Israeli Robo-Printer Wins International Prize

Article: a Jerusalem start-up company has won the top technology prize for its robo printer, beating out industry giants and thousands of other products at the Las Vegas electronics show. The Israeli portable, palm-sized printer works by running across a page and printing out text exactly like a regular printer would do. But instead of loading paper into a feed, the content is loaded directly onto the paper. It prints in about the same time as a regular printer--about 40 seconds. It has a rechargeable battery with an off-on switch, can be connected to a computer and can print on any size piece of paper. 

The Innovation Award is extremely coveted in the industry. The Israeli company can now put a sticker on its products which says it is the winner of the Innovation Award. This is especially exciting for the small Israeli start-up. It was expensive for them to come to the contest--they had to rent a booth, buy plane tickets and hotels, hire PR, etc. When asked about the award, one of the Israelis said, "Beyond the honor this award brings to the Israeli electronics industry, it also helps out the other Israeli companies at CES by drawing attention to Israeli innovation, and to Israel as an advanced, technologically advanced, country.” What do you think? How is this good for spreading Israel's story? How is this product good for people in general? 

Watch a video about it here. 

When Is A Good Age to Get Married?

Article: In Nepal, there is a custom for parents to marry off their boys around age 9. The law says you cannot get married before age 18, but the law is not always followed, particularly for Hindus who are of the lowest caste. The marry off their children young because they cannot afford to take care of them and the dowries are lower the younger the child. What is a dowry? What are types of dowries we see in the Western world? (Bride's family pays for wedding? Wedding gifts?) Often kids around age 9 will get married, then go back to live with their families. When they are around 12, the girls go to live with the boy's family, often serving as servants for the mother-in-law. The boys drop out of school and start working. When you ask the kids, they say they don't want to get married so young but do not have a choice. This has been the tradition for generations. What do you think of this? Does your family have any traditions that you do not like? If so, how would you try to change them?

Drones and Satellites Monitoring Old Jewish Cemetaries

Today is a crazy busy day at work, so instead of writing out a synopsis of an article, I'm going to provide an article to discuss that isn't too long for you to read on your own. It is about how using drones and satellites, we can now monitor Jewish cemeteries in lands that no longer have any Jews. 

Ask your kids: what would you want to monitor (the condition of the cemetery, changes to the cemetery, etc.); how are cemeteries important ways to learn about history? What can you discover from reading tombstones and visiting graves? How do Jews mark a grave they have visited? (with a rock) Why?  

Who's a Better Teacher: A Person or a Computer?

Article: A classroom in New York is experimenting with a computer being the teacher! In the 6th grade math class at Boody High School in Brooklyn, classrooms are blended. This means computers choose which students sit together, figure out what the children know and how well they know it, choose what problems the children should work on and give teachers which lesson to teach next.

Here's how it works: When 6th graders arrive in class, they log onto their laptop or check a computer at the front of the room. It tells them where to sit and what kind of lesson they'll do. A computer voice "teaches" them at their various stations. However the students do answering questions decides where they will sit and what they will learn the next day.

So far researchers don't know if this makes students learn math better. Some say it only works if the teacher and computer work together. But some teachers are letting the computers do all the work, and so the kids aren't learning. Teachers like that it reduces their workload, especially for grading papers and deciding homework. But others say it reduces creativity. What do you think of this style of teaching? 

American Consulate in Jerusalem and Security Guards

Article: The American Consulate in Jerusalem has recently announced that it is hiring 35 new Palestinian security guards from East Jerusalem, who are being trained in Jordan and America on how to use weapons and fight. This is in direct violation of an agreement between Israel and the Consulate, which says that only former IDF soldiers protecting the consulate may have weapons. Why do you think Israel has this agreement? Some of the Palestinians being trained have spent time in Israeli jail for throwing stones at Israelis or have relatives who have been convicted for terrorism or are part of Hamas. There are other Palestinian guards in the consulate, but none who have weapons and strategic training. Why do you think that Israel is worried that these people will now have weapons? Do you think these people are a threat? The US consulate claims that it wants Palestinian guards to take them to the West Bank, not Israeli guards. Some claim that the new head of the US Consulate in Jerusalem is anti-Israel; he has fired 7 Israeli guards since he arrived and only 1 Palestinian guard; his most senior adviser is someone who spent time in Israeli jail for being part of the PLO and another employee's relative is the head of Hamas in Jerusalem.

Underwater Archaeology in Israel

Article: Israel is a pioneer in underwater archaeology. Recently, underwater archaeologists discovered the preserved remains of a prehistoric village submerged off the coast of Haifa! They found a water well that may be the oldest wooden structure ever found and the oldest evidence of a prehistoric ancient olive-oil industry from the New Stone Age, over 7000 years ago. It was found buried under 100 meters of sand. Scientists think that 6 Neolithic villages near Haifa became submerged as the sea level rose, possibly as the result of icecaps and glaciers melting massively (i.e., climate change). They have also discovered 9000 year old stone wells, stone basins used for crushing olives, and thousands of olive pits. The scientists think the people in the village lived until the age of 50 (a long time, at that time) because of their healthy Mediterranean diet. There is also evidence of human diseases in discovered bones such as malaria and tuberculosis!

What do you think are the challenges faced by doing archaeology underwater? How do you look for ancient artifacts in the sea? See here for pictures.

    

What is the one of the Most Important Medical Discoveries all time?

Article: What do you think is probably one of the most important medical discoveries of all time? Believe it or not, it was the discovery of using soap and water! Here's the story. In 1946, no one knew anything about germs or what caused illnesses to spread. A Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis (possibly Jewish), wanted to study why women in the hospital having babies kept dying from a type of fever (puerperal fever). In one clinic, women were treated only by male doctors, in another clinic, only by female midwives. When he compared the data of women from each clinic, he found that the women staffed by the doctors died nearly 5x more than those in the midwife ward. Why?

He looked for the difference between the two clinics. In the doctors' clinic, women only had babies while lying on their backs. But when Dr. Semmelweis asked them to move positions, it didn't change the death rates. Then he found that in the doctors' ward, priests would walk by ringing bells. But when he asked the priests to stop doing that, it also didn't change the death results. Then a doctor became ill with the fever. This caused Semmelweis to realize that the fever wasn't something unique to the women. So Semmelweis guessed something else. The doctors were holding the bodies of women who died, then they would help deliver babies. So something on the doctors' hands was passing back and forth between the women who had died from fever and women who were still alive. Maybe this is what was causing the fever to be passed around. So he ordered the doctors to all start cleaning their hands and instruments not just with soap but with chlorine (now known as the best disinfectant in the world). And women stopped dying!

Semmelweis discovered that hand-washing is one of the most important tools to keeping people healthy. It can keep people from getting the flu, prevent the spread of disease and keep infections away.

Sadly for Semmelweis, it didn't end happily. The doctors were angry that Semmelweis made it look like they were spreading the disease. They made him lose his job and he eventually died in a hospital with a disease likely caused from getting infected by someone who didn't wash hands!