A Haitian Baby Named "Israel"!

 Thanks to top billing on Sky News, the whole world  knows that Israel's Medical and Rescue operatives were among the first to help survivors of the  Haiti earthquake. What's more, a woman whose baby was delivered with the team's help has offered the best possible thanks by naming her new-born "ISRAEL"!

Wow, that means a kid born in hell in the Caribbean has the same name as my maternal grandfather - an Anglo-Jewish gentleman of Lithuanian stock. May be one day 'Baby Israel' will have a chance to visit  the Holy Land  and thank his rescuers in person.

Meanwhile, the Israeli delegation landed in the capital of Port-Au-Prince on Friday evening last and established an operation centre in a soccer field near the airport. 

Two teams, comprising search and rescue personnel and canine operators from the IDF canine unit were sent on rescue missions. The first team was sent to the Haiti UN H.Q. to assist in rescuing survivors.

The IDF Medical and Rescue Team also set up a field hospital in Port-Au-Prince and is treating patients there. Personnel are preparing to receive ambulances evacuating injured children from the different disaster struck areas and dozens of truckloads of medical and logistical equipment have already been unloaded.

On Saturday - the Jewish Sabbath - even the most religiously Orthodox among the  the Israelis - buckled down to the rescue operation as Jewish tradition insists that saving life supersedes even the most stringent Sabbath laws. Their efforts included the rescue of a senior income tax official from his government office building which had collapsed in the earthquake. The man had been trapped underneath the rubble for four days.

The field hospital team includes 40 doctors, 25 nurses, paramedics, a pharmacy, a children's ward, a radiology department, an intensive care unit, an emergency room, two operating rooms, a surgical department, an internal department and a maternity ward. The hospital can treat about 500 patients daily and will also perform preliminary surgery. The Israelis are scheduled to stay in Haiti for at least two weeks.

Meanwhile, the ZAKA humanitarian voluntary rescue unit in Haiti pulled eight students alive from a collapsed university building The six-man team (four from Israel and two from Mexico) had arrived in Haiti aboard a Mexican air force Hercules immediately after completing their work in recovery and identification in the Mexico City helicopter crash.

On arrival, the ZAKA members were dispatched to the collapsed eight-storey university building where cries could be heard from the trapped students. After 38 hours of work around the clock with the Mexican military delegation and other Jewish volunteers from Mexico, the ZAKA volunteers succeeded  in pulling all eight students alive from the rubble.

Amid the stench and chaos, the ZAKA delegation took time out to recite Shabbat prayers - a surreal sight of ultra-orthodox men wrapped in prayer shawls standing on the collapsed buildings. Many locals sat quietly in the rubble, staring at the men as they prayed facing Jerusalem. At the end of the prayers, they crowded around the delegation and kissed the prayer shawls. 

Just minutes after landing in the airport in Port-au-Prince the IsraAID team was met by David Darg, Operation Blessing Director in the field and his staff and joined them to unload a planeload of food and medical equipment.

The Israeli medical professionals of IsraAID - F.I.R.S.T. travelled to the main Port-Au-Prince Hospital to start treating patients, joining local physicians at the site of the collapsed central hospital where thousands of wounded have gathered desperate for help.

Technorati Tags: Haiti,Port-Au-Prince,earthquake,ZAKA,Israel,crisis,thanks

 

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... And These Pigs Swim!

Who says pigs aren't kosher! As Israelis face a hike of up to 41% in their water bills to compensate for droughts and new desalination techniques, an Ashkelon company claims it may help to save up to 30% of the 88 billion litres of water lost to pinhole leaks in water pipes, every day, worldwide.

 

And their secret? 'Pigs'! Curapipe claims to have devised a gadget which detects and repairs problems lying below the radar of the water and gas industries. Tiny pinhole, almost undetectable leaks emit water, oil and natural gas, wasting money and causing unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions. Indeed, the World Bank estimates that about 88 billion litres of water is lost through urban pipes every day - in both rich countries like the USA and poorer ones where every drop counts.

Traditionally, water companies deal with tiny cracks in pipes by reducing water pressure. But this technique is simply delaying expensive repairs  so Curapipe's cost-effective solution can seal leaks fast, with little inconvenience to the customer.

The company's solution is based on an existing method to clean water mains - small spongy objects known as 'pigs.' Water maintenance teams suspend the water supply while a 'pig' is pushed through the system using water pressure. As the pigs are propelled through the pipes they remove scale and other types of unwanted build-up. The pigs work in pipes made of lead, cast iron and even concrete.

Curapipe's device employs two pigs with a sealant material held between them.  If they find a crack or leak as they are pushed through the water pipes in the normal way, a composite material is squirted to fill the gap. The material then hardens in place. Once the pipe has been flushed with water to clean it, it returns to normal use.

Curapipe now awaits a 'seal of approval' from regulatory bodies and health officials confirming that the technique does not affect the quality of drinking water.

Astoundingly, Curapipe is only three years old with a tiny staff of seven. Its next task is to look at the problems in  natural gas mains. Natural gas, made mostly of methane, can be a potent greenhouse gas, more potent than its carbon dioxide equivalent.

Curapipe is now working with the Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Company, Israel's major oil pipeline company, to test the 'pigs' in both water pipes and oil pipes. The solution could also prevent devastating leaks and oil spills in nature. Next, we'll learn they've learned to fly!

Technorati Tags: Curapipe,pigs,water,pipes,leaks,greenhouse gas,methane,cost,bills,World Bank

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52 Books for 2010

'Shock' Cure For Male Shortcomings!

I'm fed up  to  the back teeth - as are most of you, I'm sure - with spam messages for erectile dysfunction cures. As a mere woman  I can reveal that I've never suffered in that department. Not even once.

But what I didn't know was that while medicines like Viagra and Cialis may improve a couple's sex life, there are associated risks of heart attacks and adversely affected vision. I maintain that natural cures in all fields of medicine are better than any combination of chemicals.

Now new research from Israel, presented to The European Society of Sexual Medicine in Lyon, France late last year, suggests that that the same device that uses shockwaves to blast kidney stones appears to have a restorative effect on the blood vessels of the penis.

In an initial study of 20 middle-aged men with erectile dysfunction, researchers conducted a series of treatments that comprised three weeks of shockwave therapy administered in two 20-minute sessions each week.

The patients were allowed to rest for three weeks and then an additional course of low-dose shockwave treatments, with about 100 bars of pressure per shockwave, was administered over another three-week period, using a device resembling a computer mouse.

Dr. Yoram Vardi, head of the Neuro-Urology Department of Ramban Medical Centre, found mostly consistent results in 15 of the 20 men who benefited from the therapy. All the men noted a return of erectile functioning around the seven-week mark, and a six-month follow-up found that for 13, the effects were long lasting, while two will require additional treatments.

"There was no pain or additional side effects within six months," said Vardi.  "There was an improvement [in erectile function]. A huge improvement ...  we feel the effect is something biological," he says and suggests that the treatment encourages blood vessel growth, as found in animal studies. His research team is now measuring possible placebo effects. 

"We have done 20 patients more and after a few months the results are approximately the same," added Dr Vardi. But he advised that such a treatment wouldn't work on men with muscle or nerve problems, but on those whose erectile problem stems from reduced blood flow.

The idea of using sound waves to treat erectile dysfunction came to Vardi when he learned that shockwaves were used to treat men with a curvature of the penis known as Peyronie's disease.

What's more, research indicates that the treatment may be useful for growing new blood vessels for the heart and Vardi hopes that the shockwave therapy could be used to diagnose heart disease at an early stage. At present, it is used with higher levels of shockwaves to treat shoulder pain in orthopaedic patients.

But Vardi warns that he can not predict when the treatment may be generally available.

"First of all we want to test it more and understand better how effective it can be and how long the [effects of] treatment lasts." Also, while many men currently self-medicate their erectile disorder, the new shock treatment would require medical consultation and would have to be administered by a physician.

Since erectile dysfunction appears in the early stages of diabetes, hypertension and heart disease, a flaccid penis could be a warning about a life-threatening disorder. Now, that IS serious!

Technorati Tags: Erectile dysfunction,Cyalis,Viagra,Dr Yoram Vardi,Neuro-Urology Department of Ramban Medical Centre,Israel,shockwave treatment,visionThe European Society of Sexual Medicine,Peyronie's disease,heart disease,adverse affected vision,kidney stones

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Does A Year Make A Difference?

I was going to write: "What a difference a year makes!"

But does it?

Not in Israel - nor in Britain - where the Jewish Israel haters have reportedly reduced a fellow Jew - and leading medical man - to tears with their vicious, traitorous campaign of hate against the JEWISH State.

This last year ended with a hastily convened peace rally, "The Sderot Rally for Hope" organised as counter-response to the proposed "Gaza Freedom March", which was due to convene in Egypt with more than 1,300 people from 43 different countries protesting against the Israeli ’siege' and Operation Cast Lead.

The peace rally, organized by Sderot Media Centre, involved hundreds of Sderot residents, Israeli youth, university students, and international supporters who gathered  to "call for an end to wars and the terrorist threat, and to give hope and a chance for peace in our region and throughout the world."

The organisers intended to bring a message of peace to civilians targeted by terror worldwide for 2010.

Speakers at the Sderot rally  featured the presidential candidate for the 2011 elections in Zambia, the Honorable Dr. Saviour Chishimba, Former Member of Parliament-National Assembly of Zambia and founder of the Zambia-Israel Alliance.

In a recent visit to Sderot, Dr.  Chishimba said: "Now is the time for Africa to stand up and fight terrorism wherever it emerges ... the threat on Israel and the Jewish people is the threat on all the peoples of the world.”

Contrast this with the speech made by leading cancer surgeon, Professor Michael Baum who told this year's mid-winter  Limmud educational Conference in the U.K. how his career almost ended after he challenged an accusation that the Israel Medical Association (IMA) was complicit in the torture of Palestinian prisoners.

He revealed that not only did he receive online and hard-copy hate-mail by the sack-load but was threatened with being 'struck off' the register of the General Medical Council. If this campaign had succeeded he would have been unable to work.

So bad did the pressure become that he broke down and cried during a meeting about the situation with Mr Ron Prosor, Israel's Ambassador to Britain. I almost wept with him while reading the report, threw aside my copy of the Jewish Chronicle and wandered off to do something else while I cooled down. I guess Professor Baum had neither the leisure nor the  opportunity to do likewise. My heart goes out to him and I hope he and his supporters have a better 2010.

Technorati Tags: Sderot,Gaza,rally,Israel Medical Association,torture,Palestinian prisoners,Prof. Michael Baum,HE Ron Prosor,Honorable Dr. Saviour Chishimba

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