Bread

• It’s been 18 years since the then Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, moved all Israel’s settlers and military personnel out of the Gaza Strip.
• The country’s official narrative then became that they were no longer an occupying force.
• But two years later, following the election of Hamas, the Israeli government imposed a blockade on the entire Gaza Strip.
• So today’s 18-year-olds have suffered in a state of privation for pretty much their whole lives.

The toll of war

• Within the densely populated Gaza Strip, the health needs of children have grown exponentially due to the conditions of the Israeli blockade.
• In the aftermath of each war, Israel has tightened access to Gaza via the main commercial crossing for construction materials, generators and water.
• A report conducted by the UN Environment Programme following the 2008-9 war highlighted the serious health issues due to the debris that would particularly affect children.

Crumbling infrastructure

• Blockade has also made it impossible to develop vitally needed infrastructure.
• The provision of clean water and adequate sewage and waste disposal requires massive investment to meet the needs of the population.
• Meanwhile, the electricity shortages and shortage of sanitation structures mean that the sea in Gaza is highly contaminated by sewage and poorly treated wastewater.
• With very few safe public play spaces for children, the beach is one place that many have turned to for relief.

• CORE Industrial Partners (“CORE”), a manufacturing, industrial technology, and industrial services-focused private equity firm, announced today the execution of a definitive agreement for the sale of J&K Ingredients LLC (“J&K” or the “Company”), a manufacturer and supplier of food and beverage ingredients with an emphasis on natural, organic, and clean label products, to SK Capital, a private investment firm focused on the specialty materials, ingredients, and life sciences sectors.
• Founded in 1899, J&K Ingredients pioneered the bakery industry’s first natural mold inhibitor and remains at the forefront of clean label ingredients innovation, custom formulation, and manufacturing across multiple food & beverage end markets.
• CORE invested in J&K in October 2020 with the vision of scaling the business by enhancing its legacy bakery ingredients offering and expanding its natural preservative product category into adjacent food & beverage end markets.
• We developed and executed our strategic growth plan to scale the business, which was completed during a dynamic operating environment.

• HORSHAM, Pa., Oct. 11, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Thomas'®, the top seller of grocery store English muffins and bagels in the U.S., today announced the expansion of its breakfast portfolio with the launch of its new Croissant Bread, a twist on the iconic breakfast favorite.
• Thomas' Croissant Bread has the flaky delicate layers of a croissant baked right into a loaf and sliced for convenience, making it easier for consumers to toast and top with butter or other favorite toppings.
• "With a strategic pre-sliced design, our new Croissant Bread is more than just bread, it's a way to give our fans their mornings back, especially during their busiest days.
• The company has since added bagels and breakfast breads, including a line of swirl breads, to its breakfast offerings.

About 7,000 years ago, a small group of people sat around a fire, next to a small lake in what is now the Nefud Desert of northern Saudi Arabia. We found some of the tools they left behind – and on close inspection of the tools, we discovered these Stone Age herders were busy grinding animal bones, wild plants and pigments while their meat was cooking. Our results are published in a new paper in PLOS ONE.

Herders and artists

• Herders lived around these lakes and led their cattle, sheep and goats to the best pastures.
• These Stone Age herders were also skilled artists.

Stone Age camp sites

• Archaeological sites from this period consist of collections of small fireplaces.
• The herders seem to have been extremely mobile, moving around the landscape with their herds, searching for pasture and water.
• There are no plant remains in the archaeological sites, and animal bones only survive in small fragments.
• So, we turned to microscopic analysis in order to help determine the function of the grinding tools.

Microscopic traces

• In experiments we find that grinding different materials, such as bone, pigment, or plants, leaves distinctive microscopic marks on the surface of the grinding tools.
• These marks, including striations, fractures, rounding of individual quartz grains and different types of polish, can be seen with a microscope.
• We looked at the Stone Age grinding tools to identify similar traces, and from them to determine what materials were ground.
• Our microscopic study showed the grindstones were used for a range of different purposes.

Valuable tools

• Our analysis of the grinding marks also showed the tools were often used for different materials over time.
• They were clearly valuable and used as much as possible.
• We’re still not sure why the discarded tools were placed on the fire – perhaps they used them to cook or to dry their meat.