“As I said in the House of Commons on Monday, the Government needs
to guarantee that UK-manufactured arms exported to Saudi Arabia have
not been used in breach of international humanitarian law, and if it cannot
provide that guarantee, then those exports must be suspended.
“The draft report from the Committee on Arms Export Controls reinforces
the urgency with which that question must be answered. All the evidence shows
that civilians are being targeted by coalition forces in Yemen, and we cannot
stand by and say nothing if they are doing so with UK arms. Boris Johnson
needs to get his head out of the sand, and stop this unwitting collusion in the
violation of international law.”
Apparently my stepdad and I are fucking psychically linked because ?? every single time he makes chili for dinner I get a migraine. Without fail. And it became like a ha ha running joke because it happened so many times but now I’m living 3 hours away from my parents and I just texted my mom and
[image ID: #@ prev maybe that is how migraines work #but most of us just don't have the fortune of personally knowing the individual making the chili #maybe you get migraines every time some random guy in rhode island makes chili. you'd never know #its like the world's worst platonic soulmate au. End ID]
A Palestinian protester burning the US flag on the Gaza border.
Unlike so many of those who claim to speak for them in the West, the Palestinians understand that US Imperialism, of which Israel is an expression, is the ultimate enemy of their cause. April 6, 2018
The Devils Hole is home to the endangered Devils Hole Pupfish.
From the National Park Service's page on Devils Hole: 'Devils Hole--a detached unit of Death Valley National Park--is habitat for the only naturally occurring population of the endangered Devils Hole Pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis).'
The existence of the pupfish does prevent the pumping of groundwater in the area, after a legal battle. I am not sure this would apply to all mining.
From a High Country News article on the pupfish: 'The Cappaert case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, testing the power of the Antiquities Act and the weight of the new Endangered Species Act. In 1976, the High Court affirmed the federal government’s right to maintain water levels sufficient to support the pupfish, even at the expense of water rights held by nearby ranchers.'
The habitat of this fish is incredibly small. However, it is slightly larger than suggested, as the fish swim at least 20m deep; the rock shelf referenced is the only place where the fish feed and spawn in the wild.
From the same National Park Service page: 'Although pupfish have been found as deep as 66 feet (20 m), the fish forage and spawn exclusively on a shallow rock shelf near the surface, feeding on the algae and diatoms found there.'
It is true that multiple conservation attempts have failed. Previous attempts to breed or crossbreed the fish have not been successful.
From a National Park Foundation article on the pupfish: 'Despite past efforts to create a similar artificial platform for the pupfish, as well as attempts to breed Devils Hole pupfish and hybrids in captivity, this small ledge remains the sole spawning and feeding shelf for the fish.'
I have not been able to find any references to 'assassination attempts'. One individual did threaten to pour pesticide into Devil's Hole, but it seems this was never attemped. If anyone can find anything on this, please let me know, but in the mean time I have to say this claim is unsubstantiated.
The fencing was initially installed after two people drowned, not after an assassination attempt. Later, more fencing and security was installed after three men drunkenly tresspassed and killed a pupfish.
From a High Country News article on the incident of tresspassing : 'Since the incident, Devils Hole has become an even more formidable fortress. The Park Service capped its towering fences with additional barbed wire. The public can only view the sunken cave from a distance now, more than 20 feet above it. And inside the fenced viewing area are even more cameras, motion sensors and “No Trespassing” signs.'
There is a breeding program at Ash Meadows Facility, where scientists have attempted to mimic the natural habitat of the pupfish.
From a National Geographic article on the breeding attempts: 'And when they built the Ash Meadows facility, the scientists tried to create a mirror image of Devil’s Hole, which meant bringing in water, substrate, and algae from the natural environment.'
I wont attempt to fact check whether the cave is haunted, but I can confirm that at least two people drowned and were not recovered from Devils Hole. Whilst the cave is not truly bottomless, the bottom has not yet been found.
From an SFGATE article on Devils Hole:'When the bottom of Devils Hole is one day found, the skeletons of two brothers-in-law may finally be recovered, fathoms below the frolicking pupfish.'
The breeding program has been more successful in recent years. This may be due to the discovery that diving beetles were eating the eggs and larvae, and the beetle population in the artificial environment being controlled. (This fact was not included in the original post, but I thought it was cool.)
From a National Geographic article on the breeding attempts: 'As Feuerbacher watched the infrared footage, which can visualize objects in the dark, a tiny pupfish larva smaller than a peppercorn flitted into the camera’s frame. This was big news. When a population gets as low as that of the pupfish, every animal—wild or captive, larva or adult—is critical to the species’ survival.
“I was pretty excited to see there was reproduction going on in the tank, and I just watched it for a little bit,” says Feuerbacher, a fish biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “Then I saw a beetle swim past.”
It began circling the fish, and closing in.
“Then it just dove in and basically tore the fish in half right while I was watching,” says Feuerbacher.
[...]
During the first beetle collection, facility manager Jennifer Gumm says they caught 500 beetles in three hours. And on the very next pupfish egg collection, which is done by leaving out pieces of carpet that the fish like to lay their eggs on, the team retrieved close to 40 pupfish eggs.
Before this, they had been lucky to find four or five pupfish eggs during a refuge collection. Usually, it was zero.'
