I'm thrilled to share there's another grand baby on the way! And it's another girl! How cool is that?
After an overdose of testosterone growing up and raising boys, I get the ribbons and bows!
Woohoo!
Of course, the downside of being a long distance grandma is that I'm so far away, that I don't get the pleasure of seeing my girls grow up in an up close personal way.
But here's what I'm hoping . . .
That somehow, when they're older, they'll see my life as an inspiration, and not as some foolish old lady on an extended trip overseas.
I hope they will have the courage to step out of their comfort zone and do exciting things.
I hope they will learn to appreciate the world, and the varied cultures in it, with their different ideas and different ways of doing things.
I hope they'll see that you're never too old to pursue your dreams.
I hope they will be fearless (not as I am, but as I strive to be), always questioning, asking why?
I hope they will understand their value and their worth, not only to themselves, but to the world.
I hope they will forgive my absences, as I strive to pave a way for them.
Really interesting article that provides fascinating food for thought.
From The Washington Post -
Why is terror Islamist?
By M. Steven FishJanuary 27
This image made from a video posted online by Islamist militants on Jan. 11, shows slain hostage-taker Amedy Coulibaly, who shot a policewoman and four hostages at a kosher grocery in Paris, with a gun in front of an Islamic State emblem. (Militant video via AP)
Contemporary terrorism is disproportionately Islamist. In a recent book I reported that between 1994 and 2008, the world suffered 204 high-casualty terrorist bombings. Islamists were responsible for 125, or 61 percent of these incidents, which accounted for 70 percent of all deaths.
Just as disturbing is the reaction of ordinary Muslims. The torching of Christian churches in Niger by mobs of Muslims angered by Charlie Hebdo’s insults — a week after Islamist militants slaughtered the paper’s editor and other staff in Paris — understandably irks non-Muslims. And rarely are such demonstrations of rage eclipsed by shows of opposition to terrorism. Most Muslims oppose terrorism, but how often do the streets of Casablanca, Istanbul, Islamabad, Dakar, or Jakarta fill with people chanting “Not in Our Name!” after incidents such as that which rocked Paris on Jan. 7-9? And why do many Muslims even in the West express regret rather than revulsion over murder in the name of their faith?
One explanation we can rule out is that Muslims are violent people. Predominantly, Muslim countries average 2.4 murders per annum per 100,000 people, compared to 7.5 in non-Muslim countries. The percentage of the society that is made up of Muslims is an extraordinarily good predictor of a country’s murder rate. More authoritarianism in Muslim countries does not account for the difference. I have found that controlling for political regime in statistical analysis does not change the findings. More Muslims, less homicide.
And yet, we are still left with the terrorism problem.
Some writers explain it in terms of religious doctrine. According to Robert Spencer, the Koran contains ample rationalizations for violence against outsiders.
But the Old Testament does so as well. For example, it reports Joshua’s conquering armies massacring entire captured cities — putting sobbing children to the sword, hanging people on trees and carrying off the plunder and booty — all under God’s orders. In terms of savagery and divine enthusiasm for the slaughter of innocents, the Koran contains nothing analogous to the account in Joshua chapters 10-11.
Another theory, suggested bySatoshi Kanazawa, blames sexual frustration. The promise of sexual bliss in the afterlife for the fighter for the faith is unique to Islam; and polygyny, segregation of the sexes, and normative proscriptions against premarital sex may make young Muslim men particularly prone to violence.
But what little we know about the sex lives of terrorists leaves room for skepticism. In his sample of Islamist terrorists for whom he obtained family status information, Marc Sageman found that most were married men who had children. The top leaders of terrorist organizations, moreover, have been polygynous rock stars in their own earthly communities. For Osama bin Laden, heaven could wait; for Ayman al-Zawahiri, it still can.
Another explanation finds historical rather than scriptural or social cause for terrorism and casts Muslims as bearers of legitimate, age-old grievances. The Crusades, according to Karen Armstrong, are the supreme cause of Muslim resentment.
Yet attributing current-day violence to events that occurred a millennium ago is questionable, especially since the Muslims under Saladin won the wars against the Christian interlopers and retained the Holy Land.
But the truth is, in the contemporary world, Christians won big. And the frustration and humiliation that Muslims now feel as a result can help explain terrorism. That frustration and humiliation is rooted in politics rather than sex and in modern experience rather than deep history. And it has little to do with the Koran.
Let’s consider a few simple facts: Christians drew the boundaries of the states in which most Muslims live. They named those same formations, from “Senegal” to “Jordan” to “Indonesia.” Currently, people in Christian countries make up one-third of the world’s population, while holding two-thirds of its wealth and nine-tenths of its military might.
Now let’s engage in some extravagant futuristic thinking. Imagine that, over the next several decades, Christendom declines. Imperial overstretch cripples the United States, while Western Europe’s gradual decline continues. Lower hydrocarbons prices and rulers’ boundless greed leave Russia in a position of fading sway as well. Latin America’s yawning socioeconomic inequalities persist, producing chronic instability. Plagued by disease, war and weak governance, Christian southern and central Africa are trapped in poverty and turmoil.
As Christendom declines, non-Christian nations rise. China’s economy continues to soar, and China replaces the United States as the world’s most influential country. In an effort to access mineral wealth, expand foreign markets to absorb its exports and resist competition from a declining West, China undertakes a long-term program of investment in the Arab world, Iran and parts of Muslim Africa. The Middle East and Muslim Africa grow in economic power and global political influence.
Turkey and Turkic Muslim Central Asia, spurned by Europe and pressured by Russia, turn south and east. They embrace Chinese tutelage in exchange for investment and security guarantees. Arabs and Persians, many of whom associate Turkish military leadership with the long centuries of caliphal glory, welcome the Turks into the fold.
In Southeast Asia, Indonesia and Malaysia move from their medium-high tempo of economic growth to Chinese-style expansion. They assume regional leadership as the Philippines, Thailand and Burma remain mired in chronic political instability. With their Muslim majorities and Chinese minorities, Indonesia and Malaysia embody and bolster ties between China and the Muslim world. Singapore, with its Chinese majority and Malay-Muslim minority, aligns itself with China, Indonesia and Malaysia. In South Asia, India’s rise founders on the rocks of social inequality and bureaucratic torpor, and in any event the country’s influence is counterbalanced by Pakistan and Bangladesh, which enjoy close ties with Muslim countries and with China.
In order to participate successfully in the global economy as well as scholarly discourse and cultural production, Americans, Frenchmen, Brazilians and Russians now must master Mandarin and Modern Standard Arabic — with Turkish and Indonesian strongly recommended. Arab countries easily dismantle the state of Israel. The occasional invasion and occupation of parts of Russia, Southeastern Europe and the Philippines at moments when China or the Muslim countries believe they detect a security threat from those Christian lands becomes part of the rhythm of global politics. Such actions spark outrage in Christendom. But they do not prompt concerted, effective counteractions, since Christian countries no longer have the ability or will to resist.
In fact, many leaders in Europe and the Americas cannot resist financial enticements offered by China and the Muslim states, which help fund electoral campaigns and personal consumption. The lucre cools Western leaders’ passions for resisting what at any rate seem like inexorable trends in world politics.
Would everyone in Christendom accept these developments calmly? Some might not. Disregard for their cultures, languages, forms of government, products, services and security concerns may even ignite a widespread, slow-burning rage. The suspicion that even some of their own leaders were complicit in their countries’ degradation might be the final straw.
The final straw, that is, that broke a healthy human abhorrence of deadly violence against innocents and a normal human capacity for distinguishing between innocents and oppressors. Under such conditions, is it difficult to imagine that some self-proclaimed soldiers of Christianity would lash out by committing terrorist acts? Might not Eric Robert Rudolph of the Christian Identity movement, who carried out the Centennial Park bombing in Atlanta during the 1996 Olympics and a string of other bombings to protest abortion and homosexuality;, and James Charles Kopp, an affiliate of The Lambs of Christ movement who murdered a physician who performed abortions in 1998, turn their ire on those whom they regard as enemies of their country and faith? Is it not possible that Timothy McVeigh, who bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, might target Muslim overlords rather than the Feds?
And might not some Christians countenance such acts — or even applaud them? The slaughterers just mentioned enjoyed vocal support among some extremist groups as well as quieter, more diffuse sympathy among broader sections of the American population. Rudolph was feted in popular music and lore and shielded by local communities in North Carolina where he hid during his years as a fugitive prior to his 2003 arrest. McVeigh was lionized by some antigovernment extremists and became an object of fascination among many others. In the hypothetical scenario sketched here, isn’t it possible that some Christians would sympathize with terrorism against Muslims and non-Muslims who they regard as collaborators?
True, the peaceable Christian majority might inveigh tirelessly against attacks on innocents. But even these good people might refrain from vigorously condemning the radicals in their midst out of fear of being identified with the oppressors.
The realism or likelihood of our scenario is of little importance. What matters is first, recognizing that it simply flips the power relationship between Christians and Muslims that actually exists in today’s world; and second, pondering what Christians’ reaction to a reversal of fortunes might be.
There is no justification for slaying and maiming innocents. Terrorism can never be justified. But it can be explained.
Just read that the fire alarm has gone off twice in the past three nights at the hotel where the New England Patriots are staying in preparation for the Super Bowl.
False alarms both times.
Must be something electrical, atmospheric, mechanical, etc.
It's been a while since I've written about this topic, but it continues to make a tremendously positive impact on my life. This article brought it home again.
From The Atlantic (apologies for the formatting errors) -
The Forgiveness Boost
Making amends with those who trespass against us yields a number of physical and mental benefits. Sometimes even victims of the worst crimes can find solace in letting go.
Lauren Giordano/The Atlantic On New Year’s Eve in 1995, Frances McNeill, a 78-year-old woman who lived alone in Knoxville, Tennessee, went to bed early. Outside, someone watched the house lights flick off. Figuring its inhabitants were gone for the night, he made his move.
McNeill awoke to the sound of the intruder rummaging through her bookshelves and drawers. She walked out of her bedroom and crept up behind him. He swiveled around, raised his crowbar high above his head, and bludgeoned McNeill to death. Afterward, he raped her with a wine bottle.
The next morning, McNeill’s son, Mike, discovered her body on the blood-stained carpet. Mike frantically called his older brother, Everett Worthington, who drove over to the house right away.
For the next 24 hours, the brothers seethed with rage.
“It was a traumatic scene and terrible to walk through the house I was raised and see the evidence of all this violence,” said Worthington, who recalled the incident recently. “At one point, I pointed to a baseball bat and thought, 'I wish that guy was here so I could beat his brains out.'”
Worthington, who was (and remains) a professor of psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University, had at that point been actively researching the psychology of forgiveness for several years. He was studying how people forgive and how forgiveness can work alongside justice.
"I thought, ‘Oh man, here is a guy who has written a book about forgiveness, has taught about this,’” Worthington said of himself. Surely, he thought, an expert on forgiveness could find a way to make peace with even the most heinous perpetrator.
He decided he was going to try to forgive the killer.
Mind you, Worthington does not forgive easily. He says he once had a professor who gave him a B and it took him “10 years and a religious experience to forgive that guy.” But he knew from his research that carrying around the anger over his mother’s homicide would be worse than the painful process of absolution.
To do it, Worthington used his own, five-step “REACH” method of forgiveness. First, you “recall” the incident, including all the hurt. “Empathize” with the person who wronged you. Then, you give them the “altruistic gift” of forgiveness, maybe by recalling how good it felt to be forgiven by someone you yourself have wronged. Next, “commit” yourself to forgive publicly by telling a friend or the person you’re forgiving. Finally, “hold” onto forgiveness. Even when feelings of anger surface, remind yourself that you’ve already forgiven.
What helped on the empathy front, Worthington says, was that after the intruder killed McNeill, he ran from room to room, smashing all of the mirrors with the crowbar—even in the rooms he didn’t search. Worthington took it as a sign that he couldn’t look at himself.
“I started thinking about this from the point of view of someone who is keyed up and think they have perfect crime, and this woman is looking at them right in the face, and he has the means right in his hand,” Worthington said. (It’s worth noting that no one has been convicted in the murder, and the case against the leading suspect was dropped. I’m using male pronouns, but this might have been a woman.)
After that first, agonizing 24 hours following his mother’s death came another 20 or so during which Worthington says he went through all five REACH steps. He forgave his mother’s murderer completely. He says it was important to do so right away.
“I was emotionally aroused, and that magnified all the emotional experiences I was having,” he said. “So when I had the experience of working through and forgiving this person, it gave it a little extra power. If I had done it two days later, when I was calmed down, probably it wouldn't have had as much effect.”
Talking about the “benefits of forgiveness” can feel slightly self-serving, like donating to charity only so you can tell people about it later. But one reason why people might avoid forgiving is that it feels like the offender gets away with something—especially if he or she never apologized. In that sense, at least, it’s worth considering what’s in it for the forgiver. And as it turns out, there’s a lot.
First, there’s a sizable and immediate mental-health boost. Worthington says that an eight-hour forgiveness workshop can reduce subjects’ depression and anxiety levels as much as several months of psychotherapy would.
But beyond that, forgiving people are markedly physically healthier than unforgiving ones. A 2005 study published in the Journal of Behavioral Medicinefound that participants who considered themselves more forgiving had better health across five measures: physical symptoms, the number of medications used, sleep quality, fatigue, and medical complaints. The study authors found that this was because the process of forgiveness tamped down negative emotions and stress.
“The victim relinquishes ideas of revenge, and feels less hostile, angry, or upset about the experience,” the authors wrote.
In 2011, a group of researchers asked 68 married couples to rehash a recent fight, and they recorded the discussion on video. The participants then watched the videos back and described how conciliatorily they behaved toward their partners, using phrases like “I tried to comfort my partner,” or conversely, “I wanted to keep as much distance between us as possible.” The scientists found that the more peaceable the "victims" of each fight were (the ones accused of not doing their fair share of the chores, say, or of invading the other’s privacy), the lower their blood pressure readings were. Their partners’ blood pressure was lower, too. In other words, both granting and receiving forgiveness seemingly brought down the tension level of the entire marriage. Importantly, it didn’t matter whether the instigator of the fight had tried to make amends: “The power to grant forgiveness (and its benefits) rests with victims,” the authors concluded. Forgiving study participants perceived a hill to be 5 degrees less steep than unforgiving ones did. (Social Psychological and Personality Science)
This replicated past research, from 2001, showing that when study subjects were told to mentally rehearse a hurtful memory in a resentful way, versus an empathetic and forgiving way, they had faster heart rates and larger blood pressure changes. They also showed more tension in their facial muscles.
When someone holds a grudge, their body courses with high levels of cortisol, the stress hormone. When cortisol surges at chronically high levels for long periods of time, Worthington says, it can reduce brain size, sex drive, and digestive ability.
Perhaps most surprisingly, though, forgiveness can also help with things that have nothing to do with physical or mental health.
In a study recently published in Social Psychological and Personality Science, 46 participants were divided into two groups: One set were asked to write about a time when someone wronged them and they forgave the person, and the other group was asked about a time when they did not forgive the offender. Afterward, all of the subjects were led outside to gaze upon a large hill. The “unforgiving” group thought the hill was about 5 degrees steeper than the forgiving group did. Then, all the participants were asked to jump up and down. The forgiving group jumped seven centimeters higher, on average.
The experiments showed how a grudge can weigh a person down—literally—says Ryan Fehr, an assistant professor of management at the University of Washington and an author of the study.
“If you’re primed with having a heavy burden, it makes you feel heavy,” he said. “The metaphor becomes real life.”
For all its merits, forgiveness isn’t a cure-all, and it’s not always the best thing to do, Fehr said. “If you have someone who is really unrepentant and keeps offending you over time, maybe not.”
There’s some evidence, for example, that forgiving a romantic partner’s offenses can drag down a person’s self-respect if the partner hasn’t made amends and the infraction was severe. (This is called, fittingly, “the doormat effect.”) And forgiveness is not always the valorous high-road that it might seem. When the psychologists Sarah Stanton and Eli Finkel tired out a set of participants by making them take a difficult test, they found that they were less forgiving of a hypothetical severe transgression (their partners cheating) but more forgiving of a minor one (their partners not calling when they said they would.) Sometimes people are just “too tired to take offense at their partner's bad behavior,” they write. But it’s unclear whether this type of “eh, whatever” relationship is a truly healthy one. Keoni Cabral/FlickrTo Worthington, forgiveness is worth doing even when the target is a person whom it’s difficult to emotionally acquit—and sometimes, that person is ourselves.
Mike, the brother who discovered Worthington’s mother’s body, was never quite the same after she died. He suffered from extreme PTSD, and he asked Worthington for help with his flashbacks and other symptoms. Worthington tried to help—he recommended counseling and the like—but Mike never seemed to want to go through with it. “I tried to help him, but we had too many adolescent conflicts left over in our relationship,” Worthington said.
In 2005, Mike killed himself. Worthington then faced, as he describes it, the even more Herculean task of getting over his own self-blame. “I had struggles with God, like, ‘How did this happen?’”
Worthington worked on his relationship with God, and he tried to make what he calls “social repairs.” In a suicide note, Mike had mentioned financial problems, so Worthington helped Mike’s widow with them. It took three long years, he says, but Worthington was eventually able to forgive himself.
“I couldn't bring my brother back to life, but there's a pay-it-forward that you do,” he said. “I try to help other people avoid the problems I went through. I felt like, as much as you can put anything like that behind you, I was able to put it behind me.”
Buy some Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, whether you like ice cream or not. Once you've bought yours, buy some for me. These guys are taking a stand for what's right.
Molokai, Hawaii, is the fifth largest of the Hawaii Islands, with a population of roughly 7,000. It is most famous for housing a small colony of lepers, which operated until the late 1960s or early 1970s. (Currently, there are no known cases of leprosy on Molokai.) Nowadays, Molokai is a tourist destination – National Geographic Traveler recently placed it in its top 10 islands to visit.
But if you go, do not send a postcard. Send a coconut. An unboxed, unpackaged coconut. If you go to Molokai’s Hoolehua post office, you can do exactly that — for free. (You just pay for the shipping.)
It’s called a “Post-a-Nut” and the process is amazingly simple. Take a coconut from one of the plastic bins on the floor, as seen above (larger, original here). Grab a marker. Address and decorate your coconut. Then give it to this man – he’s the postmaster, Gary Lam. He’ll weigh it, look to see where it is going, and ask you for the appropriate amount in postage. (Domestically, mailing the coconut will cost about $10-12 and take as long as a week.) No envelope is needed nor, for that matter, recommended.
For more pictures — including a great shot of some decorated coconuts set aside as examples for would-be mailers — check out this article on BoingBoing. Want to try it yourself? The Hoolehua post office is open Monday through Friday, 7:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. local time, but closes each day from 11:30 A.M. to 12:30 P.M. for lunch.
Bonus fact: Internet lore gives us two dubious claims about coconuts. First, there is a rumor that 150 people die each year from being struck on the head from coconuts falling from trees — about ten times the number of people who die, annually, from shark attacks. As per The Straight Dope, that’s untrue. (Sorry.) Second, legend has it that coconut water can be used in lieu of blood in cases requiring an emergency transfusion. The Straight Dope, again, gets to the bottom of it, and concludes that this is mostly incorrect, although “it works in a pinch.”
From the Archives: Hawaii Dollars: Special money made for Hawaii, in case of a Japanese takeover.
Related: “Moloka’i,” by Alan Brennert. A fictionalized historical novel of a Hawaiian woman who contracts leprosy and is segregated into Molokai’s leper colony. 4.5 stars on 210 reviews; 153 reviews are of the five-star variety. $8.81 in paperback, $9.95 on Kindle.
Snowpocalypse, Snowmageddon, whatever hyperbolic name you're calling it, it's here.
The Northeast is facing a snowstorm of epic proportions so we're getting prepared the only way we know how: making sarcastic charts about our impending doom. Don't you worry, though. As long as you've got shelter, food, water and Netflix, you're probably going to be okay.
So for those of you who find yourself out of work, out of school or out of shows to stream during the storm, scroll down for 7 charts that will help you put #Snowmageddon2015 into perspective.
1
HuffPost Comedy
Get ready to binge.
2
HuffPost Comedy
That roll of dough isn't making it to the oven.
3
HuffPost Comedy
Just remember to tip. A lot.
4
HuffPost Comedy
Why bother?
5
HuffPost Comedy
What even are books?
6
HuffPost Comedy
And never the two shall meet.
7
HuffPost Comedy
That neighbor boy is going to make out like a bandit.
Below is a really interesting article on goat over-population on an island and what was done to eradicate them.
It comes from www.nowIknow.com.
The Judas Goat
In the summer of 1959, a group of fishermen made their way to the Galapagos Islands, specifically the tiny island of Pinta (here’s a map). They came prepared for the long haul, bringing food with them in case they didn’t catch enough fish. That food was in the form of three live goats, which the fishermen were going to raise on Pinta. This may not be palatable to everyone — especially not Americans – but goat is actually a pretty common source of red meat. As New York magazine once noted, it’s a “dietary staple in most of of the world” that is “high in protein as beef, lower in fat than chicken, and relatively easy to raise.” Goats can be pretty useful if you’re a bunch of fishermen on a relatively remote island. So the fishermen’s decision was probably a good one — albeit very, very shortsighted. Unfortunately, one of the reasons goats are relatively easy to raise is because they’re generally indiscriminate eaters. They’ll graze upon all sorts of things. And another problem is that goats breed, and quickly, especially if they’re in an area without any predators. Like, say, a remote island in the Pacific which, beforehand, had never been host to even a single goat. The fishermen’s goats started grazing and making goat babies, and by the 1970s, as Modern Farmer reported, the goat population on Pinta exploded to 40,000. Meanwhile, the native plant life on the island was being slowly eradicated by the feeding goats. Goats were transported to some of the other Galapagos Islands and, similarly, their populations quickly spiraled out of control. Something had to be done, and in 1997, the Galapagos Islands instituted something called “Project Isabela,” designed to restore the ecology of the area. To do so, they had to kill the goats. All the goats. First, Project Isabela employed what was called “aerial hunting” – helicopters hovered over the area, guns blazing, killing goats in high numbers (and quickly). (Here’s a short video, and while it’s not terribly graphic, you may want to skip it nonetheless.) As the numbers were pared down, the Galapagos anti-goat team entered the ground war phase of the operation, hunting goats on land. This dwindled the number of goats to only a few stragglers, possibly in the dozens or low hundreds. But the target number of goats was zero — which makes sense, given that the entire problem began with only a trio of goats in the first place. Finding those last few goats was critical to Project Isabela’s success, and that proved difficult. Killing off some of the goats when there are literally tens of thousands of them running around a very small island, well, that’s not all that hard — no matter where you attack, you’re likely to find some, but searching for one of only a few goats running around an entire island? That’s much harder. The solution: more goats! That sounds counter-productive, but wait, there’s more. These were special goats – ”Judas goats” — which were specially engineered for the seek-and-destroy job. (Well, the “seek” part, at least.) The Judas goats were like any other goats with two changes. First, they were sterilized — which makes sense generally if you’re trying to control the population, but in this case, was critically important. That’s because the second change was to cause a hormonal imbalance in these goats, making them permanently in heat. Goats are naturally herd animals, so the always-in-heat but sterile Judas goat would naturally attract a following. Once another goat started to hang out with the Judas goat, the goat hunters would step in. By 2006, the invasive goat population in this part of the Galapagos Islands was eradicated. Much of the geographically-specific flora has recovered and is growing once more. The threat of another goat takeover, however, isn’t entirely gone. Some Galapagos natives have taken to raising small goat herds, so there are still a few of the animals in the area. And, in a comical sense, the goat-related warfare is hardly over. Modern Farmer explains: “Additionally, goats have become an odd political bargaining chip. When local fishermen are displeased with government fishing regulation, [the man who ran Project Isabela, Dr. Karl] Campbell says they retaliate by releasing new goats on the islands. ‘It’s reintroduction as a malicious act,” says Campbell, “a way to spite the park service.’” AnchorBonus Fact: A secondary problem of having all those goats on the Galapagos Islands occurred after the eradication efforts began: you have goat corpses everywhere, rotting. But as the same Modern Farmer article pointed out, that’s OK: “The goats had consumed valuable island nutrients. Exporting their meat would remove these nutrients from the island forever.” By leaving the dead goats where they were, those nutrients returned to the soil. From the Archives: Google’s Lawn Mowing Goats: Goats that eat grass and keep Google’s lawn clean. Related: “Getting Your Goat: The Ultimate Guide to Cooking Goat Meat with Original Recipes and Classic Stories.” The book’s description begins thusly: “Please stop hyperventilating at the title of this book,” suggesting that it’s not for everyone.
Cuban kids have "jimmie-rigged" their computer network to get the Internet.
You gotta love their ingenuity.
Cuban youth build secret computer network despite Wi-Fi ban
By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN Published: Today
In this Jan. 4, 2015 photo, the computer, modem and intranet network cabling belonging to Rafael Antonio Broche Moreno sits on a desk at his home in Havana. Home Internet connections are banned for all but a handful of Cubans, and the government charges nearly a quarter of a month’s salary for an hour online in government-run hotels and Internet centers. But a small minority have covertly engineered a partial solution by pooling funds to create a private network of more than 9,000 computers with small, inexpensive but powerful hidden Wi-Fi antennas and Ethernet cables strung over streets and rooftops spanning the entire city. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
HAVANA (AP) - Cut off from the Internet, young Cubans have quietly linked thousands of computers into a hidden network that stretches miles across Havana, letting them chat with friends, play games and download hit movies in a mini-replica of the online world that most can't access.
Home Internet connections are banned for all but a handful of Cubans, and the government charges nearly a quarter of a month's salary for an hour online in government-run hotels and Internet centers. As a result, most people on the island live offline, complaining about their lack of access to information and contact with friends and family abroad.
A small minority have covertly engineered a partial solution by pooling funds to create a private network of more than 9,000 computers with small, inexpensive but powerful hidden Wi-Fi antennas and Ethernet cables strung over streets and rooftops spanning the entire city. Disconnected from the real Internet, the network is limited, local and built with equipment commercially available around the world, with no help from any outside government, organizers say.
Hundreds are online at any moment pretending to be orcs or U.S. soldiers in multiplayer online games such as "World of Warcraft" or "Call of Duty." They trade jokes and photos in chat rooms and organize real-world events like house parties or trips to the beach.
"We really need Internet because there's so much information online, but at least this satisfies you a little bit because you feel like, 'I'm connected with a bunch of people, talking to them, sharing files," said Rafael Antonio Broche Moreno, a 22-year-old electrical engineer who helped build the network known as SNet, short for street net.
Cuba's status as one of the world's least-wired countries is central to the new relationship Washington is trying to forge with Havana. As part of a new policy seeking broader engagement, the Obama administration hopes that encouraging wider U.S. technology sales to the island will widen Internet access and help increase Cubans' independence from the state and lay the groundwork for political reform.
Cuban officials say Internet access is limited largely because the U.S. trade embargo has prevented advanced U.S. technology from reaching Cuba and starved the government of the cash it needs to buy equipment from other nations. But the government says that while it is open to buying telecommunications equipment from the U.S., it sees no possibility of changing its broader system in exchange for normal relations with the U.S.
Outside observers and many Cubans blame the lack of Internet on the government's desire to control the populace and to use disproportionately high cellphone and Internet charges as a source of cash for other government agencies.
Cuba prohibits the use of Wi-Fi equipment without a license from the Ministry of Communications, making SNet technically illegal. Broche Moreno said he believes the law gives authorities latitude to allow networks like SNet to operate. He described a sort of tacit understanding with officials that lets SNet run unmolested as long as it respects Cuban law - its hundreds of nodes are informally monitored by volunteer administrators who make sure users don't share pornography, discuss politics or link SNet to illicit connections to the real Internet.
"We aren't anonymous because the country has to know that this type of network exists. They have to protect the country and they know that 9,000 users can be put to any purpose," he said. "We don't mess with anybody. All we want to do is play games, share healthy ideas. We don't try to influence the government or what's happening in Cuba ... We do the right thing and they let us keep at it."
Users who break rules can be blocked from the network by their peers for as a little as a day for minor infractions such as slowing down SNet with file-sharing outside prescribed hours, with lifetime bans for violations like distributing pornography.
"Users show a lot of respect for preserving the network, because it's the only one they have," Broche Moreno said. "But me and the other administrators are watching things to make sure the network does what it's meant for."
The Cuban government did not respond to a request for comment on the network.
Before Obama moved to restore full diplomatic ties with Cuba, the U.S. made several attempts to leverage technology against the Cuban government. Contractor Alan Gross was sentenced to 15 years in prison after a U.S. Agency for International Development contractor sent him to Cuba to set up satellite Internet connections. He was freed after five years as part of the deal last month that paved the way for Obama's new Cuba policy.
A separate USAID contractor tried to build a text message-based social network called Zunzuneo whose brief existence was revealed in an Associated Press investigation last year.
Joining SNet requires resources out of reach of many people in a country where the average salary hovers around $25 a month.
Humberto Vinas, 25, studied medical technology and accounting before finding a relatively well-paying job in the kitchen of a bar. He and nine friends shared an SNet node for several months, running hundreds of feet of Ethernet cable over neighbors' roofs until one demanded they take it down, disconnecting most from the network.
"I miss SNet a lot," he said sadly. "You can find out about soccer scores. It allows you to do so much, right from your home."
Cubans have one of the hemisphere's highest average levels of education and years of practice at improvising solutions to scarcity, allowing many to access and share information despite enormous barriers. For as little as a dollar a week or less, many Cubans receive what's known as "the package," weekly deliveries of pirated TV shows, movies, magazines and instructional texts and videos saved on USB memory drives.
There is no obvious indication the U.S. or any other foreign government or group had anything to do with the creation of SNet, making it by far the most impressive example of Cuba's homemade telecommunications engineering.
The network is a series of connected nodes, powerful home computers with extra-strong Wi-Fi antennas that communicate with each other across relatively long distances and distribute signals to a smaller network of perhaps a dozen other computers in the immediate vicinity.
SNet started as a handful of connected users around 2001 and stayed that way for a decade. More than 9,000 computers have connected over the past five years, and about 2,000 users connect on an average day.
Many use SNet to get access to popular TV shows and movies. The system also stores a copy of Wikipedia. It's not necessarily current, but is routinely refreshed by users with true Internet access. There's also a homegrown version of a social network that functions similarly to Facebook.
Because most data passes from computer to computer in SNet, everything takes place much faster than on the achingly slow and expensive connections available from government servers that pass all information through central points.
Broche Moreno estimated it costs about $200 to equip a group of computers with the antennas and cables needed to become a new node, meaning the cost of networking all the computers in SNet could be as little as $200,000. Similar but smaller networks exist in other Cuban cities and provinces.
"It's proof that it can be done," said Alien Garcia, a 30-year-old systems engineer who publishes a magazine on information technology that's distributed by email and storage devices. "If I as a private citizen can put up a network with far less income than a government, a country should be able to do it, too, no?"
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Associated Press writer Anne-Marie Garcia contributed to this report.
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Michael Weissenstein on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mweissenstein
Another black kid was stopped at gunpoint coming out of the library at Yale. We know about this one because his father is a columnist for the New York Times.
How many others happen every day that we don't hear about?
French arrests raise question: Is free speech for all?
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By JILL LAWLESS Published: Today
FILE - In this Jan. 11, 2014 file photo, French comedian Dieudonne M'Bala M'Bala arrives for a press conference in a theater in Paris, France. When cartoonists at a French publication that had poked fun at the Prophet Muhammad were shot dead, millions around the world felt it as an attack on freedom of speech. Since the rampage, French authorities have arrested dozens of people _ including Dieudonne M'Bala M'Bala _ for appearing to praise the terrorists or encourage more attacks. That has unleashed accusations of a double standard, in which free speech applies to those who mock Islam while Muslims are penalized for expressing their own provocative views. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)
LONDON (AP) - When cartoonists at a French publication that had poked fun at the Prophet Muhammad were shot dead, millions around the world felt it as an attack on freedom of speech.
Since the rampage that left four dead at a kosher supermarket and 12 at the Charlie Hebdo offices, French authorities have arrested dozens of people - including a comedian - for appearing to praise the terrorists or encourage more attacks. That has unleashed accusations of a double standard, in which free speech applies to those who mock Islam while Muslims are penalized for expressing their own provocative views. Many Muslims complain that France aggressively prosecutes anti-Semitic slurs, but that they are not protected from similar racist speech.
French police have arrested more than 70 people since the attacks for allegedly defending or glorifying terrorism. The most famous is comedian Dieudonne M'bala M'bala, charged over a Facebook post saying "I feel like Charlie Coulibaly" - a merger of the names of magazine Charlie Hebdo and Amedy Coulibaly, the attacker who killed four hostages at the supermarket. The comic also has repeatedly been prosecuted for anti-Semitism.
Dieudonne later suggested he was being silenced by free-speech hypocrisy. "You consider me like Amedy Coulibaly when I am no different from Charlie," he wrote in an open letter to French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.
Many countries have laws limiting free speech, and on paper most hate-speech rules do not discriminate against any particular faith or group. In Britain, recent prosecutions include a white supremacist convicted of sending a threatening anti-Semitic tweet to a lawmaker; a Muslim teenager tried for posting on Facebook that "all soldiers should die and go to hell"; and a 22-year-old man jailed for posting anti-Muslim comments on Facebook after two al-Qaida-inspired attackers murdered soldier Lee Rigby.
French law bans promoting racial or religious hatred, as well as inciting or defending terrorism or crimes against humanity - a line that prosecutors say Dieudonne's remarks crossed.
Blasphemy, in contrast, is not illegal in France, so Charlie Hebdo's mockery of religion is regarded differently.
But the line between religious satire and hate speech is not always clear, and Charlie Hebdo was sued by Muslim groups for "publicly abusing a group of people because of their religion" over cartoons it ran in 2006. The paper was acquitted, with the court ruling that the cartoons took aim at extremists, not Islam.
And Muslims are not the only ones to have taken offense at the paper. For example, Charlie Hebdo also has been sued by Roman Catholic groups. Defenders of Charlie Hebdo argue that the cartoonists are not motivated by hatred or a desire to spread discrimination when they make fun of religion.
The latest French arrests have been criticized by Amnesty International, which has expressed concern about a new French law that permits sentences of up to seven years in prison for defending or inciting terrorism.
The human rights group says some prosecutions have been excessive, including that of a drunk man who praised Paris attackers the Kouachi brothers and told police: "I hope you will be next." He was sentenced to four years in prison.
"You have a French society that considers, not unjustly, that freedom of expression itself has come under attack," said Amnesty Europe Director John Dalhuisen. "You have to attack the criminals, but not in a way that undermines the idea."
John Keane, an Australian political scientist who has studied the history of Islam in Europe, said the arrests add to a widespread perception among Muslims that "the satirizing of Jewish people and the insult of Jewish people is not permitted under French law, and yet that same principle, for the moment, does not apply to Muslims."
Despite that perception of a double standard, Europe's Muslim and Jewish communities feel a common anxiety in the wake of the Paris attacks that authorities are not doing enough to protect them or counter hatred.
Fiyaz Mughal, director of a British project called Tell Mama that monitors anti-Muslim incidents, said he had sensed "cumulative fear growing in the Muslim communities" ever since the killing of soldier Lee Rigby on a suburban London street in 2013, with attacks on mosques and Islamic centers and a rising volume of abuse on social media. Another spike in abuse followed the Paris attacks.
"The language is moving from general anti-Islamic, anti-Muslim rhetoric to more targeted threat rhetoric," he said, and urged Facebook and Twitter to respond more quickly to complaints about hateful posts.
Jonathan Sacerdoti of Britain's Campaign Against Anti-Semitism said many British Jews feared that hatred against them was on the rise, and felt hate speech laws were not being applied firmly enough.
He said that during protests against Israel's Gaza war last year, some demonstrators held banners saying "Hitler was right" and "Hitler should have finished the job."
"These aren't examples of legitimate debate," Sacerdoti said. "These are examples of hate speech ... that made some Jewish people on the streets of London feel afraid."
The two communities may have similar fears, but they occupy different positions in European societies, and have widely differing views of the way they are treated.
Jewish communities in Britain and elsewhere have been established for centuries. The shaming example of the Holocaust has helped spur European governments to denounce anti-Semitism and work to ensure such genocide never happens again. In several European countries, including France, denying the Holocaust is a crime.
Muslims arrived in large numbers more recently, and often tend to be poorer than the national average. Many Muslims feel they are unfairly blamed for terrorist acts by extremists.
Keane said many Muslims feel they "are treated as second-class citizens."
Jonathan Romain, a British Reform rabbi and commentator on ethical issues, said he sympathized with Muslim communities, who have had to adapt over recent decades to living in European countries where their faith is in a minority.
"Jews have had practice of that for 2,000 years," he said.
Some Muslims believe they can learn from the Jewish community how to counter anti-Islamic attacks. Tell Mama is modeled on the work of the Community Security Trust, a Jewish charity that monitors and combats anti-Semitism.
"The Jewish community has been far more vocal and far more organized," Mughal said.
"The best form of defeating hate is speaking and socially organizing. The Muslim community is in disarray in terms of its leadership, its messaging."
Mughal sees signs of hope in the same place he often finds hate - online.
When a commentator on Fox News said Birmingham, England's second-largest city, was "totally Muslim," British Muslims and non-Muslims united in satire. Soon a Twitter campaign under the hashtag #foxnewsfacts was offering comically bogus snippets of information: a photo of hajj pilgrims labeled as the crowd at a local soccer match, a Mecca-brand bingo hall as proof of Islamic domination, a picture of Birmingham's BT tower presented as the city's "main minaret."
Mughal said it was an example of "communities coming together and having a laugh about stupidity, but also about some of the sensitive issues" about difference and integration in Britain.
Romain, the rabbi, said that instead of trying to silence offensive speech, people of all faiths could learn from the deft response of the Mormon church to irreverent stage musical "The Book of Mormon."
"They didn't scream and shout outside. They didn't harass the actors," he said. "They took out a full-page advert in the program saying, 'You've seen the play. Now come to one of our churches and see the difference.'"
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Follow Jill Lawless on http://Twitter.com/JillLawless
