The United Arab Emirates is home to the world’s tallest building, Burj; it’s over-run by McMansions a la Arabia, and the Emirates don’t hesitate to create artificial islands out of extravagant shapes like planet earth. Now a humbler approach that mimics western trends: a cargo company in the UAE has put together 42 shipping containers for its office.
A new sketch of Abu Dhabi was just uncovered, showing a rare glimpse into the desert port before it became a super city. The sketch which reveals its most humble beginnings as a desert outpost, with tower to guard the island’s water resources is a sharp reminder of how quickly cities and empires can be built out of nothing. I see this sketch also as forewarning – a sign showing us that we need to think more in terms of lasting outcomes and sustainability before towering super cities take over our horizons.
The sketch was found last year when Liza Rogers working at the archives of the National Maritime Museum in London was looking around for documents relating to the history of Qatar. She opened the sketchbook of a leather-bound collection by R W Whish thinking she might see something there on Qatar.
To her surprise she found a faint, 155-year-old pencil sketch depicting a horizon, light cloud, a fort, some towers and the masts of several ships in the harbour. The sketch was sub-headed: “Aboothubbi, HMS Mahi, 3½ fms”.
While not considered a great work of art, it sheds light onto the early history of Abu Dhabi which has erected itself quite literally out of the sand in the last 100 years or so.
Abu Dhabi skyline today
There isn’t much historical documentation of Abu Dhabi, evaluators of the sketch say.
There is a growing concern that the free trade agreement between Iran and Turkey has encouraged an increase in the production and transit of drugs in the Middle East. Following the 2009 agreement to enhance co-operation efforts of land, air, and sea transportation, politicians and economic analysts have grown ever more concerned about the rising threat of drugs amid a free trade environment.
Iranians a Force in Turkish Drug Industry
Experts would appear to have every right to feel concerned, with statistics showing that heroin seizures increased from 2,025kg to 3,044kg between 2009 and 2010, which is just a year since the free trade agreement. Prior to the agreement, it had taken three years for a similar increase between 2005 and 2008. Those statistics represent the seizures of heroin, an opium-based drug, being transported to Turkey.
For the drug traffickers who are not caught during transit, close to one million Iranian nationals have chosen to continue living in Turkey instead of returning to their homeland. But rather than choosing to move for an improved quality of life, many of the illegal migrants are making the move for the purpose of becoming involved in the lifestyle offer by drug trafficking.
In fact, Turkey’s Department of Anti-Smuggling and Organised Crime (KOM) revealed in 2011 that 34% of all foreign nationals arrested in the country were Iranian. No other national demographic had a higher rate of drug-related arrests than Iranians, with these individuals dominating in the Turkish drug industry.
Hash Usage in Iran
Iran is not only making the headlines for drugs in the wider Middle East, but also within its own borders. Economic struggles within the country, combined with the readily available presence of cheap drugs, have driven many young Iranian nationals to consume drugs until the point of addiction is reached.
Prior to the development of serious addictions, Iranians are legally allowed to consume hashish, a product that is prepared from the readily available cannabis plants that are available throughout North Africa and the Middle East. Consumption of hash can act as a gateway drug for many young people, who turn to escapism to cope with the economic struggles of Iran. Wellness centres like FloridaBeachRehab.com have witnessed this problem on many occasions.
However, there is a considerable catch associated with the legal status of hash. While many hash users in the rest of the world will choose to smoke it through a variety of delivery methods, Iranian nationals can only legally consume hash by oral means. Effectively, this creates a situation where hash is easy to come by. Once in possession of the drug, it is then possible for the purchaser to smoke it in private.
Opiates Causing Damage
Iran has previously revealed to Economist.com that more than 2 million of 75 million people living in the country are addicted to damaging opiate-based drugs. Along with heroin, many of those 2 million addicts are using a cheaper derivate heroin, which is known as crack or shishe (this term is used to name cocaine in its freebase form). Users will gather in public places to smoke shishe and pose a threat to others.
The major problem with shishe is that it is not just poorer sections of Iranian society turning to the drug. Alarmingly, weight-conscious and beauty-obsessed women from the middle class are turning to shishe as a cure for weight loss. Courses are also said to be available for those who would like to manufacture shishe from the comfort of their own home.
To tackle the epidemic, Iran has attempted to implement a number of policies. Leading the charge are programmes formed to encourage safe disposal of needles, as well as methadone clinics to assist heroin addicts. With a 15% rate of HIV diagnosis among needle users in Iran, such initiatives are vital for responding to the troubling issue.
Iran is facing a battle on two fronts, with some of its citizens engaging in the trafficking of opiates to Turkey and then later settling there to join the local drug industry. Free trade is said to be the catalyst behind the first issue. Next, the dire economic conditions of Iran have driven many to consume cheap opium-based drugs. Iran has years of effort to combat the growing threat of drugs in the Middle East.
Image of drugs in Iran from Shutterstock
One hundred years ago on the first of September 1914, a bird named Martha died at the Cincinnati Zoo. She was the last of what had once been the most numerous bird in the world – the passenger pigeon. How did this happen? Read more as we attempt to solve this extinction mystery.
Disruptions in food trade and marketing in the three West African countries most affected by the Ebola virus out of control have made food increasingly expensive and hard to come by, while labor shortages are putting the upcoming harvest season at serious risk, the United Nations FAO warned today.
If you have been looking for ways to cut down on your energy spending while contributing to salvaging the environment, the government has offered you an opportunity with its Feed-In tariffs (FIT) scheme.
My experience with the Turkish police was problematic. As a tourist I was accosted by a man on moped, but because the perpetrator didn’t rape me or manage to steal my bag, the police weren’t interested in my complaint. New infuriation with the police stirs: Istanbul police officer takes selfie as a man a man commits suicide this morning.
American photographer Peter Augustus has created a series of images that may change how you look at processed food and help you resist the siren call of snacking. Important images for the Middle East, where fast-food is one of the leading commercial growth sectors with junk-food-mad consumers ballooning apace with corporate profits.
The Dead Sea is an amazing place to float, meditate, and to heal your aching body. But some guys hanging out on its shores show it is an awesome place to discover natural phenomena. This artist grows the crystals, Dead Sea Diamonds and crafts them into jewels you can wear.
Check out the salt crystals that they collected at a recent trip to the Dead Sea in the video below.
If you are eager to “grow” your own salt crystals the video below shows how it’s done. Skip ahead to the second half of the video if you want to do it with ordinary table salt.
Isn’t nature mind blowing?
There seems to be a tremendous struggle happening in the Middle East – a fight between the good guys, like this 10-year-old Emirati wunderkid, and psychotic fundamentalists (along with a host of other corrupt elements.) The good maybe overwhelmed by the very worst bad guys there could be. And then there is the boy who already has seven scientific patents to his name.
Talk about being self-sufficient, but totally weird! Israeli student designer Naomi Kizhner has designed a collection of jewelry that harvests energy from veins in the human body. The project highlights in a beautiful and artful way how humanity is addicted to energy consumption.
It may be a thought experiment more than anything, but these jewels provoke a fascinating discussion about the ends to which humans will go in order to get the next hit of energy.
Are you allowed to ride a bicycle? For Afghan girls and women, that’s a no. If they dare, people may throw rocks at them or call them unspeakable names. The Global Ride for Solidarity coming up this weekend is designed to catalyze a new cultural paradigm in the country, one that finds riding a bicycle in Afghanistan as normal as walking.
Maybe we’d have a little more tolerance and understanding in this world if ISIS just smoked some of the plants instead. Or maybe the plan is to smoke some of the spoils. Watch the video above as ISIS burns alleged cannabis plant fields in Syria.
The ever increasing amount of space junk makes it dangerous to pass through Earth’s orbit. Space junk can intercept and hit satellites throwing them out of orbit. But wayward satellites still able to perform may get a tow back to position thanks to a new Israeli startup.
Need a lift?
The robotic space tow truck developed by Effective Space Solutions (an Israeli company) wants to create a tugboat or DeOrbiter microsatellite. The company expects to “launch” within two years. Fast forward to 2020 and they have!
Update December, 2020: Israeli startup bought by Japan’s Astroscale
Astroscale working for “long-term orbital sustainability”, was today awarded Grand Prix during the UNESCO Netexplo Innovation Forum 2020, out of 10 breakthrough digital innovations which were selected for their disruptive potential.
Netexplo, an independent observatory that studies the impact of digital tech on society and business, has been a UNESCO partner since 2011. This year’s UNESCO Netexplo Innovation Forum showcased 10 breakthrough digital innovations with the potential of profound and lasting impact on digital society.
Astroscale won Grand Prix for its innovative satellite technologies that will reduce orbital debris and support the long-term, sustainable use of space.
“We are truly honored to be named Netexplo Grand Prix 2020, and I share this win with everyone on our team working hard on the technology, policy and business case challenges of this complex, global issue,” said Nobu Okada, Founder & CEO of Astroscale.
“I am encouraged to see what’s happening in Earth’s orbits as having a profound and positive impact on society. Right now COVID-19 and countless environmental catastrophes are wreaking havoc all over the globe, and we’re committed to stopping another potential disaster from unfolding over our heads.”
The rise of large commercial satellite constellations in low Earth orbit (LEO) means that the threat of a potential collision or break-up in key orbits will escalate.
This increasing amounts of debris endangers current and future satellite missions and puts society’s reliance on data from space at risk. Astroscale will launch its End-of-Life Services mission later this year as part of its critical end-of-life services, which will safely remove defunct satellites from orbit and maintain the viability of LEO.
The aim of inventors is to help it reposition satellites if they’ve gone off course – or push them off course where they can effectively “die” in a satellite graveyard several hundred miles above their usual orbit of about 25,000 miles above our heads.
When we first wrote this article there were two stranded Galileo Project satellites, and the company says that their solution could bring them back on course and live out their days until the satellites run out of energy.
Effective Space Solutions (well now Astroscale) was founded in 2012 by veterans of the Israeli space industry and the company They raised a $1.5 million seed fund from Singulariteam and the Israel Space Agency.
Arie Halsband (goes to LinkedIn) is the company’s founder.
Astroscale US Inc., announced this summer that it plans to acquire intellectual property and other assets and to hire certain members of the staff of Israeli satellite life-extension and servicing company Effective Space Solutions R&D Ltd. (ESS).
This is the first acquisition of an Israeli space technology company by a foreign company, but also the end of Effective Space founder Arie Halsband’s dream of producing micro-satellites in Israel. Halsband founded the company in 2012 with the vision of the miniature satellites, or space drones, attaching on to older, existing satellites to propel them in space and thus extend their missions even after their fuel runs out.
Astroscale U.S is a subsidiary of Japan-based Astroscale Holdings Inc., and operates in the same field as Effective Space Solutions, focused on solutions for LEO, low-earth satellites (200 to 400 miles above the Earth’s surface) where surveillance and observations satellites orbit, while Effective Space’s solutions are meant for GEO, geostationary communication satellites (25,000 miles above the Earth’s surface).
Astroscale is scheduled to launch a satellite into orbit next March, 2021 on a test mission to remove space debris, according to the company’s officials. The satellite will be carried into space by a Russian Soyuz rocket lifting off from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome.
The Japanese are with Russia and Israel and the ESA with the Swiss, who plans to launch ClearSpace in 2025 as a commercial service to clean up space junk. They plan on rescuing Vespa, says Spacenews: The mission, dubbed ClearSpace-1, is slated to launch in 2025 to capture and deorbit a 100-kilogram Vespa payload adapter an Arianespace Vega left in orbit after deploying ESA’s Proba-V remote-sensing satellite.
According to the European Space Agency’s Space Debris Office, around 8,950 satellites have been launched into space. Out of that number, 5,000 satellites are still orbiting the earth, while 1,950 are operational satellites.
This invention reminds me of that 80s show What Will They Think of Next. Or maybe I need a new job title. Imagine being head of the Space Debris Office? Or, Space Janitor?
While many Muslims don’t drink alcohol, the people of Batroun, Lebanon love their beer. At least according to Jamil al-Haddad, the visionary behind Colonel beer and a new microbrewery built out of recycled materials.
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