MobiStine, a Palestinian company that develops medical applications,  based out of Ramallah  and partnered with Israeli company Exshake, has come out with one of the first interactive applications in the Arabic language; an application for new parents who lack important information when pregnancy and having a baby.

So far, the app has over one million downloads from Arabic-speaking countries worldwide.

“The biggest problem,” Husni Abu Samarah, MobiStine’s founder tells to NoCamels, “is how difficult it is for Arabic speakers to find information on the web.” Ten percent of the world’s Muslim population are new parents, he explains. “Because of the lack of information available to the Arabic-speaking public, we have a lot of inexperienced new parents.”

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MobiStine’s new application, available on all mobile platforms partnered with gynecologists and obstetrics to ensure the legitimacy of the health information. “We offer parents all the information needed to guide them through a healthy pregnancy, from the first nine months, until the baby is about three years old,” Abu Samarah says.

Keeping expecting parents informed

The Mobistine app

“New parents are attached to their smart phones and keep it close to them,” Abu Samara adds. “This is why we’ve come up with our innovative new Human Sense Depiction feature. Due to inexperience and lack of common knowledge on the subject of pregnancy, many Arabic women aren’t aware of some of the risks involved in becoming new parents. For example, they may not know that sleeping on your stomach when you’re well into your pregnancy can cause danger to the baby.”

“This feature senses the movement of the body, analyzes this movement as risky for the baby, and alerts the mother to change her position,” Abu Samarah explains.

The app also incorporates a social forum for Arabic-speaking parents to connect with one another and GPS capabilities to guide users to the nearest hospitals, pediatricians, or baby stores.

A niche marker

According to the Abu Samarah, 50 percent of his one million users are returning users. In such a large “niche” market, Abu Samarah is expecting sales to increase drastically. “It’s not in competition with the other hundreds of pregnancy applications in English,” he tells NoCamels. “Even if the English applications could be translated, culturally there are many differences when it comes to raising a child.”

The course, Synapses, Neurons and Brains, has approximately 40,000 students from around the world registered, including students from Lebanon, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Nepal, India, Azerbaijan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco and Algeria, as well as  Europe, South America, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

The online course will acquaint students with the human brain’s functioning and basic components, exciting aspects of current brain research, and the future of brain research. The nine-week course, which will begin on May 31, is taught by Professor Idan Segev of the Hebrew University’s Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences.

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“The course incorporates an active forum where students are invited to ask questions and there are active discussions. Students come from different backgrounds   some without any prior knowledge in the field of brain research,” said Guy Eyal, a moderator from the Hebrew University. “The most interesting thing is the number of students coming from dozens of different countries all over the world. This is really globalization at its best,” said Eyal.

According to Segev, “We are in a unique moment in the study of the brain, as Europe and the US have just announced huge projects costing billions of dollars to advance our understanding of both healthy and diseased brains.” Segev is a partner in the giant Human Brain Project that was recently granted one billion Euros by the European Union.

Making higher education accessible to everyone

In addition to the course on brain science, other courses will soon be offered by Hebrew University faculty including Professor Yaakov Nahmias, director of the Center for Bioengineering, and Professor Jonathan Garb, the 2010 recipient of the Hebrew University President’s Prize for Outstanding Researcher, who teaches at the Department of Jewish Thought at the Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies.  Israeli historian Dr. Yuval Noah Harari will also offer a course on Coursera.

In September 2012 the Hebrew University announced it would partner with Coursera, joining leading US and international universities to make quality content available outside the classroom. The initiative will enable millions of people worldwide to learn from Hebrew University faculty who are leaders in their fields. The Hebrew University is the only Israeli university in the program, alongside partners such as Caltech (California Institute of Technology), Johns Hopkins University, Princeton University and Stanford University.

Coursera was founded in 2011 by Stanford University professors looking for a way to use technology to bring higher education to more people. Backed by leading venture capital firms, Coursera is on a mission to change the world by educating millions of people, by offering classes from top universities and professors online for free.

Photo by dierk schaefer

President Obama was also introduced to Saeed Kharouf, an Arab engineer at the Haifa plant of high-tech powerhouse Intel, who told him he wanted to one day become the company’s president.

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But presidential visits and photo ops aside, diversity is not a strong suit of Israeli high tech. Only 1.4 percent of Israel’s 85,000 high-tech workers – who collectively command the highest salaries in the country – are Arab, even though Arabs make up 20 percent of the population.

An effort to break down the industry’s barriers to Arabs is under way. Tsofen, an ambitious Jewish-Arab nonprofit organization based here in the heart of the Galilee, is working to increase the minority group’s representation in the high-tech industry by providing Arab job applicants with skills, coaching, and connections.

At stake is the ability of Israel’s Arab minority to overcome chronic poverty and to achieve equality with Israeli Jews, Tsofen’s directors say. Fifty-three percent of Israeli Arabs are below the poverty line, three times the percentage of Jews, according to the Adva Center, a Tel Aviv social affairs think tank.

”It is a known fact that high tech is the engine of growth of the Israeli economy,” says Tsofen executive director Smadar Nehab. ”We want it to be the engine of growth of the Arab economy in Israel.”

Israeli Arabs have faced economic and political marginalization for decades and remain excluded from ruling government coalitions by both right and left. The sense of being shunned is palpable among young people hoping to break in to high tech.

“Jews who graduated with me have work, while Arabs who studied with me couldn’t find work in the field and are doing other jobs,” says Bashir Atallah, who graduated with a degree in electrical engineering from Tel Aviv University last June and is at Tsofen enhancing his skills. “The truth is that there is discrimination.”

A high-tech leap forward

It is in Tsofen’s modest offices, located among car-repair shops in the drab Nazareth Industrial Zone, that the Israeli Arab high-tech leap forward has been conceived and is being waged.

Tsofen has its sights set not only on increasing the number of Arabs in existing companies in greater Tel Aviv but on creating a ”critical mass” of Arab high-tech specialists to be based in Nazareth and other Arab cities and thereby transform entire communities, Ms. Nehab says. It puts a lot of effort into helping Arabs navigate the cultural code of the high-tech firms when they submit résumés and come in for interviews.
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Via the Christian Science Monitor
Photo: Tsofen

Three months shy of her 18^th birthday, Tal never got to attend her graduation ceremony or enlist in the IDF, something she had already started preparing for.

When Tal’s family went through her diary, they found a drawing of a camel that had not yet been colored.

In memory of Tal, her family decided to create an application that allows users to complete Tal’s drawing by coloring the camel in creative ways.

The Color Tal Camel App, beautiful in its simplicity, is available for free the iPad.

One of the drawings submitted on the app

About her fondness for camels, Tal’s family write on the app’s website: “Her room was filled with all kinds of stuffed animals. There were especially many kinds of camels. There was even a warning sign that said, “Camel Crossing!”

On the website, the family also write about the day Tal was killed: “In preparation for the draft to the Israeli army, Tal went through a series of tests to volunteer her service in a combat unit. She was supposed to start her army service on December 16th 2003.

“But she killed on March 5th, 2003. On that day, after school she met her friend to plan the end of the year events. They both went downtown to buy some things for this occasion. From downtown, they got a call from their friends to come up to the Carmel [a coastal mountain range in northern Israel].

Tal and her friend, Liz Katzman, were killed on the bus up to the Carmel.

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“I had the privilege to be there when Guilford Glazer first raised the idea. He used to say that a poor and miserable neighbor is a bad neighbor,” BGU President Prof. Rivka Carmi said at the ceremony.

“Israel has to invest in its neighbors. There were some wonderful ideas raised by this competition. Some will have to wait to be implemented, but for some, including the winners, it is possible to get to work tomorrow morning,” she enthused.

High-tech, women in  the workplace and construction

The first prize was awarded to iPAL Outsourcing to Palestine. The project is an online system for employment and job outsourcing between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The website would have Israeli and Palestinian members who post technological services, job openings, and/or projects. The users are private people or companies who sell their services. For example, a web developer could offer his website building service. Each user, whether a person or a company, will have a profile that will include personal details, information, previous jobs and recommendations from other site users. Revenues will stem from income from service providers through the site.

Additionally, the site will offer an advanced search feature for service providers and job offers, and will provide means of communication that are comfortable for both sides. Moreover, the site will include advanced work and management tools such as task management, file sharing tools, chat options, advancing conferencing calls, online payment options, and more. These tools will enable efficient operations and communication between the parties.

The second prize went to Project Wealth – Promoting Local Sustainable Economic Development. This project aims to increase the involvement of women in the labor market, with an emphasis on the food industry. The project focuses on providing tools in product development, marketing, and financing within the field of preservation and transportation of fruits, vegetables, milk and grains, which can then be marketed as a product with a  long shelf-life. The assistance will be given by an existing non-profit organization, founded in 2000, that is not connected to the state. It has extensive ties within and outside the Palestinian Authority, and just last year generated revenues of $2 million.

This project attempts to lead the transition from traditional production methods to more efficient and profitable methods. This will increase the profitability of businesses, increase the amount of women in the workforce, and create networks that will lead to the purchase of these products.

The third prize was awarded to Work Combinations Ltd. This program involves the creation of an online database that would allow business owners (contractors, etc.) to coordinate with Palestinian workers. During the first stage, the focus would be on construction workers, with the possibility of expanding into other areas such as industry and agriculture.

“People willing to make a decision to advance peace, willing to pay the price”

Vice President for External Affairs and key organizer of the competition Prof. Amos Drory added, “This is about imagination and vision, but also about gumption and stubbornness to make this happen. It takes a person like Guilford Glazer to push the envelope and place a topic like this on the public agenda. Thank you to all the people who really care about their projects. It is clear that everyone here believes in their ideas wholeheartedly. This is what it takes to make it happen.”

Head of the judges committee, MK and former BGU President Professor Avishay Braverman commented on the stalled peace process and wished the winners success: “We need people willing to make a decision to advance peace, who are willing to pay the price. My prayers are with you,” he said.

Photo: Dani Machlis/BGU

The PeaceTube Project, a nonprofit project founded in 2011 by two Israeli friends, Lior Penso and Ziv Tubin, along with American CTO Ron Gejman, connects people from opposite sides of conflicts, with the aim of creating a basis for tolerance and dialogue.

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The PeaceTube platform, which is still in development, will allow users to have anonymous interactions through video-chat.  The system is based on the Facebook API and prioritizes users according to conflict. For example, Israelis will be paired with Lebanese or Syrians, Russians with Georgians, Indians with a Pakistanis and so on.  The system will also draw on user’s personal information, in order to create common grounds for conversation.

“As the mediator – we tell the parties about the similarity between them,” says founder Penso, “Imagine for example two users that are Barcelona FC fans, this in itself may induce a better atmosphere for conversation and may increase the chances of progress in dialogue between them.” In the same way the system also appropriates users by age range.

Battling ignorance to promote peace

“Through the platform – we try to enrich the educational experience, since ignorance is the biggest obstacle to the project’s intentions,” says Penso. Accordingly, PeaceTube’s system adds relevant information about the other user’s country, such as its size, its capital city, segmentation of religions etc.

Using the Facebook API, PeaceTube can ensure that behind the user there is an actual person.

Similarly to the “like” button, users have the option to make an in-system gesture and if the other user “likes” them back, they can choose to expose their full name on Facebook, which can be the beginning of a long-term friendship.

“It all started in 2011 during the revolution in Egypt,” Penso tells NoCamels, “there were dozens of different TV Channels and commentators, each of which describes the situation as they see fit.” Penso says that he was longing for an option to “directly contact someone who is actually there and ask them how they see things happening are and to hear their voice.”

According to Penso – PeaceTube can help overcome beliefs that may be presented by leaders or live media: “It’s always easier to show the other side as cruel and generate propaganda,” says Penso, “our platform allows people to bypass the interpretations and prejudices and just talking directly.”

Collaborating with the Peres Center for Peace

Support from the Peres Center for Peace

Yet to be launched officially, most of the project’s marketing is viral. “Before we even had the system code, we made a video that describes exactly who we are and what we do,” Penso tells NoCamels. “After that video, lots of people realized the importance of the project and asked to join.”

The number of volunteers to date is about 30, both Israelis and non-Israelis. “Every one of them contributes in a few areas,” says Penso. “We even have a volunteer in Ramallah in the West Bank. She helps us to spread the word and is the project’s ‘ambassador’ in the area.”

In its early stages, the project was revealed to the Peres Center for Peace, which according to Penso, is a natural partner for the PeaceTube project. “They support us, primarily conceptually,” says Penso. “When the rollout occurs, we will have to raise money, particularly to support the maintenance of the site and public relations purposes,” says Penso.

Educating future generations

The founders say they also hope their tool can be used in education. “A teacher in the US suggested that we develop a permanent video session between classes all around the world, so that middle school students will learn about other cultures and the need for dialogue,” says Penso. Beyond that, founders aim to put the PeaceTube platform on leading news website, so readers would be able to “PeaceTube about it.”

Last February, PeaceTube was recognized by The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (Partnered with MIT) with Honorable Mention for “The efforts and development of a mobile app that enables new avenues for intercultural dialogue.” Penso explains: “We aim to make PeaceTube a worldwide brand for the dissemination of knowledge and good intentions among people – a safe place [which allows people] to develop dialogue. We believe that the interpersonal interaction is an important step towards changing the nature of perception of the other side,” says Penso.

The PeaceTube team is currently working on its Beta launch and hope it will be ready in the next couple of months.

Photo: PeaceTube

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According to Haaretz pupils at the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium are working on a growth system for Spirulina, an algae that’s been dubbed the “superfood” because it contains 70% protein.

Algae isn’t filling the stomach, but at least it’s nutritious, say the students growing the algae medium in old plastic soda bottles. Aerating the mixture with a bubbler, it prevents the need for them to take the bottles home and shake them by hand – as algae needs ample sunlight, and carbon dioxide to grow.

The kids’ project is so promising that UNESCO, Rotary International, and international education organizations and dozens of African schools are interested to know more about how it’s done. The pupils are working on a system so that it can be done in areas in Africa where food is scarce. The algae, which is a plant-based micro-organism, and the slime you find on the inside of your swimming pool, could potentially feed millions of people.
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Via Green Prophet
Photo courtesy of Nir Keidar

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The program will develop the first Hebrew-language educational software program to teach chess in schools and kindergartens; and establish an international program for training chess instructors and coaches.

Gelfand at the 2012 world championship (photo by Stefan64)

“I am honored that the University of Haifa has decided to develop studies connected to chess and I do believe that through these studies we can help children and people of all ages … I am sure this will make our society better – I know people leading in intellectual professions who succeeded thanks to their playing chess in school and continued playing alongside their professional development,” said Gelfand at a reception held in his honor at the university.

The researchers will examine the impact of chess on students’ abilities in math, language acquisition, and other areas.

Analyzing the impact chess has on cognitive functions.

“This initiative is introducing chess and the disciplines involved in the game’s development into the academic world as never before,” says Vice President and Dean of Research Prof. Michal Yerushalmy.

“Through advanced studies in the University’s Department of Computer Sciences and other innovative facilities and with the ongoing guidance of Grandmaster Boris Gelfand, the program will provide an opportunity to achieve breakthrough research and social outreach in a field that has not yet been fully explored,” she explains.

“The University of Haifa is home to some of the best minds in cognitive and developmental research and is well positioned to examine the impact of chess on students’ math skills, language acquisition, and other skills,” she adds,

The University of Haifa’s Grandmaster Chess Research Program will initiate and take part in multiplatform collaborations with international experts and grandmasters to explore the multidisciplinary aspects of chess, such as the scientific, cognitive, political, cultural and historic.

The program will also work to promote the inclusion of chess in school curricula and will develop the first comprehensive educational software program in Hebrew for chess instruction.

There have been other studies on the benefits of chess conducted throughout the world: A study by IBM showed that learning chess improves reading performance and a report by the Education Ministry in Moldova found that grades increased in all subjects for young students learning chess.

Photo by Gary Simmons

“Although these two concepts concern very different outcomes, they both occur when people fixate on existing category information and conventional mindsets,” researcher Carmit Tadmor and her colleagues write in an article published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

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Racism, or “racial essentialism,” is basically the view that racial groups possess underlying essences that represent deep-rooted, unalterable traits and abilities. The researchers hypothesized that, once activated, an essentialist mindset would lead to a reluctance to consider alternative perspectives, resulting in a generalized closed-mindedness.

Triggering racism kills creativity

The researchers manipulated participants’ beliefs about racial essentialism by having them read one of three articles: one that described fictitious scientific research supporting racial essentialist (racist) beliefs, one that described fictitious research supporting racial nonessentialist beliefs, or one about the scientific properties of water.

The participants then took a commonly used test of creativity called the Remote Associates Test. The participants were given three distinct words and they had to identify a single target word that linked the three words together. So, for example, given the words “manners,” “round,” and “tennis,” the correct answer would be “table.”

The researchers found that participants primed with an essentialist viewpoint were less creative, solving significantly fewer of the word problems correctly than participants in the other two groups.

Results may help devise a preemptive strike

A follow up study added further explanation to the results, by showing that racial essentialism and decreased creativity could be explained, at least in part, by an increase in closed-mindedness.

Together, these studies suggest that essentialism exerts its negative effects on creativity by changing how people think, as opposed to changing what they think. This finding fits with previous research on information processing and creativity.

Despite the results being quite preliminary, researchers speculate that there may be a way to implement them for educational purposes. Tadmor and colleagues speculate that it might be possible to use these findings to devise an intervention program that reduces racial essentialist beliefs, thereby leading participants not only to become more socially tolerant but also to unleash their creative potential in the process.

Co-authors on this research include Melody M. Chao of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; Ying-yi Hong of Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University and Beijing Normal University; and Jeffrey T. Polzer of Harvard University.

Photo by Daviniodus

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The company is based out of a series of old animal sheds that Aborkeek’s father gave her when he realized his daughter’s hobby had become a life passion. There, in the outskirts of Tel Sheva in Israel’s Negev desert, a small crew of women makes and sells soaps, creams, lotions and potions derived from plants of the nearby desert.

Large baskets of drying herbs, twigs and strange fruits in various stages of the production process are scattered around the rooms. In the space that was once animal sheds, there’s now a lab, a storage house for raw materials, a kitchen, a storefront and a lecture room and a welcome space for people who come to learn more about Bedouin healing and the products that Aborkeek creates, based on the ancient wisdom of her grandmother.

It all started with some camel milk

The Desert Daughter collection

Aborkeek took her time finding her way in the natural cosmetics business. When she went to London to study marketing 15 years ago, she admired all the fancy name-brand cosmetic products. But after some time she found her skin was getting dry and flaky. On a trip home she went back to using her grandmother’s homemade products, such as soap made from camel’s milk – and the skin problems cleared up.

Around that time, her friends in London started requesting these natural products too and told her they were superior to the store-bought brands. With her compass pointed back home, Aborkeek returned to Israel and decided she would learn the trade from her grandmother. That was in the late 1990s.

“When we lived together in the tent, I remember watching her cutting herbs,” says Aborkeek. “I realized she had so much knowledge, using no preservatives, only herbs and oils.”

The official company Desert Daughter was established in 2005. Later that year, her grandmother died.

Modern ways of applying ancient secrets

Today, Aborkeek’s contributions to her own product line are important. While some of her grandmother’s treatments came from the same raw materials, applications were sometimes sticky and uncomfortable. Aborkeek says she has worked to find ways to distill the healing ingredients from the plants and herbs and put them into products that are comfortable and practical for the “rub in and go” Western way of life.

Aborkeek employs local Bedouin women in her center. Working with Desert Daughter has given these women new opportunities. Tourists come through to sample and buy the products, and the staff helps prepare breakfast or brunch, providing a traditional Bedouin experience based on hospitality.

Some of Aborkeek’s trademark products include camel’s milk soap, black cumin oil soap, and a joint relief oil that can also treat arthritis and back pain, according to Aborkeek. The joint treatment is based on a strange desert fruit: the colocynth, otherwise known as bitter apple, bitter cucumber, desert gourd, egusi or the biblical vine of Sodom.

Another favorite local ingredient sourced by Aborkeek is the white wormwood herb. The perennial shrub grows wild on the steppes of the Mediterranean. It is known as an excellent antiseptic and anti-spasmodic remedy.

Promoting sustainable business in Israel

Bars of soap at the factory

According to the manufacturer, the Desert Daughter products come with both healing and beautifying aspects –– and that’s how Aborkeek sold the idea of going commercial to her grandmother, who at first opposed the idea of making money from the wisdom of the ancients.

Most Desert Daughter products are sold through direct marketing rather than in stores. But Aborkeek does have a fan base of international buyers and is looking for ways to connect better with overseas markets interested in promoting fair trade and sustainable products from Israel.

She says that the act of going out to the desert to pick the herbs and spices each spring is actually good for the plants, some of which are at risk. She learned from her grandmother how to pick so that the plants can regenerate and grow better in the coming year.

And even though she’s dressed traditionally in Bedouin garb, with a headscarf and full dress, Aborkeek’s fancy Italian clogs give away her passion for fashion and appreciation for modern culture as well.

Photo Tadmit MFA