ISRAEL Comments turned off

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

Posted By on May 14th, 2023

 MAY 14, 1945- THE WORLD REJOICED THE END OF WORLD WAR 2. FOR JEWS IT WAS A BITTERSWEET MOMENT OF MOURNING THE VICTIMS OF THE HOLOCAUST WHERE ONE OF EVERY THREE JEWS IN THE WORLD WERE KILLED.

MAY 14, 1948- THE DECLARATION OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL WAS PROCLAIMED, TERMINATING BRITISH RULE BY MIDNIGHT. THE REST IS HISTORY.

Here is Michael Ordman’s weekly catalog of Israel’s amazing contributions to the entire globe 75 years later. Read it all. rsk

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

Israel should be the first country to go to for solutions to the world’s biggest problems. In medical matters its First Aid is second to none. In the latest positive Israel newsletter, Israeli doctors performed the first ever operation to deliver gene therapy direct to someone’s brain. Israeli scientists discovered where red blood cells are first produced in the human body. And Israeli startups won international first prize awards for successful pain relief and skin therapy products.

Israel opened its first hydrogen refueling station. It launched the first medical incubator for startups in an Arab city. An Israeli-founded startup was responsible for creating the first capital city to go 100% solar powered during the daytime. One Israeli startup won an international Business Intelligence award and another won the Data Security Breakthrough award.  Other business firsts were achieved when foreign airlines began new routes to Israel and French supermarket giant Carrefour opened its first stores in Israel.

A young Israeli Druze woman became the first of her community to be in Israel’s winning female basketball championship team.  And although Israel only came 3rd in the Eurovision Song Contest, an Israeli woman triumphed in the World Judo Championships, resulting in the Israeli national anthem being played in Doha, the capital of Qatar.  Michael Ordman.

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Historic gene therapy operation. (TY Atid-EDI) Doctors at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center made history with a 7-hour operation to deliver Upstaza gene therapy directly to the brain of a 4-year-old girl from India. The NIS  10 million cost per vial was the most expensive single Israeli surgery ever and was given free of charge.
https://www.israelhayom.com/2023/04/02/israeli-doctors-make-history-with-gene-therapy-treatment-to-brain/
 
The origin of red blood cells. Researchers led by Professor Ido Amit of Israel’s Weizmann Institute, have discovered that the kidney is the source of the hormone EPO (erythropoietin), which turns cells in the bone marrow into oxygen-carrying red blood cells. Increasing EPO in kidney disease patients could prevent anemia.
https://nocamels.com/2023/05/breakthrough-discovery-on-the-origin-of-red-blood-cells/
 
US approves portable 3D X-ray device. Israel’s Nanox (see here previously) has received US FDA approval for its light-weight imaging system for clinics and hospitals. The Nanox.ARC can employ up to five separate X-ray-emitting tubes at once for a 3D image. The FDA approved Nanox’s single-source X-ray bed in early 2021.
https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/nanox-scores-clearance-cloud-connected-x-ray-bed-after-years-fda-review  https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-nanox-wins-fda-approval-for-cloud-based-xray-system-1001445270
 
Schizophrenia treatment gets US approval. The US FDA has approved UZEDY (risperidone), developed for the treatment of schizophrenia by Israel’s Teva and France’s Medincell. In a Phase 3 human clinical trial, UZEDY demonstrated up to 80% reduction in risk of schizophrenia relapse versus a placebo.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-fda-approves-innovative-teva-schizophrenia-drug-1001445160
https://www.tevapharm.com/news-and-media/latest-news/teva-and-medincell-announce-fda-approval-of-uzedy-risperidone-extended-release-injectable-suspension-/
 
Diagnosing children with fever. The 15-min BV test from Israel’s MeMed (see here previously) accurately diagnosed over 90% of bacterial versus viral infections at Israel’s Schneider Children’s Medical Center, reducing Emergency Department physician error. The study tested 287 children from 3 months to 18 years.
https://www.me-med.com/press-releases/clinical-data-validate-pioneering-memed-bv-technology-improves-diagnosis-of-pediatric-patients-with-fever-in-the-emergency-department/
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0281018
 
Relieving post-op pain. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s PainReform has just completed a Phase 3 human trial of its PRF-110 post-operative pain relief. The oil-based, viscous, clear solution is deposited directly into the surgical wound bed prior to closure to provide localized and extended post-operative analgesia.
https://painreform.com/releases/painreform-announces-positive-safety-data-in-first-part-of-phase-3-clinical-trialof-prf-110-in-patients-undergoing-bunionectomy-surgery/  
 
Modifying gut bacteria to fight disease. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Trobix Bio is using CRISPR, phage, and synthetic biology technologies to develop precision microbiome oncology therapeutics. TBX101 counters anti-biotic resistance; TBX201 reduces chemotherapy side-effects; TBX301 tackles gut inflammation.
https://www.trobix.bio/   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1MsWkhBAyM
 
Israeli partnership to bio-print organs. Israeli startups Stratasys (see here previously) and CollPlant (see here previously) are jointly to create human tissues and organs. They will use Stratasys’ P3 bioprinter and CollPlant’s rh-Collagen-based bioinks. The first project will be to produce reconstructive implants.
https://ir.collplant.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/144/stratasys-and-collplant-unite-technologies-to-transform
 
Award-winning skin therapy. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s SofWave Medical (see here previously) has won two recent international awards. At the 13th Annual NewBeauty Awards it won Best Noninvasive Cellulite Treatment. Then it won the Good Housekeeping Magazine Award for Best Anti-Aging Pro Treatment.
https://sofwave.com/news/sofwave-wins-2023-newbeauty-award-for-best-non-invasive-cellulite-treatment/
https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2023/05/02/2659180/0/en/Sofwave-Wins-Good-Housekeeping-Magazine-Award-for-Best-Anti-Aging-Pro-Treatment.html
 
Prize-winning pain relief. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s TrainPain has won the Grand Prize in the American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM) & MIT Hacking Medicine Innovation Challenge. TrainPain uses neurotechnology to retrain sensory the brain through engaging haptic mobile games.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/trainpain-awarded-grand-prize-in-the-american-academy-of-pain-medicine–mit-hacking-medicine-innovation-challenge-301814260.html  https://www.trainpain.com/
https://pain.haifa.ac.il/projects/train-pain/
 
Reduction in Israeli skin cancer rates. In the 1990s, Israel had the 3rd highest rate of melanoma (skin cancer) per capita in the world. In 2020, Israel was not even in the top 20. Reasons include the Chacham B’Shemesh (Smart in the Sun) programs from preschool to 12th grade. Plus, annual checkups and early excision.
https://www.israel21c.org/melanoma-deaths-are-dropping-in-israel-heres-why/

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Everything New Under the Sun History and civics scores plummet in our constitutional republic.

Posted By on May 13th, 2023

https://amgreatness.com/2023/05/12/everything-new-under-the-sun/

Surfing the web, I came across a clever name for an Ohio secondhand resale shop: It’s New to Me. Makes sense. After all, if a person was unaware of something, upon discovery, it would be new to them. Because schools have failed to provide adequate instruction, “It’s new to me” is what a growing number of tomorrow’s American adults will say when encountering history and civics.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) quadrennial release of the “Nation’s Report Card” shows a precipitous decline in eighth graders’ proficiency in history and civics; and, consequently, a prospective boon for further leftist indoctrination.

With a hat tip to American Greatness’ writer Eric Lendrum, the state-subsidized NPR bears the bad news to America’s parents and citizens: 

[The 2022] history scores are the lowest recorded since the assessment began in 1994, and the new data mark the first-ever drop in civics . . . continuing a downward trend that began in 2014. Only 14% of students reached at or above ‘proficient’ mark in history, and in civics only 22% of students met the same benchmark.

These declines followed previous declines in fourth- and eighth-graders’ reading and math proficiency. This constitutes a significant problem, as Kerry Sautner, the chief learning officer at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, noted: “How are we going to mitigate this when we have significant drops in everything?”

U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona cited the COVID-19 pandemic as a significant reason for the students’ declining proficiency. Of course, he eschewed allotting any blame to those who ignored the science and demanded the prolonged closure of schools. 

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

From The American Gulag Chronicles By Eileen F. Toplansky

Posted By on May 13th, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/05/from_emthe_american_gulag_chroniclesem.html

The idea that Americans known as the January 6th protestors are now languishing in prison because they exercised their  rights to protest is shocking and beyond belief.

In the mid-1970s I and others worldwide were active in a letter writing campaign to Soviet Jewish refuseniks. Anatoly Sharansky is probably the most well-known of these dissidents.  While most of the letters were heavily censored, some did get through and it gave hope to those prisoners of conscience that the world was hearing them despite the malevolence of the communists.

One of my treasured documents is a letter from the wife of Hillel Butman, who was falsely accused of being a spy. She wrote to me that she “wished [me] much power for I knew what to do with it.”  It was a truly incredible and profound statement that I have never forgotten.

It reminds one of the unfortunate truth as stated by John A. Stormer in his Death of a Nation (1968) wherein he wrote,

Our founding fathers were men who — from their study of history… learned that down through history whenever man got power he used it to oppress other humans beings.

Thus, the idea that Americans known as the January 6th protestors are now languishing in prison because they exercised their G-d-given rights to protest is shocking and beyond belief.  It hearkens back to those refuseniks who were denied any justice and mercy.

The American Gulag Chronicles: Letters from Prison (2022) authored by Tim Rivers contains the letters and artwork by the latest victims of despotic rule under Joe Biden and his allies.  The editor-in-chief of this work is Marie Goodwyn, the mother of J6 defendant and video journalist Daniel Goodwyn.  Moreover, an international volunteer team of professional typesetters and proofreaders were instrumental in getting the book done.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Vivek in Iowa By David D. Begley

Posted By on May 13th, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/05/vivek_in_iowa.html

The NYT hates Vivek Ramaswamy. What could be a better recommendation?

If elected President, Vivek Ramaswamy would be historic.  He would be the first Jesuit high school graduate elected to the highest office in the land.  (See what I did there?)

Since this author and the candidate were both beneficiaries of a Jesuit high school education, I asked him how this influenced him.  He gave me a fascinating answer.

The Jesuits speak of magis; Latin for more.  Vivek said that he learned that magis means striving to do more and to be better.  As a country, we have ideals but we will fall short.  But both personally, and as a country, we continue to keep seeking perfection.

Vivek is not Christian, but he believes in God.  He became pro-life at his Jesuit high school.  One of the Jesuit’s precepts is to see God in all things.  Vivek put it this way, “God resides in all of us.”

My other question was about a negative New York Times story about him this week.  He said he’s not a whiner and was somewhat glad for the attention.  He expects to take hits during the campaign as part of the vetting process.

The main thrust of the NYT piece was that the president doesn’t have the executive power to take certain actions such as abolishing the Department of Education.  We know that.  But that claim is shorthand for the direction Vivek would take.

He deviated from his stump speech after an impressive recitation of part of the Declaration of Independence by a group of young people.  It was a brilliant impromptu riff.  Vivek’s favorite president is Thomas Jefferson.  No surprise there as they are both Renaissance men.

Jefferson’s original draft used the words “we hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable.”  Ben Franklin changed it to “we hold these truths to be self-evident.”  I know that this is accurate.

Vivek’s point was that what our country was founded on was not at all self-evident at the time.  The rest of the world was mostly under authoritarian rule.  We were a new beginning.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

US Has Had a “Historic Winter” As “All Western States Have Seen Record Snowfall”

Posted By on May 13th, 2023

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/05/10/us-has-had-a-historic-winter-as-all-western-states-have-seen-record-snowfall/

The western US has had an historic winter. From record-breaking cold spells to unprecedented amounts of snow, this has been a memorable cold season – and one that runs counter to the prophecies of the AGW party.

Starting with the cold – and according to data from the warmth-addicted NOAA – the US has set 7 all-time low temperature records so far this year (through April 24) compared to just one heat record, while 321 monthly lows have fallen in April alone (also through April 24) compared to 66 heat records.

Highest April 1st snow cover recorded this year

Regrading snow, in the official books going back to 2001, the largest area ever covered with snow/ice in the western US at the beginning of April so far was 2019’s 1,030,820 sq km, but this year that figure was far exceeded, with satellite imagery showing that more than 1,149-960 sq km of the West was covered with snow and ice on 1 April.

By comparison, the average snowpack in the western US at the end of March is 242,000 square miles.

MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

Jeffrey H. Anderson: The Harm Caused by Masks A new study suggests that the excess carbon dioxide breathed in by mask-wearers can have major health consequences.

Posted By on May 13th, 2023

https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-harm-caused-by-masks

Evidence continues to mount that mask mandates were perhaps the worst public-health intervention in modern American history. While concluding that wearing masks “probably makes little or no difference” in preventing the spread of viruses, a recent Cochrane review also emphasized that “more attention should be paid to describing and quantifying the harms” that may come from wearing masks. A new study from Germany does just that, and it suggests that the excess carbon dioxide breathed in by mask-wearers may have substantial ill-effects on their health—and, in the case of pregnant women, their unborn children’s.

Mask-wearers breathe in greater amounts of air that should have been expelled from their bodies and released out into the open. “[A] significant rise in carbon dioxide occurring while wearing a mask is scientifically proven in many studies,” write the German authors. “Fresh air has around 0.04% CO2,” they observe, while chronic exposure at CO2 levels of 0.3 percent is “toxic.” How much CO2 do mask-wearers breathe in? The authors write that “masks bear a possible chronic exposure to low level carbon dioxide of 1.41–3.2% CO2 of the inhaled air in reliable human experiments.”

In other words, while eight times the normal level of carbon dioxide is toxic, research suggests that mask-wearers (specifically those who wear masks for more than 5 minutes at a time) are breathing in 35 to 80 times normal levels.

The German study, a scoping review of existing research, aimed “to investigate the toxicological effects of face masks in terms of CO2 rebreathing on developing life, specifically for pregnant women, children, and adolescents.” The latter two groups, of course, have been among those most frequently subjected to mask mandates in schools, despite Covid’s low levels of risk for them and the evidence that masks don’t work.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The real reasons stores such as Walmart and Starbucks are closing in big cities By Nathaniel Meyersohn,

Posted By on May 13th, 2023

To reinvent downtown retail, drastic changes may be required.

Some of those policymakers, including both Republican and Democratic leaders, have pointed to crime as a chief reason for the closures, following videos of brazen shoplifting incidents.

“We’re losing chain stores that are closing down. People who are being employed in those stores are losing their jobs” because of crime, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, said in February.

But the impact of shoplifting may have been overstated in some cases.

Walgreens said it saw a spike in losses, known as shrink, during the pandemic and cited organized retail crime in its decision to close five San Francisco stores in 2021. But it recently backtracked.

“Maybe we cried too much last year” about shrink numbers, a Walgreens executive said in January.

What Walmart’s pullback from Chicago says about Corporate America’s limits

And instead of a strong correlation with crime rates, the closures aren’t also a recent phenomenon.

San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, New York City, Seattle, Miami and Chicago lost retail stores from the beginning of 2017 to the end of 2021, according to research from the JPMorgan Chase Institute, a think tank.

What’s more, experts agree, the closures aren’t just about crime. Several trends have converged to put these stores at risk.

Perhaps most key is the glut of stores in America.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Trump, DeSantis Descend on Iowa. Longshots Have Never Left. Jake Bevan

Posted By on May 13th, 2023

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2023/05/12/trump_desantis_descend_on_iowa_longshots_have_never_left_149225.html

The mutual combatants in the Republican Party’s most consequential rivalry find themselves in the same theater of action Saturday. Playing to type, populist anti-hero as Donald Trump is the anticipated headliner at a sure-to-be-raucous rally in Des Moines, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is set to speak at a Sioux City fundraiser.

It’s not the head-to-head confrontation many Republicans are anticipating, but Saturday’s near miss highlights the different strategies being employed by the two men who currently stand at the top of the class of 2024 GOP presidential contenders. Both have visited Iowa once in the past month – DeSantis attended a panel in Davenport to promote his memoir, and Trump for a speech on education policy two days later – but Saturday will mark the first time the two have competed simultaneously in the first state to choose convention delegates.

It’s not quite the triumphant return their respective loyalists had hoped for. Each man will take the stage Saturday amid significant shifts in the political landscape – and his own political fortunes.

When Trump visited Iowa in March, DeSantis seemed to be his main worry, barely outpacing the Florida governor in a buzz-worthy favorability poll by the Des Moines Register. Trump arrives in the state Saturday under different circumstances: first, a criminal indictment in New York City that has, if anything, united Republicans; but second, this week’s $5 million jury verdict in a civil case brought by a woman who says Trump once assaulted her in a New York department store dressing room three decades ago.

Nonetheless, DeSantis has watched as polls show him losing touch with the frontrunner. Neither the governor’s extended book tour, nor a recent global sojourn designed to demonstrate foreign policy chops have prevented him from sliding in the polls. Meanwhile, after DeSantis all but declared a victory in his culture war forays against the Disney Co. last month in Davenport, the high-profile skirmish has spun into a protracted bout of legal tit-for-tat that’s reportedly sown doubt among key potential GOP donors.

MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

Officials Neglect Covid Vaccines’ Side Effects Danice Hertz and Brianne Dressen suffered severe neurological symptoms after receiving shots. By Allysia Finley

Posted By on May 13th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-covid-vaccines-neglected-side-effects-neuropathy-nih-fda-cdc-transparency-react19-8afa87b1?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

Brianne Dressen was an energetic mom, an avid hiker and a preschool teacher—until she got a Covid vaccine.

Ms. Dressen, 42, was among the first Americans to be vaccinated. She volunteered to participate in AstraZeneca’s trial, and she received her first dose on Nov. 4, 2020, at a clinic in West Jordan, Utah. “I am pro-science and pro-vaccine,” Ms. Dressen says. “I was more than glad to participate in the scientific process.”

But even highly beneficial vaccines can have rare serious side effects. Minutes after the shot, Ms. Dressen’s arm began to tingle, her vision grew blurry, and sounds became muffled. The clinic suggested she see a neurologist, who directed her to the emergency room. The ER couldn’t figure out what was wrong and sent her home.

Her condition steadily deteriorated over the next 2½ weeks. She experienced extreme nausea, diarrhea, dizziness, painful vibrating sensations, pins and needles in her arms and face, numbness, tremors, brain fog, heart palpitations and fever. Physicians were mystified. They diagnosed her with a “silent migraine” and “anxiety due to the Covid vaccine” after a hospital stay. She was provided occupational and physical therapy but spent weeks in bed, unable to tolerate sound, light or even her children’s touch.

In the ensuing months, she faced not only debilitating symptoms but also bureaucratic indifference—though government officials tried to be helpful at first. On Jan. 11, 2021, her husband, Brian, a U.S. Army chemist, contacted Avindra Nath, intramural clinical director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Dr. Nath responded immediately that he would discuss her condition with other National Institutes of Health neurologists. He asked for blood and spinal-fluid samples for analysis, and he ominously mentioned that “the current political climate is another aspect that we need to keep an eye on.”

Dr. Nath didn’t elaborate, but by now the politics of the Covid vaccines are familiar. Bitter disputes over mandates fed skepticism of the shots and claims, often false and outlandish, about their dangers. At the same time, public-health authorities, anxious to promote vaccination, played down risks that were real if rare, leaving patients like Ms. Dressen in limbo

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

The Biden Administration’s Green Light to Iran’s Terrorists and Nuclear Program by Majid Rafizadeh

Posted By on May 13th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19643/green-light-to-iran

“It is unacceptable that a U.S. government program, which makes the United States and its allies safer, provides funds to remediate the victims of terrorism, and generates income for the United States in a cost-effective manner has been allowed to languish. United States sanctions should be enforced to the fullest extent of the law. As Iranian oil sales continue to rise, and the IRGC continues to target U.S. citizens and servicemembers, including inside the U.S., it is imperative that we use all available government assets to limit the activities of the Iranian regime.” — Senator Joe Manchin and 11 other Senators, in a letter to President Joe Biden, April 27, 2023.

Under the Biden Administration, however, which suspended new oil and gas leases on US public lands and waters, Iran is now producing more oil and selling it at levels close to the pre-sanctions era to countries such as China…

Iran reportedly is exporting more than 1.5 million bpd — approximately 80% of the oil they used to export before the sanctions.

Iran is also shipping considerable amounts of oil to Venezuela without either country fearing repercussions from the Biden Administration.

The Biden Administration’s appeasement policies towards Iran is contributing to the regime’s increased revenue, the major beneficiaries of which are the IRGC, terrorist and militia groups — and of course the Iranian regime’s nuclear weapons program.

Under the Biden Administration, sanctions against the ruling mullahs of Iran have simply become superficial and cosmetic. The Administration appears to be turning a blind eye when Iran’s violates the sanctions, thereby allowing the regime vastly to increase its revenues. Most of these usually assist the regime’s powerful militia and terror group, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), designated as a terrorist organization by the US Department of State.