Google Caffeine

Google Caffeine: A Detailed Test of the New Google

By Ben Parr

Did you hear? Google’s launching a new, upgraded version of its search engine soon. And just as important, the search giant released the developer’s preview of it.

Google promises that the new search tool (codename “Caffeine”) will improve the speed, accuracy, size, and comprehensiveness of Google search. While the developer version is a pre-beta release, it’s completely usable. Thus, we’ve decided to put the new Google search through the wringer. We took the developer version for a spin and compared it to not only the current version of Google Search, but to as well.

The categories we tested the new search engine on are as follows: speed, accuracy, temporal relevancy, and index size. Here’s how we define those:

Speed: How fast can the new search engine load results?
Accuracy: Which set of results is more accurate to the search term?
Temporal Relevancy: Is one version of search better at capturing breaking news?
Index Size: Is it really more comprehensive than the last version of Google?
So without further ado, here’s the test:

1. Speed

The first category is incredibly important. How fast do these Google search results come at you anyway? Even a tenth of a second can mean millions for the search company as the longer it takes the load, the more likely someone will go look for results somewhere else.
So how fast is the new search? Lightning fast. As you probably know, Google tells you how long it takes to load results. We tried a few search terms, starting with “Dog.” Here’s the speed result:

Compare that to the original Google search:

0.12 vs. 0.25 seconds? They doubled the speed! That’s tremendous. We tried it with a variety of search terms (“The end of the universe is not here,” “There is no way that you cannot find ben parr. He is hiding back behind the tv,” “FriendFeed and in every instance, the new Google won.
The only potential weak spot was when we added search commands like quotes, subtraction signs, and more. In this case, it was a 50/50 shot as to which Google search was faster.
As for comparing it to Bing: Well, they don’t display how fast it generates results. It’ll have to sit out this speed test for now.
Winner: The New Google

2. Accuracy

While more subjective, accuracy is probably the issue that users care about most. Does the search engine find what you want on the first try? Well, we did our subjective test. New version:

Old version:

You’ll notice that many of the blended search options, like image search and news, don’t appear in the new version. It’s more likely that the features haven’t all been implemented, but it does decrease its relevancy. FriendFeed ranks much higher in the new search than Twitter or Facebook. Our bet is that the new Google has seen a burst of activity on FriendFeed and thus pushes up that result.
Both sets are very accurate, but subjectively, the set displayed by the new Google search more accurately reflect what a user would be looking for. If you’re wondering about Bing, it didn’t even bring up my personal website.
The next search, “Are social media jobs here to stay?” focused on getting my first Mashable article. The result? The new search cares more about keywords than the last. You could clearly see it cared about the full title and brought up more results with those keywords. Both brought a different set of results, but the new search was more relevant.
Winner: The New Google (tentatively)

3. Temporal Relevancy

How good is each at breaking news? The answer: about the same. FriendFeed results were identical, including the top news items. Searches for “Hall of Fame Game” got better news results on the new search. A search for “China Landslide” also got the same Yahoo and BBC news articles – although we did notice that the new search seems to change faster with new articles. It put an MSNBC article up high for updating the death toll:

We also give credit to Bing – on each search, it brought up great results.
Winner: Draw

4. Index Size:

Perhaps the easiest to test, we can tell the index size based on how many results come up for specific search. Here are searches once again for “dog:”

Searches for “Ben Parr” proved that the new Google is better than the old Google in terms of result size. Bing claims 2,210,000 for my name compared to 183,000 for my name, which is strange. Searches for “Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland Trailer” also show Bing > New Google > Old Google
Winner: Bing, it seems

Conclusion

While this test was nowhere near scientific, we do have some solid takeaways:

New Google is FAST: It often doubled the speed of Google classic.

New Google relies more on keywords: SEO professionals, your job just got a lot harder. The algorithm’s definitely different. It has more reliance on keyword strings to produce better results.
Search is moving into real-time: Being able to get info on breaking events is clearly a priority for Google and Bing. With both Twitter and Facebook launching real-time search engines, they needed to respond.

It’s partially a response to Bing: At least, that’s how we feel. This new search has a focus on increasing speed, relevancy, accuracy, and the index volume, things that Microsoft really hit on when it released Bing. It feels as if Google “Caffeine” is meant to shore up any deficiencies it may have when compared to Microsoft’s offering, though it’s been in the works long before Bing launched.

The new Google will only get better as features are implemented and developed. The end result is a better search experience for the user.

Competition really does breed innovation.

Israel To Provide All Residents With Gas Masks

Israel to outfit all residents with gas masks

Barcelona News.Net
Saturday 26th December, 2009

Israel is to outfit its entire population with gas masks. The distribution will commence in two months. No reason has been given by the Israeli government for providing its residents with gas masks.

There has been no indication from any country that it is planning to attack Israel, nor is any country in the Middle East likely to engage Israel in chemical warfare. The move has heightened expectations that Israel may launch an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities which could spark an unconventional response.

It is not known however whether Iran has any chemical or biological weapons capability. Rumors have been circulating in the Middle East that Israel is preparing for another war on Lebanon to rein in Hezbollah. That organization however is not known to harbor chemical or biological weapons. The only country in the region suspected of having a major chemical and biological weapons program is Israel itself, however it is very unlikely Israel would launch such an unconventional attack. Nonetheless in February Israel will roll out gas masks to every resident in the country.



The distribution will be managed by the Israel Defense Forces which have engaged the Israel Postal Company. In past distributions the Home Front Command has engineered the delivery, so the change to Israel Post comes as a surpsie. Israeli residents will be able to collect the new gas masks in one of two ways. The first option will be to go to a branch of the Israel Postal Company, and to receive the new gas mask for free. The second option will be to pay 25 shekels per family and have a representative from the Israel Postal Company call to residents' homes.

The representative will try the gas masks on each family member, and will provide appropriately fitting gas masks for each person who lives in the household. Col. Yosi Sagiv, head of the Gas Mask Administration of the Israel Home Front Command, says when a civilian receives a gas mask delivered to his house, “it is not a package that is simply delivered.”

The Israeli Postal Company representative will make sure the gas mask fits properly, he said. Children up to 8 years of age will be receiving a new gas mask, dubbed the Mamtek (Hebrew for “Candy”), which is being distributed for the first time.

“We are the only country in the world that produces gas masks for children, and the children’s gas mask we produce is the only one in the world that supplies prime defense for this age group,” Col. Sagiv said.

"All that is left is to hope that it will not be necessary to experience first hand how well these gas masks work," he said.

Jasper Schuringa, Dutchman Who Subdued Islamic Terrorist on Flight 253, Recalls Moment

Jasper Schuringa, Dutchman who subdued Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on Flight 253, recalls moment

BY Rich Schapiro
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Sunday, December 27th 2009, 4:00 AM

Via Facebook

Jasper Schuringa, who reportedly aided the cabin crew of Flight 253 in the takedown of terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, says the terrorist appeared to be "in a trance" during the ordeal.

First came a popping noise. Then, Dutch filmmaker Jasper Schuringa saw smoke rising from several seats away inside Northwest Flight 253.

In a flash, Schuringa climbed over the seats and pounced on a terrorist, who was in flames and trying to blow up the plane over Detroit.

"I didn't think," Schuringa said Saturday. "I just went over there to try to save the plane."

Schuringa, his right hand in bandages, described his heroic takedown of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on the same day the Al Qaeda-linked terrorist was charged with trying to blow up the jet.

Schuringa told CNN the flight from Amsterdam was uneventful until it prepared to land in Detroit.

Suddenly, the calm was splintered by a series of pops similar to firecrackers. A few seconds later, he saw smoke billowing from the fellow passenger's body.

"When I saw the suspect, that he was getting on fire, I freaked," Schuringa said. "Without any hesitation, I just jumped over all the seats."

Chaos erupted as the flying Dutchman grabbed the fiery suspect and frantically searched him for explosives.

"I took some kind of object that was already melting and smoking out of him," Schuringa said. "He put something on fire that was hidden in his pants."

Schuringa said a liquidy substance dripped onto the floor, causing two pillows to go up in flames. Nearby passengers screamed and scattered as crew members rushed to retrieve fire extinguishers.

"It went very quick," Schuringa said. "We were all just reacting to the fire. Everyone was panicking."

The brave movie man said he screamed for water as he tried to put out the fire with his hands.

Other passengers joined in trying to stamp out the flames, but the fire intensified.

Schuringa said he realized then that he needed to get Abdulmutallab away from the flames.

"I grabbed the suspect out of the seat because if he was wearing any more explosives, it would be very dangerous," Schuringa said.

"We took him to first class ... stripped him and contained him to make sure he had no more weapons, no more bombs."

Schuringa said that throughout the terrifying plane ordeal, Abdulmutallab appeared to be "in a trance."

"He was staring into nothing," Schuringa said. "The whole plane was screaming, but the suspect, he didn't say a word."

The plane landed safely minutes later, bringing relief to the other 278 passengers and 11 crew members aboard.

A shackled Abdulmutallab was led off the plane by federal agents. Silence greeted his exit.

When Schuringa rose to leave the jet, his fellow passengers broke out in applause.

Still, Schuringa said he was not the only one who deserved credit for saving the jet.

"A lot of people were trying to help," said Schuringa, who was flying to the U.S. for a vacation in Miami. "We had very brave flight attendants. They're also heroes."

rschapiro@nydailynews.com

Related Topics

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2009/12/27/2009-12-27_how_flying_dutchman_made_stop_he_was_getting_on_fire__i_just_jumped_over_the_sea.html#ixzz0avgKfqKs

Google, IBM Select IsIt For First Place At Israel Startup Weekend

Google, IBM Select IsIt For First Place At Israel Startup Weekend

By Herb Brandon
Israel News Agency

Tel Aviv ---- December 20, 2009 ..... It all started as a small advertisement on the social networking Websites Facebook and Twitter. That an organization entitled Startup Weekend was planning to sponsor an entrepreneurial 3 day event in Israel with Google and IBM.

Startup Weekend was established in 2007 and operates out of Seattle, WA by Marc Nager and Clint Nelsen. This creative and rapidly growing hi tech program designed to create global startups has gained much success in over 52 cities and 12 countries from Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Boston to London, Paris, Moscow and Tokyo.

Over 150 Hi Tech programmers, business development, VC investors, marketing, PR and SEO professionals registered and participated in Startup Weekend Israel. Startup Israel was held at the Tel Aviv offices of IBM Israel.

As many Jews observe Shabbat on Saturday, organizers Eddy Resnick, Amir Harel and Shelby Zitelman created a modified and kosher version of Startup Weekend in Israel with day one beginning on Wednesday afternoon and day three ending just before Shabbat on Friday afternoon.

It was more than natural for Startup Weekend to take their program to Israel. Israel has the largest number of high-tech startups in absolute terms after the US and 80 percent of the 3,000 Israel companies involved in R&D are less than 10 years old. Today, some 100 Israel companies are traded on the NYSE, NASDAQ and AMEX equity markets. Other than Canada, no foreign country is so heavily represented on Wall Street. Most of the firms are high-tech companies traded on the NASDAQ, and over a dozen have market capitalizations of over $500 million.

Relative to the size of her population, Israel has more engineers, and sees more scientific articles published, than any other country in the world (Israel has 135 engineers per 10,000 people; the US has 85). However, the stimulus for the industry's growth has been national survival, both military and economic.

Among the global hi tech giants which have research and development facilities in Israel are Intel, IBM, Motorola, Digital, Amdocs, HP, Google, Microsoft, AOL which recently purchased Mirabilis ICQ, and Texas Instruments.

On Wednesday evening the participants enjoyed an opening statement from entrepreneur Yossi Vardi. One by one the developers came to the stage and presented some 50 start up ideas. Then these creative Israelis had to select one idea for which they believed in and would be compatible with their professional capabilities. The groups then began a grueling trek working until 11:30 p.m. and then starting the next day at 9 a.m. and again till 11:30 p.m.

They all returned to fine tune their demos and presentations at 9 a.m. on Friday morning. Plenty of food and coffee was on hand, although one would suspect that more coffee than food was consumed.

It became an extremely intense experience to establish the technological and business model around the idea, and then to decide how the startup group could recruit investment money.

Late Friday morning, at 11:00 a.m. all of the participants were asked to come to the IBM auditorium and present their demos to the judges which included Google and IBM.

IsIt?™, a software application for verifying information on the Internet won first place. The IsIt? team, which coined the slogan "reality in a click" consists of Dan Shamir, Joel Leyden, Erez Paz, Alon Abadi and Gayla Goodman.

IsIt will receive both legal and financial support from Startup Weekend Israel, just enough to get them up and running.

"I was and still am overwhelmed," said Shamir, who serves as the Director and VP of Business Development for ILPMA.

"We knew we had a solution which is in critical demand by the information technology, news, INTEL, B2B, B2C and academia markets, but to have Google and IBM endorse this software, was an honor that I shall never forget."

The two runner ups were PsychTech, which developed a method for analyzing people by how they use a computer mouse and keyboard followed by a Web site called FrayerMeter.com.

Astrails, a Startup Weekend sponsor had only one word to describe the 3 day event: "awesome."

Tal Ron, CEO of Tal Ron, Drihem and Co, which also sponsored the Startup Weekend said: "We want to sponsor the next 'how many' Startup Weekends. This is great."

"I am just floored by what you guys could put together in less than two days. In other Startup Weekends around the world they have two full days plus an evening to put their projects together - and you managed the same in about half of the time. This is wild," said Eddy Resnick, founder of Clouds 'R Us and one of the organizers for Startup Weekend Israel.

As the event took place in the warm and well lit offices and conference rooms of IBM, a fierce dust storm was blowing outside. But not one of the participants noticed as they were all glued to their laptops.

"This is blast. I'm having a wonderful time," said Shelby Zitelman, one of the organizers, who through the many long hours maintained a smile and cheerful attitude.

Amir Harel, another organizer of Startup Weekend Israel stated: "We need more programmers. There are so many great ideas only if we could implement them all."

"Israel is very well known and respected for being a global leader in the fields of technology," said Joel Leyden, President of the Leyden Internet Marketing and Digital PR Communications Group. Leyden, who has a background in journalism and SEO, is a member of the IsIt startup team.

"What we saw at Startup Weekend Israel was history. Israel has witnessed hundreds of networking events and trade shows but never before was that networking activity immediately implemented into creating startups. I think coffee was not needed. This was a pure adrenaline rush as we ran fervishly against the clock to create, implement and outperform the other startup teams. It was pretty much like being in a reserve IDF combat unit. You had only minutes to get to know your comrades to carry out an effective and comprehensive mission."

Attendees came from Tel Aviv, Ashdod, Hadera, Haifa, Ra'anana, Afula, Jerusalem, Beer Sheva, Holon, Sderot, Kiryat Shomona, Katzrin, Rehovot and Herzliya.

The organizers state that Startup Weekend provided an unprecedented level of networking, team building, learning, and life changes for its attendees and their communities. This entrepreneur built event came with 6-7 meals and soft drinks and plenty of coffee.

The organizers prefaced the event with a warning: "Since it will be Hanukah, we plan to stuff you with doughnuts and latkes, so be prepared."

This writer was not sure which was more dangerous - the stress of creating a startup in 54 hours or devouring thousand of calories from a wide and tasty variety of doughnuts and sandwiches.

But one thing was certain, given the competitive nature of this startup event there was still an environment of warmth, friendliness and professional cooperation. Between the intense Java, HTML and Flash programming and the designing of Powerpoint presentations were dozens of smiles and cordial conversations between the various groups.

Speakers included: Nir Bar-Lev, Google Head of Analysis Products, EMEA., Ofer Adler of IncrediMail and Avichay Nissenbaum, CEO and Co-founder of Yedda, an AOL company.

This Startup Weekend is the first ever Startup Weekend to take place in Israel. Startup Weekend sent Clint Nelson, a partner at Startup weekend, to join and supervise the Israeli event.

In addition to IBM Israel, other sponsors included Astrails, Tal Ron, Drihem and Co., The Marker. see.V and Newsgeek, Amazon Web Services, Zend, and Platonix Joint Ventures.

The Israel News Agency and Newsgeek reported live from Israel Startup Weekend via Twitter and Facebook status updates and photos.

Regardless of the number of companies created in Israel by Startup Weekend, the event illustrated Israeli determination to break through a global recession. A positive attitude by Israeli entrepreneurs which has not changed since 1948. An effective attitude of survival which serves as a shining example to every person, every political and corporate leader, every company and organization throughout the world.

The Israel News Agency, which is accredited by Israel Government Press Office, was the first on line news organization in Israel. The INA reaches up to 60 million readers through Google News and Internet social networking channels such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube from New York, London, Moscow and Paris to Toronto, Los Angeles, China and India. Leyden is presently launching the United States News Agency using the INA as a successful working model.

The above news content was edited and SEO optimized in New York, London and Israel for the Internet by the Leyden Communications Internet Marketing PR SEO Group London SEO Pr New York SEO Pr Israel SEO Pr Israel, London, New York.

Israel Opposition Leader Livni, Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu
Agree On One Thing: UK, England Sucks!

DEBKAfile Special Report

December 15, 2009, 6:38 PM (GMT+02:00)

Opposition leader Tzipi Livni

The British court practice of issuing war crimes warrants against Israeli official visitors has catapulted UK-Israel relations to the brink of a crisis. Tuesday, Dec. 15, prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said he takes a grave view of the warrant for the arrest of opposition leader Tzipi Livni issued by pro-Palestinian campaigners for her role in the cabinet which conducted Operation Cast Lead in Gaza a year ago.

"We will never countenance a circumstance which puts Ehud Olmert, Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni in the dock" or allows Israeli soldiers and commanders "who fought heroically and morally for their country" to be accused of war crimes. This is totally absurd, he said.

UK foreign secretary David Miliband agreed this situation was insufferable and promised to correct it, after Netanyahu's national security adviser Uzi Arad summoned British ambassador Tom Phillips and informed him that the UK was expected to put an end to an immoral practice aimed at impugning Israel's right to self-defense.

Ambassador Philips was also told by Naor Gilon, deputy director general at the foreign ministry in Jerusalem, that if Israeli officials continued to be unable to visit London, the UK's role in Middle East diplomacy would be compromised.

Tzipi Livni cancelled the visit to London planned for the coming weekend to step around the British legal loophole exploited by pro-Palestinian campaigners since 2005 to try and drag Israeli officials and former commanders before London courts on charges of "war crimes." She was to have addressed a JNF conference and met British prime minister Gordon Brown.

Ironically, she nearly fell into the very loophole she failed to plug during her years as foreign minister in the previous government. It is a British legal oddity which allows individuals in the UK to petition police to arrest foreigners as suspected war criminals, on the principle of universal jurisdiction.

Two British premiers, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, promised her to amend the law which has never been used against any other world politicians, even tyrants like Zimbabwe's Mugabe, but they never did anything about it.

Livni herself said she was not bothered by the world's judgment of Israel for doing what it needs to do and what is right. As a member of former war cabinets, she stressed she would repeat each and every decision. What she found most troubling was the failure in some quarters to distinguish between terrorists and their actions and the duty performed by Israel soldiers in their country's defense.

Israel complies with international law no less than any other Western country such as the US and Britain. As foreign minister, Livni was much less vehement.

At the foreign ministry Tuesday, the British ambassador heard a long list of unresolved Israeli grievances against his government. They included its support for the Swedish proposal for the European Union to recognize East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state, the biased Goldstone Report, the various British boycotts of Israel - academic and commercial, including the Brown government's directive to chain stores to blacklist Israeli products manufactured on the West Bank.

Livni was not the first Israeli official to be hounded by pro-Palestinian groups and lawyers.

The most bizarre incident occurred earlier this year when Gordon Brown invited Israel Defense Minister Ehud Barak to Downing Street and was almost prevented from seeing him by one of those court orders. The UK premier hurriedly intervened to get the court order delayed until the Israeli minister left England.

However, Moshe Yaalon, strategic affairs minister, called off a UK visit to address a fundraiser for Israeli soldiers two months ago. In an earlier embarrassing diplomatic incident in September 2005, retired Israel General Doron Almog was warned not to disembark from a plane at Heathrow because a British police officer was waiting at the terminal with an arrest warrant submitted by pro-Palestinian "human rights activists."

Startup Weekend Comes To Israel

Startup Weekend Comes To Israel

By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency

Jerusalem ---- December 14, 2009 ..... Startup Weekend is coming to Israel. A entrepreneurial concept which sounds and feels very Israeli was born in 2007 in the US by Andrew Hyde. Today Startup Weekend is operated out of Seattle, WA by Marc Nager and Clint Nelsen with development support coming from Cameron Preston, Mick Thompson and Timothy Ting.

This creative and rapidly growing program has already met with success in over 52 cities and 12 countries from Los Angeles, New York and Boston to London, Paris and Tokyo.

The participants that will attend Startup Weekend in Tel Aviv, Israel will decide what they want to tackle over the modified Jewish "weekend" and come out at the end with several developed companies or projects.

Attendees from Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Ashdod, Hadera, Ra'anana, Afula, Holon, Sderot, Kiryat Shomona, Katzrin, Rehovot and Herzliya are responsible for bringing the same desire and passion to the project and leave the room with the task at hand, in a short 54 hours. The experience has been described as intense. And it appears that it is.

As opposed to the rest of the world, Startup Weekend in Israel cannot take place over the weekend. As many Jews in Israel observe Shabbat and are not allowed to work, Startup Weekend in Israel will take place on a Wednesday and Thursday.

Israel coordinators Amir Harel, Eddy Resnick and Shelby Zitelman describe Startup Weekend Israel as: "a kosher version, so the event will start on Wednesday, 16 December at 16:00 and will end Friday, 18 December, one hour before Shabbat."

The organizer preface the event with a warning: "Since it will be Hanukah, we plan to stuff you with doughnuts and latkes, so be prepared."

Amir Harel, one of StartUp Weekend Israel’s organizers was curious as to why StartUp Weekend was not being held in Israel. He posed the innocent sounding question to Marc Nager, the founder and CEO of StartUp Weekend.

"How come you haven't brought the event to Israel?" Nager responded: "build it and they shall come".

Harel, a software developer and experienced product marketing professional, then recruited Eddy Resnik to launch the conference in Israel.

“It is well known that Israel is the ‘Silicon Wadi’ next to the US West Coast "Silicon Valley". For any number of reasons – enjoying a hi-tech IDF army, a heavy influx of highly intelligent and motivated Russian immigrants, a lack of natural resources - Israel has become and is respected for being a hotbed for startups and innovation."

According to Resnik, Israel was the next logical place for StartUp Weekend.

“It is well known that Israel is the ‘Silicon Wadi’ next to the US West Coast "Silicon Valley". For any number of reasons – enjoying a hi-tech IDF army, a heavy influx of highly intelligent and motivated Russian immigrants, a lack of natural resources - Israel has become and is respected for being a hotbed for startups and innovation."

The majority of participants that will join the sold-out IBM sponsored event in Israel, discovered the event as it was advertised on social networking Internet sites Facebook and Twitter.

But why on the Jewish holiday of Hanukka?

Resnik told the Israel News Agency that in order to accommodate for as many professionals as possible, the event was coordinated during Hanukkah, when many have vacation time to spare. "Sufganiyot (jelly donuts) and a Chanukah will be on site for participants to enjoy," said Resnik. Additionally, the 'weekend' will be ending before Shabbat, to ensure that Shabbat observance is not compromised.

“We wanted to make sure that everyone who wanted to participate could, regardless of their religious background” said Harel.

The organizers state that Startup Weekend provides an unprecedented level of networking, team building, learning, and life changes for its attendees and their communities. This entrepreneur built event comes with 6-7 meals and soft drinks and plenty of coffee.

"There is a reason that most attendees come back for every event – it’s just plain fun and provides amazing opportunities you can’t get anywhere else," says the organizers in Israel. "Sometimes a company emerges, sometimes one doesn’t. Some companies go on to produce revenue or get seed funding, but every time people leave with more experience, insight, knowledge, friends, and resources than they came with."

Speakers will include: Nir Bar-Lev, Google Head of Analysis Products, EMEA., Ofer Adler of IncrediMail and Avichay Nissenbaum, CEO and Co-founder of Yedda, an AOL company.

This Startup Weekend is the first ever Startup Weekend to take place in Israel. For this happy occasion, Startup Weekend has sent Clint Nelson, a partner at Startup weekend, to join us in the Holy Land.

In addition to IBM Israel, other sponsors include Astrails, Tal Ron, Drihem and Co., The Marker. see.V and Newsgeek, Amazon Web Services, Zend, and Platonix Joint Ventures.

The Israel News Agency will be reporting live from this Israel Startup Weekend via Twitter and Facebook status updates. A kosher 54 hour event where a bunch of Jewish technologists and web warriors will get together with the goal of creating a product and a community.

Stay tuned as one can only imagine what can evolve from an American entrepreneurial idea which arrives on the shores of Startup Nation Israel.

And one element remains unchallenged.

Regardless of the number of companies created in Israel by Startup Weekend, the event illustrates Israeli determination to break through a global recession. A positive attitude by Israeli entrepreneurs which has not changed since 1948. An effective attitude of survival which serves as a shining example to every person, every political and corporate leader, every company and organization throughout the world.

The Israel News Agency, which is accredited by Israel Government Press Office, was the first on line news organization in Israel. The INA reaches up to 60 million readers through Google News and Internet social networking channels such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube from New York, London, Moscow and Paris to Toronto, Los Angeles, China and India. Leyden is presently launching the United States News Agency using the INA as a successful working model.

The above news content was edited and SEO optimized in New York, London and Israel for the Internet by the Leyden Communications Internet Marketing PR SEO Group London SEO Pr New York SEO Pr Israel SEO Pr Israel, London, New York.

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Jewish Speed Dating Expands in London, New York, Israel

Speed Dating Expands in London, New York, Israel

By Gayla Goodman
Israel News Agency

Tel Aviv, Israel ---- December 2009 ..... Speed dating, a highly popular, formalized dating system whose purpose is to encourage people to meet a large number of new people traces its origins to Rabbi Yaacov Deyo of Aish HaTorah. The Rabbi has said it was originally created as a way to help Jewish singles meet and marry. Today, Michal Matityahu, a native of Tel Aviv is ensuring that Rabbi Deyo work is carried on and expanded.

"I saw a need to bring Jewish singles together,” Matityahu told the Israel News Agency.
“I understand the critical importance of bringing Jews together in the Diaspora, to create an environment where they could meet face to face."

For more, click here:

Jewish Speed Dating Expands in London, New York, Israel

A Hannukah Gift

A Hannukah Gift

By BRIAN BLONDY
The Jerusalem Post

It is an ancient royal communiqué that details the appointment of a new tax collector. And its text, newly deciphered after four recent archeological finds were put together, brings demonstrable veracity to the events that precipitated the Maccabean Revolt in 167-164 BCE and the story of Hanukka.

Brought together earlier this year, the stele's reunited pieces yielded a text that dovetails with Maccabees II.
Photo: Peter Lenyi, Israel Museum

The significance of the communiqué, sent from the Syrian-Greek King Seleucus IV (187-175 BCE) to the ruling leadership in Judea, emerged when it was realized that three inscribed pieces of stone found at Beit Guvrin's Tel Maresha between 2005 and 2006 belonged together with a larger stele piece that was donated to the Israel Museum in 2007.

The reconstituted stele, or inscribed tablet, yielded a text from the king dated 178 BCE - 11 years before the Maccabean Revolt. It set out instructions to his chief minister Heliodorus concerning the appointment of one Olympiodorus to begin collecting money from all of the temples in the region, marking the start of a significant, negative shift in Seleucid policy on Jewish autonomy. That shift culminated in a vicious Seleucid crackdown on the Jews of Judea and the looting of the Temple in 168-167 BCE, which prompted the Maccabean Revolt as memorialized in the Hanukka story.

The three smaller pieces, which come from the base of the stele, were unearthed under the aegis of Dr. Ian Stern's Archaeological Seminars Institute program "Dig for a Day."

For 25 years, Stern has brought amateur volunteers to participate in his excavations at Tel Maresha in the Beit Guvrin National Park. During a "Dig for a Day" seminar in December 2005, lucky participants found a broken stone artifact in a cave in the area which bore a Greek inscription. Although the find was exceptional, its full historical significance was not apparent at the time.

"The inscription contained 13 lines, many of them broken. The find was distinctive because it was written not on local, chalky kirton stone, but on higher-quality Hebron limestone," Stern told The Jerusalem Post.

The following June and July, two more pieces with Greek text were found at the same Maresha site, and excitement about the potential significance of the finds mounted.

Then, in early 2007, a large stele with sections missing at its base was provided on extended loan to the Israel Museum by birthright israel co-founder Michael Steinhardt and his wife Judy, of New York. Considered one of the most important ancestral inscriptions ever found in Israel, and exhibited at the museum that May and June, the stele has not been on display since because the museum's archeological section has been undergoing a comprehensive overhaul.

Purchased by the Steinhardts on the antiquities market from a collector in early 2007, the 178 BCE stele contains 28 lines of Greek text, outlining the royal instructions to Heliodorus.

In March 2007, shortly before the stele was displayed at the Israel Museum, Dr. Hannah M. Cotton-Paltiel, a specialist in classical languages from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Prof. Michael Wöerrle of the Commission for Ancient History and Epigraphy at the German Archaeological Institute in Munich, published a translation and a research analysis of the stele text.

That same year, unaware of any possible connection to the stele, Stern consulted with Dr. Dov Gera, a Ben-Gurion University specialist in Second Temple Jewish history and Greek Epigraphy, over the three pieces found at Maresha. Gera, who then set to work deciphering the inscriptions on the first Stern piece only, told the Post that initially he hadn't made "much headway at all."

"It was only later, in the fall of 2008 at the warehouses of the Israel Antiquities Authority, that I managed to see all of the pieces Stern had found at his site together, and I began to recognize their similarity to the Israel Museum piece, which I'd seen during its exhibition," Gera continued.

"Working with the three pieces at the warehouse, spending time at the library and time at home, there was one particular moment when I just realized that the three [Stern] pieces belonged to the same inscription" as the one on the stele he'd seen the previous year at the Israel Museum.

When the stele was placed together for the first time - in February of this year - with the three fragments found by Stern's volunteer diggers, Stern proudly recalled, "They were a perfect match."

Another researcher who has worked with Stern, Tel Aviv University Prof. Yuval Goren, is certain, on the basis of its patina and the soil remnants attached to it, that the Steinhardt-purchased stele must have come from the same chalky cave area where the other three pieces were found. Together, the stele and its fragments constitute the largest inscription of its kind ever discovered in Israel.

The stele's deciphered text, from Seleucus IV to chief minister Heliodorus and two other Seleucid officials, Dorymenes and Diophanes, dovetails neatly with the second book of Maccabees. Seleucus IV was the elder brother of Antiochus IV, who succeeded him and whose persecution of the Jews is cited in Maccabees II as having sparked the Maccabean Revolt. Heliodorus is described in the same book as having caused the first open conflict between Seleucids and Jews by attempting to seize funds from the Temple of Jerusalem in the same year as the communiqué, 178 BCE.

In the message, which was presumably meant to have been seen by the residents of Maresha - one of the centers of the Jewish community in that era - Heliodorus is formally informed that Olympiodorus has been appointed, among other responsibilities, to oversee the collection of taxes with "moderation" from all of the major sanctuaries within the satrapies, or provinces, of Coele-Syria (later Palestine and Israel) and Phoenecia (along the Mediterranean coast of modern day Lebanon). It is presumed that this new appointment was necessitated by the death or dismissal of a former governor.

Olympiodorus's appointment as an overseer of all of the sanctuaries in Coele-Syria and Phoenecia - emphatically including the Temple in Jerusalem - was intended to expand the Seleucid Empire's financial jurisdiction, according to Gera.

Until that point, the empire had not taxed the Jews of the region. The previous king, Antiochus III, father of Seleucus IV and Antiochus IV, had allowed broad religious autonomy for the peoples of his empire's satrapies during his 222-187 BCE reign. And Seleucus IV had continued to respect his father's arrangements with the Jews - until, that is, the empire presumably began to run out of money.

Brought together earlier this year, the stele's reunited pieces yielded a text that dovetails with Maccabees II.
Photo: Peter Lenyi, Israel Museum

As Stephen Gabriel Rosenberg of the W. F. Albright Institute of Archeological Research, Jerusalem, noted by in a Post oped last year, "The Jews of Jerusalem had welcomed Antiochus III by opening the city gates to his army in 200 BCE, in return for which he had given them a charter that allowed them to live according to their ancestral ways, exempted the priests from taxes and even made royal contributions to the Temple upkeep and sacrifices."

The appointment of Olympiodorus and the new requirement to pay taxes to the empire, as detailed in the stele, thus evidently represented a dramatic shift in the Seleucids' attitude toward the Jews. It may well have been regarded in Judea as a direct violation of Jewish religious autonomy - a breach of the written status quo as agreed upon in the charter with Antiochus III.

Temples at the time were the safest place to store money, according to Stern. The temptation to seek a share from the Jews' temple in Jerusalem for the indebted Seleucid Empire - which owed money to Rome over an indemnity exacted by the Roman Empire in response to Seleucid expansion in the region - was evidently overwhelming.

According to Maccabees II, it was Simon of Bilgah, out of spite toward the Jewish High Priest Onias, who mentioned to the local Seleucid governor that the Temple in Jerusalem contained "untold riches... and suggested that these... might be brought under the control of (Seleucus IV)."

As written in Maccabees II and depicted in Raphael's painting "The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple," Heliodorus was sent by Seleucus to raid the treasure housed in the Temple. Upon entering, Heliodorus was confronted by a horse and rider in golden armor flanked by two youths who beat Heliodorus to the ground. His life was spared through the intervention of Onias, and he was hauled out of the Temple empty-handed.

Gera told the Post he personally hypothesized that it was not Heliodorus, but Olympiodorus, who attempted to enter the Temple and was rebuffed, and that the apparent confusion and/or historical revisionism was designed to portray the major figure of the region, Heliodorus - rather than a minor figure like Olympiodorus - in a negative light across the region.

Three years later, in 175 BCE, Heliodorus murdered Seleucus IV and took power, only to be quickly overthrown by Antiochus IV, who returned from imprisonment in Rome.

Antiochus IV, it is widely believed, sought to Hellenize the Jews (although a Hebrew University professor, Doron Mendels, disputes this in a new book, Jewish Identities in Antiquity, arguing that while, in the decade of the 160s BCE, the Greek Seleucid kingdom decreed that Jews must cease obeying the Jewish ritual commandments, it did not specifically require them to adopt Hellenistic practices.) In 169/168 BCE, the Temple was turned into a shrine to the Greek god Zeus, the Temple treasury was robbed, the Holy of Holies was desecrated and all Jewish religious customs were outlawed. Around 167 BCE, as false rumors swirled of Antiochus's death in Egypt, revolt broke out in Judea. Hearing of the uprising, the king marched his army into Judea in an attempt to suppress it.

As described in Maccabees II, "when these happenings were reported to the king, he thought that Judea was in revolt. Raging like a wild animal, he set out from Egypt and took Jerusalem by storm. He ordered his soldiers to cut down without mercy those whom they met and to slay those who took refuge in their houses. There was a massacre of young and old, a killing of women and children, a slaughter of virgins and infants. In the space of three days, 80,000 were lost, 40,000 meeting a violent death, and the same number being sold into slavery."

Ongoing violence culminated in the Maccabean Revolt against the empire, led by Mattathias and his five sons, Judah, Eleazar, Simeon, Yohanan and Jonathon. By 164 BCE, the revolt had ended in success, and the desecrated Temple was liberated and cleansed on the 25th of Kislev - the first day of Hanukka to this day.

According to David Mevorah, curator of Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Periods at the Israel Museum, the stele, along with the three Stern pieces, is now in storage at the museum. The reconstituted stele will go on prominent public display when the museum's new archeological department is opened next summer.