Yalla Parkour, directed by Areeb Zuaiter, captures this culture from within. The film follows Zuaiter’s long relationship with Ahmed Matar, a parkour athlete in Gaza, as she reflects on loss, memory, and belonging after the death of her mother. What begins as a personal search gradually opens into a portrait of how movement shapes young lives under constraint.
Al-Rumaydh describes the Sidr less as a single organism and more as a working ecological unit. Its deep roots reach down toward groundwater, while lateral roots spread wide to catch surface moisture. Its dense canopy slows wind instead of blocking it abruptly, reducing erosion.
The supply chain includes chemical and materials heavyweights such as Mitsubishi Corporation, Neste Corporation, Toray Industries, Mitsui Chemicals, Idemitsu Kosan, ENEOS, Hanwha Impact, Formosa Chemicals & Fibre, and SK Geo Centric, among others.
Yalla Parkour, directed by Areeb Zuaiter, captures this culture from within. The film follows Zuaiter’s long relationship with Ahmed Matar, a parkour athlete in Gaza, as she reflects on loss, memory, and belonging after the death of her mother. What begins as a personal search gradually opens into a portrait of how movement shapes young lives under constraint.
Al-Rumaydh describes the Sidr less as a single organism and more as a working ecological unit. Its deep roots reach down toward groundwater, while lateral roots spread wide to catch surface moisture. Its dense canopy slows wind instead of blocking it abruptly, reducing erosion.
The supply chain includes chemical and materials heavyweights such as Mitsubishi Corporation, Neste Corporation, Toray Industries, Mitsui Chemicals, Idemitsu Kosan, ENEOS, Hanwha Impact, Formosa Chemicals & Fibre, and SK Geo Centric, among others.
Yalla Parkour, directed by Areeb Zuaiter, captures this culture from within. The film follows Zuaiter’s long relationship with Ahmed Matar, a parkour athlete in Gaza, as she reflects on loss, memory, and belonging after the death of her mother. What begins as a personal search gradually opens into a portrait of how movement shapes young lives under constraint.
Al-Rumaydh describes the Sidr less as a single organism and more as a working ecological unit. Its deep roots reach down toward groundwater, while lateral roots spread wide to catch surface moisture. Its dense canopy slows wind instead of blocking it abruptly, reducing erosion.
The supply chain includes chemical and materials heavyweights such as Mitsubishi Corporation, Neste Corporation, Toray Industries, Mitsui Chemicals, Idemitsu Kosan, ENEOS, Hanwha Impact, Formosa Chemicals & Fibre, and SK Geo Centric, among others.
Yalla Parkour, directed by Areeb Zuaiter, captures this culture from within. The film follows Zuaiter’s long relationship with Ahmed Matar, a parkour athlete in Gaza, as she reflects on loss, memory, and belonging after the death of her mother. What begins as a personal search gradually opens into a portrait of how movement shapes young lives under constraint.
Al-Rumaydh describes the Sidr less as a single organism and more as a working ecological unit. Its deep roots reach down toward groundwater, while lateral roots spread wide to catch surface moisture. Its dense canopy slows wind instead of blocking it abruptly, reducing erosion.
The supply chain includes chemical and materials heavyweights such as Mitsubishi Corporation, Neste Corporation, Toray Industries, Mitsui Chemicals, Idemitsu Kosan, ENEOS, Hanwha Impact, Formosa Chemicals & Fibre, and SK Geo Centric, among others.
Yalla Parkour, directed by Areeb Zuaiter, captures this culture from within. The film follows Zuaiter’s long relationship with Ahmed Matar, a parkour athlete in Gaza, as she reflects on loss, memory, and belonging after the death of her mother. What begins as a personal search gradually opens into a portrait of how movement shapes young lives under constraint.
Al-Rumaydh describes the Sidr less as a single organism and more as a working ecological unit. Its deep roots reach down toward groundwater, while lateral roots spread wide to catch surface moisture. Its dense canopy slows wind instead of blocking it abruptly, reducing erosion.
The supply chain includes chemical and materials heavyweights such as Mitsubishi Corporation, Neste Corporation, Toray Industries, Mitsui Chemicals, Idemitsu Kosan, ENEOS, Hanwha Impact, Formosa Chemicals & Fibre, and SK Geo Centric, among others.
Yalla Parkour, directed by Areeb Zuaiter, captures this culture from within. The film follows Zuaiter’s long relationship with Ahmed Matar, a parkour athlete in Gaza, as she reflects on loss, memory, and belonging after the death of her mother. What begins as a personal search gradually opens into a portrait of how movement shapes young lives under constraint.
Al-Rumaydh describes the Sidr less as a single organism and more as a working ecological unit. Its deep roots reach down toward groundwater, while lateral roots spread wide to catch surface moisture. Its dense canopy slows wind instead of blocking it abruptly, reducing erosion.
The supply chain includes chemical and materials heavyweights such as Mitsubishi Corporation, Neste Corporation, Toray Industries, Mitsui Chemicals, Idemitsu Kosan, ENEOS, Hanwha Impact, Formosa Chemicals & Fibre, and SK Geo Centric, among others.
Yalla Parkour, directed by Areeb Zuaiter, captures this culture from within. The film follows Zuaiter’s long relationship with Ahmed Matar, a parkour athlete in Gaza, as she reflects on loss, memory, and belonging after the death of her mother. What begins as a personal search gradually opens into a portrait of how movement shapes young lives under constraint.
Al-Rumaydh describes the Sidr less as a single organism and more as a working ecological unit. Its deep roots reach down toward groundwater, while lateral roots spread wide to catch surface moisture. Its dense canopy slows wind instead of blocking it abruptly, reducing erosion.
The supply chain includes chemical and materials heavyweights such as Mitsubishi Corporation, Neste Corporation, Toray Industries, Mitsui Chemicals, Idemitsu Kosan, ENEOS, Hanwha Impact, Formosa Chemicals & Fibre, and SK Geo Centric, among others.
Yalla Parkour, directed by Areeb Zuaiter, captures this culture from within. The film follows Zuaiter’s long relationship with Ahmed Matar, a parkour athlete in Gaza, as she reflects on loss, memory, and belonging after the death of her mother. What begins as a personal search gradually opens into a portrait of how movement shapes young lives under constraint.
Al-Rumaydh describes the Sidr less as a single organism and more as a working ecological unit. Its deep roots reach down toward groundwater, while lateral roots spread wide to catch surface moisture. Its dense canopy slows wind instead of blocking it abruptly, reducing erosion.
The supply chain includes chemical and materials heavyweights such as Mitsubishi Corporation, Neste Corporation, Toray Industries, Mitsui Chemicals, Idemitsu Kosan, ENEOS, Hanwha Impact, Formosa Chemicals & Fibre, and SK Geo Centric, among others.
The Taliban walks between hypocrisy and holiness while trying to figure out how to profit from poppies and not damage its local economy. Image via the NY Times.
Off-grid solar panels that provide electricity to water pumps in lost and forlorn areas in Afghanistan have led to an opium bounty. The solar pumps that are stand alone and not connected to an official electricity supply have allowed Afghans to dig deeper. The idea started around 2014 and bumper crops have appeared since.
Still, more and more Afghans are investing several hundred dollars a year for seeds and equipment hoping to make a ballpark $5000 profit. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Afghanistan produced 83 percent of the world’s opium from 2015 to 2020. In short, if you use heroin, you fund terror.
The solar-powered electric pumps also allow farmers to grow all manners of crops such as wheat, pomegranates and garden plots in a critical time when dozens of millions of Afghans face extreme food insecurity.
Poppy fields from above in Afghanistan. See the solar panels?
“We’ve stood by on the sidelines and, unfortunately, allowed the Taliban to become probably the largest funded non-designated terrorist organization on the globe,” said a US official with knowledge of Afghanistan’s drug trade.
Men working in the poppy fields, New York Times
“The US and international partners have continued to pull out and not addressed poppy cultivation,” the official said on condition of anonymity. “What you’re going to find is that it has exploded.”
Now after 20 years and the Taliban back in power they announced April 3 that poppy cultivation is outlawed and violators will be punished under Shariah law.
The Taliban had enforced an effective ban on poppy cultivation in 2001, just before a US-led international military intervention toppled the regime. From 2002 to 2021, the US government spent almost $9 billion on counternarcotics as it fought Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.
Taliban bans opium production for their benefit
The opium business earned Afghanistan about $1.8 billion to $2.7 billion last year, according to the United Nations with sales accounting for up to 14% of its GDP.
According to a European Union-funded research project by David Mansfield opium farmers now rely on at least 67,000 solar powered water reservoirs. He has studied illegal economies and rural livelihoods in Afghanistan for the last two decades.
“It’s too bad for Afghans because poppy is the wealth of the Afghan people,” Shah Agha, 35, a poppy farmer from the Zari District of Kandahar, told the NY Times in a recent article.
“I think they banned it for their own benefit because most of the smugglers and Taliban commanders have tons of opium, and they might want to increase the prices,” Mr. Agha added.
Vice reported from the field about a month ago and noticed that despite the ban, it was harvest as usual.
With pictures in the Vice article of kids playing with bags of opium in the fields it’s easy to imagine the toll of addiction in Afghanistan in all ages abd walks of life. And it’s not only there.:Iran also faces drug addiction from illicit drugs such as heroin.
An electronic skin which can learn from feeling ‘pain’ could help create a new generation of smart robots with human-like sensitivity.
The Scots have always been known as great inventors. I know this factoid because my Scottish mother would never let me forget: There is James Watt’s steam engine, the bicycle, Alexander Graham Bell’s invention of the first practical telephone, and John Logie Baird’s TV. Recently they have been pioneering the sustainable too by restoring wildlands in the United Kingdom with Rewilding. Now, University of Glasgow scientists invent an artificial electronic skin to feel pain.
The advance may help science make artificial limbs more life-like. It could be part of a new generation of smart robots with human-like sensitivity.
“What we’ve been able to create through this process is an electronic skin capable of distributed learning at the hardware level,” says lead professor Ravinder Dahiya, “which doesn’t need to send messages back and forth to a central processor before taking action. Instead, it greatly accelerates the process of responding to touch by cutting down the amount of computation required.
“We believe that this is a real step forward in our work towards creating large-scale neuromorphic printed electronic skin capable of responding appropriately to stimuli.”
The artificial skin is based on synaptic transistors, which mimics the brain’s neural pathways in order to learn. A robot hand which uses the smart skin shows a remarkable ability to learn to react to external stimuli.
In a new paper published in the journal Science Robotics, the researchers describe how they built their prototype computational electronic-skin (e-skin), and how it improves on the current state of the art in touch-sensitive robotics.
Scientists have been working for decades to build artificial skin with touch sensitivity. One widely-explored method is spreading an array of contact or pressure sensors across the electronic skin’s surface to allow it detect when it comes into contact with an object.
Data from the sensors is then sent to a computer to be processed and interpreted. The sensors typically produce a large volume of data which can take time to be properly processed and responded to, introducing delays which could reduce the skin’s potential effectiveness in real-world tasks.
The Glasgow team’s new form of electronic skin draws inspiration from how the human peripheral nervous system interprets signals from skin in order to eliminate latency and power consumption.
As soon as human skin receives an input, the peripheral nervous system begins processing it at the point of contact, reducing it to only the vital information before it is sent to the brain. That reduction of sensory data allows efficient use of communication channels needed to send the data to the brain, which then responds almost immediately for the body to react appropriately.
To build an electronic skin capable of a computationally efficient, synapse-like response, the researchers printed a grid of 168 synaptic transistors made from zinc-oxide nanowires directly onto the surface of a flexible plastic surface. Then, they connected the synaptic transistor with the skin sensor present over the palm of a fully-articulated, human-shaped robot hand.
When the sensor is touched, it registers a change in its electrical resistance – a small change corresponds to a light touch, and harder touch creates a larger change in resistance. This input is designed to mimic the way sensory neurons work in the human body.
In earlier generations of electronic skin, that input data would be sent to a computer to be processed. Instead, a circuit built into the skin acts as an artificial synapse, reducing the input down into a simple spike of voltage whose frequency varies according to the level of pressure applied to the skin, speeding up the process of reaction.
Giving artificial limbs a human touch
The new advance could make artificial limbs more human-like or your robotic girlfriend less complacent
The team used the varying output of that voltage spike to teach the skin appropriate responses to simulated pain, which would trigger the robot hand to react. By setting a threshold of input voltage to cause a reaction, the team could make the robot hand recoil from a sharp jab in the centre of its palm.
In other words, it learned to move away from a source of simulated discomfort through a process of onboard information processing that mimics how the human nervous system works.
The development of the electronic skin is the latest breakthrough in flexible, stretchable printed surfaces from the University of Glasgow’s Bendable Electronics and Sensing Technologies (BEST) Group, led by Professor Ravinder Dahiya:
“We all learn early on in our lives to respond appropriately to unexpected stimuli like pain in order to prevent us from hurting ourselves again. Of course, the development of this new form of electronic skin didn’t really involve inflicting pain as we know it – it’s simply a shorthand way to explain the process of learning from external stimulus.”
Fengyuan Liu, a co-author of the paper, added: “In the future, this research could be the basis for a more advanced electronic skin which enables robots capable of exploring and interacting with the world in new ways, or building prosthetic limbs which are capable of near-human levels of touch sensitivity.”
A high-tech cannabis greenhouse using hydroponics can control the environment to optimise cannabis strains for medical marijuana
Cannabis was always researched in Israel. It started in the 60s when chemist Raphael Mechoulam working at the Weizmann Institute was given a few pounds of hashish from the police to check his curiosity about active ingredients in the plant. He went on to isolate the main molecules in medical marijuana, THC and CBD, giving them their famous names.
I interviewed Mechoulam about 15 years ago when no one was interested in cannabis as medicine except for the drug dealers and happy hippies who could grow it secretly in places like Canada. But so much has changed in perception and science since then.
Throughout the world, the cannabis plant is gaining in popularity and legitimacy as a medical treatment for a broad range of illnesses from cancer to depression to PTSD. The THC in the plant which makes the high can also bring many therapeutic benefits.
In a new research project at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Professor Alexander Vainstein has engineered a cannabis plant with higher levels of medically-important substances, such as THC. This is the molecule that creates the “high” in cannabis, but it is also believed to have a number of therapeutic benefits as well.
He used a method that has been applied to other plants but not in cannabis, until now. And with this method claims in scientific literature to have boosted the cannabis to 17% THC.
While the end-product is not genetically modified, the virus that changes the cannabis plant is. Vainstein tells Green Prophet:
“The viral vector is genetically modified. It activates/suppresses specific plant genes. Regulatory issues for field applications are still to be finalized.”
Well it might come to news to the scientific community but cannabis growers in Canada who grow cannabis using hydroponics illegally often claimed those numbers and more. But verified by scientists and created under supervision researchers successfully increased the level of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the main psychoactive component in cannabis, by close to 17%, and the level of CBG (cannabigerol), often referred to as the mother of all cannabinoids, by close to 25%.
Further, Vainstein and his team were able to increase the ratio of terpenes, which are responsible for maximizing the euphoric effects of cannabis, by 20–30%.
Higher concentrations of medicine in plants means more extract per plants, means cheaper medicine for the end user.
Personalized cannabis medicine
The researchers used gene science and a plant-based virus, that had first been neutralized so that it could not harm the plant, and then manipulating it to express the genes that influence the production of active substances in the cannabis plant.
“This represents an innovative use of these tools, which were constructed using synthetic biology tools,” explained Vainstein. “Next, we developed an innovative technology based on infection with an engineered virus to facilitate chemical reactions that increase the quantities of desired substances.”
This is the first time that researchers have succeeded in performing such a feat with cannabis plants. In 2011, Vainstein released a breakthrough technique to improve the genome of all plants by infecting them with a modified virus.
The plant virus is temporarily used to introduce genes that encode a special enzyme that is able to permanently change the plant genome in predetermined regions and in a specific manner. The plant cells manufacture these biological DNA “editing scissors” that then cut and change the plant genome in every virus infected cell. The virus is then eliminated from the plant, and the seeds or vegetative tissues can be grown to produce fully modified plants.
Currently, there is a great deal of research activity aimed at identifying additional substances and medical treatments that can be derived from the cannabis plant, in addition to the more than 200 active ingredients that have already been identified.
Until now, there had been no way to tailor strains to produce certain cannabis substances or to alter the ratio between them. According to Vainstein, “These study results will be valuable both to industry—to increase the yield of active substances, and to medical researcher—to cultivate and develop new strains for medical cannabis users.”
Vainstein added that more extensive experiments with the engineered plant are currently underway and should be available to cannabis industry leaders and medical research in the next few months. No doubt the researchers, through the tech transfer arm of the university – Yissum – will be keen on selling the system of gene modification.
Maybe you went on a rainforest cruise that changed your life? Maybe mushroom science or renewable energy are issues you are passionate about. When you write a dissertation you need to choose above all, something that moves you.
Selecting a dissertation topic can be a daunting task. There are so many different areas of study to choose from, and it can be difficult to know which direction to go in. In this blog post, we will provide some tips on how to select a dissertation topic that is both interesting and relevant to your field of study. So, if you are struggling to come up with an idea, read on!
Select A Topic That You Are Passionate About
When choosing a topic for your dissertation, it is important to select a subject that you are passionate about. This will help to keep you motivated during the long hours of research and writing. It is also important to select a topic that is relevant to your field of study. By choosing a topic that is closely related to your area of expertise, you will be able to produce a more comprehensive and well-informed piece of work.
Are you planning to study decentralised currency that can mitigate climate change? Or one that helps developing nations? Learn how to build and invest in writing a dissertation for the planet.
It is also advisable to select a topic that has not been overly researched in the past. By doing this, you will be able to add new insights and perspectives to the existing body of knowledge. If you’re not sure what topic to choose, check out thisbest dissertation helper online and see how they can help you.
Do The Research
First, take some time to look at the research that’s already been done in your field. This will give you a sense of what topics have been covered extensively and which ones still need more exploration. Once you’ve identified a few possible directions, it’s time to start doing some more targeted research. Talk to your advisor and other experts in your field to get their perspectives on the topics that you are exploring for further study. Once you’ve gathered all of this information, it’s time to sit down and make a decision. Trust your instincts and choose the topic that feels right for you. With hard work and dedication, you’ll be sure to produce a winning dissertation.
Ask For Advice
One of the best pieces of advice is to consult with your advisor. They will be able to provide guidance and help you choose a topic that is suitable for your skills and interests. Additionally, they may be able to connect you with other resources, such as literature reviews, data sets, or adissertation service online. Another helpful tip is to talk to fellow students who have already gone through the process. They can offer first-hand insights and share their own experiences with you.
Ultimately, the decision of what to write your dissertation on is up to you. However, by seeking out advice from those who have gone before, you can increase your chances of choosing a topic that is both achievable and rewarding.
Be Objective
Dissertations are a huge undertaking, and picking the right topic is an important first step. You’ll want to choose a topic that you’re passionate about, but it’s also important to be objective. Ask yourself whether your topic is feasible, and whether there is enough research material available. It’s also important to think about how much time you realistically have to dedicate to your dissertation. Once you’ve considered all of these factors, you should have an idea of what direction to take your dissertation in.
Avoid Being Too Vague
One way to find a good middle ground is to start with a broad subject area and then narrow it down by looking at specific aspects or case studies. For example, if you’re interested in social media, you could look at how it affects different age groups or how it’s used in different parts of the world. Or if you’re interested in environmental issues, you could focus on a specific country or region. By getting more specific, you can make sure your dissertation is focused and manageable.
So when you’re choosing your dissertation topic, don’t be afraid to think outside the box. And if you’re having trouble narrowing down your topic, talk to your advisor or another expert in your field. They should be able to give you some guidance on finding a topic that’s just right for you.
Wrapping Up
Choosing a dissertation topic can be a daunting task. However, by taking the time to do your research and seek out advice, you’ll be in a much better position to find a topic that’s both achievable and rewarding. Trust your instincts, and don’t be afraid to think outside the box. With hard work and dedication, you’ll be sure to produce a winning dissertation.
Now more than ever, people recognize the importance of sustainability. From the types of products we buy to the food we eat, choosing to live more sustainably means considering the natural environment around us first. For MedTech executive Tim Murawski, sustainability extends to the landscaping he uses around his family’s home. Situated on a lake, Murawski’s house provides the perfect spot for water sports like barefoot skiing.
“I think it’s the exhilaration of [the feeling that] there’s nothing between your feet and the water,” Murawski says of barefoot skiing on his beloved lake. “So I’d say it’s exhilarating, and it’s very peaceful for me as well.”
But when it comes to landscaping, the lakeside location needs a little more attention to detail. With the help of local landscape architects from Hursthouse, Murawski has been able to design the look he wants while protecting the setting.
The Importance of Sustainable Landscaping
Swimming and boating in Lake Tahoe
At its core, sustainable landscaping is about working with nature instead of against it. Where traditional landscaping methods focus on just creating beauty for beauty’s sake, sustainable landscaping tries to give value back to the environment. These benefits could include improving air and water quality, conserving energy, and providing shelter and habitat to wildlife. What’s more, this type of landscaping gives back to property owners in the form of time and money saved in the long run.
Landscaping To Protect Tim Murawski’s Lakeside Property
Owning a lakeside home is an incredible privilege and as Tim Murawski knows, one that also comes with great responsibility. In general, it’s more of a challenge to make lakeside properties environmentally friendly, but it’s also much more important. Landscaping choices can have a direct effect on the water, which in turn affects plants, animals, and other people who use that water. Here are a few practices Murawski and others in similar situations have made to make their lakeside properties as sustainable as possible.
Preventing Soil Erosion
As an avid water sportsman, Tim Murawski enjoys spending time on the water when he’s not at work. This has led him to cultivate a deep appreciation and respect for the lake itself. To help keep it healthy for years to come, Murawski and his wife have invested in landscaping practices to prevent soil erosion. One of the biggest focuses for Murawski has been planting and maintaining native plants and species to stop this erosion.
Native Plants
Along with helping prevent soil erosion around the shoreline, utilizing native plants in landscaping can bring benefits. Unlike non-native flowers and plants, local species need less watering to thrive. They also rely less on harmful pesticides and herbicides because they’ve already adapted to that environment. Additionally, they can provide shelter and food for birds, fish, and other wildlife.
Reconsidering the Traditional Lawn Mower
Unlike traditional landlocked lawns, shoreside properties are recommended to reconsider lawn mowers. Gas-powered mowing tools discharge harmful emissions that can float into the air and lake as vapor. Property owners like Tim Murawski looking to reduce these emissions have a few options. One is to use more hand tools if possible. You can also make the switch to an electric mower, which will not only cut emissions but cut noise pollution.
A Deeper Dive Into the Native Plants Tim Murawski Uses
One of Tim Murawski’s primary focuses has been introducing more native plants to his property. With the help of Hursthouse Landscaping Architects, the Murawski family has identified a variety of regional species to plant in their landscaping projects. Since they’re all native to the area, these plants can help stop shoreline erosion. Additionally, they can tolerate fluctuations in moisture level and heat during the growing season.
Here are a few examples of species that Hursthouse has recommended for use around the lake Murawski lives on.
Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium)
A beautiful ornamental bunchgrass, little bluestem shows off its signature blue color in the spring, turning a deep reddish hue once autumn hits. Capable of growing to 12 feet tall, it’s one of the eastern United States’ most crucial native prairie grasses.
Brown Fox Sedge (Carex vulpinoidea)
These fine-textured tussocks bear fuzzy fruiting heads, not unlike a foxtail. They’re great for attracting native birds.
Common Rush (Juncus effuses)
A wetland plant commonly found in wet soil or water, the common rush’s stems provide shelter for birds. Additionally, they’re an important nutritional source for local fauna like muskrats.
Ohio Spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis)
A beautiful addition to a perennial garden, the Ohio spiderwort is much prettier than its name suggests. With blue, branched stems and delicate clusters of bluish-purple flowers, this plant blooms from spring till the last weeks of summer.
Rattlesnake Master (Eryngium yuccifolium)
One of the more unusual perennials in Tim Murawski’s collection is the rattlesnake master. Perfect for moist soil environments, this flowering plant features a stiff stem, tough blue-green leaves, and small flower heads of white florets.
For a driven medtech exec, a little tranquility near the water is priceless. Says Murawski, “It’s absolutely a Zen peaceful experience for me. I think that I’m fortunate in that we live on the lake, and as busy and as hectic as my work is, when I’m able to do it, I’m on vacation for that time.
“So if I’m out for an hour, two hours, during that time, it’s a complete zen experience.”
Water is life. Any civilisation from the Bible or anywhere needed to live. Archaeologists in Israel uncover an ancient aqueduct in Jerusalem, one used for 2000 years to supply water to the city residents. The archaeologists marvel at the engineering and design.
A segment of the Low-Level Aqueduct to Jerusalem has been exposed over the last few weeks in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Armon Hanatsiv.
The Low-Level Aqueduct winds along a route of about 15 miles from Solomons Pools located south of Bethlehem to the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem with a very slight gradient – descending by about one yard along every mile.
This amazing water system, started by the Hasmonean kings in order to increase the water supply to Jerusalem and in particular to the Temple Mount where Jews worshipped God, “astounds us until this very day, and due to the aqueducts ingenuity and quality, continued to be used until the British Mandate 100 years ago when the invention of electric pumps replaced it,” the researchers report.
“Two aqueducts brought water from Solomons` Pools, located between Bethlehem and Efrat to Jerusalem- the Low-Level Aqueduct and the High-Level Aqueduct,” says Ya`akov Billig Of the Israel Antiquities Authority, who has researched the ancient aqueducts to Jerusalem:
“It amazes us to think how they managed in antiquity to make the accurate measurements of elevation along such a long distance, choosing the route along the mountainous terrain and calculating the necessary gradient, all this without the modern sophisticated instruments we have today”.
Presently, segments of the Low-Level aqueduct are being revealed under Alkachi street in the Armon Hanatsiv, in an excavation directed by Alexander Wiegmann of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
Following the excavation, conservation experts will do preservation work along the remains towards their exhibition in a park for visitors and the public.
Sour green plums the size of large marbles are in the local Middle East markets now, a seasonal favorite of the Iraqis. Eat them out of hand as a snack, sprinkling each bite with a little salt. The classic Iraqi way to cook them is to pair them with meat in a flavorful stew. And if you want to ask for them in Persian just say “Gojeh sabz!”
Fruits in season in May
The summer wave of colorful fruit has begun, to the rejoicing of cooks who love to put up preserves. Apricots, peaches, and nectarines have entered the markets, and are already sweet enough to be worth buying. Strawberries are still with us, although getting seedy in preparation for disappearing till next year. If you haven’t made your jam yet, here’s our recipe. Kiwis are sweet and ripe.
Cherries have arrived, but they are rather expensive. Some years farmers predict huge crops when there is a prolonged winter, which allows the trees to “sleep” and blossom after the windiest weather. Some years when the weather is intense, windstorms and sandstorms will blow the blossoms off the cherry trees.
Avocados are still in the market, but are getting expensive again as their season wanes. As expected in warm weather, all the melons are sweet and ready for eating. Fresh green almonds have a different character now, because the milky interior gel has hardened into soft, pale kernels already. If you like them, buy now, for they will soon disappear. Loquat season is here.
Citrus fruit are still in evidence, with oranges, pomelos, and clementines for sale. Lemons are big and juicy; some lemon trees give two yearly crops, which accounts for their almost year-round presence. Good news for those who like to put up salty preserved lemons.
May seasonal vegetables
Tomatoes are expensive and will remain until a new crop comes in. If budget-conscious, look for smaller, less glamorous-looking tomatoes; they are just as good and cheaper. Depending on the day, cherry tomatoes can be cheapest of all.
The best bargains in vegetables this season are cauliflower and all the cabbages, which are big, firm, and cheap. Okra is in season, although expensive. String beans, broad Italian beans and wax beans look fine now, as does sweet corn.
Parsley root and celeriac continue full and fat, but as summer temperatures rise, these roots will shrink back and won’t be worth bothering with. The same is true of celery, by the way. Kohlrabi, fennel, beets, turnips, and red radishes are very good now, at reasonable prices.
Summer loves white and red potatoes; time to make one of those Middle Eastern potato salads fragrant with olive oil and lemon. Cucumbers, corn, and eggplants are good now. Come really hot weather, get to the market early for decent eggplants. They are susceptible to heat and in full summer, they buckle in, languishing on the vendor’s stands.
All the peppers are good in May. Look for baby bell peppers for stuffing. Grilled, and combined with grilled eggplant, peppers make a delicious dip, similar to muhamarra.
Here’s our recipe: just substitute grilled eggplants for the bread. Another well-loved Middle Eastern dish is stuffed zucchini – and zukes are looking good now too.
Pumpkins and butternut squash are in season. Combine one of them with a cob of local sweet corn, an onion, a tomato and your favorite herbs for a delicious soup. As every good cook knows, foods that come into season at the same time taste good together.
Two Middle-Eastern summer specialties are akoub, or tiny wild artichokes. Akoub is a spiky, edible plant found in a wide swath of the Middle East, from the mountains of Turkey down through the West Bank and Golan Heights to the Sinai Desert in Egypt. Akoub are akuvit hagalgal (the tumble thistle) in Hebrew and gundelia in English. Palestinians traditionally use the sturdy akoub stems and flower buds to make favorite dishes like stews, soups or fried eggs. It’s believed that akoub can treat many diseases from diabetes to bronchitis.
Palestinian farmer Ziad Sawan (L) and his daughter Rana harvest the Akoub plants at their farm in Immatain village, east of the West Bank city Qalqilya, March 31, 2021. (Photo by Nidal Eshtayeh/Xinhua)
They’re very thorny and labor-intensive to clean, so they’re always expensive. But as a seasonal treat, they can’t be surpassed, with their unique, delicate flavor. Any prickles that remain after cleaning soften upon cooking.
Melokhia, or mulokhia (or jute), has started its brief season. Here’s our recipe for traditional melokhia soup. The leaves may be rinsed, patted dry, and hung up by their stems to dry for future soups.
Melokhia or melochia, known in English as jute. Makes a good Egyptian soup.
Herbs in season in May
Basil is back again. At the herb vendors, there are plenty of parsley, coriander leaf, chives, celery, and scallions. Still in evidence are sorrel, tarragon, wormwood, Swiss chard, spinach, leeks and lettuces. Mint continues especially lovely. Grape leaves for stuffing are now being sold in stacks. You may find bunches of lemon verbena for sale now.
Fresh ginger root is in every spice vendor’s and also at the herb stands. Ginger root freezes well and is easy to peel and grate. Just put the remainder right back in the freezer after use, because it gets mushy once thawed out.
The landscape is drying up, with winter’s juicy wild greens just a memory. But there is always something for the alert forager to bring home.
Purslane
Purslane, summer’s featured wild edible, has started to appear on the ground. It’s tender now, so if you come across a nice patch of it, bring it home for your salads.
Honeysuckle
Make honeysuckle wine? For a sip of sweetness and to revive childhood memories, pluck a few honeysuckle blossoms. Honeysuckle can be made into wine: if you are determined and have access to a large quantity of pesticide-free blossoms, you can find the recipe below in a video. To capture that elusive flavor more easily, just drop a handful into a jar, cover with sugar, and wait a week. Rosemary is flowering, and it’s worth robbing the bees of a few blooms to flavor tea.
Dandelion
The dandelion of the Middle East is Taraxacum syriaca. It flowers sparsely and can only be found in hilly regions where winters are cold and consistently rainy. Dandelion is famous for liver support and as an effective diuretic. It’s also a natural superfood, loaded with minerals and vitamins.If you’re lucky enough to live where dandelions grow, pick the tender young leaves to marinate in vinaigrette before adding to salads.
Older, tougher leaves are quite bitter, but a few cooked with almost any soup gives a delicious, not-bitter flavor.
Dandelion roots are excellent in soups and stews. I used to make dandelion beer from the roots and leaves when I lived in the chilly north of Israel. It was good beer, too. There are recipes online like this one by Leda Meredith who once lived in Israel but who is now in Costa Rica.
Chicory
Chicory shares all of dandelion’s medicinal properties, but is difficult to pick. The leaves are tiny, and the root almost impossible to dig out of the hardened soil where the plant is most often found. The fluffy blue flowers are a joy to behold early in the morning, though, especially when you catch just the moment when all of them open spontaneously at the same time.
Bindweed
Bindweed, shown below, is the bane of farmers for its strong, thin vines that strangle crops in the fields, still produces beautiful pink and white flowers. Fill a vase with sprays of honeysuckle and bindweed for a wildflower bouquet to rest your eyes on.
Just like your circadian rhythm needs an LED light-free night for a good sleep, animals around the globe – whether they are nocturnal or diurnal – need a predictable amount of light and dark to develop, reproduce and thrive. When it’s night it should be dark, or with the moon, and when it’s day there should be light. But as urban spaces develop near coral reefs, the pollution from motorboats, freight shipping, pollutants, and now light, put the survival of coral reefs everywhere at risk.
The problem of light pollution and animals was addressed in a Green Prophet article about why you should turn your garden lights out at night. And when it comes to marine health and animals that live in the sea, their needs are about the same. Some 250 scientists have recently signed a protest against lighting up beaches near the coral reefs at night. Israel’s most southern city of Eilat is attempting to light up the night around its Red Sea shores and scientists worried about the already devastated reef fear it will not come back to life.
NASA sees artificial lights at night, from high in the sky
The Tourism Ministry of Israel, reports Haaretz, is moving forward with plans for a new boardwalk for the beaches in the north of the city, including Coral Beach and Zin Beach.
The lighting plan includes light fixtures along the entire length of the boardwalk. But Eilat’s coral reef, which is right off the shore, is one of the world’s most northern coral reefs and its location as such gives it exceptional resistance to climate change.
Because of this scientists believe that it will become a haven for biodiversity when climate change wipes out reefs in more southerly locations.
Biodiversity and beautiful reefs also attract tourists, and since Eilat has a public relations problem with its brash character, and lack of charm (ugly and loud hotels, poor customer service, obnoxious nightlife) tourists tend to bypass it and head to Sinai, Egypt which offers simple, affordable access to natural beaches. I wouldn’t go to Eilat if someone paid me. In short, Eilat needs all the help it can get.
Reefs biology relies on the sun and the moon
The call to stop the lighting around reefs is not a new idea and it has scientific studies backing it. In 2020, Bar Ilan University in Israel reported in the journal Current Biology that the daily light-dark cycle arising from the earth’s rotation is centrally important to biology. Marine organisms, particularly coral reefs, rely on natural light cycles of sunlight and moonlight to regulate various physiological, biological and behavioral processes.
The researchers found that light pollution prevented the syncing of gamete release, when reefs reproduce: “The daily light-dark cycle arising from the earth’s rotation is centrally important to biology. Marine organisms, particularly coral reefs, rely on natural light cycles of sunlight and moonlight to regulate various physiological, biological and behavioral processes,” they wrote.
“Both key coral species were affected by ecological light pollution. They exhibited asynchrony in the reproductive state which was reflected in the number of oocytes per polyp, gametogenesis, and gamete maturation,” says the study’s lead author Prof. Oren Levy at Bar-Ilan University.
“This was further reflected at the population level where only corals exposed to natural light cycles succeeded in spawning synchronization. Light treatment with both cold and warm LED’s had a similar impact on the gametogenesis cycle,” added Levy.
To shed light on how relevant their findings are on a worldwide scale, the researchers created a first-of-its-kind global map that highlights areas most threatened by artificial light at night (ALAN) including the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific and Indian Oceans. One striking example is the Gulf of Aqaba/Eilat in the northern Red Sea, where considerable urban lighting is present close to shore. There the least affected area is 47% brighter than a natural night sky, and this rises to a maximum of 60 times brighter.
With the global transition towards LED lighting, which tends to have higher emissions in the blue spectrum, more near shore coral reefs could be affected by artificial light, as blue light penetrates deeper into the water. This spectral shift is expected to be amplified by the current rapid population growth in coastal regions.
Levy and team’s results demonstrate that artificial light must be considered in conservation plans for coral reefs near areas of human activity and their light pollution impact assessment can help incorporate an important variable in coral reef conservation planning. If blue LED lights shorten the life span of flies (in this Nature study) what are they doing to reefs, to us?
The Emperor’s new clothes
Red Sea Island Project by Foster & Partners. The most sustainable hotel is no hotel. Go to a hut in Sinai instead.
Israel is not alone in managing the Red Sea. There is Aqaba, adjacent to Eilat in the east and Saudi Arabia below Jordan. Jorda, as one of the world’s poorest countries, doesn’t have a current problem with excessive over-development so it should take its cues from Israel who are managing similar environmental problems.
Saudi Arabia is different because typically few people visit or inhabit its beaches. But the prince of Saudi Arabia wants to change that with a bombastic plan to build cities and islands in the Red Sea area. He wants the west to do in Saudi Arabia what he won’t let women in Saudi Arabia do: frolic freely on beaches, drink and have a good time. This is all done with counsel by so-called eco advisors from Europe who talk sweetly about renewable energy and water management while no one mentions the drastic state of the world’s environment and the prince’s grand vision.
Going green is a path you can take to reduce air pollution and reduce your exposure to toxins. It’s something you can do to not only help the environment, but it offers benefits to your life as well. Choosing to be more environmentally friendly does not have to stop at home because it’s something you can implement at your place of business as well.
Switch to LED Lighting
If you don’t have natural light, you might need to switch to LED, though some complain that the flickering is disturbing.
LED lighting is a type of lighting you can use at home or in the workplace that uses less energy, which reduces energy costs. LED lights are considered energy-efficient and use approximately 75-percent less energy than an incandescent or CFL light would. LED lighting in the workplace can include:
Modular lighting
Parking garage lighting
Outdoor area lighting
Task lighting
Under-cabinet lighting
Recessed downlights
While the upfront costs of switching to LED lighting might be a bit higher than regular light sources, they generally last longer and will save you more money in the long run. The reason why LED lights are more effective at lighting and cost less is that they’re designed to not produce any unnecessary heat, so they don’t get as hot.
Clean The Water
A commercial reverse osmosis system is one method of cleaning the water in your commercial property.By having clean water for your employees, you encourage them to drink the water they have readily available to them instead of buying water bottles and contributing to waste. Tap water typically contains a lot of harmful chemicals, making it less desirable to drink. A reverse osmosis system gets rid of:
Sodium
Chloride
Copper
Lead
Chromium
Sulfate
Nitrate
Magnesium
The way that a reverse osmosis system works is that water flows backward through a more concentrated solution and filters out the impurities.
The plants that can clean your air
Adding plants to the workplace is an easy way to give back to the environment. Plants release oxygen into the atmosphere and they help clean up your air. Plants are also good for helping you focus and improving your well-being. Some plants you might want to consider adding to your business are:
Snake plant
Aloe vera
English ivy
Peace lily
Dracaena
Areca palm
Rubber plant
Philodendron
Spider plant
Plants not only look like they can help increase your productivity at work.
Eliminate Paper Waste
Many businesses produce a lot of paper waste, especially offices. One thing that can help you reduce the amount of paper waste is to think before you print. Think of why you need something printed and any alternative steps you can take to avoid printing a document. You can also take paperless notes instead of filling up notebooks. There are many programs you can utilize online such as Evernote and Microsoft Onenote.
It’s good to encourage employees to print on both sides of the paper if they absolutely must print something. Providing employees with dual monitors can also help eliminate the need for them to print out reference documents.
Encourage Recycling
Just like every business should provide trash cans to their employees, they should also provide numerous recycling bins throughout the building. You can make signs to hang up by the recycling bins that list the items that can be recycled to avoid any confusion. Many items that get tossed in the trash can be recycled instead. These items include:
Food boxes
Jugs
Glass bottles
Paper
Plastic bottles
Food cans
Cardboard
If your employees do not fall into the habit of utilizing the recycling bins, then you can send out reminders to help encourage them to do the right thing.
The environment should be protected and cherished. It’s where you live and it’s where you raise a family. You want to see the environment continue to be a safe place for many generations to come. It may feel like one person is not enough to make a difference, but one person can help cause a chain reaction and encourage more people to get on board.
Kiss the Ground is a special eco-organization in Venice, LA that teaches urban farming and regenerative agriculture.
Los Angeles is the biggest city in California and the second-most populous city in the United States. Naturally, a city as diverse, dynamic, vast, mercurial, and frequently misunderstood as Los Angeles has many nicknames. It takes time to adjust to Los Angeles. For most individuals, it’s either love or hate. It can be not easy to know where to begin with all the glamor and splendor. Here are some of the most important things I learned from my trip to Los Angeles. This book will provide you with the necessary information to create the ideal Los Angeles itinerary.
Where to Stay in Los Angeles
With so many wonderful hotels in Los Angeles, it can be hard to choose. The Mediterranean climate of Southern California results in moderate winters, low humidity, and plenty of sunshine. Spring provides spectacular blossoms, fresh strawberry doughnuts, and sunny autumns lengthen the rosé and rooftop season. The expansive city is massive – it has a lot to offer, and there are virtually infinite places to stay. Where you visit will probably have a significant impact on your L.A. vacation.
Try an LA cafe for brunch
There are also a lot of Airbnbs and rental homes to choose from. The most significant suggestion is to choose the neighborhood where you ought to be or want to spend the most time to limit traveling and optimize vacationing and then select a lodging in that neighborhood.
If you plan on staying in Los Angeles for more than three or four days, we recommend staying in two or three different neighborhoods, and using a plan my route app to help you navigate the city efficiently. This way, you can make the most out of your time and see all the sights you want to see without getting lost or spending too much time in transit.
You may relax on the beach for a few days, get an adrenaline rush at the amusement parks for a few days, and then explore the city in Downtown L.A. or West Hollywood. With a slew of new lodging options, many of which are housed in ancient converted buildings, downtown is undoubtedly having a moment. Many of the hippest shops, such as Nomad and The Hoxton, are transplants from other trendy cities. The Ritz-Carlton is a high-end alternative. Award-winning restaurants, stadiums and stages, bars, and museums are all within walking distance in either case.
Try cycling by the sea in Santa Monica or Venice, LA
Santa Monica is the place to go if you want to be near the beach. It’s also on the west side of town, which means the reverse commute will make traveling around the city easier.
This coastal community is an attraction in and of itself, with a mix of celebrities, surfers, and hippies calling it home. While most visitors come to the beach, which is fantastic, there are many other things to do in the neighborhood.
New Things in LA for 2022
Since Los Angeles is such a big city, there will always be something fresh to do and see, be it a temporary exhibit at one of the city’s museums, a festival, a pop-up, or something completely different. The most significant development in Los Angeles is the construction boom. The Los Angeles skyline has already changed dramatically in recent years, with much more to come. This has resulted in a changing skyline, with the OUE Skyspace L.A. being the state’s tallest open-air observation facility. Public transit has also seen significant investment. Visitors to Los Angeles will essentially see this in construction on Metro lines and new stations during the next few years.
This is part of the Metro Vision 2028 Plan, which is a long-term development strategy for projects between now and the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. This includes a slew of infrastructural upgrades to give Angelenos and visitors more public transportation options, so they don’t have to rely on the freeway.
There are new museums in the future as well. On Miracle Mile, the long-awaited Academy Museum of Motion Pictures has finally opened. This $400 million renovation of a 1939 L.A. landmark has been in the works for a decade. The architecture is stunning, with a distinctive spherical structure and a 1,500-panel glass dome.
Although a road journey from other regions of California, Arizona, or Las Vegas is appealing, most guests arrive by plane, meaning your time in the Southland will likely begin and end at Los Angeles International Airport.
This glitzy glamor capital which is also the epicenter of the nation’s film and television industry inclusive of many electrifying attractions like Universal Studios Hollywood,Beverly Hills, Hollywood Walk of Fame and much more deserves your complete attention.
When you go deep into a desert, whether it’s Iran or Sinai, it has a similar effect of being in a forest. The stark nature of the planet holds you. Deserts may offer less distractions in your peripheral vision but the clouds and sand come to life as you feel yourself expanding within the expanse.
That perhaps was the mood for a new conceptual hotel in Iran designed by Margot Krasojević and uses ancient Iranian methods for desert survival using underground flowing water, called the qanat. In Arabic, this type of channel is more often called a kariz.
Long-ago tribesmen found underground springs in the foothills of the region of Iran and Oman, and engineered a technology that channels the water over the land, irrigating farms and oases and supplying households with water as needed. Although some say that qanat is a concept 3000 years old, others claim 5000 years. But they were definitely engineered before the Roman aqueducts were built.
The hotel in this dreamscape is located in Makran, a semi-desert coastal strip stretching from south-eastern Iran to Pakistan’s Baluchistan, and bordering the coasts of the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman.
Krasojević sees an eco-tourism resort that uses wind, heat, and aquifers to create a modern wind tower and qanat system: ancient air conditioning!
Windcatcher towers were designed for ventilation and evaporative cooling while the hotel provides much-needed shelter in a shapeshifting landscape where survival is not always an assumption. While qanats, vertical shafts and tunnels, ferry water to the ground service without the need for pumping. The hotel sits on an existing qanat, attempting to make it more efficien
A self inflating PVC canopy and condensation pool collects water from thin air.
The hotel, if it were built, would encourage a more even distribution of water further into the desert to water remote farms.
Since the underground can shield us from punishing heat, the hotel rooms are partially built under the earth and open to atriums from which natural light flows.
About Margot Krasojević Architects
Margot Krasojević completed her architectural education at the Architectural Association School of Architecture and University College London and worked with Zaha Hadid Architects as lead undergraduate and masters studio director for sustainable design programs, at UCL, University of Greenwich and University of Washington.
She has since opened a multidisciplinary architectural design studio focusing on integrating environmental issues, renewable energy and sustainability as part of the design process. She is currently working on projects in Asia, where she is integrating and harnessing renewable energy as part of a buildings service infrastructure.
More about Iran’s qanat
A qanat or kariz or foggaras, is a system for transporting water from an aquifer or water well to the surface, through an underground aqueduct. They are ancient structures in Iran like this one in Jupar.
Throughout the dry regions of Iran, farms and settlements are supported by the ancient qanat system of tapping water at the heads of valleys and then conducting the water along underground tunnels by gravity, often over many miles. The Romans had aqueducts, the Iranians qanat.
Well shafts are sunk at regular intervals along the route of the tunnel to enable removal of debris and allow ventilation. These appear as craters from above, following the line of the qanat from water source to agricultural settlement.
Video of how qanat work
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zockOFKKX2E
The water is transported along underground tunnels, so-called koshkan, by means of gravity due to the gentle slope of the tunnel to the exit (mazhar), from where it is distributed by channels to the agricultural land of the shareholders.
The levels, gradient and length of the qanat are calculated by traditional methods requiring the skills of experienced qanat workers and this wisdom has been handed down over centuries.
Many qanats have sub-branches and water access corridors for maintenance purposes, as well as dependant structures including rest areas for the qanat workers, public and private hamams, reservoirs and watermills. The traditional communal management system still in place allows equitable and sustainable water sharing and distribution.
Margot Krasojević’s eco hotel pays homage to the qanat and will teach visitors from around the world that low-tech may still be more inventive than the technology that runs on polluting oil.
We are looking forward to the Qanat hotel being built in Iran. No doubt Zaha Hadid‘s legacy lives on through Margot, and more female architects and their worldviews are needed in the Middle East where unliveable phallic towers are becoming the norm, even in more sensible cities like Tel Aviv.
Is the future electric? With cities choking for air, gas prices at an insane level and climate change on our minds, consumers are looking for more efficient and sustainable ways to get around. Electric cars may have reached the turning point in the last year where people no longer see it as the car of the future.
Automakers from Tesla to Rivian to Cadillac have invested in EVs and consumers still want them even though global market conditions and rising commodity costs for key materials in EV batteries have driven up the cost by as much as 20%.
A brave prototype from Mays Motors, the first electric car of the Middle East Starts production in 2023.
In 2017 Turkey’s President Erdoğan started the country’s first electric vehicle company. His government built a coalition and in 2019 a couple of concept cars were presented.
Americans were able to see the cars at CES in Las Vegas in January. As Shai Agassi from Israel learned when trying to start an all electric car company out of Israel 15 years ago, called Better Place, electric cars need to be reasonably priced and they need to be attractive. By the time his car was unveiled, along with Peugeot, neither the car nor the price point cut the mustard. There was no status in driving one and the masses couldn’t afford to anyway, and the almost billion dollars invested in the idea went down the drain. You can look through our archives to learn more about the business model and the eventual decline of Better Place.
Togg turned to car designer Murat Günak who designed the car to look like it’s a generic SUV you can find in Mazda, Volvo, VW or BMW. A safe place. Not what Tesla did. Is it a box or bubble? Read this NY Times article. We’d like to expect something more exciting from Turkey. Islamic design has always been a step above that of the west in my opinion. Next line, maybe be a bit more daring and not follow the pack?
The truth is that Turkey would love to be part of the EU and no matter what it does or doesn’t do, Europe is not ready to let Turkey play. Its role in the Middle East is no longer what it was to Europe, I assume, now that the UAE and Saudi Arabia enjoy oil wealth and have stepped into becoming modern nations. I guess to play it safe Turkey needs to follow, not lead in EVs.
A novel idea would be to employ the Syrian and Afghani refugees in the new Turkish EV plant but I assume Turkey nations would be vying for those jobs themselves. I am a daughter of a GM employee who worked in a Canadian plant all his life. I also worked for Chrysler on weekends when I was going to university. Car plants can pay well.
Car plants can also improve the welfare of communities if labor benefits and a good salary are paid to employees. If Turkey does this right that might be able to earn a much better standing in alliances with the west.
Togg – looks like a generic SUV from Volvo or BMW
In Turkey, car production will be supported by government incentives and they will be built on Turkish soil. A JV with a China EV battery company Farasis (in a JV called Siro) will keep the supply chain close to home, a worry in an unstable commodities market. Daimer and Mercedes also work with Farasis.
The Turkish government has also committed to buying 30,000 cars over the next 10 years. A VAT exemption, income tax withholding support for 10 year, qualified personnel support (up to $24M USD) are some of the other corporate incentives the government has agreed with.
I am looking forward to how this news rolls out. Togg could be the electric bridge we need between the east and west.
With the increase of jobs and lure to tech in the Bay Area, where to lay one’s hat is still a main problem in today’s housing crisis. Maybe you are a carefree environmentalist who can work at the office by day and rent a sleeping pod by night but if you are over the age of 27 living in teeny tiny houses and sharing “pods” and vans with friends, being green is probably no longer a fun experiment. Covid has taught us the importance of a stable home and WiFi, the need for a good kitchen and healthy food –– and also about community and space where we can wander or retreat with our bubble of friends or family.
So what are the options for Bay dwellers? A new planned community called Lagoon Valley is being built between the Bay Area and Sacramento, and the project developers believe they are doing their part for planet earth. They are raising the green flag for all the people around the planet who may love Burning Man and glamping but ultimately want to settle into a place that helps define values and community and which may include aging parents.
Using green building codes that will go above Californian standards, Lagoon Valley says they will also protect, improve, and preserve more than 1,300 acres of land and resources. Eighty-five percent of the community’s specific plan is dedicated to open space and parks and recreation — creating an environment where wildlife and people can thrive.
With the Bay Area as the largest tech market in the United States, San Francisco has a cost-of-living index of 269.3, almost twice as high as Vacaville, California. Lagoon Valley, on the outskirts of Vacaville, which broke ground in June, anticipates its first residents will move in summer of 2023. It is just 53 miles from San Francisco and will provide fourteen neighborhoods with 1,015 homes varying in size and price ranges, including neighborhoods offering affordable housing, as well as age-qualified residences, and estate homes designed to encourage multi-generational living.
“We know that creating a conservation community is the right way. However, it is not the easy way, and Lagoon Valley has taken decades to plan,” says Curt Johansen, Development Director, Triad Lagoon Valley, LLC “Investing in the planet means living on it as lightly as possible. We’ve done that with this dynamic community.”
5 ways Lagoon Valley protects the earth and improves “human” well-being
Gardens in the center: The community’s organic, community-supported farming teaches children and adults to respect, protect, and care for the land in ways that inspire stewardship, social connection, and wellness, not to mention delicious dishes.
Wetlands preservation in situ: Communities that combine wetlands preservation and expansive wildlife habitat in their neighborhood planning create positive change. In addition to encouraging the ecological literacy of community residents, they help maintain a balanced ecosystem.
Solar Powered Homes: Solar energy, both active (for electricity) and passive (for winter heat retention and summer cooling), is no longer optional – it is essential to reduce our carbon footprint, reduce impacts to the biosphere, and mitigate climate change.
Car-optional community: like big cities where people can walk to work or walk to their local shops and community centers, Lagoon Valley is an intentional community that will make it easy for people to navigate and shop by foot or by bike.
Using reclaimed water: California’s drought problems are a liability if you are buying a home. Will you have water for the bath tomorrow? Lagoon homeowners have the option to reduce potable water consumption by up to 50% through reclamation of greywater built into their home.
Some 72% of Lagoon Valley’s 2,400-acre specific plan is dedicated open space and 13% for parks and recreation. The neighborhoods are interconnected with trails that offer easy access to adjoining villages, the Town Center, the Community Farm, neighborhood parks, recreational facilities, an 18-hole golf course seeking Audubon certification, and a Community Event Center with a full complement of amenities. It will be the first conservation community of its kind in the San Francisco Bay Area.
A simple medicine to treat heartburn may be linked to cancer.
Zantac, a ranitidine drug, has amassed a lot of limelight because of all the wrong reasons. The troubles for its manufacturers began to exacerbate in late 2019 when several reports were linked to its probability of causing various types of cancer.
Since its release in the 1980s, Zantac has been consumed, marketed, and deemed safe in the medical fraternity. Many people who suffer from illnesses including indigestion, heartburn, GERD (gastroesophageal reflux), and others have been using the medicine for years or even decades to address their symptoms.
Zantac (ranitidine) falls under the histamine-2 blocker class of medicines. It helps reduce the quantity of acid produced by your gut. It has traditionally been used to treat and prevent gut and intestinal ulcers. It has also been used to treat Zollinger-Ellison syndrome, a disorder in which the stomach generates excessive amounts of acid.
This led to the FDA directing all the manufacturers of ranitidine to remove the drug from the market in the U.S. The primary reason for this is that the use of Zantac may raise your chances of cancer because of NDMA, as mentioned above.
The usage of Zantac regularly may lead to many types of cancer including liver cancer. The hypothesis is that the drug’s metabolized by the liver, which can result in the formation of NDMA.
This NDMA can subsequently be transported throughout the bloodstream. Since NDMA generation after intake of Zantac (ranitidine) can occur in multiple parts of the body, it may be linked to a variety of malignancies.
Not Found By FDA, But An Online Pharmacy
The issue with liver cancer and serious liver disorders induced by ranitidine did not come to the notice of the FDA or drug firms. Instead, it was Valisure, an online pharmacy, that did the government service of notifying the public of this significant situation.
Valisure’s approach is to purchase pharmaceutical items and test them independently. The company is dedicated to public safety, and it has discovered contamination in several well-known pharmaceuticals.
Ranitidine contains NDMA
Just when knowledge of the NDMA (N-Nitrosodimethylamine) contamination reached Valisure, the pharma makers, and the shops themselves did react fast. Pharmaceutical corporations that developed Zantac and cheap ranitidine, according to lawsuits, knew for a long time that their medications included a cancer-causing chemical.
Liver Cancer and Zantac
Liver cancer is defined as cancer that begins in the cells of your liver. The liver is a huge organ located in the upper right section of your belly, beneath the diaphragm and above the stomach.
Several malignancies can occur in the liver. Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most frequent type of liver cancer, and it starts in the primary type of liver cell known as hepatocyte. Hepatoblastoma & Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma are two less prevalent kinds of liver cancer. While in some cases, liver cancer is treatable, the fatality rate associated with the condition is alarmingly high.
At this time, there is no way of knowing how likely it is that you may get liver damage after taking Zantac. However, there is evidence that the NDMA in Zantac may raise the chance of developing liver problems.
People who have acquired the following cancers as a result of persistent and extended usage of Zantac or comparable ranitidine medicines may be eligible for compensation, in addition to liver cancer:
Bladder cancer is a type of cancer that affects the bladder
Cancer of the stomach
Cancer of the oesophagus and colon
Renal/kidney cancer
Leukemia
Multiple Myeloma
Lymphoma Non-Hodgkin’s
Pancreatic carcinoma is a type of cancer that affects the pancreas
Prostate cancer is a type of cancer that affects men
Cancer of the small intestine
Conclusion
Zantac is no longer available on the market due to various legal claims from cancer patients who were diagnosed as a result of its prolonged use. Just like many other cancer claims, the claims of Zantac causing Liver cancer are not yet fully proven. But there are reported instances where regular use of Zantac has resulted in liver problems. Science will know more in the years to come.
Summer staycations means saving money, keeping things simple and real. How about making your own sunscreen? It's healthier and toxin-free.
With summer on the horizon, some people are looking forward to booking vacations to take advantage of the warmer weather, and the time their kids have off from school. Unfortunately, not everyone can afford to go away to enjoy some fun in the sun, and the good news is — they don’t have to. Whether or not a family goes away for a week or two during the summer months, there is still the rest of the time to enjoy. The best thing is that none of them will break the bank, so you can have fun and drink in the summer weather while keeping your budget intact.
Hiking and Biking
Depending on the size, exploring a new park can be overwhelming, so it might be a good idea to bring a bike with you on the adventure. If you choose to hike, be sure to wear good hiking shoes and sunscreen. You want to tell someone where you’re going, your route, and when you expect to be back in contact. Taking this step can help keep you safe by giving you a point of contact to alert authorities if they suspect you’re in trouble.
Remember, anything can happen on a hike or bike ride because accidents aren’t planned. Even if you’re trained in CPR or have taken the ABEM practice test, that will do little good stuck in the wilderness. So, be sure to have an emergency plan while you bask in all that nature has to offer.
Picnics and Parks
Some would say the perfect way to enjoy the summer weather is to go outside and breathe it in. Taking that concept a bit further, how about packing a picnic lunch and heading to your local park. Better yet, still pack the picnic, complete with potato salad, cold fried chicken, and lemonade, and venture to a new park you’ve never explored before. If you happen to be visiting the US, hundreds of national parks all across the nation participate in fee-free days on certain calendar dates. The National Park Service holds the event every year, so check their site for changing dates. Check parks in your area of the world to see if they run similar programs, or just pick your favorite tried and true spot.
After your lunch, while still at the park, enjoy the greenery and flowers all around you as you explore nature. If available, print off or pull up a map of the park so you can plan your route and bring water for the whole family.
Your Backyard
Enjoying the summer sun doesn’t have to happen somewhere far away or even anyplace new. Sometimes the best place to have fun outside is your own backyard. Fire up the grill, invite friends and family, and play some music while you refresh with a cool glass of iced tea. You can even set up sprinklers for everyone to cool off or a slip and slide if you don’t have a pool to take a dip in. Try looking for foraged plants while you are at it.
Splash Around
One of the best things about summer is getting to splash around in the water. If you don’t have a pool in your backyard, maybe you could visit a local public pool or take a drive to the beach. Listening to the ocean water crash on the shore while sinking your toes in the sand or riding the waves is a classic summer treat. Depending on where you live, water is an essential part of any summer plan. Even if swimming isn’t your thing, there are sprinklers, water balloons, and water guns that can cool you and your guests off when things get too hot. There are rivers and raw water springs and everything you need the moment you look for it.
As you can see, there are many ways to take advantage of the summer months and make memories that will last a lifetime.
Sour green plums the size of large marbles are in the local Middle East markets now, a seasonal favorite of the 
A self inflating PVC canopy and condensation pool collects water from thin air.
