While many companies in the Middle East are grabbing land throughout Africa to buffer resource scarcity, Abu Dhabi-based firm Nahtam has plans to plant an organic farm in Ghana to offset carbon and create jobs.
Abu Dhabi Social Responsibility Firm Plans Organic Farm in Ghana
Gauzy Smart Glass Controls Light with an Eco Touch
Israeli startup Gauzy has invented smart glass that goes from transparent to opaque with nothing more than a touch. Based on liquid crystal technology used in LCD screens, this revolutionary new product has great eco potential.
10 Green Gift Ideas for Eid al-Adha
Want a jump up on impressing the hosts of upcoming Eid al-Adha parties? Conspicuous consumption is hard work in Jordan where I live. Product selections are slim, and tasking distant friends with doing the shopping requires gambling on Jordan Post, where parcels disappear like socks in the dryer. Internet retailers can be the answer, if you’re willing to pony up credit card info (a decidedly non-Jordanian habit, as locals operate on a largely cash-only basis). Firebox.com offers unique gift ideas that will tag you as the perfect guest.
Green Grass Flip-flops (pictured above) – A pair of comfy sandals lined with soft, realistic but totally fake grass are perfect for golfers, footballers, Irish ex-pats, and anyone in water-starved Amman needing a reminder of nature’s lushness. ($45)
BIKE SPOKELIT – Put safety first as you race to pre-dawn Fajr prayers with this wheel-mounted light. As you pedal, revolving wheels create a solid ring of light, ensuring maximum visibility. ($16)
AQUA ZINGER – Whip up homemade drinks free from unwanted additives. Load this up with your favorite fruits, add a splash of water, and its built-in blender creates tasty slushies or hot fruity drinks. It’s a perfect device for mixing mocktails. ($45)
Vapur Reflex Bottle – As much as I despise plastic bottles, I don’t use reusables because I don’t want to lug around the empties. This brilliant alternative stands up when it’s filled, but deflates when empty so you can roll it up and stash it in a pocket or backpack. Made from BPA-free plastic, it’s odor and stain resistant and dishwasher-safe. ($18)
GROW YOUR OWN PIZZA – Amp up your self-sufficiency and be one with nature by growing your own basil, peppers and tomatoes. Plop the prepared pots in a sunny spot, water them regularly and watch them grow. ($18)
OBSESSIVE CHEF’S BOARD – This chopping board guides perfect slicing and dicing with precise angles and measurements etched onto its surface. Made from durable and naturally antibacterial beechwood, it will encourage the obsessive-compulsive people in your life to put their neuroses to culinary use. ($36)
PAPER WATCH – This digital watch is a functional blank canvas for your wrist, clad in tear-proof paper fabric with a matching paper strap that can be personally decorated with a pen, marker or paintbrush. ($18)
RECYCLED TYVEK® WALLETS – Leave the leather on the animals and grab a billfold crafted from nearly-indestructible Tyvek® instead. These slim billfolds come in three styles, each with handy pockets and compartments. ($26)
SOLAR LANTERN – As with other solar lamps that Green Prophet’s covered, this one is linked to charity (for each lamp sold, its makers donate another to people in developing countries). Small solar panels endlessly recharge its lithium-ion battery. Lightweight, waterproof and portable, it’s a task light, flash light and diffused lantern all rolled into one. ($20)
PORTABLE LUNCH BOX – Keep your flavors distinct with the watertight locking seals on this update on the ancient Japanese Bento Box. It’s microwavable and dishwasher safe. Kiss those ziplock bags goodbye. ($23)
Better Place Taken Over by Parking Garage Company
Nobody was better poised to make Green EV Operation a success than Yosef Abramowitz, but the Better Place takeover in Israel failed because of the liquidator and Ministry of Transportation’s lack of cooperation.
3,500 Sqm Qatar National Convention Center in New Pics
The 3,500 square meter Qatar National Convention Center (QNCC) sees more time under the spotlight as Portuguese photographer Nelson Garrido’s new photographs of Arata Isozaki’s striking design surface.
Dafna Aizenberg Maps the Internet’s View of Our World
A young Israeli designer has collected digital data across a variety of internet meta-aspects (think “search phrases” and “virus attacks”) to paint pictures of the modern world, producing an atlas that maps the planet the way the internet sees it.
20 Goofy Ingredients You Can Actually Compost
Green Prophet loves composting, the DIY alchemy of diverting waste from landfills and converting it to nutrient-rich soil. But what if your kitchen doesn’t generate enough scraps to feed the process? Turns out there are loads of non-food ingredients to add to the mix.
A new school year starts this week and, in the annual house-scan for fresh notebooks and pens, I unearth more mysterious clutter, stuff that grows like Chia Pets in underused drawers and cupboards. You probably have the same problem: business cards from ages-ago jobs, dusty bottles of antique spices, a stack of Teletubbies paper plates (that little birthday girl is now pushing 16).
My greenest friend observed the clean-out and told me to chuck it all in the compost heap. A few minutes spent Googling, and it seems her tip is legit. These odd items might make your garden thrive:
- Old paper business cards
- Outdated herbs and spices
- Bamboo skewers
- Dryer lint
- The contents of your vacuum cleaner bag
- Wine corks
- Paper egg cartons
- Toothpicks
- Pet hair
- Human hair
- Matches
- Pencil shavings
- Paper napkins
- Crepe paper streamers
- Old potpourri
- Latex condoms
- Nail clippings
- Feathers
- Dog food
- Cardboard rolls from toilet paper and paper towels
Author disclosure: I mostly trust my friends, and my friends are mostly comedians. Have you dropped these ingredients in your own fertilizer factories with good results, or am I about to become another cautionary tale?
Image of women farmers from Shutterstock
RECIPE: Rice With Noodles – A Middle-Eastern Favorite
Rice is the standard “background” dish in many Middle Eastern menus. It’s often cooked quite plain, as a foil to the intense colors and pungent flavors of fresh vegetables and meat. Or it might appear all dressed up with spices and protein-rich grains, as in majadra, a typical lentil and rice dish. This recipe of plain white rice threaded through with golden-brown vermicelli noodle is eaten all over the Middle East.
Children especially love it, maybe because it’s soothing but not at all bland, and attractive with its textured appearance. Children are just as susceptible to visual appeal in food as grownups, after all. But adults like this dish plenty too.You’ll find it in in homes and in little eateries where homely dishes like baba ganoush and shakshuka are served daily, to the comfort of people working in the neighborhood. Rice with noodles needs an hour, but ost of that time, the rice is cooking or resting. Easy and delicious, so when you’re considering a rice side dish, try this one out.
Qatar’s Al Jazeera America Puts US Climate Coverage to Shame
Recently launched by Qatar’s Al Jazeera Media Network, Al Jazeera America has already made a splash for its no-nonsense climate change coverage – something local media stations have been too timid to tackle.
Israeli Photographer’s “Taking Apart” Nostalgia for Recycled Artifacts in Pieces
Israeli photographer Gabi Menashe loves outdated artifacts so much, he takes them apart, “one bolt, spring, button at a time,” and then artfully assembles the pieces for photographs published on his website Taking Apart.
Bahrain Beauty Shop VaVaVoom Sells Recycling to Clients
Luxury beauty salon VaVaVoom kicked off a recycling campaign this month that encourages its upscale customers to clean up the environment. The initiative aims to plant new recycling habits in ladies (and men) that don’t typically touch trash.
Eatwith, The Airbnb for Foodies
There’s a new business afloat that links people to people for the purpose of sharing authentic local dining experiences. I found EatWith.com a month too late for this summer’s vacation, but there’s always next time.
I’m fresh back from a few weeks in Europe, a family reunion through Paris and Venice and Rome that doubled as a Tour de Overeating. Our literal pig-out on sausage, pancetta, soppressata, and prosciutto was a vacation from the fabulous food in my adopted Amman, Jordan hometown, but those holiday restaurant menus started to blur.
Next trip, wouldn’t it be great to drop the chowing down a notch? Veer away from other tourists, enjoy local food with the locals?
Entrepreneur Guy Michlin had a similar thought, which he acted on by creating a foodie version of Airbnb: it’s a winning recipe. Michlin is co-founder and CEO of EatWith.com, an internet marketplace offering alternative food-sharing around the world – in people’s homes. (Michlin graduated from Hebrew University, topped that off with an Stanford MBA, and the man knows food.)
Story goes that a home-cooked meal he ate while vacationing in Crete inspired the former lawyer to ditch his job at one of Israel’s leading solar energy companies and devise a system to allow users to replicate his magical travel meal anywhere in the world.
So far, Israel is the only participating Middle Eastern country. Click on David if you want to book a Tel Aviv-style Shabbat dinner, or check out Vita and Jet for a scrumptious vegan feast in Kfar Vradim. Email Esther in Beit Arif whose husband (both pictured in the lead photo above) will whip up recipes handed down from his Yemenite mama, served up in their backyard tent (image below).
You can also dine on homemade paella from a backyard grill in Toledo, Spain or a BYOB Thai-Brazilian feast in a Sao Paolo flat. (We’ll be seeing cooks in Bethlehem and Jerash and Beirut on board soon.)
Launched last year, EatWith offers users two options:
1) Host your own pop-up restaurant by preparing your favorite dishes, served up in your home with a side of your cultural perspective. In the process, meet interesting people and earn some extra income.
2) Move a bit out of your traditional dining comfort zone and sign up as a guest. Taste new foods and local lifestyles for fair prices, and – again – meet new people.
“Most tourists don’t get a chance to meet the locals except maybe the taxi driver, or the waiter in the restaurant,” Michlin told TechCrunch, “but EatWith aims to change this.”
Michlin started with meal offerings in Tel Aviv and Barcelona. He added New York City and quickly expanded across the Americas and Europe. He’s received host applications from more than 80 countries. To ensure guest safety, the company employs a strict host vetting process and holds a $1 million insurance plan should something go wrong.
Hosts set the prices (EatWith takes 15%) and define the menu and scope of any entertainment (visits to local markets, musical performances, guest speakers and cooking workshops). A few offer to come to your home as visiting chef.
Each host page includes useful information describing the host’s style and experience, number of guests allowed, and event duration. Locations are mapped and venue amenities listed (disabled access, kid-friendliness, pets on premises, smoking policy, parking and access to mass transit).
So far, EatWith reports that the majority of guests are actually local to the hosts. So maybe the Airbnb analogy is not the best fit. EatWith may be a more tasteful regression from Facebook, social networking the old fashioned way.
Now, would someone pass the bread?
All images from EatWith
World Cup 2022 in Qatar and the Energy Debate Over Artificial Clouds
For soccer fans (or football in Europe!) The Qatar World Cup Games don’t start for almost a decade, but officials are still kicking the ball around over the irrational choice of tiny, wealthy, overweight Qatar as host nation for 2022 FIFA World Cup. With summer temperatures in Qatar reaching as high as 50°C (122°F), African and Arab teams might cope, but European athletes would be competing in temperatures double to those they’re accustomed to.
Why Teen Drivers Should Listen to Barry Manilow When Driving
In countries like Saudi Arabia where the dangerous and fatal “sport” of drifting cars into crowds of people is considered a past-time, we wonder – can music be to be blame? According to a new study from Israel teens who are listening to their favorite songs while driving are more likely to make errors while driving. Males, are most at risk, the study points out.
The Ben Gurion University study looked at 85 young drivers accompanied by a researcher or driving instructor. Each driver took six challenging 40-minute trips; two with music from their own playlists; two with background music designed to increase driver safety (easy listening, soft rock, light jazz), and two additional trips without any music.
The study was conducted by BGU Director of Music Science Research Warren Brodsky and researcher Zack Slor to assess distraction by measuring driver deficiencies (miscalculation, inaccuracy, aggressiveness, and violations) as well as decreased vehicle performance.
When the teen drivers listened to their preferred music, virtually all (98 percent) demonstrated an average of three deficient driving behaviors in at least one of the trips.
Nearly a third of those (32 percent) required a a sudden verbal warning or command for action, and 20 percent needed an assisted steering or braking maneuver to prevent an imminent accident. These errors included speeding, tailgating, careless lane switching, passing vehicles and one-handed driving.
Without any music, 92 percent of the young drivers made errors. However, when driving with an alternative music background designed by Brodsky and Israeli music composer Micha Kisner deficient driving behaviors decreased by 20 percent.
“Most drivers worldwide prefer to listen to music in a car and those between ages 16 to 30 choose driving to pop, rock, dance, hip-hop and rap,” Brodsky explains. “Young drivers also tend to play this highly energetic, fast-paced music very loudly – approximately 120 to 130 decibels.”
“Drivers in general are not aware that as they get drawn-in by a song, they move from an extra-personal space involving driving tasks, to a more personal space of active music listening.”
Image of teens driving from Shutterstock
Saudi Gazelle Massacre Sparks Outcry
A video of Saudi men boasting about their multi-day massacre of several Arabian gazelles has sparked an outcry across social media networks, local newspaper Sabq recently reported.