Former English footballer Gary Neville’s $9.7 million eco-home was granted planning permission. But is this really what environmentally-smart building’s about? The ex-Manchester United club captain’s five-bedroom subterranean mansion will be the first carbon neutral home in Bolton, a city near the West Pennine Moors in England’s north west. The posh eco-home bears a striking resemblance to the Teletubbies’ house, where the starring […]
A new SARS-like mystery illness has health authorities alert ahead of the millions-strong Haj pilgrammage to Mecca. There have been two recent cases of a mysterious SARS-like virus linked to Saudi Arabia. It killed one of its victims from Saudi Arabia. The second who is still alive travelled through the country. The unknown mystery virus […]
Live long enough and we all know heartbreak, but what happens when a well-loved sustainable project walks away? Looking for day trips to explore modern Middle East architecture, I stumbled across Jordan’s The Aqaba House (TAH). This ambitious little house was the first modern home fully based on green building principles specific to its Aqaba location. Oriented […]
Dozens of protestors gathered in Tel Aviv‘s Rabin Square last Saturday night as Daylight Saving Time (DST) was set to end. They claimed Israel’s policy of ending DST prior to Yom Kippur favors the ultra-Orthodox sector of the population over practical interests of the secular and modern Orthodox majority. Their switch to winter time happens […]
Years after it was first announced, the Cambridge eco mosque has finally received planning permission. Back in 2010, we reported that the Cambridge Muslim community was planning to build Europe’s first eco mosque which would minimise carbon emissions and maximise the role faith has to play in environmental protection. Years on and the plans which […]
Miriam talks of Yom Kippur and the power of consciousness. The Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur is a day of introspection and prayer. In Israel, it’s a day of closed business and empty streets. The great soul-searching that began on Rosh HaShana climaxes at sunset on this holiest of days, when we seek to connect […]
Dubai learns some new moves with the Flying Steps. Red Bull has made the promotional move of contracting the four-time world breakdancing champions, the Flying Steps. We can’t recommend Red Bull as a wise choice for a drink, as it has proven to do more harm than good, health-wise, but I certainly can vouch for […]
Even though Qatar is the world’s second fattest nation, it will host four international sporting events in the next decade, including the 2016 World Road Cycling Championship and the 2022 World Cup. With Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani at the helm, Qatar’s bid committee spent years fighting to host this prestigious cycling event for two […]
A 45 minute shisha session is the equivalent of puffing 100 cigarettes. In a new study, Iranian researchers proved tobacco water pipes are as harmful as cigarettes, saying, “Our findings reveal profound effects of water pipe smoking on lung function, similar to the effects observed in deep inhalation cigarette smokers.” A student at Amman’s American Community School […]
Jara Mosque in Gabes boasts the tallest minaret in all of Tunisia and now it is covered in el Seed’s signature calligraffiti. Exactly one year after the Jasmine revolution, the French/Tunisian graffiti artist took on his largest project to date in creative protest against the intolerance shown by both artists and hard line Islamists since […]
Pamukkale is the most sensual and surreal of Turkey’s eleven World Heritage sites. Seventeen natural hot springs pour a continual stream of mineral water down the enormous travertine steps of Turkey’s Pamukkale. It’s a Dali painting come alive. Rock formations melt like liquid stairs dropping from hilltop Hierapolis towards the surrounding skirt of farmland. It’s […]
None of Egypt’s pyramids existed. Khafre wouldn’t commission the Great Pyramid of Giza for another 1500 years. But some time around 4000 BCE an Egyptian artist discovered the secret. This secret was the wonderful alchemy which transformed sand, ash, calcite lime, copper and fire into a lustrous blue-green gem worthy of the pharaohs. Faience, also […]
In the beginning of September, Darb 1718, an art and culture organization in Cairo, hosted a festival to promote recycling in Egypt. It featured a musical performance by El Zabaleen (the Garbage Collectors), a local band famous for reusing old materials as instruments to play their music. The Darb 1718 festival engaged many of the […]
‘Balash Kees’ is a new campaign launched by UNESCO Amman to help reduce the use of plastic bags in Jordan Walk around Jordan and you’ll realise pretty quickly that the country has a huge plastic bag and litter problem. Cheap black plastic bags are literally everywhere and they are a real eyesore. No more so […]
Palestinian youth practice “parkour” skills in Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip A budding physical discipline called parkour is attracting several youth in Gaza, aged between 12 and 23 years old to pass their time training in cemeteries, former Israeli settlements and in abandoned or run-down buildings. Parkour originated in the suburbs […]