On the Gmail Hack: You Do Not Want This to Happen to You - James Fallows - Technology - The Atlantic

Learn how to best protect yourself from losing your digital everything.

Full article.

Fake news shows exemplars of "fair use"

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” has won nine straight Emmys as TV’s best talk show. But it has another legacy you probably don’t know about.

Watch any “Daily Show” and count the number of TV, movie and music clips you see or hear during the episode. Ten? Twenty?

While you’re doing that, note how often Stewart makes fun of the subject of the clip. (If he’s talking about CNN or Fox News Channel, this part will be easy.) Do the same for companion show “The Colbert Report.”

Now, guess how often Stewart and Colbert ask their attorneys to clear the rights to all those copyrighted clips.

America’s most acclaimed satirists turn out to also be our most powerful exploiters of “fair use,” the legal loophole that permits use of copyrighted works without the onerous and often expensive process of rights clearance.

Read the full article: Sample this show! Use of ‘fair use’ is growing: PopMatters:

Occupy* Libraries

The nationwide movement of  the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators has touched a nerve with librarians around the country.  As a demonstrator observed with a sign, "You know you are in trouble when the librarians march." There is an Occupy Wall Street Library blog, and the AAUP has endorsed the Occupy Wall Street protests:


The National Council and the Collective Bargaining Congress of the American Association of University Professors on Friday endorsed the Occupy Wall Street protests. The statement announcing the endorsement cited both critiques of national political and economic trends, and of developments in higher education. Of the former, the AAUP said, "Over the last several years, we have watched as those at the very top have prospered while the fortunes of those below the very top have stagnated or declined."On higher education, the statement cited pressures on students who "are being forced to pay more for tuition and go deeper into debt because of cuts in state funding, only to find themselves unemployed when they graduate." Further, the statement criticized the way many faculty members are treated. "The majority of college and university faculty positions are now insecure, part-time jobs. In addition, attacks on collective bargaining have been rampant throughout the nation, as our job security, wages, health benefits, and pensions have been either reduced or slated for elimination," the statement said.
It added: "Therefore, it is time to stand up for what is right. We applaud the action the Occupy Wall Street movement has taken to highlight the inequity and unfairness of the society in which we live."

Some pictures of the Occupy Wall Street Libraries:

 The People's Library

Occupy Boston Library

Light duty

Student Daniel Didok gives the sculpture of Light its regular coating of wax for protection. During the casting and finishing process of bronze sculptures, reactive chemicals applied to the metal create a color and patina. Routinely coating with a hard paste wax helps to preserve the patina.

Light stands on the entrance plaza of the library. It was created by Delaware sculptor Charles Parks and donated by Mr. and Mrs. William L. Kinney in 1990.

King Faisal of Iraq writes to the British Government, 1927

The Royal Palace

Baghdad

10th APRIL, 1927

My Dear Mr. Amery,

I am glad to have this letter to you through Muzahim Bey Al-Pachaji [sic] whom you have met before I suppose.

Muzahim Bey will act as our Representative in London. He is quite able, and sincere. I hope you will be kind enough to afford him the same support and assistance you had to his predecessor Ja’far Pasha.

When Sir John Shukburough was in Baghdad I had the pleasure to talk over with him various matters. He had undoubtedly conveyed them to you. I am hoping that they will be considered with your due sympathy.

With my best wishes to Mrs. Amery.

Yours Sincerely

[signed] Faisal

Rt. Hon. J.S. Amery, M.P.,

Colonial Office,

LONDON.

In this letter, King Faisal I introduces Muzahim al-Pachachi, Iraq’s new ambassador to Britain, to Leo Amery, the British Secretary of State for the Colonies.

Faisal I, a Sunni Muslim and part of the Hashemite family, which descended from the prophet Muhammad, was born in 1885 in the city of Ta’if. He was destined for political involvement from birth; Faisal’s father, Hussein bin Ali, was the leader of the Arab Revolt of 1916, Sharif of the Holy City of Mecca, and later King of Hejaz. Faisal was elected to the Ottoman Parliament in 1913 before he joined his father and his British allies in the Arab Revolt to topple the Ottoman Empire.¹

After World War I, the newly established League of Nations decided that government of the Middle East needed to be delegated to European powers. They redrew the borders of this region, in many cases ignoring long-standing ethnic and cultural groupings that had defined boundaries previously. The countries who were mandated to the European powers were classified as either A, B, or C, depending on the League’s perception of how autonomous the mandate should be. Both Class A Mandates, and theoretically granted the highest level of autonomy, Syria was mandated to France, and Iraq to Britain.

Because of the impressive and victorious nature of his leadership in the Arab Revolt that secured the city of Damascus for Arab control, Faisal was appointed King of Greater Syria in March 1919. Unfortunately, the League of Nations had other plans; France was granted its mandate for Syria in April, and in July, after a short-lived and unsuccessful resistance, Faisal was deposed and banished.

Britain, however, was interested in Faisal’s leadership. They admired Faisal’s dedication, diligence, and cooperation, traits that they sought in a ruler to maintain their mandate. They also believed that Faisal would be “moderate and that his reputation as an Arab figure of international stature would prove attractive within Iraq.”² At the Cairo Conference in 1921, Faisal accepted Britain’s offer of kingship with the understanding that he would be allowed to work Iraq toward a state of independence. True to their word, the British set up treaties over a ten-year period that increased Iraq’s autonomy until, in 1930, they signed a treaty that would allow Iraq independence within two years.³

Faisal’s ambitions were broader than mere Iraqi independence, however; he was deeply devoted to the cause of pan-Arabism. He attempted to strengthen Middle Eastern ties to achieve this goal through appointment of ethnically and religiously diverse scholars, economists, and advisers to his cabinet. These appointees were Sunni and Shiite, Syrian and Iraqi. In 1925 Faisal successfully passed Iraq’s first Constitution. This constitution was in effect until 1958 when the monarchy was overthrown and the Hashemite family executed. Remnants of this constitution can be seen in Iraq’s constitution today.

Not much is known about Al-Pachachi, but he was the ambassador to Britain from 1927-1928 after serving two years in parliament. The previous ambassador, Jafar al-Askari, was Iraq’s first minister of defense and served twice as Iraq’s ambassador to Britain. He was taken prisoner by the British during WWI and later joined the British in the Arab Revolt against the Ottomans. Al-Askari and Faisal had a history long before the British crowned Faisal king of Iraq and even before Faisal had been elected King of Syria. Faisal and Al-Askari worked together in the Arab Revolt of 1918 with the British against the Ottoman empire, and when Al-Askari became military governor, he gained control of much of the conquered land in Syria. In February of 1919 he became governor of Aleppo. In this position he was described as “an able man...frank and broadminded...[with a] good angle of vision towards the problems of government.”⁴

Al-Askari’s family was of great importance in the development of Iraq; his brother-in-law, Nuri Pasha al-Said, was elected Prime Minister seven times, and served a crucial role in the evolution of British-Iraqi relations. Both were Arab nationalists who believed that cooperation with the British was paramount for the advancement of an independent Iraq. Both were also killed for their political work; Al-Askari during the coup of Bakr Sidqi in 1936, and Al-Said as a result of the July 14th Revolution of 1958 that toppled the monarchy Faisal constructed.

Faisal’s correspondent, Leo Amery, was the Secretary of State for the Colonies, overseeing the British mandates from the Colonial Office in London. Amery advocated a strong British presence in Iraq, arguing in the Cabinet in 1918 that “only actual possession of the Middle East before a cease-fire went into effect would enable the Cabinet to bring the region into the British orbit.”⁵ He expressed fear that without a strong hold in the Middle East, Germany might be able to capture this enviable slice of land, which contained the trade route to Asia. Amery held Zionist convictions, which likely influenced Faisal’s own Zionist sympathies. Faisal was exceptional in his religious tolerance; the Constitution he enacted in 1925 assures that “Complete freedom of conscience and freedom to practise the various forms of worship, in conformity with accepted customs, is guaranteed to all inhabitants of the country provided that such forms of worship do not conflict with the maintenance of order and discipline or public morality.”⁶

Iraq was admitted into the League of Nations in 1932. Faisal died of a heart attack in 1933 and didn’t get to experience much the independence he had created.⁷ But his contribution to the development of Middle Eastern autonomy lasted far beyond his twelve years in office.

- Stephanie Walrath '12 and Hannah Jarrett '12

References
1. David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East (New York City: Avon Books, 1989), p. 113.
2. William L. Cleveland, A History of the Modern Middle East (Boulder: Westview Press, 2000), p. 203.
3. Ibid
4. Malcolm B. Russell, The First Modern State: Syria under Faysal, 1918-1920 (Minneapolis: Bibliothetic Islamica, 1985), p. 64.
5. David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East (New York City: Avon Books, 1989), p. 364.
6. “The Constitution of the Kingdom of Iraq,” Part 1, Article 13.
7. David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East (New York City: Avon Books, 1989), p. 364.Cleveland, p. 204-205.

F.B. Purity Cleans Up Your Facebook Homepage

From the F.B. Purity website:

F.B. Purity is a browser extension/script that removes the stupid quiz messages and other silly application spam from your Facebook homepage, leaving only those messages which you are actually interested in, including statuses, links and photos. You may select the types of messages that you wish to see; the extension is customizable.

The download page includes an F.B. Purity Help/FAQ and an F.B. Purity User Guide.

The download link is here: F. B. Purity Download Page

The latest features include a hide the ticker/happening now option, an increase font size option, and a hide Facebook questions option.

Freeware.  And F.B. stands for Fluff Busting.

Five of the Dead Sea Scrolls Go Online

The Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Project has completed digitization of five of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The digitized scrolls include Great Isaiah Scroll, War Scroll, Commentary on the Habakkuk Scroll, Temple Scroll, and Community Rule Scroll. The direct link for this resource is Digital Dead Sea Scrolls.  The site includes tools for examining the digital images.

This effort is funded by George Blumenthal and the Center for Online Judaic Studies, which first envisioned the project in order to make these manuscripts widely accessible and to create an innovative resource for scholars and the public alike.

Tens of thousands of fragments from 900 Dead Sea manuscripts are held by the Israel Antiquities Authority, which has separately begun its own project to put them online in conjunction with Google by the year 2016.

The most complete scrolls are held by the Israel Antiquities Authority, which has no announced plans for digitizing the manuscripts.

from The Spartanburg Herald Journal Online and The Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Project website

Banned Books Week 2011 starts Sept. 24!

Remember to celebrate your right to read during Banned Books Week, Sept. 24 - Oct. 1.

Why are books banned? Have you read a banned book? Which is your favorite?

Take our survey and see how your favorite compares, and check out our Banned Books Week research guide:

Banned Books Week 2011 - Research Guides at Wofford College

Mrs. Smith's Floating Island Recipe

Another classic recipe from Mrs. G.C. Smith's 1880 recipe book:

Floating Island

To a quart of milk add ¼ lb. loaf sugar
4 glasses Lisbon wine, + yolk of an egg
Beat the yolk and sugar together + pour wine on it. Beat the whites of 6 eggs stiff with a gill*of currant jelly for the top.

*A gill is equivalent to a quarter of a pint.

For some variation, Mrs. Smith can also recommend this one:

Put a qt of milk over the fire + while coming to a boil, beat the yolks of 4 eggs with 2 tablespoonsful [sic] flour and sugar to the taste. Put this in the milk as soon as it boils, stir it until it becomes the consistency of cream [.] [S]et it away to get cold. Beat the white stiff with currant jelly + sugar.

According to Wikimedia Commons, this is what a Floating Island is supposed to look like:

Have you ever had a Floating Island? How do Mrs. Smith's recipes sound to you?

Troublesome help in individual cases

courtesy of Library of Congress

The Littlejohn Collection at Wofford College has a letter written by Albert Einstein to a friend in Germany. In the letter, Einstein alludes to the anti-Semitism spreading across Europe in the 1930s and 40s.

[Transcription, translated from German:]

The 31st of March 1940

Mr. Lionel M. Ettlinger
Hotel Delmonico
New York City

Dear Mr. Ettlinger:
Sincere thanks for your congratulation and the pipe you sent me. -- Meanwhile terrible things happen and one cannot do anything about it, except for troublesome help in individual cases. You are quite right, it is hard to understand that the people in England Anno 33 did not earnestly consider your materials. How easy it would have been to avoid the present calamity.
Fondest regards
Your
A. Einstein

Not much is written about Lionel Ettlinger. He frequently corresponded with Einstein about Jewish refugees in the years leading up to and during World War II. Both men helped Jews through their international connections and their personal wealth. Einstein refers to this in his letter when he writes “terrible things happen and one cannot do anything about it, except for troublesome help in individual cases.” Einstein would often give his research prize money to German-Jewish immigrants who came to America.

 Einstein — a Jew, a democrat, a scientist, and eventually a socialist — had always been a target of right-wing German nationalists, even before Hitler entered the picture, and he faced anti-Semitism throughout his career as a scientist. Some even speculate that he would have won the Nobel Prize ten years earlier if he hadn’t been a Jew.1

By 1932, Einstein and his wife, Elsa, had received many warnings and threats. They left Germany in December 1932 to spend a semester at the California Institute of Technology where Einstein was a guest faculty member. Though Einstein was quoted saying that he was not abandoning Germany (to the New York Times), he left for America with thirty pieces of luggage and a string of death threats. With the Nazi party gaining strength every day, Einstein had to suspect that there was some possibility he’d never return to Germany.2 By 1933, the Nazis had put a $5,000 reward on Einstein’s head.3 In this way, Einstein became a refugee, saying “as long as I have any choice in the matter, I shall live only in a country where civil liberty, tolerance, and equality of all citizens before the law prevail.”4 He had many job offers around Europe, but he didn’t feel safe anywhere in Europe. He moved to Princeton, New Jersey.

Being Jewish was perhaps Einstein’s most enduring commitment outside physics. He said “my relationship with Jewry had become my strongest human tie.”5 Yet Einstein’s Jewish identity was slow to evolve and didn’t mature until his late thirties. In fact, his interest in anti-Semitism directed him back to his Jewish roots.6

As if conducting one of his science experiments, Einstein tried to understand the nature and motives of anti-Semitism, and he hoped to find a way to cope with and combat it. He spent long hours pondering the question “Why do they hate Jews?” In 1938, he published an article in Collier’s Magazine that outlined his opinions and thoughts regarding this question. While still in Germany, Einstein had often spoken out against the Nazis and anti-Semitism, as well as racism in America. Throughout his time in America, Einstein was a strong supporter of African-American rights and anti-lynching.7

While science was a life-consuming puzzle for Einstein, the treatment of Jews across Europe during the first half of the 20th century was much less complicated. He ends his letter: “how easy it would have been to avoid the present calamity.”

- Hannah Jarrett ‘12

1 Fred Jerome and Rodger Taylor, Einstein on Race and Racism, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2005, p. 3-4.
2 Jerome, p. 6.
3 Jerome, p. 7.
4 Ewald Osers, trans., Albert Einstein: A Biography, New York: Penguin Group, 1997, p. 659.
5 Osers, p. 488.
6 Hanoch Gutfreund, “Einstein’s Jewish Identity,” in Einstein for the 21st Century: His Legacy in Science, Art, and Modern Culture ed. Peter L. Galison et al., Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008, p. 28.
7 Jerome, p. 7-8.