Sunday, October 31, 2010

Happy Halloween! Bram Stoker's Dracula, and more - maximum cards, circulated covers, etc.


I have created this maximum card by sending the stamped postcard (I have affixed the stamp) to the post office in Hollywood, California, ZIP code 90028.

This is the back of the first postcard.

This is a "musical" folded card, with Lugosi/Dracula's voice recording! :)


"Lugosi, the youngest of four children,[3] was born as Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó in Lugos (at the time part of Austria–Hungary, now Lugoj in Romania), to Paula de Vojnich and István Blasko, a banker.[4] He later based his last name on his hometown.[3]"


See the stamp "Giving blood saves lives"? I thought I should use it on this cover. :)


I am one of the men in the above maximum card image. :)









These are 4 different attempted maxicards, scanned in one pass. I am still waiting for the Hollywood 90028 Post Office (Hello, Brenda J. or Postmaster!) to postmark them and return them to me, in my prepaid return envelope. Don't tell me you were sloppy enough to lose them! You did a good job in the past. :)
UPDATE: I just received those items, with courtesy postmarks from Aug. 4, inside a new Priority Mail envelope, not the envelope that I provided for return. Why the delay? Anyway, I'm glad I finally got them. Thank you! :)




Friday, October 29, 2010

Cinque Pagani Zonda Roadster, Luxury Cars Worth 1.3 Million Euro


Pagani Zonda Cinque Roadser is the exclusive car because it only made 5 units by Pagani. And the car that will nampang at Earl Court London and NEC Birmingham is one of them. Pagani Zonda Cinque Roadser release a price of £ 1.3 million or approximately Rp 18.5 billion.

Roadster was awarded the Mercedes-Benz AMG engine V12-powered 678 hp. It only took 3.4 seconds to penetrate the 100 km / hour.


"There are many changes between the Zonda Zonda Cinque including reverse carbon-titanium chassis for more hard and redesigning the exhaust," said Bob Forstner, Brand Manager Pagani UK.

MPH The Prestige & Performance Motor Show 2010 held in London (2-7 November) and Birmingham (11 to 14 November).




Technical Specifications

Mercedes Benz AMG engine
Power: 678 hp
Torque: 780 Nm
Carbon-titanium monocoque
ECU, Traction control, ABS by Bosch Engineering
Inconel/titanium exhaust system coated with ceramic
Suspensions in magnesium and titanium
Cima sequential gearbox (6 speed), robotized by Automac enginnering
APP monolitic wheels forged in aluminium and magnesium, front 9x19, rear 12,5x20
Pirelli PZero tyres, front 255/35/19, rear 335/30/20
Pagani leather/carbon fibre racing seats
Brembo brakes in carbo-ceramic self ventilated with hydraulic servo brake, Size: front 380x34 mm, monolitic 6 piston caliper; rear 380x34 mm, monolitic 4 piston caliper
Dry weight 1.210 kg
Weight distribution in driving condition: 47% front, 53% rear
Acceleration
0-100 km/h: 3.4 s
0-200 km/h: 9.6 s
Braking
100-0 km/h: 2.1 s
200-0 km/h: 4.3 s
Maximum side acceleration: 1,45 G (with road tyres)
Downforce at 300 kp/h: 750 kg

I vant to suck yourr blood!

Romania

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Happy PFF (Postcard Friendship Friday)!

Dodge Avenger 2011 Launched


Dodge introduced the Dodge Avenger 2011. 2011 Dodge Avenger sedan gets revised exterior, interior, and technical.

Part re-suspension mixed for more steady maneuver in the streets. One of them is pengendaran lower front and rear 12 mm 6 mm. Track is made wider and wider tires increased to 225 mm of 215 mm.

With the revision in the suspension makes the rider more confidence Avenger 2011 because of body-roll and cut shocks, while the isolation, steering acuity, resposivitas improved.



Two new 2400 cc engine and is offered accompanied Pentastar V6 6-speed automatic transmission. V6 engine spitting out 283 hp power, 20% larger than the previous V6 engine. Torque up 12% to 351 hp. V6 engine is also used Dodge Grand Caravan.

Exterior of vehicles now using a more aggressive line, such as a new front fascia that uses signature Dodge crosshair grille new Split.

As for the interior, instrument panel receives all-new, bezels, gauge faces and a new Dodge steering wheel. Upgraded seats and a list of two-tone color schemes now offer a wider selection. The company also has added new features, such as new interior ambient lighting and a new multi-function three-spoke steering wheel Dodge with integrated controls for radio, cruise control, hands-free phone and other vehicle functions while keeping their hands on the wheel.



List of equipment available today including the voice command function for hands-free phone, integrated USB port for streaming music, navigation and record memos, iPod/MP3 jack, Bluetooth music streaming, music Gracenote identification, a hard drive that holds about 6700 songs and remote began.

Dodge Avenger to be one mid-size sedan, which were sold in the United States. Last year, Dodge sold more than 1.6 million Avenger.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Three approaches to the Talmud, graphically portrayed in a Victorian photographer's studio.

I think it's safe to say that this is one of the most bizarre things I've come across:



This is from an 1894 book called Memories of gospel triumphs among the Jews during the Victorian era by John Dunlop, all about how successful British missionary efforts were during the 19th century.

This particular exceedingly strange posed picture is meant to illustrate three approaches of three writers on the Talmud; hot, cold and just right. The brides represent the flawed beauty that is the Talmud and as described by a different writer. As you can see by the caption, the point is that one writer veiled all that is bad in the Talmud (on the left, so that you cannot see she has one eye patch), one writer veiled all that is good (on the right, so that you cannot see that she has one good eye), and the other wrote of it impartially (in the middle, with one patch and one good eye). The impartial one is Paul Isaac Hershon, a converted Galician Jew born in 1818, who wrote אוצרות התמלמוד (Treasures of the Talmud, being a series of classified subjects in alphabetical order from "A" to "L"). He died in 1888.



The writer who veiled all that is bad is Emanuel Deutsch, who wrote a very famous article which was widely read all over Europe, called Der Talmud, and the writer who veiled all that is good is Johann Andreas Eisenmenger.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Maximum card from Transkei - the black-footed cat (Felis nigripes)


Small feline, but quite fierce in self-defense.

Impressions of the Volozhin Yeshiva and it's head, Rabbi Itzele, from Max Lilienthal's visit in 1840.

I'm sure Max Lilienthal (1815-1882) needs no introduction, but for the purposes of this post, it's worth giving a brief explanation for what follows. Lilienthal was a young PhD who was appointed schoolmaster of a modern Jewish school in 1839. Given his talents and successes there, and a recommendation by Ludwig Philippson, editor of the Algemeine Zeitung des Judenthusm, the Russian government appointed him in 1840 to try to reform Jewish education and establish modern schools. Lilienthal was no dope and knew that this could only succeed if he could convince the rabbonim and rebbes to support it. For this purpose he undertook a trip to the traditional communities in Russia, to learn, listen and try to persuade.

He was unsuccessful, etc. His own official account is that he realized that the Russian government did not have the best interest of the Jews in mind. The "Making of a Godol account" is that while he subsequently gave this as the reason, in fact he was suspected of some illegal economic activities and had to depart Russia. I don't see these as mutually exclusive. Either way, he settled in the United States where he became an Orthodox rabbi - he really was exactly that, even organizing a Chevra Shas in his schul - although he soon began leaning toward Reform, eventually becoming one of the pioneering American Reform rabbis. See also Hyman Grinstein's article "The minute book of Lilienthal's union of German synagogues in New York " (HUCA 18, 1944).

In the mid 1850s he published an English translation of extracts from his diary of his travels in Russia in the newspaper the Israelite. These were reprinted in David Philipson's 1915 book Max Lilienthal, American Rabbi.

Below are the passages concerning his meetings with R. Itzele Volozhiner, R. Chaim of Volozhin's son, rosh yeshiva of the famed Volozhin Yeshiva. The account is interesting for many reasons; it included his impressions of R. Itzele, and his son-in-law Reb Lebele (i.e., the 30-year old Neziv).

His description of the first day of Selichos is amazing. He was awoken at 3 AM for the Selichos which were to commence at 4 AM. In the street he witnessed a mass of women dressed in white, carrying lanterns through the streets of Vilna, to the synagogues.

He records that he was given maftir in the main (?) synagogue in Vilna - where he was seated in the absent rabbi's seat - but told not to read the haftarah himself. Lilienthal says that this was the practice so as not to embarrass anyone who couldn't read, but one wonders if it was because the haftarah was read on a klaf (handwritten, unvocalized parchment roll) as per the Gra (which is doubtful to me anyway). But if so, it really would be the same reason anyway ("not to confound the ignorant.") But of course it's strange to think that an unprepared Lilienthal could have read it from a klaf in the first place, and he implies that he would have read the haftarah if he had not been told not to. If they did read it on a klaf it seems a little odd that he didn't notice it or think to remark on it, so it probably wasn't read on a klaf at all. Another possibility, judging by a comment R. Itzele made about how he read Hebrew (see below), after reading the beracha and thus demonstrating how he recited Hebrew someone in charge decided that he shouldn't read the haftarah. However, the second day of Rosh Hashanah he was given an aliya in another minyan and asked to read the Torah, so it's probably like he said in the first place: only the ba'al keriah read the haftarah in the main synagogue so as not to "confound the ignorant." He visited the Gra's kloiz on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, and noted that the angels are not mention in the prayers related to the blowing of the shofar, as per the Vilna Gaon himself. Lilienthal seems to have taken this positively, seeing it as directed against superstition.

Upon arriving in Volozhin, he also was met with many ("a hundred") people for whom his reputation had preceded him. They asked him if he was the "Datsche Rof" (German rabbi). Here it might be appropriate to mention something I read recently in the first volume of Bialik's folklore journal Reshumos, but haven't seen quoted anywhere else. This concerns a later period, probably the 1860s. It seems there was a person named Mendele who was known as the Baal Gematrios, because he could quickly come up with a Gematriya for anything. One time Mendele walked into an inn and came upon a group of bareheaded Jews dressed in modern clothing eating and drinking. So he said to them, "Sholom Aleichem, Berliners!" One of them answered, "Aleichem Sholom, Karliner!" He thought for a second, and said that to the guy that he is right. The difference between a ברלינער and a קרלינער is כובע (a hat; Gematria is 98).

Getting back to Volozhin, other points of interest is that he quotes R. Itzele as telling him, after he has him recite the zimun, that he reads Hebrew "like a proselyte." For his part, Lilienthal thought he himself was reading it German-style. He also (famously at this point) quotes R. Itzele as explaining to him that in a typical morning in the yeshiva he gives a Chumash-Rashi shiur, in which he includes some of his own remarks and some things from the Mendelssohn Be'ur commentary. One wonders if this was true, or said to impress Lilienthal - but in a way it's a distinction without a difference. Kosher enough to tell him, is the point. As for whether it's a sheer fabrication on Lilienthal's part, that seems very unlikely, as all it did was serve to make R. Itzele seem a little bit enlightened, and what did Lilienthal gain, writing in his own diary - or in English in Ohio in 1856 - by fabricating this?

He also notes that R. Itzele invited him Erev Yom Kippur to join him at the mikva, which he declined.


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Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Letters to mysterious African Jews who may or may not have existed.

Right smack in the middle of the "Dr.-Livingstone,-I-presume?" era of British adventurism in Africa, a journal belonging to William Simposon was published, titled Private Journal Kept During the Niger Expedition of May 1841 to June 1842.

In the introduction it states that Simpson "obtained Bibles and different religious publications for distribution, and at the suggestion of some Christian friends, he was provided by the two chief Rabbis in London with letters commendatory to their brethren, in case it should be found that in the providence of God toward that remarkable people, any portion of them were located in the interior of Africa."

This is quite interesting, because Simpson was clearly a Christian missionary. Yet at least Rabbi Solomon Hirschell was convinced that he did not proselytize to Jews, and with such full confidence sent his greetings to any Jews that Simpson might encounter. David Meldola, acting Haham of the Sephardim, sent his greetings as well. The text of these letters along with an iffy translation were included in an appendix to the book. Note that Rabbi Hirschell's letter was not written by him, but on his behalf by Aaron Levy of Lissa, a dayan on his bet din, who repeated twice that Simpson is not מבני עמינו - but he is an אוהב ישראל, a philo-semite. And check out Meldola's pledging allegiance to the Rambam, not the Shulchan Aruch:

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