Mecca Metro

Why the World's Biggest Metro Only Runs 7 Days a Year
Half as Interesting

OpenRailwayMap of Mecca
Red line is main freight line. Blue line is the Haj Metro

Northernmost Terminal with three tracks heading out

Other Mecca posts.

Saudi Arabia & Islam Versus Communism & Communists

Kabul, Afghanistan

Saudi Arabia plans to start construction on a new mosque in Kabul.

King Faisal Mosque in Islamabad

The rest of this is from 2012. Sometimes it takes me a while to catch on. Rumor has it that it will be similar to this one that they built in Islamabad.

What does Saudi Arabia care about Afghanistan? A vacuum draws all kinds of opportunists.

Afghanistan is an ideal springboard and battleground for the spread of Saudi Sunni Wahhabism and Iranian Shiite fundamentalism throughout Central Asia; especially out towards the former Soviet breakaway nations that are hungry for any teaching necessary to fill the failed Bolshevik indoctrination vacuum; especially any form of Islam.- Khalil NOURI November 2012

Mecca, Saudi Arabia, October 16, 2013.  The Clock Tower and the Grand Mosque. AFP PHOTO/FAYEZ NURELDINE

 The new mosque will be big, but it cannot hold a candle to the Saudi clock tower in Mecca.

Moderate Moslems, i.e. Westernized or civilized Moslems, need to start differentiating themselves from the terrorist Moslems. As long as both groups are claiming to be Moslems (or is it Muslims? I can never keep the politically correct lingo straight.), there is going to be confusion. Some people will take the time to determine what kind of Musselman a person is. Some people would prefer to just shoot them all and let God, sorry, Allah, sort them out.

All we really need is a new name for one or both sides of the fence. You know, Democrats and Republicans are both capitalists, although you can be forgiven for forgetting that essential element. They make such a big stink about not being like the other guys. And then there are capitalists and communists, though they are getting hard to tell apart. So what can we call these two major factions of Islam? Mudders and Brudders? Mummers and Bombers? Mohammadinians and Abuhasinians? Philistines and Pharaohs? Okay, maybe these aren't too good, but you get the idea, and somehow we need to get these two sides of the fence to start using these new terms. Otherwise someone who can't tell them apart is liable to get pissed off and nuke Mecca. During the haj.

Great Circle Prayers

Which way to Mecca?

Qibla Finder shows which way devout Muslins should be facing when they pray. It shows you the shortest, i.e. Great Circle route to Mecca.

Via Iaman

The problem with Islamic Culture is Islamic Culture

Mecca

I just read an interview of Nicholai Sennels on Europe News. His observations shed some light on why Western and Muslim cultures are so violently opposed to each other. Some excerpts:

My own experience is that Muslims don’t understand our Western way of trying to handle conflicts through dialogue. They are raised in a culture with very clear outer authorities and consequences. Western tradition using compromise and inner reflection as primary means of handling outer and inner conflicts is seen as weak in the Muslim culture. To a great extent they simply don’t understand this softer and more humanistic way of handling social affairs.
. . . we see that especially anger is much more accepted in the Muslim culture. One example: in Western culture and also in other non-Muslim cultures, like in Asia, you see aggression and a sudden explosion of anger as something you’ll regret afterwards, something you are ashamed of. It is completely opposite in the Muslim culture. If somebody steps on your honor – what I as a psychologist would call self confidence – you are simply expected to show aggression and often also verbal or physical revenge. So, aggression gives you a low status in our cultures, but a high status in the Muslim culture.
There is however another and much deeper reason for the wide spread anti-social behavior in Muslim communities and their strong aversion against integration – namely, the very strong identification that Muslims have with belonging to the Muslim culture.
. . . A strong and proud culture unfortunately also makes the culture’s members almost unable to adapt to other values.
. . . but especially disturbing is the fact that there are no differences of opinion on this topic among Muslims who are born and raised in Muslim countries and the opinion of their children who are born and raised in Danish society. When it comes to identity among Muslims, nationality does not count at all in comparison with culture and religion. The consequence is a powerful and growing opposition to Western culture and values in Muslim ghettoes throughout Copenhagen and other major European cities.
. . .  My experience is that the very low focus on supporting one’s children in school and on one’s own education and the lack of motivation for creating a professional career is a crucial factor for the poverty, which many Muslims experience in both our societies and in Muslim countries. 

Supposedly Nicholai has a best seller out: Among criminal Muslims. A psychologist’s experience from Copenhagen. Couldn't find it on the net.

Via Sharon.

Abraj Al Bait

Stu is talking about clock towers today and he mentions this really big clock in Mecca, so I have to go look it up. It's not just a big clock, it's a friggin' huge building. I had no idea this thing even existed. That giant tower from Mission Impossible is on the left in this picture. The Sears Tower is the pale gray one just to the right. Here is a link to another size comparison chart.

Top of the Lake

Mini-series murder mystery, 7 episodes, set in a small town in New Zealand where everybody carries a big gun, even the 12 year-old girl who is at the center of the story. She carries what looks and shoots like a double barreled rifle, though it might have been a shotgun. I got to thinking about this and I'm wondering what kind of big animals would you have in New Zealand? I mean, it's an island, and a long way from anywhere. I'm thinking the biggest animals would be sheep. So I checked. Seems the place is overrun with critters, deer mostly, that the Europeans imported in the 19th century. They didn't import any predators, so the place has become a mecca for hunters. Before humans showed up (around 1300) the only mammals on the islands were bats.

Glacier Pilot Notes

Six years ago I was reading Glacier Pilot by Beth Day, a story about Bob Reeve, one of the pioneers of aviation in Alaska. Now I'm trying to clean out some old drafts, so here are some items that caught my eye.

Alaska
p. 25 Nunatak - A nunatak is the summit or ridge of a mountain that protrudes from an ice field or glacier that otherwise covers most of the mountain or ridge.
p. 26 Williwaw - a sudden violent squall blowing offshore from a mountainous coast.

Aviation pioneers, page 28:

• Lindbergh
• Doolittle
• Twining
• Curt Le May

Before Bob went to Alaska, he spent some time in South America. Pan American Grace airlines, aka PANAGRA, used several different airplanes when they started email service to Santiago Chile (page 38).

Loening Amphibian

Fairchild FC-2 flying over the Andes mountains

Ford Trimotor refueling in Guatemala 1933

Sikorsky S-38

The Sikorsky S-38 made an appearance in the movie The Aviator:


The Aviator (2004) - Howard and Kath Flying Scene (Spanish Subtitles)

New-to-me terms:
p. 38 sin publicadad - Spanish for 'without advertising'.
p. 41 Hegira - the journey the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his followers took from Mecca to Medina.
p. 43 gambling - "Ship, Captain, and Crew" is a dice game where players bet tokens (like "gold booty") and try to roll a 6 (Ship), 5 (Captain), and 4 (Crew) in that order, within three rolls, setting them aside to collect the score from the remaining two dice (Cargo) for the highest score to win the pot. It's a push-your-luck game that can be played for ante to a pot, with the winner taking all the tokens. 

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry makes an appearance on page 41.

Flying between Santiago Chile and Buenos Aires Argentina means flying over the Andes mountains, and since aircraft weren't pressurized, you needed to find a pass. Uspallata Pass with statue of Christ was one.

1911 Uspallata Pass

Wikipedia article. Google 3D map.

Christ the Redeemer of the Andes

The statue of Christ the Redeemer is the hiding place for the red suitcase in Kleo.

10 Short Videos #6195

10 Short Videos #6195

10. Great Ideas and Unique Design #adamrose

POV: releasing 10 years of stress in one breath 😂

High Pressure Purging - Pipeline

She's at war, her horse is casually browsing 🐴

🕋 Makkah Sharif Beautiful Live View 2026 - automatic slipper dispenser for Arabs in Mecca

Would you trust a robot police officer?

Покажите это видео своему подростку Важный критерий успеха - сосредоточиться на своей цели - Show this video to your teenager. An important criterion for success is to focus on your goal. - Dog focused on puck

Drone Training vs. Real Life

POV : "UNTIL YOU STOP DOING IT"

OSHO: Heaven and Hell