Yaakov Katz and Jpost.com staff
Israel successfully launched the Amos 3 communications satellite from Kazakhstan Monday morning.
Takeoff had originally been slated for last week, but was postponed until Monday due to a failure in its launching system.
The satellite, which joins the Amos 1 and 2 in space, will provide high-quality broadcasting and communications services to Europe, the Middle East and the East Coast of the United States.
Army Radio reported Monday that Amos 3 will eventually replace Amos 1.
The satellite was built by Israel Aerospace Industries's MBT Space Division and is to replace the Amos 1, which was initially intended to operate for 11 years but has already been orbiting the Earth for 12.
The new satellite has a predicted operating life of 18 years and will carry a 250 kg. payload, compared to 160 kg. for the other Amos satellites. It is to be placed in a geostationary orbit, 36,000 km. from Earth.
In January, Israel launched the TecSar satellite, the first of its kind developed here, and one of the world's most advanced space systems. The TecSar can create high-resolution images using advanced radar technology called Synthetic Aperture Radar.
In addition to the TecSar and ...   more »

  Print | Close this window

By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Warren Buffett, the world's richest person, said on Monday the U.S. economy is in a recession that will be more severe than most people expect.
Buffett made his comments on CNBC television after his Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N: Quote, Profile, Research) (BRKb.N: Quote, Profile, Research) agreed to invest $6.5 billion in the takeover of chewing gum maker Wm Wrigley Jr Co (WWY.N: Quote, Profile, Research) by Mars Inc in a $23 billion transaction.
"This is not a field of specialty for me, but my general feeling is that the recession will be longer and deeper than most people think," Buffett said. "This will not be short and shallow.
"I think consumers are feeling gas and food prices," he added, "and not feeling they've got a lot of money for other things."He was not immediately available for further comment. Known for his frugality, the 77-year-old Buffett has lived in the same 10-room Omaha, Nebraska, house for a half-century, despite being worth an estimated $62 billion.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Commerce Department is expected to say how fast the economy grew in the first quarter. Economists on average have ...   more »

The Sea of Galilee, Israel's main source of fresh water, is dropping rapidly and could reach the dreaded "black line" - below which it is impossible to pump out any more water - in just three months.
According to experts cited in The Jerusalem Post Sunday, this past well-below average winter rainfall, which followed several similarly dry years, and is being aggravated by successive heat waves already experienced this year, is threatening the country with the worst water shortage it has ever known.
Over the week-long Passover holiday the Galilee - known in Israel as Lake Kinneret - dropped by an alarming six centimeters.
Israel's only other fresh-water reservoirs - two mountain acquifers - have also been badly depleted in recent years, and can only go down to a certain level before sea-water pressing in underground from the Mediterranean makes its water brackish and unfit for human consumption.
While Israel is building desalination plants to make sea water palatable, progress on these is painfully slow when seen against the rapidly-growing water need.
Original Source
   more »

Likud official infers Temple Mount not Jewish holy place

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Printer-friendly version By Stan Goodenough
October 17, 2007

The head of the Likud Party's foreign relations department gave a massive boost to the claims of Islam - Israel's most implacable enemy - Tuesday when he inferred that Jerusalem's Temple Mount was not sacred to the Jewish people.

Arab and other Muslim leaders and clerics, who assert that the hill is Islam's third holiest site, have long and fiercely maintained that the Jews have no historical connection or claim to the outcrop the Bible calls God's "holy hill."
While secular Jews often appear content to limit their "right" to the Western Wall, Israelis who have the fear of the Lord and who know that their nation's First and Second Temples were built on top of the mount will not agree to relinquishing it to the followers of another god.
Zalman Shoval, a former ambassador to the United States, and traditionally a right thinker on Israeli security issues, told a meeting of the Foreign Press Association that the Likud - which is led by former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu - could allow an Arab or Muslim country to administer the site for ...   more »

FCC rule change seen as threat to licenses of religious stations
WASHINGTON – Today is the last day for public comments on a proposed Federal Communications Commission rule change some say would threaten the licenses of Christian radio stations from coast to coast.
At issue is a proposal that would require every radio station to take programming advice from community advisory boards representative of the area's population.
Advocates of Christian programming say that would require Christian broadcasters to seek advice from non-Christians and even those opposed to the Christian message. Some radio stations fear organized groups of atheists, for instance, could demand representation on the new FCC-mandated advisory boards that would factor into licensing decisions.
"While the FCC is considering these rule changes, at the moment nothing is 'set in stone' as they await public comment," explains the Christian Air 1 Radio Network. "If any of these changes were adopted, there would be significant impact on our ability to minister to you and your community. These rules would not only affect our stations but also thousands of stations around the country."
In addition to the requirement for advisory boards, the new regulations would also mandate radio stations produce every three ...   more »

    United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was set Monday to lead a concerted effort by 27 key UN agencies to tackle the growing crisis caused by a worldwide sharp rise in basic foodstuff prices.
The UN was scheduled at a two-day conference in the Swiss capital Bern to reveal a battle plan of emergency measures, while exploring other longer-term measures to solve the world's food crisis.
This will involve adjudicating between advocates of protectionism and those who favour opening up markets, as well as between supporters of biofuels and opponents thereof.
Rising populations, strong demand from developing countries, increased cultivation of crops for biofuels and increasing floods and droughts have sent food prices soaring across the globe.
"The world food crisis and the solutions that the United Nations can provide will be at the centre of discussions," said the UN. The talks hosted by Ban will take place behind closed doors at the Universal Postal Union headquarters in Bern, lasting all day Monday and Tuesday morning.
Results of the deliberations are expected Tuesday when Ban Ki-moon gives a press conference flanked by Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the UN's World Food Programme, World Bank President Robert Zoellick, Jacques ...   more »

New Product Has Converts Despite Issues
A new wrinkle cream that promises fabulous results. But the question everyone's asking is "what's in that cream?"
Barbara Blair says this new gel she's been using makes her face look a lot younger than the Retin-A and vitamin C creams she's been using.
"It's really tightened my skin. Firmed it. The little lines are much better. The texture is very appreciably different."
What Blair probably doesn't know is that a key ingredient in the cream is the foreskin of a circumcised baby.
The skin that would otherwise be tossed away. It was first made into a product that helped burn victims heal. Now it's in this antiwrinkle gel, called TNS Recovery Complex.
Betsy Rubenstone is the aesthetician in the plastic surgery department at the University of Pennsylvania and she swears by this stuff.
She knows why the foreskin is used.
"It's filled with everything we begin to lose as we age," Rubenstone says. "And that includes growth factors, amino acids, proteins, collage, elastin and holyuronic acid."
Thomas Jefferson University Hospital dermatologist Paul Bujanauskas says while TNS might have merit, he would not prescribe it for his patients because no scientific research proving its ...   more »

Ker Than
Fabric fragments excavated from the tomb of an ancient Maya queen rival modern textiles in their complexity and quality, scientists say.
The tomb was discovered in the Maya city of Copán in Honduras by a team led by archaeologist Robert Sharer of the University of Pennsylvania.
Researchers believe the queen, whose name is not known, was buried in the fifth century A.D.
Some of the fabrics found within her tomb have thread counts of over 80 weft yarns per inch, said Margaret Ordonez, a textile expert at the University of Rhode Island who studied the cloth.
"This is in the range of the clothing that we wear," she said. "This is a higher thread count than your jeans."
Some of the fragments contained as many as 25 layers of fabric, stacked atop one another and fused together over time.
"What's surprising is the fragments still exist," Ordonez said.
"We're talking about a humid climate, and to have fragments of fabric exist in the tomb for that long is just amazing."
Archaeologists suspect that the tomb was opened after the queen's death to allow worshipers to perform rituals and make offerings of fabric and other items.
"It was fairly ...   more »

WASHINGTON -- Defying President Bush's threatened veto, the House on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a bill making the Coast Guard enforce security zones around eight liquefied natural gas terminals and any arriving tankers _all potential terrorism targets.
The White House has complained that the requirement would divert the Coast Guard from other high-priority missions and provide an ''unwarranted subsidy'' for LNG owners.
The 395-7 vote margin on the $8.4 billion Coast Guard bill was well beyond the two-thirds needed to override a presidential veto. Seven Republicans voted against the measure.
After the vote, the White House praised the passage of a GOP-backed amendment to the bill that permits the Coast Guard to take into account agency, state and local government security resources when deciding on security plans for LNG sites.
''The administration remains concerned about several key provisions in the House bill,'' said White House spokesman Trey Bohn. ''However, the veto threat prompted members to adopt a Republican amendment which made significant changes to the bill. We will continue to work with members of Congress as this legislation moves forward.''
The Senate is considering its own version of the bill.
Democrats scoffed at the White House's objections, saying Bush is ignoring ...   more »

What happens when a professor decides to present students with evidence that challenges Darwin's theory? Find out on this episode of ID the Future, where we've highlighted comments from biochemist Nancy Bryson, a professor who knows firsthand the importance of academic freedom on college campuses. Dr. Bryson was removed from her position as head of the division of natural sciences at Mississippi University for Women when she presented criticisms of evolution to a group of honor students. Listen as she recounts the chilling effect the university's censors' actions had on academic freedom and students' ability to question and engage in their material.
Original Source
   more »

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. —
Springfield's men in black are returning.
The city's new police commissioner, William Fitchet, says members of the department's Street Crime Unit will again don black, military-style uniforms as part of his strategy to deal with youth violence.
Fitchet's predecessor, Edward Flynn, had ditched the black attire as part of an effort to soften the image of the unit. Flynn left Springfield in January to become the police chief in Milwaukee.
Sgt. John Delaney told a city council hearing Wednesday that the stark uniforms send a message to criminals that officers are serious about making arrests.
Delaney said a sense of "fear" has been missing for the past few years.
Original Source

   more »