I ignored his remarks, and of course came here yesterday, when Moishe was sitting at home doing the Shabbat, avoiding to manually switching on any light or cooker, let alone a computer or anything else related with work.

I was happy to do a large batch of gene-expression measurements that nicely filled an entire 96well reaction plate. I also was happy to find a new batch of the qRT-PCR master-mix, from a company which just promoted their more reliable, more sophisticated, simply cooler enzyme and fluorescence formula. Everything went pretty smooth, and after pipetting the cDNAs and the primers and the master-mix I happily quitted the “Are you sure you want to start the run” button, locked the lab door and jumped on my bike to ride home.

Today when I came to collect and analyzed the results I immediately recognised something fishy had happened. The usually very smooth and nice ordered kinetic curves all looked like the footpathes of a crowd of drunken teens. They were jumping up and down on the diagram and simply did not made any sense at all.

So I thougth to consult the FAQ page of Agilent, the supplier of the new qRT-PCR kit I used first time on Shabbat. One question was “How much of the internal fluorescence dye standard should I add to the reaction” ? What they mean by “adding an internal fluorescence dye standard”, usually all other kits we used before had this already pre-mixed. Only Agilent, for their own enigmatic reason, decided to ship it separately, and have it added by the customer himself.

The consequence of my insistence to work on the holy Saturday: I worked 2 hours for nothing, and I wasted the reagents for 96 reactions (at a price of 0,80 € per reaction plus consumables, i.e. about 100 € in total).

I promise I wont turn to any religious faith now, but maybe I try a little bit of Superstition.

On its concert tour through Israel a German chanson singer introduced one of his songs (about the mutual dependence of men and woman) as following:

“A woman needs a man mainly for two things: First, to open the champaign bottles, and second, to explaine things.”
One of his fellow musicians, a violinist girl replied after a few seconds “Hold on, wasn’t there one more thing, I just can’t remember what it was”.
I guess you are referring to our duty to wait for her at the side of the pool, with the a fresh towel ?
Yes, you are almost right. It has something to do with waiting. But woman don’t need a man who waits for them, but they need a man they can wait for, like Penelope was waiting for Odysseus.

A more modern version, although from last century is the below graphic that Marina gave me last year for birthday. It shall symbolize me leaving in the morning for work, and returning home in the evening. I have to admit, the most realistic on this image is the happiness of the dog.

Here we have the two finalists of a competition that went largely unnoticed in the west. No, I am not talking about the super-bowl of American Football, I am talking about a competition that has less media coverage and which I call “The World got hypocrisis”:

Two of the most hypocrite characters that came into political power by highjacking the will of their people and right away installed political oppression, intellectual intollerance, Sharia law and a complete neglectance of human rights and democratic values are obviously trying to get surpremacy as leaders of the islamic world. Morsi and Achmadenijad represent the two largest directions of moslem faith: Shia and Sunni.
Accordingly, in their competition for the world record of political stupidity are a set of different disciplines, like “Lying to the people without turning red and without growing a long nose”, “Economical Jeorpady”, “Oppression of Womans Right”. But the most important test for maximal stupidity is the disciplin “Anti-Semitism and Hostility to Israel”: Whereas Achmadenijad insist that he’s got evidence that a Holocaust never took place, Morsi gave to protocol that he believes that jews are descendents of pigs. Both of these ideas indeed rank highest on the scale of stupidity and hypocrisis, and justify that Morsi and Achmadenijad reach the final round of this competition righteous.

If there is anything like a devine power (for what I never found any indication), call it Allah or God, than I hope it will, as a referee disqualify both of them and send them home to do some charity work in their countries.

Ghazal my Dear,
Two month ago, in September 2012 Israel seemed to be the most relaxed and calm country one could imagine. Except for very rare security checks at the entrances of large shopping malls, concert halls or the Jad Vashem museum, there were hardly any signs of the immanent threat of violent attacks. As travelers we were more concerned about the possible failure of the air-conditioning in our flat, or about the trouble to release our car from the car-park that was suddenly locked on Sabbath.
In an attempt to dissociate myself as far as possible from the tourists (many of whom visit Israel for its christian heir or because they come on a cruise with a one-day break in Haifa) I was lurking around Lev Hamifratz Shopping Mall. There, a memorial plate told that during construction of the mall in 1991 it had been hit by a scud missile launched by the lunatic Saddam Hussein. Some years later an attempted car bombing attack by the Libanese Hisbollah was prevented by police that sapped the vehicle on the car-park outside the building. This suddenly reminded me of an ever-present, albeit latent danger for life or injury in Israel, and this might to a certain degree prompted me to decline to the invitation by the Magen David Adom (the Israeli equivalent to the Red Cross) to donate blood right there at the shopping mall. I never donated blood before, except when it was recommended before a surgery in hospital. When I laid down on this rubber-covered bed I had some time to talk to the doctor and the nurse about the most likely occasion when my blood (of course processed and perhaps mixed with a lot of Israeli blood to dilute out the Goi-factors) was used for transfusion. Anything could happen in Israel like anywhere else: car accidents, surgical operations with sudden complications, caesarian sections. The prospect of a military conflict was rather unlikely, two month ago.

Now, after Israel started its counter-attack to protect its people from the Gaza-launched rockets, it appears that victims of air-strikes, bombs or rockets blowing living-houses will be more likely to be in need of blood-transfusions. If my blood finds a way out of the deep-freeze storage into the circulation system of a patient, it could be a civilian who’s house in Ashkelon or Ofakim or even in the suburbs of Tel Aviv were hit by Hamas rockets. It could be an IDF soldier who is about to enter Gaza in an attempt to neutralize the terrorists of Hamas. But most likely, it will be an innocent person living in Gaza, who has been misused by the terrorists as a living shield, who finally is be the most vulnerable and least cared-for victim. Israels IDF recently circulated a Twitter news promising that it will open the Gaza check points to permit delivery of emergency medical goods, maybe including my blood.

When I donated blood in September in Haifa, I had to fill in the form below, and of course without understand much hebrew I simply followed the suggestions of the Magen David Adom nurse and clicked any field she recommended to me. 

I did not asked her, if any of these fields to fill in were refering to the intended usage of my blood. Did it possibly exluded its use during military operations ?  Or for certain minorities ? Or could it even be that non-kosher blood from a Goi like me would only be used to rescue non-Jewish victims ?   Everything is possible, but I hope in the case of life emergency, people forget about race, nation, faith, and give the blood to those who need it most.

I send you a link to a very nice song. I found it today while browsing through Shava”s records (real old vinyl-type ones). It is by Esther Ofarim, an israelian singer who was very popular in Iran before “79. During the time of the last Shah the cultural and political relations between Iran and Israel were very intense and free of major conflicts. I very much like her song “A Taste of Honey” or ذوق  عسل, not just because of the link to my name.

Have a nice evening, enjoy the song
/ghazal.

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Ghazal my dear,

Thank you so much for this song “A Taste of Honey”. When I listened to it, it brought something inside me to vibrate, like an accoustic deja-vu: I knew that I heard this melody many years ago, it was the title-melody of a saturday-afternoon TV serie, not really meant for children, but we kids were allowed to watch it. Don”t know why the director had choosen “A taste of Honey” as the title song for this serie, which was an epic about the construction of a dam, and although it was a west-german production, it glorified the working heroes at least as much as we knew it from the socialist propaganda in our own country. It is probably because I watched it every weekend while I was 10 or so, maybe over a period of more than a year, that embossed this melody in my memory for ever. But in the TV-serie, “A Taste of Honey” was played much faster, more jazz-style by a big-band and without a singer.

It was originally written by Bobby Scott and Rick Marlow as the intro for the New York premier of Shelagh Delaneys drama of the same title. It was covered by famous musicians such as Lionel Hampton, Quincy Jones, Chet Atkins, Woody Herman, The Beatles and the Hollies. Comparing Esther Ofarims version that you found among Shavas collection of old vinyls with the “Harry James Orchestra” reording below one gets an impression about the broad range of musical styles to which the original song and the story of the play-wright had inspired singers and musicians.

The jazz big-band version by the “Harry James Orchestra” was a performance at the Ed Sullivan show in 1966.

By the way, which of the two persian words in the song-title means “Asal” ?
عسل or ذوق  ?

It was interesting what you wrote about Israel and Iran and that they had such a fruitful and cooperative relationship during Shahs time. How do your parents see this ? I”m always surprised when I follow discussions on www.iranian.com, most of the writers also express a view that is so much different from the anti-Israel stereotypes of the Ahmadenishad gouvernment. As usual, the people are much more tolerant and open-minded, whereas the active politicians like to keep the fire of hate and violence burning.

I hope you are alright, and you make progress with your PhD project and also with the project of your life.

Take Care,
Michael

I would highly appreciate if you would add my blog to your directory.
I called it “Letter to an Persian Cat”

If you will see, it is totally un-political, it has to do with cats (mainly as an aphorism), and I am not iranian nor had I ever the chance to visit your country. Why do I want you anyhow to add it to your list ?

It is the record of an utopia that I almost lost my mind in during summer 2010 (I guess many people in Iran also think of a free Iran, that is currently an utopia). It has to do with the encounter between me, a university teacher and scientist and a student, who was born in Sweden to Iranian parents. I have to admitt, that I feel a strong attraction to her, but try to keep it on an spiritual base (Ha ha, I can hear your laughter).
Any how, you might say it is a story of an unlucky love like there are millions elsewhere in the world. The reason, though, why this blog should be listed is the following: I know your struggle for freedom in Iran, and I very much feel with you. I remember I went through a quite similar time in 1988/1989 in east Germany / GDR. I was pretty much involved in the movement for liberalisation and against the oppression by the single ruling party and the secret service. Looking back from now to these two years, I have the feeling that they were a wasted time of my life: I don”t remember a single book that I red, no concert or theater I went to, no long friendship or love-affairs. These two years were completely devoted (and lost) to a political fight againts idiots like the police, secret service, party officials. I can tell you, I was happy when everything was over (although the new west-german rulers were also a shame) and I had time again and regained mental power for the real important things in live, for culture, music, love, philosophy, for my job as a scientist, and the possibility to reflect about us, the universe, and where we all came from and why we fall in love.
Political fight is sometimes unavoidable (like in Iran right now), but be carefull not to turn it into the most important purpose of your life.
After it will be over, and I hope of course with a new tolerant gouvernment, remember the old values of Persia: arts, poetry, music and science.
Than I”m absolutely positive your country will have a great future. And try to settle your controversy with Israel. If both of you find a peaceful relation, this will be a strong alliance, and nobody in middle-east will dare to fool you, not the US nor the arabs.

Good luck, Take Care

Yours “Radius of the Persian Cat”