hovercraft

I really need one of these:

link

well, not really

אין כמו במבה

It seems that giving children bamba is not so bad.

A new study seems to indicate that it actually lowers the risk of developing a peanut allergy.

Now I can give it my kids without any having to hide in the kitchen.

Election Post

"The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; +/- 4.7% "


{ from a t-shirt advertising a public opinion polling company in Boulder CO }

Yes, we should!

I have my reservations regarding Barak Obama. Many concerns about his policies and hesitations about his character.

At the same time i'm very optimistic.

Listening to him speak was moving and I felt a strong sense of pride and excitement. I don't thin that these are feelings which should be dismissed lightly.

Undecided - The ability to listem

Okay so I voted. No i'm not gonna say who for. I have been going back and forth debating internally who to vote for. I can make a good case for both front running candidates.

The more I read the different arguments the more I become convinced that those writing them are quite firm in their opinions and not very well poised to see the other side of the debate.

It reminds me of the story of Reb Chaim brought in "The Rav" (Rabbi Rakeffet) pg. 227

Of course i'm nowhere near the level of Reb Chaim but nevertheless sometimes it is a fun excersize to try and see more than one side of things. Then again sometimes the easiest thing to do is just have someone dictate your choice.

A friend told me that if I can't decide then just don't vote. Personally I feel that an unsure and hesitant but well thought out position is certainly no worse than a biased sure thing stand on the issues.

There should be an social equivalent to the Fluctuation Dissipation Theorem of Statistical physics which would allow me to determine my linear response to perturbations based on my fluctuation level.

BTW - I think it is much too early to speculate on effects of election one candidate on the upcoming Israeli elections. Voters are not quite that easy to influence have very short term memory and many times such attempts can produce the opposite effect.

Thinking hard makes you hungry

A recent study confirms the long held suspicion that:

thinking does indeed make you hungry.

Don't contimplate this for too long or you may need to take a snack.

I would suggest that someone now try to quantify 

how hard one must think (i.e. rate of calories burned per second)

in order to give oneself a headache.

Enhancing performance

In one of his final posts before closing shop, the "Rabbi Without A Cause" posted on mood altering before meetings with the help of music.

I can't help but insert here "John Cage's Bells"

Relating to the question of other methods that may enhance performance the is an interesting piece in this innovations report. 

Personally i'm quite facinated with the nature of music especially how (and why?!) we are affected by it. A starting point I would recommend on this subject is the recent series in Nature Magazine.

(this is not really going to be a music blog although who knows...)

The sky is falling...

Today it is raining.

That is a good thing.

It can however be interpreted in manny different ways.

Some, under the influence of current events, might say the sky is falling. This has not yet happened on any previous occasion, but I ain't saying it never will.

My son thinks that the clouds can't be mitapek any longer and well you can figure it out....

But sometimes it just seems as if Hashem is crying. Especially when things happen that we just don't understand. I know that if this were true it should probably be raining quite often we would not have any water shortage. It is just how I want to feel at the moment.

I can hear the loadspeakers outside announcing the time of the funeral.

The evolutionary cost of sex

"Sex is considered as an evolutionary paradox, since its evolutionary advantage does not necessarily overcome the two fold cost of sharing half of one’s offspring’s genome with another member of the population."

This statement from a recent article caught my attention.

I am not interested at the moment in the most recent calculations as to whether or not it actually turns out to be advantageous or not. The point is that from a scientific point of view a Unisex universe should be the initial starting point. The two fold cost is an existing barrier which then may or may not be overcome.

I think it is interesting that this is exactly the position that the Torah takes in its account of creation. The initial description is only of Adam (and Midrashically a combination of man and woman which may be alluding to the possibility of unassisted reproduction)

It is only then that Hashem decides that this is "not good". This can be for a myriad of reasons from game theory to ethical to spiritual, but whatever it is, I think that creation of Chava from Adam's Tzela is intended to show that this was not a necesaary step from the pure scientific view of creation. The unisex universe could have been self sustaining. There are deeper forces at work behind the nuion of man and woman.

Music Roundup

We'll start with a music related post b/c there are just too many serious things going on.
I think music is a window int the soul so i'll give you a sneak peak inside mine.
Last night was Kol Chai Radio's yearly music roundup.
First, I must say that they did do a fine job. It is no easy job selecting the best especially in a year so full of great jewish music.

They hit the nail spot on with the "Album of the Year" choice - I would have been pretty surprised had they not chosen the Eighth Note which is a head above everyone else despite the fact that this year everyone else were also, well above par.

This choice left the door wide open for "Singer of the Year" since the eigth note does not exclusively feature anyone specific. In my personal opinion a strong case could be made for any one of the trio - Shuli Rad, Yonatan Razel or Meir Banai who all put out amazing disks this year (Yidel or Lipa would have been fine choices too). They went with Shuli Rand which is as I stated a great choice but slightly surprising given the fact that on their list none of his songs made it to the top 25 (I would have put 2-3).

My main divergence is in the song list which vastly differs from theirs. In fact most of my favorites were nowhere on their list and in the top ten only two songs are the same. I can't blame them for putting Meidad in first it is really quite a nice and very popular song but I hereby present to you my alternative view of how things should have gone:


1) K'shoshana - Katz, Razel, Chaim Dovid
2) The Letter - Dovid Gabay
3) Pnei Elai - Mordechai Yitzhar

4) Veatem Hadeveikim - Yonatan Razel
5) Nekuda Tovah - Shuli Rand
6) Lev Echad - Yidel Werdiger
7) Ma Yakar - Shlomie Shabbat and Halehakah

8) Beshivtecha - The Eigth Note
9) Ayelet Chen - Meir Banai
10) Al Naharot Bavel - Meidad Tassa


Note: Kol Chai's full list can be found here. My list is a bit slower paced I think but thats just my personal take on things.

Just do it

o.k.
So iv'e been wanting to experiment with this for quite a while.
It's time to jump in.