Wired.com is supposed to be a high tech site. They wanted to write about Gaza. They had to work a little bit to find an angle to make you all feel sorry for Gaza. So they went to the Google-financed incubator in Gaza City to see how the 'entrepreneurs' made it through Operation Protective Edge.
Abultewi goes quiet, and so does
everyone else in the room. The sound of so many clacking keyboards is
replaced by the crash of bombs in the distance. One woman stands, puts
her hands together, and says Halas!—Arabic for “enough”—before
leaving the room. But soon, the clatter of the keyboards resumes, and
Abultewi, a slender 25-year-old dressed in a light-blue hijab, continues
her pitch. Soon, it’s business as usual at Gaza Sky Geeks, the first startup accelerator in the Gaza Strip, home to one of the world’s oldest geopolitical conflicts.
Over the past seven years, Gaza has endured three wars between Israel
and Hamas—the democratically empowered Islamic organization determined
to reclaim Palestine from Israel—and a civil war between Hamas and
Fatah, the secular Palestinian political party that rules the West Bank.
Initiated by a Hamas attack on Israel, the most recent conflict left
more than 2,100 Palestinians dead and more than 10,000 injured, and it
devastated the local infrastructure, destroying more than 18,000 homes,
depriving more than 450,000 civilians of municipal water, and blanketing
the region in extended blackouts after an airstrike on Gaza’s only
power plant.
But here in this room on the sixth floor of
a small office building on the outskirts of Gaza City, young
entrepreneurs like Abultewi are still intent on bringing new internet
technologies to their sliver of land between Israel and the
Mediterranean and, crucially, to other parts of the Middle East and
North Africa. That may seem a Sisyphean task, and perhaps even a
pointless one, given the basic amenities needed throughout the region.
But Gaza Sky Geeks—created by Mercy Corps,
a global aid agency that has for more than a decade worked to improve
life in Gaza—provides much-needed employment for local youth and a
potential path to economic recovery.
...
As the airstrike blasts subside on this
August day and Mariam Abultewi finishes her pitch, she goes back to
work. So does Hadeel Elsafadi, 24, the founder of a digital animation
startup called Newtoon. “These bombings have become normal for me and
everyone here,” she says. “This is why I do what I am doing—to have a
normal life away from bombs and danger.” Her work, she explains, is not
just for her, but also for her two younger brothers. “I want them to
have a future, and I want to have a future as well.”
An Israeli startup's employees could not have worked through a bombing that way. First, while a Gaza startup that knows its headquarters don't house a Hamas military installation has nothing to fear, an Israeli startup always has something to fear because Hamas shoots missiles randomly. Second, while Hamas does not bother to protect its population - and therefore there is little or nothing to be gained by fleeing elsewhere - Israel does protect its population. It's worthwhile for Israelis to go into bomb shelters.
I wonder whether Google expects to get any return on their investment. Or maybe this is just liberal, feel-good politics....
Awesome video: Spy drone can see what you're wearing from 17,500 feet high - and that's not all
A new camera developed by the Pentagon's research arm was highlighted in
a recent special on PBS' "Nova" in an episode called "Rise of the
Drones." It's a camera system so detailed it can discern specific
movements and even what a subject is wearing.
The Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency's (DARPA's) Autonomous Real-Time Ground
Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System (ARGUS) has 1.8 billion pixels
(1.8 gigapixels), making it the world' highest resolution camera. The
sensors on the camera are so precise, PBS stated it is the equivalent to
the capabilities of 100 Predator drones in a medium city.
In the
clip from PBS, it is said this is the first time the government has
allowed information to be shared about these capabilities.
"It is
important for the public to know that some of these capabilities exist,"
Yiannis Antonaides with contractor BAE Systems said in the clip, but
noted the sensor itself cannot be revealed. "Because we are not allowed
to expose some of the pieces that make up this sensor, so you get to
look a pretty plastic curtains."
The technology allows the user
to open up a specific windows of interest in the camera's view while
still keeping up an image of the larger picture (sort of like split
screen). Antonaides explained that the colored boxes in the image show
that the sensor recognized moving objects. "You can see individuals
crossing the street. You can see individuals walking in parking lots.
There's actually enough resolution to see the people waving their arms
or walking around or what kind of clothes they wear," he said. PBS noted
that ARGUS can actually see much more details than just attire. It can
see objects as small as six inches.
At 2:23
in the clip, Antonaides points out that from 17,500 feet, a white
object in the field of view is a bird flying. PBS pointed out that DARPA
put a time crunch on creating the camera, which lead Antonaides to look
into technology that you probably have in your purse or pocket at this
very moment. Taking similar imaging systems used in smartphones and
putting 368 together, is essentially how Antonaides and other engineers
at BAE Systems created ARGUS. It is this "mosaic" of cameras that allows
the system to zoom in on specific sections in extreme detail. As for
data, the system stores up to 1 million terabytes a day. Putting this
into perspective, PBS notes this is equal to 5,000 hours of HD footage.
"You
can go back and say 'I would like to know what happened at this
particular location three days, two hours, four minutes ago' and it
would actually show you what happened as if you were watching it live,"
Antonaides said.
It is still classified information whether ARGUS has been used in the field yet.
"If
we had our choice, we would like ARGUS to be over the same area 24
hours a day, seven days a week. That's not very achievable with manned
platforms. This is where UAVs come in and they're absolutely the perfect
platform," Antonaides said.
Tel Aviv to be first to get new hi tech transport system
This is another post that got pushed aside by Operation Pillar of Defense. Tel Aviv may be the first city in the world to get a new hi tech transportation system.
The skyTran
uses two-person modules that drive along a guide rail suspended from
existing power lines. Magnets in the vehicle create a magnetic field
around the metal coil inside the rail, causing the vehicle to lift up
and glide 60 miles per hour on a cushion of air. The system uses very
little energy and potentially could be powered entirely by solar panels.
“Our objective is to build a pilot project here so that we can make
Israel the center of the skyTran world,” CEO Jerry Sanders tells
ISRAEL21c.
The first route, on which construction could begin next spring, would
run from the high-tech center in Atidim through the Tel Aviv University
train station to the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Port. Another installation might be
placed on Netanya’s congested east side and a third would take people
into and around Ariel Sharon Park, a huge public “green belt” in central
Israel.
Personal rapid transit (PRT) alternatives are in hot demand worldwide
– especially in big countries such as China and India — as a means to
relieve traffic jams and energy consumption. Underground solutions are
expensive and street-level solutions just add more congestion.
“We are the most sophisticated PRT on the market … and also the least expensive, greenest and most efficient,” asserts Sanders.
The Popinator Project by http://www.popcornindiana.com aims to change the popcorn eating experience by making it more fun. The idea behind The Popinator is to instantly deliver popcorn into a person's mouth just by saying the word "pop". The Popinator is able to pinpoint where in the room the spoken word originated from and shoot a piece of popcorn at it. The Popinator shoots up to 15 feet and is for inside use only.
Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: Shy Guy).
I wish I could tell you this is Israeli high tech... but it's not (and it may be a joke...).
The 'Palestinians' have developed a solar-powered car. If it weren't the 'Palestinians,' I'm not sure anyone would be paying much attention, but let's go to the videotape.
It seems that the poor, oppressed 'Palestinians' are becoming quite a high tech success - when they put their minds to it.
With 120 employees, ASAL is one of the largest companies in the small but burgeoning Palestinian tech sector, which many of those involved say is on the verge of big things. “We are in the right position to have exponential growth,” said Mr. Tahboub, looking every bit the part with his slicked-back hair and black-rimmed Lacoste eyeglasses.
Compared with other industries that the anemic West Bank economy might look to develop, the information and communications technology sector has an advantage: it is much less affected by impediments to movement, like the barriers, checkpoints and permit requirements that Israel imposes on the territory in the name of security.
“This is a sector that has no borders,” Mr. Tahboub observed. “You just need electricity and a telephone line.”
In the four years since Cisco Systems made an initial strategic investment of about $10 million here, financing the beginnings of business-service outsourcing to Palestinian companies, supporting training programs and drawing in other international partners, the sector is said to have grown from less than 1 percent of the Palestinian economy to more than 5 percent today — albeit of an economy whose total output is estimated at a modest $5 billion to $6 billion.
If I were thinking of investing there, my biggest concern would be an Iran-style cutoff of the internet. Of course, the Times doesn't even mention that possibility.
A Hungarian genetics company is in trouble after certifying that a far right politician is free of Jewish and Roma genes.
Hungary’s Medical Research Council (ETT), which advises the government on health policy, has asked public prosecutors to investigate a genetic-diagnostic company that certified that a member of parliament did not have Roma or Jewish heritage.
The MP in question is a member of the far-right Jobbik party, which won 17% of the votes in the general election of April 2010. He apparently requested the certificate from the firm Nagy Gén Diagnostic and Research, which rents office space at the prestigious Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. The company produced the document in September 2010, a few weeks before local elections.
The certificate — with the MP’s name blacked out — emerged on the web last month and was seized on by the Hungarian media. One of Nagy Gén’s financial partners, Tibor Benedek — a three-time Olympic water-polo gold medallist and a member of a prominent Jewish family — immediately pulled out of the company.
The ETT’s secretary, József Mandl, chair of medical chemistry at the Semmelweis University in Budapest, says that the certificate is “professionally wrong, ethically unacceptable — and illegal”. The council discussed the issue on 7 June and concluded that the genetic test violates the 2008 Law on Genetics, which allows such testing only for health purposes.
A trend of the future? I can see lots of Muslims (many of whom, at least in this part of the world, marry close relatives) taking advantage of this kind of certificate. And how many of these tests were developed by Jews? Hmmm.
Bwahahaha: What do they think they are going to export?
Fifteen Gaza businessmen have made inquiries about exporting their products to the United States.
Daniel Rubinstein, the Uniteed States consul in Jerusalem, met Monday in Ramallah with 15 Gaza businessmen in the high-tech field in conjunction with the opening of the Palestinian Authority (PA) high-tech and information exhibitions in in Gaza and Ramallah, according to the PA's Wafa news agency.
The businessmen said they discussed ways to export their products to the U.S. and the serious situation in the Hamas-controlled area because of Israel's closure of Gaza .
High tech? Gaza? They can't even fix their sewer system....
Maybe they want the US to subsidize the prices too....
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
