(Video) Israeli Flying car: Iraq medivac demo

"Foxnews reported on the X-hawk a year and a half ago, and the IDF insists that the prototypes are not far away (as close enough as 2010).

"Like a similarly sized helicopter, X-Hawk will be able to take off vertically, fly up to 155 miles an hour and as high as 12,000 feet and remain aloft about two hours, Urban Aeronautics says.

"But encased fans will replace the exposed rotors that keep helicopters from maneuvering effectively in urban areas or dense natural terrain because they have to stay clear of walls, power lines and mountain ridges. And a patented system of vanes is designed to afford the vehicle greater stability.

Urban Aeronautics says vehicles will be able to sidle right up to a building."

Is it just me, or does this remind you of the old Gerry Anderson British "Supercar," tv show...



(H-T: Double Tapper)

Breaking: Iraqi kids in Israel for heart surgery

More on SACH here.

Two Iraqi children are set to arrive in Israel today [Thursday] for emergency heart surgery. Both children were screened by Israeli doctors during a one-day cardiology clinic set up for 40 Iraqi children in Jordan, organized by Israeli-based organization, Save A Child's Heart on October 9th, 2007.

Israeli doctors immediately referred a 5 month old girl and an 11 year old boy from Iraq for emergency medical treatment in Israel due to the severity of their heart conditions, which if not treated, would leave them at risk of dying at any moment.

Here's the Associated Press story.

40 Iraqi children, accompanied by their parents, made the journey from Iraq to Jordan where they were screened by a SACH medical team, including, Dr. Akiva Tamir, Head of Pediatric Cardiology, Dr. Alona Raucher-Sternfeld, Pediatric Cardiologist and Dr. Sion Houri, Director of Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, based at the Wolfson Medical Center in Israel. General Electric equipped the team with a state of the art, portable echocardiogram machine which greatly assisted with the diagnosis of children.

Logistical support for the mission was provided by the Christian group, Shevet Achim and medical facilities were offered by the Red Crescent Hospital in Amman.

Since January 2007, SACH has operated on 18 Iraqi children. To date, a total of 35 children from Iraq have been treated by the organization at the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon. Iraqi children who arrive in Israel with their family, reside at the SACH Children's Home in Azur.

Save A Child’s Heart provides life-saving heart surgeries for children from developing countries regardless of race, ethnicity, religion or gender. Since its inception in 1996, SACH has treated over 1700 children from 28 countries around the world including; Ethiopia, Zanzibar, Rwanda, Moldova, Vietnam and China. Close to half of the total number of children treated at SACH are Palestinian or from Arab countries including Jordan and Iraq.

Ahmadinejad: Handing out heaven's key

Does you remember this phenomenon, during the Iran-Iraq war?:

"In pondering the behavior of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, I cannot help but think of the 500,000 plastic keys that Iran imported from Taiwan during the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88. At the time, an Iranian law laid down that children as young as 12 could be used to clear mine fields, even against the objections of their parents. Before every mission, a small plastic key would be hung around each of the children’s necks. It was supposed to open for them the gates to paradise.

“In the past,” wrote the semi-official Iranian daily Ettela’at, “we had child-volunteers: 14-, 15-, and 16-year-olds. They went into the mine fields. Their eyes saw nothing. Their ears heard nothing. And then, a few moments later, one saw clouds of dust. When the dust had settled again, there was nothing more to be seen of them. Somewhere, widely scattered in the landscape, there lay scraps of burnt flesh and pieces of bone.” Such scenes could henceforth be avoided, Ettela’at assured its readers. “Before entering the mine fields, the children [now] wrap themselves in blankets and they roll on the ground, so that their body parts stay together after the explosion of the mines and one can carry them to the graves.
(...)
"The western media showed little interest for the Basiji – perhaps because journalists could not be present during the hostilities or perhaps because they did not believe the reports. Such disinterest has persisted to this day. The 5000 dead of Saddam Hussein’s poison gas attack on the Kurds of Halabja have remained in our memory. History has forgotten the children of the minefields.

"Today, however, Ahmadinejad appears in public in his Basiji uniform. During the war, he served as one of the Basiji instructors who turned children into martyrs."

This is what the man who is to speak at Columbia University directly, personally represents.

Read the rest.

Seeing terrorism against civilians - from the inside out

From the very impressive site (and turn on your speakers):

The purpose of terrorism is to create victims. The goal is to murder and maim as many innocent people as possible. It is a political tool that has worldwide appeal, because it works. We have allowed it to work by not condemning and isolating those who use it. Terrorism has destroyed thousands of innocent lives in the past six years alone. Civilized people everywhere must condemn terrorism. We must speak in one voice. There is no excuse for terrorism - ever.

They represent a broad cross-section of humanity.

They are commuters on the London subway system. And on the trains in Madrid. They are celebrants at a wedding in Amman, Jordan and at a bat mitzvah in Hadera, Israel. They are little kids eating pizza; they are tourists in Bali and Egypt. They are people praying in churches and mosques and synagogues. They are celebrating the Passover Seder.

Even doctors who try to help can become victims. In September of 2003, Dr. David Applebaum, the head of the ER deparment at Shaare Zedek Medical Center was murdered along with his 20 year old daughter, Naava. They were in Café Hillel in Jerusalem.

(I wrote about this particular terror attack from a personal, painful POV here).