Tikkun Olam

...CRPS, or Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, formerly known as RSD-Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy.  Amazingly, there was a brief, unscientific report about this condition on the news in New York.  I say "amazingly," because it is not well-known and so far there is no cure, let alone an understanding of this mysterious disease.  Neuroscientists need to continue to research the causes to find a cure. 

In today's Wall Street Journal's Ideas Market under the sub-heading "Intelligence": An Israeli research team at the Brain Research Center of Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel including Dr. Abraham Goldstein and three others have discovered through controlled testing that squeezing a ball with your left hand can increase creative thinking. In a study entitled  Unilateral Muscle Contractions Enhance Creative Thinking , the researchers have concluded, after asking the 40 subjects to squeeze a ball with their left hand--which controls the brain's right hemisphere--in advance of their taking a complicated cognitive test, that the advance activation of the right hemisphere increased their creative thinking and their correct answers on the test.  Participants attempted to complete the Remote Associates Test after squeezing a ball with either their left or right hand. As predicted, participants who contracted their left hand (thus act...

(nablopomo day 10) Back in May, the largest reverse-osmosis water desalination plant in existence was opened in Hadera.  It is owned by IDE Technologies and Shikun and Binui , the third of five plants being built in Israel.  They are slated to supply  750 million cubic meters of desalinated water to Israel a year. Israel's main natural sources of water are underground acquifers, and the Kineret, or Sea of Galilee.    -- Just another example of Israeli ingenuity.

(nablopomo day 4) It turns out the Jews are not only a religion, but were a genetically-linked ethnic group all along, as reported in Bloomberg BusinessWeek .  Gil Atzmon, Li Hao, Itzik Pe-er, Edward Burns and others did the complex genetic analysis entitled Abraham's Children in the Genome Era at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. The purpose of the study was to find genetic markers for various diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer.  But the study also showed that all groups of Jews are related to each other, and--despite the Arabs' contention that Jews have and had no connection to the land of Israel, rather  that they are European--that Jews have Middle Eastern origins , and that the two groups, Middle Eastern and European Jews, apparently split off from each other approximately 2,500 years ago. Also read Aish's article about this discovery.  It's interesting that the study shows that, despite some theories that Ashkenazic ...

In the stuff which used to be of science fiction, Israel technology has once more developed a product which is now in the realm of science fact.  After having developed a device to " see through walls " from around 2004, the Israeli company Camero , with corporate headquarters in Virginia and R&D near Netanya, Israel has developed a mobile version, called the Xaver 400. Approximately the size of a laptop computer, it uses the same UWB (ultra wide band) radio frequencies as its bigger Xaver 800 parent, which can pass through solid objects such as wood or concrete and bounce back, much like ultra-sound imaging of fetuses in their mothers' wombs.  These bounced-back waves are changed into electrical signals which are then interpreted by computer and created into 3-D images visible to someone on the other side of the wall. This technology will greatly aid in saving lives , with its use in law enforcement, the military and search and rescue operations, again demonstra...

The Israeli company Nano-Retina based in Hertzliyah has developed a retina-function replacement system for those retinas damaged by macular degeneration, diabetes as well as other diseases. It consists of a retinal implant and special eyeglasses which coordinate together to work as photoreceptors, which are activated by a tiny laser in the eyeglasses. Israeli ingenuity has done it again: contributed to the good and benefit of mankind by Jewish intelligence and diligence for the purpose of tikkun olam , repairing the world--the name of this blog. So what are the Palestinian Arabs up to these days? Here are some headlines from Palestinian Media Watch : PA TV kids' show wipes Israel off the map , PA Libel: Israel tried to burn down Al-Aqsa Mosque in 1969 Fatah officials celebrate inauguration of terrorist square PA interviews terrorist sister on anniversary of terror attack Compare and contrast, I always say. . .

Got a report yesterday ( hat tip, D.H* ) that a meteorite fell on a small medical office in Lorton, Virginia . What if, G-d forbid, it had hit a person, a moving car, or maybe an airplane in flight? Even a small one this size can be deadly. The sky is falling, literally. *D.H.: Dear Hubby *(nablopomo day#22)

The Leonid Meteor Shower is supposed to be at it's peak in the wee hours of the morning Tuesday, which in my language is the 'middle of the night.' As much as I want to see it, I don't know if I can get up at 2 or 3 a.m. to watch the peak at 4 a.m. (you have to allow for driving time out of the city). On the other hand, this might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (although G-d willing I will live to 120, so I might see it once or twice more. . . ). I need to make a decision. Go to bed at 8 p.m., perhaps, in order to get my 7-8 hours sleep? I also don't think I have such good " dark-adapted vision "; last time I remember, I couldn't see all the stars of the Little Dipper with my naked eye. Nevertheless, it would be an adventure, if I have the energy for it. Will let you know... Found some interesting facts through the first article linked: Top Ten facts about Leonid meteor showers, here . *Copyright alert: No infringement of any text or graphic c...

While the Palestinians and other Muslims are rioting, burning cars, boycotting Israeli products, beheading infidels, beating women, stabbing guards, blowing themselves up in the midst of civilians and murdering soldiers on Army bases , A United States and Israeli team (should I assume Christians and, yes-- J-E-W-S ?) are studying supernova and discovering exploding stars . *Copyright alert: No infringement of any text or graphic copyright is ever intended on this blog. If you own the copyright to any original image or document used for the creation of the graphics or information on this site, please contact the blog administrator with all pertinent info so that proper credit can be given. If you wish to have it removed from the site, just say the word; it shall be, ASAP.

I know this is an annual event (my husband just tonight alerted me to it's impending appearance)--the Leonid meteor shower --but I am still reeling from the video we saw last night, a 3-hour production made from the TV mini-series, "Impact." It is a science-fiction story about a meteor shower during which a brown dwarf crashes into the moon and jars it out of it's orbit, putting it on a collision course with Earth. The brown dwarf embedded in the moon also has a mass twice the mass of Earth and a strong magnetic and gravitational pull, and wreaks havoc on Earth with intermittent EMP events and gravitational anomalies. I have no idea whether or not this is scientifically possible, but I have to admit, the premise gave me pause. Now, with the Leonid Meteor Shower about to present on or about November 17th, I am thinking, we are so vulnerable here on our little lonely planet, out there by itself in vast space. . . Ok, enough of that. What we'll do is just break o...

Judging from world opinion vociferously protesting the Israeli so-called "occupation" and 'oppression of Palestinians' and 'apartheid' policy (and 'atrocities in Gaza,' and blah blah blah) one would think that little Israel (wasn't it the French ambassador who once called it " that shitty little country ?") is not worth more than a passing thought, and a negative one at that. However, everyone who really knows the country (and the people and the culture), including countless bloggers (yours truly among them), have often written about the seemingly miraculous birth of Israel and it's developing global greatness. Enter George Gilder with a new future blockbuster book (you heard it here first...er...second: see Israel Matzav ) entitled The Israel Test . In it he shines the light on Israel's emerging greatness as a world class player on the science, technology and economic global stage, (read Mr. Gilder's riveting essay in ...

I remember many years ago being thrilled by the movie Fantastic Voyage , (yes, I know it dates me) all the while believing that it was science fiction. Little did I know then, that by the time I would be an adult it would actualize and become science fact. . . Appropos this, you might remember that some time back I posted on this blog about the myriad things Israel has done and still is doing over its short history as a modern state to benefit humanity (many of which go unrecognized by the rest of the world). Well, here's one that is being recognized (albeit quietly, for now): Fantastic Voyage has become Fantastic Fact: Israel is involved in break-through research and cutting-edge applications in the area of Nanotechnology , an applied science based on controlling matter on the atomic and molecular level. Nanotechnology-" nano " deriving from the Greek nanos or nannos meaning "little old man" refers to a measure of one billionth, e.g., a nanometer is o...

For the past couple of weeks I have been reading some serious blogs which question Judaism, the divinity of the Torah, halacha, the TSBP (Torah she'be'al peh=oral Torah), and other minor questions such as whether or not G-d exists, not to mention creationism versus evolution, etc. As they started saying in the 70s, this is some heavy stuff (well, that sure dates me). All of these questions are important. I myself have questioned many aspects of my religion, and still have questions while I continue to be "Orthodox" (whatever that is). I've made the decision that the benefits outweigh the negatives, and the fact that I still have some doubts is ok. I had a fairly strong Jewish and secular education, and no, it didn't solve all the problems nor did it answer all my religious and existential questions. So what? I judge my religion as a whole by the behavior and actions of its adherents, not only by what it professes. On the whole, I would ask you: 1) Do Jews prov...

For all you science buffs out there , (thanks to my daughter and to Tom Lehrer) here is an edifying--if totally random--post. Interested in learning more about the periodic table? Click on the title link (next post will be a pop-quiz.) Want some more science? Ok, you've heard the expression, "if you're dealt lemons, make lemonade?" How about a battery instead? Really . *For those of you who noticed, I previously had some difficulty in embedding videos on my blog (see post before this, whose video has since been fixed); I just switched to the YouTube beta version, and it seems to be working fine, so far. . .