View source for Blog/December 2012/Dec 21st

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{{bheadernew|Dec 21st|http://ronware.org/devar/vayigash5773.pdf}}

Hi, again!

Are you confused, bewildered and dismayed by the plethora of political parties in Israel?  Need help figuring out what they stand for?  As promised, I've put together [[Israeli_political_parties_-_19th_knesset|a synopsis of all the parties]] running, with information on how many seats they currently hold (if any) as well as a pointer to their web-page (if any).  Corrections/emendations/suggestions may be made via the link on that page.  Enjoy!

The weather is getting cold and wet; it was cold but not wet (here, anyway) most of the week.  But we awoke this morning to heavy rainfall and ''cold'' temperatures (high of 9C).  So it looks like the heating will be on this ''shabbat''.  My fingers are getting numb just typing this!

Happy birthday to Daniela!  She and Jeremy will be spending ''shabbat'' with his parents in Baltimore, since he's going to undergo a relatively minor surgical procedure.  We all wish him רפואה שלימה -- a speedy and complete recovery (Yirmiyahu Yitshaq ben Shaindel Faige)!  His brother will be joining us ''next shabbat'', along with his sister and my nephew.  But that's next week...

As for this week, my nephew Chris started his [http://www.birthrightisrael.com/Pages/Default.aspx Birthright] trip, and he'll be touring around with them for ten days.  After that he'll be staying with us and getting fat from good cooking.  Or something like that; we'll see how we'll keep him out of trouble.

Sarah has started putting together (e.g. editing) videos for school, and we're impressed with what we've seen so far.  Someday soon we'll probably have a link to share with you so you can see for yourselves. Her school gave her an external 2T (two ''trillion'' bytes) hard-disk, which is primarily intended for a Mac.  They even formatted it so it had a "Windows" and a "Mac" side.  Unfortunately, Sarah put her files from school on the Mac side -- so her Windows laptop could not read it.

But fortunately for her, her father uses Linux, and thus had no problem reading both sides of the disk.  So he very kindly copied her Mac files to the Windows side. Problem solved.  And speaking of the Linux machinery...

... I've been using [http://www.kubuntu.org kubuntu]  for a long while now, but after setting up the new machine with [http://www.linuxmint.com/ Mint] I decided to move my laptop over to it as well. It proved to be a pleasant and useful experience. My laptop is running ten degrees cooler, and it's faster. The install process only took 15 minutes, including downloading updates, and it remembered my wireless connection information.  If you've been considering leaving Windows (especially the abomination Windows 8), I highly recommend giving Mint a look. Just a few of the things I like very much about it:
* easy Wifi setup 
* fast(er than kubuntu)
* simple and easier to use (than kubuntu)
* seamless support for removable media (USB sticks, CDs, etc.)

Work was very intense this week, as we're trying to get a major bit of work done before the end of the month.  I'm coming home "squeezed dry", but at least we're making excellent progress.  The bosses are happy, which is a Good Thing.  

This week also witnessed a tragedy in the US, a "school shooting".  The media and the "powers that be" have latched onto this as a cause célèbre, and are pushing for comprehensive gun control and bans.  One of the more ludicrous reactions is from [http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/12/19/bulletproof-backpacks-kids-body-armor-in-demand-following-connecticut-school/ people buying bulletproof backpacks] for their children.  A cursory look at [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_attacks_related_to_primary_schools a list of school attacks] shows that many of them take place in China, where it is already impossible to acquire firearms.  How would banning guns improve that situation?

Furthermore, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_causes_of_death_by_rate a review of causes of death by rate] shows that the vast majority of deaths are caused by coronary issues, cancers, strokes and diseases.  ''Less that 1%'' of deaths are caused by non-self-inflicted violence (and presumably not all of that 1% is caused by guns).  So in my not so humble opinion, a far more effective method of reducing mortality in the general population would be to concentrate on proper diet and exercise and elimination of contagious diseases.  In fact, AIDS/HIV accounts for almost ''five times'' the number of deaths as violence does -- and yet there's little clamor for prevention of AIDS/HIV through behavior modification (the most effective treatment by far).  But who asked my opinion?


This ''shabbat'' will be a quiet one, just us chickens, eating:
beef-barley soup,
smoked fish,
''schnitzel'',
chard-mushroom ''pashtida'',
baked butternut squash,
quinoa ''pilaf'',
radish salad,
beet salad,
eggplant with ''ṭeḥina'',
''salatim'',
fresh fruit
and "just cake" with berries.

Until next week,<br>
''shabbat shalom''!

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