Israel creates a healthy Coke for.. Israel!
Posted on April 30, 2007 • By Rebecca Markowitz
Category: Business, Technology | Tags: | Leave a Comment
In a country that drools over florescent pink marshmallows rather than white ones - I am befuddled to learn through a survey that Israelis prefer products without preservatives and artificial colorings. In the best follow-up from a survey I’ve ever seen, the owner of Coca Cola in Israel revealed a new ‘healthier’ version of Coke that will not contain artificial coloring or preservatives. Can Coke even warrant the airquotes around the word healthier? If it was fortified with vitamins like the national snack, Bamba, maybe I’d feel differently. It’s like taking off uncomfortable shoes at the end of the day. They put in the bad ingredients just so you will appreciate them removing it later on. It goes on sale in Israel next week. The soda, not the uncomfortable shoes….
Rehov SumSum gets with the times
Posted on April 30, 2007 • By Rebecca Markowitz
Category: Art and Culture | Tags: | Leave a Comment
When I went to visit my 2 year old niece recently, I heard Sarah Jessica Parker’s voice coming from the TV, so I ran to watch Sex and the City … I mean shut it off immediately. But then I realized she was watching ancient episodes of Rehov SumSum, the Israeli version of Sesame Street, with Sarah Jessica Parker as the host. Probably the same episodes I watched as a kid, being that the show has been shut down for the past 10 years. But have no fear, Naomi (my niece), Rehov SumSum and Moshe Ufnik are back with new adventures and new friends after their long break. The new characters include religious and non-religious Jews, Ethiopian and Russian immigrants, Israeli muppets, and Mahboub, the first-ever Israeli Arab Muppet. Read more muppet goodness on Jpost…
30 minutes at airport = $50
Posted on April 29, 2007 • By Rebecca Markowitz
Category: Business | Tags: | Leave a Comment
According to the Jerusalem Post, El Al “will carry out security checks and baggage check-in at passengers’ homes for $50.” The longest I’ve ever waited at the airport because of luggage was at most a half hour. In comparison, the security questions and passport control which we all know and love takes at least 1 hour by the time you’ve actually made it onto the airplane. So I guess it’s just up to you to decide, is a 30-45 minute wait at the airport worth $50? I hope you say yes because it will make also make my wait shorter… so tell your friends!
Safe intersections in Israel… a wonderful birthday present
Posted on April 26, 2007 • By Rebecca Markowitz
Category: Technology | Tags: | 1 Comment
To put it mildly, streets in Israel can be a little scary to cross or drive on. They say that more Israelis die in car accidents than in terror attacks. So, it seems long overdue for Israel to produce some much-needed preventative technology in this area. The Jerusalem Post reports that Technion researchers have developed the “smart traffic sign”, a device that will sense a collision risk and alert drivers with blinking lights that say “give the right of way”. It is currently being tested in an intersection without traffic lights in Tel Aviv to measure results. What’s next? There is word that these Technion researchers will produce a “smart traffic light” that warns drivers about to go through a red light with a blinding light and will delay the green light for the other direction! This announcement comes just days after Israel’s 59th birthday - putting it on the list of best birthday presents Israel’s ever gotten (from itself to itself). Now we just need some corrective technology for people who might suffer from the blinding light…
Best Friends: Israel and State of Georgia Law Enforcement
Posted on April 23, 2007 • By Rebecca Markowitz
Category: Miscellaneous | Tags: | Leave a Comment
Thank goodness this made headline news in Lincoln County, Georgia or else we might never have found out about such a cool program. The program is called GILEE - Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange. According to their website, GILEE was founded in May 1992 (how did it take so long for us to find out about this?) with the following objectives:
1. To enhance inter-agency cooperation between State of Georgia law enforcement agencies and the police force of the State of Israel.
2. To offer an educational professional program to senior Israeli law enforcement officials in Georgia, primarily in the area of community policing.
3. To offer an educational professional program to senior Georgia law enforcement officials in Israel, primarily in the areas of counter-terrorism and drug interdiction.
Basically, Georgia trades its knowledge of community policing for Israel’s knowledge of counter-terrorism and drug crime prevention. The program is still very active - as we note the upcoming visit of a Lincoln County Sheriff soon to arrive in Israel.
Morgan Stanley praises Israel’s technology-based economy
Posted on April 23, 2007 • By Rebecca Markowitz
Category: Business, Technology | Tags: | Leave a Comment
Israel21c presents the highlights from the report:
Apr. 22 - In a report released by Morgan Stanley’s Serhan Cevik, Vice President for Middle East and North Africa, Israel’s economy received a glowing review. The report stated that Israel is already at the forefront of global technology trends. Cevik wrote that, “Israel has benefited from strong growth all around the world in the last couple of years . . (and) growth dynamics have become more balanced and therefore resilient to cyclical changes in the global economy.” Cevik remarks that, “the composition of human capital and economic sectors is a major source of productivity growth.” According to the Morgan Stanley report, one of the major factors in Israel’s economic outlook is the structural changes within the economy: “The economy’s shift to higher value-added technology-intensive sectors” results in “the positive feedback loop - from technological orientation of human capital and economic activity to total factor productivity and income growth - enhances the economy’s growth potential.
“Morgan Stanley: Israel at forefront of global technology trends” Israel21c, April 22, 2007
Tiny Israel is a patent giant in the EU
Posted on April 23, 2007 • By Rebecca Markowitz
Category: Technology | Tags: | Leave a Comment
According to Israel21c,
Relative to population, Israel is ranked after Japan for patent applications submitted in Europe by non-European countries. According to Business Data Israel, nearly 78% of the patent applications filed from Israel were through foreign companies. The United States had 111 requests, placing it 3rd, followed consecutively by Korea, Canada and Australia.
“Israel ranked second for EU patent applications” Israel21c, April 22, 2007
Jerusalem Stadium loves kids and non-profits
Posted on April 22, 2007 • By Rebecca Markowitz
Category: Social | Tags: | Leave a Comment
Mario Austin, Hapoel Jerusalem
Usually when someone talks about sports I tend to tune out. But going to a game is a whole other story. I love the drums, the energy, and people saying hatikva to the little flags stitched into the team scarves. Probably in an effort to fill the stadium, the Malha Arena offered 20 participants from the Jerusalem branch of Big Brothers Big Sisters free court-side seats this past Thursday nght. Whatever the reasoning, the thought was well appreciated by both big and little brothers/sisters who were on their feet the whole game rooting for Jenkins’ and Austin’s 3 pointers. What? Those doesn’t sound like nice Jewish names? For those of you into the actual sports part - Hapoel Jerusalem won 110-69 against Rishon Lezion.
Would you pay $264,000 for a photograph?
Posted on April 19, 2007 • By Rebecca Markowitz
Category: Art and Culture | Tags: | Leave a Comment
This photograph was sold at Sothebys for $264,000.
Adi Nes, Untitled (The Last Supper)
I would like to meet the person that bought this photograph. I just think it’s incredible that someone would pay that much. If you had that much money, don’t you think you could call up Adi Nes and ask him to make one for you at probably half the cost, and you would know that all your money is going directly to the artist. Who am I kidding? If I had the money, I probably would buy his work too. I saw his “Biblical Stories” exhibit in Tel Aviv recently and absolutely loved it. Adi has this wonderful thought-provoking way of combining famous works of art and biblical characters with a modern Israeli twist. Here I am - having studied art history and loved it, a big fan of the Bible, and living in Israel. I felt like me and the exhibit should be dating. As I walked around the exhibit, I had such multi-leveled fun. First, I would guess the biblical character. Then I would guess what painting it was based on. And then I would think about why and how he chose to set up the photograph and where in Israel it could’ve been taken.
More info about the Sotheby’s sale and Adi Nes
Another of my favorites
Liviu Librescu: Holocaust survivor. Hero. Admired lecturer. Great Specialist in Aeronautics. A true loss.
Posted on April 18, 2007 • By Rebecca Markowitz
Category: Miscellaneous, Technology | Tags: | 1 Comment
There are so many ways to describe Liviu Librescu, the heroic professor at Virginia Tech who barricaded the classroom doorway to save his students’ lives during Monday’s shooting tragedy. Librescu was an Israeli/Romanian engineering and math lecturer who survived the Holocaust and later escaped communist Romania. After finding out more about this man, I started to see his name over and over again, and couldn’t ignore the words jumping out from his name - ‘Libre’ which means ‘free’ in Spanish and French, and ‘Rescu’ short for ‘rescue’. It’s not often that someone’s name describes their life story.
An inspiring man:
When Romania joined forces with Nazi Germany in World War II, the young Librescu was interned in a labor camp, and then sent along with his family and thousands of other Jews to a central ghetto in the city of Focsani, his son said. Hundreds of thousands of Romanian Jews were killed by the collaborationist regime during the war.
Librescu, who was 76 when he died, later found work at a government aerospace company. But his career was stymied in the 1970s because he refused to swear allegiance to the Communist regime, his son said, and he was later fired when he requested permission to move to Israel.
In 1977, according to his son, Israel’s then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin personally intervened to get the family an emigration permit, and they left for Israel in 1978.
Librescu left Israel for Virginia in 1985 for a sabbatical year, but eventually made the move permanent, said Joe Librescu: “His work was his life in a sense.”
… At the university, people placed flowers on a table holding his picture and a lit candle. “We remember him as a great specialist in aeronautics. He left behind hundreds of prestigious papers,” said professor Nicolae Serban Tomescu.Librescu, who specialized in composite structures and aeroelasticity, published extensively and received numerous awards for his work. He received a doctorate from the Bucharest-based Academy of Sciences in 1969, and an honorary degree from the Bucharest Polytechnic University in 2000.
He also received several NASA grants and taught courses at the University “La Sapienza” in Rome and at the Tel Aviv University in Israel.
Laurie Copans, “Holocaust survivor saved students’ lives” Yahoo News, April 17, 2007
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