Three different guests appeared during the evening. In the first hour, Ambassador Clovis Maksoud offered analysis of the situation in Egypt and the Middle East. The protests in Egypt have been initiated by the younger generation who have been marginalized through unemployment, and corruption by the ruling class, he said. These demonstrators are generally peace-seeking, and just want to be empowered to develop and transform their country, after 30 years of neglect from the Mubarak government, he continued.

In hour 2, archaeologist and researcher Stephen Mehler reacted to the Egyptian uprising. "We are witnessing history...Egypt has never experienced it before...the potential for a true representative coalition government, and that is what the people want," he commented. Egypt has enormous wealth and resources but most of it is going out of the country, and "it needs to be among the people," he said, adding that the protestors will not accept any coalition government that is part of Mubarak's regime. During this hour, William Henry, who had been leading a tour of the Giza pyramids, was reached by cell phone, and reported that their group was safe, and was on their way out of the country.

Timetraks

Paul Guercio of the Merlin Project (a software-based forecasting technology) talked about 'timetraks' in the third hour. He noted that many people's timetraks have a huge spike going into 2012, but the traks taper off quickly in that year. So it appears that "we're already in 2012" in the sense of dramatic events and climate change, he suggested.

The last hour of the show featured Open Lines.

News segment guest: Robert Felix

Shattered Mummy

At the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, some artifacts were damaged during looting that occurred over the weekend. The pictured mummy was one of two that were shattered. However, the public struck back and formed a human chain around the museum to protect its treasures. View a related article/photo gallery from National Geographic.

Bumper Music

Bumper music from Monday January 31, 2011