Our Provider?
I saw a bumper sticker a few days ago that read “Jesus Christ - Our Provider”. The thought that straight away crossed my mind was “stop working for a few months and see who your provider is”. It’s not that I have a problem with Christianity (or other people’s beliefs in general), but I just don’t see what religion or spirituality or faith have to do with our responsibility for earning a living and for our lives in general. It’s one thing to be grateful for our world, for our skills, for opportunities, or whatever. It’s quite another to believe that God will put bread on our tables without any effort on our part. God does not micro-manage our lives.
Don’t you hate it when that happens?
For some time now (since 2008/03/30, 05:44 PM, according to OneNote), I’ve been jotting down notes about stuff that’s very proprietary, but that should be more universal (or at least standards driven). One of the things I focussed on was the idea of a universal battery charger for mobile (cellular) telephones.
Lo and behold, what should I see on euronews a day or so ago? That’s right, an insert regarding a universal charger for mobile phones! According the insert, “The world’s leading mobile phone manufacturers have agreed a deal to create a universal charger.”
The universal charger will utilise a micro USB port to connect to the phone.
Just so I have it on record, here’s some of the other stuff on my list of things ripe for rationalisation:
- Universal (or at least standardised) batteries for mobile phones. Currently, every single make and model of cellular phone has its own battery, usually not interchangeable with any other make/model. Universal might be asking a bit much, but can we at least rationalise?
- Universal DC power supplies. Currently, every device out there that uses (say) 9V or 12V DC current has its own proprietary power supply, usually supplied as an expensive optional extra. Each device/power supply also carries dire warnings about the consequences of using another manufacturer’s power supply. The warnings range from equipment failure, to warranty invalidation, to injury or death. If not a single switchable unit, could we at least have one unit per output rating?
- Universal electrical plugs. Perhaps a global standard is not realistic, but how about one standard per voltage, e.g. 110 or 220V. It should be a “one size fits all” configuration (unlike SA, which has different 3-pin 5 and 15 Amp plugs and more recent support for 2-pin plugs). Both 2-pin and 3-pin (earthed) plugs should fit the same outlet socket, i.e. the Line/Neutral terminals should not be blocked if no Earth pin is present (The Israeli system seems to work on that basis). Pins should be small enough to prevent children from putting their fingers in outlets!
While I’m not in a position to take these ideas much further, I would like to be able to say “Hey, I thought of that first”, and back it up with a published post!
Universal phone charger deal done - Telecommunication : europa, europe | euronews
Software to Detect the Cause of Road Accidents
This really interesting insert regarding “new software designed to detect the causes of road accidents” featured on euronews a few days back. This is what the write-up on their website had to say about it:
At the Innovation Days Exhibition in Lisbon, developers were showing off new software designed to detect the causes of road accidents. The system uses photos taken at the scene of an accident, official reports and analysis of the road conditions to make a 3D computer recreation of the crash. The aim is to avoid wrangling over what – or who -might have caused any given accident.
My only question: When can we (as a society) have it? I believe that every incident that results in substantial damage, injury or death on the roads should be formally investigated and blame (yes, good old-fashioned blame) apportioned. This verdict should then be the basis for settling insurance and civil claims and deciding on criminal charges (if necessary).
But just to go back a step, why have we gone back to referring to these vehicle collisions or incidents as “accidents”. To my mind, the term “accident” implies some form of value judgment, a determination that no one is to blame. How is it possible to make that determination before the incident has even been investigated?
I don’t see this as the ultimate solution, by the way. In my utopia, we would travel on driverless computerised public transport systems, with only bicycles, horses and prams having someone “behind the wheel”.
Until then, though, let’s get away from the culture that says nobody (or everybody) is to blame when lives are lost on the road.
Security systems at Innovation Days - Security : sci-tech, hi-tech | euronews
Israel’s Security Envelope
Purely from a military standpoint, this confirms the view that it was a mistake for the IDF (not necessarily the Israeli civilians) to have been withdrawn from Gaza, and why the error should not be repeated in Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank”).
All of the occupied territories (whether you like that terminology or not) need to remain within Israel’s security envelope, with Israel’s security forces having complete freedom of movement and action. This should apply irrespective of what the political arrangements end up being in these territories (the Golan, Gaza and Judea & Samaria).
Some are suggesting that there’s no reason to keep soldiers there in Afghanistan. The place, they say, is just not important enough somehow. If terrorists set up shop there, they argue, they could be taken care of from the air, with drone strikes and the like.
Dealing only with the latter part of the argument, the one about our aerial capabilities, Gaza is the answer those people should consider. Israel, a country with good intelligence capabilities and a decent fleet of assets in the Palestinian territories, is having a hard time inflicting said critical amount of pain on Hamas and others. How exactly would a bombing of Taliban-held Kandahar be handled? Would there be less civilian casualties? How good intelligence would one have there, on the ground, once all current allies are left behind?
[My] State Failure Blog: Critical mass - The Gaza experience
The Israeli Village: A Snapshot of a Divided Society
This page came up on my search results a little while back, and I keep meaning to highlight it, but haven’t got around to it until now.
The document is in point form, and should take you less than a minute to read. It begins as follows:
“Social change.” “Social justice.” “Equal rights.” All of these high-minded phrases describe the work of the New Israel Fund family. But occasionally it is helpful to re-state the basics – in this case, the basic facts about what Israel really looks like as a society.
With this in mind, we have taken a look at Israel as if it were a village with 100 residents. How would such a village look?
• The village would have 76 Jewish residents, 20 Arabs and 4 others
• Somewhere between half and three-quarters of the Jews would favor moving the Arabs out of the village.
It makes for thought-provoking reading, even if you’re not a fan of the aims and work of the New Israel Fund.
More Options for Jewish Day School Education
According to this Forward article, New York’s first Hebrew language public school has been approved, and will open its door in August 2009. The school, to be known as the Hebrew Language Academy, will be organized as a charter school, publicly funded but operated by a private not-for-profit association.
Those who follow me on Altneuland and Cafe Birkenreis will know that I am a long-standing advocate of Jewish day schools, provided that they are of an inclusive and pluralistic or (as in this case) secular nature. (To be more specific, not a-religious or anti-religious, but respecting all “ways” to Judaism, as well as the separation between church and state.)
The entire article is worth reading in a quiet moment, but I wanted to highlight the following extract:
Our instincts tell us to reject separate schools for their damage to diversity. The fight for an open society has served us well.
But these are extraordinary times. America has become a nation of tribes, self-segregating in separate neighborhoods by income, political views and lifestyle as well as by race or religion. The Internet is turning casual encounters at the bookstore and post office into a thing of the past. We don’t even hear the same news. These changes are bigger than ideology, and they won’t disappear any time soon.
In this new world, chasing after an elusive civic republican utopia may be a fool’s errand. Whatever damage we fear the Hebrew charter school might inflict on the American mosaic — or what’s left of it — could be outweighed by its promise to the Jewish future.
The driving force behind the Hebrew Language Academy was mega-philanthropist Michael Steinhardt.
Technorati Tags: Day school, Diaspora, Education
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Maskil: Instead of calling for meaningless international monitoring, Israel should reverse the error of abandoning the Philadelphia Corridor.: Maskil: Instead of calling for meaningless…
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Maskil: Instead of calling for meaningless international monitoring, Israel should reverse the error of abandoning the Philadelphia Corridor.
Pathfinders: Into the heart of Afghanistan (Sky News)
I finally managed to watch the entire program “Pathfinders: Into the heart
of Afghanistan” on Sky from end to end.
In the context of the Gaza operation, I can’t help contrasting the admiring
and respectful treatment this British news channel rightfully gives it own
men in uniform, with the often harsh and critical treatment it dishes out to
Israel’s armed forces.
A visitor from another planet would find it difficult to believe that both
armies are battling the same fundamentalist Islamist terror, with Israel’s
fight taking place on its own doorstep!
Do prejudices still run that deep, or are they trying to distance themselves
from Israel’s troubles and still keep one foot in the Arab/Muslim world?
http://uk.tv.yahoo.com/listings/sky-news/2009-01-03/21-00/
Ultra-Orthodox criminality
I assume they took exception to my remarks about “ultra-Orthodox criminality”, but how else do you describe it? If these were Skinheads beating up Jews, we would sail into them (verbally) with guns blazing. Just because they look like someone’s Zaide (or Santa Claus), however, they are apparently exempt from rough journalistic treatment.
I’m sorry, but there’s only one way to deal with this problem: crack some heads, and throw some rabbinic ass into jail.
Without further ado, here are the offending comments:
The pain and suffering inflicted on the victims of these “modesty patrols” (in other countries they are referred to as Taliban) is shocking.
More obscene, but in a different way, is the damage being done to the image and substance of Judaism, as these things are supposedly being done in the name of religion.
Grave harm is also being done to the image and fabric of the State of Israel, which cannot continue to appear feeble and powerless in the face of this lawlessness.
The worst is that this phenomenon could easily have been nipped in the bud, and can still be brought under control with a little resoluteness from the forces of law and order in Israel.
The Israeli police need to set up a unit dedicated to combating ultra-Orthodox criminality, staffed by people who understand the sub-culture. Rewards need to be offered for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for the assaults. The statements of the rabbis who appear to be provoking the attacks need to be examined, and criminal charges laid where incitement is suspected.
Public order policing needs to be rigorously applied to any gathering where the ultra-Orthodox are attempting to impose their mores on wider society and violate the law in the process. Where such gatherings do flout the law, they must be broken up forcefully, using whatever methods are appropriate for any illegal gathering. The law must also apply (and be seen to apply) to those who look like Zaide.
There needs to be a single authority responsible for law and order in the whole of Israel, and it needs to stamp its authority, even on those who believe they answer only to a higher authority.
Down the other road lies anarchy, chaos and the eventual dissolution of the state. “Not with a bang, but with a whimper.”
The writing on the wall - The Telegraph
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Shalit’s mail: The magnanimous Khaled Meshaal
Hamas’ leader in Damascus promised to deliver a letter to captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit from Shalit’s father.
The letter to Shalit … went from Shalit’s father to French President Nicolas Sarkozy to Syrian President Bashar Assad to the emir of Qatar to Khaled Meshaal … Meshaal said he would forward it to Hamas’ leadership in the Gaza Strip, who could deliver the letter to Shalit.
Now I suppose we should all fall over ourselves with gratitude for this magnanimous, humanitarian gesture on the part of the Hamas leader? How is it that the leader of a gang of murderous kidnappers manages to look the part of the compassionate statesman, granting favours to an anguished father and his grovelling countrymen?
This reinforces once again the need for Israel to follow a rigid protocol when dealing with kidnap victims, MIAs and POWs. Even when confronting a terrorist organisation or illegal combatants, the protocol should follow as closely as possible that adopted when dealing with another sovereign nation. With regard to the letter, for instance, I imagine that it should have forwarded through the offices of the ICRC. The pressure and focus should then be on the ICRC to not only ensure delivery of the letter, but also to carry out its obligations to ensure Shalit’s well being.
Israel cannot ever again allow family members, the media and the public to hijack the process of attempting to secure the release of hostages. We have already seen what happens: Israel ends up with coffins, and the murderers go home to their victory parades. To my mind, there is little doubt that our “dead or alive” approach towards getting the 2006 MIAs back resulted in the first option becoming the reality.
I know that in the same situation, I would be doing the same as Gilad Shalit’s father. It is up to the organs of state, however, to ensure that they are in the driver’s seat.
It’s more than just a letter.
(p.s. On a completely unrelated subject, why doesn’t the JTA allow for comments on these Breaking News items? Hopefully this is one of the shortcomings that will be addressed with the revamp of their website in September/October.)
Breaking News - JTA, Jewish & Israel News
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Moses and the Palestinians
An ingenious example of speech and politics occurred recently at the UN and made the world community smile. Leave it to an Israeli to think of something like this:
A representative from Israel began: “Before beginning my talk I want to tell you something about Moses. When he struck the rock and it brought forth water, he thought, ‘What a good opportunity to have a bath!’
He removed his clothes, put them aside on the rock and entered the water.
When he got out and wanted to dress, his clothes had vanished. A Palestinian had stolen them.”
The Palestinian representative jumped up furiously and shouted, “What are you talking about? The Palestinians weren’t there then.”
The Israeli representative smiled and said “And now that we have made that clear, I will begin my speech.”
(Hat tip to Janey for this one.)
FriendFeed
I’m in the process of setting Maskil up on FriendFeed. It’s having a problem with my Twitter identity at the moment; Twitter may be down.
You can find me here:
Maskil - FriendFeed
http://friendfeed.com/maskil?format=atom
Professional, not personal. I’ll set up a separate identity for the personal stuff.
I’m not sure what use to put it to yet, but here we go…
Last year I visited Madingley Cemetery, a graveyard in Cambridge of 3,800 American airmen with a wall commemorating an additional 5,100 American pilots and coastguardmen who disappeared or died protecting Britain’s shores. At Duxford airbase there is a plaque commemorating the lives of 30,000 American pilots who died during the Second World War. What I noticed at Madingley was the large number of Stars of David in the cemetery. These Jewish pilots came from every corner of America. They died defending a country that now spends an inordinate amount of time writing about ‘Lord Cashpoint’ Levy and about the ‘Undertaker’ Avram Grant, notwithstanding the world knowing that his father had buried his sister and mother with his bare hands at Auschwitz.
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Notes and clippings that may still end up as blog posts or articles on Maskil
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