My Favorite App

I just got out of my Art History final, and what with Reubens and Bernini are leaking out of my ears, I don't really feel like any major intellectual undertaking tonight.  So rather than writing my agriculture papers, working on my Chanukah shiur, filling out job applications, translating Vajda, etc., I'm just going to write about my new favorite smartphone app, Fooducate.

Fooducate is a free app that allows the user to scan the barcodes on food packages with the phone's camera, and then locates the product in a surprisingly extensive online database.  The app then tells you a bit about any health risks associated with the product's ingredients, assigns an overall grade from A to D-, and suggests various alternatives.  The algorithm which assigns grades, although it simplifies all of the nutritional contents of a product to fit a single scale, is, as far as I can tell, fairly reliable, having been devised by a team of dieticians, scientists, and computer programmers.  To the right is an example of what the nutritional information looks like.  Do you see the four tabs?  Clicking on each of them will reveal more information
I've taken it shopping with me a couple of times, but both times I was in a hurry, so only once has it actually prevented me from placing a particular product in my grocery basket.  However, I've scanned all of the packages in my room, and, when I go to Wegmans tomorrow night with Victor, plan to deviate significantly from my usual buying tendencies, thanks to things I've learned about specific products, as well as about certain ingredients.  Here are the top twelve things I've learned:

12) Natural- It means nothing: it's an unregulated term, and not part of any USDA or FDA code, to my knowledge.  I already knew that; but what's much, much scarier is that advertisers are aware of this -- and are also aware that most consumers are unaware.  For this reason, one-fourth of new products launched in 2010 included the word "natural" in the product name.  Put a mental block on this word, and never take it as anything more than the advertising ploy that it is.

11) Yogurt - Back in AP Stats, one of my classmates wrote a project on yogurt nutrition, arguing that yogurts are mostly high-sugar desserts.  This was certainly how French people treat most yogurt, gastronomically (fromage blanc is closer to what we think of as yogurt).  I assumed that the kinds of organic nonfat yogurt that I consume, lacking flavorings or sweeteners, were exempt from this kind category.  It looks as if I was... correct.  Almost too good to be true, but Stonyfield Farm organic plain nonfat yogurt receives the highest of ratings, A.  Just see for yourself.

10) Apple Sauce - Not so good news about this category.  It looks as if even the organic applesauces that I consume don't score higher than B+ or so.  Mainstream Motts is in the C category.  I blame the high-fructose corn syrup.

9) "Dirty Dozen" and "Clean Fifteen" - Producers apply more pesticides to certain crops, and relatively little to others; these two categories are known as the "Dirty Dozen" (a growing list, but it used to include twelve, but now comprises sixteen different crops) and the "Clean Fifteen," (now eighteen) respectively.   Alphabetically, the "Clean Fifteen" are asparagus, avocados, bananas, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, corn, eggplants, garlic, kiwis, mangoes, onions, papayas, pineapples, peas, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and watermelon.  The "Dirty Dozen" are apples, bell peppers, blueberries, carrots, cherries, celery, grapes, kale, lettuce, nectarines, peaches, pears, potatoes, raspberries, spinach, and strawberries.

8) Hidden Trans Fat - Well, you know how trans fats are something you should be worried about consuming, and that producers are obligated to state trans fat content?  Guess what -- some foods have trans fats even if their nutrition facts don't list any.  I quote the Fooducate website: "If the amount of trans-fat in a product is less than half a gram per serving, manufacturers can round it down to 0.  But even 0.49 grams of trans-fat is bad for you. And don't even get us started on the actual consumption versus the tiny serving size.  So how do you know if a product does have trans fat in it?  Look for 'partially hydrogenated' oils and fats in the ingredient list."  Beware...

Are you getting enough Vitamin D?  Click here!

7) Vitamin D in milk -You know how most milk products state that they include Vitamin D?  Partially because Vitamin D is necessary for calcium absorption, and milk is high in calcium, many milk manufacturers add Vitamin D to the milk, so that the calcium won't just flush through consumers' systems.  It looks as if milk additives probably aren't the most reliable way to ensure that you're getting enough Vitamin D, especially if you're like me, and drink skim milk.  If you're worried about your Vitamin D levels, consult a dietician.

6) Artificial sweeteners - It's what my Mother always told me, but it looks as if she's right.  Stay away from saccharine and aspartame.  Artificial sweeteners might actually cause more weight gain than ordinary sugar.

5) Clif Bars -- C category, I'm afraid.  I typically consume builders' bars right after my runs.  However, despite high protein and micronutrient content, clif builders' bars are highly processed, and very high in saturated fat.  I'll still have them after my runs, but try harder to limit my intake beyond post-run high-protein meals.

4) Granola -- The granola that I've been consuming is disgusting!  Really!  Just take a look!  I am never, ever, buying this again.  I'm also noting this for the sake of a pair of sisters I know who rather like Wegmans-brand granola.  My suggestion?  Stay far away from it.

3) Canola Oil -- It looks as if a certain gingie was right about why I can't find rapeseed oil on this side of the Atlantic: "canola oil" is really just rapeseed oil!  Canola, a form of oil developed in Canada, is actually a quasi-acronym, standing for CANada Oil Low Acid.  It used to be used as an industrial lubricant (like palm oil), and for this reason, in addition to the fact that purchasing rapeseed oil might upset some consumers.  Although this brings up an interesting question: are young male consumers significantly more likely to purchase extra-virgin olive oil than the typical consumer?

2) Oreos -- It turns out that if you really want some storebought cookies, you should -- choose Oreos.  In addition to the fact that, if you know Prof. Joe Regenstein, who was involved with the project to make oreo production OU kosher, and seeing Oreos therefore instinctively makes you happy, Oreos are among the best choices for cookies, and, if consumed moderately, can be part of a healthy diet.  This is partially because the expected serving size is reasonable -- three Oreos -- whereas other cookie companies, such as Chips Ahoy, deliberately set their serving sizes below the expectations for standard snack sizes (about thirty grams).  Here, I'll quote Fooducate again: "Unlike other industrial cookies, classic Oreo cookies do not have artificial colors or partially hydrogenated oils. And while Oreos are high in sugar, one serving of Oreos (3 cookies) has less sugar than a single serving of most juices.  Bottom line: If you can manage to keep this to a once-in-a-while treat and stick to the 3 cookies serving size, don't be so hard on yourself for breaking out of what is a normally healthy diet.  Stick to classic Oreos to avoid artificial colors and avoid extra stuffing versions that pile on unneeded sugar."  Happy to hear that, Margo?

1) I am never, ever, ever again going to buy those  pumpkin spice bagels.  Ever, ever again.  Sarah, I'm sorry that I ever fed these things to you!  I promise to keep on giving you eggs, though.

OK, good luck on Finals, everyone.  Now get back to work!

~JD

Response to Rising Violence in Israel and Gaza

Following Havdallah this evening, I switched on my computer in order to read the latest news regarding Israel.  I brought my laptop downstairs to the library and, with Judy's help, reported the latest news aloud to the group of my housemates who were playing Halo.  For those of you unfamiliar with the situation, on Wednesday, Hamas fired rockets from Gaza, which set off sirens even in Tel Aviv, Israel retaliated by bombing rocket launcher sites, and killing Ahmed al-Jaabari, head of Hamas's Izz ad-Din al-Qassam military wing. (Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said that targeting Tel Aviv would "exact a price that the other side will have to pay.")  The Israeli attack killed five other Palestinians (including a seven-year-old girl) and injured approximately forty others.  For a brief overview of Israel's and Hamas's operations as of Thursday evening, I turn to the Associated Press: "The Israeli army said 300 targets were hit in Gaza, including more than 130 militant rocket launchers. It said more than 270 rockets had struck Israel since the start of the operation, with its Iron Dome interceptor system shooting down more than 130 rockets bound for residential areas.  Expecting days or more of fighting and almost inevitable civilian casualties, Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets in Gaza advising residents to stay away from Hamas and other militants."
Over Shabbat, a Palestinian-fired rocket set off sirens near Jerusalem, although nobody was injured; this is the first time since 1970 that any Palestinian rocket has fallen near Israel's political capital.  (That is worth repeating: in the year that the last time a rocket landed near Jerusalem, the United States was engaged in the Vietnam War, Richard Nixon was president, my parents were younger than I am now, the Beatles disbanded, Ray Davies wrote "Lola.")  Although rocket attacks may have become familiar to residents of towns like Sderot may have become accustomed to, they don't usually disturb residents of Israel's political capital -- Jerusalem typically has other problems to deal with.  According to one report, Hamas claims to have been aiming to hit the Knesset.  Since the violence began on Wednesday, 492 Palestinian missiles have struck Israel, while the Iron Dome defense system shot down another 245 (about 1/3 of incoming rockets, in other words).  Not all of these Palestinians missiles are from Hamas itself: some are shot by various militant Palestinian Salafist groups. Many of the long-range strikes are carried out using Iran-designed and -funded Fajr-5 missiles, which have a strike range of 75km (see figure above, courtesy of the IDF).  There are several false reports circulating regarding some of these missile hits, including that rockets have struck three IDF bases.  To my knowledge, this is incorrect.

Israel Air Strike in Gaza City, 17 November 2012.

More than 200 Israeli airstrikes struck Gaza Saturday, with a total death count of just under about 43 or so Palestinians, just over half of them militants, with many more casualties.  Property destruction has also been significant: among the buildings destroyed are the Palestinian Prime Minister's office, and a police compound.  The Palestinian Interior Ministry was also a target, but, as far as I know, it was not destroyed.
Representatives from both Egypt and Tunisia have sent representatives to Gaza in signs of Arab solidarity, and Arab countries are planning to convene in Cairo.  Meanwhile, President Barack Obama and Germany's Angela Merkel have affirmed their support for Israel, and have condoned its actions.  "It is Hamas in Gaza that is responsible for the outbreak of the violence"  In Turkey, Prime Minister Erdogan criticizes Israel for having used disproportionate force; I can't find news on the subject from France any earlier than this video from Le Monde, which I think is from Thursday, in which Hollande says that he has taken "Toutes les initiatives pour eviter ce dechainement de violence [All measures to avoid this unleashing of violence]," saying that he had telephoned both Netanyahu and told him that, although he recognized Israel's need to defend itself, advised him not to provoke what could become a growing cycle of violence.  Hollande also spoke to Morsi, telling him to use all possible influence to prevent any further "operations;" without taking clear sides, he seems to want everyone to stop shooting, in the hopes that this will prevent something truly tragic, i.e. war, from breaking out.  (Meanwhile, the French Foreign Minister seems more openly sympathetic with the Palestinian cause, stating that "it would be a catastrophe if there is an escalation in the region. Israel has the right to security but it won't achieve it through violence. The Palestinians also have the right to a state.")
Contrary to Hollande's hopes, all signs indicate that the IDF is preparing for a ground operation.
Seeing this possibility, some commentators have pointed out the similarities to the Gaza War of 2008-9.  Some of you may have read the New York Times article criticizing Israel for not changing its diplomatic and military strategies from 2008 to take into account the political developments in the Arab World, namely the Arab Spring.  The article depicts Israel's approach to all situations as heavy-handed militarism. So does this article, blaming both Israel and the United States for ignorance of a changing situation.

A Hamas officer guarding the smoking ruins
of the former Palestinian Prime Minister's office in Gaza.

Let's review an important figure from the last war: 1,400 dead Palestinians, and 13 dead Israelis, over a period of three weeks.  We all know that no matter how high the body count rises on either side of this conflict, there will still not be peace, and rockets will still fly every week, maybe every day, over the border into Israel.  The Israeli Army is too well-trained and effective for the Palestinians to win in open combat, and Hamas's rocket-launching sites are too spread out for Israel to end rocket fire with anything short of the operations we've seen unfolding this week.  According to a former Israeli official who had been involved in the Gaza War, Hamas "will not stop until enough Israelis are killed or injured to create a sense of equality or balance.  If a rocket falls in the middle of Tel Aviv, that will be a major success. But this government will go back at them hard. I don’t see this ending in the next day or two.”  I think that we may very easily see another war, but not one that end with Israel significantly more secure; any operation, no matter how effective, will probably just reset the clock for a few years.  Ho Chi Minh, commenting to the United States on the futility of its operations in Vietnam, famously said "you can kill ten of our men for every one we kill of yours.  But even at these odds, you will lose and we will win."  Entirely different situation, but similar concept: no matter what the ratio of casualties is (and I do not foresee any military operation Israeli casualties outnumbering non-Israeli casualties), it cannot put an end to the political conflict.

The Iron Dome defense system in action, shooting down
a Palestinian rocket on Saturday.

As for me, my most pressing concern is the safety of all of my friends in Israel, especially those currently serving in the IDF, or likely to be called up on reserve.  My next concern is for all of the Israeli and Palestinian civilians who constantly live in fear of their own lives, and those of their loved ones.  Israel has been hit by nearly 500 rockets in the past days, several of which have threatened its (rough) equivalents of Washington, D.C. (Jerusalem) and New York City (Tel Aviv).

In all of this,  I cannot help but take a pro-Israel stance.  I would very much like to believe that this is a result of my rational understanding of the facts.  It could be the result of what is undeniably my strong emotional attachment to Israel and Israelis.  It seems to me that Israel has a right to defend itself, if that means bombing rocket factories in Gaza, setting up checkpoints in the West Bank, and destroying Iranian nuclear facilities.  What is upsetting is that so many Palestinian civilians have died in the process; many more will likely die in the next days, weeks, months, years, and, my pessimism tempts me to say, decades.  (As the picture to the right indicates, even a Palestinian partisan would have difficulty attributing the collateral death of civilians in the destruction of missile launch sites to Israeli aggression/vengefulness/carelessness.)   I do not think that we will see an end to this conflict soon.  Short of a Messianic arrival (it doesn't matter in accordance to whose beliefs), I can't envision a lasting peace emerging any time soon.
Another brief word about assassinations and the political nature of scientific institutions.  Many criticize Mossad for its assassinations of Iranian nuclear physicists, many of them involving motorcycles and sticky bombs.  Some of these scientists were professors who taught courses at Iranian Universities.  As the son of a scientist, and the student (and friend?) of many others, it is distressing to think that an academic could not drive to work without fearing that his car will be sabotaged before he can reach his classroom.  Let me say this now, loud and clear: scientists, like it or not, are political entities, just like the rest of us, whether we are students, soldiers, actuaries, educators, lobbyists, accountants, investors, union organizers, salespeople, or artists (yes, that's right -- all art is political, and even the very belief that art should be for art's sake alone is itself a political statement).  Membership in the scientific community, from oldest times, involves politics, and I don't just mean intra-departmental squabbles.  To name just a few famous examples, Aristotle proved with his ethical calculus that Alexander deserved to be ruler of a massive empire; Galileo named four of Jupiter's moons after his patrons, the Medicis; Darwin was an abolitionist, and worked tirelessly to emphasize the unity of the human species.  All of these scientists proved that their research, however much it contributed to human knowledge, did not exist in a political vacuum; rather it, was shaped for (and funded by) political actors and movements of their own times.  Scientific training does not qualify one for exemption from the goals and results of one's work, especially if those results are easily foreseeable. To quote a great writer reflecting on scientists' complicity in nuclear weapons research: "the fact is that a mere training in one or more of the exact sciences, even combined with very high gifts, is no guarantee of a humane or skeptical [sic] outlook. The physicists... all feverishly and secretly working away at the atomic bomb, are a demonstration of this."  So wrote George Orwell in 1945, reflecting on the nuclear politics of his own time.  The same could be said today: anyone who knows that his life's work could be used to carry out his nation's overt goal to wipe another country off of the face of the map makes a very clear political choice, and cannot claim any sort of "intellectual exemption" for his actions.
I strongly suspect that all of my friends and relations who read this will be at least slightly offended.  Sam Law will probably think that I am a brainwashed belligerent Zionist who supports a system of military occupation and state-sanctioned terror.  Lazar will likely criticize me for erring too far on the side of supporting Palestinian terrorists.  To be honest, I don't care.This post is dedicated to all of those dedicated members of the IDF out there.  Good luck out there.
~JD

Election Day, 2012

Hi cool people-
Here are a not-so-random collection of thoughts, some political, others not so.
At least I know that Barbara Lifton won the state assembly race: she was running unopposed.
12 minutes ago, Nate Shinagawa conceded.  Too bad: I think that I had the most emotional investment riding on that race (and, Rayleigh, I'm sorry).  It looks as if the man representing me in Congress now is a Republican Tea Partier who does not support the kind of federal ban on hydrofracking that I personally favor.  He supports a voucher approach to healthcare (which I don't), and, for all of his (vague) bipartisan rhetoric, has voted with his party 93% of the time.  To be honest, I think that the whole Kineret scandal is stupid, and that had absolutely nothing to do with my voting choice.  It might continue to be a Republican-controlled House.
Kirsten Gillibrand has won a full term in the U.S. Senate.  Good for her.  To be honest, I really don't know too much about her.  I didn't feel as if my vote really counted in the Senatorial race.  The Democrats have a majority in the Senate, according to election results thus far.
OK, yes, the line you've all been expecting: President Obama has won another four years as President of the United States of North America, probably making him the most powerful human being in the world.  I maintain that this makes significantly less difference than most people think.  At the possibility of sounding like my friend Sam Law, who I think would agree that many of the differences of opinion in national politics between Democrats and Republicans are highly inflated by the media, and by narcissism of minor differences.  There are still going to be people stuck in the healthcare doughnut hole; the economy is still going to be lousy-but-recovering; we're still going to have an economy floating on foreign fossil fuels; unearned income is still going to be taxed less than earned income; we're still going to have an absurdly expensive military with an ever-growing budget; we're still going to underfund education in order to pay for Cold War-era weaponry; Congress will still be dominated by special interests; our agriculture will remain industrial and unsustainable; Congressional and the Senatorial seats will still have 80- or 90-some incumbency rates; we still won't have real transparency in government, and elections will still be swung by corporate donations; both institutional and explicit racism, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia will persist, and we'll never have ERA; we'll still face 50% rates of childhood obesity and Type II diabetes in the inner city; we'll still have a fickle electoral college decide our presidential races; donations to religious institutions will still be tax-deductible; we'll still have high schoolers who can't locate Iraq on a map, or name in what half-century the U.S. Civil War was fought; veterans will still suffer post-traumatic stress disorder; agricultural will remain unsustainable, and we'll still discard 40-50% of our food production (mostly at the level of the retailer or consumer); etc.  You get the picture, and, in my opinion, it's bleak (and that's just domestic policy; don't get me started on the rest of the world), for a country with the largest economy in the world.
Yes, there are social issues, which are probably more divisive than fiscal policy, foreign policy, energy policy, etc..  But marital law (to choose just one example of a needlessly-explosive social issue) is not a federal law, anyway, and even if a Republican-dominated legislature were to try to pass a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, President Obama couldn't veto it, because the veto does not apply to constitutional amendments.  If we want same-sex marriage in this country, I'd go so far as to say that the Presidency is probably the least important position to have on our side.  As I understand it, the problem is that the U.S. law code (major exception: Louisiana, because it belonged to France after the adoption of the Napoleonic Code) is ripped off of British law (because we used to be a collection of British colonies), which is based on the literally-Medieval Common Law. Common Law was compiled by King Alfred of England (king in the time of the Viking invasions) over eleven centuries ago, back when there really wasn't much church-state separation -- kings appointed bishops, heresy was a capital crime, etc. So the word "marriage" appears EVERYWHERE in the law code, rather than a more neutral term, such as "civil union," taken to be a religious ceremony recognized by the state.  By contrast, France has had secular marriages since nearly the very beginning of the Revolution in 1789, and the Napoleonic Code completely supplanted most prior French law in 1804. Authority over marriage was deliberately taken away from the church, as a way of weakening the 1st estate, which had historically been overbearingly powerful. Because the U.S. never had any sort of cataclysmic revolution in which all of the laws were rewritten, it never had any chance to redefine how one individual becomes legally and exclusively connected to another. And because marriage is regulated by state rather than federal law, it will be a horribly byzantine process to get each and every state to allow same-sex marriage, and, unfortunately, will probably never happen in our lifetimes, even if states such as New York, Massachusetts, California, etc., manage to recognize same-sex marriages as legally identical to heterosexual marriage.
Thank you everyone who came to the concert today!  Thank you to all of you who were my Golden Sunshines of happiness: Sarah, Elliot, Mike Dilamani, Josefin, Rachel, Ilan, Elliot, and both Zwillenbergs.
Matisyahu's cover of "One Day" has nothing on the Chai Notes' original.  Harry, have I mentioned how much I love your bass voice?  Keep up the good work, all of you!
I can't believe that I left early from Shemot learning today, Rav Ami!  If I had known how long the other band was going to play, and how bad it was, I would totally have stayed another 15 minutes.
Oh, man, this afternoon I ran into the toughest girl I know (voted thus according to CJL democracy), and, for the first time, she saw me before I saw her!
I realize that this is the most explicitly political I've ever been in my blog, and that many of you are probably going to call me a pinko or a brainwashed liberal, depending upon whether you are right or left of me, politically.
And, now, for the most explicitly political section of the day: a transcript of today's grocery receipt, from Greenstar.  If the above paragraphs don't  reveal my political leanings, the following list should:
-2 dozen organic eggs from vegetarian-fed cage-free hens (mostly for Seudah Shlishit).
- 2 blocks of organic firm tofu.
- 1 liter of organic soy milk
- 2 cartons of organic yogurt
- 1 jar organic applesauce
- 1 bag of organic whole wheat rolls
Yes, I'm a liberal.  I still love all of you conservatives and socialists out there, though!  You, too, Andrew, who fit into the special category of "politically-informed people."
One last thing -- Lazar Polevoy, you lost the bet.  You owe me two dozen bagels.
~JD

Halloween Frights

Guess what: it's Halloween!  I'll probably spend the night studying for my thesis, or my art history class, rather than out, having fun.  Because I'm behind in most aspects of my life, and need to get back on top of them.  However, in order to entertain you all, and myself, I thought I'd come up with a list of really, really scary things that could happen this Halloween.  Prepare yourself for these bone-chilling possibilities that occurred to the darkest parts of my imagination...

France declares that it has changed its official language to Esperanto, and French becomes a dead language.
A worldwide soybean blight prevents the food industry from making tofu for a year.
Wegmans goes out of business.
A computer virus in the registrar's office changes my official status to that of a Freshman majoring in Chemical Engineering.
Victor quits as House Manager, and I need to learn how to use power tools.
Hurricane Sandy destroys the power lines and floods the basement, and I need to pour out all the water by hand.
The Cornell Library system decides to discontinue Borrow Direct and Interlibrary Loan.
Gannett diagnoses me with chicken pox again, and quarantines me for a week.
Somebody steals my journal, my laptop, my Kindle, my phone, and my student ID, all on the same day.
Due to funding cuts, Cornell eliminates the History Department, after changing its motto to "Any person, any useful study."
Due to funding cuts, Cornell forces me to drop out, after changing its motto to "Any useful person, any study."
Another squirrel chews through all of the screens in the CJL, the boiler breaks again, the Internet ceases functioning in the house, and the second washing machine and both dryers break, all on the same day.
I learn that nobody actually understands Aramaic, and that the Talmud is really just a random assortment of Hebrew letters, and all Talmudic quotes are made up on the spot.
The same as above, but with Aristophanes and Euripides.
I need to read a post thesis even more boring than "Cornell SDS" for my Thesis class.
Cornell Student Assembly calls a student strike, à la Française.
My new tefillin are also revealed not to be kosher. 
Peninah tells me that she'll stop learning with me.
Harry reveals to me that he actually just makes up all of the things he tells me.
I destroy my hot water pitcher again (oops, that just happened today -- I hope that nobody was looking forward too much to boiled eggs at Alternative Vegetarian Seudah Shlishit).
One of my professors declares that we will be having a nighttime prelim on the night of the Matisyahu concert.
One of my classmates or residents develops a crush on me.
My main secondary sources for my thesis turn out to be just excerpts from Wikipedia.
Spotify and Pandora stop providing music for the United States. 
Someone recalls every single one of my books from the Cornell Library system on the same day.
Lazar turns into a super-villain, with laser super-powers (actually, that could be kind of cool).
I accidentally erase the Word document with all of my thesis notes, and then lose the flash drive with the backup.
Lori and Cory Cole decide to change their mind about making Hero U.
Cornell requires students to pass a pop culture test in order to graduate.
The new Facebook login page reads "It's free, but for a limited time only!"
A new nutrition study reveals that cocoa causes memory loss.
All of Susan's animals escape, immediately after she buys a whole tank full of hissing cockroaches.
The Cornell clock-tower collapses.
The Hobbit movie is cancelled.
I wake up with Eli in my bed.
I wake up in Eli's bed.

Happy Halloween, and don't be too scared!
~JD

Smart Phone, Smart Baby

A week and a half ago, I first activated my new smartphone, a Samsung Galaxy.  It has lived up to its name, reminding me on a regular basis that it's significantly smarter than I am.  Moreover, I'm often not smart enough to understand how to use it optimally.  I don't mind: I'm used to the people and machines around me understanding the world better than I do (as the single History major in a house full of people studying mostly the natural sciences, and as the only member of my family without either a Bachelor's or an advanced degree).  It's a big world, there are many forms of technology to master, so many disciplines to understand, so many worlds within worlds and specialties within specialties, that it's a little bit overwhelming at times.  It reminds me of a poem by a certain curmudgeonly Luddite:

Men say they know many things;

But lo! they have taken wings, —

The arts and sciences,

And a thousand appliances;

The wind that blows

Is all that any body knows.

 

There is someone I know who understands phones fairly well, and she's about twenty years younger than I am, give or take a few months.  Noveya, Eliana and Rav Ami's baby, is fascinated by phones.  She has learned to press them against her head, and say "hi," although I'm not exactly certain whether she knows that the phone is for communicating with other people over long distances.  She learned about phones before she learned her first three-syllable word (which was "Elana"), and she still hasn't quite figured out stairs, yet. (All of this is absolutely adorable, by the way, and everyone who meets Noveya immediately starts drooling over her.)

I've read that the first thing that the first thing that an infant learns is the five-finger pattern of the human hand (ironic, because the gene for six fingers is dominant, and what we think of as the "normal" allele is recessive).  I wonder what the next things learned are?  Noveya is the first baby I've been around regularly, and observing her growing, learning, and developing.  Some of the ways that she understands names and naming are fascinating, yet so obvious.  For a while, she called both parents "Mommy," or something close to that, probably because "Ami" and "Mommy" sound almost identical.  Now, she's learned to call them "Aba" and "Ama," getting closer.  She's learned Lani's and Judy's names, and called Ilan "baby" before, because that's what he says when he speaks to her.  Isn't that what a name is?  The word that we assign to a particular person, place, or thing, in order to indicate it to others?  And if that person always makes the same sound, wouldn't it be logical to assign that sound as it's verbal tag, i.e. its name?

Homo sapiens has been around for about 200,000 years, and might have been able to speak from its origin (don't quote me on that).  We all take speech for granted; of course normal, functioning babies will learn to speak.  We take plenty of other things for granted: permanent dwellings, mass-produced clothing, urban spaces, salt... Phones, at least in middle-class America?  I wonder what kind of technology Noveya's children will take for granted, and what the phones that they'll be holding next to their heads will look like?

~JD


"While the Champagne Campaign never captured the public’s imagination as D-Day did, it did signal the first time, and probably the only time, that gastronomic considerations had a direct bearing on military planning.  It was not by chance that French general Lucien de Monsabert, who helped plan the campaign, made sure that French troops advanced up the western side of the Rhône, where the best vineyards were planted.  The Americans went up the other side, where the lesser growths were" (Don and Petie Kladstrup, Wine and war: the French, the Nazis, and the battle for France's greatest treasure, 184).

Fall Break in Boston

When I think of Boston, I almost immediately think of Bruno, my Parisian cousin.  Most of Bruno's time in the United States has been in Boston, including the time he spent becoming fluent in English, which is why, ironically, he's the only person I know with a noticeable Boston accent.
My older brother now lives in Boston, and, I left for the city from Ithaca on Friday morning with RG and two other Cornellians for, unfortunately leaving HG behind, because he got sick at the last moment.  PF also came, but ended up coming separately on Sunday.  It really feels as if Boston was a popular destination for Fall Break: MK, AI, and SH also had reasons to be there, and ES was considering coming, too.  RG told me that he had literally received 50-some requests for rides to Boston when he registered our road trip online.
I unfortunately did not have any friends to host me on Friday night through nightfall on Saturday, but AA got me in touch with one of her friends, who let me crash in his apartment.  I slept through most of the car ride up, having deliberately deprived myself of sleep the night before, because I decided that I may as well sleep in the car, given that I would not be able to work.  The car ride was fairly uneventful, i.e., no accidents, and RG dropped me off safely on Windsor Street, in Cambridge at about 2:30 pm.  I dropped my suitcase and lulav off, and took a hike south and west, to Harvard campus.  It was a beautiful day, and walking through Cambridge was an entirely different experience than, say, walking through New York City: although more urban than Ithaca, it didn't feel like a metropolis; at least, not where I was walking.  The School of Design was incredibly easy to find, and the Landscape Architecture department was likewise easy.  Sadly, the person for whom I was searching in the Harvard School of Design was not so easy to find, and I ended up waiting about an hour and a half, nervously moving from room to room, before I learned that this person was in the middle of a review session, and unavailable.  Too bad for me: I walked back to Windsor street, prepared for Shabbat, and left again for Harvard Chabad, where I hoped to see someone I knew.  I didn't but I did meet people with mutual acquaintances, as well as some new and interesting people.  I stayed for dinner, and had a fantastic conversation with a PhD student at Harvard studying French History.  I also met an friend of my favorite West Coast Google Employee.  I walked back to Windsor street, and fell asleep almost immediately.  The next morning, I returned to Chabad, received the 4th Aliyah, and met even more people, including a Cornell Student studying for the year at MIT, the fellow Yeshiva-student of RDB, a childhood friend of RS, and the undergraduate roommate of MW, currently studying at MIT.  So many people, so many connections!  It turned out that the MIT Hillel congregation hadn't had enough people to make a Minyan, so had come to Harvard Chabad; they invited me to spend the afternoon in their library, and to join them for 3rd Meal.  I did, and had a wonderful time.  They might have been the single friendliest group of people I met on this trip.  Following Havdallah, I collected my things on Windsor Street, had my first subway ride since I returned from Paris, and arrived at my brother's apartment, located on Beacon Hill in Boston, on the opposite bank of the Charles River.  It was his housewarming party, and I saw a lot of people I was happy to see again: GF, ZZ, JZ, PL, and, of course, the one and only PS, who now has his own blog, which you should check out, if you're into reading about painful exercise routines.  (Did I mention how fat and lazy I've gotten since May?)  I won a few rounds of pong with GF, which was amazing, before we both eventually lost.  AB, my brother's roommate, is fantastic, as is E, his girlfriend, and my brother's Tae Kwon Do associate.  The party dissolved very quickly and suddenly, and everyone staying the night collapsed in poses of varying awkwardness.
Up the next morning, Sunday, realized that I had work to turn in for my (bogus) thesis class. I did, on the roof deck, then ran off to Cambridge to meet NS.  I did a great job of failing to follow simple directions, and ended up maybe half-a-dozen blocks North of where I should have been, and was maybe 15 minutes late.  Luckily, NS called me, guided me, and found me, and I now know that I will never again make the mistake of crossing the wrong bridge to cross the Charles: this makes all the difference, really.  We sat in a cafe called Dwelltime, and I pumped him for all I was worth for information and advice about his teaching experience thus far.  I literally just made a few of the changes to my TFA application that he recommended to me.  PF and S met us there, having come from NYC, and we kept on talking back at NS's (very nice) new home.  PF, in contact with MA, made plans with me to meet chez SW that evening, after another visit to Harvard Chabad.  I scurried back to Boston on the subway, told my brother my plans, and ran off to Chabad for Erev Shemini Atzeret.  I finally crossed the Longfellow Bridge this time, and read the sidewalk chalk selections from one of Longfellow's many famous poems.  Because it's Chabad, they did Hakafot on the first night too, so I danced around, and enjoyed myself, and tried not to be worried about nobody else showing up whom I had expected to show up.  Thanks again to NS, I had a map to SW's apartment, and got there a little past eight, waiting for someone else to open the door for me.  It worked, and, hey, I made it!  It was so, so good to see some people who I hadn't seen since Cornell Graduation, back in May!  I ended up talking about my summer, and in retrospect, suspect that I came off as somewhat boastful, although that's not what I had intended.  How can I be boastful when I'm surrounded by such outstanding people, anyway?  I don't have that much about which I can really be that proud...  Oh, and there had been no intention to stand me up: plans just didn't work out as expected.
I walked back to Boston in the rain, got lost (wrong bridge again -- the last time, I swear), and didn't arrive until midnight.  I couldn't ring the bell, and I was settling down to possibly fall asleep in the doorway when, about a quarter to one, someone in the same building of 10 rooms returned, and let me in.  I crawled into bed, and crashed.
I got up on time the next morning to run all the way to Harvard Hillel, and arrive just before 9:00 am, when they started.  I ran just about the whole way.  I got to carry the second Sefer Torah, and got very excited when AS, whom I hadn't expected to see, walked in and stood behind me.  I saw AT, whom I probably wouldn't have recognized if she hadn't jogged my memory.  After kiddush, I led PF and S to Chabad, where they were going to eat, saw SW heading off to lunch, and walked back to Beacon Hill, without getting lost.  I did, however, stop by the synagogue/museum just across the street from his apartment, which is the oldest synagogue in Boston, and managed by a Cornell alumnus, class of '81.  I waited a little outside, and, eventually, someone let me in.  I spend the rest of the afternoon at my brother's afraid of being locked out again.  I also managed to read over 150 pages in my book on France 1940-1944, which was fantastic.  I'm still not as amazing as MA, though, who blows me away.
I barely scraped myself out of bed the next morning, did everything I needed to do on my own, which I could do on the roof deck, read some more, and then left for AT's apartment.  It was excellent to see her, and her guests, and to speak to her about Paris (she also studied abroad with EDUCO).  I also heard a lot more about a first acquaintance's love life than I think I'd ever want to know, but after a few more people arrived, I felt more comfortable.  And, guess what, IL's older sister was there!  She and her husband, who shares my name, came off as extremely friendly (and good at making quiche), although I wish that I had had more time to speak with them.  I left, left for Harvard Hillel again for the rest of the evening, for Mincha-Daf Yomi-Ma'ariv-Havdallah.  I drifted back to Boston after the end of the holiday, walking a few blocks with a guy whom I had met at AT's.  I showered (yes!), completed some applications, solidified my plans for tomorrow morning, checked my e-mail, and wrote this, finishing at around 1:00 am.
Wow, Boston and Cambridge are such wonderful cities, from what I've seen of them!  I wonder if I'll end up living here one day...
~JD