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January 08, 2010

Snakes Portraits of the Hadza people by Martin Schoeller

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Inch by inch, Barack Obama is moving mountains, by Andrew Sullivan

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Colorful photos of slithering snakes

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Taboo Question for Israelis

January 8, 2010 in Middle East | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 16, 2009

The Last Keffiyeh Factory in Hebron

West_bank French journalist Benoit Faiveley visits the last Palestinian Keffiyeh (the iconic headscarf made famous by Yasser Arafat) factory in Hebron on the West Bank.

Faced with Israeli military checkpoints, the complexity of exporting goods from the West Bank and now competition from Chinese Keffiyeh manufacturers, the factory might not outlive its 76-year-old owner

Made in Palestine

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Also: Chicago in the Negev desert

Un-related: The Serenity Prayer. (I didn’t realize it wasn’t written by Kurt Vonnegut)

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March 16, 2009 in Middle East | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 01, 2009

Postage Stamps of the Yellow Fleet

Suez_canal In June of 1967, a convoy of 14 freighters was underway in the Suez Canal, northbound, when war broke out between Israel and Egypt. The canal was officially closed and the ships had to anchor in the Great Bitter Lake. Within three days it became clear that the canal was going to be blockaded for an indefinite amont of time due to the deliberate sinking of vessels. The hostilities entered history books as the Six-Day-War. For the ships it meant almost eight years of forced isolation, imprisoned in the Great Bitter Lake.

During this ordeal, the crew on the ships produced their own postal stamps. (From Metafilter)

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Bauhaus architecture in Israel

Arabic versions of packaging of some consumer products. Taken 1/09 in Dubai

Un-related: An organizer from pre-communist Russia (1918)

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February 1, 2009 in Middle East | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 17, 2008

Syrian lingerie

Syrian_lingerie Just off the crowded central market in Old Damascus, a sales assistant called Mahmoud is giving me my first introduction into an unusual Syrian speciality - musical knickers.

The garments come in many different shapes and colours, and play little tunes - or other extraneous noises like telephone ringtones - all made by small electronic devices hidden in the lining.

Singing underwear isn't the only item on sale at the "Fatin Shop for Ladies Indoor Clothing", where Mahmoud is proudly showing off his product lines...

Exploring the exotic world of Syrian lingerie (with video)

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A beautiful story about the first Palestinian Soccer field built in the town of Al Ram. (From LA Times)

A Huge Depository of Unusual Stories from the Middle East Here

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December 17, 2008 in Middle East | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 19, 2008

The Giant Makeup mines of Peru

World_trade_center A former Lebanese taxi finds a new life as a pampered summer car, and other Mercedes-Benz Type 180 restoration stories

Humpty Dumpty in Jerusalem by Pat Condell

Salt evaporation ponds in Peru, in Bulgaria and in Alviso, California on Google Maps. (From Digg)

Many maps from the Middle East

6 better ways of crossing the borders than in the Middle East (YouTube)

Engineers and computer scientists at Purdue University have created the first scientifically accurate visualization of the attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11

(No time to blog tonight. Sorry)

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May 19, 2008 in Middle East | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 08, 2008

Arab Beauties

Life_goes_on Arab Beauties on flickr (Showing some legs)

Arabic Alphabet

Life Goes On In Tehran. (Scroll sideways)

Ayman al Zawahiri, Al-Qaeda #2 takes your requests

Professor Yoo is teaching International Civil Litigation. The class must be very civil

5 years of Bearing Witness

"I've been to war. I've raised twins. If I had a choice, I'd rather go to war." Bush’s War on Frontline

(Photo above from Lonely Planet blog)

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April 8, 2008 in Middle East | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 09, 2008

Saudi Investment in Afghanistan

Saudi_investments "Several years ago I got a hold of a very rare portfolio with original 12 by 18" photographs, charts, diagrams, blueprints and renderings for Saudi Investment in Afghanistan..."

Also by the same flickr member, Kenny Irwin, Pamphlets dropped in Afghanistan during the 2001 war and Crystals from Pakistan & Afghanistan

Dubek cigarette ad from the sixties. (One of over 300 Nostalgic YouTube clips from Israel)

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March 9, 2008 in Middle East | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 16, 2008

Al-Aqsa

First_palestinian_stamp Stamps issued by The Palestinian Authority. Not including the illegal & fake stamps of Pope John Paul II & Benedict XVI. More about the postal history of the PNA on wikipedia

Dome of the rock and other famous landmarks in LEGO by Arthur Gugick. (From Idleworm)

The Band's Visit, a movie about an Egyptian musical group meant to be on a goodwill tour in Israel

Savoring Damascus, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world

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February 16, 2008 in Middle East | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 27, 2008

Send a message

Best_humus For 30 euros, you can have a Palestinian artist spray your message on “The Wall”. The symbol of separation becomes a conduit of communication. (From Crimes and Corruption of the new world order)

In search of the best hummus in the world

The Carmelit, the underground train in Haifa

Haj Pilgrimage in 1953 from National Geographic Magazine

Experts can agree on one thing

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January 27, 2008 in Middle East | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 04, 2008

Iranian fashion

 Deep_meditation More art on public switch boxes. Also, Drain covers

Early photography from Palestine. (Click on "Collections", then on "מצגת")

Latest style in Iran (Safe for work)

Dubai night life (YT dancing)

10 Israeli Defense Force Dreidels. (From Neatorama)

Typography by Oded Ezer

Re-post: Syrian Calligraphy by Mouneer El Shaarani

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January 4, 2008 in Middle East | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 13, 2007

Go around twice if you’re happy

Dubai’s changing landscape

The Ottoman Empire

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November 13, 2007 in Middle East | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 06, 2007

Freemasonry in Egypt

Egyptian_man Freemasonry in Egypt - Is it still around?

Roman Era Funerary Portrait Painting. (From Spooky Librarians)

A Palestinian family portrait from 1900

A slideshow of the Palm rising, one of the many grand projects in Dubai

Young Israelis blast Gaza strip with vegetables

Today I went swimming with my wife

Jerusalem Rocks, an international music event in support of peace and unity. (From Blond 2.0)

Pocket books called "Stalags" were practically the only pornography available in the conservative Israeli society of the early 1960s. Though it was claimed that the Stalags were translated from English, they were actually created and written by Israelis. Israel’s dirty little secret

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September 6, 2007 in Middle East | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

August 02, 2007

“Yankees Go Home (& Take Me With You)”

Ron_jeremy_captured Catastrophic Space: an interactive tour of Beirut

I Wanna Be Like Osama, from “Jihad the Musical”

“Yankees Go Home (& Take Me With You)” - Faces of Iran by Paolo Woods

Yea, who cares about dead Iraqis?...

Neturei Karta is a small Haredi Jewish group who oppose Zionism and call for a peaceful dismantling of the State of Israel, in the belief that Jews are forbidden to have their own state until the coming of the Messiah

Israeli photographers Eyal Bartov and Dubi Roman

A Huge Depository of Unusual Stories from the Middle East Here

August 2, 2007 in Middle East | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

March 26, 2007

Dome of the Rock

Jewish_watermelon Ads from Israeli newspapers (Ca. 1967. From PCL Linkdump)

The Face to Face project is to make portraits of Palestinians and Israelis doing the same job and to post them face to face, in huge formats, in unavoidable places, on the Israeli and the Palestinian sides

Jewish and Palestinian land exchange

The construction boom that is changing The New Mecca

Portraits of Violence: The Gangs of Port Moresby and Suicide Bombers in Gaza

The Giza Archives Project. (From World History Blog)

Al-Haram al-Sharif

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March 26, 2007 in Middle East | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 25, 2007

One Voice

From One voice

Peacemaker video game

Peace posters

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February 25, 2007 in Middle East, Peace | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack