Happy Passover (it needs an upgrade)

Tonight we are celebrating Passover. I’m getting tired of the same ritual year after year. The story stays the same with the text’s old style. I wish it would be upgraded.

Since the Israelites left Egypt, we had lots of trouble with other nations who held us as slaves or in a lower class. And today, for the last (almost) 40 years, we are holding most of the Palestinians under occupation.

So we can read the Hagada (the story of Moses leading us out of Egypt) over and over again (in my family we read until the “eat now” section). I think that we should open our eyes to more modern history, and also look into the present.

Passover is also about getting together with family relatives, being the most family centric holiday in the calendar. Something personal: this will be the first Passover without my grandfather, who passed away last summer. He was always at the head of the table, managing the “Seder“. I think that his absence will be felt tonight.

Anyway, I enjoy the holiday from work, and as a very secular Jew, I will not skip bread, pizza or beer.

Happy holidays and Hag Sameach!

TV is bad – except Battlestar Galactica

I’ve already written here that television is bad for you. It’s bad for me, and I prefer surfing the web than sitting idle in front of the television set.

Yet as I’ve mentioned in the past, we do download movies and television series from the web. One time, while grabbing something to eat, I was exposed to Battlestar Galactica that my roommate was watching. Since then, I’ve been following the series.

It combines scifi, politics, intrigue, personal relations, religion and more. I don’t want to spoil the story, that can be found here.

The production is very good, and I found myself highly fascinated by the show. The last episode of the 3rd season was brilliant. I can’t wait for the next season.

As far as I know, it isn’t shown on any channel here in Israel, and I don’t watch television anyway. We see it using a commercial-free torrent version of it.

If you lack time and are interested in one good thing that television has to offer, I recommend Battlestar Galactica.

Rating is Everything

Spotback allows instant rating and tagging for everything. I’ve installed their slider (below) and their sidebar widgets, and it looks quite good. Anyone can tag, rate and see relevant posts from other places.

It is currently in a closed beta. Spotback is in Israeli startup, and they seem to have nice people working for them (at least now when they are still small). More info on their blog, and in TechCrunch.

What do think of it? Is it cool? Is it too Web 2.0-ish? Is this a great way to find related and interesting information? Is it another annoying feature?

If you like rating but Spotback isn’t enough for you, check out TheGorb, where you can rate and view ratings of people by their email addresses. Cruel! At the time of the writing, they are featuring US presidential candidates on their home page.

A Site for all you Humus Lovers

Humus is one of the most popular dishes in the middle east, and it is known worldwide. The famous mash of chickpeas can be found in every house, although it’s always better and more fresh in a Hummus bar, or a Hummus restaurant.

Now, a whole site is dedicated to the Humus: http://hummus101.com

 

In the site, you can find Hummus recipes, debates about Humus and diets, economic news related to Humus, and practically everything related to Hummus (and sometimes related issues such as Falafel and Tahini). And yes, it’s in English.

So, if you’re into this great dish, or want to know about more about the middle eastern cousine, that’s the place!