Ariel University will pay 5000 sheqels for long distance exam ideas

Currently we are teaching by Zoom but soon it is exam season and the University has no ideas about how to do it. It will pay 5000 shqels = about 1500 dollars for a good idea.

In a previous conversation (by zoom) I proposed to copy American universities. Then I looked up in google and saw that none has solved satisfactorily this problem. Cambridge has a system with an invigilator observing non-stop the examinee seated in front of the camera, but it requires lots of personnel, and they have to be paid.

Ten years ago I used to hold "open exams" that is, the question were real life problems and I wanted to test them as they would do in real life, like in an engineering office with a library. They were allowed to bring computers and textbooks to the exam, and propose solutions. The higher-ups forbid this practice. I still think that exams should reflect real life situations. 

Protesting Against the Zionist Rebellion

Yesterday we celebrated the 72nd anniversary of the proclamation of Israel. It was a very quiet event, we are all closed in our homes, public meetings are forbidden. These are the days of the corona virus pandemy.

Not so in Mea Shearim neighborhood. The Neturey Karta sect demostrated in the streets against the existence of Israel. "We are mourning the 72 years of the Zionist Rebellion against God and his Law". The police dispersed the crowd.

The corona mortality in the neighborhood is very high, this week died rabbi Zvi Hirsch Porush, 58, and his wife Beilah, 47, and one of their sons is agonizing in the hospital. 

El Corsodromo de Corrientes

Carnaval Marzo 2020 - Life goes on in Northern Argentina

The flu season is ending

The coronavirus epidemy is probably seasonal and with the coming of spring and summer it is slowly disappearing in Israel. Of course, may be it is wise measures taken by Netaniyahu and the people's obdient following of the rules. Or may be not. Anyway, while driving to my daughter's place, to take the Shkeddy to the fresh air, a radio interview revealed that the official death figures for elderly people in the last three months actually fell, and instead of excess death as registered elsewhere, we Israeli ancients are dying less. The reason is that in this three months of coronavirus, there were fewer car accidents, fewer work accidents, no elective surgeries (which tend to cause complications nd deaths) and people went less to the hospitals because it was known to be infected by the virus.

Superstitious Jews avoid voicing optimist hopes because out there the Devil is hearing everything and dying to spoil everything good. I commented three months ago in a blog that this is a seasonal flu epidemy and in May it will disappear. It was insinuated that I am an idiot. Could be. May be not. Depends.  

where I discover that I am very ordinary

In this confinement universe where I am living, I sleep more than before and have vivid dreams, which I never had before. This morning I woke up at 6 as regular and thenwent back to bed to continue sleeping and dreaming. I was house guest of Dr. Jacky, then decided to leave and took my bag and walked to the train station. The train was leaving and I was missing it, but in the end I got inside and I was travelling. Then I remembered that I had a car stationed nearby so why I was running after the train?

Running after a leaving train is the most common and ordinary of all dreams. Millions are and have been dreaming of missing the train. My mind works like everybody else's and uses the most average and commonplace of images. I am not special. I am normal.

What is the biblical disease "tzara'at"?

This week we should be reading the chapter Tazria about the skin disease that affected the Israelites of the Bible. Tzaraat is habitually translated as leprosy but the sympthoms of the Bible are completely different. In my opinion, it could have been stress hives (pic).

The Bible prescribes several purification procedures which are ineffective against anything we know but may have been effective to cure some spiritual, mental condition. It certainly caused no harm, and it was shorter (and cheaper)  than psychoanalisis. 

The Fernandez of the Casa Rosada

Alberto Fernandez is a serious university professor, and according to The Economist, is doing a good job as President of Argentina. He is divorced and lives with Fabiana, a 22 years younger actress. He has one son with his former wife, called Estanislao (pic), whose professional name is "Dyhzy". His profession is the oldest of the world, that is, he is a famous drag artist. His/her husband completes Argentina's presidential family.

Argentina has progressed a lot since I made aliyah in 1976. Those were the times of the dictator General Videla, a fanatic pre-Conciliar Catholic, imposing inquisitorial morals on the nation. Argentina is now poor but a democracy.