"
Now that Amb. Sandland's testimony proved useless to Schiff and his renegades, Democrats have resorted to their most prized attack, called "The Kavanaugh." The Liberal Portland media have accused the Ambassador of attacking women. He has denied same but the stench has attached.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
When I make personal comments and then a few days later op eds on the same topic appear, I assure you I have no advance notice or vaulted insight. I am not clairvoyant, though I admit to being somewhat topical at times.
Schwab leaves California for Texas and eventually a good bit of the government will vacate D.C.
My son is right about deleveraging. When we can no longer afford what we wanted, once had and were unwilling to pay for, it will happen. (See 1 below.)
I have finally found the solution to his view that college education must soon drop in price:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Michael Barone reviews my friend's new book - Amity Shlaes: "Great Society: A New History."
and in the process punctures Johnson's Great Society along with progressive radicals who
preach big government is the solution. (See 2 below.)
preach big government is the solution. (See 2 below.)
I have read Amity's books about FDR's The Forgotten Man and Coolidge and commend them both.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A few days ago Newsweek fired a reporter for fake news regarding Trump and one spokesman said they were returning to the era of hard news.
All misguided trends end because they are built upon false premises and have shaky/unstable roots. I do not believe we are there but I do see cracks forming.
We all know Trump has no foreign policy and I guess that is why The NYT's is now reluctantly reporting the worst rioting in Iran is occurring in decades.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Good News Again. (See 3 edited below.)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
DORIS
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1) Move the Bureaucrats Out of the Beltway
It no longer makes sense to cluster federal agencies and their employees in Washington, D.C.
By Terry Wanzek
It doesn’t have to be that way—at least not according to a couple of Republican senators, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. They’ve proposed moving the Agriculture Department and nine other federal agencies outside D.C. and into the heart of America.
It’s a thought-provoking idea reminiscent of what agronomist Norman Borlaug, the father of the Green Revolution, said on his deathbed: “Take it to the farmer.” What he meant was, if we seek excellence in food security, everyone in the food business must collaborate with the men and women who work the land. That’s what Borlaug did as a scientist. He developed new crop strains, boosting food production so much in the 1950s and 1960s that he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970.
Today, “taking it to the farmer” involves not just the scientists who innovate but also the Beltway regulators whose rules and mandates affect what happens to those who work the land a thousand miles—or more—away. The Hawley-Blackburn bill calls for moving Agriculture and its more than 100,000 employees to Missouri. Other departments would go elsewhere: Commerce to Pennsylvania, Education to Tennessee, Energy to Kentucky, Health and Human Services to Indiana, Housing and Urban Development to Ohio, Interior to New Mexico, Labor to West Virginia, Transportation to Michigan, and Veterans Affairs to South Carolina.
They wouldn’t relocate to just anywhere within these states, but rather to economically depressed regions. The bill’s sponsors pitch their legislation as an employment program. They call it the HIRE Act, which stands for “Helping Infrastructure Restore the Economy.”
That’s fine, but the main benefit would come from putting regulators into proximity with the people whose lives and businesses they regulate. It makes sense for Agriculture to have its headquarters in a big farm state such as Missouri, and it also makes sense to move Interior to New Mexico, where it will be closer to the Western lands that occupy so much of its time.
Under this plan, federal regulators would gain firsthand knowledge of what the policies they adopt and enforce do to real people. In the future, maybe an official at Agriculture will actually be able to live on a farm. A bureaucrat at Interior will be married to a rancher, and a deputy assistant secretary at Transportation will have a brother who works on an automotive assembly line.
This would be a government “of the people”—something that is lacking as the administrative state inexorably grows in Washington, D.C.
Before the advent of air travel and telecommunications, it made sense to cluster federal agencies in Washington. In the 21st century, however, technology enables us to do so much more—and to take advantage of a truly federal system, which seeks to disperse the power of government.
The Trump administration appears to understand the principle: The headquarters of the Bureau of Land Management soon will move to Grand Junction, Colo., and 547 employees of the Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture will shift to Kansas City, Mo.
The Hawley-Blackburn bill could attract bipartisan support. Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang also has proposed moving agencies out of Washington. Several liberal-leaning think tanks and journalists have expressed support for the concept.
Mr. Wanzek grows wheat, corn, soybeans and pinto beans on a family farm in Jamestown, N.D. He represents the 29th district in the state Senate and is a member of the Global Farmer Network
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
2) ‘Great Society’ Review: A ‘Mystical Belief’ in the State
The architects of the antipoverty programs devised in the 1960s were intoxicated by America’s postwar prosperity—and heedless of unintended consequences.
By Michael Barone
How can government get rid of poverty? It’s a question that gets asked not in a society where almost everyone is poor but in one giddy with surging growth and concerned about those who seem left behind—a society whose leaders have “an almost mystical belief in the infinite potentials of American society.”
Those are the words of Paul Jacobs, a prominent left-wing journalist and activist a half-century ago, quoted by Amity Shlaes in “Great Society: A New History.” Just as she presented a skeptical alternative to New Deal historians’ accounts of the 1930s in “The Forgotten Man” (2007), Ms. Shlaes now offers an illuminating alternative to sentimental reminiscences of liberals’ attempts in the 1960s—actually, in the years starting around 1963 and ending around 1972—to banish poverty in America. Lyndon Johnson’s raft of Great Society programs—from Head Start and Community Action to Medicare and Medicaid—is a centerpiece of this period, of course, but it is only part of the story. The longer arc, as Ms. Shlaes shows, is a “mystical belief” in America’s potential and the government’s often misguided attempts to achieve it
Her account is original and persuasive, presenting the leading poverty warriors not with scorn but with sympathy and piercing insight. Her subjects include the gentle socialist Michael Harrington, with his background in the Catholic Worker movement; the religious intellectual and Kennedy in-law Sargent Shriver, the Peace Corps’ first director who was drafted to head LBJ’s Office of Economic Opportunity; the up-from-the-working-class professor Daniel Patrick Moynihan, plucking politically inconvenient truths from overlooked data; the student-journalist and activist Tom Hayden, pursuing endless causes and a radical vision of “participatory democracy.” These are basically good people brimming over with good intentions.
A central figure in the book is one often overlooked in histories of the times: Walter Reuther, president of the United Auto Workers. His father, Valentine Reuther, was a German-born socialist proud of keeping a Carnegie library out of his home town of Wheeling, W.Va. Walter, together with his brother Victor, spent a year in the Soviet Union and came back a strong anticommunist, dedicated to the freedoms that some liberals then and even now seem ready to set aside. With Victor and another brother, Walter led activists in organizing the sit-down strikes that forced the auto companies to recognize the UAW and then helped keep the auto factories humming with war production.
Autos had been America’s boom industry for the first three decades of the 20th century; the New Deal-assisted unionization of auto workers and the workers in other mass-production industries had doubled the size of organized labor. Reuther’s leadership in the prolonged 1945-46 GM strike and his elevation that year to the UAW presidency made him, at just 38, a powerful figure in one of the so-called Big Units—big government, big business, big labor—that had won World War II and would usher in prosperous postwar America in the next dozen years.
Reuther’s UAW secured wage increases and health insurance for its hundreds of thousands of members, and its auto contracts set terms for millions of others. But Reuther’s ambitions went further. He was a friend of and collaborator with Scandinavian social democrats and an admirer of Scandinavian architecture (more attractive than continental Brutalism, as Ms. Shlaes rightly suggests). He especially admired Scandinavia’s success in spreading postwar growth and prosperity to people who might otherwise be left out.
Ms. Shlaes shows Reuther setting up the conference out of which Tom Hayden and other students produced the 1962 Port Huron Statement—a call for a hazily defined regeneration of society—and started organizations that later transmogrified into the radical Students for a Democratic Society and Weathermen. She shows Reuther aiding the civil-rights movement in Mississippi, organizing with Mayor Jerome Cavanagh and Martin Luther King a 125,000-person march in Detroit and then helping run King’s march in Washington two months later. She shows him taking the lead role in putting together Hubert Humphrey’s shambles of a campaign after the disastrous convention in Chicago in 1968—and notes that many of the protesters there were from groups that Reuther had helped set up.
Reuther’s story is but one of many in “Great Society” demonstrating how ideas in this period percolated up from unlikely quarters and sparked government programs. She traces how Michael Harrington’s “The Other America” (1962), an evocative description of remaining pockets of poverty, caught the Kennedy administration’s attention and how Lyndon Johnson’s local Community Action personnel organized antipoverty protests against mostly Democratic mayors and liberal governors—and were largely shut down. She describes the appeal of the idea, suggested by the success of the church-based Southern civil-rights movement, that only the poor could point the way to eliminating poverty.The idea that government could do a better job of providing housing than the private sector may have come naturally to postwar Americans doubled up in multi-generation houses, because almost no new housing had been built in the preceding 15 years of depression and war. And the cramped and dank conditions of New York’s turn-of-the-century tenements probably account for the spread of the idea, cherished by European architects and pushed by American government bureaucrats, that poor families would be better off in well-lighted high-rise apartments than in houses. Ms. Shlaes’s vivid account of St. Louis’s Pruitt-Igoe housing project—opened with high hopes in the 1950s and demolished beginning in 1972—shows how that dream quickly became a nightmare of crime and squalor.
The architects of antipoverty programs were, like most policy makers, creatures of their times, and after the perceived policy successes of some of the New Deal and early postwar programs, they were heedless of potential unintended consequences—like the vast increases in crime and welfare dependency in the 1965-75 decade. Most of all, they were intoxicated with the unexpected postwar prosperity, which was producing so much revenue that Lyndon Johnson thought he could pay for both guns and butter and which prompted Richard Nixon, in 1972, to sign a revenue-sharing law that diverted federal money directly to the states. The ascetic Michael Harrington, in 1964, blanched at asking for $1 billion to fight poverty, but the ebullient Sargent Shriver was happy to pony up. “We have plenty of money,” he later said.
“Great Society” is in part a story of how antipoverty programs like Community Action sprang into being and then nose-dived. But interspersed among Ms. Shlaes’s chapters on the programs’ architects are chapters on seemingly unrelated individuals and trends. Between the Port Huron Statement and Michael Harrington, we encounter General Electric CEO Ralph Cordiner, his labor-relations head Lemuel Boulware, and company spokesman Ronald Reagan: Together they launched a campaign of free-market boosterism that would see fruition, politically, decades later in the 1980s and ’90s.
In between Shriver’s Office of Economic Opportunity and its scuffles with mayors and governors, we meet Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce as they leave Fairchild Semiconductor, found what would become Intel, and develop microchips, whose capacity, as has been famously calculated, doubles every 18 months or so. After we read about Tom Hayden’s trip to North Vietnam in 1965 and the “Negro removal” necessary to build Pruitt-Igoe-type projects, we learn about European nations, in their attempts at economic recovery, whittling down America’s gold supply and threatening devaluation of the dollar. And after describing the tumult at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, Ms. Shlaes shifts our attention to Japan, where Toyota executives are preparing to boost sales in America of tiny Corollas produced by workers empowered to make decisions and not represented by adversary-minded labor unions like the UAW.
But the critical changes that were coming turned out to be not from thinkers with connections at the top of society but from innovators whose ideas were bubbling up, mostly unseen, from odd geographic corners and outside familiar institutions. The Big Units’ dominance was being quietly, without celebration in newsmagazine covers, undermined by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and Japanese auto makers, by financial innovators and by that former spokesman for GE, who would be elected governor of California and, in time, U.S. president.
At least one of the antipoverty programs’ progenitors recognized that progressive policies could produce regressive results. Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s famous 1965 report on the breakdown of the black family sprang from his noticing that welfare dependency among blacks was rising despite widespread economic growth and in the wake of the successes of the civil-rights movement. Perusal of data a few years later would have shown crime rates rising as well, even if liberal reforms resulted in reduced prison populations. Los Angeles’s Watts riot occurred in 1965 just after passage of the Voting Rights Act. Detroit, the home base of Reuther’s UAW, whose Lafayette Park was one of the first urban-renewal projects, was the site of the nation’s deadliest riot in 1967 (which I witnessed as an intern in the mayor’s office).
The final chapter of “Great Society” shows how the usually frosty Richard Nixon encouraged bonhomie among his economic appointees at a Camp David weekend in August 1971, when Treasury Secretary John Connally pushed Fed Chairman Arthur Burns to endorse closing the gold window—thereby, in Ms. Shlaes’s analysis, ushering in 10 years of inflation and deficit spending. One of the arguments of “The Forgotten Man” was that, more than is usually grasped, Herbert Hoover’s policies were much like Franklin Roosevelt’s . One of the arguments of “Great Society” is that Richard Nixon’s policies were an extension, not a repudiation, of Lyndon Johnson’s. Neither Hoover nor Roosevelt, Ms. Shlaes argued, ended the Depression. Neither Johnson nor Nixon, she argues, ended poverty.
The genuine achievements of the 1940s and ’50s led them to imagine they could. That is one of the lessons of “Great Society”: Success breeds failure. But another lesson comes from those interlaced vignettes of embryonic financial and technological innovation: Failure can breed success. Ms. Shlaes’s chronicle is not just a story of how good people’s good intentions went wrong. It is also a story of how the assumption that the near future will closely resemble the recent past can lead even the best intentioned and most well-informed people to pursue policies that turn out to be mostly counterproductive and often destructive.
—Mr. Barone is senior political analyst for the Washington Examiner, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of “How America’s Political Parties Change (And How They Don’t).”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
3)ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Targeting chemo at tumors only. Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed a method that delivers chemotherapy drugs directly to malignant cells and bypasses healthy ones. Cancer cells emit the protein TRPV2 into which the scientists inserted a low dose of doxorubicin to destroy the tumor.
http://www.israelnationalnews.
Nano-chips help treat Alzheimer’s. Neural growth factor proteins can limit damage from Alzheimer’s disease but are normally blocked by the Blood Brain Barrier. Scientists at Israel’s Technion Institute and Bar-Ilan University have developed nanoscale silicon chips that deliver these proteins directly to the target brain tissue.
https://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-
Human radiation therapy trial successful. Good results of the first multi-center human trials of the Alpha Dart radiation therapy (see here) developed by Israel’s Alpha Tau. Over 78% of the skin cancer tumors were completely cured. Most of the patients had previously received other treatments that failed to kill the tumors.
https://www.alphatau.com/
https://www.redjournal.org/
VR system saves 2-year-old. As reported here previously, the Virtual Reality technology from Israel’s Surgical Theater is saving thousands of lives. Here is one example of two-year-old Ari whose deep brain tumor was removed, thanks to surgeons having practiced the delicate operation using the groundbreaking VR system.
https://www.today.com/video/
Using AI to discover treatments. Israeli startup Pepticom uses AI (Artificial Intelligence) to discover new peptide-based candidates that could become the basis of the next big medical treatment. Pepticom was launched as a company by Yissum – the technology transfer arm of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
https://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-
Assisted feeding. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’
Keeping the blood flowing. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Perflow Medical has received the CE Mark (European approval) for its Cascade Agile device that helps surgeons repair ruptured intercranial aneurysms. Its unique net design enables continuous blood flow during cerebral aneurysm operations.
https://www.prnewswire.com/
Detecting strokes across the US. (TY Atid-EDI) Since US giant Medtronic began marketing the AI brain scan analysis system from Israel’s Viz.ai (see here), it has been installed in 300 US hospitals. Viz.ai has just raised $50 million to help fund its fast growth.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/
Diagnosing narrowing of the arteries. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s MedHub is developing AutocathFFR - an automated system that detects stenoses (narrowing) in the coronary arteries surrounding the heart. It has just commenced a pivotal multi-center clinical trial to test the system’s effectiveness.
https://www.prnewswire.com/
Fighting MRSA resistance. (TY Atid-EDI) As reported (here) previously, Israel’s Biomica is developing microbiome therapies for antibiotic resistant bacteria. It is now partnering with the Weizmann Institute to develop a selective treatment against MRSA - antibiotic resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus infection.
https://www.prnewswire.com/
https://www.biomicamed.com/
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
Female entrepreneurs meet investors. A business networking event was held last week in Jerusalem at the Urban Place for female entrepreneurs, in honor of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW). It was an opportunity for Israeli female business owners from across Israel to network with both investors and other business owners.
http://www.israelnationalnews.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Preserving Jewish-Ethiopian culture. (TY WIN) The Atachlit Beta Israel village in Kiryat Gat serves as a heritage center for the preservation of Ethiopian Jewish culture and heritage. The village and farm also give older Ethiopian Jews a new sense of purpose by continuing traditional farming, building and cooking methods.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Relations with Kazakhstan improve further. The Central Asian, Muslim-majority country of Kazakhstan has a history of strong connections with Israel. Under the new President, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, these ties are expanding, especially in commerce, agro-tech, clean water, cyber security, education and public diplomacy.
https://www.jns.org/israel-
Aid to Chad. Volunteers from NGO Israeli Flying Aid (IFA) brought supplies to refugee camps, hospitals and orphanages in the landlocked African country of Chad, suffering under constant terror attacks. It included 14 dialysis machines and three anesthesia machines donated by Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital.
https://www.israel21c.org/
Searching for Albanian earthquake victims. (TY Hazel) An Israel Rescue and Service team from Mevo'ot HaHermon Regional Council is searching for survivors in the city of Durres, following a 6.4 on the Richter Scale earthquake that shook Albania. It was the strongest earthquake to hit Albania in decades.
https://www.ynetnews.com/
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Nine of the best 100 inventions for 2019. Nine Israeli startups are in TIME magazine’s 100 Best Inventions for 2019. They are Or Cam, Theranica, WaterGen, Tyto Care, Temi, ECOncrete, Eviation Aircraft, Intuition Robotics and Lemonade. All have been reported previously in this newsletter – check www.IsraelActive.com
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Testing disaster recovery plans. Israel-based EnsureDR develops technology for identifying and fixing disaster recovery plans. It uses an automatic process that operates and tests secondary data sites on a weekly basis. EnsureDR has just raised $2.5 million. https://www.youtube.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Intelligence by vision. Israel’s Viisights Solutions develops a video intelligence service that analyzes and manages video content for specific advertising campaigns., It also analyzes real-time footage from security cameras. Viisights has just raised $10 million of funds. https://www.youtube.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Helping athletes to think. (TY UWI and I24) Israeli Air Force veterans have founded the startup Applied Cognitive Engineering (ACE) and developed the Intelligym – training software that boosts the cognitive abilities of soccer and hockey players. https://soccer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
How does UBQ do it? Israeli startup UBQ’s revolutionary recycling facility has been reported (here) previously. This new article goes into much detail about the process which produces plastic containers and building material from almost any kind of garbage. https://www.
More shrimps to feed a hungry world. (TY Atid-EDI) This newsletter reported previously (see here) on three Israeli startups that were farming disease-free shrimps. Here is a fourth – Israel’s AquaMaof. Its RAS (Recirculating Aquaculture Systems) use cutting-edge technology to breed shrimps and other fish on land.
https://vimeo.com/362240498 h
Give us a summary. Researchers at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev said they have developed MUSE (Multilingual Sentence Extractor) software that automatically summarizes texts in many languages. It can help readers go through articles, magazines, databases and academic research faster and more efficiently.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Read my lips. Israeli startup Hi Auto is developing speech recognition software for vehicle drivers. It uses a microphone and camera so it can track the driver’s lips to eliminate commands from other voices in the car.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Making hospital fabrics bacteria free. (TY Hazel) More on the method (see here) that Israeli startup Sonovia has developed to bacteria-proof hospital fabrics. They use ultrasound to form tiny vapor-filled cavities. Antibacterial chemicals can then be propelled onto the molecular structure of the fabric.
https://www.israel21c.org/
SpaceIL reveals new challenges. SpaceIL – the Israeli NGO that sent the world’s first private spacecraft to the moon – has announced plans to send spacecrafts to the Moon and to Mars. The Moon mission is scheduled to take place in 2022 and is expected to cost even less than the £100 million Beresheet mission.
https://worldisraelnews.com/
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Top of the world. (TY Atid-EDI) In the World Economic Forum’s 2019-2020 Global Competitiveness Report, Israel was ranked first for entrepreneurship, (risk, embrace of disruptive ideas, growing innovative companies), R&D expenditure, macroeconomic stability and multi-stakeholder collaboration. Overall Israel was 20th of 141.
https://nocamels.com/2019/10/
Unemployment at 3.4% - lowest in 40 years. Israel’s unemployment rate fell from 3.6% in September to a record low of 3.4% in October. https://www.
Good all-round improvement. Israel’s Composite State of the Economy index for October increased by 0.3% - a slight acceleration in the last two months. All components improved, especially consumer goods exports, services exports, industrial production, imports, retail trade revenue, services revenue and job vacancies.
https://www.boi.org.il/en/
Importing hi-tech skills. NGO Masa Israel’s “FastTrack Pro” program serves as a pipeline for coding and other key technical skills by matching North American Jews to jobs at Israeli start-ups. Meanwhile, (TY Jacques) The Council for Higher Education’s “Study in Israel” also attracts international hi-tech talent.
https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/
http://israelbetweenthelines.
AstraZeneca launches digital health program. AstraZeneca previously (Sep 2013) teamed up with Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital to develop new treatments. It has now started a NIS 10 million program for investing in Israel’s digital health sector. It will provide Israeli startups with funds, mentorship and training.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Teaming up to protect hospital systems. As reported previously, (Dec 2017)Israel’s Medigate protects medical devices from cyber-attack. It has now partnered with Japan’s Sompo Risk Management and Israeli private hospital chain Assuta Medical Centers to develop cybersecurity services for hospitals.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Vayyar raises $109 million. As reported previously (see here) the technology from Israel’s Vayyar can see through walls and other materials. Its 4D radar can also detect a patient falling and alerts an emergency contact. Vayyar has just raised $109 million and is opening new offices in Jerusalem and Haifa.
http://nocamels.com/2019/11/
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Sodastream plans $92 million expansion. PepsiCo is planning a $92 million expansion of its Sodastream plant in Rahat, southern Israel. It will hire an additional 1,000 employees; approximately one third of its current 1,500 strong workforce is comprised of Bedouin Arabs from the surrounding area.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT
Smile please. (TY UWI) The Arava International Photography Festival, part of the PlanetArava festival, recently took place in southern Israel. It offered 150 International photographers the chance to photograph the Holy Land’s unique wildlife and vibrant vistas. https://www.ynetnews.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Another gold medal in Abu Dhabi. Israel’s national anthem, Hatikvah, was again played in Abu Dhabi on Sunday after Israel’s 21-year-old Nimrod Ryder won the gold medal in the Under 77kg adult category at the Jiu-Jitsu World Championships.
https://www.jewishpress.com/
3)ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Targeting chemo at tumors only. Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed a method that delivers chemotherapy drugs directly to malignant cells and bypasses healthy ones. Cancer cells emit the protein TRPV2 into which the scientists inserted a low dose of doxorubicin to destroy the tumor.
http://www.israelnationalnews.
Nano-chips help treat Alzheimer’s. Neural growth factor proteins can limit damage from Alzheimer’s disease but are normally blocked by the Blood Brain Barrier. Scientists at Israel’s Technion Institute and Bar-Ilan University have developed nanoscale silicon chips that deliver these proteins directly to the target brain tissue.
https://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-
Human radiation therapy trial successful. Good results of the first multi-center human trials of the Alpha Dart radiation therapy (see here) developed by Israel’s Alpha Tau. Over 78% of the skin cancer tumors were completely cured. Most of the patients had previously received other treatments that failed to kill the tumors.
https://www.alphatau.com/
https://www.redjournal.org/
VR system saves 2-year-old. As reported here previously, the Virtual Reality technology from Israel’s Surgical Theater is saving thousands of lives. Here is one example of two-year-old Ari whose deep brain tumor was removed, thanks to surgeons having practiced the delicate operation using the groundbreaking VR system.
https://www.today.com/video/
Using AI to discover treatments. Israeli startup Pepticom uses AI (Artificial Intelligence) to discover new peptide-based candidates that could become the basis of the next big medical treatment. Pepticom was launched as a company by Yissum – the technology transfer arm of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
https://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-
Assisted feeding. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’
Keeping the blood flowing. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Perflow Medical has received the CE Mark (European approval) for its Cascade Agile device that helps surgeons repair ruptured intercranial aneurysms. Its unique net design enables continuous blood flow during cerebral aneurysm operations.
https://www.prnewswire.com/
Detecting strokes across the US. (TY Atid-EDI) Since US giant Medtronic began marketing the AI brain scan analysis system from Israel’s Viz.ai (see here), it has been installed in 300 US hospitals. Viz.ai has just raised $50 million to help fund its fast growth.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/
Diagnosing narrowing of the arteries. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s MedHub is developing AutocathFFR - an automated system that detects stenoses (narrowing) in the coronary arteries surrounding the heart. It has just commenced a pivotal multi-center clinical trial to test the system’s effectiveness.
https://www.prnewswire.com/
Fighting MRSA resistance. (TY Atid-EDI) As reported (here) previously, Israel’s Biomica is developing microbiome therapies for antibiotic resistant bacteria. It is now partnering with the Weizmann Institute to develop a selective treatment against MRSA - antibiotic resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus infection.
https://www.prnewswire.com/
https://www.biomicamed.com/
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
Female entrepreneurs meet investors. A business networking event was held last week in Jerusalem at the Urban Place for female entrepreneurs, in honor of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW). It was an opportunity for Israeli female business owners from across Israel to network with both investors and other business owners.
http://www.israelnationalnews.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Preserving Jewish-Ethiopian culture. (TY WIN) The Atachlit Beta Israel village in Kiryat Gat serves as a heritage center for the preservation of Ethiopian Jewish culture and heritage. The village and farm also give older Ethiopian Jews a new sense of purpose by continuing traditional farming, building and cooking methods.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Relations with Kazakhstan improve further. The Central Asian, Muslim-majority country of Kazakhstan has a history of strong connections with Israel. Under the new President, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, these ties are expanding, especially in commerce, agro-tech, clean water, cyber security, education and public diplomacy.
https://www.jns.org/israel-
Aid to Chad. Volunteers from NGO Israeli Flying Aid (IFA) brought supplies to refugee camps, hospitals and orphanages in the landlocked African country of Chad, suffering under constant terror attacks. It included 14 dialysis machines and three anesthesia machines donated by Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital.
https://www.israel21c.org/
Searching for Albanian earthquake victims. (TY Hazel) An Israel Rescue and Service team from Mevo'ot HaHermon Regional Council is searching for survivors in the city of Durres, following a 6.4 on the Richter Scale earthquake that shook Albania. It was the strongest earthquake to hit Albania in decades.
https://www.ynetnews.com/
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Nine of the best 100 inventions for 2019. Nine Israeli startups are in TIME magazine’s 100 Best Inventions for 2019. They are Or Cam, Theranica, WaterGen, Tyto Care, Temi, ECOncrete, Eviation Aircraft, Intuition Robotics and Lemonade. All have been reported previously in this newsletter – check www.IsraelActive.com
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Testing disaster recovery plans. Israel-based EnsureDR develops technology for identifying and fixing disaster recovery plans. It uses an automatic process that operates and tests secondary data sites on a weekly basis. EnsureDR has just raised $2.5 million. https://www.youtube.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Intelligence by vision. Israel’s Viisights Solutions develops a video intelligence service that analyzes and manages video content for specific advertising campaigns., It also analyzes real-time footage from security cameras. Viisights has just raised $10 million of funds. https://www.youtube.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Helping athletes to think. (TY UWI and I24) Israeli Air Force veterans have founded the startup Applied Cognitive Engineering (ACE) and developed the Intelligym – training software that boosts the cognitive abilities of soccer and hockey players. https://soccer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
How does UBQ do it? Israeli startup UBQ’s revolutionary recycling facility has been reported (here) previously. This new article goes into much detail about the process which produces plastic containers and building material from almost any kind of garbage. https://www.
More shrimps to feed a hungry world. (TY Atid-EDI) This newsletter reported previously (see here) on three Israeli startups that were farming disease-free shrimps. Here is a fourth – Israel’s AquaMaof. Its RAS (Recirculating Aquaculture Systems) use cutting-edge technology to breed shrimps and other fish on land.
https://vimeo.com/362240498 h
Give us a summary. Researchers at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev said they have developed MUSE (Multilingual Sentence Extractor) software that automatically summarizes texts in many languages. It can help readers go through articles, magazines, databases and academic research faster and more efficiently.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Read my lips. Israeli startup Hi Auto is developing speech recognition software for vehicle drivers. It uses a microphone and camera so it can track the driver’s lips to eliminate commands from other voices in the car.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Making hospital fabrics bacteria free. (TY Hazel) More on the method (see here) that Israeli startup Sonovia has developed to bacteria-proof hospital fabrics. They use ultrasound to form tiny vapor-filled cavities. Antibacterial chemicals can then be propelled onto the molecular structure of the fabric.
https://www.israel21c.org/
SpaceIL reveals new challenges. SpaceIL – the Israeli NGO that sent the world’s first private spacecraft to the moon – has announced plans to send spacecrafts to the Moon and to Mars. The Moon mission is scheduled to take place in 2022 and is expected to cost even less than the £100 million Beresheet mission.
https://worldisraelnews.com/
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Top of the world. (TY Atid-EDI) In the World Economic Forum’s 2019-2020 Global Competitiveness Report, Israel was ranked first for entrepreneurship, (risk, embrace of disruptive ideas, growing innovative companies), R&D expenditure, macroeconomic stability and multi-stakeholder collaboration. Overall Israel was 20th of 141.
https://nocamels.com/2019/10/
Unemployment at 3.4% - lowest in 40 years. Israel’s unemployment rate fell from 3.6% in September to a record low of 3.4% in October. https://www.
Good all-round improvement. Israel’s Composite State of the Economy index for October increased by 0.3% - a slight acceleration in the last two months. All components improved, especially consumer goods exports, services exports, industrial production, imports, retail trade revenue, services revenue and job vacancies.
https://www.boi.org.il/en/
Importing hi-tech skills. NGO Masa Israel’s “FastTrack Pro” program serves as a pipeline for coding and other key technical skills by matching North American Jews to jobs at Israeli start-ups. Meanwhile, (TY Jacques) The Council for Higher Education’s “Study in Israel” also attracts international hi-tech talent.
https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/
http://israelbetweenthelines.
AstraZeneca launches digital health program. AstraZeneca previously (Sep 2013) teamed up with Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital to develop new treatments. It has now started a NIS 10 million program for investing in Israel’s digital health sector. It will provide Israeli startups with funds, mentorship and training.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Teaming up to protect hospital systems. As reported previously, (Dec 2017)Israel’s Medigate protects medical devices from cyber-attack. It has now partnered with Japan’s Sompo Risk Management and Israeli private hospital chain Assuta Medical Centers to develop cybersecurity services for hospitals.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Vayyar raises $109 million. As reported previously (see here) the technology from Israel’s Vayyar can see through walls and other materials. Its 4D radar can also detect a patient falling and alerts an emergency contact. Vayyar has just raised $109 million and is opening new offices in Jerusalem and Haifa.
http://nocamels.com/2019/11/
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Sodastream plans $92 million expansion. PepsiCo is planning a $92 million expansion of its Sodastream plant in Rahat, southern Israel. It will hire an additional 1,000 employees; approximately one third of its current 1,500 strong workforce is comprised of Bedouin Arabs from the surrounding area.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT
Smile please. (TY UWI) The Arava International Photography Festival, part of the PlanetArava festival, recently took place in southern Israel. It offered 150 International photographers the chance to photograph the Holy Land’s unique wildlife and vibrant vistas. https://www.ynetnews.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Another gold medal in Abu Dhabi. Israel’s national anthem, Hatikvah, was again played in Abu Dhabi on Sunday after Israel’s 21-year-old Nimrod Ryder won the gold medal in the Under 77kg adult category at the Jiu-Jitsu World Championships.
https://www.jewishpress.com/
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
No comments:
Post a Comment