This past March Abu Dhabi city has witnessed its most intense rain storm in recent memory. Storms usually do not make it to Arabian cities on the Gulf; they jump on summer monsoon winds from the Indian Ocean only to break on unfortunate shores of Oman. I happened to spend my teens in Abu Dhabi, and the […]
The World Bank, the biggest provider of public finance to developing countries is not gambling on our future! It has just earmarked 28% of its 2016 budget for projects that mitigate climate change, according to a statement released on Thursday. All of its future spending will take global warming into account, and all projects considered for […]
‘Everything in moderation’ is good advice, especially when it comes to sunshine. Humans know this, especially in the Middle East, mastering all means of shading devices, and protective clothing. But what if you are an organism without access to sunscreen? Two scientists at Israel’s oldest university have discovered how bacteria protect themselves from overexposure. Facebook […]
The weeks that girdled Christmas and New Year’s had me living like a fois gras goose, endlessly stuffed with food and drink as my family raced from Jordan to England to the US for clan-centric rituals ranging from a funeral to a birthday, with the usual winter holidays in between. I recently scanned the snapshots, […]
Zaha Hadid, the first female architect (and first Muslim) to win the prestigious Pritzker Prize, died yesterday in a Miami hospital after suffering a heart attack while being treated for bronchitis. The Iraqi-born mathematician and architect whose designs were both celebrated and divisive, was 65 years old. Facebook Comments
United Nations-sponsored World Water Day was celebrated this week in a series of events around the world ranging from races to speeches to demonstrations of how individuals could conserve consumption of this most-critical of natural resources. To mark the occasion, two experts in international water policy have co-authored an Op-Ed exploring the future of water, […]
Leigh Ofer and her company Seed Street in Harlem gives new meaning to the term circular economy: We meet over the Internet and find a mutual passion for urban farming in New York City –– we’re kindred souls who see cities as our future food production engines. I am interested in technology for improving urban food and social […]
Despite the forecast of dire effects of global warming in the Middle East, oil producing countries like Saudi Arabia have continued to keep oil production at high levels. Located in one of hottest regions on earth, the Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia has also expressed high interest in building nuclear power plants, despite being a country rich in solar energy potential. […]
Earth Hour is upon us. It comes every year on Saturday 19 March, as the clock strikes 8:30 PM around the globe. It’s a worldwide movement that aims to unite the global community on a broad range of environmental issues, working on a grassroots level to enact mass behavioral change. Join the fun by turning off […]
The world’s increasingly polluted seas and oceans, as well as rising sea levels, are now becoming a sad reality as Mankind’s contribution is becoming increasingly evident. Whether this causes massive fish die-offs, or other ecological catastrophes like toxic coast pollution, more and more of the world’s environmental problems are being linked to human caused abuse of natural resources. Israel’s long […]
Some 795 million people worldwide are food insecure: they do not have enough food to lead a healthy life, and with the earth’s population increasing these numbers are about to rise even higher. By 2050, the world needs to produce at least 50% more food in order to feed its growing population. What can we do […]
Silicon Valley’s has its hoodie-wearing tech entrepreneurs as the poster kids of innovation. You can find a similar story over in Silicon Alley New York (like at AlleyNYC), or in Tel Aviv, Israel. Disruption is the name of the game. But according to a new study by Thomson Reuters the real source of innovation starts at government. […]
Just in time for St. Paddy’s Day, scientists from Dublin and Belfast have evidence that stone age Irish settlers had genetic origins in the Middle East. Thank the Vikings for the DNA that gave rise to red hair and freckles, introduced when they invaded the island nation at the end of the eighth century. But […]
We’ve travelled to Casablanca to see where Bogart gave his favorite lines, to learn the movie wasn’t really filmed there. Many of the movies you see are like this: filmed in studios or in locations only resembling the assumed backdrop. In reality, some of the world’s famous hotels were already famous before the film’s success, while […]
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced yesterday the formation of a new, nation-less team of athletes cleared to compete in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janiero, Brazil this summer. According to a statement released on the IOC website, the all-refugee team will be treated the same as the other teams representing the 206 National […]
When former US Vice President Al Gore warned about the consequences of global warming and climate change and was both applauded and condemned for his efforts, there were still more deniers than believers that our modern civilization was causing this two sided phenomenon. Since 2007, When Albert Arnold Gore Jr. was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace […]
Instagram photographer “m1rasoulifard” has been creating a visual catalog of Iranian architecture, shooting the interiors of mosques, such as Hazrat-Masoumeh in Qom (above), and cultural centers, like the Chaharbagh School in Isfahan. His images capture intricately detailed interiors rich in texture and kaleidoscopic colors. Tuck into this visual feast of Iran’s splendiferous ceilings; scenes lost to […]
So, you care about the environment and ensuring that you play your part in preserving the beauty of nature but how do you go about imparting these lessons to your children? It can be challenging for parents to impart these important lessons to their little ones. As the saying goes, “charity begins at home… ” […]
Morocco has activated the Noor I concentrated solar power (CSP) plant, the first part of a three-phase development in the Sahara Desert intended to supply more than a million homes with electricity by 2018. The 500,000 crescent-shaped solar mirrors of Noor I, which sits on thousands of acres of desert terrain near Ouarzazate, will generate up to 160 […]
Sit four people around the dinner table, and at see that least three are tethered to their smartphones (well, someone’s got to cook and serve). What’s a conversation-starved hostess to do? Head to IKEA Taiwan where designers have cooked up a table that encourages real-time relationships, eye contact and chat. You remember those once-essential ingredients to a […]
Interior Design & Textiles students from London’s Royal College of Art (RCA) have designed a piece of clothing with three distinct uses: it is a weather-proof coat, a sleeping bag, and a tent. Their prototype aims to meet the immediate needs of migrating people, with pockets specially designed to store passports, personal documents, and phones. […]
Things have gone terribly wrong in an Egyptian zoo where a group of baboons turned on one of their cage-mates, tearing at its legs and biting off its feet, according to eye-witness reports. Images of the African baboon, whose feet were cannibalized by his cage mates, have gone viral on Egyptian social media. “Due to extreme hunger, […]
A Dubai-based abaya fashion designer has come up with a way to take the traditional black cloak into the future by integrating nanotechnology into its sleeves, giving the garment the capability to charge a smartphone or tablet. Manaal Al Hammadi showcased her solar-powered abaya at the last month’s World Energy Summit 2016 at the Abu Dhabi […]
China’s state-owned ChemChina tendered a $43 billion bid for Swiss seeds and pesticides group Syngenta today as part of a strategy to improve domestic food production. Remember the classic board game Monopoly? It’s being played by multi-national agri-businesses in attempt to control the world food supply chain. China is the largest agricultural market on the planet. Syngenta’s […]
Google did a doodle marking the 151st birthday of the pharmacist who helped us navigate the chili peppers, the tiny veggie with the power to drop diners to their knees. Wilbur Scoville was the first person to measure the heat of peppers. His heat scale is still in use today, scoring the piquancy of peppers. (What […]
