Bomb in Be`er Sheva

No reports of any deaths. Just injuries. Bugger.

Update: 12 dead.

Lucozade signs off after 50 years

One of my earliest memories of arriving in London on the M4 from Heathrow was the neon Luzozade sign at Brentford near the end of the elevated section, pouring an undending stream of liquid into a glass and displaying time and temperature (was it that cold?!).


This landmark is now being taken down and given to the nearby museum. But its spirit will remain -- an exact replica will be put up on a nearby building. This is a similar fate to the famous clock tower landmark in the same area which was relocated further down the road around 15 years ago.

Pro evacuation group in Gaza

Settlers in the Gaza Strip community of Rafiah Yam intend to establish their own branch of "Shuvi," an organization that has accumulated about 65,000 signatures urging Israel's immediate evacuation of the Gaza Strip settlements.

That is interesting. So are the greenhouses being erected in Gaza and the very low prices being demanded for mature olive trees near where I live.

War Liberal: Europe reigns supreme!

Try yet another way of looking at the Olympic medal tables. Poor old Antarctica.

Google is awesome

It happens to us all. The question posed was what happens if you replace the Sun with a one solar mass black hole. The answer is nothing of course apart from it getting a bit dark some nine minutes[1] later. So I wanted to work out the Schwarzschild radius.

Google does calculations and understands things like:

2G * 1 solar mass/c**2 in kilometers which produces 2.95343236 kilometers. So now you know what the event horizon diameter would be.

[1] Ok, it would be 8.31675359 minutes later. Try: 1 A.U./c

Well done Australia

Congratulations to Australia for topping the medals table in the Olympics. Just before you rush to the comments , I'm talking about medal scores divided by the population. From Peter me

• Australia


• Slovakia


• Netherlands


• Belarus


• Georgia


• Croatia

Another way of looking at the same thing.

BBC, Iraq and India

For those of you do not listen incessantly to the BBC World Service I will tell you of a news item I heard this morning. Since the sad death of Alistair Cooke and the ending of "Letter from America" , the BBC has been experimenting with 'Letters' a series of radio talks from countries around the world. This time it was an Indian newspaper editor. As part of his talk he mentioned the furore over some kidnapped Indian truck drivers in Iraq. What was unusual about it was that the kidnappers demanded that India withdraw its troops from Iraq. As India is vehemently opposed to the war in general and Indian troops being there in particular this seemed odd.

When the kidnappers found out, they switched to demanding money. There is a point to all this. Rather than employee hundreds of truck drivers from various countries around the world to keep troops fed and watered, would it not be better to use Iraqis?

Google News

Go to google news. Look at the top stories. There, with around 1,150 related stories is the alleged mole, spy, contact who supposedly gave information to people he shouldn't. One day I'll google for Israel in the news and get no hits. One day my wife will win the lottery.

Another Pollard

The news that a Pentagon official has been passing classified documents to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is bad news for Israel. I suspect that there will be no charges this time and therefore no public admission that anything serious was amiss. Tikum Olam has more as does Ha'Aretz.

The cries of 'The Jews rule the World' will get louder again. I would have thought that the lessons learnt from the Lavon and Pollard affair would have be automatic by now. I especially do not want to hear 'Oh, they should have sent us that info anyway. We're entitles to it. We're allies.' I will be extremely sarcastic to any blogs I find with comments like that.

Houses in Israel

The Eggheads are becoming more experienced at house hunting than we were two years ago. We managed to pack in looking at eight this morning and could reject the majority in the car. Drive by house buying. We have spotted the one we want yet again. A very small house of 60 square metres sitting on a 700 sq meter plot with mature tress and a 'live in me' sign over it. Easy to extend and it even has bats. Big, juicy fruit bats that eat the pears and pomegranetes.

How London has improved since I’ve been here (11)

Toilet rolls. You now stand (or sit if you prefer) an excellent chance of finding soft toilet paper in public conveniences and other public toilets in eg. shops and pubs. Previously there was either no paper at all or something totally inadequate for the job at hand such as shiny square sheets in a box or pink crepe paper.

Gal Friedman wins a Gold!

Well done! At last!

Sir Mark Thatcher arrested?

What , Mark Thatcher planned a coup? Days of the Jackel come to life.

Spam origins

Team USA is in the lead again, this time in the source of spam tables. I suppose it's inevitable given the spread of PC's in the USA and connectivity advances. Those who regularly visit news.admin,.net-abuse.email will know that Florida seems to be the favourite State.

A thaw in the freeze

In Washington yesterday, U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli characterized a settlement freeze as only an ultimate goal.

Presumably when there isn't any space left.
This Ha'Aretz report contradicts the above.

Ereli said that the U.S. position on the settlements has not changed, and that settlement activity in the West Bank and Gaza Strip must stop.

However, looking at the press transcripts from the State Department , Mr Ereli said:

On the Israeli side, what we're looking for and what the parties -- and what the Israelis committed to was a dismantling of outposts and progress towards a settlement freeze.
We are currently involved in technical talks with the Government of Israel in an effort to clarify their intentions with respect to the settlements, and we will continue to work with the Government of Israel towards a settlement freeze as is called for in the roadmap.

Glad to have cleared that up then. A freeze but not just yet. Maybe some time soon.

82 of 104 outposts have been dismantled

They have? Where exactly? Yossi Sarid begs to differ.

The Chap Olympics

Team GB is doing so well in the Olympic medal stakes (Paula Radcliffe sadly just excepted), I thought I’d pay a brief visit to the Chap Olympics in Regents Park. Around a dozen chaps of both genders looking and sounding like they just time-travelled here from around 80+ years ago were busy doffing their hats, throwing blankets down for the ladies, lighting their pipes, leaning against trees and generally acting chappish.

I saw the thrilling discus throwing competition (cucumber sandwiches on a plate) where the winner was the chap whose plate landed closest to the sandwiches. I’m sure the other events such as synchronised hat-doffing, braces archery and relating of anecdotes were just as classically eccentric…

Aaaarrrrrrrgggggghhhhhh!!!!!!

Munch on how life imitates art imitates life imitates art imitates…

Kerry and attack dogs

I follow the Kerry - Bush contest with a bemused fascination. It's like the Olympics without any referees. Personally I think Bush will win and the world won't end when he does. He will be a better President in his second term than the first.

The rather nasty mud slinging over Kerry's Vietnam record appears to be a repeat. The Boston News article in the url above mentions that Tricky Dicky also had a go at Kerry. My dead tree version of the IHT also points out that some of those involved in ' Swift Boat Veterans for Truth' appear to have changed their story. All very ugly stuff.

Taking the hard road

I do admire our friends who are starting the cafe. They have four children, the youngest being twins just coming into the terrible two's, he has to travel abroad for weeks on end, they've decided to start this cafe. What's an obvious step to take to help themselves out and relieve their rather exhausted friends who chip in with paint stripping, baby sitting and electrical work?

Of course... buy a six week old puppy.

Takeaway

Working with our friends on their new cafe has taken Mrs Egghead's mind off the loss of her daughter. Plaintive cries of 'She hasn't phoned or emailed yet' can still be heard. I , on the other hand, am knackered.

Third time lucky?

This morning the new Princess Diana memorial fountain was once again turned on and opened to the public. After the wrong kind of leaves blocking the pump, the wrong kind of stone collecting algae and the wrong kind of tourist slipping on said stone, surely nothing else can now go wrong?

BTW Diana’s memorial was supposed to be in Kensington Gardens near her Kensington Palace home - not in Hyde Park - but the burghers of Kensington successfully fought a campaign to re-site it further away in order minimise the numbers of riff-raff Diana fans visiting the area.

Travels

Eldest is leaving Israel tomorrow for an extended trip abroad. As part of the 'saying farewell' ceremonies, we had a family day in Jerusalem yesterday. I will spare you most of our adventures except to say we went everywhere including East Jerusalem and Mea Shearim. We had a private tour in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre courtesy of the Armenian Father superior and saw parts normally locked away. Wonderful.

Flooding

Wet seems to be a theme here this summer. We had another torrential downpour in London last night and more heavy rain is forecast in already flooded areas.

I just watched this amazing ‘amateur’ video (scroll down to 'video: amateur footage') of Monday's Boscastle flood showing cars and vans being tossed around and swept along on the wall of water nearly up to roofs of buildings in places. Wonderful news though that no one seems to have been killed.

In one of those interesting coincidences, Boscastle came 52 years to the day after even more devastating floods further north up the coast in the Devonshire villages of Lynmouth and Lynton where 34 people died. See some old film footage.

Seems that river flash-floods or ‘spates’ ranging in degree from minor irritant to major disaster have happened from time to time along the north Cornwall and Devon coastline (and elsewhere in Britain such as Moray in Scotland).

Gov't issues tenders for 1,000 homes in settlements

No, no, not the last tender , this is a new one. Natural growth I suppose.

Stella Rimington writes a book

Stella Rimington is the ex head of Britain's MI5 and following her memoirs, she's written a novel and appeared at the Ediburgh film festival to promote it. I've always had a soft spot for her, getting to where she did must have been a struggle. Still, a traiining manual for terrorists it is not. Perhaps she put in the deliberate mistakes to help try and catch them. Just try renting a car from Avis without a credit card.

It’s a ruff life

Latest must-have items for the pets of people with more money than sense include: bottled water, toilet seats, yoga, sunglasses and…a pet obituary in the Torygraph (after expiring from too much pampering?). Just don’t let my two cats read this…

Environmental Technologies and Alternative Energy Developed in Israel

A round up of alternative energy sources and cleanup projects here. Makes a change from the normal round of dreary news.

The BBC and Israel

While lying in bed summoning the energy to get up and face another day at work I listened to yet another BBC World Service report on Israel and the West Bank. This was by a female journalist whose name I didn't catch. The BBC World service site doesn't have it yet.

Then I really woke up. She was with IDF troops in the West Bank and unbeknown to the soldiers she spoke Hebrew. Oh dear. Soldier's talk can be rough at times. Having it broadcast did not make for easy listening.

Keep smiling

The Home Office says all new passport photographs must be of an unsmiling face with its gob firmly shut because open mouths can confuse facial recognition systems.

Ahh, but what if you smile at the airport?

French rough trade ride for Mandelson

So it sez 'ere. Sorry Mandy; it is silly season aka cucumber time...

Israel - Olympics

I am watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics and cheering Israel. Pray could anyone tell my why Shimon Peres was there? What's his role in all this?

Open Office

Fed up with Word, Excel etc? Stop buying the same product time after time from Microsoft. Get Open Office instead. You might have to have Windows but you don't have to go all the way.

She doesn’t smash it over

Anna Smashnova may be Israel’s number one tennis player but I’m still waiting for her to reach her full grand slam potential and live up to her wonderfully apt surname.

Palestinian Authority makes no progress

No surprises here either.

The Palestinian Authority, despite promises made by its president, has made no progress on its core obligation to take immediate action on the ground to end violence and combat terror," Prendergast said.


Progress on Palestinian security reforms also "continues to be slow, and mostly cosmetic," which can only be explained "by a lack of political will to advance along that "to assess the situation on the ground and examine appropriate courses of action." Donors will also meet in New York in September to examine how they could assist in turning a possible Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank "into a true beginning of a genuine peace process," he said.

Ahmad Chalabi returns to Iraq

I am surprised. Very surprised. Look likes he's still in play. I wonder what he promised the Iranians.

For those in IT and worried about out sourcing, take a look at this graph and smile. IT jobs in Israel are also booming. 

Our highly skilled intelligent personnel are eagerly waiting to serve you

More shtuioat from the London council obsessed with humping every road in the borough and telling the ambulance service to attend emergencies on bicycles. Camden has been caught out making road humps too high and telling porkies as to why. When the article says "it will cost Camden council…" that means all taxpayers not the council employees or councillors responsible.

Made-In-Yesha Goods To Be Marked

The EU tax agreement with Israel does not extend to goods made in the territories. So from now on, these goods must be marked as such to avoid having to pay a higher duty. I will pass over MK Yechiel Chazan remarks about singling out Jews which is just stupid. I will point out the offices recently occupied near ours by a factory in the West Bank just to avoid this stigma.

Bernard Levin, latterday Voltaire, dies at 75

I used to enjoy his prose. I also recall that Harold Evans , the one time editor of the Times offered to lend him some full stops from his extensive stock and received a very frosty reply. Gosh, Bernard Levin even appeared in TWTWTW, the very first TV satire show. My mother used to let me stay up late to watch it, though she never understtod why.

Reading between the lines

Public libraries in the UK are in the process of re-inventing themselves into community information and entertainment hubs. Some are doing well eg. Peckham Library and Media Centre (sadly in the wilds of sarf London). Other London libraries such as in Camden and Haringey provide a, shall we say, sub-standard service.

Even worse in Northern Ireland libraries have actually suspended purchases of new dead-tree books, books on tape and in digital formats as well as other ‘audio-visual’ items. Other cost-cutting measures include axing planned maintenance and increasing overdue charges. I’m having trouble reconciling this with their 10% increase in funding in real terms over the past five years.

Ahmad Chalabi, faces charges of counterfeiting

That would appear to be the end of Ahmad Chalabi. His nephew Salem is also facing charges of involvment with murder. Readers may remember that he has been convicted before in Jordan in connection with a failed bank. The USA don't like him either anymore and suspect him of leaking information to Iran.

I was amused to hear his lawyer on the BBC this morning comparing him to Konrad Adenauer. Adenauer was briefly Mayor of Cologne after the war but was removed by the British for being 'inefficient'. There is a difference of course. Adenauer was imprisoned in 1934 by the Nazis and again in 1944 for suspected involvment in the July 1944 plot against Hitler.

albawaba.com: Sudan foreign minister blames Israel for escalation of Darfur situation

Another Arab who'll blame Israel for anything ranging from the spontaneous abortions of his goats to global warming. Twit.

Golan and wasps

The Eggheads had a wonderful jeep trip in the lower Golan this morning. The afternoon was regretfully cut short as I struggled to quickly learn the Hebrew for 'severe localised wasp sting reaction'. Mrs Egghead's last cries of "Don't be such a sissy, they're only wasps' will go down in family history as she ate one. It did object of course.

Economist

In the dead tree edition of the Economist from last week, I read a very unpleasant article. As we all know now, Pakistan has been very busy in the past with weapon proliferation to Libya and North Korea. There was always an unamed fourth country in the background. That country is Saudi Arabia.

As I have repeatedly stated , Iraq was the wrong country to invade. Pakistan has committed nearly all the sins of Saddam without any of the punishments.

Thames goes blonde

After Tuesday’s deluge we have had two days of glorious not-cold weather for the cleaners-up to do their job. Our Victorian sewers still do a Victorian job eg discharge raw sewage into the Thames during storms. Result: thousands of dead fish in the water and on the shore. I knew about the regular cycle of stocking the Thames then oxygenating the water so the fish can stay alive and breed, but pumping in large quantities of hydrogen peroxide on an emergency basis is new to me…

Arutz Sheva

Rachel Neuwirth is a Los Angeles-based analyst on the board of directors of the West Coast Region of the American Jewish Congress and the chairperson of the organization’s Middle East committee. She is also a complete twit.

Contrary to popular belief, the Arab-Israeli conflict has a reasonable solution. An orderly resettlement elsewhere of the so-called Palestinian Arabs would solve this long-standing 'intractable' problem.

IT company that gives workers free beer wins award

Take me there right now.

The saloon bar follies that keep us clinging to the Rock

Max Hastings is always surprising. An interesting piece here about why Britain should give back Gibraltar to the Spainish.

Here we are in the same political minefield as that which surrounds the Falklands. Lunching with a Labour cabinet minister in 1997, I said how welcome was the prospect that a Blair government would start talks on a deal with Argentina. My guest leaned across the table: "What's in it for us?" he demanded. "The media and the Falklands lobby would go mad. About six people like you would applaud."

Ah, yes. And also:

It is ludicrous to suggest that the populations of such places as the Falklands or Gibraltar should possess an absolute veto on all debate about their future. It is also hypocritical, given that the Tory government in 1973 summarily evacuated the 1,200 inhabitants of Diego Garcia to free up the place for use as a US base. They were not white, though of course that made no difference.

I suppose the Spanish government could do a bit more to seduce rather than data rape though. Playing silly buggers with air space access and the land border makes them look 'short trousered' as well.

Wet wet wet

Yes indeed it is one of those summers here. Yesterday we had the wrong kind of rain so naturally much of central and west London flooded and came to a halt. Another reason to live on a hill in Highgate.

Slow news day

The current rumbling noises over who will be and who will not be in the Government continues with everyone becoming very silly. I was listening to the BBC on the way to work and I heard a request for any strange vegetable stories to be emailed to them. One hundred year old potatoes, that sort of thing. Very slow news day.

Annie on One

One of my favourite DJs - Annie Nightingale - has just moved her Radio 1 show to 0100-0300 Fri mornings to be more accessible than the previous Sun 0400-0700 slot. Not that it matters too much: like most BBC radio output you can listen to the session any time any place for up to a week after the broadcast. Highly recommended if you like the latest dance music esp breaks/breakbeats. Annie on One does just what it says on the label: "immediate, innovative music and exclusive mixes".

Bloggers - are we wasting our time

Stuart Hughes who lost a leg in in Iraq gets it wrong with blogging. The hansard report he refers to is full of good news for bloggers. Besides there is a Israeli English blogger convention in the making. I will be there wherever it is with a laptop and digital camera. Permission photos only of course.

Pope objects to feminism

I am grateful to the Pope for reinforcing the traditional family values lacking for so long in today's sex and drug ridden world. While he didn't mention blogging , I am pleased to announce that Cathy and I will be reverting to our traditional roles when it comes to this blog. She will be polishing the HTML, dusting the paragraph marks and cleaning the comments section while I, in my role as 'blog patriach' will confine myself to making sure she has plenty to do.

Cathy will devote herself to our many blog offspring and teaching them the catechisms needed for a spiritual life in the blogosphere. I will concentrate on providing for my blog family members and thrashing them very heavily on the buttocks with a flat bladed plywood paddle I made myself in the 'Workshop for Assertive Males' currently being run in a town near you.

A day in the life...

It's been a while since we went to the normal Saturday evening Peace Now vigil up on a crossroads on top the hills above Haifa. 'She Who Must Be Bandaged' broke her foot some while ago and we got out of the habit. It was quite gratifying to receive more support than I remember from last time. Only a few hecklers and they more muted than before.

One difference was a family from Gush Katif who came along; ostensibly to wish us all Shabbat Shalom which I thought was nice. The lady in question had seven children in tow, at least all the ones she had who could walk under their own steam. One little girl asked a question that had us stumped for a while. "Who will look after you when we are gone?". Eventually we took it to mean that they were guarding us here in Haifa by being in Gush Katif. I shall ask my work colleague who has to do reserve duty down there next month what he thinks about it. If the answer is in any way printable I shall post it here.