There’ll be a little black spot on the Sun today… (in June). Watch out for Venus come sunrise. A rare transit of Venus will be visible at local sunrise throughout the Mideast on the morning of Wednesday June 6, 2012. A transit occurs when one celestial body passes in front of another from an observer’s […]
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A bird-brained theory: Turkish farmers suspect a European bee-eater found in their fields of spying for Israel. When a farmer in Gaziantep province in southeastern Turkey came across a dead bird in his field several days ago, he thought nothing of it — until he noticed a band around its leg, reading “Israel Tel Aviv”, […]
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We’re fond of saying that nature knows no borders but we could never have illustrated the point as well as a recent story from the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI). The Barn Owls pictured above have recently parented seven little owlets in a nesting box situated on Kibbutz Ma’oz Hai’im just […]
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A list of women’s names written in cuneiform is the only remnant of this unidentified language, which was spoken 2,500 years ago. Found in the remains of an enormous palace that was destroyed by a fire around 700 BCE, the clay tablet pictured above holds the only remnants of a language previously unknown to modern […]
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Conservationists in Jordan have criticized a news website for reporting positively on a video which shows two men posing with a dead owl they claim to have killed Images have emerged of more animal rights abuse in the Middle East – this time in Jordan. A video was posted on a Jordanian news site showing […]
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Palmaculture is a new name for an old concept – one which helped green the Middle East with traditional palm gardens called bustans For centuries now date palm groves have been present in the hot deserts of MENA stretching from Morocco in the west to Yemen in the south. Indeed these man-made ecosystems have been […]
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Nobody offers up adrenalin and nature bliss quite like Adventures in Lebanon. Their first whitewater rafting trip of the season on Nahr El Assi – an animated river roaring with springtime snowmelt – commences at 8.30am on Sunday at Futuroscope in Beirut and ends twelve hours later in the same spot. A scenic three hour […]
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Four years ago Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA) schemed a plan to eradicate the blue-leafed wattle (acacia saligna), an invasive species native to Australia that threatened to overrun the native plant species in Nahal Sorek National Park. Just a few years ago the blue-leafed wattle spread beyond the park’s boundaries to eight spots along the […]
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The full “supermoon” peers out from behind the US Capitol building in Washington DC; taken by @quinalty. People around the world flocked to catch a glimpse of the spectacular “supermoon” that lit up the night sky on Saturday. At roughly 11.34 pm EDT on 5 May, 2012 the moon passed its perigree – the closest point to […]
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When Shimrit Elisar travels to other cities, she wonders where to find pizza after hours, where all the “cool kids” hang out, and how to score a reasonably-priced yoga class. In other words, she wants an insider’s look, which is why she was inspired to create DIY Tel Aviv. This alternative city guide is packed […]
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Last year in Cyprus a total of 2.8 million migrating birds were trapped and killed to make a pickled dish called ambelopoulia. It’s a serious crime and offenders face fines of up to €17,000 and three years in jail if caught, but Agriculture Minister Sophocles Aletaris told an EU delegation concerned about environmental issues that […]
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Recently Arwa posted NASA images that depict how we have drastically altered countries in the Middle East and North Africa – a jarring post that was read by hundreds of people around the world. Today we bring you a staggering video by Globaïa, which globalizes local issues and demonstrates how efficiently human beings have conquered […]
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Israel works to create a buffer zone around Egypt and Gaza fearing rare strain of foot and mouth disease will spread. With vaccines in short supply the Food and Agriculture Association of the United Nations warn that animals should not be moved around Gaza to stop the spread of a new strain of foot and […]
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From urbanisation in Morocco to lake shrinkage in Iran, these shocking NASA photos prove how this region is in dramatic ecological flux. Unless you have been living in a consumer-induced coma, it will not have escaped your attention that the world is under serious environmental stress. And a large chunk of that stress has been human-induced. […]
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A recent Israeli Supreme Court decision has temporarily barred the shipment of 90 monkeys to research labs in the United States. Mazor Farm, where the monkeys are being farmed, must now provide documentation proving it operates within Israel’s legal framework for captive animals. Many people imagine the typical Israeli farm as a peaceful, lush, agrarian […]
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