Google Tackles Energy

I suppose if anyone’s gonna solve the energy problem, google will.  Power to the problem solver geeks!

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Human Development Report

The UN’s Human Development Report for this year is out and it focuses on, surprise surprise, climate change. Havent read it yet. But here’s the press release.

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Of Veils and Segregation

I posted this ages ago when a monaqqaba won a case against AUC because they were barring entry with a face veil. To the comments there i would like to add that the reason i am sorry AUC lost the battle is because AUC is a private institution. It’s not a public park, street or [...]

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YouTube bans torture videos, closes Wael’s account

Yep.

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Egyptian academics step up activism

Speaking of Egypt; I dont really follow university politics, but it seems university professors are escalating their activism: “Demonstrations staged by workers and teachers demanding the government honour their financial rights have proved successful, demonstrating that the state will respond when confronted with a strong stance,” Adel Abdel-Gawwad, chairman of the Cairo University Teaching Staff [...]

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Oil prices: speculative distortion

I realize i’ve been posting disproportionately frequently on oil and energy. I would post more on Egypt and the region but my time is quite limited these days.  I feel there’s no point in just posting links without commentary when someone else (the Arabist) already does it far more efficiently and including most of what i [...]

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OPEC Summit aside

Apparently an oil company consortium led by Brasilian company Petrobras has announced the conclusion of well tests that indicate the deep water Tupi field to be enormous. When the field comes online (it will require the cutting edge of oil drilling technology), it could place Brazil in league with the other major new world fuel [...]

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Culture in the Gulf

It’s been clear for a a few years now that Abu Dhabi has been seething with envy towards its oil-poor, commercial super-hub neighbor. Naturally, it wouldnt make too much sense to compete in the same niche. And so they’ve picked culture (no new news, really, though), a concept which, for some reason, i find hilarious.

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Yamli: Search in Arabic

Yamli is absolutely brilliant. I’ve spent the last half hour at a loss for how to express my happiness with it. It’s a website that let’s you enter transliterated Arabic which it converts into arabic script. For me, that’s enough. But it also lets you search in google and provides an editor for longer pieces. [...]

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VisorVeil

This weekend i looked over into the cab next to me and sighted a veil form i had yet to see. This was one of the youngish, fashionable types wrapped up into a ball at the back of the head. The layers were greens and white. The innovation: a small, inch-wide, translucent visor at the front. And, no, it wasnt a hat. It was a veil with a visor.

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Oil prices: unstable subsidizers

As OPEC looks set to request assurances that demand wont decrease (hah!) as especially the US and Europe pursue other sources of energy in return for investing significantly in expanding production capabilities, someone finally looks at what these prices mean to people other than the gas excreters and guzzlers swimming in dollars and debt, respectively. [...]

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Kareem Amer Tortured in Prison

I just received a statement from the Arab Network for HR Information announcing a communique they (along with Hisham Mubarak) sent to the prosecutor general claiming that prisoner of conscience, blogger Kareem Amer (see FreeKareem for info) has recently been beaten in prison by a guard and inmate under the orders and supervision of an [...]

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Cairo Desert Sprawl

Here‘s more (see previous posts) in FT on Cairo’s mushrooming into the desert. It looks at how both rich and poor have had to accommodate themselves in recent times. I, however, disagree with this: The development of exclusive estates represents a new phenomenon for the ancient city, as the rich and powerful seek seclusion in [...]

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More on biofuels and hunger

George Monbiot argues that governments continue to avoid hard decisions by promoting converting crops for biofuel production – a process which often produces more carbon than petroleum and causes starvation by limiting already stretched food supplies.

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The Age of Insufficiency

One thing i like about oil prices so close to $100 is the fact that it’s forcing a lot of people to stop and think about our dependence on petroleum. There is so much coming out these days that it’s difficult to keep track of. Micheal Klare has an interesting piece in the Nation that [...]

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