Colony Collapse: Catskills Bungalows Hit By Zoning

Venerable Jewish vacation spots to be replaced by upscale housing

By Jas Chana for The Scroll in Tablet Magazine

The Catskills bungalow colonies that have played host for countless Jewish vacationers for decades are now becoming extinct. On Monday, the Times Herald-Record reported that new zoning regulations in Sullivan County, NY, updated last October, have encouraged developers to replace the bungalow colonies with “new year-round summer homes, townhouses and modulars.” This is partly because the old bungalows no longer meet state building codes. For example, the Times Herald-Record reports that the bungalows were built on “stilts or cinder block piers” not actual foundations. The re-zoning is also a decided attempt to reduce clutter and restore the open countryside that has been destroyed by the sheer number of bungalows scattered across the county.
“Those towns have updated their zoning laws to create less density by specifically prohibiting bungalow colonies,” reports the Times Herald-Record. Those towns include Sullivan County’s largest—Thompson, Bethel, Liberty, Mamakating and Fallsburg.”

Continue reading.

Follow us on   

Israeli scientist makes better sesame seed, wins award

Using ancient breeding techniques and cutting-edge genetic markers, Dr. Zvi Peleg is improving the crop yield of this exasperating plant, and its nutritional value as well.

By Ruth Schuster for Haaretz

Sesame seeds are enormously popular but they have been a frustrating crop for farmers for thousands of years: the plant is hardy enough but its yields are low. Now a scientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has developed methods to improve sesame crop yields while improving the seeds' nutritional quality too. In recognition of his work, Dr. Zvi Peleg has been awarded the Kaye Innovation Award for 2015.

Peleg's basic technique is as ancient as agriculture itself: selective breeding. You pick promising plants and cultivate and breed them while junking the inferior ones. But choosing which sesame plants to breed and which to throw out is based on cutting-edge genetic marker technology, Peleg explains to Haaretz.

Continue reading.

Follow us on   

Agrolan Develops Portable Pollution Monitor

Israel’s Agrolan Ltd. has unveiled a new mobile device that can measure air pollution. This is a groundbreaking development since until now only huge machines – which obviously must be kept stationary – could detect minute contaminants in the air. Now people will be able to take pollution monitors with them wherever they go.

The Golan Heights based Agrolan engages in the development of products that improve the environment. It has begun to market the first air pollution gauge of its kind in Israel. It is only slightly larger than a mobile phone and with it people can easily measure the amount of fine particulate matter suspended in the air at any point. The display has 6 background colors which highlight various pollution levels and with it pollution can be detected both indoors and outside.

Continue reading.

Follow us on   

Texas and Israel’s Technion team up to build water system

From Technion: Israel Institute of Technology

California could learn a thing or two about innovative water technologies from university researchers in Israel and Texas, whose joint desalination project won the Honorable Mention award in a USAID competition. A prize of $125,000 grant will be used in the near future to build a groundwater treatment plant in Jordan.

Driven perhaps by a common pioneering spirit or the aridness of their land, researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel and the University of North Texas teamed up to enter the competition held by USAID— the United States Agency for International Development. The competition’s goal was to develop innovative technology for producing food and potable water in the Third World, using sustainable alternative energy. “By 2050, global water demand is expected to increase by 55%, and 70% of global water use occurs in food production,” said Christian Holmes, USAID Global Water Coordinator.

Continue reading.

Follow us on   

Netanyahu: Israel Will Make the Most of Natural Gas Deposits

PM responds to allegations of natural gas 'cartel,' resignation of antitrust authority chief; 'We won't repeat the mistakes of others.'

By Ari Soffer for Arutz7Sheva



Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has vowed that Israel will act as soon as possible to tap into massive natural gas deposits off the Israeli coast, and said he won't allow the process to be delayed by the ongoing controversy over allegations it is being monopolized.

"We will not repeat the mistake that other countries made when they sought ideal solutions for their gas and sometimes for their oil and as a result of which both the gas and the oil have remained below the seabed or underground," Netanyahu declared at the start of Tuesday's cabinet meeting.

Continue reading.

Aided by the Sea, Israel Overcomes an Old Foe: Drought

By Isabel Kershner for The New York Times

JERUSALEM — At the peak of the drought, Shabi Zvieli, an Israeli gardener, feared for his livelihood.

A hefty tax was placed on excessive household water consumption, penalizing families with lawns, swimming pools or leaky pipes. So many of Mr. Zvieli’s clients went over to synthetic grass and swapped their seasonal blooms for hardy, indigenous plants more suited to a semiarid climate. “I worried about where gardening was going,” said Mr. Zvieli, 56, who has tended people’s yards for about 25 years.

Across the country, Israelis were told to cut their shower time by two minutes. Washing cars with hoses was outlawed and those few wealthy enough to absorb the cost of maintaining a lawn were permitted to water it only at night.

Continue reading.

Love Israel? We do too. Follow our Israel board on    page.

Could An Israeli Invention End Cooking As We Know It?

From The Jewish Week

Plenty of mobile apps help consumers order meals for delivery or offer recipes.

But a new app developed by Israeli entrepreneurs will actually prepare the food for you on your kitchen counter.

While not quite as fantastical as it sounds — to use the app you also need a coffeemaker-sized appliance called The Genie — the invention promises to prepare mess-free, all-natural, healthy food in just seconds.

Described by one writer as “like a Keurig [coffeemaker] for food,” the device, which looks sort of like a fancy rice cooker, uses Keurig-like single-serving, disposable (but in this case recyclable) pods.
Genie creators Ayelet Carasso and Doron Marco told Reuters the food in the pods will be nutritious and free of preservatives, the ingredients kept fresh simply through freeze-drying technology.
“The dish can be anything, it can be a meal like chicken with rice, like couscous with vegetable or an amazing Ramen or even a chocolate soufflé or any other desert that you want,” Carasso told Reuters. (The product does not appear to have its own website yet, nor is it featured on the site of Marco and Carasso’s White Innovation company.)

Continue reading.

Follow us on