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Lebanon’s Bees are Freezing to Death

Huge bee die offs do not bode well for agriculture in Lebanon A staggering proportion of bees in an important agricultural hub have frozen to death in Lebanon. A recent influx of extreme weather that produced ice and frost combined with a series of diseases has wiped out up to 75% of the bees in […]

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See how Iran’s Lake Urmia with Nasa photos

The most recent satellite image of Iran’s Lake Urmia demonstrates how drastically the lake has shrunk since 1998! Last year an Iranian activists were beaten for protesting government projects that are detrimental to Lake Urmia – the largest landlocked salt lake in the country. Before and after images captured by the Thematic Mapper on NASA’s […]

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How Data Mining Turns You Into A Super Consumer

Visual clues about you are just the tip of the information iceberg. Your shopping habits can be made malleable by others through data mining. New York Times writer Charles Duigg wrote how Target predicted a teen’s pregnancy before her own father knew. He described a man demanding to speak to a superstore manager: “My daughter got this […]

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Measure Your Water Footprint

Country data reveals that Syria, Lebanon and Iraq are potentially the only virtual water exporting countries in the Middle East. Get in the know about blue, green and grey water footprints. Following the previous article on measuring your Ecological Footprint, here we will focus on the Water Footprint. Let’s start with understanding the Virtual Water […]

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Sweet And Tangy Pickled Cucumber Chips RECIPE

Few vegetables are so well-loved in the Middle East as cucumbers. This spicy cucumber pickle is delicious as an appetizer or to top your next falafel. “Cool as a cucumber” still applies when the cukes are pickled. Even when spiced and brined, cucumbers add a welcome, refreshingly piquant note to meals featuring fish, meat, and […]

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Measure Your Ecological Footprint

When looking for country-specific environmental indicators, it is often difficult to find a single indicator that  holistically summarizes the environmental situation in a tractable and visual manner. This is the first part of two articles (the second one on your water footprint is here). Two interactive environmental info graphics will be explored to help you better understand what is […]