A former soldier in the Israeli Defense Force, Roee Magdassi knows how bulky and unsteady camping grills can be. Now a student at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, he created Stakes – an awesome new grill that makes standard iterations look like dinosaurs.
Three years ago, Qatar won the right to be the first Middle Eastern country to host a World Cup in 2022; after much speculation, FIFA’s Secretary General Jerome Valcke publicly ruled out the possibility that the competition will take place in summer.
Since winning the bid with designs of spectacular solar-powered stadiums, the Emirate has insisted that it will provide comfortable facilities for both athletes and visitors, but Valcke is adamantly against the idea of a summer event.
Previously, the Secretary General recently he said he would defer to medical specialists to determine whether it is safe to hold the games in Qatar in summer, when temperatures average between 95 and 113 degrees Fahrenheit. But on Wednesday, he took a more definitive stance.
“The dates of the World Cup will not be in June or July. I think it will be played between November 15 and January 15 the latest,” he told France Inter Radio on Wednesday.
“If you play between November 15 and, let’s say, the end of December, it’s the time when the weather is the most favourable,” Valcke added.
But it seems that Valcke spoke out of turn, because FIFA was quick to release a statement that no firm decision has been made about when the 2022 World Cup will take place – a reflection, perhaps, of a division within the organization.
ABC News reports: “The precise event date is still subject to an ongoing consultation process,” FIFA said in a statement released a short time after Valcke’s comments were splashed around the world. “As the event will not be played until 8 years’ time, the consultation process will not be rushed and will be given the necessary time to consider all of the elements relevant for a decision.”
Qatar’s organizing committee claims it is prepared for anything – a summer or a winter event, ABC News reports.
“During the FIFA Executive Committee meeting in October, it was agreed that FIFA would enter a period of consultation on the ideal time of year to host the World Cup in Qatar — with a recommendation expected after the World Cup in Brazil,” they said on Wednesday.
“We await the outcome of this consultation period. We will be ready to host the World Cup regardless of the outcome.”
This may be one of the most controversial World Cups in history. The weather’s not right, working conditions are said to be akin to modern day slavery, and Zaha Hadid got all kinds of heat for publishing renders of a stadium said to look like a vagina.
It seemed that finally the summer/winter debate had been settled, but apparently not. The confusion ensues. Stay tuned.
Dom Arquitectura designed 4 Houses in Jeddah, a large city in western Saudi Arabia, where summer temperatures often surpass 109 °F. Hit the jump to find out how the studio used Islamic and passive design to keep the homes cool.
Canada is up there on environmental awareness and monitoring contaminants in seafood. It was one of the first countries in the world to talk about the dangers of mercury from industry in fish, and now concerned citizens are comparing scary data on fish and seafood products from Japan after its 2011 nuclear meltdown.
Unlike medication, there are no warning ads that come with your car. The highest road accident fatalities in the world can be found among drivers in the Middle East with Saudi Arabia topping the charts. Care about how your community drives, and your kids? Share this video produced by NZ Transport Agency in New Zealand.
Do you dream about working towards a greener future in the Middle East but simply don’t know where the good jobs are? If so, you might want to head over to the 7th World Future Energy Summit (WFES), where Masdar Institute of Science and Technology and Reed Exhibitions are hosting a “Green Career Fair.”
Last year, Israel’s parliament announced plans to run entirely off solar energy by the end of 2014, but it turns out the Knesset is going even further to clean up its act. The new “Green Knesset” project will completely overhaul its ethos to stand as a symbol of the country’s environmental revolution.
With outstanding infrastructural improvement due in large part to projects launched by the cutting-edge real estate development company, Empire World, Erbil in Iraq is making a name for itself. Now is a chance to meet this ancient/new city, thought to be one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world.
Pomegranates and their ruby-like seeds are one of the fruits that define the Middle East, or at least the Levante side of the Middle East. Even though suspect pomegranate seeds were traced to an outbreak of hepatitis this past summer in the United States (organic fruit at that!), we have to let bygones by bygones.
![Dubai exploded 400,000 fireworks in record-shattering NYE display [video]](https://www.greenprophet.com/wp-content/uploads/Dubai-fireworks.png "Dubai exploded 400,000 fireworks in record-shattering NYE display [video]")
Dubai rang in 2014 with a record-shattering fireworks display. In an effort to break the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest fireworks extravaganza previously held by Kuwait, the emirate exploded a whopping 400,000 fireworks in less than 10 minutes.
The current road linking Abu Dhabi and Dubai, E111 is said to be one of the most dangerous, which killed roughly 9 out of 100,000 people in 2012, but the new state of the art E311 highway will be one of the world’s greenest.
See the images: These very rare textiles were found in the Wadi Murabba’at caves south of Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. Why is this ancient find so exciting for the Jews?
We’re not the biggest fans of all the Middle East’s skyscrapers – the Burj Khalifa, the Kingdom Tower coming to Saudi and other soaring glass towers, because of their high environmental impact.  Which is why we got such a kick out of these awesome candles from China.
For more than 3000 years, Jews dreamed of recovering a lost blue dye called techelet. Using clues laid down over 100 years ago by one rabbi in Poland, and another in Israel, Ptil Techelet, the Association for the Promotion and Distribution of Tekhelet, has succeeded in tracking down the dye’s source and reviving it.
At last, Dayma is offering the kind of eco-tour we’ve long dreamed of. The same people who showed students what scorpions and camels can teach us about sustainable design have now developed two new, affordable tours that put nature at the heart of the Egyptian experience.
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