The Salt Mine at Soledar, Ukraine

Soledar is a city in Donetsk Oblast of Ukraine. The name of the town stands for 'gift of salt' both in Russian and Ukrainian. The town was named Karlo-Libknekhtivsk after Karl Liebknecht, the German socialist, when it was created in 1965 during Soviet times. It was renamed Soledar in 1991 after the Ukraine became independent. This small is situated on the place of shallow bay of ancient Permian sea which existed there 250 millions years ago. After the sea dried out, here appeared one of the purest salt deposit in the world and the biggest one in Europe. In spite of more than 100 years of underground working, resulted in more than 125 miles of mines, these salt field resources are enough for 2 thousand years more.  While tourists are attracted not by functioning mines, but exhaust one which is added to the UNESCO list of world culture heritage. Miners who worked in it turned the empty mines into magnificent temples by creating sculptures, pictures, chapels and grottos from salt blocks. Everything here is made of salt: walls, ceiling, floor, figures and trees.

The route along the salty galleries of this underground city at a depth of 300 meters is about 700 meters long and ends with a huge hall of 40 meters height. The acoustics in the hall is so amazing that sometimes it becomes the concert hall for symphonic orchestra. Kurt Schmidt, Austrian composer and director says that there are only 2 or 3 theaters in the world that can compete the acoustics of Soledar's salt mines: "I am impressed! The notes flew up to the arch of the grotto, and then slowly as a cloud fell down. Incredible!". [First Photo credit Lenelenka]

Photo credit Dmitry Panoff

Near the tourist route there is a speleo-sanitarium "Salty Symphony" where the following diseases are successfully cured: bronchial asthma, asthmatoid bronchitis, obstructive bronchitis, chronic pneumonia, rhinoallergosis, atopic dermatitis, some forms of psoriasis, weak immunity, thyroid diseases. Patients' sense of well-being is influenced by the following factors: atmospheric pressure 772 mm Hg (millimeters mercury column), air humidity 60%, temperature 14-16 °?, as well as air itself is filled with salt pieces with size of 1-5 micron and concentration of 15 mg in 1 cu m. The treatment in the microclimate of salt mine is one of the most effective because 70-85% adults and 85-95% children recover there according to statistics. 

Salt Mine Music Hall, Soledar, Ukraine 

Imagine a salt pebble as large as a city and your right in the middle of it. Photo credit Andrei Stolper

Usually the tour goes on for about 4 hours. During this time tourists can visit underground football field, church, labyrinths, concert hall, gallery, see the original figures made of salt, take a rest at underground bar, watch a movie about speleo-sanitarium, take pictures and video, play billiards, table tennis, chess, and simply have a rest and breathe the unique air of salt mine. Along the route medical staff and guide will do some training in medical respiratory gymnastics and tell interesting stories about the salt mine.

Soledar is a town which name stands for "gift of salt". We visited its major sight: the underground galleries and chambers of salt mines. Photo credit Zfort Group

Photo credit Zfort Group

The people there is a perception that the salt is harmful to the body in large quantities. This applies to its consumption as food. But a visit to the seabed, when there is not a single object of a different material than salt, very useful, especially for the imagination. A breath of air saturated micro-particles of salt - all powerful healing effect.

Photo credit Thierry Sturm

Sculptures created not Mother Nature, and the master with golden hands. Sinking to a depth of nearly 300 meters, you get the opportunity to walk along the bottom of the oceans, see the real football field with shallow salt crumbs instead of green grass , with a stunning concert hall acoustics.

Photo credit Thierry Sturm

There is a church in one of the worked out salt galleries of the city. In December 2003, the chamber 41 bis broke a record listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the first underground "Hopper" ballooning. In October 2004 there was a concert of Donbass Symphony Orchestra "Salt Symphony" under the direction of Austrian conductor Kurt Schmid with a participation of Victoria Lukyanets, soloist of the Vienna State Opera. Photo credit Thierry Sturm

Soledar is a town which name stands for "gift of salt". We visited its major sight: the underground galleries and chambers of salt mines. Photo credit Zfort Group

Photo credit Thierry Sturm

Soledar is a town which name stands for "gift of salt". We visited its major sight: the underground galleries and chambers of salt mines. Photo credit Zfort Group

Source — Wikipedia | Showcaves | Discover-Ukraine | Topertravel | Krt.dp

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Thought of the DAY

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U.S. non-farm payrolls

U.S. non-farm payrolls rose less-than-expected last month, official data showed on Friday.

U.S. non-farm payrolls 209K vs. 233K forecast

In a report, the U.S. Department of Labor said non-farm payrolls rose to a seasonally adjusted 209K, from 298K in the preceding month whose figure was revised up from 288K.

Analysts had expected U.S. non-farm payrolls to rise 233K last month.

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A land where smartphones are more important than sex

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How cigarettes light up ITC’s other businesses

 Here are pointers that explain how ITC makes its money:

• Non-cigarette revenue looks up: Non-cigarette businesses like apparels, hotels, paperboard and agriculture account for nearly 60% of the total revenue of ITC. The company reported gross sales of Rs 10,969 crore for the quarter to June 2014. Cigarettes sales alone raked in Rs 4,200 crore. Other consumer products like apparels, personal care and food products contributed Rs1,935 crore, while the agriculture business pulled in Rs 3,296 crore. Paperboards and stationery accounted for the balance.
• Cigarette profits dominate: Although revenue from other businesses is rising, cigarettes continue to bring in most of the profits. The cigarettes business turned in Rs 2,700 crore of the total Rs 3,171-crore profit before interest and taxes.  Analysts expected consumer and hotels businesses to report a marginal profit. However, they reported minor losses. The paperboard businesses posted better-than-expected profits.
• How it spends: The company spent 43.4% of the revenue on raw material. This cost was higher than expected by the market. However, the company kept employee spending down at 5.6% of the revenue and other spend – which includes advertising and marketing – was kept low at 16.2% of revenue. Analysts expected expenditure on these two items to be higher. 
• Other businesses: ITC’s non-cigarette consumer products sales growth was slower at 11% in the quarter to June, the lowest-ever reported, according to analysts. ITC’s hotel business witnessed a flat growth in revenue but a drop in segment profit. This was because it had to take a charge of Rs 14 crore on depreciation due to changes in the new Companies Act. The hotels business was affected during the April to June 2014 quarter because the Indian Premier League’s initial stage was held outside India, according to a Kotak Securities report. The restriction on liquor during general elections also pushed the business down, the report added.
• Key factor ahead: ITC’s cigarette volume growth could fall going forward due to a 10-20% rise in excise duty, estimates Kotak Securities. Cigarette volume is the number of cigarettes the company sells. Due to a sharp rise in prices of cigarettes, smokers could opt for cheaper variants. In the quarter to June 2014, smokers were seen opting for cigarettes that are smaller in size.

This work is produced by Simplus Information Services Pvt Ltd. Customer engagement through content.

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8 Jobs That Can Make You Happy AND Rich

Most people believe "a happy career" and "a fat paycheck" are mutually exclusive, but online jobs community CareerBliss.com recently found these two things sometimes do go hand in hand.  

CareerBliss compiled its new list of jobs that can make you happy and rich by analyzing more than 50,000 independent company reviews from 2013 and 2014.

The reviews are from employees all over the U.S. who evaluated 10 factors that affect work happiness on a five-point scale:  one's relationship with one's boss and coworkers; workplace environment; job resources; compensation; growth opportunities; company culture; company reputation; daily tasks; and job control over the work performed on a daily basis.

CareerBliss combined those numbers to find an average rating of overall happiness for each respondent and sorted the results by job title and salary to determine which jobs pay well and make professionals the happiest.

The No. 1 job on the list is chief technology officer. People in this position gave the profession a "bliss score" of 3.4 out of 5. They earn  $117,000 a year, on average, more than double the national average salary of  $46,440. 

"We find that people often settle for just a job, when there are many careers out there that take extra effort but pay off with huge dividends," says   Heidi Golledge, CEO and cofounder of CareerBliss.  "If you look for the opportunity to build something great while learning and earning a piece of the action, your career and bank account will thank you for it."

Here are the happiest high-paying jobs in 2014:

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Overmedicated chicken new health threat

A new study by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has revealed that rampant unregulated use of antibiotics in the poultry industry could be a contributing factor to Indians developing a resistance against antibiotics. And that could be the reason why Indians are falling prey to several ailments that are otherwise curable.

With nearly 40 per cent of the tested samples of chicken being found to be heavy in antibiotic, public health experts say it could be a reason for increasing antibiotic resistance in India. 

"Antibiotics are no more restricted to humans nor limited to treating diseases. The poultry industry uses antibiotics as a growth promoter. Chickens are fed antibiotics so
that they gain weight and grow faster," said Sunita Narain, director general, CSE.

Seventy samples of chicken in Delhi and NCR were tested to detect presence of six antibiotics widely used in poultry. These include oxytetracycline, chlortetracycline and doxycycline, enrofloxacin, ciprofloxacin and neomycin, an aminoglycoside. Residues of nearly five of the six antibiotics were found in the chicken samples.

Of the 40 per cent samples found containing antibiotic residues, 22.9 per cent contained residues of only one antibiotic while the remaining 17.1 per cent samples had residues of more than one antibiotic. Researchers pointed out that antibiotics were frequently pumped into chicken during its life cycle of 35-42 days.

These antibiotics are mixed with food to promote growth and administered to all the birds for several days to prevent infections, even if there is no symptom.

In India, there is now growing evidence that resistance to fluoroquinolones such as ciprofloxacin is rapidly increasing among the humans. Treating fatal diseases like sepsis, pneumonia and tuberculosis (TB) with fluoroquinolones is becoming tough because microbes that cause these diseases are increasingly becoming resistant to fluoroquinolones.

The CSE study found two fluoroquinolone antibiotics - enrofloxacin and ciprofloxacin - in 28.6 per cent of the chicken samples tested. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had also said that the number of multi-drug resistant (MDR)-TB cases in the country has increased five times between 2011 and 2013. Studies show that one-third of MDR-TB cases are resistant to fluoroquinolones, which are critical for MDR-TB treatment.
"India will have to adopt a comprehensive approach to tackle this problem. Till the time we keep misusing antibiotics in animals, we will not be able to solve the problem of antibiotic resistance. For India, therefore, the priority should be to put systems in place to reduce the use of antibiotics in poultry and other food animals," said Chandra Bhushan, CSE's deputy director general and head of the lab.

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Top Financial Experts Say World War 3 Is Coming … Unless We Stop It

Nouriel Roubini, Kyle Bass, Hugo Salinas Price, Charles Nenner, James Dines, Jim Rogers, David Stockman, Marc Faber, Jim Rickards, Paul Craig Roberts, Martin Armstrong, Larry Edelson, Gerald Celente and Others Warn of Wider War

Paul Craig Roberts - former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under President Reagan, former editor of the Wall Street Journal, listed by Who’s Who in America as one of the 1,000 most influential political thinkers in the world, PhD economist - wrote an article yesterday about the build up of hostilities between the U.S. and Russia titled, simply: "War Is Coming".  In the article, Roberts notes:

As reported by Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge, the Russian response to the extra-legal ruling of a corrupt court in the Netherlands, which had no jurisdiction over the case on which it ruled, awarding $50 billion dollars from the Russian government to shareholders of Yukos, a corrupt entity that was looting Russia and evading taxes, is telling. Asked what Russia would do about the ruling, an advisor to President Putin replied, “There is a war coming in Europe.” Do you really think this ruling matters?”

In January, well-known economist Nouriel Roubini tweeted from the gathering of the rich and powerful at the World Economic Forum in Davos:

Many speakers compare 2014 to 1914 when WWI broke out & no one expected it. A black swan in the form of a war between China & Japan?

And:

Both Abe and an influential Chinese analyst don't rule out a military confrontation between China and Japan. Memories of 1914?

Billionaire hedge fund manager Kyle Bass writes:

Trillions of dollars of debts will be restructured and millions of financially prudent savers will lose large percentages of their real purchasing power at exactly the wrong time in their lives. Again, the world will not end, but the social fabric of the profligate nations will be stretched and in some cases torn. Sadly, looking back through economic history, all too often war is the manifestation of simple economic entropy played to its logical conclusion. We believe that war is an inevitable consequence of the current global economic situation.

Reagan's head of the Office of Management and Budget - David Stockman - is posting pieces warning of the dispute between the U.S. and Russia leading to World War 3.

Investment adviser Larry Edelson wrote an email to subscribers entitled “What the “Cycles of War” are saying for 2013″, which states:

Since the 1980s, I’ve been studying the so-called “cycles of war” — the natural rhythms that predispose societies to descend into chaos, into hatred, into civil and even international war.

I’m certainly not the first person to examine these very distinctive patterns in history. There have been many before me, notably, Raymond Wheeler, who published the most authoritative chronicle of war ever, covering a period of 2,600 years of data.

However, there are very few people who are willing to even discuss the issue right now. And based on what I’m seeing, the implications could be absolutely huge ....

Former Goldman Sachs technical analyst Charles Nenner – who has made some big accurate calls, and counts major hedge funds, banks, brokerage houses, and high net worth individuals as clients – says there will be “a major war”, which will drive the Dow to 5,000.

Veteran investor adviser James Dines forecast a war is epochal as World Wars I and II, starting in the Middle East.

Economist and investment manager Marc Faber says that the American government will start new wars in response to the economic crisis:

• “The next thing the government will do to distract the attention of the people on bad economic conditions is they’ll start a war somewhere.”

• “If the global economy doesn’t recover, usually people go to war.”

Martin Armstrong - who has managed multi-billion dollar sovereign investment funds - wrote in August:

Our greatest problem is the bureaucracy wants a war. This will distract everyone from the NSA and justify what they have been doing. They need a distraction for the economic decline that is coming.

Armstrong wrote a piece yesterday entitled, "Why We will Go to War with Russia", and another one today saying, "Prepare for World War III".

Bad Economic Theories

What's causing the slide towards war? We discuss several causes below.

Initially, believe it or not, one cause is that many influential economists and  talking heads hold thediscredited belief that war is good for the economy.

Therefore, many are overtly or more subtly pushing for war.

Challengers Give Declining Empires "Itchy Fingers"

Moreover, historians say that declining empires tend to attack their rising rivals ... so the risk of world war is rising because the U.S. feels threatened by the rising empire of China.

The U.S. government considers economic rivalry to be a basis for war. Therefore, the U.S. is systematicallyusing the military to contain China’s growing economic influence.

Competition for Resources Is Heating Up

In addition, it is well-established that competition for scarce resources often leads to war.  For example, Oxford University's Quarterly Journal of Economics notes:

In his classic, A Study of War, Wright (1942) devotes a chapter to the relationship between war and resources. Another classic reference, Statistics of Deadly Quarrels by Richardson (1960),extensively discusses economic causes of war, including the control of “sources of essential commodities.”A large literature pioneered by Homer-Dixon (1991, 1999) argues that scarcity of various environmental resources is a major cause of conflict and resource wars (see Toset, Gleditsch, and Hegre 2000, for empirical evidence).

***

In the War of the Pacific (1879–1884), Chile fought against a defensive alliance of Bolivia and Peru for the control of guano [i.e. bird poop; insert joke here] mineral deposits. The war was precipitated by the rise in the value of the deposits due to their extensive use in agriculture.

***

Westing (1986) argues that many of the wars in the twentieth century had an important resource dimension.  As examples he cites the Algerian War of Independence (1954–1962), the Six Day War (1967), and the Chaco War (1932–1935). More recently, Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990 was a result of the dispute over the Rumaila oil field.  In Resource Wars (2001), Klare argues that following the end of the Cold War, control of valuable natural resources has become increasingly important, and these resources will become a primary motivation for wars in the future.

Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan (and many world leaders) admitted that the Iraq war was really about oil, and former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill says that Bush planned the Iraq war before 9/11. And see this and this. Libya, Syria, Iran and Russia are all oil-producing countries as well ...

Indeed, we've extensively documented that the wars in the Middle East and North Africa are largely about oil and gas. The war in Gaza may be no exception. And see this. And Ukraine may largely be about gas as well.

And James Quinn and Charles Hugh Smith say we're running out of all sorts of resources  ... which will lead to war.

Central Banking and Currency Wars

We’re in the middle of a global currency war – i.e. a situation where nations all compete to devalue their currencies the most in order to boost exports. Brazilian president Rousseff said in 2010:

The last time there was a series of competitive devaluations … it ended in world war two.

Jim Rickards agrees:

Currency wars lead to trade wars, which often lead to hot wars. In 2009, Rickards participated in the Pentagon’s first-ever “financial” war games. While expressing confidence in America’s ability to defeat any other nation-state in battle, Rickards says the U.S. could get dragged into “asymmetric warfare,” if currency wars lead to rising inflation and global economic uncertainty.

As does billionaire investor Jim Rogers:

Trade wars always lead to wars.

Given that China, Russia, India, Brazil and South Africa have just joined together to create a $100 billion bank based in China, and that more and more trades are being settled in Yuan or Rubles - instead of dollars - the currency war is hotting up.

Multi-billionaire investor Hugo Salinas Price says:

What happened to [Libya's] Mr. Gaddafi, many speculate the real reason he was ousted was that he was planning an all-African currency for conducting trade. The same thing happened to him that happened to Saddam because the US doesn’t want any solid competing currency out there vs the dollar. You know Gaddafi was talking about a gold dinar.

Indeed, senior CNBC editor John Carney noted:

Is this the first time a revolutionary group has created a central bank while it is still in the midst of fighting the entrenched political power? It certainly seems to indicate how extraordinarily powerful central bankers have become in our era.

Robert Wenzel of Economic Policy Journal thinks the central banking initiative reveals that foreign powers may have a strong influence over the rebels.

This suggests we have a bit more than a ragtag bunch of rebels running around and that there are some pretty sophisticated influences. “I have never before heard of a central bank being created in just a matter of weeks out of a popular uprising,” Wenzel writes.

Indeed, some say that recent wars have really been about bringing all countries into the fold of Western central banking.

Finally, trend forecaster Gerald Celente - who has been making some accurate financial and geopolitical predictions for decades - says WW3 will start soon.

Debt

Martin Armstrong argued that war plans against Syria are really about debt and spending:

The Syrian mess seems to have people lining up on Capital Hill when sources there say the phone calls coming in are overwhelmingly against any action. The politicians are ignoring the people entirely. This suggests there is indeed a secret agenda to achieve a goal outside the discussion box. That is most like the debt problem and a war is necessary to relief the pressure to curtail spending.

The same logic applies to Ukraine and other countries.

Billionaire investor Jim Rogers notes:

A continuation of bailouts in Europe could ultimately spark another world war, says international investor Jim Rogers.

***

“Add debt, the situation gets worse, and eventually it just collapses. Then everybody is looking for scapegoats. Politicians blame foreigners, and we’re in World War II or World War whatever.”

Americans Don't Want War

Poll after poll shows that the American people don't want to get involved in any more wars.

After all, we spent trillions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Americans are exhausted.  Not only does a top Pentagon official say we’re no safer – and perhaps less safe – after 13 years of war, but it has now been shown that war  hurts our economy.

Never-ending wars are also destroying our democratic republic.   The Founding Fathers warned against standing armies, saying that they destroy freedom.   They were right ...

And they warned against financing wars with debt.    But according to Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, the U.S. debt for the Iraq war could be as high as $5 trillion dollars (or $6 trillion dollars according to a study by Brown University.)  The U.S. has the largest standing army in history, and treats anti-war sentiment as terrorism.

But war is great for the bankers  and the defense contractors.  And - as discussed above - governments are desperate for war.

So it's up to us - the people - to stop wider war.

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Trading Strategy For 01st August 2014

Above chart is NF daily chart 

Break below 7718 with volumes our next down target 7676....7640level 

In panic 7620 is possible .

7770 First Hurdle.Crossover with volumes then it rally upto 7810...7820

In panic buy NF,Today is close positively(Not ruled out )

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Thought Of The Day

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