South Korea's Foreign minister visit in Israel
The Marmot’s Hole pointed me to the following Chosun article:
“Foreign Minister Song Min-soon visited Palestine and Israel on Sunday. The Palestinian Authority sent a welcome delegation to meet Song at the border. It provided a Mercedes-Benz sedan flying the South Korean flag and the Palestinian flag and traffic was controlled en route. In Israel, Song was taken to a meeting in a limousine provided by the host government. But the Volvo sedan looked nothing like the sort of limousine that would normally convey a visiting chief diplomat. Not only did it have a scratch mark on the outside door and the letter V missing from the Volvo logo, one of the front tires also got flat during the journey.”
“On arrival at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Song was greeted by a flawed South Korean flag, which had the four trigrams placed at the wrong corners. What Song experienced in Israel was in stark contrast to the warm hospitality he received in Palestine, which has not yet reached full statehood. Israel reportedly apologized for its blunders. But cynics suspect Israel made an “intentional mistake” to express its displeasure that Song visited Palestine before Israel. We doubt that Israel, a country known for precise thinking and action, committed this protocol lapse by mistake. When a senior diplomat receives cold treatment overseas, the people of his nation naturally feel insulted. Whether it committed its errors intentionally or not, Israel lost many points in what until now had been a favorable opinion in Korea.”
It is funny me to read that, since for me this is a symbol of Israeli sloppiness. The flag looks similar, the car is a Volvo. I am sure it was not intended, just the negligence of several officials (who will not be fired for this).
IT in Japan
Gen Kanai discusses the IT industry in Japan – Link , following a series of articles in Japan Inc. and Newsweek.
Airspan "Globes" report – now in English
Airspan’s feature has reached the English website of Globes – Link
Globes reports on Airspan
Globes, the Israeli Business magazine, features a report on Airspan. It is an interview with Paul Senior, Airspan’s CTO.
Joi Ito's Shibuyua Photowalk
Joi Ito and some of his friends posted to flickr a “photowalk” in Shibuya.
Check it out – Link
Herbert Samuel restaurant in Tel Aviv
Yesterday, we visited “Herbert Samuel” restaurant in Tel Aviv. The location is a bit strange, it is not in the restaurant “heart” of Tel-Aviv. You need to actually drive there. (Unless you are staying in David Inter-Continental).
Started with a few Tapas Options: Anchovy, Squid with Beans and Tehina, Parma Prosciutt, and the wonderful bread. Very good dishes.
For main course we took: White Lasagna for me, Risotto for Mika. Again wonderful, though a bit heavy for our taste.
Highly recommended
Are Japanese Actually Jewish?
Japan probe features the following story :
Are Japanese actually descendants of one of the Jewish Lost tribes. This story re-surfaces once in a while, and there was even a book describing the similarities between the Shinto and Jewish religion.
I have a firm belief that it is not true. Although we don’t really know what ever happened to the 10 tribes, Jews appear here and there (India, Ethiopia, Myanmar), I don’t really think no book, or Hebrew writing exists in Japan.
It is a nice story, anyway.
Google's Android
Played a bit with Google’s Android Mobile Platform.
Looks OK, seems to work, the eclipse Plugin is OK, the simulator actually works, though I experienced a few glitches.
BUT, Can Google really have success with this one? I doubt it, iPhone User interface is 10 times better, Symbian is out there for a long time, Windows Mobile is De-Facto operating system for Smart phones. I believe the answer is NO!
And one more funny thing, if you search for “Android” in Google, the first result is “Open Handset Alliance” web site. Did they tweak it, so it looks like it is really an alliance?
Updated My Gallery application to Gallery 2
Location is the same: http://gallery.telyas.com