Kob-Log

Who won?

2009-02-13T18:48:00.000-08:00

Blood libels

2009-02-03T21:21:00.001-08:00

Oh, and by the way, in other news, the UN backtracked on claim that it was the IDF strike hit Gaza school today.
It turns out that the school was not hit after all.

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1061189.html
"The IDF on Tuesday released video footage showing Palestinian militants firing from the school compound and carrying a rocket launcher with them as they flee the scene. "

But you wouldn't get that from the international media of course. Nor will Ban Kee moon retract his outraged, unprecedented personal condemnation; nor will Aradwan apologize for calling to banish Israel fro the UN.
Why? Because you can always get away with accusing Israel. You know, blood libels.

Hizbolah Honda

2009-01-15T13:39:00.000-08:00

Buy a hybrid. Or better yet, bike and use public transportation. (thanks to Ilan)

Reply in kind

2009-01-14T18:15:00.001-08:00

I was asked at a formal diner by a very smart person yesterday whom I hardly know, why Israel does not respond "in kind" to Hamas' rockets. I asked him if he thought that if Israel used its schools as a launching pad for 2,300 WWII-technology rockets, aimed into Gaza's most populous neighborhoods, the world would finally accept our actions as "justified and proportional". Then he asked to stop talking about it because I was inappropriate.

The Day of Atonement

2008-10-25T20:57:00.001-07:00

Yom Kipur in Tel Aviv

Nice day for a bike ride to a sewage plant

2008-07-28T20:32:00.000-07:00

I rode to Deer Island with MassBike on Saturday. No, it's not an island. Home to the misfits of the day, it was a place of confinement for native Americans in the 18th century, and in the 21st century, it stores and treats our waste matter. Those stunning cylinders hide a foul secret.

Boston's segregated reality was again brought to life, as we visited East Boston, Revere, Winthrop and Everett, places I had never before visited.

עבודה עברית

2008-07-28T19:55:00.000-07:00

Avoda Ivrit is a glitzy project of new versions for songs spanning Israel's 60 years of independence. Two such projects were initiated, the first covering 50 songs, and released to commemorate Israel's 50th anniversary. The second came out last year to mark Israel's 60th, and you guessed it, included 60 songs. Some are spectacular (Assaf Amdursky, Aya Korem and more). You can buy the songs in full (and as ring-tones) for your phone. A fitting tribute to the country with more cell phones than people.

Free iPod Hebrew support

2008-07-14T11:15:00.000-07:00

Hebrew support for iPod users is now freely distributed by iDigital. Kol hakavod! Works like a charm. Instructions are in Hebrew, contact me if you need a summary in English.

Enviromental Smoker

2008-07-13T08:29:00.000-07:00

This is Mr. Gideon Ezra, Israel's minister for the "protection of the environment". His questionable policies have raised much debate in Israel's green community. Nevertheless, I understand he recycles his empty Marlboro boxes.

Prof. David Mumford and the Wolf Prize

2008-05-31T21:05:00.000-07:00

Prof. David Mumford of Brown university --- the recipient of this year's prize for mathematics by the Wolf foundation in Israel --- decided to donate the prize money to Palestinian academia to "enable the academic community in occupied Palestine to survive and thrive".

It's not the lack of funds that's keeping Palestinian academia from thriving. Rather, it is that Chemistry labs in Palestinian universities are used to teach bomb manufacturing techniques and that those Palestinian scientists who attempt to collaborate with Israelis risk their reputation and their lives.

Prof. Mumford mis-used a celebration of scientific achievement to shout out his political agenda, not to help the Palestinian people, or else he would have donated the money to a UN relief organization.

Cambridge Geese

2008-05-31T20:39:00.000-07:00

We ran into these family of geese on a recent bike tour in Cambridge taking a leisurely Saturday stroll near the museum of science. Can you imagine anyone eating foigras after such a domestic scene?

Aya Hahatula, 1996-2007

2007-09-30T19:44:00.000-07:00

איה החתולה
1996-2007

It is with great sorrow that I report the passing of our beloved Aya on Friday evening. An abrupt seizure took her away from us in a matter of seconds, unexpectedly and without warning. There is solace in that her demise was quick and painless but her sudden departure from our lives, without preamble or warning, has plunged us into sadness and regret. If only we had just one more day with Aya to hug and bid farewell. Her high-pitched friendly meows still linger, echoing from the crowded bookshelves of our small apartment. Not even Yohanan's cries of sorrows can overcome them.

Aya's eventful life spanned two corners of the globe. She enjoyed hunting Israeli cockroaches in her early days in Givatayim, and towards her 6th year undertook a transatlantic voyage with Yoav to seek novel opportunities in the new world. In Boston however, the absence of a work visa and a vexing empathy for squirrels resulted in early retirement to a carefree life of leisure. She greeted each morning sun stooped beside the window sill, taking a breath of fresh air to induce an appetite. She would then park herself in front of her food bowl for lengthy amounts of time, occasionally grazing at her semi-private wheat garden to facilitate digestion.

Aya was never particularly agile or cunning, and was therefore put at a disadvantage for gaining food over Yohanan's adversarial behavior. She compensated by her keen sense of hearing, clumsily rushing from the bedroom to the sharp opening sound of a can of cat food to beat her competition. She was a keen lover of corn nibblets and on the rare occasions in which she was offered them, she indulged in roasted beets. She loved company, and would often jump on the lap of formal guests, or a juicy plate of chicken legs, which we have since abolished. Each night she fell asleep at our feet on the communal bed, and that is how I will remember her. To her last day, Aya was a "cat's cat" --- outgoing, cheerful and boisterous. We are so fortunate to have had her.

Commencement 2007

2007-09-01T16:25:00.000-07:00

Folding the flags in front of Widener Library signaling the end of commencement ceremonies for 2007. By my count, old Widener Library has seen 90 Harvard commencements since its solemn dedication in 1916. During my masters commencement it rained heavily. Umbrellas, it turned out, are useless when 20,000 people sit huddled together.
My rented gown, having been dirty to begin with, ending up a disgusting pile of damp cloth. I saw my PhD commencement in Pierce hall through closed circuit television. On T.V., the event has its own official commentators, as if it's a sporting match.

Sipholux

2007-07-14T09:19:00.000-07:00

The city of New York has launched a campaign to encourage the drinking of tap water. Ironically, despite the healthy allure of bottled water, their effect on the environment is undoubtedly negative. Most plastic containers end up in land fills, use up energy during transport, and require refrigeration. Springs and rivers used as bottling sources suffer a significant reduction in output and flow, with dire consequences to local wildlife. For club-soda enthusiasts like myself, home carbonation systems that were very popular in Israel in the '70s (see picture), and offer a green, economic alternative to the bottled alternatives. However, I have not been able to find a product that can handle more than 1 liter. The alternative is to buy several, but they are quite expensive, I found.

bournemouth, Brighton,...

2007-07-08T22:12:00.000-07:00

First it was the British academic union in Bournemouth, now it's the British workers union in Brighton. Any suggestions as to the name of the next seaside British town to host a union meeting calling for the boycott of Israel?

Dana, Nika and Maya

2007-07-08T14:59:00.000-07:00

The latest summer chart toppers have brought me to update Israel's list of leading export commodities. In the fifties, it was oranges; in the nineties, it was high tech; and in the naughts, it is transsexual female vocalists. Yes, in addition to the venerable Dana International, who has a new carefree single, we also have Nikka, the chanteuse produced by Henree, and Offer Nissim's creation --- Maya. Incidentally, Dana's advert promises that "open doors" occur at 23.30...

Boycott of Israeli academics by the British union of academics

2007-06-27T15:01:00.000-07:00

For the third year in a row, the British union of academics have recommended to their 120,000 members to boycott all academic ties with Israel.

I find this decision to be in very poor taste, when Israel is the only country in the middle east in which Arab academics, along with their Jewish colleagues, can pursue their work freely and openly, when that work is often critical of the country that provides them with this very opportunity. That is the way a healthy democracy works. In contrast, researchers in the Arab world face social and professional excommunication, harassment, and even death for attempting to collaborate with their Israeli counterparts.

This decision is especially cynical, while Arab and Jewish students and faculty at Sapir college, near the city of Sderot, are gripped by fear and confusion from the threat of Kassam rockets fired daily by the Palestinians. While the decision to boycott Israel was taken in peaceful Bournemouth, my sister, who teaches at the college, and along with the rest of her students, is absolutely terrified, try to continue their academic pursuit of knowledge under the harrowing threat of the air raid siren, signaling a frantic 20 seconds during which they must find adequate cover.

As for the commitment to education and pedagogics displayed by the Palestinian government, it is suffice to read this article describing the indoctrination into fundamentalism of young minds. As another example, consider this ironic adaptation of an icon of Western imperialism, enlisted for the Palestinian "cause" of Jewish annihilation.

Five Boro bike ride

2007-06-09T21:23:00.000-07:00

I recently participated in the NYC five borough bike tour. This year, the tour celebrated its 30th year, and included 42,000 riders, a 42 mile traffic-free route, five magnificent bridges and one ferry ride. There were official inspection points along the route, where massive security personnel pulled aside the free riders that tagged along. The route itself was surprisingly flat, enabling an effortless ride through narrow streets, large highways, bridges and tunnels, culminating in a crossing of the dramatic Varrazano bridge from Brooklyn to Staten Island. Riding on a bicycle allowed to fully appreciate this man-made monster of steel. that On the way, we got to experience some of the colorful neighborhoods in this great city that are so close to Manhattan, and yet a million miles away.

See some more pictures here, or watch the "official" documentary on youTube.

Baby potatoes

2007-05-28T21:14:00.000-07:00

In America, 90% of toddlers under the age of two watch more than 90 minutes of TV per day. Here's a sure fire economic initiative --- toddler TV dinners. I guess you can't begin the exposure to those car and prescription medicine commercials too early.

Dryers

2007-04-17T20:21:00.000-07:00

Here's an anecdote for those who don't realize the extent of energy consumption in America. As this NYT piece quotes, There are 88 million dryers in America. If Americans stopped using them for 6-months, the USA would decrease its carbon emission by almost 4 percent. Growing up in Israel, I can't think of anyone I knew that had a dryer; If it weren't for the movies I wouldn't know they existed. (Anyone care to comment on the dryer-index of contemporary Israeli families?) Makes sense because the climate in Israel is laundry friendly. In America, clotheslines are endemic of poverty. Many leases forbid their use. No one, not even the dwellers of Arizona and Nevada, not even the die-hard ecologists use a clothesline.

Trains and planes

2007-04-03T18:17:00.000-07:00

A French TGV train broke the speed record today at 547 Km/h. At their normal running speed (300 Km/h), this train would take just over an hour to get from South Station in Boston to Penn Station. No airport congestion or traffic jams, and it's infinitely more energy efficient than the number of planes it would take to haul the same amount of people. At 300 Km/h, it would take 12 minutes to get from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. At 547 km/h, the train needs 30 kilometers to come to a halt. That's half that distance.

Potatoes

2007-03-18T22:12:00.000-07:00

This is an ideal week for buying potatoes for Passover in Israel. The IDF has forbidden crop dusting planes from taking off near the Gaza strip for fear of being shot down. It's almost organic !

Free iPod Hebrew support for windows users

2007-01-12T18:34:00.000-08:00

This site provides free Hebrew iPod support for windows users. A blessed development given that Yeda, apple's representatives in Israel, have begun charging for this feature for those who did not buy their iPod through Yeda. I am very interested in hearing user's comments about whether the free software works.

Legal sentencing recommendation software

2007-01-12T16:14:00.000-08:00

Researchers of AI at Bar Ilan University have written a program to generate recommendations for criminal sentencing.
Many interesting questions arise. How to scientifically evaluate the performance of such a program ? What training-set of past human-generated sentencing should be used ? If past sentencing was legally or morally flawed, wouldn't the program generalize those flaws to new sentences ? Will convicted felons be able to challenge their sentencing if their is a discrepancy between their sentencing and the software's recommendation ?

Snow in the Galilee

2007-01-10T21:16:00.000-08:00

While Cambridge is basking in balmy unseasonable weather, Israel's vineyards in the Galilee have covered themselves in a beautiful white cloak.

Greedy Israeli apple reps

2007-01-10T20:24:00.000-08:00

Yeda, the sole company in Israel authorized to carry apple products, is notorious for its disappointing service and lacking commitment to customers. Indeed, apple's lackluster performance in Israel can be attributed in large part to Yeda's inflated prices and poor professionalism, a striking difference compared to apple's solid reputation in the U.S.

Yeda has recently hit a new low by pricing version 2.0 of its Hebrew iPod support software, iPodHE, at 49 NIS (~$12). Oh, did I mention you can get it for free if you buy your iPod through the yeda store ? But for that luxury you must pay an average of $80 extra per model.

Where's the logic here ? Hebrew support for the iPod is not a "product"; it is (just) one of the steps Yeda should be taking in order to increase the popularity of apple products by Hebrew speakers. But apparently, this is not Yeda's goal. What next ? Expect to have to pay for Hebrew support on Leopard OS X. It's only natural, according to Yeda's scandalous business ethics.

2006-12-28T12:07:00.000-08:00

Essential exercise for busy people

2006-12-27T23:29:00.000-08:00

The British physiotherapy guide to lazy exercising has some beautiful ideas to improve your health without any time commitment.

Carter

2006-12-27T22:29:00.000-08:00

Apparently, president Carter is refusing Brandeis' university's condition of debating Dershowitz when talking about his latest comic book. Some professors in the university have since petitioned to raise the necessary funds to covering transportation and security costs to bypass the university. One of the professors wants to make the book, equating Israeli policy with apartheid, to be made mandatory reading for incoming freshmen. At this rate, "The protocols of the Elders of Zion will be a graduate course at Brendeis.

Israel's talented diplomats

2006-12-27T22:17:00.000-08:00

When asked about a new settlement being planned in the occupied territories, the first in ten years, an Israeli official, quoted in the NYT, said the deal "sort of went through and now it’s done and would be very hard to undo." The person goes on to say that the settlement is lip service to Jewish settlers, and that the settlement is "not new, exactly".

Thank goodness our batch of obtuse diplomats were not around 40 years ago, when Israel depended on stronger shoulders, like Abba Even's.

The Divestment Project

2006-12-22T21:06:00.001-08:00

America is a true democracy. During municipal elections, any individual or group can propose to include a vote on "matters of interest", usually confirmed by a signature list, to appear on a city-wide ballot. Recent ballots topics in Cambridge ranged from decreasing the speed limit in school zone, to promoting the sale of wine in supermarkets. The city of Somerville, an evolving suburb adjacent to Cambridge (it has but one stop on the subway) boasts a lively mix of students and restaurants, Portuguese and Caribbean immigrants. Mostly comprised of depressing, narrow streets lined with unattractive wooden houses, it is hardly on the Boston tourist map, although Somerville does provide an organized yearly tour of people's Christmas lights. Enter the Somerville Divestment Project -- the first organization in the USA to attempt to divest from Israel by way of municipal vote. The organization is not different or unique from other anti-Israeli initiatives in America; but there are two interesting points to make with respect to its presence in Somerville, adjacent to the Chomsky-Dershowitz front, and still a million miles away at the same time. First, that a developing suburb could divest from Israel. Would it threaten to stop the hoards of Portuguese tourists from overflowing on Hamei Tverya, or Boycott the sole Falafel stand in Davis Square ? Second, the alarming indifference by which this attempt was greeted by the public. If it weren't for a few tsadikim in Harvard Hillel, that urged students to demonstrate in the streets of Somerville and to distribute literature, Somerville may have removed its ambassador from Tel Aviv.

Crazy French

2006-12-18T20:46:00.000-08:00

Here I was cutting my salad today, when this story came up about the crazy French. They really lost their minds, over there in Paris, establishing new forms of transit throughout the city, relinquishing traffic lanes for the narrow trams, using the remaining space to plant trees and flowers around the routes. Thank goodness for Israel, where we have rational politicians that ADD traffic lanes to meet our transportation needs, not remove them. Stupid Frenchies.

Slurs

2006-12-18T19:45:00.000-08:00

Demeaning statements against gays and Jews are making a comeback.

word attachments

2006-12-16T14:21:00.000-08:00

Richard Stalman says - receiving Word documents is bad for you because they can carry viruses. Sending Word documents is bad for you, because a Word document
normally includes hidden information about the author, enabling those
in the know to pry into the author's activities (maybe yours). Text
that you think you deleted may still be embarrassingly present (see
here)

But above all, sending people Word documents puts pressure on them to
use Microsoft software and helps to deny them any other choice. In
effect, you become a buttress of the Microsoft monopoly. This
pressure is a major obstacle to the broader adoption of free software.
Would you please reconsider the use of Word format for communication
with other people?

See here for more about this issue.

and you think you've had a bad day ?

2006-12-01T12:57:00.000-08:00

At least you didn't pass out and get eaten up by a crocodile after taking off your clothes snorting crack.