Links - 1st December 2015

Palestinian Public Opinion | Intifada | - "elites aren’t just instigating the terror — they’re also reacting to deep-seated attitudes popularly held among “ordinary” Palestinians. If that’s the case, lecturing Israel to change its actions or “take more risks for peace” is unlikely to dampen the situation. Instead, as this new study suggests, it’s the Palestinians who need to be confronted. A “vociferous condemnation” of the violence from the U.S. and other Western powers is necessary, and the PA and Hamas need to be penalized until the attacks stop. Over time, “this might exercise an ameliorating effect”... These days in Israel simply walking while Jewish is to put one’s life at risk. Men, women, the elderly, even kids who’re just going about their daily routine and minding their own business have been stoned, shot, stabbed and run over by Palestinians running amok in the streets... Polisar argues that we shouldn’t just be focusing on “how and why the Palestinian political and religious leadership has been engaging in incitement”. Instead, we should be concentrating on the views of “everyday Palestinians”. Omitting their perspective, in Polisar’s opinion, is “both patronizing and likely to lead to significant misunderstandings of what is happening”... When Israel is offered as an option in polling questionnaires, Palestinians view it as responsible for all the myriad of problems that they face, including problems that are largely internal—such as PA corruption; the inability of the PA to pay its employees; the lack of law and order in PA-controlled territories; and the failure of Hamas and Fatah to reconcile... Massive Palestinian majorities deny any responsibility for either the failure of repeated negotiation efforts and peace talks, the breakdown of ceasefires during the second intifada, or the outbreak of the wars in Gaza in 2008, 2012, and 2014. The surveys also indicate that Palestinians are convinced that Israel seeks to deliberately target them. They hold Hamas blameless for positioning its fighters and weapons in populated areas... Palestinians think that Israel is dead set on displacing all Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza—and Israel too. That’s a wildly outlandish view. For the last two decades, it doesn’t match up with any policy espoused by even the most hard-line, right-wing Israeli politician, much less any Israeli government... Back in 1995, 65% of Palestinians responded in a JMCC survey that Israel had no right to exist. In a 2014 poll commissioned for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy more than 80% asserted that “This is Palestinian land and Jews have no rights to it”. In 2011, 72% of Palestinians told a surveyor that it was “morally right to deny that Jews have a long history in Jerusalem going back thousands of years”... Palestinians think that it’s morally right and appropriate to use terrorist violence against both Israelis and Westerners more generally—and they overwhelmingly think that terrorism both works and is praiseworthy... far more than other Arab or Muslim publics, the polls show that Palestinians are “always the leaders in seeing suicide bombings and similar attacks as justified”... As Polisar states, Palestinians aren’t “powerless pawns whose fate is decided by their leaders, Israel, or regional and world powers”"

What ordinary Palestinians think about Jews, Israel and violence - "In a December 2001 poll, 98% labeled as terrorism Baruch Goldstein's killing of 29 Palestinians in Hebron in 1994, but only 15% applied that term to Palestinian suicide bombings that killed 21 Israelis at a Tel Aviv nightclub in 2001. This attitude carries over to attacks on Westerners more generally, as 53% of Palestinians declined to call the 9/11 attacks terrorism. And, according to the Arab Barometer, a project of American and Middle Eastern universities and research centers, similar majorities refused to apply that term to the deadly attacks by Islamists a few years later in Madrid and London. Palestinians' readiness to justify attacks on civilians also emerges from surveys of Muslim countries by the Pew Research Center. In six polls during the last decade, an average of 59% of Palestinians backed the view that “suicide bombing and other forms of violence against civilian targets are justified in order to defend Islam from its enemies” — making them the pacesetters on that question in every survey."

Hackers gonna hack, but why? Maybe Freud has the answer - "my favourite explanation for the academic literature is a Freudian psychoanalytic approach to hacking, which actually conceptualises hacking in Freudian terms as a cyber-sexual urge to penetrate. And there are castration complex overtones in terms of being cut off from the network as well"

Google Translate error sees Spanish town advertise clitoris festival - "Local officials in As Pontes – population 11,000 – had written the announcement for the annual festival in Galician, one of the official languages of the northern Spanish region. They used Google Translate for the Spanish-language version of the text. It meant the town’s “Feria do grelo” or rapini festival – held every February with tastings and awards for the best grelos – became “Feria clítoris” in Spanish... She believed the online translation tool mistook the Galician word for the Portuguese version, which refers to the vegetable but also can be used as slang for clitoris. Officials in As Pontes are considering filing a formal complaint with Google. García said: “They should recognise Galician and translate it accurately.”"

The "Science" Behind Today's Plague Doctor Costume - "the distinctive bone-white mask and black clothing was actually the 17th century equivalent of a biocontainment suit"

First 'KFC' to open in Iran shut down after 24 hours for being too American - ""The shutting down of Halal KFC was due to a misunderstanding," the store's manager, Abbas Pazuki, reportedly said. "We are part of a brand known as Halal KFC, which comes from Turkey. It belongs to Muslims and its target market is Muslim nations," he clarified. That KFC, he says, is a "rival of the American KFC." "We are shocked with the news that an illegitimate KFC outlet has opened in Tehran, Iran," Laurie Schalow, a KFC spokesperson, told Mashable. "No franchise rights have been granted to any party in Iran. We are in contact with local authorities and external advisers and will be filing a legal action against any company or individuals claiming to have rights to open KFC.""

Why Britain Has The Best Wall Sockets On Earth - "Any kid with a fork or a screwdriver can light his hair on fire in the United States by jamming it into a wall socket. Not so in England, where it would take at least two screwdrivers to manage the same calamitous trick"

Should it really take so long to become a sushi chef? Japanese entrepreneur calls system a scam - "@michiyotajima: “It’s not enough just to press the rice into shape. The correct way to cook the rice, and how much water to use, varies by the season. That’s something restaurant operators understand, but I want you to be aware of the fact that you don’t know everything.”
Horie: “That’s obvious. But what I’m telling you, you ditz, is that if it takes someone years and years to learn how to do that, he’s an idiot.”"

Mein Kampf: strange tales of the world's most dangerous book - "“I’ve tried the line ‘Do you want to read Mein Kampf with me?’, but I can tell you it doesn’t work,” said Alon Kraus, the son of Holocaust survivors and one of six protagonists in a bold stage version of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi manifesto playing to packed houses across the German-speaking world. A re-enactment of the 44-year-old Israeli lawyer’s real-life attempts to seduce a German tourist on the Sinai peninsula by reading extracts from Hitler’s rambling racist discourse raises the loudest – albeit hesitant – laughs... “It’s about time,” said Sven Felix Kellerhoff, author of Mein Kampf: The Story of a German Book. “By putting it off, they’ve only helped contribute to the myth that it is too incendiary a text for the public to deal with. But we are grown up enough now and we have a responsibility not to brush it under the carpet.”"

Where men and women like (and hate) to be touched - "A friend can touch your head, shoulders, hands, and upper back without ruffling your feathers. Your mother can touch you in the same places a friend can touch you, but she is also welcome to touch your lower back. Your uncle better not try to touch you anywhere but your arms and upper back"

If You Really Think Four Republican Senators Are in the KKK, You’re a Fool - "That’s all it takes to go on the Internet and accuse someone of being a Klansman? Well, in that case, Barack Obama must be a very prolific cheater, since his name and whitehouse.gov email appear no less than seven times in the newest Ashley Madison hack. It’s almost as though literally anybody can take someone’s public email address and sign them up for something online. And if I was a zealous Klansman, who would I sign up for email blasts? Why, my Senator, of course."

Why is hi-tech Japan using cassette tapes and faxes? - "This is a country that uses people to do the work of traffic lights and where big-name companies running 10-year-old software is the norm... Yoji Otokozawa, president of Tokyo-based IT consultants Interarrows, says Japan Inc. is poor in digital literacy because small businesses, not multinationals, rule the country... These SMEs are often conservative, if not downright Luddite, says Mr Otokozawa. "They usually use postal mail, or fax for their communications. We sometimes receive a fax, written by hand which means such firms don't even use word processing software like Word"... If such alleged behaviour is typical, it could explain Japanese firms' productivity crisis... "Japanese IT departments are remorselessly conservative and hate to connect their computers to the outside world. They fear data theft and hacking, which also makes them fear abroad"... Japan's non-manufacturing productivity, despite the long hours worked, is the worst in the OECD countries and roughly half that of the US."

Calais crisis: Truckers now arming themselves with CS gas and tasers because of migrants

Family escape attack by Calais migrants who launched metal pole at their car - "He reported the incident to French border officials who told him they were surprised as it was 'usually stones' hurtled at cars... 'If they know that this kind of thing happens all the time, why is it allowed to continue,' questioned Marius."

Immigrants 'have attacked and stabbed' British lorry drivers in Calais amid 'catastrophic' scenes at French port

Calais crisis: 6,000 migrants mobilising to storm UK within WEEKS experts warn - "Today the respected Freight Transport Association (FTA) industry body, which represents European hauliers, warned that attacks on lorries have risen sharply in recent weeks. Spokesman Donald Armour told Express.co.uk: "Because this is all serious organised crime - it's not really individuals anymore - you get the feeling the gang masters are organising this. "These criminals they are pretty savvy people, they are businessmen, and they are thinking 'we know this can't last forever'. "Sooner or later the port of Calais will be fenced off better than ever, and the Eurotunnel terminal too, and they are going to be pushing harder than ever and as fast as they can before the fencing is in place."

Oxford English Dictionary admits it used wrong sense for word 'literally' - "In 1876, Mark Twain used the word in this way in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He wrote: ‘And when the middle of the afternoon came, from being a poor poverty-stricken boy in the morning, Tom was literally rolling in wealth.’ However, the oldest documented incorrect use of the word is in 1769 when the author Frances Brooke wrote, in The History of Emily Montague: ‘He is a fortunate man to be introduced to such a party of fine women at his arrival; it is literally to feed among the lilies.’ Miss McPherson said: ‘Our job is to describe the language people are using. The only reason this sense is included is because people are using it in this way. ‘Words have changed their meaning ever since the first word was uttered. Meat used to mean all food but now its sense has narrowed.’"

Who Said It: Batman or Balzac?

When His Project Was Canceled, an Unemployed Programmer Kept Sneaking Into Apple to Finish the Job