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Meat Glue: Is Anybody Talking About It?

Miriam Kresh
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11
Meat Glue: Is Anybody Talking About It?

meat glue image-early-cigarette-adThe public was ignorant about the the dangers of smoking till the 1960s. The fashion for meat glue in food seems ominously similar.

Finding a scientist to talk about meat glue wasn’t easy. I spoke to neurologists, biologists, pathologists, the head physician at a local hospital, and biochemists. None had even heard of transglutaminase.  When I described it and asked if they thought it dangerous to ingest, all gave the same easy answer: “Can’t really see a problem.”

Why were these medical professionals so unconcerned? The answer seems to be, what you don’t know can’t hurt you.

There’s been almost no research on  long-term effects of meat glue on living humans. And as I mentioned in our first meat glue post, the one study available to the layman was funded by the manufacturer. How unbiased can that be?

It seems I’d been talking to the wrong people. At length an American  bio-inorganic chemist agreed to do some informal research into meat glue, although he had never heard of it either. His conclusion was,

“It’s very scary stuff.”

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Modular Toaster Design Makes Toast for the Long Haul

Karen Chernick
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0
Modular Toaster Design Makes Toast for the Long Haul

"modular toaster design"The modular toaster, designed by Hadar Gorelik, is sustainable by virtue of its intended long-term use.

Sustainable design is often thought of in terms of upcycled or organic materials, but it is also about what happens to the designed object in the long run.  Cardboard furniture, for example, is sustainable not only because it is made from recycled materials but because it is easily recycled in the future as well.  Beauty is said to increase sustainability as well, and designer Gadi Amit believes that “objects have a cultural meaning, and objects that are lovable, that are well integrated into culture, won’t be trashed after five years, and so are sustainable.”

But the ability to reinvent and come up with new uses for a product also obviously demonstrates sustainability, since users’ needs change all the time.  Israeli designer Hadar Gorelik’s modular toaster does just that, and is sustainable by virtue of the fact that it takes the user’s present and future needs into account and avoids the possibility of becoming obsolete.

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Renewable-Energy Cars Heat Up in Turkey

Julia Harte
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0
Renewable-Energy Cars Heat Up in Turkey

Science, Industry and Technology Minister Nihat Ergün test-drives a solar-powered car at a solar vehicle competition in the Turkish city of Izmir.

A strange array of vehicles were seen speeding around Izmir, Turkey last week, as the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) hosted its first Alternative Energy Vehicle Races in the sunny Aegean coastal city. Thirty-eight teams entered the solar car races, while 20 teams brought vehicles to the hydrogen car competition.

The event inspired Nihat Ergün, of Turkey’s Ministry for Science, Industry and Technology, to declare that the government will up its investments in renewable vehicles in coming years.

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Japan’s Pre-Fukushima Solar Aid for Egypt Proceeds

Tafline Laylin
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3
Japan’s Pre-Fukushima Solar Aid for Egypt Proceeds

egypt, solar power, photovoltaicsDespite problems confronted on its own soil, Japan proceeds with its commitment to fund a photovoltaic project in Egypt.

Japan’s International Cooperation Agency (JICA) announced that it will proceed with plans to support a solar energy generating station south of Alexandria. Egypt applied to the aid agency for assistance with the “Project for the Introduction of Clean Energy by Solar Electricity Generation System” long before the Fukushima accident usurped all of Japan’s attention and capital. The plan, approved by JICA in February 2010, includes a 420 kilowatt photovoltaic power plant that is expected to produce 641,000 kw by 2012.

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Organic Computer Design Reminds Us to Take Our Eyes Away From the Screen

Karen Chernick
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0
Organic Computer Design Reminds Us to Take Our Eyes Away From the Screen

"organic computer design"Hanging from the ceiling like an ivy plant, Omer Deutsch’s “Secondary Growth” computer design softens the harsh, plastic, traditional work cubicle.

If you’re reading this right now, chances are you are a person who spends at least an hour or two a day on a computer (if not more).  This has become commonplace practice for people, and it is not unusual for people to eat in front of their computers, watch TV on their computers, and generally spend a lot of time hanging out with these electronic boxes.  The problem with this is manifold, but here are two computer issues that Israeli industrial designer Omer Deutsch was able to tackle with his “Secondary Growth” design: the need for a more aesthetic, organic design for computers and the need to provide a reason for people to occasionally look up from their computers.

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Israeli Cabinet Moves Ahead With 10% Renewables by 2020

Susan Kraemer
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1
Israeli Cabinet Moves Ahead With 10% Renewables by 2020

Despite a potentially thriving renewable sector, Israel’s government selects a relatively modest and unenforced goal

The Israeli cabinet has just approved the 10% renewable energy target by 2020 initially proposed by Finance Minister Roni Bar-On three years ago. This is lower than some had expected. In May, Israel’s Director of Industry had touted a higher level: 20% by 2020. The lower 10% target would be reached in two stages. The cabinet set an interim target of 1,550 MW of renewables to be met by 2014, by setting quotas “allowing for” their development.

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HAMAD: Sheikh Graffiti Visible From Space

Tafline Laylin
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19
HAMAD: Sheikh Graffiti Visible From Space

Abu DhabiIn a moment of unabashed self-aggrandizement, Sheikh Hamad bin Hamdan Al Nahyan from Abu Dhabi commissioned beach graffiti visible from space.

We have nothing against Sheikhs per se. A member of Ajman’s royal family, HRH Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bin Al Nuami, also known as the Green Sheikh (who knows how to treat a lady), has an incredibly modest lifestyle and travels the world educating people about the benefits of environmental stewardship.

He invites people into his home, teaches them about the high-minded side of Islam, and also pens a monthly column for Green Prophet. And undoubtedly there are several Sheikhs who are similarly grounded in the realities of our world. But another Sheikh from the United Arab Emirates, HRH Sheikh Hamad bin Hamdan al Nahyan from Abu Dhabi, is making a name for himself in other, less flattering ways with beach graffiti visible from space.

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Helen Caldicott on the Nuclear Debate

Tafline Laylin
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1
Helen Caldicott on the Nuclear Debate

nuclear energy, radiation, Turkey, Chernobyl, FukushimaDr. Helen Caldicott has campaigned against nuclear energy for decades. Today she talked to Green Prophet about how no nuclear event is merely local.

We had a skype conversation with Dr. Helen Caldicott today, during which she stated in no uncertain terms that there is only one side to the nuclear question. Dr. Caldicott is a long time anti-nuclear activist, physician, and speaker whose name is trailed by an exhaustive list of impressive accolades. For roughly four decades, she has been tirelessly speaking out against the absolute nightmare that that is nuclear anything, and recently claimed that the Fukushima nuclear disaster is worse than Chernobyl.

Why would we want to talk about Fukushima when we are in the Middle East, far from Japan? Because nuclear disasters in our interconnected world are never merely local affairs. Following Chernobyl, Turkish tea and food, along with produce from other parts of Europe, were contaminated after the stratosphere winds carried radiation from the Ukraine to other parts of the northern hemisphere. We wanted to get a clear sense of what kind of fallout, if any, we can expect from Fukushima.

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The Horn of Africa Famine: A Cautionary Tale for MENA

Tafline Laylin
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1
The Horn of Africa Famine: A Cautionary Tale for MENA

climate change, desertification, global warming, drought, famine, horn of africaAid workers are battling to reach certain drought-affected people in the Horn of Africa, where tens of thousands of people have died.

Tens of thousands of people, many of them children, have already died in Somalia – the seat of what is being called the Horn of Africa famine. While many news outlets focus on Rupert Murdoch, for whom oil shale in Israel is likely a dwindling concern by now, we really ought to have our eyes on Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya,  Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan, where global warming, climate change, higher carbon concentrations, whatever you want to call one of the most serious challenges humanity has ever faced,  is presently, right now, starving millions of people to death. And we should be looking because we in the Middle East could be next.

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DNA Tracking and Nuclear Beef Contamination in Japan

Maurice Picow
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0
DNA Tracking and Nuclear Beef Contamination in Japan

Fukushima cows“Fukushima cows” starving to death – but some got shipped to the meat markets.

Revelation that some 84 Japanese beef cattle shipped to markets in Tokyo and elsewhere in Japan may be contaminated with radiation may not have happened had the exposed cattle been genetically “profiled” by a new DNA tracing process being developed by an Israeli company Autentica DNA. The tragedy of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor meltdowns came as a result of one of the largest subterranean earthquakes to occur off Japan’s shores, resulting in a giant tsunami that was so great in size that it actually carried large ships with it several miles inland. The tsunami caused considerable damage to the Fukushima nuclear power plant that ultimately resulted in meltdowns to three of the plant’s four nuclear reactors, causing great damage to the environment.

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Spending Ramadan on the Commode

Tafline Laylin
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0
Spending Ramadan on the Commode

fasting, RamadanMillions of people around the world will fast during Ramadan, and thousands will hide in the bathroom to sneak food.

I tread lightly. I am not a Muslim. I’m not religious at all, though enforced bible education is firmly rooted in my neurological framework. So, it is with grave respect that I tackle the question of fasting. Last year during Ramadan, I spent a week with an Egyptian family in Maadi, a relatively wealthy neighborhood just outside of Cairo.The Aref family were lovely, and I will cherish their kindness and generosity for a long time.

But it was perplexing for me to see my friends abstain all day from food or drink, often in extreme heat amidst power shortages, and then gorge themselves at night. And what are the consequences for people who in consideration of their health decide to relieve their thirst or hunger, particularly in harsh weather? A high school student recently penned an eye-opening op-ed in the Morocco Times addressing just this problem.

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Suntech To Sell Home Solar Panels in Israel

Susan Kraemer
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1
Suntech To Sell Home Solar Panels in Israel

Suntech, the world’s leading solar panel maker, with 1,800MW of annual production last year in China, is now looking to Israel for its next launch of solar panels. With a panel made specifically to meet Israeli requirements, the top Chinese panel maker is making its debut in the tiny, parched, sunny nation with a new generation of high-efficiency solar modules, the Suntech 300W Vd series, with 72-cell modules of 6-inch black square cells per panel.

The series is designed to be tough, water conserving and lightweight enough for typical Israeli rooftops.

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Ecco Ukka Weaves Love, Magic and Recycled Materials into Fabric Jewelry

Karen Chernick
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1
Ecco Ukka Weaves Love, Magic and Recycled Materials into Fabric Jewelry

"ecco ukka fabric necklace"Ecco Ukka’s funky fabric jewelry pieces are green, fashion forward, and comfy all at the same time.

It’s not easy to make it cool to be green.  Eco conscious designers – who believe that you can have sleek Prada-esque taste and environmental values at the same time – often have a hard time shedding the crunchy granola label.  Occasionally a handful of eco designers make it to the high ranks of haute couture (as is the case with Lebanese designer Ziad Ghanem), and we hope that they keep bringing high eco fashion to the world.  Liat Kadosh’s line of upcycled fabric jewelry – Ecco Ukka – is one more green design line that should make it there as well.

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Semi-Sustainable Berber Agriculture

Tafline Laylin
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1
Semi-Sustainable Berber Agriculture

sustainable agriculture, Morocco, eco-tourismThe verdant valleys in the Toubkal National Park stand in stark contrast to the dry, red mountain sides.

After my last visit to Toubkal National Park in Morocco’s high Atlas Mountains, where I ungracefully scrambled to the summit of its namesake in order to prove to myself and the world that I am cool enough to climb to the highest point in North Africa, I couldn’t walk properly for days after.

Over the weekend, I went back via the Ourika Valley. But this time, while there were moments of challenging hiking, my focus was on understanding the Berber people who live in small iron-red homes tucked into the side of steep slopes. With my talented mountain guide leading the way, I trekked across a handful of loose scree peaks and verdant valleys, occassionally stopping to drink mint tea with the locals, and admire their terraced agriculture plots. Naturally, what seems “so sustainable” has a more complicated background.

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Danish Council Rejects Blue Better Place Chargers

Tafline Laylin
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2
Danish Council Rejects Blue Better Place Chargers

Better Place, greenhouse gas emissions, electric vehiclesA municipal council in Denmark has rejected Better Place’s blue and gray electric vehicle chargers!

If powered renewably, Better Place electric vehicles can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions (unless you listen to Dan Rabinowitz). This potential transition to cleaner vehicles notwithstanding, one Danish municipal council has vetoed Better Place chargers because of their color. Frederiksberg Council claims that the chargers which accompany any new Better Place electric vehicle are not suitable for street installation because they are blue and gray, and not green.

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