| Going green to combat global warming
Buildings, renovation and landscaping could play a major role in attacking climate change, Archicentre, the building advisory service of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects said , calling for Federal and State Governments to focus on basics. Combating global warning is not rocket science and most of the weapons are within the collective hands of the community and government at all levels. Archicentre said simple measures such as switching to energy efficient light bulbs, better insulation and ventilation, utilising overhanging eaves, installing shade pergolas, water efficient taps, showerheads and toilets and the use of blinds in hot climates can all contribute to combating global warming. Angus Kell, State Manager NSW and ACT of Archicentre said, ''The size of homes in the future would be a major challenge for the government and the community as many large homes had just one person living in them making them highly environmentally inefficient and contributors to global warming.
Why does this place matter to you?
You might not recognise Berlaymont, the headquarters of the European commission, but it makes more of a difference to your working lives than ever. To mark the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, Mark Leftly went to Brussels and came back with nine reasons why you ignore it at your peril .
Where China's Rivers Run Dry
April 16, 2007 issue - The view from the top of the luxurious Morgan Centre (which will soon host a seven-star hotel) down onto Beijing's Olympic Green, where the 2008 Summer Games will begin in less than 500 days, is breathtaking. There, far below, lies the stunning Herzog & de Meuron-designed "bird nest" Olympic Stadium. Right next to it is the equally mesmerizing National Aquatics Center, a square structure with bubbled blue translucent walls known as the Water Cube. International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge has called this soon-to-be-completed sports complex "nothing short of staggering." How successfully Beijing has turned the Games into a global coming-out party is—for anyone who, like me, came to know China when Mao still held sway—a mind-bending accomplishment.
Gardening: Cedars of Lebanon
According to the Kabbala, we are all destined to live up to the legacy revealed in our names. This truth was made clear in the life of Erez Levanon, of blessed memory. In Psalm 104, arzei Levanon (cedars of Lebanon) are described as "trees of the Lord that drink their fill." According to the commentaries, this refers to the extraordinary attention God lavishes on cedars of Lebanon because of the special mission to which they have been assigned. Erez Levanon, too, was given such a mission. In the Torah, the word erez does not only mean cedar, as it is usually translated, but also has a more generic meaning that includes every type of shade and forest tree (see page 156 of Etzei Besamim, Ya'ar Venoi, a meticulously researched volume on biblical trees, by Yehuda Feliks). Erez Levanon may have stood out as a humble, musical mystic from Bat Ayin, who strummed his guitar and sang to children as they walked to school, but he was really no different from the many Jews he touched who, underneath, shared his yearning for God.
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