-
 GN has reported on Israeli assistance rendered worldwide in many different fields, and just recently the ICELP (See quote above) has worked with a group of underachieving children in the US . Using the techniques developed by Prof. Reuven Feuerstein – surely one of the world’s greatest contemporary educators – the children spent three days “showing themselves and everybody else for that matter how clever they really are”. If nothing succeeds like success then these pupils will be facing a new educational future. The ICELP works in countries throughout the world and supervises authorized training centers in 25 of them. GN indeed. - Archeological finds never fail to excite Israelis from academics to the man in the street and when the finds are as significant as two Jerusalem excavations uncovered in the past couple of weeks, well they certainly capture the headlines.
- Looking for the road to the Temple , researchers came across a drainage tunnel, three meters high and a meter wide in places and displaying signs of sophisticated engineering construction and technological planning. According to the historian Josephus it was also used as an escape route for Jerusalem ’s residents during the Roman siege of the city in 69-70 CE.
- A rock-splitting tool left behind by a craftsman more than 2000 years ago led archeologists to a quarry used for the hewing of the huge 20 ton stones used by King Herod in his refurbishing of the Second Temple in 19 BCE. How the stones were transported remains a mystery except to say that the road from the quarry to the Temple site is downhill. The jigsaw of Jewish history in the region comes together piece by piece. Fascinating!
- Elbit Systems manufacturer of sophisticated military electronic equipment has received a $300m grant from the US government for the development of the Digital Army Program. Put simply the DAP integrates all the highly complex technology that makes a modern army run efficiently. Elbit has proved itself time and again in this highly complex environment where there is no room for error.
-
 Why are we at GN not surprised: A poll just conducted by Israel’s largest paper shows that Israeli’s are overwhelmingly optimistic, and here are a few of the figures to prove it: 74% of Israelis expect the coming year to be a better one than this year for them personally-students head the list at 90%- , and only 7% view their future negatively. 54% believe that 5768 will be better for Israel , and a large percentage envisages no change, and only a very small number see it as being worse. Michael Barak who conducted the poll said that the pollsters were amazed to see that results were almost exactly the same as the poll held in 2006. - When scientists get together to alleviate water scarcity in this area it’s always GN. When those scientists come from Israel , the Palestinian authority and Jordan , then the news gets even better. This outstanding example of regional co-operation has developed a technology for producing an advanced membrane based wastewater treatment plant that will enhance irrigation water quality and improve the general environment.
- Figures just to hand show that Israel ’s total population on the eve of the New Year stands at 7.2 million people. An increase of 171,000 inhabitants was registered since the same time last year. This 2.5% increase has been steady now for three years and the really GN would be a dramatic increase in Aliya in the coming year. Oh well.
-
 While good manners prevent us from ever disclosing a lady’s age what we can say is that our Tzipi Obziler is playing her best tennis when most tennis players are considering retirement or have long since left the game. At time of writing Tzipi has advanced to a WTA tournament final for the first time in seventeen years as a professional. Beating Anastasia Rodionova in the semi finals of the $175000 Guangzhou Women’s Open in China she is all set to meet (and beat ) Virginie Razzano in the final. While still on the tennis court, Shahar Pe’er and her doubles partner Victoria Azarenka will face off against Benesova and Husarova in the finals of the Fortis Championships in Luxemburg. - A young lady (it seems to be ladies’ GN week) whose future is assured is 17-year old Yael Amarilyo. Yael has just taken second prize in the 19th European Union Contest for Young Scientists with her project on identifying bacteria in grapevines. She pockets €3000 and will attend next year’s London International Youth Science Forum. To quote the European Science & Research commissioner, “If there are two crucial elements of [our] future, it’s our young people and our research ability” And when you combine them both you have GN indeed.
-
 Microsoft is big and nobody is going to quibble about that, and all our GN readers know about their extensive R&D operations right here in Israel . But what you might not know is that Microsoft Israel does a healthy amount of business in the local market, in fact they registered NIS800m in sales in 2007 and their CEO predicts with confidence that that will go up to NIS 1bn in the coming year. - The Israeli Army, and this includes the Air Force makes sure that all their personnel have access to a kosher sukkah during the festival. But what of the Navy, what about those matelotes who spend Sukkot at sea? The GN is that, as happens every year at this time, they simply build the sukkot on deck, and they’re perfectly kosher too. One other item of festival news is that the Jerusalem municipality together w9th the city of Ariel are building a sukkah with a difference. The entire 1,000 square meter structure will be made of two tons of candy. Unique we would think and it certainly sounds good enough to eat.
- Hard on the announcements that Israel is the ‘greenest’ country in the Mediterranean Basin and that 90% of its beaches are ‘clean’ or ‘very clean’ comes the news that the huge number of hikers and picnickers over the holidays have left Israel’s magnificent, natural beauty spots almost litter free. We don’t know how it happened, but it certainly is GN. Now if only we could persuade some of the municipalities and large industrial enterprises to clean up their act……..
- They don’t shout, they don’t cheer or wave banners but competition is razor sharp and the level of concentration is as high as you’ll get it. We’re talking about the World Chess Championships being held in Mexico City right now. Israel ’s Boris Gelfand is in second place, one point behind India ’s Grandmaster Anand with one match to play, so the competition is wide open.
- Computer buffs have always regarded the software that will understand human speech as being one of the ultimate goals in the field. Now Linguistic Agents has won ComputerWorlds horizon award for doing just that. The citation reads that the company’s innovative program represents a significant breakthrough in software technology.
|
| Disclaimer of Liability
While Good News strives to report the news accurately and faithfully,we cannot accept responsibility for errors in, misinterpretations of, or omissions from the material printed in The Good News Digest above, nor are we responsible for the application of the information contained herein to your personal or business situation. |
