[Go to the end of this post to see the original ad] If any of us thought that the West was going to work to stop Iran from developing nuclear capabilities, at least economically if not militarily, then think again. The following pretty much indicates that profit, even the smallish profit derived from newspaper advertising, is way more important then the lives of little ol' you and me. Ad: Looking for ethically-challenged people to build Iran's nuclear reactor Let's say you're a despot trying to build up your nuclear powers. You've got one nuclear reactor in the making that will hopefully soon be able to blow whole cities into oblivion. So far so good. But let's say you want to be able to ...

Many of us have seen the English marketing material published by Israeli companies that not only is unclear, but can also be embarrassing. Thankfully, many Israeli businesses are aware of the importance of quality content in a global market, and this awareness is spreading. As a result, Israeli companies are successfully positioning themselves against global competitors. Now if only the Chinese were more concerned with the quality of their English content… My Shiny New (and Mysterious) MP4 Player I recently bought an MP4 player from an online store. I decided to buy the cheapest one I could find – with a one year warranty, I figured ...

Last year my dad took a classic photo of a guy on his way to his Yom Haatzmaut barbecue. I made a short video all about Yom Haatzmaut and barbecueing in honor of this guy who is the most serious mangaler/barbecuer I have ever seen. [googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1616233732685486555[/googlevideo]

Aner Ravon at De Gardener writes about an initiative of his friend Shahar to sign off every post with the sentence "Moreover, I advise that the genocide in Darfur must be stopped." Shahar explains this sentence in Hebrew, and Aner explains it in English: "This is a paraphrase on Cato the Elder, who used to sign off every speech with a pledge to destroy Carthage (”Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse”)." I admit that I don't know much about what is going on in Darfur except that hundreds of thousands have been killed. One of the outrages of the Holocaust was that the world stood by while millions of Jews were ...

illuminea has been nominated as a candidate in the Blogger's Choice Awards for Best Business Blog. Ok, I nominated me. Yeah, not the coolest thing to do, but nobody else was nominating me, and yes, you're allowed to do that... Don't get me wrong - I'm not that egocentric that I actually believe that illuminea is the best business blog. But based on my site stats, there are quite a few of you out there who read this blog, and I'm hoping that you get something out of it too. So if you like illuminea blog, please can you take a minute to click on the banner below or in the sidebar and vote? Maybe you can also ...

Dane Carlson lists 20 Things Not to Do Before Starting A Business. While I agree with some of his points, I disagree with many others and think that if you follow them, they will either hinder the growth of your business, or get you into trouble. Dane's point was to help entrepreneurs bootstrap, but it is important for business owners to walk the fine line between saving where possible, and spending where needed. So let's go through his list. I will discuss five points at a time, so let's begin: Don't quit your day job: Disagree This is advice I see repeated for entrepreneurs, but it's not ...

The media exudes an aura of authority. They write and talk like they are experts and know-alls on whatever topic it is they are discussing at that moment. And many people refer to the media for their knowledge on many issues; how many times have you heard someone say "But I read it in the paper!" Ramit at I will Teach you to be Rich documents some of the errors made by financial and business magazines in predicting which businesses that would succeed and fail. When these publications would be proved wrong, there would me no mention of their mistakes. I've ...