Archive | 2012 | March | 23

Anyone who boxes naked for a music video is going to get attention. Meital Dohan is surely getting it with her new track Yummy, in which she appears in just lace-up boots and sparring gloves (fuzzy bars cover naughty bits). Think an electronica Debbie Harry meets Xena: Warrior Princess.

The Tel Aviv native said the video came “from this concept of feminine empowerment that’s important to me. It’s the idea that if you strip yourself of all your clothes and all your makeup, you’re still a kickass woman.’’

Her dramatic flair comes in handy. Meital also acts, most notably playing Yael Hoffman, the rabbinical scholar in Showtime’s Weeds. We chatted before her trip down to perform at 11 p.m. Friday at Score in Miami Beach:

How did you get your start in showbiz?

I have always been performing since I was a kid even though I was very shy. I have always studied acting religiously as this was only outlet for where I could express my emotions freely. When I was 16, I realized acting was the thing that I love the most. I attended prestigious acting schools in Israel. I was lucky enough to score some major roles early on in big Israeli feature films like God’s Sandbox andGiraffes, as well as the TV series Ugliest Esti, the Israeli Ugly Betty. Performing wasn’t a knowledge that occurred to me, but an instinct, a need. Somehow this need never died.

Who are some of your inspirations?

I have many that really run the gamut through all artistic mediums. Everyone from Fellini, Oprah Winfrey, Madonna and Sasha Baron Cohen, to Andy Warhol and Godard. I’m always inspired by people who take risks. The kind of risks that get people talking, disturbed, provoked to think about themselves and the world around them.

Who is on your iPod right now?

I was just listening to some Kanye West and Eminem. The other day it was old Portishead. When I want to dance I put on Aphex Twin; when I want to cry I listen to Nina Simone or Beth Gibbons.

What is one of the most special shows you’ve done?

That is hard to answer. I have been on the stage almost every day of my life, starting with the play Best Girlfriend, which I was honored to receive an Israeli Tony award.

What is your Score show going to be like?

What you see and what you hear will surprise you, make you want to dance, laugh and just really let loose and have the time of your life. Ideally, all of that happens. Humor is very important to me. I don’t take anything too seriously and my fans shouldn’t either.

What was it like working on “Weeds?’’ Any more acting projects in the U.S.?

A total blast. I loved the whole cast. The whole show was really just a perfect experience. I’m definitely still acting. I have a few film and TV projects in development, including the screen adaptation of the acclaimed Anthony Neilson play, Stitching. I’ll be co-starring and Bernard Rose [ Candyman] is directing.

What do you think of our music scene?

I think it’s incredible. There are so many great DJs and electronic music artists that come out of Miami and bring a fresh and original sound to music. The Winter Music conference is a great example of the community here that is devoted to getting people off their asses to dance.

 Check out SDM’s One-On-One with Meital Dohan here

1.  Israel’s economic growth during the last five years (21%) is higher than all OECD countries, other than Turkey.  Israel’s economy grew 270% during the last 20 years, while Israel’s population grew 145%. Israel’s unemployment is the lowest ever – 5.4%.  The strength of Israel’s exports is derived from its multitude of companies, diversified technologies and products, reaching diversified markets, cutting edge technologies, focusing on essential products (medical, telecommunications, Internet, water technologies, energy alternatives, homeland security, defense), preferring high tech over raw material, expanding joint ventures with global giants, bolstering research & development (world leader in percentage of GDP).  Israel is expected to become a net-exporter of natural gas by2018. Israel’s economy receives a tailwind from an annual Aliya (Jewish immigration), reduced emigration, accelerated return by expatriates, an expanding young population (especially due to rising fertility rate of the secular sector), a growing integration of the ultra-orthodox community in Israel’s workforce and military service and a potential of a dramatic wave of Aliya due to economic, political, security and social circumstances in the former USSR, France, England, Argentina and the USA (Adam Reuter, Financial Immunities, March 14, 2012).

2.  Intel’s exports from Israel – $2.2BN in 2011. Since 1999, Intel’s exports from Israel total $22.5BN (Globes Business Daily, March 19). Intel employs 7,800 persons in Israel – 10% of Intel’s global manpower.  700 were hired in 2011, projecting 600 more in 2012. Abbott Laboratories – which acquired Israel’s SrarLims in 2010 – concluded a 3-year cooperation agreement with Israel’s Weizmann Institute (Glboes, February 7).

3.  Credit Suisse reported a 5.35% holding in Israel’s $12BN CheckPoint – $643MN (Globes, February 10).  Virginia-based Tamro Capital Partners and San Francisco-based Parnassus Investments announced a 5.9% and a5.7% holding in Israel’s Ceragon – $18MN and $17MN respectively (Globes, February 10).  The NJ-based Avaya acquired Israel’s RadVision for $230MN (Globes, March 16).  The $21BN Broadcom acquired Israel’s BroadLight for $200MN- Broadcom’s 10^th acquisition of an Israeli company in 10 years (5^th since 2009), leveraging the top quality Israeli human resource: innovations, which are transformed into cutting-edge technologies, manufacturing lines and exports. Broadcom has intensified its Israel operations during the last two years (Globes, March 21, 2012).  Goldman Sachs acquired 10% of Israel’s Viola Group fro $200MN (Globes, February 22).   The NYC-based W Capital Partners acquired, from Yozma VC Fund, 3% of Israel/US Conduit for $39MN (March 19).

4.  San Francisco-based Koshla Ventures and Burrill & Co. and Menlo Park-based Triple Point led a $30MN round by Israel’s HCL-Virdia (Globes, March 8).  France Télécom, the French Publicis Groupe and Iris Capital co-led a $15MN round of private placement by Israel’s MyThings, joined by Silicon Valley’s Accel Partners and Deutsche Telecom investment arm T-Venture (Globes, March 21). The Boston-based Spark Capital led a $15MN round by Israel’s eToro (Globes, March 14).  A West Coast investment bank led a $13MN round by Israel’s Vascular Dynamics (Globes, March 8).

5.  2011 mergers & acquisitions of 85 Israeli high tech companies (27% increase over 2010) – $5.1BN, the highest sum in 10 years, except the 2006  bubble ($11BN).

Source: Ettinger Report

Background: On 12 March 2012, the governor of St Petersburg Mr Georgiy Poltavchenko signed a law banning the so-called ‘propaganda of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexualism and transgenderism, and paedophilia to minors’.

Statement by St. Petersburg LGBT organization Coming Out

Today it became known that the governor of St. Petersburg Georgiy Poltavchenko signed the homophobic law, imposing administrative fines on the so-called “propaganda of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality, transgenderism” and paedophilia to minors.

Authors of the law maintain that it is designed to “protect children from information that can harm their physical, intellectual, moral, and spiritual development”. The term “propaganda” is defined as any uncontrolled and targeted distribution of information through any accessible means to minors that can […] form an incorrect perception of social equivalence between traditional and non-traditional conjugal relations”. Authorities project “traditional values” and clerical rhetoric onto politics, and prioritize “interests of majority” over the value of human individuality. We realize that today, fascist-like rhetoric in Russia is becoming basis for legislative activity.

In fact, this law has little to do with protecting minors. Today, neither homosexual people, nor human rights defenders, nor lawyers can answer the question of how this law is going to be applied in practice, due to its vague nature and non-legal terminology. To talk about existence of homosexuality, to publicly denounce homophobic violence, to develop sense of self-awareness and dignity in homosexual people, to promote tolerance – all of these acts can fall under the “propaganda” law. This law will serve directly to further isolate and marginalize the gay community and encourage hate towards a social group.

60 years ago philosopher and founder of totalitarianism theory, Hannah Arendt, said that in a totalitarian state, citizens are “either victims or executioners and the movement by its ideology seeks to prepare them to fill either role.” Handing out of roles has begun: Russian authorities legalized discrimination of homosexuals. What will come next?

We are convinced that no authority can deprive people of their right to dignity, to respect of private and family life, to freedom of expression and to protection from discrimination and violence. We are offended and outraged by this act by city authorities and will continue fighting for the rights of LGBT citizens until the barbaric law is repealed.

You can find additional information on the situation for human rights Defenders in Russia.HERE

Source: Front Line Defenders

Drake had a religious experience at the video shoot for “HYFR (Hell Ya Fuckin’ Right),” the Lil Wayne-assisted single off his sophomore album Take Care. The Canadian rapper suited up and put on a yarmulke as he paid homage to his Jewish roots at Temple Israel in downtown Miami on Wednesday (March 21).

Drizzy had flashbacks of his childhood while reenacting his bar mitzvah, as Trey Songz, Birdman, DJ Khaled, and Weezy stopped by to make cameos in the autobiographical video, directed by X.

GQ’s latest cover star was nice enough to hang out and take pictures with the staff and students at the daycare center. “A few teachers stuck around to snap pictures and thought Drake was a cutie,” said one mother, who was picking up her child. “Thanks, Drake, for smiling pretty for the teachers and toddlers.”

Source: Rap-Up.com

Father of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl wins Turing Award for artificial intelligence research which laid foundation for iPhone’s Siri, Google’s driverless cars

Judea Pearl, a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence, has been awarded the prestigious Turing Award this week.

Pearl, 75, was being honored for “innovations that enabled remarkable advances in the partnership between humans and machines,” the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) stated.

Pearl is a professor of computer science at the University of California, Los Angeles. He was born in Tel Aviv in 1936 and earned degrees from Technion in Israel, Rutgers University and Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. Pearl is considered a philosopher as well as a computer scientist.

He is the father of Daniel Pearl, a journalist for The Wall Street Journal who was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan in 2002.

Judea Pearl’s accomplishments over the last 30 years have provided the theoretical basis for progress in artificial intelligence and led to extraordinary achievements in machine learning. His research laid the foundation for such inventions as the iPhone’s Siri speech recognition technology and Google’s driverless cars.

“His work serves as the standard method for handling uncertainty in computer systems, with applications ranging from medical diagnosis, homeland security and genetic counseling to natural language understanding and mapping gene expression data,” the ACM said.

“His influence extends beyond artificial intelligence and even computer science, to human reasoning and the philosophy of science,” it added.

Pearl has been honored by the industry and his peers many times. Last year he was inducted into the IEEE’s (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) AI Hall of Fame, and he received the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computers and Cognitive Science from the Franklin Institute in 2008.

The Turing award, named for British mathematician Alan M. Turing and considered the “Nobel Prize in Computing,” carries a $250,000 prize sponsored by computer chip giant Intel and Internet titan Google.

Source: Ynetnews.com

Pretty awesome video montage of Tel Aviv… Check it out

Aid App Art Award Canada Cancer Coexistence Competition Concert Economy Education Environment Europe Fashion Festival Film Food Funny Gay Green Hollywood India Innovation Innovation Israel Jerusalem Jewish LGBTQ London2012 Music Nightlife Obama Olympics Party Peace Photography Research Science Sports Tel Aviv Toronto Tourism Travel TV Video

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