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The Middle East political storm of early 2011 has had an interesting impact on Iraq. Though the government was confronted with almost daily demonstrations, which led to a number of high profile resignations and the use of force to suppress political dissent, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki felt sufficiently confident to... |
Indeed, the democratic system established in Iraq through its second elected government in six years is becoming more representative and responsive to the people. While the country still has many sectarian and political differences to resolve in order to ensure its long-term stability, this system is likely to last due... |
Iraqis were euphoric after the successful national elections of March 2010. Most local media stations, regardless of political slant, aired sound bites and discussions hailing the elections as blazing a democratic path for other Arab countries to follow. That euphoria quickly wore off as controversy over the election r... |
The key for Washington will be to reinforce the importance of free and fair elections. In response to Arab instability, many government officials, including Maliki, called for the delayed local elections to take place. This is not the way ahead; Washington should help Iraqis prepare for local elections, then direct att... |
Iraq experienced its first nationwide demonstrations on February 25, 2011, in part in Baghdad's Tahrir Square. Prime Minister Maliki, who had previously encouraged citizens to exercise their constitutional rights to demonstrate peacefully—even against him—made an abrupt turnaround, and two days before what Iraqi organi... |
This responsiveness would not have been forthcoming had there not been an independent and transparent media. The gap between the government and the people would have been much more difficult to bridge had the people been fed only state propaganda as in Libya, Egypt, and Syria. |
Iraq's continued path to democracy and improved human rights will require U.S. and international pressure to keep the Iraqi media open and free. And while Washington has been reluctant to criticize the government, as it ends one of its most controversial and costly wars, it must not lose sight of the free media's role ... |
While the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) have come a long way from the days of sectarian death squads in 2004-08, they have yet to establish the trust required to be considered a neutral and purely national force. Rather than being seen as sectarian, the ISF are now accused of politicization. As witnessed during the Day o... |
As long as the media remains free and the government representative, the ISF will become more apolitical. The respect the Egyptian army was shown by demonstrators was not overlooked in Iraq. During Iraq's wave of demonstrations beginning with the Day of Rage, the majority of Iraqi television stations aired both demonst... |
Notwithstanding Maliki's invocation of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) to discredit the demonstration, AQI and other violent groups have not used the protest to carry out high profile attacks. Mullah Nathem Jabouri, a former AQI religious leader, argued that while the organization would love to blow up a Tahrir Square packed wi... |
In order to gain, rather than lose, trust from the demonstrations, the government will need to implement reforms and resist the impulse to use the ISF to quell public protest. Moreover, for Iraq to continue on the path of democracy, the ISF will need to be more disciplined and politically neutral, especially during pub... |
There is a growing fear among some experts, especially in the Persian Gulf states, that the Iranian regime's attempts to exploit the Arab instability will pull Baghdad closer to Tehran. In fact, the revolutions have taken Baghdad one step closer to Washington. Thus, for example, Jassib Moussawi, a prominent professor a... |
The Iraqi government wants greater regional respect and reassertion of its position in the Arab world. The nascent trend toward democracy and open society will place Baghdad more in the Western camp than in Tehran's. Though at odds with Washington's Persian Gulf allies, notably Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain, due to... |
The Arab revolutions have given the Iraqi government added confidence that it will emerge from the last eight years of conflict stronger and more capable of playing a leading role in the Middle East in the next decade or two. Baghdad sees itself as an emerging economy and democracy that will need assistance from Washin... |
The Persian Gulf states would be wise to stop viewing Iraq through a sectarian lens. If Baghdad is able to resolve its internal disputes peacefully and improve government efficiency through modest reforms, its future will be bright. An open media will help the people keep the government honest, and free and fair electi... |
Sterling Jensen worked in Iraq in 2006-08 as a contract interpreter and civilian foreign area officer for the U.S. Marines. He is currently a research associate at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies in Washington, D.C., and a PhD candidate at King's College London. |
Iraq Daily Times (Baghdad), Mar. 23, 2011. |
See, for example, The Boston Globe, Mar. 1, 2011. |
Middle East Online (London), Feb. 6, 2011. |
The Guardian (London), Feb. 25, 2011. |
Dawn (Karachi), Feb. 26, 2011. |
Middle East Online, Feb. 27, 2011; The Washington Post, Feb. 27, 2011. |
The Times (London) Feb. 16, 2006; BBC News, Feb. 16, 2006. |
The Christian Science Monitor (Boston), Feb. 25, 2011. |
Baghdadiya TV (Baghdad), Feb. 25, 2011; Sharqiya TV (Baghdad), Feb. 25, 2011. |
Author telephone interview with Mullah Nathem Jabouri, Mar. 2, 2011. |
Jassib Moussawi interview, Iraqiya TV (Baghdad), Feb. 18, 2011. |
Hassan Snayd, Abdul Hadi Hamani, and Mahmood Othman, Sharqiya TV, Apr. 7, 2011; Borhan Mizher, Hurra Iraq TV (Baghdad), Mar. 29, 2011. |
Iraqiya TV, Feb. 15, 16, 2011. |
TVNZ (Auckland, New Zeal.), Mar. 17, 2011; Kuwait Times (Kuwait City), Mar. 21, 2011. |
Related Topics: Iraq | Sterling Jensen | Summer 2011 MEQ receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free mef mailing list This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete and accurate information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original U... |
Now that most of the election season is behind us, it is back to work in Washington, and at the FCC. On November 9, look for a ruling on whether IP telephony is an interstate service and as such, can be held exempt from state and local regulation, as well as local and state taxes. |
FCC Chair Michael Powell is on record favoring recognition of IP telephony as an interstate service. And with his tenure as well as that of the Republican majority on the FCC just about assured for the next four years, Powell's influence will be powerful. |
Later this month, the FCC will hear related arguments on how far states can go in taxing and regulating VoIP. A November 17 hearing will take place on Minnesota's protest of a decision ruling that Vonage's IP telephony service is an interstate information service not subject to Minnesota telephony regulations. |
I was keen to read Learning Curve, an account of last season at Loughborough University, as my father studied there in the late 1950s. Twenty years later, as a mature student, he often refereed their games. The book’s central tenet describes a footballing set-up that is unique in this country, though commonplace overse... |
That theme is intriguing to the uninitiated but struggles to support a whole book. There is probably a stronger story hinted at in Bob Wilson’s introduction, when an extraordinary Loughborough side beat non-League giants Bishop Auckland en route to the quarter-finals of the FA Amateur Cup in 1961. How did so many futur... |
Instead, the author reports on the current team as they struggle to stay in the Midland Premier League, the fifth tier of non-League football. The Scholars do well to stay up given half their team miss pre-season and the first few games, and they struggle to field a side over Christmas. As the challenges of putting out... |
As there has been for decades, there are past and future pros in Loughborough’s 2016-17 ranks but none is likely to match the achievements of Barry Hines, a team-mate of Wilson and Dario Gradi, who went from “effective right-back” to creator of the magical Kes. |
Loughborough used to play against young teams from many Premier League clubs – Marcus Rashford appeared for a Manchester United XI at the opening of their wonderful Loughborough Stadium facility – but trying to compete in a low level of non-League football provides a less than riveting narrative for those not involved.... |
The true purpose of Loughborough’s elite football programme is perfectly epitomised by their MPL manager/PE lecturer Karl Brennan. “I asked what success looks like… last year that was to change the culture and philosophy to help players to be more effective as students so they can get the careers they want.” With forme... |
Artificial intelligence is pretty impressive these days. An AI robot can interact with humans in ways that give a strong impression of empathy, intellectual engagement and independent thought. A robot can smile, frown and respond to emotional cues offered by human faces and voices. But can it experience real emotions o... |
Meghan Rosen wrote an article for Science News in 2016 ("Robot awakening", SN: 11/12/16, p. 18), that the ability to sense, respond to and move through the world would be required before true intelligence was possible. |
To me evolution makes this self evident. Two billion years ago life was bacterial. These single celled organisms can sense pressure, heat and the presence of a food source. The history of life from then to now is also the history of increasing sensory ability. |
Today billions of years of evolution has produced some animals, such as chimpanzees, dolphins and elephants that experiments have shown possess some degree of self awareness. Most animals have none. What these three mammals have in common are acute senses, large brains to process information and a social structure to m... |
Quantum computing may produce machines so fast and with such a prodigious capacity to store information that they effectively mimic self awareness. However, without senses that physically operate, including a sense of pain, and without being incorporated into a social structure they would be as unaware of their own exi... |
Ah the old 'what is consciousness and the mind conundrum'. It's impossible to say with certainty because consciousness and the mind always get in the way, especially when they are what made up the concepts they try to examine. Can you say tautology? |
Interesting program but diminished by the hype at the beginning, implying (very strongly) that Sophia is intelligent. |
I imagine the producers did that tiny bit of research necessary to see the nature of Sopha. I do hope they understand that she is essentially a chat-bot with a pretty face. She's all canned pre-programmed responses - no knowledge, no understanding. |
“If a machine is a mechanism for doing things, then that’s what we are”. Well, at least Professor Gerrans didn’t say, “that’s all we are”. |
Smacking of the usual specious scientism of AI gofers, Professor Gerrans’ reduction of humans to emotionally sentient machines is here delivered with similar expression to my GPS machine, although in the latter case I do discern a steely frustration when it tells me it is “recalculating”. |
I mention my false interpretation of my GPS’s tone of voice to highlight that communication involves two-or-more-way projections of meaning which may or may not be so, and which are at least partly dependent on the state of our gut biota: It takes trillions to tango or, as Carl Sagan put it, if you wish to make apple p... |
In this case, I am projecting that Professor Gerrans is saying that all we living creatures are fundamentally machines. I think his elision “the fact that we are biological ones doesn’t really make all that much difference”, while qualified as “in the sense”, is where he goes “crash and burn” wrong. We are fundamentall... |
The Korean mathematician Daegene Song claims to have proven that machines will never become conscious. If so, and we are machines, we aren’t conscious either insofar as we are “just” or “nothing but” machines: consciousness must come from the parts of us that are not machines: fundamental parts, from which our myths, i... |
President Donald Trump took to Twitter early Thursday morning to address the crisis in Puerto Rico, in order to blame Puerto Rico for their own problems. Trump quoted Sharyl Attkisson, an investigative journalist, in his initial tweet about Puerto Rico, which was published at 6:49 a.m. on October 12. According to Trump... |
However, below viral Twitter videos like the one from a former Staff Sergeant and Calvary Scout on the ground in Puerto Rico tell a much different story, with testimonies of people still struggling to survive in Puerto Rico. Reports of families only receiving a very limited amount of food to share are surfacing, along ... |
Chuck Schumer replied to Trump’s controversial tweet, as seen below, when Schumer asked the president why he continued to treat Puerto Ricans in a different manner than Trump did when it came to other Americans who experienced natural disasters. Commentators are noting that President Trump did not take to Twitter to bl... |
President Donald Trump is receiving plenty of blowback from Twitter users due to his comments that point fingers at Puerto Rico while the island is suffering. The general theme of Trump’s detractors advise him to have compassion on the U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico. Twitter users note that Puerto Rico shouldn’t be blame... |
Trump is being reminded that the people of Puerto Rico are Americans that he represents as President of the U.S., and Twitter users are begging Trump to do more than blame victims. |
(04-14) 13:14 PDT SACRAMENTO -- Irene Rojas-Carroll was always troubled by the fact that her social studies lessons failed to mention people like her. |
Important figures of various ethnicities, races or cultures were present in her history books, but references to contributions made by bisexuals like Irene were nonexistent. |
Gays, lesbians and transgender people were left out too, the El Cerrito High School senior noted. |
A controversial bill moving through the state Legislature would change that, requiring social science instructional materials to include the role and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans, as well as Pacific Islanders and those with disabilities. |
The measure, SB48, sponsored by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, would add to existing laws requiring the inclusion of the historical influences of American Indians, African Americans and European Americans among others in the public school social science curriculum. |
A long list of religious and conservative organizations has come out vehemently opposed to the measure, including the California Catholic Conference, California Concerned Women for America, the Conservative Party (California) and the Traditional Values Coalition. |
Irene said she believes a more inclusive curriculum would help reduce the slurs and bullying related to sexual orientation in schools by helping students understand the diversity of those who contributed to society. |
"I would feel that then I was included in the history of America, that I wasn't being blocked out on purpose," said the 16-year-old, who also calls herself pansexual, which means gender doesn't matter to her. |
The measure is now headed to the Assembly after the Senate approved it Thursday by a vote of 23-14. Leno said he hopes to have the bill on the governor's desk by the end of summer. |
Those opposed aim to stop it before it gets there. |
The measure "forces the inclusion of LGBT persons into social science curriculum based on their sexual orientation alone," said Ron Prentice, CEO of the California Family Council, in an e-mail. "Sen. Leno's intention with SB 48 is to increase every public school student's exposure to the homosexual lifestyle, while dis... |
Another critic, Alameda parent Gary Fanger, told legislators on the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that he believes the measure will require schools to promote homosexuality, something he morally opposes. |
His kindergarten daughter already has learned in school about two gay penguins who nurture an egg in New York's Central Park Zoo, as part of a controversial anti-bullying curriculum presented in the Alameda Unified School District. |
"When you start at the age of 5 and 6 teaching these children about gender preferences, you're confusing them," he said, adding that the content contradicts the definition of family taught at home. "We are going to protect our children." |
Leno countered that the same religious and moral arguments were used against women's studies and black studies decades ago. |
"The genius of our democracy is that it does not allow one interpretation of any one particular holy book to become state law," he said. By ignoring the accomplishments and role of gays, lesbians, disabled people and others throughout time, "we are currently censoring history." |
Leno noted that specific content used in curriculum textbooks would be determined by the state Board of Education and local school boards, through the public process. |
The curriculum, for example, might include the fact that Harvey Milk was the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California just as it includes that Willie Brown was the first African American speaker of the Assembly, according to the legislative analysis of the bill. |
The measure, as Irene hopes, is intended to address bullying related to sexual orientation by educating children about people's differences, Leno said. |
Critics have called that goal a clear homosexual agenda. |
Leno agreed that he has an agenda. |
"This is about a political agenda - a political agenda that promotes respect, dignity and validation for human life," Leno said during the Senate hearing last week. "An agenda that promotes loving thy neighbor as thyself. That's what this agenda is about." |
This story has been updated since it appeared in print. |
In private, [John] and Kelly were always very practical and positive about Jett’s health. They put him on a detoxification programme and encouraged his love of the outdoors, of sports, swimming, cycling and hiking. |
In public, John clearly adored his son and spoke of him in glowing terms but he was always wary of delving too deeply into the details of his illness. It was simply too painful a subject. |
Even when people saw Jett and it was obvious something was wrong, John refused to talk about it. In fact, the only time John made any public comment was when it was suggested that his son was autistic, an allegation he strongly denied and which hurt him deeply. |
You'd be forgiven for thinking Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos wants to compete with other phone makers with his company's new Fire smartphone. But forget the multiple cameras and pretty 3-D-like effects, the device is really about selling more stuff. |
The Fire comes with close ties to Amazon's online retail store, relies on the company's cloud storage and is a platform for Amazon's digital content in the areas of music, video, books and apps. |
"The goal is to drive traffic and spending within Amazon's core services," said Ben Bajarin of Creative Strategies, who studies the consumer technology industry. |
One of its key features is an image recognition technology called Firefly, which recognizes images, text and audio to quickly identify product bar codes, movies, songs, TV episodes and other products for instant purchasing through Amazon. |
The company clearly hopes it will be huge. There's a dedicated button for it on the phone, which could make impulse shopping easier. Amazon is offering support to developers so they can build third-party apps around Firefly. Walk into a shoe store, open a running app on Fire, and perhaps you could earn a deal on some s... |
The phone could also spur adoption of its cloud services. As a start, Amazon is offering unlimited photo storage with Amazon Cloud Drive. |
"It's a service-oriented device," said Tuong Nguyen, an industry analyst with Gartner. |
But the company's first smartphone could be a tough sell to iOS and Android loyalists. The unit's operating system is a forked version of Android focused on Amazon's own native apps, which is likely to turn off people who aren't already Amazon die-hards. |
To help attract users, Bezos said Wednesday that Fire purchasers would get one free year of Amazon Prime for a limited time. The US$99 service provides free two-day shipping and exclusive access to movies, music and Kindle books. |
Even if the phone is just a moderate success, Amazon also stands to build an even stronger set of data around people's shopping habits, especially based on their location. |
"This is an attempt to do something innovative around shopping and e-commerce," said Creative's Bajarin. Even if Amazon just sells a couple million phones, Fire could give the company better data about people's shopping habits that could later be used to evolve Amazon's service, on mobile or the desktop, he said. |
But with Apple and Google collecting their own data, the competition is fierce. |
Morrissey’s current comeback began with 2004’s You Are The Quarry—it found him sounding more engaged than he had in years, and it reminded longtime fans why their old obsession mattered in the first place. But Morrissey’s latest, Years Of Refusal, makes it sound like he’s only been meeting fans halfway. Not since 1992’... |
Morrissey infamously included a promise to cut the throat of an enemy (most likely his former drummer in The Smiths, Mike Joyce) on his worst album, 1997’s Maladjusted. Since then, he’s rediscovered how to take his satisfaction with words. He gained fame spinning laments about the prospect of never finding love, but hi... |
But if there’s an underlying theme to Years Of Refusal, it’s the need to age gracefully, or at least move away from the places that hurt. It’s evident in titles like “I’m Okay By Myself,” but really felt in the passion Morrissey brings to songs like “I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris” (“…because only stone and steel ac... |
The last reported death at Snowmass was in February 2016 when well-known businessman and Aspen local Donald Drapkin on Feb. 15 fell from a standing position, hit his head but then got up. He died a week later from injuries sustained in the fall. Before that, three people died in the spring of 2014 at Snowmass. |
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