New developments
New use of solar power
(cairolive.com, June 18, 2002) New solar panels placed on the banks of Lake Nasser will be used to power small ice machines, reports Al-Akhbar.
The machines will be used by Nile fishing boats that need to store their catches until the end of the working day.
The interesting experiment will be American designed, but produced locally in Egypt, costing no more than 4 thousand pounds.
Each solar powered ice machine has the capacity to store between 50 to 70 kilograms of fish for one full day.
A trial run of two such machines near Abu Simbel have delivered perfect results, the paper says, adding that the machines are extremely simple to operate and may also be used to store fruits and vegetables. 

Commentary
Satellites and kites
(cairolive.com, June 18, 2002) In a political cartoon on its front page, Al-Wafd pokes fun at the relative strengths of Israel and the Arab world's intelligence gathering capabilities. The title of the cartoon is “Israel launches a satellite to spy on Arabs” and the picture is of Ariel Sharon with devil's horns remote- controlling the Israeli satellite, while the Arab world -- represented by a fellow in a kuffiya -- is holding up a torn up kite, in a feeble attempt to counteract the Israeli satellite. 

Education
Interesting studies
(cairolive.com, June 18, 2002) Amongst the many items that routinely appear in the press about recently completed academic studies, two stand out.
 The first was in Al-Akhbar, which reported that a researcher at the botany department of the National Research Institute found that plants have human-like emotions: feelings of love, hate, happiness, and sadness.  Plants can even become suicidal if their depression becomes too intense!
In the three year study, it was found that plants that feel for each other grow stronger and longer branches toward each other, and vice versa.  It was also found that the most common “love affair” occurred between apple and olive trees.
Another interesting study looks at the impact of Mohammed  Abdel-Wahab on modern Egyptian music. Prepared by Nabil Azzam, an Egyptian living in the US, the 1200 page report was presented to the Egyptian Opera House in celebration of the opening of the newly renovated Arabic Music Institute, which features a museum dedicated to Abdel-Wahab.
The report was the basis of Azzam’s 1990 doctorate thesis at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), and according to the Al-Akhbar report, it has become a part of the curriculum at the music departments of many well-known American colleges. 

Miscellaneous
Weak translations
(cairolive.com, June 18, 2002) Al-Akhbar erroneously translated the title of HBO’s comedy series “Sex in the City” to “Al-Hob Wal Madina” or “Love and the City” in a recent photo caption about the stars of the Emmy award winning show. If they were embarrassed about the title of the show in the first place, one wonders, why did they feature the photo caption at all?
In another instance of inexplicable translation mistakes, a small item in Al-Ahram translated the title of the popular American television show “The 700 Club” to “700 Nadi” or “700 clubs.”

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