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Eco Craft That Junk Drawer Into Toddler Discovery Toy

Faisal O'Keefe
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56
Eco Craft That Junk Drawer Into Toddler Discovery Toy

eco toy toddler water bottle
Execute some alchemy and turn random junk and recyclables into a smart toy for your toddler. 

This takes so little time and attracts such rave reviews you’ll be tempted to make a batch for future gift-giving, school projects, and maybe replace birthday “goody bags” with a toy that will get real use.  An Amman school is making them by the boxful to donate to Jordan orphanages. It’s based on a pricey educational toy that’s been around for decades: someone gifted my-then toddler daughter with a “Find It“, and a dozen years on, she’ll still pull it off a shelf and play with it (OK, so maybe just when the internet’s down).

Here’s how to make your own “discovery bottle”.

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A look at Islam’s Eid al-Adha 2012 Across the Middle East

Leigh Cuen
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0
A look at Islam’s Eid al-Adha 2012 Across the Middle East

Mecca, Holiday, Muslim, Eid, Middle East, Environment, War, FeastThis time of year marks one of Islam’s most sacred holidays, Eid al-Adha. The four-day holiday corresponds with the height of the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, which draws two million Muslim pilgrims a year.

Eid began Friday and will end Monday, the last day of the Hajj. When traveling in Palestinian cities, I have always marveled at the street art communities make to welcome pilgrims home.

Eid al-Adha is also known as the Holiday of Sacrifice, the Feast of the Sacrifice, the Major Festival, the Greater Eid and Bakrid.

Fires, ritual animal slaughter (and sharing that meat with the poor), and feasts are among the cherished celebratory customs.

There has been much debate about the role of meat in the celebration. In 2011, Jordanian Princess Alia spoke about the importance of humane animal slaughter when celebrating Eid al-Adha.

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Heart-wrenching Video of Two Hyenas Rescued from Lebanon

Tafline Laylin
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1
Heart-wrenching Video of Two Hyenas Rescued from Lebanon

Lebanon, Striped Hyena, animal rights, wildlife conservation, animal rescue, animal crueltyAnimals Lebanon rescued two striped hyenas that had been captured as pups in the wild and they are now safe in their new home in southern France. Five year old Rita was living in the Ansar Zoo, which was bombed in 2006 and left to ruin. Sara, just two, spent her entire life in a cage the same size as her in a private garden. Her brother, who lived in a cage below her, died not long after he was captured. His bones and skin were left in the cage.

For one year, the animal conservation group worked with the Agricultural and Environmental Ministries to emigrate the two animals, which are badly stigmatized in the Middle East. Some critics said they should have been released back into the wild, but there aren’t sufficient resources in Lebanon to rehabilitate the animals and they almost certainly would not have survived.

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Camel Milk Chocolate and Mideast Dates Permeate Global Markets

Faisal O'Keefe
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13
Camel Milk Chocolate and Mideast Dates Permeate Global Markets

camel milk chocolate, camel milk middle east

Camel milk and dates are now bona fide links in the international gourmet food chain. And while this bodes well for Middle East economics, is the associated environmental news happy too? I questioned this last summer in Malahide, a tiny Irish seaside village where I used to live.  I was staying with friends and their child offered me some camel-milk chocolate (“It’s just lovely”, she said).  I went to wash my hands, and noticed all of their bathroom soaps contained Dead Sea minerals.

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German Giant Siemens is Selling Off Solel and its Solar Assets

Tafline Laylin
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0
German Giant Siemens is Selling Off Solel and its Solar Assets

Siemens, solar, solel, solar trough, photovoltaics, solar thermal, cleantech, This is big news in the solar world: German giant Siemens, which recently unveiled photographs of its new headquarters in Masdar City, has recently announced that it’s selling off all of its solar assets, including Solel, an Israeli solar builder that the firm only acquired within the last few years for $418 million.

“Due to the changed framework conditions, lower growth and strong price pressure in the solar markets, the company’s expectations for its solar energy activities have not been met,” Siemens said in a statement, according to Bloomberg.

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Bosnian Walks 3,600 Miles to Mekkah

Arwa Aburawa
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0
Bosnian Walks 3,600 Miles to Mekkah

hadzic bosnia walk hajjSenad Hadzic walked for 314 days and crossed six countries from his village in Bosnia to get to Mekkah in time for Hajj

Last year we covered the amazing story of two South African Muslims who had cycled all the way to Mekkah. Not much more you could do to top that we thought at the time, but we were wrong. A 47-year old man from Bosnia has walked all the way from his village to the holy city of Mekkah. With only €200 in his pocket, he said he couldn’t afford to make the sacred pilgrimage any other way. Wakling between 12 to 20 miles a day, Senad Hadzic crossed six countries and entered Saudi Arabia last week in time for Hajj and the upcoming Eid celebrations. Now that’s what I call a green pilgrimage!

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We Interview Better Place Car Owners in Israel

Maurice Picow
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2
We Interview Better Place Car Owners in Israel

better place battery switchInside a Better Place battery switching station. Maurice interviews two Better Place electric car buyers who defend their decision to buy electric, and support the company which is flailing financially.

Better Place international CEO Shai Agassi has been fired from the company he founded ; and in the wake of his departure, the company may also be laying off large numbers of staff, according to media rumors. But despite these recent revelations, owners of the Renault Fluence ZE cars that were redesigned to be total electric are still upbeat regarding the future of the company which introduced its battery switching network into Israel and other countries as well; including Australia and Denmark. 

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Jordan Terminates Uranium Mining License with French Firm AREVA

Arwa Aburawa
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0
Jordan Terminates Uranium Mining License with French Firm AREVA

jordan uranium areva nuclearFollowing a dispute over the details of their joint contract, the Jordanian government has parted ways with the french company AREVA

Back in 2010, the Jordanian government granted exclusive uranium extraction rights for nuclear energy to the French company AREVA. It has now been announced that the mining license has been cancelled following a dispute over whether the license covered prospecting or both exploration and mining. Given the exclusive nature of the contract, Greenpeace are now calling on the government to clarify whether this “announcement means the end of all urnanium mining plans.” And if there is no uranium to supply their nuclear power plants, is there still a future for Jordan’s nuclear ambitions?

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Hijab Moves From Sports, to a News Room, to a Green Debate

Faisal O'Keefe
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3
Hijab Moves From Sports, to a News Room, to a Green Debate

Fatma Nabil headscarf, egypt tv, arab spring, hijab

Last month, a woman wearing a Muslim hijab headscarf presented the headlines on an Egyptian television news program, becoming headline news herself. So why the alarm when anchor Fatma Nabil appeared on Channel 1 (one of several state-run TV stations) wearing an off-white hijab that covered her hair and neck? And why is this issue connected to the environment?

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There’s a Burj Qatar by Jean Nouvel and it’s the World’s ‘Best’ Tall Building

Tafline Laylin
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2
There’s a Burj Qatar by Jean Nouvel and it’s the World’s ‘Best’ Tall Building

World's Best New Tall Building, Burj Qatar, Doha Tower, Qatar, Mashrabiya, Arabian Gulf, ArchitectureChicago’s Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat recently named the Burj Qatar the world’s best new tall building, which is curious to us for several reasons. First of all, famed French architect Jean Nouvel designed the building but we can’t find it on his website. Is he not proud of his towering child?

Second, there’s a council of tall buildings? Who thought that would be a good idea? Third, there’s another giant Burj building in the Arabian Gulf, as if one of those wasn’t enough. (Granted, Burj means Tower in Arabic, so it really shouldn’t come as a surprise that there is more than one.) And lastly, is there really any such thing as a best tall building? 

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Keret House: The World’s Thinnest, Most Insane House is Now Open

Tafline Laylin
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2
Keret House: The World’s Thinnest, Most Insane House is Now Open

etgar keret house bed

Keret House, also known as the world’s thinnest home, was designed for Israeli writer Etgar Keret. The art installation which has filled the void of 1.3 m between two houses in the Warsaw district of Wola was designed by Polish architect Jakub Szczęsny from the Centrala collective.

Online and print news sources around the world are calling the Keret House the thinnest in the world and it is finally open. Renowned Israeli writer Etgar Keret commissioned Jakub Szczensy of Centrala to design the tiny ‘crack-house’ as a tribute to his Polish family who were killed during the World War II holocaust.

world's thinnest house, poland, warsaw, centrala, etgar keret, keret house, jakub szczesny, israeli writer's houseBoth art and architecture, but hardly a leisurely space for lounging, the little dwelling is squeezed between two buildings on 22 Chłodna St. and 74 Żelazna St and measures a mere 133 centimeters in the widest interior spot.

 

The idea was to design a unique rendezvous spot for creative movers and shakers to explore new ideas without eating up either space or resources. And, well, they won’t be doing much of that. Check out our earlier post for more details on the parasitic house, 3 foot narrow at its narrowest and 5 feet at its widest:

Super-green Masdar Headquarters Design Awarded to Brookfield Multiplex

Tafline Laylin
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1
Super-green Masdar Headquarters Design Awarded to Brookfield Multiplex

Masdar, Brookfield, Abu Dhabi, IRENA, Gulf, renewable energy, green building, sustainable building, rooftop photovoltaic powerThe award to design Masdar‘s new super-green headquarters in Abu Dhabi has been given to Brookfield Multiplex, the group announced recently. The Australian firm was awarded the contract to design and construct the seven story building in the Gulf nation, which will feature a whopping 344,445 square feet of interior space and a massive rooftop photovoltaic system that will make oil fields weep.

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New And Improved AORA Solar Tulips Turns To Global Market

Shifra Mincer
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9
New And Improved AORA Solar Tulips Turns To Global Market

aora solar energy israel heliostats, tulip interview on green prophet

AORA Solar CEO Zev Rosenzweig says he is more ready than ever to take on the world. His company’s hybrid solar thermal technology, which was launched in prototype test form in both Kibbutz Samar, Israel and Spain, has been revised and reconfigured based on a series of tests and is now ready for the global market. In an interview with Green Prophet, Rosenzweig said the company fully retrofitted about a dozen features of its 100 kW thermal solar tower system, including aspects of both the heliostats that collect thermal energy from the sun and the tulip-shared tower at the center that collects the heat and contains the system’s generator.

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Bio-Powered Green Bus Fitted With Recycled Materials Cruises Dubai

Tafline Laylin
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0
Bio-Powered Green Bus Fitted With Recycled Materials Cruises Dubai

Dubai, RTA, SS Lootah, Bio Fuel, Green Transportation, Recycled Materials, United Arab EmiratesIt’s easy to poke fun at Dubai for all of its insane excesses, but because we’re big-hearted greenies, we also want to give the Emirate a giant high-five when it does something worthwhile. And the Green Bus is certainly that.

Although the merits of bio-fuel are still debatable (depending on the source), this pilot bus, which provides a feeder route between the Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Mall metro, is powered with bio-diesel, fitted with solar-powered, energy-efficient LED lights, and features some recycled materials in the floor and seats, as well as recycled tires.

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Embryonic Canopy is a Giant Floating Seed Bomb

Tafline Laylin
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0
Embryonic Canopy is a Giant Floating Seed Bomb

Embryonic Canopy, seed bomb, biodegradable balloon, Sukkah, Jewish Holidays, Architecture, Agriculture, Green Design, Urban DesignCraig Deebank and Gina Gallaugher were selected as finalists in the Sukkahville design competition held in Toronto recently with their extraordinary Embryonic Canopy – a giant floating seed bomb (and a contemporary Sukkah.) Comprised of a CNC-cut central platform that resembles real trees along with several biodegradable balloons, the design is a whole new take on an ancient Jewish tradition, and they have a fascinating urban agricultural component as well.

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Most of the world’s marine protected areas are polluted by sewage

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Research from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the University of Queensland, published in Ocean & Coastal Management, found that nearly three out of four marine protected areas (MPAs) worldwide are exposed to sewage pollution.

Adamah in Los Angeles wants to make Jewish climate action local, practical and spiritual

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At a time when climate anxiety can feel abstract and overwhelming, and being Jewish something people may need to hide in big cities, Adamah Los Angeles is trying something different: turning Jewish values into local climate action with dirt-under-the-fingernails practicality.

How to safely remove astroturf and plastics from your backyard

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For families with kids, pets, or anyone trying to build a cleaner outdoor space, removing old astroturf is one of the simplest ways to reduce unnecessary exposure to plastics and heat. Some past studies suggest that if kids have played on these surfaces you need to wash their hands. 

Is artificial turf bad for your health?

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Artificial turf, the green plastic stuff that is supposed to look like grass, was sold to many home-owners as a clever compromise: a green-looking surface that makes you feel homey, but which needs no mowing. It survives heavy use, and in dry places like Middle East deserts, and in California or Texas, it can replace thirsty lawns. But it is toxic.

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