Ways that Palestinian and Israel Children are Working Together

PA & Israeli girls study animal welfare together when 40 girls from Jericho and Beit Shemesh participated in an event called "New Spring – New Hope," at the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Israel. They visited animals and listened to a lecture in Hebrew and Arabic about the importance of treating animals kindly.

The Israel Association of Baseball (IAB) launched Baseball for All (Baseball Le’Kulam), the first ever program to teach Jewish and Arab Israeli children to play baseball. 28 sixth graders from Modiin and Ramle learned about baseball as they also learned about one another.

Source: http://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/  

What Does It Mean That Your Brain Is Missing a Cerebrum?

Article: The cerebellum is a part of the brain that holds half of our neurons. But until now, scientists haven't known exactly all that it allows us to do or not do. Thanks to some people born without cerebellums or cerebellums damaged due to stroke, infection or disease--and willing to have their brains scanned and studied--we are learning a lot more. Until now, scientists thought the cerebellum was only responsible for helping us keep our balance and fine motor control. So when one gets drunk and fails a police walking test or can't touch the tip of their nose, that is the cerebellum impaired. (Kids: try walking in a straight line; that is your cerebellum helping you out.) But now we also know that the cerebellum is like the fine tuner to most of our other functions. Other parts of the brain enable us to do things-- like telling us when to walk or speak or feel an emotion--but the cerebellum fine tunes that and helps us do it well -- walk well, speak in an understandable way, or show empathy. For instance, one person in the study who was born without a cerebellum could walk, talk, think and express some feelings, but none very well. In a conversation, he speaks slurred and can only say basic things, like "how are you? how was your day?" But if the conversation progresses beyond that, like someone saying "I felt sad today. My friends were mean to me," his brain cannot process the next step of where to take that conversation. Or if he were driving, he could drive in a straight line, but could not process what to do if a car honked at him and a bus pulled in front of him and he had to figure out what to do next.
   

Israel Leads World in Desalination

Article: Israel has just completed a new industrial facility that never stops working. It is the world’s largest ocean water desalination plant, providing clean water to 20% of Israel's homes. Built by a private Israel company for the Israeli government for $500 million, it uses an engineering process called reverse osmosis to produce clean water from sea water cheaply and on a larger scale than ever before. And its energy consumption is among the lowest in the world for large-scale facilities. Right now 700 million people don't have enough clean water and in ten years, this number will be 1.8 billion. Israel may be showing the world a solution. By 2016, 50% of Israel's water is expected to come from this plant. Why is it important that desalination be inexpensive? 

  

Music Copyright Case

Article: An interesting court case is just wrapping up in LA. Robin Thicke and William Pharrell, from the hit 2013 song "Blurred Lines," are being sued by the estate of Marvin Gaye, for copying his song. Robin Thicke admits that Marvin Gaye's 70s song, "Got to Give it Up" was an inspiration when making the song "Blurred Lines." But Thicke claims he didn't steal the song or plagiarize it. If he did, he would have to pay Marvin Gaye's estate a lot of money for a type of stealing. Kids: How would this be stealing? The trial has focused on what is the difference between being creatively inspired by another work of art and actually stealing that work of art.

Listen to the two songs and then decide: did Thicke and Pharrell steal Gaye's song or simply become inspired by it? What would you decide if you were the jury? And also consider: if "Blurred Lines" hadn't been the huge hit that it was, would Gaye's estate even care? Listen: Gaye's song and Thicke's song (PG video shown here; not the headlines making nude one).