Afternoon in Tel Aviv
It's raining hard, though no water is coming out of the taps due to some problem with the water supply. Rain at the end of May is unusual it unusual in itself in these parts, except at the end of a khamsin, the weather phenomenon we had yesterday, with grey skies and 33° C heat.
The warm weather didn't stop me from joining D on her trip to Tel Aviv - she had to be there for an afternoon meeting in Tel Aviv but I just hung out at the beach, taking some photos (see more of them here), then settling down to sip beer, eat pita and hummus and read my e-book.
While doing so I had a curious encounter with a writer, who was walking along the sea front hawking his books. I don't think I've ever met an author selling his wares in the street, but I guess these are hard times. He had had one of them translated into English, so I purchased a copy.
In the tradition of Richard Bach and Paulo Coelho, The Book of Arkovia offers a timeless message of hope and inspiration. A modern philosophical classic, the Arkovian journey and its unique characters teach us the importance of self-image, unity, and the pursuit of true freedom in the face of oppression."
The ISKCON (Hare Krishna folks) are still around in Tel Aviv. Back in the 1970s they used be at 35 Hayarkon St, while our yoga centre was at number 45. Occasionally we would join them for an Indian meal.
The dancers put up a brave front, but the musical and vocal accompaniment was a bit raucous today; maybe they had been going at it for several hours already. None of those sweet gentle bhajans produced and popularized by George Harrison back in the day.
Scooters, auto-rikshaws, cycles, bikes, skate-boards - you never know what will come flying at you.
Cat burglers in plain sight.
Epicyon's RTL problem
I'm not a big fan of browsing from the terminal, but MLTerm solves Epicyon's RTL problem by scooting RTL text to the right margin. Interesting. I wonder if there's a GUI web browser that does the same? Featherpad and most text editors get RTL text right (excuse the pun).
Links of the day
India: Official suspended after draining reservoir to retrieve phone
More than 1,500 arrested at Extinction Rebellion protest in The Hague
"The Gemini protocol seen by this HTTP client person"
As I believe you might have picked up by now, I am not a big fan of this protocol but I still believe it can work and serve its community.
Interesting. I have yet to read something good about Gemini from "outsiders". I still think the best approach is to use the infrastructure of the existing web but to implement it with minimum complexity. That's what I'm trying to do in my blog and website, and am pleased to receive suggestions to make things simpler still (without creating additional work). By "simple" I mean avoiding solutions that introduce complexity while trying to circumvent it. But I guess it's always a balance between what we hope to attain, and what we want to avoid.
Never-ending Naqba
Under settler terror, Palestinians tear down and flee their village "Twenty-seven Palestinian families made the devastating decision to leave their homes in 'Ein Samia, hounded out by Israeli settlers and army pressure."