Hot Plates | Israel’s Creative Cooking

The creative streak coursing through many a Tel Aviv kitchen has spilled over to Jaffa, its ancient and often aesthetically unruly sister. Fittingly for a place that has served as a port since the Bronze Age, one of the new entrants sits in a retrofitted relic by the water: Container (Warehouse 2, Jaffa Port; 011-972-3-683-6321; entrees about $20 to $27) makes its home inside a hangar that dates from the 1920s, when Jaffa was part of the British Mandate of Palestine. The space fuses Red Hook grit with Levantine glam, incorporating a sweeping, 45-seat horseshoe-shaped bar under a warehouse-high ceiling that affords nice views of both the oversize wood oven in the open kitchen and the rotating exhibits on the walls. Adding to the mix is a three-times-a-week D.J. set.

About that oven: what goes in and out of it is largely overseen by Vince Muster, the chef who’s also behind Charcuterie, a hip restaurant in Jaffa’s flea market area known for its homemade sausages. From Muster’s uncomplicated menu at Container, you can chase a snappy salad of, say, Israeli zebra tomatoes and smoked tomatoes with entrées like drum fish with olives and parsley or salmon with horseradish, white wine and cream. It all goes down well with a frozen arak-grapefruit cocktail. Or two.

Shakuf (Magen Avraham 2; 011-972-3-758-6888; prix fixe $50) needs no infusion of alcohol to keep its motor running, so concentrated is its concept of precisely prepared, systematically sourced food. Its name is Hebrew for “transparent,” and you’ll see why as soon as you find the place, tucked into a narrow side street off of busy Jerusalem Boulevard, Jaffa’s main thoroughfare leading into Tel Aviv proper. Past the video projections of nature images in the dark narrow entrance is a brightly lit inner sanctum where a gleaming, elongated bar that seats 40 wraps in L-formation around an open kitchen run by the rising chef Eldad Shem-Tov. He’s cooked at Alain Ducasse and Per Se in New York, and been schooled in culinary alchemy at Wylie Dufresne’s Lower East Side molecular-cuisine mainstay WD-50.

If Container is more about fun, Shakuf courts fashion — in this case, one-upping the trend of emphasizing organic, locally sourced ingredients by downright insisting on it. Which results in some pretty improbable pairings, like root vegetable soup with parsley and rosemary ice cream, and spring lamb with veggies and curried beer sauce. Your senses have to be on high alert to truly plug into the menu, which changes daily. But no one’s complaining. They’re reserving.

40cm penis tattooed on man's back

A 21-YEAR-OLD Bundamba man will front court after he allegedly tattooed an unwanted lewd image and slogan on his mate’s back.

Police allege the man, who was not a professional tattooist, talked his friend into having the tattoo while the friend was visiting him at home.

After the 25-year-old victim got home, he was horrified to discover the tattoo was far from what he expected.

Instead of a Yin and Yang symbol with some dragons, the tattoo featured a 40cm-long image of a penis and a slogan implying he was gay. He contacted police and they charged the 21-year-old Bundamba man with assault occasioning bodily harm.

The tattoo victim now faces the pain and expense of having the tattoo removed with a laser.

Police allege the tattooing followed a disagreement between the pair that culminated with the Bundamba man taking offence at something the victim said.

Ipswich CIB Detective Constable Paul Malcolm said the victim was extremely upset.

“Apparently he went round to the other bloke’s house and somehow in the course of the conversation the subject of tattoos came up,” Const Malcolm said.

“The victim wasn’t interested at first but he was talked into it and he said he wanted a Yin and Yang symbol with some dragons.

“He rolled him on to his stomach and the bloke started doing the tattoo and there was another bloke standing there watching saying, ‘Mate, it’s looking really good’.

“He was told not to go out into the sun and not to show anyone for a few weeks.

“When he got home he showed it to the person he lives with and she said: ‘I don’t think it’s the tattoo you were after’.”

To add insult to injury, he was allegedly punched and thrown out of the Bundamba man’s house after he was tattooed.

The 21-year-old is scheduled to appear in Ipswich Magistrates Court on November 15.

He was charged with two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm and one charge relating to the Public Safety Act.

Gatton tattoo artist Ted Saddo said the tattooed man could face a bill from $600 to $2000 to have the tattooed removed.

“If they don’t want the tattoo or another tattoo to cover it up, it would have to be lasered,” Mr Saddo said. “That involves shooting a laser beam into the tattoo to break up the ink, which goes into the blood stream and is passed out through the kidneys.

“If it’s just an outline it would probably take three sessions of about $200 a session. There needs to be a six to eight week break between sessions to give the skin the chance to heal. We just had a bloke here who got a tribal tattoo removed and it cost him $2000.”

Meet the world's youngest CEO

Here is an inspiring story of the World’s youngest CEO!When 14-year-old Suhas Gopinath started Globals Inc ten years ago from a cyber cafe in Bengaluru, he didn't know that he had become the youngest CEO in the world.

Today, Globals is a multi-million dollar company with offices in the United States, India, Canada, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, Australia, Singapore and the Middle East and has 100 employees in India and 56 abroad.

Among the several honors that have been bestowed upon this young man, the most prestigious is the invitation to be a member of the Board of the ICT Advisory Council of the World Bank..

In 2007, the European Parliament and International Association for Human Values conferred 'Young Achiever Award' on him. He was also invited to address the European Parliament and other business dignitaries assembled in the EU Parliament. He is also recognised as one of the 'Young Global Leaders' for 2008-2009 by the prestigious World Economic Forum.

Suhas is the youngest member ever in the World Economic Forum's history. The other members include the Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, Hollywood star Leonardo Di Caprio, musician A R Rahman, Prince of Brunei, etc.

In this interview from his office in Bengaluru, Suhas Gopinath talks about his decade long journey and his dreams for the future.

On his childhood:

I come from a middle class family. My father worked as a scientist for the Indian Army. I used to study in the Air Force school in Bengaluru.

As a child, I was more interested in animals and veterinary science. But when I saw my friends who had home computers talk about it, I had this urge to learn and talk in their wave length.

But we didn't have a computer at home. In those days, computers were very expensive and we couldn't afford one.

So, what I did was, I located an Internet cafe near my house. With my modest monthly pocket money of Rs 15, I couldn't afford to surf the net every day.

I noticed that the shop was closed in the afternoon from 1 PM to 4 PM. So, I offered to open the shop for him after my school hours and take care of the customers.

In the bargain, he let me browse the net for free. That was the first business deal of my life and it turned out to be a successful one.

On building websites using open source technology:

Once I got the chance to manage the shop and browse the net, I started building websites. It became my passion in no time.

I got hooked to open source technology after I started looking for e-books on how to build websites. They were not available as they were created in propriety sources. So, I started using open source to build websites.

On getting the first contract to build a website:

There is a freelance marketplace on the web where I could register and offer my services to build websites. I registered myself there as a website builder.

The first website I had to do was free of cost as I had no references. It was for a company in New York.

My first income was $100 when I was 13 for building another website but I didn't have a bank account. so, I told my father that I built a website and got paid for it.

I was not excited to get the money because money was not a factor that drew me to it. It was the passion for technology that attracted me. I used to build websites free of cost also. I was only a 9th standard student.

After that, I built my own portal and called it Coolhindustan.com. It was focused on NRIs. It was a portal where I wanted to showcase my skills.

After that, many companies approached me to be their web designer.

On buying his first computer:

When I was in the 9th standard itself, I had made enough money to buy a computer for myself. At that time, my brother was studying engineering and my father thought he needed a computer.

In no time, I also bought one for myself. But we didn't have a net connection at home.

My spending hours in the net cafe working on websites did affect my studies. I spent the entire summer vacation after the 9th standard in the cafe.

On rejecting a job offer from the US:

When I was 14, Network Solutions offered me a part-time job in the US and they said they would sponsor my education in the US. I rejected the offer because that was the time I had read a story about Bill Gates and how he started Microsoft.

I thought it was more fun to have your own company. Many US companies used to tell me that I didn't even have a moustache and they felt insecure taking my services. They used to connect my ability with my age and academic qualifications.

So, I wanted to start my own company and show the world that age and academic qualifications are immaterial. I decided then that when I started a company, I would recruit only youngsters and I would not ask for their academic qualifications and marks cards. I follow that in my company.

On starting his own company at 14:

Soon after my 9th standard summer vacation, I started my own company, Globals Inc. I wanted the name Global or Global Solutions but both were not available, so I named it Globals.

I registered my company in the US as in India, you will not be able to start a company unless you are 18. It takes only 15 minutes to start a company in the US.

I became the owner and CEO of the company. My friend, an American who was a university student, became a board member.

I was very excited because that was what I wanted to do. From that day, I started dreaming of making my company as big as Microsoft.

On doing badly in school:

In my pre-board CBSE exam, I failed in Mathematics. The school headmistress was shocked because that was the first time I had failed in any subject. She called my mother and said she was horrified by my performance.

At home, like any typical South Indian mother, my mother made me swear on her head that I would focus on academics.

I told my mother that the world's richest man Bill Gates had not completed his education. Why do you force me then, I asked her. She then said, I am sure his horoscope and yours are not the same!

I come from a family where entrepreneurship is considered a sin. My mother was quite upset. She wanted me to do engineering, then an MBA and work in a good company.

As per my mother's wishes, I took a four-month sabbatical from my company and studied for my board exam. I passed with a first class.

I still feel that you cannot restrict yourself to bookish knowledge. I believe that practical knowledge is more important.

In the first year, the turnover of Globals Inc was Rs 1 lakh (Rs 100,000). The second year, the turnover went up to Rs 5 lakh (Rs 500,000).

On looking at Europe as a market:

Till I was 16 or 17, I didn't tell my parents that I had started a company. I kept it a secret because I thought they would object to it. They only knew that I was a freelancer.

We used to build websites and also offer online shopping and e commerce solutions. We even gave part time work to a few programmers in the US when we got many projects but we never had any office.

When I was 16, I saw that there were enormous business opportunities in Europe as a majority of the Indian IT companies were working for American companies.

When I contacted a Spanish company, it rejected my offer saying Indians do not know Spanish. As an entrepreneur, you can't accept rejection, especially when you are young.

I hired five student interns from some Spanish universities and told them they would be paid based on their successful sales.

They were the people who met the companies and bagged the projects for us. By now, we decided to have a home office in Spain.

I replicated the same model in Italy. I contacted some Italian university students.

On going to Germany to talk about entrepreneurship:

The American newspapers were writing a lot about me as the world's youngest CEO at 14 from India, from a middle class background.

It was a good story for the BBC also. I never expected to be in the limelight. For me, starting a company was like realising a passion of mine.

On seeing these stories, a B-school in Germany invited me to talk to its students on entrepreneurship. I was 17 then. By now, I had completed my 12th standard and had joined Engineering in Bengaluru.

When I was 18, we set up an office -- the European HQ in Bonn. Then, we moved to Switzerland. Six months back, we started our operations in Vienna as well.

That is how we spread our operations from a small Internet cafe to become a multinational company with significant operations in Europe, Middle East, the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, etc.

On registering a company in India at 18:

The day I turned 18, I registered our company in India as Globals, opened an office and recruited four people. I opened the office next to the Internet cafe where I started my career.

By then, he had closed shop and joined a factory as an employee. Whenever I met him, I used to tell him, 'you made me an entrepreneur but you stopped being one.'

On moving to creating products:

We wanted our company also to be a product development company and our focus was on education, like the software that manages everything about a child while in school starting from admission till he/she leaves school and becomes an alumnus.

It is a nasty software which students are going to be quite unhappy about! This software was aimed only at the Indian market. I want to be the market leader in ICT in education.

Our software is being used in more than 100 schools all over India, Singapore and the Middle East.

We are now in the process of raising funds. Once we do it, we will separate the company into two -- service and product development. I want to concentrate on products as I can't sail on two boats.

On meeting former President Abdul Kalam:

I met Dr Abdul Kalam when he was the President of India. I was 17 or 18 then. My meeting was scheduled for 15 minutes but we had such an intense conversation that it went on for one-and-a-half hours.

I didn't feel that I was talking to the President of India. We talked like two friends. He was sitting in his chair across the table but after some time, he came and sat next to me. He isi such a modest person that it was a learning experience for me.

On being on the board of the World Bank:

As per the wishes of my parents, I joined engineering but didn't complete my engineering: like Bill Gates! When I was in my 5th semester, the World Bank invited me to attend their board meeting. I am the only Indian on the board of the World Bank.

The objective was to explore how ICT can improve the quality of education in the emerging economies, by bringing in accountability and transparency in their financial deeds.

Robert B. Zoellick, the president of the World Bank, decided that they could not have only Americans on the board and needed people from across the world. As they were focusing on education, they wanted young minds to add value to the work.

He preferred a young mind from an emerging country and that was how I got the invitation in 2005. Not even in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would be on the board of the World Bank. The invitation was the most unforgettable moment in my life. I report directly to Robert B Zoellick!

Some of the others on the board are the CEO of Cisco, the vice president of Microsoft and the CEO of SAP; all Fortune 500 companies and me, the only Indian!

I am helping the World Bank set policies on ICT in university education so that employability can be enhanced. My aim is to reduce the number of unemployed eligible youth in the world.

Right now, we are concentrating on Africa. Soon, I want to shift the focus on to India. It has been an amazing experience for me.

But I had to discontinue my engineering education at the time I joined the board, as I didn't have enough attendance in college!

On his dreams for his company:

I have always believed that IT is not just technology but a tool that can solve the problems of people.

That is what I want to do in my company.

I want my company to be a market leader in software solutions concentrating on education.

When I was younger, I didn't care about money. Now that I am responsible for my employees, I care about what we make. If I am not bothered about money, we cannot scale up our business.

When I started my company from a net cafe in Bengaluru, I never ever imagined that one day my company would be a multi-million dollar company and I would be on the World Bank board as a member.

What drives me is my passion and it has been an amazing journey so far.

The Fascinating Story of the Twins Who Share Brains, Thoughts, and Senses

This is one of the most surprising and awesome tales ever told in the history of medicine. These twins are Tatiana and Krista Hogan. Their brains and sensory systems are networked together, but they have separate personalities. Their story defies belief.

So much, in fact, that Tatiana and Krista Hogan shouldn't be alive at all. Their chances of surviving the pregnancy, birth and first months of life were almost zero. Surprisingly, they turned four on October 25, and they are still healthy and happy, as you can see in the photo above.

They play Nintendo Wii games against each other, they fight for toys and they share food and physiological functions. But they also share their senses. For example, one can pick an object out of her field of view, while the twin looks at the object.

Most importantly, however, they can share each other thoughts, like their grandmother—Louise McKay—describes:

They share thoughts, too. Nobody will be saying anything, and Tati will just pipe up and say, ‘Stop that!' And she'll smack her sister.

Scientists are nothing short of absolutely amazed. Here you have two kids, completely different from each other, with their own distinct personality, but with connected brains and sensory systems. Dr. Douglas Cochrane—neurosurgeon at Vancouver's Children's Hospital—has tested their networking abilities:

Their brains are recording signals from the other twin's visual field. One might be seeing what the other one is seeing.

Nobody can possibly imagine how this may work and feel for them. And since they haven't developed their full verbal skills yet, scientists can't ask them about it. I don't know if they will have a lot of answers for them, however. If they ask me how I see or smell things, there is no way that I could accurately describe it. These actions just happen. Like you and me, they have no other point of reference. Their life is the only one they know. For them, sharing thoughts and senses is the only way things could be.

But whatever the implications for science and philosophy are, their mother is just happy and grateful for every day with them. She also believe they're here for a reason but, "we just don't know the reason yet."

I don't know what that reason could be, but the mere fact that they are alive, happy, loving and being loved, is enough for me.

How To Fold A Shirt

My friend went to Tokyo and brought 50 men's golf shirts home so that he could take them to a Golf Tournament later that week. The shirts were not folded and so he decided that they needed to be folded nicely. That takes time! Well the shirts came with this
video for some reason and did it ever come in handy!




BET YOU CANNOT WATCH THIS JUST ONCE!

IVF mix-up: Couple decides to keep the baby

The couple in the centre of the in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) mix-up case has decided to keep the baby. Their lawyer Mr S. Palaniappan, speaking on their behalf, said that the mother has already bonded with the infant. The baby has a markedly different complexion from that of his mother, a Singaporean Chinese woman, and her husband, a Caucasian Singapore PR. The baby's blood type is B, while those of the couple is A and O. A DNA test has confirmed that the child has the mother's DNA makeup, but not the father's.

Dr Cheng Li Chang, the medical director of Thomson Fertility Centre where the couple had sought IVF treatment, said in a statement that he and his colleagues "fully empathise with the couple, and are very sorry and distressed over what has happened". It was reported that they have met the couple to explain the situation, and will keep them updated and provide them with all possible support. Dr Cheng said the centre's operating procedures "meet all regulatory requirements, and are of the highest international standards".

The Ministry of Health, however, has said that "certain practices" could be improved. While it did not specify these practices, it will be issuing additional directives to correct them in time to come. It is understood that Thomson Fertility Centre is working closely with MOH in investigating the mix-up, and will work with the ministry to implement any action it may recommend.
Meanwhile, fertility doctors have expressed shock over the case, which is the first of its kind in Singapore.

The mix-up does not seem to have shaken the confidence of other couples undergoing IVF treatment here. Patients interviewed said that they would continue with treatment, and that they would keep the child even if a mix-up happened to them as well.

IVF cerebral palsy risks probed

Fertility problems in parents cannot explain why babies born through IVF treatment face a higher risk of cerebral palsy, say Danish scientists.

The University of Aarhus found babies of couples who struggled to conceive naturally had similar risks compared to those who conceived quickly.

But they found that the risk doubled in babies born with the help of IVF.

Other potential causes, such as the treatment itself, should be investigated, the scientists say.

UK experts said despite the low risk the issue needed to be taken seriously.

The safety of IVF and similar fertility treatments has been closely scrutinised since the first "test-tube baby" in the 1970s.

As the number of IVF babies rises, initial worries about developmental problems have faded, but there remain concerns over higher rates of cerebral palsy.

There are several possible reasons, including the increased risk of complications in multiple pregnancies, which until recently have been much more frequent in IVF pregnancies.

Doctors had also suspected that the underlying reasons for infertility might play a part, but the latest research casts doubt on that.

The team looked at a national database of medical information from thousands of pregnancies and births, the journal Human Reproduction reported.

They compared cerebral palsy rates in babies grouped depending on how long it took for their mothers to become pregnant after starting to try to conceive.

This length of time is used as a way of assessing fertility - taking more than a year to conceive might indicate some kind of problem, albeit one not severe enough to prevent pregnancy altogether.

When the "quick conceivers" were compared with those taking over a year, there was no significant difference in the rate of cerebral palsy.

However, a group of babies born after IVF or ICSI, in which sperm is directly injected into the egg, had approximately double the risk of cerebral palsy compared with those conceiving quickly.

The overall risk was not high - approximately one in 176 babies born - although this represents a significant number when set against the 12,000 babies born after IVF techniques each year in the UK.

Dr Jin Liang Zhu, who led the study, said: "Our research enabled us to examine whether untreated subfertility, measured by time to pregnancy, might be the reason for the higher risk of cerebral palsy after IVF/ICSI.

"Our results showed this was not the case because, even for couples who took a year or longer to conceive, there was no statistically significant increased risk."

He said that parents should remember that the increased risk remained very low.

The other suspect in the raised cerebral palsy risk is twin pregnancies, which carry a higher rate of problems in both mother and baby, and frequently mean that babies are delivered early.

A recent study in Sweden suggested that the trend in recent years of putting just one embryo rather than two back into a woman as part of IVF was cutting the number of children born with cerebral palsy.

Professor Karl Nygren, one of the authors of that study, said that the extra risk "may have disappeared" in countries which transferred only a single embryo.

However, Professor Richard Fleming, from the Glasgow Centre for Reproductive Medicine, said it remained a problem.

"It's pretty clear that the issue still has substance. Even though the risks are very low for individual babies, they are high enough to deserve further research.

"Single embryo transfer will improve matters, but not solve the problem entirely."