Archive | Dead Sea
New Revelation: Dead Sea almost dried up entirely 120,000 years ago
Washington: During the last interglacial period, approximately 120,000 years ago, Dead Sea came close to drying up entirely, researchers under a drilling project have found.
The drilling project led by researchers from Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University has also revealed that water levels of the sea have risen and fallen by hundreds of meters over the last 200,000 years.
Directed by Prof. Zvi Ben-Avraham of TAU’s Minerva Dead Sea Research Center and Prof. Mordechai Stein of the Geological Survey of Israel, researchers drilled 460 meters beneath the sea floor and extracted sediments spanning 200,000 years.
The material recovered revealed the region’s past climatic conditions and may allow researchers to forecast future changes.
Layers of salt indicated several periods of dryness and very little rainfall, causing water to recede and salt to gather at the center of the lake.
The researchers found that approximately 120,000 years ago, the sea came close to drying up entirely, with another period of extreme dryness taking place about 13,000 years ago.
Today, the Dead Sea lies 426 meters below sea level and is receding rapidly.
Despite this historical precedent, there is still cause for concern, said Prof. Ben-Avraham.
In the past the change was climate-driven, the result of natural conditions; today, the lake is threatened by human activity.
“What we see happening in the Middle East is something that mimics a severe dry period, but this is not climate-enforced, this is a man-made phenomenon,” he warned, caused by increasing amounts of water being taken from rivers for irrigation before it reaches the Dead Sea.
Ultimately, this prevents the refilling of the sea by the waters of the Jordan River.
Source: Zeenews.com
A solar kitchen at the Dead Sea? Food cooked by the sun!
Antto Melasniemi started out as a restaurateur in Finland, became a culinary designer and is coming here next week to build a solar kitchen at the Dead Sea. Food is much more than something to eat, he says.
The rumor spread among the visitors at last year’s London Design Festival. Everyone was talking about an industrial space on the east side of the city that had been converted into a restaurant, called Hel Yes!, that served traditional Finnish food. The place’s interior design was based on traditional meeting places where nomads who roamed the icy Baltic Sea between Finland and Estonia would gather in ancient times. The utensils and textiles at the eatery were all of Finnish design. All the plates were different and had been collected during a series of meals in Helsinki, where all the invitees were asked to bring their old Iittala (a familiar Finnish brand ) dishes and trade it for new ones – in return for telling the story behind each plate.
Antto Melasniemi, a 36-year-old Helsinki native, and the chef and concept designer of Hel Yes!, says, “I thought it would be nice to create a total experience,” he says. “A place where you can touch the objects in a certain space, where you can use them and not just look at them.”
His work on Hel Yes! showcases Melasniemi’s interest in food as something that is more than a source of nutrition, and rather as something with a broader social significance: “I’m interested in food as a cultural phenomenon and as a language. Instead of being a chef, I enjoy working with conceptual ideas and installations that are related to eating and restaurants.”
Along with Melasniemi at Hel Yes! is a team that includes two Finns: creative director Klaus Haapaniemi, 41, and art director, Mia Wallenius, 41. Haapaniemi is a fashion illustrator whose projects includes display windows for department stores in Paris, Tokyo and London, and illustrations for Vogue magazine. Wallenius also works in the fashion world and works on behalf of various cultural institutions. Her approach to the restaurant project combined fantasy, drama and surprise with superb craftsmanship. In the catalog produced about the Hel Yes! project, the artists describe themselves as hunters, collectors and designers who created an exhibition around and about food, while relying on nature as a source of inspiration.
Meanwhile, Helsinki has been chosen by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design as the world design capital for 2012; numerous events will be held there in the coming year. In view of this, Suzanne Millner, the cultural attache at the Finnish embassy in Israel, is looking into potential collaborative efforts. To this end, she approached Faza, an Israeli production company, and it arranged for Melasniemi and interior designer and curator Kaisa Blomstedt to come to Israel last month, to meet with leading chefs and designers.
When he was younger, music was Melasniemi’s chief pursuit; he played sax and keyboard in a rock band. He left high school at 16 to go to cooking school. After three years, he decided he wanted to travel and cook, and spent a year working at different wineries throughout France, and later in Paris, London and Amsterdam. He returned to Helsinki in 2005 and opened his first restaurant, Kuurna, where he focused on dishes based on local ingredients: “Excellent home-style food, a lot of fish and venison, and ingredients collected in the forests.” He subsequently opened another restaurant and also began to take an interest in design.
Today he calls himself a culinary master of hospitality. “Restaurant design is something holistic that requires one to think about many things beyond food and drink: colors, ambience, lighting, cutlery,” he said during his recent visit, adding with a smile: “The food itself isn’t that important.” But he was quick to add that it is important to look at the sources of the food, where it grows and comes from.
“I wanted to see how food influences people, and culture, how it influences nature and language,” he continued. “Design is an important element in food, one that can be used to make the diners feel that they are a part of the whole thing. I can plan a restaurant as theater, as a work of art or as a design exhibition. I can use food to create all kinds of experiences. It’s very flexible.”
Once upon a time, food was just food. “In Hel Yes! the food was very simple, even primitive, not expensive, something based more on ingredients than on the restaurant culture. Serving cooked fish with vegetables is about as unpretentious as you can get.”
We look at some stylized pictures of a rabbit and of a pigeon stuffed with vegetables. They look like works of art, but are supposed to be eaten. “It can be attractive or off-putting. But it makes one think about the sources of the food. The rabbit is eating vegetables,” he added, smiling again.
Cooked by the sun
Six months after the visit to Hel Yes! I came across another project by Melasniemi, the Solar Kitchen Restaurant – a joint project with designer Marti Guixe. In the courtyard of Milan’s design museum, as part of the annual design festival there, the two built an environmental gastronomic project that included cooking by means of the sun’s rays, via a solar-energy device. Because of the positioning of the pot in relation to the receptor, the heat envelops the food and cooks it on all sides.
Next week, Melasniemi will come to Israel again and build a solar kitchen at the Dead Sea, as part of an annual seminar held by the department of industrial design at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. Within the ecological context, Melasniemi aims to explore certain questions as part of this project, such as what is a kitchen and what is cooking, in relation to nature and to human nature. And, “to what extent are we prepared to adapt ourselves to the conditions of nature, and to the possibility that we won’t be able to eat what we planned because a cloud suddenly appears. These are not meaningless questions.”
Why did you choose to present this idea in Milan?
“There’s a connection between design and hospitality. We showed an archetype of a new way to run restaurants. No one had ever built anything like it. It’s modest, it’s about adapting yourself to nature and being flexible, being ready to accept the fact that the weather could change the course of the meal.”
Is there a difference in the taste?
“Solar cooking preserves the texture and color of the food better than when you toss things in the oven.”
And what were the responses like in Milan?
“People were surprised, they didn’t think it would work. We served genuine Italian food. We wanted to be faithful to the local cuisine and ingredients.”
The day I got to the museum in Milan, the meal was canceled because clouds were covering the sun. Israeli industrial designer and curator Liora Rosin arrived the next day, when the sun was shining brightly. “They didn’t invent solar ovens, which are used mainly in Third World countries, where the sun is the most freely available source,” she said. “But they brought solar ovens to a place that is so well fed – to a part of Italy. They weren’t feeding hungry people there. To me, the project starts to get interesting when it fails – when you have all of this abundance but you can’t do anything with the products when it’s cloudy out.”
Did the food taste different?
Rosin: “I didn’t notice the ‘taste’ of the sun, but you could feel that the food was made with sensitivity, with love, with faith and with a very high level of skill. That was very clear. Even a poached egg – it’s something that may seems trivial and simple, but you have to know how to make it. Melasniemi focuses a lot on the connection between the place and the food he is offering. He won’t serve pineapple in a place where pineapple doesn’t grow; he based the entire meal on local ingredients.”
What does all this have to do with design?
“We are able to read or to ‘sense’ food more than anything else, it’s an easy medium with which it’s easy to convey ideas. For nearly everyone, food arouses associations, and often it’s the same association. It is a very low common denominator; it uses that platform to convey a message. Here they’re talking about resources, about the sources of heat. Up to now it was popular to focus on the origin of food, but now they’re focusing on the origin of the energy.”
How does this relate to similar things that are happening in the world of design?
“The Dutch food designer Maria Vogelzang also deals a lot with the source of food and with local culture, but she’s practically a choreographer for the people who eat her food: When she has a dialogue with people, they practically become puppets in her shows. She’s a successful designer, and gets them to dance; she offers them an interesting experience. Melasniemi really wants to feed people. It’s something closer, it’s the thing itself. Her activity is more akin to a laboratory, while Melasniemi gets closer to the final product.”
Ultimately, Melasniemi’s goal is to take these ovens to the Third World, says Rosin. “I know he wants to bring them to Africa but he found out that people there eat dinner later, when there’s no sun. He didn’t plan to do this just in Italy.”
Melasniemi is already at work on his next project, a new restaurant in Stockholm, which will be based on movement and dance. “We’re working with a choreographer of modern dance,” he said. “It will be a more spiritual thing, with cosmic energy.”
Do you think your ideas could catch on in Israel?
Melasniemi: “Sure, I think people here are open to such ideas. There are a lot of nice restaurants there, the food is amazing, the people are wonderful. Let’s see what happens at the Dead Sea. Let’s see how it goes.”
PICTURES: Behind the scenes photos from Spencer Tunicks Dead Seas Nude installation
Some G-rated behind the scene pictures from Spencer Tunick’s Dead Sea nude installation
RECAP: 19 Kids And Counting Visits Israel
Last week on TLC’s 19 Kids And Counting the Duggar family enjoyed sightseeing in England. Their tour included a lift on the London Eye, the mystery of Stonehenge, double-decker bus rides on the wrong side of the road, and they found out what “Toad in the Hole” really is. Michelle suffered a little nausea mainly because she is having their 20th baby in 2012. This week their trip takes on a more spiritual aspect and they head off to Jerusalem, Israel to see many of the locations in the Bible.
First they went for a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee where they were invited to put on biblical costumes and have an impromptu photo shoot. The kids really had fun dressing up. Lunch was next and the teenage girls were a little grossed out to be served whole fish with the eyes still intact but found it to be delicious.
A trip to the Jordan River was next. Jim Bob had always thought that that would be a great place to be baptized and they prepared for that. Amy was the only one in the group who had never been baptized before so she was particularly excited. During this experience Jim Bob spotted a number of huge river rats swimming around them and they found that the fish in the water was nipping at their ankles. Jim Bob though it was really neat to be baptized in such a special place.
Next on the list was “Genesis Land’ where they rode camels. Michelle opted out because of her pregnancy but everyone else joined in, even Grandma. They also swam in The Dead Sea, which is the lowest point on the earth. The kids smeared mud on themselves and each other. Grandma was convinced that the mud has medicinal qualities so she scooped up a few baggies full to take home.
Soon they were shopping in the old city and Jim Bob couldn’t get over the diversity of the people and the range of products for sale. He especially enjoyed the bartering.
The next morning baby Josie woke up with a fever and congestion so Mom and Dad took her to the clinic while the rest explored the Garden Tomb where Jesus had been laid after he died. The family was overcome by this place and sang “Amazing Grace” in unison. The bible really came to life for them at that special place.
Meanwhile the Doctor told Jim Bob and Michelle that Josie shouldn’t fly so the rest packed up and flew home leaving Jill and Michelle to stay behind with Josie. After a very long week Josie was given the go ahead to fly with a doctor on board and soon everyone was back together again in Arkansas.
Jim Bob didn’t think that they would ever look at the bible in the same way again after seeing the places that Jesus had been. The Duggar world tour covered Scotland, Ireland, England and finally Israel. It was wonderful but it’s over and Michelle exclaimed, “It’s nice to be back.”
What do you think of the spiritual aspect of this part of their trip? Do you think the show would be the same if the Duggar’s didn’t express their faith? Post a comment and let us know what you think.
Full story via Reality TV Magazine
Netanyahu, Bar Refaeli urge last-minute Dead Sea voting
Dead sea is in top 10 in New 7 Wonders of Nature competition, which concludes November 11, 2011.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Tourism Minister Stas Meseznikov issued last-minute personal pleas, urging the public to cast their votes for the Dead Sea in the New 7 Wonders of Nature contest, which concludes Friday, 11/11/11, at 13:11 Israel time.
The Dead Sea, representing Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, currently ranks among the top 10 of the 28 contestants still remaining in the competition, sponsored by the New7Wonders Foundation. Stressing the importance of a Dead Sea win to Israeli tourism, the government has poured millions of shekels and led a wide-scale public relations campaign toward securing the win since the spring. According to the contestwebsite and a tweet from the Tourism Ministry, votes for the Dead have “accelerated” in the past day – meaning, they increased at a higher speed on Wednesday than on Tuesday.
In his own words of outreach, the prime minister emphasized that winning the competition would help further development of the Dead Sea region.
“Winning will transform the Dead Sea into one of the leading tourist sites in the world and will contribute greatly not only to us, but also to other countries in the region, and will increase regional cooperation,” Netanyahu said.
Meanwhile, Meseznikov implored citizens to contribute to this “national effort” in the last two days of the contest.
“We believe in victory and strive for it,” Meseznikov said. “The meaning of a win for the Dead Sea in the competition is the addition of hundreds of thousands of new tourists, which will bring about the creation of thousands of new jobs, contribute tens of millions of shekels to the state treasury and contribute to the creation of a positive image for the State of Israel as an attractive tourist destination. In two days that remain, a national effort is required for the last-minute encouragement of friends, relatives and acquaintances in Israel and abroad, to vote for the Dead Sea and bring it the coveted title.”
In addition to government figures across the political spectrum, the competition has gained the support of many Israeli artists, like singer Laila Malcos, photographer Elhanan Yair and fashion designer Osnat Subah, as well as American naked installation giant Spencer Tunick. And on Wednesday afternoon, the salty sea also gained the public backing of Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli.
At about 2 p.m., Refaeli tweeted: “Have you voted already for the Dead Sea? Competition for New 7 Wonders of World is concluding in two days!!!!! Text ‘Dead Sea’ to the number 2244.”
Until the contest’s conclusion, voters can – as Refaeli mentioned – send SMS messagescasting their ballots for the Dead Sea by texting the words “Dead Sea” in English, Hebrew or Arabic to the number 2244, or by visiting www.new7wonders.com or votedeadsea.com.
Source: Jpost.com
Dead Sea dipping may help treat diabetes
Ben-Gurion University study reveals short swims in salty waters could help reduce blood glucose levels
A recent study by the Ben-Gurion University Health Sciences faculty reveals that short swims in the salty waters of the Dead Sea may help reduce blood glucose levels and improve the medical condition of diabetics.
The study, which took place in a heated Dead Sea water pool, showed that participants who remained in the water for 20 minutes had reduced their blood glucose levels by 13.5%.
According to the report, glucose levels dropped on average from 163 to 151 milligrams per decilitre (mg/dl) immediately after the dip.
Source: Ynetnews