DAVID SHAMAH: ISRAEL IS RATED SECOND IN THE WORLD IN CLEANTECH INNOVATION….WOW

http://www.timesofisrael.com/report-israel-one-of-the-worlds-top-cleantech-innovation-powers/

Israel rated second-best cleantech innovator in the world Only Denmark scores higher in index of 38 countries

Israel was named one of the most innovative countries in the world in cleantech innovation in a study released Monday, with young Israeli companies leading the world in developing new ideas, methods and products for water reclamation, agricultural development, and energy production. Israel came in second on the first-ever Cleantech Global Innovation Index of 38 countries for its efforts in development and commercialization of environmental technologies, behind Denmark, which topped the study.

Clean technology, also called cleantech, refers to the intersection of business interests and investment with environmentally friendly products and services that use alternative energy sources, water purification methods, and the like.

The study was conducted by the Cleantech Group, which represents thousands of investors and companies in the cleantech industry (the company says it represents companies with $3 trillion in assets), and theWorld Wildlife Fund. The countries were evaluated on 15 indicators related to the creation and commercialization of cleantech start-ups companies and ideas, with an index measuring each country’s relative potential to produce entrepreneurial start-up companies and commercialize technology innovations over the next 10 years.

Israel came in second on the index, the report said, because “it leads the pack in its capacity to produce new innovative cleantech companies” — meaning there are more innovative cleantech companies per capita developing new technologies in Israel than in much larger countries like the US, Canada, Germany, France, Japan, and many others (most of the countries listed in the study are OECD members). Two factors kept Israeli out of the top spot: Israel’s small domestic market, and a lack of government support for cleantech development.

“Israel places second on the overall index, primarily due to its very high score for evidence of emerging cleantech innovation,” the report said. But Israel comes in second on the index instead of first because “the country lacks a cleantech-supportive government policy.” However, the dearth of state money is somewhat made up by VC activity, with venture funds and angels funding many small, promising projects, the report added.

Israeli companies also lead in patent activity. As an example of Israeli innovation, the report cited a company called TaKaDu, which develops software-based technologies to detect and prevent leaks in commercial water systems (TaKaDu was named Cleantech’s Company of the Year in 2011, and was one of the Wall Street Journal’s top innovation award winners last year as well). “Israel is especially strong in water innovation, driven by the serious water scarcity that affects the region and supported by Mekorot, the highly innovative water utility that regularly partners with local cleantech start-ups,” the report said.

Although Israelis have developed many great ideas, not enough have been implemented at home. “Israel’s success in giving birth to cleantech companies is not matched by its performance on the evidence of commercialized cleantech innovation factor — the country places 14th,” the report said, adding that “this is likely due to the limited domestic market in Israel as well as a scarcity of local expansion capital.” Most of Israel’s ideas are actually being implemented abroad, benefitting the entire world – but not Israelis.

LARA FRIEDMAN: PEACE NOW GROUPIE IS SHOCKED, SHOCKED BY CONFERENCE IN DOHA…..SEE NOTE PLEASE

Read more: http://www.forward.com/articles/152079/#ixzz1ndG87pif

Jerusalem Isn’t Just for Arabs, EitherPeace Now Backer Angered by One-Sided Doha Conference

JUST WHERE DID THIS USELESS IDIOT THINK THE WHOLE “PEACE PROCESS” WAS GOING? AND SHE DOES NOT EVEN ACKNOWLEDGE THE ROLE THAT HER ORGANIZATION HAS PLAYED IN ENCOURAGING ISRAEL’S ENEMIES….RSK

One City, Two States: Lara Friedman of Americans for Peace Now speaks on the television talk show ‘Viewpoint with James Zogby.’
By Lara Friedman

I write this late on Sunday night in Doha, following the first day of the Arab League’s Conference on Jerusalem. I am attending the conference as an individual and a member of the foreign policy community — not as a representative of any organization (as is the case when I attend most conferences). That said, the organizers of the conference knew when they invited me that I am a Zionist. Most of my professional life (and much of my personal life) has been dedicated to fighting for peace for Israel and fighting against biased views on all sides of the issues. I believe in dialogue and never refrain from having tough conversations both inside and outside the Jewish community. I believe people need to deal with facts, whether they like them or not.

DAVID “SPENGLER” GOLDMAN: THANK HEAVEN FOR LITTLE GHOULS

http://pjmedia.com/spengler/2012/02/27/thank-heaven-for-little-ghouls/

“As for Gen. James R. Clapper, Obama’s director of national intelligence who told the Senate Intelligence Committee last week that Iran has not yet tried to build a nuclear bomb, there is a special circle of Hell for those who respond to the question, “How much is 2 + 2?,” with “How much do you want it to be?” And Gen. David Petraeus, Obama’s director of Central Intelligence, not long ago lionized by many conservatives, went along with the charade. That inspires the following variation on an old joke:

Two priests are attending a seminar at a Washington, D.C., hotel, and by accident find themselves in the wrong conference room. It’s an AIPAC seminar, not a Church function. They excuse themselves after a minute and leave. Father Kelly says to Father O’Malley, “Do you know, Father O’Malley, I never knew that the Jews spoke Latin among themselves. I don’t know what it means, but they kept repeating, petraeus fuctus.”

Really interesting wars, Cardinal Richelieu informs me in a dream-sequence recounted in this morning’s “Spengler” essay at Asia Times Online, because they kill off the fathers, and then the sons. Richelieu presided over what we call the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), which reduced the population of Central Europe by about two-fifths, although there have been numerous others, including the Peloponnesian War and 1914 to 1945. Richelieu ” looked rather like the portrait by Phillipe de Champaigne, but sounded like Maurice Chevalier.”‘

TAYLOR DINERMAN: CHINA’S MIDEAST CALCULATIONS AND MISCALCULATIONS

http://www.stonegateinstitute.org/2882/china-middle-east Perhaps China’s position is shakier than it appears. China’s most dramatic 21st century Middle Eastern political move so far was its decision on February 4, 2012, to join Russia in vetoing an exceptionally mild and toothless UN Security Council resolution condemning Syria’s Assad regime for its ongoing repression of the Syrian people. It was […]

SOEREN KERN: FRANCE GOES HALAL (!!!)

http://www.stonegateinstitute.org/2886/france-halal

The halal issue is about more than just meat.

A French television documentary has revealed that all of the slaughterhouses in the greater Paris metropolitan area are now producing all of their meat in accordance with Islamic Sharia law.The exposé broadcast by France 2 television also alleged that much of the religiously slaughtered meat known as halal is not labeled as such and is entering the general food chain, where it is being unwittingly consumed by the non-Muslim population.

The revelation has sparked political controversy in France, where Islam and the question of Muslim immigration has become a central issue in the presidential campaign.

Halal, which in Arabic means lawful or legal, is a term designating any object or action that is permissible according to Sharia law. In the context of food, halal meat is derived from animals slaughtered by hand according to methods stipulated in Islamic religious texts.

One such halal method, called dhabihah, consists of making a swift, deep incision with a sharp knife on the neck that cuts the jugular vein, leaving the animal to bleed to death. Much of the controversy involving halal stems from the fact that Sharia law bans the practice of stunning the animals before they are slaughtered. Pre-slaughter stunning renders the animals unconscious and thus is said to lessen pain.

Not surprisingly, far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has turned the halal controversy into a campaign issue. Speaking to supporters at a February 18-19 congress of her National Front party in the northern city of Lille, Le Pen said: “All the abattoirs in the Paris region sell halal meat without exception. They have succumbed to the rules of a minority. We have reason to be disgusted.”

THE GLAZOV GANG: SCOTT RITTER, UNDERAGE GIRLS AND IRAQ…

Scott Ritter, Underage Girls and Iraq — on The Glazov Gang
by Frontpagemag.com
Andrew Klavan, Evan Sayet and Eric Allen Bell battle it out on Frontpage’s television program.

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/02/28/scott-ritter-underage-girls-and-iraq-on-the-glazov-gang/

WES PRUDEN: THE IGNORANCE OF RICK SANTORUM

http://www.prudenpolitics.com/index.php/pruden/full_column/the_ignorance_of_rick_santorum

There’s a tiny priest living in Rick Santorum’s trim, toned body, struggling to get out. The rogue priest escaped Sunday and said foolish things.The candidate most admired for plain speech made it plain and clear that he doesn’t believe in the wall between church and state and doesn’t think much of John F. Kennedy for saying he did.

“I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute,” he told ABC News. “The idea that church can have no influence or involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country.”
This should cook his goose with conservatives (and everybody else), Catholic and Protestant alike, but it probably won’t. Many voters are as ignorant as Rick Santorum about the plain meaning of the First Amendment. Mr. Santorum, no doubt listening to his inner rogue, says the First Amendment’s guarantee of “the free exercise of religion means bringing everybody, people of faith and no faith, into the public square.”

BILL MAHER INSISTS ON PIERS MORGAN SHOW THAT JESUS WAS “PALESTINIAN”

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2012/02/28/bill-maher-says-jesus-christ-was-palestinia

Christians the world over are going to be thrilled to know that Jesus was a Palestinian.

At least that’s what HBO’s Bill Maher told CNN’s Piers Morgan Monday evening in a discussion about Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow (video follows with transcript and commentary):

BILL MAHER: You are allowed to have your opinion. You’re allowed to have your opinion that a Palestinian 2000 years ago walked on water and did magic tricks and he was really still his own father and all that stuff. That’s fine. You can have whatever opinion you want, and the fact that a billion other people believe it gives you a lot of strength and credence. But I also have the opinion that that’s ridiculous, that it’s anachronistic, this is the 21st century.

ANNE BAYEFSKY: TEAM OBAMA SUPPORTS UN HIPOCRISY ON HUMAN RIGHTS

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/02/27/team-obama-continues-to-support-un-hypocrisy-on-human-rights/print#ixzz1ncV3rgoV On Monday the UN opens two major human rights meetings, the annual session of its top women’s rights body, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York, and a month-long session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva. Lecturing Americans about human rights protection from the UN-provided podium will be CSW […]

MIKE LUPICA: CRITICS OF NYPD SPYING ON MUSLIMAS ARE MISSING THE BIGGER PICTURE

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/a-police-commissioner-kelly-nypd-safe-article-1.1028917?print Despite some controversial tactics, Police Commisioner Ray Kelly and the NYPD have kept the city safe – and he doesn’t have to apologize to anyone.  They came over from Jersey 19 years ago in a yellow Ryder van that had a bomb in it, some of them from a walk-in mosque over a store […]