And the winner is…

The Forbes 100 powerful women list is out.

So, what have we got?

1 for Yahoo, 0 for Google (I guess they don’t count being vp of ui that powerful)

2 queens (1 of UK, 1 of Jordan)

1 for Israel

Just over 50% are from the US, despite (or due to, depending on which way you look at it) the recent economic downturn

And the winner is… Angie (yes, that’s how they “fondly” call her in Germany, my sources tell me)

And of course… Senator Clinton, this year’s winner of the title “woman with the highest public profile”. Ooh wow. Surely it is going to make her feel good not having being elected “president of the united states” this year. What a consolation prize.

Because clearly, the real winner here is Gov. Sarah Palin, who didn’t even make the list. Brilliant move by the McCain campaign, what can I say.

Olympics Utopia

Yesterday I watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Beijing.

It was magnificent. I was awed. Seeing the whole act in this amazing ceremony. And seeing the completed “Bird’s Nest” Stadium in Beijing, after seeing some of the preparations to the Olympics in Beijing last year, made it even more special for me. Seeing all the different countries’ athletic teams all in one event.

This ceremony really made me feel like we are so close to world peace. It felt so ideal. Of course I was aware of all the controversy regarding the Chinese government, but still, watching it really did feel that we have reached, or have gone very close to reaching, some sort of utopia.

And then I woke up this morning. Battles in Georgia. An American tourist killed in Beijing. Iran nuke sanctions revisited. Car bomb in Iraq killing 18. Syria prevents UN observers to inspect nuke activity. And the political and security situation in Israel hasn’t changed either.

We are definitely not there yet.

Congratulations.

I called Bituach Leumi today to take care of some bureaucratic insanity which it pains me to get into.

They told me I just got married recently. So congratulations to me.

I asked them, who did I marry?

The World’s Food and Commodities Crisis Has Only Just Began

My Aunt who’s in Connecticut said they are limiting the amount of rice you can buy at Cosco. A similar case occurred in a supermarket here in Israel not long ago. Oil prices are surging. China and other producers are restricting the export of grains in order to ensure domestic food supply.

The world has become so needy and accustomed to exhausting energy sources, natural resources and commodities. Even though it is a stretch to say that the living outnumber the dead (the current world population outnumbers the combined historical world populations), however way you compute it. Still, more people are alive today than have ever lived before at any given time.

Therefore, there are far greater considerations as to supply of goods that haven’t been taken into account. 100 million people have already been put in danger by the current situation. We used to think this situation will not affect us. Many people feel that at the western countries, one can always pay more and get what he want. So maybe we will have to pay for food what we do now for gold?

Well, maybe. But maybe the now “poor” countries will realize that their gold is worth them their lives, and simply won’t sell it.

Possible Conclusions: Buy commodities, Live in Asia, Develop alternative energy sources (conserving energy is not nearly enough – we will use it all up sooner or even sooner), stock up on food, what else?

6 meters under

Today I faced one of my biggest fears.

I’m a certified diver. But this is relatively new for me. Until recently, other than not being on my “to do” list, diving was actually one of my biggest fears. I have seen a documentary in my childhood about diving, where the sport was lethal to some of the main characters. Needless to say, I was devastated. Other things associated with diving make me uneasy as well, but mentioning them won’t help all you potential divers (I highly recommend diving btw – it is amazing). Well, I used to think – why would anyone do that? But two years ago I’ve decided to go for it, despite everything.

There is specifically one part in diving which makes me feel uneasy and makes me want to reach the surface. This is part of the “exercises” you have to undergo if you didn’t dive for several months. Until today I always had to stop the dive in this point, and continue it after reaching the surface.

When we reached this point in the dive today, I thought I won’t be able to handle it. I signaled to the guide that I wanted to go up. I thought “what was I thinking?” “why am I doing this to myself?” “You should go up and out of the water, skip this dive, and quit diving altogether. You’ve always feared it, and there is nothing you really gain out of this experience.”

It was scary because at that second I actually gave up. But then I decided to go for it. I stayed underwater, completed the exercises and the dive (including an injury by a sea urchin, which was actually somewhat amusing, even if painful).

The Facebook Newsfeed is boring

Really. It is.

In fact, I never really liked it that much.

I remember when they added the newsfeed feature. I HATED it so much then. Couldn’t bring myself to read it or even look at it. It gave me a feeling that it’s all about prying. It made me feel that Facebook was such a nosy media, just by adding the newsfeed. And it is so public. I didn’t do anything for months so that it won’t show up about me. It took me a year to stop clicking on my own “Profile” every time I logged in to Facebook – to stay away from the “home”, where all the data was thrown in my face(book).

The only time that I used to actually read it was when they had the “Like/Didn’t Like” X/V check feature next to each item. That made me feel that it was some sort of task on my “to do” list when I was logged in, which I should complete. To make sure I responded to every item (most of them with X). And I never looked at an item more than once, because it was already taken care of.

But now, I scheme through it very briefly, and miss a lot of things, because it is just not interesting enough. The nosiness aspect is not as much of an issue, because most users now joined facebook after the feature has been included, and are aware of the fact that their every move is broadcasted.

But I just don’t feel that the data there is of importance to me. It is (mostly) just simply boring.

I want to drive to Europe

For years now I’ve had a dream. To just get in the car and drive. To Europe. From my home in Israel. I love driving. I love traveling. They could be great together.

Someone told me I can call it a dream for “world peace” or “hummus in Damascus”. But the truth is, that’s not where I’m coming from. I just want to get in the car and drive to Europe. That’s all. Not that all the rest of the peace utopia wouldn’t be awesome as well; that’s a dream I certainly share with the rest of the world. But this driving to Europe thing is my own personal dream.

I got so excited recently when I’ve heard the news re negotiations with Syria. Not sure I’m happy with their context or consequences, but hey, they still got my hopes up. Syria is the main obstacle now on my way to Europe. I can drive through Jordan, Turkey, etc. Even through Iraq (I’m a US citizen). But not Syria.

Stereotype me

Something funny I noticed recently in a social experiment some students were conducting, in form of a Facebook group. The discussion board there was very active, and I wondered what do all these people have in common to be having such a lively discussion board.

The topic was “stereotype the person above you“. During their experiment, there was a new post every few seconds. I wanted to post as well, but every time I refreshed the page there were several new comments already. (meaning it wouldn’t be about the person above me, but about 4 persons up).

I kept thinking, what made all these people, and myself, want to know what is the stereotype people might have of them?