It’s About Time for the Times of Israel

There are a number of websites reporting the news from Israel on a daily basis, but these websites appear dated, as if the modern technologies powering the Internet somehow overlooked them. More bothersome is the fact that each of the existing news sites is biased, appealing only to certain types of visitors and presenting the viewpoints and analysis that please its intended audience.

Along comes The Times of Israel. It’s about time that the day’s Israeli news is presented to readers in a manner that’s not only pleasing to the eye, but also in the way it was meant to be reported. Calling itself “the one-stop site for Israel, the region, and the Jewish world,” The Times of Israel launched last week and is quickly building up a loyal audience.

Writing About Bulgaria - the Cold Snap Story

How easy is it to write about Bulgaria in a work of fiction? Having lived in Bulgaria for two years I am attempting to give an accurate picture of the country in my writing. Recently I posted a review of Cold Snap, a collection of short stories set in a fictitious village some 60 kilometers east of Sofia. The book was written by Cynthia Morrison Phoel, who served in Bulgaria as a Peace Corps volunteer.

I interviewed Cynthia to get some background about her successful efforts to write about Bulgaria.

The Kosher Camera

Now available: a camera that automatically replaces the image of a woman’s face with a brown paper bag. You need not fear that immodest images will appear in your digital photographs. This amazing camera’s built-in facial recognition software analyzes a scene and detects all the faces of women within the frame. The final result is a distorted pixilated face, an obtrusive black bar, or the much-preferred brown paper bag, guaranteed not to arouse you in any way.

The reason that this newly launched Kosher Camera website is so hilarious is because it is a humorous response to a very real and serious problem in Israel.

Why Israel Fears a Nuclear Iran

The international media has been full of reports of an impending Israeli attack on Iran, even going so far as to detail how such an attack would take place. Every day there are new stories supporting this theory, while others suggest that the public debate on the issue is aiming instead to spur tougher economic sanctions on Iran and force it to back down from its nuclear program.

Although Iran’s leaders contend that their program is intended solely for civilian purposes, they have not restrained themselves from expressing their animosity for Israel.