Image via WikipediaBecoming a GSS state (Yossi Gurvitz)
The government is considering a Terror Bill, which is rather a newfangled thing: at the moment we have that cherished British heirloom, the Defense (Emergency) Regulations of 1945, and some bits and pieces of it haphazardly passed into law. Unfortunately, the suggested bill is likely to make the already unhealthy Israeli democracy even more moribund. I wish to thank ACRI for their definitive guide to the bill (both are Hebrew PDF files).The bill is problematic in many ways. The destruction of “government symbols” (pg.6) will be considered a terrorist act – i.e., if you burn an Israeli flag, you become a terrorist; an act of legitimate protest will not only put you behind bars, it will put you there for a particularly long time, since one of the main goals of the bill is to lengthen the prison terms of “terrorists.”
Another point is that the Minister of Security is empowered, using his own judgment, to declare an organization as a terror organization (pg. 9). He is supposed to do so at the request of a service chief, presumably the GSS (General Security Services) chief, and the latter has to provide the support of the Counsel General; but it is an administrative act, not a judicial one, and the members of the organization in question have no way to defend themselves. In fact, the first time an organization may hear it’s actually a terror organization is when the Minister declares it so.
This bill won’t have much to do with military organizations; it specifically (pg. 2) refers to the Da’wa organizations, Hamas’ charity societies and associations. And who is to say whether a charity is in fact a Hamas front? Why, the GSS. Suddenly, a charity finds itself on the wrong side of the law. Its bank account is frozen, its name is libeled. When they make it to the Supreme Court, to appeal the decision, they appear before the Court as the representatives of a society already declared to be a terror organization – and the judges, who happen to be mortal, will consider them to be such.
A third point is that the law creates a circle of terror capable of almost infinite enlargement. Let’s assume, for the sake of the argument, that a person donates to some society. That society happens to support Palestinian education facilities; some of those, things being what they are, will be Hamas facilities. Bang! The society, and the donor, have suddenly become terrorists.Fourthly, once a person becomes suspect of terrorism, there’s a lot of unpleasant and irregular things that may happen to him. They ought to be enumerated, because they are, in a large sense, the core of this bill.
News 1 Israeli security forces practice dealing with “riots following populations exchange”, mass detentions of Israeli-Palestinians
If you doubt me, read the news. Read, for example, this recent article in the New York Times about Carnegie Mellon's "Read the Web" program, in which a computer system called NELL (Never Ending Language Learner) is systematically reading the internet and analyzing sentences for semantic categories and facts, essentially teaching itself idiomatic English as well as educating itself in human affairs. Paging Vernor Vinge, right?
Additional Resources:
NELL's mind-blowing Twitter feed
Nell
(the movie)
Book: Semantic Web For Dummies
Book: A Semantic Web Primer, 2nd Edition
(MIT Press)
Book: Programming the Semantic Web
(O'Reilly)
Tim Berners-Lee on The Semantic Web, from Scientific American (PDF)
Populating the Semantic Web by Macro-Reading Internet Text, from Proceedings of the International Semantic Web Conference (PDF)
Toward an Architecture for Never Ending Language Learning (PDF)
Frequently Asked Questions about the Semantic Web, from W3C
The Semantic Web Revisited, from IEEE Intelligent Systems
The reality is that almost no one is doing all of that, but there are enough different parts of the puzzle for people to easily get involved in, and go from there.
Here, Smith offers an update on this important mission to protect your health, and that of your children and grand-children.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/10/09/jeff-smith-interview-gmo-week.aspx
GMO Detection method Database (GMDD)
http://gmdd.shgmo.org/
By Noam SheizafPublished October 8, 2010
Activism As Budrus opens in US, film hero is denied exit from West Bank
By Noam SheizafPublished October 7, 2010
Media Roundup Between the Lines (5 Oct): Yom Kippur war protocol revealed
By +972blogPublished October 5, 2010
Media Roundup Between the lines (4 Oct): Europe on alert; IDF misbehaving
By +972blogPublished October 4, 2010
Media Roundup 1 Between the lines (3 October): beyond the settlement freeze
By +972blogPublished October 3, 2010
Media Roundup 2 Between the lines: summary & analysis of Israel’s weekend newspapers (1-2 Oct)
By +972blogPublished October 2, 2010
News Video: Israeli guard lied about shooting that led to E Jerusalem riots
By Noam SheizafPublished September 28, 2010
Activism Nabi Saleh marks Int’l Peace Day; faces military siege
By Joseph DanaPublished September 27, 2010
News 2 NGO demands that police investigate toddler’s death from tear gas
By Lisa GoldmanPublished September 26, 2010
Read the Internet, Speak English
In case you didn't know, reality is science fiction.If you doubt me, read the news. Read, for example, this recent article in the New York Times about Carnegie Mellon's "Read the Web" program, in which a computer system called NELL (Never Ending Language Learner) is systematically reading the internet and analyzing sentences for semantic categories and facts, essentially teaching itself idiomatic English as well as educating itself in human affairs. Paging Vernor Vinge, right?
Additional Resources:
NELL's mind-blowing Twitter feed
Nell
(the movie)Book: Semantic Web For Dummies
Book: A Semantic Web Primer, 2nd Edition
(MIT Press)Book: Programming the Semantic Web
(O'Reilly)Tim Berners-Lee on The Semantic Web, from Scientific American (PDF)
Populating the Semantic Web by Macro-Reading Internet Text, from Proceedings of the International Semantic Web Conference (PDF)
Toward an Architecture for Never Ending Language Learning (PDF)
Frequently Asked Questions about the Semantic Web, from W3C
The Semantic Web Revisited, from IEEE Intelligent Systems
OhMyNews International
Facebook as a Check on Police Power?
The Laguna police in the Philippines has created a Facebook page for citizens to upload video of crimes being committed or of police and people in authority behaving badly. This truly cuts out the mainstream middleman in a pure act of citizen journalism.How to be a data journalist
Data journalism is huge. I don't mean 'huge' as in fashionable - although it has become that in recent months - but 'huge' as in 'incomprehensibly enormous'. It represents the convergence of a number of fields which are significant in their own right - from investigative research and statistics to design and programming. The idea of combining those skills to tell important stories is powerful - but also intimidating. Who can do all that?The reality is that almost no one is doing all of that, but there are enough different parts of the puzzle for people to easily get involved in, and go from there.
Debtors' prisons rise again in the South
The Brennan Center for Justice and the American Civil Liberties Union released reports this week documenting the growing problem of criminal justice debt and the considerable costs it's imposing on communities, taxpayers and indigent people convicted of crimes. The following figures come from those reports, titled respectively "Criminal Justice Debt: A Barrier to Reentry" and "In for a Penny: The Rise of America's New Debtor Prisons."
Jeffrey Smith, founder of the Institute for Responsible Technology, is leading the movement to eliminate genetically modified foods in the United States.
Here, Smith offers an update on this important mission to protect your health, and that of your children and grand-children.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/10/09/jeff-smith-interview-gmo-week.aspx
GMO Detection method Database (GMDD)
2 years ago
| Monsanto http://gmdd.shgmo.org/
This GMO detection method database (GMDD) is being set up by GMO Detection Laboratory in Shanghai Jiaotong University (GMODL-SJTU) in collaboration with RIKILT, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai Food and Drug Administration, Shanghai Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, and Shanghai University Bioinformation Center. This platform is funded by Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality, Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.
The aim of our database is to provide detailed information of GMO detection methods, and also information of gene insert. These information will be very useful in the developement and standardization of GMO detection methods.
GMO Detection Laboratory, Shanghai Jiaotong University
Establishment Starting to Take Notice of Right Wing's Extremism
by: Ted Frier
Two trends bear watching. The first is the growing intensity (if that is even possible) of the right wing's attempt to portray President Obama and Democrats as dangerous radicals who personify one of several scary "isms." And you can take your pick which one, because historical or ideological accuracy does not seem to be the overriding motivation here. Hysterical fear-mongering is, which as I said seems to be picking up in intensity, reflecting perhaps desperation, or maybe just inertia. The second trend, which is more encouraging, is the gradual willingness of our established institutions in the media and politics to notice this growing extremism on the right and to comment on it.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment