Afghanistan's First National Park Protects Deep Blue Lakes

A series of six deep blue lakes separated by natural dams made of the rich red rock travertine have been protected in the first national park established in Afghanistan.
The internationally recognized national park, named Band-e-Amir, was designated today by the Afghanistan's National Environment Protection Agency.
Travertine systems, created by mineral deposits, are found in only a few places throughout the world. The lakes are under growing threat from pollution and other human-caused degradation to the fragile travertine dams, and several animal species have disappeared from the area in recent decades or are at risk.
Band-e-Amir had been a destination for travelers since the 1950s, with a peak visitation in the 1970s. Tourism was almost entirely absent during the war years between 1979-2001. Today, Band-e-Amir is visited every year by thousands of Afghan tourists and religious pilgrims as well as many foreigners currently living and working in-country. The park is near the Bamyan Valley, where the 1,500-year-old giant Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban once stood.
"At its core, Band-e-Amir is an Afghan initiative supported by the international community. It is a park created for Afghans, by Afghans, for the new Afghanistan," said Dr. Steven E. Sanderson, President and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society. "Band-e-Amir will be Afghanistan's first national park and sets the precedent for a future national park system."
Key funding was provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), with additional support from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) to conduct preliminary wildlife surveys, identify and delineate the park's boundaries, and work with local communities and the provincial government. WCS also developed the park's management plan, helped the government hire and train local rangers, and provided assistance to the Afghan Government to design the laws enabling the park to be created.
Though much of the park's wildlife has been lost, recent surveys indicate that it still contains ibex (a species of wild goat) and urial (a type of wild sheep) along with wolves, foxes, smaller mammals and fish, and various bird species including the Afghan snow finch, which is believed to be the only bird found exclusively in Afghanistan.
Snow leopards were once found in the area but vanished due to hunting in the early 1980s.
Creating the national park will provide international recognition essential to helping develop Band-e-Amir as an international tourist destination, and assist it in obtaining World Heritage Status, which would provide additional protection, according to a WCS statement

By LiveScience Staff
posted: 22 April 2009 08:25 am ET

freaky fish

top 10 conspiracies

By Benjamin Radford LiveScience's Bad Science ColumnistConspiracy. Just saying the word in conversation can make people politely edge away, looking for someone who won't corner them with wild theories about how Elvis, John F. Kennedy, and Bigfoot are cryogenically frozen in an underground bunker. Yet conspiracies do exist. In the corporate world, major companies we buy products from everyday have been found guilty of conspiring to fix prices and reduce competition. Just about any planned criminal act committed by more than one person could be considered a conspiracy, from simple murder-for-hire to the Watergate break-in. Many conspiracy theorists go much further, though, and see a hidden hand behind the world's major events. While some of the theories have a grain of truth to them, conspiracy theories are impossible to disprove, because the hardcore believers will find some way to rationalize away evidence that contradicts their beliefs. Eyewitnesses who dispute their conclusions are mistaken--or part of the conspiracy. At least that's what they want you to think...
Benjamin Radford is LiveScience's Bad Science columnist, managing editor of Skeptical Inquirer magazine, and author of three books; they can be found on his website.

the crystal skull

When the print version of Strange Magazine first launched in 1987, there were two known life-size quartz crystal skulls. One was allegedly discovered by adventurer F. A. Mitchell Hedges in Central America; the other, of murky origins, resided in the British Museum.
Strange Magazine founder Mark Chorvinsky was fascinated by these archeological mysteries and over a period of years did an in-depth study of both of these strange artifacts. His investigation ranged from spending days in the British Museum, gaining access to their "secret" crystal skull file, to interviewing people intimately involved with the skulls and their lore, including Anna Mitchell-Hedges, the daughter of F. A. Mitchell-Hedges, who is often credited with finding the skull bearing her father's name.
Mark published his findings in Strange Magazine Issues 1 and 3, in 1987 and 1988 respectively. In typical Chorvinsky style these are exhaustively researched articles that are valuable reference sources for anyone wanting to know the details behind the skulls.
Both articles, and related material, are presented here, for the first time online, in their entirety. They have not been edited or updated, but appear exactly as when first published.
The British Museum Crystal Skull
For years one of the most popular artifacts on exhibit at the British Museum was a life-size human skull carved out of quartz crystal. Often confused with the more famous Mitchell-Hedges skull, this quartz sculpture has a cryptic story of its own. This article was first published in Strange Magazine Issue 1, in 1987.
The Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull
"The Skull of Doom" is the most famous of the crystal skulls, and the one with the most lore surrounding it. The story of the Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull involves exotic adventure, scientific investigations, occult claims and rumors of fraud. This article is from Strange Magazine Issue 3, 1998.
F. Mitchell-Hedges: Credibility Problems
F. A. Mitchell-Hedges, while not exactly Indiana Jones, was a colorful character in his own right. Much of the core mythos surrounding the Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull was created by Mitchell-Hedges, so to evaluate the claims made by him requires an examination of the man himself.
Frank Dorland on The Crystal Skull
While working for Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Frank Dorland conducted scientific tests on the Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull. Here, in excerpts from interviews with Mark Chorvinksy, Dorland discusses some of the strange phenomena surrounding the skull.
Skull Channelling: The Fringe's Fringe
Over the years the Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull has attracted its share of enthusiasts of the occult. Beliefs concerning psychic phenomena, UFOs, and Atlantis have taken their place next to the other legends surrounding the skull. Here is an overview of some of these claims