Google Knol Encyclopedia To Replace Wikipedia

Google Knol Encyclopedia To Replace Wikipedia

By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency

Tel Aviv ----- July 28, 2008 ....... It softly slipped into the news in the most subtle manner. An item which will surely create an information firestorm on the Internet. During the hot, lazy days of summer, with very little fanfare, Google announced that Knol was going public.

Google describes Knol as "a unit of knowledge." The Israel News Agency would describe Knol as the soon to be ultimate, free and responsible on-line encyclopedia. An encyclopedia which will wash Wikipedia away in a matter of months.

Wikipedia, which started out as a social experiment created by Larry Sanger (now managing director of Citizendium) and Jimmy Wales today boasts having over 10 million articles in 253 languages, comprising a combined total of over 1.74 billion words. It was launched in January 2001 by a soft porn site - Bomis, which provided both money and bandwidth to Wikipedia.

Jimmy Wales once described Wikipedia as the "the sum of all human knowledge." When in fact, Wikipedia has actually turned out to become the sum of all human gossip and rumor. An encyclopedia that has been disowned by almost every university and every respectable news organization as a reliable source of information.

Wikipedia set out with a noble goal. That was to provide every human being with the opportunity to share their knowledge. The only problem with that is that some humans communicate better than others. And those who are paid to communicate are called editors. And those editors usually know what they are talking about and their work is transparent. They don't hide behind an alias as if they were CIA, NSA, Mossad or MI5. Anyone can edit Wikipedia. And do so without identifying who they are and what their agenda is. As such, Wikipedia has hurt the names of hundreds if not thousands of good people and organizations through both slander and libel.

One such case was that of former USA TODAY editorial page editor John Seigenthaler. Wikipedia for four months carried an article falsely linking him to the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and John F. Kennedy.

"I have no idea whose sick mind conceived the false, malicious "biography" that appeared under my name for 132 days on Wikipedia," said Seigenthaler.

"I phoned Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia's founder and asked, Do you have any way to know who wrote that? No, we don't, he said. Representatives of the other two Websites said their computers are programmed to copy data verbatim from Wikipedia, never checking whether it is false or factual. Naturally, I want to unmask my "biographer." And, I am interested in letting many people know that Wikipedia is a flawed and irresponsible research tool. When I was a child, my mother lectured me on the evils of gossip. She held a feather pillow and said, If I tear this open, the feathers will fly to the four winds, and I could never get them back in the pillow. That's how it is when you spread mean things about people. For me, that pillow is a metaphor for Wikipedia."

For many to be listed on Wikipedia, is not an honor but is said to be a curse. It's referred to as the Wikipedia Curse.

Recently, Wikipedia users discovered that a Wikipedia administrator going by the screen name "Essjay" and claiming to be a professor of theology was really a 24-year-old college dropout named Ryan Jordan. The New Yorker brought the fraud to light in an editorial note admitting that its 2006 magazine profile of the community had misreported Essjay's academic credentials. According to The New Yorker, neither the reporter nor Wikipedia could confirm Essjay's true identity. At issue, critics say, are thousands of articles contributed under false pretenses and Wikipedia's apparent lack of due diligence to verify the credentials of one of its trusted arbitrators. Perhaps ironically, arbitrators have the power to block contributors who abuse the site or overrule edits to posts.

In regards to how objective Wikipedia is, recently Wikipedia has been called into question because of the collaborative nature of its entries. WikiScanner (also known as Wikipedia Scanner), a tool released by Virgil Griffith in August 2007 that identifies the authors behind Wikipedia edits, revealed that people at the IP addresses of several major companies had made changes to their own or competitors' Wikipedia entries.

So why does Google have an interest in creating Knol, a better, more responsible, more riable encyclopedia?

One just has to look at the actions of a threatening Wikipedia Jimmy Wales.
In December 2006, Jimmy Wales, announced that he was going to destroy Google.

Wales had begun working on a search engine that uses the same user-based technology as his open-access encyclopaedia.

The project was dubbed Wikiasari - a combination of wiki, the Hawaiian word for quick, and asari, which is Japanese for “rummaging search”.

Wales, a 42-year-old former options trader, believed that, as the popularity of Google has grown, obvious flaws in its search engine technology had become apparent.

“Google is very good at many types of search, but in many instances it produces nothing but spam and useless crap," said Wales.

Google founders - Larry Page and Sergey Brin heard what Wales had to say. And Wales kept repeating it over and over again as to create a steady marketing buzz for Wikipedia. What Wales did not anticipate was that Page and Brin would now take on Wikipedia.

One must realize that Wikipedia was "renting" room on Google. Wikipedia became the largest SEO - search engine optimizer spammer on Google generating tons of traffic for Wikipedia. And Wales then bit the hand that fed him.

What was Wales thinking? An options trader now taking on two of the world's most powerful geeks (not including Bill Gates.)

Google, whose motto is "Do No Evil", then created Knol. In the same manner that Google promoted and marketed Gmail through soft and highly successful Internet viral marketing, Google merely announced Knol on their Blog.

And Google is giving the public what they want. A respectable, accountable encyclopedia where one can easily see the source of information. And Google is even willing to pay Knol editors for their time by compensating them through an optional plan of placing Google ads on the pages they author.

Google, which is responsible for having created Google News, Google Earth, Gmail, Blogger, Web 2.0 social network Orkut, Google Maps, Picasa and acquiring YouTube is always on the move. And so far, Google has made very few mistakes.

In announcing the Google Knol encyclopedia in December 2007, Google stated that they are "encouraging people to contribute knowledge."

"The web contains an enormous amount of information, and Google has helped to make that information more easily accessible by providing pretty good search facilities," says the Google Blog. "But not everything is written nor is everything well organized to make it easily discoverable. There are millions of people who possess useful knowledge that they would love to share, and there are billions of people who can benefit from it. We believe that many do not share that knowledge today simply because it is not easy enough to do that. The challenge posed to us by Larry, Sergey and Eric was to find a way to help people share their knowledge. This is our main goal."

The Google Blog continues: "The key idea behind the Knol project is to highlight authors. Books have authors' names right on the cover, news articles have bylines, scientific articles always have authors -- but somehow the web evolved without a strong standard to keep authors names highlighted. We believe that knowing who wrote what will significantly help users make better use of web content."

Google stated that it would provide easy-to-use tools for writing and editing, and that Google would do the rest.

Yesterday, this author wrote two Knols - one for SEO - search engine optimization and the other on Father's Rights. I found working with the Google Knol encyclopedia was easier than working with Wikipedia. In fact, as a former editor of dozens of Wikipedia articles, I can easily state that it might be an easy to read content experience on Wikipedia but for the common lay person, actually using a Wiki can be a scary experience. As such Google has made this encyclopedia as easy to contribute too as writing a simple email.

Google states: "The goal is for knols to cover all topics, from scientific concepts, to medical information, from geographical and historical, to entertainment, from product information, to how-to-fix-it instructions. Google will not serve as an editor in any way, and will not bless any content. All editorial responsibilities and control will rest with the authors. We hope that knols will include the opinions and points of view of the authors who will put their reputation on the line. Anyone will be free to write. For many topics, there will likely be competing knols on the same subject. Competition of ideas is a good thing."

"Knols include strong community tools which allow for many modes of interaction between readers and authors. People can submit comments, rate, or write a review of a knol. At the discretion of the author, a knol may include ads from our AdSense program. If an author chooses to include ads, Google will provide the author with a revenue share from the proceeds of those ad placements."

Google also announced an agreement with The New Yorker magazine which allows any author to add one cartoon per knol from The New Yorker’s extensive cartoon repository.

While Google won't admit it, Knol (http://knol.google.com), is designed to be a Wikipedia killer.
In replacing Wikipedia, Google may be burning down a forest to destroy a rampant Net disease of gossip, slander and libel. In doing so, those new, emerging green plants and tall, clean trees will bring back respectability and accountability to academic Web content.

Google is providing a warm, professional, accountable and friendly place on the Web to contribute knowledge. And in doing so without the interference of mafia like Wikipedia administrators (Wikithugs) who share political agendas, edit, delete and censor content in an anonymous, harmful and slanderous style.

Google's search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top Web property in all major global markets. Google's targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall Web experience for users.

Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe, Israel and Asia.

And Google does no evil!

The above news content was edited and SEO optimized in Israel for the Internet by the Leyden Communications Group.

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Joel Leyden: Use Knol - It's accountable!

Google unveils Knol, its accountable take on Wikipedia — with ads

MG Siegler | July 23rd, 2008

Months in the making, Google has finally unveiled Knol, its Wikipedia rival written by people knowledgeable in certain fields. The idea, as Google puts it, is to move information from people’s heads onto the web.

So what’s the difference between Wikipedia and Knol? The main one is authorship. Whereas Wikipedia entries can be created and edited by anyone with only an IP address being tracked, knols (the individual entries) will have authors with actual names that will be answerable for the content they create.

The other big difference? Content creators can earn money off of Knol. Yes, in keeping with what Google does best, there is an option for each knol to have Google ads on the page or not. This ad revenue is shared with the author. Google is even considering allowing ads from other networks to appear on Knol pages, according to Search Engine Land.

Google claims that Knol isn’t meant to compete with Wikipedia, but it’s hard to see it as anything but that. As Wired writes in its article interviewing Udi Manber, Google’s head of search engineering, Knol is:

“an effort to generate exactly those kind of answers [on interesting subjects by experts] in the top search results.”

Wikipedia, as many people know is often one of the top results for a vast array of terms searched for on Google. As I mentioned several months ago, it will be interesting to see if Knol results show up higher in Google search results than Wikipedia pages. It sounded like this could happen when Google first talked about Knol back in December. This could definitely undercut Wikipedia.

What if Google highlights knols in someway different from other results? Look at what it does for YouTube videos and other Google content with its universal search.

For an example of how Google would like Knol to work, check out this knol on lung cancer. It’s very detailed and includes pictures and a glossary. But perhaps most importantly, look at the upper right corner. You can clearly see that it was written by Jessica Donington, a thoracic surgeon at the NYU School of Medicine.

Fair or not, this should give some web surfers a piece of mind knowing that Larry, their next-door neighbor isn’t teaching them about lung cancer.

But you hardly have to be an expert to create your own knol — you simply need a Google account. Once you have that, you can click on the “Write a Knol” button and you’re taken to a very nice editing page (shown below). Your Google Profile image (if you have one) is displayed prominently in the top right corner and your name is placed in the byline. There is also a space for “Affiliation” if you choose to use that.

You can also change the Creative Commons Attribution license on your knol to make it so that others can use its information with proper attribution, set whether you want it to be used commercially or only non-commercially, or set it to all rights reserved.

Multiple knols can be created about the same topic and multiple authors can work on single knols. “Moderated collaboration,” as Google is calling it, will allow anyone to suggest a change to an entry, but it’s up to the author to decide whether they want to use it.

Google is also playing up the community part of Knol. It says users can submit comments, rate and even review individual knols.

The name “knol” is “a nice, very simple word to remember, and it’s part of knowledge,” Manber tells Wired.

Interestingly, Google also has struck a deal with the New Yorker magazine to use their archive of cartoons. Anyone can add one cartoon from the archive to any knol they create.

Knol is live here.

Joel Leyden offline!

Israel Children Get Out of the Heat

Israel, Goldwasser, Regev, Arad The Mossad And Samir Kantar

Israel, Goldwasser, Regev, Arad The Mossad And Samir Kantar

Terrorist Samir Kantar who crushed a 4-year-old girls head
with his rifle butt. Is he really free? Will the Mossad sleep?

By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency

Jerusalem ----- July 16, 2008 ....... Israel is an angry nation tonight. The day began with tears as many turned on their TV sets to witness a prisoner exchange between the living and the dead over the Lebanon border. By evening, those of us in Israel watched with disbelief as barbaric images of Islamic terrorists in Lebanon and Gaza celebrated the release of a child murderer.

This tragic episode in the history of Israel began two years ago.

On July 12, 2006 fighting began on the Lebanon Israel border when Hezbollah launched rockets on Israel Defense Forces positions. Many believe that those rockets were used as a diversion to attack an Israel border patrol and take prisoners. In the fighting an Israel tank was blown up, killing all 4 crew members. Israel reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were riding in IDF patrol vehicles when they were struck by anti-tank rockets.

Security sources believe that both Goldwasser and Regev were injured in the attack, with one of them dying shortly afterward. The other IDF soldier was believed to have been murdered in captivity. A massive nation wide campaign began for the return of the missing soldiers resulting in a Cabinet decision to create a prisoner swap.

Israel Prime Minister Olmert and the security establishment then launched the Lebanon war to rescue both Regev and Goldwasser.

In a communication from the Israel Prime Ministers Office to the Israel News Agency, a media advisor stated that the Israel Cabinet discussed the return of the IDF soldiers who were abducted by Hezbollah in July 2006, with the main subject being Hezbollah's report on Ron Arad. The Cabinet meeting followed that of June 29, at which the outline for an agreement on the release of Israel's abducted soldiers in Lebanon was approved.

The Israel Government thanked the UN Secretary General's mediator and the German government for their efforts in formulating the arrangement for the return of the abducted IDF soldiers.

There was much Israel public support for a prisoner exchange. Ten of thousands of cars in Israel proudly wore a bumper sticker demanding the release of the POW's. Even a rally was held in the Arab village of Kfar Kassem, where the father of a kidnapped soldier asks Hizbullah and Hamas to 'behave like human beings and set the soldiers free' Dozens of Israel Arabs participated in the rally for the release of kidnapped soldiers Gilad Shalit, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser. Among the guests of honor were Israel MK Ibrahim Sarsur (Ra'am-Ta'al) and Noam Shalit, Gilad's father.

Dozens of Arabs from across the country attended the rally, which opened with an emotional meeting between an Arab family from Kfar Kassem that donated the organs of a deceased family member and the family of a four-year-old boy from Kiryat Arba whose life was saved thanks to the donation.

So where all of Israel begged for a prisoner swap, no one ever expected that Samir Kunter was going to be among the Islamic terrorists released. In April 1979 Kunter led a raid into northern Israel from Lebanon.

Kuntar and three other members of his terror team entered Israel in a rubber boat. They shot dead an Israel policemen who had spotted them and then stormed into a residential building in the northern Israel town of Nahariya They then took hostage an Israel and his four-year-old daughter, whom they took back to the beach.

They group was intercepted by Israel police and soldiers and in the ensuing shootout two of Kuntar's squad and a second Israel policeman were killed.

Kuntar shot the the father of the 4-year-old girl in the back, and drowned him in the sea to ensure his death. He then repeatedly smashed the head of the struggling four-year-old girl with his rifle butt, until she was dead. A policewoman witnessed the act and the young girls mother confirmed it.

Kuntar was captured and sentenced to five life terms and another 47 in years in prison.

In jail, he married an Arab-Israeli woman and secured a degree in sociology at a Tel Aviv college, studying from his prison cell. He also held a number of hunger strikes in jail.

Kunter in a letter to his family wrote 'If I were to spend another 20 years in prison, I will not write an apology letter for the Nasser (Nahariya terror operation), because the struggle continues."

Once it became apparent that Kunter was among five Hizbullah terrorists as well as an unspecified number of Palestinians, blood began to boil in Israel. The exchange was opposed by the chiefs of Israel's intelligence community.

In a report titled "Hizbullah's Triumph: The Long-Term Implications of Prisoner Exchanges," authors Justus Reid Weiner and Diane Morrison argued that the exchange of key Hizbullah and Palestinian terrorists for the bodies of two Israel soldiers would encourage the abduction of Israelis.

"By exchanging prisoners with the proxy organizations as if they were law-abiding states, Israel can be seen as upgrading the status of the organizations' unlawful combatants from terrorists and war criminals," the report said.

But is Samir Kunter really a free man today, wearing his new Hezbollah commando uniform in Beirut?

Security analysts told the INA that Kunter was safe in prison.

"Now that he is out and in a foreign Arab country actually wearing the uniform of a terror organization, there is no reason not to believe that the Mossad will pay him a visit."

Many in the Israel security establishment see the Mossad taking the same action as they did following the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre where Islamic terrorists murdered eleven Israel athletes and coaches. The operation was named Operation Spring of Youth and Operation Wrath of God.

"I would be very surprised if Prime Minister Olmert did not sign an executive order assigning the Mossad to take out the 4-year-old child murderer," a security analyst said. "At a time which is convenient for the Mossad, they will blow up his car or put a bullet through his head. But first they might just ask to confirm: are you Samir Kunter who crushed the skull of a Jewish 4-year-old girl? And if this scenario does not take place then it means that Kunter is working for us and Hezbollah will then have the opportunity of killing him in a "work accident." Regardless, Kunter will never sleep well as long as he is alive."

Olmert visited the Regev and Goldwasser families this morning after the exchange took place.
"With all of Israel, I embrace and hug the families of Regev and Goldwasser in mourning," said Olmert

"My throat is dry, my eyes are tearing, and my heart goes out to the families that struggled without a sign of life, and didn't lose hope until the very last moment," Olmert said. "This is a day of removal of doubt. Certainly with regards to the fate of Udi and Eldad, may their memories be blessed, but also regarding the moral and ethical power of Israel."

"By virtue of this power we decided to return the boys, even with the heavy price of releasing a despicable murderer," the prime minister said. "Nobody else will understand what every Israeli understands well: the worry over the fate of every one of our soldiers is the glue which binds us as a society, and it this which allows us to survive in an area which is surrounded by enemies and terror organizations."

"The joys of a nation are indicative of its value-system," Olmert added. "Woe is the nation that celebrates at this hour the release of an animal that crushed the skull of an infant."

"My heart, on this day is with the Goldwasser and Regev families," the statement concluded.

Goldwasser's father, Shlomo, in a voice of ice-edged fury, asked the Lebanese people to consider the sacrifices they made during the war sparked by Hizballah's kidnapping of Regev and his own son. "They've lost some 800 men and their entire economy, and for what? For someone who killed a four-year old? Can someone like that be called a hero? He's nothing more than a bastard."

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How Web 2.0 will change the face of business

How Web 2.0 will change the face of business

By John Newton / Posted by Joel Leyden - Israel Internet Marketing

Published: July 11 2008 10:20 | Last updated: July 11 2008 10:20

Technology research company Forrester predicts that by 2013, social software, the application of Web 2.0 for the enterprise, will grow at an annual rate of 43 per cent per year. This is quickly becoming the fastest growing sector in the enterprise software industry. However, many people are confused by what Web 2.0 is and its significance in the workplace and in culture, including those planning to adopt it.

Web 2.0 is best explained by defining the technologies that make it up. A collection of brands provide the metaphors for what is different in the way we use new web technologies – Google for search, YouTube for video, Flickr for photos, MySpace and Facebook for social networking and Wikipedia for wikis. These brands as metaphors become the nouns and verbs of describing Web 2.0 as a new way of socialising, communicating and sharing with each other in huge consumer-scale markets.

This is not so much a revolution in technology, more how people use technology and interact with each other as a result. The amazing technological innovations have really been happening behind the scenes with the huge build out of inter-networking and creation of new scalability technologies through open source. The open source sharing of code used to build these sites have made it possible to build and manage sites on a modest budget and deliver new content and services to anyone. This has allowed a whole new class of people to use technology that they would not previously have had access to. Consequently, websites reacted and evolved rapidly to adapt to these new users and realised that computers could be used as a medium of expression, sharing and revelation.

Users voted with their mouse for sites that appealed to their personal sense of expression. Sites that imposed constraints were quickly discarded. The ones that allowed individuals to write, edit or tag rose quickly up the internet charts of popularity. Web 2.0 became a democratic revolution with core principles of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly on the internet.

Social networking sites allow everyone to become a contributor by simply creating their home page and being compelled to enhance or adorn it in response to friends doing the same thing. Many large corporations that have skills or profile pages for their users, but even senior executives may be more likely to update their Facebook or LinkedIn profiles than corporate skills page.

Michael Lynch, CEO of Autonomy, suggested in these pages that Web 2.0 was something that needed to be tamed. Perhaps this is missing the point. Web 2.0 is not anarchic, nor is it necessarily bad for business. To try to control Web 2.0 is like trying to put one’s finger in the dyke. It is happening and there is nothing that business can do to prevent it. When companies try to restrict access, they either find that the roadblocks have been circumscribed or that potential employees go elsewhere.

Generation Y, the generation born between 1978 and now, has only known the empowerment of the internet and has become accustomed to have their vote counted. To try and control it can only disenfranchise them. To empower them yields an optimistic workforce, with conversation between stakeholders in enlightened collaboration. In addition, my generation, the Baby Boomers, are starting to retire, taking with them some of the most valuable knowledge ever accumulated. Knowledge management programs over the last two decades have failed to capture that knowledge, is Web 2.0 the last hope of retaining it?

Enterprise software vendors will get there, but only with coaxing and coaching of a new generation. Eventually they will figure out that Web 2.0 is not simply about collaboration features and interactive web technologies, but empowerment of their users and the ability to draw in a critical mass of users from outside the trusted circle.

Obviously care should be taken in what is opened up. However, rather than treating Web 2.0 content suspiciously, corporations should ring fence the information that must be controlled and open up the rest to participation. At the Enterprise 2.0 conference in June, Pfizer presented on how they were using open source technology to enable Web 2.0 collaboration. This is a brave move in the highly regulated world of pharmaceuticals, but they have clear boundaries in terms of what content needs to be regulated. They have created a vision and a reality that uses the same technology as Wikipedia to create Pfizerpedia, a wiki of process and ideas that feed into the main areas of research and manufacturing.

Change in the enterprise is likely to come from outside as well. If you are an information worker, you use Google more than any of your internal systems. These websites will set further expectations on the internal systems you use and a requirement to integrate information with these external sources of information. Web 2.0 has an answer for this with an integration technique known as “mash up”, the ability to mix information from multiple sources using the web browser itself as a point of integration. These external sources of information provide something that our internal information systems could never provide – a critical mass of opinion utilising the so-called “Wisdom of the Crowds”.

The most profound effect Web 2.0 will have is on the way we do business rather than just the technology we use. Employees will use this freedom of speech to provide valuable feedback to the business. Customers will become part of the decision-making process and allow us to design the most imaginative products and services.

As with any opportunity, there lies risk, and embracing Web 2.0 is not without its risks. However, smart businesses can already see the opportunities and are willing to take those risks.

John Newton is chief technology officer at Alfresco

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

The Israel Project: Iran Fakes Missile Launches

The Israel Project: Iran Fakes Missile Launches

By Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi
Israel News Agency

Jerusalem ----- July 11, 2008 ....... Revelations today, July 10, that Iran apparently faked a "fourth" missile in photos published in newspapers and Internet news sites across the globe are a reminder that this isn’t the first time Iran and its terrorist proxies have gotten caught staging news scenes.

During Israel’s defensive war against Hezbollah in Lebanon two years ago, the phenomenon was so common that it became known as "Hezbollywood."

And six months ago in Gaza, leaders of Iran - backed Hamas purposely dimmed the lights in their government meeting rooms to pretend that Israel had cut off electricity to Gaza. They invited photographers to the scene to show them supposedly having to work by candlelight. Journalists weren’t fooled - they noted that it was daytime and that the curtains had been drawn to cloak the room in darkness.

The Iran leaders would like us to believe that with 3,000 spinning centrifuges in the works, they are not developing nuclear weapons. But if we cannot trust photos of their missile system from their official Iran press offices, how can we trust that the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism is telling the truth about their nuclear program?

Four short-range missiles blast off from the Iranian desert, or is it three missiles? The first picture comes from the Iranian news website Jamejam, and clearly shows one missile has failed to take off. It sits on its launcher while its three companions power into the sky. But it was the second image that was released by the PR arm of the Revolutionary Guard – and it seems to have been digitally enhanced to wipe away all traces of the embarrassing dud. Gone is the faulty rocket on its launcher, to be replaced with a fourth successful launch, complete with billowing clouds of exhaust and desert dust.

Similar incidents of staged and faked PR news photos and footage that occurred during Hezbollah’s 34-day war against Israel include: a man purporting to be a rescue worker at the site of a bombed village appearing in various photos in the international media, repeatedly displaying the same child’s dead body at different times – and in different poses – throughout the day.

The man, identified as Salam Daher, wore a green helmet in all of the photos, earning himself the nickname "green helmet guy." Daher was also found to have directed a camera shooting the scene.

A man purporting to be a rescue worker at the site of a bombed village appearing in various photos in the international media, repeatedly displaying the same child’s dead body at different times – and in different poses – throughout the day. The man, identified as Salam Daher, wore a green helmet in all of the photos, earning himself the nickname "green helmet guy." Daher was also found to have directed a camera shooting the scene.

Reuters freelance photographer Adnan Hajj used the photo editor Adobe Photoshop to doctor his pictures, darkening and enhancing plumes of smoke over Beirut to make damage to the city appear worse. Hajj was found to have manipulated another widely disseminated photo showing an Israel jet dropping three flares over Lebanon; Hajj had used Photoshop to add two of the flares, which had been identified in the caption as "missiles."

His exploitations resulted in Reuters firing him and withdrawing all of his almost 1,000 photos in its archives.

Reuters freelance photographer Adnan Hajj used Photoshop to doctor his pictures, darkening and enhancing plumes of smoke over Beirut to make damage to the city appear worse. Hajj was found to have manipulated another widely disseminated photo showing an Israeli jet dropping three flares over Lebanon; Hajj had used Photoshop to add two of the flares, which had been identified in the caption as "missiles." His exploitations resulted in Reuters firing him and withdrawing all of his almost 1,000 photos in its archives.

Two pictures showed the same woman weeping as she stood in front of her destroyed Beirut home; it was later discovered that the two homes were in different locations and were taken two weeks apart.

In related news, the US vowed to defend Israel as Iran carried out its second ballistic missile test in two days yesterday. Iran appeared to have fired only a single missile on Thursday, not a second round of missiles as Iranian media reported, and seven on Wednesday not nine as claimed, a senior defense official told AFP.

The United States had detected the launch of seven missiles on Wednesday, including a Shahab-3 missile said to be capable of striking Israel, the US official said, asking to remain anonymous.

"There appears to have been one missile fired today, but that may well have been one that failed the day before, and they finally got operational and launched today," the official said.

The Pentagon, whose surveillance satellites and other technology track such launches, yesterday confirmed the second batch of missile tests, which were carried out at night.

Israel responded to Iran aggression by placing on display at the country's international Ben-Gurion airport its new spy and early warning plane, which can reach Iran. Israel also stated that it would not hesitate to attack Iran's nuclear facilities.

According to official Iran reports, the weapons tested included long-range Shahab-3 missiles, capable of reaching Israel and US bases in the region. The reports said the missiles had undisclosed special features. But the Pentagon insisted they were only short-range ones.

The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, made it clear yesterday that the US would step in if Israel were attacked.

"We take very, very strongly our obligation to help our allies defend themselves and no one should be confused about that."

White House spokesman Tony Fratto said: "What our goal is to use diplomacy as best as possible to bring Iran to the table in a way that we can resolve this peacefully.

The missile "tests are in violation of, or the expansive use of ballistic missiles are in violation of UN Security Council resolutions," he added.

"We want to see them stop enriching uranium and we'd like to see them stop these provocative tests that only further isolate the Iran people," Fratto added.

Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, founder and president of The Israel Project.

The Israel Project is an international non-profit organization devoted to educating the press and the public about Israel while promoting security, freedom and peace. The Israel Project provides journalists, leaders and opinion-makers accurate information about Israel. The Israel Project is not related to any government or government agency. The Israel Project Board of Advisors includes: Sen. Evan Bayh (IN), Sen. Ben Cardin (MD), Sen. Saxby Chambliss (GA), Sen. Tom Coburn (OK), Sen. Norm Coleman (MN), Sen. Susan Collins (ME), Sen. Judd Gregg (NH), Sen. Joe Lieberman (CT), Sen. Ben Nelson (NE), Sen. Gordon Smith (OR), Sen. Arlen Specter (PA), Sen. Ron Wyden (OR), Rep. Rob Andrews (NJ), Rep. Shelley Berkley (NV), Rep. Tom Davis (VA), Rep. Eliot Engel (NY), Rep. Frank Pallone (NJ), Rep. Jon Porter (NV), Rep. John Sarbanes (MD), Rep. Jim Saxton (NJ), Rep. Brad Sherman (CA), Rep. Joe Wilson (SC), Actor and Director Ron Silver.

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Amanda and Daddy putting a long day behind into a field of dreams and unconditional love.

The Day That Hackers Almost Stole The Web!

Internet flaw could let hackers take over the Web

13 hours ago

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) Computer industry heavyweights are hustling to fix a flaw in the foundation of the Internet that would let hackers control traffic on the World Wide Web.
Major software and hardware makers worked in secret for months to create a software "patch" released on Tuesday to repair the problem, which is in the way computers are routed to web page addresses.

"It's a very fundamental issue with how the entire addressing scheme of the Internet works," Securosis analyst Rich Mogul said in a media conference call.

"You'd have the Internet, but it wouldn't be the Internet you expect. (Hackers) would control everything."

The flaw would be a boon for "phishing" cons that involve leading people to imitation web pages of businesses such as bank or credit card companies to trick them into disclosing account numbers, passwords and other information.

Attackers could use the vulnerability to route Internet users wherever they wanted no matter what website address is typed into a web browser.

Security researcher Dan Kaminsky of IOActive stumbled upon the Domain Name System (DNS) vulnerability about six months ago and reached out to industry giants including Microsoft, Sun and Cisco to collaborate on a solution.

DNS is used by every computer that links to the Internet and works similar to a telephone system routing calls to proper numbers, in this case the online numerical addresses of websites.
On Tuesday the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT), a joint government-private sector security partnership, issued a warning to underscore the serious of so-called DNS "cache poisoning attacks" the vulnerability could allow.

"An attacker with the ability to conduct a successful cache poisoning attack can cause a nameserver's clients to contact the incorrect, and possibly malicious, hosts for particular services," CERT said.

"Consequently, web traffic, email, and other important network data can be redirected to systems under the attacker's control."

"People should be concerned but they should not be panicking," Kaminsky said. "We have bought you as much time as possible to test and apply the patch. Something of this scale has not happened before."

Kaminsky built a web page, www.doxpara.com, where people can find out whether their computers have the DNS vulnerability.

Kaminsky was among about 16 researchers from around the world who met in March at Microsoft's campus in Redmond, Washington, to figure out what to do about the flaw.

"I found it completely by accident," Kaminsky said. "I was looking at something that had nothing to do with security. This one issue affected not just Microsoft and Cisco, but everybody."
The cadre of software wizards charted an unprecedented course, creating a patch to release simultaneously across all computer software platforms.

"This hasn't been done before and it is a massive undertaking," Kaminsky said.
"A lot of people really stepped up and showed how collaboration can protect customers."
Automated updating should protect most personal computers. Microsoft released the fix in a software update package Tuesday.

A push is on to make sure company networks and Internet service providers make certain their computer servers are impervious to web traffic hijackings using the DNS attack.
The patch can't be "reverse engineered" by hackers interested in figuring out how to take advantage of the flaw, technical details of which are being kept secret for a month to give companies time to update computers.

"This is a pretty important day," said Jeff Moss, founder of a premier Black Hat computer security conference held annually in Las Vegas.

"We are seeing a massive multi-vendor patch for the entire addressing scheme for the internet - the kind of a flaw that would let someone trying to go to Google.com be directed to wherever an attacker wanted."

Hackers using the vulnerability to attack company computer networks would also be able to capture email and other business data.
Kaminsky alerted US national security agencies to the crack in cyber warfare defenses.

"This really shows the value-add of independent security researchers," said former Department of Homeland Security National Cyber Security Division director Jerry Dixon.

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Islamic Terrorism Attack Murders 5, Wounds Over 60 in Jerusalem Israel

Islamic Terrorism Attack Murders 5, Wounds Over 60 in Jerusalem Israel

Photo: AP

By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency

Jerusalem ----- July 2, 2008 ....... At first, those in their cars, on motorcycles and passing by on foot thought they were witnessing a traffic accident. It was only as the terrifying screams of terror victims emerged, those being systemically crushed in their cars by a bulldozer, did the public realize that they were in the midst of a terror attack.

At least five people were murdered and 66 wounded this afternoon when a Palestinian bulldozer driver targeted innocent civilians in Jerusalem.

Among the dead were two babies.

A half-dozen cars were flattened and others were overturned by the huge Caterpillar. A bus was overturned and another bus was heavily damaged.

The attack took place at the junction of Jaffa Road and Sarei Yisrael Street.

Israel medics said they thought they had evacuated all the injured from the damaged bus but then heard a baby crying. The 5-month-old girl was found stuck under a seat and rushed to a hospital.

As the hours ticked by and no one appeared to claim the baby, it became apparent her mother had been killed. She was later identified as Batsheva Unterman, 33, and social workers went on TV to appeal for information on the child's father.

"This poor, innocent baby is lucky to be alive. The sad thing is she is far too young to comprehend her own tragedy," said Tzipi Lefler, a social worker taking care of the baby.

"People started screaming 'he is running us over, he is running us over,'" said policewoman Elinor Nahum, 22, who was the first to react. She fired at the bulldozer and apparently hitting the terrorist. Another policeman then climbed onto the vehicle and was lightly wounded in a struggle with the attacker.

An off-duty IDF soldier grabbed a gun from a security guard at the scene and shot the terrorist, who yelled"Allah Akhbar" (God is great) before being killed. The soldier was assisted in neutralizing the attacker by Eli Mizrahi, a member of police's elite Yasam anti-terror unit.

The last terror attack to take place in Jerusalem was on March 6, 2008 when Palestinian terrorists murdered eight students at the Jewish Merkaz Harav religious college in Jerusalem. Hamas officials claimed the attack. The terrorist was also shot dead.

Police said the incident was definitely a terror attack, but stressed that they had no specific warning. Three terrorist groups claimed responsibility for the attack, including the Al Aksa Martyrs' Brigade, which is affiliated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement. The other two were the Galilee Freedom Battalion, which is suspected of being affiliated with Hizbullah, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a fringe left-wing terror group.

Israel police said the terrorist, a 30-year-old Palestinian from Arab east Jerusalem, apparently acted alone. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the man was working on a railway project in Jerusalem.

The attack was a departure from terrorists' usual methods, which have consisted of suicide bombings and shooting attacks.

"To our regret the attackers do not cease coming up with new ways to strike at the heart of the Jewish people here in Jerusalem," said Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski, whose daughter was on a bus rammed by the attacker. She was not injured.

Israel called the attack a "senseless act" and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is trying to negotiate a peace accord with Israel, condemned it. In Washington, the White House said President Bush called the Israeli and Palestinian leaders to express his sorrow over the incident.

"I saw people running our way and then the vehicle appeared and it hit us, turning us over," said Maria Stashevsky, a 19-year-old bus passenger from her hospital bed where she was being treated for injuries to her head, legs and back. "People started landing on me and we had to break through the windows to escape. There was blood everywhere. It's a miracle I got out of there."

The mother of one of the babies hurled the child out of the car window to save her as the attacker bore down on their vehicle, and the mother was also injured. The mother of the other baby, Batsheva Unterman, 33, was killed in the assault.

A second dead woman was identified as Elizabeth Goren-Friedman, 54, a dual Austrian - Israel citizen who had lived in Israel for several years, the Austrian Foreign Ministry said. The third victim was a man.

The attacker began his rampage on a street near Jerusalem's central bus station, and then turned onto Jaffa Road — the city's main downtown thoroughfare — crushing everything in his path. At one point, he rammed into the back of a crowded bus, flipping it on its side.

"I was shocked. I saw a guy going crazy. I saw him pick it up like a toy," said Yosef Spielman, who witnessed the attack. "All the people were running. They had no chance."

The attacker was stopped only after a police officer climbed into the Caterpillar's cabin and wrestled with the driver. An off-duty soldier in a blue T-shirt and a special forces officer then jumped on the vehicle and shot the driver dead.

"I ran up the stairs (of the vehicle) and when he was still driving like crazy and trying to harm civilians, I fired at him twice more and, that's it, he was neutralized," said Eli Mizrahi, the anti-terror unit officer.

Injured people sat dazed on the ground amid piles of broken glass, blood stains and motionless bodies covered in plastic. A rescue worker stroked the hair of an elderly pedestrian, and a loved one raised the bleeding leg of a woman outside the overturned bus. Paramedics evacuated screaming babies into ambulances.

The attack took place in front of a building housing the offices of The Associated Press and other media outlets. BBC footage captured the terror attack and the shootout as onlookers screamed in horror.

While BBC Online currently covers the story "Bulldozer rampage hits Jerusalem," this was not the original headline reported HonestReporting.com "Offering a glimpse into the BBC's warped journalism, the initial headline read "Israel bulldozer driver shot dead".

"That this terror attack took place opposite Jerusalem Capital Studios, the local headquarters for many international media outlets, including BBC, Sky News and CNN, ensured that footage and coverage were available almost immediately. The BBC's very own correspondent Tim Franks even witnessed much of the incident from his office window. The BBC can have no excuse for not having the basic facts of the story in front of them from the very beginning," said HonestReporting.com

Cassia Pereira, office manager for AP's Jerusalem bureau, watched the attack outside her window.

"I saw him but it was too late and there was nothing to do," she said, tears in her eyes. "I was in panic. I couldn't say a word."

In the wake of the attack, Israeli media were filled with demands from hard-line Israelis to take steps against Jerusalem's Palestinians - expelling the families of attackers, destroying their houses and refusing to employ them.

About two-thirds of Jerusalem's 700,000 residents are Jews, and the rest are Palestinians who came under Israeli control when Israel captured their part of the city in 1967.

Though Jews and Arabs have little social interaction, Palestinians perform much of the city's blue-collar work and the sides frequently come into contact. In contrast to West Bank Palestinians, Arab residents of Jerusalem have full freedom to work and travel throughout Israel. Many Jerusalem Arabs work in the construction industry.

Jerusalem City Hall spokesman Gidi Schmerling said all east Jerusalem residents who work in construction for the city must pass a police screening. He said Dwayat worked for a private construction firm. The contractor who employed him could not be reached for comment.

The terror groups claiming responsibility included the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, which is loosely affiliated with Abbas' Fatah movement, as well as the Galilee Freedom Battalion, suspected of being affiliated with Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a fringe militant group.

Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip and is currently maintaining a fragile cease-fire with Israel, said it did not carry out the attack but nevertheless praised it. "We consider it as a natural reaction to the daily aggression and crimes committed against our people," said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.

Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said, "We condemn any attacks that target civilians, whether Israelis or Palestinians."

"I saw the bulldozer smash the car with its shovel. He smashed the guy sitting in the driver's seat," said Yaakov Ashkenazi, an 18-year-old seminary student.

"He tried to run over anything that moves," said Sami Grossman, a paramedic with the Zaka Search and Rescue service, who first thought that the whole thing was one big traffic accident, but who quickly ditched his motorcycle when the bulldozer driver turned towards him.

Esther Valencia, a 52-year-old pedestrian said she barely escaped the carnage. "He almost hit me. Someone pushed me out of the way at the last moment. It was a miracle that I got out of there."

Sixteen-year-old Eyal Lang Ben-Hur was in a bus when the driver yelled out, "Get out of the vehicle! Everyone out!" People fled in a panic, he said, and the bus was hit an instant later.

Asaf Shalev, who was near the scene of the attack, told The Jerusalem Post that he heard about "an accident" and ran to the area. He described a path of destruction" leading from the construction site, and numerous policemen "examining the bulldozer."

Among the many comments of anger wrapped around the many YouTube videos of the terror attack, was one statement coming from a citizen of Jordan who said that he was ashamed of the Muslim who carried out the attack and sent condolences to the families in Israel.

"Not all Muslims are murderers," he said. "I and my family want no association with this type of racist hatred. Many Arabs and Muslims want peace and it is time that we began to confront those Muslims who make us appear like barbarians."

The above news content was edited and SEO optimized in New York for the Internet by the Leyden Communications Group.

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Free Jonathan Pollard Signs in Jerusalem - Joel Leyden mobile post

While I totally agree that Jonathan Pollard should be released - this is not the right message!
President George W. Bush is one of Israel's best, most loyal and trusted friends.
Bush should not be associated with Hamas and or Hizbullah terror leaders!

Jonathan Pollard was wrong. But he served his time!

Pollard was a victim of two administrations - Washington and Jerusalem which should have had better communication and INTEL sharing at the time. And under INTEL sharing agreements signed at the time by President Ronald Reagan, the US appears not to have lived up to its part.

Today, Pollard is nothing less than a puppet being used by the US against Israel.
How many US spies are keeping track of Israel? Should Israel arrest these agents and exchange them for Pollard?

As a democracy which believes in "equal justice under the law" Bush should pardon Pollard.

Holding Pollard as a "captive" only serves to humiliate Israel and adds fuel to the divide and conquer strategies of our mutual enemies.