Shahwan said that the police got their hands on gum that increases sexual desire that, according to him, reaches merchants in the Strip by way of the border crossings. According to him, a Palestinian drug dealer admitted that he sold products that increase sex drive. The dealer said that he received the materials from Israeli sources by way of the Karni crossing.
A number of suspects have been arrested.
The affair was exposed when a Palestinian filed a complaint that his daughter chewed the aforementioned gum and experienced the dubious side effects.
Shahwan even claimed that Israeli intelligence operatives encourage dealers in Gaza to distribute the gum for free.
"The Israelis seek to destroy the Palestinians' social infrastructure with these products and to hurt the young generation by distributing drugs and sex stimulants," said Shahwan.
However, he noted that drugs reach the Gaza Strip by way of Rafah tunnels, and said that the police keep a close watch on the illegal activities going on in the tunnels between Gaza and Egypt.Shahwan added that the police have recently seized large amounts of drugs and alcohol attached to the underside of automobiles passing through Erez crossing. The automobile owners admitted receiving help for smuggling the materials from Israeli intelligence operatives.
Ali Waked, YNet News, July 13, 2009
Mossad plot to import Israeli uni-sex hair product which causes infertility to Egypt
Harrari, accused by Egypt of being an agent of the Mossad, is set be tried in absentia on charges of "spying for a foreign country with the purpose of harming Egyptian national interest," news agency MENA reported on Sunday.
Jordanian Ibrahim abu-Zaid, a telecoms engineer reportedly involved in the affair as well, was arrested in Egypt.
"According to the public prosecutor's office's investigation, 'Mossad agent Ofir Harrari' instructed Jordanian Ibrahim abu-Zaid to set up a company in Egypt which would exclusively import an Israeli hair product, for both men and women, which causes infertility. This in order to completely destroy Egyptian reproduction abilities," Al-Ahram states.
The report also asserted that the Mossad supposedly required that abu-Zaid open communications companies in Sudan and Libya, so as to enable Israel to follow communication traffic in both countries.
On June 12, Egypt arrested US-Israeli dual national Ilan Grapel on suspicion of spying for Israel, which denied any such charge.
Egypt's espionage allegations come at a sensitive time when Israel is trying to understand where Egypt's new temporary regime is headed.It has been estimated both in Israel and in Egypt that the Egyptian allegations stem from a wish to appease Egyptian demonstrators protesting against the close relations that existed between Jerusalem and Cairo in the pre-uprising days.
Roee Nahmias, YNet News, August 14, 2011
Peace treaty with Israel causes endemic diseases; cancers, hepatitis, and kidney infections
Ahmed Subei told Al-Alam Iranian TV that Egypt should reexamine "everything to do with… sovereignty over its land," and claimed that increased instances of hepatitis, cancer and kidney infections in his country were are all results of the Camp David accords.
. . .
"This agreement has been a heavy burden upon the Egyptian people, undermining Egypt's sovereignty. It has even undermined projects for the development of the Sinai. Therefore, it is an unjust and unfair agreement, which has isolated Egypt from its Arab and Islamic environs, and from the pan-Arab effort to liberate the land of Palestine, and to support Palestinian resistance," Subei said.
Subei connected the peace agreement and Israel with "endemic diseases" in Egypt. "In addition, carcinogenic pesticides were imported from the Zionist entity, and Egyptian agriculture was made available to the Zionist entity. This led to the destruction of various sectors in Egypt."Egypt now suffers from endemic diseases, such as various types of cancer, hepatitis, and kidney infections. All these and other diseases are the result of the carcinogenic pesticides, which were brought here along with that agreement."
Greg Tepper, The Times of Israel, August 30, 2012
Free Speech
Danish Muhammad cartoons "part of Zionist plot"
Iran today also announced it was suspending all trade and economic ties with Denmark in protest of the caricatures. The move came after the EU had warned Iran that boycotting Danish goods would place further strain on already frosty relations.
Speaking to Iranian air force personnel, Ayatollah Khamenei said the cartoons were a scandal, particularly as they came "from those who champion civilisation and free expression".
"The west condemns any denial of the Jewish Holocaust, but it permits the insult of Islamic sanctities," Ayatollah Khamenei said. The caricatures amounted to a "conspiracy by Zionists who were angry because of the victory of Hamas," he said.
Yesterday, hundreds of Iranians hurled stones and petrol bombs at the Danish and Austrian embassies in Tehran in protest against the cartoons. The Austrian mission was targeted as the country currently holds the EU presidency.
A bestselling Iranian newspaper, Hamshari, announced it was retaliating by holding a competition to find the best images satirising the Holocaust. The move mirrors the exercise of the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, whose publication of 12 images of Muhammad in September sparked the row.
As Ayatollah Khamenei made his comments, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, said diplomatic missions should be respected and a small, peaceful protest took place outside the Danish embassy.Later, Iran announced that it was suspending all trade and economic ties with Denmark and would bar Danish products from entering the country in protest of the cartoons.
The Guardian, February 7, 2006
"Qur'an burnings" a part of a Zionist conspiracy
"Insult to the Holy Quran in front of the White House was an organized measure in line with war against Islam and it was an insult to monotheistic religions," he said in a statement.
"The disgraceful measure of insult to the Holy Quran was something beyond an unwise action by some ordinary operatives, it showed a new plot by the World Arrogance led by international Zionism to cover its military and political failures in international particularly in regional scene to secure its illegitimate interests."He also called for all veteran lawyers, judiciary chiefs of countries and international institutions not to keep silent on the apparent insult to Muslims' beliefs and thwart the new plot.
ISNA, September 14, 2010
Hezbollah expressed its "Sharp condemnation of this abominable crime," regarding it as "a call to fitna and religious strife, and a masking of the true conflicts between the arrogant and the oppressed."
Hezbollah held the American adminisration "Responsible for this crime, for it serves their arrogant designs in fomenting conflict and sectarian divisions, at a time when Muslims and Christians need cooperation and integration."Hezbollah also called on "Every religious institution to push aside these nefarious acts which serve the designs of sowing fitna in the world," appealing for "churches to take the appropriate position in regards to what was done, which serves the wicked purposes of the great conspiracy."
Ahmad Shi'itu, al-Manar, March 22, 2011
Entire nation of Switzerland a "Jewish plot"
Writing on September 4, Fahd 'Amr Al-Ahmadi pointed out that over the past four centuries, Europe has experienced numerous major wars, and yet Switzerland sat there right in the middle completely unscathed. At the same time, Switzerland refused to join any major international alliances or organizations (it only became a UN member in 2002).
The conclusion for Al-Ahmadi is simple: Switzerland must be the "safe haven where the [Jews'] wealth can be guarded against the wars they themselves spark," a safe haven spoken of in the czarist blood libel The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
For those in the West who naively believe that holocaust-enducing anti-Semitism is a thing of the past, blood libels such as The Protocols are actually an increasingly prominent part of political discourse in the Middle East. So much so that major Arab newspapers reference The Protocols as thought it were common knowledge fact that the Jews are planning a global takeover. And to them, it is.Of course, Al-Ahmadi's reasoning ignores the subhuman treatment of the Jews throughout all those wars during which their wealth was supposedly piling up and being guarded in Switzerland. A sane person may wonder why such powerful and wealthy Jews, capable of turning a whole nation into their private assistant, did not use some of that money and power to protect themselves from expulsion, forced conversion, pogroms and genocide.
Ryan Jones, Israel Today Magazine, October 10, 2011
San Jose (Saint Joseph), California, really named after 'Saint Hussein'
Here is yet another attempt to Islamize Western history: During an interview on Arabic TV, a Shia Muslim cleric, apparently in the context of discussing how Islam (supposedly) came to America before Christopher Columbus, tried to prove his claim by pointing to California. After presenting the U.S. state as "the most important in America," he referred to "its most important city," which according to him is San Jose. He then proceeded to offer the etymology of the city's name. He correctly explained that "San" means "saint"; but then the fantasies began: according to the cleric, "Jose" (pronounced ho-zay) is the Latin word and pronunciation for one of Shia Islam's most important figures, "Hussein."
He triumphantly concluded, "You see, San Jose is really Saint Hussein!"—all while the host interviewing him mused in wonder, sighing "Oh Allah!" The cleric then asked, "Now how did Imam Hussein get to California? See, these are the matters that need investigating."Of course, as millions known, "Jose" is Spanish for Joseph, as in "Saint Joseph." But such blatant facts are irrelevant for those in need of constant validation.
Raymond Ibrahim, April 19, 2012
Islamic Terrorism
Indian or American agents responsible for Osama bin Laden "revenge" attacks
Lawmakers, media pundits, retired generals and even government officials often hint at suspicions of a "foreign hand" in the violence, despite there being no evidence and often explicit claims of responsibility by militant groups like the Pakistani Taliban.Aired on television talk shows and in newspapers, conspiracy theories are everywhere -- underscoring the challenges facing the United States as it seeks to convince Pakistan's overwhelmingly anti-American population that it faces a shared enemy in the Taliban.
Times Union, May 29, 2011
Non-Muslims responsible for the 7/7 Bombings
And a similar number say the government or the security services were involved. Nearly six in ten of those polled believe the government hasn't told the whole truth about the July the 7th bombings - and more than half say the intelligence services have made up evidence to convict terrorist suspects.
The findings come as Tony Blair told a London conference that the "true voice of Islam" needed to be heard - to isolate the extremists.
The Prime Minister went on to say that that most Muslims wanted to be "loyal citizens", despite the "disproportionate" public attention given to what he called "small, unrepresentative groups" of radicals. In this exclusive report,
Darshna Soni reveals the full findings of our survey - and talks to Muslims throughout England.
The Survey
Channel 4 News, with GFK NOP, has commissioned a survey to reveal the Muslim community's attitudes towards the 'official narrative' surrounding the 7/7 bombings revealing that: 59% of the 500 people polled believe that the government has not told the public the whole truth about the 7th July bombings.
52% believe that the British security services have "made up" evidence to convict terrorist suspects.
24% believe the four men identified as the July 7th bombers were not actually responsible for the attacks.68% believe that the Muslim community does not bear any responsibility for the emergence of extremists willing to attack UK targets. Although 58% felt that the community should be doing more.
Darshna Soni, Channel 4, June 4, 2007
Jewish involvement in 9/11 attacks (including claim that 4000 Jews skipped work on that day)
Conspiracy theories proposed by some groups claim that 9/11 was part of an international Zionist conspiracy. According to the Anti-Defamation League, "anti-Semitic conspiracy theories have not been accepted in mainstream circles in the U.S.," but "this is not the case in the Arab and Muslim world."[2] The Anti-Defamation League has published a paper, Unraveling Anti-Semitic 9/11 Conspiracy Theories, identifying the claims made and responding to them.
One of the most popular claims in these theories is that 4,000 Jewish employees skipped work at the WTC on September 11. This was first reported on September 17 by the Lebanese Hezbollah-owned satellite television channel Al-Manar and is believed to be based on the September 12 edition of the Jerusalem Post that stated "The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem has so far received the names of 4,000 Israelis believed to have been in the areas of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon at the time of the attacks.".[3] Both turned out to be incorrect; the number of Jews who died in the attacks is variously estimated at between 270 to 400.[4][5][6][7] The lower figure tracks closely with the percentage of Jews living in the New York area and partial surveys of the victims' listed religion. The US State Department has published a partial list of 76 in response to claims that fewer Jews/Israelis died in the WTC attacks than should have been present at the time. [8] Five Israeli citizens died in the attack, including one who was killed fighting his airplane's hiijackers. [9]Several websites of the 9/11 truth movement have worked to debunk the anti-Semitic claims and expose websites and individuals engaging in anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.[10] On the internet, Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has indignantly denied the rumour and attacked Shias, Hezbollah and Iran for spreading it, claiming, "the objective behind this lie is to deny that the Sunnis have heroes who harm America as no one has harmed it throughout its history." and that Iran's aim is to cover up its involvement in the invading of Iraq and Afghanistan.[11][12][13][14]
A July 2011 Pew Global Attitudes survey found that only 1 in 5 Muslims believe Arabs were responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
When asked whether they think groups of Arabs carried out the 9/11 attacks on the U.S., most Muslims in the nations surveyed say they do not believe this.
There is no Muslim public in which even 30% accept that Arabs conducted the attacks. Indeed, Muslims in Jordan, Egypt, and Turkey are less likely to accept this today than in 2006.
Pew Research Center, July 21, 2011
Zionists responsible for the Alexandria Church Bombing
He said: "There is an agreement between the national community, intellectual Muslims and Christians, and security officials to point the blame at foreign powers." ...He stressed that the prohibition against killing in places of worship is unequivocal, and added that "I believe very strongly that the ones behind this criminal act are Zionist intelligence agents, whether deceived or deceiving Egyptians, or non-Egyptians. This is what we hope will be discovered by Egyptian security authorities."
almoslim.net, January 4, 2010
Qablan said in a statement: "This terrorist act bears the mark of Zionism, which is accustomed to destroying religious holy places, and is in the interest of Zionism, which seeks to sow fitna, and foment sectarian and ideological differences."
shorouknews.com, January 1, 2011
. . .
Removing the Christians from the East is a Zionist project, for the true enemy of Israel is the Christian, who embodies the phenomenon of a natural coalition surrounding him, and interacting with him, and giving him a pattern for living and for coexistence between the religions, cultures, and civilizations.
elnashra.com, January 11, 2011
Murad further stated that, "Whatever labels those criminal hands place on their work, it will not deceive Egyptian and Arab public opinion, for they are working to further the plans of Zionists and Westerners who want to strike at the unity of our national and Arab societies in order to justify the legitimacy of their own religious nation, which was established on extortion and abhorrent racism."
alintiqad.com, January 2, 2010
Boko Haram an American conspiracy to destroy Islam in Nigeria
Boko Haram are the Islamic terrorist organization behind the 2011 Christmas day church bombings and are responsible for the deaths of at least 219 individuals in the first 21 days of 2012.[15]
Delivering a lecture entitled "Who is a terrorist?," during a lecture organised by the National Council of Muslim Youth
Organisations(NACOMYO), stressed that the concept was a conspiracy to destroy Muslims and to make the prediction by the West that Nigeria would disintegrate come 2015 become a reality.Bunza emphasised that Islam was a religion of peace and urged Muslims in the country to stand up to resist any attempt to label Islam as a terrorist group. He urged government and the media in the country to desist from labelling Islam as a religion that condone terrorism.
Daily Trust, February 8, 2012
. . .
According to him, there is a growing fear by the western world that Nigeria as a regional power, if allowed to embarce Islam as a doctrine, will have multiplier effect on the whole African continent. "This is why they are now trying to destablize the country in the name of Boko Haram, he added.
He also stated that, a Nigerian security official has sent a message informing him that, all the waves of attacks in the name of Boko Haram currently going on, is a smoke screen and diversionary tactics targetting the Islamic Movement in Nigeria.
. . .
Ahlul Bayt News Agency, February 8, 2012
Jews and other Zionists behind the Boston Bombings
. . .
[we see that] the bombing of the [Twin] Towers was meant to embroil America in the Middle East, whereas the Boston bombing and its repercussions were meant to deter America from trying to pressure Israel to advance the peace process in the region.
"The most puzzling [point] in this context is that [former U.S. president George] Bush Jr. announced the identity of those who had perpetrated the September 11 attacks. He said they were members of Al-Qaeda and that he had their passports, which had been found in the ruins of the two towers. The fire that, as we know, had consumed steel… had not managed to burn these passports, thank God. President Obama, on the other hand, is cleverer than his predecessor and understands the rules of the game. He has not announced [the names of] the [Boston] perpetrators and has blamed nobody, and it has been said that the operation was a domestic one… "The terrorist bombing [that took place] during the Boston marathon, near the finish line, clearly bears Jewish fingerprints. It is a message to President Obama to stop messing with Israel. These explosions were probably not the first warning issued to President Obama, nor will they be the last, for they will not let him enjoy his second term in office, and have even decided to target him personally.
"According to American sources, one week before the marathon, Boston police officers began to train, with dogs, to put out fires in this area. These explosions are another link in the chain of bombings that America has witnessed in Oklahoma and elsewhere."The Jews and their allies in the American right – who harbor intense hatred for anyone who isn't white and still regret that a black president occupies the White House – will not let President Obama discharge his second term in office without problems. The Jews, as usual, are impossible to make an alliance with. They have no loyalty towards those who have served them, and betrayal is in their nature."
MEMRI, Special Dispatch No.5278, April 18, 2013
Abd Al-Jalil Al-Karouri: The most important political events of the week were the Boston earthquake and the Texas earthquake, which joined it yesterday… Or rather, the bombings in Boston and in Texas, as well as the Iran earthquake. In short, the peculiar thing is that no one knows who is behind these events. Even President Obama said: "We do not know who did this or why." Iran, too, does not know who caused the earthquake.
[…] People know who is responsible for earthquakes. It is God. But now there are allegations that this earthquake was artificial. The so-called "earthquake-war" has begun. The industrialized countries have the capacity to make bombs that impact the Earth's crust and core, causing earthquakes. It is even said that the tsunami that raised the waves, causing thousands of deaths, was, in fact, an experiment in that weapon.
This earthquake had two goals: first, to [prevent] the Russians from officially handing over the Bushehr nuclear plant to Iran within a month's time. The West does not want this to happen.
[…] They wanted to destroy the new gas pipeline [from Iran to Pakistan], along with the [Bushehr] nuclear plant. There is also the issue of promoting the sale of gas masks. These expired gas masks, meant to protect people from nuclear gases, have recently been sold in the Gulf. The fourth goal is to sow fear in the Gulf region, where the earthquakes were heard. They want to make these people scared of the Iranian nuclear plant, and to ignite a regional Sunni-Shiite war, a war between Iran and its neighbors.
To this we should add the bombings in America. Now they are saying that the bombs were placed in "primitive" pots. Why would anyone in the U.S. need to resort to nails and pressure cookers to make a bomb? You can find any type of weapon there and simply buy it. Why did they say "primitive"? I don't have time to read you the quotation. They said that the bomb was "primitive," in order to direct the blame at one of us in the Third World.
When North Korea stopped manufacturing buses, it started making nuclear warheads. Today, North Korea poses a threat to America. America might be drawn into an historic war, a war between Communism and capitalism. This is precisely what Israel does not want. Israel wants the war to be between America and the "primitive" Arabs, and that is why the bombs were "primitive."I have said that the [9/11] Manhattan bombings were meant to transform America from a country to an empire, and that it is, indeed, what happened. Now, they do not want this empire to expand, and to revive the Cold War – this time with North Korea and the Asian countries. No, they want America to continue to defend Israel.
MEMRI, Clip No. 3813, April 19, 2013
Muslim Brotherhood
Jews secretly allied with the Muslim Brotherhood, using them to control Muslims
Protestors in Port Said, Egypt, were shown in a television broadcast chanting "Khaibar, Khaiber, oh Jews, the Brothers (Muslim Brotherhood) are the Jews." The slogan evokes an alleged Islamic story of a battle between the prophet Muhammad and the Jews in the town of Khaibar, but in this case the chant was altered to include an allusion to the Brotherhood.
Additionally, Dubai Police Chief Dahi Khalfan, in his Twitter campaign against the Muslim Brotherhood, has recently attempted to discredit the Brotherhood by alleging a nefarious allegiance to Israel and Jews.
"It would seem that no allegation made against the Jews and Israel is too absurd when it is used to stigmatize and discredit others in the Arab world," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "However bizarre and ludicrous, it is an increasingly popular conspiracy theory that the Muslim Brotherhood is a Jewish production to destroy Egyptians."
Chief Khalfan, who holds the rank of Lieutenant General, serves as member of the Executive Council of the Government of Dubai and has more than 300,000 followers on his Twitter account, which he devotes primarily to criticism of the Muslim Brotherhood.Among other tweets suggesting a Muslim Brotherhood connection to Jews, he has re-tweeted a link to a YouTube video titled "The Jewish-Muslim Brotherhood alliance and the project of establishing Greater Israel." The video accuses Jews of using the Brotherhood to achieve their goal of controlling Muslims and establishing a greater Israel.
US allied with its "paid confederates", the Muslim Brotherhood, against Egypt
The belief that there is a "conspiracy between the United States and the Muslim Brotherhood to destroy Egypt" is common among Egyptians and was a widespread topic of conversation in Cairo in August 2013.
. . .
On Zaki Street, the cafes were full of smokers of shisha, the flavored tobacco burned in water pipes, and of backgammon players. Outside, the driver of a horse-drawn cart full of canisters of cooking gas clanged his cans to announce his presence, and Farouq, a middle-aged man making deliveries to supermarkets with a motorcycle-drawn cart, stopped to talk.
"Americans are with the Muslim Brotherhood," Farouq stated in a tone suggesting that it was common knowledge. "O.K., you did something good when you killed Osama bin Laden, but now you are with Al Qaeda. You support the terrorists."
A strong anti-American undercurrent has always existed in Egypt, but such views are more normally associated with radicals and Islamists, and in reaction to American support for Israel.
But now anti-American sentiment is being stoked by an outpouring of dubious pronouncements from both state and private news media. Anti-Americanism has even been given the ultimate imprimatur of state tolerance: billboards. One next door to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for instance, shows President Obama with a beard like those worn by the Brotherhood, alongside a more flattering picture of the clean-shaven military leader, Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi.Youm 7, which claims to be the Arab world's biggest news Web site, recently invited reader reactions to a forum titled "America and Al Qaeda: One Hand Against Egypt." Hundreds responded.
Rod Nordland, The New York Times, August 25, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/26/world/middleeast/as-egyptians-ignore-curfew-talk-of-a-us-brotherhood-conspiracy.html.
Barack Obama is a "Muslim"
A 2011 Pew survey found that 10 percent of US Muslims believe Barack Obama is a Muslim, and a further third say they do not know or refused to answer.
Last month, Pew Research Center released a survey of U.S. Muslims that was almost universally overlooked. It found that Muslims overwhelmingly approve of the way Obama is handling his job as president. Fully three-quarters (76%) favor him, compared with just 46% of the general public. Listen to the Podcast Subscribe through iTunes
President Bush, in contrast, garnered a lowly 15% approval rating among Muslim-Americans. "Muslim-Americans clearly see a friend in Obama," Pew said in its report.
Obama came into office pledging to improve relations with the Muslim world, and he's more than delivered on that promise. Almost two-thirds of U.S. Muslims say Obama is generally friendly toward them, Pew found. Just 4% see him as unfriendly.
And many see him as one of their own. One in 10 say they think the president is a Muslim, while a third say they don't know or refused to answer.
Nonstop pandering has also made Obama popular in the Muslim community.He's appointed a record number of Muslims to his administration — including at least three radical Muslim Brotherhood agents to White House jobs, according to Muslim reformer Tarek Fatah. And he's killed Justice Department probes of Muslim Brotherhood front groups at home, while paving the way for Brotherhood-run theocracies abroad.
Investor's Business Daily, September 29, 2011
Mu'ammar Gaddafi was secretly a Jew
This was one of the biggest stories in early 2011 for Arabic-language news outlets.[16]
For its part, the Hebrew magazine "Israel Today" alleged that al-Gaddafi was from Jewish descent. Therefore, it was his right to seek refuge in Israel. Guaita Brown and her granddaughter Rachel Sa'da, both Jewish women from Libyan descent, confirmed that al-Gaddafi was from Jewish descent. Guaita Brown pointed to the fact that her grandmother and al-Gaddafi's grandmother were sisters.Meanwhile Sa'da made clear that al-Gaddafi's grandmother was Jewish, and that she had married someone from the same religion. However, he abused her, so she left him and married a Muslim, (who was) a tribal leader. By him she gave birth to a daughter, who was al-Gaddafi's mother. The magazine stated that even though al-Gaddafi's grandmother converted to Islam when she married that leader, she remains--according to Israeli law--Jewish.
Radinat Faris, Gaza, okaz.com.sa
Soft Drinks
Pork extracts in colas
This conspiracy theory states that Pepsi and Coca Cola contains pork (pig) extracts.
The scientific and medical research says that drinking Pepsi & Cola leads to cancer because the key element is taken from Pigs sausage. The heavenly books Quran, Bible and Torah forbids eating Pork, as it is the only animal that eats dirt, dung and urine, which makes lethal and deadly fabric polluted germs and microbes.
According to a report published in Jordanian magazine, the head of Delhi University's Science and Technology Center , Dr. Mangoshada scientifically proved that the key element in Pepsi and Cola contains extract from the intestines of Pig which causes cancer and other deadly diseases.
The Indian university conducted tests on the impact of drinking Pepsi and Coca Cola which proved that drinking them lead to more rapid heart rate and low pressure. Also drinking 6 bottles of Pepsi or Cola at a time causes instant death. It also contains chemicals such as carbonic and phosphoric acids, citric acid which harms teeth and causes bone fragility. Bones kept in the Cup of Pepsi melts during the week knowing that the bones of the dead remain in the grave for thirty years. Research itself confirmed that the calcium dissolved in Pepsi and it weakens the bladder, kidneys, kills the pancreatic, leads to diabetes and infectious diseases.Pepsi or Coca-Cola lovers nothing to worry as it is not the only drinks available on this earth, as we have other healthy alternatives such as natural fruit juices, canned coconut water, flavored milks, buttermilk etc., all of them are conveniently available even in the small stores.[17][18]
In 2011, an Israeli Muslim filed a NIS 1.2 billion class action suit against Coca Cola for containing alcohol.
. . .
The plaintiff, an Israeli Muslim, filed the suit following publication on the web last week of what is apparently the secret recipe of Coca Cola, and which allegedly contains alcohol.
. . .
Alcohol is forbidden by Islam, and the plaintiff cites he has been unwittingly drinking alcohol for years.
. . .
The plaintiff says that his class action suit comprises NIS 1,000 compensation for each of the 1.2 million Muslims living in Israel.
. . .
Globes, Israel Business News, February 20, 2011
Coca-Cola logo is anti-Islamic
This conspiracy theory claims that the Coca-Cola logo, when reversed, states in Arabic "No Muhammad, No Mecca".
Official Coca-Cola website, August 3, 2004
Pepsi a Zionist acronym
This conspiracy theory has been propagated via Iranian[19] and Palestinian TV, and claims that PEPSI is actually a Zionist acronym that stands for:
Interview with Hamas MP Salem Salamah - Al Aqsa TV, April 23, 2008
Supernatural and Science Fictional
Mobile phone virus that kills the recipient
The panic caused by the rumours forced the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to issue a denial. Phone companies sent out text messages urging people to be calm. A newspaper rejected the rumour but featured the headline, Killer Mobile Virus.
Husain Haqqani, Gulf News, May 2, 2007
Sudanese men and their disappearing penises
. . .
Al-Quds reported, "The store owner became hysterical, and was taken to the hospital." The country's "Chief Criminal Attorney General" Yasser Ahmad Muhammad told the Sudanese daily Al-Rai Al-A'am that "the rumor broke out when one merchant went to another merchant to buy some Karkady [a Sudanese beverage]. Suddenly, the seller felt his penis shriveling."
The invaluable Middle East Media Research Institute, in its exhaustive coverage, noted that the penises of Khartoum were vulnerable not merely to handshaking. "Another victim, who refused to give his name, said that while he was at the market, a man approached him, gave him a comb, and asked him to comb his hair. When he did so, within seconds, he said, he felt a strange sensation and discovered that he had lost his penis."Tales of the vanishing penises ran rampant round the city, spread by cell phones and text messages. Sudan's Attorney General Salah Abu Zayed declared that all complaints about the missing penises would be brought before a special investigative committee, though doctors had determined that the first plaintiff was "perfectly healthy."
Mark Steyn, Jewish World Review, October 28, 2003
The West stealing water from clouds, causing droughts in the Middle East
Although Iran is recognised as having one of the world's driest climates, the comments were the latest in a series of allegations by officials of a Western conspiracy to turn its water shortage into a major crisis.
In July, Hassan Mousavi, head of Iran's cultural heritage organisation and one of Mr Ahmadinejad's vice-presidents, urged meteorological experts to investigate the possibility that the west was engineering a draught in southern Iran, traditionally one of the country's most parched regions.
. . .
Robert Tait, The Telegraph, September 10, 2012
Iranian TV report exposes "Zionist" companies
Evil Zionist companies such as Revlon, Intel, McDonalds, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Sara Lee, Marks & Spencer, Nestle, Marlboro, Disney and more.[19]
Tom and Jerry a "Zionist cartoon conspiracy"
Note that this conspiracy theory erroneously claims the "Jewish Walt Disney Company gained international fame with this cartoon". Tom and Jerry is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer creation and not a Disney cartoon.
Bulkhari explained that the cartoon aimed at shifting the image of mice - often attributed to Jews by the Nazi regime - from a negative one to a more positive, friendly, intelligent one, according to Worldnetdaily.
Speaking on a televised program on Iranian television, the advisor explained, "The mouse is the wise and smart one, and he violently beats the poor cat.
And yet, this cruelty does not cause you to despise the mouse. He looks so nice, and he is smart."
"The Jews were degraded and termed 'dirty mice.' 'Tom and Jerry' was made in order to change the Europeans' perception of mice. One of terms used was 'dirty mice.'"
"It should be noted that mice are very cunning ... and dirty."
"The program was produced in an attempt to erase the image of the mouse from the minds of European children and to show that the mouse is not dirty and that he even has nice characteristics," he pointed out.
"The Jewish Walt Disney Company gained international fame with this cartoon," he said.
"If you study European history, you will see who was the main power in hoarding money and wealth in the 19th century," continued Bolkhari. "In most cases, it is the Jews. Perhaps that was one of the reasons which caused Hitler to begin the anti-Semitic trend, and then the extensive propaganda about the crematoria began. ... Some of this is true. We do not deny all of it."
Created in 1939 creation by Joe Barbera and Bill Hanna, the MGM series was launched as World War II began.Over 200 cartoons featuring Tom and Jerry were created, and the cartoon remains popular to this day.
Al Bawaba News, March 15, 2006
Selling alcohol in Jammu and Kashmir, part of a "well planned conspiracy"
Addressing a gathering here on Sunday, Hami said some Christian missionaries were trying to alter the Muslim majority character of Jammu and Kashmir at the behest of America and Israel. "We ask Muslims who have fallen for the trap of these missionaries and converted to Christianity to present themselves before Ulema before Eid-ul-Azha, and seek repentance from Allah," he said.
"Otherwise, Karwani Islami and Darul-Ifta will convene a joint session of Ulema and Muftis on November 11 and issue a fatwa(decree) of social boycott against these converts," Hami said.
Hami said the Ulema will not remain silent over the activities of Christian missionaries. " They are luring young Muslims with money to convert and we will go to any extent to stop their activities," he said.
Hami said, being a Muslim majority state, liquor should have been banned in Jammu and Kashmir. "Instead, the government under a well planned conspiracy is promoting liquor among youth ," he said.
Hami said it was ironic that the government had allowed a liquor shop opposite the Children's hospital in Sonawar. "If the government doesn't revoke the license of the liquor shop, Karwani-i-Islami would take to the streets," he said.He appealed youth to follow the footsteps of Hazrat Amir Kabeer, Sheikh Noor-ud-Din Noorani, and fight the conspiracies being hatched against Islam.
Kashmir Dispatch, October 30, 2011
Jews training wild boars and pigs to make scary sounds and uproot Arabs' trees
Abbas made the claim in a speech in Ramallah on the eve of his appearance at the United Nations in September, in which he asked for recognition of PA statehood. The speech went virtually unnoticed in the media, except for some vigilant blogs.
"The occupation and its actions, this is the nightmare that weighs down upon us," Abbas said. "…Attacks by settlers that find their expression in uprooting trees, burning mosques and even training dogs to attack us and sending wild boars to spread corruption on the face of the earth."
Abbas continued: "The settlers deal with us in three ways: when they run across someone they attack him; they have trained the dogs well for this, and the boars, too, for uprooting trees."
Just one week after Abbas gave his speech, a terror gang murdered Asher and Yonatan Palmer of Kiryat Arba.
The Minister for Strategic Affairs, Moshe Yaalon, and Ministry Director Yossi Kupferwasser, presented the quotes as part of a report on the "Incitement Index," which shows an upsurge in PA incitement against Israel in recent months.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called the Index "an important eye-opener and reminder regarding where we live."
"We have seen horrific things here," he said, "that define the Jews as poisoners of wells, among other things, and prepare the hearts for harsh and cruel deeds."
The Elder of Zion blog has found that the wild boar libel originated with reports that appeared on PA news sites. A 2010 report on the Palestine Press Agency claimed:
"Pigs from settlers from the settlement of 'Ariel' continued their attacks on the rights of farms and houses in Salfit and surrounding villages. Witnesses said that a swine herd consisting of twenty pigs attacked the farming communities, breaking down peach and apricot trees... Witnesses said the pigs made scary sounds and also attacked a field of wheat belonging to farmers Imran Ahmed Khalil Masri and Abu Dar.... The farmers expressed their indignation at the repeated attacks of pigs and have shown that attempts to eliminate them and get rid of them have failed dismally."
Elder of Zion noted wryly that "the evil Jews did not only train the pigs to distinguish between Arab and Jewish farmlands, but they also train them to make scary noises!"Past Muslim "Zionist animal" theories have included stories about Mossad trained bee-eaters, vultures and sharks, as well as poison-resistant rats purportedly trained to drive Arab residents of Jerusalem out of their homes.
Gil Ronen, Arutz Sheva, August 12, 2012
US and UK Zionists using money from Jews to spread homosexuality in order to control the world
Mashregh News, an outlet affiliated with radical Islamists in Qom, wrote that the US and the UK are using money from Jews to spread homosexuality throughout the world. The article blasted Israel for promoting demonstrations for gay rights and specifically decried Tel Aviv as the gay paradise on earth. It also ridiculed Conservative Judaism for accepting gay rabbis, and urged Western governments to stop people from engaging in gay – and therefore immoral – actions, and provide medical treatment for homosexuals in order to stop their conduct.
. . .
Dr. Wahied Wahdat-Hagh, an expert on minority groups in Iran, told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that the article is "against gays, against the West and anti-Semitic." He added that "the text legitimizes the execution of gays in Iran; they made a text not only to ridicule the West but to provide a reason why Iran executes gays."
Benjamin Weinthal, Jerusalem Post, September 5, 2012
See Also
- Conspiracies - A hub page that leads to other articles related to Conspiracies
- Antisemitism - A hub page that leads to other articles related to Antisemitism
External Links
- The Jewish hand behind Internet - RadioIslam, June 2009
- The Conspiratorial Mind of the Arab World - Robert Spencer, FrontPageMagazine
- Tin Foil Turbans: The 6 Stupidest Conspiracy Theories that Millions of Muslims Believe - Kathy Shaidle, NewsRealblog
- ↑ Hodapp, Christopher; Alice Von Kannon (2008). Conspiracy Theories & Secret Societies For Dummies. (Pg. 106) Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. ISBN 0470184086.
- ↑ "Unraveling Anti-Semitic 9/11 Conspiracy Theories." New York: Anti-Defamation League, 2003. p. 1
- ↑ http://usinfo.state.gov/media/Archive/2005/Jan/14-260933.html "which appeared in the September 12th internet edition of the Jerusalem Post. It stated, "The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem has so far received the names of 4,000 Israelis believed to have been in the areas of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon at the time of the attacks."
- ↑ A survey of the 1,700 victims whose religion was listed found approximately 10% were Jewish indicating around 270 in total. A survey based on the last names of victims found that around 400 (15½%) were possibly Jewish. A survey of 390 Cantor Fitzgerald employees who had public memorials (out of the 658 who died) found 49 were Jewish (12½%). According to the 2002 American Jewish Year Book, New York State's population was 9% Jewish. Sixty-four percent of the WTC victims lived in New York State.
- ↑ The Mitzvah To Remember (09/05/2002) Gary Rosenblatt, August 3, 2007
- ↑ The Resuscitation of Anti-Semitism: An American Perspective: An Interview with Abraham Foxman 1 October 2003
- ↑ The 4,000 Jews Rumor: Rumor surrounding Sept. 11th proved untrue January 2005
- ↑ The 4,000 Jews Rumor
- ↑ Cashman, Greer Fay. "Five Israeli victims remembered in capital", The Jerusalem Post, The Jerusalem Post, 2002-09-12, p. 3. Retrieved on 2006-10-17
- ↑ "Holocaust Denial Versus 9/11 Truth", http://911review.com/denial/holocaust.html.
- ↑ The Rebellion Within, An Al Qaeda mastermind questions terrorism. by Lawrence Wright. newyorker.com, June 2, 2008
- ↑ "Al-Qaeda accuses Iran of 9/11 lie", BBC News, 2008-04-22. Retrieved on 2008-08-05
- ↑ http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/04/22/zawahiri.targets.ap/ " Al-Zawahiri also denied a conspiracy theory that Israel carried out the September 11 attacks on the U.S., and he blamed Iran and Shiite Hezbollah for spreading the idea to discredit the Sunni al Qaeda's achievement.Al-Zawahiri accused Hezbollah's al-Manar television of starting the rumor."The purpose of this lie is clear: [to suggest] that there are no heroes among the Sunnis who can hurt America as no else did in history. Iranian media snapped up this lie and repeated it," he said."Iran's aim here is also clear: to cover up its involvement with America in invading the homes of Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq," he added. "
- ↑ FOXNews.com - Al Qaeda No. 2 Accuses Iran of Spreading 9/11 Conspiracy Rumor - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News at www.foxnews.com
- ↑ At least 143 killed in north Nigeria sect attacks - Associated Press, January 21, 2012
- ↑ For example, see here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
- ↑ Pork extract in Pepsi and Coca Cola - The Eagles Lodge, May 28, 2009
- ↑ Pepsi and Coca Cola Contains PORK (PIG) extracts - PROVEN!! - saeidahab.multiply.com, April 2, 07
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 Iranian TV Report Exposes "Zionist" Companies - Coca Cola, Pepsi, Marlboro, Hugo Boss, McDonald's and more - MEMRI TV, Video No. 1277, July 29, 2006


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Nokia trims expectations again
Palm to cut costs by 20%
Nokia has cut expectations of the mobile-phone market for the third time in as many months, while Palm is planning to cut costs by 20 per cent following a halving of sales.
Less than a month ago Nokia predicted 330 million phones would ship in the last quarter of 2008, a prediction the company now thinks was optimistic - though this time the Finnish giant is only saying that the final number will be lower. Palm admitted that its sales have halved over the last quarter, blaming "economic uncertainty", though increased competition must also be playing its part.
Nokia's approach to bad news is to explain that the whole industry is slowing down, and we should therfore focus on the Finnish giant's market share rather than the number of phones it's actually shipping. The company reckons it can build up market share in 2009 from the current 38 per cent. So we shouldn't be alarmed, but it's hard not to be concerned when they keep issuing warnings like this.
Nokia also reckons retail outlets will be de-stocking for a while - selling what's on the shelves rather than ordering more stock, which will put more pressure on manufacturers including themselves.
Reducing costs seems to be the order of the day: Nokia is promising to "reduce operational expenditure, and scale back capital expenditure", presumably not including the Hollywood office, while Palm is going to trim the workforce and cut back on European operations to the tune of 20 per cent. ®
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Food & Drink
Is your cruise safe?
By Marnie Hunter and Katia Hetter, CNN • Published 31st January 2014
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Reports of yet another outbreak on a cruise ship this week have some imminent cruisers asking the unpleasant question: What are the chances of spending my vacation in the bathroom?
"My mother, who is a first-time cruiser, is seriously reconsidering our choice for our family vacation," wrote CNN reader Monica Mancera in an e-mail. The University of Texas at Austin student is booked on a Carnival cruise with her family in March.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating
two recent norovirus outbreaks
at sea. One outbreak hit Royal Caribbean's Explorer of the Seas, infecting more 600 passengers and crew. The other struck a Princess Cruises ship, which cut short its seven-day Caribbean itinerary after more than 180 passengers and crew members fell ill. The cause has not yet been determined.
Not exactly tropical drinks by the cruise ship's pool, lovely walks by the moonlight and port visits to exotic climes. And just the thought of wasting precious vacation time has worker-bee bystanders riled up: So glad it's not me! Poor suckers! And cruise skeptics who have never been on cruises have another opportunity to ask: What were they thinking?
"I think they are floating germ kingdoms. Disgusting," wrote Matt Dryden of Newport, North Carolina, via e-mail. "Never been on a cruise because of that exact reason."
Cruising represents one of travel's deeper divides. Love it or hate it, most of the keenest objections are only half true -- or false, depending on how you look at it.
Floating petri dishes?
Cruise ships are ripe for spreading illness. Outbreaks of norovirus, the leading cause of acute gastroenteritis in the United States, occur most frequently in close quarters, according to the CDC. Nursing homes, dormitories and cruise ships are common transmission grounds.
In 2013, the CDC's Vessel Sanitation Program logged nine gastroenteritis outbreaks aboard ships, seven of which had a confirmed cause of norovirus. About 1,200 cruise passengers were affected by those norovirus cases.
To put those figures in perspective, the industry's Cruise Lines International Association says more than 10 million passengers embarked on CLIA-member cruise ships from a U.S. port in 2012. Meanwhile, nationwide, norovirus sickens an estimated 21 million people in the United States every year, according to the CDC.
Bottom line: More people are getting sick on land. (Granted, that's little comfort if you're vomiting violently at sea).
More outbreaks of gastroenteritis have been reported aboard cruise ships since 2001, according to CDC statistics. The government agency says the spike is tied to an increase in both passengers and ships sailing the seas as well as an overall increase in norovirus outbreaks.
"There are attempts to control these types of outbreaks, but it's hard to guarantee that it's not going to happen for any particular cruise," said Dr. Lin Chen, director of the Travel Medicine Center at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
So yes, the threat of illness is real. Yet the number of reported outbreaks among thousands of annual sailings has ranged in recent years from less than a dozen affected sailings to about three dozen.
Who's responsible for the outbreak?
"Though the cruise lines may get the bad rap for an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness, cruise lines typically do a masterful job of cleaning and disinfecting the ships before, during, and after passengers set sail," said Robert Kwortnik, marketing professor at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration.
That's because the stakes are so high. "It's more likely that the cause of these outbreaks is us -- or what technology professionals refer to as "'user error,'" he said. "We might not be feeling tip-top when we board the ship and instead bring illness on-board with us rather than saying, 'Maybe I should do this another time.' No one wants to cancel a vacation, especially if it's nonrefundable."
Kwortnik's solution: Buy travel insurance, which is intended for just this kind of problem, and stay home if you're sick.
The recent outbreaks aren't scaring away some travelers.
"I feel for the people who are suffering through it, but for the number of cruises per year and the sheer number of people on them, outbreaks like this are just too small for me to worry about," wrote Christina M. Stetler of Manchester, Pennsylvania, via e-mail, who took a cruise in September.
Are ships or passengers unsanitary?
Norovirus, the most common cruise ship outbreak offender, spreads quickly from person to person but can also be transmitted through contaminated food or water or from contaminated surfaces.
The CDC's Vessel Sanitation Program conducts regular unannounced inspections of cruise ships. Explorer of the Seas, the Royal Caribbean ship currently experiencing an outbreak, scored a 98 out of 100 on its last inspection in July 2013.
"Something like this is not representative of an unclean ship," said Colleen McDaniel, managing editor of CruiseCritic.com. "It doesn't mean this particular vessel was unclean. It just means there was an outbreak on board. They're ending the cruise two days early and doing a really deep cleaning of the ship. It's not likely to happen on the same ship again."
Unlikely, but not unheard of: Princess Cruises' Crown Princess had norovirus outbreaks on two consecutive sailings in 2012. In 2010, the CDC issued a four-day no-sail recommendation for a Celebrity Cruises ship after three consecutive outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness.
The deep cleaning upon Explorer of the Seas' return to port "will be the third aggressive sanitizing procedure the ship has undertaken since we became aware of the issue," Royal Caribbean said.
Wash your hands!
Cruise lines activate CDC-monitored response plans when outbreaks are detected. Measures include increasing the frequency of cleaning and disinfection, isolating ill people, distributing information about proper hand-washing and hygiene as well as illness updates and regular reporting to CDC Vessel Sanitation Program officials.
Hygiene is extremely important when outbreaks occur. Proper hand washing, avoiding contact with ill passengers and direct contact with public surfaces such as restroom door handles can help stem the spread of highly contagious illness. The CDC
offers health tips for cruisers
on its website.
Avid cruiser Marcy Webster and her husband won't be changing their plans for an upcoming sailing on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas.
Norovirus: The most common stomach bug
"It is not the cruise line's fault. It is a passenger who came onboard sick and spread the virus everywhere. On every cruise I have been on, the crew is diligent in keeping things clean and making passengers use hand sanitizer," Webster, of Keller, Texas, wrote in an e-mail.
"Bad things happen. If you stop your life for fear of what could be, you never experience anything."
That's not good enough for Cheryl King, who decided not to take a cruise with her family after learning about the outbreak on the Royal Caribbean ship.
"We were in the process of looking for a cruise when this story came on," King wrote CNN ,via e-mail. "We have decided our money will serve us much better by keeping both feet on terra firma, where we can walk away if something goes sideways.
"We will not be going on any cruises. Ever."
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Tiger Woods had a glint in his eye as he made a confident start to his 2012 PGA Tour campaign, firing a four-under-par 68 in Thursday's opening round of the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
Watched by huge galleries after teeing off at the 10th on the heavily tree-lined Spyglass Hill Golf Course, the former world number one mixed six birdies with two bogeys to end the day five strokes off the pace.
Woods, back at the pro-am celebrity event for the first time in a decade and hunting his first victory on the PGA Tour in more than two years, evoked memories of his glory days.
He was in sparkling form off the tee, a little frustrated by his approach play and could have been at least two or three shots better had a few well-struck putts not halted inches short of the cup or slipped past the edge.
"I drove it great, I had it on a string for most of the day," Woods told reporters after hitting 11 of 14 fairways and 15 of 18 greens in regulation on the most difficult of the three venues hosting this week's event.
"I just wasn't very good with my irons so I'll have to go and work on that. I left a few putts out there ... and I didn't give myself enough looks when I had wedges in my hand."
With barely a breath of wind on the picturesque Monterey Peninsula, scoring conditions were near-perfect and Woods knew it was crucial not to end the first round too far adrift.
"When the scores are like this, I can't get too far behind the lead," said the 36-year-old American. "Hopefully tomorrow I can get it going over there at Monterey. It will be an important day to put it together and make some birdies."
Woods made a sizzling start with consecutive birdies, hitting a superb approach to three feet at the par-four 10th and narrowly missing an eagle putt from 14 feet at the par-five 11th.
The 14-times major winner made his first mistake of the day at the par-four 13th where he pulled his tee shot into the left fairway bunker. From an awkward stance, Woods failed to reach the green in two and ended up with a bogey.
After comfortably parring the next three holes, he picked up another shot at the par-four 17th where his approach shot pitched beyond the cup and spun back to within 10 feet.
Another par followed at the 18th for Woods to enter his back nine at two under.
He picked up further shots at the first and third, where he sank a 25-footer, before bogeying the par-four fourth after his approach flew the green.
However, Woods rammed in a 15-footer to birdie the par-five seventh and parred the last two holes to remain at four under.
Though he has not won on the PGA Tour since the 2009 BMW Championship, he arrived at Pebble Beach this week with high hopes following his form over the last two months.
In his last three stroke-play events, Woods finished third at the Australian Open in November, won the limited-field Chevron World Challenge which he hosts in December and tied for third at last month's Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.
"I don't know if it's a good sign or a bad sign," Woods said of his 68, the fourth-best round of the day at Spyglass Hill. "With the scores the way they are, I thought I could have it lower than I did.
"I figured par today was going to be about 67 out here ... so I'm not too far away from posting a good number out here."


text:
Playing Field Location
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Playing Field Information
We are providing only the address at this time, there has been an error in the MAPQUEST link application. While we work on a resolution, we are providing the street address information and provided notes to playing fields. In addition, we are providing a DIRECT link to MapQuest - from which you can generate driving directions. Shortly we will restore the Mapping function.
Below you will find the address to Playing Field Plains Park 2 for MHSNOTES: 7v7 travel field is farthest from parking lot to the right side of the park.
|Field Name
|Plains Park 2
|Street Address
|60 Cedar Street
Get your Directions
Clearly we want to restore the old functionality between BAYS and MapQuest. However, in the mean time we have prepopulated the MapQuest address box with the field address above. If you click on the submit button you will be REDIRECTED to MapQuest, and can then generate your personal directions. We appreciate your patience while we correct this mattter.


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Lund 4 in. Oval Nerf Bars provide superior durability and functional flair with a curved style. These medium sized oval bars are a great addition to trucks and SUV's.
- Virtually corrosion-free mirror-like appearance repels dirt and grime for easy maintenance and a clean look in all seasons
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I'd hoped Alonso was classier than this. But a transfer request doesn't change anything. Pay Liverpool's valuation or Alonso stays. A transfer request doesn't make him cheaper.
But yeah, you stay classy, Xabi Alonso. Way to wait until there are 16 days left before the season starts to shiv Benitez in the back.
I would imagine there will be more to say on this in the near future. Sigh.
Update (9:42pm): So I may have jumped the gun. In my defense, I usually take the Echo at gospel, but that's because of Tony Barrett's impeccable record, and he's gone now. And this is what the Times recently posted (Barrett's new gig, but he didn't write this):
The saga had descended into farce earlier in the day when Alonso became embroiled in a game of claim and counterclaim. Sources at Liverpool said that Alonso submitted a transfer request on Wednesday evening in an effort to hasten a move to Real, but the suggestions were dismissed by Alonso's representatives, who insisted that the player had taken no such action.This is why I've been hesitant to post about transfer gossip in previous summers. I can't imagine what I would have been like if I was writing during the Gerrard to Chelsea fiasco. I haven't been able to restrain myself in regards to this saga - which probably shows how important I think Alonso is. But, obviously, not at the expense of the team as a whole.
Man, I can't wait for the season to start.


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STONY BROOK, N.Y. – UMBC softball's designated player Danielle O'Neill (Lothian, Md./Southern) homered for the 11th time this season to enter into the Retrievers' single-season home run list, but Stony Brook used three of its four blasts as part of a 12-run fourth inning to defeat UMBC, 16-1, in the opening game of the America East Championships on a rainy Thursday afternoon at University Field.
UMBC freshman pitcher Jessica Holte (Ashland, Va./Atlee) led the league during the regular-season with two home runs allowed, but doubled that total on the afternoon by surrendering a pair of blasts to the Seawolves. SBU finished the afternoon with four home runs in five innings of play to improve to 33-16 on the season, while the Retrievers fell to 31-21.
The Retrievers put two aboard in the top of the first inning, with America East All-Conference First Team selections O'Neill and Taylor Hall (Cosby, Va./Cosby) each drawing a walk. A fly out to right field from senior first baseman Chelsea Bertoglio (Laguna Hills, Calif./Laguna Hills/Saddleback College), an All-Conference Second Team selection, advanced O'Neill to third with two outs, but the AEC Pitcher of the Year Allison Cukrov came up with her second strikeout of the frame to escape the inning scoreless.
The Seawolves led off the bottom of the first with three straight singles, including an RBI-single to right center from center fielder Shayla Giosia, to take a 1-0 lead. Left fielder Bria Green followed with a three-run home run to left center field to extend the advantage to 4-0 after one inning of play.
O'Neill launched a solo shot to center to tie for 10th on UMBC's single-season home run list to bring the Retrievers within three, 4-1, in the top of the third inning.
Stony Brook exploded for 12 runs on 11 hits in the bottom of the fourth inning, starting with a solo home run from designated player Alexandra Pisciotta, her first of two blasts and four runs batted in during the frame. Holte's (18-10) afternoon ended after surrendering 11 earned runs on 10 hits through 3.1 innings of work.
UMBC loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the fifth inning, but were unable to take advantage. The Retrievers stranded seven runners on base in the contest.
Cukrov earned her 22nd win of the season, allowing one run on three hits and striking out five in the victory. Casagrand surrendered two earned runs on five hits in relief for the black and gold.
The Retrievers continue to America East Championship action on Friday, May 9. UMBC will face the loser of Thursday's game two, No. 2 Albany versus No. 3 Binghamton, at 1:30 p.m. at University Field. Stony Brook will face the winner of Albany and Binghamton at 11 a.m. at University Field.
Dawg Bites
-Due to rain, the game started an hour and a half late.
-Danielle O'Neill moved into a tie for 10th on UMBC's single-season home run list. This marks just the third time in program history that a pair of teammates posted top-10 marks in home runs in the same season. O'Neill also moved into a tie for second on the Retrievers' single-season walks list with 34 on the year.
-Taylor Hall finished the afternoon with three walks to move into a tie with Kristie Pickeral (30) for seventh on the Retrievers' single-season walks list.


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Appreciating China's Currency
China's President Hu Jintau arrives in Washington today for a state visit, turning the spotlight once again on U.S.-China trade and China's allegedly undervalued currency, the yuan. Not one to let such an opportunity go to waste, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is introducing legislation that would threaten to impose duties on imports from China if the yuan does not appreciate quickly.
Count me skeptical that a more expensive yuan relative to the U.S. dollar would make much of a dent in our bilateral trade deficit with China, or that it would have any positive effect on U.S. economic growth and employment. But even if those assumptions were true, the big story is how much the yuan as already appreciated against the dollar.
It has been a mantra of Sen. Schumer and other critics of U.S.-China trade that the yuan is undervalued by 15 to 40 percent. They were saying that before the 2005 appreciation, and they're saying that now, as though nothing has changed.
Yet a lot has changed. In nominal terms, the yuan appreciated by more than 20 percent between 2005 and 2008. That's when China relaxed its hard peg with the dollar and allowed its currency to gradually appreciate. After holding the peg steady again during the recent financial turmoil, China has again allowed it to rise another 3 percent since last June.
The nominal rate is just part of the story, however. Price levels in the United States and China determine the real exchange rate--the actual amount of goods that can be bought with each currency. A big story in China recently is its rising inflation rate, which makes Chinese goods relatively more expensive at any given exchange rate. In this way, a relatively higher inflation rate in China compared to the United States acts in the same was as a nominal increase in the exchange rate of the yuan.
When you combine the effect of rising prices in China with the higher nominal value of the yuan, you get a double boost to the real exchange rate. According to a chart on the front page of this morning's Wall Street Journal, the real value of the yuan has appreciated by 50 percent since the beginning of 2005. In early 2005, 100 Chinese yuan could be exchanged for about $12; today it can be exchanged for $18 (in real, inflation adjusted dollars).
Rather than complain, Sen. Schumer and his allies should congratulate themselves on achieving their goal of a much stronger yuan and a much weaker dollar, even if we are still waiting for the tonic effect they predicted it would have on jobs and growth.


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Report: Microsoft Sees Record XBLA Sales in August
According to the report, Microsoft brought in $17.5 million in August 2010 over $16.5 million in August 2009, which was the second year of the Summer of Arcade promotion. The report presents a top 10 list of games sold, ranked by revenue generated, and includes the total number of copies purchased. Note that some titles were not included in the Summer of Arcade promotion or were released before August.
- Top 10 Titles for August 2010, by Revenue:
- Monday Night Combat (Uber Entertainment) - 187,000 units (1200 Microsoft Points)
- Castlevania: Harmony of Despair (Konami) - 131,000 units (1200 Microsoft Points)
- LIMBO (Playdead) - 128,000 units (1200 Microsoft Points)
- Lara Croft & The Guardian of Light (Crystal Dynamics) - 107,000 units (1200 Microsoft Points)
- Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (Ubisoft) - 79,000 units (800 Microsoft Points)
- Hydro Thunder Hurricane (WB Games) - 50,000 units (1200 Microsoft Points)
- Trials HD (RedLynx, LTD) - 47,000 units (1200 Microsoft Points)
- Shank (Klei Entertainment Inc) - 41,000 units (1200 Microsoft Points)
- Deadliest Warrior (Pipeworks Software) - 55,000 units (800 Microsoft Points)
- Castle Crashers (The Behemoth) - 31,000 units (1200 Microsoft Points)
Uber Entertainment's shooter 'Monday Night Combat' topped the month with 187,000 units sold, or $2.8 million USD in revenue. Konami's 'Castlevania: Harmony of Despair' was in second place with 131,000 units sold, or $2.0 million USD in revenue. Playdead's 'LIMBO' , the first Summer of Arcade title (and July winner by huge margins) was #3 with 128,000 units sold, or $1.9 million USD. It stands as the best-selling Summer of Arcade title with 334,000 units sold on the year so far.
Trials HD has also moved over one million digital copies as of August 2010, doing so in 12 months. Only one title, Battlefield 1943, hit the one million mark faster and only two other titles--Uno and Castle Crashers--have surpassed one million units.
The Summer of Arcade promotion is proving extremely lucrative for Microsoft. So much so that the company has a revealed another promotional month, titled "Game Feast", which began today and will run through the rest of September and part of October.


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OAKLAND — A seemingly done deal to keep the A's in Oakland for up to 10 more seasons has hit a roadblock as city leaders question whether they are making too many concessions.
With Oakland officials seeking amendments to the lease extension, the public agency that operates O.co Coliseum called off a Friday vote to ratify the agreement.
The postponement frustrated A's co-owner Lew Wolff, who thought he had a done deal.
"We had thought this would be voted on this Friday," Wolff said in a prepared statement Tuesday. "We have made countless concessions, including many requested late last week after we were told we had a deal. We are done negotiating. It is up to them to vote."
Any lease extension would have to be approved not only by the Coliseum board but also the Oakland City Council and Alameda County Board of Supervisors. Council members got their first look at the deal Tuesday evening during a closed-door meeting.
Council members could direct their representatives on the Coliseum board to seek more concessions; they also could endorse the existing terms.
The A's have been seeking a long-term lease in Oakland as they continue seeking Major League Baseball's permission to move to San Jose.
Oakland officials, hopeful that the team can be swayed to build a ballpark at their current home, also want a lease deal. But sources said they fear that if they give up too much in negotiations now, they won't have any leverage for another decade.
Relations between the team and their landlords in the city and county have been acrimonious at times. Last year, MLB intervened on the A's behalf to seal a two-year lease extension that required the team to increase its annual payments from $800,000 to $1.75 million but didn't include additional concessions sought by the Coliseum board.
Talks on a long-term extension came to a halt two months ago as both sides traded barbs in the press. Negotiations heated up again in May when the framework of an agreement was hashed out during a meeting between Wolff and Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan and Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty.
However, sources said several city officials aren't sold on the deal. It failed to resolve whether the A's must pay the city more than $5 million that the team has deducted from its rent payments to offset a city parking tax. Also the deal originally allowed the A's to give only one-year's notice to leave Oakland with minimal financial penalty.
Sources said the team has agreed to several revisions over the past week sought by attorneys representing the city — a few of which provided additional flexibility for the Oakland Raiders if they build a new football stadium adjacent to the Coliseum. However, the A's have refused to agree to any amendments that could change the economics of the deal, sources said.
The lease deal has come under fire from fan groups who fear that it concedes too much to the A's and could potentially push the Raiders out of town.
Jim Zelinski of the group Save Oakland Sports called on city officials to closely scrutinize any extension with the A's. "I think every aspect of it should be studied to make sure it's in the best interest of the teams, the taxpayers and the fans," he said.
Contact Matthew Artz at 510-208-6435.


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Green garden gazpacho
8 Sep
Gazpacho is one of my favorite things to make when the weather is warm. It's tasty, healthy, and you can throw in just about anything. We had a number of green zebra tomatoes, so I wanted to try making a green gazpacho using only veggies our garden. To the tomatoes I added a few tomatillos, a small cucumber, and a ton of fresh basil and chives. A little red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper rounded things out nicely.
Keep in mind that this is a special tomato variety that is green when ripe. Unripe tomatoes will not be the same! Using red tomatoes is fine.
Most gazpacho recipes recommend peeling your tomatoes. I never do this because I'm lazy and I think that putting them through the blender/food processor is fine. So I just core and quarter my tomatoes. Into the blender they go. Easy as pie.
I did peel and seed the cucumber, though. I guess I'm not very consistent.
Topped with a little Greek yogurt and some more olive oil, basil, and chives, this made a delicious (and good looking) lunch, and almost all of it came straight from the garden.
The best part, though, is that I didn't need to turn on a burner to make it. Hot weather food, for the win!


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Choosing a Lighting Technique 选择照明技术
Broadly speaking, lighting in Unity can be considered as either 'realtime' or 'precomputed' in some way and both techniques can be used in combination to create immersive scene lighting.
In this section we will give a brief overview of what opportunities the different techniques offer, their relative advantages and individual performance characteristics.
Realtime Lighting 实时照明
By default, lights in Unity - directional, spot and point, are realtime. This means that they contribute direct light to the scene and update every frame. As lights and GameObjects are moved within the scene, lighting will be updated immediately. This can be observed in both the scene and game views.
默认情况下,Unity中的灯光 - 方向,光点和点是实时的。这意味着他们为场景提供直接照明并更新每一帧。当灯光和GameObjects在场景内移动时,照明将立即更新。这可以在场景和游戏视图中观察到。
The effect of realtime light alone. Note that shadows are completely black as there is no bounced light. Only surfaces falling within the cone of the Spotlight are affected.
Realtime lighting is the most basic way of lighting objects within the scene and is useful for illuminating characters or other movable geometry.
Unfortunately, the light rays from Unity's realtime lights do not bounce when they are used by themselves. In order to create more realistic scenes using techniques such as global illumination we need to enable Unity's precomputed lighting solutions.
Baked GI Lighting 烘焙GI照明
When 'baking' a 'lightmap', the effects of light on static objects in the scene are calculated and the results are written to textures which are overlaid on top of scene geometry to create the effect of lighting.
Left: A simple lightmapped scene. Right: The lightmap texture generated by Unity. Note how both shadow and light information is captured.
These 'lightmaps' can include both the direct light which strikes a surface and also the 'indirect' light that bounces from other objects or surfaces within the scene. This lighting texture can be used together with surface information like color (albedo) and relief (normals) by the 'Shader' associated with an object's material.
With baked lighting, these light textures (lightmaps) cannot change during gameplay and so are referred to as 'static'. Realtime lights can be overlaid and used additively on top of a lightmapped scene but cannot interactively change the lightmaps themselves.
With this approach, we trade the ability to move our lights at gameplay for a potential increase in performance, suiting less powerful hardware such as mobile platforms.
Precomputed Realtime GI Lighting 预计算的实时GI照明
Whilst traditional, static lightmaps are unable to react to changes in lighting conditions within the scene, Precomputed Realtime GI does offer us a technique for updating complex scene lighting interactively.
With this approach it is possible to create lit environments featuring rich global illumination with bounced light which responds, in realtime, to lighting changes. A good example of this would be a time of day system - where the position and color of the light source changes over time. With traditional baked lighting, this is not possible.
通过这种方法,可以创建具有丰富全局照明的照明环境,并带有反射光,实时响应照明变化。一个很好的例子就是一天的时间系统 - 光源的位置和颜色随着时间而变化。用传统的烘烤照明,这是不可能的。
A simple example of time of day using Precomputed Realtime GI.
In order to deliver these effects at playable framerates, we need to shift some of the lengthy number-crunching from being a realtime process, to one which is 'precomputed'.
Precomputing shifts the burden of calculating complex light behaviour from something that happens during gameplay, to something which can be calculated when time is no longer so critical. We refer to this as an 'offline' process.
So how does this work?那么这是如何工作的?
Most frequently it is indirect (bounced) light that we want to store in our lightmaps when trying to create realism in our scene lighting. Fortunately, this tends to be soft with few sharp, or 'high frequency' changes in color. Unity's Precomputed Realtime GI solution exploits these 'diffuse' characteristics of indirect light to our advantage.
大多数情况下,我们希望在我们的光照贴图中存储间接光线(反射光),以便在我们的场景光照中创建真实感。幸运的是,这种颜色趋于柔和,几乎没有尖锐的或"高频率"的颜色变化。 Unity的预先计算的实时GI解决方案利用了这些间接光的"漫射"特性,以达到我们的优势。
Finer lighting details, such as crisp shadowing, are usually better generated with realtime lights rather than baking them into lightmaps. By assuming we don't need to capture these intricate details we can greatly reduce the resolution of our global illumination solution.
By making this simplification during the precompute, we effectively reduce the number of calculations we need to make in order to update our GI lighting during gameplay. This is important if we were to change properties of our lights - such as color, rotation or intensity, or even make change to surfaces in the scene.
To speed up the precompute further Unity doesn't directly work on lightmaps texels, but instead creates a low resolution approximation of the static geometry in the world, called 'clusters'.
Left: With scene view set to 'Albedo' the texels generated by Unity's Precomputed Realtime GI can clearly be seen. By default a texel in this view is roughly the size of a cluster.
Right: The scene as it appears in-game once the lighting has been calculated and the results converted to lightmap textures and applied. Traditionally when calculating global illumination, we would 'ray trace' light rays as they bounce around the static scene. This is very processing intensive and therefore too demanding to be updated in realtime. Instead, Unity uses ray tracing to calculate the relationships between these surface clusters beforehand - during the 'Light Transport' stage of the precompute.
右:光照计算完成后场景出现在游戏中,并将结果转换为光照贴图并应用。传统上计算全局照明时,我们会在静态场景发生关系反弹时使用"光线追踪"。这是非常强大的处理,因此要求实时更新。而Unity会在预计算的"光传输"阶段通过光线追踪来计算这些表面集群之间的关系 。
By simplifying the world into a network of relationships, we remove the need for expensive ray tracing during the performance-critical gameplay processes.
We have effectively created a simplified mathematical model of the world which can be fed different input during gameplay. This means we can make modifications to lights, or surface colors within the scene and quickly see the effects of GI in scene lighting update at interactive framerates. The resulting output from our lighting model can then be turned into lightmap textures for rendering on the GPU, blended with other lighting and surface maps, processed for effects and finally output to the screen.
Benefits and Costs 好处和成本
Although it is possible to simultaneously use Baked GI lighting and Precomputed Realtime GI, be wary that the performance cost of rendering both systems simultaneously is exactly the sum of them both. Not only do we have to store both sets of lightmaps in video memory, but we also pay the processing cost of decoding both in shaders.
The cases in which you may wish to choose one lighting method over another depend on the nature of your project and the performance capabilities of your intended hardware. For example, on mobile where video memory and processing power is more limited, it is likely that a Baked GI lighting approach would be more performant. On 'standalone computers' with dedicated graphics hardware, or recent games consoles, it is quite possible to use Precomputed Realtime GI or even to use both systems simultaneously.
The decision on which approach to take will have to be evaluated based on the nature of your particular project and desired target platform. Remember that when targeting a range of different hardware, that often it is the least performant which will determine which approach is needed.
Enabling Baked GI or Precomputed Realtime GI
By default, both Precomputed Realtime GI and Baked GI are enabled in Unity's Lighting panel (Lighting>Scene). With both enabled, which technique is used can then be controlled by each light individually (Inspector>Light>Baking).
默认情况下,在Unity的"灯光"面板("灯光">"场景")中启用了预计算实时GI和烘焙GI。启用后,使用哪种技术可以分别控制每个灯(Inspector> Light> Baking)。
Using both Baked GI and Precomputed Realtime GI together in your scene can be detrimental to performance. A good practise is to ensure that only one system is used at a time, by disabling the other globally. This can be done by unchecking the box next to either Precomputed Realtime GI or Baked GI from Unity's lighting panel (Lighting>Scene). Now only the checked option will be present in your scene, and any settings configured per-light will be overridden.
Per-Light Settings 逐灯光设置
The default baking mode for each light is 'Realtime'. This means that the selected light(s) will still contribute direct light to your scene, with indirect light handled by Unity's Precomputed Realtime GI system.
However, if the baking mode is set to 'Baked' then that light will contribute lighting solely to Unity's Baked GI system. Both direct and indirect light from those lights selected will be 'baked' into lightmaps and cannot be changed during gameplay.
Point light with the per-light Baking mode set to 'Realtime'.
Selecting the 'Mixed' baking mode, GameObjects marked as static will still include this light in their Baked GI lightmaps. However, unlike lights marked as 'Baked', Mixed lights will still contribute realtime, direct light to non-static GameObjects within your scene. This can be useful in cases where you are using lightmaps in your static environment, but you still want a character to use these same lights to cast realtime shadows onto lightmapped geometry.


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