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Four elephants fucking
The huge red statue near Ein Karem, Jerusalem, has always attracted the attention of Jerusalem's locals, who tried to explain the meaning of this strange monument. Hot air architects claimed that when looking at the statue from a certain angle, it exactly reflects the spectacular view of Jerusalem Mountains behind it; most of the natives, however, claimed that the anonymous artist merely tried to immitate four elephants fucking.

How I (almost) stopped the genocide in Darfur

Itamar Cohen
2006-08-23 19:37:32

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cars, reason
Those who don't know me well think that I hate cars just because of the air pollution they cause. Bullshit. I would have hated cars even had they exhausted fancy perfums, and not stinking toxins, which cause the death of tens of thousands of people all around the world every year.
He who drives too much becomes inevitably nervous, impatient and lazy - at least for the time he drives (and frequently this affect lasts long later). I know that this is not very scientific, but I have got many examples from the every-day life.
On 4-Jul, USA's independence day, I sat at the East River Park in Manhattan, to watch Macy's yearly Fireworks, which were indeed fantastic.
When the show finished, all the crowds, some hundreds of thousands of people, started to leave the place. Though it was very crowd and things moved very slow - here and there the police closed this or other passage for an unknown reason - everybody were patient and smiling to each other, and no one pushed or shouted.
But when we started to cross the streets, the noise began. The traffic was quite light - most drivers guessed that 4-July's evening is not the best time to enter Manhattan's center by car. But the few who did so, made a hell of a noise. How comes that hundreds of thausends pedestrians go home quietly and understand that pushing and fighting each other will yield no avail, while the very same people, when they enter cars, become so nervous and childish? How comes that all over the world, not only in Israel or India, but also in "cold" and "polite" country such as Austria or Swisserland, the combination "patient driver" (or "polite driver") seems like a contradiction interns?
As I said. The bad impact of cars on the human society is much wider than "mere" air pollution.

BTW
Sometimes people suspect the statistical facts which says that "X people in L.A. died from air pollution in the previous year". "How is it known", they ask, "that this person died from air pollution, and the other one from something else?"
Well, once I asked this question in a lecture regarding the damages of air pollution. And here's the answer: This is a statistical model. The researchers don't say that John Smith died from air pollution, while Jim Kelly died from something else. They compare many towns in the world, having different levels or air pollution (and many other relevant parameters, of course), and check the longevity, the rate of cancer etc.

BTW (2)
The central celebration of USA's independence in NY was a fireworks show, sponsored by Macy's, a huge department stores' chain.
Some Israeliens may find it funny, that in US even the celebration of a national holiday is merely an ad for a private company. To those people I would like to remind, that unfortunately the situation in Israel is much worse - and we must fight for changing it. US has got many disadavantages, but in the US at least the enforcement of the work rules, the businesses' regulations and the air pollution standards is much higher than in Israel.