1. Block is part of a growing demographic for Masa Israel, which has had more than 10, 000 inquiries from recent graduates in the past 19 months, says Avi Rubel, Masa Israel's North American director.

2. 'I literally walked around for years wondering about this variability, ' says Ed Rubel, a professor of hearing sciences who leads part of the University of Washington research effort.

3. "This is no different than putting a TV ad on ABC -- it's just going where the eyeballs are, " said Steve Rubel, senior VP at Edelman Digital.

4. It is generally thought that the term "Marxology" is first proposed by Rubel, and this word only belongs to western academic circles.

5. There are 1, 486 people participating in the program this year, a 51% increase from 2009, Rubel says.