Monday, March 28, 2016

The Dead Sea: A dramatic look at Israel's endangered natural wonder

by Nir Hasson for Haaretz

The Dead Sea is in danger of dying. Haaretz's stunning interactive project explains why


Fields of sinkholes instead of beaches, roads swept away by floods, large industrial ponds instead of a sea and one overarching question: What can be done so that things don’t get even worse in the next 20 years?

Sometimes you need a new vantage point to understand an older picture. Two months ago a small camera-equipped, motorized glider took off close to a signpost that said “steps down to the Dead Sea 1984.” The location was the Einot Tzukim (Ein Feshkha) nature reserve in the northern Dead Sea area. Near the sign were some stone steps on which people had descended to the water’s edge 32 years ago. Behind them was an abandoned shower. As the glider took off, it showed the mountains of the Judean Desert, silent witnesses to the grim drama taking place nearby. When the glider turned eastward, the scene of the disaster came into view: the Dead Sea shoreline, to which bathers had descended on those stone steps, was barely visible. Now the shoreline merged with the Moab Mountains visible on the horizon and with the cloudy skies, two kilometers away from the steps that were built in the mid-1980s.

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Monday, March 21, 2016

How to Celebrate Purim Vegan-Style

From One Green Planet

Purim is the Jewish holiday that celebrates the survival of the Jews in ancient Persia. We read the biblical Book of Esther, or the Megillah, which tells the story of how Esther saved the Jews from annihilation at the hands of the wicked Haman, an advisor to the king. Haman hated the Jews because Mordecai, Esther’s cousin, would not bow down to him. So Haman plotted to destroy the Jewish people by convincing the king that these people followed their own laws rather than the king’s and were therefore, a great threat. The king left the fate of the Jews to Haman who planned to exterminate them all. Esther became part of the king’s harem and he loved her so much, he made her queen. She was able to use his love for her to save her people from Haman’s evil plot. The Jewish people were saved and Haman was killed instead.

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Monday, March 14, 2016

Kitchen Heroes to the rescue of limp lettuce, sad strawberries

Israeli-developed powder preservative technology keeps fruits and vegetables fresh, without chemicals


By David Shamah for The Times of Israel

One minute, a piece of fruit or a growing vegetable is alive and growing, but the next — after it’s picked — the process of death and rot begins. Exposed to the atmosphere and the environment, it’s just a matter of time, sometimes days, before mold and decay set in and eventually render produce inedible.

t’s nature’s way, but it’s damned inconvenient for commercial distributors, supermarkets, and consumers. But the “essential oil” protection system developed by Israeli food-tech start-up Phresh Organics can help fruits and vegetables stay fresh for as long as a month and preserve their vitamins, according to company CEO Amit Gal-Or.

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Monday, March 7, 2016

In Yeruham, Israel’s smaller crater is big news

This southern development town is home to the falsely named Big Crater, sand irises and culinary queens


By Jessica Steinberg for The Times of Israel   

When it comes to Israel’s craters, geological landforms created by a mountainous erosion millions of years ago, travelers think first of the Ramon Crater.

But there’s another major Negev crater, aka makhtesh (in addition to three smaller ones): the “Big” Crater just outside the southern development town of Yeruham. It got its misleading name in the days when the larger Ramon Crater was still uncharted.

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