Yeltsin was vacationing at the Dead Sea for the past few weeks prior to his death today and I just thought I would do some preemptive tabloid rumor control. No. He did not die because of the Dead Sea. That’s not why it’s called the Dead Sea. He came, he had a nice mud bath, talked with the King a bit and went home last week.

Now the two Russian couple that died in Ma’en a few days ago because of a landslide, well that was an act of God. But we should really do something about safety measures down there.