The Gun Report: October 9, 2013 – NYTimes.com

An 18-year-old man was found lying in the street with gunshot wounds to the chest and leg in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Mass., Monday night. The victim was able to identify his attacker. A 15-year-old boy was arrested.

via The Gun Report: October 9, 2013 – NYTimes.com.

Settlers torch olive trees, attack school in Nablus | Maan News Agency

Dozens of settlers set fire to agricultural land in Nablus on Wednesday and attacked students at a local school, a Palestinian Authority official said.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank, told Ma\’an that settlers from Shilo set fire to agricultural land in an area known as Mount Jalud.

Dozens of settlers then raided a school in the nearby village of Qaryut and vandalized five cars. The group also set fire to land in the village, destroying dozens of olive trees.

via Settlers torch olive trees, attack school in Nablus | Maan News Agency.

Six more cases of MERS-CoV reported in Saudi Arabia | Vaccine News Daily

All six new patients are from the Riyadh region and five of them were hospitalized with severe symptoms. The dates of onset of the patients, which include three women and three men, range between September 15 and September 26. Three of the patients were contacts of previously confirmed MERS-CoV patients.

via Six more cases of MERS-CoV reported in Saudi Arabia | Vaccine News Daily.

China has 500,000 more internet monitors than soldiers : Shanghaiist

The Chinese government currently employs around two million people to work as the online monitors who censor and detain 16 year olds for \’inaccurate\’ Weibo posts \’maintain social stability\’ on China\’s Internet, outnumbering the country\’s 1.5 million active military personnel, according to a recent report by the Beijing Times via Quartz.

There is now an entire industry and profession dedicated to controlling—or attempting to control—China’s fast-moving social media world, where comments quickly go viral among the country’s 500 million internet users. The People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Chinese communist party is holding a four-day seminar this month where successful students can be certified as “public opinion analysts,” according to the Beijing Times report. Once certified, they’re eligible for jobs with China’s propaganda department, commercial companies, news websites or public relation firms.

Social media monitoring has been turned into a \”money-making machine for local governments,\” Guobin Yang, A professor of sociology and communications at the University of Southern California said.

Earlier, Reuters sat down with four former censors at Sina Weibo who described being underpaid and overworked while working under intense pressure as online monitors.

Most Sina Weibo censors are in their 20s and earn about 3,000 yuan ($490) a month, the former censors said, roughly the same as jobs posted in Tianjin for carpenters or staff in real estate firms. Many took the job after graduating from local universities.

\”People leave because it\’s a stressful dead-end job for most of us,\” said a third former censor. […]

On an average day, about 40 censors work 12-hour shifts. Each worker must sift through at least 3,000 posts an hour, the former censors said.

Last month, China\’s supreme court announced that any online rumor-spreading post \’clicked and viewed more than 5000 times, or reposted 500 times\’ could land its original author up to three years in jail.

via China has 500,000 more internet monitors than soldiers : Shanghaiist.

I Leaf Art

It was working in a prison that drove Solange Al-Heybe “to give life to the walls surrounding those dark spaces” of confinement. “I was always inspired to bring colors into those people’s lives, as a healthy, comfortable way to reach a positive, hopeful vision,” the psychologist and founder of “I Leaf Art” says.

After “giving life” to several walls at Roumieh Prison and Palestinian camps, Heybe took on an UNRWA school at Bourj Barajneh, where “I Leaf Art” was born in November 2012. As its mission statement tenderly declares, it is a “Group of Artists targeting Rigid Dark Spaces; Turning them into Safe, Dreamy ones.”

“What’s most fulfilling is the reaction of the children involved, their amazement and trust,” Heybe explains. Current projects include an elderly Palestinian couple’s home and more UNRWA and public schools. While some of these are supported by the non-profit Sharing is Caring and the Norwegian Refugee Council, Heybe says lack of NGO registration and lack of funding remain challenges. But, she insists, “once we start we can’t stop.”

via I Leaf Art.

How Lebanese Women Can Save Their Lives

A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

Almost a year ago, my October turned pink as my mother got news that she had breast cancer. After the initial shock of the matter subsides, you’re left with one of two options: you either think rationally and fight or succumb to your emotions and crumble. It was a tough year, that’s for sure. My mom wasted away because of the chemo. She lost her hair, vomited anything she’d eat. But she’s getting better now.

My mom, however, is not your typical breast cancer patient: she doesn’t have a family history that would cause anyone to be more vigilant. The other risk factors associated with breast cancer do not apply in her case. And yet, there she was getting a needle stuck in her central IV line. My mother fell through the statistical cracks of medicine, like so many other people out there.

October may be breast cancer awareness month but…

View original post 816 more words

Mysterious Sinkholes Threaten to Sink the Dead Sea | Green Prophet

Mysterious Sinkholes Threaten to Sink the Dead Sea | Green Prophet.

Watch your step, kibbutzniks and spa-mavens! Diminishing water levels in the Dead Sea are causing changes to surrounding groundwater flows.  Freshwater moves through the aquifer, dissolving subterranean salt deposits and creating underground voids, which cause surface collapse. Dramatic and unpredictable, sinkholes appear at the alarming rate of nearly one a day.

First observed around the Dead Sea in the 1980s, geologist Eli Raz estimates that today there are over 3,000 on the Israeli side alone.  “Sinkholes are caused by human irresponsibility,” he told Slate Magazine, “For more than 30 years, I’ve been trying to warn everyone—especially government officials—that if we don’t do something about the situation in the Dead Sea, the sinkholes will swallow us up.”

The Dead Sea (which is technically a lake fed by the Jordan River) spans more than 60 miles. Its shorelines include Jordan, the West Bank, and Israel.  Located 1,388 feet below sea level, it’s the lowest place on earth,and with no outlet for minerals deposited over millennia, its waters have become ten times saltier than the north Atlantic.

Shutdown Puts New Craft Beers on Hold

OMG! Shutdown will not last long now!

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, or TTB, is a little-known arm of the Treasury Department. The agency will continue to process taxes from existing permit holders, but applications for anything new are in limbo.

\”One could think of this shutdown as basically stopping business indefinitely for anyone who didn\’t have certain paperwork in place back in mid-August,\” said Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association, which represents more than 1,900 U.S. breweries.

via Shutdown Puts New Craft Beers on Hold.

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