World Usability Day was founded in 2005 as an initiative of the Usability Professionals’ Association to ensure that services and products important to human life are easier to access and simpler to use. Each year, on the second Thursday of November, over 225 events are organized in over 40 countries around the world to raise [...]

Read Full Post »

Earth Future is a collection of very worthy short stories. It is immediately clear that Guy Dauncey is not writing from a literary and imaginative viewpoint: he is really telling us stories about how the world could be, using some real social tools and shifts, and in one or 2 stories, how bad the world [...]

Read Full Post »

The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) announced yesterday that they would boycott the 60th anniversary gala evening held by the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
The reason? The Ministry supports the building of a new settlement, Mirsham, in the Lachish region.
The SPNI and other environmentalists have strongly objected to the project, arguing that [...]

Read Full Post »

Last week in our Green Prophets in Focus Series, we interviewed our resident Eco-Mum Sophie Ohana.
This week, our focus is on Hamutal Dotan, our expert on all things culinary and delicious. Hamutal is currently working as a web editor in Toronto and aspires to be a full time writer.
Read about Hamutal’s thoughts on sustainable food, [...]

Read Full Post »

The Israel Union for Environmental Defense (IUED) reported that yesterday (September 14) the Israeli government approved plans to place fish cages in the Ashdod harbor.  This marine agriculture initiative was removed from the Eilat harbor after a controversy over whether they were harming the coral reefs in the Bay of Eilat/Aqaba.  Without getting into the [...]

Read Full Post »

This prophet just made the flight from Tel Aviv to his childhood home of New Jersey. After a year of observing Israel and it’s eco-consciousness (and at times lack thereof), I was eager to see how the Garden State measured up to its nick name. I couldn’t help but compare my observations in [...]

Read Full Post »

How can you recycle your paper and plastic when there’s nowhere to put it in your neighbourhood? It’s not just recycling facilities that are in short supply in East Jerusalem, but also environmental consciousness in general, as I found out recently whilst researching environmentalism among the 200,000+ Palestinian residents of the Holy City. My lack [...]

Read Full Post »

Last time, we interviewed eco-activist and journalist Michael Green.
Next up in the Green Prophets in Focus series is Sophie Ohana, our resident Eco-Mum! Growing up on an organic farm in England instilled in Sophie a passion for all things green, a passion which she later transported to Israel.
When it comes to children and babies, Sophie [...]

Read Full Post »

Prof. Alon Tal of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award for Environmental Protection from Israel’s Ministry of Environmental Protection. The award, which is being granted to 12 recipients, recognizes the honorees for their work on behalf of safeguarding Israel’s environment and is being granted as part of the country’s 60th [...]

Read Full Post »

In this guest post Lea Aharonovitch, a Senior Product Manager at Answers.com, shares her expertise.
Among other things, I’m a usability expert. Usability is the level of friendliness and ease of use of products and interfaces. Products should be easy to use, designed clearly, and fit the user’s needs.
Often companies design products without considering usability, and [...]

Read Full Post »