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In Israel, new insights on the science of medical Marijuana

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 19:30:32 +0000

A great piece in the NYT by Isabel Kershner on Tikkun Olam, a commercial medical marijuana plantation in Israel. The name is "a reference to the Jewish concept of repairing or healing the world," and while marijuana is illegal in this country, some of the most interesting scientific research into its healing properties is happening here. The last graf is the most amazing. (Thanks, Stoningham!)

For the children of Gaza and Israel

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 22:58:18 +0000

The Velveteen Rabbi wrote a beautiful piece, in the form of a psalm, for The Children of Abraham / Ibrahim. Snip: "For every toddler in his mother's arms / behind rubble of concrete and rebar / For every child who's learned to distinguish / "our" bombs from "their" bombs by sound..." (via @ethanz)

Medical marijuana in Israel

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 15:30:46 +0000

"I've been a Holocaust child all my life. I'm now 80 and I'm still a Holocaust child, but I'm finally able to better cope." A Buchenwald survivor who uses cannabis for PTSD in a nursing home in Israel, in USA Today.

Stone tools with plastic handles

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 16:31:28 +0000

Israeli designers Ami Drach and Dov Ganchrow presented their modern stone and flint tools at the Budapest Design Week. The pair combined hand-chipped blades and axes with modern high-impact plastic handles, to make tools that are beautiful and functional. I'd love to have one of those knives around the office. Designboom has more pics, and commentary:

the set is a result of an experimental exploration of the realm of tool making. where stone and flint tools have been the means of our ancestors' survival for over a million years, they magnify our bodily (teeth, fingernails, fists etc.) capabilities of cutting and chopping, sawing and pounding. through a method of three-dimensionally scanning and printing, the ancient artifacts are digitally outfitted with custom-designed handles, encapsulating the rugged forms in a perfectly enclosed case. by juxtaposing the polarities of the manufacturing processes in computer generated forms, an intersection of material technologies and functionality coincide on a tangible scale.

modern stone + flint tools by ami drach + dov ganchrow (via Neatorama)

Mitt Romney does not understand how one creates a "dirty bomb"

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 14:53:23 +0000

Mother Jones today published a second part of the video secretly recorded at a Mitt Romney fundraiser in Boca Raton. The first bombshell will forever be known as "47 percent," but the portion getting attention today focuses on a response the Republican presidential candidate gave to a question about the Israel/Palestine peace process. The tl;dr there: he doesn't believe it'll happen, and intends to "kick the ball down the road" and let the next administration deal with it, or something like that.

But here's a derpworthy moment in the video that may be of interest to science fans, and people who have actually done some reporting on how so-called "dirty bombs" work.

Here's a transcript for the relevant portion of the video:

If I were Iran, if I were Iran—a crazed fanatic, I'd say let's get a little fissile material to Hezbollah, have them carry it to Chicago or some other place, and then if anything goes wrong, or America starts acting up, we'll just say, "Guess what? Unless you stand down, why, we're going to let off a dirty bomb." I mean this is where we have—where America could be held up and blackmailed by Iran, by the mullahs, by crazy people. So we really don't have any option but to keep Iran from having a nuclear weapon.

But you don't need "fissile material" to create a dirty bomb. David Corn at Mother Jones writes:

Romney didn't appear to understand that a dirty bomb—an explosive device that spreads radioactive substances—does not require fissile material from a nuclear weapons program. Such a bomb can be produced with, say, radioactive medical waste. If Iran's nuclear program poses a threat, it is not because this project will yield a dirty bomb.

Someone on Romney's staff should sit the guy down and force him to watch this PBS NewsHour story by Miles O'Brien from last year, a straightforward explainer on how dirty bombs work, and how it's not necessary to have a "nuclear program" in place to create one.

Swiss Army Knife with animals instead of blades

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 00:22:19 +0000

Third year design student David Suhami made the "Animal Pocket Knife" for a studio course at Shenkar College of Engineering and Design in Tel Aviv. As he explained to Designboom, "the piece is made for adults who still enjoy playing with small objects. it combines the idea of a swiss army knife and a jungle safari in africa. the prototype is made from stainless steel to represent the current technology while the handles are made from fine tabebuia wood to symbolize the traditional craft."

Hell, I'd buy one and fidget for days with it.

david suhami: animal pocket knife (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

The $9 cardboard bicycle

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 21:00:06 +0000

Israeli designer Giora Kariv invented his $9 cardboard bicycle after hearing about someone who'd created a cardboard canoe. The finished product is advertised as remarkably strong and durable:

The Cardboard Bicycle Project is a new, revolutionary and green concept that produces bicycles which are made of durable recycled cardboard.
ERB is an active partner who manages all the business and financial aspects.
The first commercial model of bicycles is designed for large companies as a vehicle for the employees and to large cities as a cheap, light-weight vehicle and parallel to it the electric model is being developed.
The Cardboard Bicycle can withstand water and humidity, coated with a strong layer of brown and white material, making the finished product look like it is made of hard lightweight plastic and can carry riders weighing up to 220 kilograms. The cost to make the bicycle is around $9-$12 and the manufacturer expects that the cost to the consumer would be around $60-$90 depending on what parts they choose to add on.

Cardboard Bicycles (via MeFi)

For Passover fun in Israel, a safari of animals crafted from Coca-Cola trash

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 21:14:17 +0000

A monkey sculpture is pictured on a pick-up truck before it is placed in an exhibition at Hiriya recycling park, built on the site of a former garbage dump near Tel Aviv. The Coca-Cola Recycled Safari featuring animals made of recycled Coca Cola packages will be open to the public during the Passover holiday.

More images of other critter creations from the recycling project, below. (REUTERS/Nir Elia)

Israeli President Shimon Peres writes on Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook Wall (no, an actual wall at Facebook HQ)

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 21:39:03 +0000

Israeli President Shimon Peres writes on a blackboard with Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on March 6, 2012. (REUTERS/Moshe Milner/Office of President Peres)

The Botany of Bible Lands: An Interview with Prof. Avinoam Danin

Avi Solomon — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 05:12:56 +0000

Avinoam Danin is Professor Emeritus of Botany in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He curates Flora of Israel Online. His latest book is Botany of the Shroud: The Story of Floral Images on the Shroud of Turin.

Avi Solomon: What first sparked your lifelong fascination with botany?

Avinoam Danin: My parents told me that when I was 3 years old I always said "Look father, I found a flower". My grandparents gave me the book "Analytical Flora of Palestine" on my 13 birthday - I checked off every plant I determined in the book's index of plant names.

Avi: How did you get to know the flora of Israel so intimately?

Avinoam: When I was a high school student, as a personal project I determined all plants growing in a 1000 square meter area and followed it by determining all plants I found on my way anywhere. Mapping the vegetation of the Negev Highlands for my graduate and doctoral theses increased the list of species I knew.

Being the plant taxonomist of a Hebrew University team during the Sinai investigations added much to my knowledge. Writing together with Prof. N. Feinbrun the Analytical Flora of Eretz Israel (1991) and later, after several botanical visits in Jordan, the 5th part of Flora Palaestina (2004) was my way to obtain intimate knowledge of the flora of the region.

Satureja nabateorum

Avi: Which is the most interesting of the new species that you have found?

Avinoam: It is very hard to say "which is the most". We botanists consider the new plants we describe as new-born children and love them all. I have now 42 such plants and it is hard to say whom I love more. A new species is Capparis ramonensis I discovered on the gypsum outcrop of Makhtesh Ramon.

It is confined to a 3.5 square km area on our planet. A plant of an even smaller area is Hormuzakia negevensis found near Dimona. I named an Origanum new to science as Origanum jordanicum to honour His Majesty King Hussein who signed a peace agreement with our prime minister Yitzhak Rabin at the time of the discovery. We were searching a Nabatean path from the Arava Valley to Petra and a new savory was discovered then.

It became my beloved Satureja nabateorum which has beautiful trunks when becoming old in the sandstone crevices of SW Jordan.

Portulaca oleracea seed

Avi: What makes the amazingly nutricious "weed" Purslane (Portulaca oleracea) so common all over the globe?

Avinoam: The plant which was known as Portulaca oleracea is in fact an aggregate of more than 20 entities which look like Portulaca oleracea. However, there are many forms (we regard them at present in the scientific community as "microspecies") that look like the "regular" Portulaca oleracea, but differ in the microscopic morphology of their seeds. They all share the property of need for light, moisture, and high temperatures for germination.

Many sites created by human activity are available with the necessary conditions. It may float on sea water for more than half a year and germinate when landing on non-saline soil. Hence it may be distributed independently. Producing plenty of minute seeds makes it an efficient invader.

Gall of Salvia fruticosa

Avi: What are Cretan Apples?

Avinoam: As concluded by researchers from the HaReuveni family who sought out the botanical inspirations of the Menorah, Cretan Apples are galls developing at the tips of branches of two Salvia (Sage) species--Salvia fruticosa and Salvia pommifera. Salvia fruticosa grows in several east Mediterranean countries, including Israel and Crete; Salvia pommifera grows in Crete and in Turkey. The galls look like small apples and have a sweet taste when young. The Greek name of the two sage species has the Greek name of apple (milo) in their names (fascomilo).

Avi: What led you to examine the Shroud of Turin for botanical evidence?

Avinoam: Dr. Alan and Mary Whanger had discovered images of plants on the Shroud. They came to my home in 1995 and showed me their findings. I concurred with them and visited them in Durham, NC, in 1997 and discovered additional plant images. I repeated their studies and continued my own observations.

Thorn of Rhamnus lycioides on the Shroud

Avi: What were your findings?

Avinoam: Four plant species, the images of which are found on the Shroud, indicate the geographical origin of the Shroud. Fresh stems of the plants Gundelia tournefortii, Zygophyllum dumosum, Cistus creticus and Capparis aegyptia could be placed on the dead Man's body only in a strip of land, a few kilometers wide between Jerusalem and Hebron. Nine blooming species found on good photographs of the Shroud share blooming months of March and April, thus indicating that the event of covering the man with the plants in the Shroud took place during that time of the year.

The Man of the Shroud was possibly tortured with thorns of Rhamnus lycioides, Ziziphus spina-christi and Gundelia tournefortii. A cane of Arundo donax was inserted to the Shroud covering the Man as well.

Avi: What has been the reaction from your colleagues in the scientific community?

Avinoam: Of the botanists who glanced at the plant images, there were those who objected to my interpretation of these images and others who agreed and supported this. A first dose of encouragement came from my friends, botanists themselves, Dr. Peter H. Raven and Dr. Michael G. Barbour.

They are well known American scientists and their agreement with much of what I showed them was an important component of the strength I needed to stand against potential criticizers. In June 2006, I presented my findings to the staff of an important European botanical garden. At the end of my lecture, one of the attendees declared that as a botanist who is used to seeing and identifying plants, said he does not support my findings. Later that day three botanists having a similar position in that institute arrived incognito and warmly supported my findings and interpretation.

I can mention the response of three Israeli archaeologists. One of them, a good friend of mine and my family for more than 30 years, changes the subject whenever I try to confront him with the whole subject. Another colleague opened our conversation by saying that according to his experience there were no people as tall as the image of the man of the Shroud. He therefore was not ready to talk about my findings, and I thanked him for the short conversation I had with him. However, there were several Israeli archaeologists who were ready to hear what I said with appreciation for the interesting findings.