My Rehovot ( ISSN 1817-101X )

Rehovot, Rishon may be in Hamas rocket range

2009-01-05T18:04:00.003+02:00

Yaakov Katz, Yaakov Lappin of JPost.com

"Fearing that Hamas may have missiles with a range over 40 kilometers, the IDF Home Front Command has instructed the Rishon Lezion and Rehovot municipalities to prepare their bomb shelters, The Jerusalem Post has learned and reported on Monday.

Defense officials said Sunday that the air force had destroyed a significant percentage of Hamas's long-range Kassams and Grad-model Katyusha rockets, but that it was likely the group still had "several thousand" left.

Most of Hamas's Grad rockets were produced in Iran and have a range of 20-40 kilometers. The Iranians built the missiles with a special technology and they can be dismantled into several components and then be reassembled once smuggled into Gaza. Hamas also has a number of Chinese-made 122mm Katyusha rockets that were smuggled into the Strip last January after the Islamist group blew up the border wall with Egypt.

The IDF has, however, not ruled out the possibility that Hamas may have a handful of more advanced Katyushas that are capable of reaching Rishon Lezion and Rehovot.

"We need to be prepared for every scenario, including the possibility that Hamas has longer-range rockets that can hit cities north of Ashdod," a source in the Home Front Command said.

Last week, police were already getting ready for the possibility of rockets hitting the Rehovot area. "We are prepared with special police forces such as sappers and CSI teams," a spokeswoman said.

Due to the IDF operations in the northern Gaza Strip, the Israel Police and Home Front Command are preparing for the possibility that Hamas rocket squads will be forced to operate from within built-up areas farther south. If this happens, the IDF believes that more rockets may hit Ashkelon, which enjoyed a relative respite from attacks on Sunday.

The calm should not fool local authorities into letting their guard down, the newly-appointed Southern District police chief, Cmdr. Yohanan Danino, warned during a meeting with the city's Mayor Benny Vaknin..."

Source: Yaakov Katz, Yaakov Lappin (5 Jan 2009) JPost.com [FullText]

Rehovot mayor admits to contract scheme

2009-01-02T22:10:00.000+02:00

By Ofra Edelman

Rehovot Mayor Yehoshua "Shuky" Forer was convicted yesterday of breach of trust as part of a plea agreement reached in November.

According to the original indictment, the Rehovot municipality awarded work costing about NIS 3.75 million to a public works contractor without issuing a tender in exchange for paying off NIS 93,000 in outstanding debts for Forer from his 1998 election campaign. Forer was originally charged with accepting a bribe, conspiracy to commit a crime, fraud, breach of trust and related offenses. He was also charged with failing to report a bank account used for his election campaign. As part of the plea bargain Forer admitted to only a small part of the charges and refused to concede that his actions were deceptive.

At the sentencing hearing on February 11 the state will ask the Petah Tikva Magistrate's Court to impose community service, probation and a fine, as well as to define Forer's crime as one of moral turpitude, thus forcing him to resign his post.

Source: Ofra Edelman. Rehovot mayor admits to contract scheme. Haaretz.com (2 Jan 2009) [FullText]

Police arrest Rehovot resident for blackmailing 71-year-old man

2008-12-10T18:14:00.000+02:00

"Police in Rehovot arrested a man on Tuesday who on suspicion that he blackmailed a 71-year-old resident of the city over the course of six years.

According to reports, the man, who has a long criminal history, extorted tens of thousands of shekels from his victim over the years.

The suspect will be brought before the Rishon Letzion Magistrate's Court on Wednesday for a hearing on his remand."

Source: Police arrest Rehovot resident for blackmailing 71-year-old man JPost.com staff (10 Dec 2008) [FullText]

As a re-elected mayor of Rehovot Shuki Forer must enforce Weizmann Institute pay local city taxes

2008-11-27T22:28:00.000+02:00

The decision by israel Ministry of Internal Affairs made decades ago allowed Weizmann Institute not to pay local taxes. This was during the times the science existed for science, not money. Weizmann Institute presently is not a not-for-profit institution. It generates income through a variety of mechanisms, using it's commercialization daugther firm called Teva. Such tax exemption, therefore, is a basis for the curruption and financial irregularities at the Weizmann Institutes reported previously (including the report by State Comptroller). Shuki Forer previously talked on the need for the Weizmann's to pay local tazes. Therefore, as a re-elected mayor of Rehovot Shuki Forer must enforce Weizmann Institute pay local city taxes.

Also see:

Rehovot Wants Weizmann Institute to Pay Local Taxes (MyRehovot, 11/12/2004)

Excerpt: "The Rehovot municipality petitioned the High Court of Justice last week to order Minister of the Interior Avraham Poraz to cancel the Weizmann Institute's longstanding exemption from municipal property taxes. The municipality petitioned to prevent changes in the criteria that would further exempt Weizmann Institute from municipal taxes.

The petition states that in February 2003, the High Court of Justice ruled in favor of the Rehovot municipality and ordered the Ministry of the Interior to reconsider Weizmann Institute's exemption from municipal taxes, and to set criteria for exemptions from municipal taxes.

The Rehovot municipality claims that in the 14 months since the ruling, the Ministry of the Interior had not reviewed Weizmann Institute's eligibility for an exemption.

The municipality claims that it is absurd that the Weizmann Institute's NIS 660 million budget is 45% larger than the municipality's. The municipality claims to have a budget deficit of NIS 49 million and a cumulative deficit of NIS 130 million. It claims that Weizmann Institute should pay NIS 35 million a year in municipal taxes, which would cover two-thirds of the municipality's deficit."

Rehovot municipality head elected in second round of voting

2008-11-26T11:44:00.001+02:00

New heads were elected in eight municipalities that have went into a second round after the first round of municipal elections did not produce a winner with a large enough percentage of the vote to take office.

In Rehovot Shuki Forer became mayor; in Ashkelon, Benny Vaknin; in Kiryat Ono Yossef Nishri was elected. Tzvi Gov-Ari became mayor of Yavneh and Ilan Shohat won the race in Safed. Nissim Malka won in Kiryat Shmona, while Nahed Khazem became mayor of Shfaram and Faiz Abu Zahban became head of the Rahat municipality.

The overall voting percentage was 56; in the Arab sector more than 80% turned up to vote, while in Jewish municipalities approximately 45% cast their ballots.

jpost.com

Shuki Forer election campaign technical team members make Rehovot Mayor run a criminal affair

2008-11-22T17:50:00.000+02:00

17:16PM 19 November 2008 - Shuki Forer technical support election campaign team members, including woman, attack bypassing pedestrrian filming Rehovot-in-election-round-2 street life.

17:16PM Shuki Forer election campaign team members beat owner and editor of MyRehovot.info, harass him (including a woman playing witch role) and say so bad about Shuki Forer on an argument that he in fact does support Forer. Violence by Forer people also caused the damage of the photography equipment.

17:50PM After an attempt to push MyRehovot's Alex to the dark side of Herzl Street Pedestrian walkside by Shuki Forer technical support election campaign team members, beaten and harassed victim escaped, crossed the street and found shelter at a shop next to a Gasoline station. Wrong doorway taken cost few more beats by angry Shuki Forer campaign staff. It took then about 25 minutes to Police to come to the stage after a call by a caring shop staff.

17:55PM Automated videomonitoring by a shop depicted the aggressors as viwed by the police officer who came to the spot shortly after a call by a shop staff. Interestingly, Shuki Forer people lied to the police, saying Alex was inside their office across the street (see video 1 to learn this is a complete lie). While awaiting for a police some other Shuki Forer tech team memners came into the shop, brought broken equipment, and asked Alex not to report to the police this sad affair. The criminal case was filed, however under the law provisions (clauses 192, 379, 452)

Top ranking of Rehovot's Weizmann Institute could be faked

2008-11-20T12:33:00.000+02:00

IsraelToday.co.il reports that "Two Israeli universities won the top two spots in a survey by The Scientist magazine on the best places for academics to work outside the United States. Number one on the list was the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot. Taking second place honors was Jerusalem's Hebrew University. The survey ranked universities by, among other things, salary, working conditions and available resources for researchers."

However, well knowing recent coppruption affairs at the Weizmann Institute of Science, enlighted by as powerful person, as previous President of WIS, Professor Ilan Chet, My Rehovot belief is that organized survey participation by Weizmann's students and academic staff may be faked and represent well planned action by the Institution Public Relation PR Department.

Uzi Salant Corruption and Shuki Forer support posters are glued to Rehovot Poster Boards by the same people

2008-11-19T17:15:00.001+02:00

19 November 2008, 17:11PM - This video (also available at youtube.com) depicted that moment of gluing to Rehovot poster board a poster in support of Shuki Forer election campaign. Notably, a poster saying other candidate, Uzi Salant, is a currupt was fresh glued a moment earlier by the same person, indicating both posters is an affair by the same group of people.

A day before, Rehovot youth at Herzl street center reported this advocacy comes from sources other then Shuki Forer election team.

Rehovot teacher indicted for having sex with student

2008-11-15T12:03:00.000+02:00

State files illicit sexual relations charges against woman, intimidation and obstruction of justice charges against her husband; asks court to revoke her teaching license

The Central District Prosecutor's Office filed charges of illicit sexual relations against a Rehovot high school teacher suspected of having sex with one of her 17-year-old students.

The State further filed charges against the woman's husband, for intimidation and obstruction of justice. The prosecution also asked the court to rescind the woman's teaching license.

According to the indictment, filed with the Rehovot Magistrate's Court on Monday, the teacher and her student became involved after she took an interest in his studies.

The bond formed soon became intimate, and the two allegedly began meeting in a secluded filed in one of the moshavim on the outskirts of the city, or in a nearby guesthouse.

Other sexual encounters, said the prosecution, took place at the beach, the teacher's offices and at another student's house.

The other student, made privy to the relationship, apparently videoed the two using her cell-phone camera. Once rumors about the affair began circulating, alleged the State, both students were invited to the teacher's house, where she and her husband instructed them to deny the rumors.

The husband then instructed the boy's friend to erase the videos from her cell phone. When he later learned she did not deny the rumors suggesting his wife and the boy were having an affair, he threatened her.

The Central District Prosecution claims to have a solid case against the teacher.

Attorney Yael Azmon, for the State, told the court the prosecution intends to enter into evidence detailed affidavits by the both students, tapes of confrontations between the parties and several testimonies by other students who saw the cell-phone video.

Source: Eli Senyor. YNetnews 11.10.08, 10:47 / Israel News

Kaplan hospital nurses save man who tries to commit suicide at the entrance to Rehovot's Herzl Street

2008-11-03T12:40:00.000+02:00

A nurse at Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot used her sweater as a tourniquet to stop the profuse bleeding of a man whose foot was amputated by a railroad train when he ran towards the tracks in a suicide attempt.

A few days ago, Tami Shlomo, a pediatric nurse who was driving to Sheba Medical Center with two other nurses, was waiting for a train to pass at the exit from Rehovot. They saw a man rushing towards the train and get run over by one of the railway cars. The nurses ran out of the car to help the man, who was bleeding profusely but lay there quietly.

"It was incredible to see a man with an amputated food who didn't say anything or scream," said Shlomo. He even answered our questions about how he felt. We did all we could to keep him awake so he wouldn't lose consciousness before the ambulance arrived."

The pediatric nurse said the event was very traumatic for her, even though she was a medic in the IDF and knew what to do. After seeing the man's condition, she shouted for an elastic band, but no one had any, so he used her sweater to try to stop the bleeding.

The Magen David Adom ambulance evacuated the man to Kaplan for continued treatment, and he was admitted in stable condition. "I am proud of my hospital," said Shlomo, "and I knew he would get the best care to save his life. I called the department where he was hospitalize to check on his condition. When I heard that he was okay and that his relatives [had seen] him, I calmed down."

The three nurses will receive special recognition for their efforts from the hospital management for working quickly and properly to save a man's life.

Source: Siegel-Itzkovich J. Kaplan nurses save man who tries to commit suicide (2 Nov 2008) [FullText]

City Elections 2008: Shuki Forer to become New Mayor, My Rehovot publisher says

2008-10-19T02:42:00.010+02:00

Also, please listen to the soundtrack of Mr. Shuki Forer Campaign Gala of 30 August 2008 (mp3, 1 hour 15 min). Soundtrack is a copyright by My Rehovot. Download and (re)distribution is strictly prohibited. Allowed is an online playback using the media player provided below.

Shuki Forer Election Campaign Gala

Stop other media files before playing back

Disclaimer: My Rehovot, Rehovot.org & Rehovot.tv have no competing financial interest and are fully apolitical

Rehovot biotech firm to collaborate with a US Department of Veterans Affairs Institution

2008-10-15T09:40:00.004+02:00

Rehovot based Dermipsor Ltd. said it signed a cooperative research and development agreement with the Department of Veterans Affairs Boston Research Institute Inc. The collaboration's framework under the agreement covers the advancement of Phase II and III trials. The agreement initially will focus on implementing a scalp psoriasis Phase II study with Dermipsor's DPS-102, a nonsteroidal synergistic combination topical treatment, which is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter. The company said it also is continuing preparations for its plaque psoriasis Phase III trial with its leading drug DPS-101.

tmcnet.com

Israel's police chief David (Dudi) Cohen talks on Violence and Rehovot

2008-10-11T09:07:00.000+02:00

Israel's police chief David (Dudi) Cohen talks on Violence and Rehovot. See his interview full text at Haaretz.com]

...But there is youth violence and there is night violence, and the protection racket has become a national problem.

"The police force is the country's emergency room. In a large number of cases involving a social or educational failure, we are the ones who finally arrive to pick up the pieces. Our ER receives the ailments of the Israeli society. On Friday night you will find hundreds of drunk kids from a certain ethnic background on Herzl Street in Rehovot. Hundreds. That is their culture. I cannot deal with their culture. I get them at 2 A.M., drunk, threatening one another with broken bottles. So what do I do? I transfer six Border Police companies from the seam line [the boundary line between Israel and the West Bank] to the city centers. I create more Border Police companies. I station a company in Acre and a company in Carmiel and a company in Hadera and two companies in Tel Aviv. And I send people from offices to the stations, to the front line. And I formulate a multi-year plan that will give me a larger budget and more policemen every year. But when you have 2.7 policemen per 1,000 inhabitants in Israel, compared with 5 per 1,000 in Europe, there is a problem. You cannot expect a relatively small and poorly budgeted police force to cope with all the problems that arise in Israeli society."

You said nothing about the protection racket. Herzl Street in Rehovot, which you mentioned, is said to be tainted with protection. As are main streets in other major cities.

"It is impossible to say that there is no protection money phenomenon in the country. There is such a phenomenon. But I don't think that protection is a national problem. I admit that it is hard for us to gauge the scale of the phenomenon. With drugs I can tell you how much is coming in: 100 tons of marijuana from Egypt, two-thirds of a ton of heroin from Jordan, and the same with Lebanon. But when it comes to protection money, people do not file complaints. It is hard to uncover because there are no complainants, there is no evidence and no case. But it is clear to us that the protection money phenomenon has worsened in the past few years."

And the "crime families"? It looks as though the crime families have simply taken over the street. They are everywhere. Whole cities are within their sphere of crime.

"I don't like the term 'crime family.' A family is a normal thing. These are crime organizations that have sprung up in the past decade and grown stronger over the years. Each such organization has a hierarchical structure. It has a chief, an intermediate level and 'soldiers.' Each such organization numbers between dozens and hundreds of people. The structure is almost military, but the capability extends to the economic sphere, too. The organizations are involved in drugs, protection money, taking over businesses, smuggling and gambling. They also penetrate local governments and the legitimate economy."

How many organizations do the police know of?

"Currently we have identified about 20 local crime organizations and six national crime organizations: Abutbul, Abergil, Jarushi, Domrani, Molner and Shirazi. We know that there are others as well..."

Source: Ari Shavit. The shield. Haaretz.com (3 October 2008) [FullText]

Rehovot men who gouged cab driver's eye with screwdriver jailed for 8 years

2008-10-10T09:54:00.000+02:00

"A Petach Tikvah court on Sunday convicted two defendants in the brutal robbery of a cab driver in which they stabbed him in the eye before taking off with NIS 100.

The two defendants, Ofer Finko, 21 and Gara Morositz, 19, both from Rehovot, pled guilty to aggravated robbery and conspiracy to commit a crime.

The indictment states that the two defendants were searching for a car to break into in Rehovot and when they didn't find a suitable target, they called a taxi station nearby and ordered a cab to take them to Kibbutz Palmahim.

The two then rode with the cab driver, Yaakov Mizrachi towards Palmahim, and when they got to a junction near the kibbutz the two defendants began beating Mizrachi. When Mizrachi tried to protect himself against the attackers, they stabbed him in the eye with the screwdriver, causing him to lose his left eye.

Despite the severity of the crime, the two were given only 8 years in prison due to their agreement to sign a plea bargain"

Source: Ofra Edelman, Haaretz Correspondent. Men who gouged cab driver's eye with screwdriver jailed for 8 years. Haaretz.com (5 October 2008) [FullText]

Two Rehovot bandits convicted of violent robbery on taxi driver

2008-10-07T00:55:00.000+02:00

"Two Rehovot men were convicted Sunday of committing a violent robbery on a taxi driver as a result of which he lost one of his eyes.

The two - Ophir Pinko, 21, and Gera Morosich, 19 - were found guilty as part of a plea bargain on charges of robbery, grievous bodily harm and conspiracy to commit a crime for the February attack on 72-year-old Yaakov Mizrahi, in which they used a screwdriver.

The prosecution was expected to ask the Petah Tikva District Court to sentence the two to eight years in jail."

JPost.com staff. Two Rehovot men convicted of violent robbery on taxi driver JPost.com (7 Oct 2008) [FullText]

Rabbi of Rehovot Simcha Hakohen Kook voted out of the council

2008-10-03T09:28:00.001+03:00

Which restaurants and food products are kosher and which are not? Who is allowed to get married and who is not? Who can be a rabbi and who cannot?

Last week, elections took place to choose the state-empowered body - the Chief Rabbinate Council - that is supposed to answer these questions.

The elections were an upset. The non-hassidic, Lithuanian-haredi rabbinic leadership, which gradually has been gaining more power within the Chief Rabbinate, suffered a major setback. Two of its veteran members, Rabbi of Rehovot Simcha Hakohen Kook and chairman of the Neighborhood Rabbis Council Moshe Rauchverger, who is also a neighborhood rabbi in the Haifa area, were voted out of the council.

Rauchverger and Kook, both connected to the Degel Hatorah party and adamantly backed by Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, the supreme halachic authority of the haredi Ashkenazi community, were replaced by two rabbis who do not necessarily adhere to his decisions...

Source: Matthew Wagner. Religious Affairs: Honor, haredi-style. JPost.com (3 October 2008) [FullText]

Rehovot School program offers phys-ed as major

2008-09-29T09:17:00.000+03:00

Education Ministry launches initiative in 100 high schools in Israel, offering students opportunity to earn diploma in fitness instruction, enabling them to join work force immediately after graduation

The Education Ministry has launched a program that offers to students of 100 different high schools across the country the possibility of majoring in fitness instruction.

These students will also be able to earn an instructor's diploma while still in school, which grants them the possibility of beginning work in the field immediately upon graduating.

The program is comprised of 90 hours of theoretical studies and 150 hours of practical education, and begins in 10th grade. The students can specialize in one area of expertise, such as judo, soccer, aerobics, etc, and complete an internship in the 12th grade.

"There are currently 4,800 students studying in the fitness instruction program, and 500 will soon begin studying for the instructor's diploma," says Abraham Zochman, who heads the Education Ministry's physical education department.

"We are happy to give these students the opportunity to graduate with not only a diploma, but an opening into the job market."

Rehovot's DeShalit School is one of the high schools currently offering the program. The students are divided into three specialization branches: Girls' soccer, light athletics, and gym. Each branch has its own certificate, which the student receives upon graduating.

DeShalit even founded a new gym thanks to the program, which the school's principal, Leah Desklovitch, described as "an upgrade for the school's physical education department."

"I hope this tendency will grow and develop in specific fields, and that in the future other practical courses of study will be made available," she said.

Eli Senyor, Yaheli Moran Zelikovich. School program offers phys-ed as major YNet (28 September 2008) [FullText]

'A Chocolate Affaire' Raises Over $340,000 to Benefit Scholarship Fund at The Hebrew University, Rehovot Branch

2008-09-20T09:47:00.000+03:00

LOS ANGELES, Sept 24, 2008 - 250 American Friends of The Hebrew University gathered at Bel Air Estate American Friends of The Hebrew University (AFHU) hosted its fifth annual "A Chocolate Affaire" on September 13th at the Bel Air residence of Western Regional board member and founder of Morgan Creek Productions, James G. Robinson. This year's event brought the total amount raised to over $1.3 million.

Proceeds from the dinner and gourmet chocolate tasting event benefited the Student Scholarship Campaign which enables disadvantaged students of all races, religions and countries of origin to complete their undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral studies.

Guests were entertained by Emmy Award winning comedian Louie Anderson who was introduced by event co-chair Joan Dangerfield, widow of Rodney Dangerfield. She was joined by co-chairs Patricia L. Glaser and Sam Mundie, and Renae Jacobs-Anson and Dr. David Anson. Richard Ziman, AFHU's Western Regional chairman, and his wife Daphna served as honorary chairs.

"We are so proud that this year's overwhelming success will enable us to help many more students. The American Friends community truly understands that there is a desperate need for scholarships at this time," said Renae Jacobs-Anson. "There is no greater gift than that of an education, and we are honored and thrilled to support the amazing students of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem."

About The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, located on three campuses in Jerusalem and a fourth in Rehovot, is one of the world's leading academic and research institutions. More than 24,000 students from over 70 countries choose Hebrew University for its seven academic Faculties in the Humanities, Sciences, Social Sciences, Agriculture and Medicine, and to take advantage of extensive opportunities to participate in groundbreaking research. Faculty and alumni of The Hebrew University have won six Nobel Prizes within five years.

About the American Friends of The Hebrew University

American Friends of The Hebrew University (AFHU) is a national, not-for-profit organization based in the United States. AFHU conducts fundraising activities in support of The Hebrew University's internationally recognized community of leading scholars and scientists. AFHU helps to ensure Israel's well-being by nurturing the nation's greatest asset: the intellectual strength of its people.

Source: 'A Chocolate Affaire' Raises Over $340,000 to Benefit Scholarship Fund at The Hebrew University. (20 September 2008) PRNewswire via COMTEX [FullText]

Beijing Olympics 2008: Michael Phelps is a Sonic Doper, Washington Post Science Writer Says, Quotes Based in Rehovot Scientific Doping Journal

2008-08-23T02:27:00.002+03:00

or Listening to an iPod Is Like Taking Drugs

by Rick Weiss
Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
Former Washington Post Science Reporter

Imagine you have qualified for the Olympics and are walking down a Beijing street the day before your event, when a vendor gives you a covert signal to come closer. You approach warily as he opens a flap of his trench coat, revealing something half tucked into an inside pocket.

“Pssst,” he says. “You want to win gold? Guaranteed to help. And perfectly legal.”

“What is it?” you ask, as he shows you a mysterious device, smaller than a credit card and with wires dangling from it.

“Intracranial transducers,’” he says in practiced English, pointing to the ends of the wires. “Stick them in your ears and they focus the brain, increase blood oxygen, prepare muscles for action. Made here in China.”

“So it’s a doping device!” you say with disgust.

“No, no,” the man exclaims in a hoarse whisper, looking around to make sure no one else has heard your incriminating comment. “Like I said, totally legal.”

“So what is it called?” you ask.

He looks askance again, then leans over and whispers in your ear: “‘iPod,’” he says. “We call it ‘iPod.’ It worked for Phelps. It can work for you.”

***

It is now a widely known fact that Michael Phelps, winner of a record-breaking eight gold medals in this year’s Olympics, is an iPod fanatic. In the minutes before diving into the pool, those trademark white wires were almost invariably hanging from his ears. He has confessed at various times to using tunes by Eminem, Young Jeezy, Lil’ Wayne and Jay-Z to motivate him and enhance his concentration.

When broken down to its mechanical elements, an iPod is nothing more, and nothing less, than what my hypothetical Chinese huckster was pitching—a device that transduces electrical energy into acoustical energy, namely music.

You see where I am going with this. And before I go any further, why don’t you get it out of your system? Let me have it. I know what’s coming because soon after I began to wonder about the parallels between iPoding and doping, an Israel-based medical doctor and scientist with whom I have communicated occasionally in the past—Alexei Koudinov, who among other things edits an online scientific publication called The Doping Journal—sent me a blog in which he raised the same issue. And that blog, I saw, had led to instant and effusive derision by his online readers.

“Who pays this guy to think up things like this?” one respondent wrote, after Koudinov argued the undoubtedly extreme case that Phelps should give up his medals. Others called the idea that music should be classified as a performance enhancer “asinine,” “silliness,” “a crock,” “ridiculous,” and “mean-spirited.”

One clever commentator claimed that “The writer of the article is qualified
to write for that [Doping] Journal: He is a Dope!” Another, less clever, called Koudinov’s posting “a waste of ink.” In fact, as with most online postings, no ink was involved.

But let’s pursue the idea a bit further. When broken down to its mechanical elements, an iPod is nothing more, and nothing less, than what my hypothetical Chinese huckster was pitching—a device that transduces electrical energy into acoustical energy, namely music. And as everyone knows, music can have profound psychological and physiological effects. It can relax a listener. It can anger or enthrall. It can excavate deep emotions and energy.

If that is not specific enough, consider research published in the Journal of Nursing Research in 2003, which showed that hospitalized infants who had music played for them had significantly higher oxygen levels in their blood than other babies . Now consider that the 2008 World Anti-Doping Code of the World Anti-Doping Agency, in Article M1 under the category of “Prohibited Methods,” bans methods of “artificially enhancing the uptake, transport or delivery of oxygen….”

I suppose this raises the interesting legal and philosophical question of what is “artificial.” In the words of one especially cynical blogger: “As just about everyone knows, breathing increases blood oxygenation. Should this also be considered illegal?” I won’t go that far. But even if normal breathing is acceptable, what about the arguably less-natural activities known as deep breathing or stretching or limbering up?

Moreover, music can affect more than mere oxygen levels. Koudinov cites research by Stefan Koelsch of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany, who has published research on biological responses to music. According to Koelsch, music can induce biochemical “relaxing effects.” Given all the talk during this year’s Olympics about the risks and downsides of “having the jitters,” which can throw even the best of gymnasts off their balance beams, relaxation is clearly a big potential benefit.

Yet anti-jitter drugs, such as beta blockers, are expressly prohibited in many Olympic sports (including marksmanship, as evidenced last week when the North Korean Olympic shooter Kim Jong Su was stripped of his silver and bronze medals after blood tests came up positive for propranolol, which can slow a heart that is racing from nervousness and, in so doing, reduce anxiety and enhance concentration).

Phelps may even have received a double benefit by yanking out his ear buds in the last minute or two before competing. Research published in 2005 suggests that intense music followed by a sudden silent pause may be just the ticket for someone poised at the edge of an Olympic pool, since the music itself can boost arousal and the sudden silence that follows can induce, in handy sequence, a wave of relaxation.

“Music, especially in trained subjects, may first concentrate attention during faster rhythms, then induce relaxation during pauses,” that study concluded.

...continue reading full article at the ScienceProgress.org web site

Source: Rick Weiss. Is Michael Phelps A Sonic Doper? (Listening to an iPod Is Like Taking Drugs) Bioethics: Science Progress by AmericanProgress.org Published online 22 August 2008 [FullText]

Rehovot Restaurants: Dining Out

2008-08-20T23:15:00.000+03:00

I have followed the culinary career of Eliezer Loya with interest since 1992 when he left his job as chef to the American ambassador and took over the kitchen of Tel Aviv's Dakota, where he demonstrated a true knack for seafood. I especially recall his expertise in preparing crab in a Pernod sauce. Over the years, at various restaurants, including Rose and Kazanki, Loya continued to make us happy with simple and tasty dishes. He is especially known for matching well-seasoned sauces to shrimp, langoustine, calamari and other seafood. About six months ago, Loya decided to show us he has an equally firm grasp on meat, as well, and his new Rehovot-based restaurant, Fresco, proves just that.

Located not far from Rehovot's industrial area, Fresco has a simple but inviting decor. The menu offers both appetizers and entrees, as well as a salad and pasta buffet for openers. We approached the buffet and the first plate I filled consisted of two kinds of eggplant, large chunks and thin slices, which were first grilled and then treated to a rich veal sauce; the second, fried together with garlic, was sprinkled over with fresh herbs. I also helped myself to a flavorful and chunkier than usual Turkish salad, and a long, fried and lightly pickled green pepper that proved just as flaming hot as the waiter said it would be.

My second plate took a different direction and included several slices of soft Italian-style mortadella sausage, a few slices of spicy French-style cervelat sausage and just a few bits of matjas and pickled herring, each of which proved tasty, especially when eaten with homemade challah-like bread and butter. While we were dining, our waiter brought over several other dishes: an excellent, airy and just salty enough ikra, kosher pickled cucumbers and two delicious pickled tomatoes. All of these called to mind the olden days in Jewish restaurants in New York City's lower East Side.

Eastern European delicacies

After these offerings, we shifted to more formal appetizers. We ordered a small platter of tissue-thin slices of smoked ham, the fat of which was wisely left intact, as well as a plate of equally thin and excellent slices of oven-dried beef jerky. As an extra first course, we ordered a plate of the restaurant's homemade patrician pork sausages, which were long, firm and bursting with rich, garlicky flavor and cooked in root beer; they were best eaten with our hands and dipped in sharp mustard. We also ordered a portion of the calf's foot jelly. This traditional Eastern European dish, often associated with the Jewish kitchen, is made by making an aspic by slowly boiling a calf's foot in water together with onions, carrots and garlic, and then combining the liquid with some meat off the bone. In this case, the dish was splendid: a firm aspic with an abundance of meat, served with lemon wedges.

Following a well-needed cigarette break on the terrace, we returned for our main courses. I ordered the Romanian-style kebabs. These particularly plump kebabs are made of beef and beef fat ground together with garlic, pepper, caraway seeds, coriander, marjoram, cayenne pepper and baking soda; the kebabs were first grilled and then cooked in a medium-hot oven. If it had not been a hot summer day, I might have ordered a second helping of the the crisp and juicy kebabs. One of my companions opted for the baby spareribs, which were done very well in a mustard and honey marinade, which added an appealing hot sweetness to the soft, just fatty enough meat. My other companion did not fare quite as well, as her pork fillet in a red wine and beef marrow sauce was just a bit too dry.

That there is a distinct Eastern European touch to many of the dishes was undeniable, especially in light of one of the desserts we shared, a version of the well-known Hungarian-Romanian papanash. This rendition was a rich cheese-based dough formed into a large doughnut-like shape, deep-fried and served with a sour cream and cherry sauce. Perhaps best described as "melt-in-your-mouth" soft and full of both calories and flavor, the dessert was splendid.

Wisdom would have had us stop there but we continued with a portion of chocolate cake, the cake itself with a distinct resemblance to a brownie with walnuts, which was topped with a rich chocolate concoction that, although said to be a mousse was far closer in flavor and density to a marquise. That gave us no cause for complaint. Nor did the excellent chocolate sauce that topped the cake, made from a combination of fine bittersweet chocolate and melted butter that had been blended together.

The bill for three for such a sumptuous meal, including espressos, came to a quite reasonable NIS 350. Despite the fact this is basically a meat restaurant, if you visit during the hot months of the year, I suggest staying with either white wine or, alternatively as we did, with the good, ice-cold Czech draught beer (half liter mugs cost NIS 24 each). This is a place to avoid if you are counting calories or cholesterol. But for those in search of the simple but very good life, this is the place to be.

Fresco: 23 Herzl Street, Rehovot. Open daily from 12 P.M.-12 A.M. Tel: (08) 934-3788.

Source: Daniel Rogov. Dining Out: The very good simple life. Haaretz (14 August 2008) [FullText]

Two boys diagnosed with cave fever at Rehovot's Kaplan Hospital. After visits to Carmel caves

2008-08-17T23:38:00.004+03:00

Two boys who visited the Carmel caves near Haifa with their families were stricken by "cave fever," known among doctors as tick-borne relapsing fever. It is caused by Borrelia bacteria, which live on cave ticks, which are in turn sometimes carried on the backs of porcupines.

A 15-year-old boy was brought Monday to Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot and quickly diagnosed by emergency room doctors as having cave fever.

Last week, Iyar Shmuelevich, a six-year-old boy from Kfar Bilu, was diagnosed with the fever as well. Both had been in the Carmel caves, and both suffered from weakness and high fever.

Complications can, rarely, lead to death. After receiving a large dose of antibiotics, the older boy recovered. The younger one has improved with antibiotics but is still being treated.

Kaplan doctor Uri Bella said the Health Ministry would be asked to look into the infections at the caves...

Source: Judy Siegel-Itzkovich. Two boys diagnosed with cave fever after visits to Carmel caves (12 August 2008) JPost.com [FullText]

Does doping by the pool invalidates Phelps Beijing 2008 Olympic swimming gold, world records? Yes, Rehovot scientist says

2008-08-13T23:16:00.000+03:00

By Alexei Koudinov

Also available at Rick Maeses's Beijing Olympics Blog Of the Baltimore Sun Sports Section (13 August 2008)

Did you notice that Michael Phelps wears earphones and is listening music just before his every Olympic start, at Beijing's Olympiad Water Cube pool deck, be it finals or semifinals? I first noticed that before his first gold swim on August 10: Phelps removed earphones 2 minutes before the start, and he was the only swimmer who worn earphones at the pool deck. Intriguing scientific evidence testifies: Listening to music improves blood oxygen capacity and is a performance enhancement.

There could be several mechanisms, says Stefan Koelsch of Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, in Leipzig, Germany, who has published 40 articles on the subject of how the body reacts to music. Dr. Koelsch says that "music can have influences on the breathing rate (e.g. via emotional effects such an increased arousal) which will alter oxygen levels in the blood, or relaxing effects (so that fewer muscles consume oxygen, which also increases oxygen levels)." He says that his group "has reported clear changes in breathing rate on a conference last year, with breathing rate being higher during pleasant music." In line with Koelsch conclusion are the data of the research article by Luciano Bernardi group of the University of Pavia, Italy, implying that the withdrawal of music shortly before the swim race induces relaxing effects noted by Koelsch.

Evidence comes from the research done with human infants. It showed that music causes better saturation of hemoglobin with oxygen (a so-called SPO(2) parameter, compared with control subjects receiving no music, indicating an "enhancement of oxygen transfer") and that increased by music, oxygen saturation returns to the baseline faster compared with control, making it hard to detect the transient oxygen saturation shortly thereafter. While Koelsch preferred his own explanation on how music can improve body oxygen capacity, Dr. Alexander Cherniak, a researcher at the Chuchalin Pulmonology Institute of Moscow, Russia agrees that medical experimentation with infants allows good standardization of the research protocol, appropriate statistics and could be projected onto the adults.

So what? Can one call listening to music shortly before entering the swimming pool for competition a performance enhancement? Yes, say both Koelsch and Cherniak. If so, how long could this enhancement last? "Duration [of the effect is] not certain, from seconds to minutes," adds Koelsch. Beijing Olympic and world records by Phelps fall into the expert's projected time frame. Yes, testifies Dr. Vance Bergeron, of Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon, Laboratoire de Physique in Lyon, France: "[M]usic next to the swimming pool, less than 2 minutes before the start could indicate performance enhancement because of transient increase of blood oxygen capacity."

Bergeron adds that such a performance enhancement is "a bio-chemical feedback mechanism from an external source. The external source in the present case, music, is available to everyone, not harmful to the athlete or his peers, and carried out under full disclosure, hence I do not see how this conflicts with fair play and honesty," but says that "I am not an expert on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)."

Well, one doesn't have to be an expert on WADA policies, as the scientific evidence provided herein enforces all to take WADA code as is. The Prohibited List 2008 of The World Anti-Doping Code reads:

PROHIBITED METHODS
Article M1. ENHANCEMENT OF OXYGEN TRANSFER
The following are prohibited:
2. Artificially enhancing the uptake, transport or delivery of oxygen...

Straightforward ruling results in a straightforward conclusion: Listening to music through earphones before the start is in line with other measures prohibited. Therefore, Phelps' Beijing swimming golds is faked and should go to others who battle for it fairly.

Doping Journal, www.dopingjournal.org , is an independent free online publication on every aspect of doping science and antidoping policies. The journal serves an unbiased research and development of the science on doping, fair and science based transparent anti-doping laws, transparency of policies and the translation of the research into routine lab practice. Special objective is to protect athletes from the misconduct by WADA, IOC, CAS and Sports Federations. The journal aims to become a leader and worldwide forum on doping science and practices by all interested parties, scientists, medical professionals, athletes and lawyers. Alexei Koudinov and The Doping Journal have no competing financial interests.

Woman suspected of producing drugs at Rehovot home

2008-08-09T23:09:00.000+03:00

Roni Singer-Heruti

Police on Thursday requested a remand extension for a Rehovot resident suspected of producing drugs in her home.

Following information received by Rehovot police, detectives arrived at the woman's apartment late Wednesday evening and uncovered 20,000 pills which, according to police, included a "psychoactive" substance. They also found a liquid that could allegedly be sufficient for the production of one million pills.
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Police admitted, though, that the pills confiscated were unidentified, and apparently were not listed as prohibited drugs. Police explained that even if this is not a case of illegal drugs, this is an offense of "negligent handling of medicine" or another pharmaceutical crime.

The woman, who lives with her three children, is also accused of child neglect.

Source: Roni Singer-Heruti. Woman suspected of producing drugs at Rehovot home, Haaretz (7 August 2008) [FullText]

Russian novelist, former dissident, Solzhenitsyn dies

2008-08-04T12:08:00.003+03:00

Russian novelist and historian Alexander Solzhenitsyn, whose works detailed the horrors of Stalin's Soviet labor camps, has died at 89, Russian news agencies reported Monday.

His son, Stepan Solzhenitsyn, told The Associated Press his father died of heart failure late Sunday at his home near Moscow, Russia.

Awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1970 for "The First Circle," Alexander Solzhenitsyn was considered a moral voice for Russia. His works centered on issues of good and evil, materialism and salvation.

His three-volume "Gulag Archipelago" unveiled the horrors of the Soviet labor camps, where he himself was imprisoned for eight years.

"Even as a child, without any prompting from others, I wanted to be a writer and, indeed, I turned out a good deal of the usual juvenilia," Solzhenitsyn said in a short autobiography written for the Nobel Foundation.

Even so, Solzhenitsyn, who served in the Russian Army during World War II, spent much of his life as a mathematician.

See photos of Solzhenitsyn

He was arrested in February 1945 for writing letters critical of Stalin and was sentenced to eight years at labor camps, which would provide the context of his future writings.

"During all the years until 1961, not only was I convinced that I should never see a single line of mine in print in my lifetime, but, also, I scarcely dared allow any of my close acquaintances to read anything I had written because I feared that this would become known," he said in the Nobel autobiography. "Finally, at the age of 42, this secret authorship began to wear me down."

He published his first work, a novella titled "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich," in a literary journal in 1959. The story was based on his own experiences at a labor camp in Kazakhstan where he worked as a miner, bricklayer and foundryman, and was later printed on a wider scale in 1961.

After publishing several more works, including the novel "Cancer Ward" -- a fictional piece based on Solzhenitsyn's own successful treatment at a clinic in Uzbekistan during his post-labor camp years of exile from 1953 to June 1956 -- he won the Nobel Prize for "The First Circle."

However, Solzhenitsyn didn't attend the ceremony for fear he would not be allowed re-entry into the Soviet Union.

Three years later, his "Gulag Archipelago" was published in Paris, France.

In 1974, he was accused of treason, stripped of his citizenship and deported to West Germany. He accepted an invitation to teach at Stanford University in California, then later moved to the woods of Cavendish, Vermont, where he lived with his family for years.

In 1990, his citizenship was restored, and he moved back to Russia in 1994.

He published his final original work in June 2001 with "200 Years Together: 1775-1995," about the history of Jews in Russia.

Last year, then-President Vladimir Putin bestowed the country's highest humanitarian award upon him. Solzhenitsyn's second wife, Natalya, accepted the award on his behalf because he was too frail to attend the public ceremony.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev expressed his condolences to Solzhenitsyn's wife and sons, Medvedev's press secretary told the Russian news agency Interfax.

Source: CNN European Edition (4 August 2008) [Full Text]

All About Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Cancer Diagnostic Test by Rehovot's Rosetta's MicroRNA Technology Approved in US

2008-07-26T23:31:00.000+03:00

Rosetta Genomics Ltd, Israel and Jersey City, NJ, reports its molecular test based on proprietary microRNA technology, developed and validated by Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC), has been approved for clinical use by the New York State Department of Health Clinical Laboratory Evaluation Program.

CUMC is finalizing the commercial aspects of the test and will announce its clinical availability to patients nationwide after details are finalized later this year.

"This is a landmark event for us, marking the first step in the transformation of Rosetta Genomics into a commercial diagnostics company," said Amir Avniel, the company’s president and CEO. "Our proprietary microRNA platform technologies, which this test is based on, have enabled Columbia University Medical Center's high complexity molecular pathology laboratory to develop a highly sensitive and specific test, which is a key for optimal administration of targeted therapies for this devastating cancer.”

The test, performed on a sample of a patient's tumor, classifies squamous-cell carcinoma of the lung with sensitivity of 96% and specificity of 90%. The test uses microRNAs' sensitivity and specificity as biomarkers, which may offer a standardized and objective method for lung cancer classification.

"We value our partnership with Columbia University Medical Center and we look forward to continuing this collaboration," noted Ronen Tamir, the company’s chief commercial officer. "At the same time, once we complete the previously announced acquisition of Parkway Clinical Laboratories Inc in Pennsylvania, we plan to complement CUMC's commercial efforts by submitting the same type of test, developed and validated by Rosetta, for regulatory approval in the fourth quarter of 2008."

The advent of targeted, lung-cancer therapies directed at specific cellular alterations demands the most accurate classification possible for non-small cell lung carcinomas (NSCLC). A recently approved angiogenesis inhibitor (bevacizumab(1)) for NSCLC has been shown to be less effective against squamous-cell lung cancer. The targeted therapy includes a black-box warning about substantially higher rates of severe or fatal hemorrhage among patients with squamous NSCLC histology compared with non-squamous NSCLC, which has led squamous-cell histology to be regarded by many as an exclusion criterion for the drug. Several other targeted drugs for NSCLC currently under development may require this type of sensitive differentiation.

Some 185,000 people annually are diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer nationwide, and an estimated 60,000 patients annually are potential candidates for targeted therapy with bevacizumab in the United States.

Data presented in peer-reviewed publications has shown that two blinded-expert observers, when asked to give an independent histological classification of NSCLC, agreed only 74.7% of the time.

The company expects two additional tests based on its microRNA technology to be validated and submitted for regulatory approval during the second half of 2008 by labs in the United States. One test is designed to differentiate mesothelioma, an asbestos-associated cancer that develops in the pleura, from adenocarcinomas that either arise in the lung or spread to the lung and pleura from other sites. Another test is designed to identify the origin of a metastasis in patients presenting with cancer of unknown primary.

MicroRNAs are recently discovered, naturally occurring, small RNAs that act as master regulators and have the potential to form the basis for a new class of diagnostics and therapeutics. Since many diseases are caused by the abnormal activity of proteins, the ability to selectively regulate protein activity through microRNAs could provide a way to treat a wide range of human diseases. MicroRNAs have been shown to have different expression in various pathological conditions, and these differences may provide for a novel diagnostic strategy for many diseases.

The company's integrative research platform combining bioinformatics and lab processes has led to the discovery of hundreds of biologically validated, novel human microRNAs. Building on its IP position and proprietary platform technologies, Rosetta is working on applying these technologies in the development of a range of microRNA-based diagnostic and therapeutic tools, focusing primarily on cancer and women's health indications.

The first test based on the company's technology, differentiating squamous from non squamous non-small cell lung cancer, is approved through CUMC's high complexity molecular pathology lab, and the company expects two additional microRNA diagnostic tests with its technology will be validated and submitted for regulatory approval by licensed clinical labs in the United States in 2008.