Israellycool

“The Jews.”

“Hot. Damn hot! Real hot! I could cook things in it. It’s gonna be hot and wet! That’s nice if you’re with a lady, but it ain’t no good if you’re in the jungle.”

“As far as you can get away with. And then when your’e caught, you’ll have to hide evidence of it, possibly in a neighboring country.”

While Singaporean scientists are developing a virtual reality way to improve your Pacman skills, Israeli scientists have gone one better, developing a virtual reality way to become smarter.

China is to re-measure the world’s tallest peak, Mount Everest, because of fears it may be shrinking.

A recent survey found the summit had dropped by 1.3 metres (4 ft) because of global warming.

Failing to make your bed in the morning may actually help keep you healthy, scientists believe.

 

Research suggests that while an unmade bed may look scruffy it is also unappealing to house dust mites thought to cause asthma and other allergies.

 

A Kingston University study discovered the bugs cannot survive in the warm, dry conditions found in an unmade bed.

The first pioneering steps have been taken in France to add one of the most emotive of the five senses – the sense of smell – to desktop PCs.

 

Life and art already jostle for our attention through myriad Internet sites, DVDs and video games with often richly layered, high-definition images and videos.

 

Now, following the efforts of an engineer from his offices on an industrial estate in the picturesque northern French port of Saint-Malo, we may soon be able to smell the action, too.

 

“The French are ahead of the rest of the world in olfactory multimedia, probably thanks to our traditions in gastronomy and perfumes,” said Yvan Regeard, 33, who has just launched the first company of its kind in the country.

 

“Unlike images or sound, smells can trigger previously forgotten memories and emotions. 

—-

Regeard, an engineer at France Telecom who has been given leave of absence to get his project off the ground, demonstrates his multimedia version of the Proust experience by inviting his visitors on a fragrant journey through the timeless vineyards of Burgundy.

 

A couple of clicks on the mouse on a portable computer connected to two perfume dispensers, which look like small loudspeakers, and the smell of undergrowth, vanilla and wild fruit drifts into the room.

 

“My dream is that one day this will become the world standard for olfactory applications, that it will become a small cog in the Windows system,” he said.

—-

After just two months he has already achieved a 20,000 euros turnover and is shortly due to travel to Japan to sign a deal with a catering school interested in posting its recipes on Internet complete with the aromas of cooking.

 

“What we offer is software which makes it possible to introduce a smell into the multimedia application, and a back-up service,” said Regeard.

There’s just one problem with this. Laila (like the majority of people who were engaged in the Budrus demonstration) is Israeli, born and raised in Haifa, and Jewish. And that is an all-the-more important statement, because it demonstrates that it is not just the international community (represented by the ISM) which opposes the occupation, and is willing to stand up and fight against it, but there are also many Israelis themselves — Jewish Israelis (I met Laila at a Shabbat dinner at my house) — who recognize the injustice of the situation, and who are therefore willing to put themselves in the line of fire to stand up for what they believe is right.

 

While Israelis and Jews are being demonized for being blind and indifferent to the suffering of the Palestinian people, it is important to know that there are many who care, and who are willing to do more than just pay lip service, but to actually act.