January 25, 2004

I hope the Israeli government did not give the people running the 324 kilometer long Highway 6 ("Cross-Israel Highway") the right to raise tolls whenever they like. The highway’s part owner Canadian Highways Infrastructure Corporation has repeatedly raised tolls on the Highway 407 it owns north of Toronto, Canada to the point that the provincial government is trying to block their next toll hike. 10:02:55 PM

The New York Times on the rise of avocado theft in southern California. With the price of avocados at $1.20 a pound - about avocados this crime has grown to over $100,000 a year – in one county alone. Fires and wind destroyed much more however - the San Diego Union-Tribune reports more than 3 million pounds of avocados were burned in fires in October. Worst yet in January strong Santa Ana winds knocked off as many as 5 million pounds of avocados from tree which because of an existing quarantined for a Mexican fruit fly infestation could not be picked up from the ground and so were lost. 9:53:27 PM

No thanks Hamas has reportedly offered Israel a 10-year truce if Israel withdraws the West Bank, Gaza and Eastern Jerusalem. Then it would start blowing up buses again to try to destroy Israel and establish an Islamic state on the entirely of the lands that formed the pre-1948 British mandate. The Reuters report states: The spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, said recently the group could accept a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip -- territory occupied by Israel in the 1967 war, but he gave no indication how long that might ensure peace. Rantissi [a top Hamas official] said the truce could last 10 years, though "not more than 10 years." 9:40:02 PM

Reinforcement arrive! The Opportunity Mars Rover has successfully landed on Mars to backup its ailing sister craft Spirit which is suffering from problems with its flash memory data storage system. 12:12:57 AM