'cyprus-stunners'? ... like the pine tree? or the Mediterranean tourist destination?

lol

>> ^mharvey42:
It is a modern democratic republic, until recently the only one in the Middle East (Now joined by Iraq of course). Arabs are citizens within the country: vote, own property and businesses and have members in the Knesset.
Arabs have more liberty and prosperity in Israel than any Muslim country. Within the so-called occupied territories there are the Arabs calling themselves "Palestinian" who refuse to join Israeli society, or disperse around the region, or live in peace.
Israel does have a strong armed force: to defend against these belligerants, and to protect from the neighboring countries that periodically wage illegal wars of intended genocide on her.


You mean Arab jews of course. Do you consider Palestinians to be Arab? Because the treatment of millions of Palestinians kind of negates any "good" treatment of Arabs who live in Israel. I also think you mistake Arab jews treatment, which isn't the same.

Everything you say is beyond bizarrely ignorant.. THe so-called occupied territories.. they silly Palestinians "refuse" to join Israeli society... or "disperse"... You are completely ignorant of all modern history??!!

Israel wages illegal wars, both of the pre-emptive kind and also the regular justified kind where UN & Geneva conventions are shit upon. So if your point is that these other countries are waging illegal war, then you fail because Israel is ten times more illegal in it's military offenses. How often are these neighboring countries illegally killing international aide workers or attacking ships in the Mediterranean? In fact, Israel is probably the last country military to destroy a US naval ship.

It is stupid and the US should quit sending billions of dollars to Israel especially the weapons and military craft we gift to them.

THe US is responsible for worsening the lives of those live under apartheid. I mean even the Mediterranean is blockaded. Talk about messed up. It's bad enough they are building those crazy walls to steal land but they also refuse to allow any relief or trade.

It really is no different then US treatment of Native Americans.

I find it funny he refers to only northern european countries when he's talking about differences with the "Union of the Mediterranean". And by the way, there are a lot more nudist beaches along the mediterranean coast than there are in scandinavia.

Midnight on a beach in the Mediterranean
And I miss you
Even here, taking it all in
The sand, silvered, carries the moon on its shoulders
Is it possible to put this night to tune, and move it to you?

Don't cry, I'll bring this home to you,
If I can make this night light enough to move
Don't cry, i'll bring this home to you

Cargo ships move by, tracing on the horizon line
There's a luster from the city lights on the waves that kiss our feet
And we're thinkin' of goin' in (thinkin' of goin' in),
The time's getting thin

Don't cry I'll bring this home to you,
If I can make this night light enough to move
Don't cry I'll bring this home to you,
If I can make this, if I can make this...

Don't cry I'll bring this home to you,
If I can make this night light enough to move
Don't cry I'll bring this home to you

This is a city for not sleeping; The clocks are set by feel
At this moment, from where I sit, none of it seems real

Don't cry I'll bring this home to you,
If I can make this night light enough to move

Don't cry I'll bring this home to you,
If I can make this night light enough to move

If I can make this, if I can make this move
If I can make this move

"The research was carried out using radar and showed that in August an estimated 200 million Silver Y moths migrated southwards over the UK to breeding grounds in the Mediterranean. The data, from 2003, has only just been processed and is published in Current Biology."

Quite a lot of the UK population go on holidays like that in fact...

update: taiwan recognised kosovo's independence yesterday and made china very angry seems like kosovo will be the next, european taiwan since this issue again divided the EU countries... who knows, maybe that's why the US put so much diplomatic effort into making kosovo an independent entity - it's always nice to have some leverage with your competitors... but i'm more interested in what will this mean for serbia since the nationalists are very strong there (serbians despite starting and eventualy loosing the 90s balkan wars didn't go through the same catharsis as the germans did after the fall of 3rd reich, the hague court can't even begin to compare with the nuremburg trials after the WW2 although the hague war crime tribunal was meant to be exactly it). i think the US made balkan it's playground back in the 90s, an expirement like the Mid-East. it's potential strategic value is great, since it covers the entrance from Mediterranean to the Black Sea and is also a buffer zone between the west and islam. US seeks control over the region cause of Caspian oil and whatever else it can squeeze out of it in the process - it's as simple as that. the old oil economy must be sustained for another decade or two for the US to survive it's own brutal economic policy. the only thing that for the moment keeps the dollar money machine going is US's military supremacy and this expansionist politics they run since before WW1. the problem is US has grown from a playground bully to a black trenchcoat kid with yielding a fucking shotgun...

>> ^kulpims:
Few years ago nobody in EU dared to stir this mess but seems US interest prevailed after all. Albanians in Kosovo wanted autonomy for a long time but I don't believe they would have gone for it without substancial US backing. Bare in mind that in Kosovo, after the 1999 bombing of Serbia, US has built the biggest “from scratch” foreign US military base since the Vietnam war. There are two main reasons for building Camp Bondsteel:
1. Kosovo is rich in minerals such as copper, zinc and lead and even uranium
2. it is situated near AMBO (Albania-Macedonia-Bulgaria Oil) pipeline project. This pipeline would supply oil (monthly deliveries valued at $600 million) from the Caspian Sea basin to Albanian shore and eventualy to the American market. The size restriction for tankers traveling through Bosporus is 150.000 tons while the Otrant straight from Adriatic to Mediterranean can accomodate 300.000 ton tankers. This will also ensure that in the future the US will be less dependant on oil from the Persian gulf. The main investor in this project is Halliburton.
Basicaly, if you look at this map, you can see that all diplomatic and military effort the US put in the countries around the Caspian sea basin, the so called central Asian countries, Pakistan, the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and current threats to Iran are all aimed at cutting off Russia and China from access to those rich reserves (many estimate them to be equal to those currently in the Gulf).
Great plan. And quite perverse. I can't blame the Russians for being so pissed off.


BTW, thanks for the background, that makes perfect sense. As usual, truth is found. On the sift.

Few years ago nobody in EU dared to stir this mess but seems US interest prevailed after all. Albanians in Kosovo wanted autonomy for a long time but I don't believe they would have gone for it without substancial US backing. Bare in mind that in Kosovo, after the 1999 bombing of Serbia, US has built the biggest “from scratch” foreign US military base since the Vietnam war. There are two main reasons for building Camp Bondsteel:

1. Kosovo is rich in minerals such as copper, zinc and lead and even uranium

2. it is situated near AMBO (Albania-Macedonia-Bulgaria Oil) pipeline project. This pipeline would supply oil (monthly deliveries valued at $600 million) from the Caspian Sea basin to Albanian shore and eventualy to the American market. The size restriction for tankers traveling through Bosporus is 150.000 tons while the Otrant straight from Adriatic to Mediterranean can accomodate 300.000 ton tankers. This will also ensure that in the future the US will be less dependant on oil from the Persian gulf. The main investor in this project is Halliburton.

Basicaly, if you look at this map, you can see that all diplomatic and military effort the US put in the countries around the Caspian sea basin, the so called central Asian countries, Pakistan, the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and current threats to Iran are all aimed at cutting off Russia and China from access to those rich reserves (many estimate them to be equal to those currently in the Gulf).

Great plan. And quite perverse. I can't blame the Russians for being so pissed off.

Odysseus
I rule.

Poseidon
For your sin of pride, I curse you for all eternity.

(Unfazed, Odysseus boards his ship and sets SAIL for Greece, where his family is awaiting his RETURN from Troy. A STORM happens, and it drives them off course into the MEDITERRANEAN, where they come upon a strange LAND owned by the giant Cyclops POLYPHEMUS who eats some of the men ALL UP, but then they ESCAPE. Still lost, they run into the island of the sorceress CIRCE who turns some of Odysseus' men into ANIMALS, and it takes YEARS before they escape, and then they sail by some singing SIRENS, but they can't hear because they have STUFF in their ears. Then they come upon an island where there is a field of HERBS, and they all get HIGH, until Odysseus says it's time to GO. Then Odysseus' men let a WIND out of a BAG, and some more men DIE. And they sail on to HADES to talk to some DEAD people, and some more men DIE. And they steer the ship between the six headed monster SCYLLA and the torrential whirlpool CHARYBDIS, and Scylla makes some more men DIE, and Charybdis makes the rest of them DIE. Then the ship busts up into a JILLION pieces, but Odysseus is SAVED by the nymph Calypso who confines him to her ISLAND because she thinks he's HOT, and she wants his BODY. Then years later she lets him GO, but Poseidon is determined to terrorize him FURTHER. And then SUDDENLY Odysseus has an IDEA.)

Odysseus
Poseidon, I am sorry.

Poseidon
Ok, you can go home now.

(Odysseus goes home.)



THE END



this one cracked me up

*gulp*!

I guess I won't be downvoting any of sifty's comments anytime soon!

Anyway- I changed the tags back. Alioli is already in the title, so having it in the tags is redundant. I put aioli in the tags since alioli is very similar, and the true alioli (which is made without ANY egg yolk, just btw) is indeed the father of all mayonaise style emulsions. First came alioli in catalan cuisine, then aioli moved around the mediterranean, and after a time, the garlic was removed by the french and created mayonaise.

Read the first 3 pages of The Icarus Agenda by Robert Ludlum. It was TOTALLY written by choggie.

The rulers were from a privileged household that apparently respected what Allah had given them -- not merely as a birthright, but as a responsibility in the last half of the twentieth century.

Conclusions: the insurrection had been externally programmed. No more than twenty of the two hundred-odd unkempt, shrieking youngsters had been specifically identified as Omanis. Therefore, covert-operations officers with sources in every extremist faction in the Mediterranean-Arabian axis went intently to work, pulling in contacts, bribing, threatening.

"Who are they, Aziz? There is only spitful from Oman, and most of them are considered retarded. Come on, Aziz. Live like a sultan. Try me!"

"Six seconds, Mahmet! Six seconds and your right hand is on the floor without a wrist! Next goes your left. We're on countdown, thief. Give me the information!" Six, five, four... Blood.

Nothing. Zero. Madness.

Yes this is an excellent article... As a bachelor I have taught myself to be a chef... as a perfectinist, I worked hard on a few recipes. I'll post one of my favorite recipes that I created sometime soon: Mediterranean Whitefish.

Even if you hate fish, you'll love the taste of it.

In response to Yoghurt:

I agree with most everything you've said. For whatever reason I'm having a difficult time articulating a complete response so I think instead I'll just make a couple of quick points.

1. In terms of looking at continents and their respective histories, Diamonds theory is dead on. Agriculture arose in the different continents at different times in history due primarily to the geography of the continents. In this respect Diamond is absolutely convincing.

2. At a level smaller than continental level, his theory is of very little use. Why did the Greeks and later the Romans conquer the Mediterranean? Asia Minor, the Levant, Mesopotamia and Egypt, all had agriculture and writing long before either Greece or Rome. The answer lies in culture.

3. I am probably being a bit too presumptuous in reading a politically correct rewrite of history into Diamond. Nonetheless that was my reaction when reading him and my most recent post seeks to explain that reaction.

4. I briefly brought up Mycenean Greece and Classical Greece primarily to illustrate point number 2. Culture can be the edge that allows one of two otherwise equal societies to dominate the other. Culture can also allow a technologically inferior society to overcome a technologically superior culture.

At the macro-scale of Diamonds theory this discussion may be less than relevant. However in order for Diamonds theory itself to be truly relevant it needs to have an explanation at the micro-level as well, which it doesn't because it omits discussion of the role of culture. Given that he states that his book has real world political applicability (16), it is not out of line to criticize him for failing address the micro-level of interactions between societies. In that respect I think he fails for all of the above reasons..

I think scottishmartialarts does have a point. Politics and just sheer chance of luck in history plays a big part of outcomes of civilization.

USA could've bombed China with atomic blast during Korean war, but Truman thought Macarthur was bit nuts for thinking that. Now they're on the biggest economic rebound modern history has ever seen, armed with the latest western technology.

Same thing with Rome vs Egypt back in the days of Octavian vs Marcus Antonius. Rome produced less food than Egypt at that time, heavily relying on Sicily to feed the gigantic city of Rome. Rome and Alexandria were at the same level both technologically and population wise. But Octavian wins, and Latins dominate the Mediterranean sea.

Perhaps ultimately because they had a better and more effective military tradition (culture factor) than Alexandrians of Egypt or even the Carthaginians long ago, who also produced more food than Romans, enough so that they were able to make rich and buy mercenaries from other areas to fight their battles for them.

But what Diamond speaks of is about the beginning of civilization and why we have ended up with such drastically different lifestyles. I do think he has a point there.

And I especially agree with this three points:

1. A community requires easy means to produce high energy yielding food to sustain large population.

2. High population & density is always a must to achieve technological innovation and germ immunity.

3. Society with high germ immunity and technological advancement gets to dominate other cultures.

BUT

All 1st, 2nd and 3rd points can be overcome with: constant Trading and Politics between communities.