Archive | 2010 | August
Topman to open stores in Israel
Topshop’s male subsidiary slated to open first Israel stores in Herzliya’s Arena mall, Beersheba. Over next three years, both chains to open 25 branches in Jewish state
Israeli men are in for a nice surprise: British men’s clothing chain Topman is scheduled to open stores in Herzliya’s Arena Mall and Beersheba’s Seventh Avenue shopping center. Topman is the subsidiary of women’s fashion retailer Topshop.
Topman’s Arena Mall store will stretch over roughly 8,612 square feet and will be adjacent to the mall’s Topshop store. It will share its Beersheba branch with Topshop and Miss Selfridge.
The brand’s Israel franchiser Sakal Sport said that some 25 Topshop and Topman branches will open in Israel over the next three years. Topshop’s prices in Israel are relatively high and Topman’s rates are slated to be no different.
The Topshop brand was created in Sheffield, England in 1964. It now operates stores in more than 20 countries around the world.
In recent years, the chain has collaborated with British model Kate Moss who designed several collections for it, to great success. The partnership ended last week, leaving Moss with $5.2 million in profits.
Topman was launched in 1978 as Topshop’s male brand. It now has some 300 stores worldwide.
In 2003, Sakal group signed a franchise agreement with Topshop and opened its first Israel branches in the Ramat Aviv Mall and the Arena Mall.
Source: Ynetnews.com
Toronto: The Pitch for Israel
Unite Toronto’s Jewish community in a fun-filled communal setting, while raising funds for israeli children affected by terrorism through the One Family Fund.
Set at the Powerade Centre in Brampton on August 22nd and Camp Robin Hood on August 29th, the two day tournament plays host to both men’s and women’s competitive and recreational divisions consisting of over 30 teams in all.
There is something for everyone including live entertainment, free kosher BBQ, amazing prizes and so much more. Invite your family and friends!
One Family Fund – Smiles and Tears: Kid Terror Victims Speak from thepitchforisrael on Vimeo.
Directions:
Directions to Camp Robin Hood
COMING FROM THE 401ETR
- Take the Donald Cousens Parkway exit north to Highway 7. Turn right (travel East) and turn left at the first light (Reesor Rd). Travel 5 km on Reesor Rd. to Camp Robin Hood
COMING FROM THE WEST ALONG MAJOR MACKENZIE
- Follow Major Mackenzie past Markham Road (Hwy 48) to the 9th Line. Make a Right turn and an immediate Left turn onto 17th Ave. (the continuation of Major Mackenzie). Make a Left turn onto Reesor Road (formerly the 10th Line) and continue 400 meters to Camp Robin Hood.
For detailed directions online we recommend Google Maps.
For more information : http://thepitchforisrael.com/home.php
Kiss and tell
There aren’t too many press photographs of soldiers kissing, and certainly not of male soldiers kissing other men.
There aren’t too many press photographs of soldiers kissing, and certainly not of male soldiers kissing other men. In the most famous photo of a military man kissing someone – taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt in Times Square on V-J Day, August 14, 1945 – a sailor is kissing a nurse.
The couple in this image was photographed at the gay pride parade in Jerusalem on July 29 by Sebastian Scheiner of the Associated Press. At first glance, it appears to be quite a passionate kiss. With puckered lips and tilted heads, the men are pressing their pelvises together, their hands resting beneath each other’s waists. But how private can the kiss be when the two are dressed in symbols? The kisser – the one bending his head – is draped in the gay pride flag. The other, the kissee, is in his army uniform.
The soldier is simultaneously kissing and “demonstrating” a kiss: concentrating on the kiss itself and displaying his devotion to the person kissing him. For his part, the kisser, wearing the flag like a superhero’s cape, is focused on the task of kissing: He is certainly in the correct position; perhaps he is even staging the image to demonstrate his kiss. Both are standing in the middle of a public place and putting on a performance, showing how it’s done, getting into the moment, feeding off it and adding to it something of their own. The people around them, by the way, aren’t even looking. It’s a parade, for heaven’s sake. Everyone is demonstrating something.
The soldier who is being kissed while in his uniform is broadening the definition of his self-identity: Ideological military apparatuses ostensibly do not allow expressions of unmediated passion, but when he kisses as a “soldier” he also recognizes himself as a product of the military. (“I can kiss whomever I want, just as any other soldier can kiss whomever he wants” ). Like the Nahal Brigade soldiers who stopped a patrol in Hebron to dance to the American electropop singer Kesha’s hit “Tik Tok,” and uploaded a video of themselves to YouTube on July 5, the soldier here is toying with the image of himself. He is young, free, liberated, fun-loving – and also, at the end of the day, still a soldier.
The focus in this endearing photograph is not, however, on the little show concocted by the superhero and his soldier, but on the mustachioed man in the back corner, who is holding a camera. The real mystery of this photo resides with him. What did this man capture with his lens? Perhaps the photographer who was aiming his camera at the couple and at him? What is saved on his memory card? Is this man, with his Groucho Marx mustache, interested in the couple at all? Despite the perspective captured in the photo, he is not even looking at them. From where he stands, the superhero is not kissing the soldier, he’s just whispering something into his mouth.
Source: Haaretz.com
Israelis bring video chat to Facebook
Dany Fishel and Ilan Leibovitch’s new application lets you see your friends, play games with them, even watch films together over the internet
Do you use Facebook’s chat? Now you can also see the people you’re talking to – for free. A new application was launched Wednesday on the social networking site, developed by the Israeli start-up company GixOO. The application, known as Rounds, enables video calls at a click – with no need to install any program.
The company was established by Dany Fishel, 31, and Ilan Leibovitch, 29, two years ago. The idea was born when Fishel and Leibovitch wanted to set up a kind of speed dating site, in which surfers would meet six other surfers within half an hour based on the program’s profile matching.
“We were concerned that people would get bored during the call, so we added an activities screen,” Fishel explains. “Now it is possible to speak and at the same time see a YouTube clip together, or play backgammon or other games. Over time, this idea caught on better than the dating idea, and we saw that everything we added, such as photos on Flicker, significantly increased call time.”
What can be done with this application? Firstly, video calls can be made, with each speaker shown side by side with the other. An additional screen can be put between the two offering games, picture albums on Flicker or Facebook, and other activities.
“Today there is a screen offering the activities we choose, but in the future there’ll be a browser so that websites can be visited together,” Fishel says. “In fact, it was something we hardly considered that became a hit: The possibility of creating a screen shot while talking on video. We were surprised to see thousands of pictures created by surfers and posted on social networking sites.”
Available to 500 million users
Three months ago the company developed the option of integrating external applications of other developers. These developers can offer them for free or sell them to Rounds users. The application itself is available for free, and profits are generated through cooperation with other applications and advertising, offering downloads, special effects to apply to video calls in real time, and virtual gifts, for example.
Facebook representatives have met the company to see how successful the application is, and if it succeeds, they may combine it with their chat services.
The company was self-financed by its founders at first, but later they succeeded in drawing investors from Startup Factory and Rhodium, owned by Daniel Recanati. Some of the Startup Factory investors also invested privately, and GixOO raised some $2 million.
About a year ago, Rounds became one of the first applications to be integrated into Google’s Wave, which is to be discontinued, according to recent announcements. Today the application is used by some 250,000 surfers even though the company has not promoted the product extensively. But with its entry to Facebook, it will be available to 500 million users around the world.
Source: ynetnews.com
Hebrew University professor awarded prestigious mathematics prize
Elon Lindenstrauss wins Field’s Medal, often regarded as the Nobel Prize of mathematics; ‘I never imagined I’d win,’ Lindenstrauss says
The International Mathematical Union awarded the prestigious Field’s Medal to mathematician and Hebrew University professor Elon Lindenstrauss on Thursday at its quadrennial International Congress of Mathematics in Hyderabad, India.
The Field’s Medal, regarded as the Nobel Prize of mathematics, was also awarded to Ngo Bao Chau of Universite Paris-Sud in Orsay, France, Stanislav Smirnov of the University of Geneva, Switzerland and Cedric Villani of the Henri Poincare Institute in Paris.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking with Lindenstrauss Thursday on the win, said the occasion represented “a great achievement both for yourself and the State of Israel and we are proud of you.”
Prof. Lindenstrauss reportedly told the PM of his desire to stay at the Hebrew University in spite of the many temptations around the world.
Lindenstrauss, who is related to State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss, told Haaretz prior to traveling to India last week that he was surprised to discover he had been selected for the prize. “I knew that I was a candidate but I never imagined I would win,” he said.
40-year-old Lindenstrauss is an expert in mathematical dynamics and has applied techniques from this field to other areas, particularly to number theory. “I’m not a number theory person,” Elon said, “but I approach this field with my own tools.”
Lindenstrauss, the ICM citation says, “has made far-reaching advances in ergodic theory,” which studies the statistical behavior of dynamical systems.
The Field’s Medal comes with a cash award of $15,000 Canadian.
Source: Haaretz.com