Around the Region: Ham Radio Technician course and more

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BEACHES Beaches projects updates

Beaches Watch will host an update program about various Beaches projects 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 4, at the Beaches Museum Chapel, 505 Beach Blvd., Jacksonville Beach. For more, beacheswatch.com.

BEACHES Atlantic Beach sign ordinance

Atlantic Beach businesses have until June 1, 2015, to comply with the citys 2002 sign ordinance. City commissioners have set that deadline so they can give further thought to the ordinance, which required businesses to replace large or tall signs with monument signs by Jan. 1, 2015.

CLAY Healthy lawn program

The Garden Club of Fleming Island will present a program, A Healthy Happy Florida Lawn, 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 4, at Clay County Headquarters Library, 1895 Town Center Blvd., Fleming Island. For more, (904) 278-3722.

CLAY Concert on Green poster contest

Clay County students in fourth through 12th grade can enter the 2015 Concert on the Green Poster Contest through Friday, Feb. 27. The contest theme is A Celebration of the Symphonic Music in an Outdoor Setting. Top prizes include a scholarship or cash. For more, concertonthegreen.com.

NASSAU Ham Radio Technician course

Nassau County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (NCARES) will be presenting a Ham Radio Technician course 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 25, at the Nassau County Emergency Operations Center, 77150 Citizens Circle, Yulee. The course is approximately 12 hours long. Class materials consist of a book, practice test software, and a CD with sample radio communications. To register or for more, hamcourse@ka3ogg.com.

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Around the Region: Ham Radio Technician course and more

Personal Robot NOT JUST A PRETTY ROBOT, SHE’S ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. – Video

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Personal Robot NOT JUST A PRETTY ROBOT, SHE #39;S ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT_9amLoRyAOvovoQfxsf8w Personal robot will help you with your household chores. SHE #39;S THE WHOLE PACKAGE: a personal assista...

By: Popular Science

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Personal Robot NOT JUST A PRETTY ROBOT, SHE'S ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. - Video

Africa: Spectacular Wave of Censorship in Khartoum

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press release

Sudan is undergoing a disturbing wave of censorship, with the confiscation of a total of 19 newspaper issues in the past three days. The seizures not only constitute a grave violation of media pluralism but also inflict major financial losses on publications that are already fighting for economic survival.

In a spectacular series of raids in the capital on 16 February, members of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) seized a total of 13 issues as they came off the presses, including almost all of Khartoum's dailies and two magazines.

The publications affected were Al-Tayar, Al-Rai al-Aam, Al-Intibaha, Akhir Lahza, Al-Ahram al-Youm, Awal al-Nahar, Al-Watan, Al-Sudani, Alwan, Al-Saiha and Al-Mijhar al-Siyasi, and the two magazines, Al-Dar and Hikayat.

Five other newspaper issues were seized yesterday, those of Al Sudani, Al Intibaha, Al Sahafa, Al Mighur and Al Taghier.

"These massive and indiscriminate seizures constitute an unacceptable act of censorship," said Cla Kahn-Sriber, the head of the Reporters Without Borders Africa desk.

"The people we contacted in Khartoum have no idea what exactly the government did not like in these issues. But, given the general elections scheduled for April, such actions are likely to recur in the weeks and months ahead. The government seems to want to suppress any reporting that could give rise to a debate."

Economic throttling

This is by no means the first time that the NISS has carried out such raids. Reporters Without Borders calculates that it seized a total of 35 newspaper issues in 2014. Its operatives always act in the same way - waiting until issues are printed and then seizing all copies to prevent their sale. No grounds are ever given and owners have no legal recourse. "These repeated seizures represent a significant loss of income for newspaper owners," Kahn-Sriber added. "The government is clearly aware of this and uses it as part of its strategy for throttling independent print media."

The harassment does not stop there. The well-known journalist Madeeha Abdallah is facing trial on criminal charges of complicity, undermining constitutional order and publishing false information. It was the NISS that brought these charges against her.

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Africa: Spectacular Wave of Censorship in Khartoum

Whose Free Speech?

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Friday, February 20, 2015

By Stephen Lee Byrd, S.B.

The News-Press just will not let it go about the illegals controversy and its derogatory speech toward Latinos. The latest was Andy Caldwells Guest Opinion which I would love to rebut point-by-point, but no one will extend me anywhere near the space he got in which he makes a number of specious criminal allegations, that he never really lays out factually, and just calls a councilmember a bunch of pejorativenames.

To my knowledge, the pro-Latino dissidents have exerted their right to assemble (in De la Guerra Plaza) and their free speech rights, but have not involved the government at all. What use of the power of government to crush and silence others? If the daily paper is going to wail and gnash its teeth about its own free speech rights, the bottom line is that the paper needs equally to respect the free speech rights of the pro-Latino dissidents. They have a right to speak up and say that the journalistic choices made were disrespectful, lacked a civil tone, and were bogus. Equally, the daily needs to respect my free speech rights by not censoring and suppressing my critical responses of January 6, 20, and 24. Free speech rights are not just for newspaper editors and owners. They are truly a two-way street. Otherwise its the pot calling the teakettleblack.

The continued reckless, combative, and confrontational rhetoric of the daily about this will remind us of the Rev. Ian Paisley in Northern Ireland or Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia vs. Bosnia (and later Kosovo). They too recklessly fanned the flames of inter-ethnic tension into a campaign of ethnic cleansing and ended up ripping apart their communities. Do not think it cannot happen here. As ye shall sow, thus shall yereap.

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Whose Free Speech?

Muslims targeted in the US

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Themurder of three American Muslimsat aUniversity of North Carolina condominium on Tuesday, 10 February, was noordinary murder, nor is the criminal who killed them an ordinary thug.

Thecontext of the killings, the murders themselves and themedia and official responsesto the horrific event is testimony to everything that has gone wrong since theUnited Statesunleashed its war on terror, with itsundeclared, but sometimes-declared enemy; namely, Islam and Muslims.

Horrific as it was, the killing of a husband and wife, DeahShaddy Barakat and Yusor Abu-Salha, and Barakats sister, Razan Abu-Salha,by homegrownterrorist Craig Stephen Hicks is the kind of violence that can only fit intoa greatermediaandofficialnarrative. This narrative designates millionsof innocent Muslims, in the US and across the world, as enemies or potentialterrorists.

In recent years, countless television hours and endless space in numerousmedia have been dedicated to vilify and demonise Muslims. Attempts by Muslims to distance themselves from every militant grouping,ideology and tendency have done them no good. A Muslim is a terrorism suspectuntil proven innocent, especially if he is a bearded, brown-skinned man or a woman wearing a headscarf.

The end result of this dehumanisation has been racism,racial profiling,extrajudicial killingsand war. It was only amatter oftime before that violence reached the nominally safe Muslimcommunities in the US itself.

The episode of dehumanisation is long, complex andprotracted. It is also quite clever, for it involves billion-dollar media outfitsand Hollywood itself, which has an awful track record regardingthe negative and stereotyped representationofArabs andMuslims.

The outcome is a whole industry that is predicated on doublestandards and half-truths.

The ongoingenthusiasm for more military interventionsmeans that the supposed moral awakening inspired by the advent ofPresidentBarack Obama rarely registered in the collective psyche of the nation. While thereis ample evidence that Americansare tired of war, that very war fatigueshould not be conflated with a departure from the type of dialectics thatrationalised warin the first place.

In fact, while cheerleaders for war might changepolitical camps, ideology or even religious philosophy, ultimately they arethe same breed of people: a mostly white, male-dominated and chauvinistic tribeof well-funded politicians and media pundits,with an unquenchable thirst forintervention.

Hicks, the terrorist who killed the three young Muslims,subscribes to a school of thought known as New Atheism, whatreligious scholarReza Aslan refers to as the school of anti-theism. It is, in part, anotherhate-filled platform, and despite itssupposed disdain for all religions,its malicious energy mostly targets Muslims.

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Muslims targeted in the US

NATO hopes Australia will stay in Afghanistan after 2016

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By David WroeFeb. 18, 2015, 6:12 p.m.

The military head of NATO has confirmed the alliance hopes Australia will remain in Afghanistan - including militarily - beyond the current withdrawal date of the end of 2016.

NATO military committee chairman General Knud Bartels. Photo: Carlos Alvarez

NATO military committee chairman General Knud Bartels. Photo: Carlos Alvarez

NATO military committee chairman General Knud Bartels. Photo: Carlos Alvarez

NATO military committee chairman General Knud Bartels. Photo: Carlos Alvarez

The military head of NATO has confirmed the alliance hopes Australia will remain in Afghanistan - including militarily - beyond the current withdrawal date of the end of 2016.

NATO military committee chairman General Knud Bartels has also told Fairfax Media in a wide-ranging interview that it will take "decades" to defeat Islamic extremism in the Middle East.

"Engaging ISIL and defeating ISIL and putting in place sustainable government institutions across the whole range of the [Middle East] area will take a long time," he said, using the acronym for the Islamic State terror group.

Asked to quantify it, he said "decades".

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NATO hopes Australia will stay in Afghanistan after 2016