Malcolm Gladwell- an amateur expert

NYTIMES Prof. Steven Pinker

Have you ever wondered why there are so many kinds of mustard but only one kind of ketchup? Or what Cézanne did before painting his first significant works in his 50s? Have you hungered for the story behind the Veg-O-Matic, star of the frenetic late-night TV ads? Or wanted to know where Led Zeppelin got the riff in "Whole Lotta Love"?

Neither had I, until I began this collection by the indefatigably curious journalist Malcolm Gladwell. The familiar jacket design, with its tiny graphic on a spare background, reminds us that Gladwell has become a brand. He is the author of the mega-best sellers "The Tipping Point," "Blink" and "Out­liers"; a popular speaker on the Dilbert circuit; and a prolific contributor to The New Yorker, where the 19 articles in "What the Dog Saw" were originally published. This volume includes prequels to those books and other examples of Gladwell's stock in trade: counterintuitive findings from little-known experts.[...]

Challenging political correctness in Army

CSMonitor

President Obama says he will hold accountable those who ignored Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's alleged fanaticism as US investigators try to unravel the prologue to last Thursday's 4-minute rampage that left 14 dead (including an unborn child) and 29 wounded at Fort Hood, Texas.

"If there was a failure to take appropriate action before the shootings, there must be accountability," Obama said in his Saturday morning radio address. "[We] must quickly and thoroughly evaluate and address any flaws in the system, so that we can prevent a similar breach from happening again."

The review is likely to come up not just against individuals who failed to heed numerous red flags thrown up by Maj. Hasan, but a system that some say has gone too far in coddling certain populations to the harm of the military as a whole. Some critics trace the source of political correctness that may have played a role in the Fort Hood massacre straight up to the Pentagon. But will the President? [...]

Obama's malpractise

Newsweek

There is an air of absurdity to what is mistakenly called "health-care reform." Everyone knows that the United States faces massive governmental budget deficits as far as calculators can project, driven heavily by an aging population and uncontrolled health costs. Recovering slowly from a devastating recession, it's widely agreed that, though deficits should not be cut abruptly (lest the economy resume its slump), a prudent society would embark on long-term policies to control health costs, reduce government spending, and curb massive future deficits. The president and his top economic advisers all say this. (Click here to follow Robert J. Samuelson ).

So, what do they do? Just the opposite. Their sweeping overhaul of the health-care system—which Congress is halfway toward enacting—would almost certainly make matters worse. It would create new, open-ended medical entitlements that would probably expand deficits and do little to suppress surging health costs. The disconnect between what Obama says and what he's doing is so glaring that most people could not abide it. The president and his allies have no trouble. But reconciling blatantly contradictory objectives requires them to engage in willful self-deception, public dishonesty, or both.[...]

Abarbanel - Tikun Sofrim

אברבנאל בראשית כג

ויוסף אברהם ויקח אשה וגו' עד סוף הסדר. ראיתי לחקור על הפרשה הזאת דברים זרים שראיתי בה. הא' הוא שכבר יראה בתחלת הדעת דבר זר מאד בהיות אברהם ישיש ושבע ימים לקח אשה והוליד ממנה ששה בנים האם נאמר מפני שראה יצחק מצחק את רבקה אשתו כשלקחה עבר עליו רוח קנאה ולקח גם הוא אשה כבנו והוליד ממנה ויצחק לא הוליד מעשרים שנה אחר שלקחה הנה זה באמת יהיה לאברהם קדוש ה' פועל מגונה ובלתי מסכים אל שלמותו ובדין נאמר עליו ויוסף אברהם כי היה זה תוספת ומותר וחז"ל אמרו שחזר לקחת את הגר ושהיא עצמה קטורה מפני שהיתה מקוטרה במעשיה וכמו שכתב רש"י ואחשוב שהביאם לזה להמעיט בזרות הפועל הזה שלא לקח אשה מחדש אבל חזר לקחת את הגר שכבר הוליד ממנה את ישמעאל. אבל מה נעשה והנה הכתוב אומר בפי' ולבני הפלגשים אשר לאברהם נתן אברהם מתנות וזה מורה שפלגשים רבות היו הגר וקטור' עם היות שחז"ל אמרו פלגשם כתיב שהית' פלגש אחת אין ספק שעזרא הסופר הבין אמתת הדבר בנקודה.12 אבל אחשוב אני בדבר הזה שהש"י העיר את רוח אברהם לעשות כן לסבות
12 בכתה"י נוסף: 'י', כלומר: יוד. כשן לפי המסורה כתיב 'פילגשים'.

מנחת שי (בראשית כה:ו): ולבני הפילגשים - ב"ר פרשה ס"א פילגשם כתיב אותה שישבה על הבאר ואמרה לחי העולמים ראה בעלבוני עיין מזרחי וגור אריה ויפה תואר שם סימן ד' ועל פי זה המדרש פי' רש"י חסר יו"ד שלא היתה אלא פילגש אחת והיא הגר היא קטורה והקשה עליו החזקוני שהרי הוא מלא בספרים מדוייקים והן הגר וקטורה ולשון המכלל יופי דרש רז"ל ידוע. ואנחנו מצאנוהו מלא ביו"ד בכל הספרים המדוייקים עכ"ל. ומכותלו לשונו ניכר שלשון קמחי הוא וכ"כ החזקוני והרמ"ה כתב בכולהו נוסחי דיקי דאתו לידן בתרין יודין כתיב ומסיר עליה לית כותיה מלא בתורה. מיהו בדרשא דייק מינה דהגר היינו קטורה מדכתיב הפילגשם חסר יו"ד קדים למ"ם ואגב ארחין שמעת מינה דחסר יו"ד כתיב עכ"ל. ובהעתק הללי מלא דמלא וכן הסכימו המאירי ובעל ס' שמן ששון ומסורה מכרזת ואומרת ב' מלאים דמלאים וסימן ולבני הפילגשים אשר לאברהם שומר הפילגשים דאסתר. ועיין בש"ת הרמב"ן סימן רל"ב ובתשובת הרשב"א הביאה הב"י בטור י"ד סוף סימן רע"ה ומ"ש בס"ד בפ' בא על פי ואל שתי המזוזת ובפרשת נשא על כלות משה:
נתן אברהם מתנת - מתנת כתיב חסר וא"ו ודרשו רבותנו בפרק חלק שמסר להם שם טומאה:

Chabad Conference of Emissaries

NYTIMES

Emissaries of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement are a hardy lot — part envoys, part pioneers — who agree to settle anywhere in the world where their leaders decide that Jewish communities need bolstering, whether in Anchorage or Bangkok or northern Kyrgyzstan.

Often the only Lubavitchers for miles around, they are used to being gawked at and asked to explain themselves, usually in a nice way, though not always. "How long did it take to grow that beard, dude?" is a pretty common query in the United States, they say.

But for three or four days a year, during the annual International Conference of Emissaries held at Chabad headquarters in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, the world of the emissary becomes a kaleidoscope of the familiar.[...]

Rubashkin found guilty on 86 charges

DesMoinesRegister

Sioux Falls, S.D. A jury has convicted Sholom Rubashkin of 86 federal charges for his part in a massive fraud scheme at his former meat plant, Agriprocessors Inc., in Postville. Jurors declared Rubashkin guilty of bank fraud, making false statements to a bank, wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering and aiding of abetting. The jury found him not guilty of five counts of violating a law requiring payment of livestock providers within 24 hours. Rubashkin's attorney, Guy Cook, said they will appeal the decision. Rubashkin, 50, was immediately taken into custody. [...]

EJF :Dayanus Conference /press release

Etrog

Three fascinating days of discussion at the Annual Dayanim Conference of Eternal Jewish Family for scores of community rabbis and dayanim came to a close Tuesday afternoon in a special event held at the Hotel Sheraton Meadowlands in New Jersey. The intensive hearings held throughout Conference awakened a strong reaction in Jewish communities throughout the U.S.

Scores of community rabbis and rabbinic judges from more than fifteen important well-known rabbinic courts throughout the United States were invited to the Conference, which adopted the regulations and halachic concerns of the Heads and rabbis of Eternal Jewish Family. During the conference they discussed many halachic issues relating to conversion and intermarriage, Heaven forbid.[...]

Rav Sternbuch: Keep the Torah Inside & Out

Spiritual & political leaders sometimes fail

Vayikra Rabba(37:4): …Yiftach made a request from G‑d in an improper way and he was answered improperly. Yiftach said that if he were victorious that whatever came out of his house he would offer as a sacrifice (Shoftim 11:31). G‑d said if a camel or donkey or dog had come out would he have offered it as a sacrifice? Therefore G‑d answered improperly and caused Yiftach’s daughter to come first out the door. Shoftim (11:35), And when Yiftach saw his daughter he ripped his clothes. But why didn’t Yiftach have his oath annulled by going to Pinchas? That is because Yiftach felt that since he were the king that Pinchas should come to him. So why didn’t Pinchas go to Yiftach? That is because Pinchas felt that since he was the High Priest and the son of a High Priest it was not proper for him to go to an ignorant man. Therefore between the two of them an unfortunate maiden perished and both bore the responsibility for her death. Pinchas was punished by the loss of his holy spirit (ruach hakodesh). Yiftach was punished in that his limbs fell off and they were buried separately…

Shabbos Elevators issues hopefully resolved

I have been informed that the recent turmoil about Shabbos elevators had no basis in fact and that as the result of a recent meeting of rabbonim there will be an official return to the view accepted for 25 years. Please note that this is not to be relied upon as official psak but it is just a notification that if you had concerns or doubts about Shabbos elevators - ask your rabbi again what is the current view..

Curious lives of surrogate mothers

Newsweek

Jennifer Cantor, a 34-year-old surgical nurse from Huntsville, Ala., loves being pregnant. Not having children, necessarily—she has one, an 8-year-old daughter named Dahlia, and has no plans for another—but just the experience of growing a human being beneath her heart. She was fascinated with the idea of it when she was a child, spending an entire two-week vacation, at the age of 11, with a pillow stuffed under her shirt. She's built perfectly for it: six feet tall, fit and slender but broad-hipped. Which is why she found herself two weeks ago in a birthing room in a hospital in Huntsville, swollen with two six-pound boys she had been carrying for eight months. Also in the room was Kerry Smith and his wife, Lisa, running her hands over the little lumps beneath the taut skin of Cantor's belly. "That's an elbow," said Cantor, who knew how the babies were lying in her womb. "Here's a foot." Lisa smiled proudly at her husband. She is, after all, the twins' mother.

It is an act of love, but also a financial transaction, that brings people together like this. For Kerry and for Lisa—who had a hysterectomy at the age of 20 and could never bear her own children—the benefits are obvious: Ethan and Jonathan, healthy six-pound, 12-ounce boys born by C-section on March 20. But what about Cantor? She was paid, of course; the Smiths declined to discuss the exact amount, but typically, surrogacy agreements in the United States involve payments of $20,000 to $25,000 to the woman who bears the child. She enjoyed the somewhat naughty pleasure of telling strangers who asked about her pregnancy, "Oh, they aren't mine," which invariably invoked the question, "Did you have sex with the father?" (In case anyone is wondering, Lisa's eggs were fertilized in vitro with Kerry's sperm before they were implanted on about day five.) [...]

Armistice or Veterans Day /RaP

RaP wrote

The war that began on 9 Av in 1914 in which Jews by the millions were members in all the armies, from Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Britain, America, Russia killing each other finally stopped 91 years ago, at 11 AM Paris time, on the 11th day of the 11th month, November, 1918, World War One came to an official end: See Armistice Day also known as Remembrance Day and Veterans Day or the Armistice with Germany (Compiègne)

Wikipedia:

The armistice treaty between the Allies and Germany was signed in a railway carriage in Compiègne Forest on 11 November 1918, and marked the end of the First World War on the Western Front...The Armistice was agreed at 5 AM on 11 November, to come into effect at 11 AM Paris time (that is 10 AM GMT), for which reason the occasion is sometimes referred to as "the eleventh (hour) of the eleventh (day) of the eleventh (month)". It was the result of a hurried and desperate process...The peace between the Allies and Germany would subsequently be settled in 1919, by the Paris Peace Conference, and the Treaty of Versailles that same year..." See the full page from the NY Times announcing the armistice:

But sadly, World War one would lead to World War Two and the Holocaust, 1939-1945.

R' Bachye Curative/Destructive Power of language

DNA used to search family trees

CNN

Here's a fun exercise: Compare the DNA profiles of random individuals who reside in different regions of the world, have little in common and don't much resemble one another.

If you could do this, you'd find close DNA matches once in a while.

About three months ago Kevin Shepherdson, a Eurasian in Singapore, discovered that his DNA matches strongly with Thomas Kurowski, a man of Polish descent living in Rhode Island.

The men have never met, and they were unaware of each other.

Both of them research their family history as a hobby, but finding each other through traditional methods (such as sifting through census, marriage or property records) would have been unlikely if not impossible.

And yet their DNA profiles match so closely that they can be certain of sharing a common ancestor within the past six generations. It took scientific sleuthing for the two men to make a connection.