[P-40]

Bush’s fault!

[blam]

GGG Ping.

When Saddam drained the swamps, this asteroid impact site was discovered.

n

Disaster That Struck The Ancients

[rellimpank]

--To meet old and these newly acquired needs, a two-and-a half-year feasibility study has produced a vision for "New Eden" – a bold masterplan which aims for an "intersection between green technologies and traditional environmental knowledge." --

yeah--I bet it's a "bold masterplan" alright--it'll soak up money in an unbelievable fashion--

[SolidWood]

I am positively surprised the leftist Guardian (which carried an eulogy for Saddam) is carrying this positive story.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

["Now, with a huge multibillion dollar restoration underway, funded by the US, Canadian and Italian governments and the United Nations environment programme (UNEP) many Ma'dan (Marsh Arabs) are returning to a life that has changed little in 5,000 years....But, after years of urban exile, they are now accustomed to modern life's comforts, such as electricity, television, air-conditioning and wireless internet."]

I'm so pleased to find that some of the $45,000 in federal taxes I paid this year are going to such a good cause -- rebuilding an ancient swamp in a region where the average inhabitant would happily cut off my head if I were found walking their streets, and providing said inhabitants with electricity, television, air-conditioning and wireless internet.

[antinomian]

When I read a story about architects designing mud huts for people to move back into words just fail me.

[Tailback]

How wonderful.

Mosquitoe infested swamps to spread Malaria, West Nile virus, and all the other wonderful tropical diseases.

[stboz]

Anybody see Boudreaux ‘roun’ here?

[Riptides]

Sounds like a multi-billion dollar waste of money to me.

[Chode]

the top is after the war the bottom before. in this false color image, water is black...

[Fred Nerks]

IRAQ'S MARSH ARABS, MODERN SUMERIANS

The staying power of the Ma'adan may have come from a social structure built around absolute bonds of obligation to family and tribe. A harmoniously intertwined relationship with the wetland environment also made each tribe self-sufficient -- and capable of withstanding the outside world's intrusions and deprivations. "They led hard lives, but admirable lives," said Ochsenschlager, an emeritus professor in the anthropology department of Brooklyn College in New York. The village Ochsenschlager and colleagues first encountered in 1968 lay sheltered within a broad, shallow marsh with a deep canal closing the circle. To reach the closest outpost of the outside world required a 2 1/2-hour ride by motorized boat followed by a 15-mile walk or car ride. Villagers made the trip only when necessary to sell livestock, hand-woven carpets and reed mats, and to buy certain necessities from outside, including spices, aluminum cookware and guns. Almost everything else, the marshes produced. Sturdy reeds reaching 20 feet became raw material for homes, baskets and boats, while tender reed shoots provided plentiful forage for water buffalo. Muddy streambeds yielded clay for sun-dried bricks. Bitumen, a tarry material from shallow oil deposits, served as a waterproofing agent for rafts...

[nw_arizona_granny]

Ping.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Eden? lol....I think not.