Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Google Print is out in Beta. As a quick test I searched the first long word that came into my head: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (analyse that!). Up came 35 fascinating results including “Queens in the Kingdom: The Ultimate Gay and Lesbian Guide to the Disney Theme Parks”. At the moment you can search for any word in Google, but can’t yet search further once you are in the sample pages themselves (images).

Some authors and publishers are lobbying against Google Print as they see it as a threat to their income. But far from harming dead-tree sales, I believe that this type of service will actually encourage people to buy a real book if they can search and see part (or even all!) of it on screen.

AUT boycott of Israel universities rescinded

I should have blogged about the excellent news sooner after it happened last Thursday - but I was immersed in researching an essay defending the classical law of contract for my PhD assignment. I was also rather caught up with paying the mortgage eg pitching for consultancy work and carrying out same as well as tripping over a container of soil whilst watering the garden, getting a tetanus jab, having a stye removed from my eyelid, dealing with family issues from 6000 miles away…in short, Life.

It is gratifying to see that that good sense has prevailed over pseudo-leftist manipulators and the vote reflects the fact that 80% of all AUT members are opposed to an Israel boycott. The instigators plan to propose a boycott again next year but by then the organisation and the wider academic community will be better prepared to strike it down at the first hurdle.

I would like to present some awards to commemorate this despicable yet instructive saga:

• The Self-hating Jew award goes to: Professor Steven Rose. Obviously he has unresolved issues with his mother. The ‘left-wing’ Jew-haters always seem to have one of these to wheel out to demonstrate that they could not possibly be anti-semitic when there is a Jew on their side.
  
  
• The Righteous Gentile award goes to: Dr. Jon Pike. A philosophy lecturer at the Open University, he found a way to rescind the vote through the AUT bureaucracy and led the campaign.
  
  
• The Barmy Gentile, Bad Fashion Sense, Silliest Believer in InJewCon and the Dave and Diedre Spart memorial awards go to: Sue Blackwell. Come on Sue, even female Palestinian suicide bombers would not go around in a Palestinian flag-dress with their faces painted in the flag colours. As for the International Jewish Conspiracy funding the campaign to rescind the boycott and to smear her…she should be so lucky. Some of her other comments include: the vote to rescind was ‘undemocratic’, it was influenced by ‘outsiders’ and a ‘stitch up'.
  

American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in trouble

I hope this won't be as bad as the Pollard case. I would have thought that lessons would have learned by now and this sort of thing avoided.

Top-tier Israeli firms suspected of spying on competition

Now I understand why Israel is seeking the extradition of two Israelis from the UK. It appears that a number of companies here have been behaving badly including my cellphone company. Using a trojan to control the computers of competitors is a bit strong.

Journalists must stop being in denial: bloggers are here to stay

Nice article in the Observer about blogging.

What's happening is a small but significant change in our media ecology. All journalists worth their salt have always known that out there are readers, listeners or viewers who know more about a story than they do. But until recently, there was no effective way for this erudition or scepticism to find public expression. Letters to the editor rarely attract public attention - or impinge on the consciousness of journalists.

Blogging changes all that. Ignorant, biased or lazy journalism is instantly exposed, dissected and flayed in a medium that has global reach. (If you doubt that, ask Dan Rather and CBS.)

A David Shaw doesn't like us though.

Blogging, Shaw writes, is a 'solipsistic, self-aggrandising, journalist-wannabe genre'. Bloggers are 'practitioners of what is at best pseudo-journalism' and 'many bloggers ... don't seem to worry much about being accurate'.

Revenge of the Sith

The Eggheads trooped off to the cinema last night to help fund the George Lucas retirement fund. Our son was less than impressed although enjoying the special effects. She Who Must Be Talked To was puzzled by this being Episode III, there having been six films.

For some more background read this Wikipedia article. The second half is better than the first.

Big Ben heat stroke shock

It still amuses me when one good day of beautiful warm weather in London (it was 31 C / 90F yesterday) not only sends people outside to enjoy the sunshine but generates innumerable ‘oh isn’t it hot’ small talk from grumblers and is attributed to all manner of things malfunctioning – yesterday the heat was cited as a possible reason why Big Ben stopped ticking for a time.

Today it’s back to a cool and partly cloudy 21 C / 70 F.

Lag B'Omer

Lag B'Omer is one of those festivals which nobody quite seems to know why they celebrate it. Kids in Israel light bonfires (lots of them). The link above has an explaination which you can read. It's long and complicated and requires some knowledge of Jewish history.

I was slightly worried about the wood stores around the place but the local kids were well behaved and always asked before taking. A few years ago in Haifa I lost six months worth of firewood.

Filibuster

I'm currently reading Proud Tower, a wonderful book by Barbara W. Tuchman, one of the best historians ever. She writes about the period before World War II in a series of essays that are compelling to read.

One of the essays mentions Thomas Reed . He single handed eliminated the quorom call where a minority party could block business by refusing to answer their names when called, thus forcing the quorom rule to fail. As House speaker , he decided to answer their names himself, counting them as present allowing business to continue.

Perhaps what the Senate needs now is another Reed to eliminate the foolish filibuster.

UK ID scheme rides again, as biggest ID fraud of them all

John Lettice has a nice go at the UK Government ID card scheme and demolishes most of the arguments used by proponents including the opinion poll data. Curiosly he states that Tony Blair has rebelled against his own manifesto commitments in the past, notable fox hunting and reform of the Lords . Shurely shome mistake here?

London action plan on spam

Good news for spam haters everywhere. An international plan to get ISP's to block port 25 except for authorized mail servers and to start rate limiting email relays. It also asks for disconnects for zombied machines untl they get fixed.

shut up you fat whiner!

Salam Pax is back.

In These Times * The No-Fly List

I am constantly amazed just what some governments will do when provided with a threat. This blogpost talks about the 'nofly list' that appears in the news every so often. The most well known case was Ted Kennedy, the Senator from Massachusetts. He was repeatedly stopped from flying to and fro from Washington as his name (T.Kennedy) was on a no fly list.

Silly, silly , silly. This does not make anyone safer. There are over three thousand T.Kennedys in the greater New York area alone.

Finally, the Green party leader in the USA is unable to fly at all now.

When the Secret Service agents called in by the TSA security guards arrived at Raleigh-Durham Airport to interrogate (and run a retina scan on) him, he says they came armed with a loose-leaf binder, which they left open near him as he was being questioned. On an open page, he claims he was able to discern a long list of progressive political organizations. Among those he was able to make out clearly on the list: the Green Party, Greenpeace, Earth First! and Amnesty International. Since his interrogation in October, Stuber, an art dealer, says he has been unable to get onto a plane.

So Amnesty International is a 'threat to the security of the USA'. Bollocks.

No running, no diving, no discussing property prices…

You always know that spring has sprung in the London property market when the first 'converted cupboard flat for sale or let for a huge amount of money’ story of the year appears in the media…

This 62 square foot (5.8 square metre) metzia in Notting Hill “suitable for someone with a very active social life" is allegedly on offer for £135 per week (or £100,000 to buy). Undoubtedly this will be on the chattering classes agenda this week at the Hampstead Ponds and dinner parties…

Israeli researchers lead the way

A bit different this time. They've located the area in the brain where sarcasm and irony hang out.

Wormhole 'no use' for time travel

That's annoying. It would appear that it is impossible to build one big enough and stable enough. Steven Hawking suggested something like this quite a while ago. He postulated a "Chronology Protection Agency" which is an anthromorphic way of saying that the laws of physics and such as to make the universe safe for historians.

If any of my readers are travellers from the future, please don't forget the Time Traveller Convention held in MIT recently.

UK Id card

The 'new' labour government has made ID cards the centre piece of it's legislative programme. What stuff and nonsense. You can read an article by the anti ID card people in the link above.

Some extracts:

“The detailed analysis of information in the public domain in this study has produced no evidence to establish a connection between identity cards and successful anti-terrorism measures. Terrorists have traditionally moved across borders using tourist visas (such as those who were involved in the US terrorist attacks), or they are domicile and are equipped with legitimate identification cards (such as those who carried out the Madrid bombings).”

“Of the 25 countries that have been most adversely affected by terrorism since 1986, eighty per cent have national identity cards, one third of which incorporate biometrics. This research was unable to uncover any instance where the presence of an identity card system in those countries was seen as a significant deterrent to terrorist activity.”

The Bill also contains a fundamental condition that nullifies most of its claims to support counter-terrorism. David Blunkett has told the Home Affairs Committee that in order to prevent the creation of “ID card martyrs” the government would not make it a criminal offence to refuse to be registered for a card. Instead, refuseniks would be liable for a civil penalty. In view of the widespread and entrenched hostility to the scheme, this approach makes tactical – and politically essential - common sense. However, astute critics have pointed out that wealthy people or those backed by criminal organisations can avoid an ID card or registration simply by paying the recurring £2,500 fine. This fine would effectively become a tax on criminals and terrorists operating in the UK.

That one is interesting. A terrorist could avoid the ID card altogether just by paying a fine.

The government estimated in 2002 that the scheme would cost somewhere in the order of £3.1 billion. When in 2004 the Home Affairs Committee asked the Home Secretary to clarify the exact amount he refused, citing commercial secrecy. By the time the final Bill was published in November 2004 the government acknowledged that the cost of the scheme over ten years would be £5.5 billion. Industry specialists have warned that the complexity and uncertainty of the scheme’s architecture and technology could drive this cost even higher.

Finally, a new blog in my blogroll points out that:

As computer scientists, we do not know how to keep a database of this magnitude secure, whether from outside hackers or the thousands of insiders authorized to access it.

I hope it fails and they become wiser looking for better uses of the money.

Hummers

I was in the Herzliya marina this evening with a friend to have a few beers and chew the fat. On returning to his car I saw my first civilian Hummer. Watching it try and park in the very crowded car park gave us more fun than we'd had all day. They make sense in the IDF to replace the rather battered 60's style APCs M112 A1a that are well past their sell-by date. They do not make sense on Israel's crowded roads and car parks.

Older but not wiser

I found out yet again, the hard way, that I don't drink enough water in Israel on hot days. Ants that look harmless are really not especially when inside your shorts as you lay paths. Lastly, when film choice comes around, I'm not going to the latest Star Wars film. It's another sub title thingie.

Judge clears 159mph PC of speeding or fast filth (4)

Silly me. Instead of doing a PhD in law, I should have taken the direct route to fueling my passion for fast cars by joining the police force. Then I, as an advanced driver, could take my car out to “assess its capabilities” at "eye-watering" speeds which I would be ”encouraged to do” especially where “the road was deserted and conditions were clear”.

Generals Offer Sober Outlook on Iraqi War

As I predicted before this war in Iraq, it will take years to achieve a measure of normality there. USA military commanders.

In interviews and briefings this week, some of the generals pulled back from recent suggestions, some by the same officers, that positive trends in Iraq could allow a major drawdown in the 138,000 American troops late this year or early in 2006. One officer suggested Wednesday that American military involvement could last "many years."

Kinky shopper KOed by vibrating knickers

Having suffered two, yes , two bird strikes on the way to work this morning I shall amuse ourselves with this little piece from the register.
I bet the lady concerned will be thinking of moving to a new area now that she's out from hospital.

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner - William Morrow, 2005

This is a book I want.

In Levitt's view, economics is a science with excellent tools for gaining answers but a serious shortage of interesting questions. His particular gift is the ability to ask such questions. For instance: If drug dealers make so much money, why do they still live with their mothers? Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What really caused crime rates to plunge during the past decade? Do real-estate agents have their clients' best interests at heart? Why do black parents give their children names that may hurt their career prospects? Do schoolteachers cheat to meet high-stakes testing standards? Is sumo wrestling corrupt?

And how does a homeless man afford $50 headphones?

He gets savaged by his peers sometimes.

The fag-end of smoking in the UK

Onward to a smoke-free Britain. The Health Improvement and Protection Bill included in yesterday’s Queen’s Speech will at last ensure all enclosed public places and work places “except pubs which do not serve food” will be smoke-free by 2008. I can just imagine the arguments that will be put forward by the pub chains: eg that serving their frozen-microwaved catering packs is not serving food. There is talk about re-simplifying the final bill to make it what it should be and what has worked elsewhere (see blog posts passim): a simple comprehensive ban on smoking in all public places.

I also like the proposals to increase taxes on tobacco by 50% annually. This is a much more cost-effective way to get smokers to pay for their self-inflicted damage than other proposals to charge smokers for their NHS treatment of eg. emphysema and lung cancer.

Protest time

I wondered why every junction had a police car waiting by it when driving home last night. Reuters calls them 'ultranationalists' which I think is a tad unfair.

On a different subject, I was amazed to see that Israel is in the news for a reason other than the pullout and/or terrorism. Judy Nir Moses Shalom is alleged to have been miffed that she didn't get a photo op with Madonna when she came to Israel last and had some unfortunate soul booted out of his job as retaliation. I find it hard to believe anyone could be so petty. Tell me it's not so.

I've updated the list of Israeli blogs and I apologize to Treppenwitz for missing a quote on the hyperlink. Now it works I suggest you head over to his blog to learn what train sets and breasts have in common.

Trips again

The Eggheads are on the move again. Princess is back in India, 'She who Must be Listened To' is off for a Bar Mitzva next month and I have a wedding to attend in July. Cathy will probably escape this time but I hope for a flying visit.

Fast track for ID cards

So ID cards are back again I shudder to think of the 'build from new' database system, associated hardware and consultancy costs involved in this one. You may care to read this article on why.

Lastly, humanity instinctively works on large scale anythings by breaking it up into smaller chunks. Repeat until you have a chunk that can be defined and tested. Make each chunk work, define chunk collections and test. Repeat until done.

Workers

I quite enjoy getting quotes for work that needs to be done and that I can't do. This bit involves a JCB which I would love to own. Life would be perfect if Mohammed didn't insist on kissing my cheeks when we sign the quote. Still, he does have nine children.

'Shesek'

One thing the Eggheads have a lot of right now is Sheseks a.k.a Loquats. We have four trees groaning with fruit. Visitors are happy to take a few kilos away with them and so are our fruit bats. Regretfully, the bats also enjoy them and are not as well mannered as our human visitors. They relieve themselves in an alarming fashion and I will have to consider repainting the side of the house and further stern measures to enforce toilet training.

We met another set of neighbours last night, both left pondians. One of them was even able to explain, well, clarify the concept on entanglement that has had me puzzled recently. Think Schrödinger's cat. The Chinese hold the record right now.

Who Am I?

After a rather involved conversation with B next door , we decided that she was enthnically an Arab, religiously Jewish and her nationality is Israeli.

I have a friend in the UK, called Y, who is ethnically Polish, religiously Catholic and her nationality is British.

When mentioning these thoughts back in the house I was faced with the question 'OK, clever dick, what are you?'.

"I forgot the goat"

Yesterday, we got up at 0330 , an unusually early time even for the Eggheads. Picking up a friend , I dropped them both on a hillside nearby for morning prayers with a group from the Reform synagogue nearby. The intention was to have a morning service, blow a shofar at sunrise, then eat an al-fresco breakfast.

Viewing all this led me to comment it would be appropriate to sacrifice a goat at the same time as disposing of virgins is frowned on here. Pure paganism I thought.

Later in the day, we went to Ramat David for an open day and then with more friends to Montfort castle.
I would like to thank the kind Christian Arab people who gave us a lift back to the car.

A nice time was had by all. The evening meal was in a Kibbutz near the Lebanese border , unusual for having a mixed population of Jews and Bedouin.

News from the jihadass struggle

The other day we heard more from Oona King about the disgraceful underhanded campaign tactics, intimidation and personal abuse (including ‘yid’ and ‘Jew bitch’) used against her by Gorgeous G and his (No)Respect crew to win his Bow and Bethnal Green Parliamentary seat. Their actions seem more suited to, er, Bangladesh, Pakistan or indeed the ‘socialist’ dystopia SWP are trying to bring about.

Now in a US Senate report GG is named as one of two politicians (the other is French what a surprise) who received corrupt gifts from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. The Senate says it has strong evidence that GG was granted oil allocations of up to 20m barrels (the right to buy oil or trade the allocation) under the now discredited UN Oil for Food Programme.

This evidence is apparently more robust than that relied upon by the Torygraph in its (sadly) unsuccessful libel defence brought by Gorgeous. The Torygraph is appealing the decision and it will be interesting to see the impact of these newly released documents and statements.

GG’s latest response, aside from the usual well-orated yet lunatic nonsense, was:

"I have never traded in a barrel of oil or any vouchers for it"

This reminds me of Bill Clinton’s infamous “I never had sex with that woman” quip.

Will this new evidence be the semen-stained dress? Will GG last his term or will he have to resign (or be pushed)? Speaking optimistically I’d like to give him one year max.

Not a Fish

Inshim of 'Not a fish' has a new look blog. Go take a look.

Edukashun

Apropos of the limits of spell-checking sans context, this old ditty comes to mind:

I have a spelling checker
It came with my PC
It indicates four my revue
Mistakes I dew not sea
I ran this poem threw it
I'm sure your please to no
Its letter perfect in it's weigh
My checker tolled me sew.

Which leads on to another OD on the quirkiness of English words even when correctly in-context and spelt (or is that spelled):

We polish the Polish furniture.
A farm can produce produce.
The dump was so full it had to refuse refuse.
The soldier decided to desert in the desert.
The present is a good time to present the present.
The dove dove into the bushes.
I did not object to the object.
The insurance for the invalid was invalid.
The bandage was wound around the wound.
There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
They were too close to the door to close it.
The buck does funny things when the does are present.
They sent a sewer down to stitch the tear in the sewer line.
To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
At the Army base, a bass was painted on the head of a bass drum.
The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
After a number of Novocain injections, my jaw got number.
I shed a tear when I saw the tear in my clothes.
I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?
I spent last evening evening out a pile of dirt.
He could lead if he would get the lead out.

Talk:Israel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As Independence day arrives, amuse yourselves by reading the discussion page for Israel in Wikipedia.
The main article is here. For some lovely picture clink here.

Peace canal deal for thirsty Middle East

The idea is:

Pump water from the Read sea near Eilat and raise it 170 meters above sea level in a canal and then down to the Dead Sea. The 400 meter drop would be used to generate electricity , power desalination plants and regenerate the Dead Sea. It would be around 170 kilometers in length.

This has been suggested before. A canal/tunnel from the Med to the Dead Sea. One end even got started before sanity returned and someone with a working calculator estimated how much it woud cost. In the hills overlooking the Dead Sea potash works you can find a plaque marking where Menachem Begin inaugurated the tunnel. (4x4s only please or on foot. Mind the wolves, striped hyenas, and leopards.).

A blogging revolution? 'Give me a break'

So says Nick Denton publisher of Gawker Media. It seems he pays for editors to post upto 12 time daily for a fee. Doesn't seem like a blog to me.

Anti pullout activist get administrative detention

The struggle starts to widen.

The first administrative detention order against a right-wing activist was issued Sunday. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz signed the order to detain Neria Ofen, a resident of Yitzhar, south of Nablus, and a well-known activist promoting Jewish control of the Temple Mount.

In addition, the IDF has jailed a soldier for refusing to serve based on an objection to serving during the pullout period. This is one issue I could not agree with when the same issue faced the Israeli left. I would not demonstrate in support of jailed IDF soldiers who refused to serve in the territories. Unless a plain illegal order is given a soldier should serve.

Blog

That was a struggle. It's looks more like it should do but I still have more to go. Having past templates safely tucked away has helped. The links sections needs more work and I am vexed about comments going to a page then opening the popup box.

First past the post vs PR

Here’s why the Lib Dems want some type of proportional representation: they got 22% of the vote but only 9.6% of the seats in Parliament. In contrast the Tories got 32.3% of the vote with about the right proportion of seats: 30.5%. Labour polled 35.2% of the vote but got 55.1% of the seats. On the other hand, no one wants the type of PR system where one small minority (say GG) can unduly influence or even bring down a government/coalition.

Strange brew

Now that Cream have made a return concert, all their music I haven't listened to in years comes back. Please bear with us while we spring clean the blog. If I did link to you and it seems to have gone , please email me. Comments are back to blogger again now that they have a popup window.

Howard to stand down as Tory leader

No! This is silly. Leaders have stayed on and fought to victory before. Why not now? Begin in Israel is a example of how to do it. Changing leaders just because of one lost election is a move to Presidential politics that does not belong in the UK.

Surrey South West

My postal vote for the Lib Dems would not have helped in my constitiency . Conservatives always win there but the Lib Dems get close.

UK Elections

Looks like Labour will have a majority of around 60 seats. Comfortable but expect problems from within the Labour Party in future.

LibDems have improved to 58 seats. That does not mean that there is any chance they will do better next time. I wish they would.

The Tories ? I would like to see a Jewish PM at last but it's a shame he's a Tory.

Labour wins third term

No surprises but I am very sorry that Oona King lost to Gorgeous George Galloway, a Saddam groupie.
Lib Dems are doing well so where goes the Tories?

Rescind the AUT Boycott Petition

Sign up here. AUT in the UK make me ashamed to be British.

Election day UK

This is the first time I am able to vote as a British citizen and I will be voting. Interesting that our constituency (Hornsey and Wood Green), currently held by Labour’s Barbara Roche, is one of the ones targeted not just directly by Lib-dems but also by Labour supporters who wish to reduce the Government’s majority to a more challenge-able 40-60 level -- they are recommending a tactical vote for the Lib-dem candidate Lynne Featherstone. Nice to have a choice between two nice Jewish girls.

Haaretz - Israel News

It's Holocaust Remembrance Day tomorrow. Our decision to give up television has produced some angst.

Election and Da Vinci Code

I am less than impressed with the UK election this comes to an end tomorrow. Nothing about Global Warming and the Iraq war is starting to get stale.

In the very little time I have I tried to read the Da Vinci book that's been so popular. I couldn't finish it. What a bore.

Book-burning event ignites controversy at literary festival

I'm all in favour of Beltane but book buring? Oh no, not that. At least think of the environment. They'd be better off as landfill. Or how about shipping them to some needy place in the world?

Evolution on trial as Kansas debates Adam vs Darwin

I see Kansas is trying for a recreation of the infamous 1925 Scopes trial. Now we have the proponents of Intelligent design debating with evolutionists. Ahem. perhaps getting lawyers to speak is not the best idea in the world.

Magdalen maudlin mayday

The filth should be doing something more useful with their time than trying to stop 12,000 university students from acting like university students. The future elite of Britain have the right to cavort, act stupid and even injure themselves - as students have done for time immemorial. What next, a ban on traffic cones?

And if the poor dears are short of cash for their BUPA policies they can always sign up with the new Oxford escort agency (both men and women accepted) that provides, er, ‘sparkling company and conversation’ to those who need to pay for such services.

Global warming -- more caused by human activity

Would all those nay sayers who say global warming is not man made and/or really an Ok thing, please stand up?

Back where I belong

What a trip. The Egghead's don't have holidays. We have adventures. Daughter went for the world record in vomiting early in the morning and ended up with something akin to hyperthermia which is pretty clever seeing as we were by the Dead Sea at the time.

We drove back via route 90 through the Jordan Valley which is much quicker than Jerusalem/Tel Aviv/Haifa. A constat discussion of borders and the future for the whole route interupted a very aggresive Honda full of settlers (maybe?) that tried to run me off the road. Definitely israelis, She Who Must be Listened to stated.

At the end of route 90, there's a new border crossing being built. It's a three way place, Jordan , Israel and guess who? Down near the Dead Sea there's another army checkpost. I was told that the area from there North to Jericho will be handed back to the Palestinians some day. May I ask why somebody is building a new settlement there then? I'll try and find a map.

Finally, I told the family about my waking nightmare. Imagine a earthquake hitting this area of the middle east. Imagine the fault line running North and South down through the Jordan valley. Now imagine a subsidiary fault line wunning west through the Jezreel valley. If that cracked, there could be a connection between the Mediterranean and the Jordan valley which would promptly fill up with sea water. My family was horrified.