Blog/December 2020/Dec 25th

Dec 25th

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Today is the fast of the Tenth of Tevet, so I haven’t had any coffee. Please bear that in mind as you read on.

Our bid to join the roster of Banana Republics is nearly ensured, as we dissolve the Knesset and move to the fourth round of elections in two years. Aren’t we special?

We got my mom her first of two vaccination shots (for COVID-19) this week. Despite polls saying Israelis are not rushing to get the inoculation, the place was full. Despite that, it went relatively quickly. Much more well organized than our gov’t, thankfully!

Esther and I are both hesitant to take the vaccine, as are most of the people I’ve spoken with here. Our concerns boil down to a couple issues: first, it is completely new technology with no track record. Second, it was rushed into production without the possibility of any long-term effects studies. In particular, the long-term effects on the immune system have not been studied (and you really do need that bit working properly!). Lest you think we’re antivaxxers or low-information Neanderthals or something, I refer you to an excellent (and a bit long) podcast from two scientists discussing the pros and cons in some (technical) depth. We’ll just wait to see if my mom grows another head, first…

Of course, we may be forced into taking the vaccine: but since the gov’t has disbanded, perhaps not so soon.

Apparently Israel is one of the countries rolling out the vaccine most aggressively. On “social media” the anti-Israel crowd is claiming we’re “not giving the Palestinians” the vaccine. So first of all, they’ve got their own government and loads of funding and can make their own public health policy. Secondly, they didn’t ask us for any vaccines, nor do they want the help we’ve offered. So there’s that.

Maybe of interest:

• A “zero-day” iMessage vulnerability was used to hack journalists’ phones.
• No, Cellebrite cannot ‘break’ Signal’s encryption. You can relax!
• More on the SolarWinds breach.
• Did you know that China controls 100% of the supply of rare-earth metals? Did you know that those are used in quite literally all your high-tech devices? Do you understand the ramifications of that control? NIMBY is a poor strategic policy.
• A lawyer explains in detail why Texas’ lawsuit did not work. That’s not to say there hasn’t been a serious and concerted plot against the President.
• CNN gives us some hard-hitting reporting once again: Obama’s favorite songs of 2020. I’ve been unable to sleep at night, wondering what his favorites were!
• “Asymptomatic spread” isn’t rare or even unusual. According to a massive study from China, it’s not a thing at all.

I’ve been cranking out code, improving some bits of 8th. My latest effort is to allow rendering Markdown in the GUI. It’s much easier to work with than HTML, and the ability should prove quite useful. In case you were wondering, our year-end sale continues through next Thursday.

Sarah will be on another “forced vacation” since the gov’t has voted to shut us down, for the third time. At least she will (probably) get unemployment benefits.

Daniela and Jeremy took a well-deserved but short vacation. They left the twins with their nanny, and took a couple days to reset. Sounds like it was a good plan!

The weather was once again cool this week, and rainy a few days. It’s supposed to stay cold but dry for the weekend and into the coming week. Just like it was last week!

We’ll celebrate this shabbat with:
homemade ḥalla, tomato soup, Aunt Nancy’s chicken, vegetable-lentil stew, fluffy rice, egg salad, tuna salad, various other salatim, and oatmeal cookies.

Until next time,
shabbat shalom!

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