iSraeli: Barbecue iPhone App
Israelis love to MANGAL, the Arabic word we use for barbecue, and they climax on Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israeli independence day. Meat producer Tibon Veal launched an iPhone application called I NAFNAF, where the user uses the iPhone to fan the charcoals, and gets a score based on his fanning skills. God, I hope he drops the iPhone in the fire.
Mark Zuckerberg and Sergey Brin’s Mortal Kombat
I recently wrote about McCann Erickson’s ad for TheMarker COM.vention depicting Bill Gates and Steve Jobs as Mortal Kombat fighters, and said that I’d have used Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page or Sergey Brin instead. Well, apparently do did McCann Erickson. Here’s their second ad.
Google Anat Kamm: Interesting Gag Order Circumvention Methods
Google has been used in some interesting ways by Israelis trying to circumvent the Anat Kamm affair gag order, which was removed yesterday, April 8, right after the entire fucking Internet and the world at large already knew the story, turning the gag order from a tool of censorship to a farce badly enforced by a bunch of tools.
Israeli media criticism site The 7th Eye doesn’t regularly cover the employment status of specific journalists, so when it reported, on March 9, that Kamm was to go on unlimited unpaid time off, some readers got the hint and Googled Kamm to learn of the story.
Interestingly, they didn’t even have to go to the search resultes, as Google Suggest revealed the gist of the story. Typing ענת קם (“Anat Kamm” in Hebrew) into Google, the search engine suggested the following searches (I translated from Hebrew):
Anat Kamm arrested
Anat Kamm"
Anat Kamm Walla (the website Kamm works for – Ed.)
Anat Kam Shabak (Israel’s internal security service – Ed.)
Anat Kam Rotter (Rotter.net, Israeli discussion board known for exposing stories and secret documents; First to report Kamm’s investigation, a posting which was later removed as the site’s operators abide by Israeli law – Ed.)
Anat Kam The Shabak
Anat Kam arrested"
Yedioth Aharonoth, Israel’s largest daily newspaper, also used Google. “What Doesn’t the Shabak Want You to Know?” was the headline of Yedioth’s initial report, published April 1st, that went on to say there’s a story that can be found on the Internet and in foreign media, but Israelis are not allowed to read it. “All details of the story can also be found on the Internet if one searches for information on ‘Israeli journalist gag’. [the search term was shown in English - Ed.]“, the newspaper reported. Thousands of people reached The 7th Eye’s site googling that term, in several spellings and misspellings.
And some anonymous activists took Google circumvention to the streets of Tel Aviv, spraying graffiti including (again, translated from Hebrew) “google Anat Kamm”, “(Google) where is Anat Kamm?” and “Where is Anat Kamm? Google: ANAT KAM [the latter name was written in English, all caps – Ed.)”
* Full disclosure: I write for The 7th Eye and manage its social media presence.
Anat Kam – Creative Commons Photos
Credit: Ido Kenan, Room404.net (cc-by-sa)
Credit: The 7th Eye, the7eye.org.il (cc-by-nc-sa)
Bank Hapoalim’s Zoophile Gnome
Bank Hapoalim’s creepy gnome mascot, DAN CHASCHAN (Economical Dan), just got a whole lot creepier.
