The last two posts were blogged from my mobile phone.
I am leaving them exactly as is for historical purposes.
The first is one of my cats. I knew the photo was awful, didn't even try to adjust the photo - for I knew that this was not going to work. But it did!!!
The second post was from in front of my computer. The post did not take more than two minutes. That is my 7-year-old daughter Amanda making like Israel model Galit Gutman.
Normally, if I want any content uploaded from my mobile phone camera, I need to get myself back to my office, create a wired hookup from my phone to the PC. Upload. Convert the image to a JPEG or GIF for the Net. Use my photo editors to enhance the image. Then log onto Blogger, enter password and all. Arrange layout and ...................
With my phone this total operation is reduced to 1. taking the photo, 2. sending it to Blogger.
This is amazing technology. Technology that can certainly save lives as one can post from a car or air crash in real time. Get assistance when lost ......
And being in the news biz - I am just smiling what can be done here.................
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Israel Flying Aid Humanitarian Volunteers Risk Life For Other Nations
Israel Flying Aid Humanitarian Volunteers Risk Life For Other Nations
By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency
Jerusalem ----- May 28, 2008 ....... Sometimes with not more than just a few hours notice, the volunteer members of Israel Flying Aid find themselves on unmarked airplanes heading out from Israel for disaster stricken nations. Many of these countries have no political relations with Israel. Some declare themselves as enemies.
Israel Flying Aid members sit cramped for hours on cargo planes, with their heads resting on food, water, medicine, tents, beds and emergency electric generators for those who would starve if not for their brave and humanitarian efforts.
Israeli Flying Aid (IFA) is a non-for-profit, non governmental aid organization which provides life saving aid to people affected by natural and man made disasters in developing countries worldwide. Israel Flying Aid provides assistance to all who are in need by distribution of relief items, medical assistance and any other life saving methods.
Just a few weeks ago the Myanmar government opened its doors to foreign aid for help with recovery efforts after a devastating cyclone. Israel was there. Israeli Flying Aid members were on the ground handing out rice and water bottles to hundreds who waited in line.
The IsrAid organization, which sends help to foreign countries in need, sent Myanmar a highly trained civilian search-and-rescue team and a 10-member team of doctors and nurses. The humanitarian teams brought crucial supplies, including plastic sheeting, food, household appliances and water filters.
"We believe that we need to go into the field and help the people. We cannot just send supplies, as the price for transporting supplies is very costly," said IsrAid head Shachar Zahavi.
A spokesman from the Myanmar Embassy in Tel Aviv said it was very thankful to the Israel government and the different organizations that have provided money and other aid to help in the desperate situation.
The death toll in Myanmar (formerly Burma) was rising to more than 23,335 and the risk of disease was increasing as Israel Flying Aid took to the skies.
Some experts said that the impact of Cyclone Nargis, which struck Myanmar on May 3, could be worse than the 2004 tsunami, if relief wasn't flown in immediately. Experts estimate that 1.5 million people have been affected by the cyclone, and some aid agencies believe as many as 100,000 people were killed in the disaster.
Thousands of bodies could be seen floating throughout rice paddies and as the death toll rises, according to media reports, those still alive are homeless and running low on food and safe drinking water.
IsraAID and Israeli relief workers have a long history of helping people around the world in dire need.
Israel Flying Aid sent relief after Hurricane Katrina, they were on the scene giving relief after the 2004 tsunami, and are continually providing support on the Chad-Sudan border, as part of a larger scale program of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS).
Israeli Flying Aid recently held a fundraiser in Herzliya Pituach, Israel to raise funds to support a medical clinic in one of Ethiopia poorest districts. Several of Israel's well known entertainers, including Berry Sacharof, Dudu Tasa, Ras Daniel and others, supported this effort by performing at the event.
Israel physicians Idit and Amit Dotan are the initiators of this medical program. Both have visited Ethiopia 5 times and volunteered for over a year in the Mother Teresa clinic for HIV/AIDS orphans in Addis Ababa as well as in a clinic in the south, dedicating their time and effort to help some of the poorest people in the country. The clinic, which is located in the South – west of the country in the Gorga district, was renovated by the doctors and equipped with some basic medical items which enable them to treat almost 100 patients a day. The project, though initially a private venture, now needs additional funds. The couple turned to Israeli Flying Aid. Israel Flying Aid has already helped send more medical items to the clinic and is sponsoring the fundraiser, in the hopes that those in attendance will show their support for the project.
Israel Flying Aid also helped victims of a recent earthquake in Indonesia.
The volunteers from the Israeli Flying Aid team, whose work was co-sponsored by the American Jewish Committee, provided children with post-traumatic stress disorder treatments and served two hot meals daily to 5,200 people.
The efforts in eight Muslim villages won approval from Indonesian government officials, as well as the local Muslim leadership, who asked for the group’s help in reconstructing a mosque destroyed by the earthquake.
The activities of Israel Flying Aid were not reported until just a few weeks ago for fear of potential threats from Islamic terrorists.
Due to their dedication, passion and expertise, Israel relief workers have played a major role in saving thousands of lives. Donations to help fund Israeli relief are provided by organizations and individuals around the world including Mark Solomon from CMS Companies in the US, The Jewish Federation of Toronto, and B'nai B'rith International.
Gal Lousky, the creator of Israeli Flying Aid, was wounded by a Hezbollah Katusha rocket from Lebanon while providing relief assistance at home in the north during the last Lebanon war.
"Not many know that I was wounded, including my mother who I did not want to worry about me," Lousky told the INA. Lousky, had coordinated a group of Israel businessmen and artists to raise over one million dollars in humanitarian aid within seven days.
Upon witnessing the suffering of innocent Israel civilians being bombed daily by a rain of Katusha rockets in northern Israel and a lack of money for governmental assistance, they moved into high gear. Upon the event's completion with a rendition of Jerusalem the Gold and all 2,000 participants standing for Hatikva, Lousky was overwhelmed by the event's success as tears poured down from her eyes. She was not alone tonight. For many others cried as they remembered both the Israel civilians who were murdered by Iran Hezbollah rocket attacks and the IDF soldiers who fell while searching for Hezbollah terrorists.
But perhaps its the humanitarian work that Lousky and the members of Israel Flying Aid provide outside of Israel which truly marks their character.
Members of Israel Flying Aid were aboard a plane carrying clothing, medical supplies, generators and tents to the quake stricken areas of China on Sunday. The Israel donations include emergency supplies stipulated by the China government that reached the stricken area and assisted the victims of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake.
Israel Foreign Ministry officials said the Israel shipment was worth $1.5 million . Livni said it is the minimum Israel can do to express its friendship with China the Chinese Ambassador declared that Israel's assistance proves that a friend in need is a friend indeed.
And this was a country which openly welcomed IFA.
One can only wonder where the members of Israel Flying Aid would be if the people of Syria, Iran, Lebanon or Saudi Arabia were hit by an earthquake or other natural disaster. We would never know it. But the children of those nations would. And that is exactly what makes Israel a nation which shines her light upon the nations.
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Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Lies, damned lies, the wickedness of Wikipedia
Lies, damned lies, and the wickedness of Wikipedia
Tuesday May 27 2008
Googling away, as one does, I came across my Wikipedia entry the other day, and learnt for the very first time that I was recruited as an agent by the British in Belfast.
Furthermore, I also discovered that a sexual offence by me against a young boy was hushed up by the authorities, and the child's parents were mysteriously induced to stay silent.
That entry has since been removed. Later -- the Wikipedia entry informed me -- I then became a British agent in the Republic, and Wikipedia even quoted at length from a column I had never written, extolling our duty to be loyal to Mother England.
To judge from the accuracy of the items about me, we can only imagine what Wikipedia might say in the future about any number of illustrious Irish men and women.
Ireland's first woman President, Mary Robinson, the eldest of 17 children, was probably born, Immaculata Higginbottom, to a Tallaght washerwoman.
She became Mary Robinson on her marriage to Peter Robinson (qv), whom she had first met on the doorstep of the massage parlour where she did the laundry, and he was handing out election literature.
She was smoking a Park Drive cigarette, her hair was in curlers, and her stockings around her ankles: it was love at first sight. She entered politics in protest after her 10th child, Billygene, failed to qualify from the opening heat of the Miss Ireland (Butlin's, Mosney) competition.
Of her successor, Mary McAleese, Wikipedia no doubt says she is the first transgender president of Ireland.
She was born Tarquin Tollemache-Tollemache Plantagenet Chandos, 17th in line to the throne of England, and fourth to the principality of Luxemburg.
The young Tarquin was commissioned into the Blues and Royals, and it was while performing assassination duties in south Armagh, that he discovered both his Irish roots (his mother was an Arbuthnot-Arbuthnot, of the Sligo Arbuthnot-Arbuthnots) and his feminine side.
Two weeks in Casablanca soon sorted that out, and Mary McAleese was born.
However, Tarquin Tollemache-Tollemache Plantagenet Chandos is not entirely dead: President McAleese even knows the second verse of 'There'll Always be an England', with which she often regales her guests at the secret St George's Day annual bash at the vice-regal lodge in Phoenix Park in Dublin.
The former Fine Gael leader Garret FitzGerald began his career on the boards, (says Wikipedia) with his imitations of birds, and occasionally of buildings: his portrayal of Wellington's Monument has yet to be bettered. He met his first wife, the comedian Maureen Potter, at the winter panto at the Gaiety, where she was playing Mother Goose and he was the rear-end of a horse. Upon her death, he was remarried, to the Nobel prize-winning economist Twink. They have a daughter, Chardonnay, and a son, Wayne.
And so on. Thus Wikipedia can give space to complete falsehood, both amiably frivolous and deeply malignant.
Lies and truth, fantasy and reality, superstition and fact have now achieved parity of Wikipedic esteem, exactly as they once did in the medieval market-place. It was the printing press -- and the encyclopedia which followed -- which abolished the authority of such ignorance, by the winnowing out, over time, of the chaff of malice and gobbledegook.
But time is the one dimension missing from the internet: instantaneity is the defining feature of this age: knowledge now, friends now, sex now, music now.
But these "now" things are all bogus: and whereas little or no harm results while the fantasies are confined to the internet, real evil can result when cyber-plane intersects with corporeal reality. Every misanthropic fantasist now has an uncontrolled forum for his or her bilious ravings, which are then given a wholly spurious "encyclopedic" status on Wikipedia, causing them to be believed and even acted on by the credulous, the weak, the stupid and the violent -- of which and of whom, there are absolutely no shortages.
Thus, at one level I can scoff at Wikipedia's preposterous allegations against me (and the very fact that 'Phoenix' magazine's poisonous vapourings are quoted as authoritative says something about the author of the Wikipedia item).
But at another level, there will inevitably be some who actually believe what they read -- and are possibly demented enough do something about it.
For I am called a sexual violator of children, a corrupter of the law, and a traitor to my country. The manifold lie is told in what masquerades as an encyclopedia, and the falsehood established in the credulous mind, and I have no comeback.
So who are the people who founded and run Wikipedia? I don't know, and nor have I any foolproof way of finding out, because the only way of doing so is by consulting Wikipedia itself: a hole-in-bucket solution to a hole-in-my-bucket problem (and if you don't understand that explanation, you're probably too young to understand anything else in this column).
And so -- do these wretched Wikipedia people ever lie awake worrying at the damage that the evil or the impressionable might inflict upon those who have been maligned in their uncontrolled and filthy internet gossip-shop, whose very power derives from the complete fiction that it is an "encyclopedia"?
I doubt it extremely: for of all the lies of our time, Wikipedia is surely the greatest.
kmyers@independent.ie
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Israel Cabinet: Israel, Syria In Serious, Responsible Peace Negotiations
Israel Cabinet: Israel, Syria In Serious, Responsible Peace Negotiations
By Israel News Agency Staff
Jerusalem ----- May 25, 2008 ....... The following was communicated by the Israel Cabinet Secretariat and the Israel Government Press Office to the Israel News Agency.
At the weekly Cabinet meeting held today in Jerusalem, Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Israel Security Agency Director Yuval Diskin briefed ministers on diplomatic and security matters. The former discussed the resumption of contacts between Israel and Syria on the basis of the 1991 Madrid Conference.
The latter reviewed the situation in Gaza, including the sides' positions on the contacts between Hamas and Egypt, and the issue of a period of calm. The ISA Director also discussed activity by Hamas and the other terrorist organizations, the humanitarian situation of the civilian population in Gaza and the terrorist organizations' attempts to perpetrate kidnappings.
On the diplomatic issue, Israel Prime Minister Olmert said: "Last Wednesday, 21.5.08, a statement was released simultaneously in Damascus, Ankara and Jerusalem about the opening of negotiations for a comprehensive peace between Israel and Syria, under Turkish auspices. The statement referred to a process that began in February 2007 and which developed cautiously and gradually, conducted and guided by myself and Israel Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and with the knowledge of Israel Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, and reached last week's simultaneous announcement."
Olmert continued: "Since the announcement, there has been much speculation and commentary. I want to say here and now that we have no intention of conducting these negotiations neither in the media, nor in daily statements, nor in slogans. Rather, we will conduct serious and responsible negotiations, with all due caution. Israel has experience in negotiating with the Syria government, in the past as well. In the past, the public knew that negotiations were being held but the sensitive details and intricacies were naturally kept so that the negotiations might be conducted better. I can say that we are taking these negotiations seriously."
" There has been, and will be, very precise and detailed preparations, which are appropriate for the expectations we have of these negotiations, given the current reality, not that of nine or ten years ago, and given the security and diplomatic sensitivities that stem from reality as we know it today, not as we knew it in the past. This must be completely clear. Of course, the various bodies will be involved at every critical point in this process; they will receive full information. There will be a steering committee, composed of all the relevant bodies, for the conduct of the negotiations. It will not be different from the conduct of other negotiations. In the negotiations that we are also holding with the Palestinians, all bodies are involved in every detail. However, this is not to say that these details must be exposed in the headlines on a daily basis."
"I think that this would be an incorrect procedure and we must be very careful lest this enthusiasm impair our ability to reach significant results on the most fateful questions regarding the future existence of the State of Israel. Naturally, at the beginning of our meeting, I will deliver the necessary details on the development of the issue, and the Israel Cabinet will receive reports as necessary during the process, at all relevant intervals."
Israel Social Welfare and Social Services Minister Yitzhak Herzog and his ministry Director-General briefed ministers on the various services provided by the ministry. Prime Minister Olmert noted that, "As is known, the current Government has invested unprecedented amounts in rehabilitating the social welfare services and care for weaker strata, and has even made achievements in blocking the increase in the number of poor people in Israel. This Government's policy is a compassionate economy. We will not suffice with blocking the increase in poverty but intend to begin reducing the number of poor families and see to it that economic growth reaches the weaker strata."
See http://tinyurl.com/6lj73x for further details, including the aforesaid amounts.
Pursuant to Article 23 of the 1959 Israel Civil Service Law (Appointments), the Israel Cabinet made the following appointments: Assaf Whitman will replace Ron Dermer as Economic Attache' in Washington, DC; Yehuda Nasardishi will serve as Director of the Tax Authority and Dr. Reuven Gal will serve as Director of the Israel Prime Minister's Office Civilian and National Service Authority.
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Saturday, May 24, 2008
United States News Agency Is Launched!
United States News Agency
Lead sentence:
The United States News Agency™ officially launches its Net presence with this humble blog.
We are seeking professional editors and reporters who have at least 5 years of professional print, broadcast and or Net editorial experience. All staff must be citizens of the United States.
Initially we will operate the United States News Agency™ as volunteers working as a non-profit, non-commercial and non-governmental entity. We will report both hard news and feature stories coming out of the 50 states.
- Interested in making journalism history on the Net?
- Improving the quality of news reporting as both US citizens and global visitors view our editorial content?
- Seeking a future in what will become the largest, most influential commercial news organization on the Internet?
Please send your resume to Joel Leyden, Publisher, UnitedStatesNewsAgency @ gmail.com
Investors are invited to contact us.
God bless the United States of America and the men and women who protect her 24 by 7.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Jeff Pulver, King of Blogs, Web 2.0, VoIP Rocks Israel
Jeff Pulver, King of Blogs, Web 2.0, VoIP Rocks Israel
Jeff Pulver - Nokia in one hand, camera in the other.
All that is missing at this Pulver networking event in Tel Aviv are carrier pigeons!
By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency
Tel Aviv ----- May 23, 2008 ....... It is Lag Ba'omer in Israel. The Jewish bonfire holiday, said to be in commemoration of the signal fires that ancient Jews lit on the mountain tops to relay messages. But perhaps the largest, hottest fire to take place in Israel last night between modern day Jewish digital messengers was that of the party thrown in Tel Aviv, Israel by blog and Web 2.0 guru Jeff Pulver.
Pulver, the author of what's referred to as "the Pulver Order", which was adopted in 2004 by the US Federal Communications Commission and was listed as a BusinessWeek "Tech Guru" in 2003, is something of a digital Christopher Columbus. He travels. Both by modem and jet fuel speed. Pulver communicates and has used the Internet's most successful social networking application Facebook to attract over 5,000 friends.
But what makes Jeff Pulver truly special is that he transforms his digital friends into real touchy, feely friends at networking parties around the world. And this somewhat shy but yet one of the Internet's most extroverted guys has a very soft spot for Israel. Jeff does not charge the participants who come to his networking events a fee. From his own pocket he makes the smiles and new business contacts happen.
When asked by the Israel News Agency why he does this and even more so why in Israel his reply is simple: "I love Israel, I love you guys. And I will support you in any way possible."
There is no follow up question to Pulver's sincere, blunt response. Instead, this tall, fellow Internet pioneer from Great Neck, New York reaches out to me with a large hug. Recently, Jeff was invited to speak with other world political and commercial leaders at the Israel 60th birthday Shimon Peres Presidential Facing Tomorrow Conference.
In constant demand for lectures around the world, something of a young, hi tech Henry Kissinger, Pulver epitomizes the wired life. Where many in the advertising, public relations, SEO and Internet marketing world rely on their Blackberry from sunset to sunrise and beyond, Jeff pushes the envelope even further.
Like a real time JenniCam, a girl who placed her life on an Internet cam for years, Jeff Pulver uses Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft messenger, Yahoo messenger, Skype and other real time Internet applications to broadcast his almost every move. While being at a party with over 200 people, it ain't enough for Jeff as he whips out his Nokia mobile telephone and begins to broadcast live through the Net to the world - showing those in New York, London, Tel Aviv and Tokyo what he sees and feels. He even transmits his airline flight seat number as he boards an aircraft for New York, Washington, Stockholm or Moscow.
Jeff Pulver, a VoIP and Internet video pioneer and founder of Pulver.com, has discovered the value of live streaming cellular video.
After watching Robert Scoble’s live broadcasting from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jeff was established a Qik account for his new Nokia N95.
In addition to Pulvermedia, the producer of VON trade shows, Jeff Pulver has invested in many VoIP and Internet video start-ups.
He is currently involved in PrimeTimeRewind.com, a site that centralizes access to TV video content posted by major TV networks with the goal of making it easier to access that content.
Jeff: "What are the chances of three guys from Great Neck being at this event?"
Joel: "Jeff - with you, anything is possible!"
And Jeff blogs. In fact, the Jeff Pulver Blog must be the most respected social networking Web 2.0 blog read by thousands every day.
Pulver's entry for May 19, 2008 reads as follows: "Back in Tel Aviv, the Hi-Tech Startup Capital of the World," says Pulver.
"I’m spending this week in Tel Aviv and I look forward to spending time catching up with a number of (early) early-stage startups. Tomorrow is a typical day for me in Tel Aviv with meetings scheduled with 14 or so new startups in a non-stop stream of back-to-back meetings. I am not aware of any other city anywhere in the world where one can smell the entrepreneurship in the air. Every time I visit Tel Aviv I continue to be amazed by: the people I meet; the ideas I hear about; the innovation which is happening; and by the positive “can do” energy in the air. The people I know who are involved with startups in Israel are living the 24/7 lifestyle of working non-stop. Just about anything and everything is possible. All it takes is an open mind."
But perhaps the one with the most open mind is Jeff. But how he keeps it open 25 hours a day is anyone's guess.
"You know people say that Jeff has an assistant answering his email for him," said one successful geek who has made three exits in the last year who was attending the Jeff Pulver Party last night. "But ya know, I think he answers all the messages himself."
I responded that I have corresponded with Jeff about things that we only could know about and no way has he cloned himself yet. But I would not put this passed Jeff Pulver - to clone himself into some sort of on-line artificial intelligence application. After all, this Internet Christopher Columbus has the ears of the best and most creative start-ups in the world.
Jeff, great party last night. Yossi Vardi and other hi tech celebs were there mixing with a younger generation seeking jobs. The drinks kept coming, the cheese was good, the sushi was tasty but the meat - the meat was really stringy. Ya know, you can bring over some New York hot pastrami and corn beef from Katz's or the Carnegie Deli next time you are in town. But I really just don't know how you do it. How do you stay wired 24 by 7? Are you drinking Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee?
For me - I am now going to upload this story to Google News and my various blogs and then attempt to get some sleep. You can't Twitter, ICQ, Facebook,Wink, DIGG, YouTube, Technorati, Del.icio.us or messenger me there.
Can you, Jeff?
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