The number of people left homeless by the devastating Philippines typhoon Haiyan has topped 800,000 according to the latest United Nations estimate. Haiyan was the biggest storm ever recorded to reach landfall, wiping out entire villages and killing over 4,000 people (numbers continue to rise). Feeling the inevitable urge to assist?
ShelterBox: You Can Help Philippine Survivors NOW
Abu Dhabi is Phasing Out Cars and Siemens Wants to Help
Dubai’s metro started running in 2009 (don’t fall asleep though) but Abu Dhabi, the wealthier Emirate, is only now reducing its dependence on cars with a swanky new rail and tram system. And Siemens hopes to hop on board.
Green Roofed and Wi-Fi Enabled Tawseela Micro Buses Cut Through Cairo’s Traffic
There’s traffic. And then there is Cairo traffic, which can drive even the saintliest men and women to a special kind of madness. But a new public transportation option has popped up that could make getting from point A to point B significantly less stressful.
Design a Bridge for the Strait of Hormuz – Crucial Passage for Global Oil
It is one of the most important bodies of water in the world, the only one to link the Persian Gulf with the open ocean, and it is frequently at risk of closure due to politics. Here’s your chance to design a new bridge for the Strait of Hormuz.
Ruslan Khasanov’s Microbeads “Psychedelic” Soap Are Polluting Our Seas
A photographic series entitled Pacific Light captures a spellbinding dance that begins when ink, paint and soap collide. Watch stunning color combinations puddle and swirl. Visual artist Ruslan Khasanov snapped gorgeous photos, but his video and GIFs (short for Graphic Interchange Format, a form of computer image that moves as soundless animation) are spectacular.
Israeli Researchers Make Oil from Greenhouse Gas
A replacement for oil has become a burning need in the 21st century. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researchers in Israel have invented a process to make a green feed alternative for crude oil out of two of the most common substances on Earth – water and carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.
Beirut Residents Revolt Against Plan to Destroy Iconic Massad Stairs
Beirut residents are fed up: everywhere they look there are cranes and bulldozers turning their city into a giant concrete mess and even the smallest efforts to beautify the city are destroyed. This time they are saying no to a municipal plan to demolish the iconic Massad stairs.
Solar-Powered ‘Desert Cascades’ Cube Gushes Water in the Desert
The same team behind SunGlacier, an extraordinary solar-powered artificial leaf that produces ice in the middle of the desert, has come up with a new concept – ‘Desert Cascades.’
Formula One Drivers Take On Dubai in an Electric Twizy Frenzy (video!)
A tiny two-person electric car may be the last choice for Formula One race car drivers, but that was the electric ride of choice last week as Formula One drivers rode around Dubai. With massive luxury cars as the status quo, the Twizy was an unusual choice. But alas, it was all about promotion by Renault.
Middle East Deserts as Seen From Space: Far-Out Photos!
The European Space Agency (ESA) publishes satellite photos of Earth (and photos of space taken from Earth) in an incredible archive that’s updated weekly. Each image is paired with a brief explanation about what you’re looking at. Check out this selection – if the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) could take “selfies”, these would definitely be on its Facebook page.
Greenhouse Gases Peak at Record Levels for 2012, Highest in 800,000 Years
Just in case you thought that UN’s 95 percent certainty that climate change is happening is a gimmick, the same United Nations body assessing our fate and its connection to greenhouse gas emissions released last week another shocker that’s no big surprise: last year 2012, saw the greatest amount of emissions to our planet yet.
Israel’s Energy Industries Wins Power From Garbage Contract in Ghana
Who says that garbage can’t be used to create energy, including electricity? The same garbage
that created eyesores like the Tel Aviv Garbage Mountain, where Israel hopes to build the Middle East’s largest recycling plant will also be used to create power from natural gas.
Thanksgiving and Hanukkah Together This Year – But Will They be Greener?
Jewish American ex patriots living in Israel and abroad will have a special treat this year as the American secular holiday of Thanksgiving and the beautiful Festival of Lights, Hanukkah, will occur together in unique calendar coincidence that will not happen again for more than 77,000 years.
Whether families combine traditional Thanksgiving roast turkey and cranberry sauce with Hanukkah latkes (potato pancakes) with apple sauce will be at each family’s discretion. Since some families celebrating the joint events are vegetarian, the traditional Thanksgiving meal can have meaning to vegetarians and vegans too.
An article published in the Toronto Star, America’s friendly Canadian neighbor to the north, mentioned that this super rare and probably once only joint event on November 28 will not occur again until the secular year 79,034.
Hanukkah, which begins each year on the 25th of the Hebrew month of Kislev, is a eight day festival on which candles are lit each night to commemorate the miracle victory of the Jewish Maccabees over the Greek Seleucids in 164 BCE.
The festival also tells how a tiny amount of holy oil found in the rededicated Temple in Jerusalem burned continuously for eight days. This is why fried foods like the latkeh potato pancakes and jelly donuts known as “suvganiot” are eaten, to commemorate this oil.
As a result of the two holidays occurring together, Jews in both Israel and the USA have given the “hybrid” holiday a special name: Thanksgivukkah. While more excitement of the two concurring holidays appears to be more prominent in the USA, a number of Israel’s approximate population of 185,000 expat Americans and descendants will celebrate the joint holiday too.
From a green or environmental standpoint, whether expat families in Israel choose to order a turkey this year could depend a lot on how they may have been effected by the recent Kolbotek consumer watch dog program that revealed how turkeys and other poultry have been seriously abused prior to being slaughtered at one of Israel’s largest poultry slaughterhouses, Solgevick.
Another environmental issue also stems from whether lighting so many Hanukkah candles contributes to Climate change and global warming.
Expat vegetarians and vegans who refrain from eating meat and other animal products will still have plenty of food items to enjoy, including the traditional Hanukkah latkes.
This also holds true for traditional Thanksgiving foods like squashes and quiches, potato and other vegetable dishes. Even traditional pumpkin pie, made from a local squash cousin of the American pumpkin, known in Israel as “d’laat” will grace many tables. The traditional Thanksgiving cranberry sauce, if one finds it in time, is also great with Hanukkah latkes as well.
As to what the world will like in 79,043, we might all take heed from the 1969 pop hit; In the Year 2525 by the pop rock duo Zager and Evans
More on Hanukkah, Thanksgiving and similar harvest festivals celebrated in Israel:
Applesauce for Hanukkah Recipe
Climate Change and Hanukkah – A Connection?
Vegetarian Thanksgiving Meal Can Have Meaning in the Middle East
As Trees Die, Cyprus Republic Looks to Lebanon for Water Import
Cyprus has one of the worst fresh water shortage than other regional countries, including Lebanon, Israel and Syria. The problem is so bad that reservoirs have gone dry and trees are dying.
Hövding, An Invisible Inflatable Air Bag Bike Helmet (video)
Bicycle riding in the Middle East is thwarted by challenging climate and terrain, and to lesser extent by culture. A new invisible helmet, akin to an airbag, and pictured above, could incite more Middle Eastern cycling.