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Reprinted from News-Medical.net, July 29, 2008
The article from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study (NBDPS), “Diabetes Mellitus and Birth Defects,” shows that pregnant women with pre-gestational diabetes mellitus (pre-pregnancy diagnosis of diabetes, such as type 1 or type 2 diabetes) are more likely than a mother with no diabetes or a mother with gestational diabetes mellitus (pregnancy-induced diabetes) to have a child with various types of individual or multiple birth defects. This includes heart defects, defects of the brain and spine, oral clefts, defects of the kidneys and gastrointestinal tract and limb deficiencies. This study is the first to show the broad range and severity of birth defects associated with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
“The continued association of diabetes with a number of birth defects highlights the importance of increasing the number of women who receive the best possible preconception care, especially for those women diagnosed with diabetes,” says Adolfo Correa, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D., lead author and epidemiologist at CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities. “Early and effective management of diabetes for pregnant women is critical in helping to not only prevent birth defects, but also to reduce the risk for other health complications for them and their children.”
Researchers also found that some of the pregnant women with gestational diabetes were more likely to have a child with birth defects. Because birth defects associated with diabetes are more likely to occur during the first trimester of pregnancy and before a diagnosis of gestational diabetes is made, the observed associations suggest that some of the mothers with it probably had undiagnosed diabetes before they became pregnant. However symptoms went unnoticed until pregnancy.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Health Sciences, Special Education on July 30, 2008 - כ"ז תמוז תשס"ח at 10:54 am
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by Rabbi David Rosen, Common Ground News Service, July 30, 2008
Jerusalem – Last week, an amazingly colourful array of Arab princes and Muslim clerics came together with representatives of the world’s major faiths in the Spanish Royal El Prado Palace in Madrid. While the Western media generally failed to appreciate the magnitude of the event, the Arab media understood how important it really was. Not only was this the first international multi-faith conference ever initiated by an Arab Muslim leader, it was inaugurated by the king of the Muslim world’s heartland, Saudi Arabia, where the most conservative Muslim outlook prevails.
At the opening event, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud emphasised his conviction that authentic religion is expressed in a spirit of moderation and tolerance, that concord must be elevated above conflict. In order to address the global challenges of our time, he called for cooperation and collaboration between the different religions.
This green light for interfaith dialogue and collaboration opened the gates for the curious but cautious. As a member of the Jewish delegation – composed of some 15 rabbis and scholars – we seemed most affected by his “permission”.
The Arab media interviewed us incessantly, and prominent Arab figures approached us, many of whom had never before met a Jew – let alone a rabbi. The encounter ignited a humanising flame that began to burn away the demonised image of the other. For this alone it was worthwhile.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Middle East Report, Monotheistic Religions, News Articles on July 30, 2008 - כ"ז תמוז תשס"ח at 2:15 am
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By RYAN JONES, Israel Today, July 28, 2008
The growing number of Israeli Arabs buying into the Palestinian narrative of a cruel and heartless Israel is further evidence of why there will never be true peace in this region as a result of man’s efforts.
Oh sure, pieces of paper headlined “Peace Agreement” will be signed, but on the ground there will be no peace.
Former US President John F. Kennedy said it best in an address to the UN General Assembly in 1963:
“But peace does not rest in the charters and covenants alone. It lies in the hearts and minds of all people. So let us not rest all our hopes on parchment and on paper, let us strive to build peace, a desire for peace, a willingness to work for peace in the hearts and minds of all of our people.”
If that is true, then Arab officials who are today pushing for written peace agreements are at the same time ensuring that true peace will remain elusive by training their people to hate.
An entire generation of Palestinian and Israeli Arabs today believes even the most unsubstantiated lies taught to them by their elders, educators and media. And these lies are not formulated to be temporary tactics in a short-lived conflict, but rather to engender life-long animosity toward Israeli Jews.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Education Report, Middle East Report, Monotheistic Religions, Opinion, Recent Posts on July 29, 2008 - כ"ו תמוז תשס"ח at 2:23 am
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By Moshe Arens, Haaretz, July 28, 2008
Over 41 years have passed since, in the wake of the Six-Day War, the Israeli government extended the municipal borders of Jerusalem to the east, north and south. This expansion led to the inclusion of a large Arab population within the city’s boundaries. Jerusalem was officially enlarged and united, but has in large measure remained divided to this day.
Successive governments have wanted to see Jerusalem united on the map without understanding that this must also involve integrating the Arab population residing in the new, expanded areas into the city – which in effect means its integration into Israel. Almost nothing was done over the years to bring this about. Most of the Israeli left only thought of ridding Israel of this territory, while most of the right preferred to look at the amount of land that was annexed while ignoring the Arab population residing there.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Middle East Report, Opinion, Recent Posts on July 29, 2008 - כ"ו תמוז תשס"ח at 1:54 am
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By Robin Lloyd, LiveScience Senior Editor, 24 July 2008
Old people are known to be lousy sleepers, but a new study suggests it might all be in their heads, at least for many of them.
Medications, poor health, bad bedtime habits (such as watching a movie or drinking coffee or booze), circadian rhythms, and too much or too little in their personal "sleep bank" have all taken the blame for seniors’ common complaints of insomnia.
Elizabeth Klerman of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Harvard Medical School set out to clear it up once and for all with a controlled study of 18 subjects ages 60 to 76 and 35 younger subjects, ages 18 to 32, all healthy and not on medication that might affect sleep. Even people who had crossed more than one time zone in the past 3 months were disqualified, as well as those who had worked night or rotating shifts in the past three years.
After monitoring their sleep at home, the subjects were regularly instructed to lie quietly with their eyes closed and to try to sleep, for as much as 16 hours daily for several days in a row. They had all the time in the world.
The bottom line was that the seniors simply needed less sleep — about 1.5 hours less.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Health Sciences on July 27, 2008 - כ"ד תמוז תשס"ח at 9:56 am
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By Karin Kloosterman, Israel 21C, July 24, 2008
As soon as the summer is over and the fall begins, people in the northern United States start winterizing their vehicles. With more than 250 million cars on the road, and winter tires needed for many, it’s frightening to imagine where all those old tires go.
Most people do not realize that old tires are a health, safety and environmental hazard. Disease-carrying mosquitoes nest in them, and if they catch fire, they can burn for weeks, releasing toxic fumes into the air, and chemicals into our groundwater.
An Israeli company based in the Ukraine, has found a safe and environmentally friendly way to dispose of old tires: the pollution-free process consumes no energy and produces attractive byproducts, such as gas for your car.
Using an electromagnetic field and depriving the system of oxygen, Coral Group applies its “soft pyrolysis” method to break down old tires into basic components. Pyrolysis is a process that decomposes organic materials in the total absence of oxygen. And in Coral’s method, attractive end products are created. They include kerosene (jet fuel), benzene (automobile fuel), diesel, oil and black carbon.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Alternative Energy, Business and Commerce, Climate Change, Middle East Report, Science and Technology on July 27, 2008 - כ"ד תמוז תשס"ח at 5:01 am
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By Raymond Ibrahim, Dhimmi Watch, July 24, 2008
See Also: Arab Peace Strategy
The Palestinian-Israeli question has been a thorn in the world’s side for some time now. And clearly, many people—not just Arabs—sympathize with the uprooted Palestinians. The argument, in a nutshell, is that Israel was forcefully and artificially created and populated by people who, unlike the Arabs, are not truly indigenous to the land of Palestine. Moreover, the “true” inhabitants—the Arabs—have been forcefully ejected, oppressed, not given a “voice,” etc. In a word, the Jews have seized another people’s land.
But it’s somewhat ironic that while the Arabs are crying out for “humanitarian” justice (via the dissolution of Israel), and many non-Arabs want to see them receive it, few consider this matter with the aid of those two disciplines that were originally the backbone of all intellectual discourse and which can truly better elucidate the situation: history and philosophy, or simply, common sense.
Historically, the land of Palestine has been conquered, and conquered, and conquered again—by a myriad of peoples, including Hebrews, Babylonians and Persians, Greeks and Romans, Arabs, Crusaders, Turks, and now finally, modern-day Jews. Conquest and “land-grabbing” have always been something of a natural occurrence throughout world-history: lands were conquered and that was the end of it—till the next conqueror came along. In fact, if modern-day Jews have usurped Palestine, so too have the Arabs before them. In the early 7th century, the Arabs, recently unified under the banner of Islam and its Prophet, burst out of Arabia and conquered as many lands as they possibly could—the entire globe being the (currently unrealized) goal. Thus Palestine, originally, was not “Arab” and definitely not “Muslim.” Generally speaking, it was Semitic.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Islam, Middle East Report, Opinion, Recent Posts on July 25, 2008 - כ"ב תמוז תשס"ח at 6:30 pm
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By ALBERT LOW, Canada.com, July 25, 2008
Contrary to Christopher Hitchens’s assertion, (“The eyes have it,”July 23), not all who are sympathetic to the idea of intelligent design are creationists.
Indeed, those who support intelligent design range from those who are more or less creationists to those who are more or less Darwinians, with all the gradations between. Unfortunately what could be an interesting debate on the origins of human nature has become an exchange of dogmas amid hurled epithets.
One does not have to reject the main tenets of Darwin’s theory to embrace the idea that intelligence and creativity play a part in evolution. That organisms have evolved, that accident has played a part in this evolution and that natural selection has been the refining agent all seem perfectly reasonable. What does not seem to be reasonable is that human genius and creativity – such as shown by Einstein, Newton, Mozart and Michelangelo – is the result of accidental or random mutation. Neither does human compassion and altruism – again as, for example, shown by Christ, Buddha and Mother Teresa – seem to be simply strategies for survival.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Evolutionary Biology, Monotheistic Religions, Recent Posts, Science on July 25, 2008 - כ"ב תמוז תשס"ח at 5:38 am
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Wednesday, July 23, 2008 Israel Today Staff
A leader of Israel’s Druze Arab community on Wednesday said that the events surrounding a second bulldozer terrorist attack in Jerusalem a day earlier was evidence of the sect’s ongoing loyalty to the State of Israel.
Tuesday’s attack, which left at least 16 people wounded when a Jerusalem Arab plowed into traffic with an earth-moving bulldozer, came to an end when an armed Israeli civilian and a Druze Border Police officer attacked the terrorist.
The armed civilian, Yaakov Asael, was reportedly the first to fire, with Border Police officer Amal Ganem quickly joining the fight with his assault rifle. After initially firing from skewed angle, Ganem moved to another side of the still-rampaging bulldozer and opened fire again, this time killing the terrorist.
Druze community leader Sheikh Muafiek Tarif told Ynet that “the Druze sect has shown its loyalty to the State of Israel for years now. Today, the resourcefulness of Amal Ganem, a Druze community member, proved our loyalty to the State of Israel.”
Tarif continued by calling Ganem, “who acted quickly and without hesitation in order to prevent further casualties,” a “model to thousands of young Druze who have acted and are acting on behalf of the State of Israel.”
The Druze, whose religion lies somewhere between Islam and Judaism and reveres Moses’ father-in-law Jesse as its patriarch, are usually fiercely loyal to whatever nation in which they reside, including the Jewish state. Following the establishment of State of Israel, Druze leaders insisted that the Israeli army impose mandatory military service on their community’s young men just as it does on Israeli Jews.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Islam, Judaism, Middle East, Middle East Report, News Articles, Recent Posts on July 23, 2008 - כ' תמוז תשס"ח at 12:01 pm
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By Daniel Gordis , Israel Insider, July 19, 2008
The challenge that Israel faces is not to move towards peace. Peace can’t be had. No – the challenge facing Israel is to learn how to live in perpetual, never-ending war, and in the face of that, to flourish, and to be a country that our kids still want to defend. And that is what we did this week.
For some strange reason, I remember the scene with clarity. I was in the kitchen, early on a Friday afternoon about a month ago, cooking Shabbat dinner. Micha, our youngest, now 15, was hanging out in the living room. The radio was on in the background, and on the hour, the news came on. It was over in minutes, and then the music returned.
I hadn’t really paid attention to the news, but Micha apparently had. “Do you think we’re ever going to get Gilad Shalit back?” he asked. Without even looking at him, I said, without even thinking, “Of course we are. Definitely.”
“You don’t know that,” a different voice piped in. Now, I looked up. Avi, his older brother, was unexpectedly home. “We may get him back, and we may not. How can you possibly say that we definitely will?” But the conversation was over. Micha, overjoyed to see Avi, had quickly followed his brother upstairs, and I was left alone in the kitchen. So I never got to answer Avi.
But had he pressed, and had Micha not been around, I would have said to him, “Why did I say that? Because when he hears the news each and every day, the only thing that your brother thinks about is the fact that you’re about to get drafted. And he’s beyond worried; he’s panicked. Because he worships the ground you walk on. And he needs to believe, to know. He needs to believe that you’re going to be OK. And he wants to know that though he lives in a country that asks its kids to do everything, to commit everything, that country also knows that it owes them everything in return. And getting them home — no matter what has happened to them – is part of that.”
I never said any of that to Avi, but I recalled that conversation several times during this agonizing week of prisoner exchanges, of returned coffins, of funerals expected but still tear-stained, of Hezbollah celebrations and of all the columnists who insist that the trade was a terrible idea, that you don’t trade Samir Kuntar for two dead bodies, that they were “deeply ashamed to be an Israeli [and] not very proud of being a Jew either,” that we’ve weakened our bargaining position in the future, and, according to Rabbi Menachem Froman, that we’ve even made peace more difficult to attain, that Israel is committing suicide, and that we have now officially given the Hezbollah the crown of victory in the Second Lebanon War.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Judaism, Middle East Report, Opinion, Recent Posts on July 21, 2008 - י"ח תמוז תשס"ח at 12:41 am
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