Unit 8 Report
I started out this unit by attempting to complete the map of Middle Eastern countries - I did better then I thought I would have, identifying the major ones (and by major I mean the ones in the news all the time). I had an international studies class as an undergrad a few years ago - the course was on globalization but throughout the semester we had to learn (and were tested on) the location of every single country in the world! I had all kinds of songs for remembering what goes where on maps!
Looking at some of the LIS schools, I thought it was interesting that Israel's University of Bar-Ilan offered Bachelor's and Master's of Arts degrees in Information Science. I couldn't figure out what the reason was for not offering a BS or MS - it is Information Science after all! They also require internships, which is something I think our department would benefit from tremendously.
I had a lot of fun reading the story on Saudis flirting via bluetooth. Good for them! I can't imagine growing up in that type of society - one where I'm not allowed to talk to my fiancee, or any other man for that matter, until we are married. In the technology field there are a lot more men than women out there - I know because I've worked with them and I wrote my undergraduate thesis on this topic. I'm not sure of the rules in Saudi Arabia - do women work? If they do, are they allowed to work with men? I don't know the answer to these questions but I would imagine if women are even allowed to work with men that there is a great deal of tension! In some corporations I've worked for, there's plenty of tension between men and women to start with, add religious taboos to that and you've got a huge problem!
UAE's cyber crime laws some like a good idea, at least in theory. I do think it's wrong that cyber crimes are punishable (in most places) in the same manner as civilian crimes. There is a different rating scale online of what's wrong and what's not. I wonder though, as they are setting up these crimes, the article never talks about how they will go about finding the people who commit cyber crimes. Doing so, interestingly enough would be a cyber crime in itself! Malicious methods must be used to find out who a particular user is - how ironic!
I do think that malicious users and hackers who hack for evil should be punished. It is important to remember, however, that not all hackers are bad! Some people hack into a corporation's internal site and then go to the corporation and say 'Hey you've got this security hole that you need to fix' - these are good hackers, the non-malicious kind. Unfortunately, the bad hackers always make the news, giving hackers a bad rap. As one of my professors says, 20 years ago a 'hacker' was just a programmer. I think people making Cyber Crime Laws need to be very careful in what they consider criminal activity.
Anthony Bourdain's story is incredible! I especially enjoyed reading his article on Salon. It must have been incredibly scary to have been stuck in Beirut at such an unfortunate time. The New York Times' article on the situation highlighted the fact that Beirut was trying desperately to get ahead in the tourism industry when this clash started. It really is terrible for their economy that all of these things that are, for the most part, out of their control keep happening!
You brought up some interesting points on Al-Qaida and their media group, Al-Sahab. I googled Al-Sahab to see if I could find their main website to no avail (later I saw that you told us they don't have one :) ). Unfortunately, all I could find was American news stations report on Al-Sahab's videos! It was a bit frustrating. I did however, find the SITE institute and the Intel Center that you link to in the slides. I wasn't comfortable clicking through their slides, and it is a bit strange (or maybe it isn't) that I can't find pages on Al-Sahab. With no real website, it says a tremendous amount about social networks and Al-Qaida. I did find an interesting article from ABC news on the online social networks of Al-Qaida. In one of my undergrad SILS classes, right after 9/11, Dr. Barreau distributed a document that I can no longer find, on the web of connections in Al-Qaida, to be discussed from a totally non-political standpoint. From this perspective, it really is amazing how everyone in the group stays connected and it says a lot about the power of the Internet.
The looting of the Iraqi museum was an unfortunate travesty. I can't imagine having my history taken away like that. The situation made me think about digitization - by digitizing these works of art, they will be immortalized. I know looking at things in a museum isn't the same as looking at them online, but it's better than having your artwork stolen forever. With that in mind, I went online in search of Iraqi art to see what I could find. Wired magazine did a story on the looting of the Iraqi museum and of a project dedicated to preserving the works digitally. My favorite quote from the article is from Dr. Clemens Reichel: "Imagine if Michelangelo's statue of David and the Mona Lisa and the Magna Carta and Botticelli's paintings and all the major Impressionist painters' works were in one museum that got looted." Part of the article was on how Americans acted like it wasn't a big deal -- I think what Dr. Clemens Reichel and Zainab Bahrani were trying to get across is that it is a HUGE deal if you are a history scholar or a citizen of Iraq. Losing art is like losing one's history. And after 9/11 you would think that most Americans would get that! Below is a picture of US soldiers in the museum after it was looted (this picture was taken from the Iraqi Museum Database's page on the post-loot situation):
I also found a website on the Iraqi Museum Database. This site has several digital images of Mesopotamian art. Below are some of the images that I enjoyed viewing:
I'm very glad that these works are being digitized as a means of preservation! This leads into the destruction of Iraq's libraries - I can't imagine having centuries-old documents destroyed! Just like with the museums, sure you can digitize these things but it's not the same as browsing the rare books collection. One of the quotes from NPR's story was a man saying that 'he couldn't believe that people would destroy their own history' and I agree with him. I know that there is a lot of disagreements and conflict in Iraq, but regardless of whether you are Shi'a or Sunni you share a history together -- a history that should be preserved.
I had a tremendous amount of fun flipping through the Einstein archives! It is so cool that I can look at the digitized document of Einstein's writings on relativity and then read the PDF version in English! Once I started searching for information on Einstein, I got lost among all of the incredible scientific writings! (I'm a science and math geek at heart). I also started poking around the Internet for some Einstein information and I found the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's pages on the scientist - it was quite informative! You know how we always see pictures of Einstein with the crazy 'I've just had my finger in a socket' hair? Wikipedia has a variety of pictures of Einstein without the hair! The pictures below are Einstein as a very young boy and then again as an adult:
Their site had a lot of good information on Einstein and even links to the Einstein Archives pages that were in the slides.
I loved the video of 'The World' in Dubai! If I had lots and lots of money, I would definitely buy an island in 'the world'! I watched something on the Discovery channel not too long ago on the Palm Islands:
It was really cool to see how they constructed the islands - it took MANY project managers and a lot of money, but it looks incredible! And if you get a chance you really should look at the WikiMapia pages of the Palm Islands! It is absolutely gorgeous - the link I just gave shows a picture of the Palm Islands from a satellite - very cool! The Discovery Channel show I saw was on the 'Amazing Feats of Engineers' - here's a link to it. The show was very interested! I imagine they will also be doing a show on the World soon. It's such a neat idea to build a tiny island version of the world and paying respect to the cultures represented in each area. What a great idea!
I will say that after I wrote this I read Josh's comments on Blackboard. And I see his side, and I agree with him, that there are millions of better ways to spend millions of dollars. I still think it's cool that this area of the world is trying to attract tourists - maybe this will bring 'good' business to the area ... you never know! Also, if they can pay hommage to the areas of the World represented in the World (islands) that would be pretty amazing.
As I was looking through the National Library of Egypt, I found an incredible article on 'Famous Islamic Women.' This is definitely a topic you don't hear about every day! It looks like the Library is working with IBM to develop a lot of their online technology (particularly the text to speech aspect). They have so many cool things to explore. For instance, besides the famous Islamic Women I found this great picture of the Valley of the Kings:
They have so many great resources at this library - it is easy to get lost among all the interesting articles and pictures!
The Dead Sea video was very cool - I want to go bob in the water! And the Cairo Museum is GORGEOUS! I found their website and explored it a bit. They have lots of cool pictures on Ancient Egyptians, including a clickable Mummy that explains the mummifying process! Here's a picture I found of Lady Tjuyu who is buried in the Royal Valley:
I'm very intrigued by Ancient Egyptian art - visiting places like the Valley of the Kings and the Cairo Museum are on my vacation list!
Even though this area of the world tends to be a bit surrounded by war (at least in the news media we receive) there are so many interesting things going on! The culture and history of this area of the world is so rich and historic that history buffs (like me) can't help but be astounded by the sites, pictures, and videos of it!
Looking at some of the LIS schools, I thought it was interesting that Israel's University of Bar-Ilan offered Bachelor's and Master's of Arts degrees in Information Science. I couldn't figure out what the reason was for not offering a BS or MS - it is Information Science after all! They also require internships, which is something I think our department would benefit from tremendously.
I had a lot of fun reading the story on Saudis flirting via bluetooth. Good for them! I can't imagine growing up in that type of society - one where I'm not allowed to talk to my fiancee, or any other man for that matter, until we are married. In the technology field there are a lot more men than women out there - I know because I've worked with them and I wrote my undergraduate thesis on this topic. I'm not sure of the rules in Saudi Arabia - do women work? If they do, are they allowed to work with men? I don't know the answer to these questions but I would imagine if women are even allowed to work with men that there is a great deal of tension! In some corporations I've worked for, there's plenty of tension between men and women to start with, add religious taboos to that and you've got a huge problem!
UAE's cyber crime laws some like a good idea, at least in theory. I do think it's wrong that cyber crimes are punishable (in most places) in the same manner as civilian crimes. There is a different rating scale online of what's wrong and what's not. I wonder though, as they are setting up these crimes, the article never talks about how they will go about finding the people who commit cyber crimes. Doing so, interestingly enough would be a cyber crime in itself! Malicious methods must be used to find out who a particular user is - how ironic!
I do think that malicious users and hackers who hack for evil should be punished. It is important to remember, however, that not all hackers are bad! Some people hack into a corporation's internal site and then go to the corporation and say 'Hey you've got this security hole that you need to fix' - these are good hackers, the non-malicious kind. Unfortunately, the bad hackers always make the news, giving hackers a bad rap. As one of my professors says, 20 years ago a 'hacker' was just a programmer. I think people making Cyber Crime Laws need to be very careful in what they consider criminal activity.
Anthony Bourdain's story is incredible! I especially enjoyed reading his article on Salon. It must have been incredibly scary to have been stuck in Beirut at such an unfortunate time. The New York Times' article on the situation highlighted the fact that Beirut was trying desperately to get ahead in the tourism industry when this clash started. It really is terrible for their economy that all of these things that are, for the most part, out of their control keep happening!
You brought up some interesting points on Al-Qaida and their media group, Al-Sahab. I googled Al-Sahab to see if I could find their main website to no avail (later I saw that you told us they don't have one :) ). Unfortunately, all I could find was American news stations report on Al-Sahab's videos! It was a bit frustrating. I did however, find the SITE institute and the Intel Center that you link to in the slides. I wasn't comfortable clicking through their slides, and it is a bit strange (or maybe it isn't) that I can't find pages on Al-Sahab. With no real website, it says a tremendous amount about social networks and Al-Qaida. I did find an interesting article from ABC news on the online social networks of Al-Qaida. In one of my undergrad SILS classes, right after 9/11, Dr. Barreau distributed a document that I can no longer find, on the web of connections in Al-Qaida, to be discussed from a totally non-political standpoint. From this perspective, it really is amazing how everyone in the group stays connected and it says a lot about the power of the Internet.
The looting of the Iraqi museum was an unfortunate travesty. I can't imagine having my history taken away like that. The situation made me think about digitization - by digitizing these works of art, they will be immortalized. I know looking at things in a museum isn't the same as looking at them online, but it's better than having your artwork stolen forever. With that in mind, I went online in search of Iraqi art to see what I could find. Wired magazine did a story on the looting of the Iraqi museum and of a project dedicated to preserving the works digitally. My favorite quote from the article is from Dr. Clemens Reichel: "Imagine if Michelangelo's statue of David and the Mona Lisa and the Magna Carta and Botticelli's paintings and all the major Impressionist painters' works were in one museum that got looted." Part of the article was on how Americans acted like it wasn't a big deal -- I think what Dr. Clemens Reichel and Zainab Bahrani were trying to get across is that it is a HUGE deal if you are a history scholar or a citizen of Iraq. Losing art is like losing one's history. And after 9/11 you would think that most Americans would get that! Below is a picture of US soldiers in the museum after it was looted (this picture was taken from the Iraqi Museum Database's page on the post-loot situation):
I also found a website on the Iraqi Museum Database. This site has several digital images of Mesopotamian art. Below are some of the images that I enjoyed viewing:
I'm very glad that these works are being digitized as a means of preservation! This leads into the destruction of Iraq's libraries - I can't imagine having centuries-old documents destroyed! Just like with the museums, sure you can digitize these things but it's not the same as browsing the rare books collection. One of the quotes from NPR's story was a man saying that 'he couldn't believe that people would destroy their own history' and I agree with him. I know that there is a lot of disagreements and conflict in Iraq, but regardless of whether you are Shi'a or Sunni you share a history together -- a history that should be preserved.
I had a tremendous amount of fun flipping through the Einstein archives! It is so cool that I can look at the digitized document of Einstein's writings on relativity and then read the PDF version in English! Once I started searching for information on Einstein, I got lost among all of the incredible scientific writings! (I'm a science and math geek at heart). I also started poking around the Internet for some Einstein information and I found the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's pages on the scientist - it was quite informative! You know how we always see pictures of Einstein with the crazy 'I've just had my finger in a socket' hair? Wikipedia has a variety of pictures of Einstein without the hair! The pictures below are Einstein as a very young boy and then again as an adult:
Their site had a lot of good information on Einstein and even links to the Einstein Archives pages that were in the slides.
I loved the video of 'The World' in Dubai! If I had lots and lots of money, I would definitely buy an island in 'the world'! I watched something on the Discovery channel not too long ago on the Palm Islands:
It was really cool to see how they constructed the islands - it took MANY project managers and a lot of money, but it looks incredible! And if you get a chance you really should look at the WikiMapia pages of the Palm Islands! It is absolutely gorgeous - the link I just gave shows a picture of the Palm Islands from a satellite - very cool! The Discovery Channel show I saw was on the 'Amazing Feats of Engineers' - here's a link to it. The show was very interested! I imagine they will also be doing a show on the World soon. It's such a neat idea to build a tiny island version of the world and paying respect to the cultures represented in each area. What a great idea!I will say that after I wrote this I read Josh's comments on Blackboard. And I see his side, and I agree with him, that there are millions of better ways to spend millions of dollars. I still think it's cool that this area of the world is trying to attract tourists - maybe this will bring 'good' business to the area ... you never know! Also, if they can pay hommage to the areas of the World represented in the World (islands) that would be pretty amazing.
As I was looking through the National Library of Egypt, I found an incredible article on 'Famous Islamic Women.' This is definitely a topic you don't hear about every day! It looks like the Library is working with IBM to develop a lot of their online technology (particularly the text to speech aspect). They have so many cool things to explore. For instance, besides the famous Islamic Women I found this great picture of the Valley of the Kings:
They have so many great resources at this library - it is easy to get lost among all the interesting articles and pictures!The Dead Sea video was very cool - I want to go bob in the water! And the Cairo Museum is GORGEOUS! I found their website and explored it a bit. They have lots of cool pictures on Ancient Egyptians, including a clickable Mummy that explains the mummifying process! Here's a picture I found of Lady Tjuyu who is buried in the Royal Valley:
I'm very intrigued by Ancient Egyptian art - visiting places like the Valley of the Kings and the Cairo Museum are on my vacation list!
Even though this area of the world tends to be a bit surrounded by war (at least in the news media we receive) there are so many interesting things going on! The culture and history of this area of the world is so rich and historic that history buffs (like me) can't help but be astounded by the sites, pictures, and videos of it!
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