(NEWS) Researchers Drill For Secrets Hidden Under Dead Sea

"From a barge floating above the deepest point on earth, a research team hopes to drill through half a million years of history to uncover secrets of climate change and natural disasters.

Boring into the bed of the Dead Sea, the group of engineers and scientists began extracting layers of the earth's core on Sunday, and will continue for about two months until they reach a depth of 1,200 meters below sea level.



'The sediments of the Dead Sea are the best climate and earthquake recorders for the entire Middle East,' said project head Zvi Ben-Avraham of the Israel Academy of Sciences, standing at the water's desert shore, which is already about 420 meters below sea level.

The Dead Sea, Ben-Avraham said, collects water run-off from Egypt's Sinai desert up to the Golan Heights, an area of about 42,000 square km, providing plenty of material for climate research.

It is also on a fault line between two continental plates moving at different speeds, causing much tectonic activity.

Like trees have rings, the sea bed adds two layers of sediment every year. The team will analyze 500,000 years of geological history, deciphering patterns and using them to help understand the future, said Ben-Avraham.

They will extract information on ancient rainfall, floods, droughts and earthquakes that can then be used in studies on how to best deal with global warming.

The Dead Sea is a favorite spot for tourists because of the buoyant and healing properties of its extremely salty waters. It is also among 14 finalists in a global internet vote to choose seven wonders of the natural world.



But scientists and environmentalists have been scrambling in recent years to come up with a solution to the lake's receding shoreline, for which many blame regional water mismanagement. The team hopes the drilling may provide some historical insight.

The project is part of the International Continental Drilling Program, which has seen dozens of holes drilled across the globe in an effort to find the best way to manage the earth's resources and environment.

Ben-Avraham said taking part in the Dead Sea project are members from around the world, including neighboring Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. The drilling falls within Israel's borders.

Operating the rig day and night, and contending with the water's high salt concentration, is a team from Utah-based DOSECC, a non-profit corporation which works on similar projects around the world.

They will drill a five-cm-wide hole, which is much smaller than those used to find oil, and not stop until they reach 500 meters, said operations manager Beau Marshall. Core samples will then be sent to be analyzed and archived, he said.

'We've drilled a lot of fresh water lakes, we've done some salt water activity as well, but the Dead Sea is quite unique,' Marshall said on the barge, floating higher than it does in normal waters. 'It's going to require us to keep everything well lubricated and cleaned up because the salt will wreak havoc on our equipment.'" (source)

(ENVIRO) Electric Car Fleet To Hit The Road In Israel

"Israeli drivers will be the first in the world to test a fleet of 100,000 electric cars and the sceptics will be watching closely.

The Renault Fluence ZE, or zero emission, looks nothing like the weird-shaped machines some might associate with early electric cars.



It looks and runs like your typical family sedan.

Israeli entrepreneur Tal Agassi runs the company Better Place, one of the world leaders in developing electric car technology, with his brother Shai.

If they get their way, the Renault Fluence may well go down in history as the electric equivalent of the T-model Ford.

'The tipping point is going to be faster than what the market thinks,' he said.

'We believe that once people drive those cars and understand [that they are] not limited and have a better car for a cheaper cost, it will be a no-brainer for people to move from gasoline cars to [electric cars].'

Mr Agassi's company plans to roll out the first of 100,000 fully electric cars onto Israeli roads next year.

'We have signed today, up to date about 150 companies, big fleets that have thousands of cars,' he said.

'We have about a potential of 50,000 to 60,000 cars. They're already lined up and signed up today.'

'In 2011 when we launch the market we will have low thousands of cars, but from everything we're seeing today, the demand for those cars is going to be very high, [we are] probably not going to have enough cars here in Israel to supply all the demand in year one.'

What makes this electric car different from earlier prototypes is the system for recharging or changing the battery so that drivers can stay on the road even after the battery goes flat.

Better Place will own the battery and drivers will sign up for a package of kilometres, not unlike a mobile phone plan.

Instead of having to recharge the battery on long trips, they would simply drive into a switching station and swap it for a new one.

'You will go to a petrol station but you'll switch your battery. The way people will get energy is by going to a charge point,' Mr Agassi said.

'We will install thousands of charge spots at homes, at work, public locations and most people will charge overnight.

'But in addition to that for those people who drive for long distances they will go through a switch station.'



Mechanics at the company's headquarters near Tel Aviv will happily show you that a battery can be changed in less time than it takes to fill a petrol tank.

Within two years Better Place plans to install 70 switching stations all over Israel, meaning motorists could drive as long and as far as they want.

But there are plans too to roll out the same infrastructure in Australia from late next year, starting in Canberra and southern New South Wales.

Evan Thornley, the chief of Better Place Australia, predicts Australia's entire car fleet will be electric within 20 years.

'For 80 per cent of all Australian drivers we're confident they'll look at the network coverage map and see nowhere that they would want to drive that they couldn't do in an electric car,' he said.

'But there'll obviously be some people, the remaining 20 per cent, for whom that won't be the case on day one ... but I'm sure we'll reach out to the rest of them over the coming decade.'

In the longer term Better Place, in both Israel and Australia, says the car's popularity will in turn provide an incentive for power companies to switch to renewable fuels like wind or solar or hydro-electricity.

But as convincing as the company's advertising might be, there are sceptics.

Nitzan Avivi, the editor of Israel's Auto Magazine, says even the best car battery cannot match a full tank of petrol.

'The official range of the car is 200 kilometres which probably will mean that you can drive about 150 kilometres more or less, and that means that every hour or so you'll have to be looking for a replacement station and that's a problem if you're driving outside the city,' he said.

Mr Avivi says electric cars are not the environmental solution they are cracked up to be.

'Transportation consumes about 10 to 15 per cent of energy in the world,' he said.

'Even if all the cars will be, let's say solar, which can't happen, still you have 85 per cent electricity in houses, for industry.

'So even if all the cars will be electric and all of them will be powered by wind electric, electricity, it would still not be enough. It won't save the world.'" (source)

(NEWS) Religious Jew In Critical Condition After Brooklyn Drive-By Shooting

"Police are investigating a drive-by shooting in Brooklyn overnight that left one man in critical condition. The incident happened in the Midwood section of Brooklyn on East 17th Street, near Avenue K, just before 1:45 this morning. He was shot in the left shoulder, and the bullet traveled into his midsection.

He was rushed by Hatzolah to Kings County Hospital. He was listed in critical condition, but was expected to survive.

Police were looking for a green or gray Mazda CX9 that fled the scene.

No arrests were immediately made and police did not have a motive, other than the shooting appeared to be a dispute on the street.

Local residents who gathered following the shooting identified the man as a black Orthodox Jew who is well-known in the area." (source)

(NEWS) Germany Unlikely To Reopen Nazi Hitman Case

"Israel appears to have lost a bid to have a fugitive described as a Nazi hitman re-investigated for the murder of 22 Jews in the Netherlands during World War II.

Israel's justice minister has written to his German counterpart in the hope of reopening the case against 88-year-old Klaas Carel Faber, a former SS hitman who was convicted in the Netherlands of murdering 22 Jews.

He was originally sentenced to death, which was then commuted to life in prison.

But he escaped from a Dutch jail in 1952 and has lived free in Germany ever since.

German authorities have said they would need new evidence if they are to enforce the Dutch verdict, and several attempts to extradite Faber have failed.

Authorities in Germany say there is only a theoretical chance that investigations could be reopened." (source)

(BLOG) Wife Of Imam Compares Opposition To Mosque To Anti-Semitism

"Appearing on an ABC news with a Jewish adviser to the Mosque project, the Imam's wife said, 'We are deeply concerned, because this is like a metastasized antisemitism,' said Daisy Khan, who is spearheading the project with her husband, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. 'It's beyond Islamophobia. It's hate of Muslims.'

This lady and her husband are supposedly motivated to build the mosque because they want to bring peace and understanding between cultures and and religions. Of course if this her objective the uproar against the mosque should have brought an end to the project; but not only has that not happened (on the same program she refused to say whether she would meet with Governor Paterson to discuss his compromise) but she is showing her bridge building skills, or lack thereof, by attacking her opponents with words that are guaranteed to inflame the situation.

She, Bloomberg, and Obama seem incapable of recognizing that you can oppose this ridiculous project and not hate Muslims." (source)