We’re moving next wednesday to Israel. We will live in Ra’annana (at least the first year).
To be more specific; the area name is Lev HaPark (the heart of the park).
Never been there but I was said it’s great. :)
See more progress on: Ra’annana
Friday, November 04, 2005
Friday, October 14, 2005
Furniture
Boing Boing - Cory Doctorow:
This irregularly shaped room-divider/bookcase has a built-in chair and footstool that slides out of it -- and is very very clever and neato.
Sunday, October 09, 2005
Supersolids : Solids passing through solids:
" What!? Moses Chan and his colleagues at Pennsylvania State University
have created the world’s first “supersolids“, bizarre crystals that
slide through each other like ghosts. [article 2005] [article 2004] via
NS "
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Tim Burton's Latest Inspired By Jewish Folk Tale
Once upon a time, a bridegroom jokingly recited his marriage vows over a skeletal finger protruding from the earth. After placing his ring on the bone, his mirth turned to horror when a grasping hand burst forth, followed by a corpse in a tattered shroud, her dead eyes staring as she proclaimed, "My husband".
This chilling Jewish folk tale hails from a cycle of stories about the great 16th-century mystic, Rabbi Isaac Luria of Safed, in what is now northern Israel, said Howard Schwartz, a top Jewish folklorist and professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
It also apparently inspired Tim Burton's charmingly ghoulish animated film, "Corpse Bride". Yes, the film features a bridegroom who accidentally weds a cadaver. But the feature eschews the folk tale's grotesquerie for romanticized gloom and Halloweeny fun - a trademark of Burton fare such as "Edward Scissorhands" and "The Nightmare Before Christmas."
Learn more about Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, featuring the voices of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, here, or view the trailer here.
Thursday, September 15, 2005
ARTRAGE
My very first computer drawing.
I've used a software named:
ARTRAGE ( www.artrage.com ) - free & cool
I've used a software named:
ARTRAGE ( www.artrage.com ) - free & cool
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Monday, September 12, 2005
DasBlog website
I have hosted this DasBlog website at WebHos4Live.
At first I thought it would take long time to setup but it wasn't the case.
I simply uploaded the web dir. Asked to Tech. Support to modify few permission on folders and . . . voila :)
It took me something like 2 hours to modify/addapt a template.
I plan to crosspost to my blogger blog (renamed http://www.goldberg.be for the moment).
At first I thought it would take long time to setup but it wasn't the case.
I simply uploaded the web dir. Asked to Tech. Support to modify few permission on folders and . . . voila :)
It took me something like 2 hours to modify/addapt a template.
I plan to crosspost to my blogger blog (renamed http://www.goldberg.be for the moment).
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Pocket-sized DIY customizable paper organizer
Cory Doctorow: PocketMod is a Flash app that lets you design a tiny, 8-page, shirt-pocket-sized customized personal organizer book. You select which kinds of tools you want on each page (to-do list, weekly planners, annual calendars, lined paper, grids, tic-tac-toe grids) and the app produces a printable template that you output and fold into a book. Pretty cool!Link
# It fits easily in your back pocket or purse.
# It's as cheap as one piece of paper (Because that's all it is!)
# It opens like a book. Leading to easier to find, more organized notes.
# The first page has a pouch, big enough to carry a business card!
# Customizable with "Mods" tailored to your needs.
# It's free and fun!
del.icio.us Tags: productivity diy gtd planner blog
Saturday, September 03, 2005
PowerPoint To OneNote
 | PP2One is a simple application that automates the importing of PowerPoint presentations into Microsoft OneNote. It copies the presentation into a new OneNote page (in a user-designated section), so note-takers can associate their own notes with the presentation. It is released free-of-charge (but donations are welcome), and the author takes no responsibility for it (but will be happy to discuss it or potential improvements to it). |
From: Rambles In The Brambles Jeff Borlik's web log
Friday, September 02, 2005
Philips Shows Rollable Display
We're getting close to electronic paper here, people. Get your panties in a bunch. Come on. We're waiting. OK. Good.
Polymer Vision, a subsidiary of Philips, reports that they will present a portable consumer device with a "rollable display" at the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) in Berlin, Germany, September 2-7. The prototype, called Readius, has a monochrome 5-inch QVGA display with four grey levels that can show maximum two images per second; colour screens with quick move images aren't possible yet.
Looks like more proof-of-concept, but if they've got something moving on that screen, we're entering the diamond age.
Philips presents rollable display prototype [GadgetFlash]
Nano-material Harder than Diamonds
A new material known as aggregated carbon nanorods (ACNR) has been created by packing buckyballs under 200 times the normal atmospheric pressure and heating it to 2226°C. ACNR is 0.3% denser than ordinary diamond and more resistant to pressure than any other known material.via nanotechweb | NS
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Is Gaza Still Occupied?
It depends on how you define the word occupation.
In an article entitled Legal Acrobatics: The Palestinian Claim that Gaza is Still "Occupied" Even After Israel Withdraws, former Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Dore Gold, claims the Palestinians are abusing the term for political ends.The fact that a wide variety of Palestinian spokesmen will charge that the Gaza Strip is still "occupied" even though the Palestinians exercise self-government and the Israeli civilian and military presence in this territory have been removed is revealing. It means that the charge of "occupation" is less a rigorous legal definition and more a blunt political instrument to serve the PLO's diplomatic and military agenda against Israel.
He makes some good points. Even if the borders and airspace remain under Israeli control, claiming that 'nothing has changed' is ridiculous. What really hasn't changed is the Palestinian awareness that an end to the occupation means an end to world sympathy and, therefore, the diplomatic free ride they have enjoyed for years.
From the looks of things, the only thing the PA
Sunday, August 28, 2005
David Pescovitz:
Zookeepers in Xi'an, China are trying to help a 26-year-old chimpanzee quit smoking. According to an AP report, she started smoking 15 years ago by snatching butts left behind by visitors. (As BB readers know, smoking chimps are not unheard of.) Apparently, this chimp's habit picked up even more when her mate recently died. Link
[Boing Boing]
Friday, August 26, 2005
More Interesting Maps
I'd mentioned Amazon's foray into maps earlier, but they've gone even farther and launched http://maps.a9.com with "BlockView Images" for a bunch of cities. It's very Ajax-esque and while I think the dragging of the magnifying glass could use some work (I keep expecting it to work like Google Maps) it's a pretty interesting concept.
Here's the lay of the land as I see it.
Interesting Map SitesAmazing Map Fat Clients
GPS Map Clients with DVDs
Map Sites That No Longer Serve a Purpose
Map Sites That Totally Missed The Boat But Are Still Used As Verbs
Map Sites That Should Have Been Integrated with Another Map Site But Aren't
For Whatever Reason I'm Not Privy Too But That's Still No Excuse[ComputerZen.com - Scott Hanselman's Weblog]
'Spiderman' Climbing Gadget Created
Some call it industrial mountaineering or technical rope access, but Virgin.net calls it by the more technical term: "Spiderman Climbing." Granted, the PowerQuick does give you superhero-like abilities. It motors around 320 lbs. up the side of a building at speeds of one yard per second. It's battery-powered, and one charge can take you to the top of the Statue of Liberty—five times. Originally developed for DARPA, there are now two versions of the Powerquick. One is for commercial purposes (yawn!), and the other takes solid fuel and is intended for hostage rescue and urban warfare. Unintended third use: Circumventing the office elevator bank.
'Spiderman' Climbing Gadget Created [Virgin.net]
[Gizmodo]
New Machine Helps Soldiers Scale Buildings [IOL]
PowerQuick Powered Personal Ascender [Bonanza Products, Inc.]
Excellent purple dot illusion
Mark Frauenfelder:
If you stare at the little black cross in the center of this ring of blinking purple dots, the dots will turn green and eventually disappear. But if you stare at the purple dots themselves, you'll see that they only blink off momentarily and are never green. Remarkable. Link (via Random Good Stuff)Reader comment: David says: Here's a page with 57
optical illusions and visual phenomena. The purple dot illusion is also on there, but figured other fellow BB readers would be longing for more."
[Boing Boing]
Thursday, August 25, 2005
The Business Of Nanotech
An interesting article from BusinessWeek
The Business Of Nanotech By Stephen Baker and Adam Aston
There's still plenty of hype, but nanotechnology is finally moving from the lab to the marketplace. Get ready for cars, chips, and golf balls made with new materials engineered down to the level of individual atoms.
The Business Of Nanotech By Stephen Baker and Adam Aston
There's still plenty of hype, but nanotechnology is finally moving from the lab to the marketplace. Get ready for cars, chips, and golf balls made with new materials engineered down to the level of individual atoms.
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
low gravity water balloon ruptures performed in a DC-9
low gravity water balloon ruptures performed in a DC-9 [video] | slow motion water balloon ruptures in gravity [videos ]
[Future Feeder]
The Elegant Universe
Watch all 3 hours of The Elegant Universe (online) as Brian Greene unravels the world of string theory in plain English.
del.icio.us Tags: science
Carbon nanotube printer outputs 7m/min
Cory Doctorow:Jamais sez, "Researchers from the University of Texas, Dallas, and Australia's CSIRO have developed a way of making strong, stable and amazingly useful ribbons and sheets made of multiwall carbon nanotubes. Their system pushes the material out at seven meters/minute; a Quicktime video of the process in action is here. If you've been following the development of nanotubes, you know what kind of accomplishment this is. In my view, this is the biggest technology breakthrough of the year, quite possibly of the decade."
Link
[Boing Boing]
del.icio.us Tags: science
Sunday, August 14, 2005
storing data in our fingernails
This story could come from the imagination of a screenwriter working on the next James Bond movie, but it's reality. Japanese physicists have found a way to store data inside your fingernails by using lasers. And, more importantly, they were able to read this data by using an optical microscope. Technology Research News reports that storing data in our fingernails could lead to new ways of authentication. Of course, data is only available for six months. After that the fingernail has grown and the data has disappeared. Still, the researchers think that such a method could have some practical implementations within three years.
New Tallest Man Found in Inner Mongolia
If you're trying to get into the Guinness Book of Records, you probably won't
break this record:
New Tallest Man Found in Inner Mongolia.
A
herdsman from North China's Inner Mongolia has been recognized by the Guinness
Book of World Records as the tallest naturally-growing human being.He measures a whopping 7 foot 8.95 inch (2 meters 36.1 centimeters), taller
than Radhouane Charbib who, for the last six years, has held the title of
world's tallest living man.Unlike most giants, the 54-year old Mongol, who has been living on a
pastureland near Chifeng City since his childhood, has grown to this
remarkable height naturally, and not as a result of a medical condition. His
growth was normal until the age of 16, after which an inexplicable growth
spurt saw his reach his record height in just seven years.
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Tanaka Auto Door
Cleanliness, efficiency, compactness, cool-factor... for a variety of reasons, automatic doors have become a standard feature of Japanese shops. While the typical sliding star-trek style design has proven itself, the tanaka auto door aims to improve upon a good concept. This new design entails strips equipped with infrared sensors that open to the approximate shape of the person or object passing through, minimizing entry of dust, pollen, and bugs while keeping precious air-conditioning in. The technology for the new design seems to be in it's infancy, but Japan has proven once again that it's a least 10 years ahead of everyone else. -JM
Tanaka Auto Door
Demo Video [TV-Tokyo] [Gizmodo]
Video ode to the American hillbilly
Mark Frauenfelder:
This has to be one of my favorite internet videos of all time. It's a montage of still photos set to the theme from Deliverance. I could watch 100 times and not tire of it. Link (thanks, Jim!) [Boing Boing]
Toilets themed in Kama Sutra designs, at one of London's trendier nightspots
Xeni Jardin:
Toilets themed in Kama Sutra designs, at one of London's trendier nightspots. No telling what goes on in there. Link (thanks, Simon Bisson) [Boing Boing]
Thursday, August 11, 2005
I've mentioned this site in the past, and I just took another look at it.
It's a pretty good sign that marketing has taken over the world:
Lovemarks.
Lovemarks
are a new way of thinking about the things we love. Lovemarks are better than
brands, because they are about Love and Respect: they speak to us as thinking
and feeling human beings. Lovemarks embody Mystery, Sensuality and Intimacy.For example, someone nominated Voss Artesian Water as a lovemark:
Voss Artesian Water is taken from a virgin aquifer shielded for centuries
under ice and rock in the untouched wilderness of Norway. It's one of the
purest waters in the world. To me it's the perfect water because it tastes
like nothing, yet it makes me feel like I'm drinking in pure life force. The
super sexy and sleek bottle alone made me fall in love at first site.Only a moron (or a market exec at Voss) would write something like that about
an overpriced bottle of water.There's also a list of the
Top 200 Lovemarks.
Coca-Cola comes in at #6. Here's one person's comment:I refuse to drink any of the "imposter" Cola's. At restaurants, I
specifically ask if they serve Coca-cola or another brand of cola, and if it's
not Coke, I'll opt for something else. Over the years, I've realized that it
is not only the taste that I like, but also the (positive) stigma that goes
along with drinking a coke. To me, Coca Cola lovers are a different breed.
It's about having a little more class, a little more tradition, being a little
more genuine, and appreciating quality and what's real as opposed to just
flash but no substance.Give me a break!
| Posted in Products [The J-Walk Blog]
If you watch only one online video today, make it
Un-Balancing.A short film that is played entirely in reverse and involves the "reverse
destruction" of balanced rock sculptures. There is one character in the movie
that appears to magically create these sculptures. Although the film is played
in reverse it appears as the man who is doing his magic is going forwards in
time.It's done by Bill Dan, the famous rock balancer.
| Posted in General [The J-Walk Blog]
Liquid ASS
Liquid ASS is like nothing you have ever seen or smelled. This unique nasty odor in liquid form will produce results that will keep you laughing for hours. This stuff is awful! Since it is in liquid form, you can apply it undetected for a long-lasting effect indoors. Sit back and watch people’s reactions to this liquified horror. You will not be able to suppress laughter as the victims discuss in earnest what that repulsive odor is.Latest feedback: "I squirted the whole bottle at once with a 30 ft stream down the hallway and it smelled like someone died!!! No words explain how bad it is. It cleared out the whole building. I mean the WHOLE BUILDING and the smell went around the block!!! It still smells so bad now that it is baking in the summer night's heat. It is now between a dead fish smell and a dead body that took a massive shit. It has lasted 8 hrs so far and still going. The fire dept came over and went in every room and floor because they really thought someone died!!!! I can't explain the smell and the reactions, but you will be assured that I will be buying more next week!! Man, that is some stinky shit. WOW." -- ERZ, INC.
[LINK]
Just Another Night On Shenkin Street
As depicted here in a short film by Lior Chafetz. Nu, b'emet. Very funny. [Jew*School]
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
more companies are coming out with rear-view mirrors with built-in TFT displays. The latest to join the party is Korea’s GT Electronics, which includes a 5-inch, 320x234 screen in its NRM-5100 mirror. At least they’re promoting it
with pics of a GPS mapping session, instead of clips from Star Wars,
like some other vendors.
[Via Akihabara News]
I'm sure I've linked to this before, but it has lots of new items:
The Museum of Food
Anomalies.How about this devil's tomato?
Comments
| Posted in Food & Drink [The J-Walk Blog]
nabs gun-toting pensioner
From the BBC: France nabs gun-toting pensioner
[loose wire]An 81-year-old Frenchman has been given a one-year suspended jail sentence for firing a hunting rifle at helicopters dropping water on a forest blaze.
David Thiel opened fire on 21 July when the low-flying helicopters disturbed his afternoon nap near Grasse in the south of France, court sources said.
During his arrest the man swore at the policemen and hit them with saucepans.
Hyperfabric
Hyperfabric is a new interface that lets you reach beyond the screen. It’s a very “touchableâ€� surface, made out of an elastic-like fabric called “Hyperfabric”. The screen warps like rubber, and can sense how hard your press it, where you press it, and you can even have lots of people using it at once. You really feel like you are going “through” the screen.
[Future Feeder]
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
VoipBuster beats SkypeOut's rates
VoipBuster beats SkypeOut's rates: "
"
There’s a new kid in town in the VoIP game, and it’s hitting Skype hard in the wallet — if you open an account and buy a single Euro ($1.27) worth of credit, you can place calls absolutely free to all points in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and a …
Brits to get RFID-chipped license plates
Brits to get RFID-chipped license plates: "
"The UK Department for Transport just gave the go-ahead for a trial of new, RFID-enabled license plates aimed to make vehicles trackable in Britain. Unlike passive RFID which only transmits over short distances, the e-Plate licenses use active RFID …
Mind reading successes?
Mind reading successes?: "
David Pescovitz: Two scientific teams are reporting success in experiments that at least hint at the future possibility of mind reading via brain activity monitoring. University College of London scientists were able to identify which of two patterns …"
Saturday, August 06, 2005
Beautiful photograph of water ice in carter on Mars
Beautiful photograph of water ice in carter on Mars: "
Mark Frauenfelder: I love this photograph of a crater on Mars with water ice in it."
Friday, August 05, 2005
The, uh, Jewish Watch
The, uh, Jewish Watch: "
"
It’s still a little harsh being a part of the Jew Crew outside a few select first world countries, but if you want to wear it out peep the Jewish Watch. Besides being, um, made in Israel, it displays in English or Hebrew, toggles between Hebrew and …
Thursday, August 04, 2005
New Diet Trick: Induce Bad Memory
New Diet Trick: Induce Bad Memory: "
Researchers fool people into thinking they dislike strawberry ice cream, but they can't combat the lure of chocolate chip cookies. The technique, however, may help dieters curb their cravings."
Laser speckles could enable digital fingerprinting of paper
Laser speckles could enable digital fingerprinting of paper: "
"
When it comes to digital fingerprinting, we’ve never thought about how the concept could be applied to paper. E-paper, sure. But the plain old dead-tree stuff? Turns out, with a powerful enough scanner, a sheet of paper can reveal a unique …
Elevator hacking
Elevator hacking: "
"
Calling this a hack is way too generous, but TheDamnBlog has a little tip for getting the most out of your next elevator ride. Apparently lots of elevators have an express mode that lets you override everyone else’s selections and go straight to …
Ultimate Ears Super.fi 3 Studio Earbuds
Ultimate Ears Super.fi 3 Studio Earbuds: "
"
Ultimate Ears has just released a lower-end version of its Super.fi earbuds series, the Super.fi 3 Studio. It won't have the dual speakers with high and low frequencies that the premium models (5EB and 5 Pro) are known for, but the 3 Studio doesn't seem …
Something Holographic This Way Comes
Something Holographic This Way Comes: "
"
We've all been waiting for Optware's holographic storage system and it looks like we have about a year left to go. The Optware, which stores data on holographic cards, will cost about $1000 and each card will cost around a buck (!!) which means we'll be …
Categories: gadget
Saturday, July 16, 2005
JWalk: "Toyota: U.S. Workers Are Too Dumb"
from Jwalk:
Toyota to build 100,000 vehicles per year in Woodstock, Ont., starting 2008 12:40 PM EDT Jul 11
Ontario workers are well-trained. That simple explanation was cited as a main reason why Toyota turned its back on hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies offered from several American states in favour of building a second Ontario plant.
What about U.S. workers?
Several U.S. states were reportedly prepared to offer more than double that amount of subsidy. But Fedchun said much of that extra money would have been eaten away by higher training costs than are necessary for the Woodstock project.
He said Nissan and Honda have encountered difficulties getting new plants up to full production in recent years in Mississippi and Alabama due to an untrained - and often illiterate - workforce. In Alabama, trainers had to use "pictorials" to teach some illiterate workers how to use high-tech plant equipment.
Flickr Papr of yasha
Flickr Papr of yasha Originally uploaded by ygol. simply amazing what can be done with flickr API!!
link:
flickrdotnet.wdevs.com/flickrpapr/
Boing Boing: VW files complaint against makers of "suicide bomber" ad
Boing Boing: VW files complaint against makers of "suicide bomber" ad"VW files complaint against makers of "suicide bomber" ad"
Volkswagen has filed criminal charges against the makers of a viral video which has been circulating online in recent weeks. In the ad, a hapless suicide car-bomber blows himself up -- but leaves his VW Polo intact.
What's Your Secret?
PostSecret
You are invited to anonymously contribute a secret to the PostSecret project. Your secret can be a regret, fear, betrayal, desire, feeling, confession, or childhood humiliation. Reveal anything - as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before.
FROM SOMEONE:
You are invited to anonymously contribute a secret to the PostSecret project. Your secret can be a regret, fear, betrayal, desire, feeling, confession, or childhood humiliation. Reveal anything - as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before.
FROM SOMEONE:
Fluffy Kittens 2005 Lunar Wheel Calendar
End of November 2004:
It was getting towards the end of the year, we were sitting around thinking about getting a calendar for next year. We have three, oh and a desk diary, we didn't like any of them. Something needed to be done. A nice looking calendar, something that would be both practable and useable, something that would help us remember birthdays and when to plant vegetables.
The solution, to make it ourselves! The reason for this web page then? Well, it's so easy to publish on the web that we figured that there was nothing to lose. We think the calendar is neat, someone else may think so to. If no-one else anywhere wants a copy, well that's fine, we've lost nothing but the short amount of time it took to write this page (we had to set up CafePress so we could sell ourselves a poster anyway).
If you wish you can download the results from here.
To keep the files sizes small, the downloadable images are a slightly lower resolution than the original. If you want a high quality original the only way we can provide those (at the moment) is via CafePress.
Because this calendar is licensed under a Creative Commons License you are free to download the files, copy them, upload them somewhere else, print them, scale them, rotate them, alter them, print out 100s to give to friends and so on.
You can't use this work for commercial purposes (other than recovering printing costs); must give the original author credit (in this case a simple link back to www.fluffykittens.com) and if you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one.
"Shall these bones live?"
| |||||||||||||||||
| | |||||||||||||||||
"Shall these bones live?"
Address by Silvan Shalom
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Israel
Mr. Secretary-General,
Mr. President,
Fellow Foreign Ministers,
Survivors of the Holocaust,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Sixty years ago, allied soldiers arrived at the gates of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Nothing could prepare them for what they would witness there, and at the other camps they liberated. The stench of the bodies, the piles of clothes, of teeth, of children's shoes. But in the accounts of the liberators, more than the smell, more even than the piles of bodies, the story of the horror was told in the faces of the survivors.
The account of Harold Herbst, an American liberator in Buchenwald, is typical of many, and I quote:
"As I walked through the barracks I heard a voice, and I turned around, and I saw a living skeleton talk to me. He said, "thank God you've come." And that was a funny feeling. Did you ever talk to a skeleton that talked back? And that's what I was doing. And later on I saw mounds of these living skeletons that the Germans left behind them".
Thousands of years ago the prophet Ezekiel had a similar vision. In one of the most famous passages of the Bible, the prophet describes how he came to a valley full of bones. The bones, says Ezekiel, are the House of Israel. And the bones are dry, and their hope is lost. Faced with this scene, he asks the question: Shall these bones live? Shall these bones live?
Ezekiel asked the question that every liberator of the camps asked himself: Can any hope or humanity emerge from such horror? Shall these bones live?
Here with me today, are those who have given life to dry bones, both survivors and liberators. Men like Dov Shilansky who fought in the ghetto and later became speaker of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset; Like Yossi Peled, who after being evacuated from the terrors of the Nazis, eventually became a Major-General in the Israel Defence Forces, to protect his people from the horrors of another calamity; and like David Grinstein, who survived the labour camps, and now heads an organization for restitution, for the forced labourers under Nazi rule; and women like Gila Almagor - today the first lady of Israeli stage and screen - who has translated her experiences as the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, into art that has touched millions.
When we see what the survivors have managed to create, and build, and contribute to humanity - families, careers, literature, music, even countries - we can only marvel at their strength and courage.
At the same time, when we see what the survivors have given to humankind, we can only begin to appreciate, what might have been given to the world, by the millions who did not survive. We mourn their loss, to this day. Every fibre of our people, feels their lack. Every family knows the pain, including my own - my wife's grandparents and seven of their eight children, were taken and killed.
Mr. President,
Israel and the Jewish people owe a debt to the liberators of the death camps, and so does all of humankind. In the face of unspeakable evil, these liberators, from many nations represented here today, showed the human capacity for good. In the face of overwhelming indifference to the suffering of others, they showed compassion. And in the face of cowardice, they showed bravery and resolve.
We recognize, too, the courage and humanity of Righteous Among the Nations, who refused to look away. People such as Raoul Wallenberg, who saved thousands of Jewish lives, and whose niece, Nane, is here with us today. These heroes helped our dry bones live again.
Mr. President,
The dry bones have lived again not only in the lives of the survivors, but also in two entities established on the ashes of the Holocaust: the United Nations and the modern State of Israel.
The tragedy of the Holocaust was a major impetus in the reestablishment of the Jewish people's home, in its ancient land. As Israel declared in its Declaration of Independence:
The Holocaust, which engulfed millions of Jews in Europe, proved anew the urgency of the re-establishment of the Jewish state. A state which would solve the problem of Jewish homelessness, by opening the gates to all Jews, and lifting the Jewish people to equality in the family of nations.
And indeed, since its establishment, Israel has provided a haven for Jews facing persecution anywhere in the world. At the same time, it has built a society, based on the values of democracy and freedom for all its citizens, where Jewish life and culture and literature and religion and learning - all those things which the Nazis sought to destroy - can flourish and thrive.
The fact that so many survivors came and played their part in the building of the State of Israel, was itself a remarkable fulfillment of Ezekiel's prophecy. As the prophet said:
Thus says the Lord: Behold, O my people, I will take you from the graves. I will put my spirit in you, and you shall live in your own land, in the land of Israel.
Mr. President,
If Israel represents one heroic attempt, to find a positive response to the atrocities of the Second World War, the United Nations represents another. The very first clauses of the UN Charter bear witness to the understanding of the founders, that this new international organization must serve as the world's answer to evil, that it comes, and I quote: “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,” to “reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights” and “the dignity and worth of the human person”.
By convening here today in this historic special session, we honour the victims, we pay respect to the survivors, and we pay tribute to the liberators. We convene here today for those who remember, for those who have forgotten, and for those who do not know. But we also convene to remember that the Charter of this United Nations, like Israel’s Declaration of Independence, is written in the blood of the victims of the Holocaust. And we convene today to recommit ourselves to the noble principles, on which this organization was founded.
Such an affirmation is needed today, more than ever. The past decade has witnessed a chilling increase in attempts to deny the very fact of the Holocaust. Unbelievable as it seems, there are those who would delete from history, six million murders.
Could anything be worse than to systematically destroy a people, to take the proud Jewish citizens of Vienna, Frankfurt and Vilna and even Tunisia and Libya, to burn their holy books, to steal their dignity, their hair, their teeth; to turn them into numbers, to soap, to the ashes of Treblinka and Dachau? The answer is yes, there is something worse: To do all this and then deny it. To do all this and then take from the victims - and their children and grandchildren - the legitimacy of their grief.
To deny the Holocaust is not only to desecrate the victims and abuse the survivors. It is also to deprive the world of its lessons - lessons which are as crucial today, as they were 60 years ago.
These lessons are crucial today for three urgent reasons.
First, because today, once again, the plague of anti-Semitism is raising its head. Who could have imagined, that less than 60 years after Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, the Jewish people and Israel would be the targets of anti-Semitic attacks, even in the countries that witnessed the Nazi atrocities. Yet this is exactly what is happening. The Holocaust teaches us that while Jews may be the first to suffer from anti-Semitism's destructive hate, they have rarely been the last.
The lessons of the Holocaust are crucial today for a second reason: because today once again we are witnessing, against Jews and other minorities, that same process of delegitimization and dehumanization, that paved the way to destruction. Let us not forget. The brutal extermination of a people, began, not with guns or tanks, but with words, systematically portraying the Jew - the other - as less than legitimate, less than human. Let us not forget this, when we find current newspapers and schoolbooks borrowing caricatures and themes from the Nazi paper Der Sturmer, to portray Jews and Israelis.
And finally these lessons are crucial today, because once again, we are witnessing a violent assault on the fundamental principle of the sanctity of human life. Perhaps the greatest single idea that the Bible has given to humanity, is the simple truth that every man, woman and child, is created in the divine image, and so, is of infinite value. For the Nazis, the value of a man was finite, even pitiful. How much work could he do? How much hair did she have? How many gold teeth? For the Nazis, the destruction of one human being, or of a hundred, a thousand, six million, was of no consequence. It was just a means to an evil end.
Today, again, we are pitted against the forces of evil, those for whom human life - whether the civilians they target, or their own youth who they use as weapons - are of no value, nothing but a means to their goals. Our sages teach us that "He who takes a single life, it is as if he has taken an entire world". No human life is less than a world. No ideology, no political agenda, can justify or excuse the deliberate taking of an innocent life.
Mr. President,
For six million Jews, the State of Israel came too late. For them, and for countless others, the United Nations also came too late. But it is not too late, to renew our commitment, to the purposes for which the United Nations was founded. And it is not too late, to work for an international community that will reflect these values fully; that will be uncompromising in combating intolerance against people of all faiths and ethnicities; that will reject moral equivalence; that will call evil by its name.
We will never know whether, if the United Nations had existed then, the Holocaust could have been prevented. But this Special Session today confirms the need for the United Nations, as well as each individual member state, to rededicate ourselves to ensuring that it will never happen again. In this context, I wish to commend the Secretary General for his moral voice and leadership in bringing this Special Session to fruition, and my colleague foreign ministers, for their presence here today.
As the number of survivors shrinks all the time, we are on the brink of that moment, when this terrible event will change - from memory, to history. Let all of us gathered here pledge, never to forget the victims, never to abandon the survivors, and never to allow such an event ever to be repeated.
As the Foreign Minister of Israel, the sovereign state of the Jewish people, I stand before you, to swear, in the name of the victims, the survivors, and all the Jewish people: Never again.
Intellect Linked To Risk Of Suicide In Young Men
Intellect Linked To Risk Of Suicide In Young Men
Intellectual capacity in early adulthood is strongly related to subsequent risk of suicide in men, finds a study in this week's BMJ.
Intellectual capacity in early adulthood is strongly related to subsequent risk of suicide in men, finds a study in this week's BMJ.
Philip Greenspun's Weblog: a day of celebration for Jews and gynecologists
As George W. is sworn in today for a second term, it occurs to me
how grateful American Jews should be that he won. For those Americans,
of whom there are a fair number (see my Israel Essay for statistics), who believe that Jews have too much political power
and, in particular, that Jewish Wall Street financiers control American
politics behind the scenes, imagine what feelings a Kerry victory would
have provoked. We had an anti-gun candidate who had presented himself
to voters for decades as Irish-American but was in fact one-quarter
Jewish. A majority of American Jews voted for this candidate, who was
also supported with massive funds from George Soros, a Jewish baron
of Wall Street, resulting in Kerry and Democratic "527 committees"
spending $292 million during the campaign (versus $113 million on the
Republican side, according to www.publicintegrity.org).
If it were Kerry being sworn in today that would have confirmed
everything that a lot of folks believe about a Jewish conspiracy
controlling American politics.
One group that does seem to be celebrating today are America's
gynecologists. My aviation habit has thrown me into contact with a lot
of ob-gyns, none of whom have shed a tear over the defeat of John
Edwards, the Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate, who made much of
his money suing ob-gyns for cerebral palsy cases.
George W.'s re-inauguration: a day of celebration for Jews and gynecologists
Visited Countries
This is a marked-up version of http://www.travelerscenturyclub.org/countries.html (January 2004) found at Philip Greenspun's website showing the countries that I've visited and when. I keep this list around so that I can link to it and ask people to suggest travel destinations that will be new to me.
Note that according to the Traveler's Century Club they include some areas that aren't independent countries because "they are removed from parent, either geographically, politically or ethnologically".
Red = visited.
| PACIFIC OCEAN (40) | |
|
|
| NORTH AMERICA (5) | |
|
|
| CENTRAL AMERICA (8) | |
|
|
| SOUTH AMERICA (13) | |
|
|
| CARIBBEAN (27) | |
|
|
| ATLANTIC OCEAN (13) | |
|
|
| EUROPE & MEDITERRANEAN (67) | |
|
|
| ANTARCTICA (9) | |
|
|
| AFRICA (52) | |
|
|
| MIDDLE EAST (21) | |
|
|
| INDIAN OCEAN (14) | |
|
|
| ASIA (48) | |
|
|
| THIS LIST IS RECOGNIZED BY THE WORLD AS THE STANDARD OF COUNTRIES AND DESTINATIONS THAT ARE POLITICALLY, ETHNOLOGICALLY OR GEOGRAPHICALLY DIFFERENT | |
create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)