From Wikipedia: Daf Yomi (Heb. דף יומי “page [of the] day” or “daily folio”) is a daily regimen undertaken to study the entire Talmud Bavli one daf (i.e. two actual pages), one day at a time, so that it can be completed in a cycle of seven and a half years.

I started the cycle a bit late, but have caught up. To help me keep track I created a iCal compatible calendar that will insert a reminder for each day’s reading. It also has some links to common resources. It is configurable to take 2 URL parameters and will subscribe the item for 2 days in the past and 12 days in the future. Once in iCal edit the URL to change to your needs. There are other options available to use this application in others applications. Write to me if you want to use the webservice or plain HTML.

Right now I am reworking this in PHP from Java. I have some bugs to work out for it to run correctly on my shared server. It works fine locally on my dev box. If you want the code, let me know.

The basis of this work is a derivative of the code by Bob Newell and I thank him for sending me his C code.

Some useful links to Talmud study:

• Daf Notes
• Daf Digest
• Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
• Orthodox Union
• http://ohr.edu/yhiy.php/this_week/the_weekly_daf/
• http://www.webshas.org/

Notice I havent posted or done anything in a while? Well it is because suddenly something stopped working on my blog. I fixed it. The issue was with incompatibilities with a minor update in WordPress. Not everything is back to normal with the remaining things being mostly layout related.

I do not think I need to comment at all. This stands for itself.

Egyptian MP: Nothing will work with Israel except nuclear bomb - By The Associated Press

Israeli excavations near the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem sparked angry reactions on Monday from Egyptian parliament members, including one who said only a nuclear bomb could stop Israel.

The excavations, which aim to salvage artefacts before construction of a pedestrian bridge leading to the complex also sacred to Jews, have angered many Muslims who fear the work will harm the foundations of al-Aqsa mosque. Israel says the holy places will not be harmed.

“That cursed Israel is trying to destroy al-Aqsa mosque,” Mohammed el-Katatny of President Hosni Mubarak’s National Democratic Party (NDP) told a heated parliament session held to discuss the Israeli digging.

“Nothing will work with Israel except for a nuclear bomb that wipes it out of existence,” he said.

Egypt was the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, but many Egyptians still regard Israel as an enemy because of its continued conflict with Palestinians.

Several Egyptian lawmakers at Monday’s session called on the government to abolish all agreements with Israel, but the house has little say in national security issues or foreign policy, ultimately dictated by Mubarak who has rejected similar calls in the past.

“The war with Israel is still ongoing whether we like it or not,” NDP lawmaker Khalifa Radwan said.

Mohamed Amer, another ruling party member, said: “What this [Israeli] gang is doing makes me demand that we trample over all the agreements we signed.”

Israeli authorities said on Monday they would reconsider the planned construction work near the mosque in response to Muslim protests but would continue to search for ancient artefacts in the area.

It has been a while since I found a Talmud oddity that was worth posting about. The last couple of tractates have been a bit dry. I am fully versed in the number of doves I am allowed to kill for a Yom Tov and what to do if when I decide they are for my Yom Tov meal - set aside - as 2 white dove and I wake up in the morning and there is one black one white. In short, you starve because it is a mess. You figure out where the black one came from and where your white one went. My take away, kill your doves ahead of time, cage them up, or mark them with some kind of paint, then you will always know which ones are the truly set aside doves.

ANYWAY, a few days ago I came across the sages discussing the mitzvah of blowing the shofar. They mentioned the obligation of a tumtum and an angdrogyne. I was a bit shocked. Were the sage about to discuss the halacha of trannies? I couldn’t imagine such a thing, but they did, and it would appear that there is much subsequent work in the area of people born with indeterminant sexual characteristics.

Rambam is quoted in a descriptive article to have said:

Someone who has male organs and female organs is termed a hermaphrodite (androgynous), and it is questionable if he is a male or a female. And whoever has neither male nor female [organs visible] but is “closed” (atum), is called a tumtum, and this [child] is also a [matter of] doubt. If the tumtum is “torn” [i.e., the "closing" (covering) is opened] and is found to be male, then he is certainly a male; and if it is found female, then she is a female.11

I really do not have more to say than this on the subject. It is just curious that the sages tried to figure out what rules these type of people should follow since the Torah doest really account for there obligations.

All my domain names have been changed to point here. I have decided that WordPress offers me exactly what I want in a homepage without having to code all the time. While this site is not totally they way I want it, yet, I have moved over most of my content and images. Some of it needs to be reworked to fit the time based format of a blog. This is ok, because most of my content is in deed time based. Images are a bit trickier and I would expect to have them all moved over in about a week. Thanks for your patience!

Ellie My Siberian Husky

The name of this blog comes directly from my attempts at learning Hebrew. Nearly the first thing I learned to say was “The dog jumps.” It became a running joke amongst friends. But as you can see, I have a dog, who can jump, so it is kind of even sorta more funny…ANYWAY…here are some facts about me:

• Grew up in Maine
• Moved to NYC to go to Columbia Grad School - which I hated - you can read about what the lab does.
• Left school and started working for internet companies - some small startups, Toys R Us.com before they sold out to Amazon.com, then for the airlines, Chuck Schwab, and now I work for a big publisher in “The City”.
• I have a lot of experience with computers, but please do not ask me to help you with Windows because my answer will be “Buy a Mac.”
• Into my saltwater tank, riding my Ducati, playing with Ellie & Blue (my sister’s smelly black lab)
• Enjoy traveling
• I have lots of random thoughts, like people should walk on their own side of the side walk, current fashion trends are abysmal, Louis Vuitton used to be classy now it is trashy, people who stand on the bus should be let off first because they have been standing the whole time, revolving doors are irritating, RFID is not the end of the all security forever, credit card companies are seriously predatory and the government should do something about it, Bush is an idiot, Gore has emerged as an elder statesman, marriage is a sham to allow women to take everything from men, post-feminism may just have it right, being Jewish is a wonder not a chore, and so many many many more.
• Family: Pretty much, Adam and my Father, Kent along with my Aunt’s and their families. I have a few other relatives that I am not in touch with, mostly due to internecine battles on both sides. Who knows why my Mother’s brother and sister have not been heard from in 25 years? It all gets so boring after a while.

The never ending saga of a tank lost in specific gravity! A 50gal Oceanic saltwater fish tank is located in my living room.

This camera is pointing into the tank from the side into the center of the live rock pile. It is an older Axis network webcam. I chose this spot because the fish and shrimp seem to move through there frequently. For the time being I have set the camera up to be one all the time. However, the image may not be viewable because of the tank’s lighting schedule which is set to start sunrise at 11:30am with full sun at 11:45am then sunset at 11:15pm with dusk at 11:30 with moonlight from 11:30pm until 9am. Also, to allow the tank to have a proper dark cycle, I frequently cover it with black cover. When it is in this state it is know as Special Project F.

I have had this tank setup for over 3 years and it is my third tank - each one increasing in size. You will read people suggesting to “go big” when you start. I can agree with this from personal experience, I wasted a lot of time and money trying to keep it small. Now I am eyeing the ability of a 150 gallong tank to fit into my home! It is simple chemisty: larger water volumes are more stable. Corals like stability!

The tank is a 50 gallon Oceanic with an upgraded lighting system consisting of a 400 watt 20,000K MH, 2 PC actinics, and LED moon lights on 3 separate timers for dawn/dusk simulation and separate moonlight cycle. Water quality is maintained by a RemoraPRO skimmer, CPR Sump, PolyFilter, Algone, and an Aqua UV sterilizer. Circulation is though a Blueline 800 pump circulating water through an Arctica chiller and a separate Mag 9 for the sump.

Livestock: various snails, hermits, urchin, blue maxima and gold teardrop clams, coco tube worm, tiger stripe starfish and tamaria starfish, tiger pistol shrimp, red fire shrimp and skunk cleaner shrimp, various zoanthus polyps, mushrooms, green waving coral, SPS colonies (most with Acro. Crab), Cyloseris tenuis, pair clown fish in a LTA, Centropyge potteri, Plectranthias inermis, Amblyeleotris spp. prawn goby, Macropharyngodon meleagris, Labout’s fairy wrasse, Flame Wrasse

My normal maintenance activities: change about 5 gallons of salt water every 5 days, this is done by keeping the main pump running, siphoning out the water and pouring back in pH, temp and salinity adjusted replacement water. “Top off” water is regulated into the sump by a float switch connected to a small pump in a freshwater reservoir slightly laced with kalk. I find this is a great way to keep pH and calcium up. Every other water change, I replace or wash the various filters to keep the sump flowing properly and remove waste products. About every other day I put in 5 ml of a two part alkalinity/calcium product and about every 10 days dose in a few drops of trace elements. These doses maybe unnecessary, but I have always done it, so I continue to!

View not so complete album of aquaDRAMA!

Often, someone else says it so much better than you can imagine. I admire The Week and have purchased subscriptions for almost everyone in my family. Once again, proving why I enjoying reading it:

The Onion provides this (made-up) quote from New York Gov. George Pataki: “This vast chasm, dug at the very spot where the gleaming twin towers once rose to the sky, is a symbol of what we can accomplish if we work together.”

From an article, well, it is tough to call them articles, more like snippet, regarding 9/11. William Falk goes on to say, in his own way, how much he admires those that cleanup, mourn, move on.

We are so pathetic! So interested in the nothing, so consumed by the mourning, so ruled by politicians who are no better than predatory business leaders. None of whom are, even in the slightest, showing any admirable leadership that would positively influence the future generations. 5 years?, 16 Acres, almost nothing. I am starting to side with the families, et al., just make it a cemetery as no one is worthy of this project. Empire State my ass. The largest construction projects in the area are happening in NJ, even with all our corruption, we are not distracted by our own reflection in anything shiny.

No need to rehash that morning. My life didn’t not, thankfully, include the death of anyone near to me. I will leave that to those who, in my mind, have earned the right to say something, because they lost something.

I have been trying to ignore most of it, because our tendency to wallow and self indulge is so smarmy and fake it dilutes the meaning of everything, including Sept 11. I was doing fine until I came to work when I was reminded that the courtyard is closed because one of the other tenants in my building is Marsh & McLennan. I took a photo and was prepared to say something snarky about are they the victims or the perpetrators of this crime, and so one. Then I listened for a minute and went to their website to check how to spell the name of the company. I can say it was rough to see a black page with names on it. I changed my mind. I will rail against all this another day and today I will think of the family torn apart by this mess. I will feel pity for some of them for being unwitting cogs in this machine, for dieing for the lies of the elite. I will wrap tefillin and think of them and their souls. No, make that I will think of them and the ones the left behind, because death might be a bit easier than having to mourn.

While other fight, pontificate, build, say meaningless things, wave flags, blah blah blah. I will choose to remember meagerly towards the sky.

Hot on the heals of accusations of war crimes, excessive force, and other hot air from the Old World there comes news of an impending problem in Gaza:

Yuval Diskin, director of Israel’s Shin Bet Security Services, told the Knesset last month that since the Jewish state withdrew from Gaza, the Palestinians successfully have transferred from the neighboring Egyptian Sinai desert hundreds of tons of advanced rockets; anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles; rocket propelled grenades; raw explosives; rifles; ammunition and other heavy weaponry.
…
“If we don’t move to counter this smuggling, it will continue and create a situation in Gaza similar to the one in southern Lebanon,” Diskin said.

And the response from the terrorists:

“I think Diskin made those statements to try to distract the Israelis from their losses in Lebanon by focusing on another area, but he is right. We are turning Gaza into south Lebanon.” (emphasis added)

Well EU and UN where are you now? Haven’t you been supposedly monitoring the crossing between Egypt and Gaza? Look what a good job you have been doing. Better yet, at the head of this effort are the Italians. Again, soccer, yes, clothing, yes, hard work and diplomacy, no. How’s suggesting that we mail Iran nukes for diplomacy? No thanks, back to your pasta, please.

Europe: you have the warning, you have the will, so it seems, immediately if you want to prevent 500,000 Palestinian deaths, do something about this situation. Explain to them that poking the snake is not going to get them what they want. Terrorists might kill 100 Israelis, but they still will live in the shit box of Gaza, with no power, no government, no economy, no social welfare, no nothing.

I am scared, however, because the response from Israel to a large attack from Gaza will not be minor given the post Lebanon ‘06 mindset. That is the Aquarian in me, the New Yorkers in me says, lay waste while the sun shines.