This Egyptian bodybuilder’s biceps aren’t sustainable, or even good for his own health. Moustafa Ismail will appear in the 2013 Guinness Book of Records now that his 31 inch biceps have been confirmed as the biggest on the planet. The 24-year-old with arms as wide as a man’s waist began bodybuilding ten years ago. In 2007, […]
Jara Mosque in Gabes boasts the tallest minaret in all of Tunisia and now it is covered in el Seed’s signature calligraffiti. Exactly one year after the Jasmine revolution, the French/Tunisian graffiti artist took on his largest project to date in creative protest against the intolerance shown by both artists and hard line Islamists since […]
An engineering student used LEGO to help restore an ancient Egyptian mummy case at Cambridge University. The 10th Century BC Hor Mummy case excavated in 1896 from a Luxor temple had been languishing in a museum basement for the last fifty years. Its face had been torn to pull out the mummy it previously encased, […]
Pamukkale is the most sensual and surreal of Turkey’s eleven World Heritage sites. Seventeen natural hot springs pour a continual stream of mineral water down the enormous travertine steps of Turkey’s Pamukkale. It’s a Dali painting come alive. Rock formations melt like liquid stairs dropping from hilltop Hierapolis towards the surrounding skirt of farmland. It’s […]
There’s good news for butter lovers in the future. Professor Oren Froy of the Agriculture, Food, and Environment department, Hebrew University, says that a high-fat diet may help weight loss. The trick is to include fats in regularly scheduled meals. We’ve written about different food theories here on Green Prophet, including a debate on if […]
Beef Products Inc says that the ABC network is to blame for its economic woes. What’s in a name? Beef Products Inc (BPI) is suing ABC News for $1.2 billion, claiming economic damage from the network’s use of the words “pink slime” to describe the mass of connective tissue ground together, washed in ammonia, and […]
None of Egypt’s pyramids existed. Khafre wouldn’t commission the Great Pyramid of Giza for another 1500 years. But some time around 4000 BCE an Egyptian artist discovered the secret. This secret was the wonderful alchemy which transformed sand, ash, calcite lime, copper and fire into a lustrous blue-green gem worthy of the pharaohs. Faience, also […]
A personal account of celebrating the Naked Sea event anniversary last Thursday night. In September of last year year Spencer Tunick came down to the Dead Sea and brought along with him throngs of reporters, environmentalists and 1500 people loaded on buses from around Israel who bared all in the hot sun in the name of […]
The Masdar Institute (MI) has teamed up with the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) headed by Denmark’s former Prime Minister, and the Research Institute for Industrial Science and Technology (RIST) from South Korea to develop a 100% renewable energy micro-grid in Abu Dhabi. MI initially proposed the micro-grid idea to GGGI, which is chaired by […]
Four Turkish students collaborated to design Washit – a combined shower and washing machine that makes those 15 minute showers almost guiltless. Responding to the combined woes of water scarcity and excess water use in the bathroom, Ahmet Burak Aktas, Adem Onalan, Salih Berk Ilhan and Burak Soylemez created a shower box that collects, cleans, and […]
In the beginning of September, Darb 1718, an art and culture organization in Cairo, hosted a festival to promote recycling in Egypt. It featured a musical performance by El Zabaleen (the Garbage Collectors), a local band famous for reusing old materials as instruments to play their music. The Darb 1718 festival engaged many of the […]
Mashrabiya screens are a common element in Middle Eastern architecture and yet few people outside the design world realize how much work goes into making them. In order to unveil the extraordinary care and patience that goes into each handcrafted screen, Beirut-based Carwan, the Middle East’s first popup art gallery, commissioned mischer’traxler to design the Mashrabiya […]
Determined to stay its unpopular nuclear course, Iran is now turning to wind power and other renewable energy sources to blow past sanctions. Last year Karin reported that the current regime plans to produce 5,000 MW of solar energy by 2015, and in May this year, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad put aside an additional $620 million […]
Does placing Israel in the same camp as the anti-nuclear movement in Jordan have negative implications for the success and popularity of the campaign? Since 2009, when Jordan first announced its nuclear ambitions, the country has been through a parliamentary review of nuclear power, accusations of slander by the head of the Jordanian Atomic Energy Commission and dozens of protests […]
Turkish designers who anticipate severe water shortages in the next few decades have designed the dualWash – a waterless dish washer that cleans single dishes after every single use. Mitigating huge stacks of dirty dishes and waste water resources, the dual dishwasher and cabinet uses carbon dioxide to rid dishes of crumbs and sauce and other […]