May 21, 2015

Group demands UC action against anti-Semitism on campuses

More than a dozen Jewish alumni and others citing an escalation of anti-Semitic acts across University of California campuses presented the regents with nearly 700 signatures Wednesday urging them to adopt the U.S. State Department’s definition of anti-Semitism.
Just one speaker, a Jewish woman, echoed pro-Palestinian groups that say defining anti-Semitism would repress criticism of Israel on campuses. But those calling for UC to adopt the definition said it would help clarify the difference between legitimate protest of Israeli policies and outright anti-Semitism.

“We are urging you to address anti-Semitism with the same vigor as you do all other forms of bigotry,” said Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, a UC Santa Cruz lecturer who co-founded Amcha, a coalition of Jewish groups that collected 683 signatures. Its name is Hebrew for “your people,” and the group says it exists to combat anti-Semitism in higher education.

No students addressed the regents on the issue. Clashes over Israel and anti-Semitism are increasingly common at UC and campuses across the country as calls for universities to boycott, sanction and divest from Israel have grown in popularity. The animosity also made its way to regents meetings in recent years, when anti-Israel activist Sadia Saifuddin and pro-Israel activist Avi Oved were selected as student regents. Saifuddin is about to complete her year on the board, and Oved, who has served as the non-voting student regent-designate, will take her place this summer.

The regents have no official definition of anti-Semitism, but do have a policy protecting free speech. Regents Chairman Bruce Varner and UC President Janet Napolitano have condemned bigotry.

http://www.sfgate.com/education/article/Group-demands-UC-action-as-anti-Semitsm-escalates-6276974.php

May 21, 2015

China may have edge in race to build California's bullet train

Chinese state firms are poised to be strong contenders in the race to make high-speed trains that will sprint between Los Angeles and San Francisco, part of a $68 billion project to bring the service to the United States for the first time.

While "bullet train" manufacturers from Germany, Japan, South Korea, and France are expected to be among those jockeying for the estimated $1 billion train contract, China’s ability to offer low prices and hefty financing appear to make it the one to beat, say lobbyists and industry insiders.

Lacking experience in the technology, California must turn to foreign firms to build the trains – albeit domestically and with American workers - setting off a geopolitical race to grab a foothold in the nascent U.S. high-speed rail industry.

Germany's Siemens is expanding its rail factory in Sacramento to incorporate a “high-speed lot.” Japan has voiced its interest, boasting a record of no fatal accidents in over 50 years operating high-speed trains. France’s Alstom, which produces rail cars in upstate New York, is also a potential contender.

Awarding a piece of America’s most ambitious and expensive infrastructure project in decades to strategic rival China – over a long-term ally such as Japan - would be prone to political controversy.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/china-may-edge-race-build-californias-bullet-train-051720518--sector.html

May 21, 2015

Hispanic vote to jump from 12 million to 16 million, will decide presidency

Jorge Ramos, the influential host of Univision's Noticiero Univision, said the Latino vote will decide the 2016 presidential election and that Hispanics could see a reward for providing the margin of victory.

In an interview with Harvard University's Institute of Politics following a speech to students, Ramos predicted that about 16 million Hispanics will go to the polls, likely to vote Democratic based on past trends.

He said that there is a "new rule" in politics — winning the White House can't be done without Hispanics."

And since he believes Latinos will supply the winner with a victory, "for the first time, we could get something in return for our vote," said Ramos.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/will-latinos-determine-the-next-president/article/2564781

May 21, 2015

Sy Hersh: Old, Cranky and Spot On

The famed and legendary investigative journalist Seymour M. Hersh has just done what he has been doing for the past four decades -- given us a view of the world that runs counter to both the official government story and the version told to the American public by the mainstream press. And, not surprisingly, both the government and the press are bashing him.

The 78-year-old Hersh has not created such a controversy with an exposé like his most recent one about the death of Osama bin Laden since the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal hit world-wide front pages in 2004.

When he revealed Abu Ghraib, and for many years after, Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld were his targets. And he hit them hard and repeatedly. Bush called him a liar; Rumsfeld, an old friend, stopped returning calls; Cheney just snarled. But there was not much to do about Sy Hersh because, mostly, he got the story and his facts right.

Hersh's alternative view of the multiple wars in the Middle East and the U.S. war on terrorism -- seen mostly in the pages of his long New Yorker dispatches -- is a candid and well reported account of screw-ups and cover-ups. And much of it was ignored by the mainstream media.

The government tried its best -- as have presidential administrations dating back to Lyndon Johnson -- to undermine Hersh's account of the Mideast. He is an untrustworthy lefty. He has gone off the deep end and is losing his marbles. He uses these anonymous sources who nobody knows and he just cannot be trusted.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-miraldi/sy-hersh-old-cranky-and-s_b_7307724.html

May 21, 2015

Israeli Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel gave the President Obama a rude welcome on twitter.

US President Barack Obama received a rude welcome on his newly opened personal Twitter account on Tuesday from a right-wing Israeli minister who made it clear the new government in Jerusalem has no plans to cease construction in disputed areas of the capital.

Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel of the pro-settler Bayit Yehudi party wrote: “Welcome! Happy Jerusalem Day! in case u didn׳t hear PM Netanyahu: "Jerusalem won't be divided again, we build all over the city."

The United States has been angered by Israeli settlement activity beyond the 1967 Green Line, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected international demands for a halt to construction in east Jerusalem.

Ariel’s tweet elicited angry reactions from Israeli Twitter users, one of whom wrote: “You remind me of a pyromaniac who lights things on fire and then rushes to tell his friends so that they don’t miss the blaze.”

http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Israeli-right-wing-minister-taunts-Obama-on-Twitter-over-Jerusalem-construction-403599

May 21, 2015

How the NSA is tracking people right now

Documents obtained by The Washington Post indicate that the National Security Agency is collecting billions of records a day to track the location of mobile phone users around the world. This bulk collection, performed under the NSA’s international surveillance authority, taps into the telephony links of majortelecommunications providers including some here in the United States. The NSA collects this location and travel habit data to do “target development” — to find unknown associates oftargets it already knows about.

To accomplish this, the NSA compiles information on a vast database of devices and their locations. Most of those collected, by definition, are suspected of no wrongdoing. Officials say they do not purposely collect U.S. phone locations in bulk, but a large number are swept up “incidentally.” Using these vast location databases, the NSA applies sophisticated analytics techniques to identify what it calls co-travelers — unknown associates who might be traveling with, or meeting up with a known target.

HERE IS HOW IT WORKS

http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/world/how-the-nsa-is-tracking-people-right-now/634/

May 21, 2015

Megastructures Kansai International Airport

May 21, 2015

Sprite: portable and rugged. A totally different drone.

From the body type alone, Sprite looks less like a drone and more like a sleek and modern water bottle aimed at hikers. It's a far cry from the standard four-rotored body of most drones, but that forms the Sprite’s central sales pitch: a portable drone, that can slide easily into a backpack for outdoor use.

Working from the top down, Sprite stands out not just because of its cylindrical body, but because of the two contra-rotating rotors on top. The rotors fold flat to the sides for transport. The body is waterproof, and pointed at the ground during flight is a small camera that can take pictures or record video. The creators promise 10 minutes of endurance for Sprite and a top speed of about 22 mph, so the drone can, in theory, cover a lot of ground in a very short time. The default method for flying Sprite is plotting a route via an app and then letting the autopilot take over, but there are options for directly controlling the drone as well.

Sprite is currently raising funds on Kickstarter, and they're about a third of the way to their $200,000 goal with 24 days left on the project.
Watch a short video of it below:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ascentaerosystems/sprite-the-portable-rugged-totally-different-small

May 21, 2015

Indonesia sinks 41 illegal fishing boats, including one from China

Indonesia yesterday sank a large Chinese vessel as well as 40 other foreign boats that had been caught fishing illegally in the country’s waters, a move likely to spark a strong reaction from Beijing and other regional capitals.

The 300 gross tonne Chinese vessel was destroyed with a low-explosive device on its hull in West Kalimantan, said Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti.

“This is not a show of force. This is just merely (us) enforcing our laws,” Ms Susi was quoted as saying by The Jakarta Post.

The Gui Xei Yu 12661 is the first Chinese boat to be sunk since Indonesian President Joko Widodo declared war on illegal foreign fishing boats last December.

http://www.todayonline.com/world/asia/indonesia-sinks-41-illegal-fishing-boats-including-one-china

May 21, 2015

Ron Wyden and five other Democrats supporting the Freedom Act Filibuster

C-Span Feed - http://www.c-span.org/video/?326084-1/senator-rand-paul-rky-nsa-surveillance&live

YouTube Feed -

https://twitter.com/RonWyden

https://twitter.com/hashtag/EndThisDragnet?src=hash

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_Freedom_Act