Imagine if passing through airport security could be as pleasant as a stroll through a park. Scientist June Medford is working to harness the innate sensing abilities of plants, genetically engineering them into lean, green bomb-and-drug detecting machines. Medford is a “synthetic biologist” (not to imply she’s artificial, but to clarify that she dabbles in the re-design of existing, natural biological systems in attempt to find new useful purposes).
Genetically engineered plants to replace airport security checkpoints?
Walk like an Egyptian using Google Street View
If you’re familiar with Google Street View, you might have used it to see the Burj Khalifa up close and personal or spanned the sweeping expanse of the Liwa desert (mapped by a camel!) from your home computer or smart device.
But have you seen the treasures of ancient Egypt through the eyes of one of Google’s Trekkers?
As of last month, the pyramids at Giza, the necropolis of Saqqara, the citadel of Qaitbay, the Saladin Citadel of Cairo, the Hanging Church, and the bygone city of Abu Mena are “Egypt highlights” that are part of Street View Special Collections, a newer feature of Google maps. The pyramids have also joined the ranks of the Street View Treks division.
The Street View technology is striving to capture the imagery of record-setting landmarks and other historically and culturally significant sites. It has traveled to places so remote you can call them “off the grid” – take Antarctica, for example – and even underwater.
Ancient Egypt – or what remains of it – most definitely deserved a place among the high-definition adventures. After all, the pyramids of Giza, dating back nearly 5,000 years, are the only wonder of the ancient world still standing today. Now, we can view 360° panoramas of one of the world’s most illustrious ancient civilizations, subject of intense study and curiosity for several centuries.
Although you won’t get a stamp on your passport by visiting Egypt this way, you can still feel like a globetrotter when you pan, zoom, and maneuver your way into Egypt’s goldmines (quite literally – see this article on King Tut’s bling). Maybe turn on some appropriate sound effects to get yourself desert-ready. Bon voyage!
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd3E5dWunKo[/youtube]
Photo of the Great Sphinx and the pyramids of Menkaure and Khafre from Shutterstock.
Syqe marijuana inhaler syncs your medical cannabis dosage using 3D printed technology
Newspapers like Bloomberg are calling the newly “legalized” cannabis business in the United States the next gold rush. If legalized throughout the US, the cannabis business will eclipse wine. That’s something worth about $40 billion a year. So “prospectors”, inventors and investors there are laying down their stakes and claiming access to new territory.
But in Israel where cannabis has been researched freely since the 60s (I have had the pleasure of interviewing THC discoverer Raphael Mechoulam); and consumed legally with a license, there has been plenty of wiggle time and room for innovation. Syqe, a new medical inhaler printed with 3D technology is one of the latest companies to innovate specifically for the medical cannabis market.
One of the problems I’ve learned researching the efficacy of cannabis as a therapeutic agent is dosing. It’s very hard for patients who are not regular smokers to know how to dose and therefor right therapy.
Syqe Medical, a new medical cannabis company from Israel, has developed an inhaler that lets people, we’ll call them “patients” but anyone can use the device, to supply metered doses of vapor made from cannabis granules.
The dosage can be programmed via your iPhone. See an image below of how the cartridges should look.
I spent my summer researching cannabis and medical marijuana in Canada, and spent time at the vapor lounge Get Melted in Toronto. I visited medical cannabis companies and people developing growing technologies. All agree that medical cannabis could be the next big thing. Many of the people I spoke to smoke recreationally, but not all of them. They do all see the market potential in this new frontier.
But bags of money aside, people who are turning to cannabis for medical relief are swearing that this age old natural remedy has the power to change lives, like that of a little American girl (about 5) called Charlotte who was convulsing herself to death with 200 epileptic seizures a day.After using cannabis which was bred to be low in THC (that which gets you “high”) and high in CBD (that which gives you therapy) Charlotte is now able to start living a normal life. She experiences about one epileptic seizure a week now and has a very popular medication named after her, Charlotte’s Web CBD Oil.
After using cannabis which was bred to be low in THC (that which gets you “high”) and high in CBD (that which gives you therapy) Charlotte is now able to start living a normal life. She experiences about one epileptic seizure a week now.
Now when it comes to inhaling vaporizing is a big deal among cannabis uses because vapor gives a clean and concentrated dose. Usually people buy the product and then vaporize it in their own devices. Syqe Medical (pronounced si-kee), backed by the Israeli government with about $1 million USD will provide metered doses to those who need it via pre-loaded cartridges.
The device itself can be printed on 3D printers anywhere.
As for the pot – well that depends on country and state legislation on how you will obtain those cartridges.
The Internet of Weed
The Syqe device can sit in your pocket like an asthma inhaler for convenience. They say it’s the world’s first medical device which delivers doses with pharmaceutical conditions, based on clinical data the company is collecting.
Testing the Syqe device in the lab:
Syqe claims to deliver high resolution of dosage – to get the precise balance between symptom relief and psychoactive effects – the balance between the TCH and the CBD.
An app connects to the data and user experience lets the doctor augment dosage if necessary remotely. Syqe it will also collect data on the strains and their medicinal effects. The device is supposed to be ready for sale by the end of this year.
Israel is a hotbed of technologies for cannabis. The latest great is a company called flux developing Eddy to personalize your medss. We will keep reporting on them as they unfold.
Hunter Green: a biodegradable watch for a planet living on borrowed time
You’ve got open eyes. You’ve read the reports, like this one from the WWF on how polluting we’ve become. Yet we can’t get enough of consuming stuff on planet earth. Pick up the New York Times and see an editorial running on watch ads. Fancy, crazy expensive watches for elite people, not this planet in peril.
Enter Hunter Green. This is a new watch line that’s made with practically everything that will make an eco-lover tick. The watches are biodegradable eventually, and are made to be lead free, and mercury free with zero toxins.
The watches have been made with biodegradable and organic corn resin so that modest earth lovers like you and me can express ourselves. Isn’t that what green fashion is all about?
See this eco-friendly watch come to life through Kickstarter
Into the Hunter Green watches you’ve also got an organic cotton and cork (a very sustainable renewable resource) strap.
Designer Hunter Mayers, now looking for a $30,000 launch fund on Kickstarter (and which is about 1/4 of the way there!) was inspired to start this new line of watches after meeting film director David Lynch.
He tells Green Prophet: “I have a background in the Film/TV industry as a Designer and Graphic Producer. I was at David Lynch’s house for a charity event, (sounds more glamorous than my real life actually is. ha!)…
But…
“His house is very modern, as was his outfit that day. Dark colors, nothing flashy. I noticed David was wearing a bright neon yellow, cheap plastic, wristwatch. He was expressing himself,” Mayers says. “After my visit I wanted to purchase a watch like his, to express myself. I found many watch designs I liked but none that were good for the environment. I was shocked to see the lack of eco-friendly choices.
“I have a design background, so I started designing… Hunter Green was born.”
Putting a watch to task
Mayers grew up surfing in Maryland and put time into thinking about saving our planet from pollution after seeing so much trash out at sea. To raise awareness, he’ll be giving 5 percent of every sale of his watches to the Plastic Pollution Coalition (of which Green Prophet is a member). The watches which will be available to ship in about half a year and will cost about $125.
Getting to the point of a Kickstarter that could deliver on time wasn’t trivial, says Mayers: “I had many issues trying to locate a watch manufacture…as the materials I wanted to use weren’t widely used in the watch industry.
“This struggle, although frustrating, made me what to see this through even more. I felt like I was onto something special,” Mayers concludes.
Think so too? While it may seem trivial that a watch could actually save this planet, we love the project for the awareness it brings to the watch industry and the way timepieces are made. And it makes me think of my dad’s old collection of pocket watches from one hundred years ago. Watches that none of us will probably ever wear again, begging the question: Do watches in the 21st century really need to withstand the test of time? I’d rather mine melt into the earth when I am done with it.
Fund Hunter Green watches here on Kickstarter
Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE among world’s top 10 wasters
Bahrain, in the Middle East is one of the most wasteful nations on earth, according to the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) 2014 Living Planet Report (download the PDF here), published recently. Bahrain as the ninth worst offender in terms of the environmental impact it has on the planet, per head of population.
But Bahrain is not lonely among its neighbors: Kuwaitis, the report highlighted had biggest “ecological footprint”. They consume more resources per person than any other country in the world followed then by Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
“We are on a totally unsustainable path … and are living beyond our boundaries,” says Marco Lambertini, general director for the WWF.
The rest of the top 10 offenders were Denmark, Belgium, Trinidad and Tobago, Singapore and the United States, with Bahrain and Sweden listed in ninth and tenth place, respectively. Funny, because Swedes consider themselves so eco-conscious. Maybe due to a bad conscience.
“The size and composition of a nation’s per capita ecological footprint reflects the goods and services used by an average person in that country, and the efficiency with which resources, including fossil fuels, are used in providing these goods and services,” the report summed up.
It continued: “If all people on the planet had the footprint of the average resident of Qatar, we would need 4.8 planets. If we lived the lifestyle of a typical resident of the US, we would need 3.9.”
Many of the poorer countries on the list, countries like India, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo had an ecological footprint that our world could sustain.
Resources monitored were based on trees being felled, groundwater pumped and CO2 being emitted faster than the earth can deal with it.
Ways Muslims can deal with excessive waste can include reusing water from prayer rituals by recycling it in gardens (for pious plants!), demanding more efficient modes of public transport and buying less packaged foods.
Ultimate organic coffee smoothie that will nourish your body and taste buds (recipe)
We loved the feedback from the latest gadget for coffee lovers: a hybrid alarm clock that tells you to rise and shine by brewing a fresh cup of joe on your bedside table.
I’d like to present you with a spin on that old cup of joe, in the form of a nutrient-rich, energy-boosting coffee smoothie.
It can’t realistically serve as a wake-up call, as the thunderous blending of the ingredients (especially if you have a Vitamix!) would make for a very rude awakening.
However, it’s well worth getting up for. No need to go to Starbucks, either.
Recipe for healthy coffee smoothie:
- 8 to 10 Coffee ice cubes. You can brew coffee ahead of time and pour it into an ice cube tray to freeze. Here’s a tip: If ever you have leftovers from the morning’s brew, pour it into open slots in the tray!
- 1 cup almond milk.
- ¼ ripe avocado.
- 2 tsp raw cacao nibs, sweetened or unsweetened
- 1 tablespoon hemp protein powder
- Pure maple syrup or maple cream as sweetener; amount based on preference! For the ratios provided, I like to use 1 tablespoon maple cream.
These ingredients are team players; they work together so well! Using the measurements above, you’ll get about a pint of smoothie.
Consider using certified organic and fair trade coffee, to encourage responsible small-scale farming and environmental sustainability.
As far as flavor variations or additions for this smoothie are concerned, go for it!
I took this recipe from the blog, Passport to a Healthy Me, but experimenting in the kitchen is always fun for me. For this coffee drink, I’m thinking to play around with vanilla or cardamom, next time I make it (tomorrow morning).
Image: from my own kitchen.
Could global warming trigger new ice age?
The Wrath of global in arid regions like the Middle East is a major issue affecting present day life on earth.
Global warming has also been attributed to unusual “polar vortex” cold spells which have occurred the past few winters in both North America and northern Europe; with unusual weather felt in the Middle East as well.
Scientists who study global climate patterns are now talking about the possibility of global cooling, and they have written about local cooling on Forbes. It’s a cooling change so pronounced that it could result in a “mini ice age” like the one that put much of Europe into the deep freeze from 1250 to 1850 CE.
This global cooling cycle created periods of unusually cool summers, causing a severe famine in 1315-1317.
It also resulted in the Norsemen abandoning their colonies in Greenland.
Contrary to theories that present day global warming trends have been greatly influenced by humans some climatists now believe that man-caused elevations of carbon dioxide emissions are not the main cause of our current climate change problems (human emissions of CO2 are only 4 to 5% of total global emissions).
Changing ocean current patterns as well as “solar cycle” changes (particularly sunspots) are said to result in cyclable bouts of colder climate patterns.
These change patterns result in longer, more severe winters and shorter, much cooler summers; which have severe impacts on annual food production.
Our planet was a much warmer place in prehistoric times; which allowed such creatures as giant amphibians and reptiles to flourish.
Severe climatic changes such as dramatic ocean current shifts, as well as changes in CO2 concentrations may be what resulted in the demise of the dinosaurs; and not some cataclysmic event like the earth being struck by a giant asteroid.
An article originally published in 2008 by the Global Research Centre on Globalization states that increased amounts of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere could cause global warming of 1° F per decade and 5-6° C (10-11° F) by 2100.
However, the article continues that “historic records of past natural cycles suggest global cooling for the first several decades of the 21st century to about 2030.”
According to these findings, the earth has gone through alternate periods of global warming and global cooling; due to a number of factors. These include alternating changes in the Pacific Ocean’s Decadal Oscillation (PDO) that shifts between warmer “positive” phases and cooler or “negative” phases.
This PDO oscillation alone resulted in several global periods of fluctuating temperature cycles in the 20th century.
Judging from how the Middle East has fared recently from the wrath of global warming, some cooler and wetter climate changes would be welcome over what this region has experienced the past two decades. As for other parts of the world, especially North America, cooler and wetter weather would be beneficial as well. Cooler, but not too cool.
Read about issues dealing with global warming and cooling:
Will the Polar Vortex “Dip” Freeze the Middle East?
Oceans Siralling Downward; Threatening Life on Earth
The Wrath of Global Warming and the Middle East
Ice age in the city from Shutterstock
Lego ditches deal with Shell over Greenpeace oil spill video
Lego announced a break in its 50-year partnership with Royal Dutch Shell, a split sparked by an anti-Arctic drilling video produced by environmental activists Greenpeace. The clip – which capitalized on our love for Lego building block toys – went viral on YouTube with over 6 million hits. It incited a million email complaints to the toy maker and pulled in the same number of signatures to the Greenpeace anti-drilling petition. So now it takes toys to turn our heads?
Google Street View uses camels to map UAE’s Liwa Desert
Dishwashers: the greener solution for clean plates
Is it better to plunk dirty dinner plates into the automatic washer, or go retro and wash them by hand? The spouse thinks it wiser (and greener) to clean messes as they occur. I like how the dishwasher lets me defer. He says his way saves water. I know mine saves time. We’ve argued this for years.
Solar Impulse 2 plane will circumnavigate Earth in 2015
Last year, Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg became the first pilots to fly across America in a featherweight plane fueled only by the sun. The Swiss duo now plans to circumnavigate the world in a next-generation solar aircraft named the Solar Impulse 2. The March 2015 flight will start and finish in Abu Dhabi.
Jonah’s tomb blown up by the Islamic State
Every year Jewish people read the Book of Jonah from the Old Testament during the Yom Kippur holiday – that was this past Saturday, and Jonah came to my mind when I was writing about the holiest day of the year for the Jews.
Jonah is my favorite biblical story, I was saddened to learn that ISIS, a radical Sunni Islam group blew up Jonah’s tomb with complete disregard to human heritage.
Left, right and center the militant group is imposing Sharia law and with that blowing up whatever holy sites it can find. Jonah’s tomb was bombed this past July.
Jonah is considered a biblical prophet. He was challenged by God to go from the port of Jaffa, sail up the sea and then travel to the city of Nineveh (now in present day Iraq) to ask the people to repent for their sins. Jonah, for the most part didn’t really want the job, as it seems, and spent a part of his journey inside the mouth of a whale. Even surviving that ordeal he still wasn’t running to Nineveh.
Blowing up Jonah’s tomb is like blowing up our collective past and future.
According to reports militants from Islamic State (known formerly and now commonly as ISIS) destroyed the Shrine of Yunus (Tomb of Jonah) Mosque in Mosul, Iraq on July 24. They also blew up the Biblical town of Nineveh.
At first residents were told that they were barred to enter there to pray. The militants laid down explosives and detonated the tomb. Not only are the ISIS savages destroying good people, they are ripping human history to shreds.
Video shows the destruction of Jonah’s tomb:
The tomb is thought to be the burial place of the Old Testament prophet who survived in the belly of a whale. Officials in Mosul said militants with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) planted explosives around the shrine and detonated them remotely, CNN reports.
The mosque that housed Jonah’s tomb as seen before the blast:
The mosque with Jonah’s tomb after it was destroyed:
The tomb was part of a Sunni mosque
Had the mosque been in a site of Sunni worship it might have been spared.
Jonah is an important figure for Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, but the tomb was located inside a Shia Islam mosque, the Mosque of the Prophet Younis. ISIS likes to blow up Shia holy sites even if they are also fundamentally important to Islam.
UPDATE 2023
Driving Christians out of their territory and female genital manipulation are just another couple of past-times for ISIS when they are not beheading infidels – and it’s not limited to one terror group. Beheading people after the Palestinians associated with the Hamas attacked Israel. Two days before Palestinians beheaded a gay guy who was trying to immigrate to Canada. Who is going to stop this insanity?
Israeli senior leads hot swim team for cool project at sea and a Guinness World Record
They tried last year and failed. Now a team of six men from Israel, led by a 66 year old team leader are going to swim the open seas from Cyprus to Israel in a bid to capture a world record. The Open Water Relay will be to win a Guinness Record and to promote awareness for cleaner seas. They will need to swim 400 kilometers or about 350 miles to break the current world record.
Looking at the pics these guys could certainly earn big bucks if they threw together a calendar wearing these swimsuits, even though their logo looks like fried eggs. (Just sayin’).
The team of men pictured above tried last year, but with insufficient preparation and a storm at sea – failed. This year they are better prepared, the guys tell local media and are hoping to accomplish the task in about 6 days.
The team is Udi Arel, Ori Sela, Doron Amosi, Ben Anosh, Luke Shetbon and Oded Rahav. Arel is the oldest at age 66 and Sela is the youngest at 41.
One of their secrets (they hope!) to success is swimming on a vegan diet. They have been preparing on a vegan diet as this kind of food is easier to digest when swimming in cold water. We told you Israel was the world capital of vegans!
Having entered the water Sunday at 2:20 in the afternoon, with live Facebook updates they have already reported swimming in heavy currents and swimming with a school of dolphins!
See a picture of one of the team in the water yesterday (below):
Proceeds collected from their swim will be donated to the Israeli ecological group Zalul which means clear in English. Zalul is a water rights NGO that fights for public knowledge and participation in protecting all of Israel’s water – at sea, and what comes through your tap.
Vegan diet on board the ship!
We like how the guys prepared their sign in Arabic, Hebrew and English adding a little fig leaf for peace. Yes, even if their assets are well covered with those slinky red bikini bottoms.
See more about the guys on their website Cyprus Israel Open Water where you can learn more about the guys, where they came from and where they are going. At least one of them is a vegan; there are fellows born in the US, France and in Ethiopia on the team and they carry a wide range of interests among them.
You can also follow them on their Facebook page, live track them here, and donate to Zalul on their website. And what about that calendar?
Update Oct 12: They did it! The team reached Israel yesterday and completed their mission to win the Guinness World Record.
Images from Haaretz
Vegan doing jail time wins right to eat animal-free meals in Israeli prison
Israel is showing more proof that it is the vegan capital of the world: an Israeli prisoner has just won the right to eat vegan meals in an Israeli jail, amid protests that he could not eat a regular vegetarian diet that contained animal protein like cheese and eggs.
The prisoner, Amos Dov Silver, 30, according to the local newspaper Haaretz, is doing jail time for selling cannabis. While it is legal to consume cannabis in Israel if you own a medical licence, recreationally it is illegal.
In prison, Silver complained that he wasn’t getting enough food. Now since Monday the Israel Prison Service have agreed to supply him vegetables, fruits and grains at every meal.
Silver is a lobbyist for cannabis use in Israel told the judge why vegetarian diets alone don’t work for him: “I don’t eat eggs or milk because I don’t want to cause suffering to anyone,” Silver, pictured below with cannabis plants and a pet pooch, said.
Veganism is a growing trend in Israel, and in Tel Aviv in particular where restaurants and bakeries now boast symbols on their doors if they offer vegan options. The Neve Zedek landmark watering hole and bistro called Nanuchka has also gone from a meat heavy meaty Georgian menu to a strictly vegan one. It’s even possible to order a vegan Dominos pizza in Israel.
Some people are eating all vegan diets for the animal rights angle. Others for the benefits of an all vegetable diet. Whatever the reason we know that veganism is tightly linked with environmental conservation. The less animals and their byproducts consumed by people means less methane gas and suffering for planet earth.
An estimated 2.5% of all Israelis have gone vegan in latest reports.
Now the Big Question: will going vegan get Mr. Silver out of jail early for good behavior? Silver: when you get out of jail give us a rung and let us know!
More on veganism in Israel:
- 268life Activists Brand Themselves Like Cows
- Veganism Goes Viral In Israel
- 10 Animal-Free Foods That Are NOT Vegetarian
Pictures of Amos Dov Silver from his Facebook page
Botobus: Istanbul public transit goes botanical and organic!
Happen to be in Istanbul? Then hop aboard Botobus, a new eco-friendly public transport option that features an organic rooftop garden. Introduced last week by the Istanbul Transportation Authority (IETT), the “botanical bus” embarked on its first journey between Edirnekapi and Taksim. The project aims to draw attention to global warming and the environment.