mentalblog.com

This Blog is Closed

2008-09-14T22:53:00.004-04:00

not worth it

2008-09-09T16:30:00.004-04:00

I was going to publish here something and then, why bother? People who remain anonymous and tell me that they enjoy the blog mean nothing to me. Enjoy yourself. If this is not a vehicle for human contact or revenue is it worth it? I will be back in a different place and time.

let's say there was a god

2008-09-07T19:13:00.002-04:00

Praying to the blood thirsty thug would be beyond contempt. Associating with the hypocrites and sheep that cling to the sadist would be simply uncool.

Next Year in Nevada

2008-09-07T10:16:00.007-04:00

Burning Man 2007 208, originally uploaded by jmannaz.

The Vanishing Republican Voter

2008-09-07T07:53:00.000-04:00

David Frum, NYTimes.com: The Vanishing Republican Voter:

"THE TREND TO INEQUALITY is not new, and it is not confined to the United States. It has manifested itself just about everywhere in the developed world since the late 1970s, and for the same two reasons.

The first reason is the revolution in family life. Not so long ago, most households were home to two adults, one who worked and one who did not. Today fewer than half of America’s households are headed by married couples, and married women usually work. So America and other advanced countries have become increasingly divided between families earning two incomes and those getting by on one at most.

The family revolution coincided with another: a great shift from a national to a planetary division of labor. Inequality within nations is rising in large part because inequality is declining among nations. A generation ago, even a poor American was still better off than most people in China. Today the lifestyles of middle-class Chinese increasingly approximate those of middle-class Americans, while the lifestyles of upper and lower America increasingly diverge. Less-skilled Americans now face hundreds of millions of new wage competitors, while highly skilled Americans can sell their services in a worldwide market.

As long as all Americans were becoming better off, few cared that some Americans were becoming better off than others. But since 2000, something has changed. Incomes at the middle have ceased to rise. The mood of the country has soured. Conservatives who disregard the mood of unease may forfeit their power to defend the more open and productive American economy they did so much to build."

head stand

2008-09-05T15:08:00.001-04:00

During reception in a wedding, just befor "Hopa"., originally uploaded by dubi feiner.

regular readers

2008-09-05T08:22:00.002-04:00

There are regular readers from OZ, from Vienna, from Paris. Why don’t you people introduce yourself, at least in private.

Red Hat buys Israeli Qumranet for $107 mil

2008-09-04T15:37:00.001-04:00

Globes: Red Hat buys Israeli virtualization co Qumranet.

Yosef Karduner: Shir Lama'alot

2008-09-04T10:14:00.000-04:00

conspiracy theory of the day

2008-09-04T07:34:00.000-04:00

Raționalitate commenting to mentalblog.com: Claim: Al-Zawahiri is guided by KGB successor agency.

If you look at a chart of historical oil prices, they started to spike right around the time al-Zawahiri joined al-Qaeda. That was also the start of al-Qaeda's oil-related terrorism. For example the East African embassy bombings, which al-Qaeda did most likely to draw America into Afghanistan. They didn't have to draw America into Afghanistan, but they did accomplish their goal: American investors fled from a proposed natural gas pipeline project through Afghanistan, and the plan collapsed. That was right around when he joined, but since then, the price of oil has skyrocketed, largely on the back of fear about political instability related to terrorism. They intentionally provoked America into a crusade overseas in order to drive up oil prices. They knew too well that the US wasn't gonna go and clean house and then all the oil would be on the market – they knew they'd blunder around and then finally give up, and meanwhile the region will still be just as authoritative (if not more), and instability will continue in the Middle East, which drives up energy prices, which is good for Putin and his cronies.

I've always wondered: who around the Italian secret services made the Niger uranium forgeries? Ya never know, but I can't help but remember Litvinenko or some other defector saying that the Italian secret services were crawling with Russian agents.

Photographer's Journal: Following McCain

2008-09-03T22:00:00.000-04:00

The New York Times: Photographer's Journal: Following McCain.

AlJazeera - the last Jew of Babylon, a love story

2008-09-03T16:24:00.000-04:00

Dora and Miriam Rakowski

2008-09-03T15:15:00.002-04:00

Marie Claire (now Miriam) Rakowski is the daughter of Ephraim and Blima Rakowski, a Jewish couple from Poland who had moved to Belgium in the interwar period. Marie was born in Brussels during the German occupation on December 23, 1943. She had one sibling, Dora (b. 1939). Shortly after Marie's birth, the Rakowski's placed both their children in hiding. Dora was sent to a Catholic convent school and Marie was placed in the home of a Belgian pharmacist named Hicket. The Hickets had no children and treated Marie as their own flesh and blood. During the occupation Ephraim and Blima were deported to Auschwitz, and Ephraim perished there. Blima survived but was too ill to care for her daughters. After the liberation she contacted the Hicket family and asked if they would care for Marie for another two years. At the end of that period Blima wanted to resume custody, but the Hickets, who truly loved Marie, refused to give her up. Blima then authorized a Jewish organization to kidnap Marie and bring her to Switzerland. Marie was traumatized by this experience since the Hickets were the only family she had ever known. Marie's reunion with her natural family was not a happy one. Her mother was still too ill to care for the children, and Marie felt that her sister resented the fact that she had spent the war in the home of a loving family. While Blima struggled to regain her health, the girls were sent to a series of foster homes. In 1949 the family received papers to immigrate to the United States. However, Blima, who had been born in Poland, had to remain behind, since the Polish quota was filled. Once in America, the girls were placed in another series of foster homes under the sponsorship of the orthodox Agudat Israel movement. The only stability in their lives was provided by the summer camp they attended each year. Blima finally arrived in the US to reclaim her children in 1953. Marie was already ten years old when she went to live with her mother. The scars of the war were too deep to be easily healed, and when Marie was sixteen she went to live in a group home for girls.
Courtesy of www.ushmm.org

50 ft spider roams Liverpool

2008-09-03T15:11:00.001-04:00

La Machine Liverpool, originally uploaded by pharmcat.

Scenes from Iraq

2008-09-03T12:45:00.001-04:00

Boston.com: Scenes from Iraq - The Big Picture. (note picture No. 4)

intoxicated on the poisonous opiate

2008-09-02T22:34:00.002-04:00

We are destined to trace the same mistakes. We don’t want or unable to learn. If there was one thing that I would find satisfying it is the unrealistic hope that no more souls will be destroyed by the Jewish religion. The elaborate neuroses that originated amongst Jews and passed on as to the world as a Christian messianic virus or Islamic creed continues to claim the lives of millions. I hope this will stop. I especially hope there would be no more BTs intoxicated on the poisonous opiate. I feel sorry for their lives and choices, they are trapped and they realize this when it is too late.

The commies were right about that one after all.

midnight rant

2008-09-02T22:10:00.002-04:00

Things are afoot. I have been blogging for a while. Thankless task. You blog because you have to. But the only lasting reward is a few real friendships. Words turned into voices. There have been less that ten people perhaps.

I don’t care if you don’t comment. But I do care that you have not tried to get in touch.

I am growing more apart from the very community that have been the core of the readers. I often think that in real life I would like to be completely apart from observant Jews. I don’t resonate with the ethos. I find that there is something troubling inside this decaying culture, it often makes communications strained.

So here, I feel less and less that there is any reason to post. I want to leave this world and chapter behind. I find my entire involvement with the traditional community to be a grave mistake of my life.

I think the Lubavitcher Rebbe and the rest of the Gdolim were well meaning charlatans. But I mostly regret the fact that there is one thing in the world that I really crave, meaningful connection with humans. And I was stupid and naïve to through myself headlong into a community of obsessive compulsive aspergers sufferers, the worst place to be human.

I will remain encouraged by the friends I made in real life.

Renfro - Escape from Landscape

2008-09-02T16:42:00.001-04:00

Liverpool Biennial - International Festival of Contemporary Art - International 08: MADE UP - Diller Scofidio Renfro.

Chrome - new browser from Google

2008-09-02T15:40:00.005-04:00

It is pretty neat and very fast. Even faster than the Firefox 3. Google Chrome - Download a new browser. I just tested it with the cloud apps like Docs or Calendar. It is amazing!

True Romance

2008-09-02T14:36:00.001-04:00

Facing fear and Facebook

2008-09-01T21:25:00.003-04:00

I often hear from many people that they don’t want a Facebook account because they would not put any personal information online. I am sure everyone heard it many times.

Facebook have been propelled by students where peer pressure relieves the fear and caution. Yet there is some rather common phenomena threaded through the fear logic.

Firstly any online and off line innovation is always greeted with fear. There are always objections to change. Inevitably most of the objections are true and justified. What these objections fail to take into account is the new experience that could only be understood by an immersion. Without the experience all you left with is the objections.

Let’s say at the turn of the last century there was a large migration from villages to urban centers. Someone who lives in a village might greet the idea of the move with dismay. He will mention the crime, the dangers, the cultural peril, etc. But all of the objection could not envision a quantitative leap and the multi layered experience of urban life.

I remember when I started blogging people would be obsessed with protecting their real identity behind a nickname. Now nobody really cares (except Gandalin).

Back to the Facebook, it is an experience and it is hard to describe without taking this thing for a ride. Personally I think the weakness of Facebook is that it is trying to do too many things. Inevitably there are tools that do virtually every Facebook task better (except networking). Facebook is not match to Flicker with photos, to blogs with posting of content, no match to email and IM clients, etc.

When I hear someone tell me that they are not interested in Facebook my thinking is that it says nothing about Facebook but it says that these people are old, really old in the way they face the world and its creative wonders.

the King is the field

2008-09-01T20:36:00.001-04:00

So I hear the Melech is in the fields again, this certainly makes it more convenient for Him to stop by and leisurely kiss my peasant tochas. He is welcome to it anytime, especially now when he is getting some fresh air.

Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae

2008-09-01T17:39:00.001-04:00

Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae (frontispiece), originally uploaded by peacay.

BibliOdyssey: The Great Art of Light and Shadow.

Ray Charles - What'd I say

2008-09-01T12:34:00.000-04:00

Preparing Space Shuttle Atlantis

2008-09-01T09:07:00.001-04:00

It is scary how complicated is this machine and how many small things can really go wrong, mind boggling. These pictures should be showed in every Yeshiva as an example of human achievement. We as people need to shake the albatross. Boston.com: Preparing to rescue Hubble - The Big Picture.