Qatar – the tiny desert nation known for sinking millions into futuristic follies like artificial clouds and underwater TV studios – has come down to earth with a plan to grow up to 70 percent of its own vegetables by 2023. Currently under 16 percent of their veggies are locally grown. “Cutting edge technology” will […]
If I had a head’s up that the world was ending, I’d pack up a decent book and head to Jordan’s Wadi Rum where ancient granite and sandstone rocks – set in a giant’s sandbox – warp all sense of time. It looks as it looked a century back when British officer T.E. Lawrence camped […]
If you've never been to a Gulf-region country - be prepared to scratch your head over the deadly past-time called drifting. The idea is to take your cars out of their carports and then drive your car as fast as possible on the highway, slam on the breaks and then attempt to frighten onlookers and fellow drivers on the road by drifting or sliding your car towards them. People sometimes get killed or badly injured.
Saudi Arabia is a dangerous place to drive. It’s the world’s most dangerous, according to recent media reports. Drifting, that past-time where young Saudi males drive their skidding cars into crowds is one cause, but camels, are to blame for about 97% of all accidents and fatalities that occur in the Kingdom, a new study […]
Posters mocking actor Ed Begley Jr. and radio-host Robert Kennedy Jr. were plastered all over Hermosa Beach, California and nearby neighborhoods ahead of the pair’s recent appearance at the simplistically titled, “Environmental Forum with Bobby Kennedy Jr. & Ed Begley Jr.” at the Hermosa Beach Community Theater. Tuck this in the ballooning file labeled “When celebrities […]
Nearly a year on, the Sindh High Court has revoked a federal notification that allowed issuance of permits to Arab dignitaries for hunting endangered species
The experimental flying lab better known as Solar Impulse 2 was launched today in Abu Dhabi. The groundbreaking airplane will circumnavigate the world flying both day and night without using a single drop of fossil fuel. Said co-pilot Betrand Piccard, “You can achieve miracles with renewable energy and clean technologies.”
Engineers at Lockheed-Martin recently developed and patented a molecular filtration membrane called Perforene which can desalinate seawater using only 1/100th the energy of the best existing desalination systems. Perforene is made from graphene, the exciting new nanomaterial which comes in the form of one-atom thick sheets of carbon atoms. Like an overzealous nanotechnology, graphene seems […]
Peak sand and an end to construction as we know it
A hundred employees from The Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh planted over 300 trees in the hotel’s surroundings as part of a new environmental campaign called Green Earth, Clean Earth. The project is part of a global initiative called Clean up the World with a dual purpose to preserve the natural environment and give back to the […]
WASHINGTON — Inhabitants of the oil-exporting sheikhdoms and emirates of the Persian Gulf wolf down an average 3,700 calories a day —leading to the highest rates of obesity on Earth — even as at least 805 million people, one-ninth of the world’s population, go hungry. Such huge disparities will ultimately lead to widespread unrest, warns […]
The Ebola virus, already said to be virtually out of control in west Africa, may also be threatening Saudi Arabia and other parts of the Middle East.
The annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca known as Hajj has officially begun.
How do you feel about jewelry made from dead animals? I’m not talking about fetish jewelry where teeth, bones, and vertebrae turn into sinister charms, but tasteful pendants and earrings made more colorful by adding real insect wings.
يعد انتشار وباء الإيبولا في غرب أفريقيا الأسوأ من نوعه بحسب منظمة الصحة العالمية وذلك بعد حصده أكثر من ألف روح، و هنالك مخاوف من انتشاره من منشأه في الغرب الأفريقي إلى مناطق أخرى، بما فيها الشرق الأوسط ظهر هذا الفيروس بداية في ثلاث دول، و هي غينيا و ليبيريا و سييراليون، حيث حاولت المنظمات المعنية […]