諦めるモンカ？！

Transfering to Nobutora

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 02:14:12 GMT

I'm gradually moving over to nobutora. So friend me there if you're still interested in listening to my nonsensical rants.

Interesting piece about Rabbi Binyomin

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 02:48:52 GMT

http://www.markingsilver.blogspot.com/

Rav Gabi and Rivki ztz"l

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 10:07:06 GMT

The news of the deaths of the people at Chabad House is too terrible to say anything much.
We were quite close with Chabad in Mumbai- close enough to be on bad terms with them. We spent quite a few Shabbatot there, and went 1-2 times a week for the first few months we were there. It's incredibly heartbreaking that they're just dead...
I'm also really sad about the probable death of their maid Renu, who had a small child at home, and Jacky who was a great kid, and the other guy whose name I forget whose wife worked at Navy Nagar.
I've had people I know die in terrorist attacks, but this is different- these were people whose house I stayed in, who checked my wife for the mikve and who were our anchours to Jewish life in Mumbai, with all the friction that entails. It's not just some guy I spoke to a few times- it's people who were really close.
Yehi zichram baruch.

Copied from introducingyael: Support Jewish Girls!

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 02:52:57 GMT

go here - http://memelabs.com/somedaystories/

And click on "Evelyn from Sharon, Mass." It's a video contest. Evelyn's daughter is Leah, she is the 17 year old publisher of "Yalda" magazine for Jewish girls. Leah started the magazine when she was 13 and runs the whole thing herself! If she wins this contest, she gets $100k to help with getting this magazine on to Barnes and Noble shelves all over the country.

How amazing would it be to have a high quality, tsnius magazine in the mainstream, just as readily available to young girls as CosmoGirl or YM?

Can anyone help?

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 12:22:16 GMT

I got this from Rabbi Binyomin. I want to help... but I have limitted means. It's definitely a major mitzvah...
Dear Daniel
How are you feeling? I hope that you and your family are all healthy and
feeling well.

We are now organizing a container for Pesach. We need to send it out 2
months before Pesach for it to get to Tokyo on time. (custom clearance
takes time)
Daniel, I wanted to ask if you can help us to find people who can help
us with the matzot and wine for Pesach. It is a big mitzvah. Pesach is a
very crucial time to connect to Yidden who otherwise disconnect
themselves from Torah and mitzvot.
The matzot cost $2,800.
We order wine for one year's supply, Pesach, shabbat, chagim. The total
cost of wine is $3,800.
The rest of the Pesach food, and the shipment to Tokyo, is $7,800.

Whatever you can help is good. Hashem surely will repay you much much
much more, I promise you.

Gossip

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 01:47:30 GMT

Oleg Viro Birthday conference in Sweden
This would be unremarkable except for what proceeded it. Oleg Viro was forced out of Uppsala University by a dean who wanted to kill non-applied mathematics. He was forced out through threats of false accusation of crimes. Very Israeli government like, no? I hear the KGB used the same method. Anyway, unfortunately for the dean, Viro had a recorder in his pocket and it was all on record. And he uploaded a transcript and got it sent around. Ari Laptev, head of the EMS, and other great and eminent mathematicians got involved. I haven't heard anything since. But now a birthday conference for him... in the same country, Sweden. With an all-star cast of famous mathematicians. There's a back-story- there's a huge back story. I'm sure of it!
I wish they'd do stuff like this to Israeli political dissidents who get similar treatment. I wouldn't mind a Noam Federman birthday conference attended by ministers and heads of states! How about a birthday conference for those 7 brave girls...

Fast day tomorrow

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 09:01:09 GMT

Fast day tomorrow.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/139862

The time of year tzaddikim are murdered

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 04:36:42 GMT

Achikam Amichai hy"d and David Rubin hy"d were murdered by terrorists on Friday while hiking. And so again, Sylvester, the traditional time for pogroms, is a time of mourning. It's the time we get murdered.
Binyomin Kahane hy"d and his wife Talia were murdered in terrorist shooting on December 31st 2000. I suppose it's a zechus in some ways... it puts all ideas of "celebrating" the "New Year" about as far away as is humanly possible...

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 14:18:08 GMT

Everybody should sign up to www.jajah.com
It's better than Skype.

To Singapore

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 07:55:38 GMT

I'm off to Singapore now for 2 weeks. It's going to be non-trivial to have Yom Kippur in Singapore, but interesting probably. I'm meeting Kricker there, and we'll work on some problems we're both interested... and hopefully make significant progress and make a joint paper out of it.
All this travel... well, at least I'll be somewhere where Arabs aren't so aggressive! Yesterday something quite funny happened- an Arab driving a huge truck stopped and started shouting obscenities at me. Then he got out of the truck, but probably suddenly realized he would be fired or something, tripped on the step, and fell flat on his face. Punishment from Hashem!!! "mekalelecha arur".

Where the Arabs warn you

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 10:22:53 GMT

The Chabad shaliach in Frankfurt was stabbed a few days ago. Quite minor injury compared to what I had by all accounts, but the world news is buzzing with it. I had an Arab stop me today for a very unusual reason, warning me to take my kippa off before I got stabbed as well. I thanked him for his concern.
This attack is all I prayed after I was stabbed that my attack would not be. It is free propaganda for those who say Jews should not live in Europe- certainly not frum Jews, certainly not frum Jews who won't compromise on things like wearing a kippa. When I was attacked my worry was it would become a "Jerusalem is dangerous" argument... those fears were unfounded since the media basically ignored it because it was politically inconvenient for Netanyahu to have terrorist stabbings taking place at the time. I got significantly more press coverage from falling off a mountain, again for bad propaganda reasons- in that case that non-professionals shouldn't climb mountains alone.
This seriously sucks, that people use one's misfortunes as cautionary tales teaching lessons you oppose. It's like they gloat at your misfortune- see, that's why we shouldn't be like Daniel. One more good reason that if any Arab tries to stab me it's him not me who has to end up in hospital. Otherwise NOBODY will ever wear a kippa again in this city for the next few years at least.

てんてこ舞い

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 15:42:09 GMT

There's too much going on now to give a sensible update.
First, math progress! Finally! Too bad it's too late...
Secondly, I did half the parasha on Saturday. It was good. Vayelech is a lovely parasha to read.
Third, we had a huge minyan for slichot at 1AM Saturday night (no, not Yemenite slichot... but still nice). I wish we had half those people coming on regular days...
Fourth... oof, moving, travels, no time for anything... well, c'est la vie I suppose, isn't it.

Ran in a race

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 06:52:42 GMT

Yesterday there was some wierd sports day things (the DHL relay) where 5000 teams of 5 people run 25km each (5km per person). I was third on one of the math department teams. It was actually a lot of fun! Surprisingly, the fact I have one and a half lungs (because of the terrorist ym"sh) wasn't as much of a problem as I thought it would be- I was only really out of breath after 3km. I came away with the feeling that a little bit of practice might go a long way towards improving my (actually all things considered perfectly respectable) performance. I also got to witness how much my level of fitness has dropped since living in Kyoto when I would climb the Daimonji each morning at 4:30AM to say Shacharis...
Anyway, for the first time in this LJ, pictures!

Before the race:

After the race:

A film I'd like some day to watch

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 08:18:53 GMT

http://www.heavymetalinbaghdad.com/

Japlish and aerobics

Mon, 03 Sep 2007 11:11:20 GMT

Wierd Japanese video.
I feel strange watching this because I can see both sides- Japanese programmes to teach English are in the morning, and so are aerobics, so combine them and come up with entertaining scenarios... but the result is utterly absurd if one steps back for one second.

Conversions again

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 08:53:11 GMT

An e-mail I got today:

Dear Daniel
... One last question: if I have a Japanese friend who is interested in seeing what Rosh Hashanah is like, do you think he'll [the Chabad Rabbi] be OK with having her come to services? ... she's actually Christian,　and would like to learn more about Judaism. What do you think?...

My response:

Oh dear... I've done things like this, but I think I was wrong. Non-Jews, particularly Christians, don't really belong in services. I've hardly ever had it be worthwhile for them, although it was sometimes worthwhile for me, in that I went to services and participated to a greater extent than I might have done otherwise.
I'd say definitely don't bring her. The "would like to learn more about Judaism" thing is also often a bit of a trap- Japanese people never convert to Judaism, trust me. The only way it can ever happen, and this is rarer than the panda, is when they come to Israel or the US and first become Israeli or American rather than Japanese, as was the case with my wife, Michal, Rachel, Tamar, etc. What does happen is fake conversions, which is a terrible thing for Judaism and for the people involved. And if she doesn't want to ultimately convert, then going to Chabad to services is probably a much worse way to proceed than just reading any one of the many books in Judaism which came out in Japanese, by Rabbi Tokayer etc., for instance because she won't be getting much knowledge out of a service in Hebrew which she doesn't understand.
According to Hallacha she can come to services- but according to common sense I think she shouldn't, and if she does you shouldn't be helping her. Sorry for being so frank.

I hope my gut feeling is wrong, that this guy has a prospective shiksa he's looking to be toyvel. He's a really nice, intelligent person, and I would hate to see him become another statistic.

Vietnam war

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 11:55:39 GMT

Having come back from Vietnam and read a lot more about it, I can't help feeling that the Vietnam war was as wrong as wrong can get. In retrospect it's absolutely obvious, as Robert McNamara acknowledges, but it should have been obvious at the time as well, and was to most people... I can't fathom the twisted, warped, evil minds of the people in power in America to go on a 14 year long killing spree.
And now that idiot Bush compares Iraq to Vietnam. Thank you, Mr. Bush, for making the war in Iraq sound much LESS justified. After all, it also is based on a lie, it also is a war which Americans have no understanding of and don't know what they're supposed to be fighting for, it's also a war where the side being supported isn't much better than the side being carpet bombed...

Arutz 7 sponsoring garbage

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 11:06:02 GMT

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/1#2274
I've never been a fan of Steven Plaut, but I'm increasingly coming to dislike him intensely. Arutz 7 sponsor his blog, making him a "voice for the right wing", and what he does is launch personal attacks on people he disagrees with, often youth who are thinking for themselves and reaching different conclusions. And he "outs" them- that's his job- to make people harrass them and to damage their job prospects and make them lose jobs, because these are kids he's attacking, not established political players.
He's been sued more than once by these kids dads and forced to award damages, and I feel A7 shouldn't be sponsoring him. He's a nasty, good-for-nothing person who gets off on damaging others. It makes us all look very bad. This kind of bullying tactic- and often against kids, not corrupt politicians- has no place on a website which claims to be based on Torah values, or anywhere else on the internet for that matter.

Slichot

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 10:14:19 GMT

I'm trying to organize a minyan for Yemenite slichot at some point. In a place it's really difficult to get 10 Jewish men to come for a minyan on a normal morning, getting 10 Yemenite Jewish men to come for a minyan at 2AM will be quite a challenge... I'll do my best. The Yemenites SHOULD have slichot here... and I want to be there with them.

Israelis

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 03:43:22 GMT

Today I got shouted at by somebody in a car. I thought it was an Arab who wanted to mess with me, so I attempted to escape- but the car chased me! Anyway, it was an Israeli, and he had shouted "Shalom Aleichem" although I hadn't heard it clearly. It was this bloke. Raffi Liven, Dan 10. Anyway, he was in his car so we didn't talk much, but I should stay in touch... the number of Jews I know in Denmark increases!

Garbage

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 15:47:27 GMT

Stanislav Jabuka gave a review of my "coloured untying" paper on mathscinet which is complete rubbish (access from universities by typing my name as "author" and searching. I can't link from a private server). The main theorem is stated incorrectly, and the statement of the theorem is the whole review.
Dr. Jabuka seems like a wonderful Floer homology guy, so one would wish he could see that using the invariant I can get one can probably recover the lift of Capell-Shaneson's formula for the Rohlin invariant of a dihedral cover to the Casson invariant. I.e. he has no excuse for not giving an informative (or at least correct) review.

International Manga award

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 15:43:14 GMT

http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/culture/manga/index.html
Japan is beginning to officially support manga fans. This is huge actually. I feel like a proud old man looking at my village children thrive- I was into manga before it became such a boom, and worked on making it more popular, and now it's simply huge.

There are places in Japan where people from abroad can study Manga and Anime. Kyoto Seika University is one of them. This university has been doing comprehensive research related to Manga for nearly 40 years, and in 2006, it opened a faculty of Manga. It is currently the only university in Japan with a faculty of Manga. The Faculty of Manga has three departments: the Department of Cartoon and Comic Art, which has the cartoon course and the story Manga course; the Department of Animation, where students can systematically learn everything about animation; and the Department of Manga Production, in which students learn about the Manga culture from the viewpoint of editing, writing original stories, producing and making critical reviews.

There are currently 45 international students from abroad studying Manga and Anime at this university. Many graduates aim to become cartoonists and animators, but there are also more than a few who return to their home countries to continue research related to Manga and Anime at universities, or choose to teach.

Furthermore, together with the City of Kyoto, the university jointly operates the Kyoto International Manga Museum. Reference materials related to Manga number roughly 200,000 items at the museum and range from valuable historical materials to current popular Manga and overseas comics.

The recipients of the International MANGA Award and "Shorei" Award also visited this museum. It is a must-see alluring museum for with an interest in Manga.

Kyoto Seika University official website:
http://www.kyoto-seika.ac.jp/eng

Kyoto International Manga Museum official website:
http://www.kyotomm.com/international/english/

There are also many other universities and junior colleges in Japan that offer courses for learning Manga and Anime. Furthermore, many people who have been supporting the Japanese Manga and Anime culture have studied at special training colleges and schools in the miscellaneous category. These schools also have a wide door open for people from overseas.

You can search for schools at the following site, so please access it if you are interested: Japan Study Support:
http://www.jpss.jp/eng/index.html

Furthermore, if you would like to search for special training colleges and schools in Tokyo, please visit the following webpage:
http://www.studyjapan.go.jp/en/mail/magazine/schoole.html

We hope that those of you from around the world who love Manga or Anime will have a chance to make your talents blossom in Japan.

Attacks

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 15:22:55 GMT

I got attacked 3 times today, in various levels of severity. From the absurdly light to the more serious:
1) An old Arab man asked me if I was from Israel. Seeing he was old and no real threat, I answered "yes". Then I asked why he was asking. He was collecting funds for Arabs in Gaza. He told me that Israel is not a Jewish state but is an American puppet regime. Well, duh...
2) A Christian missionary had a go at me. I told him I wasn't interested. When he persisted I made things clearer. He left.
3) An Arab threw a half-eaten McDonalds cheeseburger at me and began shouting, "fucking Juderman" and all kinds of crap in Danish (what's a Juderman?), and making obscene gestures. I walked away rapidly, and when he followed I pulled out my camera. He ducked into a bus-stop and did not pursue me.

The last was quite frightening. The others were sort of nonsense. I can't wait to leave Denmark.

Geometric Langlands

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 15:48:50 GMT

I'm at this Geometric Langlands masterclass in Aarhus. Kapustin 2-4 hours a day for 2 weeks explaining his huge mega-paper with Witten which shows that Geometric Langlands is a special case of Montonen-Olive electro-magnetic duality. I.e. it follows from an analogue of the Maxwell equations. Most of it is way over my head because it's a high-energy physicist pretending he's talking about mathematics, but today he talked about A-models whose targets are the Hitchin moduli space, so I understood a bit more than I had been understanding up until that point...
I wonder whether I ever will understand things like Montonen-Olive duality. I mean, like a physicist- mathematically I seriously doubt anyone will in our lifetimes. All the theories we care about like CS stuff and WZW stuff the physicists consider completely trivial, and they get N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills in a fairly general setting (general manifold, twisted, t non-zero...), path-integral the hell out of it, and pretend they understand it... well, maybe they do. I certainly don't. I don't even understand the Hitchin moduli space.

In the press

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:48:20 GMT

Buy Figaro Japan's September edition. There's a non-zero chance I'm mentioned in its article on Denmark, having had a long talk with the guy writing it.