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Coffee sleeves promote Dead Sea
Each coffee sleeve, which can be picked up at participating cafés across North America, encourages travelers to vote for Dead Sea one of the New7Wonders of Nature
A coffee sleeve promoting the Dead Sea as one of the New7Wonders of Nature was released this week and can be picked up at participating coffee shops across North America.
An initiative of the Israel Ministry of Tourism, each coffee sleeve features the slogan, “Anywhere else this would be just a lake, but this is the Dead Sea,” and on the back, encourages travelers to vote for the Dead Sea by visiting its designated website, www.votedsea.com.
The New7Wonders of Nature competition is an international online competition ranking the top seven natural wonders of the world. The Dead Sea advanced to the final round by placing among the top 28 tourist sites, as determined by more than one billion votes around the world.
“We are extremely excited about the launch of the new Dead Sea coffee sleeve,” says Haim Gutin, Israel commissioner for tourism, North and South America, “which will help create awareness for the Dead Sea as one of the world’s greatest natural wonders in a unique and creative light.”
Belgian guitar hero to take on Tel Aviv, for one show only
Jazz guitarist Philip Catherine and his ensemble, who make the complicated appear simple, return to the Israeli stage on September 14.
Before the Zappa nightclubs were turned into an empire, they had one spot in Tel Aviv called Camelot. The Camelot’s basement was the perfect place to hear live jazz, and one of the best performances came from the Belgian guitarist Philip Catherine.
It was about ten years ago. Those who were not familiar with Catherine may have been surprised when a man who looked like a farmer mounted the small basement stage. Catherine, stout and smiling, radiated direct, French-accented simplicity. When he began to play, it became clear that he belonged to the rare breed of musicians who are artists of the highest order as well as being perfectly nice people.
In a telephone interview last week, when I heard him say from the other side of the line, “Philip Catherine here, answering your call in Brussels!” it was also clear that the man’s overflowing agreeability had remained as it was. What’s really great is that you can hear this in his music, too. Jazz guitarists tend to be amazing sprinters with technical rather than human capabilities.
Catherine, in contrast, is the personification of the humane guitarist. He isn’t in a hurry to go anywhere, but he always arrives on time. And his playing has a range of feeling and sensitivity: he can be rough and impulsive, tender and contemplative, and impulsive and contemplative – all at the same time. If it’s hard for you to connect friendliness with jazz guitarists, you should catch Catherine in his only Israel appearance, September 14 at the Reading 3 club in Tel Aviv.
Unlike guitarists who play simple music but make it sound complicated, Catherine plays complicated pieces and makes them sound simple. “What I do isn’t simple, because when I ask my students to do this, they can’t,” he says. “But I love music that sounds simple. I think everything depends on the difference between ‘complicated’ and ‘complex.’ It’s a small difference, no? But it’s an important one.”
Catherine, 69, began to play at the age of 14. It happened after he heard Georges Brassens on the radio. “It was the first time I heard the sound of a guitar,” he recalls. “Until then I didn’t know the instrument existed. The whole combination got to me: the song, the tune, the sound of the guitar. So I found a guitar teacher and asked him to teach me to play like that, but since he was a jazz musician he not only taught me the song but also how to improvise on it.”
When asked if he feels there’s a significant difference between European and American guitarists, Catherine doesn’t answer the question directly. “There is one European guitarist who is universal and that is Django [Reinhardt]. Django had all the best qualities of American jazz musicians: amazing timing, fabulous swing.”
Why are these qualities American?
“I have never read a book on the history of jazz in my life. I’m really a dummy. But I know how to listen. Jazz was born out of black culture in America, or from a combination of black and white culture, and the older generation of black jazz musicians had qualities that others didn’t. There was something liberated in their playing, a kind of swing only they had. It doesn’t exist any more. It’s already history. But in those days there was something very particular in the playing of black musicians.”
Catherine is one of the most open and versatile guitarists of recent decades. He can play traditional and modern jazz, punk and fusion, has tried a bit of world music and is even a member of a progressive rock band. Has he been influenced by the great rock guitarists? “I can’t play rock and roll, but I’ve listened to these musicians and I assume that I’ve been influenced in some way by them,” he says.
A few moments later it was the interviewer’s turn to laugh. It happened when Catherine was discussing the hostility between two jazz giants with whom he often played, trumpeter Chet Baker and violinist Stephane Grappelli. “Stephane didn’t like musicians who gave jazz a bad name, and, according to Stephane, Chet gave jazz a bad name,” Catherine says. “He hated Chet so much that if he played a hall and the piano wasn’t tuned, he would always say, ‘It’s because of Chet Baker.’ Now, not only was Chet not in the hall then, but he had never been there! This didn’t change anything for Stephane.”
The Philip Catherine Trio plays Reading 3, Tel Aviv, on September 14
Source: Haaretz.com
Martha Stewart tweets her way around Israel
On Tourism Ministry-funded trip, media personality is expected to support Dead Sea candidacy to win Wonders of Nature competition.
Media personality Martha Stewart arrived in Israel last Thursday for a trip funded by the Tourism Ministry, and has been tweeting her way around the country.
Stewart’s travel itinerary includes trips to Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, the Galilee, Masada, and the Dead Sea. She is expected to support the Dead Sea’s candidacy to win in the international New 7 Wonders of Nature competition.
Stewart has been posting tweets about her adventures in Israel, such as eating dinner at the market in Jerusalem, attending a Shabbat meal for 160 guests, and visiting a dairy farm with “award winning cheese.”
“Don’t get excited. I am on a serious tour of ancient history. No more. No less,” she jokingly posted on Sunday afternoon.
She also posted a photo of “giant medjool dates,” which she said were “served with excellent cappuccino on the road from Tiberius to Jerusalem” on Sunday afternoon.
Source: Jpost.com
Tech Competition TechCrunch gives Israelis own area
Israel expected to have impressive representation in Web publication’s Disrupt conference this year
It’s unclear whether leading Web publication TechCrunch is alarmed or amazed by the number of Israeli startups flooding its Disrupt conference in the past few years, but to be on the safe side, it decided this year to dedicate a special area for the Israeli development groups.
The TechCrunch competition has been known to be a huge booster for new startup companies, both those who win and those who don’t but manage to create a buzz and gain exposure for their ideas and products.
Rainy Weekend? No problem! We’ll Stand Under Rihanna’s Umbrella!
SDM loves long weekends! Even though this one looks like it’s gonna be rainy and wet, we can still rock out under Rihanna’s Umbrella.
Here’s a video of Rihanna live in Tel Aviv.
Can a dip in the Dead Sea help cure diabetes?
Swimming in the salty water could improve the medical condition of diabetics, according to new Israeli study.
A short dip in the Dead Sea facilitates a drop in blood glucose levels and could improve the medical conditions of diabetics, according to an initial study conducted by researchers from the health sciences faculty of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva.
The study involved an initial sample group of 14 individuals between the ages of 18 and 65 who have suffered from Type 2 diabetes for less than 20 years.
The study took place in a covered pool filled with Dead Sea water at a temperature of 35 degrees Celsius. Following a 20-minute, one-time dip in the Dead Sea water, the study subjects showed a significant 13.5 percent drop in blood glucose levels, from an average of 163 mg/dl to a value of 151 mg/dl immediately after the dip. The subjects’ blood glucose levels dropped even further, to an average of 141.4 mg/dl, an hour after the dip in the Dead Sea water.
A controled test in which the subjects underwent a 20-minute dip in regular water did not show any distinct drop in blood glucose levels with regard to the measurements taken immediately before and after the time spent in the pool. There was, however, a difference between the blood glucose levels measured immediately after the dip and an hour later.
Another control group involving six healthy individuals did not produce any significant differences between the measurements taken after their dips in both the Dead Sea water and the regular pool water.
The researchers also found the dip in the Dead Sea water did not adversely affect the subjects’ other blood values, including their levels of insulin and cortisone hormones, and also their c-peptide levels, which are an indication of the ability to produce insulin in the pancreas.
The findings of the study will appear in the August edition of the Israel Medical Association’s “Ha’refua” journal.
“These are findings from an initial study from which it is difficult to draw conclusions at this stage,” said research team leader Prof. Shaul Sukenik of Ben-Gurion University, who served until recently as the director of the Internal Medicine Department at Soroka.
“Nevertheless,” Sukenik continued, “the results are promising. We have yet to test what happens to the glucose levels beyond an hour after the dip.”
The researchers are currently trying to secure additional funding so as to expand the study and examine the effects on diabetics of a daily dip in Dead Sea water over a period of three weeks.
According to the researchers, the improvements seen in the subjects’ blood values in the current study are related to physiological changes caused by being immersed in water up to the neck. These changes include an increase in venous blood flow back to the heart that is caused by the transition of large quantities of blood from the veins in an individual’s limbs and stomach cavity to the large blood vessels in the chest cavity. As a result, pressure in the main veins increases significantly, along with an increase in blood flow in the arteries of the lungs and an increase of up to 30 percent in the heart’s output.
“In the event that the findings are confirmed in further studies, a drop in blood glucose levels will allow diabetics who bathe in the Dead Sea to use less medication,” said Prof. Sukenik.
“We cannot determine this on the basis of the current study, but the findings do allude to this,” he said.
Source: Haaretz.com
Israeli startup making it big in India
Digital advertising network Ybrant quietly devouring local companies. ‘We are the largest Internet company in the country,” claims President Kobi Nizri
In 2007, Israeli Internet company Oridian was acquired by an unknown Indian advertising corporation by the name of Ybrant for a mere $20 million. The deal did not reverberate in the headlines and it seemed to amount to just another story about a takeover of an Israeli company by a larger company.
No one could have fathomed that within just four years, the tables would turn and Oridian’s Israeli managers Jacob Nizri and Gal Ekstein, who operate the company from its headquarters in Herzliya, would run the global corporation with a $350 million turnover and 1,200 employees, 90 of which work in the company’s offices in Israel.