The Yesha Rabbinical Council, commenting on the Qana massacre, has said that during the time of war, there are "no innocents".

Yesha Rabbinical Council: During time of war, enemy has no innocentsThe Yesha Rabbinical Council announced in response to an IDF attack in Kfar Qanna that "according to Jewish law, during a time of battle and war, there is no such term as 'innocents' of the enemy." All of the discussions on Christian morality are weakening the spirit of the army and the nation and are costing us in the blood of our soldiers and civilians," the statement said. (Efrat Weiss)(07.30.06, 17:37)

It seems that no matter what one does to educate people, some would still fall for scams.In the past, I posted on email scams saying you won the lottery, only to ask for some advance fees.Today, I got this comment on the article:

tell me please Submitted by mahmoud ...hello siri want know i am realy winer or nomy serial number 7741137002.please tell methank you .

People do not read ...

Here is another worrying statistic with implications on the distant future.As many as one third of users of digital cameras do not back up their photos. If the ancient Egyptians or Greeks did not build their temples of stone, and used perishable materials, what would our extent of knowledge of them be? At least we have the other two thirds ... 

Britian's defence secretary has said that the presence of UK troops in Afghanistan has energized the Taleban. The same goes for US and Canadian troops of course.

In a strongly tribal country, the mere presence of foreign troops can cause the previously bad guys to become heroes and defenders.

Statistics Canada released the result of a study today about internet use.It says that those who used the internet heavily tend to be more loners, but less rushed and more laid back.What is interesting is that they define heavy internet users as those who use the internet for  an hour or more per day!I guess I am way off the chart then ... 

When looking for a flower, don't miss the bird ...

Not an old wisdom or proverb, but something I just made up ...

In exploration, nature, science and even business, one must be ready for pleasant surprises.

Countless times in history, a scientist would be looking for something in their experiments, only to stumble across something completely different. The same is true in in exploration (Columbus was seeking Asia),

Similar surprises can happen in software too.

Wolfgang Ziegler (fago) is one of Google Summer of Code students for 2006, whom I am co-mentoring with Owen Barton.

Two recent polls do not give a comforting picture.The first shows that 18% of Canadians are uneasy in the presence of Muslims, compared to 5% saying the same for Jews, and 31% for born-again Christians.The second says that one quarter of Canadians see Muslims negatively, compared to 10% only for Jews and Christians.

On Sunday, a man reportedly shot and killed one person at a Seattle Jewish center, and wounded six more, while reportedly shouting: "I am an American Muslim and I am angry at Israel".His name is Naveed Haq, and is of Pakistani ancestry.What is emerging though is that Naveed had converted to Christianity and underwent baptism in December 2005. Moreover he was rarely at the mosque, despite his father being a founder.

You know something is wrong with the world, when a homeless woman who owns a dog gets a visit from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), and given instructions on how to build a dog house.

In many cultures, a small number of people pick bad names for their kids to keep them away from envy, evil eye, or demons.In Egypt, you can find some rural families calling their kids strange and offensive names, to prevent harm from coming to them. This is specially true for a family that has all its male children die in childhood, or something like that.Names such as El Shahhat الشحات (the begger), Shehata شحاتة (begging) are used. This practice is not exclusively Egyptian though.Malaysia recently introduced a set of rules to prevent such practices among its varied ethnicities: