Today is Pi Day. Celebrated around the world every March 14th (3/14), the day focuses on the mathematical symbol that represents the constant ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, approximated as 3.14159. This year’s Pi Day is a once-in-a-lifetime event; it will be 100 years until we experience 3/14/15 9:26:53 again – that’s pi to […]
For the past two decades a 70-year old man lived in a cave in northern Jordan, alone with no water or power or reliable access to food, exposed to the elements and wild animals. An unidentified caller contacted radio station Amen FM to alert them to the modern caveman. Last Thursday the kingdom’s Public Security Department […]
Falcons have been trained for hunting and sport for thousands of years across the Middle East. Now falconers in the United Arab Emirates are turning to drone technology as a new tool to teach their birds to fly increasingly higher and hunt more efficiently. Can technology teach old birds new tricks?
What’s the social value of a new app that connects me to the best pizza in town? Or a gadget that can help me talk to a fellow gamer in China? Maybe the answer is zero, but maybe not. There is a new investment trend in town and it’s called Impact Investing. While the East and West Coasts […]
Drones, those small, unmanned remote controlled airplanes with cameras can now be ordered by anyone online. They freak some people out. Not everyone loves the idea of a drone honing in on you in your backyard, but in agriculture, forestry and even in conservation they are the hot topic of the year. How can we […]
Green Prophet fans have surely followed the greenest way to get rid of unwanted hair, using our famous Middle East sugar wax remover recipe. It’s an ancient Arabic hair removal secret! But what happens when you want to put hair back in certain places? We don’t have a secret recipe for that but by far […]
We’ve all heard of the benefits of solar power and the emergence of innovative new projects that are making use of the sun’s energy. But one is soaring above the rest of them – a solar-powered plane attempting to fly round the world! Solar Impulse 2 took off from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab […]
The world went wild last week over an unforgettable image of a weasel riding bareback on a woodpecker in flight. It is difficult to imagine a more astonishing moment that the one captured by amateur British photographer Martin Le-May, unless maybe if that woodpecker had a camera strapped to his chest. But that sort of nutty nature photography could only happen […]
Abu Dhabi police unveiled their latest acquisition cop car, a Rolls Royce Phantom tricked out in purple and white, the colors of the state police force. It’s the newest addition to the fleet of United Arab Emirates (UAE) police supercars.
South Tel Aviv’s Central Bus Station (CBS) sprawls across 10 acres in the poorest part of the city. Inaugurated in 1993 as a “city under a roof”, the neglected station – like many urban transport hubs – has since became a hangout, hotel and unofficial business center for addicts, prostitutes, thieves and homeless. It’s not a place to dawdle. Could […]
Egypt’s tourist hotspot of Sharm el-Sheikh has plenty of sun, sea and sand. Now the popular resort city is set to get a solar power boost too, with plans for all lighting to come from solar energy. Sharm el-Sheikh already relies on solar power for 70 percent of its lighting, but the Egyptian government wants to […]
It’s a first for Palestinians in the West Bank – a planned city that from the ground up has been modelled to be a sustainable home for future generations of Palestinians in the West Bank, Palestinian Authority. Last week the city Rawabi was officially hooked up to its lifeline, Israeli water support, and soon will […]
Young men in United Arab Emirates have jumped on a bizarre, and weirdly “green” addiction, passing on cigarettes and sheesha to smoking dead ants to get high. They crush local black ants (Pachycondyla sennaarensis) and blend the crumbs in tobacco, drop them into a medhwak (smoking pipe) or sprinkle them on regular smokes before lighting up, according to Gulf […]
A newborn baby boy has died and his three-year-old brother is critically ill in hospital after they inhaled a toxic pesticide used in the apartment next door to his family’s home in Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Police said the neighbour sprayed his flat with the banned bug-killer, which he was given by a friend, then […]
Want to know which cantaloupe is sweeter, whether that chicken is fresh, or what’s in that bagel? Just whip out a new pocket-sized molecular sensor, aim it at the item and instantly see its quality, ripeness and nutritional value. Quickly analyze the molecular levels of foods, plants, medicines, and more, with results sent straight to your […]
Is nothing sacred? Mealtime with family, meetings with the boss, dates with your sweetie are constantly interrupted by mobile phone calls, texts and tweets. At weddings and funerals, folks fumble to silence (or peek) at their chirping, beeping, music-blaring phones. And how do we manage a weekly day of rest? Enter Reboot, a Jewish non-profit based in […]
A cargo ship bound for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with about 350 cattle on board sank off the south coast of Oman mid-afternoon last Saturday. The ship was heading to Somalia when it ran into trouble off Sur in the province of Asharqiyah Local media reports the ship may was probably overloaded, causing it to […]
Record rainfalls dumped on the region in this winter’s storms rendered a remarkable makeover of the Judean Desert, turning it from a Middle East dust bowl into rolling English hills. Israeli photographer Nir Cohen captured the transformation in these stunning images; see before and after photos above.
Forget coffins. At least the traditional ones. That was the idea we explored in a recent post on green burials, but that story overlooked a new product in the mortuary arts tool kit that takes burial full circle. The Capsula Mundi project by Italian designers Anna Citelli and Raoul Bretzel is an organic, biodegradable burial capsule that directly […]
Iranian architect Nader Khalili, founder of the California Earth and Architecture Institute and proponent of the- dare we say- revolutionary SuperAdobe building technique, would be proud. In the coming week from the 11th to the 14th of March 2015, l’Iran will inaugurate the first edition of “Regeneration of earthen architecture festival” which aims to promote earth […]
Shale gas exploitation in the Sahara is not the same as shale gas exploitation in the US. There are added complications, namely the dependence of fracking activities on a trans-boundary hydraulic system (the North Western Sahara Aquifer System), in a water stressed region, that depends primarily on that very system for its own water needs. As shown […]
Jordan’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources announced a new initiative that will convert all 6,000 of the kingdom’s mosques to solar generated power beginning this year. It’s part of a five-year program to decrease the nation’s reliance on crude oil while diversifying its energy portfolio to include more renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power.
Food designer Chloé Rutzerveld has developed a concept for 3D-printed snacks that sprout plants and mushrooms from edible soil housed within a pastry or pasta shell. She envisions a day when your local grocer could print you out a takeaway boxful, and about 4 days later they’ll grow into lunch. In the burgeoning field of futuristic […]
Dubai developers reach a new zenith in outrageous investment with just-announced plans to build a tropical rainforest on the desert outskirts of the city. The forest will exist within a climate-controlled dome as a key feature of a new luxury housing development. But the real news within this news is that local environmentalists are complaining, finally.
Looking for a novel way to celebrate Purim in Tel Aviv next weekend? Wander over to 26 Gordon Street for a pop-up art show wrapped inside architecture that’s worth a visit on its own. Radical renovations are planned for a 1930’s building that will transform the Bauhaus beauty into the city’s first “green” retrofit of a protected structure. Before construction […]
