מתוך פרסומת בהמודיע: הגרפיקאי נאלץ לערוך את שם המסכת ולטשטש אותה בגב הכריכה. הסיבה: רחמנא ליצלן קוראים למסכת 'נדה' pic.twitter.com/QLtUJyIwm7

— אברהם גרינצייג (@avigrin10) June 20, 2019

Avishai Greenzweig, haredi journalist, tweeted:
From an advertisement in Hamodia:
The graphic artist was forced to edit and change the name of the tractate of gemara, and also to blur it off the outer binding.
The reason: the name of the tractate is masechet "Nida"

did you get that? an advertisement for a set of gemaras had to be edited to take the name of the gemara out because it isnt modest enough and is not fit for public consumption.

If you thought that ad with the cholent being taken out because Thursday night cholent is too "streety" was just silly and maybe humorous, this is what Hamodia has become. Now names of our holy books cant be mentioned in public in Hamodia.

As a side note, someone (I dont recall who first pointed it out - perhaps Ben Waxman) pointed out that this editing has caused the editor to misplace masechet Bava Kama in Seder Kodshim! The only problem is that Nida is in Seder Taharos, so I dont know why that says Kodshim, or if it indicates something else here is going on as well.

There's an old joke that women are like computers.. there are actually several versions of this joke, and some of them are less "kosher" than others..

Anyways, as the jokes go, here are some of the ways in which computers are like women (I left a few out):

• They are expensive.
• They are never specific about problems.
• They are difficult to figure out and crash inexplicably about once a month.
• Try to shut down one part and the whole system shuts down.
• Extremely complex. Must learn a lot to work with it successfully, and you keep on learning.
• If you do not do the necessary maintenance, you have to wait a long time for it to open up.
• It actually works better when handled with care.
• Once you think you have figured out something, always surprised to find that there is something else.
• Never forget to save or it may be lost forever.
• Never give up on the first, second, third tries - you'll get it.
• And those help screens - you have to know something before they can really be of any help.
• It runs better when it is up-to-date.
• The more time you spend with it the more rewarding it is.
• Sometimes the system jams. Give it more space.
• No matter how it looks, it's what's inside that counts.
• Even your smallest mistake is stored immediately in memory, only to be a problems later on - when you're not expecting it. 
• Their internal language - that they use for communication between the two - NO ONE else is able to understand but themselves. 
• When you've finally decided to have one you'll know you spend lots of money on accessories for it. 
• Anyway... you have to admit the fact once you've had one you wouldn't like to live without it.

There is a new way in which women are like computers..

According to Kikar, some (at least one major one, for now) frum newspapers are now starting to blur/pixelate out computers from their images, just like they do with women..



The picture is from the city council meeting in Elad, and while Hamevasser (the Shlomei Emunim affiliated newspaper) printed the untouched photo, Hamodia (the Gur/ Agudas Yisrael affiliated newspaper) scrubbed out the computer..

head of the Central Electoral Committee made a decision yesterday that was relevant perhaps 15 years ago, maybe more.

Justice Salim Jubril decided that Netanyahu's speech before the House of Representatives would be allowed to be broadcast in Israel, but only with a 5-minute delay. The 5-minute delay would allow them to view it and edit out any election propaganda, if Netanyahu should try to take advantage of the opportunity.

Today, with the internet, and live feeds of streaming video, this decision is supremely irrelevant. If I cannot watch it unedited on IBA or Channel 10 or whatever other channel there is in Israel I will go to the Fox News website or MSNBC or CNN or any of a hundred other websites and pull up the live feed. The only people who will be affected by this decision are the handful of people who do not have Internet access and are interested enough to try to watch the broadcast live on television.

The days of censorship are long over in a free and democratic country/ In a place like China or Dubai perhaps they can block the streams and prevent any given speech from being broadcast before they edit it out. In a developed country like Israel, they'd be better putting their efforts to better use no other issues and not waste their time any longer on this type of pointless narishkeit.

Some Arab MKs have petitioned the courts in Israel to demand that Google (owner of Youtube) block access to the video (Innocence of Muslims) that has [supposedly] sparked riots across the Mid-East, as Muslims see the video as being anti-Islam.

According to the JPost:

MK Taleb a-Sanaa and various Arab-Israeli mayors and religious leaders on Wednesday filed a petition with the Jerusalem District Court demanding that Google take down an anti-Islam video ridiculing the Muslim Prophet Mohamed from YouTube, to prevent future publicizing of the film and to block all access to the film in Israel.

The petitioners characterized the film as abusive and violating the image of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad in a racist manner, while trampling his sanctity and desecrating his name.

The film was also considered highly damaging as it violated the dignity and faith of more than a billion Muslims and more than a million Muslim citizens in Israel, according to the petition. The petitioners claim that the publication violates the religious feelings of Muslims in contravention of Section 173 of the Penal Code, constitutes incitement to racism against Muslims in violation of Article 144 of the Penal Code, and is defamatory according to the 1965 Defamation Law.

The petition was filed by attorney Kais Nasser, and was filed against Google, which owns YouTube.

News reports have indicated that Google has already blocked access to the video in Egypt, Libya, Indonesia and India, but has rejected a request by the White House to pull it from the video-sharing site YouTube altogether. Authorities in Afghanistan ordered YouTube to be shutdown "indefinitely" to stop Afghans from watching the film, while Russia and Saudi Arabia also threatened to block the website unless it removes the film.

I don't see why  Google/YouTube doesn't block the video completely and have it removed. They do that regularly with videos they determine to contain hate or indecent material. They should do that with this video as well, if anything.

If they do not remove it from their system, I do not think it should be "blocked" in Israel. Israel should not be in the business of censorship. Proving the necessity for censorship by pointing to China and Libya as examples just sows even more how much we should avoid getting involved in censorship.

What do you think?

------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel
------------------------------------------------------

This morning I heard on the radio a discussion about the report that two months ago there was an explosion while scientists were supposedly attempting to fit a warhead with chemical weapons. The discussion was focusing on how this report was leaked.

The reporter said that there is an expression (regarding Syria) that there is a (government) censor in every newsroom (deciding what info to let be publicized). The reporter said that this expression is inaccurate and really it should say there is a reporter in every censorship office.

In other words, the censorship is so pervasive and is much more dominant than the actual news reporting.

I find it ironic that he was criticizing the Syrians in this fashion. Considering it is coming in the wake of the recent incident of a supposed Israeli flyover in which nothing has been reported in Israel about it aside from rumors garnered from the world press. One day we hear it was blowing up a shipment of arms to Hezbollah. Another day - blowing up a nuclear arsenal. Another day - just a flyover. Another day - a syrian bunker. Etc.

But we have no confirmation from Israeli officials.

In other words, we are having censorship at a similar level as that of the Syrians (in this affair at least).

Let me make it clear though - I think it is good it is being kept silent. Sure I am curious like everyone else. But it is good to keep sensitive things like this quiet until more appropriate times. Zahava Galon (MK Meretz) has gone way too far demanding all that happened be revealed. While she does have a point that this government has not earned and does not deserve our trust to perform such activities on its own discretion without public oversight, I still think she is wrong and this is something that should be kept quiet. Not all our laundry needs to be washed in public.

But despite that, it is funny to hear the criticism of Syrian censorship when we have similar censorship.