[Link: www.jpost.com...]
Israel should be excluded from Olympic unions and committees, head of the Palestinian Football Association says.
Jibril Rajoub, chairman of the Palestinian Football Association, on Thursday called for Israel to be expelled from all international Olympic unions and committees until it 'honors international agreements.'
Rajoub said that he was personally prepared to lead the anti-Israel campaign, but only if he received help from the Arab countries.
He also voiced strong opposition to any form of normalization with Israel, particularly in the field of sports.
The term 'normalization' does not exist in the Palestinian sports dictionary, Rajoub stressed during a seminar in Ramallah.
He added that sports in the Palestinian territories was 'one of the methods of resistance' against Israel.
Rajoub also called on Arab media representatives and athletes to visit the Palestinian territories, arguing that this was not a form of normalization with Israel.
'The youth sector in Palestine is the basic fuel for the liberation project,' Rajoub said. He also emphasized the youth's role in maintaining a 'permanent state of confrontation' with Israel.
Rajoub, who spent 17 years in Israeli prison, founded and headed the much-feared Preventive Security Service in the West Bank immediately after the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994.
While he was in the job, Rajoub was known for his close and warm ties with representatives of the Israeli security establishment – something that earned him many enemies among Palestinians, especially in Hamas.
Rajoub was also considered a 'moderate' leader and champion of contacts with Israelis, particularly representatives of Israeli left-wing parties and groups. At one stage he was also touted as a potential successor to Yasser Arafat.
[Link: www.jpost.com...]
LONDON - Anti-Israel activists sharply criticized the socialist British daily the Morning Star for referring to Israel's national bird the hoopoe in its daily quiz.
In a letter to the newspaper, Linda Claire, the chairwoman of Manchester's Palestine Solidarity Campaign, asked why it had referred to the bird after it has "always been the newspaper you could rely on to support the cause of the Palestinians."
"Maybe you don't support the methods chosen by the international solidarity movement of BDS [boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel] to assist the Palestinians in their struggle for freedom and justice," she said, adding that this included any reference to Israel's wildlife.
"Despite its condemnation of zionists [sic] it yet finds space to include an item in its daily quiz about Israel's national bird. Is the Star not aware there's a cultural boycott going on?" Claire's husband, George Abendstern, asked in another letter.
"And then, despite it's [sic] condemnation of the Bahrain Grand Prix and rightly so, it then goes on to tell us who won. For goodness sake comrades, get your act together," Abendstern continued.
After a letter appeared condemning the couple's stance, the anti-Israel activists said, "It was not the bird we object to but what this bird represents - the racist and apartheid State of Israel."
So...Birds do it.
[Link: www.jpost.com...]
Former supreme court chief justice Dorit Beinisch said on Wednesday that it is important that Israel complete a constitution to ensure the state's democratic institutions and human rights.
Beinisch's remarks were distributed in an Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) press release following her acceptance of an IDC award as an "Honorary Colleague" for being among a group of leaders in the areas of Zionism, entrepreneurship, social responsibility, philanthropy and economic success.
She said that the goal of completing a constitution could either be undertaken by the court itself through its decisions or by the Knesset through passing additional Basic Laws.
The former chief justice expressed concern regarding the escalating violence in Israeli society, noting that she was particularly concerned about the "disregard for human life, and violence afflicting our country. Violence threatens the peace and personal security of every person in Israel." [Different subtext for these terms than the UN's, Fatah's, or Assad's idea of subtext--me.]
She called the escalation a "slippery slope" that could spin out of control.
To fight this phenomenon, she suggested that the legal system and law enforcement are "certainly an important element in restraining effects of violence and aggression, but they are not enough in and of themselves. We must invest in education from preschool to institutions of higher education."
President of the IDC, Professor Uriel Reichman, presented the awards. Reichman addressed the issue of women's equality, noting that last year "we witnessed a difficult phenomenon of excluding women from the public space."
He added that in responding to this behavior "which harms equality, freedom and human dignity," IDC would be at the forefront, condemning inequality "unequivocally and unhesitatingly."
Reichman continued stating that IDC's response included a decision to give its award to three great female leaders to send the message that things "can and must be different."
[Link: now.msn.com...]
A magnet belt might spoil the effect of your new swimsuit, but, according to research by a U.S. chemist, it could deter a shark from ruining it forever. Eric Stroud's "Smart hooks" -- magnetized fishing hooks, wrapped with a magnesium alloy foil -- are being used by fishermen in several countries, and tests show they reduce the number of sharks accidentally killed by between 60 and 70 percent. Stroud made the discovery when he accidentally dropped a large magnet into a shark tank, and he says the hooks could be used to protect endangered sharks from being caught by mistake. Stroud believes the magnets, along with some rare-earth metals, interfere with the electrical sensors on a shark's snout, startling the powerful predators.
[Link: www.sciencedaily.com...]
When your dog gazes up at you adoringly, what does it see? A best friend? A pack leader? A can opener? Many dog lovers make all kinds of inferences about how their pets feel about them, but no one has captured images of actual canine thought processes -- until now.
It can do--anything! Look for Ron Popiel's new Pocket MRI! Just point and click. Want to know what your friends say behind your back? Just point and click, and you can hear the past! Has this happened to you (car crash)? Now you just point and click and listen, all the thoughts of the drivers around you come through your car speakers! Is there a special woman or man you're interested in? Just point and click, and see how you're doing! But wait, there's more!
It's a diagnostic tool! It's a crystal ball! Diagnostic tool! Crystal Ball! It's both!!!
[Link: www.stltoday.com...]
Lillian "Lil" Musial, the wife of St. Louis Cardinals legend and baseball great Stan Musial for nearly 72 years, died Thursday at home surrounded by family members. She was 91. Grandson Brian Schwarze confirmed the death.
[Link: grammar.about.com...]
Fifty years ago, when I was a boy of fifteen and helping to inhabit a Missourian village on the banks of the Mississippi, I had a friend whose society was very dear to me because I was forbidden by my mother to partake of it. He was a gay and impudent and satirical and delightful young black man--a slave--who daily preached sermons from the top of his master's woodpile, with me for sole audience. He imitated the pulpit style of the several clergymen of the village, and did it well, and with fine passion and energy. To me he was a wonder. I believed he was the greatest orator in the United States and would some day be heard from. But it did not happen; in the distribution of rewards he was overlooked. It is the way, in this world.
He interrupted his preaching, now and then, to saw a stick of wood; but the sawing was a pretense--he did it with his mouth; exactly imitating the sound the bucksaw makes in shrieking its way through the wood. But it served its purpose; it kept his master from coming out to see how the work was getting along. I listened to the sermons from the open window of a lumber room at the back of the house. One of his texts was this:
"You tell me whar a man gits his corn pone, en I'll tell you what his 'pinions is."
I can never forget it. It was deeply impressed upon me. By my mother. Not upon my memory, but elsewhere. She had slipped in upon me while I was absorbed and not watching. The black philosopher's idea was that a man is not independent, and cannot afford views which might interfere with his bread and butter. If he would prosper, he must train with the majority; in matters of large moment, like politics and religion, he must think and feel with the bulk of his neighbors, or suffer damage in his social standing and in his business prosperities. He must restrict himself to corn-pone opinions--at least on the surface. He must get his opinions from other people; he must reason out none for himself; he must have no first-hand views.
[Link: www.idfblog.com...]
Last Sunday night, a Palestinian woman arrived with her 12-day-old baby girl to an IDF post in the Binyamin region of Judea and Samaria. The infant was having trouble breathing and needed immediate first aid. IDF Home Front Command soldiers stationed at the post treated the baby, stabilized her and then called an ambulance, evacuating her to a nearby hospital in Ramallah.
"The baby was suffering from severe breathing difficulty and was simultaneously vomiting," explained the battalion doctor, Cpt. Dr. Michael Findler. "We provided her with initial medical care and succeeded in stabilizing her condition."
Commanders from the Binyamin Regional Brigade explained that Palestinians in the region know that if they have a life-threatening emergency, they can to come to the IDF post for assistance.
'Every Palestinian in the region knows there is an IDF post permanently stationed here that will provide aid,' said Cpt. Dr. Findler. 'Such incidents have become commonplace.'
[Link: israel21c.org...]
Love just-picked basil in Italian dishes? An Israeli company has introduced a long-lasting basil tree for years of fresh herbs on demand.
Sacred to some, and with a long list of medicinal properties, basil is an herb Americans usually like tossed into spaghetti sauce or on top of pizza. Like most herbs, basil tastes best when it's fresh.
The Israeli company Hishtil ("seedling" in Hebrew) revolutionized the market for fresh herbs and spices around the world, and now it has developed a new strain of basil for discerning taste buds. Normally basil has a short shelf life, and the plant rarely lives longer than a year.
Using patented techniques, Hishtil grafted two types of basil plants together -- a hardy "secret" strain that grows a sturdy trunk, and a leafy aromatic Greek variety with tasty leaves. Together they form the world's first basil tree. And while the tree still may be sensitive to lower temperatures come winter, bring it inside where it's warm, says Menny Shadmi, the head of marketing for the company, and it will live a long time.
[Link: israel21c.org...]
An Israeli evolutionary biologist finds hard evidence of global warming in the changes he's found in wheat and barley plants.
The 28-year comparative study he conducted and published with colleagues shows that wild emmer wheat and wild barley — the progenitors of the staple crops for humans and animals across the world — have undergone worrying changes caused by global warming.
Prof. Eviatar (Eibi) Nevo, founder of the University of Haifa's Institute of Evolution and director of its International Graduate Center of Evolution, warns that these changes put at risk the continued improvement and production of cereal grains because of genetic deterioration and increased susceptibility to environmental stresses.
'Multiple effects of the global warming phenomenon have been observed in many species of plants and animals,' he says. 'But this study is pioneering in showing its influence on flowering and genetic changes in wild cereals. These changes threaten the best genetic resource for crop improvement and thereby may damage food production.'
Nevo is well aware that not all scientists acknowledge global warming, but he tells ISRAEL21c that 'no other significant factors could be responsible' for the changes he documented in the article written with Israeli and Canadian co-researchers in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
'We studied 10 wheat and 10 barley populations and all showed a dramatic change in flowering time that cannot be explained by any other factor,' he stresses. 'These cereal progenitors are adapting their time of flowering to escape the increasing heat.'
