Why Google Earth Won't Show You Israel

Why Google Earth Can't Show You Israel

Source: http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/06/google-israel-us 

By Hamed Aleaziz

Fri Jun. 10, 2011 10:16 AM PDT

Since Google launched its Google Earth feature in 2005, the company has become a worldwide leader in providing high-resolution satellite imagery. In 2010, Google Earth allowed the world to see the extent of the destruction in post-earthquake Haiti. This year, Google released similar images after Japan's deadly tsunami and earthquake. With just one click, Google can bring the world—and a better understanding of far-away events—to your computer.

There is one entire country, however, that Google Earth won't show you: Israel.

That's because, in 1997, Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act, one section of which is titled, "Prohibition on collection and release of detailed satellite imagery relating to Israel." The amendment, known as the Kyl-Bingaman Amendment, calls for a federal agency, the NOAA's Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs, to regulate the dissemination of zoomed-in images of Israel.

When asked about the regulation, a Google spokeswoman said to Mother Jones, "The images in Google Earth are sourced from a wide range of both commercial and public sources. We source our satellite imagery from US-based companies who are subject to US law, including the Kyl-Bingaman Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act of 1997, which limits the resolution of imagery of Israel that may be commercially distributed."

And it's not just Israel. The regulation also applies to the occupied territories. It's why Human Rights Watch can't provide detailed imagery of the Gaza Strip in its reports. Of course, this regulation cuts both ways; one also cannot see the destruction in Sderot resulting from rockets sent out of Gaza.

But, the impact of the regulation might be dwindling; after all, the US can only regulate the actions of American corporations. Turkey recently announced that its GokTurk satellite will provide high-resolution imagery of Israel when it becomes operational in 2013. Israel is unhappy with this possibility: An Israeli official told Al-Arabiya, "We try to ensure that we are not photographed at high resolutions, and most (countries) accommodate us." The official adds: "Should we request this of the Turks? We won't ask for it. There is no one to talk to.

Are You Liberated or Living B-rated?

I wrote an article a few years ago, titled "Liberated  or  Live::B-rated?" about how the status of women in our society is being reduced to being that of mere puppets in the hands of those who wish to benefit from their gender. Today I came across a news piece titled "Semi Naked Women Protest Censorship" and was disgusted beyond words. Thought I'd post my article below here as a refresher:

____________________________________________________________

Well here I was this morning, trying to Login into AOL to check my emails, and after entering my username-password combo there appeared the 'Today on AOL' page —a webpage specially designed to give you a small peek into the plethora of information about what's going on in the world today (a.k.a. NEWS) and how well-versed AOL's servers are with it.

So I see 4 tabs on that page (I'm in the 'basic' view which doesn't hog too much of memory from my web browser, and hence I have tabs instead of a Next/Previous button toolbar) namely News, Sports, Entertainment and Videos. (See screenshot of content in the last tab here). Now, as if the link titled Austria's real-life sex horror story caught on amateur camera on the Videos' tab wasn't revealing enough of the America On Line mindset of 'sex sells' (fathom a news headline that spells P.O.R.N.), I decided I 'd rather check out the News that they have for today (news would definitely NOT mean free porn, I thought to myself ); and VOILA! with what are we greeted with on the very first page!


Astaghfirullah! (Forgive my sin Oh Lord!) THIS is what is news to the world? Women revealing themselves to the state of when there is NOTHING left to hide at all? I fail to realize how the 'Model way to protest...' can create awareness about anything at all (err... almost anything)? 'Sex sells' they say, but does it bring about any just cause if you're naked on the street calling for some attention? In doing so guaranteed a LOT of glances and attention (for all the wrong reasons!) from the passerbys, a lot of whom might even move closer just to have a better look (at your protesting-placards you might want to claim now? Who do you think you are fooling?), but does it help solve the problem you are protesting about? Are hungry kids being fed in Sudan? Homeless elders being taken back in? Rape victims given better treatment? Is G.W. Bush going to stop his reign of terror in Iraq and Afghanistan? OR are women now going to be given a better position in society??? (sheesh! the last one was a little too much of an irony BTW).

Think about it, a few years down the line, when your kids (that is, if someone marries you after all this and legitimately has kids with you) see these pics of yours on the internet or somewhere else, will they love you more, love you less or be downright ashamed of the worthless tramp you've been? And what about when they also discover these pics besides many similar others, hidden deep inside password-protected folders on their friends' hard drives and the likes?


Now there is an organization in this modern, liberated, non-conservative world that we live in today (if 'conservative' is being exactly the opposite of what they are doing here, let us proclaim conservativeness and atleast live a life that assures the dignity of our mothers and sisters!). An organization for ethical treatment of animals which has time and again used disgustingly cheap tactics (of course there is BIG money in it, but then money's not what actually defines cheap right?) like these to draw attention towards itself and its so-called heart-felt activities. 1.8 million members and still counting, this US-based organization (name withheld to prevent ANY advertising and also to save you people from doing a google search and getting pics like these in front of your very eyes!) seems to specialize ONLY in making women believe that they are doing excellent service to animals and humanity by taking off their clothes and posing (semi?) nude in front of people and their perverted cameras! They make women believe that if they do so, people will start treating animals more kindly because each time they see a mis-treated animal it will remind them of a naked woman?

Imagine your grumbly sweaty neighbourhood guy petting his doggy late morning tomorrow, giving it a nice juicy piece of bone and telling it in an unimaginably sweet voice “Coochie Coochie Coo... Today I'm gonna give you the love you deserve because a long-legged naked woman was holding a placard across her hand that said Love your doggie and be a better human in the eyes of God. If it weren't for her intriguingly nude anatomy, an heart-warming sight out there in the cold morning, I'd never have realized that there was a placard about being kind to dogs in her other hand. So go on eat this piece of bone my sweet little doggie; who knows that very lady might just be passing by and might chance to see me treating you kindly. Oh I'm gonna go to heaven for thinking of a naked woman while I'm feeding my dog. This life is simply great!”.

Wake up ladies, it ain't happening that way. Because the way I see it (and any other human being of sane mind would), the only animal that you're doing service to is the beast in the heart of the man! That's the only one which is going to derive gratification from the fact that he didn't have to do any effort at all in order to get you to drop your veils! What service to humanity indeed you have done! You say a free-minded, bold westerner you are eh? You think veiling up the woman is just part of an "old-fashioned fundamentalist religion" that's bent on degrading her status in society? Have you had the chance to have a read of your own scriptures? (Anyone making a claim from Judaism?).

Think about it, a world where Satan has spread his evil tentacles so far, corrupting the minds of men and women to such an extent that the women —the ones to be kept safe from evil prying eyes (for we all know how much damage even a casual glance you know where can cause to a woman's dignity and self-respect)— are themselves ready to take it all off in the name of liberty, freedom of speech, protests for equality etc. etc... In reality, all that these contaminated terms do is to degrade the woman's position in the society to mere objects of lust and sexual gratification. Is this the new idea of freedom and equality? Is this how we shall gauge our successes, on the basis of how easy it is to make a woman shed her clothes and still not let her feel bad about it? Are we progressing ahead towards uplifting the woman or are we going backwards into the dark ages again?

The Greek civilization is still considered the most glorious of all ancient civilizations by many a people. Under this very so-called ‘glorious’ system, women were deprived of all rights and were looked down upon. In Greek mythology, an imaginary woman called Pandora is supposed to be the root cause of misfortune for all human beings. The Greeks also considered women to be subhuman and inferior to men. Though the chastity of women was precious, and women were held in high esteem, the Greeks were later overwhelmed by ego and sexual perversions. Prostitution had become a regular practice amongst all classes of Greek society! Doesn't this seem a lot too closer to where our world is headed too?

As an emminent speaker Dr. Zakir Naik once put it, “the western talk of women’s liberalization is nothing but a disguised form of exploitation of her body, degradation of her soul, and deprivation of her honour! Western society claims to have uplifted women, but on the contrary it has actually degraded them to the status of concubines, mistresses and society butterflies who are mere tools in the hands of pleasure seekers and sex marketeers, hidden behind the colourful screen of ‘art’ and ‘culture’.”

Race towards the your recognition in society because of your talents and skills my dear sisters, and not because of how much of skin you are willing to show for some justifiable cause. An interesting >article has a very nice answer the oft-asked yet very rhetorical questions on why muslim women cover themselves up. It says “...by covering our beauty, we are evaluated for our intelligence and skills instead of looks and sexuality. Many women who cover are filled with dignity and self-esteem and are happy to be identified as Muslim women. By wearing hijab the woman is concealing her sexuality but allowing her femininity to shine...”

—Abd elAzeez
Feel free to reproduce/post this article anywhere you wish. Even if it be without giving any credit to me. Who knows, InshaAllah it might make someone think.

Facebook Is Now Using Facial Recognition Technology – Have You Checked Your Privacy Settings Lately?

Facebook Is Now Using Facial Recognition Technology – Have You Checked Your Privacy Settings Lately?

Source: http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/facebook-is-now-using-facial-recognition-technology-have-you-checked-your-privacy-settings-lately

   

The days when you could be "anonymous" on the Internet are long gone.  Social media networks like Facebook are a lot of fun, but you should expect to have absolutely zero privacy while using them.  If you still believe that anything you say or do on Facebook is private than you are being delusional.  Now, Facebook has even enabled facial recognition technology across its entire site.  Facebook can now instantly identify your face out of its half a billion users worldwide.  Facebook is using this technology for its new "Tag Suggestions" feature.  The idea is that facial recognition technology will speed up the process of tagging friends and family in photos that have been posted on Facebook.  

That sounds harmless enough, but the problem is that facial recognition technology has been automatically enabled for millions upon millions of Facebook users but they were never even told that the new technology would be automatically enabled on their accounts.

Oops!

The following excerpt is from the blog post where Facebook officially announced this change.....

Because photos are such an important part of Facebook, we want to be sure you know exactly how tag suggestions work: When you or a friend upload new photos, we use face recognition software—similar to that found in many photo editing tools—to match your new photos to other photos you're tagged in. We group similar photos together and, whenever possible, suggest the name of the friend in the photos.

So exactly how does this new technology function?

A recent Computerworld article explained exactly how this is going to work....

Facebook noted that starting in just a few weeks, its system will scan all photos posted to Facebook and will offer up the names of the people who appear in the frame. All of Facebook's users are automatically being added to the database.
The facial recognition feature is automatically turned on. Users who don't want the service must go in and manually opt out of it

So if anyone has ever posted a picture of you to Facebook, the company can now instantly identify you through the use of facial recognition technology.

That sounds a little creepy, doesn't it?

Sadly, Facebook doesn't seem to have much regard for our privacy these days.  Senior technology consultant Graham Cluley had the following to say about this recent change....

"Yet again, it feels like Facebook is eroding the online privacy of its users by stealth"

So what if you don't want facial recognition technology enabled for your Facebook account?

Well, you have to manually go in and disable it.

The following video explains exactly how to opt out of the new "facial recognition" technology on Facebook....

But let's not dump all of the blame on Facebook here.  The truth is that Google's Picasa and Apple's iPhoto also use facial recognition technology.

These kinds of "Big Brother" technologies are spreading and are becoming a part of the very fabric of the world in which we live.

Every single day a few more shreds of our privacy are stripped away.

Sometimes it is the government that is doing it.  Other times it is corporations that are doing it.

Either way, we are becoming more exposed all the time.

Increasingly, nearly everything that we do is being watched, tracked, traced, monitored, surveilled or controlled in some way.

For much more on how our world is slowly but surely being transformed into a "control grid", I encourage you to check out some of the previous articles I have done on this topic....

1) "18 Signs That Life In U.S. Public Schools Is Now Essentially Equivalent To Life In U.S. Prisons"

2) "32 Signs That The Entire World Is Being Transformed Into A Futuristic Big Brother Prison Grid"

3) "Cell Phone Surveillance: Some Cell Phones Record Your Location Hundreds Of Times A Day"

4) "10 Examples That Should Convince Anyone That We No Longer Live In The Land Of The Free And The Home Of The Brave"

If we do not stand up for privacy now, eventually we will have none left.

If we continue on the road that we are currently on, a day will come when everything we buy, everything we sell and everywhere we go will be very tightly tracked and controlled.

At some point we may have very few decisions left that are truly are own.

I don't know about you, but I don't want to end up living in some bizarre, futuristic version of George Orwell's "1984".

The facial recognition technology being used by Facebook is not going to change the world, but it is another small step towards a world where none of us have any privacy left.

So what do all of you think about this change by Facebook?  Please feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts below....

Read more at The End of the American Dream

 

Conspiracy Theories for Beginners

There is a neat little series of YouTube videos by "HowStuffWorks" explaining the basics of several different conspiracy theories and I thought it might be a good jump start for the beginners to catch up with some of the discussions on this forum. 

The series is called "Stuff They Don't Want You To Know" and in a very basic and simple way introduces some of the most famous conspiracy theories and some of their counter-arguments. Obviously, none of them contains the full spectrum of the evidence or the refutations, but it looks like a good start point. The list doesn't look complete, so I suppose they must be having more coming up. I list their current videos here. When (and if) they add new ones, I will try to update the list. So, these are the 29 topics of the published videos so far:

- Dyatlov Pass
- Tesla
- Monkey Army
- The Federal Reserve
- Living Dinosaurs?
- Energy Vampires
- Project Blue Book
- The CFR
- Hollow Earth
- Fluoridation
- 2012
- Chemtrails
- Chupacabra
- Serial Killer Cult
- Vampire Panic
- Flat Earth
- Washington, D.C.
- Planet X
- Sasquatch
- CIA Body Doubles
- Ancient Aliens
- Giants
- Psychic Soldiers and the Cold War
- Why do people think governments manufacture diseases?
- Do we live in the 18th century?
- Is the world running out of oil?
- Why do some people refuse to get vaccinated?
- Wilhelm Reich and Orgone Energy
- Could parasites control human beings?
- Is FEMA a front for a secret government?
- Can scientists manufacture earthquakes?
- What happened to John Paul I?
- General Butler and the Business Plot
- What Happened in Point Pleasant, West Virginia?
- Why do so many farmers have a problem with GM food?
- Why do some people think Nazis built UFOs?
- Beneath the Surface of the Denver Airport
- Unidentified Submarine Objects
- Why aren't there more electric cars?
- Misinformation vs. Disinformation
- Did bankers kill Lincoln and Kennedy?
- Strange Maps -- and Stranger Theories
- Is the Bermuda Triangle dangerous?
- What's the big deal with Wikileaks?
- Did ancient civilizations possess advanced technology?
- Why hasn't the spread of nuclear weapons ?
- What really happened at Jonestown?
- What's the deal with DMT?
- The Declining Dollar and the Rise of the NAU
- What inspired the werewolf legends?
- Did the CIA use drug money to fund war in Nicaragua?
- Quantum Physics: Teleportation and Holograms
- What's in the Vatican's secret archives?
- Can humans alter probability through thought alone?

Disclaimers:
1- Most of the videos contain both sides of the argument. Please consider both sides. You will look very silly if you sell your intellect to a 5 minute YouTube video. Don't take anything as 'truth' until you have examined them YOURSELF. I have no responsibilities and or liabilities that I can be held accountable for in regards to what you yourself might understand from those videos. It is you yourself who is making your own decisions. So please be careful and study the info well before making any form of conscious or unconscious judgments about them.

2- Please DO NOT assume that by just watching these videos you wake up while all others are sheeples. Watching these (largely not-proven theories) does not make you better than anybody else. An ignorant person who is kind and considerate and caring is far better than an arrogant 'woken up' person.

3- Nobody minds if you start making your own videos using excerpts of these videos in reasonable lengths. But remember that it is your own original research that counts. Just designing a nice logo for yourself and adding it to the start of somebody else's video and publishing it DOES NOT make you look cool and wise.

4- Please, please, please don't go and mix these with a few verses from Quran and Hadeeth and come back and claim that you have uncoded 'the truth'. We have enough Youtube prophets and Mahdis and Imams already.

Just simply watch these, so that when others speak of them you understand what is going on. If you are interested in any of them, there is plenty more evidence (and counter-evidence) on each of them. DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH.

Source: http://www.wup-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=16919 

Posted by user: Archimetaus at the Wake Up Project Forum