In the American city that never sleeps (that's New York for those of you who do not know), CBS-TV highlighted the Jewish nation in one of its Eye on New York videos.
The video highlighted Israel's struggles during its creation as a state, as well as celebrating Israel's 60th birthday.
Note: Next time Dan Gillerman (Israel's UN Ambassador) should mention about how close Israeli scientists are at producing a viable hydrogen car, something that has caught the attention of a few of my friends.
While there have been severalvideo's displayed here at IsraGood portraying the Jewish state, this by far seems to have been the best one made.
Note: The theme song used in the video is by Yael Naim, a rising Israeli star in both the holy land as well as the US.
Update: Oh, and just in case anybody in the states does not know, today is Israel's Independence Day! Happy 60th Israel! I look forward towards your 70th birthday!
Probably one of the most stressful parts of ordering food at a restaurant is...well the ordering!
While many (if not most) waiters/waitresses are excellent at receiving orders from their customer, there is always a chance that a mix up can occur--especially if someone orders one thing while expecting something completely different.
Conceptic, a company based in Israel hopes to change all of this by offering a hi-tech solution in order to avoid a potential problem.
(Video: Conceptic has developed new e-menus that allow restaurant customers to order their meals from a touch screen. Credit:Israel 21st Century)
Conceptic is fairly confident that this technology will benefit not only food lovers, but the respective restaurant owners as well.
It looks as if yet another video highlighting Israel has appeared, except this time it features a little girl and some interesting facts about Israel.
Whoever made this video has done an excellent job portraying what the holy land is all about without the heavy reliance of music in the background.
Note: Perhaps the Israeli government should find a way to highlight and/or create more of these video's, as it may be cheaper to advertise them via Google than on television.
While Israel is attempting to win the gold in the upcoming Olympics in China, there is another international sport where a Jewish contestant is not only seeking to dominate the arena, but also fill up a few bellies as well.
(Israel 21st Century) This year, Asher Toubkin, Israel's premiere chocolate sculptor, is confident that his team has a shot at taking first place at the Open de desserts de France (French Dessert Open) International Dessert Awards at the Paris Expo in the Porte de Versailles on March 30. [...]
The competition is indeed high-pressure. In just under five hours (including a half-hour allotted to clean-up), each team must create from scratch and present to judges: a showpiece exclusively made of sugar, a showpiece exclusively made of chocolate, and 10 identical desserts made from a combination of chocolate and fruit (one for each judge to taste, plus one for display), all around a particular theme. Pieces are judged based on the methodologies employed by the chefs, cleanliness, creativity, artistic presentation, attention to detail, time, and of course, taste.
Hopefully Toubkin is able to pull off a victory in France, as it could help yet another country to acquire a taste of Israeli treats (the previous ones being Japan and Australia).
While Apple has yet to make an impact on the Israeli market, their latest commercial has propelled an unknown Jewish into "super stardom."
(Jerusalem Post) Naim's English-language single, "New Soul," has been the surprise hit of early 2008, the biggest in a decade for an local artist overseas. (You'd have to go back to 1998, and Dana International's "Diva," to find a comparable Israeli hit in Europe; the song is simply the biggest ever by an Israeli solo artist in the US.) A piano-driven number that's equal parts bounce and introspection, "New Soul" has compiled a list of "firsts" that continues to grow. The first song by an Israeli to hit No. 1 on the iTunes singles chart, "New Soul" was also the first to crack the Billboard Top 10, where it remained for two weeks after earning the magazine's "Hotshot" designation at its debut. [...]
And the single's success goes beyond pop charts and the Internet. Thanks to its use in a ubiquitous ad campaign for Apple's newest laptop, "New Soul" has become the rare song recognized even if listeners aren't sure where they've heard it, even if they don't know a thing about the person providing the voice.
Note: The original apple commercial can be found over here, although readers who want to enjoy Yael Naim's song in its entirety can watch it below.
If you had to decide between polluting your skies or being powered by them, which option would you choose?
While oil (and gas) are still major players as far as energy goes, Israel is placing a huge stake in wind power in order to help them become energy independent.
(Israel 21st Century) Long and elegant, wind turbines are expected to become a new fixture of the Israeli skyline. As part of its bid to decrease greenhouse gases and search for new and renewable energy sources, Israel plans for five percent of its national energy needs to be supplied by the wind, by 2012. [...]
With financing of some $100 million expected to come from Afcon Industries, part of Shmeltzer's Shlomo Group, Israel's leading car rental, leasing and services company and a holding company for diverse industrial outfits, the parties are currently negotiating with local regulators in order to install two new wind farms in Israel - one in the Arava Desert in the south of Israel, and one in the north. It is estimated that 150 megawatts of energy will be produced by the new venture.
Despite the fact that Israel is already pursuing ways of extracting energy from nuclear waste, olive pits and cow manure (not to mention traditional solar energy as well), using wind turbines may prove to be an effective way to diversify its energy needs.
While green energy has a long way to go before it can replace its more "pollutant friends," Israel seems to be exploring all options which may together help free the tiny Jewish state from dependence upon foreign oil.
Note: Video at the bottom. Image Credit Israel 21st Century.
Despite the fact that water covers 70% of our planet, this vital liquid is a scarce resource due to our inability to "digest" salt water.
While we have developed ways of purifying salt water through a process called desalination, this often can be an expensive (or tedious) endeavor, especially for third world countries or medium sized corporations.
That is unless you purchase a desalination unit from Israel's Nirosoft, which has found an inexpensive and simple way of purifying water from salty or polluted oceans and streams.
(Israel 21st Century) "Desalination is cheaper than melting ice," said Mino Negrin, managing director and founder of Nirosoft, which simulated the environment at the Davis Station in its R&D labs.
The company's self-contained desalination unit provides up to 100,000 liters a day of purified, desalinated water. Its Lego-like portability makes it easy to ship by air. "We can produce drinking water from almost any source - sea water, rivers and lakes, brackish groundwater, estuaries and lagoons," said Negrin, who hopes to visit the Antarctic Station sometime this year. [...]
Lack of an energy source is not a constraint. The Israeli company has shipped containerized, self-powered units easily transported by small trucks, to supply drinking water to villages in disaster areas in Honduras, Guatemala and Colombia. Water produced meets the most stringent World Health Organization quality standards.
While Nirosoft has helped out medium sized nations as well as island countries, they may find a large demand coming from China who has yet to figure out a way to quench the thirst of its billion plus population.
Hopefully Nirosoft will be able to meet global demand, as their technology could potentially help make water droughts a distant memory of the past.
Ever wonder what life would be like if the Jews never existed? Here is a humorous video from Jewlarious highlighting the setbacks to civilization if Israeli's were removed from the picture.
Answer: Nothing really, but it looks as if they have inspired another interesting video by SmoothE.tv.
Eric Schwartz, the artist behind this song (as well as the previous one) seems to be doing fairly well with making humorous songs, and has already developed a following on YouTube with over 2,000 subscribers.
Those interested in purchasing any of these songs can visit SuburbanHomeBoy.com for details (as it would help him pay the bills and crank out more videos).
Here was a video that was featured on YouTube's homepage recently, which was created by SmoothE.tv. The name of the song is called Crank That Kosha Boy (which could not have come out at a better time during the Hanukkah season).
For those of you who don't know, this song is a parody of Soulja Boy (video over here).
Note: Ironically Jews were not the only ones who enjoyed this. In the comment section, a few Muslims thought this was funny too.
Jerry Seinfeld's arrival into Israel has received a lot of buzz (note: pun not intended) regarding his Bee Movie, which has been doing fairly well in the US.
During his visit Seinfeld was able to meet privately with Peres, and exchange some jokes as well as some information of what Israel was all about.
(Jerusalem Post) On Friday, Seinfeld toured Yad Vashem, Jerusalem's Old City and Masada. He also met with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President Shimon Peres. He told Peres that he was very excited by the warm welcome that he had received in Israel, and amazed by how popular his sitcom Seinfeld is in this country.
"You can imagine how much people like you here and respect you," Peres told Seinfeld as the two sat in suits and ties in front of Israeli flags at Beit Hanassi.
Seinfeld explained his movie to the 84-year-old Nobel peace laureate. "It's about a bee who's not sure that he wants to go into honey," Seinfeld said, as Peres laughed. "They tell him he has no choice."
According to the article, Jerry seemed to be surprised by how popular his show Seinfeld was in Israel. Whether its due to the fact that Israeli's love to see a Jewish star blossom, or that the show revolves around nothing, Seinfeld has become a phenomenon world wide, and hopefully we will see more of Jerry in Israel--along with his Jewish wife.
Although very similar to a previous video, this one highlights some of the more "every day" technologies that we use in the world, such as USB key chains, to camera phones, to the health industry.
Did I mention the music is better the second time around?
Enjoy!
Note: As soon as I get some time, I'll be posting some more interesting videos from Israeli's here.
This is an old video from February, but it gets across the passion about the players and why they decided to temporarily move thousands of miles in order to play in the holy land.
The Ha'aretz also has an excellent article about the league, especially those die hard fans (you gotta love them).
Although there is currently only six teams (as of this post), hopefully Israel will be able to expand this amount three times over, and eventually join up with their friends in the US.
It looks as if a university in southern Israel has won the Green Campus Award, which is a prestigious honor given that the school was competing against 60 other universities around the nation.
Regardless of politics, everyone can agree that preserving our environment is an important priority for the human race, and it looks as if the Sami Shamoon Collage of Engineering is helping to instill that belief within its local community.
(One Jerusalem) According to Wolfson, Shamoon is the only Israeli college to offer courses in Green Engineering, which cover sustainability, green energy, green buildings and green architecture. Wolfson commented, "Our hope is that, along with the knowledge the students gain, will come a feeling of obligation to deal with environmental issues, both as students and in their future professional lives."
With campuses in Beer Sheva and Ashdod, Shamoon College has extensive outreach initiatives to train parents, primary school students and teachers, and army officers about the importance of protecting the environment. The local towns benefit as well - non-Shamoon students can take a Shamoon course called "Chemistry and the Environment", and college students lead environmental activities for the community and for grade schools in Beer Sheva and local Bedouin villages.
Note: Here is a short video highlighting what Shamoon College has to offer to potential students thinking about attending (especially those considering making Aliyah).
It looks as if users around the world will now have the ability to access quality "kosher" content from the comfort of their home thanks in part to the Jewish Television Network.
(Jerusalem Post) Jewish Television Network Productions, an independent production and distribution company, launched the first broadband network of its kind last week, featuring a wide range of Jewish life-related programming. [...]
Last year, JTN recognized that with the emergence of audio and video on the Web, the Internet could make the initiative viable. "It's good for the Jewish people and for the world for there to be a Jewish network, and that's why we launched," said Sanderson from his office in LA. The annual budget will be between $500,000 and $1 million.
With JTN launching an online version (broadband only), users will be able to view their favorite Jewish programs online without having to pay extra on their DirectTV bill. You can visit the site over at JewishTVnetwork.com or click on the image below.
Note: Since this is the second video Israel News site that I have discovered, I am going to make a separate list on the sidebar.
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