Jerusalm, the Arab capital of culture...

The Arab Capital of Culture is an initiative undertaken by UNESCO, under the Cultural Capitals Program to promote and celebrate Arab culture and encourage cooperation in the Arab region. Each year a different city is chosen as the 'Arab capital of culture'. This year Jerusalem was chosen. What a wonderful opertunity to advance the dialogue between Arabs and Jews, boost the tourism and invite artists from around the world to Jerusalem. Instead... Israeli authorities broke up a series of Palestinian cultural events in Jerusalem on Saturday, disrupting a children's march and bursting balloons at a schoolyard celebration. Israel said the events violated a ban on Palestinian political activity in Jerusalem. Although I am not comfortable with everything that is written in the official site, I think it is a big mistake to ban such activities. Are we so afraid that we send the military to burst childrens balloons? Even if they are in the forbidden colour combination of red white green and black? This is completely redicolous, and only serves to emphasize the problematic fact that Israel is first and formost a Jewish state while democracy is at best at second place.

Happy elections day

In order to celabrate the democratic proccess you can make your own paper dolls of the political figures (Israel, USA). Today feels like filling a lottery ticket, I know the party I voted for will not win, but I can dream about it for a few hours.

;-)

So...

Happy election day to you all

Good news

Hello everyone. As you probably know by now, Avigail is pregnant. The good news is that it is going to be a girl.

This got me thinking on the question, what would have happened if it was a boy? More specifically... circumcision. What reasons are there to perform a circumcision? Although I am of a Jewish heritage, I am a complete atheist. As an atheist Jew I choose which holidays and Jewish costums to celebrate. I think that heritage alone is not a sufficient reason to do... well... you know what. Medically speaking, all big medical organizations agree that there is no medical advantage to circumcision. Some medical benefits do exist, but they are countered by the possibility of an infection and other problems due to the act of circumcision itself. Some atheist friends I talked, to told me that they circumsized their kid mainly to avoid social problems for the kid as he grows up. Is that a sufficient reason? What if the kid is fat, or slow, or a wiseass? Let's admit it, my boy runs a high risk of growing up to be a bit of a geek, he will have his share of social problems anyhow. What about the girls? Will they agree to go out with him (assuming he is into girls)? Is a girl that disqualifies a boy on basis of his being circumsized or not worth the hassle? Maybe by the time he grows up we will live in Europe where less than 20% of males are circumsized?

Well... as I said, the good news is that it is a girl, so I can forget about this bug mess for now...

bye

Amir

Eurabia

At a family dinner a few days ago it was mentioned the Europe is overtaken by Arabs, and that soon it should be called Eurabia. This is a frightning vision, mainly due to the fundamentalist Muslim groups and lack of women rights in the average Arab family. So is ther any hope? Maybe there is...

I started thinking, why did the Arab families go to Europe in the first place? Is it a secret plot to take over the world (like the Protocols of the elders of Zion)? Or maybe they are looking for a better life? But wait a minute... that would suggest that they think life is better in Europe with all of it's democracy this and human rights that. Therefore, the best way to neutralize the extremists in the Arab population is simply to sit tight, and let the Arabs assimilate in the European society. This is a lengthy process (as we know too well, with Ethiopeans, Russians etc., in Israel), but this is the best solution I could think of (at this time of night).

This brings me to the next point. Many 'born again' religious people 'find god' while looking for something that is 'missing' in their lives. Religious preachers prey on these people and show them how shallow the western society is, with sex and violence on TV, interrupted occasionally by advertisements that aim for the lowest common denominator. While we know that western society has a lot more to offer in terms of culture, art, music, philosophy, scientific research etc., these 'higher' cultural aspects fail to sink in to the general population. Good education can also be a powerful tool in stopping ignorance and religious fundamentalism.

Well... now it really is late, I hardly make sense of what i'm writing... so i'll leave you at that...

good night.

J.

Only in America...

Good Morning,
I have two subjects to discuss today.

First, Mariah Carey has a new album named E=MC² where E stands for emancipation and MC stands for… Mariah Carey. I find this insult to science quite disturbing (although it shows that Einstein’s equation is quite popular). I guess this is the scientific community parallel to what religious people feel when their religion is insulted. Therefore, I call for a boycott of Mariah’s ‘music’. I guess the readers of this blog are horrified by her as it is (if not, please let me know, do not be ashamed), but still. I am not calling for the millions of readers of this blog to go out and incinerate the 'Tower records' stores, just for a passive protest.

Second, I watched Conan O’Brien yesterday that is a must see. Sheriff Joe Arpaio is taking part in a new Fox show called ‘smile you’re under arrest’. Criminals are lured to a big prank at the end of which they get arrested. This is all filmed and that is the show. Conan does not hide his concern from such a show, but as it turns out the honorable sheriff turns out to be even more disturbing, making the inmates at prison wear pink underwear and more…

7 things about me

Hi there everybody.
With all the craziness around, I decided to write something small and personal. Following Yossi Kolesnicov's blog, here are 7 things you don't know about me:

1. Morning ritual: Black coffee and a toast with peanut butter and honney. Get on the train to work, read the stupid free paper they hand out at the station and listen to Shai and Dror.
2. I did not watch a single episode of 'big brother', did not watch the film 'Titanic' and I don't have a facebook user.
3. We (me and Avigail) are currently hooked to 'the Sopranos', a show we did not appreciate enough at the time of broadcast.
4. As a teenager I thought I would go to university and try to disprove the quantum mechanics theory. As it turns out, I did not know a lot about it at the time.
5. The first physics problem that I posed to myself and solved was understanding why a guitar string makes a different sound depending on where along the string you pick it.
6. The band I am playing with (Kobayashi Porcelain) is currently working on a big comeback (although I am not sure where we are coming back from, and where to).
7. I usually don't remember my dreams when I wake up.

So this is my humble return to blogging... until next time.

Reinventing the Sacred (False alarm)

I was alerted today to the existance of a relatively new book by Stuart Kauffman (a renowned researcher of complexity theory), called 'Reinventing the Sacred'. From the rumors about the book, it sounded as if the following claims are suggested there:

1. Complexity does not allow reduction of all phenomena to elementary particle physics.
   
2. Therefore we need a God to explain the highly complex systems all around us (including us).

I got all worked up and made a list of counter arguments, but before I published these thoughts, I went to www.amazon.com where a few pages of the book can be viewed for free. As it turns out, Kauffman does not believe in a creator God, and merely wants to use the word God to describe the 'creativity' of the world, that we should appreciate religiously. Bottom line, this is a publicity stunt that will probably be misunderstood by many as proof that important scientists believe in God. Too bad...