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Egypt WLBOTT Corporate

Dreamtime / Cairo (CAI)

Circumnavigation series                            Next in the series Heraklion → Cairo (CAI): ~360 miles We continue our 16,000 mile flight from Edmonton, Canada to Perth, Australian. After leaving Crete, Elder G and I flew down to Cairo to refuel. We did not linger. To give you a sense of how screwed up Cairo is, […]

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Egypt Food France Mildly Interesting

A Short History of the Air Fryer

The WLBOTT Museum of History, Anthropology and Technology (WHAT?) is currently hosting A Short History of the Air Fryer. Big shout-out to our enthusiastic, unpaid interns! Air Fryer – The Nuts and Bolts An air fryer is a small countertop convection oven that is said to simulate deep frying without submerging the food in oil. […]

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Adventures of the Elders Food Texas Tunisia

Harissa

Elder JimZim is WLBOTT’s muse-du jour. Lastly, I wrote a Harissa haiku when I was out of harissa: Harissa – how I miss yaA staining red pasteTo spread on shawarma pita Droubi’s Elder JimZim was referring to Droubi’s, at 7333 Hillcroft Street, in Houston. You can see a nice video of the owners in this […]

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Agriculture Egypt Palestine The New Crescent

The New Crescent: Hope vs. Fear

New Crescent series “For the price of one year of missiles, we could irrigate a thousand years of fields.” “Untwine the budgets of war, and spool them into wells of life.” Elder G Yesterday we looked at the scale of resources needed to support the agricultural community of The New Crescent. The irrigation needs of […]

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Agriculture Egypt Engineering Saudi Arabia TechnoBLOTT The New Crescent

The New Crescent Faces an Engineering Challenge

New Crescent series                                  Next in the series We continue our series on The New Crescent – a Utopian agricultural community that resettles Palestine refuges in a peaceful, prosperous setting. We try to answer some basic questions: How much land? How much water? How much electricity? In our Utopia, Egypt has provided a […]

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Agriculture Egypt Oh, Grow Up! Those Crazy Kids!

The New Crescent: Olives (part 2)

New Crescent series                                  Next in the series Let’s get back to our Olive Orchard for The New Crescent. Time to take a practical look at the olive orchard project. Assumptions Orchard size 100 acres orchard size Trees per acre 300 high-density but not super-high Establishment (cost per acre) $5,000 initial planting, irrigation, […]

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Agriculture Egypt The New Crescent

The New Crescent: Olives (part 1)

New Crescent series                                  Next in the series We talked a bit about olive trees in a previous blott: https://www.wlbott.com/?p=25662 For The New Crescent, the communities will decide how to use their irrigated crop land. But the economic realities of irrigating the soil with desalinated water will encourage the planting of high value […]

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Egypt Israel Palestine The New Crescent

The New Crescent: Joe Sacco, Umm Kulthum, and Olive Trees

New Crescent series                                  Next in the series Before we get started, let’s take a moment to reflect: Q. How cool is the Austin Public Library?A. Very cool. Joe Sacco: The Nuts and Bolts Joe Sacco, journalist, satirist, and illustrator, frequently writes about Palestine, and has collaborated with Chris Hedges on several works. […]

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Egypt Israel Palestine The New Crescent

The New Crescent: Political Realities

New Crescent series                                  Next in the series The implementation of The New Crescent is complicated by political realities: Rafah Let’s look at a microcosm of this insanity: the city of Rafah. Rafah, the city that Elder G recommended as the eastern boarder for The New Crescent, sounds like hell on earth. In […]

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Egypt The New Crescent

The New Crescent: Weather, Maps, and Geographical Considerations

Elder G has suggested a location for The New Crescent in the area: New Crescent series                                  Next in the series Location: Egypt’s northeastern Sinai coast, possibly near El Arish or the Rafah border, is often underdeveloped and sparsely populated—yet strategically close to Gaza. Al Jazeera has some beautiful photos of a rare […]