Yesterday, Khaled Mahadin’s trial began. For those who don’t know, Mahadin is being sued by Parliament for slander by way of an article posted on Khaberni.com, a Jordanian news site. A few protesters gathered outside Parliament yesterday morning as Mahadin was pleading not guilty. I hope he’ll win this case.

Meanwhile, in other media news, cartoonist […]

While I still appreciate that the concept of Earth Hour has finally come to Amman, I am overwhelmingly disappointed with the outcome. Last night, several locations were supposed to turn their lights off in honor of Earth Hour, between 8:30 and 9:30pm, along with the rest of the world. What happened was nothing short of […]

A year ago, I used my powers of sarcasm to criticize Amman for not joining the rest of a lengthy list of world cities that turned off their lights for an hour to mark “Earth Hour” - an initiative to push the issue of global warming in to psyche of people and government everywhere. I […]

The eye-catching swimming pool in Mumbai, India, has been built to raise awareness about the threat of sea level rises as a result of global warming. It was constructed by attaching a giant aerial photograph of the New York City skyline to the floor of the pool. The idea was conceived by advertising agency Ogilvy […]

“Nearly seven in 10 Jordanians (69%) support greater efforts to make buildings more energy efficient, and 62% would favor the government requiring businesses to use energy more efficiently, even if this might make some products more expensive.” - Worldopinion.org Survey, conducted in cooperation with the Center for Strategic Studies.
Read The Report
[h/t: batir]

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If you’ve been following the local news this past week you’ll notice Jordan is set to purchase a brand-spanking new nuclear reactor from France, while building the country’s first, 40 megawattwind farm. Meanwhile, the non-stop chatter of oil-shale production (which I can guarantee won’t see efficient, full-scale commercial production for at least another decade) is […]

This is an “in case you missed it” post. There is a very cool article on 7iber.com that is definitely worth reading, especially if, like me, you are constantly searching for some validation that not all is lost; still searching for hope. Given their socioeconomic environment and actual environment, these kids should be given a […]

One hour. Sixty minutes. Three thousand and six hundred seconds. Yes. It’s that time of the month again. Tie a string around your finger, program your cell phones or write it on your fridge, bathroom mirror or foreheads by way of reminder. Turn your lights off between 8-9pm tonight! Consider it your monthly 60-minute reminder […]

Tonight…Thursday…8pm to 9pm…light some candles…join the experiment…tell everyone you know…Turn off your lights…

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A few of my delicious pickings from the past few days. Pay particular attention to the more new-media-meets-real-world articles on Facebook and Flickr. I really found those interesting. Makes the world feel a bit smaller than it is.
Staring Contest: An Italian man was given a suspended jail sentence for staring too intensely at a […]

I wanted to point to a recent piece of local news where the government is expected to remove both the 16% sales tax and customs duty on renewable energy devices like solar panels and windmills. It was interesting because a few days ago I was in a meeting where Ahmad Humeid noted the high prices […]

Last night, Amman joined the list of cities all around the world and turned its lights off in honor of Earth Hour, a WWF initiative to raise awareness about global warming. Here’s a picture of the Capital that I took last night as it was plunged into darkness.

Ok, ok, so that picture was totally photoshopped. […]

Zaina, a colleague of mine at Jordan Business, wrote an interesting opinion piece in this month’s issue entitled “Breathing Spaces”. She pointed out the lack of public spaces in Amman is a troubling dilemma now more than ever, with the rapid urbanization of the city. So she proposed that instead of taxing owners of empty […]