Report Abuse Button Demanded For Twitter After Jane Austen Rape Threat Campaign

British authorities and media are calling for a report abuse button for Twitter in the wake of a 12 hour campaign of abuse aimed at feminist leader Caroline Criado-Perez last week. She was threatened with rape over the course of a 12-hour Twitter hate campaign as a result of her work to get more women?s faces placed on British currency.

The severity of the attack was so great that Criado-Perez filed a police report against her Twitter abusers on Sunday afternoon. According to the BBC, a 21-year-old man has now been arrested on suspicion of the crime.

However, the Labour Party is still angry because they feel that Twitter?s response was lame. The social media giant told Criado-Perez to file the police report.

But Labour politicians and others think that Twitter should install a report abuse button to stop the threats from being sent in the first place. 20,000 people have already signed a petition to demand the new button.

So what made at least one young man so angry that he was apparently broadcasting rape threats?

You almost won?t believe it.

As The Inquisitr reported last week, beloved English novelist Jane Austen will soon be appearing on the British ?10 note.

The Bank of England confirmed that the Pride And Prejudice author who inspired the entire romantic comedy genre was selected because of her enduring place as ?one of the greatest writers in English literature.? 1995?s Clueless, inspired by Austen?s 1815 novel Emma, is just one example of her continued relevance to modern literature.

And Caroline Criado-Perez was at the head of the successful campaign to win the recognition on Britain?s currency for Austen.

Yes, really. That was apparently enough to set off the accused Twitter troll.

In addition to the Labour Party?s call, many media writers also demanded the report abuse button. For example, Owen Jones at The Independent had a well-thought-out defense for the idea:

?In the case of Criado-Perez?we?re seeing an attempt to terrorise and intimidate. Just expecting her to block her tormentors as they fire each menacing salvo is not acceptable. Twitter needs a button to allow rape and death threats to be registered and dealt with.?

Jones revealed that in his capacity as a writer, he too has been threatened, so it?s not something theoretical for him.

I too have been a victim of stalking and death threats. So it isn?t theoretical for me either.

But I?m not so sure that a report button abuse for Twitter is anything but a good old-fashioned band-aid on cancer.

I actually think what Twitter told Criado-Perez was right. If you?re being threatened with rape and other serious crimes, you need to report it to the police ? as well as taking other precautions.

Hitting a button to have Twitter turn off the creep?s account can?t be as effective as having Scotland Yard turn up at the stalker?s house to cart him away to jail.

The Guardian noted that Twitter has said that it already has a process that allows people to report abuse. No, it isn?t as simple as hitting a button. But should it be?

That too can be abused. Who hasn?t hit an alert button somewhere at sometime on the internet to report someone as abusive just because you were sick of hearing their yik yak?

So I genuinely do not know if Twitter should install a simple report abuse button or not. Tell me your thoughts in the comments down below.

Source: http://www.inquisitr.com/875855/report-abuse-button-demanded-for-twitter-after-jane-austen-rape-threat-campaign/

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Israel to vote on freeing Palestinian prisoners

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip In April 1993, Omar Masoud and three accomplices broke into a European aid office in Gaza City, grabbed a young Israeli lawyer working there and stabbed him to death.

Israel arrested Masoud a month later and sentenced him to life, meaning he was doomed to die in prison one day for killing the lawyer in the name of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a small PLO faction.

Now Masoud, along with dozens of other long-term Palestinian prisoners, is up for release as part of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's attempt to restart Israeli-Palestinian talks after five years of diplomatic paralysis.

Israel's Cabinet is being asked to approve a prisoner release in principle on Sunday, as part of a Kerry-brokered deal to get the two sides back to the table.

The Cabinet vote would pave the way for a preliminary meeting of Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Washington on Tuesday, followed by up to nine months of talks in the region on setting up a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Such a deal has eluded Israelis and Palestinians for two decades and they have low expectations.

The fate of those held in Israeli jails is an emotionally wrought issue for Palestinians, who view the prisoners as heroes who made personal sacrifices in the struggle for statehood.

A prisoner release ? particularly of lifers with "blood their hands" ? would go a long way toward giving Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas a popular mandate to give talks another shot, even if many Palestinians believe Israel's hardline prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is not serious about a deal.

Israelis tend to view the prisoners as cold-blooded terrorists, and early releases of security prisoners in previous swaps elicited vociferous objections from the public, including Supreme Court appeals.

For Israel's government, approving the release of prisoners it refused to free in the past ? even if in stages and linked to progress in talks ? poses the most difficult test so far of its professed willingness to reach a peace deal.

In a statement late Saturday, Netanyahu said that a decision to release prisoners is "painful to the bereaved families, painful to the people of Israel and very painful for me."

Yet, he said, prime ministers "are required from time to time to take decisions that are against public opinion - if it is important to the state," signaling he is pushing for Cabinet approval of the release.

Abbas, meanwhile, briefed reporters on the terms of the upcoming negotiations, based on what he said were Kerry's assurances to him. He said the American invitation would state that the talks will be about establishing a Palestinian state next to Israel, based on the 1967 borders and with mutually agreed upon land swaps.

The Palestinians want to set up a state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem ? lands Israel captured in 1967. In previous negotiations, Abbas offered to trade 1.9 percent of West Bank land for the same amount of Israeli territory, a swap that would enable Israel to keep some of the dozens of Jewish settlements it has built since 1967.

Israeli officials have declined comment on the negotiations. Netanyahu refused in the past to accept the 1967 lines as a starting point, and it's not clear whether his position has changed.

Abbas said the situation would become clearer after Sunday's Cabinet meeting.

A senior Palestinian official said the Palestinians would go to talks without Israel having agreed to a freeze of settlement building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Nearly 600,000 Jews already live there, and thousands of homes are under construction.

In guidelines for the talks requested by the Palestinians, Kerry stipulated earlier this month that both sides have to refrain from unilateral steps, according to the Palestinian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of a gag order the U.S. secretary of state slapped on the negotiators.

The Palestinians understand this to mean that Israel will slow down settlement construction and refrain from provocative steps, such as announcing new projects, the official said. The Palestinians, in turn, will suspend plans to seek further recognition at the U.N. General Assembly, which last year recognized a state of Palestine in the 1967 borders. Israel fears further international isolation as a result of Palestinian activity at the U.N.

Abbas has argued he would need either a settlement freeze or Israeli recognition of the 1967 lines as a baseline to be able to resume negotiations.

In Sunday's Cabinet meeting, ministers will be asked to vote on a number of fateful issues, an official in Netanyahu's office said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with briefing regulations.

The ministers will be asked to authorize the resumption of talks with the Palestinians and appoint a team ? reportedly the premier and three ministers ? to oversee the negotiations.

They will be asked to approve an amended bill that would require a national referendum on any partition deal with the Palestinians.

Netanyahu's decision to fast-track the referendum bill has prompted contradictory speculation. Some say this shows the lifelong hawk is serious about a deal this time and wants to silence opposition by ultra-nationalists in his Likud party and his coalition from the outset. Others suspect he is trying to create new obstacles to any agreement.

The Cabinet ministers would also have to approve, in principle, a release of Palestinian prisoners who were arrested before the start of the so-called Oslo talks on interim peace deals in the early 1990s.

Abbas gave Kerry a list of 104 names, including that of Omar Masoud who is No. 77, ranked by seniority. The two longest-held at the top of the list are cousins Karim and Maher Younis, imprisoned since 1983 for kidnapping and killing an Israeli soldier, Palestinian officials said.

When Israeli media reported last week that Israel would only release 82 and that Palestinians from Israel and east Jerusalem would not be freed, Abbas asked Kerry for clarifications.

The U.S. diplomat gave Abbas to understand that all 104 would be freed, said a Palestinian official, also speaking anonymously to avoid violating Kerry's call for discretion. The prisoners are to be released in four stages over six months, beginning a month after the resumption of talks, the official said.

As of late June, nearly 5,000 Palestinians were being held by Israel.

Masoud's mother, 70-year-old Tamam, said she is optimistic.

"I hope everything will work out between Jews and Arabs," she said, speaking in her shack in the Shati refugee camp. Abbas "took a good step by talking about releasing prisoners," she said.

Omar Masoud's family was evasive when asked about the killing, portraying it as the rash act of an immature youth. A recent prison photo of him showed a balding middle-aged man who his mother says often cooks for other prisoners because of his work experience as a teenager in an Israeli restaurant.

Despite considerable opposition in Israel to prisoner releases, polls indicate a majority support a resumption of peace talks. Yuval Diskin, former head of Israel's domestic security agency Shin Bet, expressed that ambivalence.

He noted that he opposed a 2011 swap in which Israel agreed to free some 1,000 Palestinians for an Israeli soldier held by Gaza militants, but that the upcoming round of talks may be the last chance for a deal.

"We need to understand that the negotiations cart is stuck in very, very deep mud," he told Israel TV's Channel 10 on Friday. "And there are some very painful things that will need to happen in order to get that cart out of the mud."

Source: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/07/27/4194586/israel-to-vote-on-freeing-palestinian.html

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The taller a postmenopausal woman, the greater risk of cancer

For every 4 inches of height, 13 percent increase in cancer risk.
Over 40 thousand people line the streets of St. Louis walking in the Koman Race for the Cure on June 15, 2013. UPI/Bill Greenblatt?

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NEW YORK, July 28 (UPI) -- The taller a postmenopausal woman, the greater her risk for developing cancers of the breast, colon, kidney, ovary, rectum and thyroid, U.S. researchers say.

Geoffrey Kabat, senior epidemiologist in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York, said the study involved 20,928 postmenopausal women, identified from a larger group of 144,701 women recruited to the Women's Health Initiative.

"We were surprised at the number of cancer sites that were positively associated with height. In this data set, more cancers are associated with height than were associated with body mass index," Kabat said in a statement.

"Ultimately, cancer is a result of processes having to do with growth, so it makes sense that hormones or other growth factors that influence height may also influence cancer risk."

Some genetic variations associated with height are also linked to cancer risk, and more studies are needed to better understand how these height-related genetic variations predispose some men and women to cancer, Kabat said.

The study found for every 10-centimeter -- 3.94 inches -- increase in height, there was a 13 percent increase in risk of developing any cancer. Among specific cancers, there was a 13 percent to 17 percent increase in the risk of getting melanoma and cancers of the breast, ovary, endometrium, and colon, while there was a 23 percent to 29 percent increase in the risk of developing cancers of the kidney, rectum, thyroid and blood.

The study was published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

Source: http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2013/07/28/The-taller-a-postmenopausal-woman-the-greater-risk-of-cancer/UPI-21321374990950/

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How We're All Going To Be Using Wearable Technology - Business ...

This week Motorola Mobility (aka Google) announced that it would be hiring a Director for Wearable Technology, following the company?s announcement earlier this year that it was ?profoundly interested in wearables?. The firm even unveiled a ?tattoo? that was electronically authenticated.

It would be stretching a point to say that traditional tattoos are wearable technology, but in some ways there are, and the same case could be made for mobile phones. They're permanently with many of us; we ?wear? them in the same way that some of us ?wear? tattoos that were etched onto our skin by technology.

Motorola is just part of the new wave of portable technology that goes way beyond tattoos and mobiles. There are large research groups involved in this field including Georgia Tech, MIT, ETH Zurich, University of Oregon, Carnegie Mellon University, Microsoft, Sony, Samsung and the aforesaid Google.

There is a surprisingly number of people in the UK who use wearable technology. A recent report by by Rackspace and the Centre for Creative and Social Technology (CAST) at Goldsmiths, University of London found that more than eight million people in this country are doing so.

Early examples include pacemakers for those with heart conditions, but there has been a recent surge in less urgent technology such as smart clothing and monitors for fitness... and a future that offers Google Glass, sensors implanted subcutaneously and even cloaks that offer invisibility. The next decade will see a revolution in our behavior, however Canute-like we want to be.

Kevin Curran is a Reader in Computer Science at the University of Ulster and Senior Member of the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) and posits the early 1990s as the time when the term ?wearable computer? was coined when it had the noble aim of extending the human body to do extraordinary tasks; this has led to a new form of synergy between human and computer.

?We are not yet at the stage where wearable computers are able to take the place of our mobiles but as the miniaturisation of computer chips and components increase, we are very close to mass consumer products on the market. There is still much work to be done on standardising and improving user interfaces but the arrival of Google Glasses may change the playing field,? he says.

While Google Glass is obviously interesting, the discussion about its potential is over-hyped. There are plenty of other places where people are talking about Google Glass, just as there is plenty of hype about smartwatches and Apple?s rumoured iWatch.

If eight million people in the UK that are wearing technology, there seems little opposition to such personal invasion. Privacy concerns fall down in front of convenience and this week a Finnish start-up called Uniqil announced a technology that allows its customers to buy products by using their face.

All they have to do is present their face to a camera in a store and the transaction is processed. Add to that Google Glass?s ?head tilts? or voice commands and we are as close to being remotely controlled robots as can be.

But there will be opposite reactions to this form of disruption. Some designers such as Adam Harvey from the School of Visual Arts in New York is collaborating with fellow designer Joanna Bloomfield to make clothes that allows people to be invisible from technology. Their designs cut out phone signals, protects the heart from X-rays and blocks out thermal imaging.

So, wearable technology is an emotional minefield. One minute it?s controlling the user, the next minute the user is fighting back against technology. Then there?s the help it can give to those who are old and suffering from dementia. Wearable technology could provide reminders for medication, location determination for carers, sensors to detect falls, and video replays to assist with memory. This has to be a good thing.

Scenarios such as these seem far-fetched, but technology moves at a faster rate than ever before. For now, however, as IEEE?s Curran points out, the concerns about technology such as Google Glass are more straightforward and prosaic.

?We can expect wearable devices such as smart glasses to lead to changes in behaviour. The ability to record video and images without the knowledge or permission of those within view will lead to much debate. Already, some bars, strip joints, restaurants among others have announced they are banning the wearing on smart glasses in their establishments,? he says.

As ever, Sir Isaac Newton?s words that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction ring true. Wearable technology is going to change our lives, it?s just that nobody quite knows how by how much and to what end.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-were-all-going-to-be-using-wearable-technology-2013-7

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President Obama calls the United States and Europe ?developing countries? in latest embarrassing gaffe

Barack Obama blunders again

You can imagine the derision that would have flowed from the liberal ?mainstream media? if George W. Bush had referred to the United States as well as its European allies as ?developing countries.? This is exactly the term he used in an interview with The New York Times, which has just been published. In the interview, given in Galesburg, Illinois, the site of his distinctly unimpressive speech on the economy at Knox College last Wednesday, President Obama had this to say to reporters Jackie Calmes and Michael D. Shear:

And one of the interesting things that we don?t talk about enough is the contrast between what?s happened in the United States and what?s happened in a lot of other developing countries, Europe in particular. It's pretty rare where we have the chance to look at two policy approaches and follow them over several years and see which one worked. And the fact is there are a lot of European countries who followed the prescription that the House Republicans are calling for right now, and not only have they lagged well below where we've gone in terms of growth, in many cases their debt and their deficits have actually gone up because their economy is still effectively in recession. And although we haven?t been growing as fast as we would like, we have consistently outperformed those countries that followed the recipe that the House Republicans are offering right now.

As we?ve seen on a number of previous occasions, Barack Obama clearly struggles with his words when he is without his beloved teleprompter. He famously claimed to have visited 57 states in his 2008 campaign, and recently was unable to tell the difference between England and Great Britain. I don?t think any American president, however, has ever referred to the United States, leader of the free world, as a ?developing country? before, and nor is Europe a country, as much as the emperors of the European Commission would like the EU to be a superstate.

In addition to being embarrassing, the president?s interview will prove controversial in parts of Europe, and won?t go down well in Berlin and London. A key part of the Obama strategy in the coming months will be to paint austerity measures in Europe as a failure, arguing that Congressional Republicans want the same approach in America. This will put the White House at odds with Angela Merkel and David Cameron who have both championed budget cuts in Europe, while placing Obama firmly in the same boat as the Socialists in France, who back high taxes and big government solutions to address economic woes. Barack Obama?s New York Times interview further underscores how far to the Left his presidency is, even by European standards, as well as reminding Americans that in comparison to his predecessor in the Oval Office, he remains in a league of his own with his frequent mangling of words.

Read more by Nile Gardiner on Telegraph Blogs

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Source: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100228232/president-obama-calls-the-united-states-and-europe-developing-countries-in-latest-embarrassing-gaffe/

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Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe Vows to Behead Gays

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe is once again speaking about his hatred of homosexuality as he campaigns ahead of the July 31 election. At a rally last week, Mugabe told thousands of supporters that Zimbabwe would never accept homosexuals, whom he descried as ?worse than pigs, goats and birds,? reports Zimbabwe?s Newsday. ?If you take men and lock them in a house for five years and tell them to come up with two children and they fail to do that, then we will chop off their heads.?

Mugabe went on to say that some African countries had been pressured by Western nations to accept homosexuality in exchange for aid. Homosexuality ?seeks to destroy our lineage by saying John and John should wed, Maria and Maria should wed,? Mugabe said. ?Imagine this son born out of an African father, [President Barack] Obama says if you want aid, you should accept the homosexuality practice. Aah, we will never do that.?

This is hardly the first time Mugabe has attacked gays in political speeches. The Gays and Lesbians Association of Zimbabwe recently sent a letter to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission complaining of Mugabe?s ?continued use of hate speech,? noting he had attacked gay people at seven political rallies in July, reports SW Radio Africa.

Evil man but he should find some supporters here.

Source: http://forums.steelersfever.com/showthread.php?t=99515&goto=newpost

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Durham church celebrates 39 years by helping others

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DURHAM ? A Durham church celebrated its 39th anniversary by helping others Saturday.

The church partnered with ?stop hunger now? to package foods for developing nations. The group packaged more than 10,000 units of food in just an hour and a half.

More than 50 people volunteered to help including the church's younger members.

?It allows the children to see we can help someone else by giving back and then it brings us closer together as a family,? said church member Ella Walker.

Walker brought her family to the church including her son, Terrance.

He's getting ready to go off to college but before he hits the books he's teaching others how to make a difference.

?we're out here trying to make the world a better place,? he said.

Each package of food is good for two years. This is the second year the church partnered with Stop Hunger Now . The church hopes to make it an annual event.

Source: http://triangle.news14.com/content/top_stories/696924/durham-church-celebrates-39-years-by-helping-others

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