LONDON (Reuters) - Young people who adopt the "Goth" lifestyle of dark clothes and introspective music are more likely to commit self-harm or attempt suicide than other youngsters, according to a study on Friday.
Gee, you mean you needed grant money and a controlled statistical study to figure out that anguished teens who dress all in black and fetishize evil and death and nihlism are more likely to want to end their bleak and miserable existence by cutting their own wrists?
Posted by: Mike ||
04/18/2006 09:41 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Can't they use coke, exctasy, ketamine, metamphetamine, or something, to be more energetic and upbeat? This way they won't self-harm, obviously.
#3
I worked with a goth once - lol was a funny guy when i got to know him and suprisingly not to unlike your average 19 year old guy - was a bit disturbed though how he got all excitable when recounting his old job in a slaughterhouse killing sheep, seemed to look opon it as one of his fondest memories lol.
#6
On the way to the office this morning the radio announced some group or other had discovered that people who listen to RAP music were more likely to be anti-social and violent. They went on to say they were not sure if RAP caused the behavior, or if violent types just preferred RAP. Certainly not on a par with the discovery of electricity, but interesting nonetheless.
#7
In one of Dunnigan's old dead tree versions of A Quick and Dirty Guide to War, he infers something similar about Islam - that Islam doesn't make people violent, but that violent folks prefer Islam. He cites the long history of war in those regions (pre Mohamad) for his reasoning.
Reading Memri translations of the Imams provides a counter arguement though...maybe it's just something in the water.
#8
Dunnigan's inference doesn't seem to work; except maybe in US prisons. While new converts can be pretty radical, most Muslims aren't converts. We can't blame those bloody borders on thugs deciding they like the benefits of being male Muslims.
Posted by: James ||
04/18/2006 18:52 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Some here have never heard of imitating behaviors to fit into trendy identities...
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
04/18/2006 19:28 Comments ||
Top||
#10
"Meanwhile, Dunnigan tortures the cat."
Sorry—that's from the description of the old SPI mock-wargame, The Plot to Assassinate Dunnigan. I was a Friday-night playtester an eon ago.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
04/18/2006 21:17 Comments ||
Top||
Now, I know why people look up at Hollywood Stars(tm) for wisdom.
Actor Tom Cruise has said he plans to eat the placenta of his new baby.
"I thought that would be good," he told GQ magazine. "Very nutritious. I'm gonna eat the cord and the placenta right there." It is the latest in a series of unusual revelations by the 43-year-old about the child he is expecting with his fiancee, actress Katie Holmes. The couple, who have been engaged since June 2005, plan to marry in late summer or early autumn, according to Cruise. The Mission Impossible star has also claimed he knew Holmes, 27, was pregnant even before she told him. "Come out of the closet, Tom Cruise!"/South Park
Last week Cruise said on US television that Catholic-born Holmes has already joined him as a follower of the Church of Scientology. In the GQ interview, Cruise defended the religion's doctrine that childbirth should be completed in silence. "It's really about respecting the woman," he said. "It's not about her not screaming."
Cruise said earlier this month that their baby was due "any day now". The baby will be the first for Holmes, while Cruise has two adopted children from his marriage to Nicole Kidman. "Come out of the closet, Tom Cruise!"/South Park
Redacted by moderator. Comments may be redacted for trolling, violation of standards of good manners, or plain stupidity. Please correct the condition that applies and try again. Contents may be viewed in the sinktrap. Further violations may result in
banning.
Here's the story. My wife just got back from Berkeley where she helped a friend give birth--and of course it all happened at home, in some kind of tub, underwater, with violins playing and midwives hovering about. Here's what she says happened next. Out came the afterbirth, which was carefully collected in a pot and put in the fridge to keep cool. Through the day, various vegetarians who dropped by to pay their respects asked about the placenta. My wife inquired, and was told that a certain stripe of high-minded vegetarian eagerly prepares and devours placenta stew, the placenta being the only form of meat that does not involve the slaughter of some innocent animal. Can this be true? And if it is, why isn't some shrewd entrepreneur bagging cow and ewe placenta and selling it at the Jewel?
I want to be told this was a tall story. --Rip Sewell, Chicago
Cecil replies:
Love to accommodate you, Ripster, but once again we find ourselves outgunned by reality. Having investigated the matter with my customary thoroughness, no small achievement under the circumstances, I can report the following facts: (1) chowing down on placenta doesn't happen often, but (2) it happens. May God have mercy on our heathen souls.
My principal source on this is a physician who has attended roughly a thousand births in the San Francisco Bay area over the years, more than two-thirds of them at home. In all this time he has encountered placenta stew exactly once, in Berkeley in the early 1970s. The father was a professional cook who concocted his own tasty recipe for placenta stew, complete with potatoes and onions, which he served to his hard-core veggie friends.
The doctor, suffering an embarrassing failure of nerve, did not sample the stew himself, but says it smelled something like liver. The veggies munched away gamely but didn't look very happy. One woman, in fact, became nauseated, which the doctor attributes to a lack of exposure to organ meats. Having seen a few miracle-of-childbirth movies in high school, however, I'd say there's a simpler explanation.
There are those who was eloquent about the joy of placenta cuisine. In Hygieia: A Woman's Herbal (Berkeley, 1978), Jeannine Parvati describes her experience: "[It] was after a very powerful birthing. The mother ate some raw first; eww and then let me take some into the kitchen for fixing. My experience of this slab of meat was amazing. I had never felt such life-force present in meat before.... This meat still felt very much alive to me as I began to slice it and saute it in garlic and oil.... By the time the placenta was tender, the birthday party members were very hungry, and exhausted. After the supper, eaten in a glowing silence, everyone was energized, very much re-vitalized.... Notwithstanding, the first time I ate placenta has also been my last time.... Guess I just lost [the] taste."
I'll bet. She goes on: "When you first encounter the meat, remember to pause--placenta can be sacred food, if you let the meat tell you how to prepare it for the fire.... Chew slowly, till the placenta becomes a liquid, ambrosia. Placenta is a rare privilege for most of us."
#11
I suspect that in such cases the placenta-producer's placenta delivery chute is not tested for the more common placenta delivery chute contaminants, bacteria, viruses or fungi. Anyone for an oral yeast infection? Oral syphalis? Other things too icky to think about?
#17
Well, I suppose in some tribal cultures where protein is hard to come by...(urk)...there might be some kind of logic to (urk..urk)eating the placenta but.... omigod...
******hasty and violent upchuck into the office wastepaper basket****
Sorry about that. Can someone pass me some paper towels. I'm sorry, but every time I'll see Tom Cruise now, I'll remember this and wanna hurl up my socks.
#18
this creeped the hell outa me reading this,lol.I'd just ahd a lovely meal and now just want to hurl it back up argghhh why did i read this! rofl. I'm gonna yak in a bag and send it to cruise as an insult but he'll probably scoff it down!
#27
man I've lost my appetite for lunch.
What if she has an abruption or something, will he eat all of the blood clots too? He is too weird for me.
The hospital I worked in had a contract with a company that bought placenta's and used them for make up protein creams and such. When the hospital lost the contract, the huge chest freezer that was used went up for bid. I got it for $100.00 bucks. I cleaned this freezer with a fine tooth comb believe me. Later the joke was that I had the freezer that used to have body parts. Now it just keeps venison ;)
Posted by: Jan ||
04/18/2006 15:10 Comments ||
Top||
#28
Clean up on aisle three.
IIRC I thought all the up and coming were medically saving the little cord cause they can derive stem cells for later use in case something goes rotten with the body later. Burning your insurance policy make real good sense. But then again, good sense and Hollyweird....
#29
Ima have a friend that uses the little Cords to simulate human high speed artery bleeding - he has a couple of maybe new ways to stop it. He hates gauze.
#30
Thank you Google. Here's one I doubt you'll see on Emeril Lagasse:
PLACENTA RECIPES!
To the Teeming Millions:
A friend has sent me recipes from the summer 1983 issue of Mothering magazine for the following mouth-watering dishes: placenta cocktail (1/4 raw placenta, 8 ounces of V-8 juice, 2 ice cubes, 1/2 carrot, blend for 10 seconds at high speed), placenta lasagna, placenta spaghetti sauce, placenta stew, and placenta pizza. The last one will definitely stop conversation at your next Super Bowl party, and since you're not likely to be able to order it from Domino's, here's what you have to do:
"Grind placenta. Saute in 2T olive oil w/4 garlic cloves, then add 1/4 tsp. fennel, 1/4 tsp. pepper, 1/4 tsp. paprika, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. onion, minced, 1/2 tsp. oregano, 1/4 tsp. thyme and 1/4 cup wine. Allow to stand 30 min., then use with your favorite homemade pizza recipe. It's a fine placenta sausage topping!"
#32
He put a spell on that girl, just like he some kinda witch docter! Before him, she was a nice girl from a nice family. Nice Catholic girl. From Ohio. Now she brainwashed member of some whacko cult tricked into having crazy cult poobah's alien child. Sad, sad, sad.
#34
My wife inquired, and was told that a certain stripe of high-minded vegetarian eagerly prepares and devours placenta stew, the placenta being the only form of meat that does not involve the slaughter of some innocent animal.
Gee would Tom turn cannibal if the person being eaten was willing to get killed and eaten. After all they would not be an innocent victim
#35
5mg Ativan - stat. And would someone please run Tom's lithium levels? I think he's off his meds again. Check with his analyst as well, M'kay? Might be working through the "I'm so straight and this is MY baby. So, why do I want to do such desparate stunts to make me feel like I'm the one giving birth?" confusion he goes through.
Don't know what it is, but it's in DSMIV somewhere.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/18/2006 18:22 Comments ||
Top||
#37
Redacted by moderator. Comments may be redacted for trolling, violation of standards of good manners, or plain stupidity. Please correct the condition that applies and try again. Contents may be viewed in the sinktrap. Further violations may result in
banning.
#38
Questions: Is the placenta more desireable after a full-term or premature? Is there special seasoning involved? Does one eat it alone or is there any garnishments?
Just askin
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/18/2006 19:54 Comments ||
Top||
#39
Not that it makes him any more sane, but I believe he was joking.
Captain America: Is there special seasoning involved?
I remember an old SNL skit for Placenta Helper.
#40
Please tell me this is a joke/satire, at least from SCRAPPLEFACE? Iff true, as one of Hillarist Amerika's Milyuhns and Zigluhns of alleged Male Brute Rightist Conservatives , even Billary's Soviet Waffen SS, of the Global Stalinist Republican Federalist Socialist Dominion Empire of the Commonwealth of the Union of the Confederacy ...., must say "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
UUUUUUUWWWWWWWWWWWW, YUCK"!
#41
What a weak prick. Eating Placentas is so old hat. To really raise an eyebrow you gotta whip out your prong and start masturabting with it just after the birth.
A few excerpts:
▪ A draft plan, which has yet to be approved by the state, calls for Maine to have 18 core habitats of at least 25 acres each for the rabbits by 2016.
▪ On the local level, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is planning to survey the number of rabbits on town land in an area of Cape Elizabeth to determine which fields there should be maintained as cottontail habitat.
▪ And in Kittery, a botanist has applied for a $100,000 federal grant to implement a similar habitat improvement program on an old farm where a rabbit population has managed to hang on despite development pressures.
Lemme get this straight: $100K to get the rodent population up?
#6
The Maine rabbit population: gone today, hare tomorrow! Now hop to it, and keep your ears up!
Posted by: Mike ||
04/18/2006 9:34 Comments ||
Top||
#7
lol, Mike! Seems to me they only need a few mating pairs, some (starting) acreage and watch the population explode. There's a reason the saying is "mating like rabbits." And, what the hey, this is in Maine? Not like Maine is exactly an urban mecca, I'm sure there's plenty of room for the matin' rodents.
Posted by: BA ||
04/18/2006 9:50 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Rabbits aren't rodents. They're Lagomorphs. What a lot of crap and waste of money. Turn a couple loose and let 'em breed. Is it really a problem to have too few rabbits around? What happens when people start complaining that their gardens are getting trashed? Spend another $100 K to conduct rabbit eradication programs?
#9
I used to have a rabbit problem in my garden. When we introduced a domesticated, modified wolf (Cookie the Labrador mix) into the local microecology, the rabbits went elsewhere.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/18/2006 12:22 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Let the rabbits breed, and I'll be shooting coyotes.
Cause = Effect.
Posted by: john ||
04/18/2006 15:24 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Maybe the Aussies could give Maine a hand. IIRC, their rabbit program was wildly successful.
#12
One of the funniest things I have ever seen was an interview with a Rabbit Control Specialist here in Oz.
He went through all the ways of getting rid of rabbits and explained how none of them worked in the medium/long term cos the buggers breed so fast.
At the end of the interview, he said the most effective way of eliniminating rabbits is to dynamite their warrens. Segment ends with him lowering stick of dynamite down rabbithole, followed by a large explosion in the middle of a paddock (field).
I was rolling on the floor laughing. There was something incredibly funny about those cute little bunnies (aka incredibly destructive vermin) getting blown to pieces.
Evidence has been found of the world's oldest dentists, who drilled teeth to remove decay about 9,000 years ago. Treatment was carried out in an area of what is now Pakistan, using tiny, flint-tipped wooden drills, that rotated at about 20 times a second, say scientists who reconstructed the implements.
Flint tip, wooden drill, 20 times a second. Think about that one as you go into the dentist for your checkup.
Italian researchers who examined 300 skeletons exhumed from an ancient burial site discovered nine had drilled teeth. Some of the holes were in teeth at the back of the jaws, indicating that they had not been made for decorative purposes. Wear and tear on the surfaces near the holes confirmed that drilling had been performed on patients who then continued to chew on the teeth.
Wonder if they got approval from the local institutional review board?
"The treatment would have been excruciatingly painful because the vibrations would have been very low and very strong," said Professor Alfredo Coppola of Rome University's human biology department.
Which is why they found several skeletons with severed heads -- those were the dentists.
However, it was possible that pain relief had been offered, said Prof Coppola, whose team worked on the project with researchers from France, Mexico and the United States. "This area is well-known for its opium production, so perhaps drugs were used," he said. Drill bits used for making bone, shell and stone beads were also found at the site at Mehrgarh in Balochistan. Scientists believe that local expertise in making jewellery was used for the early dentistry. The holes made by the drills were deep enough - at up to one-third of a centimetre - to expose sensitive nerves.
Wonder if they stopped there, too.
Although no filling materials have been found, the researchers believe that the holes were probably packed with bitumen, resin or cotton, which has since disintegrated. "These findings are extraordinary because they provide evidence for the tradition of a type of proto-dentistry in early farming culture," said Prof Coppola.
As part of proto-life.
He described the drill, which his team reconstructed, as an "ingenious invention" which worked by pulling a string that spun the end and made the flint tip revolve. Although 20 times a second would have been considered a fast speed 9,000 years ago, modern dental drills rotate at 20,000 times a second.
And doncha just hate the sound it makes?
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/18/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
i like going to dentist - is that odd/rare? specially loved it when i've had teeth pulled out in past with that mentel cool crunching as they wrench it out, also like having having fillings done and that sort of thing too. Odd eh. Not sure i'd be up for this flint drill thingy but i guess my dentist isnt gonna pull one out and use one on me so need not worry. Last time i was in the dentist i was very shocked (and amused) when a man at the reception was asked when he had last gone to the dentist, he replied proudly in an almost triumphrant manner that he had never in all his 64 years been to see the dentist! it was great cos he actually thought that was a good thing to be proud of Rofl.
#3
9000 yrs ago - probably also when the fluoride in the drining water "controversy" started
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/18/2006 13:49 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Frank did you know you can etch glass with fluoride? And they put it in the drinking water. Humans are weird. Bet you didn't know that Pacific Gas & Electric which ran the street cars in much of your state was bought out by certain large industrial firms which destroyed the street cars and introduced Flu0ride to your water supply in an effort to build the Inter-State Highway system for the Martian Armoured Forces. Trust me, you can ask AP
The must-have of every woman's summer wardrobe has just turned 60 -- and it has never looked so young and hip, or been as popular. It was not always so.
But it has been, off and on...
Invented by French automotive engineer Louis Reard, the swimsuit that took its name from the site of a nuclear test was a big bomb at first, though it eventually became the navel-bearing fashion that launched the careers of Ursula Andress, Bo Derek, Melanie Griffith and Elle Macpherson.
Roman ladies used to wear them when they went on holiday on the Isle of Capri. They ate hamburgers, too...
But in 1946, even fashionable, daring Paris was shocked when Reard brought out a range of two-piece swimsuits. "My bikini is smaller than the smallest swimsuit," he proudly declared.
"Teenier than tiny, in fact..."
Reard named his line after the Pacific atoll where the U.S. had just carried out its first peacetime nuclear test, figuring he'd set off a nuclear-sized buzz. Nude dancer Micheline Bernardini became the fashion's first model. The bikini's bust into the big time would come on the curvy frames of Hollywood icons Marilyn Monore and Rita Hayworth. By 1966 -- when Raquel Welch wore one in "One Million Years B.C." -- the bikini had morphed from fashion disaster to fashion dictum.
#1
When Paris put them on Joan Collins and Leslie Caron, the WARSAW PACT was good as finis - East German women became men, while Russki femmes ended up being parodied on so many WENDY's commercials.
Hat tip: Drudge A Florida mall dispute ended Saturday night with the arrest of the Easter Bunny on battery charges. The rambunctious rabbit (aka Arthur McClure, 22) was nabbed after he allegedly struck a mall visitor who beefed about the early closure of a photo line on which kids and parents waited for a snapshot with the cuddly character. According to Fort Myers Police Department reports, patron Erin Johansson complained to the Easter Bunny's assistant (Crystal Frechette, 25) and the two women began to argue. That's when Frechette (who's married to McClure) allegedly punched Johansson in the face.
"Dad! The Easter Bunny's elf just punched Mom in the mush!"
At that point, the report notes, the 280-pound McClure removed his costume's head and joined the fray, clocking Johansson in the back of her head.
"... and then the Easter Bunny sucker punched her!"
McClure and Frechette, pictured above in Lee County Sheriff's Office mug shots, were each charged with two misdemeanors for their alleged roles in the brawl. McClure's occupation is listed as "Easter Bunny" on the arrest report, which also notes that he has a bear head tattooed on his right arm.
Occupation listed as "Easter Bunny"! And they say cops don't have a sense of humor.
#2
"The two women began to argue": Hillaristas > D ***, wily dastardly, prob GOP?, American Male Brutes caused yet another brouhaha/fracas between innocent Motherly Worldly [SSSSSHHHHH, Commie]women.
Posted by: Jimmy Carter ||
04/18/2006 0:49 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Nice-looking couple, they really got that hopeful holiday spark in their eyes... a 280 lbs Easter bunny looking like Gomer Pyle in "Full Metal Jacket", hummm...
One of Britain's leading fee-paying schools is to offer classes on happiness to combat the malaise in society caused by materialism and celebrity obsession, its headteacher announced Monday. "We are introducing classes on happiness," said Anthony Seldon, master of Wellington College, in Crowthorne, Berkshire, west of London. "We have been focusing too much on academics and missing something far more important." A psychologist will oversee a pilot project teaching "happiness lessons" - or "well-being" as it is being called - from the start of the next academic year. Pupils aged 14 to 16 will be given one lesson a week, learning skills such as how to manage relationships, physical and mental health, negative emotions and how to achieve one's ambitions.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Can't they just get those lessons from watching the telly?
#5
Ya know, they mocked Thatcher for wanting Brits to have happiness through positive actions and work. (one of the worst DOCTOR WHO episodes ever, THE HAPPINESS PATROL, was explicit about this)
Now, they're really getting V FOR VENDETTA courtesy of Blair's shiny "happy" fascism, and the only thing that they are complaining about is his hypocrisy in actually fighting for freedom in Iraq.
Posted by: Ernest Brown ||
04/18/2006 8:26 Comments ||
Top||
#8
"We have been focusing too much on academics and missing something far more important."
Sadly, this is getting to be the normal state of affairs here in the States too. If only we'd go back to the "3 R's" (readin', ritin', 'ritmitic) instead of teaching "feelings, self-worth, tolerance, etc." This still leads to one of the most true summaries of our 2 political parties to date..."Liberals make decisions (when they actually make a decision) based upon emotion, while Conservatives make decisions based upon facts."
Posted by: BA ||
04/18/2006 9:58 Comments ||
Top||
#10
I assume the muslims will be excused from class. After all, there is nothing happy about submission and there is likely a fatwa against happiness. Even if not, it will most certainly offend them.
Showing few signs of slowing down, Queen Elizabeth II -- Europe's longest serving monarch -- marks her 80th birthday on Friday with a host of parties and engagements that run until June. It looks set to be a colourful affair as the royal family enjoys a period of calm compared with a decade ago, when divorce and scandal put the House of Windsors in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
But the celebrations will also be on a smaller scale than a four-day party thrown for Queen Elizabeth's golden jubilee in June 2002, as her 80th birthday is seen as more of a private than a public achievement. "The queen's 80th is a landmark personal anniversary," said a spokeswoman for Buckingham Palace. "It's right that it should be appropriately celebrated."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Happy birthday, your majesty, and many more. (Please.)
MORE than 75 per cent of Australians support self-determination or independence for Papua, a new poll shows.
The Newspoll, published in The Australian newspaper today, found 76.7 per cent of respondents believed Papua should have the right to self-determination or independence.
The poll, which comes amid Indonesian anger towards Australia over the granting of visas to 42 Papuan refugees, was commissioned by businessman Ian Melrose, who has campaigned for a better deal for East Timor over oil and gas rights in the Timor Sea.
Only 5.5 per cent of Australians opposed self-determination for Papua, while 17.7 per cent said they did not have an opinion on the issue or did not know.
Papuans are fighting for independence from Indonesia, saying that because they are Melanesian, their culture is completely different to that of the rest of the country.
East Timor, a former Indonesian province, won independence after the intervention of the United Nations.
#3
lemme get this straight, the indios are pissed over 42 people?
That's 42 dhimmis. Dhimmis are little better than livestock, suited to be farmed either by razzias or by the jizya. By giving them shelter, Australia has committed a crime little different than cattle rustling.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/18/2006 20:20 Comments ||
Top||
#4
and them women hadn't even been acid-etched branded yet
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/18/2006 22:07 Comments ||
Top||
PROTESTERS threw stones and set fire to a police vehicle outside Solomon Islands parliament today after MPs selected a political insider as its new prime minister despite a big anti-government swing at a general election a few weeks ago.
A number of officers belonging to an Australian-led police force were injured as they stopped a crowd from entering the parliament where newly elected Prime Minister Snider Rini was holed up with other MPs. A number of shops in central Honiara were also stoned and broken into. An Australian police helicopter hovered over the scene.
Some of the protesters demanded that Mr Rini, 56, quit by sunset. This morning Mr Rini, who had been deputy prime minister under unpopular outgoing leader Allan Kemakeza, beat two other candidates for the top job in a two-round, two-and-half-hour secret ballot in the 50-member legislature. Mr Rini immediately defended the status quo saying he would uphold Mr Kemakeza's policies to ensure the impoverished Pacific nation recovers from years of ethnic gang violence.
Mr Kemakeza allowed Australian-led peacekeepers in to quell the fighting three years ago.
Today Mr Rini said the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) "will leave only when security is in place". "I can assure the people of this country that my new government will continue the program of peace and reconciliation, economic recovery, and sustain RAMSI in Solomon Islands so that the country will enjoy peace," he said in a statement.
Mr Rini who heads the Association of Independent Members of Parliament is expected to bring in several other parties to form a coalition government largely based on the remnants of Mr Kemakeza's administration. He said a new 20-member cabinet would be named tomorrow.
More than half the old parliament lost their seats at the April 5 election, including 11 ministers. The result had raised expectations of a new-look government.
Some protesters jeered and others appeared stunned when they heard that Mr Rini had won today, saying most Solomon Islanders had voted for change. Some in the crowd demanded a new election be held and called for opposition candidate Job Dudley Tausinga to be made prime minister.
In the first round of the ballot of MPs today, Tausinga polled 22 votes, Rini 17 votes and a former prime minister Manasseh Sogavare 11. With Sogavare eliminated, Rini garnered 27 votes to beat Tausinga on 23.
A Tausinga spokesman, former prime minister Francis Billy Hilly, claimed today's vote was influenced by money. "Some of our members were promised between $SI30 ($25) to $SI50,000 ($9800) if they voted for the other group," Mr Hilly said.
Mr Rini told journalists said the protesters had a democratic right to make their feelings known. "However, if they were not happy with the results of today's election, they should forward their disagreement through proper channels, not on the streets," Mr Rini said.
The Federal Opposition says Australia is not responsible for a Papuan woman who has fled the Indonesian province for Papua New Guinea. A child, Anike, and her father were among 42 people from the Indonesian province of Papua who were granted temporary protection visas after arriving in Australia earlier this year. The girl's mother, Siti Pandera Wanggai, remained in Papua and had appealed to Indonesia to help have her daughter returned.
But Ms Wanggai's lawyer says the Indonesian military coerced his client into making a false appeal. Since then, the mother has allegedly gone into hiding, fearing persecution.
Reasonable fear. Is she a member of the Religion of Pieces?
Labor's immigration spokesman Tony Burke says the immediate responsibility lies with Papua New Guinea. "You do need due process in these cases and the first responsibility, now that she's in Papua New Guinea, is to the Government of Papua New Guinea," he said.
Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer says the Immigration Department is looking into the case. "The Indonesians have of course raised their concerns about this, and it's something the Immigration Department will have to look [into to] - very sensitive issues, custody disputes, of course as we all know," he said.
Indonesian foreign affairs spokesman Desra Percaya has denied that the military pressured the mother. "I don't believe that this is the case, because I had the opportunity to speak with Mrs Siti a couple of days ago," Mr Percaya told AFP. "She asked Deplu (foreign affairs) especially for help for the return of her daughter."
PRIME Minister John Howard has ruled out apologising to Indonesia over Australia's decision to grant temporary asylum to 42 Papuan boatpeople.
Mr Howard said today Australia had nothing to apologise for over the decision, which has seen relations between the two countries plunge to their lowest point since the East Timor crisis in 1999.
Australia's most senior diplomat, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade head Michael L'Estrange, will head to Jakarta for meetings with ministers and senior advisers to try to soothe Indonesian feelings.
Mr Howard said he expected to talk directly to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono about the issue some time after Mr L'Estrange's visit.
But asked whether Australia needed to issue an apology, Mr Howard said: "No".
"This is a difficult issue," he said on Southern Cross Broadcasting in Perth.
"It's not an insurmountable problem, it's not an insoluble one, I'm sure we can work our way through it but it will take time.
"And it will take commonsense on both sides and it will take, on both sides, respect for the other's point of view.
"I respect the sensitivity of Indonesia towards the Papuan issue.
"Equally, I ask Indonesia to accept that we have a procedure, we have a process according to our interpretation of law, and we don't intend to bend and vary that because it's the code under which we live in this country."
Dr Yudhoyono has signalled a review of relations between Australia and Indonesia, saying his country cannot be harassed, played with, or deprived of fairness.
Indonesia insists Canberra had no reason to grant temporary visas to 42 of 43 Papuan separatists who landed in Cape York in January, claiming to be victims of human rights abuses.
Earlier today an Indonesian MP said Mr L'Estrange's mission to Jakarta would fail without ministerial representation.
Yesterday Dr Yudhoyono declared Australia's tougher immigration rhetoric needed to be backed by "concrete proof" that it supported his country's territorial integrity.
Speaking at the opening of an annual forum on national development, Dr Yudhoyono departed from his prepared script to launch an attack on what he described as Australia's duplicitous attitude to his Government.
He said Indonesia wanted to continue "contributing to the world order", but immediately warned Australia: "Don't insult us, don't toy with us and don't deny us justice."
Dr Yudhoyono received warm applause for his speech, during which he also warned: "Our position is clear: we must re-examine our co-operation and bilateral relationships with Australia so that they are genuinely fair."
Australia's toughened refugee policy has sparked allegations that the Government made the policy change to kowtow to Jakarta.
Former Australian diplomat Tony Kevin today described Canberra's policy as "unethical, illegal and dangerous" and the result of having "caved in to Indonesian blackmail".
Writing in The Australian, Mr Kevin warns that Australia's policy of "appeasement" would lead only to further demands from Jakarta.
"These policies send a wrong message, not just to the present fairly benign Indonesian Government, but also to darker extreme nationalist elements," he writes.
"The message: That an Australian Government can be threatened - even blackmailed - into abandoning essential values and interests. That is not a good message to send to any neighbour."
The Australian Democrats have also hit out at Canberra's handling of the dispute, saying the Howard Government should not apologise for protecting 42 asylum seekers from the Indonesian province of Papua.
"They have no right to expect any more. I think our government has already kowtowed on the issue, we've ignored long-running ... human rights abuses in our region, and specifically in West Papua, for long enough," Democrats Senator Natasha Stott Despoja said on ABC Radio.
"We've done the right thing by granting temporary protection visas to the 42 asylum seekers, it's now up to Australia to defend that decision, not to try changing our immigration laws in the wake of concerns expressed by the Indonesian government."
Labor predicted the Government's hardline stance on asylum seekers would be an expensive failure, with the cost of maintaining offshore detention centres running to $4 million per month.
"We're talking about extraordinary amounts of money simply for a public relations exercise," Opposition immigration spokesman Tony Burke said on ABC Radio.
Emergency workers used heavy machinery in a race against time Monday to build up defences against flooded rivers threatening large swathes of southeastern Europe. Thousands of villagers were forced to flee as floodwaters from the overflowing Danube river spread across southern Romania and completely submerged their homes, officials said.
In parts of the Balkans, the Danube recently reached its highest level in more than 100 years. The dangerous tide of water has been moving eastwards beyond Belgrade towards Bulgaria and Romania, where authorities deliberately flooded fields in a bid to spare towns after a similar situation there last year claimed dozens of lives. Some 3,000 residents of the Romanian village of Rast were evacuated before the surging Danube entirely submerged their homes. Some 115 houses were completely destroyed and another 600 were damaged, local officials said. Dolj district chief Nicolae Giugea said 10,000 residents of four villages in the area were on standby for evacuation if the water continued to rise.
In Serbia, civil teams backed by the police force and army were reinforcing about 250 kilometres (155 miles) of dykes lined with white sandbags on the bulging banks of several rivers. Using heavy earth-moving equipment, tractors and industrial trucks, the crews shored up the defences of Veliko Gradiste and Golubac, two Serbian towns on the border with Romania that are expected to bear the brunt of the flooded Danube within hours. The situation was made worse by swelling Danube tributaries, including the Tisa and Begej rivers, which meet at the town of Titel north of the Serbian capital.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Chavez influences Chicago vote counts?
As you would imagine, Cook County Clerk David Orr is not using the word fix to describe his plan to ensure that electronic voting equipment works better six and a half months from tomorrow than it did in the primary. Clerk Orr used words such as plan and reforms to describe the fix that is needed for ballots to be counted accurately and quickly when Illinois voters select a governor in the fall.
More than a third of the 1,761 devices that were supposed to transmit Chicago results from precincts to a downtown computer broke down, delaying final tabulations for days. Election officials and executives of the equipment-maker blamed technology snafus and poorly trained (or untrained) precinct judges. There were some claims that many ballot boxes were taken home. The next day Stroger had 40K more votes. There are counter claims that this is not true
Orr has promised to fix both, and other counties throughout the state will have to make similar changes. Otherwise, voters will face a repeat of the Illinois election night performance by Congressman Bobby Rush, a Chicago Democrat who leveled accusations of stolen votes and rigged equipment. This is Chicago. This is Cook County, Rep. Rush reminded reporters who may have forgotten where they were on election night. And then, in what was hopefully historical explanation, Rush said, We created vote fraud, vote scandal and stealing votes.
It is now clear that the knee-jerk allegations of Rep. Rush and others are not supported by subsequent investigations. Unless of course those investigations were a sham, as conspiracy nuts have enjoyed fantasizing on the Internet.
Among the election-conspiracy theorists is an unlikely name, Ed Burke, the longtime Chicago alderman, chairman of the city council finance committee and usually a level thinker. In an allegation that would have been overlooked had it come from eccentric Alderman Burt Natarus, Burke said he was worried that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was trying to infiltrate and subvert Chicagos elections. The company that supplied the election equipment, Sequoia Voting Systems, is owned by Venezuelan businessmen whom Burke said could be agents of Chavez, an avowed U.S. critic.
I dont know how anybody could hire a company thats ownership is hidden, and traces its roots to Venezuela, where theyve been involved with the dictator of Venezuela who Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld says is an enemy of the United States, said Burke. Election officials and Sequoia managers said thats ridiculous and that Burkes statements were fueled by a conspiracy-theory Web site known as the American Free Press which he actually quoted at one point.
According to the site, on election night one of its reporters watched votes being counted on the 5th floor of the Cook County clerks office. The so-called counting of the votes is managed by some two dozen employees of Sequoia Voting Systems, a privately held foreign company. These employees, many of whom are not even U.S. citizens, have full access to the back room area, a sealed-off section of the 5th floor of the county clerks office which is called the tally area.
Burke echoed the AFP article which stated, The person in charge of the tallying of the votes was a British employee of Sequoia named David Allen from London. Allen, who ran the Sequoia War Room oversaw the tally room team, which included a dozen Venezuelan employees, who operated the hidden computer equipment that counts the votes.
Orr disputes that. Mr. Allen served as the project manager for the implementation of the new voting system in suburban Cook County, according to Orr spokesman Scott Burnham. I believe he is an engineer by trade who moved to Chicago shortly after the selection of Sequoia as the vendor. He is originally from England. He has been present during the implementation. He did not oversee the tally room. There were not a dozen Venezuelans in the room either, said Burnham.
Some still see a conspiracy. On Friday Republican official Maureen Murphy said, Elections in Baghdad are more accurate than Cook County. Some Democrats are planning lawsuits and calling for Orrs head.
After Sequoias top executive answered questions from Chicago City Council members, Alderman Leslie Hairston told him, I think that you belong to the secret brotherhood of I dont know.
#4
With the new system you only need to corrupt one person. Under the old system it took hundreds of people to steal an election. As an Election Judge in this mess I can say that they had the vote counts 30 minutes after the polls closed. It took a couple of days to steal two offices, and make it look plausible
The White House will announce shortly a shake-up of several of President George W. Bush's key advisers, a spokesman said. Spokesman Scott McClellan said the impending changes were discussed Monday by Bush's new chief of staff, Josh Bolten, at a White House meeting. "Josh talked about how this is a time to refresh and reenergize the team and for all of us to renew our commitment as we go forward," McClellan told reporters, without tipping his hand as to which posts might be reassigned.
The planned revamping comes as speculation mounts over the future of US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, after recent calls by several prominent retired generals for his resignation. According to recent media reports, Treasury Secretary John Snow's days may also be numbered. But for now, McClellan confined his remarks to the openings that have already been announced. "Obviously the OMB (Office of Management and Budget) is vacant. We have been moving forward on that," he said, speaking about the post held until recently by Bolten. He replaced Bush's longtime chief of staff Andy Card.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Redacted by moderator. Comments may be redacted for trolling, violation of standards of good manners, or plain stupidity. Please correct the condition that applies and try again. Contents may be viewed in the sinktrap. Further violations may result in
banning.
GILGIT: Northern Areas Legislative Council (NALC) members Dr Muzaffar Ali Khan Relay and Mirza Hussain on Monday demanded the Pakistan International Airlines authorities operate all-weather flights to Gilgit and Skardu otherwise tourism industry could not be promoted in the area.
"Enchanted Pakistan: Come for the Sectarian Violence, Stay for the Horrific Plane Crashes. Insh'Allah."
"Thousands of passengers end up in frustration in Gilgit, Skardu and Islamabad as the outdated Fokker (F-27) planes are unable to wade through cloudy weather," they said. They added that the NALC had passed a unanimous resolution in 2004 demanding all-weather planes, but the authorities had yet to honour the resolution. They said that the outdated Fokker planes had been unable to land and take off during inclement weather since 1960 and therefore their replacement with new and modern planes had become imperative if the government was sincere in developing the region for tourism. The passengers, particularly those unable to traverse through 600-long Karakoram Highway (KKH), have to await PIA flights for many weeks, the NALC members said. They said the authorities had pledged many times that all-weather flights would be operated but this inordinate delay in the provision of modern planes had been escalating only the level of frustration among the people of the NAs.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Fifty yarns for a flight out - now thats consumer loyalty. The BATTLESTAR is just over there.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/18/2006 0:55 Comments ||
Top||
#4
WTF?! A plane with no ILS? It's the airports dumb asses! You can have all the next generation 737s you want, but without a category IIIc airport, you ain't landing. Or at least a category I.
Posted by: Fokk U ||
04/18/2006 2:21 Comments ||
Top||
#5
They said that the outdated Fokker planes had been unable to land and take off during inclement weather since 1960 and therefore their replacement with new and modern planes had become imperative if the government was sincere in developing the region for tourism.
I'm not really an avionics expert, but if your economy's survived since 1960 with these planes, what's a few more years between friends? And, I know nothing of Fokkers, but knowing Paki-waki land, I imagine these 1960 Fokkers probably looked like the Orville brother plane at the time (based on old technology even then).
Posted by: BA ||
04/18/2006 9:54 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Oh cant we use em as target practice. Who the fuck would want to go to pakistan on holiday anyway??? I'm stunned if people do for actual pleasure reasons - I cannot imagine a worse place on this rather large planet to go to except maybe somalia or china - nope even china seem more friendly to tourists.
The Dead Sea is dying, with the world's saltiest water body threatened by a lack of fresh water and an increasingly tense political situation, environmentalists have warned. The bare, sun-baked landscape around the Dead Sea -- the lowest point on earth which is bordered by Israel, Jordan and the West Bank -- has since Biblical times been fed by the Jordan river's fresh water. But that has been systematically diverted for agricultural and hydroelectric projects, while an evaporation basin for farming world-famous Dead Sea minerals has lowered the water level by one metre (three feet) a year for the past two decades.
That's 60 feet. How deep is the Dead Sea?
Now, warns Gideon Bromberg of Friends of the Earth Israel, the whole area is headed for ecological disaster unless serious measures are taken. "The ecological situation is catastrophic. In 50 years, the Dead Sea has lost a third of its surface area and its water level is continuing to drop rapidly. For the time being nothing concrete has been undertaken," Bromberg told AFP, adding that the Dead Sea has lost 98 percent of the fresh water it previously had from the Jordan River which today has become "a drain".
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The ecological situation is catastrophic.
Err! Nothing lives in the Dead Sea. Hence the name.
Ecology - The relationship between organisms and their environment.
#2
It could be fed by salt water as well as natural fresh water. It's way below sealevel so maybe a pipeline with a turbine-generator as a syphon tube from the gulf or med would be win-win?
#8
All of Central Europe could stand to plant some more trees. Not building housing in flood zones would help, too. It isn't as though the Danube, and the other rivers in the region, never flooded before.
As for the Dead Sea, I think the ecological issue is the Jordan River waters being siphoned off far upstream for human use, resulting in the downstream areas suffering man-made drought. And yes, they are desert plants and animals -- or rather oasis plants and animals -- but without any water, they likely won't survive. However, it isn't likely that the Jordanians and the Palestinians are going to start conserving water any time soon, no matter how tightly the Israelis control their own take from the river.
I notice the original article only quotes Israelis. I suspect the Jordanians and the Palestinians have more pressing concerns at the moment, however self-generated, than the loss of a major tourist attraction. Nonetheless, the article says the World Bank is funding a study on the feasibility of piping in water from the Red Sea to replace what's been diverted... Looking at a map of the area, I think Israel could handle this on her own, without needing to wait for that mythical comprehensive peace.
#10
Moreover, some ecologists are concerned that the canal project will cause more damage than good, upsetting the Dead Sea's delicate equilibrium by bringing salt water in to replace the depleted supply of fresh water.
Some 50 kilometres (30 miles) long by 17 kilometres wide at its broadest point, the Dead Sea's water level is 412 metres below the Mediterranean Sea and is famed as the saltiest body of water in the world, around 10 times more saline than the oceans.
The depths of ignorance of the environmental movement never ceases to amaze me. If the Dead Sea is 10 times saltier than seawater, the only difference between repleneshing with sea water or fresh water would be the environmentalist ego trip of demanding that a precious resource be allocated for nonhuman use.
Quite frankly, I would worry more about a pipeline between an ocean 412 meters higher than the Dead Sea. A terrorist sabotage could rather significantly increase the size of the Dead Sea.
#13
I've been telling this to people for years, since a little before Gulf War I.
We think fighting now is bad over oil, but our fresh water supply around the globe is being stretched further and further. Things will get really nasty when we start fighting over water, instead of oil.
The problem with the dead sea is not if fresh or salt water replenishes it. The problem is that everyone that can, is tapping the ground water in the area and it is lowering at an amazing rate. Enough to cuase visible indicators at the surface.
They are running out of water, and it is accelerating beyound control. Soon the rehtoric will shift from right to return to right to have water. Can't predict exactly when, but soon.
Dead sea is like a mine bird, gives a warning before it is really bad.
Maybe then, global warming's not such a bad thing. With something like 70% of the world's fresh water resources tied up at the poles (in ice), maybe we just build a huge pipeline from there to wherever needs water.
As an engineer, I know that (basically) water is like energy...it can neither be created nor destroyed, just change forms. So, basically the amount of total water hasn't changed in eons, it's just changed forms. Sadly, more and more of our water is being put into the oceans (a'la Wastewater plants in Calif, Florida and other coastal areas) as our coastal areas have boomed in population. Thus, these coastal areas may have to move (like the Middle East) to desal plants, but it can be done. I guess it's "true" that we're loosing freshwater resources, but not in the sense that they're forever gone...just changed forms. And, theoretically, if the earth is warming up, that leads to more evaporation, thus, more rainfall, and thus, replinishing of groundwater sources (again, in theory). We may, one day just have to suck it up and go desalinization all the way, but by then, it could be done, and probably fairly cheaply.
Posted by: BA ||
04/18/2006 9:40 Comments ||
Top||
#15
Hey, these morons worry about the Salton Sea drying up, too. And it was created by a "wiggle" of the Colorado river in 1905.
Series of hydro-electric dams, from the arabian gulf inward. Too big for terrorism to do the job, and that much of a head for the generators would generate a hell of a lot of electrical power. Probably enough to run desalinization plants at every one of them that could supply huge amounts of fresh water to the region.
Win-Win, for Israel and Jordan, and possibly Egypt too - that is, if the Paleo-stenians were not in the way (or if they woudl act responsibly instead of radcializing themselves into extenction at the behest of Iran and its proxies, Syria & Hamas)
#17
Serious water issue for Israel in the West Bank. Israeli's developed all the water resources in the WB and depends heavily upon them. They will and should do all in their power to maintain control of that water. The Paleo's want all of the West Bank including the water resources to use as leverage against Israel.
#18
Follow-up on OldSpook's idea: draw the water from the Gulf of Aqaba and the Israeli port town of Eilat. Make it an all-Israeli project. Whatever electricity generated runs however much desalination that can be done, the water to be used in Israel's Negev desert.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/18/2006 17:09 Comments ||
Top||
#19
It could be fed by salt water as well as natural fresh water. It's way below sealevel so maybe a pipeline with a turbine-generator as a syphon tube from the gulf or med would be win-win?
As I understand it the Israelis have looked into this. Another area where this is a possibilty is the Qattar Depression in Egypt
#20
Egyptians have been thinking of making it into a low lake for decades. The power generation possibilites are incredible, as are the increas in aerable land.
Actually, water is being created and destroyed all the time, in most life on the planet.
Water is the starting, and/or ending place for many of the cellular reactions.
Most cells are very good at 'splitting' the water molecule and assembling it at will. They make very good use of E=MC squared.
There is a 'range' in the suitability of water for this. Too hot, too cold, too acidic, too poluted, etc and it just won't work out.
You make a good point about water changing forms over the eons (gas, liquid, ice, etc). But in the short term, for cellular based life on the planet, it has to be in that range NOW.
Certain regions are water limited and when things get out of hand it will be in a major way.
Given the explosive nature of the region, it is almost a given, once they figure it out that is.
There are massive implications to the 'draining' of the area. Once the palestinians figure things out it will be a major mess, bigger than it is now.
When the issues switch from demands for non-necessary things like borders or land to required things like water, it will get really messy. Far more regional justification to wipe them out, and it will play well on the rest of the region 'Occupation was one thing, but, survival!'.
Obviously the answer is to run combustion engines 24 hours a day and collect the water resulting, lol.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Evidence has been found of the world's oldest dentists, who drilled teeth to remove decay about 9,000 years ago. Treatment was carried out in an area of what is now Pakistan, using tiny, flint-tipped wooden drills, that rotated at about 20 times a second, say scientists who reconstructed the implements.
The must-have of every woman's summer wardrobe has just turned 60 -- and it has never looked so young and hip, or been as popular. It was not always so.
A Florida mall dispute ended Saturday night with the arrest of the Easter Bunny on battery charges. The rambunctious rabbit (aka Arthur McClure, 22) was nabbed after he allegedly struck a mall visitor who beefed about the early closure of a photo line on which kids and parents waited for a snapshot with the cuddly character. According to Fort Myers Police Department reports, patron Erin Johansson complained to the Easter Bunny's assistant (Crystal Frechette, 25) and the two women began to argue. That's when Frechette (who's married to McClure) allegedly punched Johansson in the face. 
One of Britain's leading fee-paying schools is to offer classes on happiness to combat the malaise in society caused by materialism and celebrity obsession, its headteacher announced Monday. "We are introducing classes on happiness," said Anthony Seldon, master of Wellington College, in Crowthorne, Berkshire, west of London. "We have been focusing too much on academics and missing something far more important." A psychologist will oversee a pilot project teaching "happiness lessons" - or "well-being" as it is being called - from the start of the next academic year. Pupils aged 14 to 16 will be given one lesson a week, learning skills such as how to manage relationships, physical and mental health, negative emotions and how to achieve one's ambitions.
Showing few signs of slowing down, Queen Elizabeth II -- Europe's longest serving monarch -- marks her 80th birthday on Friday with a host of parties and engagements that run until June. It looks set to be a colourful affair as the royal family enjoys a period of calm compared with a decade ago, when divorce and scandal put the House of Windsors in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. 
Emergency workers used heavy machinery in a race against time Monday to build up defences against flooded rivers threatening large swathes of southeastern Europe. Thousands of villagers were forced to flee as floodwaters from the overflowing Danube river spread across southern Romania and completely submerged their homes, officials said. 
The White House will announce shortly a shake-up of several of President George W. Bush's key advisers, a spokesman said. Spokesman Scott McClellan said the impending changes were discussed Monday by Bush's new chief of staff, Josh Bolten, at a White House meeting. "Josh talked about how this is a time to refresh and reenergize the team and for all of us to renew our commitment as we go forward," McClellan told reporters, without tipping his hand as to which posts might be reassigned. 
GILGIT: Northern Areas Legislative Council (NALC) members Dr Muzaffar Ali Khan Relay and Mirza Hussain on Monday demanded the Pakistan International Airlines authorities operate all-weather flights to Gilgit and Skardu otherwise tourism industry could not be promoted in the area. 
The Dead Sea is dying, with the world's saltiest water body threatened by a lack of fresh water and an increasingly tense political situation, environmentalists have warned. The bare, sun-baked landscape around the Dead Sea -- the lowest point on earth which is bordered by Israel, Jordan and the West Bank -- has since Biblical times been fed by the Jordan river's fresh water. But that has been systematically diverted for agricultural and hydroelectric projects, while an evaporation basin for farming world-famous Dead Sea minerals has lowered the water level by one metre (three feet) a year for the past two decades. 
