Mega Mecca Construction

               Over the past few years, Mecca has benefited benevolently in terms of infrastructure. Italian photographer Luca Locatelli, visited Mecca this year during the time of umrah. He manage to capture how radiant and radically the city had changed. The capacity of the site has been expanding since  late 1970. The cost of the projected was estimated to be around $26.6 billion. The man purpose was to expand the capacity of the Grand Mosque. Features that were planned to be added include: new wings, prayers areas, escalators and hundreds of bathrooms.

Reference: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/magazine/mecca-goes-mega.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=mini-moth&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below

Example of the day of a pilgrimage
Image provided by Sacredsites.com

Drug Enhancers in Today's Sports

Drugs have been a major part of society since the early ages. We have always used it to "better" ourselves in certain things. Sports have always been the main reason. Popular tennis player, Maria Sharapova, has been caught using performance enhancing drugs. This is a controversial subject as Sharapova is a five-time Grand Slam champion but has recently been going down in popularity due to her injuries restricting her performance. She was found out to be using dope as a substitute to help her. Sharapova as well is the highest paid woman in tennis today. This is unfair for many other players who choose not to take drugs. Although this is such a widely circulated problem throughout sports, drugs are still being used and not really looked after. Now Sharapova has been banned from playing tennis for 2 years and might be doing more damage to her already falling career.


Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/09/sports/tennis/maria-sharapova-doping-suspension.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Welcome to Ireland!!

We visited Japan, Syria, England and now it's Ireland . Since the blog is ending, I'll shorten it.

By: Jade Stephen 

Ireland: 



Location: Island in the North Atlantic 

Neighboring Countries: It isn't really surrounded by countries. It's surrounded by water since it's an island. It's neighboring waters are the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and Saint George's Channel.

Spoken Language: Irish and English

Capital: Dublin 

Dominant Religion: Catholicism 

Food: Boxty, Slow Cooker Beef Stew, Irish Brown Bread and many more

 





Traditional Clothing: 


Sources: 

http://www.food.com/ideas/traditional-irish-foods-6326

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Boxty_with_beef_and_squash.jpg

http://www.campbellskitchen.com/recipeimages/slow-cooker-hearty-beef-stew-large-25655.jpg

https://greattobeirish.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/bread-1.jpg

http://www.mackilts.com/images/slideshows/Men/IanSharpe.jpg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/f9/44/88/f94488c479c6f282385870b8c40ff133.jpg