Two articles on the Vast Negev:
One on transferring Jews into It,
One on a method of removing Oil,
Interesting Perspective for Negev!
The Ancient Plant Of God Grows Oil,
It Covered Jonah with Shade in Past,
Maybe It Will Shelter Us In Millennium!
Perhaps man can grow God’s oil on Soil,
Rather than penetrating so far through it!
December 4, 2008
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Jonah 4:4-11 – Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry? [5] So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side
of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city. [6] And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief.
So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. [7] But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.
[8] And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. [9] And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death. [10] Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: [11] And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?
Revelation 12:6 – And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
Begin Excerpt 1 from Arutz Sheva
Olmert Plans Transfer of Judea, Samaria Jews to Negev
Kislev 6, 5769, 03 December 08 11:29
by Maayana Miskin
(IsraelNN.com) Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert revealed Wednesday that he still plans to move many Judea and Samaria Jews to other parts of Israel. During a tour of the area in which the IDF plans to build “Bahadim city,” Olmert said, “In an unstoppable process, tens of thousands of people will move from Judea and Samaria to the Negev.”
The process of developing the Negev will begin with the construction of a large army base, Olmert said. “Tens of thousands of people in this country understand that the country’s future lies here. The army gives us the opportunity to begin this process,” he said. “This is a national process unlike anything since the establishment of the state.”
Olmert and IDF officials discussed concrete plans to develop the area, such as the construction of a train leading to the Bahadim army camp. Once the Bahadim army camp is built, Negev roads will be unable to handle the heavy traffic in the area, they said.
Olmert began his term as Prime Minister with a promise to force tens of thousands of Jews out of their homes in Judea and Samaria under what he termed “the Convergence.” He has repeatedly said Israel must make “painful concessions” in order to make peace with the Palestinian Authority, which demands all of Judea and Samaria.
A similar plan was in place for Jews expelled from their homes in Gaza. Senior government officials said at the time of the expulsion, in 2005, that former residents of Gaza would settle barren areas along the Ashkelon coast and in the Lachish region between Hevron and Be’er Sheva. Construction recently began on some permanent communities for expellees in the Negev, in other sites, building has yet to begin.
Begin Excerpt 2 from the Jerusalem Post
Yossi and the beanstalk
November 20, 2008
Sam Ser , THE JERUSALEM POST
Shlomi Jonas and Doron Levi are serious about a plant with a funny name. That’s because jatropha, an otherwise puzzling and forgettable plant, may be the key to one of the most important alternatives to fossil fuels in the coming years – and because Jonas’s and Levi’s company, Galten, is at the forefront of making it so.
Jatropha is a long-overlooked plant that has recently begun receiving loads of attention. The seeds of the leafy green tree are rich in oil that can be used to make biodiesel, a “green” fuel which offers several benefits over other alternative fuels that are currently popular.
It’s a perennial plant that can start producing oil in its second year of growth, and will continue to be productive for more than 30 years. It’s so tough that it can survive up to three years of consecutive drought, and so versatile
that its byproducts can be used to make soap, mulch, herbal medicines and more.
Galten is cultivating jatropha on some 200,000 hectares in Ghana, betting on the plant’s ability to supply barrel upon barrel of one of the hottest new fuels in the world today.
“We are planting oil wells,” says Jonas. “It’s as simple as that.”
On the other hand, maybe the prophet Jonah was onto something.
He may have wept over the “kikayon” – that is, the castor bean plant – because of the loss of the shade it provided him. But today the humble, inedible plant is receiving high praise for its biodiesel potential. Castor bean seeds contain as much as 54 percent oil by weight, much higher than most plants currently used for biodiesel. In fact, castor bean produces about three times as much oil per hectare as soy bean, one of the most popular biofuel crops.
“It’s one of the most productive plants, in terms of oil produced per unit of land farmed,” notes Dr. Oren Ostersetzer-Biran. He is leading a research team at the Agriculture Ministry’s Volcani Center that is working to breed castor bean plants for optimum growth and production.
Both jatropha and castor bean are relatively new candidates for farming, so their growth characteristics are still being developed.
“The castor bean plant was cultivated for a short while in the ’60s, but then it was pretty much abandoned thereafter,” says Ostersetzer-Biran. “So we’re really starting off from zero.”
Already, he says, castor bean can produce about 100 kilograms of oil per dunam per year. His team’s experiments in the fields in Beit Dagan, outside Rishon Lezion, will soon double that, he says.
Here’s an example of how they’re accomplishing that: In nature, the plant’s seed sacs pop open so the
seeds can scatter. It’ s an evolutionary development that help
s the plant survive and spread.
In terms of industrial production, though, it’s counterproductive for efforts to collect the oil-rich seeds. So the Volcani researchers are breeding castor plants in which that genetic trait is suppressed. Likewise, they are developing plants that grow a larger number of seeds, in closer bunches, than the wild natural variety, whose home habitats include Israeli roadsides and neglected lots. All these things together, the researchers hope, will make the harvesting of castor bean seeds easier, faster and more lucrative.
A similar process is at play with Galten’s jatropha plants, with a castor oil biodiesel venture in Namibia run by three other Israeli companies working in cooperation and with a number of other oil-rich plants in labs and fields around the world.
There’s a race, then, to see who can breed the most productive plants the fastest.
Galten and the Volcani researchers believe they are several steps ahead of their competitors in making that happen.
THE SEARCH for alternatives to petroleum springs mainly from two concerns: the impact of carbon emissions from the use of fossil fuels, blamed for global warming in the landmark Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report of 2007, and most countries’ unsettling dependence on fossil fuels for energy.
A recent EU study found that biofuels lead to significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and that this benefit will only improve as the fuels continue to develop.
Pros and cons of biodiesel made from jatropha or castor oil
Pros:
• Reduced dependence on fossil fuels
• Lower carbon emissions than petrodiesel
• Cheaper than petrodiesel
• Higher production per hectare than soy or corn
• Uses marginal land, creating no competition for food crops
Cons:
• Crop yields and quality vary widely
• Clearing forest or draining wetlands to
plant biodiesel crops would offset the
fuels’ environmental benefits
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