umbertino

Syrian children saved from a perilous boat crossing to Europe grinned and blew kisses on Monday as they arrived in Italy, which is urging the EU to use airlifts to ease the migrant crisis. Published: 01 Mar 2016 08:36 GMT+01:00 As several European countries seek to close their borders and accusations fly that Austria and Balkan states are abandoning Athens to refugee chaos, Italy's foreign minister insisted it was time to provide open passage. "We don't need in this moment to raise walls, to have new fences, to have unilateral decisions," Paolo Gentiloni told the foreign press in English as close to 100 Syrians, mainly parents and children, arrived at Rome's Fiumicino airport. Humanitarian crossings, by which refugees are flown directly into Europe from camps in Lebanon, not only save people "from smugglers, from human traffickers, from the risks that they run in their route towards Europe". "It is important for them, for the children that are with them, but it is important for Europe," he said. There were tears as adults carrying toddlers in their arms, wrapped in blankets or clutching toys, were met by volunteers who hugged them. While a few children hid their faces, most waved and smiled to the international media. Marco Sandrone, an Italian volunteer holding a four-year old boy and his fluffy teddy, said the families had suffered "shrapnel, bombs, attacks", and had spent years living in refugee camps, with several toddlers born there. Italy's humanitarian corridor is a new project co-organised by the Sant'Egidio Catholic community, the Federation of Evangelical Churches and the Valdese Evangelical Church. It was the first group arrival, after a family came at the start of the month with a child suffering from eye cancer. 'Chance of a better life' "Everything you say about war... You can't describe the whole thing because it is a big, big disaster," said Nakhle Abboud, a Syrian refugee who said his group could not wait to start their new lives in cities from Rome to Venice. "You can see from the people here, the sadness on their faces. They need a chance to live a better life," said Abboud. The programme is aimed at the most vulnerable members of asylum-seeking groups -- from single mothers to pregnant women, handicapped people and sick children - and should see 1,000 people of various nationalities brought to safety in Italy over the next two years, a spokesman for Sant'Egidio said. The costs - of hospitality, legal aid and Italian lessons for example -- will be covered by the non-profit organisations, drawing mainly on religious donations, while families will be housed initially with volunteers. Some 120,000 people have crossed over from Turkey to Greece on rickety boats since the start of the year, with another 9,000 or so migrants arriving in Italy by sea from Libya, according to the UN refugee agency. Over a third of migrants crossing the Mediterranean are children, with at least 60 youngsters dying during the crossing since the beginning of January. Gentiloni said the corridors, if brought in across Europe, could make a significant difference but would not be enough to curb the migrant crisis. Other essential elements were "cooperation with Africa, the ceasefire in Syria, contributing to stability in Jordan and Lebanon, and help(ing) Turkey with migrants. And sharing the burden of migration within Europe." A Syrian refugee girl arrives at Rome's Fiumicino airport. Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFP http://www.thelocal.it/20160301/syrian-children-blow-kisses-as-they-arrive-in-italys-first-airlift

I sent the link to a friend of mine ( a Professor of English Language / Literature in a high school) and he showed it to the students in classroom.. They went nuts ( obviously)

Banned books, fines for theatre groups, playlists for radios, funding axed for ‘disloyal’ art … do Israel’s artists feel under attack from culture minister, and ex-brigadier-general, Miri Regev? Michael Griffiths Tuesday 1 March 2016 10.30 GMT The term “loyalty in culture bill” sounds like something out of Nineteen Eighty-Four. However, last month, Israel’s minister for culture and sport introduced just that to a parliamentary committee, which responded with a mixture of rightwing approval and leftwing condemnation. Many of Israel’s newspapers are now happy to mention Miri Regev in the same breath as Joe McCarthy. In her short time as minister, the former army brigadier-general responsible for the military’s media relations has been criticised for her attacks on artists’ freedom of speech, the latest being her proposal to give government funding only to art loyal to Israel. “What is happening in Israel now is fascism,” says David Tartakover, a graphic artist famous for designing politically inspired work, including the logo for the Peace Now campaign in 1978. He believes this is the culmination of a slow creep of limitations that began after the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. Over the last year, he says, things have visibly worsened. A snapshot of what Tartakover is referring to would include Naftali Bennett, the minister of education, banning Dorit Rabinyan’s novel Borderlife, about a relationship between a Jewish woman and Palestinian man, from school reading lists because it promoted “assimilation”; and the rightwing extra-parliamentary political group Im Tirtzu denouncing two of Israel’s most internationally recognised writers, Amos Oz and David Grossman, as being “infiltrators inside [israeli] culture”. While the attorney general scaled back Regev’s powers last Wednesday, only allowing her to retrospectively “defund” artists who had received grants, the bill is still symbolic of her willingness to insert her politics into the art world. In her short tenure, Regev has threatened to fine theatre groups who refuse to perform in the West Bank, and attempted to vet the army radio station’s playlist to ensure it included more songs by Israeli and Mizrahi artists. Tartakover, who has been at the forefront of politically inspired art in Israel for over 40 years, sees this as “a culture war” rather than a series of unrelated events, one that has its origins in the “48 years of occupation of the territories, where there’s no democracy. Being the ruling power of two million Palestinians without any rights affects the whole country.” The bill defines disloyal art as follows: “Denying the existence of the state of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state; incitement to racism, violence and terror; support for an armed struggle or terror act by a hostile country or terror organisation against the state of Israel; marking Independence Day as a day of mourning; an act of vandalism or physical degradation that dishonours the country’s flag or state emblem.” Craig Dershowitz, executive director of New York-based organisation Artists4Israel, is more defensive. He believes that an awareness of the “various anti-Israel forces at play in the cultural dialogue” is crucial to understanding why the bill has been introduced. Dershowitz, a street artist who leads educational tours of Israel for other graffiti artists, says: “I applaud a country that wrestles with so much adversity to have any – much more such a robust – cultural concern in government.” He says the international community “sometimes forgets that Israel is a country at war – and, at other times, forgets it is a country that exists outside of that war”. He adds: “All art exists within society and, as such, is part of a social contract. Art has obligations to society even if that obligation is to be radical, rebellious and fighting against social norms. In Israel, those social contracts have always been quite different to how we imagine them in our privileged western liberal communities.” In this politically charged country, frequently the focus of the world’s attention, it can be difficult for Israeli artists to be anything but political. As the director of an arts-based organisation, Dershowitz regularly sees Israeli artists almost forced to take a political stance, either by action or inaction, to which he poses the question: “Do the artists feel the need to respond – or are they just being asked the question? When they do answer, it’s amplified 1,000 times more than any other artist.” Sculptor and installation artist Sigalit Landau, who has been keenly aware of this politicisation since her first exhibitions in the early 90s, says: “You are always going to be judged [in the light of the] conflict and your background.” Landau, whose arts deals primarily with identity and occasionally dips into politically uncomfortable territory, believes the bill shows how Regev likes to take advantage of Israel’s politicised atmosphere in order to grab headlines: “There are always new things. Every week there’s a new idea.” While Landau is uncomfortable with the symbolism of Regev’s bill, she believes the influence of government grants can be overstated: “We’re talking about so little money. Some people say, ‘Keep your money. It’s not affecting anything anyway. You’re talking like you’re an ATM machine.’” However, she regrets the fact that Regev isn’t treating art “as a way to bridge opinions, backgrounds and differences”. She adds: “It didn’t used to be about agreeing on everything – culture comes out of disagreement. I think most people who bother living here do love this place in a way. They prove it by not leaving, by making art or literature, by teaching or a taking part in a debate.” While Israel’s artists seem split on the question of whether Regev’s bill represents a war on free expression, or is simply to be expected in such a country, Landau says there is one thing she couldn’t work without: “Hope in Israeli culture.” 1 4 ‘Israel is a country at war’ … street artist Craig Dershowitz on an Artists4Israel trip to the Golan Heights. Photograph: Sean Shapiro More pics in link http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/mar/01/israel-loyalty-in-culture-bill-debate-fascism-miri-regev-art-free-speech

‘I felt amazing, really buzzing and ready to work. I was superhuman. Then I crashed and got crazy...’ Helen Whitehouse Tuesday 1 March 2016 10.17 GMT Young people, news reports tell us, are turning their backs on drinking and recreational drugs. Cigarette-smoking is on the decline, and so too is teenage pregnancy. It looks like this generation is cleaning up its act. But smart drugs? There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that they are rife at universities in the UK. And it’s hardly surprising. The pressure to succeed has never been fiercer. With fees of £27,000 for a three-year degree, spiralling living costs, and a hostile job market waiting at the other end, no one can afford to mess things up. So to keep focused and maximise their learning potential, students have turned to drugs originally intended to counter narcolepsy or ADHD. Though experts warn that the long-term effects of these drugs are still largely unknown, a survey in the Tab student paper suggests that a fifth of students in UK universities have taken the study drug modafinil. Study drugs are not illegal provided they are prescribed by a doctor, but it is an offence to supply. I’ve been speaking to a range of students, to find out when they first turned to a smart drug, and what effect it’s had on them. “A friend offered it to me when we started going through a tough period at university,” Gemma, 20, and studying at the University of Lincoln, tells me. “We are in our third and final year which is an important time. Me and my friends just wanted to do as well as possible, so when I was offered one to try, I took it.” Gemma says they opted for smart drugs when coffee simply wasn’t keeping them awake long enough. In the UK, modafinil seems to be the most widely used drug, though the ADHD medication ritalin is also used. Students get their hands on the drugs by ordering from unregulated pharmacy sites, often based in Malaysia or India, or buying from a dealer on campus. When it comes to improving dedication to a task, they do seem to work. “I heard about study drugs in my second year of university, but didn’t take any until my third year, when I was doing my dissertation,” says Matt, 22, who studied at the University of Newcastle. “I used to head to the library late at night, when I work best. Coffee wasn’t clinching it for me, so one night I took a modafinil and was there until six in the morning, writing 6,000 words of my main argument. I did the same again the following evening, and ended up getting a first.” Not everyone waits until their final year at uni before succumbing to the temptation of a solve-all pill. Becky, 19, now at Sheffield Hallam University, first took modafinil when she was 17. “My experience with study drugs is a bit of an odd one, because I actually used modafinil when I was in sixth form,” she admits. “I had too much work, and deadlines were drawing closer. I just wanted to get into university. I had a job in the evening at the same time as all this college work and found myself unable to focus on anything during the day. “A couple of my friends had some modafinil. I wasn’t nervous about taking it – I just wanted to see if anything happened. I tried it for revising and it did make me more focused,” she says. But the side-effects of taking smart drugs can be nasty. Becky tells me: “In the week after I used modafinil to revise with, I was very drained, meaning I actually got less work and revision done. She recalls: “It also gave me a splitting headache. I think at the time I was so desperate to do well, get the grades, fit everything in… But I was pretty exhausted and ill in the weeks after I used it.” Headaches, rashes and fatigue are widely reported by other students. Anna tried modafinil in her third year at the University of Newcastle. Although she found it helpful at first, she built up a reliance over a couple of weeks that left her exhausted. “When I took it, I felt amazing for the first couple of days, really buzzing and ready to work. I felt like I could study for 10 hours and then go to the gym. I was superhuman,” she says. “I ended up taking more of it and I crashed and got crazy and moody. I lost weight, couldn’t sleep, but couldn’t concentrate without it. Barbara Sahakian, professor in the University of Cambridge’s department of psychiatry, warns that using study drugs to cram for exams can make it hard to remember things, as our brains need sleep to process new knowledge. “We consolidate our memories during sleep, so it is counterproductive if study drug users are not able to have a good quality sleep,” she says. “In addition, we now know that our brains are in development into late adolescence and early young adulthood – and we do not know the effects of a smart drug on a healthy developing brain.” A third concern for Professor Sahakian is the risk entailed in buying study drugs via the internet, which most users do. It’s a “very dangerous way to obtain to prescription-only medication”, she says. Ben, 22, began ordering modafinil for himself and his friends during the second year of his degree. “It’s cheaper to bulk buy, so I usually order around 200 off the site, which costs 77p per pill. I have a couple of friends who take study drugs and they usually pay me around a £1 per dose,” he says. “The people who buy them from me typically take the same doses I do, and with the same regularity. One pill is enough for one day of studying, usually.” He says he doesn’t actively seek out custom but tends to get it anyway when the pills come up in conversation. “People are often interested to try it,” he says. “I decided not to deal more widely for profit, as keeping track of customers and purchases is a workload I don’t need, and I was worried I might develop a taste for dealing.” It’s tough to resist the temptation of smart drugs, but many students aren’t prepared to take the risk of serious damage that may only become apparent in the future. Kevin, 24, who attended the University of Leeds, says: “A lot of people around me seemed to be taking them. I still always wonder if I would have found it easier if I’d tried smart pills.” But he adds: “I think what people need to remember is that you can get reliant on things like this. At some point, study pills won’t solve everything. And they won’t do your job for you.” • All names have been changed in this article. Students are under pressure to excel at their studies. Photograph: Alamy http://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/mar/01/in-their-own-words-students-share-their-views-on-smart-drugs

They have committed unspeakable crimes that demand harsh punishment. But most will eventually be set free. Are we prepared to support efforts to rehabilitate them? Tuesday 1 March 2016 06.00 GMT By Sophie Elmhirst Long article http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/mar/01/what-should-we-do-about-paedophiles

Lockheed Martin wins contract to carry out initial design of ‘low-boom’ aircraft that would announce its passing with a soft thump rather than thundering roar Staff and agencies Tuesday 1 March 2016 01.30 GMT Nasa has given the go-ahead for preliminary design of a “low-boom” supersonic passenger plane that could one day fill the gap left by the retirement of the Concorde jet. Nasa’s Commercial Supersonic Technology Project had asked industry teams to submit design concepts for a test aircraft that can fly at supersonic speeds, creating a supersonic “heartbeat” – a soft thump rather than the disruptive boom currently associated with supersonic flight. Nasa said it selected a team led by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics to complete a preliminary design for Quiet Supersonic Technology (Quesst). This is the first in a series of “X-planes” in Nasa’s New Aviation Horizons initiative, introduced in the agency’s fiscal year 2017 budget. Lockheed Martin would receive about $20m over 17 months for Quesst preliminary design work, Nasa said. A Nasa spokesperson said: “The company will develop baseline aircraft requirements and a preliminary aircraft design, with specifications, and provide supporting documentation for concept formulation and planning. “This documentation would be used to prepare for the detailed design, building and testing of the QueSST jet. Performance of this preliminary design also must undergo analytical and wind tunnel validation.” Depending on funding a scaled-down version of the aircraft might start flight tests by 2020, Nasa said. The head of Nasa, Charles Bolden, said: “It’s worth noting that it’s been almost 70 years since Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in the Bell X-1 as part of our predecessor agency’s high speed research. Now we’re continuing that supersonic X-plane legacy with this preliminary design award for a quieter supersonic jet with an aim toward passenger flight.” The Lockheed Martin team includes subcontractors GE Aviation of Cincinnati and Tri Models Inc of Huntington Beach, California. “Developing, building and flight testing a quiet supersonic X-plane is the next logical step in our path to enabling the industry’s decision to open supersonic travel for the flying public,” said Jaiwon Shin, associate administrator for Nasa’s Aeronautics Research Mission. Nasa said part of the project would be to determine “acceptable sound levels” in the community given supersonic aircraft’s reputation for producing a disruptive boom. With Reuters Artist’s impression of a possible ‘quiet supersonic transport’ (Quesst) plane. Photograph: Lockheed Martin https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/mar/01/next-concorde-nasa-kickstarts-quesst-for-new-supersonic-passenger-jet

Five Republicans and two Democrats await the verdict of voters in a dozen states (and one territory) – with Donald Trump and Hillar-y Clinton leading the polls Super Tuesday cheat sheet: everything you need to know Scott Bixby Tuesday 1 March 2016 21.42 GMT http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2016/mar/01/super-tuesday-vote-election-2016-live-updates-campaign-trail-trump-clinton-sanders-cruz-rubio

May an Alien ( me) say "SHABS FOR PRESIDENT"?

And a fantastic one at that!

They do look sweet

‘It’s a rough map for us’ says candidate’s wife as votes in 11 states with diverse populations could leave the Vermont senator facing tough decisions Dan Roberts in Burlington and Lauren Gambino in Miami Tuesday 1 March 2016 13.08 GMT The Bernie Sanders campaign is bracing for a difficult national debut across the 11 states that vote for a Democratic presidential nominee on Tuesday, despite a record-breaking haul of small donations that could give it the money to keep fighting against Hillar-y Clinton regardless of the result. Notwithstanding surprise success among white voters in New Hampshire and Iowa, the insurgent “democratic socialist” has so far failed to make much headway with more diverse electorates in Nevada and South Carolina and risks being further exposed in delegate-rich southern states on Super Tuesday. “It’s a rough map for us,” conceded the senator’s wife, Jane Sanders, as the campaign team returned to their home in Burlington, Vermont, on Monday night from a 6,200-mile trip to eight states in three days. “I wish 11 states weren’t up tomorrow. I wish there were 48 hours in the day.” “The national media didn’t really start covering Bernie that much until the beginning of 2016, so they are not as familiar with him in the south,” Jane Sanders added. “Time has been against us. We have had two months for people to be familiar with Bernie’s message.” The senator himself appeared less daunted by expected heavy losses in places like Georgia and Virginia, and vowed to continue running until the Democratic national convention this July in the hope that more favourable states such as California and New York will eventually come into play. “At the end of tomorrow I think 15 states will have spoken,” Senator Sanders said after landing for a final rally in Boston. “Last I heard, we have a lot more than 15 states in the United States of America. I think it is more than appropriate to give all of those states and the people in them a chance to vote for the candidate of their choice.” On Tuesday the campaign is particularly hopeful of wins in Vermont, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Colorado and possibly Massachusetts, and expects to run Clinton close in Texas thanks to support among Hispanic people and liberals in Austin. Outward measures of enthusiasm also remain high. Nearly 40,000 people turned out to see the senator speak during his weekend whirlwind, packing venues in unlikely hot spots such as Dallas and Oklahoma City, which warmed to his message of tackling campaign finance corruption and reducing inequality. The campaign raised $6m in one day on Monday, bringing its monthly total to $42m from 1.4m small donations averaging just $30 apiece. “Working Americans chipping in a few dollars every week are changing the way campaigns in our country are financed,” said Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager, in a statement. But behind the scenes, campaign officials were nervous about the behaviour of voters in states where they have only recently begun to advertise and hire staff, and where what little polling there is, points to continued leads for Clinton. Teams that had months to build a ground game in Iowa and New Hampshire have been parachuted into much larger states for Super Tuesday with as a little as a few weeks to prepare for the election, and are running up against the much more sophisticated national strategy of their opponent. There is also mounting pressure to reconsider the impact of Donald Trump’s growing grip on the Republican primary and whether continuing to attack Clinton – once it becomes clear she will probably win the nomination – risks undermining the chances of stopping him. This argument is rejected among those close to the senator who say it is important to keep giving Democratic voters a choice, especially given further revelations may emerge about Clinton that could damage her chances at the last minute. “If you go to the rallies, you see the hope and the fervour and the expectation, Bernie’s not going to let those people down,” Jane Sanders told the Guardian on Monday night. “Every state should be able to voice their support for what they believe in. We know there is a significant amount of support for what Bernie stands for and for him as a candidate for president. We don’t know yet if it’s a majority, but we won’t know tomorrow either.” Yet there were signs this weekend that the impact of the trademark rallies may be waning. Unusually for Sanders, none of the venues required overflow space. At an uncomfortably hot final rally in Boston, large numbers of supporters left the sports arena early and others told the Guardian they were there as interested spectators rather than committed voters. Insiders are once again talking about the Sanders campaign primarily in terms of its ability project the messages of social justice and inequality on to the national stage, rather than as a serious presidential vehicle. “We want to give people the opportunity to continue to focus on the issues and also to have the media and the other candidates to focus on the issues that we consider to be very important,” said Jane, who the senator has called his most trusted adviser. “No matter what happens with this presidential race, after the convention those issues and Bernie – they are not going away.” Meanwhile, Clinton continued her tour of Super Tuesday states on Monday, holding rallies across Virginia and Massachusetts, but with her focus increasingly on gathering momentum against Trump. Her camp expects Clinton to win big on Tuesday, buoyed by the same electorate that helped her rout Sanders in South Carolina on Saturday night. Since her win there, Clinton has begun to pivot away from Sanders and the primary and instead toward Republicans and the general election. On Monday, she criticised the Republicans for their “hateful rhetoric” and said they don’t “play well” with others. “I really regret the language that is being used by Republicans, scapegoating people, finger-pointing, blaming,” she said during an event at George Mason University in Fairfax. There’s a different path Americans want to take.” There she was joined by Governor Terry McAuliffe of Virginia, a longtime Clinton ally and rumoured to be a potential running mate, who declared: “Virginia is Clinton country.” He urged the crowd of enthusiastic supporters to vote: “She is a progressive who gets results.” On Monday, she visited Tennessee and her home state of Arkansas. Following that she will hold an election nighty party in Miami, Florida – a state that is not even voting on Super Tuesday. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/01/bernie-sanders-campaign-super-tuesday-11-states-voters

Will Quigg says he called Anaheim police department before event but was told he could neither have official protection nor hire outside security firm Associated Press Tuesday 1 March 2016 15.09 GMT A Ku Klux Klan leader who was injured during a brawl with counter-protesters in a California park this weekend says police refused to provide security, telling him: “We don’t do that.” Will Quigg said that he contacted the Anaheim police department but the agency denied his requests for a police presence. The KKK then told officers that the group would hire an outside security company. “They said: ‘No, you can’t do that either,’” Quigg said. The police department is facing scrutiny for its response after three people were stabbed and several others were injured in the brawl Saturday involving several dozen people. Investigators determined that Klan members acted in self-defense after the counter-protesters attacked. The police department had notified the public that the KKK planned to hold an anti-immigration protest at the park, but at least one witness said he saw no uniformed officers when the attack began. When Quigg and about five others arrived, they were confronted by dozens of angry counter-protesters. Police sergeant Daron Wyatt said officers were present, but he declined to say how many. He acknowledged that Quigg had contacted the department but believed that the group leader was asking for police to act as personal security guards. “He was told how to contract for officers to do that, but did not want to spend the money,” Wyatt said. Five KKK members arrested later were released because evidence showed they acted in self-defense, police said. Seven people still in custody were seen beating, stomping and attacking the Klansmen with wooden posts, Wyatt said. Police said the Klansmen stabbed three counter-protesters. “Regardless of an individual or groups’ beliefs or ideologies, they are entitled to live without the fear of physical violence and have the right, under the law, to defend themselves when attacked,” a police statement said. Quigg said he was thrown to the ground, hit with a pipe, stomped and struck with slabs of wood. He said his right hand was fractured and his spleen and a rib bruised. He said he did not stab anyone. “What was done was done to protect our lives,” he said. “Our lives were in jeopardy.” Eugene O’Donnell, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said police departments are obligated to ensure public safety but also face criticism for chilling free speech and being heavy-handed. That can make it difficult for officers to know how to handle a protest event. “Sometimes the best presence is a very low-key presence,” O’Donnell said. Anaheim police said officers at the protest quickly called for backup when the violence broke out, and additional officers arrived within less than two minutes. Bystanders gaze at the scene in Anaheim Saturday following the Ku Klux Klan gathering. Photograph: Ed Crisostomo/AP http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/01/kkk-protest-police-refused-security-california

Palestinian killed during rescue of two soldiers who mistakenly entered refugee camp while using Waze navigation app Peter Beaumont in Jerusalem Tuesday 1 March 2016 14.31 GMT Two Israeli soldiers sparked an hour-long deadly battle in a Palestinian refugee camp which they entered, apparently by mistake, while following the popular online navigation app Waze. In the course of a rescue operation, during which helicopters and special forces were deployed, one Palestinian was killed and four injured while 10 Israeli security personnel were wounded. The disclosure that the soldiers were using the Israeli-developed app provoked bafflement as its default setting – which the user has to override – prevents navigation in the West Bank. Even when security settings are altered, the app is often inaccurate in the occupied territories, leading to questions about why soldiers in a military vehicle were using it to navigate. The two Israeli soldiers – from a military dog unit – mistakenly entered the volatile Qalandia camp in the West Bank where they were pelted with rocks and firebombs, said Israeli a military spokesman, Motti Almoz. They fled after their jeep caught fire, with one escaping to a nearby Jewish settlement and the other taking cover in the yard of a Palestinian family for about an hour before he was rescued by the Israeli troops amid heavy clashes. According to media reports, the Israeli military initiated the so-called Hannibal Protocol in response to the incident, an order requiring extraordinary measures to head off the abduction of soldiers. Waze, acquired by Google for more than $1bn in 2013, said the soldiers were at fault. “[Waze] includes a specific default setting that prevents routes through areas which are marked as dangerous or prohibited for Israelis to drive through,” the company said. “In this case, the setting was disabled. In addition, the driver deviated from the suggested route and, as a result, entered the prohibited area. There are also red signs on the road in question that prohibit access to Palestinian-controlled territories [for Israelis]. It is the responsibility of every driver to adhere to road and traffic signs and obey local laws.” The military said it went into emergency mode because of concerns that one of the soldiers had been abducted. The Palestinian Red Crescent identified the Palestinian man who died as 22-year-old university student Eyad Sajadiyeh, saying he was shot in the head during the fighting. Israel’s defence minister, Moshe Ya’alon, said the soldiers appeared to go astray after Waze showed them the shortest route from Jerusalem to their destination in the West Bank. He said the incident would be investigated further to make sure such a situation would not happen again. “I learned long ago, when the GPS was introduced, you can’t forget how to navigate using a map and you need to know your environment and not follow technology blindly,” Ya’alon said. Tuesday’s violence was the latest in more than five months of near-daily Palestinian attacks on civilians and security forces in which 28 Israelis have died, mostly in stabbings, shootings and attacks where Palestinians used vehicles as weapons to ram into Israeli soldiers or civilians. Since mid-September at least 168 Palestinians have also been killed, most of them said by Israel to have been attackers. The rest died in clashes with troops. Mourners at the Qalandia camp carry the body of 22-year-old Eyad Sajadiyeh who was killed in the raid. Photograph: Atef Safadi/EPA http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/01/israeli-soldiers-waze-app-use-leads-to-deadly-fight-in-palestinian-west-bank-camp

Holy See-owned L’Osservatore Romano hails Tom McCarthy’s best picture Oscar winner, which shows systemic abuse and cover-ups by Catholic church Ben Child Tuesday 1 March 2016 11.25 GMT The Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, has praised the 2016 best picture Oscar winner Spotlight for its convincing attempt to show abuse and cover-ups in the Catholic church. The newspaper published a front-page editorial on Monday hailing Tom McCarthy’s film and calling it “not anti-Catholic”. The editorial said Spotlight, which centres on the work of a group of Boston Globe reporters to uncover abuse by Roman Catholic priests, faithfully presented the church’s attempts to defend itself in the face of “horrendous realities”. “Not all monsters wear cassocks. Paedophilia does not necessarily arise from the vow of chastity,” wrote the editorial’s author, Lucetta Scaraffia. “However, it has become clear that in the Church some are more preoccupied with the image of the institution than of the seriousness of the act.” Spotlight paints a picture of widespread abuse by members of the Catholic church in Boston and elsewhere, with officials turning a blind eye to the molestation of hundreds of children by priests over a period of decades. The reporters responsible won the 2003 Pulitzer prize for public service. Accepting the best picture prize on Sunday night, producer Michael Sugar said he hoped the film had given a voice to the survivors of the abuse that would “become a choir that would resonate all the way to the Vatican”. He continued with a direct call to the pontiff: “Pope Francis, it’s time to protect the children and restore the faith.” L’Osservatoire Romano’s editorial insisted such pleas “should be seen as a positive sign,” adding: “There is still trust in the institution, there is trust in a Pope who is continuing the cleaning begun by his predecessor.” In February, the film was screened privately for staff working for a new commission set up by Pope Francis to fight sex abuse within the Catholic church. L’Osservatore Romano has been owned by the Holy See since 1861 but is no longer as conservative as it once was. In 1960, it launched a full-scale attack on La Dolce Vita, labelling Federico Fellini’s classic of Roman indolence and debauchery an “incitement to evil crime and vice”, deploring its effect on “unsafe minds” and rebuking Fellini for trying to “moralise through immorality”. More recently, the newspaper has taken a more liberal approach to cinema, complaining last year that the villains in Star Wars: The Force Awakens were not evil enough and even praising 2012’s Skyfall for its “extremely beautiful Bond girls”. http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/mar/01/vatican-newspaper-spotlight-oscars-best-picture

So far, Trump has only insulted, abused and patronized service members and veterans on the trail. That’s no way to win our support Monday 29 February 2016 17.39 GMT By Scott Beauchamp Donald Trump has disparaged many a group – most recently, he refused to flat-out denounce white supremacy – but his transgressions against the military have been less remarked upon. The disrespect that the Republican frontrunner for the presidential nomination has consistently shown towards veterans and service members is unprecedented, especially for a member of the party that, at least nominally, prides itself on being more supportive of the troops. On Friday, on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, former head of the CIA and NSA Michael Hayden said that the American armed forces would “refuse to act” if a President Trump actually gave some of the orders that he’s been proposing on the campaign trail. Troops are required to refuse unlawful orders (as would be Trump’s proposed targeting of terrorists’ family members), but the statement reveals a deep antipathy that the defense establishment harbors for Trump. It’s an antipathy that I share as a former US army infantry soldier. Trump’s disrespect of veterans began long before the current election cycle. On the Howard Stern show back in 1997, sandwiched in between a bunch of embarrassing comments about women, Trump compared his sex life in the 1980s to a war experience. “I’ve been so lucky in terms of that whole world. It is a dangerous world out there – it’s scary, like Vietnam. Sort of like the Vietnam era. It is my personal Vietnam. I feel like a great and very brave soldier,” Trump bloviated. And while it’s true that being crass and disgusting is the entire point of the Howard Stern show, for someone who wants to be commander-in-chief of the armed forces to indulge himself by denigrating the war experiences of veterans is beyond the pale. Trump has no way to know if dating has anything in common with combat, because he was a draft dodger. As Tim Mak wrote in the Daily Beast: “When Trump had the chance to join the military and fight in Vietnam, he did not take it. Instead, the rich kid got multiple student deferments from the draft and a medical deferment.” Trump continued to inappropriately compare his civilian experiences to military ones since the Howard Stern appearance. Last year Trump told a biographer that he “always felt like I had been in the military” because of his time at the New York Military Academy, an expensive military-themed boarding school where Trump’s parents sent him because of behavioral problems. That might be a uniquely idiotic statement from someone running for president, but it’s an attitude that, as a veteran, I’ve seen before. There’s always a guy at the bar sloppily explaining to you how he was in Junior Officer Training Corps during high school so, you know, he gets it. That guy should never run for office either. A telltale sign that Trump does not actually know what it feels like to be in the military is his denigration of POWs. Last July at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa, Trump said of Arizona senator and former Vietnam POW John McCain: “He’s not a war hero. He’s not a war hero because he was captured. I don’t like people who were captured.” Who would want to go to war for a President Trump knowing that if you were captured in the heat of battle your commander-in-chief wouldn’t “like” you? When Trump does gesture at supporting the troops, it rings hollow. He offers six figures to buy veterans groups as props to use during campaign rallies, as if risking life and limb for your country can be monetized. And his ads that are meant to show respect to veterans probably shouldn’t feature images of Soviet and Nazi soldiers rather than American troops. To lift one of Trump’s own favorite words: it’s pathetic. Hayden was quick to point out on Friday that the armed forces wouldn’t foment a rebellion against Trump; they’d just refuse to obey unlawful orders. Nevertheless, it was a big statement that took even the usually nonplussed Bill Maher by surprise. It shouldn’t have. For all his talk about leadership, something that Trump fails to understand is that real leadership is predicated upon respecting the people that you want to follow you. So far, Trump has only insulted, abused and patronized service members and veterans. It’s shocking that these kinds of tactics have gotten him this close to the White House, but it will never earn him the respect of the armed forces. No, Donald Trump, attending a behavior modification military academy doesn’t make you a combat veteran. Photograph: Richard Ellis/Getty Images http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/29/donald-trump-disrespect-military-veterans-appalling-unprecedented

1. Gloria 2. 11 O'Clock Tick Tock (actual concert footage missing) 3. I Will Follow 4. Party Girl 5. Sunday Bloody Sunday 6. Cry/The Electric Co 7. New Year's Day 8. "40"

Disc 1 Side A 1. Dark Star 00:00 Side B 1. St. Stephen 23:18 2. The Eleven 29:50 Disc 2 Side A 1. Turn on your love light 39:10 Side B 1. Death don't have no mercy 54:15 2. Feedback 01:04:43 3. And we bid you good night 01:12:33 Bonus Track Dark Star (studio) 01:13:10 Live/Dead radio promo 01:15:52 RIP Jerry Garcia

Sisi... Current Egypt Dictator

Miles Davis (RIP) – trumpet Wayne Shorter – soprano saxophone John McLaughlin – electric guitar Chick Corea – electric piano Herbie Hancock – electric piano Joe Zawinul (RIP) – organ Dave Holland – double bass Tony Williams (RIP) – drums

From "CSN" 1977

Wild Mountain Honey Swingtown

"Urban Cowboy" soundtrack Lowdown Jojo

RIP Dan Peek Ventura Highway

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDutVaWRzZk