ISRAEL'S ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE FIRST MONTH OF 2008

Israel, with a population of around 7 millions, and only 20,770 sq km of land, is one of the 100 smallest countries in the world. (Even smaller than New Jersey).

Even though so small, Israel contributes in a large way to the betterment of our daily life.

On the right side of this blog there is a column about Israel achievement, which I have posted about a year ago. Since then, Israel has achieved many other things of which I have no record. However, I was lucky to get a list of her achievement during the month of January of this year alone, and thought you may like to read it as well. So here it is:

1. Scientists in Israel, found that the brackish water, drilled from underground desert aquifers, hundreds of feet deep, could be used to raise warm-water fish. The geothermal water, less than one-tenth as saline as sea water, free of pollutants, and a toasty 98° on average, proves an ideal environment.

2. Israeli-developed designer-eyeglasses, promise mobile phone and iPod users, a personalized, high-tech video display. Available to US consumers next year, Lumus-Optical's lightweight and fashionable video eyeglasses, feature a large transparent screen, floating in front of the viewer's face that projects their choice of movie, TV show, or video Game.

3. When Stephen Hawkins visited Israel recently, he shared his wisdom with scientists, students, and even the Prime Minister. But the world's most renown victim of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, also learned something, due to the Israeli Association for ALS' advanced work in both embryonic and adult stem cell research, as well as its proven track record with neurodegenerative diseases, the Israeli research community is well on its way, to finding a treatment for this fatal disease, which affects 30,000 Americans.

4. Israeli start-up, Veterix, has developed an innovative new electronic capsule that sits in the stomach of a cow, sheep, or goat, sending out real-time information on the health of the herd, to the farmer via Email or cell phone. The e-capsule, which also sends out alerts if animals are distressed, injured, or lost, is now being tested on a herd of cows, in the hopes that the device will lead to tastier and healthier meat and milk supplies. <<>

5. The millions of Skype users worldwide will soon have access to the newly developed KishKish lie-detector. This free internet service, based on voice stress analysis (a technique, commonly used in criminal investigations), will be able to measure just how truthful that person on the other end of the line, really is.

6. Beating cardiac tissue has been created in a lab from human embryonic stem cells by researchers at the Rappaport Medical Faculty and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology's biomedical Engineering faculty. The work of Dr. Shulamit Levenberg and Prof. Lior Gepstein, has also led to the creation of tiny blood vessels within the tissue, making possible its implantation in a human heart.

7. Israel's Magal Security Systems, is a worldwide leader in computerized security systems, with products used in more than 70 countries around the world, protecting anything from national borders, to nuclear facilities, refineries, and airpo rts. The company's latest Product, DreamBox, a state-of-the-art security system that includes Intelligent video, audio and sensor management, is now being used by a major water authority on the US east coast to safeguard the utility's sites.

8. It is common knowledge that dogs have better night vision than humans and a vastly superior sense of smell and hearing. Israel's Bio-Sense Technologies, recently delved further, and electronically analyzed 350 different barks. Finding that dogs of all breeds and sizes, bark the same alarm when they sense a threat, the firm has designed the dog bark-reader, a sensor that can pick up a dog's alarm bark, and alert the human operators. This is just one of a batch of innovative security systems to emerge from Israel, which Forbes calls 'the go-to country for anti-terrorism technologies.'

9. Israeli company, BioControl Medical, sold its first electrical stimulator to treat urinary incontinence to a US company for $50 Million. Now, it is working on CardioFit, which uses electrical nerve stimulation to treat congestive heart failure. With nearly five million Americans presently affected by heart failure, and more than 400,000 new cases diagnosed yearly, the CardioFit is already generating a great deal of excitement as the first device with the potential to halt this deadly disease.

10. One year after Norway's Socialist Left Party launched its boycott Israel campaign, the importing of Israeli goods has increased by 15%, the strongest increase in many years, Statistics Norway reports.

Renate

Artist, poet and the author of

'From the Promised Land to the Lucky Country'

To look inside my book Click here

To see more of my book click on this link

http://www.promisedland-renate.com 

ANIMALS AND THEIR YOUNG

I wanted to tell you about the experience we had with our cat and dog in growin their young. I fellt that the best way of doin doing so is by copy the stories out of my book ‘From the Promised Land to the Lucky Country’, which is available on www.amazon.com No. 1419633074.

Our cat 'Pooss"

One day, the kids find a very hungry looking black and white stray cat, amongst the trees at the back yard. She has a badly healed and ugly looking injury along one of her back legs. Taking pity on her, they adopt her and name her ‘Pooss.’

Pooss becomes pregnant, and her first-born is an albino with practically no hair. She nurses it for a couple of days, till she delivers two more. Then, she disappears with the albino and returns without it.

Pooss turns out to be the best mother I have ever seen. She instructs her kittens in the ways of a cat, teaching them to hunt, walk in a line, and take their turn while she encourages them to jump down from high places. She is not shy of reprimanding them when they dare step out of line, and spanks them or puts them in the corner when they deserve it - only to lick them afterwards. And you know, she never read a book about how to bring up her young.

Our dog Tara

… Tara has started digging under the clinic building and is taking all the sand out of there. We are worried the building will fall over if she continues this way, and the children are working hard returning it. Yet Tara does not stop. She is determined, leaving us no option but to succumb and hope for the best.

The building does not collapse, and Tara has her den. Once she enters, she refuses to come out, and in there she has her pups. However, she needs to be fed and we need to know what’s going on. So the children are taking turns crawling under the building. A day passes, and nothing happens. The following day, we have our two pups and think that’s it, but Tara is not coming out. We increase her feeding to about five times daily, with meat, milk and cheese in big amounts, and she finishes it all up. A day later, she has another couple of pups, and every time the children go under the house, they find some more. At the end of four days, Sharon crawls out very excited,

‘I have counted ten or eleven. But I’m not sure. Its difficult to see.’

Gill goes under the house, counts, and thinks there are eleven, but is not so sure either. Now, all we can do is wait and see.

At long last, Tara comes out and urinates for about half an hour and returns to her den. She has no more pups, but we have a tribe.

Tara stays under the house for some more days feeding her brood until she thinks they can venture out. Now, we can see their progress. We notice she does not care who feeds and who doesn’t. She has eight active tits for eleven mouths and it is not enough. Therefore, we make sure to rotate the pups and see the little ones are not disadvantaged. Each time one of the bigger ones falls asleep, we pull a little one from underneath the heap of pups, and put it on top to suck at a vacant tit. That way we lose none.

Eleven pups to look after are a lot, and Tara has not a minute’s peace, so she institutes an imaginary line of demarcation the puppies are not allowed to cross. Each time one of them dares to try, she opens her mouth over its head, shakes it and roars. The little one then cringes and disappears as fast as his little legs will carry him.

Even though still very young, you can already see their individual characters...

If you have a animal story, why not share it with me.

Renate

Artist, poet and the author of

'From the Promised Land to the Lucky Country'

To look inside my book Click here

To see more of my book click on this link

http://www.promisedland-renate.com 

Keeping the marriage alive

So how do we keep a marriage alive when our responsibility towards the survival of our human specie has been fulfilled?

What reason is there for living; when our children purport to know more than we ever did or do; and where our collected and collective wisdom has no use to anyone?

Well, we do what all generations before us could not do – we liberate ourselves back to our youth, with the added bonus of a life long experience.

Now we can learn, grow and experience anew. We can venture into new pursuits of our own choosing and at our own volition; and thus enriching ourselves, the society we live in, and the world at large; in a fresh and unique way.

For me, getting to this stage in life was enlivening; as I am sure it is to many a woman. It gave me the time and the opportunity to express myself and do all that I could not do before. It gave me the opportunity to be myself and live my own life.

For the man in my life, who had to stop work due to a car accident, retirement was a forced and traumatic event, which took a hard and painful toll. He lost all he loved doing, felt useless and dejected, and took years to heal.

Most men find retirement hard to swallow in any event, and the battle in this instant was even greater, since Gerry did never want to retire in the first place.

Now the question is, how do you adjust to this new situation? What do you do, or how do you go about it?

Once Gerry got better, I approached him and said,

Till now we did what had to be done as well as pursued your interests (which were in the realm of both his chosen professions), now it’s my time; and he agreed.

Not only did he agree, but he also started to actively take over the running of the household, one thing at a time. This was not easy. He had to learn all he’d never done before, and the way I did it. Slowly, he got the hang of things and changed them according to his own way of thinking.

On top of it, he took closer interest in my newly developed interests and encouraged me to continue with my pursuits.

Nowadays, he does all shopping and errands, and most of the household chores, while I join in whenever I can.

As a matter of fact, when any of us notices something to be done, we just go ahead and do it, or help the one who is already at it, if time permits. If we not, we ask to be excused for whatever the reason is.

With these important parts of daily life out of the way, we realised the need each of us has for a private space of his/her own - an uninterrupted time to be oneself for oneself. Allowing for this private space was, and is, one of the most important pillars in keeping a healthy marriage.

As importance as the above is, it only forms a base for a smooth and cohesive daily life. It does not keep the marriage alive, does it? So how do you do that?

Well, we did and do that by continuing to be who we are, and by doing what we always did, but - without the handicaps of direct family responsibilities of looking after children, dogs, cats, fish, you name it. We have only the two of us to look after, just as we were at the beginning:

We talk and debate a lot, laugh a lot, and dance passionately. We do old things, new things, and exciting as well as not so exciting things. We go for new projects, travel places, meet with friends all over the world and communicate via cyberspace with old and new acquaintances.

From them we learn of changes in places we left behind and of ways of life we have never encountered. In short – we live with all the gusto we did before.

BUT now, we do it with an added bonus. A bonus of knowing one another so much better - AND we like what we know, as well as what we see; even though it has wear and tear signs here and there.

Now we are free to ask each other questions we did not dare ask before; question relating to our most inner feelings, for example. We can share in the different reactions and feeling each of us has from his/her unique prospective; and by doing so, learn more about each other. AND we are not shy of laughing at ourselves and at one another, in good spirit and with no malice.

Having gone through all the above, I can see still one important subject to cover, which is the love in a long marriage.

This I will leave for my next posting on the fascinating subject of a long and happy marriage.

Renate

Artist, poet and the author of

From the Promised Land to the Lucky Country

to look inside my book

Click here

 To go to my website
http://www.promisedland-renate.com 

WRITING

In one of our monthly ‘Poetry in Paradise” group meeting, I read a love poem I presented Gerry with, on our 39^th wedding anniversary. When members realised I wrote it in Hebrew as well, I was asked to read it in that language.

Since the poem was too long to be read to people who do not understand the language, I opted for a short one I had in both languages as well; to be presented at a later date.

Then, I thought it would be wise to say few words about the structure of the language, as the Hebrew is so different from the English. On top of it, being the language of the Bible and so very old, a quick rundown about its long history may be interesting.

As per usual, I looked deeper into the subject before talking about it, to make sure my information is correct. This led me to the fascinating subject of the origin of write.

It is funny, but we do take writing for granted, as we do many other things; and we never think how they came about.

Many of us, me included, think or thought that the Egyptian hieroglyphics were the first form of writing. But I learnt that it wasn’t so. I learnt that the first to write were the Sumerians in Mesopotamia, where Abraham came from.

Their type of writing, called ‘Coniform’, started because of their need to record their commercial activities.

They started by dabbing reed ends into wet rectangular shaped clay tablets before they dried out and hardened. One dab stood for number 1, two for 2 and so on.

Many of these tablets were found, and are on display in the British museum in London; They are huge; standing larger than man one next to the other; and next to tablets etched with full size figures of the those Sumerians who used it – An extra ordinary and very impressive sight indeed.

In those days, Egypt had a backwards society, and the Sumerians, the world’s first civilization, apparently brought writing to the Egyptians with their commercial endeavours; thus instigating the development of the Hieroglyphics. Those Hieroglyphics were, at the beginning, used primarily for religious purposes.

The Cuneiform and Hieroglyphics recoding systems were very cumbersome and not transportable, and there was a need for an easier way of writing to develop. This need brought about the development of the Alfa Bait system, on which I will enlarge in my next posting on this fascinating subject.

Renate

Artist, poet and the author of

From the Promised Land to the Lucky Country

See my website at -

http://www.promisedland-renate.com

Marriage –When kids and the Jobs are gone – what then?

Once children have come of age, they need to ‘fly out of the nest’ so to speak. They need to leave their parents’ home and build a life for themselves. This is nature’s way.

There are, however, instances where the parents do not want to let children go. I think that that comes from fear of not being needed or wanted any more. But children have the right to their own lives; mistakes and success. They deserve to experience all facets of life with all the ups and downs it brings.

The question of ‘what shell I do now?’ does come up at times; a vacuum one may not know how to fill.

For us this was never a problem, because we married each other - not the kids. They were the product of our love, not the aim, neither the centre of it.

With them gone, we had a chance of another honeymoon; filled with the experience, knowledge, and may be some wisdom we may have gained, within the years.

Now came the time to solely enjoying one another’s company, grow and develop and experience new things and ventures.

I am a great believer that we should experience and learn all we can while on this earth. I do not think one gets a second chance at that; not in this time and place in any event. So why waste it?

I must confess at this juncture, that the most difficult time one has to endure and adjust to, is the time when a partner, or both, stop work. This is not as hard on women as it is on men.

Women are better in multitasking, because they have to, and can therefore always find something to occupy themselves.

Men, most of who did only, or practically only, one task at a time, are often lost once they retire. Having lost their job, they often lose their station in life, and at times, the friends they made during their working years.

Those men who did not prepare themselves for their ‘golden age’ are in real difficulties, and not knowing what to do with themselves, they nag their spouses to the ends degree.

There are also those who think that even though they have nothing to do, their wives should continue to look after them: cook, clean, launder, serve them and so on. This never works, and is very contentious.

It is the hardest time in a marriage, as far as I am concerned, and can only be solved by discussing and putting down parameters for both to live by.

A couple must acknowledge the uniqueness of each other, allow them the time to pursue their individual goals, and respect their need of their private space.

Renate Artist, poet and the author of From the Promised Land to the Lucky Country To see more of my book click on this link

www.promisedland-renate,com

To look inside my book Click here

ANIMAL STORIES

It’s a long time since I posted animals stories, or mentioned them in any shape or form. Today, I’d like to air some of what I think and feel, which I have not voiced before.

From day to day we find out more about the animals that share our world, and I often wondered, why we humans think we are the top of creation; shying away from recognising animals’ abilities we do not understand.

More surprising is the fact that we equate and judge other species by our own criteria and our own abilities, which do not include that which we do not see, feel, hear, or acknowledge.
Even more surprising is the belief some of us have, that it is our god given right to do, or use, other species in any way we please;
We human, enslave them, hurt them, and experiment on them for a so called “our own good” - How disgusting!

Many animals I came across do amazing adjustments to live and survive in our midst:
We never learn to adjust to the language our dogs speak - they adjust to us.
We put animals in circuses to entertain us - teaching them tricks that are out of their natural range of movements, and they do – even when it hurts them.
AND we take away their freedom, by putting them in zoos; for us to watch every single movement they do,
We deny them the right to live the way nature intended, AND we put them in laboratory cages to cut them, maim them, induce illness in them, genetically change them; under the rotten excuse of ‘Scientific Research”, just because they cannot object, or if and when they do - we shoot them!

I have said my piece here and I hope many of you are enrage just as I am.

Having said that, I’d like to show you some of the amazing things animals do and how they interact with us, and at times, form friendships across the species divide, by their own want and volition. So here I go:

Our son and family had a cockatiel in a cage, to which, as you already know I strongly object. However, they were going for holiday and gave us the bird to look after while they were gone.
It came in a large cage that same evening; with clothe to cover the cage for the night, a packet full of food; and a string of instructions to follow.
Come morning I take the clothe off the cage as instructed, said hello and good morning to the bird, refresh the water, put some food in the dish , and go back to my morning chores.
The phone rings. The tone is not the usual one our phones have, but it is constant.
I lift the receiver - there is no one at the other end.
I shrug my shoulder, put the receiver down, and return to my chores.
The phone rings again and it is the same story.
After a couple of more calls, I decide to follow its root, and end at the bird’s cage.
Getting there, the ring stops, and the Cockatiel is talking to me.
I say hi and return to my tasks.
The phone rings again.
I come to the cage and the bird is talking to me again.

I try this couple of more times, and realise the bird want to converse with me;
it has learned people come when the phone rings!
I decide to try and communicate.

Gerry and I have a whistle we used to use, before the days of the mobile phone. It was a fairly long and some what complicated segment of a song. I wanted to see how the bird will react.
I told her all about it and then whistled it. She listened intensely, with her head bend to one side and to the other. As I stopped, she said some thing to me that I understood her asking me to repeat it. As I finished, she started to repeat it.
Each time she asked for a repeat, I obliged, and she continued to learn.
She got the first and last parts correctly, but had difficulties getting the middle, which was somewhat more complicated.

We continued to communicate that way for the 10 days she was with us, and it was beautiful. I am sure that if we would have been together permanently, we would have had a large vocabulary between us.

My daughter in law, Lynne, had a Goldfish that we suspect of not being a goldfish at all. It continued to grow and grow and was still alive seven years later.
As it continued growing, it got a bigger aquarium, even though he was on his own. He did not like company and used to eat those that were brought in to keep him company.

To make sure he will not be bored, Lynne put him on the kitchen bench, so that he can be a part of the activities around.
He had a silvery golden colour and two large protruding eyes that followed every move around him.
Every evening, at 5pm on the dot, he will nock on the glass and remind Lynne that it is time for him to get his meal!

I have received the following from EllieBlue on Stumble upon. She was replying to my post about Crows:

Renate,
I too have a high regard for crows. We had one as a pet. She was knocked out of her nest during a storm. She was very affectionate but naughty. She would sneak visitors’ biros etc from their pockets and my mother's pegs from the clothesline. She loved it when we set up a dish for her to bath in.

~Hugs~
Sandra

To finish off, here is a link to a clip of an elephant painting

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LHoyB81LnE

Enjoy.
Renate
Artist, poet and the author of
From the Promised Land to the Lucky Country
To see more of my book click on this link
http://www.promisedland-renate.com
To look inside my book Click here

LIVING WITH SNOW

While many in the northern hemisphere are still living in snowy condition, we in Australia left our summer, which was no summer, behind; and have officially entered autumn.

Seeing on the news the heavy snowstorms some of you went through, reminded me of our snow experiences when we arrived in Davenport Iowa to study chiropractic. You see, we never lived with snow before.

I thought you’d get a kick out of reading about some of the ‘living with snow’ adjustments we went through. I have therefore copied a small section out of my book – “from the promised Land to the lucky Country,” that illustrates, in a small way, the many surprises we got. I hope you get a giggle or two out of it.

“Living with snow is new to us, and deep winters of below freezing point are something we have never encountered. Of black ice or sleet, we did not even hear. From what we have seen in films and on TV, snow is white and beautiful. We know that people wear heavy winter clothing at snow time, but it never occurs to us how cold it really is, or what being that cold feels like. The coldest we have ever experienced is the occasional 5°C, and that at night, while tucked nicely in our warm beds. And here we are - completely unprepared for what’s coming.

Early on a sunny morning, with not a cloud to be seen and with the house nice and warm, I decide to empty the rubbish. Walking out of the kitchen door, I have the shock of my life when I find myself hitting the footpath with a heavy thump. Sitting there on a very sore, cold and wet behind, I cannot for the life of me figure out what made me fall. Ignoring it, I step off the path and go to the bin next to the drive. There, I slip down the black-ice-covered ramp, and cannot get up again. Lying sprawled on my tummy in full daylight, trying to crawl up the lawn, all I can see is frozen water droplets and nothing to grab hold of. Finally, I give up and walk very slowly along the public footpath and around the corner to the front steps. At the steps, matters aren’t getting any easier. The steps are as slippery as the car ramp is, and sloped as well. In desperation, I hang on to the single pipe side-rail that is just as frozen. With all the might and determination I can muster, and with hands burning as if I have just been cooked alive, I succeed in getting to the front door exhausted. “

Renate
Artist, poet & the Author of
From the Promised Land to the Lucky Country  

To read reviews and testaments go to http://www.promisedland-renate.com

To look into the book Click here