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“Fathi Huweimel leans carefully over the edge of a jagged slab of broken asphalt, peering down into a 60-foot-deep crater that was level ground just a day earlier. All around him sprawl the ruins of Ghawr al Hadithah, once a farming village but now a jigsaw of broken houses, shattered roads and abandoned tomato fields growing wild amid massive holes pocking the earth. To the east, the village gives way to desert fringed by stark, sere mountains. To the west, a few hundred yards away: the glimmering waters of the Dead Sea.

“We’ve had about 75 holes open up in the last two years,” says Huweimel, a thickset man with a broad mouth and deep brown eyes who has lived all of his 45 years in this part of central Jordan. The sinkholes first started appearing in the 1980s, but the pace at which new ones open up has increased dramatically in recent years. “Everyone is leaving,” continues Huweimel, who works as a field researcher with environmental group Friends of the Earth-Middle East (FoEME). “Those who stay are staying because they have no choice.”

Miraculously, no one has been killed by a cave-in yet, though there have been some close calls. A group of seven women—including Huweimel’s aunt—were harvesting tomatoes together one day when the ground collapsed with a roar two meters in front of them. A salt factory that employed a hundred people was evacuated before it caved in.

The cause of all this destruction is water—or, rather, lack of it. The ground is collapsing into sinkholes because the water beneath it is retreating. The water is retreating because the Dead Sea, a storied feature of the landscape since biblical times, is drying up…”

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During World War II, snipers were seen as a spooky, merciless “Murder Inc.” by other soldiers—the brutal intimacy of their kills made them a breed apart. But in Afghanistan, where avoiding civilian deaths is a top priority, U.S. military sharpshooters may have found the war that needs them most. Going inside the world of Texas Army National Guardsman “Russ Crane,” who has dropped a Taliban fighter at 806 meters, the author discovers the sniper’s special talents and torments, and why it helps, in Crane’s view, to have God on your side.

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-- Old, but still funny...

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“You love your new Canon EOS-5D Mark II DSLR and its full HD video in Live View mode. Protect it from bumps, scratches and abrasions while you shoot stills or live footage with Camera Armor. It’s the lightweight, skin-like covering a camera wears all the time, engineered specifically for this advanced DSLR model. You shoot and Camera Armor shields your camera’s body and lens from daily bumps and abrasions…

The precise fit covers all of the important parts of your DSLR camera to protect it from impact, abrasion, dust and fingerprints without sacrificing any necessary camera functions. Camera Armor provides true “protection in action” and is uniquely designed so all of the camera controls and access ports are completely functional and accessible. Put Camera Armor on your camera and it’s protected while in a bag, backpack or suitcase, and while you’re getting that perfect shot…”

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"It is the tallest rocket in active use. The Delta IV Heavy is the largest of the Delta series, packing the punch of three rocket boosters instead of the usual one. The resulting rocket, the most powerful in use by the US Air Force, is capable of lifting over 23,000 kilograms into low Earth orbit, comparable to NASA's Space Shuttle. Pictured above is the second launch of the Delta IV Heavy from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA in 2007, and the first night launch. Complex service towers are visible to each side of the soaring rocket. The rocket successfully lifted a reconnaissance satellite to low Earth orbit. The Delta IV Heavy has since completed several more successful lift-offs, while its next launch is currently planned from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, USA, next month."

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-- Realtime. Yes, it's been around for awhile now, but not everyone has seen it yet. And the more people are aware the better.

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“MOSCOW (AFP) – Russia's sharp new military uniforms, created by a top fashion designer, have landed hundreds in the hospital after proving too thin to withstand ferocious winter cold, a state daily said Wednesday.

Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported that between 60 and 250 servicemen have been laid up with everything from flu to pneumonia as Arctic chills sweep through the country's northern reaches.

"They literally felt naked outside," the paper quoted the mother of one solider as saying. "Many of them ended up in hospital. Ours developed pneumonia," she said of her son.

The government daily said defence officials have admitted not receiving complaints about the uniforms in time to do anything ahead of the winter season.

"It seems that all this happened because of slovenliness on our part," Joint Staff General Nikolai Makarov told the daily.

Introduced in 2008, the parade uniforms designed by fashion celebrity Valentin Yudashkin are threaded with gold and more shapely and chic, in a throwback to the uniforms of the imperial Tsarist army.

The field versions, meanwhile, are lighter and come with thinner but more mobile boots.

Russia designed its first post-Soviet uniform in the 1990s, but it was unpopular with officers who complained that it made them look like they were serving in a Third World army.”

-- So who thought uniforms designed by fashion celebrity, designer Valentin Yudashkin would be a good idea in the first place?

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“William Trubridge on Monday accomplished what had long been regarded as an impossible feat: swimming to a depth of 100 meters, or 328 feet, on a single breath and with only hands and feet for propulsion.

The New Zealander did not use swim fins; he wore no weights and required no heavy sled during the descent. Nor did he use an inflatable airbag to swiftly reach the surface after his dive.

Rather, he set a new unassisted freediving record and achieved the historic 100-meter mark -- previously attained only in an assisted manner, with weighted sleds and airbags -- while wearing only a thin wetsuit and displaying remarkable power of mind over body.

"It's different than when you use sleds and airbags," Trubridge said of a his dive, made at Dean's Blue Hole in the Bahamas. "Because when you turn around at 100 meters and start swimming back to the surface with just your hands and feet, it can be a little bit daunting because of how much water you have over your head."

A diver cannot always see the surface at 328 feet. It's more than three times deeper than what's considered safe for recreational scuba divers, who must ascend from any significant depth at a painstakingly slow pace to avoid developing embolisms in the bloodstream, associated with breathing compressed air.

Trubridge held his breath for 4 minutes, 10 seconds, from start to finish. In reaching 100 meters he matched a depth first attained by a freediver in 1976, when Jacques Mayol completed his dive using a weighted sled and inflatable airbag. Mayol's exploits were legendary. The Frenchman was portrayed in the 1988 adventure movie "The Big Blue," which delved into the obscure sport of freediving…”

-- "Trubridge held his breath for 4 minutes, 10 seconds, from start to finish..."

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The makers of Grand Theft Auto know a thing or two about stealing cars, but according to one musician, they also know a thing or two about stealing ideas.

IGN reports that Michael "Shagg" Washington, a backup singer for seminal hip hop group Cypress Hill, has filed a lawsuit against developer Rockstar Games and publisher Take 2 Interactive over the unlawful use of his life and likeness in the hit PS2 game, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Filed in a Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, the suit claims that the developers based the game's protagonist, Carl "CJ" Johnson, on Washington's real life story. Court documents allege this information was gleaned during a two-hour conversation he had with Rockstar in 2003 in which he was asked about his personal experiences with gang life.

According to the complaint, Washington "responded to their questions and related details of his life," which included "how the teen-agers in his gang rode around on bicycles." (Bikes are prominently featured in the game.)

-- Someone's checking accounts must be running low!

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