System Administrator Appreciation Day

It is 'System Administrator Appreciation Day'. Be nice to the person who makes it all happen. Gifts are welcome but a message of thanks will do just fine.

One spammer down.

This cheered me up. Creaghan A. Harry has been stopped and his accounts frozen. If they ever get the money back from Latvia, it will be used to compensate the thousands of people who brought his duff growth hormone. One down and only another two hundred to go in - mainly in Florida.

Its not hot. It’s just not cold.

Thanks to the Eggheads for sending some warm weather without excessive humidity. Temperatures soared in London yesterday to a sizzling, er, 26 degrees (that’s 79 in old money for any Yanks looking in) and commentators are talking about a heat wave.

Last year we had a proper warm summer in London, warm to me being 30 degrees or over. I was able to swim from June to September in the Hampstead Heath women’s pond (10 mins from home, 10 mins from work) comfortably eg. not freezing half to death. (This is nearly as good as Adrian being able to easily troll down to the med for a quick dip.) This year it hasn’t yet been warm enough for me to swim outdoors.

My idea of hot starts at 40 degrees.

Living in Israel

One advantage of living near the coast is that a dip in the sea is easy. One disadvantage is that the local humidity can be a bit on the high side. Right now , outside has the consistency of warm chicken soup. The local frogs seems to enjoy it though. Our evening walk found a bunch of them cavorting in a pond making interesting 'look at me' noises.

Our discussions on houses have narrowed down quite a bit. I suspect we'll be buying the house we rent. It will be good not having to pack yet again. It will be bad when I have to strip the plaster off every wall in the place and have the house rewired.

Yossi Beilen answers

My question didn't seem to make it but there are plenty of others to keep you interested.

Slow day

Cathy's last post deserves to stay for a while. I'm being ground down by house hunting.

How the zealots are killing a dream

An excellent piece by Will Hutton in the Observer left me very little  to rant about in the anti-Israel bias dept but much to despair about as we seem further than ever away from peaceful coexistence.

Some food-for-thought snippets:

…no more room for visionary ideas about building an Israel that will be a beacon for humanity whatever their faith. Israel is engaged in a fight to the death…

…walls may look like the act of the strong; in fact, they are the last throw of the weak. Israel has come to a desperate pass if it clings to this as a solution to anything…

…the liberal Israel, which might have offered a different vision, has been engulfed by Israel's religious zealots…the liberal secular traditionalists within Palestine, and with whom a genuine peace bargain might have been struck, are also beleaguered by fundamentalist religiosity…

…Arafat's alleged corruption sparked the violent protests in Gaza last week, but it is not just about his personal failings; it springs from the deep factionalisation within Palestine, as terrorist groups grounded in extreme fundamentalism insist on no quarter, suicide bombing and permanent intifada...

…The objective is the annihilation not just of Israel but all Jews…

…in Israel…liberals face a double whammy: they have to negotiate with uncompromising Islam to secure recognition of Israel's right to exist, while their religious right is engaged in a project of overt colonisation, oppression and systematic abuse of human rights. Unable to make any advance on the first, they can offer no alternative to the second…

…the decline of Kibbutzim is mirrored by the political disarray on the left. At the last elections, Labour won only 19 seats in the 120-seat Knesset…Israeli liberalism is wilting to the point of extinction…

…The religious fundamentalists on both sides of the divide want to extinguish their own secular, liberal traditions and those of their opponents because they are the peaceniks…

…Ultimately, both communities will look one day to their secular liberal traditions to broker peace…Europeans must try to keep that flame alive…The Israeli liberal left, however bleak it may look now, must do the same. ..

…At its best, Israel is a noble idea, but it will never flower as a society of religious zealots behind a wall.

A new blog on the roll

Check out the political satire blog I've just added. Extremely funny.


I especially liked

Lay Unaware He Was CEO Of Enron, Say Lawyers.Thought He Was Retired From Small But Lucrative Dentistry Practice, They Claim'

Human chain - Against the pullout

Whatever the final count, it was an impressive achievment by the Yesha people. The radio tells me an opinion poll shows a majority of Israelis in favour of the pullout. Somehow, I suspect this will not make a difference. The current Government does not have the strength or will to make the pullout happen against what will be a determined and stong willed resistance.

Formula 1

Schumacher wins yet again but Jenson Button had a good race. I would like to have said I saw it but I didn't. One downside of working in Israel.

Banking on housing

Yesterday, after a back breaking day helping friends lay decking in their restaurant-to-be the Eggheads went house hunting again. This time we found one we both liked and can afford. It will even be vacant in a couple of months which will be wonderful. There will be more on the restaurant story in the future. They are very brave determined people.

As the evening wore on, we went to visit relatives. The husband is a bigwig for one of the banks in Israel that hasn't been privatised yet and the workers are kicking up a stink about it. No change there then. What intrigued me was his explanation of the new marketing strategy for his back they are currently deploying. It is, in essence, 'banking with a human face'. That's right, the caring sharing bank that tears up your cheques and then laughs with you. After seeing my face at this recital he did insist it was true. Now I have never considered the words 'bank,'humanity' to belong in the same sentence. I mentioned that some years ago he told me that private customers are not profitable, always complain and need too much staff. "True," he said. "But that was before. Now all the business loans have gone bad, we're back with private customers. They pay extornationate interest rates mainly without complaining too much and besides, it's better having 100,000 small loans rather than a hundred big ones."

It's nice to think they care.

Peter Mandelson - the spring loaded politician

Peter Mandelson may be unfamiliar to most of our readers although Cathy, my blog partner may have even met him. He's been a faithful sidekick to Tony Blair, somewhat like Robin and Batman, or perhaps Tonto and the Lone Ranger. He also has the same sort of episodic mishaps, the last one over trying to help someone get British passports when he was a Minister and having to resign for a second time. This turns out not to have been true.

Now he is to be one of the UK's EU Commissioners, replacing Neil Kinnock. He is not married and like to drink only water. His grandfather was Herbert Stanley Morrison, the Labour Minister of Supply during the War years. One of the reasons I mention all this is that we are approaching the 'silly season' for news and events. I was quizzing She Who Must be Listened To about what the equivalent Hebrew term for this is. Unable to help , she turned to friends. Eventually, with the help of Ha'Aretz, we discovered that it is 'Cucumber Time'. Cucumbers sounds like Mela'feh'fon'eem in Hebrew and is a lovely mellifluous word. So, a Happy cucumber season to you all.

New UK immigration restrictions on extreme islamists

Something about bolting the barn door after the horse has left (or more appropriately entered) comes to mind. Then again perhaps these measures will in future filter out the most odious of these so-called ‘clerics’ and make life easier for modern British muslims.

This cricket test  for the 21st century includes: a basic grasp of english, professional qualifications, knowledge of and engaged with British civic life including understanding of other ethnic and faith groups.

Ukip MEP foiled by female fury

Just because of some innocent throw away remark about ' women should spend more time "cleaning behind the refrigerator".' Italian MEP Allesandra Mussolini, objected to his inclusion on the woment's rights panel as 'she was sure he was not capable of cleaning behind the fridge or cooking.'

Nice to see the EU parliament tackling the big things first.

Get out more

While Library Girl is away from her books and databases this summer cavorting with various other wild girls, some spotty boyz in Spain are stuck in their lab fantasising about replacing human librarians with robots. First step: they’re trying to design robots that can find and fetch books from shelves. Sounds more like having good-universe Daleks to trip over in the library. "You will stu-dy!" "In-tell-i-gent!" 

Hawking concedes black hole bet

I can't say I'm much the wiser really. Steven Hawking now says that information can leak back into our universe from a black hole so that's about it for using it for travelling anywhere interesting. He had to pay off a bet to Kip Thorn from CIT who wanted a encyclopaedia of baseball. Steven's offer of an encyclopaedia of cricket seems to have been rejected.

Thanks everyone for admiring the new layout especially Imshin of 'Not a Fish'. The layout idea and the whole change was due to my blog partner Cathy.

UN Vote on the barrier

As faithful readers know, I am against the security barrier being built in the West Bank because it's the right idea in the wrong place. However, I do object the UN General Assembly vote on this issue. There are two good points to it all. First, the resolution condemmed acts of terrorism. Secondly, the Iraqi UN ambassador decided to be absent rather than vote for. Is this a good sign?

Bloggers Are the Sizzle, Not the Steak

From Stuart Hughes, blogger journalist who lost part of a leg in Iraq agrees with the LA Times when they say bloggers are not journalists. Journalists can be bloggers though. If I wanted to sell my soul to people like Murdoch I'd get a better offer. In case you want to get the flavour of the LA Times article without the bother of subscribing to it here are some other lines I've taken out of context.

blogging still has the charm of guileless transparency.

Blogging is especially amenable to introducing negative information into the news stream and for circulating rumors as fact.

Journalists increasingly read blogs to pick up tips.

...these common attributes of the blogosphere: vulgarity, scorching insults, bitter denunciations, one-sided arguments, erroneous assertions and the array of qualities that might be expected from a blustering know-it-all in a bar.

blogging's freewheeling, unfettered style makes it a juicy target for manipulation.

London ‘04 summer street fun

Last summer it was flashmobbing. This summer’s text-web-email-wordofmouth crowd-generating fad: guerilla gigs. Crowd gathers at advertised place, finds details of exact location, go there, band shows up and plays until they’re finished or evicted whichever comes first. Recent guerilla gigs have happened in spaces as diverse as on the roof of a pub, on the tube, and in the reception area of BBC Radio 1.

Even Dave Spart has got in on the act, using guerilla gigs to spread his, er, message of anti racism anti fascism smash the state hegemony of oppression, er cont p94…

Fiddling while work burns...

I've been fiddling with the new layout. Other posts are in the queue. House hunting continues.

Name change

Our name has changed but the philosophy and people haven't. Update your blogrolls.

Hunting the snark

They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care;
They pursued it with forks and hope;
They threatened its life with a railway-share;
They charmed it with smiles and soap.

We continue the new ending saga of trying to find a place in which to pour the Egghead household. We saw two places yesterday. One was a very nice house with an attached unit and at a good price. Regretfully, when the house was built, the neighbours had decided to indulge in a little land grabbing and had managed to reduce the main driveway to a width just too small to drive a car through. Another bank repossession, we groaned at the thought.

The other was in an old working Kibbutz. Run down, on a large chunk of land, it came with a converted bus that someone had attached the top of another bus as extra living space. This one looked promising. Nobody could possibly object to me keeping chickens there. We even have an attractive view of the grain silos.

Later this week, we shall be looking at a 40 dunam farm in the North also at a very attractive price. The reason that it's cheap is that you can wave to those nice Hezbollah people just across the border. My explanation of Katusha trajectories and the inherent limitations of mortars for close attack left Mrs. Egghead somewhat cold. They would all pass overhead. Only small arms fire to think about. I shall press for this one. I would even be able to have a firearms license.

Blog comments

I don't like blogger comments. It appears you can leave your name if you have a blogger profile or post anonymously. I prefer neither of these. Haloscan will be making a return soon just as soon as I can figure out the code placing.

Tim gets knighted

The inventor of the world wide web has been knighted by the Queen. Computer use was revolutionised when Sir Tim Berners-Lee created the information superhighway.

But he didn't create the "information superhighway." It was already there. He invented a protocol and associated software to enable information to be easily located.

He created the programme which later became the web for his own private use while working at the European particle physics laboratory, CERN, near Geneva, then went on to write the first web browser and web server, both of which he gave away on the internet in 1991.

Wrong again. Others helped and gave it away. Bad article as usual.

This is a demographic map of the West Bank and Gaza. It may show why leaving Gaza is such a good idea. It may even show what a damn silly idea it was in the first place. 

Redecorating

I hope you like the new format. I regret that comments have been lost yet again as we've switched to blogspot commenting rather than haloscan. I really must finish the auto archiver I've been working on for ages. Any suggestions always gratefully received.

Weather and hospitals

While Cathy shivers in London, here it's hot. Steaming, wet dripping kind of hot that has me gasping. Another day spent in emergency rooms as eldest daughter rushed back from work around midnight with severe stomach pains. After several hours, she was admitted for observation by the excellent Rambaum staff.

She's OK but needs further tests. This after an ultrasound examination, an X-Ray and a CT scan with the normal blood tests. Better here than in India where she proposes to be in a few weeks. Whilst bringing her some edible food to supplement the hospital diet, we noticed a woman crying in the next bed. She'd been badly beaten up by unknown attackers and was very scared. What had she done wrong? Asked for a divorce from her Arab husband. Sometimes I'm ashamed to be male.

Brrrrrrrr

So the poor weather in London this summer is due to the jet stream flowing directly overhead rather than somewhere north of Britain. Silly me, I thought InJewCon controlled this sort of thing…The good news is that it’s still possible for it to move north thus allowing the Azores High to bring us some warmer sunnier weather.

Hawking resolves black hole riddle

Or rather he will next week in Ireland. The problem is the information that is supposedly lost when a black hole evaporates via Hawking radiation. This goes against quantum physics. July 21st we'll know all about it.

The British National Party is racist, nationalist and zenophobic shock

BBC news is reporting that a hard-hitting cutting edge documentary to be screened this evening…on BBC1…shows BNP members admitting to race-hate activities. Who’d have thought it? Methinks this is Auntie milking it for all it’s worth in the face of recent dumbing-down criticisms.

Useful excrement

Really, really useful Guardian excrement. The Science museuem is planning to generate electricity from visitors excrement. I'll pass on the dung flavoured cheese though.

Head Heeb

The Head Heeb has an excellent post on Jordanian involvement in the West Bank. He points out the difficulties a Palestinian State would face if it ever got of the ground. My own feelings is that it is one of those nice to dream style of plans. Given the history of the PLO in Jordan and the near civil war that took place, no Jordanian wants a reprise.

Butler report: key findings

The Butler report is out. This is the enquiry into UK intelligence leading up to the Iraq war. It is fairly non comittal and shouldn't give Tony Blair much more of a hard time than he has already. It does support the claim that Saddam would love to have had WMDs but wasn't having much success in getting them.

Whatever my feelings about the whole thing, I certainly do want Iraq to make the difficult transition to a democratic state. Why anyone things this might be a good thing for Israel is beyond me. It's quite likely a democratic Iraq could be just as hostile as Iraq was under Saddam.

8,000 bloggers born every day

Some amazing stats on blogging here in Vulture Central.

f the figures are to be believed, then anonymity would appear to be the way to go. Keeping schtum as to your real identity would protect you from becoming one of the 360,000 people per year who allegedly receive subpoenas as a result of their blogging.

That's a hard one to believe. Each year?

Cover up or off

Returning to the subject of exposed bodies, the back, sack and crack wax seems an even bigger thing this summer for London’s male metrosexuals and pomosexuals.

And just when you think the forces of modernity in Iran are gaining strength, along come the mad mullahs’ morality police to make sure, especially during the hottest months of the year, that women are properly covered from head to toe in dark heavy shapeless cloth.

Government survives - just

Politics in Israel is not an occupation for gentlefolk. There was a no confidence vote today in the Knesset and Sharon just made it. I did predict this government will survive for a long time and I still think so. Peres will become Foreign Minister whatever Silvan Shalom has to say about it if Labour joins the government.

Workplace blues

There's something about the offices we have moved into. When we arrived, there was an overwhelming smell of sewage due to a blocked drain. Then we had a minor flood which made everything smell damp. I came to work earlier than normal yesterday to catch up with some work. When I arrived I was surprised to see the lights on as I unlocked. Pushing the door open showed me the cleaning lady vacuuming the front area. Quite normal I hear you say except she was dressed only in bra and panties. Embarrassed I fled into the office as she headed for the server room. Sensible I suppose as the air conditioning is off first thing.

Meet the in-laws - Bin Laden's sister in law.

What an interesting story in the Grauniad. Carmen bin Ladin tells all about her marriage to Osama's brother.

Bad news - Terror attack

My heart stopped when I read this at work. Checking the news every thirty minutes is common here. At least nobody was killed.


Update: One killed.

Yusuf al-Qaradawi escapes again

Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the cleric who publicly defended suicide bombings in Israel during his visit to Britain, will not be prosecuted, it was announced yesterday. Damn.

Israel and Schul

Today was the first time I have set foot in a synagogue since I came to Israel. The occasion was a Bar Mitzvah for one of Mrs Eggheads pupils. A reform synagogue with an Argentinian Rabbi. The service was very similar to the one's in the UK except he played a guitar at several places. Kiddush followed with the normal scrum to get at the food. I even enjoyed most of it.

It might seem strage to say so , but our attendence at the synagogue has dropped alarmingly since making Aliya. My fellow workers are constantly amazed that I used to go in the UK at all.

Zogperson rejoices

Zog person will be delighted to know that Yusuf al-Qaradawi will not be lecturing attentive crowds on the proper procedures for executing homesexuals or converting the Iberian peninsula to Islam. The boys in blue have woken from their tea induced slumber and passed the file to the CPS who might have a go at him for inciting racial hatred. Woopeee!

The Fence hits the news again

The expected decision by the ICJ calls for Israel to pull down the security fence and compensate the Palestinians. No chance of that happening. I note with interest that the court was quite happy with the sections on the green line as I am. It will allow Israelis to consider something other than the latest Ministerial scandal

Still red

Our Ken is really keeping Londoners on their toes. Just when we thought he was moving forward on key issues, here he is reverting to 20th century type. He will open a conference on islamic women’s sheetcovering at which the guest of honour will be the spiritual leader of the the extremist muslim brotherhood.

This ‘sheikh’ likes killing people. He supports suicide bombers (they’re martyrs not suicides), says it’s ok to kill all israelis because there are no civilians in israel (including babies), gays should be executed (his only argument is how) and believes Islam will return to Europe as a conquerer and victorious power. That’s aside from the usuual ‘Jews are vile crusaders, infidels and scum’ islamic nonsense.

As I’ve said previously, anyone who preaches this hate-generating filth should be refused entry into the UK or prosecuted. If the government can ban a black rapper for being homophobic, surely they can ban a muslim extremist for promulgating the same views and with an even wider circle of hate. Or is it because he is a cleric?

Reclaim the streets…for F1

Had a fabulous late pm seeing and hearing these cars performing in London. Maybe a Grand Prix in London could revitalise F1. And in yet another unexpected turn, Our Ken is actually backing a London Grand Prix.

C.I.A. Held Back Iraqi Arms Data, U.S. Officials Say

Remind me again why the USA and the UK went to war in Iraq again. WMDs? So that people wouldn't have a hard time in Abu Graib prison? Bah.

Maariv gets huffy about Grippen sales to Pakistan

Maariv does a good job of feeding Israeli paranoia by claiming the proposed Grippen fighter sale to Pakistan is a strategic threat to Israel.

The purchase, if it goes through could alter the strategic balance between Israel and its Moslem foes. The Gripen, with its 3,000 km. range could reach Israel from bases in southwestern Pakistan. Pakistan regards Israel as an unfriendly country, and has been extremely concerned by the growing military alliance between Jerusalem and Delhi. The fact that Pakistan, a nuclear-armed Moslem state will, for the first time, have a front line state of the art aircraft capable of reaching Israel means that the IAF may be facing a new strategic challenge.

What nonsense. The quoted range of 3000 kilometers is the ferry range. That means the plane carries minimal or no armaments and ferry tanks as well. It also means the plane can't return without in-flight refueling, a skill set Pakistan is still very poor at. The Israeli designed Python AAM is available as part of the Grippen package of course. This is primarily a British Aerospace deal, not Swedish.

Given Pakistan's steadily growing range of missiles coupled with nuclear weapons, the Grippen is not a threat to Israel. Pakistan's missile technology, it's clandestine support for the Taliban and indirectly for Osama and his friends is much greater. The ever lasting Pakistan - India struggle does not involve Israel except to the extent that Israel is seen as favouring one side over the other<./p>

International Jewish Conspiracy

Zogperson is delighted to find this website and to think it how must warm the cockles of Jew-haters of all persuasions from red-necks to islamists. Here you can read the minutes of the latest InJewCon meetings, find out how to forcibly de-baptise a christian fundamentalist, be notified when InJewCon chooses the next US president, know how to tell if you are indeed a giant lizard, ask Uncle Zog and more. And of course be reminded to call your mother. Even registering is a hoot.

Internet Explorer

You can get the latest update to Internet Explorer here. Of course, it only works with Explorer, not any other browser.

Out and about

A long hot Shabbat as I struggled to clean, vacuum and fit seat covers to Ralf, the family car. No, I don't have a work car. Later, the Eggheads went house hunting and ended up buying two large clay pots, an assortment of herbs, some twenty candles including smoky anti biting insect types. We wound up in a cafe recently opened in a Moshav. It overlooks cattle feeding lots so you can sip cappuchino and watch the cows chew their cud and make milk. What memories it brought back. All those endless days mucking out cow sheds by hand.

I would have thought it was a strange place to open a cafe. It turns into a tapis bar after 11 at night as well which must be something to see.

I've just had my fourth shower of the day and have taken to keeping fresh t-shirts in the freezer. You get a lovely feeling when it slips over the skin. Highly recommended.

Web scam costing PC users millions

Another good reason not to use Internet Explorer. I can't be sure but I think that's how it infects a PC. Porn diallers are nothing new of course. BT making profits from scams is not new either.

Map of Security Fence Project

The official security fence map has been updated at the seamzone Government site. It will probably have to change yet again soon.

Leaving time

Around six people have left workplace last month. Normally, the custom was for the person leaving to come in with a cake and soft drinks and we'd all sit around saying not very much. This time, three people did it differently. We all went to a pub after work, played silly games and had a great time.

This trend is to be encouraged.

Extension Room

I love Firefox. There are plenty of addons such as a flash blocker that only plays flash animations if you want it too. The whole browsing experience is much, much faster.

I now have a 'BlogThis' right click, and a gmail compose extension. Wonderful stuff.